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Anita Loos, the actress-writer behind the comic novel, stage version and screen edition of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” — and a woman who knew a thing or two about luxurious living — put it best. In her 1954 memoir “Fate Keeps On Happening,” Loos wrote this about one of her closest friends: “To Paulette, no occasion is festive without champagne […]
“All Quiet on the Western Front” is justly known as the most wrenching anti-war novel ever written. Author Erich Maria Remarque conveyed the hideous destruction of humanity with almost documentary precision, and the 1930 movie version all too convincingly presents his depiction of the horror and waste of World War I. Hi, everybody. Your classic […]
Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers here introduce our three-part series on German author Erich Maria Remarque, and the great 1930 screen classic inspired by his novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” To capture the full force of this movie, it helps to know something about the source material, Remarque’s masterful 1929 novel. Thus we turn to […]
There are few things in life that tickle our fancies more than hearing from you, our faithful blog audience, in response to one or more of our Classic Movie treatises. Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers back again. It’s amazing the amount of self serving junk email we get every day, so when genuine […]
Hello Everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers here to report that — yes, finally, after a couple of months — we heard from a Susan Hayward fan who disagrees with us when we say she is today a forgotten star. (Check out our blog to this effect which ran on July 14.) Philippe Elan writes, […]
One of the most enduring and perhaps contentious debates among film fans is whether or not a truly classic movie MUST be in black and white. We don’t think so, although we may exhibit from time to time a real bias AGAINST technicolor. (Why do we think that director Martin Scorsese secretly shares our view, […]
Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys here again to declare without reservation that we love reader comments, the more informed and passionate the better. A passing mention of Thirties child star Deanna Durbin in our “More Child Stars” blog in late August […]
A few weeks ago we mentioned various actors who had had two chances to win an Oscar in the same year. They included oldtimers such as Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, George Arliss, Maurice Chevalier, Fay Bainter and Barry Fitzgerald. But we forgot to mention not-so-old-timer Al Pacino. Hello everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers back […]
Hello, everybody. Your Classic Movie guys, Joe Morella and Frank Segers, here again to deliberate on the notion that some Hollywood stars, while often seen onscreen, are still hard to identify. In our Sept. 20 blog, we challenged you to name the man above (the guy in the center between a youthful looking Donald Gordon […]
“It’s a Tie!” When Ingrid Bergman opened the envelope to announce the winner of the Best Actress Oscar for the year 1968 she said, “The winner is…it’s a tie. Hello everybody, Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys here to muse once again about quirks […]