Author Allan R. Ellenberger discusses Miriam Hopkins in the interview further below – and in his Hopkins biography Life and Films of a Hollywood Rebel. From pre-Code antiheroine to matronly…
Starring the German Mary Pickford, Ernst Lubitsch’s The Doll movie is a satirical fantasy featuring inventive art direction and jabs at the Catholic Church.
Ernst Lubitsch movies: Subtle, sophisticated ‘Touch’ all but gone from contemporary filmmaking. Ernst Lubitsch movies: The forgotten, passé ‘Touch’ Ernst Lubitsch and William Cameron Menzies were Turner Classic Movies’ “stars”…
Gary Cooper movies. The Hollywood icon can be seen at his best and at his worst in three star vehicles: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Sergeant York, and Love in the Afternoon. Gary…
Ramon Novarro ca. 1925. Ramon Novarro: Mexican-born actor was first Latin American Hollywood superstar Mexican-born actor Ramon Novarro, the original Ben-Hur and one of MGM’s biggest stars of the late…
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…
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…
The Merry Widow with Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier. The Merry Widow is neither one of Ernst Lubitsch’s most discussed nor best-liked films. Film critics and historians generally tend to…
Mexican actors: Durango-born Ramon Novarro, Canadian Norma Shearer, and Dane Jean Hersholt in the German Ernst Lubitsch’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg. Turner Classic Movies’ Hispanic Heritage Month celebration…
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg with Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer. The theme of a prince who gives up the girl he loves in order to fulfill his royal…
Ninotchka with Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. Ernst Lubitsch’s sparkling Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas, will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture…
Lady Windermere’s Fan with Irene Rich. Bert Lytell is the nice husband, May McAvoy the jealous wife, Ronald Colman the other man, and Irene Rich the scene stealer in Ernst…
Miriam Hopkins: Becky Sharp star. Remembering Miriam Hopkins Although relatively forgotten and, when remembered, usually dismissed as a second-rate talent (quite possibly by those who have never seen her on…
The 2007 San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) will be held at the Castro Theatre on July 13–15. Among the festival’s highlights are: Ernst Lubitsch’s The Student Prince in Old…
Jessie Matthews in the musical First a Girl: Victor Victoria precursor. The bfi is currently presenting a Jessie Matthews retrospective, which ends on March 11. From Richard Stirling’s bfi article: “Few stories…
One of the highlights of this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival (website) is a mouth-wateringly thorough Ernst Lubitsch Retrospective. (Image: Angel, with Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, and Melvyn Douglas.)…
Claudette Colbert and Maurice Chevalier in The Smiling Lieutenant. Claudette Colbert movies: From ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’ to ‘Skylark’ Claudette Colbert, the studio era’s perky, independent-minded – and French-born – “all-American”…
Royal romance movies: Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer discover sprightly love and excruciating heartbreak in Ernst Lubitsch’s 1927 silent classic The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg. As a William &…
Actress Miriam Hopkins: Early image courtesy of Allan Ellenberger. Miriam Hopkins, one of the most underrated performers of the studio era, will have her “Summer Under the Stars” day on…
Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey, with William Powell. When I think of Carole Lombard, the first thing that comes to mind – well, the second, after her ditzy heiress…
Pola Negri in Madame Dubarry / Passion with Emil Jannings. New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (website) is currently presenting “Pola Negri: Life Is a Dream,” a week-long retrospective on…