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 I can hardly believe it, but the new 2010 edition of Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide is now available as an iPhone and iTouch app! The hard-working team at MobileAge has reconfigured the material in both the current annual (along with titles we were forced to delete in recent years, to make space) and my Classic Movie Guide as an easy-to-use, searchable database of 23,000 films. They’ve spruced up the entries with poster artwork, and even provided a link that enables you to rent a film from Netflix with the push of a button. You can maintain lists of pictures you want to see, and even e-mail reviews to friends online.
 In fact, after just a few weeks, the app has already been upgraded to Version 1.1; the new edition has a faster search engine, links to trailers for 4,500 films (as in the image at left), and iTunes integration for renting or purchasing films from Apple. It’s absolutely amazing, and you can get a video tour by clicking HERE. You can also read about the product HERE at the MobileAge site which provides a link to the iTunes store.
I never could have envisioned such a treatment of the reviews I’ve been writing, editing and accumulating over so many years, and I must say it’s pretty exciting. I don’t expect to abandon the books in my library any time soon, but as an adjunct (and an easy way to get information on the go) this is hard to beat.
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Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Like many other movie lovers and purists, I was upset when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it would be removing all honorary awards from its Oscar broadcast in 2010. This was often the highlight of the show for me, though I realize that it must have been boring for viewers who don’t care about movie history. The Academy promised it would stage an elegant event in November that would bestow even more honorary awards than usual in a given year.
Last weekend the Academy lived up to its promise by mounting a classy and memorable evening to honor four movie notables: producer-director Roger Corman, actress Lauren Bacall, cinematographer Gordon Willis, and producer-executive John Calley, who was given the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
By any measure, it was a wonderful evening. Everyone I spoke to agreed that the ability to make full, often personal presentations without a giant clock ticking away made the event truly meaningful, for the recipients and for the audience.
My wife and I felt extremely lucky to be included. Most of the people who attended were industry honchos and veterans, the very people who make up the Academy membership. (Pundits often talk about “the Academy,” especially around Oscar time, as if it is some kind of monolith, when in fact it is made up of all kinds of people—with a wide range of taste and opinions.) We sat at an interesting table with former Academy president Arthur Hiller (director of The Americanization of Emily, Hospital, and so many more), 20th Century Fox distribution exec Bruce Snyder, Oscar-winning costume designer Albert Wolsky (All That Jazz, Bugsy) and his colleague and friend Susan Kowarsh, who was married to the late cinematographer Conrad Hall. Finally, an elderly lady at the table was introduced to me as Mary Blakeley, but I knew her as Mary Carlisle, ingénue of so many 1930s films. As you can see, we were in great company.
Oscar honoree Roger Corman poses with three "graduates"
of his movie workplace, directors Ron Howard, Joe Dante,
and (in back row) Allan Arkush.
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There were Oscar wannabes in attendance as well: Gabourey Sidibe, the impressive young star of Precious, Tom Ford, the fashion designer who’s just directed his first film, A Single Man, actress Abbie Cornish, of Bright Star, and actor Christophe Waltz, who made such a strong impression in Inglourious Basterds.
I feel bad for fellow movie fans who will only see glimpses of the event on the Oscar show, but at a time when traditions are eroding, ratings are at stake, and patience is scarce, I think the Academy has found a perfect compromise. More than one speaker remarked how great it was not to have television cameras hovering in every corner—or, to quote Warren Beatty, “nobody’s worrying whether 36.5 million people are watching or 29.2.”
In fact, the most unusual aspect of the Governor’s Awards event was its anti-establishment tone. Following enthusiastic speeches by Ron Howard, Quentin Tarantino, and Jonathan Demme, Roger Corman graciously accepted his award and talked about the need to get away from tentpole movies and expensive sequels. He encouraged independent filmmakers to “keep gambling” and “take chances.” Amen to that. (I daresay Corman had the most colorful group of guests at his table, filled with former coworkers including directors Joe Dante, Allan Arkush, Peter Bogdanovich, Lewis Teague, Amy Jones, and Curtis Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and actors Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.)
Gordon Willis’ award was a form of reparations, one might say, for the snubbing he suffered in the 1970s from the West Coast-dominated cinematographer’s branch of the Academy. How could they not nominate the man who photographed The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Annie Hall, and Manhattan? In his lengthy toast to the Master, cameraman Caleb Deschanel told of diehard New Yorker Willis’ loud and disparaging remarks about Hollywood over the years. They cost him dearly, in terms of official recognition, but the Academy finally made amends with this honorary Oscar.
Lauren Bacall is one of those rare actresses who became a star in her first movie role, opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not. No one could have predicted the trajectory of her life, with a sudden detour from New York to Hollywood before she turned 20, and a lasting, loving relationship with her leading man. But Bacall proved to be a survivor, reinventing herself more than once and growing into a mature and commanding character actress. She was feted by her old friend (and costar) Kirk Douglas, with whom she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York back in the 1940s, and by Anjelica Huston, whose father was on location with Bogart (and Bacall, who tagged along) making The African Queen when he learned of his daughter’s birth.
John Calley is one of those studio executives whose name is always spoken of with respect and near-reverence: a man who has thrived in a cutthroat business while never abandoning his instincts or his good taste. Poor health kept him from attending the awards evening, so seven prior recipients of the Thalberg Award took to the stage: Dino De Laurentiis, Walter Mirisch, Norman Jewison, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Warren Beatty. I’d call that a pretty impressive lineup. Tom Hanks then made the formal presentation, and Spielberg accepted the Oscar on Calley’s behalf.
Yes, this was an A-list event where Hollywood’s best and brightest came to celebrate great lives and careers. There was no tension, no talk of box-office, no crush of media. It served as a reminder of what the Academy stands for, and it was a glorious occasion.
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 I’ve been in the grip of a bad cold for almost two weeks; I somehow manage to get my most important work done and then I go to sleep every day. By Wednesday afternoon I was so frustrated—tired but restless at the same time—I decided I couldn’t stare at the wall (or my computer) any longer. So I did what I’ve always done when I’m at odds or feeling low: I went to the movies. I’d missed screenings of Pirate Radio and it looked interesting, so that’s what I chose to see. I also ingested about a half-hour’s worth of advertising and movie trailers—averting my eyes, and attention, for the films I really care about—in the nearly-empty auditorium of my local multiplex. (There’s a vampire comedy coming up called Transylmania that looks truly awful.)
Then I limped through Richard Curtis’ disappointing comedy. You can get almost all the value the film has to offer from its trailer: Philip Seymour Hoffman is fun as the coolest dude on the air, and he’s surrounded by compatible costars like Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans, Kenneth Branagh, the adorable Gemma Arterton, and (in a surprise bit) Emma Thompson...but the film is dramatically inert. After it establishes its premise it has nowhere to go. I’m still glad I checked it out, and the experience accomplished what moviegoing almost always does for me on these occasions: it got me out of the doldrums.
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 “Just when you thought there was no hope” department: in these times of blockbuster, blanket movie releases and multimillion dollar marketing budgets, it’s tough for independent films (including well-reviewed movies with stars in their cast, as well as documentaries and foreign imports) to get people to leave their homes and go out to a theater to see them. Yet somehow, Aviva Kempner’s informative, and evocative, documentary about pioneering radio and television actress-writer-producer Gertrude Berg, Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, has just passed the one million dollar box-office mark after four months in release. International Film Circuit is handling the film, with twenty-five prints, and it’s still playing in about twenty locations around the country. I couldn’t be happier: it’s a good movie about a woman who shouldn’t be forgotten. (In fact, UCLA Film and Television Archive is planning to screen kinescopes of her landmark TV show The Goldbergs in January.)
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Through the magic of e-mail I’ve just received the latest issues of two fine film journals in PDF form: The November/December issue of The Silent Treatment, full of silent-film news and nuggets and a huge new “Special Blacklist Issue” of Noir City Sentinel, the fascinating and provocative publication of the Film Noir Foundation. If you’re not on their mailing lists, you should be! And I’ve just learned of a new website devoted to one of my favorite actors from Hollywood’s golden age, Chester Morris. It has a terrific film clip as its greeting but it seems to stall out when I first try to load it; it works better once the site is fully loaded and I refresh the site. I’ve also been tipped by a reader that the official Ray Harryhausen site is new and improved. Check it out.
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Finally, I was recently interviewed by John Rabe for his entertaining, enlightening and award-winning public-affairs radio show Off-Ramp, heard in Los Angeles on KPCC-FM 89.3. The occasion was the 40th anniversary of my annual Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, and John has posted the entire conversation on the Off-Ramp website here, if you care to listen.
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 Some news and notes involving classic comedians: you wouldn’t think someone could dig up unfamiliar Laurel and Hardy footage at this late date, but the owners of the British Pathé newsreel library have done just that by putting their entire library online. If you love music-hall entertainers like George Formby and Flanagan and Allen, you’ll have lots to cheer, but it’s especially exciting to see Stan and Ollie during their tours of the British Isles. For details about these appearances and links to the specific URLs, I suggest you read this essay by Richard W. Bann on the official Laurel and Hardy website. (The site, by the way, is maintained by the company in Munich that owns non-U.S. rights to the Hal Roach library.)
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 The family of W.C. Fields has just launched its own official website. There’s good browsing here, as well, and if you don’t think there are new wrinkles to Fields fandom, consider this tidbit: Michael Jackson is buried not far from W.C. in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California!
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Finally, budding Buster Keaton scholars are invited to submit applications for a Porkpie Scholarship from the Damfinos, the international Buster Keaton society. I quote from an official press release:
The Porkpie Scholar Grant Program issues grants of $350 annually to one or two recipients per year; it was established in 2008 with a substantial gift from a member of the International Buster Keaton Society who wishes to remain anonymous. The organization matched that gift to create the seed money for this grant program, which offers grants to authors, artists, film preservationists, filmmakers, composers and others who are contributing to the ongoing understanding and appreciation of the life and work of comedian/filmmaker Buster Keaton.
Applications and grant guidelines can be downloaded from the Keaton website or requested by email at keatongrant (at) gmail.com.
 It’s taken ten years, but I can finally announce that all 78 episodes of the Zorro TV series produced by Walt Disney in 1957-58, along with four one-hour Zorro specials that aired on Walt Disney Presents, are now available on DVD as part of the Walt Disney Treasures. This marks the ninth installment of the series which I pitched to then-Disney chairman Dick Cook ten years ago. I wanted Zorro to be among our first releases, but there was a problem with underlying rights that prevented us from proceeding at that time. Other stumbling blocks got in the way later on, but last year the Disney company earmarked a large sum of money for restoration and rerecording of the original 35mm black & white negatives, and now, Zorro is finally here. Season One and Season Two take up six discs apiece (remember, back in the 1950s a season lasted 39 episodes!)
 Guy Williams, Jr. was an eager participant and gave us access to family photos and home movies of his father, as well as his precious memories of visiting the set of the show when he was a youngster. Other Zorro fans and experts were just as willing to pitch in, so our background piece on the history of the character and a profile of Guy Williams benefit from the input of veteran stunt man Buddy Van Horn (who doubled Guy Williams—and often fenced opposite him), film historian Rudy Behlmer, film music expert Jon Burlingame, Zorro guest star Suzanne Lloyd, illustrator and sculptor Ruben Procopio, Gerry Dooley, author of The Zorro Television Companion (an indispensible resource), Guy Williams biographer Antoinette Lane, Disney TV historian Bill Cotter, Zorro superfan Kathy Gregory, and the good folks at the Walt Disney Archives, especially Rebecca Cline and Rob Klein, who arranged for us to shoot vintage Zorro costumes and merchandise.
The best part of this project for me was reacquainting myself with the original series (and those little-seen one-hour specials). I can’t pretend this felt like work: I had a ball. I know my feelings are colored by the nostalgia of having seen and enjoyed the shows when I was young, but I think they hold up quite well, and reveal the care that went into their production. One word of warning: the folks at Disney Home Video aren’t kidding when they call this a “limited edition.” Most video retailers are given a finite number of these tin-boxed DVD sets and aren’t able to re-order when they run out. Last year Dr. Syn (The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh) was sold out within weeks of its release, and Disney decided not to issue more tins. I had no say in the matter, so I advise anyone who’s interested in Zorro to act now.
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