You are browsing archives for
We are taking some liberties today to discuss a movie we both like — a lot — that strictly speaking falls well outside the time frame of the classic Hollywood period. It’s The Verdict, released in 1982, which remains one of the finest courtroom dramas ever filmed. A big reason for our enthusiasm is the […]
In 1986, director Federico Fellini came up with the delightful comedy, Ginger and Fred, about the travails of a pair of aging Italian music hall performers imitating Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire on European television. (If you haven’t seen this one, by all means track it down.) Back in Hollywood Ginger — who died in 1995 […]
Although she was the Biggest of Stars and made dozens of films Ginger Rogers isn’t well remembered today because she never made any films which are considered classics. Wait! Those of you out there who are Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers fans who consider all their films together classics, we don’t mean any offense. But although their […]
In our week highlighting the screen villains of the 30s and 40s we mustn’t forget women (in addition to film noir femmes fatales, general all-around baddies). Today’s choice is — Gale Sondergaard. She was the dragon lady? Or, perhaps a cat woman? Your may not at first be sure since today’s subject, born Edith Holm Sonderghaard in […]
Another of the Golden Era’s prime villains. And often in Westerns. And he was sometimes overlooked entirely by movie audiences. (Their loss!) He also went by the first name of Douglas (see below), although we here have stuck with the extra s. Our man was Canadian, born in 1889 in Hamilton, Ontario. Like most character […]
You remember that face. That voice. (You do, don’t you?) In Hollywood’s classic period, distinctively looking actors, speaking with undetermined foreign accents and projecting menacing presence, were in demand for a slew of character parts. Eduardo Ciannelli fit the bill nicely. Born in 1888 on the island Ischia in the Gulf of Naples, Ciannelli was […]
And… here’s to you, Henry Daniell. It takes real talent to convincingly play a wide range of onscreen meanies, and he managed beautifully over a career that ran 35 years. The fact that he was British added extra snap to his many aristocratic snarls. We believe the photos below give you some idea of Daniell’s […]
He played suave, uppercrusty, snooty types and was usually a bad guy. He was perfect in modern dress or classical pieces. (That’s him as a hypocritical clergyman in 1943’s Jane Eyre.) You’ve probably seen him in dozens of films, and disliked his characters on sight. They could be a nasty pieces of work. Smug, arrogant, sometimes […]
She had grace and charm and often played femme fatales. Perhaps overlooked is that she also proved to be an excellent comedienne who was not averse to taking a pie in the face. She proved the equal of Abbott and Costello, of all people. Brooke played opposite Bud and Lou in 1952’s Abbott and Costello […]
Today’s film industry might provide an occasional Western, but in Hollywood’s Golden Era Cowboy films were a profitable and necessary staple. And Cowboy Stars ruled. Oh yes, we all remember Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. But we’re not talking all singing cowboys. Think Tom Mix, (above) William S. Hart, Johnny Mack Brown, Buck Jones, (below) […]