By Alan Hurst June 22, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Judy Garland. She was only 47, but seemed to have packed multiple lifetimes into that short span of years. She had achieved significant success in films, records, on stage, and on television, but the well-known struggles were equally part of her…
By Alan Hurst A great era for performances by some of Hollywood’s best and brightest, the forties were the dream decade with dozens of films headlined by women, many of which found their way into the annual competition for the Best Actress Oscar. I think the Oscars got it right on more than a few…
By Alan Hurst If you watch The Quiet Man through the filter of 2019, it could easily be dismissed as being a broad and overly sentimental comedy, hopelessly dated and filled with misogynism and superficial stereotypes. But to do that, you would deprive yourself of one of the most perfect movies director John Ford ever made,…
By Alan Hurst True to form, the 2019 Golden Globe winners for film and television were a mixture of the expected and some head scratchers. Foremost was the award for Best Motion Picture Drama to Bohemian Rhapsody, over competitors BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, If Beale Street Count Talk and A Star Is Born (the expected winner).…
By Alan Hurst For whatever the reason, there was a dearth of great comedies in the late forties but thankfully that was remedied with the 1949 release of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ A Letter to Three Wives. Mankiewicz enjoyed a successful hyphenate career as producer, writer and director (not always at the same time) from the…
By Alan Hurst For the two of us, New Year’s Eve isn’t about heading out to a party, joining the throngs downtown or even making it to midnight. It’s more about hibernating and hunkering down after the social and gastronomical whirl of the previous few weeks with friends and family. Our perfect New Year’s Eve…
By Alan Hurst Diehard fans (and that includes myself) of the original 1964 classic can relax. The potential only teased at in the various theatrical trailers we’ve seen since September is legit – Mary Poppins Returns is good. It’s not better than the original (I don’t think anyone thought it would be) but it’s an…
By Alan Hurst 1968 was a spectacular year for movies, from art house films like Ingmar Bergman’s Shame, to mainstream hits like The Planet of the Apes, to more challenging fare like Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Best Picture nominees that year were Carol Reed’s well received adaption of the Broadway musical Oliver!, William…
By Alan Hurst This is an exercise in pure nostalgia. Just like my favourite Christmas movies were primarily released or filled with a 1940s sensibility, my favourite TV episodes with a Christmas theme are primarily from the sixties and seventies, with a few more recent additions. Most of these are things my sisters and I…
By Alan Hurst The big surprise for me this year with the Golden Globe nominations for the best in television in 2018 was the actual lack of major surprises. There were a few WTF nominations (Candice Bergen for the lacklustre Murphy Brown reboot being one of them) and omissions (The Handmaid’s Tale or Westworld for Best…