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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Vilma Banky. Edward G. Robinson was only 37 years old when he gave this hammy, scene-stealing, over-the-top performance as Tony, a middle-aged Italian grape grower in Napa Valley, California, in…
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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 movies: Uncut version of the pre-Code WWI drama The Eagle and the Hawk and the gender-role-reversal silent The Home Maker.
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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 (1932) movie review: Skilled Claudette Colbert and Edmund Lowe have palpable chemistry in inconsequential pre-Coder.
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Starring gay MGM contract actor William Haines, the pre-Code comedy Western Way Out West features gay innuendoes just about everywhere you look.
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Silent era veterans Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson deliver quality performances in James Cruze’s engrossing psychological drama The Great Gabbo.
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Silent era icon John Gilbert is flawless in the pre-Coder Downstairs, which is evidence that they don’t make racy social dramas like they used to. Paul Lukas costars.
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The Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich Pre-Code melodrama Blonde Venus is their best joint effort and the high point of their respective careers.
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Rouben Mamoulian’s early musical Applause showed 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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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…
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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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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…
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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 (1928) movie review: Pre-Code Western is of interest as the first ‘outdoor’ talkie and for its risqué sensibility. Edmund Lowe and Best Actor Oscar winner Warner Baxter star.
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 (1931) movie review: Edward G. Robinson is an iconic all-American gangster in Mervyn LeRoy’s landmark but creaky crime drama.
Cinecon attractions include the sentimental 1930 Al Jolson musical Mammy and the early Bette Davis drama The Menace.
South Seas sex worker Joan Crawford proves herself a fine dramatic actress and destroyer of pious missionaries in the vastly underrated drama Rain.
Africa-set operetta Golden Dawn has something to offend, amuse and/or bore everyone. Sweating his black makeup away, Noah Beery is standout.
9 (mostly) hard-to-find movies worth digging include titles starring Jean Harlow, Douglas Fairbanks and Clint Eastwood precursor William S. Hart.
Glamorous Actresses Carole Lombard and Mae West and Marlene Dietrich + Cecil B. DeMille DVD sets offer rare + racy and historically significant classics.