The Forty-Year-Old Version movie: Not to be confused with Judd Apatow’s directorial debut The Forty-Year-Old Virgin, filmmaker and actress Radha Blank’s feature film debut depicts a New Yorker’s unusual midlife…
Nazi movies: “Third Reich” propaganda films were often disguised as comedies, dramas, and musicals promoting the German ethos and “way of life.” Curiously – or rather, eerily – these Nazi…
Examples of Theocracy: Since the early days of filmmaking, theocratic rule – in its many forms – has often been depicted on screen. Cinema & TV examples of theocracy range…
Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe: Husband and wife from 1956 to 1961, the Broadway playwright and the Hollywood star collaborated on one major project, the ill-fated modern-day Western The Misfits…
2020 Venice Film Festival Awards: Nomadland, with Frances McDormand, wins Golden Lion. If recent history is any indication, Chloé Zhao’s low-budget socio-psychological road movie is about to become a North…
Oscar diversity: Women – including two lesbianish characters – form the core of the 1950 Best Picture winner All About Eve. But would the Broadway-set classic have met the new…
Belfast movie: Kenneth Branagh has begun shooting the semiautobiographical indie drama – “my most personal film,” as per the screenwriter-director – set in the turbulent Northern Ireland of the late…
Robert Pattinson in The Batman: COVID-19 scare. Pattinson’s positive result has halted filming of the latest reboot of DC Comics’ Batman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, and first…
Arthur Askey: For decades, the British comedian was a vaudeville, radio, and television celebrity in his home country. Never an international name, Askey was also featured in a handful of…
John Barrymore: At first a reluctant actor, this member of the renowned Drew and Barrymore families made his stage debut at age 18 in an early 20th-century play starring his…
Barbara Stanwyck: Busy Hollywood actress known as a “consummate professional,” Stanwyck never took home a competitive Academy Award even though, over the course of her 35-year film career, she delivered…
Playwright Arthur Miller vs. Red Scare Hysteria: The Crucible Demythologizes American Exceptionalism
Playwright Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible (1953) – about the witchcraft trials held in late-17th-century Salem – as a political allegory against the HUAC hearings held in mid-20th-century Washington, D.C.…
Morris Engel: Little Fugitive filmmaker. Influenced by Italian neorealism, naturalistic documentaries/docudramas, and late silent era releases like Paul Fejos’ Lonesome, Morris Engel’s no-star, no-plot, no-frills Little Fugitive remains one of…
Arthur Miller movies include adaptations of All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge. One of the most influential 20th-century American playwrights, Miller…
Dan O’Herlihy: A one-of-a-kind Best Actor Oscar nominee during Hollywood’s studio era (for Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1954), Irish-born performer Dan O’Herlihy enjoyed a film and television career spanning half…
Ruth Warrick: In show business for nearly seven decades, actress Ruth Warrick is best remembered for two disparate roles: Charles Foster Kane’s genteel wife in Orson Welles’ 1941 classic Citizen…
Virginia Mayo: The honey-blonde – at times red-haired – heroine of Technicolor fare like Wonder Man, The Flame and the Arrow, and Painting the Clouds with Sunshine, Virginia Mayo was…
Frank and Ava movie stars Rico Simonini as Frank Sinatra and Emily Elicia Low as Ava Gardner: The explosive real-life relationship between the two temperamental Hollywood stars is the focus…
Actress Sandra Dee was a hugely popular – and curious – cross between wholesome teen Deanna Durbin and tormented teen James Dean, going to school, catching waves, falling in love,…
Actress Carol Lynley: Why the dramatic career downturn? The 1970s were a problematic decade for Hollywood film actresses; still, it’s hard to understand why her post-The Poseidon Adventure movies mostly…
Carol Lynley movies: In her heyday, the Blue Denim, Bunny Lake Is Missing, and The Poseidon Adventure actress was often cast as dreamy girl-next-door types who were ready, willing, and…
