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There’s our man James Stewart as seen in director Otto Preminger’s superb 1959 courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. It’s a movie we like a lot, and a recent screening proved once again just how good an actor Stewart was. We also like the picture for its canny and highly appropriate musical score by […]
“Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.” He was a leading man in his native Germany (born in Berlin in 1893). A star of the silent era. And a great supporting actor in British and American films in the late 30s and early 40s, Hans Walter Conrad Veidt died much too early (at […]
He’s had a varied career on the way to becoming one of Britain’s most famous and revered movie stars. And, yes, Michael Caine, who turned 86 last March 14, and is still at it. (His pal and sometime costar Sean Connery, 89, is not.) Over his very long career — covering some 170 titles — Caine […]
You may know that face, you may know that voice, but can you name three pictures in which she appeared? Before we help you out, just a few things you should know about Binnie Barnes. — She was British, born in London in 1903. She started her working life at 15, as nurse, chorus girl […]
Ok, Orson Welles fans. Time to find out how you did on our Monday quiz. And, it’s also time to re-plug the publication of a brand new book covering Welles’ early life, and documenting as well his most consistent lifelong personal association captured in a series of fascinating conversations recorded over many years. On display is […]
Ok, Orson Welles fans, time to test your mettle. And, to be honest, it’s also time to plug the publication of recent books covering Welles’ early life, and documenting as well his most consistent lifelong personal association as expressed in a host of fascinating conversations recorded over many years. On display is Welles personally at […]
Occasional an actress in middle age will burst on the screen and have a brief, spectacular career — think Mae West. Melina Mercouri was 35 when she made the first of her some 20 films, and 40 before she hit it big as the good-hearted, life-affirming prostitute in 1960’s Never On Sunday. Mercouri pretty much […]
One of the great character actors of Hollywood’s peak years was the Englishman Nigel Bruce. Yes, of course, his legacy is comprised of the 14 Sherlock Holmes films from 1939 to 1946 (plus the some 200 radio programs) with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Bruce as somewhat stuffy but immensely likable Dr. Watson. Did you […]
The factories that Hollywood studios became in the Thirties, Forties and Fifties — a phenomenon regarded today with mixed feeling — ground out films designed to “entertain.” Little did they know. Take RKO — perhaps no studio generated out more modestly interesting titles intended to be strictly crowd pleasers but which turned out to be […]
How much did you know about the two time Oscar winner? Did you know a lot about one of the most formidable actors of the 20th century? Anthony Quinn’s movie appearances spanned some 65 years and netted him a bevy of awards. As he aged he took them and himself with emphatic seriousness. Some argue […]