#it's set in 1950 but it was written in 2009

[13lizardsinatrenchcoat]

Aghhhh The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie is my favourite mystery novel but I feel like I cam never recommend it on account of the racism.

[siflshonen]

The Greatest Robot on Earth: Astro Boy and Pluto Part I

So you’ve just watched Pluto on Netflix, but you didn’t know that it is the best Astro Boy fanfiction ever made. Great! Or maybe, hypothetically, you’ve read classic Astro Boy but don’t know about Pluto, or, as it was called for the Viz release, Pluto: UrasawaXTezuka. Well, awesome, because I’m about to give you all the details behind their creators and creation and give you a side-by-side of the classic Astro Boy and this new(ish)-fangled Pluto.

C'mon. Look under the read more line. You know you want to.

If you want to skip to the manga side-by-sides, check out part II and part III. Or, you can read the whole thing in one go on Ao3.

Context and Background

Tezuka, Urasawa, and the Showa Era

So, let me start with the basics: What is Astro Boy? What ain’t Astro Boy?

Tetsuwan Atom, known in the west as Astro Boy, is the most well-known manga created by the “Godfather of Manga/God of Manga” Osamu Tezuka in the 1950s, but it metastasized into multiple anime series, games, merch, spin offs of various types, and that one CGI movie in 2009. The series follows the adventures of robot hero Atom (called Astro in the west) as he fights for the benefit of humans and robots to create a harmonious future for both.

Here’s a timeline of Astro Boy- and Pluto-related events to help you visualize what came out when and why there were multiple runs of the Astro Boy manga. For our purposes, the most important thing to understand is that, even though Astro Boy was a kids’ series, its attitude and themes, as written by Tezuka, reflected the incredible shifts in Japan after World War II and the ever-present shadow of it still left in the minds of its citizens.

But before we get into all that, let’s talk about Osamu Tezuka himself.

Osamu Tezuka's Legacy and His Monster

If you, sweet reader, are a self-appointed weeb and you don’t know the name Osamu Tezuka, I’m personally scandalized. Still, here’s the short version: he was a workaholic mangaka that many hail as the creator of modern shonen manga (historians get heated about when, how, and if Japanese comics made the jump to modern manga, so do your own research, but Astro Boy is definitely the most famous worldwide contender for this title instead of, say, Tezuka’s first work Shin Takarajima/New Treasure Island), and he’s the guy who created the world’s first serialized made-for-TV anime with a sequential plot and sold it as a loss leader to get it on the air.

Arguably, the precedent he set in order to get the anime-ified Astro Boy to screens everywhere is a major reason that the anime industry is so unsustainable, but we’re not here to talk about that.

Tezuka-sensei was a prolific, passionate, and deeply beloved artist from Osaka who tackled damn near every manga genre and arguably created some of them before he died of stomach cancer (and overwork, if we’re being honest here.) I’ve only shown a few of the 400-plus titles he created to give a brief overview of the scope of his work. Since I’m talking to you as a fan, not a historian, I specifically chose titles I own or have read most closely.

Message to Adolf, which was also published as Adolf, is about Nazis. Okay, that’s only part of what it’s about, but we’ll revisit this one in more detail later.

Black Jack is probably Tezuka’s second most famous work, and yeah, it’s broadly categorized as a shonen. It follows the adventures of underground doctor and genius surgeon Kuroo Hazama who dresses like a vampire, acts like a black-hearted and preachy douchebag, and endears himself to everyone who interacts with him.

Dororo is a historical fantasy thriller about a guy regaining parts of his sacrificed-upon-his-birth body by slaying demons and uncovering the mysterious past of his companion, the child thief Dororo.

On the flipside, Princess Knight is a shojo for younger kids about a princess with the heart of a boy and the heart of a girl who uses her two hearts to genderbend as needed to maintain her claim over her kingdom and keep it out of the hands of the wicked.

Meanwhile, Ode to Kirihito is an extremely mature medical fantasy drama that questions when and how a person still maintains their humanity and when they become a beast in their own eyes and the eyes of others. As I’m sure you can tell, such themes exploring what humanity means are almost as common to Tezuka’s works as a medical professional featuring as a main character. He needed to use his degree for something, I suppose.

In fact, the common conflict between Tezuka’s bright, young, optimistic, passionate, independently-minded, and opinionated doctor main characters and the corrupt, constricting, slow-moving, old-fashioned medical institution probably offers the most insight as to why Tezuka chose to pursue manga over medicine. I don’t think this was the only reason, but from reading his manga, I feel founded in asserting that the stifling status quo of established medicine was a contributing factor.

Tezuka never made any bones about putting himself and his feelings directly in his work. He spoke what was on his mind throughout his manga, and his introductions to various Astro Boy stories are no exception. He was also transparent about his struggle to make sure his works maintained popularity even when he resented any changes others suggested he make  in pursuit of this goal. In general, Tezuka-sensei didn’t take kindly to the idea of others influencing the direction of his creative visions basically ever, if the story of the Jungle Emperor: Onward, Leo! anime is any indication. (He’s just like me for real.)

If Tezuka-sensei wanted to write about war, he did. If he wanted to write about rape or trauma or abortion or racism, he did. He jumped on the chance to write about sex ed and, well, several of those other topics in Apollo’s Song.

If that scares you, don’t worry. Most of the time, Astro Boy was usually about the nature of war, human rights, the nature of humanity, and robots. It was also written for grade school kids.

Tezuka’s penchant for frank honesty wasn’t limited to commentary made within his manga, but also about his manga, and his statements on Astro Boy are some of his more standout claims on that front. That he called Atom a “monster” and said he created him “for the exposure and the money” doesn’t paint a flattering picture of his attitude towards his most famous work.

But, in truth, his distaste for compromising the truth of his characters at others’ suggestions probably betrays his real feelings about Atom. As much as he may be Tezuka’s monster, he is also his pure-hearted hero of justice and beloved creation. And, by his own admission, his feelings towards his work during the creation of “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, the Astro Boy story on which Pluto is based, were distinctly positive (even if at one point the background characters remark that Atom is a monster!)

The readership’s opinions on “The Greatest Robot on Earth” were likewise pretty positive. Among those readers was Naoki Urasawa, who credits the story with inspiring his deep love of manga. (His recounting of the impression the story left on him in this interview with Netflix Anime is incredibly sweet.)

Naoki Urasawa and His Monster

Who is Naoki Urasawa, besides the guy who co-wrote and illustrated the 2003 Pluto manga? Well, Urasawa-sensei is my favorite mangaka, so jot that down, and he’s known for his suspense thrillers, layered narratives, melodramatic showstopper moments, and also stories about cute girls doing sports. He is also a musician and guest professor alongside his editor and Pluto co-writer, Takashi Nagasaki.

20th Century Boys, named in part for a T.Rex song, is arguably his most famous work and it is heavy on the 1960s-1970s nostalgia, but in a good way! The inherent optimism, kindness, hope, and passion (and sometimes outright cheese) of every Urasawa character and title never feels insincere. The series is a seinen with the heart and whimsy of a shonen (and personally, I feel like such a description holds true for even Uraswa’s darker works.) 

If you don’t want to read 20th Century Boys or its sequel, 21st Century Boys, you can watch the live-action movie adaptations.

Meanwhile, Monster is my favorite manga and anime. Herr Doktor Tenma (yeah, like Astro Boy’s Tenma), a Japanese brain surgeon practicing in 1980s Germany, saves the life of a little boy only to learn years later that the kid is a mass murderer, his murdering ways continue into his adulthood, and he will likely never be caught. Only Tenma knows the truth, so he embarks on a quest to stop the “monster” he revived. 

I have less familiarity with Yawara! and Happy!, but the first is a sports comedy about a girl struggling to balance an athletic career and a normal life, and the second is a sports drama about a girl pursuing tennis to avoid becoming a prostitute. 

Pineapple Army is about an ex-merc’s adventures working as a self-defense instructor. Urasawa illustrated this one, but did not write it. I suppose I could have included Billy Bat as a representative work instead, but I honestly didn’t want to start unpacking that—though I will say that Billy Bat is probably the closest answer Urasawa has to Tezuka’s Message to Adolf since they both spin around the concept of a rumor or idea causing the world to lose its collective mind.

So what motivated Urasawa to add Pluto to his body of work? Mostly his editor/producer and co-writer, Takashi Nagasaki, probably. Er, that’s not very flattering. Let me try again.

Japanese media loves to emphasize passing its passions and convictions to the new generations (source: have you ever read or watched a mainstream action shonen in your life? If you’ve been paying attention to anything I’ve written about My Hero Academia or read the manga itself, I’m sure you think as much as I do that pointing out such a thing feels like beating a dead horse), and Urasawa’s (and later, the M2 team’s) motivation in creating Pluto is no exception. As Urasawa put it in his Netflix interview, “It’s like we received the baton from Tezuka-sensei, and would pass it on to the new generation."

And Osamu Tezuka-sensei’s son, Macoto Tezka (who probably spells his name that way so people don’t get him mixed up with his dad) let Urasawa and Nagasaki do it so long as they made sure the new retelling was something new, exciting, and unique when compared to the original! And while the pressure to succeed in this endeavor probably damn well near killed Urasawa-sensei, I think Tezka made the right call!

But if the goal was to pass on this Astro Boy story, which was written by a REALLY old dude, beloved by kinda-old dudes to the new generation, and practically unheard-of by today’s anklebiters, what kind of direction was the damn thing meant to take?! And why was the answer “fantasy Gulf War Astro Boy fanfiction”?!

Astro Boy in the Eyes of the New Breed

Astro Boy may be a series meant for younger kids, but it didn’t exist in a vacuum separate from the climate of the world from which it came. Tezuka would probably roll over in his grave if it did. The work, its messages, and its sensibilities were grade-A, postwar Showa stuff—particularly its reflections on pacifism, war, and power. 

Nagasaki’s summation from the postscript of Pluto: UrasawaXTezuka volume 8 sums up Tezuka and his generation’s outlook pretty handily, but I think it’s helpful to show exemplify this outlook and contrast it with the outlook of Nagasaki and Urasawa’s generation through manga!

Please observe this key moral-of-the-story panel from “The Greatest Robot on Earth” published in 1964 alongside this panel from late-1980s Dragonball featuring Muten Roshi stating the core idea of his series. I’ve chosen Dragonball as a point of comparison not just because of its notoriety as a big shonen title created for a similar audience as the original Astro Boy, but because creator Akira Toriyama was born in 1955 and, much like his contemporary Urasawa, who was born in 1960, “The Greatest Robot on Earth” left a deep impression on him. (Despite what the caption implies, the photographed page in this tweet actually features Toriyama’s admiration of Tezuka, though I don’t doubt the article from which it is pulled also includes Tezuka’s feelings about Toriyama. I ran it through Google Translate a few times and then laughed when I realized Toriyama made a self-deprecating joke about his poor reading skills, since he points out that he was in third grade when he read “The Greatest Robot on Earth” in the magazine Second Grader.)

To Astro Boy’s Ochanomizu, strength ain’t all that great, and strength for strength’s sake is foolish and vain. In fact, Professor Ochanomizu, who is the moral compass for most Astro Boy adventures, doesn’t value the pursuit of strength the way modern shonen, and several other characters within his own series, do. Hell, he doesn’t give Uran any superpowers even though Atom, the robot boy with nuclear power fueling his 100,000 horsepower (later 1,000,000 horsepower) and seven special powers is her brother! 

At the time of Ochanomizu’s creation, real-life Japan still freshly remembered World War II and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; no the fuck Ochanomizu (and Tezuka, through him) wasn’t about to endorse or create robots that doubled as weapons. That nonsense was for other, “more violent” robot manga, or the slew of other misguided and corrupt roboticists within the Astro Boy canon. Well, except there was that one time Ochanomizu helped create the artificial sun, but he didn’t ever intend for it to become a weapon.

Meanwhile, while Roshi also does not believe in strength for strength’s sake, he absolutely pursues it and encourages his pupils to do the same while fostering their awareness of the hardship, dangers, and fun of their path. Even with his warning, the Dragonball cast’s pursuit of strength is portrayed as alluring despite the double-edge, much like promoting national pride (and power) increases a nation’s convictions in its unity and identity but also draws the negative attention of other, possibly more powerful nations. Andy Yee succinctly frames this still-impending crossroads about how Japan might use its nationalism—its “pursuit of strength” in Dragonball lingo—in his 2013 article “The Twin Faces of Japanese Nationalism”. In it, he quotes this 2012 Project Syndicate article by Joseph S. Nye, Jr. pointing out that nationalism could be a force for positivity if tempered with reform and control, but could also cause the country to start conflict with its neighbors and shit the bed if left to run wild. (The conversation surrounding the topic of Japanese nationalism continues beyond 1980s manga or the 2013 socio-political scene, of course.)

Unlike Atom or Ochanomizu, Dragonball’s Goku finds such attention alluring: his heart’s desire is to fight strong opponents. It is his ikigai (“reason to live”) and at the end of the Cell Games, it becomes his, uh, shinigai (“reason to die”), if you will.

Did I lose you? I just asserted that the messages in these shonen about acquiring strength = messages about acquiring national pride and power. At its best, the Dragonball-esque attitude towards increasing national pride (and combat strength) is empowering, inspirational, and bolsters the good-hearted. At its worst, it could feed into a cycle of toxicity, unproductive self-importance and, ultimately, flat-out Japanese nationalism and war (and at its stupidest, it just becomes Let’s Fighting Love. Protect my balls.) Since classic Dragonball is a gag manga, I doubt Toriyama was ever thinking this hard about the messages of his work in regards to world history, but that’s sort of the point: Toriyama and his generation likely weren’t thinking this hard about it. Dragonball’s authorship lacks the crushing, firsthand memory of the consequences of unbalanced and misused power that the authorship of Astro Boy has.

In other words, Astro Boy’s cast pursued scientific advancement while lamenting the inevitable folly and destruction mankind brought forth with it so that Son Goku could fish naked, kick ass, get his ass kicked, meet god, kick ass, ghost god, ghost his family and friends, come back, kick more ass, repeat this cycle like twice, and get everyone to thank him for it. Dragonball’s more optimistic, power-fantasy-ish outlook broadly categorizes the outlook generation of New Breeds (shinjinrui) born around the 1960s like Toriyama, Urasawa, and Nagasaki before the reality introduced in their emerging adulthood hit them like a fucking truck.

The New Breed generation earned its name because their outlook and values, which were developed during a time of economic plenty and peace, seemed totally divorced from the values of the generations that lived during or immediately after World War II.

“They might as well be a different species,” snarked their elders, probably, though not necessarily out of bland hatred—Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Gundam series portrays his Newtypes, who are meant to be at least somewhat analogous to the real-life shinjinrui, in a generally more sympathetic light and occasionally a positive one (if they aren’t being used by someone else, that is.)

Tomino, who was born in 1941, also worked on Astro Boy at Mushi Pro.

Baggage between generations is not unique to any one country, obviously. But in this case, it seems Urasawa and Nagasaki decided to tap into it and incorporate the core beliefs, hopes, and grief of their generation and those of the generations before them into Pluto. 

Taking this approach was also the perfect excuse for Urasawa to distill everything he knew and loved about Tezuka’s works into one transformative manga. And don’t just trust Tomohiko Murakami on that—trust me as a fan of both Tezuka and Urasawa. It’s very noticeable that Urasawa and Nagasaki pulled from all things Tezuka to create Pluto even as it incorporated new ideas, including criticism of the Gulf War.

…So it’s probably a good thing I took the time to explain all this stuff to you so that you can now start to see it too! You can thank me later. Let’s see how the classic “The Greatest Robot on Earth” compares to Pluto.

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Back after a week off!

Script below the break.

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most rewatched movies. My name is Jane, and today I will be discussing number 31 on my list: RKO’s 1937 dramatic comedy, or comedic drama, Stage Door, directed by Gregory La Cava, written by Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller, from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Adolphe Menjou.

When heiress Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) decides to go into show business, she moves into a theatrical boarding house called the Footlights Club with other, significantly poorer, aspiring actresses. She keeps the details of her privileged background secret, but nevertheless struggles to fit in with the others, particularly her new roommate Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers), who see her as a snob. The conflict heats up even more when Terry is cast in a role that another Footlights Club resident, Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds) had her heart set on.

I can’t remember exactly how I first discovered this movie, but I assume it was because I love both Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, and I was trying to watch as many of their films as I could get my hands on. They are two of the four actors to make it into at least 4 of the movies that will be on this podcast, so it makes sense that I would keep revisiting a movie that featured both of them, even though they apparently didn’t get along very well offscreen. I think I might have seen Stage Door for the first time in 2002, I’m not sure, but once I started keeping track, I watched it 17 times: twice in 2003, three times in 2005, once in 2006, twice in 2008, twice in 2009, twice in 2011, once in 2013, once in 2014, once in 2015, once in 2016, and once in 2022. Back in 2013, I blogged about the movies I had watched at least 10 times in 10 years, and at the time Stage Door was the only one of those I didn’t own a copy of, so I know that at least all the views prior to then were because I borrowed it from the library. When I finally got it on DVD, it was part of a Katharine Hepburn collection that included the 1933 version of Little Women, which won Best Adapted Screenplay. When I was going through adapted screenplay winners in 2017, after I watched that one, the collection somehow fell under my bed without me realizing it, so the next time I wanted to watch Stage Door, I couldn’t find it, and it wasn’t until 2022 that I finally cleaned out under my bed and uncovered it. So Stage Door would be even higher on this list if I cleaned my room more often.

In my last episode, I mentioned that what I really wanted out of Newsies was more of the ensemble just hanging out, and that is exactly what Stage Door provides. There are so many great scenes featuring Footlights Club residents exchanging witty banter, without in any way hindering the plot. While some of that comes from the stars, particularly Ginger Rogers, the supporting cast is absolute gold and features several relative unknowns at the time who became quite famous later, such as future television stars Eve Arden and Lucille Ball, in addition to then-14-year-old Ann Miller, who used a fake birth certificate to pretend to be 18, and somehow managed to hold her own dancing with Ginger Rogers. Gail Patrick was already somewhat established as a master of the cold, calculating secondary character, and she continues that here as Linda, Jean’s main rival before Terry shows up, but she later became even more noteworthy for executive producing the Perry Mason TV show in the 1950s and 1960s, when she was the only female executive producer of a prime-time show. It’s so fun to see these soon-to-be household names so early in their careers hanging out and swapping jokes. But I think I would still enjoy the ensemble scenes at least almost as much if I’d never heard of any of the performers. One of my favorite moments is when the oldest resident who is now an acting coach, played by Constance Collier, is going on yet again about “Back in my day” and somebody who’s holding a book interjects, “when knighthood was in flower” and Constance Collier is all offended until she says, “I’m sorry, I was just reading aloud” and her face and delivery are so perfect, and I have no idea who that character or actress is but I love her.

I’ve read several different stories of how this script came to be. While it’s ostensibly based on a play, apart from the title, the setting, and some of the characters’ names, it’s barely recognizable as the same story. Playwright George S. Kaufman reportedly quipped that the title should have been changed to Screen Door to further distance itself from his play. One story claims that director Gregory La Cava sent an assistant to pose as an aspiring actress in a boarding house and write down what the residents said to use as dialogue in the film. Another version says that La Cava had the actresses from the film hang out together on the set prior to shooting and incorporated their interactions into the script. And yet a third version is that much of the dialogue was improvised while filming. I’m not sure which is true, and I suppose it could be a combination of all three, or none of them, but regardless, the banter is excellent and feels entirely natural. While the slang is, of course, rather outdated, the way they insert snarky comments into their conversations feels exactly like how friend groups – particularly those who are discouraged and fed up but laughing to keep from screaming – interact in real life even now. It’s unusual to see a movie with a primarily female ensemble being so witty together, and I can’t even begin to explain how fun it is to watch. Granted, some of it does get a bit stereotypically catty, but even the least-developed unnamed extra in this movie feels like a real person. Beneath their jovial facades lurks a deep longing for success on the stage, as well as frustration at how difficult that is to achieve, and they all convey that so brilliantly. Mad props to the entire cast.

Like many of the movies I’ve talked about so far, Stage Door has a rather complicated relationship with sex and romance. Because production codes of the time prohibited most sexual content, they had to leave it kind of vague, but it’s implied that the character of theatrical producer Anthony Powell, played by Adolphe Menjou, is providing Gail Patrick’s character, Linda, with expensive clothes and jewelry in return for sexual favors – although why she’s still living at the Footlights Club is rather a mystery – until Ginger Rogers’s character Jean catches his eye and he gets her a job dancing at his nightclub. Jean initially despises him, and only starts dating him because of how much she hates Linda. It’s not entirely clear whether Jean actually sleeps with him – there’s a scene of her in his apartment getting very drunk, but then she starts talking about marriage and Powell has his butler send her home. But they apparently keep seeing each other after that, and Jean does seem to develop feelings for Powell, for completely unfathomable reasons, but Katharine Hepburn’s character Terry sees through him. There’s a great scene when Powell takes Terry to his apartment to discuss the role she’s just been given and she resists his advances, but then when Jean shows up Terry pretends they were in the middle of something so that Jean will see that Powell is no good. This doesn’t help Jean and Terry’s relationship, and most of the characters at the Footlights Club probably think that Terry got the role by sleeping with Powell – although the audience knows it’s because her father said he would help finance the new play if she was the star, hoping that she would fail and return home. Jean already thinks that Terry has previously had a similar arrangement to the one Linda had with Powell because Terry also has expensive clothes and a photograph of an old man she claims to be her grandfather – but again, the audience knows that Terry comes from a rich family and that the man probably is her actual grandfather. I guess showing characters inferring that other characters were having illicit sex was okay with the censors as long as it wasn’t confirmed? Also Powell tells Jean in the scene when she’s drunk that he has a wife and son, but later Terry exposes this as a lie, so even if he is sleeping with any or all of the people that characters think he might be, at least he’s not committing adultery because he’s not really married. Maybe this is just me, but I find it so fascinating what was and wasn’t allowed under these production codes. Anyway, in a similar but perhaps more innocent vein, Lucille Ball’s character is from Seattle, which apparently means she knows every lumberman who visits New York, so she’s often going out on dates with them. Jean clearly despises their uncouth ways, but the food at the Footlights Club is notoriously almost inedible, so she’s willing to let them dance on her feet and bore her in exchange for dinner. Incidentally, one of these double dates is what Eve Arden’s character is referring to in the line I quoted at the end of last episode about “a pleasant little foursome” and predicting a hatchet murder. It doesn’t seem like there’s sex involved in this arrangement, although Lucy’s character does end up marrying one of the lumbermen at the end, but it feels similar to the Powell situation in that it shows women willing to give men what they want in exchange for security, luxury, or both.

The idea that men always want sex and women either tolerate or use sex is certainly not unique to this film – it’s a prevalent stereotype even now that is harmful in so many ways, encouraging and normalizing incredibly toxic relationship dynamics between straight allosexuals. And a side effect is that it makes things very confusing for asexuals. Those who are socialized as girls may not recognize their own asexuality because women aren’t supposed to really want sex that much anyway. And those who are socialized as boys are pressured to ignore their asexuality because men are supposedly defined by their obsession with sex. It’s not great and we need to stop spreading this false narrative. But in terms of this movie, when you remember that it’s from 1937, the same year as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and “Someday My Prince Will Come,” it almost feels progressive to at least show women taking control of their own lives, even if they’re forced to do so within the confines of an oppressive, patriarchal society. There are a few times throughout the film when it’s suggested that these women would be better off getting married and raising children and giving up on their acting dreams, but this is presented as the view of society at large, particularly men like Powell, and not necessarily the truth. It’s rather empowering to see these women stubbornly taking the path that feels right to them even when they’re constantly being told to give up and conform. So from that perspective, the message feels less problematic and more encouraging, and that aspect speaks to me.

This movie also addresses mental health struggles in a very interesting way that I want to discuss a bit. Trigger Warning: I will be talking about depression and suicide in this section, so I’ll put time codes in the show notes if you need to skip through that [skip this and the next paragraph on the script]. For its time, I feel like this movie actually does a pretty good job of distinguishing between feeling a bit down and actually suffering from depression. Most of the residents of the Footlights Club are struggling to find work, but they’re managing. Kay Hamilton, however, is clearly not. She’s behind on her rent and skipping meals but refuses to ask for or accept help. It’s established that she gave a highly acclaimed performance in Anthony Powell’s previous play but hasn’t been able to find work since. Kay desperately wants the leading role in his new play, both because she needs the work and because she relates to the part. When Terry is cast instead, Kay is devastated, but insists that none of the others inform Terry how much she wanted it. To add insult to injury, Terry is awful in rehearsals, refusing to take direction and reading the lines as emotionlessly as possible, so we can all see that Kay would have been a much better choice. On opening night, Kay gives Terry her good luck charm, and then jumps out the window, killing herself. Jean confronts Terry and blames her for Kay’s death. Terry is beside herself – Kay was basically the only one who was nice to Terry – and at first doesn’t want to perform at all, but her grief puts her in the perfect mindset to play the character whose feelings she’s never understood before. She’s clearly performing to honor Kay’s memory, and all of the Footlights Club residents in attendance recognize that, and afterwards Jean and Terry finally become friends.

The main thing I remember from the first time I watched this was how shocked I was by Kay’s suicide. It felt like such an abrupt and upsetting change of tone from what had been mostly a lighthearted comedy. But upon rewatch there are so many signs. When all the other residents of the boarding house are laughing off their troubles, Kay never joins in, only occasionally managing a weak smile to try to reassure her concerned friends that she’s fine. Nobody knows how to help her, and she doesn’t know how to accept the help that’s offered. It’s an upsetting but realistic portrayal of depression, and Andrea Leeds plays it so perfectly that she was even nominated for an Oscar. Considering that, even with all the recent advances made in mental health research and treatment, many people still consider depression just a period of sadness when you’re not trying hard enough to cheer yourself up, it’s astounding that a movie made 86 years ago does such an excellent job of conveying what it actually feels like. It’s not really sadness; it’s more of a void. A hopeless void that you feel like you’ll be stuck in forever. And that’s what Kay shows us. I don’t think I consciously realized this when I was watching Stage Door as a teenager suffering from depression, but I do think in a weird way it helped, to see what I was feeling from the outside. To see that Kay was surrounded by people who cared about and wanted to help her, that the void was lying when it told her there was no other way out except through the window. I wish there had been a way to save her, and I don’t love the implication that her death was necessary to make Terry a good actress, although I don’t think that was the message they were going for. I think the film is trying to say that art and storytelling can be used to channel pain into something beautiful, and while there are certainly better ways to convey this that don’t involve suicide, I still feel like this movie is surprisingly respectful of mental health struggles, particularly for its time, and I appreciate that.

I know I’ve been emphasizing some of the darker aspects, but it’s mostly an uplifting movie. It’s just also trying to be realistic about the hardships faced by women pursuing artistic careers, particularly during the Great Depression – not that things are much better now. I kind of think having this movie in the back of my mind has contributed to at least some of my decisions to support female actors and producers on Patreon. If only the residents of the Footlights Club had had access to the internet. Anyway, there are lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes Stage Door stories, and I’m not sure if any or all of them are actually true, but I want to mention some of them nonetheless. There was apparently a random cat on the RKO lot that took a liking to Eve Arden, so Gregory La Cava decided to make it part of the movie that her character was almost always holding or playing with the cat. Perhaps the most famous line in Stage Door is Terry’s speech in the play, which starts with “The calla lilies are in bloom again…” This was taken from a play called “The Lake” in which Katharine Hepburn had appeared on Broadway, and, in the words of critic Dorothy Parker, “ran the gamut of emotions – from A to B.” So Hepburn used this performance to redeem herself a bit. She certainly shows more emotional range than A to B, although I feel like she still had more to learn before becoming the truly excellent performer she’s remembered as. According to several accounts, Katharine Hepburn was extremely envious of Ginger Rogers, whose career at the time was going much better than her own. Rogers had a much easier time taking direction and getting along with people, and just seemed to generally have more natural talent for performing. So Hepburn resented her, and insisted on sharing top billing instead of taking second billing under her. Rogers was disappointed when Margaret Sullavan, who had played Terry Randall on Broadway and was originally cast in the film version, became pregnant and had to drop out. So neither of them were thrilled to be working together. Since I love both Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, it makes me a little sad that they didn’t actually like each other, but that was kind of perfect for their characters’ dynamic in this movie. A nicer story is that Ginger Rogers helped launch Ann Miller’s career by insisting she get the role of her dance partner even though the director thought she was too tall, and apparently Rogers and Miller became life-long friends. And one last fun piece of trivia that I recently stumbled upon is that the woman in the photograph of Anthony Powell’s pretend wife was Verree Teasdale, who was married to Adolphe Menjou – so the character’s fake wife was the actor’s actual wife.

Thank you for listening to me talk through another of my most frequently re-watched movies. We’re a quarter of the way through the list already! Remember to subscribe or follow on your podcast platform of choice for more, and rate or leave a review to let me know how you’re enjoying it so far. This episode is coming out on International Asexuality Day, so I hope my fellow aces out there are feeling particularly supported and celebrated today. As always, I will leave you with a quote from the next movie: “You promised me a zillion dollars! And a nickel!”

[ajeckaea]

I hate when authors "update" older stories, or the stories are "updated" for them. I am specifically going to use Lois Duncan as an example, and more specifically, Down a Dark Hall.

This book was written in 1974, and "revised" by Duncan in 2011 to add cell phones, internet, and make other edits that were, as far as I can tell, supposed to make it more appealing to modern youth and reduce the likelihood of questions like "well why didn't they just use a cell phone".

The example I recall best, although it's been a couple years so I'm fuzzy on the precise details, is that one of the characters makes a comment about there being no ethernet hookup (possibly it was wifi service? but I'm pretty sure it was ethernet) in her room for her laptop.

I looked at that line and instantly said to myself "That was a landline telephone in the original version. I just bet it was a normal telephone." Because it just didn't fit quite right.

But I was reading this in January 2022. And teenagers in 2022 did not use ethernet cables with laptops when they wanted to connect to the internet for fun. They used wifi, but more than that, they used smartassphones. I also have a vague sense that there were references added to chat rooms or chatting applications in the book. Perhaps even MySpace.

The problem with "updating" technology and terminology, you see, is that in another few years it will be dated again--except now you've sacrificed the authenticity of the book. It's no longer a book from the 70s, but it can never be a book from the 10s. You've mishmashed it into an awkward chimera, and it's not better. It can never be its old authentic historical snapshot self anymore--it will always give off "hello fellow kids" trying-too-hard energy. You know that thing about putting new wine into old wineskins? Yeah.

And this is a me thing, I know, but here's the thing--if a book doesn't mention cell phones or computers, I don't miss them. In the absence of any hard historical references, the story just naturally settles into my perception as being set in Comfortably Ambiguous Time. In fact, unless the author clearly sets the story in the Modern Tech Age and brings up technology from the start, the first time a cell phone is mentioned it will jolt me entirely out of the story.

There were people who thought it was stupid and unrealistic that in 2005, highschool student Bella Swan didn't have a cell phone. I never once questioned it--highschool student Aje didn't have a cell phone until 2009.

This entire post was inspired by the fact that I'm rereading a book right now that was written in 1961, and I would never have guessed it was that old, because of Comfortably Ambigous Time. If you'd told me it was set in 1980, I'd have believed you. 1950? Sure. 2010? Absolutely. The lack of technology is not a stumbling block for me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that books should be left as they were written. It's okay that tech and slang were different. It's okay if the plot wouldn't work in a world where people keep 911 in their pockets. It's okay for books to be historical snapshots. That's what they are, and they should be left authentic. An authentic 70s book that reads like an authentic 70s book is always, always going to be better than a 70s book mutilated in an attempt to fit some later standard. Also, any reader who actually picks up a book and judges it negatively because its plot wouldn't work if set in the present day needs to be sent back to grade school until s/he learns how history works.

Some people being idiots is not a valid reason to mutilate books.

[millingroundireland]

Nutley, Cincinnati, and beyond [Part 5]

continued from part 4

Sadly, Bob would die, at age 56, on May 2, 1981, at Holmes Hospital from a brain tumor, malignant glioblastoma. The “Robert B. Mills Memorial Graduate Award,” a scholarship award, would be named in his honor. Left in his immediate family were his wife F.L., two children, along with his sisters Carol (in Cincinnati) and Helen (in Huntington Woods, Michigan). [18] He is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery alongside RBM I, RBM II, Hattie, and Stanley. F.L would die 15 years later on December 31, 1996 at Glen Meadows Retirement Community. Not surprisingly, her tobacco smoking and long-standing alcoholism for years was a major factor in her death. She donated her body to science.

It is best to finish the chapter off with a focus on Bob’s siblings, Helen and Carol. Helen would, in 1950, begin education at New York City’s Brooklyn College. Sometime before 1955 she would marry Alexander “Alex” Christopher Efthim. Alex’s family was born in Albania. [19] Like Helen, Alex was also politically active and aware, with both going to Communist Party meetings. He would write a Masters Thesis titled “Public relations in the Department of Welfare, New York City” at Columbia University, getting a Masters in Public Law in 1940 after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts at Washington University on June 7, 1938. He served in the military from August 21, 1943 to 1946, specifically in the Pacific Theater and become a decorated Army Air Force Captain. On June 29, 1946, Alex would lead a class on organizing vets for political action, described as a “one-man lobby” against crippling OPA (Office of Price Administration). Later that year he would criticize Representative Ploeser in St. Louis, a stout conservative who lost re-election in 1948, likely in part because of Alex’s Fight Inflation Committee. Later, on August 5, 1968, he would publish an article in The Nation titled “”We Care” in Kansas: The Non-Professionals Revolt.” By January 1976 he would be an assistant professor at Wayne State University in school of social work. He was introducing social work to nontraditional settings such as legislator's offices and family physician practices, and for his “advocacy” in the field of teaching he was denied tenure in 1975, although the school of social work fought for him on his behalf. He died on October 13, 1990 in Huntington Woods, Oakland, Michigan.

Helen and Alex's wedding. Alex's brother named Chris is on the right of the picture, near Carol. Alex is to the left of Helen in the middle of the picture). The woman on the right of the picture is Victoria. The little girl may be named Catherine. The name of the boy is not known.

In 1955, Helen and Alex’s child would be born. She would live in the Bronx in a non-discreet apartment building before the family moved to White Plains, New York then Michigan. Later in her life she would live in New Jersey. As for Helen, she completed her undergraduate with a bachelor’s degree at Oakland University in 1974. In 1982 published a book titled Creative Effective Schools, written with Stephen Miller, Wilbur B. Brookover, and Lawrence W. Lezotte. Following Alex's death in October 1990, Helen no longer felt she had a book in her and retired, according to a relative. On January 8, 2009, Helen died in Flemington, New Jersey.

© 2018-2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

This is reprinted from my family history of the Mills/Packard family. This tells a shortened version of the Bob Mills story in World War II sent out to relatives on June 17, 2018. Some other changes have been made to make a smoother text. This was originally published on the WordPress version of this blog in November 2018, but has been broken apart info various parts for this blog.

continued in part 6

Notes

[18] Certificate of Death of RBM III, May 2, 1981, Ohio Department of Health, Certificate of Death, Number 13101; “Robert Mills dies, service set Friday,” The University of Cincinnati news, May 8, 1981, page not known; Cincinnati Inquirer, May 5, 1981. He was also an “inveterate [avid] gardener,” planting at two greenhouses and a Japanese Garden which overlook Lunken Airport, where the fire truck his father had used was broke up and put under the ground. He still had a drives license when he died. He was treated at a University of Cincinnati medical center. He also has a probate record available. Other sources  include: The Cincinnati Inquirer, Jan. 7, 1997, p. 6; Certificate of Death of F.L. Mills, Dec. 31, 1996, Maryland Division of Vital Records, Certificate of Death, issued Jan. 30, 1997. She would die of esophageal squamous cell cakcinoma and also had type 2 diabetes.

[19] His father was named Christo E. Efthim (1886-1962), and mother named Olga Peppo (1897-1959). He would have three siblings: Elthine (b. 1915), Victoria Christ (1922-2002), and Christopher. Other sources include: the Columbia University website, page 4 of the announcement of the commencement of Washington University. He graduated Central High School in St. Louis sometime before 1938, “Students at Political Action Laud Truman's Veto,” Reading Eagle, June 29, 1946; “Veteran berates Congressman,” Prescott Evening Courier, July 9, 1946. Walter C. Ploeser, a Republican, lost re-election in 1948 and later served on the board of the Salvation Army. For background, see the National Archive on the Office of Price Administration and the text of Truman's veto on June 29, 1946. Also see:  Alex Efthim, “Serving the U.S. Work Force: A New Constituency for Schools of Social Work,” Journal of Education for Social Work, Vol. 12, no. 3, fall 1976, p. 29-46; Wayne University, “Alumni Relations: Alumni Giving Council,” accessed July 17, 2017. As a result, the Planning Network of the Planners for Equal Opportunity was born.

[estgreys]

Diesel punk wars

In addition, Ramos gives " noir ambience" as an element of dieselpunk. Iolanda Ramos, an assistant professor of English and Translation studies at NOVA University Lisbon, argues,ĭieselpunk draws not on the hiss of steam nor on the Victorian and Edwardian aesthetics and cosplay but on the grease of fuel-powered machinery and the Art Deco movement, marrying rectilinear lines to aerodynamic shapes and questioning the impact of technology on the human psyche. Wolfe defines steampunk as primarily set in the Victorian era and dieselpunk as set in the interwar period. Science fiction editor and critic Gary K. She defines steampunk as concerned with the Victorian era, and the shift in technology and energy generation that came with industrialization, and dieselpunk as combining the aesthetic and genre influences of the period of both world wars. Jennifer McStotts, another author, considers the two genres to be close cousins. So playing around with that border between optimistic steampunk and a much more pessimistic dieselpunk, which is more about Nazis, was kind of interesting to me because early in the war we were definitely kind of on the steampunk side of that. At that point, war is no longer about a sense of adventure and chivalry and a way of testing your nation's level of manhood it's become industrial, and horrible. Because when you put the words "machine" and "gun" together, they both change. But to me, World War I is the dividing point where modernity goes from being optimistic to being pessimistic. I like the word "dieselpunk" if you are doing something like 'Weird World War II'. Differences from steampunk Īuthor Scott Westerfeld addresses the question of where to draw the line between steampunk and dieselpunk, arguing that his novel Leviathan (2009) qualifies as steampunk despite the fact that the technology it depicts includes diesel engines: The term also refers to the tongue-in-cheek name given to a similar cyberpunk derivative, " steampunk", which focuses on science fiction based on industrial steam power and which is often set within the Victorian era. The "-‍punk" suffix attached to the name is representative of the counterculture nature of the genre with regard to its opposition to contemporary aesthetics. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.The name "dieselpunk" is a derivative of the science fiction subgenre cyberpunk, and represents the time period from World War I until the 1950s, when diesel-based locomotion was the main technological focus of Western culture. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior. Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time.Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content.Running a "scraper" or "downloader" program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection.Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine.There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does.Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests. If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse.The most common causes of this issue are: Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests.

[quasar1967]

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 American science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold based on Richard Matheson's 1956 novel The Shrinking Man. The film stars Grant Williams as Scott and Randy Stuart as Scott's wife Louise. While relaxing on a boat, Scott is enveloped by a strange fog. Months later, he discovers that he appears to be shrinking. By the time Scott has reached the height of a small boy, his condition becomes known to the public. When he learns there is no cure for his condition, he lashes out at his wife. As Scott shrinks to the point he can fit into a doll house, he has a battle with his family cat, which leaves him lost and alone in his basement, where he is now smaller than the average insect.

The film's storyline was expanded by Matheson after he had sold the story to Universal-International Pictures Co., Inc. He also completed the novel upon which the film is based while production was under way. Matheson's script was written in flashbacks, and Richard Alan Simmons rewrote it using a more conventional narrative structure. Director Jack Arnold initially wanted Dan O'Herlihy to play Scott. O'Herlihy turned down the role, leading Universal to sign Williams to star in the lead. Filming began on May 31, 1956. Scenes involving special effects were shot throughout production, while others used the large sets of Universal's back lot. Production went over budget, and filming had to be extended; certain special effects shots required reshooting. Williams was constantly being injured on set.

Before the film's release in New York City on February 22, 1957, its ending first went to test audiences who felt the character's fate should be changed. The director's original ending remained in the film. The film grossed $1.43 million in the United States and Canada and was among the highest-grossing science fiction films of the 1950s. A sequel, The Fantastic Little Girl, originally penned by Matheson, never went into production. A remake was developed years later, eventually becoming the comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981). Other remakes were planned in the early 2000s, one of which was to star Eddie Murphy in a more comedic variation on the film. A new adaptation was announced in 2013, with Matheson writing the screenplay with his son Richard Christian Matheson. In 2009, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[marzipanandminutiae]

Can you recommend me gothic romances or just gothic literature? i just finished The Turn Of The screw and i need more gothic books!

Oooh...

Well, my favorite book, period, is Carmilla (lesbian vampire story written in 1870-71). I'm also partial to The Phantom of the Opera, Wuthering Heights (terrible people in love and also ghosts and also Intergenerational Trauma, early 19th century style!), and The Haunting of Hill House (rare 20th-century fave in terms of gothics- a haunted house that just wants to Keep People and I think that's very sexy of it, plus bonus queer subtext and a heaping helping of 1950s antipathy towards Victorian architecture and design).

Oh, and The Shadow of the Wind for a FAR more modern option. It's a Gothic novel about Gothic novels, set in post-Civil War Spain, where a bookseller's son attempts to unravel the mystery of why someone wants to destroy all remaining volumes by a certain little-known author. Some pearl-clutching southern mom complained about it when it was my high school summer reading back in 2009, so you KNOW it's good!

Happy reading!

[paralleljulieverse]

‘Gentlemen like you are few...’: A Supercentenary Tribute to Irwin Kostal

1 October 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Irwin Kostal, the musical arranger, orchestrator and conductor whose work helped shape the sound of the post-war American stage and screen musical. In this post we look back at the career of this remarkable 'music man’ with a particular focus on his collaborations with the equally remarkable Julie Andrews -- who, as it happens, shares the same birthday, so this post is doing double birthday honours.

A gentle, unassuming man, Kostal or ‘Irv’ as he was known by associates, was not one for the limelight. It’s possibly why he gravitated to the ‘behind-the-scenes’ art of musical arranging. Unlike composers, performers, or even conductors, arrangers seldom loom large in public perceptions of professional musicianship. They are, for the most part, the ‘invisible artists’ of the music industry: their contributions to the sound and experience of music are immense, but they remain largely ‘uncredited in records, liner notes or books or records’ (Niles 2104, p. 4). That Irwin Kostal would ultimately prove a rare exception to this tradition of thankless anonymity -- becoming sufficiently well-known to have his own name not only included on recordings, but emblazoned on the front cover alongside those of the ‘star’ vocalists with whom he worked -- is a testament to the singularity of his talents. 

Born the son of first generation immigrant parents in Chicago in 1911, Kostal claimed he was instantly ‘smitten’ by music when he saw a piano at the age of two-and-a-half, but his family was too poor to afford such luxuries. Moreover, his father -- a hard-drinking Czech with a fiery temper -- was ‘rigidly opposed’ to his interests in music and ‘could see no future in it’ (’Irwin’ 1962, p. 70). So Kostal initially had to content himself with listening and absorbing as much musical knowledge as he could indirectly. When he was eleven, his father finally brought home a broken player piano salvaged from a removals job and it provided the young Kostal with the launch pad he needed. 

Kostal devoted himself to his musical education with single-minded zeal. His formal training was intermittent -- enabled by a supportive mother who ‘surreptitiously managed to save money from her weekly allowance for my musical instruction’ (’Irwin’ 1962, p. 70) -- but he was a passionate autodidact who would spend countless hours studying and practising on his own. By age 15, he was already playing professionally with local touring bands, while also offering his own services as a piano teacher with, at one point, more than 40 pupils (ibid.).

When he wasn’t playing, Kostal would be found in the local library poring over musical scores and reading about the greats of the classical canon. He was particularly intrigued by orchestration and the possibilities it offered for varying the sound and feel of music. He recalls how he would take orchestral scores home and study all the parts learning ‘about musical instruments I never knew existed’ (Suskin 2009, p. 56).  He progressively worked his way through the music of the masters, going alphabetically: 

‘Bach...Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Elgar, Frank, Gounod, on and on through the alphabet...I tried to absorb everything. By the time I came to Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, I knew quite a lot about music in a jumbled way’ (Suskin 2009, p. 57).

While still in his teens, Kostal started to experiment with arrangements of his own, scoring a high school production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin with multiple variations on the American folk melody ‘Way Down upon the Swanee River’. ‘By taking away the rhythmic aspects and playing it in a minor key,’ he recounts, ‘I found lots of ways to play this song, making it fit the dramatics of the half-hour long story’ (ibid., p. 56). Thus, Irwin Kostal the arranger was born.

Throughout the 1930s and early-40s, Kostal honed his talents in a professional capacity, working with various big bands, before finally landing a job as a resident arranger for an NBC radio affiliate in Chicago. Following the war, Kostal moved to New York where, after a rocky start, he secured regular work as conductor and arranger on a number of long-running radio and TV variety shows including Your Show of Shows (1950-54), Max Liebman Presents (1954-56), and The Garry Moore Show (1959-63). It was demanding, fast-paced work with Kostal having to arrange and orchestrate hundreds of score pages a week, but it consolidated his musical versatility and capacity to work across a wide range of styles and forms (Suskin 2009, pp. 57-60).

Throughout this period, Kostal was also orchestrating for Broadway shows, racking up over 52 credits on theatre productions big and small (Allen 1995, p. 18). Many of these assignments were done in a ‘ghost-writer’ capacity including contributing work to such classic musicals as Wonderful Town (1953), The Pajama Game (1953) and Silk Stockings (1955). A major breakthrough came when Kostal was contracted to work in a credited capacity as co-orchestrator on the original Broadway production of West Side Story (1958) -- collaborating with Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Sid Ramin. It earned him his first Grammy Award and a subsequent invitation to arrange and orchestrate a string of other big Broadway musicals including Fiorello! (1959), Sail Away (1961) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962).

The success of West Side Story also saw Kostal do repeat honours on the film version (1961) which would, in turn, earn him an Academy Award and kickstart a hugely successful Hollywood career. In 1963, Kostal was invited by none other than Walt Disney to take on the major job of arranging the songs for Mary Poppins (1964) which had been written by the in-house Disney composing team of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. The Sherman Brothers claim to have suggested Kostal because they were fans of his Broadway work and they wanted a bright theatrical sound for the score. However, Walt Disney demurred. He reasoned it was a period film and they needed someone who could write music for any style or era, suggesting they get the musical director from The Garry Moore Show instead. Cue mutual delight when it was discovered they were all referring to the same man, Irwin Kostal (Sherman & Sherman 1998; Suskin 2009, p. 65).

Kostal’s work on Mary Poppins catapulted him to new heights of mainstream success. It not only secured him another Academy Award nomination -- he lost to Andre Previn for his work on My Fair Lady -- but it also brought him a tidy fortune in royalties from the film’s best-selling soundtrack album (’Kostal’s’ $65,000′, 57). His fame -- and fortune -- skyrocketed even further the following year when Kostal was contracted to arrange the score for The Sound of Music (1965). His dazzling efforts on this box-office blockbuster confirmed Kostal’s status as Hollywood’s presiding musical wonder-boy and saw him walk home with his second Oscar. A string of other big screen musicals followed including Half a Sixpence (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). 

Many of these films were repeat collaborations because Kostal favoured working with people he knew and with whom he clicked personally and creatively. He would for example continue as the de facto ‘house’ arranger for Disney well into the 1980s, working on various assignments for the studio including Pete’s Dragon (1978), Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) and the controversial re-recorded 1982 release of Fantasia (1940/1982) (Tietyan 1990). Kostal would also maintain a long association with the Sherman Brothers, acting as musical arranger for all their big screen musicals including the aforementioned Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), as well as Tom Sawyer (1973); Charlotte’s Web (1973); and The Magic of Lassie (1978) (Sherman & Sherman 1998).

The other great collaboration of Kostal’s career was of course with Julie Andrews. Perhaps it was the fact that the pair shared the same birthday but Kostal had an extraordinarily sympathetic relationship with Julie and he would work with her more than any other vocalist. Long before they teamed on Poppins and The Sound of Music, Julie and ‘Irv’ were making musical magic together. Kostal was the arranger and conductor for Julie’s first two solo albums for RCA: The Lass with the Delicate Air (1957) and Julie Andrews Sings (1958) where his sensitive facility with a wide range of musical idioms from English classical to Broadway and Tin Pan Alley came to the fore. Reviewing the first of these albums at the time of its original release, one music critic lauded it as ‘a record to charm every member of the family...[with] a combination of sincerity and simplicity and wholesome sweetness...Thank goodness arranger and conductor Irwin Kostal met the challenge and set the ballads winningly without overpowering Miss Andrews’ light pure tones’ (RRS 1958, p. 5A). In a similar vein, another reviewer praised the second album for ‘its charming unforced version of standards, well known and almost forgotten...Miss Andrews still sings naturally and purely [and] the deft accompaniments played by an orchestra under Irwin Kostal are agreeably restrained’ (Masters 1959, p. 11).

In this early period Kostal also worked with Julie as guest star on several episodes of The Garry Moore Show, where he was resident musical director. In this context, Kostal was pivotal in helping establish the legendary teaming of Julie and Carol Burnett which came out of the Garry Moore appearances. He would go on to act as musical director for their breakout 1962 TV special Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall which would earn Kostal his first Emmy (Taraborelli 1988, pp. 172-79). He would secure his second Emmy a few years later working with Julie again on the 1965 variety special, The Julie Andrews Show (1965) where, among other highlights, Kostal scored a series of stellar song-and-dance medleys for Julie and guest star Gene Kelly. The same year, Kostal teamed up with Julie on yet another recording with the 1965 edition of the annual Firestone Christmas albums. 

It was however their combined work on the two big musical mega-hits, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, that secured the Kostal-Andrews partnership a place in the history books. A cultural phenomenon of the highest order, the soundtrack recordings for these two films remain among the most successful albums of all time. Mary Poppins held the #1 spot on the US national music charts for 14 consecutive weeks in 1964, beating out Elvis Presley and The Beatles (Hollis and Erhbar 2006, pp.72ff). The album for The Sound of Music sold over 9 million copies in its first four years of release alone, remaining in the Billboard Top 100 for an unbelievable five-and-a-half years, and becoming the highest selling LP of all-time in the US up to that date (Murrells, 1978)  The Sound of Music continued its record-breaking run abroad, dominating the international charts and holding the #1 spot for 75 weeks in Australia, 73 weeks in Norway and 70 weeks in the UK, becoming in the process the single biggest selling album worldwide of the 1960s (Harker, 1992, pp. 189-91).

Commentators have frequently singled out the combination of Julie Andrews’ soaring vocals and Kostal’s dynamic arrangements as instrumental to the phenomenal success of these two albums. ‘Miss Andrews glows--positively glows--right through the record groove, vinyl disc, amplifiers, speakers, and all other mechanical barriers,’ enthused one contemporary reviewer of the Mary Poppins soundtrack, noting how the ‘songs that Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman have written’ and ‘the handsome arrangements by Irwin Kostal have the perfect balance ‘of lilt and flair to provide Miss Andrews with an effective working basis’ (Wilson 1965, p. 109). Apropos The Sound of Music, another critic pronounced it ‘as good a reproduction of a score as has ever been made’, noting how it ‘presents Julie in a most appealing role and given the splendid musical direction of Irwin Kostal, her talent comes shining through...as a treat beyond measure’ (Moore 1965, p. B6). 

In total, Julie Andrews and Irwin Kostal would work together on six recordings, two musical motion pictures, two television specials, and a host of other TV appearances representing some of the very best of Julie’s musical work during her heyday of the 1960s. Considered alongside the wealth of Kostal’s other work across film, stage, television and recording, it’s hard not to concur with Disney’s Nelson Meecham who, on the occasion of Kostal’s passing in 1994, eulogised: ‘He brought the joy of music to more people than it is possible to count’ (Allen, p. 19).

Sources:

Allen, John F 1995. ‘Remembering a Music Man: On the life and work of Irwin Kostal.’ Boxoffice. August: pp. 18-19.

Harker, Dave 1992. ‘Still Crazy After All These Years: What was popular music in the 1960s?” Cultural Revolution? The challenge of the arts in the 1960s. Bart Moore-Gilbert and John Seed, eds. Routledge, London and New York: pp. 186-200.

Hollis, Tim and Erhbar, Greg 2006. Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

‘Irwin Kostal: Music in all its many forms is his life.’ (1962). The Province. 2 June: p. 70.

’Kostal’s’ $65,000 Poppins Score’ 1965. Variety. 10 March: p. 57

Levy, Charles 1964. Mary Poppins: About the stars and photo-story features [Press kit]. Buena Vista Distribution, New York. 

Masters, John 1959. ‘Off the Record: Enchanting Music.’ The Age. 7 January: p. 11.

Moore, Robert 1965. ‘Record Turntable: Julie Andrews out in front again in film album of”Sound of Music”.’ The Arizona Daily Star. 7 March: p. B6.

Murrells, Joseph, ed. 1978. Book of Golden Discs: Records that sold a million. Barrie & Jenkins, New York.

Niles, Richard 2014. The Invisible Artist: Arrangers in popular music (1950-2000). BMI, London.

Oliver, Myrna. 1994. ‘Obituaries: Irwin Kostal; Film, TV Orchestrator.’ The Los Angeles Times. 1 December: P. B8.

RRS 1958. ‘On the Record: ‘Lass with the Delicate Air.’ Bristol Herald Courier. 9 February: p. 5A.

Sherman, Robert B &  Sherman, Richard M 1998. Walt's Time: From before to beyond. Camphor Tree, Santa Clarita, CA.

Suskin, Steven 2009. The Sound of Broadway Music: A book of orchestrators and orchestrations, Oxford University Press, New York.

Taraborelli, J. Randy 1988. Laughing Till It Hurts: The complete life and career of Carol Burnett. William Morrow & Co, New York.

Tietyan, David 1990. The Musical World of Walt Disney. H. Leonard, Milwaukee, Wis. 

Wilson, John S. 1965. ‘The Lighter Side’. High Fidelity Magazine. 15: 4: pp. 107-111.

© 2021, Brett Farmer. All Rights Reserved.

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Best Animated Short Film Nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards (2021, listed in order of appearance in the shorts package)

NOTE: For viewers in the United States (continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawai’i) who would like to watch the Oscar-nominated short film packages, click here. For virtual cinemas, you can purchase the packages individually or all three at once. You can find info about reopened theaters that are playing the packages in that link. Because moviegoing carries risks at this time, please remember to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by your local, regional, and national health officials.

Continuing with one of my favorite Oscar-time traditions, here is an omnibus review of this year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Short Film. This is an older category than many might believe to be, with some of the first nominees and winner including ‘30s and ‘40s fixtures: Disney’s Silly Symphonies, Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes, MGM’s Tom and Jerry and Happy Harmonies. These days, the category tends to be more democratic (perhaps not so much this year), but certainly more experimental. Here are the nominees, as they appeared in the order of how they appeared in the short film packages released to theaters and virtual cinemas in the United States:

Burrow (2020)

Burrow, directed by Madeline Sharafian (story artist on 2017’s Coco, writer on Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears), is the eighth in Pixar’s SparkShorts series, in which Pixar’s junior animators craft a short film on a limited budget and timeframe. This is the film that played in front of Soul for those lucky enough to view that film theatrically. This dialogue-free, hand-drawn film stars a young rabbit, looking to dig out and furnish her own home – complete with a bathroom-disco (or something like that). Her best-laid plans, however, seem dashed when she keeps digging and running into other animals’ underground abodes in this area. Not that these animals seem to mind the intrusions too much. The rabbit, so anxiety-driven in her eagerness to project a picture of self-assuredness, soon realizes that these nearby animals she fears to have disturbed are all neighbors, a community ready to lend a paw for the newcomer.

Sharafian credits her sense of impostors’ syndrome when first working at Pixar as the film’s primary thematic inspiration. With only a bare number of lines, the rabbit expresses a vast array of emotions, endearing the audience to her self-dramatization and youthful insecurity. Drawn flatly but nevertheless suggesting some depth, the cutaway animation depicting the burrow neighborhood recalls Richard Scarry’s books and other such colorful ensemble illustrations found in children’s picture books. Burrow is a worthy addition to Disney/Pixar’s animated short film legacy, despite the lack of innovation and obvious low-budget appeal (it uses the third movement of Mozart’s Oboe Concerto as its soundtrack), and seems like something that could have been made during the heyday of Silly Symphonies or Warner Bros.’ Merrie Melodies.

My rating: 7/10

Genius Loci (2020, France)

From the Latin term meaning “the spirit of a place”, Adrien Mérigeau’s Genius Loci is the most difficult, abstract film of this year’s slate of nominees. Genius Loci stars a young black woman named Reine (Nadia Moussa), a solitary soul who embarks upon, while walking the streets of Paris at night, an existential revelation. Reine, who is supposed to be babysitting her nephew that evening, decides to have a small adventure instead. She will find this experience and this Parisian neighborhood disorienting and chaotic, in many of the ways that life in a sprawling metropolis can be. The film’s sound mix clangs, whispers, vibrates, and echoes into Reine’s soul, injecting feelings of harmony, but mostly those of displacement. The distant rumbling of traffic is subliminal here, crescendoing and decrescendoing to control the film’s tension. Throughout, Mérigeau provides a fragmented narrative (do not fixate on the plot) and the protagonist’s intangible, occasionally abstruse, narration. Spiritual and existential loss colors Reine’s ambling, as well as a sense of modern France’s racial otherizing that makes the city feel unwelcoming, if not antagonistic.

Mérigeau (background cleanup on 2009’s The Secret of Kells, art director on 2014’s Song of the Sea) collaborated with Belgian comic illustrator Brecht Evens (production designer on the excellent Marona’s Fantastic Tale from 2019) for the film’s dumbfounding backgrounds, as well as storyboarding the changes in aesthetic as Reine continues her journey through Paris. Marona’s influence is felt keenly throughout Genius Loci – from the lack of recognizably human figures among strangers to Reine and the ever-changing color scheme. Unlike Marona, Genius Loci commits to watercolors (or computerized animation meant to resemble watercolor paints) during the film’s entirety. The watercolor animation serves to loosen the character animation and the backgrounds’ definition, and serves as a paragon of expressionist animation. Genius Loci will bewilder audiences, challenging them to understand Reine’s painful attempt to find belonging and solace in a place that disallows such reflection.

My rating: 8.5/10

Opera (2020, South Korea)

Opera, directed by Erick Oh (an animator at Berkeley-based Tonko House, which crafted the 2014 nominee The Dam Keeper), is an independent South Korean/American production that owes more to Sandro Botticelli and Hieronymus Bosch than anything ever seen in animated cinema. This is a cinematic fresco teeming with activity, intended more as interactive art than for a movie theater. The setting is a pyramid filled with souls living, laboring, luxuriating, dying. As the camera pans downward from the godlike or prophet-like figures occupying the top, it later zooms outward, all timed alongside a day-night cycle. Opera’s story is that of human history, distilled in eight minutes of repetitive activity. The design of Oh’s film is as a museum installation – projected on a wall or the ground (the only instance Opera has been screened as such was at the Ars Electronica Animation Festival in Linz, Austria) – that loops continuously, and, if one looks closely enough at the pyramid’s sections, there are loops within the film’s loops. If viewed in a museum, Opera does not pan selectively as it does if projected in a theater or a home media screen.

Pieced together in between Oh’s other film projects over four years and a pandemic, Oh and his animators (some of whom participated voluntarily, without pay) concentrated on different sections of the pyramid at a time, synchronizing the action in a specific section to match the surrounding areas – and, ultimately, the film as a whole. Opera contains intricacies impossible to realize on first, second, third viewings. Even in its limited, virtual cinema form, it engulfs the viewer in its hierarchical animation, the intentionally simplistic character animation serving to universalize the drama of its beings’ existence. It is rapturous art, the sort that defies description, and undoubtedly will echo across Oh’s subsequent films.

My rating: 8.5/10

If Anything Happens I Love You (2020)

For some American viewers, I imagine that this title alone has already spoiled the film’s content even without seeing any footage. A Netflix production directed by Will McCormack (co-writer on 2019’s Toy Story 4) and Michael Govier (bit roles in American television), If Anything Happens I Love You is the only nominee in this category directed by individuals with no background in directing animation. McCormack and Govier met at acting school; acting remains their primary profession. Without dialogue, the film opens with two parents eating dinner at opposite ends of the table. They seem aloof, their minds elsewhere. The background is spare, with only a jumble of pencil sketches making sense of any barriers enclosing them. Flexible, animated silhouettes appear from their bodies – sometimes arguing vigorously with each other, at times shadowing the person and attempting to call their attention. Grief overhangs their household, expressed through a largely monotone palette, minimalistic designs and backgrounds. The background artists exclude any detail unnecessary to the story.

Written and crafted in collaboration with (so as to not spoil the film, I am about to opaquely write about this film’s intentions) a prominent, deep-pocketed political non-profit so as to shear the film of any thematic excess, If Anything Happens I Love You has, unlike its fellow nominees, broad support among certain prominent actors in Hollywood. Laura Dern is the executive producer and various actors – including Chelsea Handler, Rashida Jones, and Lesley Ann Warren, among others – have openly contributed or advocated for this movie. The visualization of the parents’ pain, even without dialogue, brings the viewer into a space unfathomable to most, unbearable for those who know too well. The use of the King Princess song “1950” meshes awkwardly with what is being portrayed on-screen at the time. But the character animation – McCormack and Govier’s experience as actors endows the couple with indelible humanity – and its visual discipline carry the film to its heartbreaking conclusion.

My rating: 8/10

Yes-People (2020, Iceland)

Icelandic film Já-Fólkið (Yes-People) is the epitome of cheap European computer-generated animation. Directed by Gísli Darri Halldórsson (a former Cartoon Network Studios character animator), Yes-People – the Best Icelandic Short winner at the 2020 Reykjavik International Film Festival and the Children’s Choice Award winner at 2020’s Nordisk Panorama – is a largely aimless movie following the zany lives of the people who live in an apartment complex. That is all I have to say about the film’s narrative. The sketches it draws in each character’s life always feel disjointed and disconnected from all the others – save one scene of the elderly couple fornicating loud enough for their downstairs neighbors to hear. Halldórsson describes his film as a mosaic of personalities, but even a mosaic has a thematic consistency that unifies its disparate parts.

The desaturated colors of Yes-People are meant to resemble old photographs. As much as I respect what Halldórsson is aiming for, the results make the film look muddy, half-rendered – like a knockoff Pixar short from the early 1990s. Inspired when Halldórsson described to some of his Irish friends about the different tonal meanings of the word “Já” (“hello” in Icelandic), Yes-People only has one repeated word of dialogue throughout: “Já”. Is this supposed to be funny? Philosophical? I am not sure; and I am not sure the film knows it either. Reading some of Halldórsson’s interviews following his Academy Award nomination, he mentions that the film’s positive response from Iceland and Scandinavia might be culturally specific, as opposed to other parts of the world. As to what those cultural differences might be that prevented me from liking this film, I hardly have a clue.

My rating: 6/10

^ All ratings based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

Three other films played in this package as honorable mentions: Kapaemahu (2020; 7.5/10), The Snail and the Whale (2019; 6.5/10), and To: Gerard (2020; 6.5/10).

From previous years: 85th Academy Awards (2013), 87th (2015), 88th (2016), 89th (2017), 90th (2018), 91st (2019), 92nd (2020).

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Dick Grayson timeline

Also known as the list I started trying to get the pictures in my 80-year anniversary video in the right order. I have skipped a lot of video games, and a number of Elseworld comics and I have not included for instance every Teen Titans/Titans title Dick has ever been in. And, of course, it does not include every story arc, retelling of Dick’s history or single issue he’s been in. (This video and timeline are reposted for technical reasons...)

1940. Dick Grayson / Robin debuts in Detective Comics # 38. (April issue, but it was released earlier. I have seen both March 5 and 6 named as release date and I’ve also read that this is an approximation. Evidently, the delivery date varied greatly back in the days.)

1943. Movie serial The Batman with Douglas Croft as Robin.

1943. October 25. Publication start of the daily comic strip Batman and Robin. Ends in 1946.

1945. (March.) Batman and Robin’s first appearance in the radio show The Adventures of Superman, with Ronald Liss as Robin.

1947. (February.) The first Robin solo series starts in Star Spangled Comics # 65. Robin - The Boy Wonder (sometimes with the addition of Batman) would continue in SSC until the title ended in July 1952, # 130.

1949. Movie serial The New Adventures of Batman and Robin, with Johnny Duncan as Robin.

1950. Robin’s first outing as Batman (with a Robin symbol instead of a Bat) in DC # 165.

1952. Superman # 76. The first time Batman and Superman meet in comics (it ends with Robin taking Lois Lane to dinner.)

1954. Batman, Robin and Superman team up for the first time in World’s Finest Comics # 71.

1964. First appearance of what would become the Teen Titans, in The Brave and the Bold #54.

1966. Batman: The Movie and the tv show. Burt Ward as Robin.

1966. May 29. Publication start of the daily comic strip Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder. It ends in 1969.

1966. A manga adaptation of Batman is published in Japan, with Jiro Kuwata as main artist. The manga is published 1966-1967 and adapts Silver age Batman stories.

1966. Teen Titans vol 1.

1967. First appearance of Robin of Earth-Two, in Justice League of America #55. (He was considered to be the Dick Grayson from the ”Golden age” stories. As an adult, he was a member of the Justice Society of America, a lawyer, ambassador, and attorney. He went out as Batman once in his career.)

1969. (December.) Dick moves from Gotham to Hudson university in ”One bullet too many!”, Batman # 217. Bruce and Alfred leaves Wayne Manor. Robin will have sporadic solo stories in the Bat titles until the early 1980s.

1972. Batman and Robin in The New Scooby-Doo movies with Casey Kasem voicing Robin.

1973. The Super Friends, animated television series with Batman and Robin and other superheroes. Produced by Hanna-Barbera. Casey Kasem is voice actor for Robin.

1976 (to 1981). The comic book Super Friends adapted the adventures from the television animated series.

1977. The New Adventures of Batman, animated, with Burt Ward as Robin.

1978. Teen Titans vol 1 ends.

1980. (October.) Dick leaves Hudson university, resigned to the fact that he can’t continue as Robin and keep up with college. In ”The Gotham Connection”, in Detective Comics #495.

1980. The New Teen Titans. (# 1 in November.)

1980. (December.) Dick comes to Gotham in Batman # 330. Bruce is disappointed he has left college.

1982. Bruce, Alfred and Dick moves back to Wayne Manor and the Batcave, in Batman # 348.

1984. Dick decides to stop calling himself Robin in Tales of the Teen Titans # 39 (February).

1984. Dick gives Jason Todd his old Robin suit in Batman # 368 (February).

1984. Dick becomes Nightwing in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July).

1985-1986. Crisis on Infinite Earths. Earth-Two is erased from continuity. However, that world’s Dick Grayson (still using the name Robin) and Helena Wayne (Huntress), did not perish with their world since they were in the battle against the Anti-Monitor. They were killed and buried at Valhalla Cemetery on the remaining Earth.

1987. The Crisis catch up with Batman with a new version of how Dick left Robin, and a new origin story for Jason Todd, in Batman # 408 (June).

1989. Batman Year Three. Storyline in Batman # 436-439.

1989. In the story arc A Lonely place of Dying, Dick becomes the new co-owner of Haly circus and low-key supports Tim Drake as a new Robin.

1990. The Batman Murders, a novel written by Craig Shaw Gardner with Dick/Nightwing as a prominent character. It takes place in a timeline similar to the comics at the time, after Jason’s death but before Tim.

1992. There were plans for writer/artist Art Thibert to write a miniseries together with Pamela Winesette that would start around New Titans # 93 and end with Dick and Starfire getting married (in New Titans # 100). An editorial shift in DC resulted in the plans being scrapped.

1992. Batman The Animated Series. Loren Lester as Robin.

1992. The Batman Adventures. Tie-in comic to BTAS. Ends in 1995.

1994. KnightsEnd Prodigal. Dick’s first longer stint as Batman, with Tim as Robin.

1995. TAS game.

1995. Nightwing Alfred’s return.

1995. Batman & Robin Adventures, tie-in to BTAS. Ends in 1997.

1995. Batman Forever, with Chris O’Donnell as Dick.

1995. Nightwing vol 1, a 4 issue mini series.

1996. Dick Grayson is Moonwing, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Moonwing is an amalgamation of Marvel’s Moon Knight and DC’s Nightwing in the Amalgam Universe.

1996. Shadow of the Bat Annual # 4, a medieval fantasy AU where Bruce is the king hiding in his castle while Dick fights in his place as Batman (and is killed).

1996. Nightwing vol 2. Dick moves to Blüdhaven in # 1.

1996. Kingdom Come. Dick is Red Robin and has a daughter, Mar’i, with Starfire.

1997. Batman & Robin. Chris O’Donnell as Dick.

1997. Batman and Captain America. (Earth-3839)

1997. Nightwing Annual # 1. Dick pretends to marry a woman to investigate if she has murdered previous husbands.

1997. The Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet.

1997. Thrillkiller. Elseworld story.

1998. Batman & Mr Freeze: SubZero. Loren Lester as the voice of Dick/Robin.

1998. The Batman Adventures. The Lost Years. 5 issue mini-series, BTAS Dick leaves Gotham, at odds with Batman, and Robin. He travels the world to learn. When he finally returns, he has transformed to Nightwing.

1998. Batman: Gotham Adventures. Continuing BTAS comic, with Dick as Nightwing and Tim as Robin. Ends in 2003.

1998-1999. Batman: Dark Knight of the round table. Elseworld story.

1999. Dick joins the Blüdhaven Police Academy in Nightwing # 32, planning to fight the corruption from the inside.

1999. Dark Victory.

1999. The Kingdom. Sequel/prequel to Kingdom Come.

1999 (-2004). Superman and Batman: Generations. (Earth-3839 again)

2000. Dick gets a job as a cop in Blüdhaven, in Nightwing # 48.

2001. Dick is Batman (and is killed ) in Superman and Batman: Generations # 2.

2001. Robin Year One.

2001. Dick is adopted in the main continuity, in Batman: Gotham Knights # 21.

2001. JLA: Riddle of the Beast. Elsworld story (a fantasy story where Batman keeps Nightwing’s dead body sitting beside him on the throne).

2001–2002. Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, by Frank Miller and more. Dick Grayson, who used to be Robin but was abused and sacked by Batman, has become a Joker-like character, an insane criminal with a healing factor and shape-shifting abilities. In the end, he is killed by Batman.

2002. Batman: Nine lives. Elseworld story. (Set in Gotham in the 1940s, Dick Grayson is a private detective.)

2002. Nightwing becomes the leader of a new line-up of the JLA in the storyline The Obsidian Age (JLA # 69). The former members have disappeared but Batman had a contingency plan: a new team lead by Nightwing.

2003. Teen Titans (tv). Scott Menville as Robin.

2003. Donna Troy is (seemingly) killed in Titans/Young Justice: Graduation day. Nightwing declares that ”The Titans are finished”.

2003. Dick becomes leader of the Outsiders in Outsiders vol 3 # 1. He’s been persuaded by Roy Harper/Arsenal, who claims this team will not be a family, only co-workers.

2003. Dick is fired from the police force in Nightwing # 83, when Police Captain Amy Rohrbach, Dick’s former partner, realizes he is Nightwing.

2003. Batman Adventures vol 2. New tie-in comic to BTAS, where Dick/Nightwing makes the occasional appearance. Ends in 2004.

2004. DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.

2004. The Batman Strikes. Tie-in comics to the animated tv show The Batman, where Dick will turn up in 2006 (and in # 29, 2007). Ends in 2008.

2005. First issue of Frank Miller’s All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder.

2005. Year One: Batman/Scarecrow.

2005. Nightwing Year One. Storyline in Nightwing # 101-106.

2006. Infinite Crisis. Blüdhaven is destroyed by a gang of supervillains who drop the radioactive Chemo over the city, as vengeance against Nightwing. There were plans to kill Dick in Infinite Crisis, but DC changed their minds and he was badly hurt instead.

2006. Nightwing starts operating in New York in Nightwing # 118.

2006. Batman/The Spirit.

2006. "Inheritance", a novel by former Nightwing and Batman-writer Devin Grayson. It revolves around three superheroes and their former sidekicks – Batman and Nightwing, Green Arrow and Arsenal and Aquaman and Tempest. (I haven’t read this myself, but from what I’ve seen her take on Dick – and Bruce’s and Dick’s relationship – is pretty controversial among fans.)

2006. Dick makes his debut in the animated The Batman (2004). Robin is voiced by Evan Sabara. In the episode ”Artifacts”, an older Dick as Nightwing is voiced by Jerry O’Connell.

2007. Dick steps down as leader of the Outsiders. Batman takes over and tells him ”Go back to the good fight, Dick. Leave the bad fight to us.”

2008. Tiny Titans.

2008. Justice League: The New Frontier. Animated movie adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s limited series.

2008. Dick becomes curator of The Cloisters in New York, in Nightwing # 141.

2008. Dick Grayson of Earth-43. (Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Red Rain # 1.)

2009. NightLantern/Hal Grayson, an amalgam of Dick and Hal Jordan in a dream world created by Doctor Destiny. Superman/Batman # 60-61.

2009. Nightwing vol 2 ends. Dick moves back to Gotham after Bruce’s ”death”.

2009. Batman: Battle for the Cowl. 3 issues. Jason wants to take over as a more violent Batman, he shoots Damian and leaves Tim for dead before Dick, who is reluctant to put on the cowl, defeats him.

2009. Batman: The Widening Gyre. 6 issue series that was supposed to have a continuation. Dick is Robin (and younger Nightwing) in flashbacks and Nightwing in the present. An elseworld where Bruce is set to marry Silver StCloud, but the flashbacks borrow a lot from canon stories.

2009. Li’l Gotham.

2009. Dick makes his debut as Batman in Batman #687.

2009. Batman & Robin vol 1, with Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin.

2009. Dick/Robin appears in the episode ”The Color of Revenge” of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Dick is voiced by Crawford Wilson.

2010. Young Justice (tv). Robin is voiced by Jesse McCartney.

2010. Batman: Under the Red Hood. Dick/Nightwing is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris.

2010. Dick appears in the episode ”Sidekicks Assemble” of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Young Robin is voiced by Jeremy Shada, older Robin/Nightwing by Crawford Wilson.

2010. Dick appears in Batman Beyond (with an eye patch), vol 3, Hush Beyond. This Hush turns out to be a clone of Dick, made by Amanda Waller to have someone to replace Bruce as Batman if needed.

2011. Flashpoint.

2011. Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons. A mini-series with an alternate university where Dick ends up as the new Doctor Fate.

2011. Nightwing vol. 3. (New 52)  When the series start, Dick has moved to his own place in Gotham after having filled in as Batman for ”almost a year”. (Before Flashpoint, he was Batman for more than a year.)

2011. In Batman Beyond vol 4, Dick has a small part in issue 4. There he goes public with that he was Nightwing and claims he was a paid employee and never saw Batman without a mask. (He is not on speaking terms with Bruce.)

2011. Batman Live, stage show with Kamran Darabi-Ford and Michael Pickering as Dick.

2011. Batman: Arkham City. Dick/Nightwing makes no-speaking appearance in the game.

2011. The Court of Owls, storyline i Batman vol 2 about a secret organization that will later be revealed to have ties to Dick’s family.

2012. Young Justice season 2, Dick has become Nightwing, voiced by Jesse McCartney.

2012. Holy Musical B@man. (March 22-25, at Hoover-Leppen Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.) Nick Lang as Robin.

2012. ”The Gray Son” in Nightwing vol 3 # 9. The Grayson family gets a new origin story with the Court of Owls.

2013. Batman Beyond 2.0, where Dick works with Terry McGinnis/Batman.

2013. Dick moves to Chicago in Nightwing vol 3 # 19, following the trail of Tony Zucco, the man who killed his parents.

2013. Batman ’66, comic book continuation of the tv show from 1966.

2013. Arkham Origins (game). Josh Keaton is voice actor for Dick/Robin.

2013. Injustice: Gods Among Us, a video game, Troy Baker as voice actor. 

2013. Nightwing is killed in the game tie-in comic Injustice: Gods Among Us #16.

2013. Teen Titans Go. Scott Menville is voice actor for Robin.

2014. In Batman Beyond 2.0 # 17-24, we get a glimpse of an alternate Dick, in the Justice Lord’s timeline, married to Barbara and where they have a son, John.

2014. Nightwing vol 3 ends.

2014. Forever Evil, where Lex Luthor kills Dick to stop a bomb, wired to his heart, to explode. But revives him (possibly only because Batman attacks him).  

2014. Grayson. Batman has (pretty much forced)  Dick to pretend to remain dead and infiltrate the organisation Spyral.

2014. Son of Batman (DC AMU). Sean Maher is the voice of Dick/Nightwing.

2014. Earth 2: World’s end. On this earth, Dick and Barbara are married and have a son, John. The world is destroyed and Barbara is killed. Dick, who was a reporter, lets John go so the boy can be saved on a spaceship but Dick eventually ends up with Batman, Thomas Wayne, and gets away from the doomed planet.

2014. Nightwing: The Series, a fan-made live action webb-series produced by Ismahawk, with Danny Shepherd as Dick/Nightwing. 

2015. Titans Hunt.

2015. Batman vs. Robin (DC AMU). Sean Maher is the voice of Dick/Nightwing.

2015. Arkham Knight (game). Scott Porter is the voice actor for Dick/Nightwing.

2015. Batman: Arkham Knight. Limited series, a prequel to the game. Dick makes a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance.

2015. Batman & Robin Eternal.

2015. Batman Unlimited, a series of direct-to-video animated films (Animal Instincts (May 2015), Monster Mayhem (August 2015) and Mechs vs. Mutants (September 2016) ) and online-shorts inspired by the action figure line produced by Mattel. Dick is Nightwing.

2015. Convergence. DC event featuring characters from earlier continuities. It consist of a main miniseries as well as a number of 2 issue miniseries. In the main story, Dick from Earth 2 teams up with Batman/Thomas Wayne. When they visit the Batcave of pre-Flashpoint Batman Alfred offers Dick a cup of Earl Grey. After Thomas Wayne hs been killed, Dick decides to continue in his footsteps. This story continues in Earth 2: Society.

2015. Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle. 2 Pre-Flashpoint characters, the story ends with Dick and Barbara marrying.

2015. Convergence: The New Teen Titans. NTT from the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Dick is married to Koriand’r/Starfire.

2015. Convergence: Detective Comics. Dick Grayson/Robin and Helena Wayne/Huntress of the old Earth-Two are forced to fight Superman Red Son. The story ends with Dick putting on Batman’s suit. (This Dick and Helena were earlier killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 in 1986.)

2015. Dick is the Batman in Earth 2: Society, a continuation of Earth 2: World’s End.

2016. Batman: Bad Blood (DC AMU)  Dick/Nightwing is voiced by Sean Maher.

2016. Batman Beyond 2.0 ends. Dick and Bruce seem to reconcile.

2016. Grayson ends.

2016. Nightwing vol 4 (Rebirth).

2016. Return of the Caped Crusaders. Burt Ward as the voice of Dick/Robin.

2016. Superman American Alien # 4, where a young Dick makes an appearance.

2016. Dick moves to Blüdhaven in (Rebirth) Nightwing # 10.

2016. Batman /TMNT Adventures.

2016. Titans (Rebirth comics, discontinued 2019).

2017. Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (DC AMU). Dick/Nightwing is voiced by Sean Maher.

2017. The Lego Batman movie. Michael Cera is the voice of Dick/Robin.

2017. Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II.

2017. Batman: White Knight.

2017. Batman vs. Two-Face. Burt Ward is the voice of Dick/Robin.

2017. Batman and Harley Quinn. Loren Lester is the voice of Dick/Nightwing.

2017. Batman and Harley Quinn. 7 issue comic.

2017. Nightwing: The New Order. Dick and Starfire have a son, Jake, in a future where Dick as Nightwing had used a device to nullify superpowers, believing it was the best way to save humanity.

2018. Teen Titans Go. To the Movies. Scott Menville is Dick/Robin.

2018. Dick appears in Batman Beyond (2016) vol 6 # 25. This is another version than in earlier Batman Beyond, he has both his eyes, a beard and a daughter, Elainna. Dick is the mayor of Blüdhaven.

2018. Batman # 55 (September). Dick is shot in the head and the amnesiac Ric storyline begins. He supposedly tries to build a new life in Blüdhaven, away from the Wayne’s and superheroing, while the name Nightwing is used by three cops and a firefighter; however, Dick is soon out fighting crime again.

2018. Titans (tv). Brenton Thwaites is Dick Grayson/Robin.

2018. Batman Ninja. Daisuke Ono is the voice actor for Nightwing.

2018. Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II.

2018. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. Lincoln Melcher is the voice actor for Dickie.

2019. Young Justice: Outsiders. Dick/Nightwing is voiced by Jesse McCartney.

2019. Richard "Dick" Grayson / Robin, the leader of the Tween Titans and adopted son of Bruce Wayne in the animated show DC Super Hero Girls. Debuted in From Bat to Worse (July, 2019) Voice actor Keith Ferguson.

2019. Batman: Hush. (DC AMU). Sean Maher is the voice actor for Dick.

2019. Batman: Last Knight on Earth (where Dick for a time goes by Talon, because the bats were defeated, and he and Barbara have a daughter, Bryce).

2019. DCeased, where Dick is one of the first to succumb to the virus.

2019. Batman: Curse of the White Knight.

2019. Lego DC Batman: Family matters. Will Friedle is the voice actor for Dick/Nightwing.

2019. Tales from the Dark Multiverse. Teen Titans The Judas Contract. Dick and all the other Titans, heroes and most of humanity (I think) are killed by Terra.

2019. Teen Titans Go! vs Teen Titans. Scott Menville is the voice of both Robins.

2019. Nightwing has a small part in the novel “The Court of Owls” by Greg Cox (Titan book).

2019. The Court of Owls have given Dick false memories after he was shot in the head, and he is dressed up as a Talon for a while in the Nightwing comic.

2019. Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.

2019. Batman: Curse of the White Knight. Sequel to Batman: White Knight 

2019. Dick (Brenton Thwaites) becomes Nightwing in the last episode of season 2 of Titans.

2020. In the regular Nightwing title, Dick starts to regain his true memories. However, when this is being written, Coronavirus and DC events make it unsure when we’ll get the real Dick back.

2020, March 18. Robin 80th Anniversary special.

2020. Batman: The Adventures Continue. (The continued adventures of BTAS in comic books.)

2020: Dick appears in Titans: Titans Together, as well as Batman: Gotham Nights. Digital comics that seem to take place outside the main continuity. 

2020. Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (DC AMU). (Nightwing is killed, Damian tries to revive him in a Lazarus pit but his mind never heals.)

2020. Dick regains his memories in Nightwing vol 4 # 74 (September 8), 720 days after he lost them in Batman vol 3 # 55. He gets back into his Nightwing suit in Batman vol 3 # 99. 

2021. In the DC possible future-event Future State (January-February 2021), Dick is in two books: Nightwing and Teen Titans.

2021. Dick gets himself a thre-legged puppy in Nightwing vol 4 # 78. Fans in the USA could vote and she got the name Haley (alias Bitewing). 

2021. After the relaunch Infinite Frontier, parts of Dick’s pre-Flashpoint history in Blüdhaven has been restored. He has for instance been a cop, and lives in the apartment building he bought during Nightwing vol 2. 

2021. In the title Teen Titans Academy, which seems to be a prequel to Future State: Teen Titans, Dick is one of the mentors for a new generation of Titans. Dick also makes appearances in for instance Future State: Gotham, The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries and has a story in Batman: Black & White (2020) # 5.

2021. Dick is Police Commissioner of Gotham in Batman/Catwoman, a 12 issue Black Label miniseries written by Tom King. 

2021. Season 3 of Titans.

2021. Dick is an adorable Robin from an alternate universe in Batman/Robin (2019) # 16–21 plus Annual # 1, written by Gene Luen Yang.

2021, September. Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, comic at Webtoon. A fanon-friendly take where Wayne Manor is filled to the brim with (more or less) adopted junior vigilantes.

2021. Injustice: Gods Among Us animated movie, Dick is in there to die and become the new Deadman, I guess. Voice actor Derek Phillips. 

2021. Yoshi Sudarso was supposed to be Nightwing/Dick Grayson in a live-action mini-series adaptation of the fanon-friendly webtoon Batman: Wayne Family Adventures by Ismahawk. But after the news broke, it seemed to be stuck in limbo.

2021. Young Justice: Phantoms. Season 4 of the animated show on HBO Max in October. 

2021, November. Robin and Batman, a three issue miniseries written about Dick’s first time as Robin. Writer Jeff Lemire, art Dustin Nguyen.

2021. Batman vs Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham. A Batman/Fables crossover limited series where (as far as I understand) everyone stays as a Robin, including Dick.

2021. DC vs Vampires. A 12 issue limited series. In #6 (2022), Nightwing is showed to be the Vampire king and kills several of his family on panel.

2021, September. Batman: The Audio Adventures. Melissa Villase˜njor is voice actor for Robin. 

2021, November. Robins, six issue miniseries written by Tim Seeley, the winner of DC’s Round Robin contest.

2021, November. Dark Knights of Steel, Fantasy AU written by Tom Taylor, art by Yasmine Putri. Nightwing/Dick is one of “Batman’s” Robins in this the world.

2021. Nightwing is annoounced as a playable character in the Gotham Knights game, together with Red Hood, Robin (Tim) and Batgirl (Barbara). Voice actor Christopher Sean. The game was published in 2022.

2022. Dick is Robin in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, stories from the past that are tied to the current continuity via Batman vs. Robin and Lazarus Planet. 

2022.  Batman: Beyond the White Knight. Sequel to Batman: White Knight and Curse of the White Knight. It is revealed (unless it was in an earlier book) that Jason Todd was the first Robin and Dick was the second. 

2022. In the comic book Future State Gotham, Dick used the enhancing drug Brane to gain an edge in the fight against the Magistrate and assorted villains. It enhanced his intelligence and gave him some precognition. He also started to use a Batman-like suit. In the end (#18), Dick sacrifices himself to destroy the ghost of Joe Chill, who had possessed Damian. (🤷‍♀️ Yeah, I know, I wouldn’t pay to read that...)

2022. Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths # 1-7. The Justice League is presumed dead (Nightwing seems to be sure they will come back) and super criminals attack en masse. Along the way, “the Great Darkness” tries to take Nightwing as its new host but he fights it off. At the end of the event, the Justice League disband.

2022. Nightwing is a character in the third season of the animated Harley Quinn on HBO Max, with Harvey Guillen as voice actor.

2022. Batman: Gotham Knights – Gilded city. A tie-in prequel to the video game Gotham Knights.

2022. Titans United: Bloodpact. Limited series, set in its own universe as far as I can see. 

2023. Batman: The Doom that came to Gotham. Animated movie adaptation of Elseworld comic book from 2000, that takes place in the 1920s. Jason Marsden is voice actor for Dick Grayson. 

2023. World’s Finest: Teen Titans. A spin-off from Batman/Superman: World’s Finest. 

2023. Titans, a new comic book about the Titan’s residing in Blüdhaven and functioning as the prime superhero team. 

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Knives Out—In theaters November 27, 2019. Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, LaKeith Sta. This crossword clue Notting Hill Actor Who Plays Daniel Cleaver In The Romantic Comedy Movie Bridget Jones's Diary: 2 Wds. Was discovered last seen in the June 18 2020 at the Daily Themed Crossword. The crossword clue possible answer is available in 9 letters. This answers first letter of which starts with H and can be found at the end of T. Clue (1985) is one of my favorite comedies ever as it is a quick 96 minutes of non-stop hilarity. Director Jonathan Lynn makes long sweeping shots of the gorgeous mansion set look as lovely as his quick cuts to each character. His fast paced direction makes Clue a breeze to watch and revisit time and again. The reason you are here is because you are looking for the Fictional spy portrayed by Daniel Craig crossword clue answers and solutions which was last seen today August 21 2018, at the popular Daily Themed Crossword puzzle. Clue: Fictional spy portrayed by Daniel Craig Possible Solution: BOND Already found the solution for Fictional spy Read more →.

The reason you are here is because you are looking for the to Die upcoming spy film starring Daniel Craig which is the 25th installment in the James Bond series: 2 wds. Crossword clue answers and solutions which was last seen today January 2 2020, at the popular Daily Themed Crossword puzzle.

No Time to Die

2020

UK

2h 43min

Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen

UK release: 2 April 2021

The 25th James Bond film is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and sees Daniel Craig in the lead for one last time.

Knives Out

2019

US

2h 10min

12A

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Christopher Plummer

UK release: 27 November 2019

When mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Plummer) is found with his throat slit, puffed-up private detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) gets on the case. A wickedly knowing, flamboyantly bitchy take on the whodunnit, with a great cast, bags of style and a splendidly outrageous comic turn from Craig. Bloody good fun.

Logan Lucky

2017

US

1h 59min

12A

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Daniel Craig

UK release: 25 August 2017

Jimmy (Tatum), his brother Clyde (Driver) and sister Mellie (Keough) enlist the help of redneck jailbird and explosives expert Joe Bang (Craig) to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Soderbergh’s latest comedy heist movie is perhaps his best, with a great cast, a satisfying plot and witty dialogue.

Kings

2017

UK

1h 26min

Directed by: Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Cast: Halle Berry, Daniel Craig, Lamar Johnson

Following the life of a foster family in LA amidst the riots that followed the Rodney King trial verdict.

Spectre

2015

UK

2h 28min

12A

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Andrew Scott, Dave Bautista, Stephanie Sigman

UK release: 26 October 2015

James Bond (Craig) comes up against a global crime syndicate, while back at home, the 00 programme is under threat from reckless moderniser C (Scott). With its swagger, dry humour and frequent, well-executed action it's a solid crowdpleaser, but the story is predictable, the characterisation is thin and overall it lacks…

Skyfall

2012

UK

2h 25min

12A

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Written by: John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade

Cast: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe

UK release: 26 October 2012

When cyber-terrorists steal an MI6 hard drive, 007 is ordered to recover it. After the let-down of Quantum of Solace, the 23rd official Bond movie is a belter; the script is smart, Craig is better than ever, and Bardem is a thrilling villain. 50 years on from Dr No, it's a well-wrapped birthday present.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011

US / Sweden / UK / Germany

2h 37min

18

Directed by: David Fincher

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson

UK release: 26 December 2011

An investigative journalist (Craig) forms an uneasy alliance with a computer hacker (Mara) in an attempt to solve a disappearance. Th400 transbrake kit. Fincher amps up the dark poetry and Mara exudes a barely suppressed rage in every scene, elevating a populist novel into a compelling (if overlong) drama of bleakness and corruption.

Dream House

2011

US

1h 31min

15

Directed by: Jim Sheridan

Written by: David Loucka

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Marton Csokas

UK release: 25 November 2011

Publisher Will (Craig) relocates to the suburbs with his wife (Weisz) and daughters, but when their house turns out to be the scene of a massacre, the domestic dream turns sour. Best remembered as the movie that saw Craig and Weisz get together, because their chemistry can't save the clunky script and inert direction.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

2011

US / New Zealand

1h 47min

PG

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig

After buying a replica model ship at a flea market, Tintin (Bell) is embroiled in a world of subterfuge. Not since Indy's third outing has Spielberg felt so fresh and unshackled; it feels like a hark back to the heyday of 1980s adventure cinema.

Cowboys and Aliens

2011

US

12A

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde

Drunk and trouble maker Jake (Craig) is broken out of jail and forced to help grumpy old Arizona lawman Percy (Ford) when aliens start to attack. Dull, humourless and over written sci fi western from Iron Man director Favreau.

One Life

2011

UK

U

Directed by: Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes

Written by: Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes

Cast: Daniel Craig (voice)

Documentary for kids featuring stunning footage of animals in the wild and narrated by Daniel Craig.

Defiance

2009

US

2h 16min

15

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Written by: Edward Zwick, Clayton Frohman

Cast: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, George MacKay

Remarkable true story of the Bielski brothers, three real-life heroes who, against all odds, preserve a community of Jews who escape Poland for the forests of Belarus during WWII. Allied with the Russian resistance, the community thrives unexpectedly, leaving leader Tuvia Bielski (Craig) with heavy responsibilities.

Flashbacks of a Fool

2008

UK

1h 53min

15

Directed by: Baillie Walsh

Written by: Baillie Walsh

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harry Eden, Claire Forlani, Felicity Jones, Eve, Emilia Fox, Jodhi May, Miriam Karlin

Set in present-day California and an English seaside resort circa 1972, Joe Scott (Craig between Bond outings), is a washed up Hollywood star who recalls a traumatic teenage experience that leads to professional success and personal self-destruction. Good supporting performances and rather pedestrian flashbacks make for…

Quantum of Solace

2008

UK / US

1h 45min

12A

Directed by: Marc Forster

Written by: Ian Fleming, Michael G Wilson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini

'Quantum of Solace' starts with a trademark action sequence involving cars burning rubber around narrow roads and then proceeds to jump from one thrill to another, while moving through locations like pages in a travel brochure. A major plus is Amalric's turn as the villain Dominic Greene, head of an organisation which…

The Golden Compass

2007

US / UK

1h 45min

12A

Directed by: Chris Weitz

Cast: Dakota Blue Richards, Freddie Highmore, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Eva Green, Jim Carter, Tom Courtenay, Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, Ben Walker

Based on the novel by Phillip Pullman, this fantasy adventure follows Lyra (Richards), who has been entrusted with the last remaining 'alethiometer', or golden compass, which she must keep from the power-crazed Magisterium. The world Weitz has created is beautifully designed and fascinating, but choppily structured and…

The Invasion

2007

US

1h 39min

15

Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel, James McTeigue

Written by: Dave Kajganich, Wachowski brothers

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Jeffrey Wright, Veronica Cartwright

Another reworking of classic 1950s thriller 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. A mysterious epidemic is sweeping the world, and when a DC psychiatrist (Kidman) discovers its extraterrestrial origin, she and her colleague (Craig) must work together to find a cure before they become its next victims. A waste of celluloid.

Infamous

2006

US

1h 58min

15

Directed by: Douglas McGrath

Written by: Douglas McGrath, Book:, George Plimpton

Cast: Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Lee Pace, Daniel Craig, Jeff Daniels, Peter Bogdanovich

A more flamboyant and light-hearted biopic of Truman Capote than Bennett Miller's 2005 film 'Capote'. Jones is great in the lead as the eccentric writer but a weak supporting cast renders this the lesser of the two.

Casino Royale

2006

US / UK / Czech Republic

2h 24min

12A

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Written by: Ian Fleming

Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench

The prequel to the other Bond films time warps back to the enduring action hero becoming a 00 licensed to kill. The latest Bond (Craig) proves to be a strong leading man, but the film is let down by trying to do too much. With a weak villain and Bond girl to boot, it doesn't really feel like a Bond film at all.

Renaissance

2006

France / UK / Luxemburg

1h 45min

15

Directed by: Christian Volckman

Cast: Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Jonathan Pryce

Impressive looking 3D futuristic thriller with a black and white render which never quite gets going. Paris 2054. Ilona Tassueiv (Garai), a young and brilliant researcher is violently kidnapped. Avalon, a giant multinational corporation and her employer, wants her found. Dellenbach (Pryce), Avalon's CEO, has requested…

Enduring Love

2004

UK

1h 40min

15

Directed by: Roger Michellv

Cast: Rhys Ifans, Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton

Based on Ian McEwan's bestseller, a man's worldview is bruised when his attempt to save a boy from a hot air balloon accident goes wrong.

Part 2: How to access iMessage on Chromebook 1. The app Chrome Remote Desktop must be downloaded from chrome web store on your Mac or Win computers. The downloading and installation will be quickly completed on the computers. Imessage on chromebook. Chrome Remote Desktop allows access to another computer's apps and files securely via the Chrome browser or Chrome book. So connect the two computers through the security code and enjoy the iMessage on your Windows PC. 2 Jailbreak your iPhone. There is one more method through which you can get iMessage for windows.

Layer Cake

2004

UK

1h 45min

15

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Daniel Craig, Sienna Miller, Michael Gambon

Daniel Craig Clue Movie Poster

A cocaine dealer works his way through two tough assignments from his boss on the day before his retirement.

The Mother

2003

1h 30min

Directed by: Roger Michell

Written by: Hanif Kureishi

Cast: Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, Cathryn Bradshaw

A recently widowed grandmother embarks on an affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.

Sylvia

2003

UK

1h 40min

15

Directed by: Christine Jeffs

Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Lucy Davenport

A biopic of the relationship and fatal attraction between poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

Road to Perdition

2002

US

1h 57min

15

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Cast: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Tyler Hoechlin

A Depression era gangster picture with solid American family values. It may also, like Mendes' absurdly overrated Oscar-winner 'American Beauty', fool cinema-goers into confusing its moody self-importance for profound insight. For here are Big Stars, Big Themes (Fathers and Sons, Loyalty and Betrayal, Sin and Salvation…

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No Time to Die

2020

UK

2h 43min

Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen

UK release: 2 April 2021

The 25th James Bond film is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and sees Daniel Craig in the lead for one last time.

Knives Out

2019

US

2h 10min

12A

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Christopher Plummer

UK release: 27 November 2019

When mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Plummer) is found with his throat slit, puffed-up private detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) gets on the case. A wickedly knowing, flamboyantly bitchy take on the whodunnit, with a great cast, bags of style and a splendidly outrageous comic turn from Craig. Bloody good fun.

Logan Lucky

2017

US

1h 59min

12A

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Daniel Craig

UK release: 25 August 2017

Jimmy (Tatum), his brother Clyde (Driver) and sister Mellie (Keough) enlist the help of redneck jailbird and explosives expert Joe Bang (Craig) to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Soderbergh’s latest comedy heist movie is perhaps his best, with a great cast, a satisfying plot and witty dialogue.

Kings

2017

UK

1h 26min

Directed by: Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Cast: Halle Berry, Daniel Craig, Lamar Johnson

Citrix workspace silent install. Following the life of a foster family in LA amidst the riots that followed the Rodney King trial verdict.

Spectre

2015

UK

2h 28min

12A

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Andrew Scott, Dave Bautista, Stephanie Sigman

UK release: 26 October 2015

List Of Daniel Craig Movies

James Bond (Craig) comes up against a global crime syndicate, while back at home, the 00 programme is under threat from reckless moderniser C (Scott). With its swagger, dry humour and frequent, well-executed action it's a solid crowdpleaser, but the story is predictable, the characterisation is thin and overall it lacks…

Skyfall

2012

UK

2h 25min

12A

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Written by: John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade

Cast: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe

UK release: 26 October 2012

When cyber-terrorists steal an MI6 hard drive, 007 is ordered to recover it. After the let-down of Quantum of Solace, the 23rd official Bond movie is a belter; the script is smart, Craig is better than ever, and Bardem is a thrilling villain. 50 years on from Dr No, it's a well-wrapped birthday present.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011

US / Sweden / UK / Germany

2h 37min

18

Directed by: David Fincher

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson

UK release: 26 December 2011

An investigative journalist (Craig) forms an uneasy alliance with a computer hacker (Mara) in an attempt to solve a disappearance. Fincher amps up the dark poetry and Mara exudes a barely suppressed rage in every scene, elevating a populist novel into a compelling (if overlong) drama of bleakness and corruption.

Dream House

2011

US

1h 31min

15

Directed by: Jim Sheridan

Written by: David Loucka

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Marton Csokas

UK release: 25 November 2011

Publisher Will (Craig) relocates to the suburbs with his wife (Weisz) and daughters, but when their house turns out to be the scene of a massacre, the domestic dream turns sour. Best remembered as the movie that saw Craig and Weisz get together, because their chemistry can't save the clunky script and inert direction.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

2011

US / New Zealand

1h 47min

PG

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig

After buying a replica model ship at a flea market, Tintin (Bell) is embroiled in a world of subterfuge. Not since Indy's third outing has Spielberg felt so fresh and unshackled; it feels like a hark back to the heyday of 1980s adventure cinema.

Cowboys and Aliens

2011

US

12A

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde

Drunk and trouble maker Jake (Craig) is broken out of jail and forced to help grumpy old Arizona lawman Percy (Ford) when aliens start to attack. Dull, humourless and over written sci fi western from Iron Man director Favreau.

One Life

2011

UK

U

Directed by: Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes

Written by: Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes

Cast: Daniel Craig (voice)

Documentary for kids featuring stunning footage of animals in the wild and narrated by Daniel Craig.

Defiance

2009

US

2h 16min

15

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Written by: Edward Zwick, Clayton Frohman

Cast: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, George MacKay

Remarkable true story of the Bielski brothers, three real-life heroes who, against all odds, preserve a community of Jews who escape Poland for the forests of Belarus during WWII. Allied with the Russian resistance, the community thrives unexpectedly, leaving leader Tuvia Bielski (Craig) with heavy responsibilities.

Flashbacks of a Fool

2008

UK

1h 53min

15

Directed by: Baillie Walsh

Written by: Baillie Walsh

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harry Eden, Claire Forlani, Felicity Jones, Eve, Emilia Fox, Jodhi May, Miriam Karlin

Set in present-day California and an English seaside resort circa 1972, Joe Scott (Craig between Bond outings), is a washed up Hollywood star who recalls a traumatic teenage experience that leads to professional success and personal self-destruction. Good supporting performances and rather pedestrian flashbacks make for…

Quantum of Solace

2008

UK / US

1h 45min

12A

Directed by: Marc Forster

Written by: Ian Fleming, Michael G Wilson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini

'Quantum of Solace' starts with a trademark action sequence involving cars burning rubber around narrow roads and then proceeds to jump from one thrill to another, while moving through locations like pages in a travel brochure. A major plus is Amalric's turn as the villain Dominic Greene, head of an organisation which…

The Golden Compass

2007

US / UK

1h 45min

12A

Directed by: Chris Weitz

Cast: Dakota Blue Richards, Freddie Highmore, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Eva Green, Jim Carter, Tom Courtenay, Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, Ben Walker

Based on the novel by Phillip Pullman, this fantasy adventure follows Lyra (Richards), who has been entrusted with the last remaining 'alethiometer', or golden compass, which she must keep from the power-crazed Magisterium. The world Weitz has created is beautifully designed and fascinating, but choppily structured and…

The Invasion

2007

US

1h 39min

15

Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel, James McTeigue

Written by: Dave Kajganich, Wachowski brothers

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Jeffrey Wright, Veronica Cartwright

Another reworking of classic 1950s thriller 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. A mysterious epidemic is sweeping the world, and when a DC psychiatrist (Kidman) discovers its extraterrestrial origin, she and her colleague (Craig) must work together to find a cure before they become its next victims. A waste of celluloid.

Infamous

2006

US

1h 58min

15

Directed by: Douglas McGrath

Written by: Douglas McGrath, Book:, George Plimpton

Cast: Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Lee Pace, Daniel Craig, Jeff Daniels, Peter Bogdanovich

A more flamboyant and light-hearted biopic of Truman Capote than Bennett Miller's 2005 film 'Capote'. Jones is great in the lead as the eccentric writer but a weak supporting cast renders this the lesser of the two.

Casino Royale

2006

US / UK / Czech Republic

2h 24min

12A

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Written by: Ian Fleming

Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench

The prequel to the other Bond films time warps back to the enduring action hero becoming a 00 licensed to kill. The latest Bond (Craig) proves to be a strong leading man, but the film is let down by trying to do too much. With a weak villain and Bond girl to boot, it doesn't really feel like a Bond film at all.

Renaissance

2006

France / UK / Luxemburg

1h 45min

15

Directed by: Christian Volckman

Cast: Daniel Craig, Romola Garai, Jonathan Pryce

Impressive looking 3D futuristic thriller with a black and white render which never quite gets going. Paris 2054. Ilona Tassueiv (Garai), a young and brilliant researcher is violently kidnapped. Avalon, a giant multinational corporation and her employer, wants her found. Dellenbach (Pryce), Avalon's CEO, has requested…

Enduring Love

2004

UK

1h 40min

15

Directed by: Roger Michellv

Cast: Rhys Ifans, Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton

Based on Ian McEwan's bestseller, a man's worldview is bruised when his attempt to save a boy from a hot air balloon accident goes wrong.

Layer Cake

2004

UK

1h 45min

15

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Daniel Craig, Sienna Miller, Michael Gambon

A cocaine dealer works his way through two tough assignments from his boss on the day before his retirement.

The Mother

2003

1h 30min

Directed by: Roger Michell

Written by: Hanif Kureishi

Cast: Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, Cathryn Bradshaw

A recently widowed grandmother embarks on an affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.

Sylvia

2003

UK

1h 40min

15

Directed by: Christine Jeffs

Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Lucy Davenport

A biopic of the relationship and fatal attraction between poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

Road to Perdition

2002

US

1h 57min

15

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Cast: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Tyler Hoechlin

Daniel Craig Film Clue

A Depression era gangster picture with solid American family values. It may also, like Mendes' absurdly overrated Oscar-winner 'American Beauty', fool cinema-goers into confusing its moody self-importance for profound insight. For here are Big Stars, Big Themes (Fathers and Sons, Loyalty and Betrayal, Sin and Salvation…

[pulpcrush]

Alessandra Panaro (1939-2019) by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Italian postcard by Casa Edit. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F.), no. 3579. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Titanus Last Wednesday, 1 May 2019, Alessandra Panaro (1939), an Italian former film actress of the late 1950s and early 1960s, passed away. She is best known for Luchino Visconti's crime drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (1960). Alessandra Panaro was born in Rome, Italy in 1939. Panaro began her film career in 1954 with Il barcaiole di Amalfi/The boatman of Amalfi (Mino Roli, 1954) starring Mario Vitale. One of her next films was the Italian drama Gli innamorati/Wild Love (1955) directed by Mauro Bolognini. The film, starring Antonella Lualdi and Franco Interlenghi, was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. In a considerable number of romantic comedies, she played the young love interest. Examples are the big hit Poveri ma belli/Girl in a Bikini (1956) and the sequels Belle ma povere/ Poor Girl, Pretty Girl (1957) and Poveri milionari (1959). All were directed by Dino Risi and starred Marisa Allasio, Maurizio Arena, Renato Salvatori, Lorella De Luca, and Panaro. On TV she co-hosted with Lorella De Luca the show Il Musichiere/The musicians in 1957. In 1957 she also played the leading role in the comedy Lazzarella by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, a film based on a popular song written by Domenico Modugno and Riccardo Pazzaglia. She played Totò’s daughter in the satire Totò, Peppino e le fanatiche/Toto, Peppino and the Fanatics (Mario Mattoli, 1958) with Peppino De Filippo. And she played Nora, the girlfriend of Bruno (Mario Girotti - the future Terence Hill) in the film Cerasella (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1959) featuring Claudia Mori. Alessandra Panaro’s best-known film is the beautiful drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960). Set in Milan, it tells the story of an immigrant family from the South, led to the industrial North by the matriarch (Katina Paxinou). Presented in five distinct sections, the film weaves the story of Vincenzo (Spiros Fócas), Simone (Renato Salvatori), Rocco (Alain Delon), Ciro (Max Cartier) and Luca (Rocco Vidolazzi) as they struggle to adapt to life in the large and impersonal city of Milan. In typical fashion for a director known for helping build Italian neo-realism, the film ends with no substantive resolution, but with clouds of doom hanging over the family. Pannaro played Ciro’s fiancée Franca. Elbert Ventura at AllMovie: “Painted with bold strokes and marked by inflamed passions, Rocco and His Brothers holds you in rapt attention despite its sprawling story. Visconti punctuates the Parondis' struggles with two harrowing scenes of ritualized violence that profoundly change the family and underscore the operatic determinism of Visconti's vision. The movie's visceral intensity is matched only by the elegance and intelligence of the mise-en-scène, with its fine compositions, graceful camera moves, and evocative black-and-white cinematography. A work of overpowering power and stark beauty, Rocco and His Brothers stands as a vivid masterpiece from one of cinema's great artists.” During the golden age of the European genre film, Alessandra Panaro played roles in each popular genre. She often used the more American sounding pseudonym Topsy Collins. She co-starred in peplums – the Italian sword-and-sandal adventure films - like Le Baccanti/The Bacchantes (Giorgio Ferroni, 1960) with Pierre Brice, and Ulisse contro Ercole/Ulysses Against Hercules (Mario Caiano, 1962) starring Georges Marchal. She played the beautiful virgin Queen Medea, Gordon Scott's love interest, in Ercole contro Molock/Hercules Against Moloch (Giorgio Ferroni, 1963). In Germany, she appeared in the Karl May western Der Schatz der Azteken/The Treasure of the Aztecs (Robert Siodmak, 1965) with Lex Barker. One of her last films was the spaghetti western 30 Winchester per El Diablo/30 Winchesters for El Diablo (Gianfranco Baldanello, 1965) starring Carl Möhner. After finishing her film career she returned to the screen with her old colleague Lorella de Luca in La madama (Duccio Tessari, 1976) starring Christian De Sica. And 33 years later she made one more guest appearance in an episode of the Brazilian TV series A Grande Família/The Large Family (2009). Her final screen appearance was in the Italian film La notte è piccola per noi/The Night is Small for us (Gianfrancesco Lazotti, 2016) with Cristiana Capotondi and Philippe Leroy. Panaro was married twice, first to banker Jean-Pierre Sabet who died in 1983, and then to actor Giancarlo Sbragia, who died in 1994. Alessandra Pannaro passed away in Geneva, Switzerland. She was 79. Sources: Elbert Ventura (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Italian, German and English), and IMDb. https://flic.kr/p/2fGfaqw

[howardhawkshollywoodannex]

Best of Black Cinema timeline

Oscar Micheux - black film maker with 42 films from 1919 to 1948.  His films are all very low budget and difficult to sit through in the 21st century, but historically essential.

1929 Hallelujah - all black musical drama 

1936 The Green Pastures - religion, Heaven and the bible described by rural black Americans.

1943 Stormy Weather - Lena Horne and Bill Bojangles Robinson musical

1950 No Way Out - Sidney Poitier as a doctor

1951 The Well - a six year old black girl falls into a well, fueling racial tensions in a small town

1953 Bright Road - Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge drama filmed the year before their more famous opera Carmen Jones.with dubbed singing

1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers - photographed by Ellsworth Fredericks, Hollywood’s first black cinematographer, Oscar nominated for Sayonara (1957).  He was camera operator on classics including The Treasure of the SIerra Madre.

1964 The Bedford Incident - Sidney Poitier’s first film where his skin color is never mentioned and is not relevant

1971 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasss Song - written and directed by and starring Melvin van Peebles.

1972 Lady Sings the Blues - Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams biopic of singer Billie Holiday was the first crowd pleasing big Hollywood blockbuster with black leads.

1978 Killer of Sheep - written and directed by Charles Burnett

1978 The Wiz - Diana Ross,  Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor

1984 Beverly Hills Cop  - Eddie Murphy’s action comedy started the first blockbuster franchise with a black lead

1985 The Color Purple - Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover

1987 Hollywood Shuffle - written and directed by, and starring Robert Townsend

1989 Glory - Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman

1991 Boyz n the Hood - written and directed by John Singleton

1991 Daughters of the Dust - written and directed by Julie Dash

1992 Juice - written and directed by Ernest R Dickerson

1993 Suture - Dennis Haysbert

1995 Devil in a Blue Dress - written and directed by Carl Franklin

1997 Gridlock’d - written and directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall

1997 Eve’s Bayou  - written and directed by Kasi Lemmons

2000 Ghost Dog:  The Way of the Samurai - Forest Whitaker

2002 Antwone Fisher - directed by and starring Denzel Washington

2004 Ray - Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles

2004 Something the Lord Made - Mos Def and Gabrielle Union

2006 Dreamgirls - Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx and Beyonce

2007 The Great Debaters - directed by Denzel Washington

2009 Black Dynamite - written by and starring Michael Jai White

2012 Flight - Denzel Washington

2013 42 - Chadwick Boseman as baseball’s Jackie Robinson

2013 Fruitvale Station - written and directed by Ryan Coogler

2015 Creed - written and directed by Ryan Coogler

2016 Hidden Figures - black female mathematicians at NASA

2018 Blindspotting - co-written by and starring Daveed Diggs

2018 Monsters and Men - written and directed by Reynaldo Marcus Green

2018 Spider Man Into the Spiderverse

2019 Dolemite is My Name - Eddie Murphy

2019 Just Mercy - written by Bryan Stevenson, with Michael B Jordan 

Honorable mentions include the 12 films of Paul Robeson (1925-1942), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Intruder in the Dust (1949),  A Raisin in the Sun (1961), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Sounder (1972), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993), Higher Learning (1994), Set it Off (1995), Rosewood (1997), Training Day (2001), Barber Shop (2002), Black or White (2014), Top Five (2014),  Dear White People (2014), Fences (2016), Get Out (2017), Black Panther (2018), Queen and Slim (2019), and The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019).

Additions:  The Biscuit Eater (1940), Native Son (1951), Take a Giant Step (1959), Nothing But a Man (1964), The Learning Tree (1969), Putney Swope (1969), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), Yeelen (1987), Just Another Girl on the IRT (1992), Zebrahead (1992), Trespass (1992), Dead Presidents (1995),  Down in the Delta (1998), Life (1999), Baby Boy (2001), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), The Confirmation (2016), Race (2016), 42 (2017), Marshall (2017), Mudbound (2017), The Incredible Jessica James (2017), Roman J Israel esq (2017), Queen & Slim (2019), The Woman King (2022)

[papermoonloveslucy]

JOY OF LIVING

May 6, 1938

Directed by Tay Garnet

Produced by Felix Young for RKO Radio Pictures

Written by Gene Towne, Graham Baker, Allan Scott, based on an original story by Dorothy and Herbert Fields

Synopsis ~ Broadway star Margaret Garrett (Irene Dunne) has spent her whole life working to support her sponging relatives. When she meets carefree Dan Webster (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), she learns how to have fun for the first time.

The film was in production at RKO Studios from December 6, 1937 until February 8, 1938.

PRINCIPAL CAST

Lucille Ball (Salina Pine) makes her 36th film since coming to Hollywood in 1933. 

“Do you expect me to support this family of leeches?” ~ Salina Pine 

Irene Dunne (Margaret "Maggie" Garret) had appeared with Lucille Ball in 1935′s Roberta. Between 1931 and 1949 she was nominated for five Oscars. 

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (Dan Brewster) also appeared with Lucille Ball in Having Wonderful Time (1938). 

Alice Brady (Minerva) won an Oscar in 1938 for In Old Chicago. This is her only film with Lucille Ball. 

Guy Kibbee (Dennis) also appeared with Lucille Ball in Don’t Tell The Wife (1937). 

Jean Dixon (Harrison) also appeared with Lucille Ball in I’ll Love You Always (1935). 

Eric Blore (Potter) appeared with Lucille Ball in Old Man Rhythm, I Dream Too Much, and Top Hat, all in 1935. He also appeared with Ball in Fancy Pants (1950). 

Warren Hymer (Mike) also appeared with Lucille Ball in Kid Millions (1934). 

Billy Gilbert (Café Owner) appeared with Lucille Ball in His Old Flame (1935), I Dream Too Much (1935), So and Sew (1936), and Valley of the Sun (1942). 

Frank Milan (Bert Pine) makes his only appearance with Lucille Ball. 

Dorothy & Estelle Steiner (Dotsy & Betsy Pine) were real-life sisters making their first and only appearance with Lucille Ball. 

Phyllis Kennedy (Marie) appeared with Lucille Ball in 1937′s Stage Door. She was also Tallulah Bankhead’s maid in “The Celebrity Next Door”, a 1957 episode of the “Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” 

Franklin Pangborn (Band Leader) appeared with Lucille Ball in Stage Door (1937), A Girl, A Guy, and a Gob (1941), and Lover Come Back (1946). 

James Burke (Mac) appeared with Lucille Ball in Blood Money (1933), The Bowery (1933), and The Affairs of Annabel (1938). He was also seen on “I Love Lucy” as the owner of “The Diner” (ILL S3;E27) in 1954, and would go on to make an appearance on “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour” (1958) as the man who deliver Whirling Jet the racehorse to the Ricardos. 

John Qualen (Oswego) appeared with Lucille Ball in The Three Musketeers (1938). 

Spencer Charters (Magistrate) appeared with Lucille Ball in The Farmer and the Dell (1936) and Look Who’s Laughing (1941). 

UNCREDITED CAST

Richard Alexander (Angry Man in Revolving Door)

Stanley Blystone (Cop at Dock)

Bill Cartledge (Boy at Skating Rink)

George Chandler (Taxi Driver)

Joe De Stefani (Waiter)

Bill Dooley (Courtroom Janitor)

Pat Flaherty (Autograph Hound)

Tay Garnett (Man on Phone in Newspaper Office)

Chuck Hamilton (Court Bailiff) 

Al Hill (Look Photographer)

Kenner G. Kemp (Roller Skater)

Fuzzy Knight (Sideshow Piano Player)

Mike Lally (Backstage Photographer) was a background performer who did ten films with Lucille Ball as well as two episodes of “I Love Lucy,” and at least one of “The Lucy Show”.  

Charles Lane (Fan in Margaret’s Dressing Room) was a ubiquitous character actor appeared in 7 films with Lucille Ball between 1933 and 1949; four episodes of “I Love Lucy” from 1953 to 1956, all as different characters; two episodes of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”; and four episodes of “The Lucy Show” as Banker Barnsdahl.

Frank Moran (Cop with Gravel Voice)

Clarence Nash (Donald Duck Voice)

Dennis O'Keefe (Man in Building Lobby)

Franklin Parker (Third Producer)

Bob Perry (Seaman)

Russ Powelll (Man Leaving Elevator)

Cyril Ring (Man in Margaret’s Dressing Room)

Bert Roach (German Waiter)

Grady Sutton (Florist)

Frank M. Thomas (Arthur)

Charles Williams (Pitchman at Recording Studio)

Harry Woods (Cop)

JOY OF TRIVIA

“Why do you always smile when I talk to you?” Miss Ball queries Doug [Fairbanks] between takes. "Because I’m a polite little boy,“ he replies. "You Rat” says Lucille coldly.

The film features the hit song "You Couldn't Be Cuter," written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.

The working title of this film was Joy of Loving.

According to an October 1937 news item, John Barrymore was set for the lead in the production.

It seems that the entire town of Tulare, California go on board to promote Joy of Living, with a give-away contests and all the local merchants participating. 

On April 16, 1942, a tragic car accident happened outside the Tudor Theatre in New York City where the film was playing. A car plowed into a pole by a drunken driver, killing his passenger. The press flashcubes also captured the ironic marquee in the background as the police attempted to cover the body.  

Ty Garnett's production budget quickly ballooned out of control, topping out at over a million dollars, an astronomical sum for films at that time. Despite the priceless talent, Joy of Living didn't have a chance at recouping its costs and was a financial failure for the studio.

A publicity photo of Lucille Ball taken for Joy of Living. 

Lucille Ball remembered watching the stars and comparing their styles; "Hepburn 'telegraphed,' she said - 'Well, I'm going to be funny' - whereas [Irene] Dunne always surprised, even in repeated takes of the same scene. But I watched her do takes-literally, one day there were thirty-two takes-and twenty-five must have been different. She really worked on how to do that scene. Where Kate would do it the same way every time and telegraph it every time.'"

The film enjoyed a worldwide release.  Here are film posters for France (left) and Belgium, which include both the Flemish (”Levens Vreugd”) and French titles. 

The film was released on DVD (Warners Archive Collection) on April 20, 2009. 

[skepticaloccultist]

The Society with No Name

The Society with No Name

 I had taken the train in from our temporary accommodation in the English countryside to deal with a few pressing matters back in London. Our house in Hackney has been packed, and while most of it will go to storage some is on its way to Portugal. We have taken offices there, and are preparing to sign the papers for our new home in Portugal in the coming days.

There are many things I will miss about London, though these days of plague mean that I miss them already. The bookshops and private libraries, the lectures and occasional events that bring me out into the night. But this country has become a shambles, and more sensible accommodation is in our future.

Among those things that I will think of even in the brightest of Portuguese sunshine is a place that I have come to consider a second home in London. One of the few reclusive lairs in central London that affords one such as myself a bit of respite, and a proper coffee, or whiskey as the case may be.

Located down a street too narrow for any but foot traffic, two right turns from Leicester Square station, is a rather peculiar building that seems to have grown like a weed among the more traditional structures around it.

Painted these days where there is wood on its two facades in a dark blue, the building is narrow at its base, a corner slot some 20 feet on either of its two street facing sides. Stretching some five or so stories tall it is impossibly angled outward over the sidewalk as it rises. Not in any modernist architectural style, just in a centuries long battle with gravity.

The door is nondescript, black painted wood under a stone mantel that bears the number "13", though the vagaries of London's postal code system mean that it hasn't had that number as a street address since shortly after Queen Victoria expired.

If one were to knock at the door, no one would answer. To enter, one needs to have a key.

+++

I became a member or "key holder" of the society sometime during the summer of 2009. It had long been on the fringes of my social group, small though it has always been. Though it was only through a chance meeting of a standing member that I was invited to join.

As many will know I have spent my life politely declining membership in a range of secret societies, handshake clubs, and masonic fraternities dressed up in various historic ethnographic fashions. I have never been much on membership in anything, initiatory or otherwise. I am not a very social fellow when it comes down to it.

It was the complete lack of any "club" like structure that the society presented that drew my attention. Members are not encouraged to interact, no events public or otherwise are planned. One simply pays annual dues and receives a key that grants them access to the building, including a small lobby bar staffed 24 hours a day, a number of rooms of various sizes furnished with arrangements of chairs and tables with doors that can be closed, and access to one of the largest private esoteric libraries in the world, taking up an entire floor of the building.

Not only is one not compelled by the society to interact with other members, but if you have not been introduced it is considered impolite to attempt conversation. Ideal for the recluse who seeks a perfect Turkish espresso at 1am, with the least amount of social interaction possible.

When one has entered through the front of the building the hall is modestly lit, a short entry that has a coat room to one side and opens into a sort of lobby, with a cafe style bar set into the rear of a small room, a few chairs and a table or two along one wall and three booths along another.

The bartender on duty never comes from behind the bar to serve, and it is expected that each member bus their own tables before they leave. A hallmark of the society is courteousness.

Opposite the entry way across the tiny lobby is the staircase, which goes upward around a tattery old iron lift. The stairs creak as you climb them, but the hand railing is fixed solid. Not something that can be said for the lift.

I have ridden the lift on several occasions, each time being reminded why no one ever rides in the lift. The noise alone is enough to think a banshee was the operator.

One climbs the slender stairs, pausing on the occasional landing to peer out of the crooked windows onto the street below. No one ever seems to be on the streets when you look out of the windows, regardless of how crowded the streets were just moments ago when you were approaching the building.

On each floor the stairs open to a landing that leads into various rooms. Some more private than others. The rooms are decorated minimally, with shelves of books and curiosities left over the years by members.

On the third floor is the library.

+++

 The origins of the society seem to have come out of a select group within the British supper club the "Ye Sette of Odd Volumes." Members of that organization seem to have acquired the building in the early 1900s and from there the society evolved.

It is unknown to current members who actually owns the building, or if the society holds it in some obscure trust. Though a general trust fund was setup in the 1950s and covers staff pay and building upkeep, the annual dues each member pays seem to come to about the required budget each year.

The building was built sometime in the 18th century, though from its ill fitting the upper few stories must have been a later addition. Typical of the period the rooms are mostly wood trimmed plaster walls. Each of the member rooms is painted in a particular colour scheme, though these seem to change as years go by.

As was typical of societies of the early 20th century membership is coed, with women being key holders from the beginning. The only restriction to membership is that members must live within commuting distance of London. Those members that leave the region must relinquish their key. It is intended as a place of solitude for those who need it in their dealings with the city, a place to coordinate and consult with the volumes in the library.

It is said among older members that the building was a well known opium den in the late 19th century, frequented by literary types and dragon chasing aristocrats. The layout of the rooms certainly lends itself to the idea of opium beds and servitors, with the rooms' high ceilings perfectly suited to smoke filled chambers.

The rooms on the top two floors of the building are more open, like small ballrooms. Though furnished with a few chairs they are easily emptied out for purposes privy to only the society members behind closed doors. These rooms, unlike those on the lower floors, have windows that can be opened. It is considered polite to book a room ahead on the calendar if one plans to need it for more than a day, though exceptions are often made.

+++

Unlike the other floors, which are divided into smaller rooms, the landing of the third floor has only a single door, made of glass and requiring a key to open, the same as the buildings front door. This is the entrance to the society's library, a densely packed but well organized room full of books, maps, papers and other ephemera.

The society's library grew out of the private libraries and individual donations of previous members of the society, usually upon their death. It takes up the entire third floor, with fiction and other non essential volumes found across the shelves of many of the members rooms on other floors.

The first member whose private collection was to form the core of the original library, who willed a portion of their collection to the society upon their death, was William Sharp, former Golden Dawn member and founder of the Celtic Society. After his collection was sorted other members began to add works, then as members passed on it became a custom for their private libraries to be donated to the society.

By the end of the second World War a librarian had been employed as part of the staff trust. Initially just a job of sorting and keeping records it has evolved into a more curatorial role as the members who donate their collections often have a great overlap in their private libraries' holdings and there is only so much space on the third floor.

Works from the library can not be removed from the building. Anyone attempting to do so is banned without recourse. They may be taken to the members rooms but must be signed out at the time, though signing out is on an honors system of a paper list on a clipboard near the library door. In the history of the society a book has never gone missing.

The holdings of the library are much of what you would expect, rare volumes, original manuscripts. The society holds the personal papers and effects of several of its former members. Possibly my favorite object in the library, though in no way occult, is a stack of love letters written between botanist and writer Edith Wheelwright and Beatrix Potter in the late 1920s. An eloquent longing preserved in a private way that will never be seen by public eyes. The two women's handwriting alone makes one ache with decadence.

+++

The gentleman who primarily works behind the bar is an eloquent older Italian who speaks a dozen languages in passing and can read one's tarot on a rainy day. He makes a distinguished espresso as well.

I have long attempted to get him to stock some pastries at the bar but he refuses, serving only liquids hot and cold. On days where I am holed up in one of the rooms I often pop around the corner to an unremarkable ramen noodle shop. A tiny place decorated in a trendy colourful style but a passing bowl of noodles if one knows how to order.

I was able, sometime after a year or so of being a key holder, to insist that the bar stock my preferred bourbon. Though I had to personally supply the first few bottles kept behind the counter they eventually began to replenish themselves.

I do run into friends who are also members occasionally on the stairs, though more often I am in the building to meet them directly during daylight hours. The hours I generally keep tend to be late, and while there are others who frequent the society at similarly nocturnal intervals, like myself, they keep to themselves and their business.

It will be a shame to have to hand in my key in the coming month, I will be unable to spend as much time as I would have liked here in this comfortable late 19th century chair, whose time for a reupholstering was ages since, and to look out of the window on the landing outside of the library, where no one ever passes by below regardless of the time of day, and the park across the way from the building seems to go unnoticed to anyone but the squirrels.

Perhaps London will lure me back one day, after the plague and the war have passed? Previous members in good standing are always welcome to return if they find themselves living full time in London again. In the meantime I drink a final espresso or two from Silvio, taking the bourbon with me, and spend some time in the library saying my goodbyes.