In the mid-to-late 1920s Jack Benny was a star monologist in Vaudeville, big enough to be tapped to be the ’emcee’ of the MGM musical ‘Hollywood Revue of 1929’. But as the above short film ‘A Broadway Romeo’ (1931) will make clear, this is not the Jack Benny that we
Tonight there’s a screening of my 2010 movie ‘City Island’ at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck, New York. I’ll be there with co-star Julianna Marguilies to do a Q&A after the screening. Since you’re receiving this at roughly the same time the screening is taking place–and since I doubt many of
I’m not usually one for YouTube music/film mash-ups but I stumbled across this one and found it so evocative and lovely that I’ve decided to share it with you. It consists of clips from the 1934 version of W. Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage”, starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis,
We tend to think of the evolution of the title sequence as moving from a simple series of cards with actors names on them (sometimes splashed up a little with caricaturist representations of the actors), gradually becoming more dramatic, exotic or even story-heavy as the years progressed. But back in
Behold this gorgeous title sequence for ‘Two For The Seesaw’ (1962), starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley McLaine. We’re are in prime, early 60s New York City watching Robert Mitchum do pretty much nothing but walk around, staring impassively at various views and things and somehow conveying everything you can’t write
‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975) is on my short–very short–list of movies I can watch at any time. The credit sequence, setting up a hot New York city summer, is masterfully realized and uses very simple footage, much of which I’m guessing was culled from stock. The flavor of the various
Last Friday I suggested a new weekly tradition of posting a Mambo dance to round out the week. Our first example was the lustrous Silvana Mangano–dig this clip of her killer Mambo if you missed it last week. Today we jump ahead a decade and dive into the ‘Dance At
Above I’ve posted actual footage of the premiere of Howard Hughe’s 1930 World War 1 aviation epic ‘Hells Angels’. And below I’ve posted a recreation of the event in Martin Scorsese’s brilliant Hughes biopic ‘The Aviator’ (2004–ish). The real event is shockingly huge in scope—just the lit-up sign advertising the
Here’s an astonishing four minute reel of outtakes from ‘Hells Angels’, saved apparently by accident and carefully preserved and lovingly restored. I can’t begin to tell you how rare it is to see outtakes from a film this early–movie outtakes began to be saved in the mid-thirties as a result
Yesterday we began a weeklong look at Howard Hughes’ landmark 1930 World War 1 aerial epic ‘Hells Angels’ by viewing the film’s brilliantly achieved air-born climax. Today we hit the ground with a resounding thud and move from the astoundingly impressive to the astoundingly awful, with a two-part scene set