Impressed by the success of The Birth of a Nation, Robert Goldstein, owner of a well-known Los Angeles costume supply house, produced his own epic film drama, The Spirit of '76 and screened it in Los Angeles shortly after America's entry into World War I. The film was denounced as anti-British and treasonous. Arrested under the Espionage Act, Goldstein became the first and only American jailed for the crime of producing a patriotic film. Film historian Tony Slide includes an introductory essay, reprints contemporary documentation, and publishes a 1927 manuscript by Goldstein, in which he...
Impressed by the success of The Birth of a Nation, Robert Goldstein, owner of a well-known Los Angeles costume supply house, produced his own epic fil...
Malcolm St. Clair was a master director of sophisticated silent comedy. This book traces his career, beginning with his start as a Mack Sennett Keystone Kop.
Malcolm St. Clair was a master director of sophisticated silent comedy. This book traces his career, beginning with his start as a Mack Sennett Keysto...
In 1938, Warner Brothers production chief Hal Wallis grudgingly described David Lewis--one of his six "supervisors" and a veteran of 15 feature films--to director Michael Curtiz: "That Lewis is a genius at getting scripts out of people who can't write " Wallis knew that writing ultimately defined the job of the creative producer and that David Lewis had an uncanny talent for coaxing the best filmic material from the screenwriters he supervised. In this memoir, Lewis describes his development as a production executive and how the associate producer helped make the famed studio system work. It...
In 1938, Warner Brothers production chief Hal Wallis grudgingly described David Lewis--one of his six "supervisors" and a veteran of 15 feature films-...
Theatre and film director Rouben Mamoulian (1897-1987) is known chiefly as a technical innovator and stylist. His stage credits include the original Broadway productions of Porgy and Bess (1935), and Oklahoma (1943); his sixteen completed films include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Golden Boy (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), and Silk Stockings (1957). In the theatre, Mamoulian integrated the various contributory arts of the American musical, transforming the near variety-show format of musicals into a dramatic unity of plot, character, music, and dance. He thus opened the stage to what...
Theatre and film director Rouben Mamoulian (1897-1987) is known chiefly as a technical innovator and stylist. His stage credits include the original B...
Rose Hobart enjoyed an extensive theatrical career in the 1920s, became a Hollywood leading lady in 1930, and had a second film career as a character player in the late 1930s and 1940s. Born into a family of musicians, she recalls childhood summers in Woodstock, NY, the beginnings of her theatrical career in Chautauqua, and an early and misunderstood friendship with the great Broadway star Eva Le Gallienne, which led to her appearing opposite Noel Coward in The Vortex and starring in the original stage production of Death Takes a Holiday. In 1930, she made her Hollywood screen debut in Frand...
Rose Hobart enjoyed an extensive theatrical career in the 1920s, became a Hollywood leading lady in 1930, and had a second film career as a character ...
In the 1950s, Hammer Film Productions, a small British filmmaking company, introduced the world to a new genre of motion picture. Referred to by some as "horror," by others as "fantasy," Hammer films had a unique look and feel that many other studios would later attempt--and fail--to capture. Hammer films also had a unique sound. For although the studio was small and the budgets limited, those involved in making the Hammer films recognized that the musical score was just as important as the set, the actors, and the script in telling the story. Consequently, Hammer Films Productions recruited...
In the 1950s, Hammer Film Productions, a small British filmmaking company, introduced the world to a new genre of motion picture. Referred to by some ...
Mae Clarke, best known for her grapefruit-smeared appearance in Public Enemy, spent more than four decades in Hollywood, appearing in more than 100 feature films and nearly as many television appearances. In a series of candid and often poignant interviews during the last years of her life, she talks about her years in the movie and television business.
Mae Clarke, best known for her grapefruit-smeared appearance in Public Enemy, spent more than four decades in Hollywood, appearing in more than 100 fe...
