Ed L. is the winner of the September giveaway. (The prize is “The 39 Steps,” recently rereleased by Criterion on DVD and Blu-ray.)
The October giveaway is one of the most famous boxing movies ever made as well as a stellar film noir: “Body and Soul” (1947, Robert Rossen). John Garfield, starring opposite Lilli Palmer, received a Best Actor Oscar nomination as did Abraham Polonsky for his original screenplay. Francis D. Lyon and Robert Parrish won the Oscar for best editing. Shot by two-time Oscar winner James Wong Howe.
To enter this month’s giveaway, just leave a comment on any FNB post from Oct. 1-31. We welcome comments, but please remember that, for the purposes of the giveaway, there is one entry per person, not per comment.
The October winner will be randomly selected at the end of the month and announced in early November. Include your email address in your comment so that I can notify you if you win. Also be sure to check your email – if I don’t hear from you after three attempts, I will choose another winner. Your email will not be shared. Good luck!
I’ve recently seem some good John Garfield noir films, including He Ran All the Way (which needs to be released dvd) and Nobody Lives Forever. Body & Soul is still one I have yet to see.
Body and Soul is one of the best boxing films ever IMO. I just Love Garfield’s last line in this movie, “what are you going to do kill me, everybody dies!”
Garfield also plays a boxer on the run in the flick, They Made Me Criminal another fine film that was a remake of the precode 1933 film: The Life Of Jimmy Dolan which I thought was equally good. The latter however has a bonus, Loretta Young and a young John Wayne appear.
John Garfield was a fine actor who died way before his time. The Pride Of The Marines is his best picture hands down to me.
The film “Body and Soul” was loosely based on Barney Ross. A boxing champion in the 1930″s.Ross father lost his life in a hold-up. A scene shown in the movie.John Garfield wanted to produce BarneyRoss life story,but that never came to be.
John Garfield was one of the most sensational actors there has ever been. He was brilliant in every role he ever took on. Sadly, he has been largely forgotten and is definitely under-rated and under-appreciated.
John (above) says that “Pride of the Marines” is the film he thinks is Garfield’s best. For me, the best is “The Breaking Point,” which is the truest adaption of Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not.” “Pride of the Marines,” however, was the first Garfield film I ever saw, and I was so impressed by him that I began seeking out more of his works. That films remains one of my 5 favorite Garfield films.
As hard as it may be to believe, a boxed set of Garfield films has never been released. A fellow Garfield fan/appreciator is trying to change that by petitioning Warner Bros. to release one. She has a petition drive going, with a goal of 2,500 signatures. Currently, there are about 400 signatures. We would love to have you and your fellow film noir readers visit the petition site and add your names to the petition. Here is the link.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/778/073/466/give-star-recognition-back-to-a-legendary-star/
Thanks so much,
Patti Gardner
The problem with putting together a JG box set is that Garfield’s films rights seem to belong to other companies besides Warners. So getting his best four or five films together may be a huge logistical problem. I see they just re-released Body And Soul and Force of Evil with a company other than Warners.
Warners looks like it has a new marketing plan with these four pack TCM Greatest Film Classics sets Jacqueline often gives away here on her site. But I don’t see Warners putting together a four pack on Garfield for the reasons I stated above.
The other Garfield DVD movies Warners is still releasing is from the Warner Archives collection. But buyer beware, these are burned discs and not pressed discs. Picture quality should be just as good but there is a question concerning longevity because they are DVD-R discs, kind of discs you can burn yourself on a DVD recorder unlike a commercially pressed disc that could last many many years.
John Garfield was a great actor and all his films will eventually be on DVD one day but most of them will be Warner Archive Discs. My essential Garfield DVDs that are out on commercially pressed DVD discs include The Postman Always Rings Twice, Body And Soul and Force Of Evil. I was hoping Warner Bros. would release Pride of The Marines on a commercially pressed disc but they took the cheap way out with the archive release. Hope this clears up some of your issues with a Garfield DVD box set.
“Body and Soul” is a terrfic film in the boxing genre. I think that John Garfield gave his best performance in this film.
I’m embarassed to say that I’ve never seen Body & Soul. This is a sin I need to rectify.
Much like the previous person, I’m embarrassed to say I have never seen this movie before. Film Noir is a bit of a cinematic obsession of mine.