Danielle Darrieux in ‘La Ronde.’ Film icon Danielle Darrieux turns 100: Longest ‘star career’ in movie history? Screen legend Danielle Darrieux is turning 100 today, May 1. In all likelihood,…
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Yvonne Monlaur: Cult horror movie actress & Bond Girl contender was featured in the 1960 British classics Circus of Horrors & The Brides of Dracula. Actress Yvonne Monlaur dead at…
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Comedy actress Alice Howell on the cover of film historian Anthony Slide’s latest book: Pioneering funky-haired performer “could have been Chaplin” – or at the very least another Louise Fazenda.…
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Christian movies: Starring Nicolas Cage, the widely panned 2014 apocalyptic thriller Left Behind was a box office bomb – unlike (relatively) recent popular “faith movies” such as Heaven Is for…
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Rebecca 1940: Joan Fontaine as the “successor” and Judith Anderson as the creepy lesbian housekeeper, madly in love with her deceased mistress. ‘Rebecca’ 1940: Alfred Hitchcock Best Picture Oscar winner…
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Remarkable women’s suffrage movie Mothers of Men dismisses the notion that the female right to vote would destroy American families and society.
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The first feature (co-)directed by Alf Sjöberg, The Strongest is a visually splendid Arctic adventure. On the downside, the narrative moves at glacial speed.
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Fritz Lang’s two-part semi-historical epic tragedy Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Kriemhild’s Revenge is a cinematic masterpiece.
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Merle Oberon: ‘Exotic’ and mysterious star of British and American cinema was a victim of the ‘Marion Davies Syndrome.’ Merle Oberon movies: ‘Exotic’ and underrated actress with mysterious past is…
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‘Play Misty for Me’: Rabid fan Jessica Walter makes life terribly difficult for disc jockey Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood + ‘Harry Potter’ = ‘The Decline of Western Civilization’? The Packard…
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Olivia de Havilland in ‘The Heiress.’ Olivia de Havilland vs. Warner Bros. (See previous post: “Olivia de Havilland Turns 99: Warner Bros. Legal Fight Changed U.S. Labor Law.”) In 1942,…
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Ben-Hur 1959 with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston: TCM’s ’31 Days of Oscar.’ ’31 Days of Oscar’: ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Ben-Hur’ in, Paramount stars out Today, Feb. 1, Turner…
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Ernst Lubitsch movies: Subtle, sophisticated ‘Touch’ all but gone from contemporary filmmaking. Ernst Lubitsch movies: The forgotten, passé ‘Touch’ Ernst Lubitsch and William Cameron Menzies were Turner Classic Movies’ “stars”…
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Abe Vigoda dead or alive? The Godfather actor became a pop celebrity in the U.S. following greatly exaggerated reports of his death. ‘The Godfather’ actor Abe Vigoda dead at 94:…
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A history of sound in film: Hal Roach looks on as technicians install Vitaphone equipment in his studio screening room, ca. 1928. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) A…
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Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and Ingrid Bergman: The ‘Notorious’ British (Hitchcock, Grant) and Swedish (Bergman) talent. British actors and directors in Hollywood; Hollywood actors and directors in Britain: Anthony Slide’s…
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Films such as those seen in the British Film Institute’s compilation Around China with a Movie Camera offer a magical window into the past.
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Ben-Hur movie: Ramon Novarro starred in the silent version, at the time the most expensive film production and the biggest worldwide blockbuster in history. ‘Ben-Hur’ movie: Semi-biblical epic starring Ramon…
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Featuring modernistic sets and costumes, L’Inhumaine mixes sex melodrama, revenge thriller and science fiction. Marcel L’Herbier directed.
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Marjorie Lord actress ca. early 1950s: Mother of Oscar-nominated performer. Actress Marjorie Lord: Best remembered for long-running hit TV series ‘Make Room for Daddy’ Stage, film, and television actress Marjorie…
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Kitty Gordon: Silent film star with the ‘most beautiful’ and most heavily insured back. Rediscovering a long-forgotten silent film star: Kitty Gordon It seems almost unthinkable that there are still…
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Danièle Delorme: Pioneering woman director Jacqueline Audry’s muse would eventually become a pioneering female movie producer. Remembering pioneering woman director’s muse and pioneering woman producer Danièle Delorme Danièle Delorme, who…
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Norma Shearer movies: Hollywood’s early ‘liberated woman’ remembered. A top movie star of the 1920s and 1930s, Norma Shearer was known as the ‘Queen of MGM.’ Norma Shearer movies: Early…
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West End stage actress Constance Cummings also appeared on Broadway and in Hollywood and British movies. West End theater star: Constance Cummings in ‘Saint Joan,’ Shakespeare (See previous post: “Constance…
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Constance Cummings: Actress went from minor, long-eyelashed Hollywood leading lady in Harold Lloyd and Frank Capra movies to starring in West End plays by Eugene O’Neill, Noël Coward and William…
Dana Andrews movies: Complex film noir actor excelled in both major and minor crime dramas. Dana Andrews movies: First-rate film noir actor excelled in both classics & minor fare One…
San Francisco Silent Film Festival highlights include hand-tinted color fantasies by Segundo de Chomón and Louis Feuillade in the days before Technicolor.
TCM presents the life story of (a not gay) John Nash, starring Russell Crowe: In the phony ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman wash the gay…
William Cameron Menzies. William Cameron Menzies movies on TCM: Murderous Joan Fontaine, deadly Nazi Communists Best known as an art director/production designer, William Cameron Menzies was a jack-of-all-trades. It seems…
Michel Galabru and Louis de Funès in the comedy ‘Le gendarme et les gendarmettes’: No ‘affection’ for his movies. ‘La Cage aux Folles’ actor Michel Galabru dead at 93: Embodiment…
Marion Cotillard naked and doomed: Psycho shower scene scream that turned Janet Leigh into a film icon. Marion Cotillard naked & screaming in ‘Psycho’ shower scene A few years ago…
Pat O’Brien: Actor was James Cagney’s partner in eight Warner Bros. movies. Pat O’Brien: Actor was Hollywood’s prolific ‘Resident Irishman’ & favorite priest Remember Pat O’Brien? In case you don’t,…