classic Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When you hear the name Mildred Pierce, and you happen to know your classic cinema, you probably go right to one woman: she of the big eyebrows and shoulder pads...better known as Joan Crawford. Crawford won her one and only Oscar for her role in Michael Curtiz's crime classic, and now another Oscar winning actress has signed for a remake of the noir tale, but this time it's for the small screen. Variety is reporting that Kate Winslet has joined forces with director Todd Haynes to star in a remake of Pierce as a cable miniseries.

Mildred Pierce was the story of a woman determined take on the restaurant world and make a better life for her daughters, only to have her eldest turn on her, and after much slapping and running up and down the stairs, Mildred finally *resorts to murder. The original film was based on James Cain's novel, and Haynes will be writing his script from the original source material rather than the 1945 film. Which I would assume is because not only would a miniseries require a little more material than a feature film, but also because of the changes that were made to Cain's story to keep the film in line with the production code at the time.

After the jump; why a Mildred Pierce remake might not be so bad, and Sonic Youth's tribute to Crawford's 'Mother with a heart of lead'...

The world of movie marketing certainly has changed over the years, and some of the greatest films to ever come out of Hollywood never got the chance to have high powered marketing teams behind them creating multi-million dollar campaigns. But when it comes to poster art, classic artists like Saul Bass or Bob Peak have yet to be matched. Now, thanks to Turner Classic Movies, we've got a perfect blend of the old and the new in their set of teaser posters for their Summer Under the Stars programming line-up (you can download the full schedule on the TCM site) and the results are in a word: fan-freaking-tastic.

There are 12 posters in total, and they include some breathtaking new images for movies like To Catch a Thief, The Big Heat, The Magnificent Seven, and Dr. Strangelove. TCM has provided a heck of a programming month for fans of classic movies, and if you have never seen some of these films, now is your chance. Since I'm a bit of geek when it comes to these things, I immediately began fantasizing about buying a reproduction to hang in my living room -- but I'm not that lucky, because it looks like these posters aren't for sale and, instead, I will just have to make do with downloading the desktop wallpapers.

TCM's Summer Under the Stars will start in August with the films of Henry Fonda, and will run for the entire month. Check out some of our favorite classic movie teaser posters below, and see if you can guess the film.

Asking me to choose my favorite scene from Young Frankenstein is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child -- it can't be done. Instead, I chose to share one of the many scenes that can reduce me to giggles in five seconds flat. When I first saw Mel Brooks' and Gene Wilder's masterpiece, I might have only been a kid with a limited knowledge of dirty jokes and references to classic Hollywood, but I was in love. Thanks to this classic, Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Peter Boyle, and Marty Feldman have become some of my most lasting examples of comic genius.

It has been 35 years since Young Frankenstein first hit theaters, but I still can't think of a movie that makes me laugh louder and harder every time I see it.

Young Frankenstein Fun Facts (via IMDB)

• When the film was released, Aerosmith was hard at work on their album, Toys in the Attic, and when the band were suffering from writers block for the lyrics to a particular song, the group took a break and went to the movies to see Frankenstein. As the legend goes, Igor's "walk this way" gag was the basis (or phrase) for the hit song of the same name.
• Madeleine Kahn was originally slated to play the sexy lab assistant Inga, but at the last minute decided to play Wilder's fiancée, Elizabeth, instead.

Royal biopics are a tricky thing to pull off. Rarely, if ever, do they tell us anything about the person behind the crown. And let's face it, with Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette just around the corner, it serves to reminds us that royals are very well-trodden ground.

W.S. Van Dyke's 1938 extravaganza, Marie Antoinette, has just been released on DVD. The film was one of the most expensive costume/period pictures made during the studio days, coming in around seven figures ... gasp! (I know, but it was the 1930's). The movie was a bit over-dramatic and had Hollywood glamor dripping from the lens. Frankly it was more than a little boring, but it was 1938, so what do I know. Maybe for audiences back then, it was the height of excitement. Starring Norma Shearer as Marie Antoinette and John Barrymore as Louis XVI, the film covers the familiar points of her life: Lonely Austrian princess isolated by the crown, unloved and misunderstood, and so on and so forth. This film was a romantic tragedy about the love between Marie Antoinette and her childhood friend (played by Tyrone Power) and how the once-tender princess was ruined by power. Now fast-forward almost 20 years -- the Queen is dead! Long Live the Queen!

Not much has changed, because we're about to get the next installment of "Tragic Princesses and the Peasants Who Hate Them." Coppola's Marie Antoinette has received a pretty cold reception; the film got middling reviews, and was booed at Cannes. Even Coppola's defense of the film was a little timid: "Hopefully some people will enjoy it -- it is not for everybody." This film takes a more liberal attempt at a portrait of a royal, trying to draw comparisons between royals and celebrities and the isolation that the lifestyles of the rich and famous create. It's a fine line between showing us shallow and vapid and being shallow and vapid so here's hoping Coppola can pull it off -- I have my fingers crossed on this one.

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette opens Oct. 20 in most cites. If you can't wait to get your fix of the teen queen, you can check out the 1938 version mentioned above, or perhaps David Grubin's PBS documentary.

[via Yahoo! Movies]