Film historian Anthony Slide discusses his new anthology book The Truth at Twenty-Four Frames per Second. Topics range from Lillian Gish to Betty White.
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Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe joined forces on the problem-plagued The Misfits. See also: The playwright’s answer to On the Waterfront.
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Film historian Anthony Slide discusses the frenzied and once hugely popular ‘everyman’ British comedian Arthur Askey, who has finally become a biographical subject.
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Legendary Broadway actor John Barrymore also enjoyed an impressive, rewarding and enduring - yet vastly undervalued - movie career in the 1920s and 1930s.
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Playwright Arthur Miller vs. Red Scare paranoia: The Crucible and the Salem witch hunts demythologize the concept of ‘American exceptionalism.’
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Little Fugitive director Morris Engel was the post-WWII ‘Father of American Independent Cinema,’ inspiring John Cassavetes and the French New Wave.
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Visions of the shattered American Dream in 2 ‘Arthur Miller movies’: The subversive family dramas All My Sons and Death of a Salesman.
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Citizen Kane and Song of the South actress Ruth Warrick became All My Children snob Phoebe Tyler and a Confederate flag critic.
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Technicolor siren Virginia Mayo was most impressive as callous black-and-white women in films like The Best Years of Our Lives + White Heat.
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Frank and Ava movie interview: Frank Sinatra portrayer Rico Simonini discusses the indie drama about singer’s turbulent marriage with Ava Gardner.
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In movies like the Oscar-nominated The Cardinal, actress Carol Lynley portrayed great-looking ‘girls-next-door’ who dared to defy social traditions.
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The Poseidon Adventure actress Carol Lynley should also be remembered for a landmark teen pregnancy drama and for a first-rate British thriller.
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Actress Ann Sothern enjoyed an unusual 2nd career peak that included a 2x Academy Award-winning drama. Decades later, ‘Maisie’ became 1 of oldest Oscar nominees.
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In Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s ‘best bad movie,’ The Barefoot Contessa, Ava Gardner exudes a magnetic - and underrated - mix of glamour and charisma.
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Lena Horne. Lena Horne movies: Velvety-voiced singer generally relegated to specialty numbers during heyday of the Hollywood musical Had things been different, it’s anybody’s guess whether or not three-time Grammy…
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Melvyn Douglas. Melvyn Douglas: From suave leading man to Hollywood’s top female stars to first-rate dramatic actor Unlike Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, or Gary Cooper, Melvyn Douglas couldn’t exactly be…
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Michael Llewelyn Davies dressed up as Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie’s favorite Llewelyn Davies boy, Michael was the most important source of inspiration for Peter Pan, “the boy who wouldn’t grow…
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Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie. Marc Forster’s Finding Neverland ends on a sentimental note: Barrie (Johnny Depp) reminds the orphaned Peter (Freddie Highmore) that the power of imagination can be…
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Author Allan R. Ellenberger discusses Miriam Hopkins in the interview further below – and in his Hopkins biography Life and Films of a Hollywood Rebel. From pre-Code antiheroine to matronly…
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The Music Man with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones: Independence Day movies. Numerous Hollywood musicals have attempted to capture that elusive, reality-averse quality known as “Americana-ness” – e.g., Yankee Doodle…
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John Paul Jones with Robert Stack: 4th of July movies. Although every sign indicates that 2019 is the new 1984, those in the U.S. shouldn’t fret: TCM’s 4th of July…
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Howard Keel at the height of his career in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Jane Powell. In his autobiography, Only Make Believe: My Life in Show Business, Howard Keel…
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Howard Keel musicals at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Box office roller-coaster ride. Brought to Hollywood in 1948 to star in MGM’s then popular musicals, stage performer Howard Keel seemed poised to reach major…
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Howard Keel publicity shot ca. 1950. A prominent name in Hollywood musicals in the first half of the 1950s, Howard Keel was seen – and heard – as baritone-voiced, larger-than-life…
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Machiko Kyo. Japanese star Machiko Kyo was seen in several of the most widely admired cinema classics of the 1950s, including Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, and Teinosuke Kinugasa’s…
Four-time Oscar-nominated Hollywood actress Barbara Stanwyck delivered many of the 20th century’s most captivating big-screen performances.
Best remembered for playing the creepy Omni chairman in RoboCop, Dan O’Herlihy was a one-of-a-kind Best Actor Oscar nominee during the studio era.
The 1959 blockbusters A Summer Place and Imitation of Life feature actress Sandra Dee as a sweet-looking but gutsy rule-breaker.
As an RKO and MGM star, sassy blonde Ann Sothern had an unconventional professional trajectory: A and B movies in a decades-long film career that had no less than 2 peaks.
Hal Prince. Out of his record-setting 21 Tony Awards, eight were as Best Director of a Musical for the following: Cabaret (at the 1967 ceremony), Company (1971), Follies (1972, with…
Howard Keel in Dallas with Donna Reed: late 20th-century mainstream resurgence of two former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stars. On Season 8 (1984–1985) of CBS’s hit TV soap Dallas (1978–1991), 1950s MGM contract…
Howard Keel MGM musicals: Texas Carnival publicity shot with Esther Williams. In his MGM musicals of the 1950s, Howard Keel was almost always paired with small, girl-like leading ladies –…