Private Screenings (TV Series) Stanley Donen (2006) User Reviews

Robert Osborne does a great interview with Stanley Donen on "Private Screenings"

[tavm · 10/10 · 7 April 2021]

Just watched this on the DVD of Royal Wedding, one of the many classic movies of filmmaker Stanley Donen host Robert Osborne discusses with him. Osborne also discusses with him his early days as a dancer on Broadway and Hollywood and his working relationship with Gene Kelly as well as Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, and his idol Fred Astaire. And while many fascinating stories were mentioned about all those movies, the most fascinating one was about how Donen prepared to accept his honorary Oscar when he mentioned rehearsing singing "Cheek to Cheek" and then doing his little dance with the orchestra playing before doing it for real at the actual ceremony which is shown as a clip here! So that's a high recommendation of this ep of "Private Screenings".

Nice Entry in Series

[Michael_Elliott · 3 August 2009]

Private Screenings: Stanley Donen (2006)

*** (out of 4)

Director Stanley Donen discusses his career as a director, which included films with such stars as Gene Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant and Fred Astaire. Donen doesn't go into many great details about the making of his movies and at times he seems to be surprised about various stories going around the rumor mill on stuff such as SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and a disagreement he had with Hepburn on CHARADE. ROYAL WEDDING, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, MOVIE MOVIE and FUNNY FACE are also discussed. We get a few nice stories about Kelly and Grant as well as getting to hear how MGM originally hired Donen as a dancer plus him getting fired from Columbia. Again, Donen seems to have forgotten quite a bit of details over the years but it's still a pleasant interview.