Mini Monday #7

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 13, 2011

Categories | Actors, Mini Mondays

James Garner and his custom Mini Cooper Morris S (1966)

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Seth Holt’s DANGER ROUTE (1967)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | May 19, 2011

Categories | Movie Reviews, Actors, British Cinema, Spies & Secret Agents, Amicus Productions, Movie Morlocks, TCM, Richard Johnson, Carol Lynley, Seth Holt

Top: Richard Johnson and Carol Lynley
Bottom: Barbara Bouchet and Diana Dors

After hearing the news about John Walker’s death recently I started thinking a lot about ’60s spy films and I got the urge to watch Deadlier Than the Male (1967) again. Afterward I started obsessing over the male lead, Richard Johnson.

I’ve always liked Richard Johnson but I often forget about how many terrific movies he’s appeared in. It’s easy to take him for granted. After turning down the role of James Bond, Johnson was never offered the kind of career defining roles that could have made him a bigger star like Sean Connery. But while I was looking over his filmography I was reminded of what a fascinating career Johnson’s had. He appeared in a lot of great films besides Deadlier Than the Male and its sequel, Some Girls Do (1969) including The Haunting (1963), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), Operation Crossbow (1965), La strega in amore (1966), The Night Child (1975), Hennessy (1975), The Comeback (1978) and Zombie (1979) just to name a few. In some ways Richard Johnson’s filmography is richer and more interesting than Sean Connery’s.

Over at the Movie Morlocks I decided to share some thoughts about Johnson and his starring role in Seth Holt’s Danger Route (1967), which is currently streaming at Netflix. It’s a thoughtful low-budget spy film produced by Amicus with a terrific cast that includes Carol Lynley, Diana Dors and Barbara Bouchet. Please follow the link to read more about Danger Route.
- He Is A Weapon: Danger Route (1967) @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

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An Evening with Terence Stamp

by Kimberly Lindbergs | May 5, 2011

Categories | Actors, Italian Cinema, Terence Stamp, Movie Morlocks, TCM, Film Festivals

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending an event titled “An Evening with Terence Stamp” that took place during the 2011 San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre. Regular Cinebeats’ readers are probably well aware that Stamp is one of my favorite actors so I was overjoyed to get the opportunity to see him discuss his career in person. The evening was topped of with a showing of one of my favorite Terence Stamp films, Fellini’s Toby Dammit (1968). You can read a brief account of my amazing evening at the Movie Morlocks this week.
- An Evening with Terence Stamp @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

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Michael Sarrazin 1940-2011

by Kimberly Lindbergs | April 22, 2011

Categories | News, Actors, Movie Morlocks, TCM

There’s been a lot of surprising celebrity deaths in the last six months and frankly it’s become a bit overwhelming trying to keep track of them all. We’re only 4 months into 2011 and we’ve already lost John Barry, Tura Satana, Anne Francis, Susannah York, Peter Yates, Jane Russell, Farley Granger, Michael Gough, Sidney Lumet and Dame Elizabeth Taylor just to name a few. On April 17th actor Michael Sarrazin passed away and I decided to write a little bit about some of my favorite Sarrazin films for the Movie Morlocks this week. Sarrazin appeared in a batch of films made during the late ’60s and early ’70s that I’ve always enjoyed but they’ve often been overlooked and largely forgotten. Sarrazin never received the acclaim that many of his contemporaries did but he was a popular and promising young actor who seemed to fade from the public eye in the ’80s.
- Michael Sarrazin 1940-2011 @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

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Mini Monday #3

by Kimberly Lindbergs | April 11, 2011

Categories | Actors, Peter Sellers, Mini Mondays

Peter Sellers and his custom designed 1963 Mini Cooper

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Mini Mondays #2

by Kimberly Lindbergs | April 4, 2011

Categories | Actors, Laurence Harvey, Mini Mondays

Laurence Harvey and his Wood & Pickett Morris Cooper S

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Mini Monday #1

by Kimberly Lindbergs | March 21, 2011

Categories | Actors, Steve McQueen, Mini Mondays

Steve McQueen and his 1967 Austin Mini Cooper S 1275

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It’s Women’s History Month

by Kimberly Lindbergs | March 10, 2011

Categories | Books, Actors, American Cinema, Actresses, Movie Morlocks, TCM

Top: Lon Chaney and Roman Navarro
Bottom: Joan Crawford and Anna May Wong
All photographs by Ruth Harriet Louise

In case you haven’t heard, it’s Women’s History Month, so this week I decided to focus my attention on one of Hollywood’s little known female pioneers, studio photographer Ruth Harriet Louise. Louise was MGM’s chief portrait photographer and the first woman to hold that position at a major Hollywood studio. Between 1925 and 1930 she photographed some of the MGM’s most iconic stars including Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Roman Navarro, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer and Anna May Wong. She died much to young in 1940 at age 37 but she left an incredible body of work behind. If you would like to know more about Ruth Harriet Louise you’ll find my latest piece about this fascinating woman and her brief but impressive career at TCM’s Movie Morlocks.
- Hollywood’s First Woman of Photography: Ruth Harriet Louise @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

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It’s That Time Again

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 27, 2011

Categories | News, Rants & Raves, Actors, Oscars

It’s that time again - Oscar night is here! And for the third year in a row I’ll be “live tweeting” the show. If you want to follow along or join in the fun you can find me on Twitter here.

Update 2/28: I wanted to update this with some more thoughts about last nights Oscar show but I managed to erase my previous post. Que Sera, Sera! I will mention again that I’m especially happy that Colin Firth won Best Actor last night. He should have won last year for A Single Man but his performance as the stammering king was mighty impressive. He’s a terrific actor who has been delivering consistently great work in films for decades such as Another Country (1984), A Month in the Country (1987), Apartment Zero (1988), Trauma (2004), etc.

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