Marsha Hunt Discusses Anthony Dexter
In his blog, Allan Ellenberger speaks with Marsha Hunt about Anthony Dexter, who played Rudolph Valentino in the 1951 biopic Valentino (right), and with whom Hunt co-starred in a stage production of The King and I.
Here are a couple of quotes:
"Of course I remember Valentino. By the age of eight I had already seen The Sheik and his films with Vilma Banky. Valentino smoldered, didn’t he? That was fine with me. I got his message loud and clear, even at a young age."
…
"One of the first things that struck me about Tony Dexter was – and I don’t mean that it was obtrusive – but he didn’t have an ego. And I was amazed during rehearsals, this [...]
by Andre Soares | August 12, 2009
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Tags: Alice Terry, Allan Ellenberger, Anthony Dexter, Classic Movies, Columbia, Marsha Hunt, Rudolph Valentino, Valentino
Best Films – 1926
Mary Pickford in Sparrows
FILM
Dancing Mothers
d: Herbert Brenon; scr: Forrest Halsey
Don Juan
d: Alan Crosland; scr: Bess Meredyth; titles: Walter Anthony, Maude Fulton
Kid Boots
d: Frank Tuttle; scr: Luther Reed, Tom Gibson; titles: George Marion Jr.
The Scarlet Letter
d: Victor Sjöström (aka Victor Seastrom); scr: Frances Marion
The Show
d: Tod Browning; scr: Waldemar Young; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
Sparrows
d: William Beaudine; scr: C. Gardner Sullivan; titles: George Marion Jr.
The Volga Boatman
d: Cecil B. DeMille; scr: Lenore J. Coffee
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You Never Know Women
d: William A. Wellman; scr: Benjamin Glazer
Old Ironsides
d: James Cruze; scr: Dorothy Arzner, Harry Carr, Walter Woods; titles: Rupert Hughes
Mare Nostrum
d: Rex Ingram; scr: Willis Goldbeck
Tell It to the Marines
d: George Hill; scr: Richard Schayer; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
ACTOR
John Barrymore
Don Juan
Eddie Cantor
Kid Boots
John Gilbert
The [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
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Tags: Alan Crosland, Alice Terry, Best Films, Cecil B. DeMille, Classic Movies, Don Juan, Flesh and the Devil, Florence Vidor, Frances Marion, George Hill, Gertrude Astor, John Barrymore, John Gilbert, Kid Boots, Lillian Gish, Mare Nostrum, Mary Pickford, Renée Adorée, Rex Ingram, Silent Films, Sparrows, Tell It to the Marines, The Scarlet Letter, The Show, The Volga Boatman, Victor Sjöström
Best Films – 1923
I must admit that I’m not a fan of Charles Chaplin’s comedies. Heresies aside, I did very much enjoy Chaplin’s dramatic A Woman of Paris, an attempt to turn his frequent leading lady Edna Purviance into a star. The film was a box-office success (despite rumors to the contrary), but Purviance’s career never took off. That is unfortunate, as she gives a moving performance in this tale of lost love and single motherhood. She is with Carl Miller in the photo. Things are obviously not going very well for the couple, but Purviance is surely suffering in style.
FILM
Cameo Kirby
d: John Ford; scr: Robert N. Lee
Scaramouche
d: Rex Ingram; scr: Willis Goldbeck
The White Rose
d, scr: D. W. Griffith
A Woman of Paris
d, scr: [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
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Tags: A Woman of Paris, Alice Terry, Best Films, Cameo Kirby, Charles Chaplin, Classic Movies, D. W. Griffith, Edna Purviance, Eleanor Boardman, G. W. Bitzer, John F. Seitz, John Ford, John Gilbert, Karl Brown, Lewis Stone, Mae Marsh, Nita Naldi, Ramon Novarro, Rex Ingram, Scaramouche, Silent Films, Souls for Sale, The Covered Wagon, The Ten Commandments, The White Rose, Willis Goldbeck
Best Films – 1922
Ok, so Max Schreck (literally, Max Fright) was not romantic leading man material, but he did quite well for himself as the creepiest vampire of them all, Nosferatu. Those who think of director F. W. Murnau as the creator of film poetry in pictures such as Sunrise and Tabu should realize that Murnau was equally adept at creating sheer horror. No other vampire movie I’ve seen is as eerie as Nosferatu the Vampire. Max Schreck’s ratman-like presence, of course, is an enormous help.
FILM
Monte Cristo
d: Emmett J. Flynn; scr: Bernard McConville
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens / Nosferatu the Vampire
d: F. W. Murnau; scr: Henrik Galeen
The Prisoner of Zenda
d: Rex Ingram; scr: Mary O’Hara
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Back Pay
d: Frank Borzage; scr: Frances [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
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Tags: Alice Terry, Back Pay, Best Films, Classic Movies, F. W. Murnau, Frank Borzage, John Gilbert, Max Schreck, Monte Cristo, Moran of the Lady Letty, Nosferatu the Vampire, Ramon Novarro, Rex Ingram, Seena Owen, Silent Films, The Prisoner of Zenda
Best Films – 1921
A sensation in its day, Rex Ingram’s film adaptation of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from a screenplay by June Mathis, catapulted Mathis’ protégé Rudolph Valentino to superstardom. Ingram’s wife, the highly capable Alice Terry, played the romantic interest. More than 80 years after its initial release, The Four Horsemen remains a powerful cinematic experience.
FILM
The Conquering Power
d: Rex Ingram; scr: June Mathis
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
d: Rex Ingram; scr: June Mathis
Nobody
d: Roland West; scr: Roland West, Charles H. Smith
Wallace Reid, Bebe Daniels in The Affairs of Anatol
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The Affairs of Anatol
d: Cecil B. DeMille; scr: Jeanie Macpherson
Richard Barthelmess in Tol’able David
ACTOR
Richard Barthelmess
Tol’able David
Jackie Coogan
The Kid
Ralph Lewis
The Conquering Power
Kenneth Harlan, [...]
by Andre Soares | April 2, 2009
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Tags: Agnes Ayres, Alice Terry, Best Films, Charles Rosher, Classic Movies, Jewel Carmen, John F. Seitz, June Mathis, Karl Struss, Nobody, Rex Ingram, Richard Barthelmess, Roland West, Rudolph Valentino, Silent Films, The Affairs of Anatol, The Conquering Power, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Tol'able David, Wanda Hawley
Rex Ingram: Part II
Rex Ingram with off-screen girlfriend Rosita Garcia in Baroud
Rex Ingram Part I
Without MGM’s financial and distribution support, Ingram managed to direct only two more films: The Three Passions (1928), released in the U.S. via United Artists, and his only talkie, the somewhat amateurish adventure tale Baroud (1931), starring Novarro look-alike Pierre Batcheff (who would commit suicide a couple of years later) and Ingram himself as a dashing legionnaire in North Africa. Baroud got few bookings.
With his film career over, Ingram spent much of his time reading and studying Islam. (He had become fascinated with Arab culture while filming The Arab in Tunisia in the mid-1920s.) According to several reports, he became a Muslim in the early 1930s, though the free-thinking [...]
by Andre Soares | January 16, 2006
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Tags: Alice Terry, Baroud, Classic Movies, Ivan Petrovich, Liam O'Leary, Pierre Batcheff, Rex Ingram, Rosita Garcia, Silent Films, The Garden of Allah
Rex Ingram Remembered
Since it’s still Jan. 15 in large chunks of the Pacific Ocean, I have enough time to briefly mention film director Rex Ingram (top right), whose birth — as Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock — took place in Dublin exactly 113 years ago. (Some sources claim Ingram was born in 1892, but in Rex Ingram: Master of the Silent Cinema author Liam O’Leary clearly states that 1893 is the right date.)
While writing Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro, I often became more intrigued with two of the story’s top supporting players than with the biographical subject himself. One was Novarro’s lover in the mid-1920s, columnist Herbert Howe, quite likely the wittiest writer to ever cover the Hollywood scene. [...]
by Andre Soares | January 16, 2006
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Tags: Alice Terry, Barbara La Marr, Classic Movies, Herbert Howe, John F. Seitz, June Mathis, Ramon Novarro, Rex Ingram, Rudolph Valentino, Silent Films, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Trifling Women
