LEADING COUPLES: THE MOST UNFORGETTABLE SCREEN ROMANCES OF THE STUDIO ERA

With text by Frank Miller, whose previous books include Leading Ladies and Leading Men, introduction by Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, and loads of photographs covering about half a century of Hollywood history, Leading Couples: The Most Unforgettable Screen Romances of the Studio Era (Chronicle Books, 2008) takes a brief look at nearly forty successful movie pairings from the studio era (and a little later).
Among those featured are both the obvious — say, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn — and several more esoteric couplings (at least as far as modern film lovers are concerned), e.g., [...]

Best Films – 1943

Set in a 17th-century Danish village, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterful Vredens dag / Day of Wrath is a stark, but deeply felt indictment against religious fanaticism and intolerance. Moving performances by ingénue Lisbeth Modin and accused witch Anna Svierkier add a touch of humanity to the horrors shown on screen. It is not a coincidence that Vredens Dag was made in 1943, a time when Denmark was under Nazi occupation. The parallels — and the interconnectedness — between political and religious control are made quite clear in this harrowing masterwork.
 
FILM
Northern Pursuit
d: Raoul Walsh; scr: Frank Gruber, Alvah Bessie
This Land Is Mine
d: Jean Renoir; scr: Dudley Nichols
Vredens dag / Day of Wrath
d: Carl Theodor Dreyer; scr: Carl Dreyer, [...]