“Latin Lover” Ricardo Cortez, who went on to play a series of all-American scoundrels and criminals, in addition to similar unsavory types of other nationalities. Although never as big a…
Ben-Hur movie: Ramon Novarro starred in the silent version, at the time the most expensive film production and the biggest worldwide blockbuster in history. ‘Ben-Hur’ movie: Semi-biblical epic starring Ramon…
Greta Garbo movies: The Kiss was her final silent film. Greta Garbo movies: Rare silent era star on TCM Greta Garbo, a rarity among silent era movie stars, is Turner…
African-American film ‘Bert Williams: Lime Kiln Club Field Day’ with Williams (in blackface) and Odessa Warren Grey: Early 20th century rarity.* Rare, early 20th-century African-American film among San Francisco Silent…
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:…
Blood and Sand with Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi Bullfighting has never appealed to me, so I approached Fred Niblo’s Blood and Sand with caution. Now that I’ve seen it,…
Rudolph Valentino in ‘Blood and Sand’ Rudolph Valentino Movies: ‘Blood and Sand,’ starring Hollywood’s foremost Latin Lover, at the Hollywood Heritage Museum The Hollywood Heritage Museum will celebrate the birthday…
Clara Bow, known as the “It” Girl, stars in the appropriately titled It. Part III of Moguls & Movie Stars, A History of Hollywood, “The Dream Merchants,” narrated by Christopher…
Mary Pickford in Maurice Tourneur’s The Poor Little Rich Girl (top); Dustin Farnum in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Squaw Man (bottom). The Birth of Hollywood, part II of the seven-part…
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…
Douglas Fairbanks with Julanne Johnston The Thief of Bagdad (top); Fairbanks in The Iron Mask. Rare screenings of the Douglas Fairbanks adventure classics The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The…
Starring gay MGM contract actor William Haines, the pre-Code comedy Western Way Out West features gay innuendoes just about everywhere you look.
MGM star Ramon Novarro delivers a charismatic performance in Fred Niblo’s still impressive silent era mega-blockbuster Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
June Mathis / © Allan Ellenberger Collection June Mathis. The name means nothing to most of today’s filmgoers and to the vast majority of self-proclaimed film historians. Yet, nearly nine…
The Talmadge Sisters: Constance Talmadge in Her Sister from Paris. Adapted to the screen by frequent Ernst Lubitsch collaborator Hanns Kräly, Sidney Franklin’s 1925 comedy Her Sister from Paris is…
MGM actress Greta Garbo in the 1930 Anna Christie. Actress Greta Garbo DVD box set ‘Garbo: The Signature Collection’ Greta Garbo is the star of the DVD box set “Garbo:…
Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro: Biography of tragic gay actor discusses his personal life and career. (Pictured: The Ben-Hur star with Greta Garbo in the 1931 blockbuster Mata…
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…
Rex Ingram. St. Patrick’s Day always reminds me of silent era filmmaker Rex Ingram, among whose silent era efforts are The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Prisoner of Zenda,…
Sold for Marriage: Remarkably modern early silent film Though all but completely forgotten today, Christy Cabanne (at times billed as William Christy Cabanne) was a respected name in the 1910s…
Barbara La Marr dies in the arms of star-in-the-making Ramon Novarro in Fred Niblo’s 1924 melodrama Thy Name Is Woman. Cecilia Rasmussen in the Los Angeles Times: “Silent-film actress and screenwriter…
Ben-Hur 1959 Charlton Heston. ‘Ben-Hur’ 1959 & 1925 on DVD: Charlton Heston & Ramon Novarro movies Ben-Hur, both the 1959 and 1925 versions starring, respectively, Charlton Heston and Ramon Novarro,…