August 6, 1926: The first film released with Vitaphone sound, Warner Bros.’ Don Juan, features sound effects and an orchestral score. August 9, 1930: The Fleischer Studio’s Betty Boop sashays onto the screen (as a dog!) in the cartoon short…
Read more →Articles by: Jay Steinberg
Pre-Code, Gladiators, Rod Taylor on Tap from Warner Archive
The Bad Ol’ Days: Warner Archive has gone again to their vaults to bring us the worst—the worst in human behavior in the movies from the pre-Code days. Two collections featuring top stars where behaving badly—committing crimes, getting into trouble,…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 07.29.12
July 31, 1928: Audiences first hear MGM mascot Leo the Lion’s mighty roar with the studio’s first sound film, White Shadows in the South Seas. August 3, 1929: Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo, the Marx Brothers, make their film debuts…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 07.22.12
July 22, 1934: After seeing MGM’s Manhattan Melodrama at Chicago’s Biograph Theater, gangster John Dillinger is gunned down outside by G-men. July 23, 1947: The subject of anti-Semitism is dramatized in RKO’s Crossfire and, in November, by 20th Century Fox’s…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 07.15.12
July 15, 1932: The Disney Studio releases the first cartoon using the three-color Technicolor process, a Silly Symphony called Flowers and Trees. July 17, 1935: Variety, in a story about Midwestern audiences’ preference for sophisticated films, declares in a headline…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 07.08.12
July 14, 1908: Edison Company actor D.W. Griffith makes his directing debut with The Adventures of Dollie, the first of over 500 works to come. July 12, 1912: Adolph Zukor releases a French film, Queen Elizabeth, starring stage star Sarah…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 07.01.12
July 3, 1905: The long tradition of cinematic canine heroes begins in England with the debut of the seven-minute melodrama Rescued by Rover. July 3, 1947: Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford and Bob Lewis open the Actors Studio in New York…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 06.24.12
June 24, 1916: Mary Pickford signs Hollywood’s first “million-dollar contract,” guaranteeing her at least $10,000 a week over its two-year term. June 30, 1929: Alfred Hitchcock‘s Blackmail, which nearly saw completion as a silent film, was re-shot with sound, becoming…
Read more →Maisie, Crime Does Not Pay And More Coming Your Way
Jenny and Eddy Still Going Steady: The final two films with the MGM songbirds Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy that have yet to hit DVD are about to arrive to us on an exclusive basis. In The Girl of the…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 06.17.12
June 19, 1905: The first “nickelodeon” opens its doors, on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh, charging a five-cent fee. First attraction: The Great Train Robbery. June 22, 1961: The Guns of Navarone, starring Gregory Peck, leads off with a bang at…
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