Judy Garland @ 100: "The Pirate"

Team Experience is revisiting a dozen Judy Garland movies for her Centennial. Here’s Baby Clyde on her most infamous picture... 

Get Judy and Gene at the peak of their movie star appeal, allow Vincente Minnelli to go as ‘Vincente Minelli’ as he pleases, hire the world’s greatest songwriter to provide the tunes, script by the same team behind The Thin Man and It’s A Wonderful Life, sets by Cedric Gibbons, costumes by Irene, all presided over by the fabled Freed Unit. What could possibly go wrong?

The Pirate, that’s what. A great big glorious, Technicolor mess. And I love it...

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Judy Garland @ 100: "The Clock"

by Eurocheese

After the milestone of her smash hit Meet Me in St. Louis, having proved herself as a now adult leading lady, where would Judy head next? She decided to build up her acting cred with her first purely dramatic role in The Clock, a romance wherein Garland’s character Alice falls for a soldier on leave in New York City. It’s not surprising that audiences at the time were expecting her to sing (she always had before), especially since the music swells in several moments as if she's about to do so. Despite the lack of songs, critics at the time appreciated the film's sweet tone and it's hard not to get swept up in the couple’s earnest romance.

Garland had struggled with addiction for years, but as she fought to maintain her weight and supported co-star Robert Walker as he drank his way through his deteriorating marriage, her addiction grew...

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Judy Garland @ 100: "Meet Me In St. Louis"

Team Experience is revisiting a dozen Judy Garland movies for her Centennial. Here’s Ben Miller discussing her biggest hit...

Meet Me In St. Louis marked a number of notable events in Judy Garland’s life. Her love affair and eventual marriage to director Vincent Minnelli came from filming. The film itself was Garland’s biggest box office success in initial release, becoming the second most popular film of 1944 (behind only the Best Picture winner Going My Way). But more than anything else the film completed Garland's transition from teen stardom to adult roles. In Meet Me in St Louis Garland was at the absolute peak of her star power and on-screen magnetism...

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What's your favorite Christmas song?

by Cláudio Alves

The first time I remember hearing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" was in The Holiday. That 2006 picture has become something of a Christmas mainstay over the years and, while I'm not its biggest fan, I can't help but feel grateful for it. After all, it introduced me to my favorite Christmas song. Written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane in 1943, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" has cinematic origins despite some of its best-known version having little to do with cinema. Long before Sam Smith, Florence Welch, Frank Sinatra, or Ella Fitzgerald sang the holiday classic, this was Judy Garland's song…

Just as the tune is my favorite Christmas song, the film for which it was made, Meet Me in St. Louis, is probably my favorite holiday movie too...

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Almost There: Lana Turner in "The Bad and the Beautiful"

This week The Film Experience will be celebrating Lana Turner for her Centennial. Here's Cláudio Alves

According to legend, Lana Turner was discovered in 1936, when she happened to be spotted by the publisher of The Hollywood Report while drinking a Coke at Schwab's Pharmacy. As with most myths of the cinematic Olympus, the story is unlikely to be true, though that doesn't take away from the allure of the actress. Whatever her origin story, Turner appeared in her first film the following year and quickly became one of Hollywood's most beloved sirens, an icon of glamor and sensuality, a megawatt star the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. 

Despite it all, stardom doesn't necessarily equal prestige. Turner was often seen as little more than a pretty face and her acting craft was underappreciated. In 1957, a conflagration of many scandals, personal and literary, secured her a single Oscar nomination for Peyton Place. That wasn't the first time she was in the running for awards, however...

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