Introducing the Smackdown Panel for '47

We're excited to bring you a new super-sized season of the Supporting Actress Smackdown. We just celebrated 1981 with an awesome panel and we're not slowing down. Next up is 1947. In two weeks time we'll be talking the Best Picture winner Gentleman's Agreement,  Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case,  the noir Crossfire, and the countrified comedy The Egg and I on Thursday May 28th, right here. So watch those four flicks, won'cha?

We've gathered a panel of actors, industry types, and cinephiles for you. Ready? Let's meet the people who will be talking about the Oscars and actresses of 1947.

RETURNING TO THE SMACKDOWN ...

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Almost There: Rita Hayworth in "Gilda"

by Cláudio Alves

Few movies define a star so completely as Gilda does Rita Hayworth. It's impossible to overstate the cultural impact that the 1946 noir had, how it made Hayworth an immortal screen legend and how controversial it was. Some countries even tried to block the release of the picture or censor it. Such feeble efforts only made Gilda more popular, its licentiousness transformed into a thing of myth. In America, audiences went wild, but the critics were more miserly in their praise. Overseas, however, among the European tastemakers and film scholars, Gilda was quickly viewed as an object of serious artistry and not merely a box office juggernaut. Beloved by the public, celebrated by the intellectuals, it's no wonder the flick became such a historical landmark. 

It's safe to assume it was also the closest the actress ever came to an Oscar nomination. It would have been a deserved nod, that's for sure. In Gilda, Rita Hayworth is movie magic made flesh…

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Barbara Stanwyck: Comedy Goddess

by Cláudio Alves 

Despite being one of Old Hollywood's most electrifying actresses, Barbara Stanwyck feels somewhat forgotten (apart from cinephiles) when compared to her contemporaries like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford or Ingrid Bergman. The one role that arguable does keep her immortal with the mainstream is the devilish Phyllis Dietrichson in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, the noir to end all noirs starring the greatest femme fatale of them all. Still, to believe that Stanwick was essentially a noir vixen is unfair to her grand legacy. More than many actresses of her time, she rejoiced in hopping from genre to genre, unencumbered by exclusive contracts to studios that might want to pin her down to one type of role. 

Because of that, she was able to experiment with the extremes of Pre-Code libertinism (Baby Doll), weepy melodrama (Stella Dallas), historical epics (Titanic), tragic romances (There's Always Tomorrow) and even camp classics (Walk on the Wild Side). Her tonal flexibility was unparalleled as she was able to mold her trademark toughness and sexual confidence into almost any role conceivable. She was much more than just the venomous Mrs. Dietrichson, even though that is one of her greatest achievements. I'd go so far as to say that she was one of the great comediennes of her era, on par with Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, and Jean Arthur. Just take look at her second Oscar nomination…

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Toshiro Mifune @ 100: Stray Dog

Team Experience will be celebrating the Centennial of Japan's great movie star Toshiro Mifune for the next five nights. Here's Lynn Lee...

It’s impossible to think of Toshiro Mifune without thinking of Akira Kurosawa—and vice versa.  Their partnership was unparalleled in its cinematic impact, spanning 16 films between 1948 and 1965 that included stone-cold classics like Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, and Yojimbo.  While Mifune and Kurosawa did significant work independent of each other, it’s not exaggerating to say they made each other; both men would acknowledge as much even after their falling out.  In Mifune, Kurosawa found the perfect player to convey the outsize emotions and imposing physical presence of his most memorable protagonists—typically men of strong passions and even stronger will, whether turned to honorable or horrible ends...

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Streaming Roulette, Nov: The King Lives by Night

As is our practice we've selected a handful plus of new-to-streaming titles and frozen them at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). What should you queue up for NOVEMBER 2019 ? (★ means we definitely recommend catching) 

Let's get started...

-Meet me in the garden tomorrow

The Thief of Bagdad (1940) on Criterion Channel
This fantasy adventure based on The Arabian Knights won 3 Oscars in its year (Special Effects, Cinematography Color and Art Direction Color). Fill in those Oscar gaps! Weird trivia note: NONE of those categories it won had the standard 5 nominees. It took the Academy awhile to settle on the "five per category" rule that dominated the Oscars for decades. There were 14 films nominated for Special Effects that year -- the visual effects category in particular has had multiple strange incarnations and volatility. 

I'm going to ask you to deliver this message to France given your... familiarity with its recipient.

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