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Westerns? Musicals? Why not put them together. And Hollywood did just that, starting almost as soon as movies could talk. But of the dozens of such films only a few deserve our attention. There are, of course, transplants from Broadway, such as Oklahoma and Annie Get Your Gun, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. But the […]
Through the decades there have been wonderful (not classic, but fascinating) movies about twins. Bette Davis starred in two. Both great hits at their release. And she managed to get double billing! One of the best of the genre is The Dark Mirror, which helped catapult Olivia deHavilland back into stardom after a few years […]
As mentioned, he may well be been the finest character actor/STAR Hollywood ever produced. The former Laszlo Lowenstein from somewhere in the old Austro-Hungarian empire was almost as bizarre off screen as he was on — in nearly 155 movie and TV credits spread over two continents and a 35-year career. That’s quite a […]
Ok, every once in a while we need a Peter Lorre fix. This is one of those times. For our money, he may well have been the finest character actor Hollywood ever produced. The former Laszlo Lowenstein from somewhere in the old Austro-Hungarian empire was almost as bizarre offscreen as he was on — […]
He appeared in over 180 movies. Did he eclipse, say, W.C. Fields in the drunk characterization category? Hear us out and then you decide. He was born Mortimer J. Naughton in 1882 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and passed away 61 years ago. Jack Norton was a prototypical classic movie character actor, appearing (credited or not) in […]
They’re remembered as one of the great screen teams, and yet they only made — count ’em — 4 films together. Quickly, can you name them? Ok, let’s take the movies in chronological order: To Have and To Have Not (1944). The movie is director Howard Hawks’ justifiably classic To Have and Have Not. As our Books-To-Movies maven, […]
He was a really BIG star in the 1940s, but is almost totally forgotten today. Why that is a question we throw open to our readers. Tell us why, please. Cornel Wilde — born in what is now Slovakia as Kornel Weisz in 1912 — is eclipsed in the fog of Hollywood history while, […]
The former Myrna Adele Williams of Helena, Montana was several things to many people: an insouciantly witty actress, a glamour-puss and a formidable actress who could perform comedy and drama with ease and panache. Certainly, Myrna Loy, as she became to be known, had a lengthy career — beginning in the silent era 20’s and […]
She wasn’t just the quintessential wife and mother on screen! She had range — and sex appeal. So how much do you really know about Myrna Loy? It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that she is essential to an understanding of the glories as well as the deficiencies of big studio classic Hollywood. She […]
There are character actors and then there are character actors. Who could forget Akim Tamiroff? He is pictured above with Katina Paxinou, the great Greek actress when they appeared in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Both Tamiroff and Paxinou, unforgettably good supporting players, also appeared in Orson Welles’ Mr. Arkadin. […]