Ben-Hur 1925 with Ramon Novarro: The chariot race. ‘Ben-Hur’ 1925: Fast & furious epic Los Angeles screening Directed by Fred Niblo and starring Ramon Novarro, the 1925 Ben-Hur, a.k.a. Ben-Hur:…
The Canadian with Thomas Meighan. ‘The Canadian’: Thomas Meighan faces adversities in The Land of Promise Thomas Meighan is The Star of William Beaudine’s The Canadian (1926), which screened at…
Antarctic exploration with Sir Ernest Shackleton. Antarctic exploration ‘epic’: ‘South’ It was surprising to see the large crowd waiting to get into the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival screening…
Gay Movie Scenes: Paul America in Andy Warhol’s My Hustler. Controversial Gay Movie Scenes at LACMA: Andy Warhol & Gus Van Sant + Jean Genet Whether or not you find…
D.W. Griffith Father of Film, controversial figure. To say that the movies wouldn’t be what they are today without D.W. Griffith is probably inaccurate. I mean, someone – or “someones”…
Gabriel Garko will play Rudolph Valentino (a.k.a. Rodolfo Valentino in places like Italy and Brazil) in a two-part Italian TV movie. To be directed by Alessio Inturri for Mediaset, the…
Clara Bow, Mantrap: The Silent Era’s “It Girl.” What do Andrei Tarkovsky, Edward G. Robinson, Clara Bow, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Audrey Hepburn have in common? Easy. They’ll all be…
Oscar curse? Two-time Best Actress Luise Rainer remembers In Mason Wiley and Damien Bona’s Inside Oscar, Luise Rainer is quoted as saying the following about winning back-to-back Best Actress Academy…
Jean Dujardin. Jean Dujardin made film-award history after he won the 2012 Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as a fading silent film matinee idol in Michel Hazanavicius’ The…
Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo in The Artist Jean Dujardin can’t win ’em all. For his (in my humble opinion brilliant) performance as a fading silent film star in Michel…
Michel Hazanavicius and wife Bérénice Bejo: Making Golden Globes history. Michel Hazanavicius and wife Bérénice Bejo: ‘The Artist’ achieves unique Golden Globes feat Michel Hazanavicius and wife Bérénice Bejo accept…
Norma Shearer in ‘His Secretary’: Women Screenwriters in Old Hollywood Women screenwriters kept busy during silent era Frederica Sagor Maas, who had a handful of screenwriting credits in the 1920s,…
Several short films directed by film pioneer Georges Méliès, played by Ben Kingsley in Martin Scorsese’s well-received Hugo, will be featured throughout January 2012 at the Niles Essanay Silent Film…
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady with Anthony Head. The most curious thing about Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist winning the New York Film Critics Circle’s Best Film and Best Director…
Ramon Novarro: MGM star circa 1923. Ramon Novarro death: Silent film star brutally killed on Halloween eve 1968 Ramon Novarro, the original (and most effective) Ben-Hur, Greta Garbo’s leading man…
Barbara Kent, a minor leading lady during the transition from silent to sound movies, died Oct. 13 in Palm Desert, in Southern California. A resident of the local Marrakesh Country…
Edmund Goulding’s 1943 romantic drama The Constant Nymph, starring Oscar nominee Joan Fontaine, Charles Boyer, and Alexis Smith, will be shown tonight on Turner Classic Movies at 5 p.m. PT…
The Goose Woman with Louise Dresser and Jack Pickford. At the 2011 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the Clarence Brown-directed 1925 Universal release The Goose Woman was introduced by author…
Rare movies: Director Allan Dwan, actor George O’Brien, cinematographer George Webber on the set of East Side West Side Are you a movie lover in Los Angeles, unable to travel…
Conrad Veidt is Turner Classic Movies’ “Summer Under the Stars” performer of the day. An international star since the silent era, Veidt worked in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Hollywood…
He Who Gets Slapped with Lon Chaney Lon Chaney is one of the most fascinating movie stars in film history. Throughout the 1920s, Chaney was one the biggest box office…
Young Alfred Hitchcock movie? Betty Compson in The White Shadow, which was actually directed by Graham Cutts. Among other duties, Hitchcock wrote and edited the 1923 film. About thirty minutes…
Arabs in Hollywood Movies: Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres in George Melford’s 1921 hit The Sheik. Long before they became Hollywood’s favorite terrorists, Arabs were generally portrayed as lusty, uncouth,…
Enid Bennett, Douglas Fairbanks, Robin Hood Long before Errol Flynn, Russell Crowe, and Kevin Costner – and their Men in Tights – there was Douglas Fairbanks and his Men in…
Victor Sjöström’s The Scarlet Letter with Lillian Gish. Considering that religious puritans (and their politically correct cohorts) continue to plague the world at the beginning of the third millennium, Nathaniel…
Fay Wray. Fay Wray movies Actress Fay Wray, best remembered for playing the love interest in the 1933 interspecies romance classic King Kong, would have turned 105 on Sep. 15.…
Mary Pickford Building: The Lot a.k.a. Pickford-Fairbanks Studios Los Angeles just got uglier. Despite protests, the Mary Pickford Building on West Hollywood’s The Lot has been destroyed by its current…
Meryl Streep Oscar Ad Controversy “It’s been TWENTY-NINE YEARS SINCE MERYL STREEP WON AN OSCAR. And she certainly deserves to win for her performance in The Iron Lady,” reads a…
The Negro Soldier poster. Produced by Frank Capra and directed by Stuart Heisler, the 1944 documentary feature The Negro Soldier was one of numerous propaganda films commissioned by the United…
Carl Reiner, John Hubley, Hope Lange, Oscar 1959 John Hubley, considered one of animation’s most innovative and influential designer-directors, will have his life and art celebrated by the Academy of…
Huckleberry Finn movie: Lewis Sargent toplines sentimental William Desmond Taylor effort. Huckleberry Finn Movie: Sentimental Fare Directed by Eventual Murder Victim Directed by William Desmond Taylor, Huckleberry Finn stars a…
Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in 7th Heaven, which helped – along with Sunrise and Street Angel – to earn Gaynor the first-ever Best Actress Academy Award. Frank Borzage’s 7th…