Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!: Centennial of Los Angeles’ First Film Studio

"Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!" is the title of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ celebration of the centennial of the first permanent film studio in the Los Angeles area. The event, which will showcase films shot in Los Angeles between 1909 and 1914, will take place on Wednesday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
"Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!" will also kick off a three-month exhibition exploring those pioneering days, when independent producers set up shop in Southern California to enjoy the sunshine, the varied topography, and the distance between Los Angeles and the East Coast’s filmmaking oligarchy.
And what was the first [...]

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 [...]

Marie Glory

Actress Marie Glory (aka Arlette Genny in the mid-1920s) died at her house in Cannes this past January 24. She was 103.
Though forgotten today, Glory did have an extensive film career — more than 50 motion pictures during the course of nearly four decades, from 1924 to 1960.
Among her most notable films were those she made for innovative director Marcel L’Herbier: the silent classic L’Argent (1928), an adaptation of an Emile Zola novel that is considered by some one of the greatest silent films ever made, and in which Glory co-starred with Brigitte Helm (of Metropolis fame) and Pierre Alcover; L’Herbier’s first talkie, L’Enfant de l’amour (1930), with frequent L’Herbier leading man Jaque Catelain (top photo); and [...]