Miriam Hopkins interview with biographer Allan Ellenberger: Talented + mercurial actress was ‘Hollywood Rebel’ or ‘Magnificent Bitch’?
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Kay Francis. Kay Francis revisited: One of the brightest & most underrated Hollywood stars of the 1930s Kay Francis is the star of the day (April 9) on Turner Classic…
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Antihero Ricardo Cortez: Best movies and roles during Pre-Code and silent eras + Oscar-Winning Cinematographer brother Stanley Cortez.
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How to Be a Latin Lover: Ricardo Cortez leading ladies and marriage to drug-addicted Hollywood star plus directing Dalton Trumbo socially conscious drama.
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Ricardo Cortez: Latin Lover from Manhattan Jewish family was the perfect Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Paramount’s threat to Rudolph Valentino.
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Norma Shearer: Queen of MGM and the movies’ Early Liberated Woman often played roles well ahead of both their and our own time.
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Loretta Young Films: Conservative Catholic actress featured in suggestive, socially and sexually daring pre-Code motion pictures.
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Ann Dvorak and Rudy Vallee in Sweet Music. See previous post: Ann Dvorak: Hollywood Rebel. Ann Dvorak’s best-remembered film is probably the 1932 Scarface, starring Paul Muni, directed by Howard…
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Griffith Cinema: Abraham Lincoln Biopic and the dangers of alcoholism + climactic ice-floe river rescue honoring father of American film.
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Cinecon attractions include the sentimental 1930 Al Jolson musical Mammy and the early Bette Davis drama The Menace.
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Barbara Stanwyck. Barbara Stanwyck movies There have probably been few transformations more striking than that of Ruby Stevens of Brooklyn into Barbara Stanwyck of Hollywood – the highest-paid woman in…
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The Misleading Lady (movie 1932) review: Skilled Claudette Colbert and Edmund Lowe have palpable chemistry in Stuart Walker’s otherwise inconsequential pre-Code comedy.
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Rain (movie 1932) review: South Seas sex worker Joan Crawford proves herself a fine dramatic actress and destroyer of pious missionaries in this vastly underrated drama.
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The Great Gabbo (movie 1929) review: Silent era veterans Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson deliver quality performances in James Cruze’s engrossing psychological drama.
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Downstairs (movie 1932) review: Former silent era icon John Gilbert is flawless in Monta Bell’s racy pre-Code social drama. Paul Lukas and Virginia Bruce costar.
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Golden Dawn (movie 1930) review: Africa-set operetta has something to offend, amuse and/or bore everyone. Sweating his black makeup away, Noah Beery is the standout.
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Applause (movie 1929) review: Early Rouben Mamoulian musical shows what the newfangled talking pictures could achieve. Legendary torch singer Helen Morgan stars.
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The new documentary Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood and five Pre-Code films will be shown on Turner Classic Movies on Monday, March 3 (more details…
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9 (mostly) hard-to-find movies worth digging include titles starring Jean Harlow, Douglas Fairbanks and Clint Eastwood precursor William S. Hart.
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If nothing else, the silly (and unfortunately mistitled) One Hysterical Night – Reginald Denny’s first all-talking vehicle – serves as a good explanation as to why Denny, Universal’s top male…
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Image: Silent film star Mae Murray in Bachelor Apartment. Womanizing businessman Wayne Carter is hardly a looker, but he’s got them dollar bills. Loads of them. The only woman in…
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Glamorous Actresses Carole Lombard and Mae West and Marlene Dietrich + Cecil B. DeMille DVD sets offer rare + racy and historically significant classics.
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The Letter movie with Jeanne Eagels and Herbert Marshall. The Letter movie (1929) review: Creaky yet a must-see as murderess + adulteress Jeanne Eagels’ sole extant talkie. Having watched William…
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In Old Arizona (movie 1928) review: Starring Oscar winner Warner Baxter, Fox’s Pre-Code Western is of interest as the first ‘outdoor’ talkie and for its brazenly risqué sensibility.
Latin Lover Ricardo Cortez was 2nd Valentino and 1st (and best) Sam Spade: Interview with biographer re: actor who worked with Griffith, DeMille + Capra.
Little Caesar (movie 1931) review: Edward G. Robinson is an iconic all-American gangster in Mervyn LeRoy’s landmark but creaky crime drama. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. costars.
Cinecon movies: Uncut version of the pre-Code WWI drama The Eagle and the Hawk and the gender-role-reversal silent The Home Maker.
Way Out West (movie 1930) review: Starring gay MGM contract actor William Haines, this Pre-Code comedy Western features gay innuendoes just about everywhere you look.
Blonde Venus (movie 1932) review: Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich Pre-Code melodrama is their best joint effort and the acme of their respective careers. Cary Grant costars.
Film Forum, the New York City institution that about a year ago presented the Paramount Before the Code film series, will be presenting Pre-Code movies from Fox – Fox Before…
Film Forum screenings: Claudette Colbert & Mae West + Gary Cooper Paramount Pre-Code classics “Paramount Before the Code,” consisting of more than 40 classics, semi-classics, and forgotten gems from Hollywood’s…