Blockbusters don't come much bigger in our guide to the best films this Christmas Me and Orson Welles Zac Efron proves he's ready to graduate from high school in Richard Linklater's latest. He plays Richard, a callow young fellow in the 1930s, who manages to persuade no less a figure than Orson Welles to give him a small role in the legendary Mercury Theatre production of Julius Caesar. Released on...
Even in this age of Blu-Ray and appreciation for all things high-def, many take for granted how complicated but vital a great film restoration can be. Buzzed about at this year's Cannes Film Festival as one of the most miraculous to date is the UCLA Film & Television Archive's restoration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 's 1948 Technicolor masterpiece The Red Shoes , starring Moira Shearer...
Decades before this year's THE YOUNG VICTORIA or other depictions of the life of the British queen, there was the 1937 British film VICTORIA THE GREAT. VICTORIA THE GREAT stars Anna Neagle in the title role, with Anton Walbrook (THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP) as Prince Albert. Neagle, who ages decades in the role, captures both Victoria's regal imperiousness and her increasing devotion to Prince...
LGBT people who died today: 1967 – Kenneth Halliwell – UK Actor / Playwright / Murderer – Born 23rd June 1926 1967 – Joe Orton – UK Playwright / Actor / Murder Victim – Born 1st January 1933 1967 – Anton Walbrook – Austrian Actor – Born 19th November 1896 1976 – Jose Lezama-Lima – Cuban Author / Poet – Born 19th December 1910
40% Martine CAROL is rather wooden here – her beauty notwithstanding - and not much of a patch on an actress like Danielle DARRIEUX , the latter of whom would have been far better in the part. This fact fatally undermines the story of a woman who possesses too much passion for just the one man; preferring, instead, to sow her wild oats wherever she may find them. And yet, the performer's relative...
News: ITV have announced the UK DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of The Red Shoes on 6th July 2009. Moira Shearer stars as talented young dancer Victoria Page who finds herself torn between Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). D...
Apropos of nothing in particular... While doing some work tonight, I had the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 's wonderful (but I have the feeling somehow overlooked) 1941 film 49th Parallel . The basic plot involves the survivors of a German U-Boat crew trying to make their way across Canada to the (at that point officially neutral) US. There are many powerful moments in the film, one involving...
The 1949 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Award for Best British Film went to Queen of Spades , directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Anton Walbrook. The two had worked together previously on the first film version of Gaslight , made in 1940 and released in the United States as Angel Street . Queen of Spades was a critical and commercial success in Britain but never enjoyed...
There's a stirring speech made late into Powell & Pressburger's excellent Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) wherein Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook), the German friend of General Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesy) tries to explain why antiquated notions of right and wrong in warfare will not succeed against the Nazi menace. Seeing the film the other night, it struck me that the following...
Videos
