When the 1962-1963 American television season kicked off, there was a notable absence on CBS' schedule: "The Twilight Zone" had been bumped from its Friday 10 Pm timeslot and replaced by a new sitcom titled "Fair Exchange." This was quite the blow to its devoted fans, who adored the series for its unusually heady treatment of the science fiction, horror, and suspense genres. Though that itch would get scratched by the debut of ABC's "The Outer Limits," viewers looked forward to embarking on mind-bending journeys once a week with the show's creator and frequent writer Rod Serling.
Fortunately, CBS had no plans to cancel "The Twilight Zone." The show just needed to find a new sponsor before it could once again haunt the airwaves. Once this issue got settled, CBS was keen to trumpet its January 1963 return in any way it could -- and it hit upon a brilliant bit of...
Fortunately, CBS had no plans to cancel "The Twilight Zone." The show just needed to find a new sponsor before it could once again haunt the airwaves. Once this issue got settled, CBS was keen to trumpet its January 1963 return in any way it could -- and it hit upon a brilliant bit of...
- 1/1/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
By Doug Gerbino
In an episode of the Jack Benny radio show from 1948, Jack and Mary Livingstone are being driven to the Warner Bros. studios in his "trusty" Maxwell by his manservant, Rochester. They are stopped at the gate by the studio guard, voiced by the wonderful Mel Blanc. When the guard demands identification in order to be admitted, Jack tells him that he is Jack Benny. The guard still demands ID. Benny pleads with him to recognize him: "…after all, I made a film here a few years ago, The Horn Blows at Midnight…I am sure you remember that!" "Remember it??? I directed it!!!" replies Blanc as the guard. Such amusing set-ups became some of Jack Benny's most famous self-deprecating jokes. The Horn Blows at Midnight has become legendary because of Benny's making fun of it but as we can now see with its release on DVD, the...
In an episode of the Jack Benny radio show from 1948, Jack and Mary Livingstone are being driven to the Warner Bros. studios in his "trusty" Maxwell by his manservant, Rochester. They are stopped at the gate by the studio guard, voiced by the wonderful Mel Blanc. When the guard demands identification in order to be admitted, Jack tells him that he is Jack Benny. The guard still demands ID. Benny pleads with him to recognize him: "…after all, I made a film here a few years ago, The Horn Blows at Midnight…I am sure you remember that!" "Remember it??? I directed it!!!" replies Blanc as the guard. Such amusing set-ups became some of Jack Benny's most famous self-deprecating jokes. The Horn Blows at Midnight has become legendary because of Benny's making fun of it but as we can now see with its release on DVD, the...
- 1/5/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Film review: 'A Thousand Acres'
"King Lear" sprouts in Iowa on "A Thousand Acres", a swirling tale of a prosperous farmer who divides his bounteous farmland among his three daughters. Enriched by splendid performances from Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh as the daughters and Jason Robards as the cantankerous father, this Buena Vista release should reap a plentiful harvest at the boxoffice.
Come spring, the fallow times will be regenerated with likely Oscar nominations for Lange, Pfeiffer and a spate of others, including director Jocelyn Moorhouse for her radiant tilling of this deep and grainy story.
For those industry-ites who have actually driven through the Midwest, it may look like a lot of nothing off the roadside, just miles and miles of yellow-husked corn. Behind those stalks, however, reside some of the most prosperous businessmen in the country, folk such as Larry Cook (Robards), a flinty and efficient old coot who has tilled his land to reap great abundance.
Like his neighbors way down the road, Larry is not one to throw it away, but he's not exactly beneficent when it comes to making out his will. Who gets what is, well, up to his owly discretion and parsimonious nature. And his bequest is poisoned by some terrible secrets involving this family's life. Indeed, while the big-porched, white farmhouse may look like a warm Norman Rockwell portrait of Americana, beneath its dignified roof have occurred some horrible psychological atrocities.
Adapted from Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "A Thousand Acres" is a surface-simple but innardly complex look not only at a seemingly idealized family life but at the very fabric of this country as well. The farmer, or homesteader, has always been eulogized in our culture as the steadfast grower, the provider and the very backbone of our moral and industrial character.
Like fellow Midwestern writer Sinclair Lewis, Smiley has unearthed the unsettlingly grim roots of these pristine illusions and uncovered the rancid foundation of what appears to be healthy civility. In turn, screenwriter Laura Jones has distilled these sorry seedlings into an internecine rivalry as nasty as any Roman blood bath. When the surface is scratched, as the grim-reaping father does in dividing his wealth, we find this family has functioned on surface affability and personal distancing to survive together.
Richly layered and coarse with ambiguities, "A Thousand Acres" boasts as fine an ensemble cast as you'll find. Once again, the Minnesota-bred Lange furrows deeply into her character, unfleshing the roilings of a woman/daughter/sister who represses her desires and thoughts. With a wondrous mix of bashfulness, propriety and insecurity, Lange clues us to the essence of her character, Ginny -- still waters run deep, truly. No less affecting is Pfeiffer as Rose, whose outspoken ways and volatile eruptions, in turn, show the tight coils of her being. As the baby Caroline, Leigh exudes a vulnerability, an indecisiveness that clues us to a far greater suffering than anyone would expect.
As the obstreperous father, Robards is a towering blend of decency and rancor. No king in full armor exudes more imperious strength than this country coot: His fearsome looks and withdrawn manners are indeed frightening. Other cast members are a perfectly selected lot, all looking at home in any small Midwestern town off the interstate. If we didn't recognize the names, that's where we would have thought casting director Nancy Klopper dragged them in from. Among them, Keith Carradine is particularly convincing as the not-so-average type you'll find in those parts. And Pat Hingle, Kevin Anderson and Colin Firth are as solid and fitting as a John Deere tractor.
No fancy stuff, just good hardware material, that's Dan Davis' production design. Similarly, cinematographer Tak Fujimoto's framings convey the wide scope of the setting as well as the constricted dimensions of these good folks' lives, while composer Richard Hartley's sinewy sounds show us the fury of what may be mistaken for silence.
A THOUSAND ACRES
Buena Vista
Touchstone Pictures
in association with Beacon Pictures
and Propaganda Films
A Via Rosa/Prairie Films production
Producers Marc Abraham, Steve Golin,
Lynn Arost, Kate Guinzburg, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Director Jocelyn Moorhouse
Screenplay Laura Jones
From the novel by Jane Smiley
Executive producers Armyan Bernstein,
Thomas A. Bliss
Co-producer Diana Pokorny
Director of photography Tak Fujimoto
Production designer Dan Davis
Editor: Maryann Brandon
Costume designer Ruth Myers
Music Richard Hartley
Casting Nancy Klopper
Sound mixer Richard Lightstone
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rose Cook Lewis Michelle Pfeiffer
Ginny Cook Smith Jessica Lange
Larry Cook Jason Robards
Caroline Cook Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jess Clark Colin Firth
Ty Smith Keith Carradine
Peter Lewis Kevin Anderson
Harold Clark Pat Hingle
Ken La Salle John Carroll Lynch
Mary Livingstone Anne Pitoniak
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Come spring, the fallow times will be regenerated with likely Oscar nominations for Lange, Pfeiffer and a spate of others, including director Jocelyn Moorhouse for her radiant tilling of this deep and grainy story.
For those industry-ites who have actually driven through the Midwest, it may look like a lot of nothing off the roadside, just miles and miles of yellow-husked corn. Behind those stalks, however, reside some of the most prosperous businessmen in the country, folk such as Larry Cook (Robards), a flinty and efficient old coot who has tilled his land to reap great abundance.
Like his neighbors way down the road, Larry is not one to throw it away, but he's not exactly beneficent when it comes to making out his will. Who gets what is, well, up to his owly discretion and parsimonious nature. And his bequest is poisoned by some terrible secrets involving this family's life. Indeed, while the big-porched, white farmhouse may look like a warm Norman Rockwell portrait of Americana, beneath its dignified roof have occurred some horrible psychological atrocities.
Adapted from Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "A Thousand Acres" is a surface-simple but innardly complex look not only at a seemingly idealized family life but at the very fabric of this country as well. The farmer, or homesteader, has always been eulogized in our culture as the steadfast grower, the provider and the very backbone of our moral and industrial character.
Like fellow Midwestern writer Sinclair Lewis, Smiley has unearthed the unsettlingly grim roots of these pristine illusions and uncovered the rancid foundation of what appears to be healthy civility. In turn, screenwriter Laura Jones has distilled these sorry seedlings into an internecine rivalry as nasty as any Roman blood bath. When the surface is scratched, as the grim-reaping father does in dividing his wealth, we find this family has functioned on surface affability and personal distancing to survive together.
Richly layered and coarse with ambiguities, "A Thousand Acres" boasts as fine an ensemble cast as you'll find. Once again, the Minnesota-bred Lange furrows deeply into her character, unfleshing the roilings of a woman/daughter/sister who represses her desires and thoughts. With a wondrous mix of bashfulness, propriety and insecurity, Lange clues us to the essence of her character, Ginny -- still waters run deep, truly. No less affecting is Pfeiffer as Rose, whose outspoken ways and volatile eruptions, in turn, show the tight coils of her being. As the baby Caroline, Leigh exudes a vulnerability, an indecisiveness that clues us to a far greater suffering than anyone would expect.
As the obstreperous father, Robards is a towering blend of decency and rancor. No king in full armor exudes more imperious strength than this country coot: His fearsome looks and withdrawn manners are indeed frightening. Other cast members are a perfectly selected lot, all looking at home in any small Midwestern town off the interstate. If we didn't recognize the names, that's where we would have thought casting director Nancy Klopper dragged them in from. Among them, Keith Carradine is particularly convincing as the not-so-average type you'll find in those parts. And Pat Hingle, Kevin Anderson and Colin Firth are as solid and fitting as a John Deere tractor.
No fancy stuff, just good hardware material, that's Dan Davis' production design. Similarly, cinematographer Tak Fujimoto's framings convey the wide scope of the setting as well as the constricted dimensions of these good folks' lives, while composer Richard Hartley's sinewy sounds show us the fury of what may be mistaken for silence.
A THOUSAND ACRES
Buena Vista
Touchstone Pictures
in association with Beacon Pictures
and Propaganda Films
A Via Rosa/Prairie Films production
Producers Marc Abraham, Steve Golin,
Lynn Arost, Kate Guinzburg, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Director Jocelyn Moorhouse
Screenplay Laura Jones
From the novel by Jane Smiley
Executive producers Armyan Bernstein,
Thomas A. Bliss
Co-producer Diana Pokorny
Director of photography Tak Fujimoto
Production designer Dan Davis
Editor: Maryann Brandon
Costume designer Ruth Myers
Music Richard Hartley
Casting Nancy Klopper
Sound mixer Richard Lightstone
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rose Cook Lewis Michelle Pfeiffer
Ginny Cook Smith Jessica Lange
Larry Cook Jason Robards
Caroline Cook Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jess Clark Colin Firth
Ty Smith Keith Carradine
Peter Lewis Kevin Anderson
Harold Clark Pat Hingle
Ken La Salle John Carroll Lynch
Mary Livingstone Anne Pitoniak
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/9/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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