Stella Dallas.In the final scene of Stella Dallas (1925), the title character stands in a dark city street in the rain, peering through a window at her daughter’s wedding. This famous image inescapably suggests a viewer gazing at a movie screen: the lighted square of the window, framed by lace-trimmed drapes, even closely matches the aspect ratio of films from the time. This resemblance adds a subtle element of self-commentary to the scene, in which Stella is both punished and exalted. Having exiled herself from her child’s life so as not to hold her back, she gets to witness the fruit of her sacrifice while paying the bitter price, as a policeman curtly orders the bedraggled woman to move along.When I saw Stella Dallas, newly restored by the Museum of Modern Art, at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2023 in Bologna, I responded to this scene exactly as I was...
- 9/20/2023
- MUBI
Actor John Wayne starred in Western and war movies that filled his filmography. However, he didn’t initially get his start in front of the camera. First, Wayne worked at Fox in the props department on several films before getting his first leading role in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 Western adventure called The Big Trail. Here are the eight movies Wayne worked on in the props department before he was famous.
John Wayne | ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images ‘The Great K & A Train Robbery’ (1926) L-r: Dorothy Dwan as Madge Cullen and Tom Mix as Tom Gordon | Fox
A detective poses as a bandit in an undercover mission to stop a streak of train robberies from continuing. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the railroad president’s daughter.
The Great K & A Train Robbery is a silent film directed by Lewis Seiler and written by John Stone from Paul Leicester Ford’s novel.
John Wayne | ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images ‘The Great K & A Train Robbery’ (1926) L-r: Dorothy Dwan as Madge Cullen and Tom Mix as Tom Gordon | Fox
A detective poses as a bandit in an undercover mission to stop a streak of train robberies from continuing. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the railroad president’s daughter.
The Great K & A Train Robbery is a silent film directed by Lewis Seiler and written by John Stone from Paul Leicester Ford’s novel.
- 3/1/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Commissions
“The Freedom Orchestra” (working title), a documentary film presented by Clive Myrie, will tell the story of Ukraine’s newly formed Freedom Orchestra. In the midst of the ongoing war with Russia, 75 of Ukraine’s noted musicians have come together to bring a message of defiance and hope. Some of their family members are on the frontlines, and many have fled Ukraine since the war began.
Myrie follows the stories of the musicians from rehearsing, often alone, in Ukraine, to coming together for their first rehearsal as an orchestra in Warsaw for their inaugural concert — ahead of a tour of Europe and the U.S., including a performance at the BBC Proms on July 31.
Myrie said: “There has always been a cultural frontline in this war and I wanted to reflect that struggle. This documentary, I hope, shines a light on Ukraine’s artistic achievements as well as creative spirit,...
“The Freedom Orchestra” (working title), a documentary film presented by Clive Myrie, will tell the story of Ukraine’s newly formed Freedom Orchestra. In the midst of the ongoing war with Russia, 75 of Ukraine’s noted musicians have come together to bring a message of defiance and hope. Some of their family members are on the frontlines, and many have fled Ukraine since the war began.
Myrie follows the stories of the musicians from rehearsing, often alone, in Ukraine, to coming together for their first rehearsal as an orchestra in Warsaw for their inaugural concert — ahead of a tour of Europe and the U.S., including a performance at the BBC Proms on July 31.
Myrie said: “There has always been a cultural frontline in this war and I wanted to reflect that struggle. This documentary, I hope, shines a light on Ukraine’s artistic achievements as well as creative spirit,...
- 7/29/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The film has been restored by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
A restoration of Henry King’s silent film Stella Dallas from 1925 has been announced as the pre-opening film to this year’s Venice Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).
This film will play at the Sala Darsena on August 30. It is the first time Venice will screen a film before the festival officially starts.
Stella Dallas has been restored in a 4k digital version by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Film Foundation chaired by Martin Scorsese. The screening will be accompanied by a...
A restoration of Henry King’s silent film Stella Dallas from 1925 has been announced as the pre-opening film to this year’s Venice Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).
This film will play at the Sala Darsena on August 30. It is the first time Venice will screen a film before the festival officially starts.
Stella Dallas has been restored in a 4k digital version by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Film Foundation chaired by Martin Scorsese. The screening will be accompanied by a...
- 7/29/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.
- 6/9/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Sorrell and Son' with H.B. Warner and Alice Joyce. 'Sorrell and Son' 1927 movie: Long thought lost, surprisingly effective father-love melodrama stars a superlative H.B. Warner Partially shot on location in England and produced independently by director Herbert Brenon at Joseph M. Schenck's United Artists, the 1927 Sorrell and Son is a skillful melodrama about paternal devotion in the face of both personal and social adversity. This long-thought-lost version of Warwick Deeping's 1925 bestseller benefits greatly from the veteran Brenon's assured direction, deservedly shortlisted in the first year of the Academy Awards.* Crucial to the film's effectiveness, however, is the portrayal of its central character, a war-scarred Englishman who sacrifices it all for the happiness of his son. Luckily, the London-born H.B. Warner, best remembered for playing Jesus Christ in another 1927 release, Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, is the embodiment of honesty, selflessness, and devotion. Less is...
- 10/9/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...
- 3/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
From Siegfried Sassoon and Ivor Novello to Gore Vidal and Fred Astaire, a surprisingly large number of writers have paired off with film stars
On Monday, a raunchy letter from Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich – a surreal fantasy about her, reflecting what he called an "unsynchronised passion" that endured for more than 25 years – is part of an online auction of Dietrich's possessions. Although their relationship remained platonic, many other authors did have movie-star lovers …
F Scott Fitzgerald – Lois Moran
Fitzgerald's affair in the 1920s with this Zelda lookalike, a silent screen actor who was 17 when he first met her, infuriated his wife – she once threw a jewellery gift from him out of a train window while raging about Moran – but inspired Dick Diver's romance with the actor Rosemary Hoyt in Tender Is the Night.
Siegfried Sassoon – Ivor Novello
The war poet's relationship with Novello – now remembered mostly as a songwriter,...
On Monday, a raunchy letter from Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich – a surreal fantasy about her, reflecting what he called an "unsynchronised passion" that endured for more than 25 years – is part of an online auction of Dietrich's possessions. Although their relationship remained platonic, many other authors did have movie-star lovers …
F Scott Fitzgerald – Lois Moran
Fitzgerald's affair in the 1920s with this Zelda lookalike, a silent screen actor who was 17 when he first met her, infuriated his wife – she once threw a jewellery gift from him out of a train window while raging about Moran – but inspired Dick Diver's romance with the actor Rosemary Hoyt in Tender Is the Night.
Siegfried Sassoon – Ivor Novello
The war poet's relationship with Novello – now remembered mostly as a songwriter,...
- 3/14/2014
- by John Dugdale
- The Guardian - Film News
Lupita Tovar turns 103: Actress starred in Spanish-language ‘Dracula’ and in the first Mexican talkie, ‘Santa’ (photo: Lupita Tovar in ‘Santa’) Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, best remembered for the Spanish-language version of Dracula and for starring in the first Mexican talkie, Santa, turned 103 years old on Sunday, July 27, 2013. Tovar was born in 1910 in the city of Oaxaca, the capital of the Mexican state of the same name. In an interview with author Michael G. Ankerich (Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips) published on Ankerich’s site Close-ups and Long Shots, Tovar recalled her brief foray as a silent film actress at Fox (several years before it became 20th Century Fox): "Silent films were wonderful because you didn’t have to worry about your dialogue. You could say whatever you felt. We had music on the set all the time. It was absolutely wonderful." Unfortunately for Tovar, whose English was quite poor,...
- 7/29/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ralph Bellamy on TCM: Sunrise At Campobello, The Awful Truth Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Carefree (1938) A psychiatrist falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be nudging into marriage with someone else. Dir: Mark Sandrich. Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy. Bw-83 mins. 7:30 Am The Secret Six (1931) A secret society funds the investigation of a bootlegging gang. Dir: George Hill. Cast: Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown. Bw-84 mins. 9:00 Am Headline Shooter (1933) A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot. Dir: Otto Brower. Cast: William Gargan, Frances Dee, Ralph Bellamy. Bw-61 mins. 10:15 Am Picture Snatcher (1933) An ex-con brings his crooked ways to a job as a news photographer. Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Cast: James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis. Bw-77 mins. 11:45 Am The Wedding Night (1935) A married author falls for the beautiful farm girl...
- 8/14/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson, Sunrise at Campobello Ralph Bellamy was what many would call a "dependable" player: always there (nearly 100 movies), always capable, (almost) always losing the girl. Why Bellamy never became a major movie star is beyond me — especially considering that guys like James Stewart, Fred MacMurray, Dick Powell, Don Ameche, Joseph Cotten, etc. were top leading men of that era. Perhaps Bellamy was just both too good-looking and too intelligent-looking to keep Ginger Rogers from Fred Astaire (Carefree), Irene Dunne and Rosalind Russell from Cary Grant (The Awful Truth and His Girl Friday, respectively), and Anna Sten from Gary Cooper (The Wedding Night). All four films — in addition to 11 other Ralph Bellamy movies — will be presented on Turner Classic Movies on Sunday, August 14, as part of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" film series. [Ralph Bellamy Movie Schedule.] Unfortunately, there are no TCM premieres, but included are a few lesser-known titles, e.g.
- 8/14/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Van Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor in Richard Brooks' The Last Time I Saw Paris (top); Alice Terry, Antonio Moreno in Rex Ingram's Mare Nostrum (middle); Gina Lollobrigida (bottom) F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rex Ingram, and Gina Lollobrigida. No, not together again — or ever, for that matter. But samples of their individual works can all be found this evening on Turner Classic Movies. Right now, TCM is showing Henry King's Tender Is the Night (1962), Jennifer Jones' swan song as a major movie star. Jones was criticized for being too old to play the film's young heroine Nicole Diver — and at 42 or so she surely was. Having said that, let me add that I enjoyed her performance all the same. Coincidentally, I'm currently reading Richard Buller's biography of silent-film actress Lois Moran (the young daughter in the 1925 version of Stella Dallas), who befriended F. Scott Fitzgerald in the late 1920s...
- 12/6/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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