BMP Actor Spotlight: Joan Crawford...

Joan Crawford was an American actress in film, television and theatre. She was born on March 23, 1905 and died on May 10, 1977.

Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925.

In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s she was labeled "box office poison".

After an absence from the screen, Crawford staged a comeback by starring in Mildred Pierce (1945), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1955, she became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company, through her marriage to company president Alfred Steele.

She continued acting in film and television regularly through the 1960s, when her performances became fewer; after the release of the British horror film Trog in 1970, Crawford retired from the screen. Following a public appearance in 1974, after which unflattering photographs were published, Crawford withdrew from public life and became more and more reclusive until her death in 1977.

Crawford married four times. Her first three marriages ended in divorce; the last ended with the death of husband Al Steele. She adopted five children, one of whom was reclaimed by his birth mother.

Best Motion Picture Association:
Although Joan Crawford acted in a large number of movies during the course of her career, she only appeared in one Best Motion Picture.

Grand Hotel (1932)

Academy Awards and Nominations

Won Best Actress:
Mildred Pierce (1945)

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Film Focus: Grand Hotel (1932)...

Notable Film Fact(s):
The film is based on the 1930 play of the same title and was adapted from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum.

When the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was the sole category in which it was nominated.

In 2007, Grand Hotel was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

The film was remade as Week-End at the Waldorf in 1945. It also served as the basis for the 1989 stage musical of the same title.

Film Synopsis:
Berlin's plushest, most expensive hotel is the setting where in the words of Dr. Otternschlag "People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.". The doctor is usually drunk so he missed the fact that Baron von Geigern is broke and trying to steal eccentric dancer Grusinskaya's pearls. He ends up stealing her heart instead.

Powerful German businessman Preysing brow beats Kringelein, one of his company's lowly bookkeepers but it is the terminally ill Kringelein who holds all the cards in the end. Meanwhile, the Baron also steals the heart of Preysing's mistress, Flaemmchen, but she doesn't end up with either one of them in the end.

Director:
Edmund Goulding

Producer:
Irving Thalberg

Screenplay:
William A. Drake
Béla Balázs

Cast:
Greta Garbo
John Barrymore
Joan Crawford
Wallace Beery
Lionel Barrymore
Lewis Stone
Jean Hersholt

Distributor:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Release Date(s): September 11, 1932

Running time: 112 minutes

My View Rating: ***

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BMP Actor Spotlight: Deborah Kerr....

Deborah Kerr, born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer, CBE was a British stage, television and film actress. She was born in Scotland on the 30th September, 1921 and died on the 16th October. 2007.

She was nominated six times for an Academy Award as Best Actress but never won. In 1994, however, she was cited by the Motion Picture Academy for a film career that always represented "Perfection, Discipline and Elegance". Amongst her most famous films were: The King and I, An Affair to Remember, From Here to Eternity, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison and Separate Tables.

She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture, The King and I, and she was also the recipient of honorary Academy, BAFTA and Cannes Film Festival awards.

Best Motion Picture Association:
Kerr appeared in one Best Motion Picture.

From Here To Eternity (1953)


Academy Awards and Nominations

Nominated for Best Actress:
Edward, My Son (1949)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
The King and I (1956)
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
Separate Tables (1958)
The Sundowners (1960)

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BMP Trivial Fact: Longest and Shortest Films to Win....

The longest movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture is Gone With the Wind (1939), a film based on the 1936 book by Margaret Mitchell, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The film lasted for about 238 minutes (2 minutes short of 4 hours) including the credits and the 2 intermissions (1 at the beginning, 1 in the middle).


The shortest movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture is Marty (1955), starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The total running time is 91 minutes. This movie was also the first best picture winner to have been based on a TV program. The story came from the 1953 TV programmed called "Marty".


Note: This fact is based on the first 81 years of the Academy Awards.

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Film Focus: Gandhi (1982)...

Notable Film Fact(s):

This is a biographical film based on the life of Mohandas Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century.

In addition to receiving the Academy Award for Best Picture, this film won seven other Academy Awards.

During pre-production, there was much speculation as to who would play the role of Gandhi. The choice was Ben Kingsley who is partly of Indian heritage (his father was Gujarati and his birth name is Krishna Bhanji).

During film production, approximately 400,000 extras were used in the funeral scene, the most for any film according to Guinness World Records.

Film Synopsis:
When Mohandas Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) first set foot in British India, he had already been to Britain and South Africa, and had created quite a stir for the betterment of the people.

In India, he realizes that he had first to live the life of a peasant to understand what it is to be an Indian. He is urged to take up the fight for India's independence from the British Empire. Gandhi agrees, and mounts a non-violent non-cooperation campaign of unprecedented scale, coordinating millions of Indians nationwide. This leads him to mobilize awareness of local industry, less dependence on imported material, the historic Dandee march for withdrawal of the salt tax, a fast unto death to stop the virtual slaughter of British troops, and be imprisoned several times.

His resolve was to work with stalwarts such as Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Sardar Valabhbhai Patel and Professor Gokhale to ensure first of all to get the British to quit India, and then run an Indian Government under the Congress party. Gandhi will soon realize that it is not enough to be just an Indian, for India has many facets - Muslim, Hindu and other religions.

Concerned over the inroads made by Gandhi to unite the Hindus, Muslims, and all others under a common umbrella, the British invited Jinnah for talks, and it is here that a seed was laid for a separate country called Pakistan. When Gandhi came to know about this, he pleaded with Jinnah to unite the Muslims, even take over as the first Prime Minister with his choice of Muslim candidates for Parliament, but separatist Jinnah had already made his mind. The World Wars of 1914 and 1944 having taken its toll on Europe, and on Britain in particular, the weary British finally decided to leave India in 1947 - not the India they had conquered - but an India that was ready to be divided in East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Now after the much awaited independence was the real test for Gandhi - a test that will make him or break him - as he started a fast unto death to try and stop the violence that was threatening to break out into a civil war.

Director:
Richard Attenborough

Producer:
Richard Attenborough

Screenplay:
John Briley

Cast:
Ben Kingsley
Rohini Hattangadi
Candice Bergen
Martin Sheen
Roshan Seth
John Gielgud
Trevor Howard
John Mills
Ian Bannen
Nigel Hawthorne
Daniel Day-Lewis

Distributor:
Columbia Pictures

Release Date(s):
India: 30 November 1982
United Kingdom: 3 December 1982
United States: 8 December 1982
Australia: 16 March 1983

Running time: 188 minutes

My View Rating: ****

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