Oscar-nominated screenwriter and producer Walter Bernstein, who survived the blacklist era by writing pseudonymous scripts for television and later wrote films including “Fail-Safe,” “The Front” and “Semi-Tough,” died on Jan. 22. He was 101.

Bernstein’s longtime friend and former WGA West president Howard Rodman shared the news of his death on Twitter Saturday. “Truly saddened to hear that Walter Bernstein – legendary screenwriter, and one of the great humans – died last night. He was 101. I feel so damn fortunate that three generations of our family got to know him.”

Truly saddened to hear that Walter Bernstein — legendary screenwriter, and one of the great humans — died last night. He was 101. I feel so damn fortunate that three generations of our family got to know him.

Here's Walter from 10 years ago, when he was a young man of 91. pic.twitter.com/yLGvTb3mJY

— Howard A. Rodman (@howardrodman) January 23, 2021

Bernstein’s promising writing career was...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

The Hollywood Blacklist, with Screenwriter Walter Bernstein\

When: Thursday, March 6, 6:30 pm

Where: The New School, The Auditorium at 66 West 12th St (between 5th and 6th Aves.)

Register: visit www.cencom.org, e-mail info@cencom.org or call (212) 686-5005

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, Sen. Joseph McCarthy carried out a witch hunt for Communists that led to the creation of the infamous Hollywood blacklist, resulting in 150 directors, actors, writers, and others in the entertainment business, being banned from making a living for over a decade.

Don't miss our screening of The Front, written by Walter Bernstein, who received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay in 1976, and directed by Martin Ritt. Both were victims of the blacklist themselves. The movie takes a comedic look at what happened during this dark period in American History. Screening to be followed by a conversation and Q&A.

The following is an essay featured in the anthology George Cukor - On/Off Hollywood (Capricci, Paris, 2013), for sale at www.capricci.fr.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will be running a complete retrospective on the director, "The Discreet Charm of George Cukor," in New York December 13, 2013 - January 7, 2014. Many thanks to David Phelps, Fernando Ganzo, and Camille Pollas for their generous permission.

The Second-hand Illusion:

Notes on Cukor

Above: The Chapman Report (1962), A Life of Her Own (1950)

“There’s always something about them that you don’t know that you’d like to know. Spencer Tracy had that. In fact, they do all have that – all the big ones have it. You feel very close to them but there is the ultimate thing withheld from you – and you want to find out.” —George Cukor1

“Can you tell what a woman’s like by just looking at her?” —The Chapman Report...

Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in ‘Mata Hari’: The wrath of the censors (See previous post: "Ramon Novarro in One of the Best Silent Movies.") George Fitzmaurice’s romantic spy melodrama Mata Hari (1931) was well received by critics and enthusiastically embraced by moviegoers. The Greta Garbo / Ramon Novarro combo — the first time Novarro took second billing since becoming a star — turned Mata Hari into a major worldwide blockbuster, with $2.22 million in worldwide rentals. The film became Garbo’s biggest international success to date, and Novarro’s highest-grossing picture after Ben-Hur. (Photo: Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in Mata Hari.) Among MGM’s 1932 releases — Mata Hari opened on December 31, 1931 — only W.S. Van Dyke’s Tarzan, the Ape Man, featuring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Edmund Goulding’s all-star Best Picture Academy Award winner Grand Hotel (also with Garbo, in addition to Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and...

Hollywood actor best known for his starring role as Lieutenant Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson in the 70s cop series S.W.A.T.

Steve Forrest, who has died aged 87, was a product of the Hollywood studio system, then at its tail end in the 1950s. Although MGM had the handsome, rugged 6ft 3in actor under contract for five years, from 1952 to 1957, they gave him few chances to shine. It was only when he left the studio that Forrest got bigger and better parts in feature films – one of his best performances was as the white brother of Elvis Presley, who plays the son of a Native American mother and a Texas rancher father, in Don Siegel's excellent western Flaming Star (1960) – and he was able to start a long and busy career on television.

In fact, it was on the small screen that Forrest would build his fame, notably in S.W.A.T. (1975-...

 

Actor Steve Forrest has passed away at the age of 87. The brother of famed actor Dana Andrews, Forrest had a successful career in films and television. A WWII veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, Forrest was discovered by Gregory Peck and appeared in numerous films including Flaming Star, Spies Like Us, The Longest Day, Heller in Pink Tights, North Dallas Forty and Mommie Dearest. He was also a proficient vocalist and golfer. On TV, Forrest enjoyed his greatest success, starring in the short-lived, but fondly remembered British adventure series The Baron. As the titular character in the 1965 show, Forrest played an American antiques dealer living in London who would secretly undertake dangerous international missions in the service of British Intelligence. Forrest also had the lead role in the 1970s hit TV series S.W.A.T.  For more click here...

Veteran actor Steve Forrest, who had more than 100 TV credits including starring on the mid-1970s police actioner S.W.A.T., died May 18 in Thousand Oaks. He was 87. The brother of actor Dana Andrews, Forrest made guest appearances on scores of TV shows and recurred on the original Dallas. He also played Lt. Hondo Harrelson on ABC’s 1975-76 police actioner S.W.A.T. — he had a cameo in the 2003 feature adaptation — and starred as John “The Baron” Mannering on the 1966 Cold War spy drama The Baron, the first color series on UK TV. Forrest, from Texas, was a sergeant in the Army and saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. He later moved to La and graduated from UCLA in 1950 with a theater arts degree. He went on to work as a stagehand at the La Jolla Playhouse, where he was discovered by Hollywood icon Gregory Peck, who cast Forrest in a...

“My Fair Lady” director George Cukor has been selected as the subject of the Locarno International Film Festival’s 2013 retrospective. In addition, fest organizers have solidified the selection committee for the 66th annual Locarno event, which runs August 7-17 next year. Organized in collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse and the National Film Museum in Turin, the Cukor retrospective will showcase all of the Oscar-winning director’s works over the 11 days of the festival. Among his films are “Camille,” “A Star Is Born,” “Heller in Pink Tights,” “The Blue Bird,” “The Philadelphia Story” and “Adam’s Rib.” Several panel discussions on Cukor’s work will take place, and the festival audience will have the opportunity attend a round-table chaired by Locarno curator Roberto Turigliatto. “For some years now the Festival has undertaken a re-reading of...

Margaret O’Brien on TCM: Heller In Pink Tights, Big City Schedule (Pt) and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Dr. Gillespie’s Criminal Case (1943) A wheelchair-bound doctor tries to prove a convicted killer’s innocence. Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Donna Reed. Dir: Willis Goldbeck. Bw-89 mins. 4:30 Am Music For Millions (1944) A pregnant musician awaits her husband’s return from World War II. Cast: Margaret O’Brien, June Allyson, Jimmy Durante. Dir: Henry Koster. Bw-118 mins. 6:30 Am Tenth Avenue Angel (1948) A child of the tenements helps an ex-con find a new life. Cast: Margaret O’Brien, Angela Lansbury, George Murphy. Dir: Roy Rowland. Bw-74 mins. 7:45 Am Her First Romance (1951) A high school girl steals from her parents to be with the boy she loves. Cast: Margaret O’Brien, Jimmy Hunt, Elinor Donahue. Dir: Seymour Friedman. C-73 mins. 9:30 Am Journey For Margaret (1942) An American correspondent...