I keep hearing that various authors are writing biographies on the Hal Roach studios. I've been waiting 20 years for such a book. (Which is as long as I first heard that Richard Bann was working on such a project.) Maybe Brent needs to throw his hat in the ring and toss in a version. Every post's of...

So let me get this straight. If someone were to discover a dilapitated copy of L&H's lost film "Hat's Off" that was not in pristine 1927 shape but were able to release it, you would not purchase it because it's visuals would offend your sensibilities? This is not "A Birth Of A Nation" that we are ta...

Goodman's music is featured prominently throughout the film. There are his obvious speciality numbers with the big band and his quartet and the opening rouser "Hooray For Hollywood." In Dick Powell's big set piece, "Take A Lesson From Me," Berkley goes all out and turns it into a ten minute melange ...

No WWII film made during the war is as good as the films that started being made about it a few years after the war and continued until at least the mid-1960s.* * Okay, maybe In Which We Serve. ......or John Ford's "They Were Expendable" - (1945) One of the most rousing and touching of WWII films, ...

Boy!.......vaudeville acts, symphonic concerts, x-mas gifts, free ice cream, musical comedy revues, dance contests -- not to mention comedy shorts, cartoons and newsreels.........when did patrons get around to watching the features? And these programs changed every two or three days and it started a...

Concerning the Talmadge sisters, while Norma was struggling in the new sound medium Constance was gallivanting around in Europe having never bothered to make a talkie. She sent her sister a telegram saying in effect, "Stop knocking your brains out in Hollywood! We made our dough. Luckily Mama invest...

They may not of been 'box office poison' but I believe there was definitely an air of 'diminishing box office performance' by the bigger silent stars who toiled in talkies. Take Harold Lloyd for instance. His "Welcome Danger - (1929) was a big box office success but each succeeding film brought in l...

Movies have always fascinated me for their time capsule abilities to transport me to another era of our nation's time and witness firsthand how the people behaved and felt. I lost both sets of my grandparents by the time I was a young man so when I watch a film from the Teens and Twenties I am ascer...

I would have to say that it is a combination of what all three of your posts had to say..........plus throw in the Great Depression - which dictated what the viewing public care to now see and how much the producers wanted to spend on 'name' stars.

Gary J.

"Lilac Time" was a monster hit for Colleen, was it not? She made a few more silents and then dabbled half-heartedly in talkies before retiring but isn't it funny how ones popularity ebbed and flowed so dramatically during those tenuous times? Well....maybe it wasn't funny to John Gilbert but there ...

...And speaking of that, here is my Cinecon notes of the movie. HER WILD OAT -- Colleen Moore seems to be the least seen of all the major stars of her era. (We seem to say this about all the major stars of the 20's -- how many Talmedges' or Swanson flicks have been seen this past year?) This was a r...

I have a feeling this will be a minority viewpoint but I got rather annoyed with "J'Accuse." For a first time director it is an ambitious accomplishment. Gance's trademark to-be quick editing is already apparent but it also felt like someone's first film. He definitely fell in love with superimposed...

Joe, I assume this was when Newmeyer was an actor as I don't see how a member of the production team could of gotten consistently hurt. Any details on the injuries to Lloyd? And does your research show more harm befalling Harold in the years following leading up to the 1919 bomb accident? If so, tha...

I can't recall too many technical challenges that came out of Porter's films. There is the back projection shots from "Great Train Robbery" but Melies had been doing that kind of thing for quite a few years previously. The sad fact is that until Griffith arrived on the scene in 1908 all film advanc...

If one is able to perceive more and better information from every other biographer's books, then this guy's effort is not needed. That's my definition of a hack. As for the Field's book, did not Ron Fields open up his grandfather's vaudville life when he researched Field's personal scrapebook contai...

well.....three-strip techno-smog. Gary J. (Who watches 4 disc DVD sets by watching the first disc and then setting it aside as he works on Fred's housework and then starts a different 4 disc set by watching just THAT first disc and then so on and so on. If DVD distributors start releasing sets in 6 ...

So it seems the concensus among all of you is that you are card-carry members of the RICHARD SCHICKEL fan club. Your voice has been heard and recorded. I have always found his writings negligible and his film documentaries perfunctory at best BUT my beef is with this hack that he was reviewing - thi...

I can't recall too many technical challenges that came out of Porter's films. There is the back projection shots from "Great Train Robbery" but Melies had been doing that kind of thing for quite a few years previously. The sad fact is that until Griffith arrived on the scene in 1908 all film advance...

Bruce,
That has got to be irritating reading about a film that was available in the 60's and is now lost. Have you seen the other one mentioned, "Kiss Bluebeard" ?

Gary J.

Porter's place in history is as a pioneer only.
As a filmmaker his work never progressed as the industry did. He definitely remained a Nickleodeon director.

Gary J

There may be only one full blown book devoted to him up to now but if you read any of the standard film histories from the last 50 years there is generally a chapter devoted to Ingram and his films (right after 3 chapters devoted exclusively to Griffith). He was obviously very much admired by most f...

If you would like to see what this movie would of been like had it it been filmed as a talkie check out the remake made in 1951 with Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan playing, repectively, the demoted cop and the ruthless mob boss. I've seen both versions and as I recall it's almost a scene for scene r...

.....John Bunny??!!!?

Gary J.

I never considered Miriam Hopkins 'bitchy' period to begin until she joined Warners in the late 30's. Her work before that consisted of some aggressive and hard-edged charactors but when you're appearing opposite the likes of Gary Cooper or Bing Crosby how mean can you truly get? That all changed wh...

You could try sending this image over to the kids that hang out at Termite Terrace. They know animation inside out.

Gary J.

And the women on the left looks suspiciously like Gilda, The Good Witch -just before her bubble burst.
Sorry. I'm no help.

Gary J.

I would hardly hold Haines alone to be guilty of the widespread practice during the 20's & 30's of popular stars turning out formula pictures - that would fall squarely on the shoulders of the big studios. The actors themselves had very little say in what kind of material they were given unless they...

He mugs too much.

Gary J.

[quote="Harlett One more thing about Freed the company man - he also did more to promote the idea of the songbag musical - a musical made up almost entirely of a composer's pre-existing song catalogue (TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY - Kern, EASTER PARADE - Berlin, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - Gershwin, SIGNIN' ...

On the Town is one of my least favorite film adaptations and one of Freed's major mistakes - not trusting the american movie going public to "get" that long-haired Bernstein music so he had the bulk of the score re-written by studio hacks. Not quite as bad a reception as Kurt Weill's stage works ha...