January 1, 1900: French film pioneer Charles Pathé releases the historical re-enactment Episodes of the Transvaal War in Paris. December 31, 1903: Capital Execution is the first feature from what will be a thriving Danish film industry, until its decline…
Read more →Articles by: Jay Steinberg
This Week In Film History 12-21-09
December 24, 1906: Considered to be the first feature-length (70 minutes) motion picture, the Australian drama The Story of The Kelly Gang debuts in Melbourne. December 26, 1913: Less than two years after the sinking of the Titanic, the disaster…
Read more →This Week In Film History 12-14-09
December 19, 1909: The first use of freeze frame for dramatic effect is employed by D.W. Griffith for the film A Corner in Wheat. December 14, 1939: Seventy-five years after General Sherman set it ablaze, the city of Atlanta is…
Read more →This Week In Film History 12-07-09
December 7, 1919: Director/actor Erich von Stroheim, “The Man You Love to Hate,” makes his directorial debut with Blind Husbands. December 11, 1930: A protest of All Quiet on the Western Front by members of the Nazi Party in Berlin…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 11-29-09
December 1, 1903: Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery, the first motion picture to use intercutting scenes to form a unified narrative, is released. December 2, 1910: Hefty funnyman John Bunny, the cinema’s first comedy star, makes his debut…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 11-22-09
November 29, 1939: The legendary rivalry between gossip queens Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons begins when Parsons is scooped on the divorce of James Roosevelt. November 25, 1940: Voiced by Mel Blanc, Woody Woodpecker laughs his way into cartoon fame…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 11-16-09
November 19, 1924: Mystery surrounds the death of director Thomas H. Ince. Rumors suggest he was shot aboard the yacht of William Randolph Hearst. November 18, 1928: Mickey Mouse whistles his way onto the screen in his first speaking performance,…
Read more →This Week In Film History 11-08-09
: After gaining fame in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Italian-born leading man Rudolph Valentino mesmerizes female filmgoers as The Sheik. November 13, 1921 November 15, 1935: The Marx Brothers‘ first feature for MGM, A Night at the…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 11-2-09
: French inventor/film executive Leon Gaumont demonstrates his Chronophone system of showing films with synchronized phonograph cylinders. November 7, 1902 November 4, 1907: The Chicago City Council Ordinance forbids the showing of “obscene and immoral pictures” and grants police…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 10.25.09
October 25, 1925: France’s star of silent slapstick comedy Max Linder, 41,and his young wife are found dead in a Paris hotel, victims of an apparent suicide pact. October 30, 1948: A major shift in the shape of the film…
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