Valentino with Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips. Ken Russell’s 1977 Rudolph Valentino biopic Valentino is based on the dubious 1966 bio (“Was he a great lover – or a sham?”)…
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Irene Dunne. Irene Dunne movies: Five-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee starred in now-forgotten originals of well-remembered remakes For over a decade a couple of dozen Irene Dunne movies have…
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Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. Rex Harrison hat on TCM: ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘Anna and the King of Siam’ Rex Harrison is Turner Classic Movies’ final “Summer Under the…
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Bette Davis vs. Oscars: Davis received widespread praise but no Academy Award nomination for her work in John Cromwell’s Of Human Bondage. The outrage was such that the Academy changed…
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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…
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The Goddess with Kim Stanley. Paddy Chayefsky evokes a cynical Tennessee Williams in his screenplay for The Goddess, a Hollywood cautionary tale directed by veteran John Cromwell. Episodic in progression…
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‘The Marines Are Coming’: Gay star’s final movie The Marines Are Coming was a last-minute substitution for the 1936 version of M’Liss, starring Anne Shirley, which was originally scheduled but…
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Maj-Britt Nilsson. Maj-Britt Nilsson, best known for her roles in three Ingmar Bergman films of the early 1950s, died last Dec. 19 in Cannes. She was 82. Nilsson’s three Bergman…
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…
Movies with gay characters: A fey Charles Laughton as Nero, plus Claudette Colbert and Fredric March in The Sign of the Cross. Inspired by Richard Barrios’ book Screened Out: Playing Gay…