Kat’s Film and Book Reviews

Actress Lynn Redgrave died Sunday after a 7-year battle with breast cancer.  She was 67 years old.

Image courtesty of scad.edu

Lynn was the sister of Vanessa and Corin, all of them children of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.  Corin died just last month, but Vanessa survives.  The siblings, especially the sisters, were always close, and all of them insist that any rivalry between them was made up by the press.  Lynn was a quieter, less flashy talent than Vanessa, but she always worked, and was nominated twice for Oscars.  Her first one was for 1968’s Georgy Girl, where she competed against her sister, but both lost to Elizabeth Taylor.  She was also known for her flexibility and sense of humor, appearing on sitcoms as well as in dramatic Oscar-nom material.  Her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination was for playing the brusque housekeeper in Gods and Monsters, but she took roles on The Love Boat, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty, too.

It’s been a terrible year for the Redgrave family.  Niece Natasha Richardson died in a ski accident last year, then Corin last month, and now Lynn.  I’m sorry she’s gone; she was a steady, hardworking, non-pretentious presence in a crazy, self-aggrandizing business.  I wish her family every comfort and blessing as they go on without her.

Peter Graves, who would have turned 84 this week, died Sunday afternoon at his home.  He had just returned from brunch with his wife and kids, when he collapsed outside his home.  His daughter administered CPR and his doctor arrived, but they were unable to revive him from an apparent heart attack.

Peter Graves had that heroic voice, face, and presence that made everyone trust him.  He said once that friends often encouraged him to run for office because he looked so much like a trustworthy person.  Some of the most famous roles of his career include the Nazi spy in 1953’s Stalag 17, Jim Phelps–the leader of the Mission Impossible team in the long-running TV show, and airline pilot Captain Oveur in 1980’s Airplane!

He was completely classy, and I’m sorry he’s gone.  I hope he’s accepting a beautiful new mission right now.

Image courtesy of Team Sugar--young, cute, fresh faced Corey in the 80's

80’s teen star Corey Haim has died of an “accidental” overdose.  Not much is known of the circumstances of Haim’s death.  At about 3:30 AM, his mother found him in responsive in his apartment and called an ambulance.  The ambulance took him to Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, where he was pronounced dead at about 4:00 AM.  The police were then called in to investigate.

Unfortunately, Haim’s death can’t be a surprise to anyone.  A tragedy, God knows, but one 25 years in the making.  For all the enjoyable acting he did in the 80’s in such films as The Lost Boys, Murphy’s Romance, and License to Drive, he made his reputation not as an actor or even as a child star, but as an out-of-control addict whose attempts to stay in the public eye grew increasingly more pathetic as the years went by.

It’s an all-too-familiar story–the child or teen actor who gets caught up in the corruption and drug lifestyle so freely offered to him in Hollywood.  It doesn’t have to be that way; a lot of kids in that position made good choices and transitioned to admirable careers.  But Corey wasn’t one of them.  I hope he finally finds the peace and freedom I can only assume he was seeking all these years.

The drug bloat--nobody's best look

Why do we Americans take such delight in British titles and honors (sorry, titles and honours)? I don’t know, maybe because we don’t have any of our own. Maybe because the titles we do have are boring. Who would rather have a Secretary of the Treasury when you could have a Chancellor of the Exchequer?

Sir Patrick Stewart

Two of my favorite British Hollywood-types—Patrick Stewart and Peter Jackson—have been knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Both have made incredible contributions to film. Sir Patrick is best known for his role in Star Trek: The Next Generation, of course, but his list of theatrical accomplishments include stints with the Royal Shakespeare Company and shows playing in London’s West End. One of my favorites of his roles is his Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1999 made-for-TV version of A Christmas Carol.

Sir Peter Jackson

Sir Peter did The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is a personal favorite of mine, but he’s done a lot more than that. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing The Lovely Bones, though it’s gotten pretty mixed reviews, and I can’t wait to see The Hobbit.

Congratulations, milords!

Brittany Murphy, best known for her roles in Clueless and 8 Mile, died this morning at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.  She was 32.

Image Courtesy of the Insider.com

Details are still sketchy, but at this point the official word is that Murphy died of cardiac arrest.  And, really, it’s not unheard of for a young woman to have a heart attack; I know a 17-year-old woman who had a heart attack a few months ago.  But when a person dies of  heart troubles so young, the unspoken implication is that drugs are involved (as was the case with my 17-year-old acquaintance).  Nobody is saying that about Murphy at this point.  I haven’t exactly been following her career closely (though 8 Mile is one of my favorite movies), so I can’t be sure about that.

Murphy herself has denied any drug use.  This is from an article in Entertainment Weekly:

Murphy had been plagued by tabloid rumors of drug abuse in recent years. After appearing as a speed addict in the 2002 film Spun, Murphy was dogged by speculation that her extreme weight loss was due to a cocaine dependency. She denied the rumors in Jane Magazine in 2005. “No, just for the record I have never tried it in my entire life, I’ve never even seen it, and I don’t leave the house too much, except to go to work.”

Still, she has been interviewed recently and sounded excited, happy, and looking forward to the future.  She married in 2007, and was quoted just a few weeks ago as saying she’d like to have a child.  “As far as having a New Year’s resolution, I’d love to have a child next year,” she said at the time. “But that’s kind of a large one!”

Here is an article from EW, profiling Murphy’s 10 Best Film Roles.  We just watched Clueless the other night; it’s one of my daughters’ favorites.  She was great, and critically acclaimed, in her role in 8 Mile, too.  She was also an accomplished musician, and I just found out she played Luanne in “King of the Hill!”  What a multi-talented person!

Image Courtesy of AceShowbiz.com

I’ll try to keep updated if any more news comes out.  Right now our condolences go to her husband, her mother, and all of her family and friends.  Rest in peace, Brittany.

Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Jones died Thursday at her home in Malibu.

Jones in Duel in the Sun, courtesy of movieactors.com

My first exposure to Jones came through my love for Fred Astaire.  Some trivia game I was playing asked, “Who was Fred Astaire’s last on-screen dance partner?”  The answer was Jennifer Jones, with whom he danced in her very last role in the 1974 movie The Towering Inferno. I saw the scene sometime later, and it’s just a sweet slow dance between an older couple.  Very nice.

Jones won her Oscar for her first major movie role, playing St. Bernadette in the 1943 the movie The Song of Bernadette (not “The Son of Bernadette,” as some sources have erroneously reported it.  C’mon, people!).  She was nominated for the Oscar four more times after that, and quit working in films after making A Farewell to Arms in 1957.  She did, however, return for that last dance with Astaire in 1974.

Courrtesy of Youimobile.com

She married 3rd husband Norton Simon in 1971, and they lived chiefly in India and SouthEast Asia.  Jones fell in love with the art of the region and began an extensive collection that soon became the core of the Norton Simon Museum’s collection of art.  She ran the museum from the time of his death in 1993 until 2003, but remained on the board and active in museum affairs.

Jones’  life was not all perfect, however.  She had one daughter with producer David O. Selznik, Mary, who committed suicide at age 22 by jumping out of a window.  Jones’ grief at this event caused her to attempt suicide herself.  After her recovery, and keeping in mind all the struggles Mary had faced with her mental illnesses, Jones began to direct her considerable wealth toward supporting mental health causes and research.  She was also a strong supporter of cancer research and the arts.

Jones with Astaire in The Towering Inferno, courtesy of movieactors.com

Her grace, class, and inner and outer beauty will be missed.  Rest in peace.

It’s real this time.  The brave 57-year-old actor who has been suffering from pancreatic cancer for two years, passed away this evening in Los Angeles, surrounded by his wife and family.  Rumors have followed him, often announcing his death prematurely, since his cancer was diagnosed 20 months ago, but Swayze continued to work, even while he was in rigorous traditional and alternative treatments for his disease.

I wondered if we were in his last days…and I know this will sound weird, but it’s because I saw a picture of him in a supermarket tabloid the other day.  The tabloids are the only ones that will tell us things like that–they did the same thing with Paul Newman just before his death–and they were right.  I admired so much the way Swayze was always realistic about his disease, but it didn’t let it stop him from doing whatever he could handle, including filming an entire season of a new TV show in which he was the Star (A&E’s The Beast).

I’m really sad to see him go; he was such an important figure for people who grew up in the 80’s.  He was Darry, everyone’s older brother, and he was Johnny Castle, the dancing rebel from Dirty Dancing.  He was the one whose fingers entwined with Demi Moore’s in the most erotic pottery session ever.   Perhaps most iconically, he was the one who announced “It’s my way, or the highway.”

For the people who knew him and loved him, he was, of course, so much more than that.  He was married to his wife, Lisa, for 34 years, and she was by his side through the ups and downs of his acting career, his rehab for alcoholism, and his good and bad days of cancer treatment.  She was by his side this evening as he left this life for the next.

Go with God, Patrick. Thank you for the good years.  Our prayers are with Lisa and all your friends and family.

This is creating a lot of buzz…and a lot of it isn’t supportive.  Steven Spielberg plans to remake the classic 1950 movie, Harvey, which starred Jimmy Stewart and Josephine Hull.

The questions buzzing out there are, “Who could possibly hope to replace Jimmy Stewart in this role”  and “Who would even dare to try?”

Film lovers are understandably nervous.  It IS somewhat reassuring that the project’s going to be in the hands of Spielberg, who is one of the best filmmakers of this generation, and has a proven track record.  I’d feel even better if it were in Peter Jackson’s or Tim Burton’s hands, but I would settle for Spielberg without too many reservations. 

Besides the obvious casting questions (and Hull’s not going to be easy to recast, either–her role is almost as iconic as Stewart’s), the anxiety also seems to center around questions of updating.  Can you update Harvey and still have it be Harvey?  Will there be sex, CGI, or action sequences?  (I am squeezing my eyes shut, crossing my fingers, and whispering, “please, please please, don’t let Spielberg put those things in.”)

For those of you who don’t know the story (because you apparently grew up at sea with no satellite), it centers on a middle-aged man named Elwood P. Dowd (“here’s my card…”).  Elwood is charming and social, drinks constantly, and has a true love of his fellow human beings.  He’s liked wherever he goes.  His sister, Vera, however, is embarassed by him, because Elwood’s constant companion is a 6 foot tall invisible white rabbit named Harvey.  The play centers around the “sane” people’s dilemma of what to do about Elwood and his “delusions.”  Elwood’s character is innocent and open, and the whole film rests on the fact that he sure doesn’t seem delusional. 

In the film community, the consensus seems to be, “Just leave it the heck alone, but if you can’t, you’d better do it right!”

I completely agree with that, leaning more toward “leave it the heck alone.”  Can’t some things just stand as they are?  Does everything have to be “fixed,” “improved,” “remade?”  Do we even have the capability of doing justice to Elwood P. Dowd anymore?

Image Courtesy of 353 Reviews

But, okay, say that Spielberg loves this story and these characters as much as the rest of us do.  It’s possible.  So, he has to start casting it.

The pivotal question is, who could play Elwood P. Dowd?  Other roles matter, too, such as his sister, Vera and his niece, Myrtle Mae.  But I want to know what you think about Elwood most of all.

I can only think of one actor at the moment who could oull it off. Well, actually, two.. but hear me out before you freak out, okay? 

One is Steve Carell.  He’s funny, but he’s a GREAT actor when he’s allowed to play it straight.  Think of Dan in Real Life.  He was funny but not slapstick, poignant, desperate, deep, hopeful, and slightly pathetic.  He even brings a lot of that pathos to his role as Michael Scott in The Office, who anyone else would make us hate, but in Carell’s hands, we actually kind of like him even as we pity him.  Carrell could do it. 

The other one (we’re not freaking out, remember?) that I think could do it is Jim Carrey.  Again, when he’s not constrained by this stupid box Hollywood has put him in, he’s a very good actor.  Think of The Man in the Moon. Let him play it straight, and he’s got depth and charm there.

I can’t think of any other possibilities that are the right age.  It has to be someone who can do both comedy and depth–those actors are a rare breed.  I can think of a few older men who can do it–like Anthony Hopkins or Chris Cooper–but they’re too old.  John Travolta was in talks for it a while back, but that expired, and he’s not going to get it…thank GOD!  WIlliam H. Macy would be okay, but he’s too old.  Not that that will stop Hollywood.

So, who do you think?  Give me some ideas!

The last film that was made of the classic 60’s TV show, The Twilight Zone, was made by Warner Brothers in 1983.  That one was a series of short, self-contained film written, directed, and produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis, along with a few other directors.  At least one of those was a revision of an old Twilight Zone episode, but others were new, more “in the spirit” of the Twilight Zone.

Now WB is planning to do it again, but instead of Landis and Spielberg, it’s Ravich and DiCaprio.  Rand Ravich is a multitalented director and producer who has been hired by Leonardo Di Caprio’s Appian Way production corporation to screen-write the new film.

Sources say that this film will be different from the 1983 version of the Twilight Zone.  Instead of a collection of episodes, like the old TV show, DiCaprio and Ravich plan for this movie to be a single, long-playing narrative. DiCaprio is a life-long Twilight Zone fan and has apparently been looking to start this project for a long time.