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Staircase (film)
''Staircase'' is a 1969 British comedy-drama film adaptation of a two-character play, also called '' Staircase'', by Charles Dyer. The film, like the play, is about an ageing gay couple who own a barber shop in the East End of London. They discuss their loving but often volatile past together and ponder their possible future without each other, as Charles is about to go on trial for dressing as a woman in public. The two main characters are named Charles Dyer (the name of the playwright/screenwriter) and Harry C. Leeds, which is an anagram of his name. Plot Cast * Richard Burton as Harry C. Leeds * Rex Harrison as Charles Dyer * Cathleen Nesbitt as Harry's mother * Beatrix Lehmann as Charles' mother * Avril Angers as Miss Ricard * Pat Heywood as Nurse * Stephen Lewis as Jack * Gwen Nelson as Matron * Neil Wilson as Policeman * Shelagh Fraser as Cub mistress * Dermot Kelly as Gravedigger * Jake Kavanagh as Choirboy * Gordon Heath as Postman * Michael Rogers as drag singer duri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen ( ; April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019) was an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are '' On the Town,'' (1949) and ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other films include ''Royal Wedding'' (1951), ''Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'' (1954), ''It's Always Fair Weather'' (1955), ''Funny Face'' (1957), '' Indiscreet'' (1958), and ''Charade'' (1963). Donen began his career in the chorus line on Broadway for director George Abbott, where he befriended Kelly. From 1943, he worked in Hollywood as a choreographer before collaborating with Kelly. After ''On the Town'', Donen worked as a contract director for MGM under producer Arthur Freed producing critically well-received box-office hits. Donen and Kelly co-directed the musical ''Singin' in the Rain'', released in April 1952, which has appeared on lists of the best films ever made. Donen's relationship with Kelly deteriorated during thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Lewis (actor)
Stephen Lewis (17 December 1926 – 12 August 2015), credited early in his career as Stephen Cato, was an English actor, comedian, director, screenwriter and playwright. He is best known for his roles as Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake in ''On the Buses'', Clem "Smiler" Hemmingway in ''Last of the Summer Wine'' and Harry Lambert in ''Oh, Doctor Beeching!'', although he also appeared in numerous stage and film roles. Early life Lewis was born at All Saints Maternity Hospital in Poplar, London, England. He worked as a bricklayer, electrician's mate and carpenter, and also joined the Merchant Navy, before turning to acting. He was persuaded to go to a performance by the Theatre Workshop, under its director Joan Littlewood. It was common, after these performances, to invite members of the audience to meet the cast. He was invited to an audition, landed the part, and left the sea to become a member of the company. Stage Lewis made his West End theatre debut with the transfer of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RogerEbert
''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', was launched in 2002. Ebert handpicked writers from around the world to contribute to the website. After Ebert died in 2013, the website was relaunched under Ebert Digital, a partnership founded between Ebert, his wife Chaz, and friend Josh Golden. Background Two months after Ebert's death, Chaz Ebert hired film and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz as editor-in-chief for the website because his IndieWire blog PressPlay shared multiple contributors with RogerEbert.com, and because both websites promoted each other's content. ''The Dissolve''s Noel Murray described the website's collection of Ebert reviews as "an invaluable resource, both for getting some front-line perspective on older movies, and for getting a better sense of who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variety (magazine)
''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based in Los Angeles, to cover the motion-picture industry. ''Variety.com'' features entertainment news, reviews, box office results, cover stories, videos, photo galleries and features, plus a credits database, production charts and calendar, with archive content dating back to 1905. History Foundation ''Variety'' has been published since December 16, 1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering theater and vaudeville with its headquarters in New York City. Silverman had been fired by ''The Morning Telegraph'' in 1905 for panning an act which had taken out an advert for $50. As a result, he decided to start his own publication "that ouldnot be influenced by advertising." With a loan of $1,500 from his father- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. He reviewed more than one thousand films during his tenure there. Early life Canby was born in Chicago, the son of Katharine Anne (née Vincent) and Lloyd Canby. He attended boarding school in Christchurch, Virginia, with novelist William Styron, and the two became friends. He introduced Styron to the works of E.B. White and Ernest Hemingway; the pair hitchhiked to Richmond to buy ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''. He became an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve on October 13, 1942, and reported aboard the Landing Ship, Tank 679 on July 15, 1944. He was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on January 1, 1946, while on LST 679 sailing near Japan. After the war, he attended Dartmouth College, but did not graduate. Career He obtained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aesthetic attributes such as beauty, value, and taste through an invitation of a different kind of apprehension and consumption. Camp can also be a social practice and function as a style and performance identity for several types of entertainment including film, cabaret, and pantomime. Where high art necessarily incorporates beauty and value, camp necessarily needs to be lively, audacious and dynamic. The visual style is closely associated with gay culture. Camp art is related to and often confused with kitsch and things with camp appeal may be described as cheesy. In 1909, ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defined camp as "ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical; effeminate or homosexual" behavior, and by the middle of the 1970s, cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Stevens
George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, film producer, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', March 12, 1975, page 79. Films he produced were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture six times while he had five nominations as Academy Award for Best Director, Best Director, winning twice. Among his most notable films are ''Swing Time (film), Swing Time'' (1936), ''Gunga Din (film), Gunga Din'' (1939) and the five movies for which he was nominated for Best Director: ''The More the Merrier (film), The More the Merrier'' (1943); ''A Place in the Sun (1951 film), A Place in the Sun'' (1951), for which he won the Best Director Oscar; ''Shane (film), Shane'' (1953), ''Giant (1956 film), Giant'' (1956), for which he won the Best Director Oscar, and ''The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film), The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959). Biography Film career Stevens was born on December 18, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Only Game In Town (film)
''The Only Game in Town'' is a 1970 American romantic comedy-drama film, the last directed by George Stevens. It stars Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty. The screenplay by Frank D. Gilroy is based on his play of the same name which had a brief run on Broadway in 1968. Plot Fran Walker (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) is an aging Las Vegas chorus girl. She has given her wealthy San Francisco, California-based married lover Tom Lockwood (Charles Braswell), who she has not seen in six months, ultimatum after ultimatum in leaving his wife, Fran always ending back in his arms, despite him not having succumbed to her ultimatum. Fran continually tells herself that Tom will one day come through, regardless of if she truly believes it. She, who wants to remain financially independent in asking and taking nothing from Tom in terms of financial support or lavish material gifts, only stays in Las Vegas out of inertia. Joe Grady (Warren Beatty) is a Las Vegas lounge pianist. Unlike Fran, Joe hate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She then became the world's highest paid movie star in the 1960s, remaining a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh- greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood cinema. Born in London to socially prominent American parents, Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939. She made her acting debut with a minor role in the Universal Pictures film ''There's One Born Every Minute'' (1942), but the studio ended her contract after a year. She was then signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and became a popular teen star after appearing in ''National Velvet'' (1944). She transitioned to mature roles in the 1950s, when she starred in the comedy ''Father of the Bride'' (195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Heath
Gordon Heath (September 20, 1918 – August 27, 1991) was an American actor and musician who narrated the animated feature film ''Animal Farm'' (1954) and appeared in the title role of ''The Emperor Jones'' (1953) and ''Othello'' (1955), both live BBC telecasts, respectively directed by Alvin Rakoff and Tony Richardson. Biography Heath was born in New York City, his parents' only child. His father Cyril Gordon Heath had emigrated from Barbados to the US, where he met and married Hattie Hooper. Gordon Heath showed an early talent for both music and art, but opted to pursue an acting career, working on stage and radio. Joining the New York radio station WMCA in 1945 he became the first black staff announcer employed by a major US radio station. In 1945 he appeared on Broadway to great success in the play ''Deep Are the Roots'', written by Arnaud d'Usseau and James Gow, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Barbara Bel Geddes. The play ran for 447 performances, and when it was subs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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