BMP In Remembrance of Budd Schulberg (American screenwriter)...

Budd Schulberg
(March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009)


Budd Schulberg, who died on 5 August, 2009, was an American screenwriter who won an Oscar for the Best Motion Picture film On the Waterfront (1954).

The film, which starred Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Rod Steiger, told a tragic and brutal story of mob rule on the wrong side of side town. It was based on a series of articles uncovering the corruption and immorality of Manhattan and Brooklyn published in the New York Sun in 1949.

He contributed stories of screen plays to nearly 20 films during the 1940s and ’50s, and also wrote novels.

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Film Focus: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)...

Notable Film Fact(s):
The film is an adaptation of the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The movie was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, Screenplay) since It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991, by The Silence of the Lambs.

The movie was filmed at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon, which was the setting of the novel.

Kirk Douglas originated the role of McMurphy in a presidential stage production, and then bought the film rights, hoping to play McMurphy on the screen. He passed the production rights to his son, Michael Douglas, who decided his father was too old for the role. Kirk was reportedly angry at his son for a time afterward because of this.

Actor James Caan was originally offered the McMurphy role. The role of Nurse Ratched was turned down by six actresses, Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Angela Lansbury, until Louise Fletcher accepted casting only a week before filming began.

Film Synopsis
Randle Patrick McMurphy (Nicholson), a criminal who has been sentenced to a fairly short prison term, decides to have himself declared insane so he'll be transferred to a mental institution, where he expects to serve the rest of his term in comfort and luxury.

His ward in the mental institution is run by an unyielding tyrant, Nurse Ratched (Fletcher), who has cowed the patients, most of whom are there by choice, into dejected institutionalized submission. McMurphy becomes ensnared in a number of power games with Nurse Ratched for the hearts and minds of the patients.

Throughout his short stay at the hospital, McMurphy forms deep friendships with two of his fellow patients: Billy Bibbit (Dourif), a suicidal, stuttering manchild whom Ratched has humiliated and dominated into a quivering mess; and "Chief" Bromden (Sampson), a Native American who has schizophrenia. In the former, McMurphy sees a younger brother figure whom he wants to teach to have fun, while the latter is his only real confidant, as they both understand what it is like to be treated into submission.

McMurphy later realizes that Chief can speak and has actually been faking his situation at the ward the whole time. This leads McMurphy to allow Chief in on his escape plan. One night, McMurphy sneaks into the nurse's station and calls his girlfriend to bring booze and assist in his escape. She brings a girlfriend, and both enter the ward. The patients drink, while Billy flirts with McMurphy's girlfriend.

Nurse Ratched commands the nurses to clean up the patients after the mess from the partying. She threatens to tell Billy's mother about his behavior and when left alone momentarily, he commits suicide. After McMurphy sees what the ward has done to his friend, he explodes into a violent rage, strangling Nurse Ratched until she is near death. She survives, but McMurphy is taken away for a lobotomy operation.

Chief, unwilling to leave McMurphy behind, suffocates his vegetable-like friend with a pillow. He lifts a heavy marble fountain and, hurling it through a barred window, escapes to Canada.

Director:
Miloš Forman

Producers:
Michael Douglas
Saul Zaentz

Screenplay:
Lawrence Hauben
Bo Goldman

Cast:
Jack Nicholson
William Redfield
Brad Dourif
Will Sampson
Danny DeVito
Scatman Crothers
Christopher Lloyd
Louise Fletcher

Distributor:
United Artists

Release Date(s): November 19, 1975

Running time: 133 minutes

My View Rating: *****

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BMP Actor Spotlight: Bette Davis...

Bette Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis on the 5th of April, 1908 and died on the 6th of October, 1989.

Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.

Davis began acting in films in 1931, making her film debut in The Bad Sister. Her final film appearance was in Wicked Stepmother, released in 1989, the year of her death. During her 68 years as a film actress, Davis appeared in over ninety movies.

Best Motion Picture Association:
Although Davis was an acclaimed actress, she has only one connection with the Best Motion Picture of the Academy Awards. She starred in a leading role as Margo Channing in the film All About Eve (Best Picture, 1950). And she was nominated as Best Actress for that role.

Academy Awards and Nominations
Won Award for Best Actress:
1935 - Dangerous
1938 - Jezebel

Nominated for Best Actress:
1939 - Dark Victory
1940 - The Letter
1941 - The Little Foxes
1942 - Now, Voyager
1944 - Mr. Skeffington
1950 - All About Eve
1952 - The Star
1962 - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

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Film Focus: All About Eve (1950)...

Notable Film Fact(s):
It was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards - more than any other picture in Oscar history, until Titanic (1997). The film won six Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (George Sanders), Best Director (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), Best Screenplay (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), Best Sound Recording, and Best B/W Costume Design. Four actresses in the film were nominated (and all lost). It holds the record for the film with the most female acting nominees:

• Best Actress (two) - Bette Davis and Anne Baxter
• Best Supporting Actress (two) - Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter

Film Synopsis
This film is a realistic, dramatic depiction of show business and backstage life of Broadway and the New York theater.

Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is one of the biggest stars on Broadway, but despite her unmatched success, she is beginning to show her age. After a performance one night, Margo's close friend Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), the wife of the play's author Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), brings in besotted fan Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) to meet Margo. Eve claims to be Margo's biggest fan who tells the group gathered in Margo's dressing room - Karen and Lloyd, Margo's lover Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill), and Margo's maid Birdie (Thelma Ritter) - that she followed Margo's theatrical tour to New York after seeing her in a play in San Francisco.

Margo quickly befriends Eve, who willingly offers to assist Margo in small ways. Margo soon offers Eve a job as assistant, leaving Birdie, who dislikes Eve, feeling put out.

Eve begins working to supplant Margo, scheming to become her understudy and taking advantage when Margo is tricked into missing a performance. Eve, knowing in advance she will go on, invites the city's theatre critics to the theatre that night. Eve makes a pass at Bill, but he rejects her. She then schemes to secure the role of Cora - despite the fact that Lloyd has written this new character for Margo - through blackmail. Eve attempts to climb higher by using theater critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders). Just before the out-of-town opening of her play Eve faces DeWitt with her next plan - to marry playwright Lloyd Richards after he divorces his wife. DeWitt is infuriated that Eve has outwitted his own plans and reveals that he knows her backstory is all lies.

Eve becomes a Broadway star and is presented with an award for her performance in the role of Cora. She arrives home and encounters Phoebe, a high-school girl who admires her immensely; who had sneaked into her apartment. The doorbell rings, and Eve, too tired to answer it, accepts Phoebe's offer of help. At the door is DeWitt, returning with Eve's forgotten award. In a glance, he takes in Phoebe and all her shallow ambition, and as he leaves he smiles sardonically, knowing that the cycle is beginning all over again.


Director:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Producers:
Darryl F. Zanuck

Screenplay:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Cast:
Bette Davis
Anne Baxter
George Sanders
Celeste Holm
Gary Merrill
Hugh Marlowe
Thelma Ritter
Gregory Ratoff
Barbara Bates
Marilyn Monroe

Distributor:
20th Century Fox

Release Date(s): October 13, 1950

Running time: 138 minutes

My View Rating: ***

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BMP Scene Note and Blooper: A Beautiful Mind...

Nobel Prize Scene

Mathematician John Nash is awarded the Noble Prize for his research in governing dynamics. (Stockholm, Sweden)

Note:

• The Nobel Prize ceremony was filmed in Prudential Hall at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, NJ.
• Nobel Prize winners do not make an acceptance speech, but in the movie the John Nash character did. The directors acknowledge this, but state that they wanted one for the dramatic benefit of the film.
• The real John Nash didn't receive the Nobel prize alone, but with colleague Reinhard Selten and Hungarian-born János Harsányi.
  
  

Blooper:
When John Nash gets standing ovations from the Nobel-prize audience, you can clearly see that the name Nobel is misspelled ("Noble") on the platform which he stands behind.

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Film Focus: A Beautiful Mind (2002)

Notable Film Fact(s):

The film is loosely based on the life of John Forbes Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, who had a life-long struggle with schizophrenia. The narrative of the film differs considerably from the actual events of Nash's life. The film has been criticized for this, but the filmmakers had consistently said that the film was not meant to be a literal representation.

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards. In addition to winning the Best Picture Award (Brian Grazer and Ron Howard), it also won the following:
Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Jennifer Connelly
Best Director - Ron Howard
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published - Akiva Goldsman

It was nominated but didn't win the following:
Best Actor in a Leading Role - Russell Crowe
Best Editing - Mike Hill and Daniel P. Hanley
Best Makeup - Greg Cannom and Colleen Callaghan
Best Music, Original Score - James Horner

Film Synopsis
This film is based loosely on the book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar and tells the true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. Russell Crowe stars as the brilliant but arrogant Professor Nash. The professor seems guaranteed a great future in the early '50s after he marries beautiful student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and makes a remarkable advancement in the foundations of "game theory". His work carries him to the brink of international acclaim.

Later on, John is visited by Agent Parcher (Ed Harris) from the CIA, who wants to recruit him for code-breaking activities. However, Nash's perceptions of reality are cloudy at best. He struggles to maintain his sanity and Alicia suspects a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.

Battling decades of illness with the loyal Alicia by his side, Nash is ultimately able to gain some control over his mental state, and eventually goes on to triumphantly win the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Director:
Ron Howard

Producers:
Brian Grazer
Ron Howard

Screenplay:
Akiva Goldsman

Cast:
Russell Crowe
Jennifer Connelly
Ed Harris
Paul Bettany
Christopher Plummer
Josh Lucas

Distributor:
Universal Pictures (Domestic)
DreamWorks Pictures (International)

Release Date(s): December 21, 2001

Running time: 134 min

My View Rating: ***

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BMP Trivial Fact: Best Picture Title with single word starting with "C"....

Over the past 81 years, there have been 5 winners of Best Picture in the Academy Awards that have a one word title, starting with the letter "C":

1. Cimarron (1931)
2. Cavalcade (1933)
3. Casablanca (1943)
4. Chicago (2002)
5. Crash (2005)

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New 10 Best Picture Oscar nominations...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Wednesday June 24th, 2009, that it would double the number of Best Motion Picture nominees to 10 from 5, returning to a practice it used more than a half-century ago, when the number of films released was much larger.

Sidney Ganis, the Academy’s President, announced this change at a morning press conference at the group’s headquarters in Beverly Hills.

This change will in effect for the 82nd Academy Awards on March 7th, 2010.

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The Best Motion Pictures...

The first Academy Awards ceremony took place out of the public eye during an Academy banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929. Since then it has grown into a very popular event watched by millions of movie fans worldwide. Today, there are approximately 25 categories that recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers.

However, the most popular category is Best Motion Picture. The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is considered the most important of the Academy Awards, as it is the final result of the collaborative producing, directing, acting, and writing efforts put forth for a film. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only to vote on the final ballot, but also to nominate.

Over the past 81 years, there has been a wide variety of winners. Like most movie fans, I have a great interest in information about these great films. Although there is a Best Picture every year, there always a thing or two that comes up about past winners. Therefore, my blog is a way of chatting/discussing trivia info on the past winners.

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