The Crossing -- February 22, 2025

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Today is George Washington's birthday. In 2000, Jeff Daniels played General Washington in a television movie called The Crossing. The movie told the story of Washington crossing the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton.

Luis Buñuel 125 -- February 22, 2025

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Surrealist director Luis Buñuel was born 125 years ago today, on 22-February-1900. He led a remarkable life. I read about him in books before I saw any of his movies. I first saw Buñuel and Salvador Dali's "Un Chien Andalou" in film class at San Francisco State. We also saw "Las Hurdes". Later I saw many of his movies in theaters and on television.

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Sam Peckinpah 100 -- February 21, 2025

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Director Sam Peckinpah was born 100 years ago today, on 21-February-1925. His movies were famous for depicting violence, but he made some movies that were not that way. I never saw Straw Dogs.

During World War II, he served in China as a Marine.

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Robert Altman 100 -- February 20, 2025

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Director Robert Altman was born 100 years ago today, on 20-February-1925. A large group of actors liked working with him because he allowed them to improvise. He enjoyed making satirical films.

During World War II, he served in the PTO as a B-24 pilot. 

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The Angry Dane -- February 19, 2025

London Daily Telegraph, 19-February-1925

In 1922, John Barrymore played Hamlet 101 times on Broadway and then toured the US until early 1924. In 1925, he took the play to London. 

At the San Francisco Film Festival, I saw a test he did in 1934 or 1935 for a movie adaption of Hamlet, but he was having memory problems. In 1937, as part of a series called Streamlined Shakespeare, he played the part on the radio.

London Daily Mirror, 20-February-1925

THE ANGRY DANE

Mr. Barrymore's Novel Hamlet -- Miss Fay

Compton as Ophelia

By Our Dramatic Critic

Great interest was taken in the Barrymore "Hamlet," produced last night at the Haymarket Theater before a distinguished audience, which included the Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

Mr. John Barrymore's Hamlet is regarded in the States as a great histrionic achievement. This verdict would seem to have been endorsed by last night's audience, for enthusiasm was terrific.

It may be said at once that Mr. Barrymore is not the greatest Hamlet one has seen, he is a most interesting, accomplished and novel one, not reaching perhaps the ultimate profundities of the character, yet illuminating it always, and throwing into relief the natural and human qualities of the man.

Mr. Barrymore is not so much, the melancholy as the angry Dane; the supreme instance of the man with a just grievance which preys on his mind until he has purged his conscience in revenge.

The novelty of the impersonation lies in the modern or colloquial note that Mr. Barrymore strikes.

The whole company is excellent. Fay Compton as Ophelia plays the part with a power of suggestion in her acting that has surely never been surpassed. She not only distils the essential pathos of the character but makes Ophelia a more real woman than one has seen her made before.

George Kennedy 100, Cybill Shepherd and John Hughes 75 -- February 18, 2025

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Actor George Kennedy was born 100 years ago today, on 18-February-1925. He was very good in movies like Cool Hand Luke and Charade.

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Actress Cybil Shepherd was born 75 years ago today, on 18-February-1950. I was staggered by her performance in The Last Picture Show.

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Director John Hughes was also born 75 years ago today, on 18-February-1950. I was not a fan of Home Alone, but I always enjoy watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I enjoyed his Brat Pack movies.

Jefferson in Paris -- February 17, 2025

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Happy Presidents' Day everyone.

I have mixed feelings about Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. He owned slaves. He made the Louisiana Purchase. He was a proponent of limited government powers. I used to think his virtues outweighed his faults, but now I am not so sure. I first became interested in him when I found an old issue of National Geographic which had an article about Monticello. I liked his automatic doors and his clock.

I remember when Fawn Brodie's biography of Jefferson said that he had fathered children with his slave, Sally Hemmings, who was the half-sister of his late wife. DNA tests later proved that people descended from her youngest son are in the male line of the Jefferson family. Some people still insist that Jefferson's brother or some other member of the family was the father. I think it is most likely that Jefferson was the one. 

In 1995, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote a script about Jefferson's time in Paris as Ambassador to France. Her regular collaborators Ismail Merchant and James Ivory produced and directed Jefferson in Paris. Nick Nolte played Jefferson. I would not have thought about casting Nolte in that part. Thandiwe Newton played Sally Hemmings. I thought the movie was slow.