Hollywood Prom Night will be here Sunday, March 12th. That's when the Oscars get handed out. Jimmy Kimmel will host again. Again, folks will complain the following day about the awards show's length. The Academy should have Oprah host the telecast one year. Hollywood knows her. She was an Oscar nominee herself (for THE COLOR PURPLE) and, as one who was a celebrated daytime TV host, she knows how to move a show along. She could shorten the Academy Awards telecast just by proclaiming "YOU get an Oscar! YOU get an Oscar! YOU get an Oscar! Everybody gets an Oscar!"
For the entire month of March, cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) airs movies that won or, at least, got nominated for Oscars. I pitched the channel devote a few nights to performers who were never ever nominated. In my previous posts, I mentioned the never-nominated Edward G. Robinson, Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea, Dana Andrews, Anton Walbrook, Mia Farrow and Donald Sutherland -- among others. Here's a final installment -- NEVER EVER NOMINATED 3.
Jack Carson was one of Old Hollywood's most dependable and versatile actors. He could be a tough in a western such as DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, a wise Washington DC political reporter in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, a real heel as in MILDRED PIERCE or the lovable leading man to Doris Day in the musicals ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS and MY DREAM IS YOURS.
Carson did some very strong work in the 1950s. I would've given him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing the cynical Hollywood studio publicist in George Cukor's 1954 remake of A STAR IS BORN. He was also strong as "Gooper," the married corporate lawyer jealous of his constantly drinking, emotionally distant brother in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.
Jeff Daniels. His film credits in RAGTIME, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, SOMETHING WILD, PLEASANTVILLE, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, THE HOURS, INFAMOUS and, yes...DUMB AND DUMBER. Daniels was excellent in all those films and in Woody Allen's comedy/drama fantasy THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO. In that, he plays the 1930s movie hero who steps off the big screen and into the life of a lonely, heartbroken moviegoer played by Mia Farrow. She's also in the Never Ever Nominated club.
Lloyd Nolan. Millions of us baby boomers knew him as the kindly doctor who hired a Black single working mother registered nurse on the 1968-1971 TV series, JULIA, starring Diahann Carroll. From the 1930s though the 1950s, he was another of Old Hollywood's most dependable, talented actors. His final performance was as the dad to Mia Farrow's character in Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986). I loved him as the Irish-American cop in Elia Kazan's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945) and as the father of a young married man who becomes a drug addict in 1957's A HATFUL OF RAIN. Also in 1957, his courtroom speech in PEYTON PLACE is one of the highlights of that Oscar-nominated film. Nolan played the compassionate local doctor who knows all the dirty little secrets of that prim New England town.
LINDA DARNELL. Starting at 20th Century Fox in the 1930s, this brunette lovely could play the sweet good girl in films such as DAYTIME WIFE (1939), THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940) and BLOOD AND SAND (1941). Or she could be the bad vamp in FALLEN ANGEL (1945) and FOREVER AMBER (1947). She was at her best as Lora Mae, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who plans to move up in social class. She'll do that by trapping a bear. The bear is the burly town millionaire who owns the department store where she works. He marries her. When she and her two best friends get word that the town glamour girl has stolen of their husbands, Lora Mae realizes she's more in love with her husband than she thought. The sophisticated comedy is Joseph L.Mankiewicz's A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (1949). Linda Darnell should've been in the Best Supporting Actress Oscar race for this one.
Technically, he was an Oscar nominee. He was up for Best Supporting Actor thanks to his work in the 1957 remake of A FAREWELL TO ARMS. But Vittorio De Sica was never ever nominated for Best Director. De Sica directed the film classics UMBERTO D., TWO WOMEN starring Sophia Loren, MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE, SHOESHINE, THE ROOF, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS and the wonderful BICYCLE THIEVES.
So...when people say, "It's an honor just to be nominated," I believe them.
Back in the late 70s, when I was living and working in Milwaukee, I read some humor essays by a struggling actor in San Francisco who wrote that just about every person in New York City who's in the show biz profession has a personal story about how wonderful Chita Rivera is. Well, years later, I discovered the truth of that -- because I am one of those people.
My first encounter with the extraordinary Broadway dancer/actress was when she was in Milwaukee. It was during a summer and she was touring with a revue show. It played at Milwaukee's gorgeous Performing Arts Center and I bought tickets. I was working on radio at the time. One of my previous part-time jobs had been working as an usher at the Performing Arts Center. I loved that job and the staff. I kept in touch with the staff when I had transitioned over to full-time employment in broadcasting which was my career goal after I'd graduated from Marquette University.
I'd flown Mom in from Los Angeles to visit me in Milwaukee for a few days. I bought us a pair of tickets to see Chita. I was backstage telling Chita Rivera how much I loved her show and how much my mother loved it, adding that I'd brought Mom with me. Chita said, "Where's your mother?" I said, "She's right outside in the lobby." Chita replied, "I always meet the mamas" and asked me to introduce her to my mother. We headed to the lobby. Chita Rivera chatted with my mother for a couple of minutes like they were old college buddies. Mom was thrilled. And so was I.
Fast forward to the 1990s. I was a regular entertainment contributor on live local New York City morning TV news programs. A deluxe broadcast awards event was being held one night and a TV columnist asked me to be her date. We got gussied up and went. There were plenty of A-list celebrities at tables. As we headed to our table, my date spotted Chita Rivera and said, "Come on. I want to ask her something for my column." We politely approached her As my date was about to introduce me to the Broadway great, Ms. Rivera warmly said, "Oh, I know who Bobby is." She then named a few of the shows she'd seen me on in New York City.
Chita Rivera knew more about my TV career than the man who was soon to become my ex-broadcast agent did. I was gobsmacked.
Chita Rivera has not danced in many movies. However, we can see her sensational dancing in Bob Fosse's 1969 film adaptation of the Broadway hit, SWEET CHARITY. She danced and sang with its star, Shirley MacLaine, and Paula Kelly.
If you're in or around the NYC area and if you're a fellow Chita Rivera fan, keep this in mind: The Film Forum movie theater will feature a 4K restoration of the complete roadshow version of SWEET CHARITY the week of March 24th to March 30th.
This musical marks the film director debut of famed choreographer Bob Fosse. Here's one of the numbers you'll see in SWEET CHARITY -- a number featuring Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly. The Broadway musical was based on Federico Fellini's 1957 masterpiece, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA.
Also in the cast is Sammy Davis, Jr. The movie theater's website is: filmforum.org.
This is a viewing reminder and some Oscar facts for Black History Month. I love me some Mary J. Blige. The singer made her acting debut in the 2017 drama, MUDBOUND, directed by Dee Rees. In MUDBOUND, we follow two rural Mississippi families -- one Black, the other White -- as they face the hardships of Depression era farm life, as friendships form and as two young farm men are drafted to serve in World War 2. Then we see how one, who distinguished himself overseas fighting in the war, faces racism in post-WW2 America.
When I saw Mary J. Blige's performance as the wife and mother in one family, my jaw just about dropped down to the top of the sneakers. She was remarkable. She delivered an unforgettable dramatic performance in MUDBOUND. Mary J. Blige made Oscar history as the first Black woman to get multiple Oscar nominations in the same year. She was a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee and the song she co-wrote for MUDBOUND put her in the Best Song Oscar race.
MUDBOUND, co-starring Carey Mulligan, is still on Netflix.
For MUDBOUND, director/co-writer Dee Rees also made Oscar history. She was the first Black woman to be an Oscar nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Dee Rees directed and wrote the LGBTQ-friendly 2011 family drama, PARIAH. A smart young woman from a nice Brooklyn family with two parents who both work tries to establish her individuality. It conflicts with the plans that her mother had for her life. PARIAH was so good that it got raves from Meryl Streep on live TV the night she won her Best Actress Oscar for THE IRON LADY. Streep said that Kim Wayans, who many of us knew from the IN LIVING COLOR sketch comedy TV series, should have been a nominee in the Best Actress Oscar category too.
Oscar winner/talk show host Jennifer Hudson starred as the late great Aretha Franklin in the 2021 biopic, RESPECT. One of the highlights in that movie is Mary J. Blige in a supporting role as the temperamental, talented singer Dinah Washington.
With two Oscar nominations to her credit and strong performances in two films, is Mary J. Blige getting good script opportunities from Hollywood? I'd like to know. She should be.
It is still Black History Month, so I'm giving you some Black history from Hollywood's golden years. We know that the talented, under-utilized Hattie McDaniel was the first Black Oscar nominee and the first Black Oscar recipient. She was her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing "Mammy" in 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. McDaniel was the first person to be an Oscar nominee for playing a Black character.
Yes, this epic Civil War love story is problematic. That aside, there is one thing you cannot deny. The Vivien Leigh performance as headstrong Scarlett O'Hara is riveting. She commands the screens and holds your attention every time she's on screen. The only other actor who can pull focus from Vivien Leigh is the totally charismatic Hattie McDaniel. She definitely had star power. However, In films after GONE WITH THE WIND, films in which McDaniel was the only Oscar winner in the cast, she's billed as if she's a bit player. Proof of this is in Warner Bros. 1942 modern-day comedy/satire, THE MALE ANIMAL. The film stars Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland (who was also a GONE WITH THE WIND Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee), Joan Leslie and Jack Carson. Look at the opening credits. Look at the breadcrumbs of a college town maid role Hattie has to play.
The third performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was famed jazz recording vocalist and Broadway musical star Ethel Waters. She was a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for playing a retired maid whose granddaughter passes for white in PINKY. That 1949 race drama, directed by Elia Kazan, starred Jeanne Crain (a white actress) in the title role.
Now, let's look at a year in between 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND and 1949's PINKY.
The second performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character .... was a white British actress named Flora Robson. She starred as the housekeeper/narrator in William Wyler's WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939) and she was one of the nuns in BLACK NARCISSUS (1947). She played Queen Elizabeth I in two historical films. One was THE SEA HAWK (1940) starring Errol Flynn.
For some unexplained reason, executives at Warner Bros look at that Caucasian British actress actress and said, 'Wow! She'd be perfect to play the stern, dark-skinned Haitian maid opposite Ingrid Bergman in SARATOGA TRUNK!"
Here's a video with scenes from the 1945 period piece love story. You'll notice Robson as the Haitian maid.
SARATOGA TRUNK got Flora Robson an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. One of my big questions is this: If the Haitian maid role was good enough to get an actress an Oscar nomination, why didn't Warner Bros give the role to a Black actress when maid roles were the only roles many Black actresses in Hollywood were given at that time? Why didn't they give the role to lovely Theresa Harris who played the maid to Bette Davis' Southern belle character in Warner Bros. JEZEBEL (1938)? Here's Theresa Harris with Marlene Dietrich in 1941's THE FLAME OF NEW ORLEANS.
And there you have it. Some Black Roles / Oscar History that rarely gets mentioned. By the way, Flora Robson lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Anne Baxter for THE RAZOR'S EDGE.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the recent news that Tom Holland, whom I thought was a very cool Spider-Man, will play Hollywood great Fred Astaire in an upcoming movie. The publication also reported that the film project will focus on Fred's relationship with his dancer sister, Adele Astaire. She was about three years older than Fred and he adored her. The two were a child vaudeville act. By 1917, The Astaires were a top Broadway act, starring in hit shows through 1931. They also took their shows to London's West End. As a youngster, Adele had shown a propensity for dance in Omaha. Her parents enrolled her in dance classes. Young Fred loved being with his sister so he joined her in classes. He too showed a propensity for dance. The Astaire kids were so good that the parents decided to move to New York City where their two children could get better, more professional training.
Come 1933, Fred appeared as himself for a short appearance in the MGM movie, DANCING LADY. He had dance number with Joan Crawford. He tried to coax Adele into joining him for film work in Hollywood, but she had retired. She married a British lord and retired in her mid-30s. At RKO, Fred had a supporting role in the musical FLYING DOWN TO RIO. That paired him with another supporting player, a buddy from his Broadway years. Her name -- Ginger Rogers. They did 1934's THE GAY DIVORCEE and 1935's ROBERTA. It was 1935's TOP HAT with an original score by Irving Berlin that fully established Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as major Hollywood stars and gave Astaire his signature attire for the rest of his innovative and groundbreaking movie musical career.
I read that Tom Holland took hip-hop classes and danced in the West End production of BILLY ELLIOTT: THE MUSICAL, based on that sweet film, BILLY ELLIOTT. Here's a bit of "Spider-Man" talking about and doing some ballet moves.
But can Tom Holland do this?
I've been fascinated with Fred Astaire ever since I was learning how to read in elementary school. The fascination began when I saw FLYING DOWN TO RIO one weekend afternoon on local Channel 9 TV in Los Angeles. I watched all of his old movies I could on TV and coaxed my parents into letting me stay up to see his multi-Emmy winning NBC TV dance specials in the 60s. By my junior high (middle school) years, I'd go to the library and head to the theater and film sections to read about Astaire. I read that his sister had a pert and charismatic stage presence. When I was in high school, one of my favorite teachers was my English Lit. teacher. She also ran the school library and noticed I'd checked out theater books. I told how much I loved Fred Astaire. She told me she'd seen The Astaires on Broadway when she was a girl. She added, "It was known that Adele was the better dancer of the two."
I asked her, "Of all the dance partners Fred Astaire had later...like Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth and Cyd Charisse...who had a style that came closest to Adele's?"
Miss McConarty thought for a moment or two and then replied, "Barrie Chase."
Barrie Chase was Astaire's dance partner on his NBC special from 1959 through the 60s. Classic film fans would know her as the stone-faced hip chick in a bikini dancing the Twist with Dick Shawn in IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. She a dramatic role in the original CAPE FEAR as the first woman brutally molested by Robert Mitchum's crazed character.
In 1964, Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase played rival entertainment representatives competing to sign the same new talents in a breezy made-for-TV movie comedy called THINK PRETTY. At the end, the two competitors join forces -- and they dance to the title tune. Here are Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase.
OK, Tom Holland. Do your best and don't let me down.
Being a baby boomer, I loved February when I was a school kid. In those days, we got two weekdays off from school. One federal holiday was for Abraham Lincoln's birthday. The other was for George Washington's birthday. Now they've been lumped together into one day off. Oh, well. That's modern times for you.
Up for some Presidents' Day flavored music? Of course, I've got showtimes for you. Paramount's 1942 musical comedy, HOLIDAY INN, paired Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby in a movie packed with old and new tunes by Irving Berlin. Berlin wrote "White Christmas" for this movie and it brought him the Oscar for Best Song.
I don't know if today's youngsters hear this tale in school, but we were told that little George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and when asked by an adult if he did it, he answered "I cannot tell a lie." He confessed. Here's Astaire, a nightclub entertainer, doing a number on Washington's Birthday. His dance partner is actress Marjorie Reynolds. Fred and Bing play buddies vying for the same lady's affections.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president with the constantly traveling humanitarian wife named Eleanore, started serving his third term when YANKEE DOODLE DANDY was released. James Cagney, who shot to fame as the cold-blooded killer gangster in 1931's THE PUBLIC ENEMY, won the Best Actor Oscar for playing famed Broadway song and dance showman, George M. Cohan. The movie came out during the WW2 years. In it, Cagney as Cohan does a Broadway musical spoof of President FDR.
In the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical hit, 1776, Howard Da Silva played Benjamin Franklin, William Daniels was John Adams and tall Ken Howard was Thomas Jefferson. The men were working to draft the Declaration of Independence. William Daniels and Ken Howard played future U.S. presidents. Both actors were future presidents of the Screen Actors Guild.
Ray Bolger was a Washington, DC official in the 1952 musical, APRIL IN PARIS. In his office, he danced with two U.S. presidents.
I was a Black Catholic kid who grew up in South Central L.A. in the 1960s. Our house was on East 124th Street and Central Avenue. I attended a parochial, all-boys high school in Watts. The students were predominantly Black and Mexican-American. There was only one White guy in the entire Verbum Dei High School student body. By the time I was in high school, I was already a passionate fan of films -- old and new -- and I was enchanted by Raquel Welch. I loved her and I had a great respect for her talent. I felt that she was more than a gorgeous, shapely starlet who wore a fur bikini in a pre-historic dinosaur action movie. I did get a giddy guilty pleasure reading The Los Angeles Times entertainment section for updates on the reported feud between Raquel Welch and Mae West while making the 1970 movie MYRA BRECKINGRIDGE. West -- a playwright, screenwriter and actress -- had saved Paramount from bankruptcy in the early 1930s while becoming a truly iconic blonde sex symbol when she was in her 40s. Apparently she'd made changes in the MYRA BRECKINRIDGE script. Although Mae West had not been on the big screen since the early 1940s, she was still keeping a grip on her sex symbol image like a Jack Russell terrier with a favorite chew toy in its mouth. Based on the Gore Vidal novel of the same name, Raquel Welch played a transgender character in MYRA BRECKINGRIDGE. She had way more dialogue than she did in 1966's ONE MILLION YEARS, B.C. and a lot more outfits.
I knew that Welch's last name was really Tejada. Her father was Bolivian. Having grown up with Hispanic neighbors, family friends, classmates and teachers, I connected to her. Hers was a face of my diverse community. I sensed that she had to break through a certain racial barrier to get equal respect in Hollywood. It irked me to read gossip column reports that she was "difficult" on a set. Was she difficult or just standing up for herself in a way that, say, Ann-Margret didn't have to?
Raquel Welch was the first movie star to answer a fan letter from me. I still have the 8x10 autographed glossy photo in an album. This was during my high school years. So was the day that marked my first ever visit onto a movie studio lot. I entered a contest on KMPC Radio and won tickets for me and family members to a special Saturday morning preview screening on the 20th Century Fox lot of a new 1966 sci-fi fantasy film called.... FANTASTIC VOYAGE. I loved it! The fantastic plot had a U.S. medical science team shrunken to molecule size and injected into the system of an injured important international figure to cure his head injury. I know it's a totally unbelievable plot but this movie was extremely significant to a South Central L.A. kid as I was. The Latina was a scientist on an extremely important secret mission, the only female scientist in the crew. THAT was great representation.
Welch moved up to show her acting skills with A-list scripts. There was the 1973 Hollywood insider murder mystery, THE LAST OF SHEILA, and 1974's THE THREE MUSKETEERS directed by Richard Lester. That one has my favorite Raquel Welch performance. She's wonderful as the klutzy and clueless but lovable Constance. Welch took inspiration from Stan Laurel of Laurel & Hardy fame to play Constance.
I read the novel FORREST GUMP by Winston Groom months before the film adaptation starring Tom Hanks was released. I knew the movie had been in production and I wondered if Raquel Welch would be in it or if someone would play her. Have you ever read FORREST GUMP? It's a fabulous book. I checked it out from a library and read the whole book in one weekend. It was that entertaining. The movie is quite different. The main characters are in it, but the screenplay took the vinegar out of the novel and replaced it with sweet tea. Remember how sweet Sally Field was as the devoted mother to Forrest? In the novel, the mother is an annoying, selfish old woman. Forrest is an idiot savant who says "Bein' an idiot is no box of chocolates." He's a football player. The way he's described, he looks more like a John Cena than a Tom Hanks.
In the novel, Forrest has a series of episodic adventures. In one chapter, we follow his misadventures in Hollywood making a modestly budgeted sci-fi movie with a cranky starlet named Raquel Welch.
In 2000, ABC News hired me to be Entertainment Editor and weekly film critic on its Lifetime TV production, LIFETIME LIVE. I came up with the idea of recommending a classic film in which I'd focus on a lead female performance to complement the lead female performance in a new film I'd just reviewed. For instance, although the original script received no screen credit (which I mentioned), Tom Cruise's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 was a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 classic, NOTORIOUS. I showed clips from both films and pointed out how Thandie Newton opposite Tom Cruise was an update of Ingrid Bergman opposite Cary Grant in NOTORIOUS.
I reviewed THE CELL, a 2000 sci-fi thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a psychologist who has a radical new way of entering a man's mind. It involves experimental technology. I recommended also seeing FANTASTIC VOYAGE starring Raquel Welch as a scientist who enters a man's head to help remove a blood clot.
During my VH1 years in New York City, I had the opportunity to interview Raquel Welch. She'd made a music video. A few publicists warned me that she could be testy.
Raquel Welch arrived at our studio on time and looking glamorous. I greeted her and thanked her for answering my fan letter when I was a kid in South Central L.A. Raquel Welch could not have been lovelier, more gracious or more grateful. She was like a wonderful dream come true. I loved how she went out of her way to thank the floor crew for the good lighting.
Raquel Welch, the Latina who grew up San Diego, had class and talent before Hollywood fully realized it. I loved her.
The amazing Angela Bassett made Hollywood history this year. She is currently a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for her regal performance in BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. This is Bassett's second Oscar nomination. Her first came for her stunning work as Tina Turner in 1993's WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT.
But the majority of Black actresses who got an Oscar nomination -- or even won like Hattie McDaniel for 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND -- were frustrated by Hollywood's lack of good script opportunities after it. This goes from Hattie's Oscar-winning 1939 work to Ethel Waters for 1949's PINKY and Dorothy Dandridge for 1954's CARMEN JONES. The magnificent Cicely Tyson was a Best Actress Oscar nominee for 1972's SOUNDER. After it, she had to turn to TV movies for strong lead roles to play. Hollywood had no good script opportunities for her. The same goes for Diahann Carroll, Alfre Woodard and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (of 1997's SECRETS & LIES) down to Taraji P. Henson and Gabourey Sidibe. Even Rita Moreno said that she had no Hollywood employment for six years after she won her Oscar for 1961's WEST SIDE STORY.
Viola Davis told press that she did the hit ABC TV series, HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, because she got no Hollywood script opportunities after she'd received her second Oscar nomination. Gabourey Sidibe was a Best Actress Oscar nominee for her awesome work as the physically abused, nearly illiterate, introverted and pregnant high school student in the 2009 drama, PRECIOUS. She revealed that, following her nomination, she didn't get the same amount of Hollywood love that Caucasian Anna Kendrick got. Kendrick was a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for that same year. Sidibe turned to TV work. Kendrick had the 2010 releases SCOTT PILGRIM vs. THE WORLD and THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE followed by PITCH PERFECT and the musical INTO THE WOODS.
This week, VANITY FAIR magazine reported that Angela Bassett had no work offers for 18 months after her Best Actress Oscar nomination for WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT.
Brava to Bassett for her second Oscar nomination.
The frustration that actresses of color have endured after having received an impressive Oscar nomination, a frustration actresses of color have experienced for decades, has never been investigated or covered by entertainment journalists. The Hollywood story carries overtones of racial exclusion and the lack of equal opportunities and equal pay.
As I wrote earlier, Viola Davis now reigns as the most Oscar-nominated Black actress in Hollywood history with her four nominations. She matches that same number of nominations that Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence has. Lawrence, one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, is 32. She got her fourth nomination when she was 26. Viola Davis got her fourth nomination when she was 56. Jennifer Lawrence never had to look to TV for employment after her first or second nomination.
Only four Black actresses are multi-Oscar nominees. None of them has matched or topped the number of Oscar nominations received by living actresses Jane Fonda, Jessica Lange, Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Amy Adams or Michelle Williams. (Meryl Streep, with her 20 nominations, is in a dimension all her own.)
The Oscars are handed out March 12th. Cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) devotes all of March to movies that won or, at least, got nominated for Oscars. This is a follow-up to my previous recent post, NEVER EVER NOMINATED. I pitched that TCM devote some night to actors who were ever nominated. Actors such as Edward G. Robinson, Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea and Mia Farrow. I thought of a few more performers -- so here is NEVER EVER NOMINATED 2.
Fredric March won his second Best Actor Oscar for William Wyler's classic tale of WW2 veterans returning home, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. Dana Andrews was never ever nominated. He did fine work in THE OX-BOW INCIDENT and the murder mystery, LAURA. I would have given him an Oscar nomination for THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. He's excellent as the vet who returns home to find that his marriage is lifeless and he endures humiliation trying to get a job. He doesn't know where he now fits in after having served in a horrible war. He doesn't feel needed by the country that once needed him to put his life on the line for freedom. Andrews played a former bomber pilot. His scene in the WW2 aircraft junkyard gets me every time.
THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW on TV made this Broadway and film actor famous. It was a homespun TV sitcom. But Andy Griffith gave one of the most blistering movie performances of the 1950s in Elia Kazan prophetic 1957 drama, A FACE IN THE CROWD. Andy Griffith burns up the screen as the hard-drinking, womanizing country drifter who becomes a broadcast sensation. As a network TV host, he becomes a big star. But he's a user and has dark ambitions to gain White House political influence. Patricia Neal co-stars as the woman who discovers him and gets used by him more than anyone else. Andy Griffith should have been a Best Actor Oscar nominee for this performance.
In addition to that, I would've given Andy Griffith a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing the well-dressed, crusty but wise frequent customer who loves pie in the 2007 film, WAITRESS.
The Academy have him an Honorary Oscar, however it is hard to believe that Donald Sutherland was never ever nominated during his decades of solid performances. His movie credits include THE DIRTY DOZEN, M*A*S*H, ORDINARY PEOPLE, DON'T LOOK NOW and SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION. He was Homer Simpson in the 1975 film about 1930s Hollywood, THE DAY OF THE LOCUST and he creeped us out in 1978's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remake. He was perfectly cast as the title character -- a cop protecting a New York City call girl from a killer -- in KLUTE with Jane Fonda.
Victor Mature was one of those 1940s movie stars who had terrific versatility. He did musical comedies opposite Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. He was excellent as Doc Holliday in the John Ford western, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, co-starring Henry Fonda and Linda Darnell. He was also excellent in the noir crime thriller, KISS OF DEATH, co-starring Richard Widmark as the magical killer who pushes a disabled old lady down a staircase. In the 1966 film directed by Vittorio de Sica, AFTER THE FOX, Victor Mature became the only actor to steal a Peter Sellers comedy from Peter Sellers. Victor Mature should've been a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for his performance as the aging Hollywood star.
Two women have received Best Actress Oscar nominations for playing Marilyn Monroe. There was Michelle Williams for 2011's MY WEEK WITH MARILYN and Ana de Armas for BLONDE. Both are currently in the Best Actress Oscar race. Williams for THE FABELMANS and de Areas for BLONDE. But Marilyn Monroe herself was never never nominated for an Oscar. Yes, she was the reigning Hollywood sex symbol of her day. She was also serious about her craft and studied to improve it. I interviewed Oscar winner Lou Gossett Jr. in his home a few years ago. He was Monroe's scene partner in her Actors Studio classes. Gossett said that, had she lived, she would've won two Oscars. He based that on seeing her do scenes from A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE in class. Just like Barbara Stanwyck got deeper into the "Ambitious Woman" persona playing the light and dark of it (BALL OF FIRE and STELLA DALLAS in contrast to BABY FACE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY), Monroe did the same thing with the showgirl character. Look at her as the "dumb like a fox" diamonds-loving blonde showgirl in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, the musical comedy based on a Broadway hit that launched future Oscar nominee Carol Channing. (Channing landed a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the 1967 musical, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE.) Look at Monroe as the patriotic Milwaukee showgirl on tour in London who thwarts a political coup in the romantic comedy, THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, co-starring Laurence Olivier. Then look at her as the divorced ex-showgirl in Arthur Miller's THE MISFITS co-starring Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach. Moviegoers were used to seeing Marilyn Monroe get close-ups in lush color as she spoke in a slightly-above-a-whisper voice. In 1961's THE MISFITS she was in the distance, in black and white, letting out rage.
Marilyn Monroe hit a triple play in 1953. She was the noir blonde cheating wife, doomed in NIAGARA. She showed her skill at physical comedy as the gorgeous, dimwitted but lovable and far-sighted model in HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. And she displayed her singing and dancing talent in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES which, like SOME LIKE IT HOT, shows that she was a master at screen comedy. Her timing was brilliant.
I saw Chita Rivera in a Broadway show that highlighted her stage career and choreographers (2005's CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER'S LIFE). She mentioned that the choreography of Jack Cole was often complicated, specific and hard work that she loved performing. Jack Cole choreographed Monroe's numbers in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. During rehearsals, her dance coach was Gwen Verdon. WEST SIDE STORY Oscar winner, George Chakiris, was a chorus dancer in the number. He told TCM about how focused and diligent Monroe was in rehearsals. She was not a trainer dancer like a Cyd Charisse or Chita Rivera, but Marilyn Monroe executed Jack Cole's choreography as if she was born to do it. She made the "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" jazz number truly iconic. Here's Marilyn Monroe in 1953's GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES.
Marilyn Monroe should have seen the words "Oscar nominee" in front of her name during her career. In my opinion. You got anyone to add?
I have not been romantically attached in a long, long time. And that's not by choice. I've tried. I've gotten out there. But I have never been on the A-List of Dating. Friends urged me to try online dating. I gave it several tries The experiences taught me this: Online dating is a circle of Hell that Dante never encountered. But that's just me. It's worked for many others.
Today is an anniversary for me. On February 16, 2020, I was in California working on a freelance TV project for a few days. While in town, I visited a very dear friend who invited me to grab a bite with him and a trio of his friends. I accepted the invitation. A handsome friend of his found me attractive. That attraction led to a lovely and totally unexpected horizontal encounter. As usual, when such a rare event like that has happened to me over the decades, a certain song was playing in my head while I was being kissed. Here it is:
💘 Happy Valentine's Day. I hope someone makes you feel loved today. Because it is Valentine's Day, I'm giving you some sweet, romantic music. First up is my favorite all-time film entertainer, Fred Astaire. He and Marjorie Reynolds dance to "Be Careful, It's My Heart," a tune Irving Berlin wrote for the Oscar-winning 1942 musical, HOLIDAY INN. The song is sung by Bing Crosby.
In 1968, trumpet player Herb Alpert had a hit record with his playing and singing the Burt Bacharach/Hal David tune, "This Guy's In Love With You." About 40 years later, jazz saxophonist Dave Koz came out and covered the tune. Koz put an LGBT spin on it.
Former Benny Goodman band singer, Peggy Lee, played an alcoholic 1920s blues singer in the 1955 Warner Bros. drama, PETE KELLY'S BLUES. She got a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance. That same year, Disney released its animated feature, LADY AND THE TRAMP. Now a Disney classic, is has bunch of fabulous tune in it. Peggy Lee not only did the voice for one of the cool canines in the feature, she co-wrote the songs. In my opinion, Peggy Lee should have also been in the Oscar race for Best Song of 1955. (The winner was "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing" from the movie of the same name.)
Here's one of the LADY AND THE TRAMP songs co-written by Peggy Lee -- "Bella Notte."
This 1949 drama, based on a novel by William Faulkner, is not as well known as the 1962 drama, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, based on a novel by Harper Lee. But it should be. Like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, it's the story of racial injustice in a small Southern town that's told from the viewpoint of someone who was a young person in that town.
My love of classic films started at a very early age. My grade school years, to be exact. One of my favorite days as a student at St. Leo's Elementary in Los Angeles was the Friday afternoon we students gathered in the auditorium for a special event. The nuns pulled out the school's projector, pulled down the screen, and showed a movie. The movie was the 1946 family film, THE YEARLING, directed by Clarence Brown and starring Claude Jarman Jr. as the poor country boy who keeps a trouble-making young deer as a pet. I loved it. So did the rest of the student body in the auditorium that day. The sentimental, poignant movie was in rich Technicolor and we were the generation that grew up seeing shows in black and white on big box-like TV sets.
My father realized my fascination with classic films and honored it. He occasionally invited me to watch an old film that he loved with him when it aired on local TV. One such film was INTRUDER IN THE DUST. Dad was a big fan of Puerto Rican actor, Juano Hernandez. Hernandez had significant roles in the 1950 movies YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN starring Kirk Douglas and THE BREAKING POINT starring John Garfield. The Black/Latino also had an important role in 1964's THE PAWNBROKER with Rod Steiger.
Claude Jarman Jr., of THE YEARLING, and Juano Hernandez co-starred in 1949's INTRUDER IN THE DUST. Clarence Brown, director of THE YEARLING, directed this racial drama. It is not sentimental and in rich Technicolor like THE YEARLING. It's raw, frank and in black and white.
As the movie opens, a church bell tolls. There's a somber tone to the scene. A wide shot shows a town square with no motorists on the road and no pedestrians on the sidewalks. We're taken inside a barber shop. A White man enters and says "Where's the shoe shine boy? Seems to me I ain't seen one darkie on the road since yesterday." A customer answers the a White man was "Shot in the back. By a nigger."
Lucas Beauchamp is arrested and charged with murder. As he's escorted in the jailhouse, he walks by a line of mean middle-aged White male faces. Then the camera rests on the sympathetic face of a young man. He's Chick (Claude Jarman Jr). Lucas calls out to Chick. He wants Chick's Uncle John as his lawyer. Chick is now conflicted about his friendship with Lucas. He was a guest in Lucas's home after he fell into a creek once. Lucas gave him something dry to wear and some food to eat. We see the mixture of caution and care in his eyes as he treats the young White man with kindness.
Chick's Uncle John will defend Lucas. Chick will learn some truths about injustice and inequality in his hometown.
This is a film that really displays the acting gifts of Juano Hernandez. He can do more with one line of dialogue and a glance than some actors can do with whole paragraph of dialogue. Hernandez embodies the gray-haired man described as "proud, stubborn, insufferable."
Will the truth come out? Will Chick help the truth come out? We shall see.
Two veteran actors who previously performed work by the celebrated Preston Sturges deliver strong dramatic supporting role performances in this film. There's Porter Hall as the one-armed man. Hall was in screwball comedies written and directed by Preston Sturges -- 1941's SULLIVAN TRAVELS as a Hollywood movie studio executive and 1944's THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK as a Justice of the Peace. In the 1950s, Elizabeth Patterson was known as Mrs. Trumbull, the neighbor to The Ricardos, on I LOVE LUCY. In the 1940 Christmastime classic, REMEMBER THE NIGHT, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, she played the kindly Aunt Emma to MacMurray's character. REMEMBER THE NIGHT has a screenplay by Preston Sturges.
Patterson is memorable as Miss Eunice, the 79-year old woman who stands up against a racist mob of men who want to break into the jailhouse and harm Lucas. She bonds with Chick to do the right thing.
INTRUDER IN THE DUST runs about 90 minutes and is great viewing for Black History Month. You can find it on YouTube. I am so glad Dad introduced me to this 1949 classic when I was a kid.
If you're up for watching a classic Billy Wilder comedy today before Super Bowl kick-off, I've got a recommendation for you. It's Billy Wilder's 1966 comedy, THE FORTUNE COOKIE, starring Jack Lemmon as a CBS TV cameraman slightly injured while shooting a football game, Walter Matthau as the shady lawyer who gets involved with the cameraman's injury and Ron Rich as the NFL player who accidentally tackled the cameraman.
I grew up in South Central Los Angeles during the 60s. Our family lived in the curfew area during the Watts Riots, as national news tagged the uprising, in that same decade. By then, even though I was very young, I was already a Jack Lemmon fan thanks to his movies being shown on TV. Mom and Dad let me have a Saturday afternoon at the movies one weekend. I saw THE FORTUNE COOKIE on the big screen and loved it. I noticed a racial thread that ran through the movie. As I grew up and got older, I loved the movie even more because of that thread. I call THE FORTUNE COOKIE "Wilder's Civil Rights era comedy." In the 1960s, Wilder had an almost subliminal way of blending in a much-needed diversity into his films. Look at 1960's THE APARTMENT. In the wide shots of the floor C.C. Baxter (played by Lemmon) worked on at a top insurance company in Manhattan, notice the number of Black employees in the shot, working and wearing business attire. In the famous Christmas party scene, notice the Black employees also participating in the office party merriment. Now...compare that to a Fox film which has many scenes that take place on the floor of a Manhattan publishing company. The movie is 1959's THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. Notice the lack of Black employees in the large secretarial pool. Here's a short clip of the office Christmas party scene from THE APARTMENT.
In THE FORTUNE COOKIE, the NFL star is called Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson. He's a dapper, charming, polite man. A friendship forms between him and the injured cameraman. As that friendship develops in Cleveland, we see and hear racial stereotypes come out of the mouths of folks in the cameraman's story. His greedy, lovely ex-wife enters the scene in cahoots with the shady lawyer. She sees Jackson and assumes he's a chauffeur, a hired driver. Some ugly, racist language will anger the cameraman into physical action. Racial images, stereotypes, prejudice and interracial unity are definitely in Wilder's comedy. This was in the 1960s, a racially turbulent decade in America -- the decade of the Civil Rights movement.
Billy Wilder's THE FORTUNE COOKIE was released three years after Dr. Martin Luther King's historic March of Washington, DC and two years before Dr. King's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.
I'm one of the freelance scriptwriters for TCM. I wrote Ben Mankiewicz's scripts for his intro and outro to THE FORTUNE COOKIE. He kept most of what I wrote but he replaced my section on the racial thread in the movie with other info.
Here's another clip from THE FORTUNE COOKIE.
In 1980, my first full year of working on television, I interviewed Jack Lemmon. I was a weekly movie reviewer on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate. Lemmon realized the homework I'd done for our interview session and told me to stick around a bit after the interview. He took me aside, complimented me on my research and told me to pursue other celebrity interview opportunities. He knew very few Black people, at that time, were seen on TV doing that kind of work. The advice he graciously gave me, advice which I followed, changed the course of my career.
We took a photo together. I had it framed. I treasure it. What a wonderful experience that was. What a wonderful actor Jack Lemmon was. Check out THE FORTUNE COOKIE.
"Julius Caesar. The most notorious Roman -- until Polanski." So says Philomena Cunk, the host and narrator of CUNK ON EARTH, a British mockumentary series on the history of civilization. This Netflix show is like having a daughter of Monty Python host a history series on PBS. When interviewing a historian about the Great Wall of China, she asked if there was also a Great Roof. When telling us about the ancient Romans, the deadpanned Ms. Cunk tells us that the sophisticated Romans enjoyed "creature comforts like indoor plumbing -- and cunnilingus." Here's a trailer.
She talks about religion. The bit in which she visits Jesus while he's doing carpentry work made me do a loud snort laugh. This show is a hoot. If you need some laughs this weekend, check out episodes of this series on Netflix. Diane Morgan is marvelous as Philomena Cunk.
He was so effortlessly cool. And a gifted giant in the music industry. A prolific composer/musician, like George Gershwin. Much of the music by the late Burt Bacharach, especially his songs that Dionne Warwick and Karen Carpenter sang into becoming pop hits, is in the soundtrack of my Southern California youth. In 1968, Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David wrote the score for a Broadway musical version of Billy Wilder's film classic, THE APARTMENT. It was a hit.
In 1973, there was the release of a musical remake of the 1937 Frank Capra film classic, LOST HORIZON. Bacharach and David did the score. The musical remake, starring Peter Finch and Liv Ullman, was a bomb. Even though it was a flop, I bought the soundtrack. I liked the Burt Bacharach music, music that hardly ever gets a mention today.
Here's the Bacharach/David title tune for 1973's LOST HORIZON sung by Shawn Phillips.
Here's a love song for the 1973 LOST HORIZON musical remake. It's "I Might Frighten Her Away."
Here's another clip from 1973's LOST HORIZON. Liv Ullman and Bobby Van perform "The World Is a Circle."
The Burt Bacharach harmonies. The rhythms. His unique and instantly recognizable style, structure and sound.
As for Burt Bacharach's music being featured heavily in the soundtrack of my Southern California youth, here's one of my favorites. This composition is Burt Bacharach's "Pacific Coast Highway."
Burt Bacharach. What a talent he was. What a life filled with accomplishments.
This is about talented Black actresses getting good comedy script opportunities from Hollywood. Regina Hall is good at drama, She is really good at comedy. She has been making me belly laugh since the SCARY MOVIE franchise started in 2000 followed by her work in GIRLS TRIP and the wonderful indie film, SUPPORT THE GIRLS. Regina Hall made me laugh this year when she was a presenter on the Golden Globes telecast.
Diane Keaton won a Best Actress Oscar for a Woody Allen comedy (1977'S ANNIE HALL). Mira Sorvino won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for a Woody Allen comedy (1995's MIGHTY APHRODITE). Dianne Wiest won two Best Supporting Actress Oscars for Woody Allen comedies (1986's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and for playing the grand but faded Broadway star in 1994's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY).
In all its Academy Awards history, rarely has a Black actress received an Oscar nomination for a comedy performance. I'd love for Hollywood studios to send good comedy script opportunities to Regina Hall, the quality of the ones that brought Oscars to those three women.
The only Black actress I can think of who got an Oscar nomination for a comedy performance is Whoopi Goldberg. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the psychic in 1990's GHOST.
From 2006 to 2008, Whoopi hosted a live weekday morning radio show that was broadcasted out of midtown Manhattan. It was a Premiere Radio program called WAKE UP WITH WHOOPI. She hired me to be her weekly entertainment contributor and movie reviewer. (This hiring came about because she had been one of my first guests on my VH1 prime time celebrity talk show in 1988 and remembered me.) One morning, during a long commercial break, she told me that even though she had a Best Actress Oscar nomination for THE COLOR PURPLE to her credit, she could not get an audition for GHOST. The director was not interested in seeing her and she was, understandably, hurt and disappointed. Patrick Swayze (who was also a guest on my talkshow) heard about this. He was a big Whoopi Goldberg fan and told the GHOST makers that if they didn't let her audition, he'd drop out of the movie deal. The rest is Oscar history. Whoopi told me this before she told it on ABC's THE VIEW.
Claudette Colbert won the Best Actress Oscar for the 1934 screwball comedy, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Judy Holliday repeated her Broadway success in the 1950 film version of BORN YESTERDAY and won the Best Actress Oscar. In this comedy, A Washington, DC print journalist working on a story introduces a crooked millionaire's girlfriend to some literature and classical music. Her boyfriend is in town to buy political influence. The journalist inspires the "dumb blonde" girlfriend to wake up and realize she needs to declare her independence from her "fascist bully" tyrant of a boyfriend. In the meantime, she's starting to fall for the journalist. It's a comedy with a political statement that still resonates today.
Here's a clip from BORN YESTERDAY starring Oscar winner Judy Holliday. Broderick Crawford co-stars.
Regina Hall could definitely handle substantial roles like those.
The first Black person to be nominated for an Oscar -- and the first to win -- was Hattie McDaniel, Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for playing "Mammy" in 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. Hattie McDaniel in GONE WITH THE WIND, Ethel Waters in 1949's PINKY, Juanita Moore in 1959's IMITATION OF LIFE, Cicely Tyson in 1972's SOUNDER, Diahann Carroll in 1974's CLAUDINE, Oprah Winfrey in 1985's THE COLOR PURPLE, Viola Davis and Octavia Spender in 2011's THE HELP all got their Oscar nominations for playing domestic workers who had drama while working for White folks. Halle Berry won her groundbreaking Best Actress Oscar for playing an irresponsible, verbally abusive mother whose husband was a death row prison inmate in 2001's MONSTER'S BALL. Lovely Lupita Nyong'o won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing a raped and beaten plantation cotton picker in 12 YEARS A SLAVE.
Whew! That's a lot o' drama. I'd love to see Lupita Nyong'o star in a romantic comedy like Billy Wilder's 1954 film, SABRINA, which brought Audrey Hepburn a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Teri Garr hooked a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her comed role in 1982's TOOTSIE as an insecure, struggling actress in New York City. That's a character that could be played by a Black actress ... like the wonderful Kerry Washington, for instance.
There are so many good, versatile Black actresses available for A-list Hollywood script opportunities. Opportunities that could lead to Oscar nominations like the one Whoopi Goldberg got for GHOST. Regina Hall is one of those actresses. Yes, I'm a big fan. Here's a trailer for the indie comedy film you should see -- 2018's SUPPORT THE GIRLS starring Regina Hall.
Los Angeles. New York City. Two places I love. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. That's where my fascination with Fred Astaire began -- when I was in elementary school. New York is where I lived and worked for 20 years. That's where my dreams of career and romance came true for a time.
The Oscar-winning 2016 movie musical, LA LA LAND, is being adapted into a Broadway show. It's an L.A. story about two young people -- an aspiring actress and a jazz musician -- who fall in and out of love while dreaming of successful show biz careers. LA LA LAND got 14 Oscar nominations. Emma Stone won for Best Actress. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Actor. It won the Oscar for Best Song. 32-year old director and screenwriter Damien Chazelle won for Best Director. LA LA LAND was nominated for Best Picture. The winner was LA LA LAND MOONLIGHT.
Here's Ryan Gosling as the young L.A. dreamer singing the Oscar winner for Best Song.
Later, the jazz singer and the aspiring actress are in L.A.'s Griffith Park at night. They dance.
1953's THE BAND WAGON starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan. Astaire played a middle-aged Hollywood musical star whose career has been in a lull for about 3 years. Charisse plays a hot, new and slightly haughty ballet star. The movie star is coaxed to come to New York and consider starring in a new, modern Broadway musical. The movie showcased music by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. They wrote this new song for THE BAND WAGON, directed by Vincente Minnelli. The faded Hollywood movie star is insecure because he's "just an entertainer" and his future co-star is an acclaimed ballet dancer. He gets a boost of confidence from the planned Broadway show's two married writers and its director.
The middle-aged movie song-and-dance man and young, new ballet star dislike each other at first. He calls for a truce. When they take a walk together in Central Park at night, they discover that they can dance together. They will fall in love. The music is "Dancing in the Dark" by Dietz and Schwartz.
Both artists will reinvent themselves in the jazzy, modern Broadway musical which is a big hit.
LA LA LAND got 14 Oscar nominations. THE BAND WAGON got 3 Oscar nominations: Best Music Scoring, Best Costume Design and Best Screenplay. It did not win any.
Which movie do you prefer? I still go with THE BAND WAGON.
P.J. Johnson. I do not know where the director Peter Bogdanovich found her for his 1973 comedy classic, PAPER MOON, but when he found her, he found gold.
Late in my high school years and early in my college years, I learned a lot from Peter Bogdanovich. I read his magazine articles about the master film directors such as Preston Sturges, Orson Welles and John Ford, articles that delved into their classics. During those years, there were three new, young filmmakers who were deemed to be the top directors of their generation: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Peter Bogdanovich.
Scorsese gave significant roles to Black actors in his films such as MEAN STREETS and NEW YORK, NEW YORK. Spielberg gave us the film adaptation of the acclaimed novel, THE COLOR PURPLE which brought Oscar nominations to three Black cast members. As for Bogdanovich, the only film of his I can recall that had a significant role for a Black actor is 1973's PAPER MOON. The story was set during the Great Depression. Like Hollywood films that were made during America's Great Depression, the 1930s, his Black character was a servant. A maid. P.J. Johnson played 'Imogene,' the teen maid to the busty carnival hootchie dancer, 'Trixie Delight,' played by Madeline Kahn. Those two actresses were terrific together. The brilliance of Johnson's performance is that she made her maid character subversive and smart. She took the old Hollywood trope of a Black maid being rather dim-witted and used that image that make seemingly innocent comments that would torpedo Miss Trixie's plans to sucker another dude out of his money. She had power. P.J.Johnson had great comedy timing with Madeline Kahn. Here's a clip.
PAPER MOON stars Madeline Kahn got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Little Tatum O'Neal won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
P.J. Johnson gave 'Imogene' a wit and a depth. It's a performance that still stands out in PAPER MOON. I don't know why Peter Bogdanovich didn't give her roles in some of his other films. He used Madeline Kahn, Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman and Burt Reynolds and more than one of his films. He used John Hillerman as a lawman in PAPER MOON and as a hotel manager in WHAT'S UP, DOC? I wonder why Bogdanovich didn't have more opportunities for Black actors. We didn't see any Black supporting or lead characters in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, DAISY MILLER, AT LONG LAST LOVE, WHAT'S UP, DOC?, in THEY ALL LAUGHED, 2014's SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY...or NICKELODEON.
In my college years, I went so see his 1976 film, NICKELODEON, a film about a ragtag film crew in Hollywood making movies during the silent screen era. The last 15 minutes of NICKELODEON are practically a valentine to D.W. Griffith's racist box office blockbuster, 1915's THE BIRTH OF A NATION. There is a long clip of the 1915 film with white actors in blackface. In Griffith's film, the Ku Klux Klan is portrayed as heroic. We see this clip during its movie premiere scene. THE BIRTH OF A NATION ends and the elegant movie audience breaks out into wild applause. The ragtag film crew is inspired.
As a college kid who'd been taking film journalism classes, I thought to myself "Does Peter Bogdanovich know that Black people go to see his movies?" I liked Peter Bogdanovich's other films, but found the end of NICKELODEON bothersome. Aside from that, no white film critic in print or on TV mentioned that business about a racist clip from THE BIRTH OF A NATION being celebrated. I cannot think of any white entertainment interviewer or reporter ever bringing that up when interviewing Bogdanovich then or even 30 years after the film's release.
To make my point, do this: Watch Peter Bogdanovich's 1976 comedy-drama, NICKELODEON. Then watch the first 10 minutes of the 2018 film, BlacKKKlansman, the Oscar-winning film directed and co-written by Spike Lee. Spike's movie, by the way, is based on a true story that was reported on NPR. Notice how Spike treats clips from D.W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION. They are seen behind Alec Baldwin who plays an obviously racist narrator.
As for P.J. Johnson who gave a memorable and highly quotable performance in a Peter Bogdanovich classic, she should be invited to appear onstage as a guest for a TCM (Turner Classic Movies) Film Festival interview.
When I attended a critics' screening of JUNO starring Elliott Page (then Ellen), seeing that teen pregnancy comedy was the highlight of my afternoon that day in New York City. I felt that Page's performance was fabulous. So did the Academy as it brought Page an Oscar nomination. If I recall accurately, I was the only Black person at that screening and, at times, felt like I was the only person laughing out loud. Some of the veteran White male film critics sat through the movie like they were being audited. Maybe they were laughing on the inside.
My second favorite Page performance is in a film that marked the directorial debut of actress now talk show host, Drew Barrymore. This girl power comedy did moderate business at the box office. To me, it's a fun movie, well-acted and well-directed, that made for an entertaining couple of hours at the movies. Page starred as Bliss, an independent Texas teen with a deadpan expression who seems to be on the leash of her beauty pageant-obsessed mother. The mother drags her to beauty parlors and stores to prepare her for local pageant competitions. Bliss is miserable. As she says to her clueless mother, "Shoes are a gateway drug."
Bliss wants to be a roller derby queen. She needs to break away and follow her own spirit. Drew Barrymore has a supporting role in the movie and she did one mighty fine job as director. The 2009 comedy is called WHIP IT.
The WHIP IT cast includes Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon,Marcia Gay Harden as the mom and Daniel Stern as the supportive, understanding dad. If, some weekend, you just feel like being a couch potato, I recommend seeing this movie. Make it a double feature with the Oscar-nominated 1979 coming-of-age comedy, BREAKING AWAY. That movie, about four Indiana guys who just graduated from high school and don't know what to do with their lives, was made on a low budget and did really big business at the box office. One of the teen friends is obsessed with an Italian cycling team and joins their competitive sport. In the cast are Dennis Quaid, Dennis Christopher, Jackie Earle Haley and Daniel Stern. This, too, is a movie worth-seeing. It's full of humor and heart. When you watch it, pay attention to the Indiana teen played by Daniel Stern. If you see him in 1979's BREAKING AWAY, you will fully grasp the brilliance of Drew Barrymore casting him as the dad in 2009's WHIP IT.
I have a longtime dear friend (Mary in Jacksonville Beach, Florida) who had a great comment about Eddie Murphy in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR years ago. A comment that I feel was and is quite accurate. She said, "If Robert De Niro had done THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and played all those parts, he'd have gotten an Oscar nomination for Best Actor." I know Murphy is famous for being a comedian, but he's also a good actor. Yes, he got a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing the self-destructive singer in DREAMGIRLS, but his acting depth still feels overlooked by Hollywood in my opinion. Did you see him on Netflix in 2019's comedy/drama biopic, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME? Fabulous! I watched it three times and belly-laughed with each viewing. The Oscars totally ignored that cast -- and that cast deserved some Oscar nomination recognition.
Yes, YOU PEOPLE has some "politically incorrect" language, nonetheless is had me laughing in the first five minutes. Jonah Hill's character trading whispered insults with his sister at a Yom Kippur service broke me up. He's good and so is Murphy as the strict, reserved Afro-centric dad who always speaks in a low register as he remains frosty towards his possible future son-in-law.
I grew up near the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw area. My parents shopped at FedCo when it was there. (You Angelenos reading this may remember FedCo which, by the way, got a very funny mention in DOLEMITE IS MY NAME). YOU PEOPLE shows the L.A. that I know and miss.
About Jonah Hill as Ezra. Do you watch MSNBC weekday afternoons? Ever see THE BEAT with Ari Melber? You know how Melber can be reporting on a serious and complicated national news story, yet he'll go out of his way to quote some hip hop rap lyrics done by, say, Flava Flav or Salt-N-Pepa to keep it real? You sit there and go "Oh, Lord, Ari. Can't you drop in some Edward R. Murrow or James Baldwin occasionally?" Well, that's kinda like Ezra.
There are laughs and, in the last act, some truths and lots of heart. YOU PEOPLE is on Netflix and runs a little under 2 hours. I had a lot o' fun watching it. Murphy's THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and DOLEMITE IS MY NAME are also on Netflix.
