Movies 'Til Dawn Blog

‘BROADWAY HIGHLIGHTS’

‘Broadway Highlights’–subtitled ‘Intimate News Of The Gay White Way’–was a series of several short subjects produced by Paramount Pictures in 1935 and 1936. They purported to tell the viewer, newsreel-style, what was happening on the Gay White Way (as the street was dubbed in the lyric of ‘Broadway Melody’). Much

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A WALTER WINCHELL JOINT

Above is an extraordinary find. It’s a short film made in 1932 starring the man who invented the gossip column all by himself, Walter Winchell. Titled ‘I Know Everybody and Everybody’s Racket’, it features Winchell playing himself as well as offering glimpses of period celebrities such as Ruth Etting, Paul

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ASTAIRE + POWELL + PORTER

Let’s close the week with the spectacular Fred Astaire & Eleanor Powell ‘Begin The Beguine’ dance routine from ‘Broadway Melody of 1940’. You need to sit through a minute of silly singing until the dancing begins (or you can fast-forward through it) but it’s well worth the wait. The whole

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ME. ME ME ME ME ME ME…

Today I am my own subject. Last week I appeared on a podcast called ‘Round 14’ discussing my work, anecdoting a bit on the movie business and talking at some length about my dear friend, the late great Burt Young. The hosts, Tony C. and Ricky B., (their real names)

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‘HOT SATURDAY’

Here’s a wonderful, atmospheric clip from a 1932 pre-code movie called ‘Hot Saturday’ . The film was drected by William Seiter and starred Cary Grant, Nancy Carroll and Randolph Scott (possibly making this the first time Grant met Scott which lead to them becoming mysterious ‘housemates’–you’ve seen those photos in

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MEL BROOKS ON FRANK SINATRA ON JIMMY KIMMEL

Here’s a great appearance by Mel Brooks on Jimmy Kimmel done a few years ago (ten maybe?)to promote the HBO special of his one man show at the Geffen Theater in Westwood. This is a man who knows how to work an audience and is fearlessly, ferociously engaging. I interviewed

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THE GEORGE RAFT STORY

I hope you’ve enjoyed our week with George Raft. We’ve seen him dance as a young man, we’ve seen him interviewed as an 85 year old…and now let’s see him as portrayed by Ray Danton in the trailer to the incredibly trashy looking biopic ‘The George Raft Story’ (they really

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GEORGE RAFT AT 85

No, he doesn’t dance in this clip but George Raft at 85 is as suave, cool and charismatic as he was fifty years earlier. This is a very nice interview segment from a Mike Douglas show in 1980–alas Raft died the same year (he mentions to Mike that he has

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GEORGE RAFT; THE DANCING GANGSTER PT. DEUX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTkl_Nyzh90https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXPr32BHmNAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTY6GpGdDF8 Above are three rare clips of George Raft dancing–one from the 1944 wartime propoganda musical ‘Follow The Boys’ (1944), another from one of his earliest films ‘Quick Millions’ (1931) and finally a duet with Alice Faye from ‘Every Night At Eight’ (1935).  The quality of the second two clips

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GEORGE RAFT–THE DANCING GANGSTER (PT.1)

George Raft was a perfectly good actor but a great dancer as witness in the above clip from ‘Bolero’ (1934) where he dances with Carole Lombard. Raft began his career in New York in the so-called roaring twenties, first as the driver of prohibition kingpin gangster Owney Madden, then as

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