Jack Palance

Jack Palance is a better than 2-to-1 favorite for this year's Academy Award for best supporting actor, in the opinion of callers to SUNDIAL. His portrayal of the crusty Curly in ''City Slickers'' earned him 102 votes.Tommy Lee Jones ("JFK") was a distant second with 42 votes, followed by Ben Kingsley ("Bugsy") with 13 votes, Michael Lerner ("Barton Fink") with 13 and Harvey Keitel ("Bugsy") with just seven votes."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.

The late Jack Palance changed the face, the posture, the attitude of the Oscars 14 years ago, when he celebrated winning the best supporting actor Academy Award with a couple of off-color jokes and two-handed and then one-armed push-ups. Every year from then on, the show's director, producer and host have prayed for the gift that Palance handed Billy Crystal, who kept bouncing onstage with updates like "Jack Palance just bungee-jumped off the Hollywood sign" or "The shuttle just rendezvoused with Jack Palance, who somehow launched himself into orbit."

The late Jack Palance changed the face, the posture, the attitude of the Oscars 14 years ago, when he celebrated winning the best supporting actor Academy Award with a couple of off-color jokes and two-handed and then one-armed push-ups. Every year from then on, the show's director, producer and host have prayed for the gift that Palance handed Billy Crystal, who kept bouncing onstage with updates like "Jack Palance just bungee-jumped off the Hollywood sign" or "The shuttle just rendezvoused with Jack Palance, who somehow launched himself into orbit."

Jack Palance, the leather-faced, gravelly voiced actor who earned Academy Award nominations for Sudden Fear and Shane before capturing an Oscar for his role as the crusty trail boss in the 1991 comedy western, City Slickers, has died. He was 87. Mr. Palance, who had been in failing health, died yesterday of natural causes in Montecito, Calif., at the home of his daughter Holly, family members said. He was one of the best-loved bad guys in motion picture and television history - the murderous husband in Sudden Fear (1952)

Jack Palance, the leather-faced, gravelly voiced actor who earned Academy Award nominations for Sudden Fear and Shane before capturing an Oscar for his role as the crusty trail boss in the 1991 comedy western, City Slickers, has died. He was 87. Mr. Palance, who had been in failing health, died yesterday of natural causes in Montecito, Calif., at the home of his daughter Holly, family members said. He was one of the best-loved bad guys in motion picture and television history - the murderous husband in Sudden Fear (1952)

Sometimes, even in the world of network television, quality is appreciated."Sarah, Plain & Tall," that splendid turn-of-the-century story of heartland Americana starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken, set ratings records when it premiered in 1991, becoming the most-watched Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation in the franchise's then 42-year history. With its audience of 50 million viewers, it remains the highest-rated made-for-TV movie of the decade.And, now, comes "Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End," the last of three CBS films based on the Newbery Award-winning work of Patricia MacLachlan.

No one can survive in the jungle of animation that is Mr. Disney's Neighborhood, but the makers of "The Swan Princess" make an admirable, if doomed, attempt.Clearly, producer-director Richard Rich has sat down with cassettes of "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and "The Lion King," a batch of yellow note pads and No. 3 pencils, and taken copious notes. Thus "The Swan Princess" makes an earnest, even relentless, attempt to replicate the pleasures of the Disney canon.Alas, it bears the resemblance to the former that a sophisticated copy might bear to a Great Master: somewhat vivid in evocation but at the same time dead.

"Beauty and the Beast" and "JFK" were neck and neck among SUNDIAL readers in balloting for best picture of 1991. "Bugsy," the choice of many film critics, was a distant also-ran in the SUNDIAL sample.The Disney animated film, the first of its kind ever nominated for best picture, led with 124 votes, with "JFK" breathing down its neck with 122. "The Silence of the Lambs" was a close third with 119 votes.But Barry Levinson's gangster movie "Bugsy," starring Warren Beatty, received only 30 votes, and "The Prince of Tides" picked up just 29.In six days of SUNDIAL questions about the Oscars, ''The bTC Silence of the Lambs" fared best.

CITY SLICKERS'' is one of those rare cinematic happenings: a movie that deftly combines laughs with sentiment and an occasionally serious thought. The sentiment and the seriousness never intrude on the laughs."

'City Slickers'Starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance.Directed by Ron Underwood.Released by Columbia/Castle Rock.Rated PG-13.***In "City Slickers," the whiny, sensitive boys from the Levi's Docker ads meet the Marlboro man. Talk about a commercial movie!As synthetic as this sounds, it's all the more synthetic on the screen -- and it's also very, very funny.Billy Crystal plays Mitch Robbins, a New York advertising salesman who, at 39, has begun to slip into the coma known as middle age. He misses a life he never had and wants a life that doesn't exist.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person. She was 53 years old by then - a grandmother. With these words, Baltimore author Anne Tyler began her 2001 novel, Back When We Were Grownups, which the Hallmark Hall of Fame lovingly brings to the screen tonight at 9 on CBS (WJZ, Channel 13) with Blythe Danner as a Baltimore woman in late-midlife crisis who sets out to rediscover who she is. It is the third novel by Tyler to become a Hallmark movie, and once again, just as with Breathing Lessons in 1994 and Saint Maybe in 1998, television is enriched by the marriage.

Sometimes, even in the world of network television, quality is appreciated."Sarah, Plain & Tall," that splendid turn-of-the-century story of heartland Americana starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken, set ratings records when it premiered in 1991, becoming the most-watched Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation in the franchise's then 42-year history. With its audience of 50 million viewers, it remains the highest-rated made-for-TV movie of the decade.And, now, comes "Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End," the last of three CBS films based on the Newbery Award-winning work of Patricia MacLachlan.

Seeing "Pvt. Wars" at the Forum Theater is a little like visiting a "nearly new" store. The play is secondhand and so is the theater, but there's hardly any mothball aroma lingering on the fresh, comic result.The theater, which opened its doors last month, is occupying the same Washington Boulevard building as the short-lived Playwrights Theatre of Baltimore, which closed its doors a year ago.The play, by James McLure, is an expanded version of the one-act that received its first post-Broadway production at Center Stage in 1979.

No one can survive in the jungle of animation that is Mr. Disney's Neighborhood, but the makers of "The Swan Princess" make an admirable, if doomed, attempt.Clearly, producer-director Richard Rich has sat down with cassettes of "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and "The Lion King," a batch of yellow note pads and No. 3 pencils, and taken copious notes. Thus "The Swan Princess" makes an earnest, even relentless, attempt to replicate the pleasures of the Disney canon.Alas, it bears the resemblance to the former that a sophisticated copy might bear to a Great Master: somewhat vivid in evocation but at the same time dead.

Tonight on TV, one of the best dramas of recent years serves up its final episode. Yes, it's the conclusion of "Prime Suspect 3" on "Mystery!" -- and, elsewhere on TV, "L.A. Law" presents its finale, too. Other noteworthy offerings include season-ending doses of "The Simpsons," "Seinfeld" and "Frasier."* "Mad About You." (8-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Paul (Paul Reiser) loses his wedding ring just before his second anniversary -- a fitting topic to close the second season. Helen Hunt co-stars.

"Beauty and the Beast" and "JFK" were neck and neck among SUNDIAL readers in balloting for best picture of 1991. "Bugsy," the choice of many film critics, was a distant also-ran in the SUNDIAL sample.The Disney animated film, the first of its kind ever nominated for best picture, led with 124 votes, with "JFK" breathing down its neck with 122. "The Silence of the Lambs" was a close third with 119 votes.But Barry Levinson's gangster movie "Bugsy," starring Warren Beatty, received only 30 votes, and "The Prince of Tides" picked up just 29.In six days of SUNDIAL questions about the Oscars, ''The bTC Silence of the Lambs" fared best.

Tonight on TV, one of the best dramas of recent years serves up its final episode. Yes, it's the conclusion of "Prime Suspect 3" on "Mystery!" -- and, elsewhere on TV, "L.A. Law" presents its finale, too. Other noteworthy offerings include season-ending doses of "The Simpsons," "Seinfeld" and "Frasier."* "Mad About You." (8-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Paul (Paul Reiser) loses his wedding ring just before his second anniversary -- a fitting topic to close the second season. Helen Hunt co-stars.

CITY SLICKERS0$ RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video$99.95"City Slickers" is slick all right -- a real Hollywood-style button puncher of a comedy that has something for everyone. It's well-crafted and predictable, but then star Billy Crystal is known for his entertainment value, not his artistic aspirations.One look at the film's credits should tell what's to come: Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell, the writers behind Ron Howard hits like "Splash" and "Parenthood," have taken the western motif (the rage since "Dances With Wolves")

Jack Palance is a better than 2-to-1 favorite for this year's Academy Award for best supporting actor, in the opinion of callers to SUNDIAL. His portrayal of the crusty Curly in ''City Slickers'' earned him 102 votes.Tommy Lee Jones ("JFK") was a distant second with 42 votes, followed by Ben Kingsley ("Bugsy") with 13 votes, Michael Lerner ("Barton Fink") with 13 and Harvey Keitel ("Bugsy") with just seven votes."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.

CITY SLICKERS0$ RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video$99.95"City Slickers" is slick all right -- a real Hollywood-style button puncher of a comedy that has something for everyone. It's well-crafted and predictable, but then star Billy Crystal is known for his entertainment value, not his artistic aspirations.One look at the film's credits should tell what's to come: Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell, the writers behind Ron Howard hits like "Splash" and "Parenthood," have taken the western motif (the rage since "Dances With Wolves")