Category Archives: Uncategorized

There is a growing and welcome trend among recent DVD releases of well known classic movies. If the film is a remake of a silent movie (and many are), the DVD package now includes the original silent version in the set. I was initially opposed to the idea when it first began happening last year.Continue reading “BEN-HUR & Other Classic Silent Movies on DVD (2006)”

2005 marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of American filmmaker Tod Browning although he would never have thought of himself as such. He was just a movie director plain and simple but a director of great originality, a master of the macabre, an Alfred Hitchcock before Hitchcock. Today he would be compared to suchContinue reading “TOD BROWNING: America’s First Master Of The Macabre (2006)”

Val Lewton (1904-1951) was one of the most influential film producers during the Golden Age of Hollywood who rescued RKO Radio Pictures after the Orson Welles / CITIZEN KANE debacle which nearly bankrupt the studio. His series of nine films for RKO, made between 1942 and 1946, pioneered an all new approach to the horrorContinue reading “SOUNDS & SHADOWS: The Film Legacy Of Val Lewton Now on DVD (2006)”

Imagine that Stephen Spielberg’s carerr as a director is over and way in the past. Then suppose that the one film chosen to represent him is THE COLOR PURPLE. Forgotten are JAWS, E.T., SCHINDLER’S LIST, and the recent MUNICH not to mention the rest of his output. Would that be a fair assessment of Spielberg’sContinue reading “INTOLERANCE & D.W. Griffith In The 21st Century (2006)”

Lillian Gish (1893-1993), who died just short of her 100th birthday, had the longest career of any major star in movie history. She made her first screen appearance at the age of 19 in D. W. Griffith’s one reeler AN UNSEEN ENEMY in 1912 and made her last in 1987 in THE WHALES OF AUGUSTContinue reading “LILLIAN GISH: Film Pioneer & Film Preservationist (2007)”

“Have gun will travel reads the card of a man. A night without armor in a savage land”. Anyone who grew up in the 1950s would instantly recognize that as the theme song of the classic TV Western HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL that aired from 1957-1963. Its star, Richard Boone (1917-1981), was much more thanContinue reading “RICHARD BOONE: A One-Of-A-Kind Character Actor (2007)”

2007 was a banner year for silent movies on DVD. At least 10 major releases occurred that have brought notable films from the silent era back to life for a 21st century audience. No longer a thing of the past, silent movies are alive and well and are available for a whole new audience toContinue reading “SILENT NIGHTS: Very Old Films In Brand New Releases (2008)”

The ten year period between the end of the 34 year old Hollywood Production Code in 1968 and the emergence of STAR WARS as an unparalleled cultural phenomenon in 1977 was a period of great change for the mainstream Hollywood studios. It was the decade of the auteur, the director who became the focal pointContinue reading “KEN RUSSELL & MICHAEL WINNER: The Filmmaker & The Director (2008)”

The story of Lois Weber is one of the saddest in all of American cinema and one of the least known. One of two prominent women producer-directors to emerge the silent era(the other was the French born Alice Guy-Blache’ who has a similar story), Weber was, in her time, considered to be the equal ofContinue reading “LOIS WEBER: America’s First Woman Director (2008)”

With all the attention that The Artist has received as a silent novelty in today’s cinema, it will probably come as a surprise to many people that there have been several silent films made after sound was introduced in 1928. Up until 1976 they were made right here in America, after that they come from abroad. ThisContinue reading “SOUNDS OF SILENTS: Silent Cinema In The Sound Era (2012)”