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Hello, everybody. Your classic movie guys back again with a special treat, another in our six-part series devoted to Allan Dwan. As critic-columnist Dave Kehr of The New York Times noted in May, it’s looking to be a good year for the pioneer American filmmaker, who began directing in 1911, and worked without a break for half a century. […]
Last month we were discussing Gregory Peck and his western films. But reader Samuel Cochran wrote in about Peck’s film debut in Days Of Glory with Russian ballerina, Tamara Toumanova. Taumanova is, in fact, one of Joe’s favorites. He admits she wasn’t much of an actress, but then she was good enough and, of course, […]
Hello, everybody. Your classic movie guys back again with a special treat, another in our six-part series devoted to Allan Dwan. Dwan’s career is the subject of an exhaustively researched recent biography by Fredric Lombardi. The book — Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, is published by McFarland. 2013. For more information click […]
As part of our star-of-the-week series, we recently profiled Adolphe Menjou, a fine actor whose career spanned the silents and the talkies, 149 film and tv titles in all beginning way back in 1914. (Star of the Week — Adolphe Who?, Aug. 26.) Somewhat to our surprise, the response (for us) was voluminous. The comments came pouring […]
Recently we challenged you with a quiz centered largely on the early career of one of the most amazingly productive people in show business, actor/producer/director Clint Eastwood. Ok, without further verbal folderol, here are the answers to our quizlet. (In putting together this exercise, we are indebted to author Marc Eliot’s useful 2009 biography, American Rebel: The […]
Hello, everybody. Your classic movie guys back again with a special treat, another in our six-part series devoted to Allan Dwan. As critic-columnist Dave Kehr of The New York Times noted in May —His extraordinary career is the subject of an exhaustively researched recent biography by Fredric Lombardi. The book is titled Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of […]
Can Clint Eastwood be considered a “classic movie actor,” that is, and star from Hollywood’s classic era? Yes, he is still very much with us (age 83) and still working (with two projects in preparation). Yet, we believe that the very early part of his career belongs to the later, quickly winding down classic movie […]
Yes, they both worked for most of their careers at 20th Century Fox. Tyrone Power was perhaps the studio’s biggest star of the late Thirties and Forties, and Don Ameche was perhaps its most reliable go-to personality. Hello, everybody. Your classic movie guys here today to pleasurably field reader e-mail about both Power (the subject […]
Today there are many film and TV stars who are considered famous, but in 30 or 40 years they will be almost totally forgotten. Think not? Then consider Dennis Morgan. Never heard of him, right? A pity since he was once one of Hollywood’s leading romantic actors with an appealingly light touch in musicals and […]
It isn’t often one can view a classic movie on a big screen in a real movie theater. One of the few places that can happen is at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto California. Luckily for Joe he gets to Palo Alto several times a year and can attend films at the Stanford, films […]