A favorite parlor game for film buffs is to pick Hollywood’s greatest year and then argue. The obvious answer — 1939, the certified Golden Year — always gets the most votes, but a few eccentrics make the case for a dark horse. 1928 was Peter Bogdanovich’s choice, the year that saw the apotheosis of silent film aesthetics before synchronized sound ruined everything. 1974 — Chinatown, Godfather II, The Conversation, et al — draws a lot of ballots. Media critic Brian Raftery emphatically declared 1999 “the Best. Movie. Year. Ever.” in a book with the same title and punctuation. Nothing much past 1999 gets a mandate outside of the more outré precincts of the internet.
But what about Hollywood’s worst year — its annus horribilis maximus? And what are the criteria to measure the depths of badness? The dismal quality of the films? The profit margins of the studios? The level of contempt hurled at Hollywood for being,...
But what about Hollywood’s worst year — its annus horribilis maximus? And what are the criteria to measure the depths of badness? The dismal quality of the films? The profit margins of the studios? The level of contempt hurled at Hollywood for being,...
- 12/23/2023
- by Thomas Doherty
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
When Blanche Sweet sang “there’s a tear for every smile in Hollywood” in Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), she wasn’t wrong. Movie people have long been warning starry eyed wannabes to tread carefully if there were coming to Tinseltown full of hopes and dreams. In The Truth About the Movies by the Stars (1924), screenwriter Frank Butler wrote that “From every corner of the earth they come and across the Seven Seas – borne on the tireless wings of youthful optimism. Pathetic pilgrims these, struggling on to ultimate disillusion.”
A large part of Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (2022) explores the dark side of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The twenties roared in Hollywood, but there was also something larger at stake for characters in Babylon. Like any audience in front of a film, they were chasing that magic on the screen. They were chasing an idea.
When Blanche Sweet sang “there’s a tear for every smile in Hollywood” in Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), she wasn’t wrong. Movie people have long been warning starry eyed wannabes to tread carefully if there were coming to Tinseltown full of hopes and dreams. In The Truth About the Movies by the Stars (1924), screenwriter Frank Butler wrote that “From every corner of the earth they come and across the Seven Seas – borne on the tireless wings of youthful optimism. Pathetic pilgrims these, struggling on to ultimate disillusion.”
A large part of Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (2022) explores the dark side of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The twenties roared in Hollywood, but there was also something larger at stake for characters in Babylon. Like any audience in front of a film, they were chasing that magic on the screen. They were chasing an idea.
- 12/23/2022
- by Chris Yogerst
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Do you know when the first movie premiere in Hollywood history was held?
On Oct. 18. 1922 Sid Grauman opened his movie palace the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. with superstar Douglas Fairbank’s latest swashbuckler “Robin Hood.” The red carpet was rolled out for Fairbanks, his wife Mary Pickford and their good friend (and partner in United Artists) Charlie Chaplin. It cost 5 to attend the premiere. And the movie, which was the top box office draw, played there exclusively for several months. The Egyptian cost 800,000 to build and took 18 months to complete for Grauman and real estate developer Charles E. Toberman. It is currently being renovated by Netflix in cooperation with the American Cinematheque.
“Robin Hood,” directed by Allan Dwan, was one of the most expensive movies of the silent era, costing just under 1 million. The castle was the biggest set ever made for a silent movie. Some scenes feature over 1,200 extras.
On Oct. 18. 1922 Sid Grauman opened his movie palace the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. with superstar Douglas Fairbank’s latest swashbuckler “Robin Hood.” The red carpet was rolled out for Fairbanks, his wife Mary Pickford and their good friend (and partner in United Artists) Charlie Chaplin. It cost 5 to attend the premiere. And the movie, which was the top box office draw, played there exclusively for several months. The Egyptian cost 800,000 to build and took 18 months to complete for Grauman and real estate developer Charles E. Toberman. It is currently being renovated by Netflix in cooperation with the American Cinematheque.
“Robin Hood,” directed by Allan Dwan, was one of the most expensive movies of the silent era, costing just under 1 million. The castle was the biggest set ever made for a silent movie. Some scenes feature over 1,200 extras.
- 10/25/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Early on a February morning in 1922, silent film director William Desmond Taylor was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The murder, which remains unsolved, became a national scandal in an already depraved era of the movie industry. At least four people reportedly confessed to the killing over the years, including the actress Margaret Gibson. Her claims came decades later, in October 1964, at her home in the Hollywood Hills. Gibson, dying of a heart attack, cried out for a priest and announced,...
- 7/22/2021
- by Andrea Marks
- Rollingstone.com
Exclusive: Spotify has signed a first-look deal with Noiser, the first agreement of its kind with a UK podcast producer.
The partnership is housed through Spotify’s podcast network Parcast and gives the audio streamer first refusal on shows developed by Bristol-based Noiser. WME, which signed Noiser last year, brokered the pact.
Deathbed Confessions will be the first podcast to launch out of the arrangement. Premiering July 21, Estefania Hageman will narrate weekly episodes that unravel the stories behind the long-held secrets and confessions made by people in their final moments.
The series opens with the deathbed confession of Hollywood actress Margaret Gibson, who in her dying breath claimed to have murdered director William Desmond Taylor. Other stories examine builder Frank Thorogood claiming to have murdered Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones, and the conspiracy surrounding CIA Agent E. Howard Hunt and his role in JFK’s murder.
Noiser was founded...
The partnership is housed through Spotify’s podcast network Parcast and gives the audio streamer first refusal on shows developed by Bristol-based Noiser. WME, which signed Noiser last year, brokered the pact.
Deathbed Confessions will be the first podcast to launch out of the arrangement. Premiering July 21, Estefania Hageman will narrate weekly episodes that unravel the stories behind the long-held secrets and confessions made by people in their final moments.
The series opens with the deathbed confession of Hollywood actress Margaret Gibson, who in her dying breath claimed to have murdered director William Desmond Taylor. Other stories examine builder Frank Thorogood claiming to have murdered Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones, and the conspiracy surrounding CIA Agent E. Howard Hunt and his role in JFK’s murder.
Noiser was founded...
- 7/20/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Viavision’s second deluxe Film Noir boxed finds real variety in the film style, with entries that range from low-budget efforts to a picture filmed on location in Mexico. Richard Conte solves a notorious movie studio murder in Hollywood Story, Gig Young is a cop who considers going crooked in City that Never Sleeps, Glenn Ford dodges murderous treasure hunters in Plunder of the Sun and Steve Cochran’s cop really does go rogue in Private Hell 36.
Essential Film Noir Collection 1
Blu-ray (Region-Free)
Viavision [Imprint] 18, 19, 20, 21
1947-1957 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 327 min. / Street Date October 28, 2020 / Available from Viavision [Imprint] / 149.99
Starring: Richard Conte, Julia Adams; Gig Young, Mala Powers, Marie Windsor; Glenn Ford, Diana Lynn, Patricia Medina; Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff.
Directed by William Castle, John H. Auer, John Farrow, Don Siegel
Viavision’s noir series throws a wide net, with two debuts on Blu-ray and one full debut on home video.
Essential Film Noir Collection 1
Blu-ray (Region-Free)
Viavision [Imprint] 18, 19, 20, 21
1947-1957 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 327 min. / Street Date October 28, 2020 / Available from Viavision [Imprint] / 149.99
Starring: Richard Conte, Julia Adams; Gig Young, Mala Powers, Marie Windsor; Glenn Ford, Diana Lynn, Patricia Medina; Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff.
Directed by William Castle, John H. Auer, John Farrow, Don Siegel
Viavision’s noir series throws a wide net, with two debuts on Blu-ray and one full debut on home video.
- 6/29/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
New Republic Pictures & Laeta Kalogridis Option Adam Roche Podcast ‘The Secret History Of Hollywood’
Writer-Producer Laeta Kalogridis and New Republic Pictures’ President Bradley Fischer have taken the film and television rights to the entire library of Adam Roche’s podcast, The Secret History of Hollywood.
The deal encompasses 11 existing seasons, as well as any future seasons of series. The team plans to approach the podcast as individual seasons and will develop each story as its own piece of IP.
The debut season of the podcast, entitled Shadows, will be the focus of the first project under the deal. Being developed into a feature film, Shadows will focus on the life of Val Lewton, a gifted immigrant producer who began his Hollywood career as the right-hand man of David O. Selznick, and who rescued the fortunes of Rko Studios by devising a revolutionary approach to horror movies – defying the conventional schlock formula to create a brooding, artistic body of work that has gone on to...
The deal encompasses 11 existing seasons, as well as any future seasons of series. The team plans to approach the podcast as individual seasons and will develop each story as its own piece of IP.
The debut season of the podcast, entitled Shadows, will be the focus of the first project under the deal. Being developed into a feature film, Shadows will focus on the life of Val Lewton, a gifted immigrant producer who began his Hollywood career as the right-hand man of David O. Selznick, and who rescued the fortunes of Rko Studios by devising a revolutionary approach to horror movies – defying the conventional schlock formula to create a brooding, artistic body of work that has gone on to...
- 6/10/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Illustration by Lucy Jones.One of Sunset Boulevard’s most iconic lines is also one of its most prophetic. Consciously or not, Norma Desmond (played self-referentially by silent film star Gloria Swanson) says a mouthful when she utters, “I am big—it’s the pictures that got small!” In 1950 when the film was released, TV sets were just beginning to creep into American homes. Desmond couldn’t have imagined that screens would shrink to a size much smaller than a piece of furniture, or that audiences would one day be able to hold a famous face like hers on a device nestled in the palm of their hand. Desmond’s every line and movement drips with grandiosity. Swanson plays the character—one of the biggest and brightest stars of the silent cinema era in her youth—as a woman entombed by her onscreen past. Performing with the exaggerated gestures and...
- 7/13/2020
- MUBI
The William Castle Classic Crime Double Feature Hollywood Story and New Orleans Uncensored is available on Blu-ray From Mill Creek. Ordering info can be found Here
While legendary Hollywood filmmaker, William Castle, is commonly referred to as The King of Gimmicks, his legacy extended into other film genres, including two crime dramas from the Film Noir era, Hollywood Story and New Orleans Uncensored. This thrilling double feature denotes the high-definition debut of both landmark films filled with danger, death and intrigue.
Hollywood Story (1951) stars Richard Conte as a stage producer with dreams of being in the movie business who decides to shoot a documentary about the mysterious death of a silent film director only to find himself in danger of suffering a similar fate. The film is loosely based on the real-life murder of film director William Desmond Taylor in 1922.
Stars Richard Conte, Julia Adams, Richard Egan, Henry Hull, and...
While legendary Hollywood filmmaker, William Castle, is commonly referred to as The King of Gimmicks, his legacy extended into other film genres, including two crime dramas from the Film Noir era, Hollywood Story and New Orleans Uncensored. This thrilling double feature denotes the high-definition debut of both landmark films filled with danger, death and intrigue.
Hollywood Story (1951) stars Richard Conte as a stage producer with dreams of being in the movie business who decides to shoot a documentary about the mysterious death of a silent film director only to find himself in danger of suffering a similar fate. The film is loosely based on the real-life murder of film director William Desmond Taylor in 1922.
Stars Richard Conte, Julia Adams, Richard Egan, Henry Hull, and...
- 6/21/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Exclusive: Spectrum Originals is developing Tinseltown, a period drama series based on William J Mann’s 2014 bestselling book Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, And Madness At The Dawn of Hollywood. The project hails from Mann, The Son executive producer Kevin Murphy, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, Tracy Katsky’s KatCo and Paramount Television Studios.
Co-written by Murphy and Mann, Tinseltown is set against the seamy, glamorous backdrop of silent film era. It explores the lives of four pioneer women filmmakers whose lives and livelihoods were threatened by a scandalous murder and the brutal patriarchy of Hollywood’s nascent studio system.
More from Deadline'Good Vibes Only' Dramedy With The Beach Boys Music From John Stamos, Steve & Jim Armogida And Kapital In Works At HBO Max'Disgraceland' Drama Series From Callie Khouri, Michael Lohmann & T Bone Burnett Based On Podcast In Works At Kapital EntertainmentSpectrum Originals Sets Premiere Date For Josh Hartnett Southern Gothic Drama...
Co-written by Murphy and Mann, Tinseltown is set against the seamy, glamorous backdrop of silent film era. It explores the lives of four pioneer women filmmakers whose lives and livelihoods were threatened by a scandalous murder and the brutal patriarchy of Hollywood’s nascent studio system.
More from Deadline'Good Vibes Only' Dramedy With The Beach Boys Music From John Stamos, Steve & Jim Armogida And Kapital In Works At HBO Max'Disgraceland' Drama Series From Callie Khouri, Michael Lohmann & T Bone Burnett Based On Podcast In Works At Kapital EntertainmentSpectrum Originals Sets Premiere Date For Josh Hartnett Southern Gothic Drama...
- 4/3/2020
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Performances concluded on Sunday for New York City Center Encores first show of the 2020 season- Mack Mabel. Led by Broadway's Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha in the title roles, the production also starredMajor Attaway Fatty Arbuckle, Michael Berresse William Desmond Taylor, Lilli Cooper Lottie Ames, Ben Fankhauser Frank Wyman, Jordan Gelber Mr. Kessel, Evan Kasprzak Freddy, Raymond J. Lee Andy, Kevin Ligon Eddie, Janet Noh Ella, and Allen Lewis Rickman Mr. Bauman.
- 2/25/2020
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Performances are underway for the New York City Center Encores first show of the 2020 season- Mack Mabel, running for seven performances February 19-23. Led by Broadway's Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha in the title roles, the production will also star Major Attaway Fatty Arbuckle, Michael Berresse William Desmond Taylor, Lilli Cooper Lottie Ames, Ben Fankhauser Frank Wyman, Jordan Gelber Mr. Kessel, Evan Kasprzak Freddy, Raymond J. Lee Andy, Kevin Ligon Eddie, Janet Noh Ella, and Allen Lewis Rickman Mr. Bauman.
- 2/20/2020
- by Review Roundups
- BroadwayWorld.com
Performances are underway for the New York City Center Encores first show of the 2020 season- Mack Mabel, running for seven performances February 19-23. Led by Broadway's Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha in the title roles, the production will also star Major Attaway Fatty Arbuckle, Michael Berresse William Desmond Taylor, Lilli Cooper Lottie Ames, Ben Fankhauser Frank Wyman, Jordan Gelber Mr. Kessel, Evan Kasprzak Freddy, Raymond J. Lee Andy, Kevin Ligon Eddie, Janet Noh Ella, and Allen Lewis Rickman Mr. Bauman.
- 2/20/2020
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Performances begin tonight for the New York City Center Encores first show of the 2020 season- Mack Mabel, running for seven performances February 19-23. Led by Broadway's Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha in the title roles, the production will also star Major Attaway Fatty Arbuckle, Michael Berresse William Desmond Taylor, Lilli Cooper Lottie Ames, Ben Fankhauser Frank Wyman, Jordan Gelber Mr. Kessel, Evan Kasprzak Freddy, Raymond J. Lee Andy, Kevin Ligon Eddie, Janet Noh Ella, and Allen Lewis Rickman Mr. Bauman.
- 2/19/2020
- by BroadwayWorld TV
- BroadwayWorld.com
Rehearsals are officially underway for the New York City Center Encores first show of the 2020 season-Mack Mabel, running for seven performances February 19-23. Led by Broadway's Douglas Sills and Alexandra Socha in the title roles, the production will also star Major Attaway Fatty Arbuckle, Michael Berresse William Desmond Taylor, Lilli Cooper Lottie Ames, Ben Fankhauser Frank Wyman, Jordan Gelber Mr. Kessel, Evan Kasprzak Freddy, Raymond J. Lee Andy, Kevin Ligon Eddie, Janet Noh Ella, and Allen Lewis Rickman Mr. Bauman.
- 2/14/2020
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Kicking off the New York City Center Encores season is Mack Mabel, runningfor seven performances February 19-23. Led by Broadway's Douglas Sills and Alexandra Sochain the title roles, the production will also starMajor Attaway Fatty Arbuckle, Michael Berresse William Desmond Taylor, Lilli Cooper Lottie Ames, Ben Fankhauser Frank Wyman, Jordan Gelber Mr. Kessel, Evan Kasprzak Freddy, Raymond J. Lee Andy, Kevin Ligon Eddie, Janet Noh Ella, and Allen Lewis Rickman Mr. Bauman.
- 2/12/2020
- by BroadwayWorld TV
- BroadwayWorld.com
New York City Center today announced complete casting for the Encores production of Mack Mabel. Joining previously announced cast members Douglas Sills as Mack Sennett and Alexandra Socha as Mabel Normand are Major Attaway Fatty Arbuckle, Michael Berresse William Desmond Taylor, Lilli Cooper Lottie Ames, Ben Fankhauser Frank Wyman, Jordan Gelber Mr. Kessel, Evan Kasprzak Freddy, Raymond J. Lee Andy, Kevin Ligon Eddie, Janet Noh Ella, and Allen Lewis Rickman Mr. Bauman.
- 1/10/2020
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Barry Levitt was a participant on this year's inaugural Film Critics Day workshop at the Cinema Rediscovered film festival in Bristol and Clevedon in the U.K. Cinema Rediscovered is a celebration of the finest new digital restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities from across the globe. 15 early career and aspiring film critics took part in a full day workshop looking at the state of things for film criticism in the U.K. and beyond. They each produced a written or visual piece of criticism around the films in the program. Further examples of their work, as well as information about the program, can be found on the Cinema Rediscovered Blog.Dawson City: Frozen TimeAt the bottom of a derelict swimming pool in Dawson City, deep in the Yukon territory of north-west Canada, lay one of the greatest discoveries in film history, waiting to be found. For nearly fifty...
- 8/23/2017
- MUBI
There is a scholarly theory that proposes films are always telling the story of their creation, singing an endless song about their own history. That seemed to have been literally the case in 1978 when Frank Barrett, a construction worker in Dawson City in the northern Yukon, discovered strips of nitrate film poking out of the earth in the site of a new recreation center — like stubborn blossoms trying to defeat the harshness of winter. Children had taken to lighting the visible strips on fire unaware that in the joy of the pyrotechnic display they were erasing history. Barrett’s unique discovery led to the unearthing of over 500 reels containing films made in the 1910s and 1920s, and considering that it is believed that 75% of all silent films were lost, this might have been the most important finding in the archaeology of film. Taking clips from these reels and solving the mystery of how they ended up buried in the Yukon, director Bill Morrison made Dawson City: Frozen Time which might just be the ultimate found footage film.
Morrison tells three parallel tales: one in which prospectors expel the Hän people from their land upon discovering gold and start the township of Dawson, another in which the glories and failures of the inhabitants of Dawson help jumpstart Hollywood, and a third one which is nothing less than a history of cinema itself. In the first one we see how at the turn of the 19th century, American prospectors made their way up to the Klondike River territory and drained it from its mineral riches, while displacing the original inhabitants. We learn that over one-hundred thousand people tried making their way up to the Yukon, with over seventy thousand either returning gold-less or perishing on the road. One of those who gave up on the way, but found a way to make money off people’s basic instincts was an ancestor of the current American president, who opened the brothel that started their fortune. Talk about prescience.
In fact, Dawson City seems to have emanated this strange energy that should have made it one of the most influential cultural hubs in modern history, but its distance and the way it was so quickly forgotten once the gold ran out gave it a different future. The small town inspired Jack London to write his books of adventure in the snow. It was also the place where Alexander Pantages opened his first theater before becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest impresarios, and Dawson City paved the road for a young Sid Grauman who realized he had a knack for entertaining people and led him to open one of the most iconic movie palaces in history home to the very first Hollywood movie premiere. It’s as if everyone touched by Dawson City went on to lead a notorious life — and in the case of actor William Desmond Taylor, who worked briefly at the Yukon Gold Corporation before leaving to find fame in Tinseltown, also a notorious death.
The ice and earth of the Yukon held much more stories than the reels of film themselves contained, and one of the most impressive feats in the documentary is how Morrison is able to always find his way back to the central narrative. He’s such an astute filmmaker that he creates dialogues that could very well warrant films of their own, such as the depressing notion that the flammability of nitrate film, which caused fires that burned down Dawson’s entire business district nine times in nine years, was also the reason behind filmmaking pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché’s early retirement. After her studio burned down, she simply gave up. Or how photographs of Dawson City inspired Jim Low and Wolf Koenig to make City of Gold, the 1957 documentary short that originated the “Ken Burns” style of panning and zooming on photographs; therefore originating the form Morrison works with in this very film. The short was nominated for an Oscar and the ceremony that year was held at a Pantages theater.
Morrison proves that there is no better way to tell the story of movies than with movies, and it seems almost spooky how the Dawson City reels supplied him with the material he needed. It’s as if the films had been aching to speak to the world. “Speech” is key here, since all the films are silent. In fact Morrison discovers it was talkies that led so many silent films to be discarded. Dawson City was at the end of a distribution line which meant that films had been out for a very long time before they arrived there, and once their engagements were over nobody wanted to pay the cost of shipping the films back to the studios. In telling this shameful story, Morrison allows the images to speak for themselves. He avoids voiceovers or heavy narration choosing, instead to go with simple title cards, supertitles, and musical accompaniment from Alex Somers’ haunting score. Those who believe in fate might believe Morrison was born to tell this story and perhaps these reels were meant to surface only when he was around to share with the world. Those who prefer pragmatism will undoubtedly be captivated by this tale of progress and its relation to art, but both sides will agree that the stories contained here are nothing if not stranger than fiction.
Dawson City: Frozen Time is now in limited release.
Morrison tells three parallel tales: one in which prospectors expel the Hän people from their land upon discovering gold and start the township of Dawson, another in which the glories and failures of the inhabitants of Dawson help jumpstart Hollywood, and a third one which is nothing less than a history of cinema itself. In the first one we see how at the turn of the 19th century, American prospectors made their way up to the Klondike River territory and drained it from its mineral riches, while displacing the original inhabitants. We learn that over one-hundred thousand people tried making their way up to the Yukon, with over seventy thousand either returning gold-less or perishing on the road. One of those who gave up on the way, but found a way to make money off people’s basic instincts was an ancestor of the current American president, who opened the brothel that started their fortune. Talk about prescience.
In fact, Dawson City seems to have emanated this strange energy that should have made it one of the most influential cultural hubs in modern history, but its distance and the way it was so quickly forgotten once the gold ran out gave it a different future. The small town inspired Jack London to write his books of adventure in the snow. It was also the place where Alexander Pantages opened his first theater before becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest impresarios, and Dawson City paved the road for a young Sid Grauman who realized he had a knack for entertaining people and led him to open one of the most iconic movie palaces in history home to the very first Hollywood movie premiere. It’s as if everyone touched by Dawson City went on to lead a notorious life — and in the case of actor William Desmond Taylor, who worked briefly at the Yukon Gold Corporation before leaving to find fame in Tinseltown, also a notorious death.
The ice and earth of the Yukon held much more stories than the reels of film themselves contained, and one of the most impressive feats in the documentary is how Morrison is able to always find his way back to the central narrative. He’s such an astute filmmaker that he creates dialogues that could very well warrant films of their own, such as the depressing notion that the flammability of nitrate film, which caused fires that burned down Dawson’s entire business district nine times in nine years, was also the reason behind filmmaking pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché’s early retirement. After her studio burned down, she simply gave up. Or how photographs of Dawson City inspired Jim Low and Wolf Koenig to make City of Gold, the 1957 documentary short that originated the “Ken Burns” style of panning and zooming on photographs; therefore originating the form Morrison works with in this very film. The short was nominated for an Oscar and the ceremony that year was held at a Pantages theater.
Morrison proves that there is no better way to tell the story of movies than with movies, and it seems almost spooky how the Dawson City reels supplied him with the material he needed. It’s as if the films had been aching to speak to the world. “Speech” is key here, since all the films are silent. In fact Morrison discovers it was talkies that led so many silent films to be discarded. Dawson City was at the end of a distribution line which meant that films had been out for a very long time before they arrived there, and once their engagements were over nobody wanted to pay the cost of shipping the films back to the studios. In telling this shameful story, Morrison allows the images to speak for themselves. He avoids voiceovers or heavy narration choosing, instead to go with simple title cards, supertitles, and musical accompaniment from Alex Somers’ haunting score. Those who believe in fate might believe Morrison was born to tell this story and perhaps these reels were meant to surface only when he was around to share with the world. Those who prefer pragmatism will undoubtedly be captivated by this tale of progress and its relation to art, but both sides will agree that the stories contained here are nothing if not stranger than fiction.
Dawson City: Frozen Time is now in limited release.
- 6/21/2017
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
Comedy actress Alice Howell on the cover of film historian Anthony Slide's latest book: Pioneering funky-haired performer 'could have been Chaplin' – or at the very least another Louise Fazenda. Rediscovering comedy actress Alice Howell: Female performer in movie field dominated by men Early comedy actress Alice Howell is an obscure entity even for silent film aficionados. With luck, only a handful of them will be able to name one of her more than 100 movies, mostly shorts – among them Sin on the Sabbath, A Busted Honeymoon, How Stars Are Made – released between 1914 and 1920. Yet Alice Howell holds (what should be) an important – or at the very least an interesting – place in film history. After all, she was one of the American cinema's relatively few pioneering “funny actresses,” along with the likes of the better-known Flora Finch, Louise Fazenda, and, a top star in her day, Mabel Normand.[1] Also of note,...
- 4/20/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
We open today's round of news and views with reviews of three newish books, one telling the wild story of North Korea's Kim Jong-Il as a kidnapping producer, another measuring the impact on Hollywood of the death of William Desmond Taylor in 1922, plus a collection of criticism by Gregory J. Markopoulos. Also: Reassessing David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, a list of under-appreciated films by John Ford, an interview with Wim Wenders, a Věra Chytilová primer—and Kristen Stewart has joined Michelle Williams and Laura Dern in Kelly Reichardt’s forthcoming untitled drama. » - David Hudson...
- 3/1/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
We open today's round of news and views with reviews of three newish books, one telling the wild story of North Korea's Kim Jong-Il as a kidnapping producer, another measuring the impact on Hollywood of the death of William Desmond Taylor in 1922, plus a collection of criticism by Gregory J. Markopoulos. Also: Reassessing David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, a list of under-appreciated films by John Ford, an interview with Wim Wenders, a Věra Chytilová primer—and Kristen Stewart has joined Michelle Williams and Laura Dern in Kelly Reichardt’s forthcoming untitled drama. » - David Hudson...
- 3/1/2015
- Keyframe
Hugh Jackman has confirmed that he has joined the cast of "District 9" and "Elysium" director Neill Blomkamp's new sci-fi feature "Chappie".
Appearing at the Zurich Film Festival, Jackman says he is headed to Johannesburg to shoot his role on the film over a couple of weeks at the beginning of next year.
The story follows a robot (voiced by Sharlto Copley) who gets stolen by two gangsters (South African rappers Ninja and Yolandi Visser) who plan to use him for their own gain.
He's also mulling a Houdini Broadway production, and is still committed to the Pt Barnum musical "The Greatest Showman on Earth" which is in development.
The Jackman casting follows a report earlier this week in The New York Times which revealed that "Boys Don't Cry" filmmaker Kimberly Peirce was once set to direct a now abandoned murder mystery project called "Silent Star" a little over a decade ago.
Appearing at the Zurich Film Festival, Jackman says he is headed to Johannesburg to shoot his role on the film over a couple of weeks at the beginning of next year.
The story follows a robot (voiced by Sharlto Copley) who gets stolen by two gangsters (South African rappers Ninja and Yolandi Visser) who plan to use him for their own gain.
He's also mulling a Houdini Broadway production, and is still committed to the Pt Barnum musical "The Greatest Showman on Earth" which is in development.
The Jackman casting follows a report earlier this week in The New York Times which revealed that "Boys Don't Cry" filmmaker Kimberly Peirce was once set to direct a now abandoned murder mystery project called "Silent Star" a little over a decade ago.
- 9/28/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
The film scene has gone too long without seeing Kimberly Peirce's name up on a screen — five years since the release of the director's second film, “Stop-Loss,” and nine years before that with her acclaimed 1999 debut, “Boys Don't Cry.” But while the latest occasion for Peirce behind the camera guides her down a new avenue into horror, helming a remake of “Carrie” starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore, there were many intriguing directions explored in the years before, as a recent profile reveals. A new piece in the New York Times chronicles Peirce's return to the screen, as well as her intensive research process and many stalled projects. One of these almost came to fruition in 2000, when Pierce first heard about the unsolved 1922 murder case of silent film director and actor William Desmond Taylor, and crafted it into a script called “Silent Star.” Packaging it for DreamWorks, she...
- 9/27/2013
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
From Elizabeth Taylor in the 1950s to just about everyone and everything else in the 2010s: The tabloidization of journalism [See previous post: "Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell: Studio-Manufactured Love Affairs."] Despite the sensational coverage of Fatty Arbuckle’s rape/manslaughter trial and of the (still unsolved) murder of director William Desmond Taylor in the early ’20s, the tabloidization of entertainment news would go mainstream only in the ’50s, probably as a consequence of the decline of the Studio Era — at its height from the mid-’20s to the early ’50s — and the emergence of Confidential magazine and its imitators. (Note: Ingrid Bergman didn’t have a studio to back her up in the late ’40s, when she became a Hollywood pariah following an extra-marital affair with Roberto Rossellini.) [Photo: Elizabeth Taylor.] The precursor of today’s vicious online and supermarket gossip rags, Confidential mockingly implied that Liberace was gay, insinuated that hunk Tab Hunter and sultry Lizabeth Scott were also gay (Scott sued...
- 1/18/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Hollywood Scandals: Ingrid Bergman / Elizabeth Taylor / Lana Turner / Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. (Photo: Ingrid Bergman. See previous article: “Roman Polanski / Charles Chaplin / Errol Flynn / William Desmond Taylor murder / Rex Harrison & Carole Landis suicide: Hollywood Scandals.”) Ingrid Bergman / Roberto Rossellini affair Ingrid Bergman’s Hollywood career was ruined after it was discovered that Bergman, then married to dentist Petter Lindström, was pregnant with the child of another man: Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, married at the time to future movie costume designer Marcella De Marchis. If you think self-righteous jerks are giving Kristen Stewart a hard time [...]...
- 7/28/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Hollywood Scandals: Errol Flynn / Roman Polanski / Charles Chaplin / Mary Miles Minter / Rex Harrison. (Photo: A young Errol Flynn. See previous article “In Good Company: Rupert Sanders and Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.”) William Desmond Taylor murder / Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter According to Hollywood lore, director William Desmond Taylor’s still unsolved murder ruined the careers of actresses Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter in the early ’20s. Normand, however, continued making movies after the scandal; her failing health may have been the reason — or at least one reason — for her less frequent output in the mid-to-late ’20s. [...]...
- 7/28/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
There are two stories I want to tell with this glorious 1922 poster: one is about the film itself—a forgotten silent melodrama—and the sad fates of its main protagonists, and the other is about the artist Henry Clive.
The Green Temptation, a film which I’m not even sure is extant (the silent film database silentera.com says “survival status: unknown”), starred Betty Compson as Genelle, a member of the Parisian underworld who, along with her partner Gaspard, runs a travelling theatre as a ruse to pickpocket their patrons and burgle their homes while they’re watching the show. When the First World War starts, Genelle joins the Red Cross as a nurse to evade the police and after the War emigrates to America to start a new life. But her attempt to turn over a new leaf is foiled by the reappearance of Gaspard who forces her to...
The Green Temptation, a film which I’m not even sure is extant (the silent film database silentera.com says “survival status: unknown”), starred Betty Compson as Genelle, a member of the Parisian underworld who, along with her partner Gaspard, runs a travelling theatre as a ruse to pickpocket their patrons and burgle their homes while they’re watching the show. When the First World War starts, Genelle joins the Red Cross as a nurse to evade the police and after the War emigrates to America to start a new life. But her attempt to turn over a new leaf is foiled by the reappearance of Gaspard who forces her to...
- 3/30/2012
- MUBI
Huckleberry Finn (1920) Direction: William Desmond Taylor Cast: Lewis Sargent, George Reed, Katherine Griffith, Frank Lanning, Gordon Griffith, Esther Ralston, Edythe Chapman, Martha Mattox Screenplay: Julia Crawford Ivers; from Mark Twain's novel Lewis Sargent in William Desmond Taylor's Huckleberry Finn Directed by William Desmond Taylor, Huckleberry Finn stars a fresh, freckle-faced Lewis Sargent as Huck. (Sargent was also featured in another 1920 Taylor production, The Soul of Youth.) Set in the antebellum South, this sentimental retelling of Mark Twain's iconic story revolves around the adventures of Huckleberry Finn after he is kidnapped by his no-good, drunken father (Frank Lanning). When Huck manages to escape, he enjoys his newfound freedom so much that he continues to elude the search party. As a result, everyone thinks he is dead. Soon, Huck is joined by Jim (George Reed), a slave on the run. Later on, they meet up with a pair of...
- 8/24/2011
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Marlene Dietrich in Kurt Bernhardt's The Woman Men Yearn For Among the silent-film classics to be featured at this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival are Victor Sjöström's He Who Gets Slapped (1924), starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert in the newly founded MGM studios' first production; five-time Oscar nominee Clarence Brown's The Goose Woman (1925), starring Louise Dresser and Constance Bennett, and which was recently restored by UCLA; and William Desmond Taylor's Huckleberry Finn (1920). Taylor's 1922 murder — unsolved to this day — was one of the major scandals that rocked Hollywood in the early '20s. Other festival highlights include [...]...
- 5/24/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Dancer and actor known for his role in the American TV soap opera All My Children
There are legions of actors who are deeply grateful for the existence of long-running television soap operas. James Mitchell, who has died aged 89, was one of them. He enjoyed playing the wily patriarch Palmer Cortlandt in the popular Us daytime soap All My Children from 1979 to 2008. It came at the right time in his career. At 59, his dancing days were over and his film acting had failed to catch fire.
The majority of loyal fans of All My Children were probably not aware that the debonair, grey-haired Mitchell, still svelte and handsome, had been a leading dancer for many years, particularly associated with the celebrated choreographer Agnes de Mille. According to De Mille, Mitchell had "probably the strongest arms in the business, and the adagio style developed by him and his partners has become...
There are legions of actors who are deeply grateful for the existence of long-running television soap operas. James Mitchell, who has died aged 89, was one of them. He enjoyed playing the wily patriarch Palmer Cortlandt in the popular Us daytime soap All My Children from 1979 to 2008. It came at the right time in his career. At 59, his dancing days were over and his film acting had failed to catch fire.
The majority of loyal fans of All My Children were probably not aware that the debonair, grey-haired Mitchell, still svelte and handsome, had been a leading dancer for many years, particularly associated with the celebrated choreographer Agnes de Mille. According to De Mille, Mitchell had "probably the strongest arms in the business, and the adagio style developed by him and his partners has become...
- 4/13/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor
By Rick Geary
Nbm, August 2009, $15.95
No one does murder like Rick Geary. For more than a decade he’s been regularly creating slim books in this loose series, each depicting a separate, horribly violent crime of passion in his inimitable crisp and detailed style, each with enough Geary detachment and subdued whimsy to keep the blood from being too much. This is the tenth – not including an earlier, larger-format Treasury of Victorian Murder, Vol. 1, which had shorter stories and served as a dry run for the later books – and Geary is still at it. As usual, he’s digging into once-scandalous events from about a century ago; the series was explicitly “Victorian” until last year’s Lindbergh Child, and this book examines a murder case in the early days of Hollywood.
After a few pages of scene-setting – and no one does scene-setting better than Geary,...
By Rick Geary
Nbm, August 2009, $15.95
No one does murder like Rick Geary. For more than a decade he’s been regularly creating slim books in this loose series, each depicting a separate, horribly violent crime of passion in his inimitable crisp and detailed style, each with enough Geary detachment and subdued whimsy to keep the blood from being too much. This is the tenth – not including an earlier, larger-format Treasury of Victorian Murder, Vol. 1, which had shorter stories and served as a dry run for the later books – and Geary is still at it. As usual, he’s digging into once-scandalous events from about a century ago; the series was explicitly “Victorian” until last year’s Lindbergh Child, and this book examines a murder case in the early days of Hollywood.
After a few pages of scene-setting – and no one does scene-setting better than Geary,...
- 8/19/2009
- by Andrew Wheeler
- Comicmix.com
Tonight at 7:30 pm at UCLA’s Festival of Preservation you’ll be able to catch a screening of Fritz Lang’s unfairly neglected Secret Beyond the Door (above), a 1947 noirish psychological melodrama starring Joan Bennett as woman married to Michael Redgrave, whom she suspects is out to kill her (possibly for her money). Unlike Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941) and George Cukor’s similarly themed Gaslight (1944), Secret Beyond the Door boasts a highly stylized Gothic feel that makes the viewer feel just as off-kilter as both the heroine and the hero. Stanley Cortez, who also shot Orson Welles‘ The Magnificent Ambersons, was the cinematographer. Tomorrow, Sunday, April 5, at 7pm, the Festival of Preservation will feature two rarities from the 1910s: Lena Rivers, a 1914 drama whose director is unknown, and the 1916 melodrama He Fell in Love with His Wife, directed by William Desmond Taylor. He Fell in Love with His Wife...
- 4/4/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
WASHINGTON -- The National Film Preservation Foundation on Wednesday selected the celebrated 1920 adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as the 1,000th film saved under the program. The classic film is one of the few complete features to survive from director William Desmond Taylor. It will be preserved by George Eastman House from a 35mm color-tinted nitrate print originally found in Denmark. Since its founding by Congress through the National Film Preservation Foundation Act of 1996, the NFPF has provided preservation support to 152 institutions across the nation. NFPF programs target American films that are unlikely to survive without public support.
- 10/11/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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