Articles written by Dan Lalande
Showing 1-100 of 122 Articles
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Mirisch Brother Memoir
"I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History" is the dry, gentlemanly memoir of Walter Mirisch, baby of one of Hollywood's most successful families
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Notes On A Life
She has subsisted in her husband's shadow - but with this delicate, introspective and textural journal, Eleanor Coppola comes to the fore
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Francois Truffaut - Interviews
French filmmaker Francois Truffaut was recognized as a great interview - but you'd hardly know it from this collection
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Lonely Are The Brave on DVD
Star Kirk Douglas has called Dalton Trumbo's offbeat, contemporary Western the perfect screenplay. It isn't exactly but it is something admirable and unique.
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High Noon on DVD
With the making of High Noon, writer Carl Foreman, director Fred Zinneman, and actor Gary Cooper revolutonized the Western
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James Bond's Ian Fleming at 100
The James Bond films are the most successful series in movie history...but have they killed the very form that's spawned them?
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Frank Sinatra Anniversary
It's been ten years since ol' blue eyes checked out of the saloon - leaving a handful of memorable dramatic performances
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James Stewart at 100
The venerable James Stewart was the unlikeliest of movie stars - and yet, one of the most liked
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There Will Be Blood & Sierra Madre
Paul Thomas Anderson tips his dusty hat to John Huston's Treasure Of The Sierra Madre with There Will Be Blood, newly released on DVD
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Ottawa Jazz Fest 2008 Adds Acts
The 2008 TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival rounds out its line-up with the addition of four more mainstage names
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Charlton Heston Dies at 84
King, Prince, Warrior, God - Charlton Heston played them all, American style
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Jules Dassin Dies
It was a fractured career - and yet, writer-director Jules Dassin showed a talent that could not be corrupted
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Bette Davis at 100
If anyone personifies Woman according to the Studio Era, it's the irrepressible Bette Davis, who would have turned 100 this month
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Battleship Potemkin on DVD
It's existed in various versions for years. Now, Eisenstein's classic is unleashed in its most definitive form to date.
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Joan Crawford Centenary
It's a happy 100th to Joan Crawford , who, sadly, is preserved primarily by camp
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2008 Ottawa Jazz Fest Leaks Acts
The early line-up for Ottawa's 2008 Jazz Festival constitutes a chronology of the music, from the bayous of Louisiana to the River of Herbie Hancock.
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The Star Machine
Welslyan University's Jeanine Basinger writes about the machine that made the stars - as academic or as fan?
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The Apartment on DVD
The Best Picture Oscar winner of 1960 is a deft juggling of comic and dramatic elements
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The Apartment on DVD - Pt. 1
The art work on this new DVD promises a cheery romantic comedy. 1960's Best Picture Oscar winner, however, is much more than that
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Gigi - Best Picture of 1958
The French they are a funny race, it's been said - and when it was said musically in 1958, the result was the Oscar for Best Picture
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Key Largo
It's not John Huston's best work but 1948's Key Largo is memorable nonetheless
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Five Easy Decades - Review
It may be five decades but it's all one Jack - author Dennis McDougal on a half century night on the town with the world's best known Lakers fan
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The Lady from Shanghai
This bizarro film noire, with its unforgettable climax, still casts an hypnotic spell after all these years
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United Artists Deluxe Gift Set
UA's been through many incarnations but a new deluxe set proves that the heyday of United Artists was the 60s and 70s
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Christmas in Connecticut
Barbara Stanwyck and company spend Christmas in Connecticut in this amusing little romp
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Ford at Fox
It's made up of a whopping 21 discs - but the heart of this collection devoted to the work of director John Ford are his collaborations with producer Daryl Zanuck
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Citizen Kane Screenplay For Sale
The script behind Citizen Kane, and the Oscar it received, are up for auction...but is it worth the money?
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The Lady Vanishes
The lady has not vanished, thanks to a 70th anniversary DVD edition of this Alfred Hitchcock classic
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Review of Odessa-Havana in Ottawa
Klezmer and conga came together at Ottawa, Canada's Dominion-Chalmers United Church in the form of the latest musical kick of versatile trumpet master Dave Buchbinder
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1947 - Hollywood's Banner Year
It was Hollywood's golden year - but you'd hardly know it from the slate of dark films that were released
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Bingcrosby.com
A family-created website celebrates all things Crosby in classy fashion
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Considering Doris Day
A new book purports to take a revisionist look at Doris Day...but reads more like an unapologetic fan letter
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Odessa/Havana
Klezmer king Dave Buchbinder and Cuban pianist Hilario Duran to meet under the aegis of the Ottawa Jazz Festival Nov. 26
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The Jazz Singer
Jolson sings again in the 80th anniversary edition of this seminal film
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The Graduate
The counter-culture sold out long ago but this seminal film from the sixties still plays - even if only as an expertly made romantic comedy
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The Bank Dick
With The Bank Dick and other films, comic great W.C. Fields began a legacy that continues to this day
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Louis Malle at 75 Years Old
Louis Malle stood apart from his filmmaking contemporaries - for various reasons
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Hello, I Must Be Going
Charlotte Chandler's 1977 book on comic icon Groucho Marx hits book shelves again in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of his passing
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2007 Ottawa Folk Festival Wraps Up
The 2007 Ottawa, Folk Fest, which featured acts such as Kris Kristofferson and Eliza Gilkyson, ends on a mellow high.
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Ottawa Folk Festival's Rising Star
Singer-songwriter Dave Gaudet is one of the talks of the Fest - he may play mostly with girls but his introspective tunes are resonating big time with men
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Ottawa Folk Festival: Daytime Acts
As always, the Ottawa Folk Festival features plenty of hidden gems
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Ottawa Folk Festival
Oh Susanna, The Foggy Hogtown Boys, and hall of fame songwriter Kris Kristofferson please a near capacity crowd at the Ottawa Folk Fest
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Ottawa Folk Festival
Meredith Luce, Kate Weekes and other Ottawa-based talents ring in the 14th annual Ottawa Folk Festival
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Peter Falk Pens Autobiography
It wanders and weaves like the three drunken husbands in the John Cassavetes film of the same name - but proves just as amiable company
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2007 Ottawa Folk Festival
The 14th edition of the Ottawa Folk Fest, Thursday Aug. 16 to Sunday Aug. 19, is undergoing a facelift, thanks to new executive director Tamara Kater
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Becket on DVD
It's solid in story and scale but the best reasons to see it are the performances of two film powerhouses: Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton
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Laslo Kovacs Dies
Hungarian born Laslo Kovacs brought us a personal vision of America, one formed by experiences back home
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Barbara Stanwyck at 100
It's another centennial celebration, this time for the tough cookie always forced to crumble
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Ottawa Jazz Fest Wraps Up
The 2007 edition of the TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival came to a close with a choice collection of Canada Day acts
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Jazz Youth Summit
They're young, from different parts of Canada, and crazy about jazz. They're the Jazz Youth Summit, an initiative of the TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festiva
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Bebel Seduces Ottawa
Seductive South American songstress Bebel Gilberto imbues the TD Canada Trust International Jazz Festival with the spirit of romance
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Byron Plays Walker
Don Byron and a high-octane band perfectly replicated the sound of Junior Walker at the Ottawa Jazz Festival - and then some!
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Treasure Island
The latest Pirates of the Caribbean sequel spawns memories of an old gem, the 1934 version of Treasure Island
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Appleyard & Hyman
Vibraphonist Peter Appleyard and pianist-arranger Dick Hyman meet for a live radio session as part of the TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival
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Brubeck Plays Ottawa
Call him Father Time Signature. 85 year old Dave Brubeck, whose musical experimentation has made him a household name, reveals his more conventional side in Ottawa
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Branford Marsalis plays Ottawa
Branford Marsalis may be the perfect opening act for a midsize jazz festival - a hunch he confirmed in a tight set last night.
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Ottawa's Annual Jazz Festival
Ottawa's annual jazz fest presents its most recognizable lineup in years. The result? Record sales.
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Treasure of the Sierra Madre
John Huston's classic adventure story is just as good today as it was back in 1947. Good as gold, in fact.
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John Wayne at 100
The Duke is riding tall in the saddle again, as this would have been his 100th birthday
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Katherine Hepburn - 100 Years
She passed away four years shy of her 100th birthday. That doesn't prevent us from celebrating it, via three recommended films
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Brando
Turner Classic Movies debuts its two-part documentary on Marlon Brando. Like the subject himself, it's dense, diverse and deeply introspective.
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Buster Keaton's The General
There's still debate about whether or not it's his single best work. Regardless, there's a lot to appreciate about Buster Keaton's 1927 comic epic The General
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Classic Film & WW 1
The Classic Film that best represents the hearts and minds of those who fought the World To End All Wars may not be the one you think
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Hemingway and Hollywood
A new 5 DVD set reveals the bull-like goring Papa Hemingway's novels and short stories got from Tinsel Town
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Bogie's Back!
No presence personifies Classic Film more than that of Humphrey Bogart, dead a half century this year
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Fear Strikes Out
It's baseball season! This year, we celebrate by watching Fear Strikes Out, the 1957 story of troubled outfielder Jimmy Piersall.
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Walt Disney bio by Neal Gabler
Neal Gabler's bio of Walt Disney purports to be about the triumph of the American imagination - yet fails to re-imagine its subject
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The Naked City
It's about the density, sprawl and darkest edges of The Big Apple - though in truth, the apple's about the size of a cranberry
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Gangster Movies
"The Departed" steals Best Picture - and reminds us of the many mugs hanging in filmdom's rogues galleries.
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Alan Arkin - Oscar Winner
An icon of the dying days of the Studio Era, character actor Alan Arkin, is born again through this year's Academy Awards.
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Best Picture - 1967
Forty years ago, Oscar's top honor went to this acclaimed racial thriller - and the long tradition of rewarding message films officially began.
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Best Picture - 1957
Remembering The Bridge on the River Kwai - the film that took home the top Oscar honor half a century ago
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The Queen - Mirren v. Davis
Long before Helen Mirren won acclaim as the current monarch, Bette Davis did same as Her Majesty's namesake, in 1939's "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex"
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Breakfast at Tiffany's
Audrey Hepburn unleashes her full range of talents in Blake Edwards' adaptation of the Truman Capote novella
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Ernest Borgnine at 90
Remembering working with the lovable Ernie, on the set of the indie feature The Kiss of Debt.
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The Good Shepherd and G-Men
The rise of an American crime-fighting institution through the eyes of a new recruit - sorry, Bob, it's been done before
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Cary Grant - The Burden of Image
Three films that epitomize Grant's struggle to let loose
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Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra
This ultra-costly 1963 epic has never been properly reviewed - for a variety of reasons
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Holiday Inn
Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Irving Berlin and the unheralded Mark Sandrich, all in one magical package
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White Christmas
It's on everybody's must-see Holiday list - but its parts are better than the whole
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Eli Wallach
Memories of working with Eli Wallach, the veteran character actor who turns 91 this week
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A Twist of Lemmon
Jack Lemmon's son, Chris, remembers his famous father
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Astaire and Rogers
Astaire and Rogers: The Complete Film Collection is an 11 disc box set encompassing the pair's entire cannon.
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Jack Palance dies at 87
Despite a spotty career, Jack Palance leaves as the holder of a unique distinction
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Gene Kelly
Three films by which to trace the rise and fall of one of filmdom's great musical stars
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The Maltese Falcon
John Huston's masterful adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" flies high when compared to its predecessors
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House of Wax
The re-releae of Tim Burton's "NIghtmare Before Xmas" in 3-D prompts remembrance of the first films to feature the gimmick
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Dracula - 1931
Dracula rises from the dead - to appear on DVD
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Ava Gardner - Love Is Nothing
Lee Server, reputable Hollywood biographer, tries his hand at the studio era bad girl
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The Ten Commandments
Much is revealed in the DVD version of DeMille's "Commandments"
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Olivia de Havilland
In honor of her 90th year, we remember Olivia de Havilland's watershed performance in "The Snake Pit"
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Sidney Sheldon
The best-selling screenwriter-pulp novelist's memoir is now out in paperback
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All The King's Men
In the wake of the Sean Penn remake, the 1949 original is out on DVD
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Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford, popular star of the 40s and 50s, bids us so long
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Eliza Gilkyson
Famed folk singer Eliza Gilkyson discusses her father, Hollywood song man Terry Gilkyson
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Blake Edwards
At 84, he is being hailed as the modern day king of slapstick. Let's not forget his dramas either.
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Romantic Comedy
Summer is for lovers. Cuddle up somewhere air conditioned and catch these romantic comedies.
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Bette Davis
The Girl Who Walked Home Alone - a review of the new bio of Bette
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Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers would have been 95 this month - and no doubt still looked good.
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June Allyson
June Allyson passes away this week at the
age of 88
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