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…
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,…
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…
Vivien Leigh ca. late 1940s. Vivien Leigh movies: now controversial ‘Gone with the Wind,’ little-seen ’21 Days Together’ on TCM Vivien Leigh is Turner Classic Movies’ star today, Aug. 18,…
Teresa Wright The Men publicity shot: Her career was derailed following a nasty, public fight with independent mogul Samuel Goldwyn. Teresa Wright & Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty,…
A Tale of Two Cities movie. Although not as widely known as other Old Hollywood spectacles, David O. Selznick’s film production of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, set…
Best Actress Oscar winner Jennifer Jones, the widow of both Gone with the Wind producer David O. Selznick and industrialist Norton Simon, will have a number of her belongings auctioned.…
Jennifer Jones in Portrait of Jennie: one of Luis Buñuel’s favorite films. Best Actress Oscar winner Jennifer Jones dead at 90: Best remembered for her portrayals of troubled, complex women…
The Prisoner of Zenda 1937 with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. vs. Ronald Colman. A moderately popular leading man in the early 1930s, mostly as either obnoxious or lackluster “heroes” in forgettable…
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in The Prisoner of Zenda 1937. The son of silent screen superstar Douglas Fairbanks and a middle-league – and generally lackluster – leading man in the first…
How long is Gone with the Wind? Long enough for Clark Gable to watch Vivien Leigh grow from teenage belle to womanly Civil War survivor. “Hollywood’s Greatest Year: The Best…
Under Full Sail. Under Full Sail - Silent Cinema on the High Seas Flicker Alley (website) in association with the Blackhawk Film Collection has announced the release of “Under Full…
B film noir Detour with Tom Neal and Ann Savage, looking more like your usual femme fatale. In the U.K., the Monthly Film Bulletin reviewer thoroughly dismissed Detour – but…
What are the best British films of all time? A violent thriller is critics’ surprise #1 choice, while women-focused titles are (as usual) almost completely ignored.
Robert Walker: Actor played box-next-door types in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films of the 1940s and was at his best as the gay psychopathic murderer in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 thriller Strangers on a…
Constance Bennett. At one point in the early 1930s, Constance Bennett was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. (In her early Warner Bros. movies, Bette Davis was clearly modeled after Bennett.)…
As the title implies, BearManor Media’s The History of Independent Cinema covers the century-long development of – American – filmmaking outside the big-studio lots. Now, who were those independents? Well,…
The crime drama Walk Softly Stranger was RKO’s biggest flop of the year. It became a blotch on Joseph Cotten’s resumé, shortened Robert Stevenson’s directorial career at the studio, and…