American military movies: Besides depicting the Civil War, D.W. Griffith’s landmark 1915 feature The Birth of a Nation had the Ku Klux Klan saving heroine Lillian Gish. From ‘The Birth…
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True Grit 2010 movie review: Far superior to the 1969 John Wayne version, as Joel and Ethan Coen Western is much more than the sum of its parts.
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Tyrone Power: Q&A with researcher Maria Ciaccia about one of the biggest film stars of the 20th century Among the romantic leading men of the studio era, Tyrone Power, 20th…
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The 1959 MGM version of Ben-Hur is best remembered for its chariot race, which happens to be an imitation of the superior 1925 race for that studio’s mammoth – and…
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Malvin Wald screenplay: The Naked City 1948 with Barry Fitzgerald and Dorothy Hart. The Naked City (1948) screenwriter Malvin Wald Screenwriter Malvin Wald, who received an Academy Award nomination for…
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Film noir New York: Sweet Smell of Success with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. Whenever I think of film noir, I – somewhat incongruously – immediately picture murder and mayhem…
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If remembered at all, the name Franchot Tone usually comes up only when someone lists Joan Crawford’s series of husbands. Never mind the fact that Franchot Tone appeared in about…
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June Haver: Hollywood actress who briefly became a nun has died Actress June Haver, the blonde star of several popular 20th Century Fox musicals such as Irish Eyes Are Smiling…
Made during the Production Code era, the amusing 1936 Mae West comedy Go West Young Man features a few surprisingly risqué situations.
Marc Lawrence: Prolific film gangster and blacklisted House Un-American Activities Committee witness who kept on going all the way to the 2000s.