Tag Archives: classic film
Auntie Joan (Crawford) Explains It All for You!
Don’t say nothin’ bad about my Joanie. Not long ago, in need of a tonic on a stifling summer day, I reread the closest thing we have to her autobiography, the wildly entertaining Joan Crawford: My Way of Life. On the cover, firmly gripping her pair of poodles, she looks like a terrified hostage trying …
MoMA Presents “Leo McCarey: Seriously Funny,” Covering the Undersung Director from the Silents Onward
“I only know I like my characters to walk in clouds, I like a little bit of the fairy tale. As long as I’m there behind the camera lens, I’ll let somebody else photograph the ugliness of the world.” —Leo McCarey If you’re anywhere near New York this month, prepare to walk in the clouds. …
TINTYPE TUESDAY: Classic Film Stars Let Their Freckles Fly Free!
Welcome to another edition of TINTYPE TUESDAY! In April 1976, George Hurrell wrote to Joan Crawford, his friend of almost half a century, asking her to say a few words for a book about his work. With it, he sent a 1930 photograph, his favorite of the thousands they’d shot in 33 sessions together. “I’ve always …
Joel McCrea and Jean Arthur “Stoop” to Conquer in THE MORE THE MERRIER
In Sullivan’s Travels, Preston Sturges made a convincing case that comedy is often the best balm for tragedy. But for his friend and colleague George Stevens, the horrors of World War II left him with little capacity for comedy when he returned home from the front lines. From 1943 to 1946, Stevens covered the war in Europe for the Army …
TINTYPE TUESDAY: Keaton, Valentino and Nazimova, Ready for Their Arthur Rice Close-Ups
Welcome to another edition of TINTYPE TUESDAY! When you think of classic-film portraits, who pops to mind? George Hurrell, Clarence Bull, Ruth Harriett Louise? What about Arthur Rice? When it comes to recognition, Rice seems to have been left largely on the cutting-room floor. But his work was nothing short of stunning, capturing in still life …
Please Join Us for the Backstage Blogathon!
I’m thrilled to be co-hosting another blogathon with the fabulous Fritzi at Movies Silently! And this one premieres in—gasp!—2016. Which is much closer than you think. On that cheery note, please join us January 15-18 for the Backstage Blogathon! What’s it about? Well, the entertainment industry has always loved looking in the mirror, and we’re going to …
TINTYPE TUESDAY: At Home (and on the Floor) with Montgomery Clift!
Welcome to another edition of TINTYPE TUESDAY! This week: a slightly early 95th-birthday tribute to Montgomery Clift. Before Stanley Kubrick began telling stories with moving pictures, he told them with still-lifes, as a $50-a-week photojournalist for Look magazine in the mid to late 1940s. Some of his early photo essays were staged (I know—you’re shocked!), but as he …
STREAMING SATURDAY! It’s Friday the Dog to the Rescue in EYES IN THE NIGHT
Welcome to another edition of Streaming Saturdays, where we embed a free, fabulous movie for you to watch right here every weekend! This week: Eyes in the Night! In 1942, a few years before he began turning out such classics as High Noon, From Here to Eternity and Oklahoma!, Fred Zinnemann directed a neat little thriller about …
Do Your Loved Ones Suffer from Dread Of Old Movies (DOOM) Syndrome?
We’ve all been there: That moment when you’ve cozily settled into the sofa as a classic film is coming on… and you can already feel the impatient fidgeting, hear the discontented sighs, catch a quick glimpse of the eye-rolling going on around you. Perhaps some clueless family member asks, “Haven’t you seen this already?” Or maybe, like something straight out …
Sister Celluloid 
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