Cinema Society (2026)

09/09/2026

On this date in 2002, at the 74th Academy Awards, Denzel Washington was named Best Actor for his role in "Training Day" (2001). Washington has frequently said that Detective Alonzo Harris in this film is his favorite character that he's played.

"My son (presumably future actor John David Washington, as Denzel's other son Malcolm was only nine at the time) talked me into doing that movie. He was like, 'Dad, you've never done anything like this.' I just hadn't been asked before. The only film that was sort of dark that I'd turned down was 'Seven' (1995). They offered me the Brad Pitt part, but I was like, 'This is so dark and evil.' Then when I saw the movie, I was like, 'Oh, shoot.'"

Before Antoine Fuqua was involved in the project, Davis Guggenheim was set to direct with Samuel L. Jackson as Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris and Matt Damon as rookie Officer Jake Hoyt. When Washington accepted the role as Detective-Sergeant Alonzo Harris, Guggenheim was replaced per his request.

In his audition for the part of Hoyt, Ethan Hawke got pi**ed off with Washington who was deliberately going off script. This essentially landed Hawke the role.

Fuqua wanted Washington's character to be seductive and part of a machine, and not just a random rogue cop. In Washington's own words: "I think in some ways he's done his job too well. He's learned how to manipulate, how to push the line further and further, and, in the process, he's become more hard-core than some of the guys he's chasing."

09/09/2026

"Producers generally don't like me; directors do, generally. Convincing the producers is hard. They can't see the commercial value behind such a face, nor would they get a commercial value, necessarily - and I don't mean that in a good way or a bad way."

The daughter of Christopher Plummer and Tammy Grimes, when she was a girl Amanda Plummer wanted to be a jockey. When she was 14, she passed an audition at the Belmont track, riding for Alfred Vanderbilt's stables. Of that she said: "Those were the greatest years of my life."

"I don't play roles everybody likes. I'd rather have a career I'm proud of. Like everyone else, I need to eat. But I'm a very unbusinesslike person, and I keep my price low. I'm not a mass product. I'm not everyone's cup of tea."

Plummer has received critical acclaim for her film work, including such films as "Cattle Annie and Little Britches" (1981), "The World According to Garp" (1982), "Daniel" (1983), and The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Other films of note include "The Fisher King" (1991,for which she received a BAFTA film nomination, a Chicago Film Critics Association Award nomination, and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award) and "Pulp Fiction" (1994, below), for which she received an American Comedy Award nomination.

Plummer's character of Honey Bunny was reportedly named after an actual rabbit belonging to Linda Chen, who typed up Tarantino's handwritten script for this movie. She asked Tarantino to watch her rabbit when she went on-location. Tarantino wouldn't do it, and when the rabbit later died, he named Plummer's character after Chen's pet.

"I like devilish, thorny, dirty, mean roles, muck and mire, unbelievably sad, unbelievably happy, burdened. Inner conflict - that's where drama is." (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Amanda Plummer!

09/09/2026

"I'm a hopeful person; I'm not a cynic. I believe that cynicism is a cancer for an artist. It's a way of insulating yourself from experience. If you're cynical about something, it becomes removed and can't invade you. If you believe that life has to do with an engagement of issues and personalities that make you young and vital, it's hard to be anything but hopeful."

"On Golden Pond" (1981), directed by Mark Rydell, is the only film ever in which a film's two top-billed lead actors playing a married couple won a Best Actor and Actress Academy Award each, they being Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn respectively.

Before filming, Rydell was warned by fellow director George Cukor that Hepburn will attempt to test him to see if she can work well with a new director. On the first day of filming, Hepburn arrived at the set dressed in a black silk polo neck shirt, matching trousers, a beautifully brown suede tailored jacket and a matching sort of Robin Hood-style hat. Declaring herself ready for filming, Rydell refused to shoot as she was not in the intended wardrobe. It caused an argument on the set for quite a while, causing an embarrassment to the crew, until she relented and taken to her dressing room (a cabin by the lake). Nonetheless, the first day's filming managed to be completed. According to Rydell, that was the test Hepburn had set on him, knowing that if he cannot stand up to her nor he knows the material well, he risked being fired from the production.

Hepburn hurt her arm in a tennis match a few weeks before filming. She almost pulled out, but Fonda convinced her to show up to start shooting on day one. One scene was omitted from the film in which you see her pick up a canoe by herself with her sore arm. She never forgave Mark Rydell for editing that scene out.

09/09/2026

Akira Kurosawa made the commercial and accessible film "The Hidden Fortress" (1958) as a way to repay Toho Studios for allowing him to make riskier, more artistic fare such as "Rashomon" (1950). "The Hidden Foretress" was the fourth highest-grossing film of the year in Japan, and Kurosawa's most successful film up to that point.

Misa Uehara, who played the princess (below), described her first makeup session involving Kurosawa walking into the dressing room with a picture of Elizabeth Taylor, using it to explain what he was looking for in his princess with regards to makeup.

Key parts of the film were shot in Hōrai Valley in Hyōgo and on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, where bad weather from the record-breaking Kanagawa typhoon delayed the production. Toho's frustration with Kurosawa's slow pace of shooting led to the director forming his own production company the following year, though he continued to distribute through Toho.

George Lucas has acknowledged the heavy influence of "The Hidden Fortress" on "Star Wars" (1977), particularly in the technique of telling the story from the perspective of the film's lowliest characters, C-3PO and R2-D2. Some of the major characters from "Star Wars" have clear analogues in "The Hidden Fortress," including C-3PO and R2-D2 being based on Tahei and Matashichi, and Princess Leia on Princess Yuki. Lucas's original plot outline for "Star Wars" bore an even greater resemblance to the plot of the film; this draft would subsequently be reused as the basis for "The Phantom Menace" (1999).

09/09/2026

Joan Crawford initially objected to her role as Flaemmchen in "Grand Hotel" (1932) because she feared that much of her performance would be censored for being too provocative and racy. Director Edmund Goulding and producer Irving Thalberg assured her that her part would be filmed in a tasteful manner and that she would be shown in a sympathetic light. Crawford's misgivings were warranted, however, as many censor boards in conservative American states cut the majority of her scenes for indecency.

Crawford was always in awe of co-star Greta Garbo's presence and eager to talk to her idol, but since the film never called for their characters to be in the same room at the same time, there was little chance of the two spending much time together. Crawford also was too intimidated to ever directly approach Garbo, who coolly kept her distance. One day, however, Crawford was surprised when Garbo spoke to her first. It was an experience that Crawford called "thrilling" when Garbo stopped her on the stairs at MGM and said, "We're in the same picture. How sad I am that we haven't one scene together." It was a story that Crawford proudly told many times throughout her career, the thrill of that moment always evident.

Not so thrilling was Wallace Beery, who once stormed out of rehearsals, saying he would only come back "when Joan Crawford learns to act."

A preview screening held in Monterey, California reportedly produced rave reviews for Crawford, whose reception was so positive that producer Irving Thalberg feared her performance would outshine Garbo's. Thalberg carefully supervised the editing process to ensure a balance of footage between all of the film's stars.

In later years, Crawford described the movie as "a grand film, a grand experience in my life. I'm so proud. I was thrilled when I heard I was going to be doing it. I only wanted to be worthy."

09/09/2026

Haing S. Ngor was a native of Cambodia, and before the war was a physician (obstetrics) and medical officer in the Cambodian army. He became a captive of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and was imprisoned and tortured; in order to escape ex*****on he denied being a doctor or having an education. He moved to the U.S. as a refugee in 1980, and though he had no formal acting experience, he was chosen to portray photographer Dith Pran in "The Killing Fields" (1984) and won an Academy Award. Ngor was not interested at first in the role of Dith Pran, but after interviews with the filmmakers he changed his mind, remembering that he promised his late wife to tell Cambodia's story to the world. He went on to a modestly distinguished acting career, while continuing to work with human rights organizations in Cambodia on improving the conditions in resettlement camps, as well as attempting to bring the perpetrators of the Cambodian massacre to justice.

"I don't want history to blame me, saying Dr. Ngor has many opportunities, why does he not help? Now I know the value of the arts. The arts can explain everything possible to tell the world."

Ngor was the first non-professional since Harold Russell in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) to win an Academy Award. (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Haing S. Ngor!

09/09/2026

Leonard (Chico) Marx, the oldest of The Marx Brothers (first-born Manfred Marx had died in infancy), was a gambling addict and initially joined his brothers' act to pay off debts. However, he became the unofficial manager of the group once he joined (taking over from his mother), using the hustling charms he attained as a gambler to further The Marx Brothers' fortunes.

W.C. Fields said that The Marx Brothers were the only act he couldn't follow on the live stage. He is known to have appeared on the same bill with them only once, during an engagement at Keith's Orpheum Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, in January, 1915. At the time the Marx Brothers were touring "Home Again," and it didn't take Fields long to realize how his quiet comedy juggling act was faring against the anarchy of the Marxes. Fields later wrote of the engagement (and the Marxes), "They sang, danced, played harp and kidded in zany style. Never saw so much nepotism or such hilarious laughter in one act in my life. The only act I could never follow . . . I told the manager I broke my wrist and quit."

Chico had a reputation as a world-class pinochle player, a game he and Harpo learned from their father. Groucho said Chico would throw away good cards (with the knowledge of spectators) to make the play "more interesting." Chico's last public appearance was in 1960, playing cards on the television show "Championship Bridge." He and his partner lost the game. It was at a bridge game with Chico that Irving Thalberg began discussing the possibility of the Marxes joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

In addition, Chico was an avid poker player and is rumored to have had a photographic memory so good, he could memorize the positions of cards in a deck. When a check written by Chico was found in mobster Bugsy Siegel's wallet at the time of his death, Chico was interrogated by police. He insisted the check was payment of a gambling debt from a poker game. When asked about his knowledge of Siegel's criminal activities, Chico stated, "We never discussed business." Groucho Marx later said of this incident, "Chico was lucky that Bugsy was shot. If Bugsy had tried to cash that check, it would have bounced. Then Bugsy would have shot Chico."

"How much money have I lost from gambling in the past ten years? Find out how much money Harpo's got... that's how much I've lost."

09/09/2026

During the 1966–1969 "Star Trek" television series, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's lawyers drafted what Shatner termed a "favored nations clause," with the result that whatever Shatner received—for instance, a pay raise or script control—Nimoy also got and vice versa. Nimoy had directed "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984) and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986). Shatner had previously directed plays and television episodes; when he signed on for "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989) following a pay dispute, Shatner was promised he could direct the next film.

Nimoy noted that this was the most physical film in the series, which reflected Shatner's energetic sensibility and what he enjoyed doing most on the series, "running and jumping." DeForest Kelley noted the physicality required for this film and enjoyed doing things that he had not been asked to do in years. "I was very pleased to see that he (Shatner) brought it along in fine style," he said. Kelley noted that his own ambition to direct had deserted him after seeing difficulties Nimoy faced directing the previous two "Star Trek" films.

According to George Takei, he originally turned down this film because he did not want to be directed by Shatner, with whom he has had a longstanding feud. But Shatner convinced Takei to reprise his role. Takei has said that, despite studio pressure to complete the film on time, Shatner maintained a creative and enthusiastic atmosphere on set. "I have enormous admiration for his ability to block that kind of pressure from seeping on to the set." Moreover, Takei acknowledged, "despite our sometimes strained personal history, I found working with Bill as a director to be surprisingly pleasant."

Initially, Shatner believed that this film would get a positive response. In the morning after the opening night, he woke up Leonard Nimoy to tell him that the Los Angeles Times had given the film a positive review. Soon after, a local television reporter also gave the film a good review, and Shatner recalled that he incorrectly "began sensing a (positive) trend." He later agreed that the film nearly ended the movie franchise, and looking back on the film called it a "failed, but glorious attempt" at a thought-provoking film, that did not come together. (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, William Shatner!

09/09/2026

Born Mladen Sekulovich, Karl Malden always regretted that in order to become an actor, he had to change his name. Since he was proud of his heritage, when he starred in a movie or on TV, he insisted that a character carry his family name. In "On the Waterfront" (1954), Fred Gwynne's character was named "Sekulovich."

Malden's character, Fr. Pete Barry, was based on Fr. John "Pete" Corridan, SJ (Society of Jesus, aka The Jesuits). The hat and coat worn by Malden in the film belonged to Fr. Corridan.

Harry Cohn didn't think the line "go to hell," uttered in an exchange between Terry (Marlon Brando) and Father Barry would get pass the censors. But when the Breen Office approved the line without objection, Cohn angrily barraged their office with questions regarding the censoring of lesser offenses in previous Columbia efforts.

According to Richard Schickel in his biography of Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra had "a handshake deal"--but no formally-signed contract--to play Terry Malloy after Brando's original refusal to play the role. Sinatra--who was producer Sam Spiegel's first choice for the role--actually attended one wardrobe fitting to prepare his costumes for the film. However, Kazan still favored Brando for the role, partially because Brando's casting in the film would assure a larger budget. Kazan was actually contacted by Brando's agent, Jay Kanter, to assure the director of the agent's continuing efforts to persuade the actor to perform in the film. Kazan, in the meantime, enlisted Malden (whom he considered more suited to a career as a director than a career as an actor) to direct and film a screen test of a "more Brando-like" actor as Terry Malloy, in an effort to persuade Spiegel that "an actor like Marlon Brando" could perform the Terry Malloy role more forcefully than Sinatra. To that end, Malden filmed a screen test of Actor's Studio members Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward--neither of whom had as yet appeared in a film--performing the love scene between Terry and Edie. Finally persuaded of the point by the Newman/Woodward screen test, Spiegel agreed to reconsider Brando for the role, and shortly afterward Brando was persuaded by Kanter to reconsider his refusal. Within a week, Brando signed a contract to perform in the film. At that point, a furious Sinatra demanded to be cast in the role of Father Barry, the waterfront priest. It was left to Spiegel to break the news to Sinatra that Malden had already been signed for that role.

09/09/2026

"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (1970) was originally intended as a straightforward sequel to the 1967 film "Valley of the Dolls." Jacqueline Susann, author of the novel the first film was based on, had been asked to write a screenplay but declined.

Susann herself had come up with the title while she was writing her second novel "The Love Machine." 20th Century Fox rejected two screenplay drafts, and the final version, written by director Russ Meyer and novice screenwriter Roger Ebert in six weeks, was not only a spoof of the original film, but, in Ebert's words "a satire of Hollywood conventions, genres, situations, dialogue, characters and success formulas, heavily overlaid with such shocking violence that some critics didn't know whether the movie 'knew' it was a comedy.". Meyer's intention was for the film to "simultaneously be a satire, a serious melodrama, a rock musical, a comedy, a violent exploitation picture, a skin flick and a moralistic expose (so soon after the Sharon Tate murders) of what the opening crawl called 'the oft-times nightmarish world of Show Business.'"

As a result, the studio placed a disclaimer at the beginning of the film informing the audience that the two films were not intended to be connected. Posters for the movie read, "This is not a sequel——there has never been anything like it."

Upon its initial release, the film was given an X rating by the MPAA; ] in 1990, it was re-classified as NC-17. Meyer's response to the original X rating was to attempt to re-edit the film to insert more nudity and s*x, but Fox wanted to get the movie released quickly and wouldn't give him the time. Ebert said that "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" seemed "like a movie that got made by accident when the lunatics took over the asylum.

Cinema Society

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