Ricardo Cortez biography The Magnificent Heel: The Life and Films of Ricardo Cortez. Dan Van Neste’s book covers the life and career of Paramount’s “Latin Lover” threat to a recalcitrant…
Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond: Final Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder collaboration. Publication of Charles Brackett diaries quashes gay rumors and reveals screenwriter-producer’s troubled relationship with his…
Charles Brackett ca. 1945: Billy Wilder screenwriting partner (1936–1949), producer (1945–1949) and Hollywood diarist. Q&A with ‘Charles Brackett Diaries’ editor Anthony Slide: Billy Wilder’s screenwriter-producer partner in his own words…
Adolphe Menjou: Actor’s “debonair” style on screen, boorish right-wing politics off-screen. Adolphe Menjou movies today: Actor was known for ‘suave’ characterizations on-screen and boorish right-wing politics off-screen Despite countless stories…
William Gargan, Miriam Hopkins, Jack La Rue in Stephen Roberts’ The Story of Temple Drake Cinefest 2011, a four-day festival of rare American films, kicked off earlier today in Syracuse,…
Oscar comebacks: Adrien Brody in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist. Generally speaking, most actors, actresses, and directors either get that once-in-a-lifetime Academy Award nomination, or, if they’re lucky, a couple or…
Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn in George Cukor’s Adam’s Rib. Home movies of scary folk such as Alfred Hitchcock and Richard Nixon (and of some non-scary celebrities and non-celebrities as well),…
The Crowd with James Murray and Eleanor Boardman: King Vidor’s working-class classic. The sidebar “The Silent City: New York in the Movies, 1898-1928” will accompany Film Forum’s (website) NYC NOIR…
Composer Franz Waxman tribute Press Release: Beverly Hills, CA – In celebration of Oscar®-winning composer Franz Waxman’s centennial, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will screen the 1941 films…
Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino in Beyond the Rocks: “Lost movie” will be screened in Los Angeles area. Gloria Swanson & Rudolph Valentino: Found ‘Lost’ film ‘Beyond the Rocks’ screening…
Mulholland Dr. movie review: Starring a phenomenal Naomi Watts, David Lynch’s drama provides one of cinema’s most harrowing portraits of the evisceration of The American Dream – or, for that…
Honorary Award non-recipient Marlene Dietrich. Honorary Award: Academy ‘snubbed’ Gloria Swanson & Rita Hayworth + Marlene Dietrich & dozens of other women (See previous post: “Honorary Oscars: Doris Day &…
The Trespasser movie: Gloria Swanson stars in mother love melodrama with Purnell Pratt and Robert Ames, who would die two years after this film was made. Author Cari Beauchamp will…
Calling Hedy Lamarr documentary review: Considered by some one of the most beautiful – if not the most beautiful – film star of Hollywood’s studio era, the Austrian-born actress and…