Category: movies
Harry Morgan (born Harry Bratsberg, often spelled Harry Bratsburg; April 10, 1915 â December 7, 2011) was an American actor. He was widely known for his roles as Pete Porter in both December Bride (1954â1959) and Pete and Gladys (1960â1962), Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet (1967â1970), Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey (1972â1974), and Colonel Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H (1975â1983) and AfterMASH (1983-1984). Additionally, Morgan appeared in more than 100 films.
Morgan’s first appearance on M*A*S*H was in the show’s third season (1974â1975), when he played eccentric Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele in “The General Flipped at Dawn”, which originally aired on September 10, 1974.
The following season, Morgan joined the cast of M*A*S*H as Colonel Sherman T. Potter. Morgan replaced McLean Stevenson, who had left the show at the end of the previous season. Col. Potter is a career army officer who is tough, yet good-humored and caring — a father figure to the people under his command.
In 1980, Morgan won an Emmy award for his performance on M*A*S*H. When asked if he was a better actor after working with the show’s talented cast, Morgan responded, “I don’t know about that, but it’s made me a better human being.”
- Labels: film, movies, television
Swept Away (full English title: Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August, full Italian title: Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto) is a 1974 Italian film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller. It is a study in romance and class warfare.
The movie stars Giancarlo Giannini as long-abused crewmember Gennarino Carunchio, toiling on a yacht rented by a wealthy couple, Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti (Mariangela Melato) and Mr. Pavone Lanzetti (Riccardo Salvino). A beautiful, wealthy, spoiled woman, Raffaella takes endless pleasure in verbally abusing Gennarino over nearly everything, but especially about his Communist politics. When an unusual event at sea leaves Gennarino and Raffaella cast away on a deserted Mediterranean island, the tables are finally turned and the Communist sailor suddenly has the upper hand in the relationship.
American film critic Roger Ebert gave the movie four stars, his highest rating.
Many reviewers criticized the film as deeply misogynistic, with its themes of violence against women, subjugation, and rape. Anthony Kaufman, in The Village Voice, called it “possibly the most outrageously misogynist film ever made by a woman.” (read more)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist epic science-fiction film directed by Fritz Lang. The film was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou, and starred Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. A silent film, it was produced in the Babelsberg Studios by UFA.
Metropolis is regarded as a pioneer work of science fiction movies, being the first feature length movie of the genre.
Made in Germany during the Weimar Period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city’s ruler, and Maria, whose background is not fully explained in the film, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes of their city. Metropolis was filmed in 1925, at a cost of approximately five million Reichsmarks. Thus, it was the most expensive film ever released up to that point.
The film was met with a mixed response upon its initial release, with many critics praising its technical achievements and social metaphors while others derided its “simplistic and naïve” presentation. Because of its long running-time and the inclusion of footage which censors found questionable, Metropolis was cut substantially after its German premiere: large portions of the film were lost over the subsequent decades.
Numerous attempts have been made to restore the film since the 1970s-80s. Giorgio Moroder, a music producer, released a version with a soundtrack by rock artists such as Freddie Mercury, Loverboy and Adam Ant in 1984. A new reconstruction of Metropolis was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001, and the film was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in the same year, the first film thus distinguished. In 2008, a damaged print of Langâs original cut of the film was found in a museum in Argentina. After a long restoration process, the film was 95% restored and shown on large screens in Berlin and Frankfurt simultaneously on 12 February 2010. (read more)
- Labels: antiwar, conspiracy, control, corruption, cult film, demons, fascism, future, love, movies, peace, propaganda, tyranny, war
Omar Sharif (born Michel Demitri Chalhoub 10 April 1932 â 10 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor. His films included Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Funny Girl (1968). He was nominated for an Academy Award and won three Golden Globe Awards and a César Award.
Sharif’s first English-language film was in the role of Sharif Ali in David Lean’s historical epic Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. This performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor â Motion Picture, as well as a shared Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year â Actor. Casting Sharif in what is now considered one of the “most demanding supporting roles in Hollywood history,” was both complex and risky, as he was virtually unknown at the time outside of Egypt. However, notes historian Steven Charles Caton, Lean insisted on using ethnic actors when possible to make the film authentic.
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