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When he hit the American film scene in the early 1950s he epitomized the term — Latin Lover. He was already a star in his native country when Hollywood beckoned. After Mexican-born Ricardo Montalban made such a hit, MGM imported another Latin Lover for its roster. He was Fernando Lamas, the Argentine-born actor-athlete who was Esther Williams’ third husband to whom she […]
OK. How much did you know about the decades of Tarzan films? Did you know that at least two dozen actors have taken on the role of the fearless original raised in the African jungles since the first Tarzan movie was made in 1918? Or, that there have been about the same number of Tarzan […]
Yes, it started in the silent era. American filmgoers fascination with Tarzan. What is it about Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1914 tale of a British nobleman — one Viscount Greystoke — raised from early boyhood by primates in the African jungle that movie audiences over generations have found so compelling? Is it the inherent near nudity? […]
Force of Evil and Caught, the final two films from Enterprise Studios, were worthy efforts. Indeed, the former is today considered something more than that. A dynamic crime and punishment drama, brilliantly and broadly realized, wrote Bosley Crowther of the New York Times when Force of Evil opened during the Christmas season of 1948. If […]
As you have no doubt ascertained by now, this weeks blogs are devoted to the limited (just nine pictures in all) output from that feisty mid-Forties independent production outfit, Enterprise Studios, founded in large part by actor John Garfield. He starred in two of Enterprise’ best known titles (1947’s Body and Soul and 1948’s Force […]
Yesterday we briefly discussed Enterprise Studios biggest box office hit, Body and Soul. Today we’ll look at Arch of Triumph. What a cast! (There are the costars above.) How could it fail? As we wrote yesterday, Arch of Triumph qualifies as a prestige outing from Enterprise, the short-lived but fascinating independent production outfit formed in […]
John Garfield had had it in the mid-Forties with the limitations dictated by his Warner Bros. contract, and turned freelance. He quickly hooked up with producer David Loew, the son of MGM founder Marcus Lowe, and WB’s chief publicist James Enfield to form Enterprise Studios. The company didn’t last long — two years in all […]
It only lasted just two years from 1947 to 1949. It was largely the brainchild of actor John Garfield. It managed to a handful of films — and what fine films. By the mid Forties, Garfield’s contract with Warner Bros. had lapsed, and he had long since tired of being just another star in studio […]
Good question. A Broadway star to be sure. She originated the part of Maggie in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She starred for years in Jean Kerr’s Mary, Mary. But she also made films, although not many (her entire career covers just 33 movies and tv credits). But what films she did […]
The story has been made many times, but the 1940-Bette-Davis-directed-by-William Wyler version is considered a definitive classic. How does it hold up today? Splendidly, we say. It certainly ranks as the vehicle for one of Davis’ most powerful performances as Leslie Crosbie, the wife of a British rubber plantation manager (Herbert Marshall) who in a […]