Mylène Demongeot in recent years and in the British comedy Upstairs, Downstairs made in 1959 and directed by Ralph Thomas Photo: UniFrance One of the last surviving French sex symbols from the Fifties and Sixties Mylène Demongeot has died at the age of 87 after a long illness.
Demongeot who spent her youth in Montpellier and adored the region around the town, latterly had devoted herself to animal rights in common with her contemporary Brigitte Bardot. Bardot wrote in one of her books that "Mylène was my little cinema sister, then became my combat sister, a libra like me, she has always loved animals”.
After the death of her long-standing companion Didier Raoult, the actress had her own battles with cancer and recently coronavirus against which she had declined to be vaccinated, claiming to have multiple allergies.
One of Mylène Demongeot’s last screen appearances with Gérard Depardieu in Retirement Home Photo:...
Demongeot who spent her youth in Montpellier and adored the region around the town, latterly had devoted herself to animal rights in common with her contemporary Brigitte Bardot. Bardot wrote in one of her books that "Mylène was my little cinema sister, then became my combat sister, a libra like me, she has always loved animals”.
After the death of her long-standing companion Didier Raoult, the actress had her own battles with cancer and recently coronavirus against which she had declined to be vaccinated, claiming to have multiple allergies.
One of Mylène Demongeot’s last screen appearances with Gérard Depardieu in Retirement Home Photo:...
- 12/1/2022
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies' July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the finest performers of the studio era. On Thursday night, TCM presented five Colman star vehicles that should be popping up again in the not-too-distant future: A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda, Kismet, Lucky Partners, and My Life with Caroline. The first two movies are among not only Colman's best, but also among Hollywood's best during its so-called Golden Age. Based on Charles Dickens' classic novel, Jack Conway's Academy Award-nominated A Tale of Two Cities (1936) is a rare Hollywood production indeed: it manages to effectively condense its sprawling source, it boasts first-rate production values, and it features a phenomenal central performance. Ah, it also shows its star without his trademark mustache – about as famous at the time as Clark Gable's. Perhaps...
- 7/21/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Actor Peter Vaughan, best known for his performances as Maester Aemon on “Game of Thrones” and Harry “Grouty” Grout on the BBC sitcom “Porridge,” has died at the age of 93. According to his agent Sally Long-Innes, Vaughan passed away “at approximately 10:30 this morning” and “died peacefully with his family around him.”
Read More: Review: ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 5 Episode 7 ‘The Gift’ Doesn’t Bounce Back From Last Week’s Trauma
The actor began his career at the Wolverhampton Repertory theater company before joining the army during World War II where he served as an officer in Normandy, Belgium and then later, the Far East. After the war, he returned to the stage where he played a bevy of roles for many years.
His first film performance was in Ralph Thomas’ 1959 film “The 39 Steps,” a loose remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film by the same name, but his first lead...
Read More: Review: ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 5 Episode 7 ‘The Gift’ Doesn’t Bounce Back From Last Week’s Trauma
The actor began his career at the Wolverhampton Repertory theater company before joining the army during World War II where he served as an officer in Normandy, Belgium and then later, the Far East. After the war, he returned to the stage where he played a bevy of roles for many years.
His first film performance was in Ralph Thomas’ 1959 film “The 39 Steps,” a loose remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film by the same name, but his first lead...
- 12/6/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
'The Merry Widow' with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Minna Gombell under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch. Ernst Lubitsch movies: 'The Merry Widow,' 'Ninotchka' (See previous post: “Ernst Lubitsch Best Films: Passé Subtle 'Touch' in Age of Sledgehammer Filmmaking.”) Initially a project for Ramon Novarro – who for quite some time aspired to become an opera singer and who had a pleasant singing voice – The Merry Widow ultimately starred Maurice Chevalier, the hammiest film performer this side of Bob Hope, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler – the list goes on and on. Generally speaking, “hammy” isn't my idea of effective film acting. For that reason, I usually find Chevalier a major handicap to his movies, especially during the early talkie era; he upsets their dramatic (or comedic) balance much like Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's The Departed or Jerry Lewis in anything (excepting Scorsese's The King of Comedy...
- 1/31/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In a novel effort to stress that film noir wasn’t a film movement specifically an output solely produced for American audiences, Kino Lorber releases a five disc set of obscure noir examples released in the UK. Spanning a near ten year period from 1943 to 1952, the titles displayed here do seem to chart a progression in tone, at least resulting in parallels with American counterparts. Though a couple of the selections here aren’t very noteworthy, either as artifacts of British noir or items worthy of reappraisal, it does contain items of considerable interest, including rare titles from forgotten or underrated auteurs like Ronald Neame, Roy Ward Baker, and Ralph Thomas.
They Met in the Dark
The earliest title in this collection is a 1943 title from Karel Lamac, They Met in the Dark, a pseudo-comedy noir that barely meets the criteria. Based on a novel by Anthony Gilbert (whose novel...
They Met in the Dark
The earliest title in this collection is a 1943 title from Karel Lamac, They Met in the Dark, a pseudo-comedy noir that barely meets the criteria. Based on a novel by Anthony Gilbert (whose novel...
- 8/24/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Theodore Bikel. Theodore Bikel dead at 91: Oscar-nominated actor and folk singer best known for stage musicals 'The Sound of Music,' 'Fiddler on the Roof' Folk singer, social and union activist, and stage, film, and television actor Theodore Bikel, best remembered for starring in the Broadway musical The Sound of Music and, throughout the U.S., in Fiddler on the Roof, died Monday morning (July 20, '15) of "natural causes" at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Austrian-born Bikel – as Theodore Meir Bikel on May 2, 1924, in Vienna, to Yiddish-speaking Eastern European parents – was 91. Fled Hitler Thanks to his well-connected Zionist father, six months after the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 ("they were greeted with jubilation by the local populace," he would recall in 2012), the 14-year-old Bikel and his family fled to Palestine, at the time a British protectorate. While there, the teenager began acting on stage,...
- 7/23/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Bourne and Mission: Impossible, right back to Harry Palmer and Danger Diabolik - meet the many pretenders to James Bond's throne...
Since 1962, the James Bond franchise has come to define the spy genre, for good or ill. More broadly, every thriller and action film that comes out now either uses them as inspiration, or attempts to ignore or re-work the tropes that have come to be associated with the series.
Coming off the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, and with the release of a new Bond film this year, now seems like the perfect time to take a look at a sample of the films which have been inspired by James Bond — either as homages, parodies or reactions.
The Ipcress File (1965)
Produced by James Bond producer Harry Saltzman as a more grounded alternative to the largesse of Bond, The Ipcress File is more concerned with the intricacies of real spy-work — the endless paperwork,...
Since 1962, the James Bond franchise has come to define the spy genre, for good or ill. More broadly, every thriller and action film that comes out now either uses them as inspiration, or attempts to ignore or re-work the tropes that have come to be associated with the series.
Coming off the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, and with the release of a new Bond film this year, now seems like the perfect time to take a look at a sample of the films which have been inspired by James Bond — either as homages, parodies or reactions.
The Ipcress File (1965)
Produced by James Bond producer Harry Saltzman as a more grounded alternative to the largesse of Bond, The Ipcress File is more concerned with the intricacies of real spy-work — the endless paperwork,...
- 5/3/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
In her new book Rachel Cooke re-examines the 1950s through 10 women who pioneered in their careers. In this extract she tells the stories of sisters-in-law Muriel and Betty Box, two prominent women in the British film industry
Until recently, anyone who wanted to see the film To Dorothy a Son had to lock themselves deep in the bowels of the British Film Institute off Tottenham Court Road, London, and watch it on an old Steenbeck editing machine. A little-known comedy from 1954, To Dorothy is no one's idea of a classic. It has an infuriating star in Shelley Winters, a creaky screenplay by Peter Rogers (later the producer of the Carry On series) and a set that looks as if it is on loan from a local amateur dramatics society.
We are in the home of Tony (John Gregson) and his baby-faced wife, Dorothy (Peggy Cummins). Dorothy is heavily pregnant, and confined to bed.
Until recently, anyone who wanted to see the film To Dorothy a Son had to lock themselves deep in the bowels of the British Film Institute off Tottenham Court Road, London, and watch it on an old Steenbeck editing machine. A little-known comedy from 1954, To Dorothy is no one's idea of a classic. It has an infuriating star in Shelley Winters, a creaky screenplay by Peter Rogers (later the producer of the Carry On series) and a set that looks as if it is on loan from a local amateur dramatics society.
We are in the home of Tony (John Gregson) and his baby-faced wife, Dorothy (Peggy Cummins). Dorothy is heavily pregnant, and confined to bed.
- 10/5/2013
- by Rachel Cooke
- The Guardian - Film News
There was a time when I could repeat verbatim dozens of lines from "The Wrong Box," Bryan Forbes’ delightfully daft dark comedy about the madcap scramble for an immense inheritance by Victorians both proper and otherwise. It helped, of course, that the movie – filled with such deft farceurs as Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Ralph Richardson, John Mills and Peter Sellers – also was an all-time favorite of my mentor, the late Ralph Thomas Bell, former chairman of the journalism department at Loyola University in New Orleans. During my college years, and for several years afterwards, we often would greet each other with snippets of the 1966 comedy’s droll dialogue, more or less in the fashion of latter-day Monty Python fanatics exchanging quips about dead parrots and killer rabbits. Indeed, whenever we got together as our friendship endured long after my graduation, there was a scarcely a time when one...
- 5/9/2013
- by Joe Leydon
- Thompson on Hollywood
1948 was a good year for mermaids.
In Britain, producer Betty E. Box presented Miranda, starring Glynis Johns as a Cornish water-nymph who goes on dry land disguised as an invalid, making merry with the menfolk. Six years later, a sequel, Mad About Men, continued the character's amorous adventures in Technicolor.
Meanwhile in America, William Powell romanced mute mermaid Ann Blyth, an apparent manifestation of his mid-life crisis, in Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid. (Tarzan and the Mermaids, the same year, did not supply any true amphbious ladies.)
What do these fish stories reveal about their respective countries of origin? None of the films' directors have much in the way of auteur credentials—Ken Annakin directed the first Miranda film, staying true to the tradition of innocuous entertainment which was the defining quality of his career, and Ralph Thomas directed the second: though his son Jeremy has produced major films for Bertolucci and Cronenberg,...
In Britain, producer Betty E. Box presented Miranda, starring Glynis Johns as a Cornish water-nymph who goes on dry land disguised as an invalid, making merry with the menfolk. Six years later, a sequel, Mad About Men, continued the character's amorous adventures in Technicolor.
Meanwhile in America, William Powell romanced mute mermaid Ann Blyth, an apparent manifestation of his mid-life crisis, in Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid. (Tarzan and the Mermaids, the same year, did not supply any true amphbious ladies.)
What do these fish stories reveal about their respective countries of origin? None of the films' directors have much in the way of auteur credentials—Ken Annakin directed the first Miranda film, staying true to the tradition of innocuous entertainment which was the defining quality of his career, and Ralph Thomas directed the second: though his son Jeremy has produced major films for Bertolucci and Cronenberg,...
- 5/31/2012
- MUBI
Are you under the age of 50? If so, you've probably never seen "The Iron Petticoat," well, unless you live in the U.K. that is. It's notoriously one of the most elusive titles for fans of classic cinema, having never been shown on U.S. television nor released on home video. But now -- 56 years after it was originally released - the movie will finally make its premiere on TCM later this year.
The 1956 Cold War comedy was directed by Ralph Thomas and starred Bob Hope (although the role was originally written for Cary Grant) and Katherine Hepburn, and focuses on Hepburn's Russian jet pilot who lands in West Germany and is quickly converted to capitalism after spending time with Hope's Major Lockwood. But hey, this isn't all about political ideals, there's also a love story in there as well. Essentially, it's very much in the vein of "Ninotchka" (in fact they are so similar,...
The 1956 Cold War comedy was directed by Ralph Thomas and starred Bob Hope (although the role was originally written for Cary Grant) and Katherine Hepburn, and focuses on Hepburn's Russian jet pilot who lands in West Germany and is quickly converted to capitalism after spending time with Hope's Major Lockwood. But hey, this isn't all about political ideals, there's also a love story in there as well. Essentially, it's very much in the vein of "Ninotchka" (in fact they are so similar,...
- 4/6/2012
- by Joe Cunningham
- The Playlist
There have been more than 400 film and TV adaptations so far, and counting, some brilliant, some memorably awful
The opening credits of BBC1's new three-part adaptation of Great Expectations (27-29 December) show a chrysalis cracking open to reveal a pair of trembling wings. A few seconds later this delicate emergence is replaced on screen by the escaped convict Magwitch (Ray Winstone) erupting from the stagnant waters of the Essex marshes. Covered in blood and slime, he is at once the monster of nightmares and a huge misshapen baby gasping its first breath.
In a single sequence, the director Brian Kirk gets to the heart of Dickens's novel as a fable of rebirth and renewal. Together with Sarah Phelps, the screenwriter, he has created a world in which characters are forever seeking to transform themselves – or each other. A spookily young Miss Havisham (Gillian Anderson), still cocooned in her tatty wedding dress,...
The opening credits of BBC1's new three-part adaptation of Great Expectations (27-29 December) show a chrysalis cracking open to reveal a pair of trembling wings. A few seconds later this delicate emergence is replaced on screen by the escaped convict Magwitch (Ray Winstone) erupting from the stagnant waters of the Essex marshes. Covered in blood and slime, he is at once the monster of nightmares and a huge misshapen baby gasping its first breath.
In a single sequence, the director Brian Kirk gets to the heart of Dickens's novel as a fable of rebirth and renewal. Together with Sarah Phelps, the screenwriter, he has created a world in which characters are forever seeking to transform themselves – or each other. A spookily young Miss Havisham (Gillian Anderson), still cocooned in her tatty wedding dress,...
- 12/24/2011
- by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
- The Guardian - Film News
Scott Feinberg
I recently had an opportunity to chat for about 20 minutes with Jeremy Thomas, the 62-year-old British producer who won the best picture Oscar for The Last Emperor (1987) 24 years ago and hopes to be back in the running for it again this year for A Dangerous Method, his third collaboration with director David Cronenberg. As you can see in the above video, Thomas says he has wanted to be involved with moviemaking for as long as he can remember. His father Ralph Thomas directed many of the Doctor films, his uncle Gerald Thomas directed all of
read more...
I recently had an opportunity to chat for about 20 minutes with Jeremy Thomas, the 62-year-old British producer who won the best picture Oscar for The Last Emperor (1987) 24 years ago and hopes to be back in the running for it again this year for A Dangerous Method, his third collaboration with director David Cronenberg. As you can see in the above video, Thomas says he has wanted to be involved with moviemaking for as long as he can remember. His father Ralph Thomas directed many of the Doctor films, his uncle Gerald Thomas directed all of
read more...
- 11/26/2011
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
Agent 8 3/4 (1964)
Directed by: Ralph Thomas
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Sylva Koscina, Robert Morley
Synopsis: Unemployed Czech-speaking writer Nicholas Whistler thinks he’s got a job visiting Prague for a bit of industrial espionage. In fact he is now in the employ of British Intelligence. His pretty chauffeuse on arrival behind the Iron Curtain, Comrade Simonova, is herself a Czech agent. Just as well she’s immediately attracted to 007′s unwitting replacement. [highdefdigest.com]
Special Features: Unknown.
Armed And Dangerous (1986)
Directed by: Mark L. Lester
Starring: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Meg Ryan, Robert Loggia
Synopsis: Dooley, a cop wrongly sacked for corruption, teams up with a useless defense lawyer in their new careers… as security guards. When the two are made fall guys for a robbery at a location they are guarding, the pair begin to investigate corruption within the company and their union.
Agent 8 3/4 (1964)
Directed by: Ralph Thomas
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Sylva Koscina, Robert Morley
Synopsis: Unemployed Czech-speaking writer Nicholas Whistler thinks he’s got a job visiting Prague for a bit of industrial espionage. In fact he is now in the employ of British Intelligence. His pretty chauffeuse on arrival behind the Iron Curtain, Comrade Simonova, is herself a Czech agent. Just as well she’s immediately attracted to 007′s unwitting replacement. [highdefdigest.com]
Special Features: Unknown.
Armed And Dangerous (1986)
Directed by: Mark L. Lester
Starring: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Meg Ryan, Robert Loggia
Synopsis: Dooley, a cop wrongly sacked for corruption, teams up with a useless defense lawyer in their new careers… as security guards. When the two are made fall guys for a robbery at a location they are guarding, the pair begin to investigate corruption within the company and their union.
- 8/15/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
David Cairns:
The Forgotten: Slow Poison
The Forgotten: Death by Light
The Forgotten: The Phantom of Puberty
The Forgotten: The New Medium
Adam Cook
Abandoned Spaces: An Interview with Jeon Soo-il
Adrian Curry:
Movie Posters of the Year
Movie Poster of the Week: "Teorema"
Movie Poster of the Week: An Interview with "Funny Games" Poster Designer Akiko Stehrenberger
Movie Poster of the Week: "Robocop"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Shutter Island"
Daniel Kasman:
The Notebook's 2nd Annual Writers' Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2009, Part III
Avatarcraft
Video Sundays: The Rhythm of the Night
The Art of the Trailer: "From Paris with Love"
Rotterdam 2010: Asian Excitement
Rotterdam 2010: Textures of the Morning
Glenn Kenny:
Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report: "Boom!" (Joseph Losey, 1968)
Topics/Questions/Exercises Of The Week—8 January 2010
Tuesday Morning Foreign Blu-ray disc Report: "The Iron Petticoat" (Ralph Thomas, 1956)
Topics/Questions/Exercises Of The Week—15 January...
The Forgotten: Slow Poison
The Forgotten: Death by Light
The Forgotten: The Phantom of Puberty
The Forgotten: The New Medium
Adam Cook
Abandoned Spaces: An Interview with Jeon Soo-il
Adrian Curry:
Movie Posters of the Year
Movie Poster of the Week: "Teorema"
Movie Poster of the Week: An Interview with "Funny Games" Poster Designer Akiko Stehrenberger
Movie Poster of the Week: "Robocop"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Shutter Island"
Daniel Kasman:
The Notebook's 2nd Annual Writers' Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2009, Part III
Avatarcraft
Video Sundays: The Rhythm of the Night
The Art of the Trailer: "From Paris with Love"
Rotterdam 2010: Asian Excitement
Rotterdam 2010: Textures of the Morning
Glenn Kenny:
Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report: "Boom!" (Joseph Losey, 1968)
Topics/Questions/Exercises Of The Week—8 January 2010
Tuesday Morning Foreign Blu-ray disc Report: "The Iron Petticoat" (Ralph Thomas, 1956)
Topics/Questions/Exercises Of The Week—15 January...
- 1/31/2010
- MUBI
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