BIRTHDAY
September 28, 1968
Shoreham, England

RECENT CREDITS
Dream House (FILM) Feb. 18, 2011
Fair Game (FILM) Nov. 5, 2010
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (FILM) Sep. 22, 2010
Mother and Child (FILM) May. 7, 2010
The International (FILM) Feb. 13, 2009

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The first war film to be documented was a one-reel, 90-second propagandist effort - the Vitagraph Company's fictitious Tearing Down the Spanish Flag (1898), produced in the year of the Spanish-American War. It portrayed a faked, reconstructed version of the seizure of a Spanish government installation in Havana by U.S. Army troops, the removal of the foreign flag, and its replacement by the Stars and Stripes.

One of the first to show the necessity for preparedness during the Great War's European conflict, thereby demonstrating the propagandistic power of the new medium, was Vitagraph's silent film drama The Battle Cry of Peace (1915) with Norma Talmadge. It proposed the idea of what would happen if America was invaded on its own soil by a hostile European power and taken over, with an invasion of New York City. In 1918 in particular, many films documented the momentous sinking of the Lusitania in May of 1915 by a German U-boat and argued for US entrance into the war, such as Vitagraph's Over the Top (1918) (with its hero James Owen joining the British army after the Lusitania's sinking) and Winsor McKay's short animated film The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918).

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After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in late 1941, the mood of Hollywood changed dramatically. Once the war began, the US film industry bolstered American support by churning out many war-themed movies. Most of the films were propaganda depicting the U.S. entry into the war as a noble cause, but some displayed the human side as well. The all-time film classic of pre-World War II intrigue, patriotism and romance, Casablanca (1942) was released just weeks after the liberation of the city itself. The popular film emphasized the atmospheric intrigue and tension surrounding Humphrey Bogart's decision to assist the war effort and get involved by securing transit visas - and give up the one-time love of his life, the often tragic consequences for lovers caught up in wartime experiences. Director Vincente Minnelli's The Clock (1945) another war-time film with a romantic sub-plot, was about a NYC office worker Judy Garland (Minnelli's wife) who fell in love with Robert Walker, a soldier on two-day leave.

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It Happened One Night (1934) is one of the greatest romantic comedies in film history, and a film that has endured in popularity. It is considered one of the pioneering "screwball" romantic comedies of its time, setting the pattern for many years afterwards along with another contemporary film, The Thin Man (1934).

The escapist theme of the film, appropriate during the Depression Era, is the story of the unlikely romantic pairing of a mis-matched couple - a gruff and indifferent, recently-fired newspaper man (Gable) and a snobbish, superior-acting heiress (Colbert) - a runaway on the lam. It is a reversal of the Cinderella story (the heroine rejects her wealthy lifestyle), a modern tale with light-hearted sex appeal in which courtship and love triumph over class conflicts, socio-economic differences, and verbal battles of wit.

The madcap film from Columbia Studios (one of the lesser studios) was an unexpected runaway box office sleeper hit (especially after it began to play in small-town theaters), and it garnered the top five Academy Awards (unrivaled until 1975, forty-one years later by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - and then again by The Silence of the Lambs (1991).) It won all five of its nominated categories: Best Picture, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), Best Director (Frank Capra), and Best Adaptation (Robert Riskin).

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To compete with Charlie Chan, another Far-Eastern sleuth - of Japanese descent, derived from the I.A. Moto character in Pulitzer Prize-winning John P. Marquand's novels (which first appeared as Saturday Evening Post serials), was developed by 20th Century Fox, and named Mr. Moto. Hungarian-born German actor Peter Lorre (in his 7th American film role) starred in the title role as the enigmatic, quiet, self-effacing, unobtrusive, spectacle-wearing and brilliant detective in the eight-film series (produced in less than three years from 1937-1939):

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Harold Lloyd, a popular silent clown, has been dubbed the 'third' genius or master of silent comedy - after Chaplin and Keaton. [An actor/producer, he actually outgrossed his better-known counterparts, by retaining ownership of his films and their profits.] Like them, Lloyd also spent some time in the early years with Mack Sennett, became known for realistic, daredevil stunts, and for his bespectacled, neat, innocent, noble-hearted, 'average Joe' characters. From 1915-1921, he produced a number of short films for Keystone and for major comedy producer Hal Roach, playing the character of Willie Work (debuting in his first starring film Just Nuts (1915) as a Chaplin-like character) and Lonesome Luke (first appearing in Lonesome Luke, Social Gangster (1915)).

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Starring Caitlin Stasey
Rachel Hurd-Wood
Lincoln Lewis
Deniz Akdeniz
Phoebe Tonkin
Chris Pang
Ashleigh Cummings
Andy Ryan
Colin Friels


Review:

Seven teenagers from a small Australian country town called Wirrawee – Ellie, Corrie, Homer, Kevin, Lee, Robyn and Fiona – decide to pack a Landrover and go bush for the weekend. They don their packs and venture into the wild, little-visited, cliff-encircled gorge called Hell: flirting with members of the opposite sex, mucking about, and generally enjoying themselves so much that they think little of the fleet of planes that fly overhead one night.


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Cast
Patrick Wilson ... Barry Munday
Mae Whitman ... Candice
Chloë Sevigny ... Jennifer Farley
Malcolm McDowell ... Mr. Farley
Judy Greer ... Ginger Farley
Missi Pyle ... Lida Griggs
Colin Hanks ... Heavy Metal Greg
Emily Procter ... Deborah
Jean Smart ... Carol Munday
Cybill Shepherd ... Mrs. Farley
Christopher McDonald ... Dr. Preston Edwards
Shea Whigham ... Donald
Billy Dee Williams ... Lonnie Green
Kyle Gass

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Cast
Dolph Lundgren as Icarus aka Edward Genn
Stefanie Von Pfetten as Joey
Katelyn Mager as Taylor
Lindsay Maxwell as April
Samantha Ferris as Kerr

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Cast
Tamer Hassan - Pat Tate
Vincent Regan - Mickey Steele
Terry Stone - Tony Tucker
Adam Deacon - Darren Nicholls
Neil Maskell -Craig Rolfe
Dave Legeno - Jack Whomes
Johnny Palmiero - Bernard O`Mahoney
Lucy Brown - Anna Richards
Kierston Wareing - Kate Smith
Susie Amy - Donna Jagger
Duncan Meadows - Vic

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