Showbiz History: Japanese hits, Harry Belafonte's birthday, and The Doors

6 random things that happened on this day, March 1st, in showbiz history...

1927 Harold George Bellanfanti Jr born  in Harlem. He later becomes globally famous in the 1950s as Harry Belafonte. Happy 94th (!!!) to the singer, actor, activist, and Honorary Oscar winner. He's one of the oldest living iconic American stars. 

1963 Akira Kurosawa's High and Low premieres in Japan. It snags a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film but Japan doesn't submit it to the Oscars.

a 1985 movie weekend, Shoplifters, and NSFW Javier Bardem after the jump...

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Almost There: Cary Grant in "The Bishop's Wife"

by Cláudio Alves

Movie stars are not like us. Most people look perfectly banal when observed through camera lenses, but the stars are ravishing. When one appears, all eyes go to them, as if their mere presence is a gravitational hold. They are glamourous and awe-inspiring, terminally charming, and even more alluring. Idealized beyond humanity, those icons of the silver screen are the green light for which Jay Gatsby reached.

No matter the other sins of Old Hollywood, they were an exemplary movie star factory. The studios often knew just how to showcase the great stars to maximize their appeal. Or at least the finished product often suggests so. For a fascinating example of all of this look no further than Cary Grant in the 1947 Best Picture-nominee The Bishop's Wife…

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Beauty Break: Ten March 1st Babes

by Nathaniel R

Welcome to March! 2019 can officially begin (heh-we're on the film calendar, not the calendar-calendar). Today is Javier Bardem's 50th birthday. Happy half-century to one of cinema's most striking faces!

To help get us going this morning -- we're off to a slow start -- here are the ten beautiful (aka favorite) people born on this day (March 1st) in no particular order whatsoever...

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"David Niven: a Villanelle"

I've become so enamored of all of the participating "Best Shot" writers that I miss people when they don't show up and stalk their blogs. Peter Swanson of Armchair Audience recently joined the informal "best shot" group and when I noticed no Singin' in the Rain post last Wednesday, I started clicking around his blog only to discover he's a published poet, and a fine witty one, too. He often writes about the movies and is currently completing work on a sonnet sequence about all 53 Alfred Hitchcock movies. 53 !!!

With his permission I'm sharing his 2007 poem inspired by Oscar winner David Niven which was originally originally published in The Vocabula Review. 

"David Niven: a Villanelle"
-by Peter Swanson 

There is a better world to live in: 
Dressed for dinner in black tie, 
Debonair like David Niven. 

With shoulders wide and sun-browned skin, 
The mustache trimmed, the bluest eye. 
There is a better world to live in, 

Where formality’s a given, 
A place where you, in black, and I, 
As neatly dressed as David Niven, 

Drink silver cocktails shaken 
Very cold and very dry. 
There is a better world to live in, 

Of string quartets, of My Blue Heaven, 
Of clouds and girls that never cry, 
Of men that look like David Niven, 

Or close enough, something akin, 
Beneath some starry, starry sky. 
There is a better world to live in, 
Dead and gone like David Niven.

James Bond's Black Rose

Andreas here with today's May Flowers.

Look at my garden. Out there, there is a b-b-black rose. Not dark red, but black—as a raven's wing at midnight.

David Niven, as the first of many James Bonds in the mega-spoof Casino Royale (1967), manages a surprisingly sentimental moment as he gushes over his beloved, unique flower. It's his proudest possession, and a symbol of his self-imposed isolation. Unfortunately, the flower (and his home) are about to be destroyed, forcing him out into this frantic, incomprehensible mess of a movie.

Are you acquainted with the old Casino Royale and its bizarre sense of humor? Trying to describe it is like recounting a fever dream: Well, Orson Welles was there doing card tricks, and Peter O'Toole plays the bagpipe, and Woody Allen has a flying saucer, and most of the characters are 007. Now I'm not even sure it exists anymore...