Norman Taurog, (February 23, 1899 - April 7, 1981) was an American film director born in Chicago, Illinois. Between 1920 and 1968 he directed over 140 films. Taurog won the 1931 Oscar for Best Director for the film Skippy and still holds the record as the youngest director to win that award, 32. He was later nominated for Best Director for his 1938 film, Boys Town. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Norman Taurog has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1600 Vine Street.

It could be said that Norman Taurog had five chapters to his career. His first was a child performer on the stage from an early age, making his movie debut aged 13 in the short film Tangled Relations, produced by Thomas Ince’s studios. In the 8 years until his next screen credit he worked in theatre, mostly off-Broadway. By the time he re-entered the movies he had entered the second chapter, making the transition to director. He collaborated with Larry Semon in 1920’s The Sportsman. Taurog made 42 more films, mostly shorts, up until 1931; in this time he developed his style, his forte was light comedy though he could also deal with drama and maintain complex narratives.

In 1931 he made his breakthrough, directing Skippy, for which he won an Academy Award. Taurog's nephew Jackie Cooper won an Oscar for his performance; in his 1981 autobiography Please Don't Shoot My Dog Cooper wrote that during filming Taurog threatened to shoot his dog if the child actor could not cry for the scene. Skippy tells of the adventures of the eponymous hero, his antics and adventures with Sooky as they try to come up with a license for Sooky’s dog, prevent his shantytown from demolition, sell lemonade and save for a new bike. Based on a popular comic strip character, it’s sentiment, comedy and moral didacticism (common with movies of the time), added to a gritty realism made it a huge success. Skippy was so successful the studio immediately scheduled a sequel, Sooky, for the following year.

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Movies Reviews

Review for Fireproof - Must Go! - A Movie of great quality
This is a fantastic movie. Everyone should go to see this film. It has a great clean story line to it, that is appropriate for the whole family. There needs to be more films just like this one, and we need to show the producers and companies who make movies that this is the type of movie everyone wants to se. A must see. Great for a date, or a night out with the family.
Review for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Go - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Well as the movie's title boasts the music in this movie was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Nick and Norah slowly fall in love. I was let down every time they hit a speedbump on their road to each others arms. And the soundtrack played as a beautiful backdrop to it all. This movie has it all, a love story, music, a few gross out moment, a funny messy drunk girl, a horribly evil ex girlfriend, and 2 gay best friends. Watch out for the gum!!
Review for Nights in Rodanthe - No - Nights in Rodanthe
Movie was unrealistic, the house would have collasped, the people would have died and disappeared, apparently the people in Hollywood don't watch the weather channel. I could not get into the movie and root for two characters who were still married but not to each other and what a burden the mother put on the daughter, the movie did not make me weepy or sad for the couple just angry that I spent so much money for a junky movie!

L.A. Times - Movie Reviews

'Ashes of Time' impeccably restored
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Also reviewed: 'Breakfast With Scot'; 'Fraude: Mexico 2006'; 'Talento de Barrio' and more Wong Kar Wai's beautiful but demanding 1994 martial arts epic "Ashes of Time" has been impeccably restored, with "Redux" added to its title, and boasts excellent subtitles that help the viewer understand that it is set in the parallel universe of its genre and unfolds in five parts according to Chinese seasons. Visually superb, its score enhanced by added music, "Ashes of Time Redux" is an elegiac, contemplative work with an elliptical narrative that is hard to follow.
'Body of Lies'
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Director Ridley Scott and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe can't make up for a thin story. "Body of Lies" is a film in disguise. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, except in this case the disguise is better than what it's covering up.
'Good Dick'
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Touching, human performances by Marianna Palka and Jason Ritter turn an improbable premise into a sweet, grounded love story. Some people feel most at home burrowing in the depths of other people's pain, and Jason Ritter's unnamed character in Marianna Palka's "Good Dick" is clearly one of those people.

Movies

Religulous
Bruce Diones Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
The Film File
Rachel Getting Married
Anthony Lane Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
The Film File
Nights and Weekends
Richard Brody Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0000
The Film File

Rolling Stone Movie Reviews

Miracle at St. Anna
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:57:21 -0700
Starring: Omar Benson Miller, Michael Ealy, Derek Luke, Laz Alonso Review: Critics are raining down hard on Spike Lee's first war epic. And it's not like I don't have objections. Miracle at St. Anna is too long, lazily constructed, and crammed with too many characters and subplots for any director to develop fully outside of an HBO miniseries. But Lee isn't any director. He's an African-American maverick with a legit gripe against the white face that Hollywood puts on war. The first scene in Miracle shows us a black World War II veteran watching John Wayne on TV lording it over the D-Day invasion in The Longest Day. "We fought that war too," says the vet. Point taken. It's no surprise that Lee decided to make a film of James McBride's well-received novel about the Buffalo Soldiers, black GIs segregated from the regular Army, who served with the 92nd Infantry... Rating: 2 Stars
Eagle Eye
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:54:34 -0700
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan Review: Questions: Did everyone involved in this botched thriller OD on speed? Does jimmy-legs director D.J. Caruso think if he slowed down the action we'd figure out how stupid the plot is? Did Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan think there was any acting involved in playing characters on the run from a computer intent on global domination? Are BlackBerrys and iPhones the enemy because they make us easy for the computer to track? Can the computer make me forget this movie? Rating: 1.5 Stars
Flash of Genius
Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:19:41 -0700
Starring: Greg Kinnear Review: For a while, it looked like Greg Kinnear showed his acting chops best with supporting roles in the likes of As Good as It Gets, Little Miss Sunshine and the current Ghost Town. Well, hang on. Kinnear takes the star spot in Flash of Genius and rides it to glory. He plays Robert Kearns, the Detroit professor, inventor and father of six who came up with the idea for the intermittent windshield wiper during the 1960s. Go ahead, groan. I felt the same way. A night reading patent law seems more exciting. But Kinnear takes this true story — John Seabrook's 1993 New Yorker article formed the basis of the script, by Philip Railsback — and runs with it. Kearns had his "flash of genius" when a champagne cork popped his eye on his honeymoon with wife Phyllis (Lauren Graham). Why couldn't a... Rating: 3 Stars

NPR Topics: Movies

In 'Rachel,' Director Demme Casts Against Type
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:01:00 -0400
Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme cast Anne Hathaway — an actress best known for sweetheart roles — as a recovering drug addict in his new film, Rachel Getting Married. He talks about that decision and how he got involved in the project.
In 'Happy,' Mike Leigh's World Is Not So Miserable
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:08:00 -0400
Director Mike Leigh's new film, Happy-Go-Lucky is propelled by a different sort of character: a 30-year-old primary school teacher who likes to party and deflects life's uncomfortable intrusions with an overabundance of good cheer. Not the typical working-class world Leigh usually explores.
'Duck Soup': Take One Fiscal Crisis, Boil Merrily
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:26:00 -0400
Depression-era comedy sends the Marx Brothers skating through economic territory their namesake Karl would recognize — and it begins with talk of bailouts, tax breaks and other things that Bob Mondello says you'll find familiar, too.

NYT > Red Carpet

The Lawsuit Over Producer Credit for 'Crash' Gets Personal
SHARON WAXMAN Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
A top executive of the movie academy described one of the producing team behind the best-picture winner, "Crash," as throwing a tantrum in suing over credit for the film.
News Analysis: Los Angeles Retains Custody of Oscar
DAVID CARR Tue, 07 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
Los Angeles, a place where race is discussed rarely, saw itself in "Crash," a film where encounter and understanding are just a random fender-bender away.
'Crash' Walks Away With the Top Prize at the Oscars
DAVID M. HALBFINGER and DAVID CARR Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0400
In a stunning twist, the motion picture academy turned its back on "Brokeback Mountain," awarding the Oscar for best picture to "Crash."

Village Voice | Films

Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time Gets Its Comeback
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Cynics make the worst romantics; they should know better, they know they should know better, and they'd die if you knew better. Forced underground by a formative heartbreak, a cynic's romantic nature can flourish into a sort of private dementia. You can take my weary word for it, or you ca...
Joe Sawnberg and Greta Gerwig Attempt To Tell the Truth in Nights and Weekends
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Nights and Weekends telescopes a year-and-a-half relationship into a sampler of chats, spats, and screws. James and Mattie are two kids in their mid-twenties, just feeling out the world; they're played by the film's co-directors, Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig. James you could imagine a few...
A Shallow Look at Ghetto Clichés in Talento de Barrio
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
When conservative watchdogs snarl about the ugliness of gangsta rap, Talento de Barrio might be what they picture in their head—a vile, stupid, violent-crime drama that would be laughable if its content wasn't so toxic. Drug boss Edgar Dinero (reggaeton star Daddy Yankee, who mostly ...

Film News from Times Online

Quantum of Solace: 007 goes art house
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:13 -0000
Some years ago, and this is gospel, a friend of a friend obtained some casual work in the food hall of a Knightsbridge store. He was warned about bothering the celebrities who frequented the place, but the sight of Roger Moore perusing the deli counter proved too great a temptation. As the story has it, he sneaked up, pressed a two-fingered gun barrel into Moore’s back and intoned, in a cod Russian accent, “This time you lose, Mr Bond” — an act that resulted in instant dismissal and a failure to extend his tenure as far as lunchtime. Moore, apparently, was not without appreciation for this piece of improv, arching an eyebrow in casual amusement.
Bond themes: Can nobody do it better?
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:30 -0000
Go behind-the-scenes of the making of the Another Way to Die music video I Watch the Another Way to Die video
James Bond: Not so special agent
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:11 -0000
James Bond, epitome of style and rugged masculinity. Or is he? When Daniel Craig rebooted the role, purists congratulated the producers for returning to the darker, more complex character of the novels. So they had, to a degree. Yet they overlooked certain other aspects of the literary Bond. Perhaps wisely.

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