Leonard Maltin

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Errol Flynn Redux

By Leonard Maltin
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March 18, 2010 4:00 AM
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2 Comments

After my holiday trip to Australia and New Zealand I wrote about Errol Flynn’s home town of Hobart, Tasmania and printed some photos of the newly-named Errol Flynn Reserve. But it seems I was under-informed about local interest in the swashbuckling star. Here’s an e-mail I received from Steve Randell:

“My wife Genene and I run the Errol Flynn Society of Tasmania and we still do tours of his haunts around Hobart whenever we can. We just love to share Errol with visitors; I drive a coach and whenever possible let the passengers know that Errol was born and raised here in Hobart and tell a few stories as we travel Tasmania. We started the society because Genene—

By Leonard Maltin
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March 17, 2010 4:00 AM
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3 Comments

Like anyone who’s spent much of his life in libraries and archives, hearing a young person claim that you can find “everything you need” to do research online is upsetting, to put it mildly. One can easily find simple information, and misinformation, but if you’ve devoted hours and days digging through vintage film publications or studio production files you know that acres of primary research materials don’t exist on the Internet.

Even if you’re lucky enough to have access to great collections like the ones held by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, or the New York Public Library in Manhattan, you’re limited to how many hours or days you can spend taking notes and making photocopies.

One dedicated film scholar and archivist is trying to change all that. David Pierce has initiated a privately-funded project called Media History Digital Library, which is described—

By Leonard Maltin
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March 11, 2010 7:15 AM
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3 Comments

The fact that film critics are losing their jobs is no longer considered breaking news; rather, it’s become a protracted process of mourning over the last few years. But when Variety, the trade journal once known as “the Bible of show business,” fired Todd McCarthy on Monday, after thirty-one years, it sent shock waves through the film industry. Civilians who don’t read “the trades” may wonder what the fuss is all about. Todd was usually the first critic to voice his opinion of new movies in print (along with his counterpart at the Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt). His opinion had weight; it mattered.

By Leonard Maltin
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March 8, 2010 6:53 AM
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0 Comments

The gifted and prolific Alexandre Desplat, whose scores this year alone include Fantastic Mr. Fox, A Prophet, Coco Before Chanel, Julie & Julia, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, poses with Academy music branch governor Arthur Hamilton, whose many songs include the standard “Cry Me a River.”

By Leonard Maltin
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March 4, 2010 5:00 AM
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15 Comments

If you attend the new production of Alice in Wonderland, you’ll not only see Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and other well-known performers onscreen; you’ll hear some familiar voices, especially if you’re fond of British actors. I pinpointed Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar right away; his delivery is unmistakable. But it was my wife Alice—the real Anglophile in the family—who identified Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat and Timothy Spall as Bayard the hound. (After all, she listened to Fry read the Harry Potter books; he’s on the British audiobooks while Jim Dale did the American versions.) Neither one of us could i.d. Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, nor did we realize that two distinguished veterans, Michael Gough and Christopher Lee, provided the voices of the Dodo Bird and Jabberwocky, respectively.

By Leonard Maltin
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March 3, 2010 5:00 AM
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2 Comments

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has always held great appeal for Hollywood. Johnny Depp is a big lure, but back in 1933 Paramount put almost all of the studio’s star-power into its production, including Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, and virtually every actor it had under contract—including W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty.

By Leonard Maltin
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February 26, 2010 8:28 AM
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2 Comments

Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection (1980)

By Leonard Maltin
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February 17, 2010 6:20 AM
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1 Comment

By Leonard Maltin
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February 16, 2010 2:15 AM
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0 Comments

In contrast to Oscar night, when everyone is tense and on parade, the atmosphere at the annual Oscar Nominees’ Luncheon is relaxed and celebratory. Once the curtains are drawn there are no television cameras inside and everyone is in high spirits. I feel awfully lucky to be invited to attend every year.

By Leonard Maltin
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February 16, 2010 1:19 AM
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0 Comments

One of the highlights of the just-wrapped Santa Barbara Film Festival was a matinee screening of the underrated 1975 feature Posse, produced and directed by its star, Kirk Douglas, who agreed to appear on stage with the film’s number-one fan, Quentin Tarantino, in what festival director Roger Durling dubbed a “Q&K.”

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Categories

Errol Flynn Redux

A Gold Mine For Film Research

A Tale of Two Critics

Oscar's Music Masters

Famous Voices For "Alice"—Now And Then

Hollywood's All-Star 'Alice'

Good Movies—Resurrected

Talking Movies on NPR's All Things Considered

Inside The Oscar Nominees Luncheon

Quentin Tarantino and Kirk Douglas Do A Q&K

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