Walter Hampden

Walter Hampden

Juli 31, 2007
All About Eve, Ethel Barrymore, Hamlet, Sabrina, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Vagabond King, Walter Hampden

Walter Hampden has a great role in “Sabrina” (1954) as the exasperated father of the Larrabee brothers. The scene where he struggles to get...

The Music Box (1932)

The Music Box (1932)

Juli 30, 2007
Billy Gilbert, Laurel and Hardy, Oilver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Star Spangled Banner, The Music Box, The Music Box Steps

“The Music Box” (1932) displays the ebullience of entrepreneurship in the darkest year of the Great Depression. With a capital sum of $3.80,...

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)

Juli 26, 2007
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dick Powell, Felix Mendelssohn, Frank McHugh, James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, Victor Jory, William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Nights Dream (1935) is almost startlingly good. I’m not sure if its being good is unexpected because Warner Bros. was more n...

Anita Sharp-Bolster

Anita Sharp-Bolster

Juli 25, 2007
Anita Sharp-Bolster, Barbara Stanwyck, Bing Crosby, Dark Shadows, Going My Way, Humphrey Bogart, The Two Mrs. Carrolls

Anita Sharp-Bolster shows us essentially two sides of the same person in the two different roles of Christine in “The Two Mrs. Carrolls” (19...

Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Footprints

Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Footprints

Juli 24, 2007
Charlie McCarthy, Chase and Sanborn Hour, Dorothy Lamour, Edgar Bergen, Edward Arnold, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Spencer Tracy

I’m not sure who wrote the signatures in the cement in the above photo, Charlie McCarthy or Edgar Bergen, but the handwriting is the neatest...

Haunted Spooks (1920)

Haunted Spooks (1920)

Juli 23, 2007
African-American actors, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Morrison, Harold Lloyd, Haunted Spooks, Mildred Davis, silent films

“Haunted Spooks” is a two-reeler where Harold Lloyd, dumped by his wealthy girlfriend for another man, marries a complete stranger instead a...

The Hindenburg Disaster (1937)

The Hindenburg Disaster (1937)

Juli 19, 2007
Herbert Morrison, Hindenburg crash, newsreels

Before nightly broadcast news coverage, let alone round-the-clock cable television news coverage, film news events were delivered edited in ...

The Ducktators (1942) & Peace on Earth (1939)

The Ducktators (1942) & Peace on Earth (1939)

Juli 18, 2007
All Quiet on the Western Front, cartoons, Mel Blanc, Peace on Earth, The Ducktators, World War I, World War II

Since part of the movie going experience, back in the day before these enlightened times of the $7 bag of popcorn, included cartoons and new...

The Lady Eve (1941)

The Lady Eve (1941)

Juli 17, 2007
Barbara Stanwyck, Charles Coburn, Eric Blore, Eugene Pallette, Henry Fonda, Preston Sturges, The Lady Eve, Willaim Demarest

In “The Lady Eve” (1941) we have some of Barbara Stanwyck’s best work, some of Henry Fonda’s best work, and some of director and writer Pres...

Barbara Stanwyck - 100th Anniversary

Barbara Stanwyck - 100th Anniversary

Juli 16, 2007
Adolphe Menjou, Ball of Fire, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Christmas in Connecticut, Forbidden, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Meet John Doe, Stella Dallas, The Miracle Woman, William Wyler

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Barbara Stanwyck. The body of her work is impressive. She was one of the best actresses of ...

A Question of Favortism

A Question of Favortism

Juli 12, 2007
Alice Faye, favorite films, Fred Astaire, old movie buffs

I have a question of favoritism, rather than favorites, in the old movies you watch. I’d like to know which movie or movies are the ones yo...

Lucille La Verne

Lucille La Verne

Juli 11, 2007
Dorothy Gish, Lucille La Verne, Orphans of the Storm, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Lucille La Verne, a renown stage actress for decades, spent her limited Hollywood career as a character actress. In Hollywood, she played mo...

Orphans of the Storm (1921) - Part 2

Orphans of the Storm (1921) - Part 2

Juli 10, 2007
American Revolution, Clark Gable, D.W. Griffith, Dorothy Gish, French Revolution, Gone With the Wind, Lillian Gish, Lucille La Verne, Orphans of the Storm, Sheldon Lewis

Like the villainous Jacque-Forget-Not, we see that the commoners, like the rapacious aristocracy, are not all that great either, and have th...

Orphans of the Storm (1921) - Part 1

Orphans of the Storm (1921) - Part 1

Juli 09, 2007
Bastile Day, D.W. Griffith, Dorothy Gish, Foghorn Leghorn, Frank Losee, French Revolution, Josef Schildkraut, Katherine Emmet, Kenny Delmar, Leslie King, Lillian Gish, Monte Blue, Orphans of the Storm

Since Bastille Day rolls around this Saturday the 14th, today and tomorrow we’ll have a look at Hollywood’s view of the French Revolution wi...

Henry Travers

Henry Travers

Juli 05, 2007
ageism, Baby Boomers, Henry Travers, It's a Wonderful Life, James Stewart, Mrs. Miniver, Shadow of a Doubt

Henry Travers is one of the film industry’s most beloved character actors, a veteran of the stage in the UK and in New York before he ever c...

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Part 2

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Part 2

Juli 04, 2007
Betsy Ross, Clinton Rosewood, Fay Templeton, Franklin Roosevelt, George M. Cohan, James Cagney, racism, Rosemary DeCamp, Theodore Roosevelt, Walter Huston, World War II, Yankee Doodle Dandy

The Fay Templeton number of “So, Long Mary” in the “Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway” scene is an excellent parody of small town American am...

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Part 1

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Part 1

Juli 03, 2007
Fay Templeton, Franklin Roosevelt, George M. Cohan, Independence Day, James Cagney, Jeanne Cagney, Michael Curtiz, Rosemary DeCamp, vaudeville, Walter Huston, William Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy

For Independence Day here in the U.S., today and tomorrow will be a nod to “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942) a fast-paced film that captures thre...

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Juli 02, 2007
Alfred Hitchock, Edna May Wonacott, Henry Travers, Hume Cronyn, Joseph Cotten, Merry Widow Waltz, Our Town, Patricia Collinge, Shadow of a Doubt, Teresa Wright, Thornton Wilder

“Shadow of a Doubt” was thought to be Director Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite film. This could illustrate that the Master of Suspense had just...