Columbia Pictures, being a poverty-row film studio for many years, was a little bit behind its rival studios throughout the 1930s and 1940s. They did not really make it into the big league until the mid-1930s when they began outputting…
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Put Dick Van Dyke on a deserted island with a bevy of Polynesian beauties and a space chimp and you’d think you would have a winning comedy. Walt Disney certainly thought so. He liked the idea of remaking Robinson Crusoe…
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You’ve seen him before…that imposing stature, that jovial smile, his booming voice, and those eyes, those eyes that bulge at just the right moments. Thurston Hall is his name and governors, senators, businessmen, and doting fathers are his game. His…
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In today’s guest post, Constance Metzinger examines a popular film locale of 1940s cinema – the English village. Films are by far the most marvelous means of personal escapism and during the 1940s, a time of war, anxiety, and sorrow,…
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His film scores included King Kong, Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Big Sleep and A Summer Place. Guest writer Constance Metzinger offers a look at the life and career of Oscar-winning movie composer Max Steiner.
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“The first thing I’ll do when I get back is sink my teeth into a nice juicy steak.” Skipper – 1965 After Gilligan’s Island was canceled in 1966, Alan Hale Jr. (“Skipper”) continued guest starring on numerous television series (he…
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Henry Mancini was one of the most prolific film composers – and certainly the most famous – in Hollywood throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His popularity outside of the film community was due in no small part to the numerous…
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“Aye, I know wha’ tis said. He locked the gate and buried the key, and nary’s been in there since.” A secret garden. Locked up for years. Now overgrowing with weeds and bramble for want of anyone to tend to…
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Movies taken from TV shows (and vice versa) are common now, but 1932’s The Phantom of Crestwood was a media tie-in pioneer. Guest writer Constance Metzinger pulls the mask off the 1932 RKO whodunit, based on a radio series and write-in contest.
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You may remember him as Inspector Lestrade, always a step behind Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes in the 1940s. Guest writer Constance Metzinger goes beyond the badge to examine the life and career of British character actor Dennis Hoey.
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