Douglas Fairbanks Jr.: Although never as big a name as his father, Jr. did succeed in attaining Hollywood stardom. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was never as popular as his father, silent film superstar Douglas Fairbanks, who starred in one action-adventure blockbuster after another in the 1920s (The Mark of Zorro, Robin […]

Edward G. Robinson, Little Caesar Little Caesar is a good example of a film that is historically important, but that has dated very poorly. Tony Gaudio's camera work is mediocre, Warner Bros. musical director Erno Rapee's spare soundtrack is garbled, and the acting is for the most part wooden. Even […]

The Barker with Dorothy Mackaill and Milton Sills. Directed by George Fitzmaurice, by then already a film veteran, The Barker is one of those strange hybrids made at the dawn of the sound era: some sequences feature dialogue, others have intertitles and musical accompaniment. The Barker, in fact, is perhaps stranger […]

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 fare such as Loose Ankles and I Like Your Nerve, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. reached what could well be the peak […]

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 half of the 1930s, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was at his very best as the villainous Rupert of Hentzau in John […]