Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, in its tale of how the talkies rocked the silent motion picture era, is no doubt, a metaphor for the streaming revolution which is impacting the film industry today.
We dive deep into the topic today on Crew Call with the Oscar winning La La Land filmmaker and his Babylon producer Matthew Plouffe, a former Focus Features exec who first heard about the director’s dream to make a 1920s-Hollywood-set feature some 13 years ago after meeting him.
“If you want your movie to play on the big screen, you have to go grab it, you have to demand it,” Plouffe tells us about the survival of original movies on the big screen.
“I think filmmakers embrace that: What is going to bring people to the bring screen? How can i grab that audience? I hope that inspires them. It’s what inspired me when we were making this movie.
We dive deep into the topic today on Crew Call with the Oscar winning La La Land filmmaker and his Babylon producer Matthew Plouffe, a former Focus Features exec who first heard about the director’s dream to make a 1920s-Hollywood-set feature some 13 years ago after meeting him.
“If you want your movie to play on the big screen, you have to go grab it, you have to demand it,” Plouffe tells us about the survival of original movies on the big screen.
“I think filmmakers embrace that: What is going to bring people to the bring screen? How can i grab that audience? I hope that inspires them. It’s what inspired me when we were making this movie.
- 12/15/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Above: 1919 Swedish poster for Out West. Design by Eric Rohman.I’ve recently come across a little known, rather brief but quite extraordinary chapter in illustrated movie poster history, thanks to the poster department of Heritage Auctions. Just over one hundred years ago in Sweden, one distribution company or state agency seems to have commissioned an astonishing series of posters for imported American silent films that to today’s eyes seem both retro and modern at the same time (some of them could be mistaken for Mondo designs). They have been popping up for auction at Heritage over the past few years, reaching prices as high as 4,320 for Out West (above) and as low as 73 for the lovely Kingdom of Youth seen below. In fact there are a number coming up for auction next month and bidding begins next week.The posters are all 2- or 3-color linocut designs and...
- 10/23/2022
- MUBI
Although the calendar tells us that we’re cruising into the last half of Summer, the soaring temps are making most of us feel as though we’ll never escape from the “furnace”. And so, the multiplex provides a welcome cool sanctuary, at least for a couple of hours or so, Of course, the big action blockbusters and animated feature frolics are still taking up a lot of space on the ole’ marquee. Horror fans may think that they’ll have to hold out till Fall after getting their spines “tingled” last month with The Black Phone (although the newest Jurassic World and Doc Strange installment had lotsa’ surprise scares). Not to fear (at least till the flick begins) because after a three-year ‘time-out” the studios’ new “golden god” (he did get an Oscar) of terror is back with a spooky story shrouded in secrecy, one that Hollywood hopes will have the ticket-buyers shouting “Yup!
- 7/22/2022
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
LA North Studios is teaming with production services firms Cinelease and Herc Entertainment Services on a cost-saving initiative aimed at keeping more production in Southern California.
The companies are uniting to offer productions discounted rates on an integrated suite of services, including many of the foundational parts of any shoot like lighting and grips. Exact financial terms vary based on the scale and needs of each production.
In order to formalize the ongoing incentives, Cinelease and Herc have made an undisclosed equity investment in LA North, which was formed in 2018. The 460,000-square-foot studio complex has been expanding its footprint in Santa Clarita, the suburban enclave with 211,000 residents at the outer reaches of the 30-mile zone encircling Hollywood.
The Santa Clarita Valley has been known as a film backdrop since the days when William S. Hart shot silent Westerns there. In recent years, the streaming boom and lower costs compared with...
The companies are uniting to offer productions discounted rates on an integrated suite of services, including many of the foundational parts of any shoot like lighting and grips. Exact financial terms vary based on the scale and needs of each production.
In order to formalize the ongoing incentives, Cinelease and Herc have made an undisclosed equity investment in LA North, which was formed in 2018. The 460,000-square-foot studio complex has been expanding its footprint in Santa Clarita, the suburban enclave with 211,000 residents at the outer reaches of the 30-mile zone encircling Hollywood.
The Santa Clarita Valley has been known as a film backdrop since the days when William S. Hart shot silent Westerns there. In recent years, the streaming boom and lower costs compared with...
- 3/15/2022
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
The following contains spoilers for "The Power of the Dog" (film and novel) and "Brokeback Mountain" (film and short story).
Early in Thomas Savage's 1967 novel "The Power of the Dog," a fascinating sentence appears: "Phil had never seen a moving picture and by God never would, but these young fellows had magazines about the moving pictures in the bunkhouse, and a fellow name of W.S. Hart had got to be sort of their God." This would be William S. Hart, a silent film superstar who helped popularize Westerns as a genre. Through a happy accident, he...
The post What Queer Westerns The Power of the Dog and Brokeback Mountain Owe to a Silent Movie Star appeared first on /Film.
Early in Thomas Savage's 1967 novel "The Power of the Dog," a fascinating sentence appears: "Phil had never seen a moving picture and by God never would, but these young fellows had magazines about the moving pictures in the bunkhouse, and a fellow name of W.S. Hart had got to be sort of their God." This would be William S. Hart, a silent film superstar who helped popularize Westerns as a genre. Through a happy accident, he...
The post What Queer Westerns The Power of the Dog and Brokeback Mountain Owe to a Silent Movie Star appeared first on /Film.
- 1/28/2022
- by La Donna Pietra
- Slash Film
Wagon Tracks
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1919 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap / 64 min. / Street Date January 24, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring William S. Hart, Jane Novak, Robert McKim, Lloyd Bacon, Leo Pierson, Bert Sprotte, Charles Arling.
Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Art direction: Thomas A. Brierley
Titles: Irvin J. Martin
Written by: C. Gardner Sullivan
Produced by: William S. Hart, Thomas H. Ince
Directed by: Lambert Hillyer
Last year we were gifted with an excellent Blu-ray of a silent John Ford western, 3 Bad Men, which turned out to be a satisfying sentimental action tale. This month we get a much older silent western that’s almost as interesting. Its star is William S. Hart, the silent icon most of know through a still of a man in a ten-gallon hat brandishing two pistols in a barroom. Hart frequently played gunslingers, but not always. Olive’s presentation of Wagon Tracks sees him...
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1919 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap / 64 min. / Street Date January 24, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring William S. Hart, Jane Novak, Robert McKim, Lloyd Bacon, Leo Pierson, Bert Sprotte, Charles Arling.
Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Art direction: Thomas A. Brierley
Titles: Irvin J. Martin
Written by: C. Gardner Sullivan
Produced by: William S. Hart, Thomas H. Ince
Directed by: Lambert Hillyer
Last year we were gifted with an excellent Blu-ray of a silent John Ford western, 3 Bad Men, which turned out to be a satisfying sentimental action tale. This month we get a much older silent western that’s almost as interesting. Its star is William S. Hart, the silent icon most of know through a still of a man in a ten-gallon hat brandishing two pistols in a barroom. Hart frequently played gunslingers, but not always. Olive’s presentation of Wagon Tracks sees him...
- 1/24/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Wednesday September 28th at 7pm at Lee Auditorium inside the Missouri History Museum (Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri). The 1913 silent film Ivanhoe will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and there will be a 40-minute illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks’ Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had made a stop near the Twentieth Street entrance ten days earlier, but the crowd this day was much larger. Thousands, mostly excited women wearing ankle-length dresses and waving felt pennants lined up hoping for a glimpse, or perhaps...
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had made a stop near the Twentieth Street entrance ten days earlier, but the crowd this day was much larger. Thousands, mostly excited women wearing ankle-length dresses and waving felt pennants lined up hoping for a glimpse, or perhaps...
- 9/28/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Wednesday September 28th at 7pm at Lee Auditorium inside the Missouri History Museum (Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri). The 1913 silent film Ivanhoe will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and there will be a 40-minute illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks’ Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot was at one time Hollywood’s most popular star, known is his heyday as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “More Famous Than the Man in the Moon”. Yet even in his hometown, Baggot had faded into obscurity.
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot was at one time Hollywood’s most popular star, known is his heyday as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “More Famous Than the Man in the Moon”. Yet even in his hometown, Baggot had faded into obscurity.
- 9/20/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Wednesday September 28th at 7pm at Lee Auditorium inside the Missouri History Museum (Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri). The 1913 silent film Ivanhoe will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and there will be a 40-minute illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks’ Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here
Okay, technically I didn’t ‘discover’ it. I actually bought it off eBay and I guess it wasn’t really lost…but I thought it was so that counts for something!
King Baggot was a silent film star from St. Louis. He was a major player in the early days of silent film, known as the first ‘King of the Movies’ He was the first actor to have his name above a movie...
Okay, technically I didn’t ‘discover’ it. I actually bought it off eBay and I guess it wasn’t really lost…but I thought it was so that counts for something!
King Baggot was a silent film star from St. Louis. He was a major player in the early days of silent film, known as the first ‘King of the Movies’ He was the first actor to have his name above a movie...
- 9/15/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
'Million Dollar Baby' movie with Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood. 'Million Dollar Baby' movie: Clint Eastwood contrived, overlong drama made (barely) watchable by first-rate central performance Fresh off the enthusiastically received – and insincere – Mystic River, Clint Eastwood went on to tackle the ups and downs of the boxing world in the 2004 melo Million Dollar Baby. Despite the cheery title, this is not the usual Rocky-esque rags-to-riches story of the determined underdog who inevitably becomes a super-topdog once she (in this case it's a “she”) puts on her gloves, jumps into the boxing ring, and starts using other women as punching bags. That's because about two-thirds into the film, Million Dollar Baby takes a radical turn toward tragedy that is as unexpected as everything else on screen is painfully predictable. In fact, once the dust is settled, even that last third quickly derails into the same sentimental mush Eastwood and...
- 10/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
King The Detective And The Smugglers will screen at Super-8 Mummy Movie Madness Tuesday January 6th at The Way Out Club
Okay, technically I didn’t ‘discover’ it. I actually bought it off eBay and I guess it wasn’t really lost…but I thought it was! So that counts for something!
Just when I thought I’d put this King Baggot project to bed… they pull me back in! King Baggot was a silent film star from St. Louis. He was a major player in the early days of silent film, known as the first ‘King of the Movies’ He was the first actor to have his name above a movie’s title and the first actor that people went to see a movie because a certain actor was in it. Between 1909 and 1916, he was known as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “The Man Whose Face...
Okay, technically I didn’t ‘discover’ it. I actually bought it off eBay and I guess it wasn’t really lost…but I thought it was! So that counts for something!
Just when I thought I’d put this King Baggot project to bed… they pull me back in! King Baggot was a silent film star from St. Louis. He was a major player in the early days of silent film, known as the first ‘King of the Movies’ He was the first actor to have his name above a movie’s title and the first actor that people went to see a movie because a certain actor was in it. Between 1909 and 1916, he was known as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “The Man Whose Face...
- 12/31/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Friday, November 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium beginning at 7pm as part of this year’s St. Louis Intenational FIlm Festival. The program will consist a rare 35mm screening of the 1913 epic Ivanhoe starring King Baggot with live music accompaniment by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Ivanhoe will be followed by an illustrated lecture on the life and films of King Baggot presented by Tom Stockman, editor here at We Are Movie Geeks. After that will screen the influential silent western Tumbleweeds (1925), considered to be one of King Baggot’s finest achievements as a director. Tumbleweeds will feature live piano accompaniment by Matt Pace.
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had...
Here’s a comprehensive look at the life and career of King Baggot
Article by Tom Stockman
They gathered to see the stars at St. Louis Union Station on Saturday March 25th 1910. President Taft had...
- 11/14/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Tumbleweeds will screen Friday, November 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium as part of The King Baggot Tribute at the St. Louis International Film Festival. It will be preceded by a 35mm showing of the 1913 version of Ivanhoe featuring live music by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and an illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks own Tom Stockman. Tumbleweeds will feature live piano accompaniment by Matt Pace
William S. Hart (1864-1946) was the first great star of the movie western. Fascinated by tales of the Old West, Hart actually acquired Billy the Kid’s six-shooter and was a friend with legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. He entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in shorts, achieved stardom as the lead in the western The Bargain. Hart was particularly interested in making his westerns realistic and...
William S. Hart (1864-1946) was the first great star of the movie western. Fascinated by tales of the Old West, Hart actually acquired Billy the Kid’s six-shooter and was a friend with legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. He entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in shorts, achieved stardom as the lead in the western The Bargain. Hart was particularly interested in making his westerns realistic and...
- 11/11/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“Gurth the Swineherd , do you not recognize me?”
“Ivanhoe ! My young master”
It’s been said that 75% of all silent films are lost – scrapped for their silver nitrate content, destroyed by fire, left to decompose, or simply abandoned by an industry so lacking in foresight that it neither knew nor cared about their own products value to the future. In the case of the silent films that St. Louis native King Baggot starred in, that number is closer to 99%. Baggot likely appeared in over 300 films during his most active period 1909 to 1916, mostly one-reelers (1000 feet of film running around 16 minutes). When Cinema St. Louis and I teamed up to plan the King Baggot Tribute night coming up November 14th, we knew we wanted to show one film featuring one of his performances and another that he directed. We chose to represent his directing career with the 1925 western Tumbleweeds starring William S. Hart.
“Ivanhoe ! My young master”
It’s been said that 75% of all silent films are lost – scrapped for their silver nitrate content, destroyed by fire, left to decompose, or simply abandoned by an industry so lacking in foresight that it neither knew nor cared about their own products value to the future. In the case of the silent films that St. Louis native King Baggot starred in, that number is closer to 99%. Baggot likely appeared in over 300 films during his most active period 1909 to 1916, mostly one-reelers (1000 feet of film running around 16 minutes). When Cinema St. Louis and I teamed up to plan the King Baggot Tribute night coming up November 14th, we knew we wanted to show one film featuring one of his performances and another that he directed. We chose to represent his directing career with the 1925 western Tumbleweeds starring William S. Hart.
- 11/10/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The King Baggot Tribute will take place Friday, November 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium beginning at 7pm as part of this year’s St. Louis Intenational FIlm Festival. The program will consist a rare 35mm screening of the 1913 epic Ivanhoe starring King Baggot with live music accompaniment by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Ivanhoe will be followed by an illustrated lecture on the life and films of King Baggot presented by Tom Stockman, editor here at We Are Movie Geeks. After that will screen the influential silent western Tumbleweeds (1925), considered to be one of King Baggot’s finest achievements as a director. Tumbleweeds will feature live piano accompaniment by Matt Pace.
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot...
Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.
King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot...
- 11/6/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The most popular film actor in the world 100 years ago was a St. Louis native. Literally the first “movie star”, King Baggot was the first actor to have his name above the title and his stardom marked the first time that audiences went to see a movie because a certain actor was in that film. Born in St. Louis in 1879 and raised in a house on Union Boulevard, King Baggot attended CBC High School and at one time worked for the St. Louis Browns in ticket sales. Baggot was tall and handsome, a blue-eyed Irish boy with a distinctive white streak through his dark hair and the subject of much adoring fan mail. It’s hard to overestimate just how popular King Baggot was in his prime. He was heralded as “King of the Movies,” “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “The Man Whose Face Is As Familiar...
- 10/9/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Jack Huston cast in 'Ben-Hur' remake? 'Boardwalk Empire' actor to follow in the footsteps of Ramon Novarro and Charlton Heston Jack Huston, best known for playing World War I veteran-turned-bootlegger-cum-assassin Richard Harrow in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, may star in the latest Ben-Hur "remake," to be jointly produced by Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. I have "remake" between quotes because officially this fourth big-screen version of the semi-biblical epic (more on that below) isn't an actual remake of either the multiple Oscar-winning 1959 Ben-Hur or its 1925 predecessor, but a direct adaptation of former Civil War general Lew Wallace's 1880 bestselling novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, which happens to be conveniently in the public domain. Timur Bekmambetov, whose credits include the Angelina Jolie-James McAvoy thriller Wanted and the supernatural cult classic Night Watch, has been attached as director of what is in fact A Tale...
- 9/17/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...
- 9/4/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
As the only woman to carve out a professional career as a director in Hollywood’s Golden Age, Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) was one of a kind in the history of American cinema. During its 62nd edition, the San Sebastian Festival will pay homage to the work of Arzner, today considered a pioneer in women’s incorporation to the film industry, proclaimed as a filmmaker of strong style and personality for which she earned undeniable prestige within the Hollywood studio system.
Born in San Francisco but raised in Los Angeles, Dorothy Arzner’s parents ran a café popular with the famous actors and movie directors of the time, including Charles Chaplin, William S. Hart and Erich von Stroheim. Having obtained a degree at the University of Southern Carolina and after a stint as an ambulance driver in World War I, Arzner began a career in the world of journalism. However, introduction by a mutual friend to the director William C. de Mille (brother of the famous Cecil B. DeMille) was to forever change the direction of her life: following a visit to a film studio, she decided to become a film director. Her first work in the film industry was as a stenographer at the Players-Lasky studios (later to become Paramount), transcribing film scripts. Her skills and strong nature opened the way to works of greater responsibility: script writer, script girl and, finally, editor. It was there in the editing room that Arzner earned her excellent reputation i n the Hollywood movie industry, working on 52 films and assiduously collaborating with the filmmaker, James Cruze. In the famous motion picture starring Rudolph Valentino, Blood and Sand (1922), apart from her brilliant editing work, Arzner helmed the second unit crew for the bull-fighting scenes. She also worked as a script writer on some of Cruze’s films.
The tenacious artist pressed Paramount to let her direct a film, threatening the studio bosses with the acceptance of an offer from their rivals at Columbia. Finally, she made her directorial debut on Fashions for Women (1927), and the following year became the first woman ever to direct a talkie, Manhattan Cocktail (1928). Arzner went on to helm another 15 films in the 30s and early 40s, working with some of the greatest Hollywood stars like Clara Bow, Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Rosalind Russell, Claudette Colbert, Maureen O'Hara and Joan Crawford in comedies and dramas powerfully focused on women characters: The Wild Party (1929), Anybody's Woman (1930), Sarah and Son (1930), Honor Among Lovers (1931), Working Girls (1931), Merrily We Go to Hell (1932), Christopher Strong (1933), Nana (1934), Craig's Wife (1936) and The Bride Wore Red (1937).
In 1933 she became the first woman member of the Directors Guild of America and indeed remained its only female associate for several decades. She also went down in history as the inventor of the first boom mike for having used a microphone attached to a fishing rod when filming the early talkies.
Although she gradually fell from prominence, Arzner’s career was championed in the 60s by the feminist movements and she received several tributes, including one by the Directors Guild of America in 1975. Today her filmography is not only newly appreciated as an extremely unusual exception in the history of American film, but also for its intrinsic values. Arzner left her mark through a series of movies of refined visual style that questioned the traditional sexual roles of the time and the part played by woman in society or which, according to certain critics, introduced veiled lesbian undertones to the rigid Hollywood structure of the moment.
The retrospective dedicated by the San Sebastian Festival to Dorothy Arzner will be organized in collaboration with Filmoteca Española. The cycle will be complemented with a publication on her figure and work.
Born in San Francisco but raised in Los Angeles, Dorothy Arzner’s parents ran a café popular with the famous actors and movie directors of the time, including Charles Chaplin, William S. Hart and Erich von Stroheim. Having obtained a degree at the University of Southern Carolina and after a stint as an ambulance driver in World War I, Arzner began a career in the world of journalism. However, introduction by a mutual friend to the director William C. de Mille (brother of the famous Cecil B. DeMille) was to forever change the direction of her life: following a visit to a film studio, she decided to become a film director. Her first work in the film industry was as a stenographer at the Players-Lasky studios (later to become Paramount), transcribing film scripts. Her skills and strong nature opened the way to works of greater responsibility: script writer, script girl and, finally, editor. It was there in the editing room that Arzner earned her excellent reputation i n the Hollywood movie industry, working on 52 films and assiduously collaborating with the filmmaker, James Cruze. In the famous motion picture starring Rudolph Valentino, Blood and Sand (1922), apart from her brilliant editing work, Arzner helmed the second unit crew for the bull-fighting scenes. She also worked as a script writer on some of Cruze’s films.
The tenacious artist pressed Paramount to let her direct a film, threatening the studio bosses with the acceptance of an offer from their rivals at Columbia. Finally, she made her directorial debut on Fashions for Women (1927), and the following year became the first woman ever to direct a talkie, Manhattan Cocktail (1928). Arzner went on to helm another 15 films in the 30s and early 40s, working with some of the greatest Hollywood stars like Clara Bow, Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Rosalind Russell, Claudette Colbert, Maureen O'Hara and Joan Crawford in comedies and dramas powerfully focused on women characters: The Wild Party (1929), Anybody's Woman (1930), Sarah and Son (1930), Honor Among Lovers (1931), Working Girls (1931), Merrily We Go to Hell (1932), Christopher Strong (1933), Nana (1934), Craig's Wife (1936) and The Bride Wore Red (1937).
In 1933 she became the first woman member of the Directors Guild of America and indeed remained its only female associate for several decades. She also went down in history as the inventor of the first boom mike for having used a microphone attached to a fishing rod when filming the early talkies.
Although she gradually fell from prominence, Arzner’s career was championed in the 60s by the feminist movements and she received several tributes, including one by the Directors Guild of America in 1975. Today her filmography is not only newly appreciated as an extremely unusual exception in the history of American film, but also for its intrinsic values. Arzner left her mark through a series of movies of refined visual style that questioned the traditional sexual roles of the time and the part played by woman in society or which, according to certain critics, introduced veiled lesbian undertones to the rigid Hollywood structure of the moment.
The retrospective dedicated by the San Sebastian Festival to Dorothy Arzner will be organized in collaboration with Filmoteca Española. The cycle will be complemented with a publication on her figure and work.
- 4/19/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
‘Billy Jack’: Tom Laughlin helped to revolutionize Hollywood’s film distribution system (See previous post: “Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ Actor and Director, Robert Altman Difficult Star Dead at 82.”) Featuring the titular hero as a semi-mystical figure who, with a mixture of steely determination and purposeful violence, helps to rescue wild horses from becoming dog meat and allows an independent school to continue operating at an Indian reservation in Arizona — against the wishes of white reactionary bigots and ruthless capitalists — Billy Jack was a box office disappointment when released by Warner Bros. at, in Tom Laughlin’s words, "porno houses" (and drive-ins) in 1971. (Photo: Tom Laughlin in Billy Jack.) Unhappy with the studio’s handling of his film, Laughlin sued Warners. In May 1973, following a settlement with the studio, he began self-distributing Billy Jack at small-town movie theaters throughout the United States. He hired marketing expert, former United Artists honcho,...
- 12/19/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Clint Eastwood Western persona co-creator dead at 87: Luciano Vincenzoni (photo: Clint Eastwood in ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’) Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni, whose nearly five-decade career included collaborations with Mario Monicelli, Pietro Germi, and Sergio Leone, died of cancer on Sunday, September 22, 2013, in Rome. Vincenzoni (born on March 7, 1926, in Treviso, near Venice) was 87. In the late ’50s, Luciano Vincenzoni co-wrote Mario Monicelli’s The Great War / La Grande guerra (1959), a humorous (if overlong) World War I comedy-drama starring Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi as reluctant conscripts that earned a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (tied with Roberto Rossellini’s Il Generale della Rovere). Vincenzoni was also partly responsible for the screenplay of two well-regarded Pietro Germi movies: the omnibus comedy of manners The Birds, the Bees and the Italians / Signore & signori (1966), featuring Virna Lisi and Franco Fabrizi,...
- 9/26/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
‘Hollywood Hero’ John Dewar remembered (photo: Anthony Slide wearing Tom Mix’s hat in 1976) Perhaps I have been around too long, but as I grow older I grow despondent that those who contributed so much to film history in the past are forgotten, with others often coming along and taking claim for their achievements. One such Hollywood hero is John Dewar, whom I met when I first came to Los Angeles in 1971. He was a curator in the history department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and introduced me to the museum’s treasures relating to film history, acquired before the creation of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — at a time when both institutions were housed together simply as the Los Angeles County Museum. Back in the mid-1930s, it was Ransom Matthews, head of industrial technology at the Museum, who had started collecting such materials.
- 8/29/2013
- by Anthony Slide
- Alt Film Guide
Cinema Circus is clearly a product of the great, yet under-reported MGM peyote-poisoning of 1937—how else to explain its baffling, surreal, Technicolor, grotesque yet undeniable existence? It is a chilling documentary record of some things that were performed in front of a camera, once upon a time.
A man in a gruesome Joe E. Brown mask is helped from his leering false-face, revealing another leering false face, that of Lee Tracy, who attempts to justify what we are about to see as the realisation of a long-cherished dream, although the exorcism of a recurring nightmare would be at least as plausible.
Big top performers will trot out their tricks in brief visual bits, watched by earnestly faking-it movie "stars," few now recalled in the contemporary pantheon: Olsen & Johnson, the Ritz Brothers, Leo Carillo...
Meanwhile, more hideous outsized masks are sported, embodying movie stars too authentically famous to be roped into...
A man in a gruesome Joe E. Brown mask is helped from his leering false-face, revealing another leering false face, that of Lee Tracy, who attempts to justify what we are about to see as the realisation of a long-cherished dream, although the exorcism of a recurring nightmare would be at least as plausible.
Big top performers will trot out their tricks in brief visual bits, watched by earnestly faking-it movie "stars," few now recalled in the contemporary pantheon: Olsen & Johnson, the Ritz Brothers, Leo Carillo...
Meanwhile, more hideous outsized masks are sported, embodying movie stars too authentically famous to be roped into...
- 4/19/2012
- MUBI
Several shorts directed by film pioneer Georges Méliès, played by Ben Kingsley in Martin Scorsese's well-received Hugo, will be featured throughout January 2012 at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's Edison Theater in Fremont, Calif. The Méliès screenings will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 21, and 28. On Jan. 7, the Edison Theater will show Méliès' 1910 short The Doctor's Secret prior to the main feature, the William S. Hart 1916 classic Western Hell's Hinges, which also features Clara Williams (excellent in the highly recommended The Italian) and Louise Glaum, a film vamp who four years later would star in Sex. Musical accompaniment by Frederick Hodges. On Jan. 21, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum will celebrate "seven years of showing great films" with a screening of future two-time Oscar winner Lewis Milestone's 1928 The Garden of Eden. The romantic comedy stars one of the great beauties of the silent era, Corinne Griffith,...
- 1/2/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Claudette Colbert, Alla Nazimova, Marion Davies, Charles Boyer: Cinecon 2011 Thursday September 1 (photo: Alla Nazimova) 7:00 Hollywood Rhythm (1934) 7:10 Welcoming Remarks 7:15 Hollywood Story (1951) 77 min. Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Richard Egan. Dir: William Castle. 8:35 Q & A with Julie Adams 9:10 Blazing Days (1927) 60 min. Fred Humes. Dir: William Wyler. 10:20 In The Sweet Pie And Pie (1941) 18 min 10:40 She Had To Eat (1937) 75 min. Jack Haley, Rochelle Hudson, Eugene Pallette. Friday September 2 9:00 Signing Off (1936) 9:20 Moon Over Her Shoulder (1941) 68 min. Dan Dailey, Lynn Bari, John Sutton, Alan Mowbray. 10:40 The Active Life Of Dolly Of The Dailies (1914) 15 min. Mary Fuller. 10:55 Stronger Than Death (1920) 80 min. Alla Nazimova, Charles Bryant. Dir: Herbert Blaché, Charles Bryant, Robert Z. Leonard. 12:15 Lunch Break 1:45 Open Track (1916) 2:00 On The Night Stage (1915) 60 min. William S. Hart, Rhea Mitchell. Dir: Reginald Barker. 3:15 50 Miles From Broadway (1929) 23 min 3:45 Cinerama Adventure (2002). Dir: David Strohmaier. 5:18 Discussion...
- 9/2/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
This home-made cake pays tribute to the 75th anniversary—to the day—of “the end of the silent film era,” February 5, 1936, the date of Modern Times’ premiere in New York City. It also gives you some idea of the spirit behind Chaplinfest. February 5, 2011 wasn’t widely noted in the media, but at William S. Hart Park in Newhall, California, a group of dedicated film buffs and local-history enthusiasts gathered to honor the 75th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, which rang down the curtain on the silent-film era in Hollywood. Six to seven years after the rest of the…...
- 3/7/2011
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Jedi, goofy flight attendants, a possessed young girl, and two journalists on the brink of discovery are among the characters to be honored for film preservation. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has named 25 motion pictures to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Among the films to be preserved are George Lucas' "Return of the Jedi," "Airplane," William Friedkin's "The Exorcist," and Alan J. Pakula's "All The President's Men." This year.s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 550.
Each year, the Librarian of Congress, under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant, to be preserved for all time. In other words, these films are certainly not the "best" (but we can argue that each movie truly represented high quality) but they are works of art...
Among the films to be preserved are George Lucas' "Return of the Jedi," "Airplane," William Friedkin's "The Exorcist," and Alan J. Pakula's "All The President's Men." This year.s selections bring the number of films in the registry to 550.
Each year, the Librarian of Congress, under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant, to be preserved for all time. In other words, these films are certainly not the "best" (but we can argue that each movie truly represented high quality) but they are works of art...
- 12/28/2010
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Ok movie buffs and water buffs. Here's your chance to shine: I've worked on water issues for three decades. And I love movies. So... I'm building a list of movies where water, water politics, and water conflict all come together. Here is part of my list, but please weigh in with corrections and additions. If you have additions, I'd love the Title, Year, and a Short precis of how water is centrally involved. Documentaries, sci-fiction, westerns, action... but water has to play a central role in the plot, somehow. Peter Gleick's PartialList of Movies and Water Three Word Brand (1921): Paul and Brand (twins separated at birth, played by William S. Hart) become governor of Utah and a partner in a ranch where neighboring ranchers are trying to get control of local water rights. Riders of Destiny (1933): Government agent Saunders (John...
- 8/18/2010
- by Peter H. Gleick
- Huffington Post
Screen legend Katharine Hepburn and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa are being commemorated by the United States Postal Service in 2010.
Katharine Hepburn's stamp is part of the "Legends of Hollywood" series. This four-time Best Actress Oscar winner's stamp will go on sale May 12, 2010.
The Mother Teresa stamp is being held back until Aug. 26, 2010, when it will be released on Mother Teresa's birthday. This remarkable woman won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work in India.
Other stamps include:
A Sunday Funnies series that features Archie, Beetle Bailey, Calvin and Hobbes, Dennis the Menace and Garfield, available in July.
Ten more "Flags of Our Nation" stamps will be released in April. This set covers the states of Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and North Carolina.
A series of two stamps honoring the Negro Leagues Baseball will be available in June.
Katharine Hepburn's stamp is part of the "Legends of Hollywood" series. This four-time Best Actress Oscar winner's stamp will go on sale May 12, 2010.
The Mother Teresa stamp is being held back until Aug. 26, 2010, when it will be released on Mother Teresa's birthday. This remarkable woman won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work in India.
Other stamps include:
A Sunday Funnies series that features Archie, Beetle Bailey, Calvin and Hobbes, Dennis the Menace and Garfield, available in July.
Ten more "Flags of Our Nation" stamps will be released in April. This set covers the states of Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and North Carolina.
A series of two stamps honoring the Negro Leagues Baseball will be available in June.
- 12/31/2009
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Multiple Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn (right), pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, and cowboys Gene Autry, William S. Hart, Tom Mix and Roy Rogers will be featured on Us postage stamps in 2010. Until early 2000, Katharine Hepburn held the actors’ record for most Academy Award nominations: 12. That year, Meryl Streep tied with Hepburn, and in early 2003 surpassed her. Hepburn, however, still holds the record for most wins by an actor: four in all, for Morning Glory (1932-33*), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968, tied with Barbra Streisand), and On Golden Pond (1981). Oscar Micheaux made more than 40 films, nearly all of them between 1920 and 1940. His most celebrated efforts are the silent dramas [...]...
- 12/30/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In a famous moment from John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a reporter, having learned that the legendary bravery of a U.S. Senator isn't quite the tale of heroism that he expected, tears up his notes and says, "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
It's not just a great line that efficiently sums up the movie's theme. It's also a savvy commentary by Ford on the way Hollywood approaches Western lore. And nowhere is it more true than with the legend of Wyatt Earp and the showdown at the O.K. Corral.
Most people don't realize how little time has passed since the glory days of the Old West, when cowboys herded cattle across country, bad men robbed stagecoaches, and law was established from territory to territory. Wyatt Earp lived until 1929, and spent his latter days in Hollywood where...
It's not just a great line that efficiently sums up the movie's theme. It's also a savvy commentary by Ford on the way Hollywood approaches Western lore. And nowhere is it more true than with the legend of Wyatt Earp and the showdown at the O.K. Corral.
Most people don't realize how little time has passed since the glory days of the Old West, when cowboys herded cattle across country, bad men robbed stagecoaches, and law was established from territory to territory. Wyatt Earp lived until 1929, and spent his latter days in Hollywood where...
- 5/30/2009
- by Dawn Taylor
- Cinematical
(A.C. Lyles, below)
by Jon Zelazny
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared at EightMillionStories.com on February 27, 2009
There’s an A.C. Lyles Building at the Paramount Pictures main lot, but you won’t find A.C. Lyles there; his office is on the fourth floor of the William S. Hart Building.
When I arrived for our interview, Mr. Lyles was chatting with some visitors in his outer office. He bid me into his main office, and asked his assistant Pam to put in a video… a short promo reel that opens with a six minute tribute by then-President Ronald Reagan, who warmly recalls his and Nancy’s many years of friendship with A.C. and his wife Martha, and congratulates A.C. on his fifty years at the studio. The President’s intro is followed by taped congratulations from President Carter, President Ford, and Vice President Bush, then assorted clips celebrating Mr.
by Jon Zelazny
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared at EightMillionStories.com on February 27, 2009
There’s an A.C. Lyles Building at the Paramount Pictures main lot, but you won’t find A.C. Lyles there; his office is on the fourth floor of the William S. Hart Building.
When I arrived for our interview, Mr. Lyles was chatting with some visitors in his outer office. He bid me into his main office, and asked his assistant Pam to put in a video… a short promo reel that opens with a six minute tribute by then-President Ronald Reagan, who warmly recalls his and Nancy’s many years of friendship with A.C. and his wife Martha, and congratulates A.C. on his fifty years at the studio. The President’s intro is followed by taped congratulations from President Carter, President Ford, and Vice President Bush, then assorted clips celebrating Mr.
- 5/14/2009
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Forties TV and movie hunk Robert Sterling has lost his battle with shingles and died at his Brentwood, California home. He was 88. The ghostly star of TV's Topper was born William Hart in 1917 in Pennsylvania, the son of baseball star William S. Hart. After working briefly as a clothing salesman, Sterling made his mark as a movie star and changed his name, so as not to be confused with silent screen actor William S. Hart. He really hit his stride in 1941, when he starred in five of the year's top films, including Two-Faced Woman, in which he starred alongside Greta Garbo, and The Penalty. He wed actress Ann Sothern in 1943 and they had a daughter, Tisha - but the marriage wasn't destined to last and Sterling divorced his first wife in 1949. In 1951, he wed his second wife, actress Anne Jeffreys, who was with the actor when he died yesterday. Sterling and Jeffreys had three sons and teamed up to become a US TV institution in the mid 1950s as the stars of movie spinoff Topper, in which the couple played ghosts. Sterling retired from acting in the 1970s so he could concentrate his efforts as a computer businessman. He returned to the limelight briefly in the 1980s as a guest star in TV series Hotel and Murder, She Wrote.
- 6/1/2006
- WENN
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