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- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- 92nd Street Y: April 29th, Liberties panel
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Tag Archives: Carroll Baker
“Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
It’s her birthday today. When you look back on your life – especially once you’re, how you say, OLD – it’s sometimes interesting to try to untangle some of the strands, the things that happened that made you who you … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Baby Doll, Carroll Baker, Elia Kazan, James Dean, Lee Strasberg, Something Wild
2 Comments
Diane Arbus at the movies
Carroll Baker on screen in Baby Doll with passing silhouette, N.Y.C. (1956; Diane Arbus)
Series: Stars Wearing Big Sweaters
Greta Garbo James Dean Carroll Baker A mostly-forgotten one-hit wonder Marilyn Monroe Elizabeth Taylor To be continued …
Posted in Actors
Tagged Carroll Baker, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Greta Garbo, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe
15 Comments
Recommended Books: Memoirs
More recommendations: Recommended Fiction Recommended Non-Fiction MEMOIRS The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties, by Harold Clurman Probably the most famous of all the Group Theatre-related books. Harold Clurman writes his memories of that time and what those … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Music, writers
Tagged African Queen, Anjelica Huston, Austria, Baby Doll, Benjamin Franklin, Born Standing Up, Bruce Springsteen, Carroll Baker, Charles Grodin, Czechoslovakia, Diane Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Elia Kazan, Ellen Terry, Elvis Presley, Frank McCourt, Ginger Rogers, Goldie Hawn, Group Theatre, Harold Clurman, Ireland, James Salter, Jeanette Winterson, John Strasberg, Katharine Hepburn, Kathleen Turner, Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Lee Strasberg, Marlon Brando, Maud Gonne, Memoirs, Patricia Bosworth, Primo Levi, Robert Evans, Rosalind Russell, Russia, Shane Leslie, Shelley Winters, Shirley MacLaine, Stefan Zweig, Steve Martin, The Kid Stays In the Picture, Victor Serge, WWII
2 Comments
March 2017 Viewing Diary
The Goddess (1958; d. John Cromwell) Written by Paddy Chayevsky. Starring Kim Stanley and Lloyd Bridges. Stanley plays a character clearly based on Marilyn Monroe, rather extraordinary when you consider Monroe was still alive. It’s a brutal movie about stardom … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Bette Davis, Carroll Baker, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, documentary, England, Frances Farmer, Horton Foote, Israel, Jack Garfein, Joan Crawford, John Huston, July and Half of August, Kim Stanley, Orson Welles, Ralph Meeker, Robert Aldrich, Supernatural, Sydney Pollack, Tennessee Williams, Tommy Lee Jones, women directors
59 Comments
Tonight: The Core Club: Screening of Something Wild (1961)
I’m honored to moderate a QA session tonight at the Core Club with director Jack Garfein after a screening of his long-forgotten (but not anymore) masterpiece Something Wild, starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker (with Mildred Dunnock in a small … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Carroll Baker, drama, Jack Garfein, Mildred Dunnock, Ralph Meeker, Something Wild
4 Comments
The Criterion Collection: the release of Something Wild (1961)
At long last, Something Wild, a nearly-unknown film from 1961, and a masterpiece, is available to purchase on Criterion. I was honored to be asked to write the essay, which is now up on Criterion’s site: Something Wild: Last Chances. … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Carroll Baker, drama, Jack Garfein, Ralph Meeker, Something Wild
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Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2016
I look at this and I wonder why I always feel like I haven’t done jack-squat. Or, at the very least, I could do more. Well, I always can do more. Regardless, here are links to some of the things … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Movies, On This Day, Personal, RIP
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Baz Luhrmann, Buddy Holly, Camille Paglia, Carrie Fisher, Carroll Baker, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Chantal Akerman, Compulsion, David Bowie, Dean Stockwell, Dolly Parton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Eminem, friends, Gena Rowlands, George Stevens, Gilda, Isabelle Huppert, James Dean, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, July and Half of August, Katherine Dunn, Langston Hughes, Little Richard, Marion Cotillard, Marlon Brando, Matthias Schoenaerts, Merle Haggard, Mia Hansen-Løve, Miriam Hopkins, Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Hall, Richard Linklater, Rocky, Sam Cooke, Shakespeare, Something Wild, Stephen King, Sudden Fear, Supernatural, Sylvester Stallone, Tennessee Williams, The Great Gatsby, Wanda Jackson, women directors, year in writing, Zac Efron
6 Comments
Announcement: Something Wild (1961): Criterion Collection DVD-Blu-Ray release, January 17, 2017
So honored to have been asked to write the essay for Criterion’s release of Jack Garfein’s forgotten 1961 masterpiece, Something Wild. Developed independently, using Actors Studio people in the lead roles (Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, and Mildred Dunnock), Something Wild … Continue reading
Giant (1956): 60th Anniversary Screening at Film Forum
September 30, 2016: QA with George Stevens Jr. – the son of the director – and Carroll Baker before the film, moderated by historian and writer Foster Hirsch Foster Hirsch: We are very lucky to have with us the son … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Carroll Baker, drama, Elizabeth Taylor, George Stevens, interviews, James Dean
21 Comments