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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) […]
She started as a bit player. She worked her way up to name above the title star. Then television. Then oblivion. She starred opposite top leading men..name above the title. Except that the movies she made were not stellar. Lynn Bari was, however, distinguished for her pulchritude. She was known as “The Girl with the […]
How much did you know about our man, Joe E. Brown? Here (above) he is, in the role he’s best remembered for in Billy Wilder’s 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon (seen above in drag as ‘Daphne’), Tony Curtis and, of course, Marilyn Monroe. Brown plays Osgood Fielding III, a millionaire and genial […]
He was one of the biggest stars of the 1930s. Today he is most remembered for Some Like it Hot. Hard to believe, but in the 1930s Joe E. Brown was not only a star, but very big box office. Did you know, for example, that he ranked among Hollywood’s top 10 box office […]
It’s fun to watch a film that’s over 70 years old and realize how good it still is. We’re talking here about a great movie, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and — a superb director, John Huston, who was a pretty good actor as well. We don’t care what some critics say. We admire Huston (pictured […]
We all know you don’t have to go to the video rental store anymore. You can stream old movies in the comfort of your own home. On Amazon Prime recently we watched two “small” films which are well worth a visit. In describing them, we use the term “old noir” loosely since both titles date […]
What a beauty. She died much too young — in 1991 of cancer when she was just 55 — but she left a legacy of important films. Just as important, she was one of the screen’s potent sex symbols through the Fifties and Sixties, playing sluts, alcoholics and majorettes with great conviction. And, she loved […]