1.
Millennium Biltmore Hotel
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Upon its grand opening in 1923, the Los Angeles Biltmore was the largest hotel west of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. In 1969 the Biltmore Hotel was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument by the City of Los Angeles, regal Hotels purchased the Biltmore in 1996, and then sold it in 1999 to Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. As of 2009, the Los Angeles Biltmore is operated as part of the Millennium & Copthorne Hotels chain as the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the hotel has 70,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space. From its original 1500 guestrooms it now has 683, due to room reorganization, the Biltmore Angel is heavily incorporated into the design—as a symbol of the city as well as the Biltmore itself. With a thick steel and concrete frame, the structure takes up half a city block and it was meticulously restored in the 1980s by Smeraldis apprentice, Anthony Heinsbergen. The imported Austrian crystal chandeliers that adorn it are 12 feet in diameter, two figures appear on the stairwell front—on the left is the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres, while on the right is the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Each ballroom on the Galleria level is themed either after the original function or the hotels overall California-heritage premise. The Emerald Room was once the main guest dining room, its decor features images of hunt and harvest, with hand-painted animals. The Tiffany Room was formerly an open corridor used as a point for Crystal Ballroom functions. Now enclosed, the elegant space centers around exploration, with sculptures and panels depicting Queen Isabella I of Castile. It is decorated with a gold cast-plaster ceiling, hand-oiled wood paneling, the South Galleria is painted with floral friezes inspired by the decor of ancient Roman Pompeii, and features a vaulted ceiling, marble balustrades and heavy Roman piers. Gold-painted wrought iron gates open to a staircase leading down to the Biltmore Bowl, also of interest is the hotels health club and indoor pool, which was modeled after the decks of 1920s luxury ocean liners. Solid brass trim on windows, doors and railings, teakwood deck chairs and hand-laid Italian mosaic tile on the walls, in 2015, four restaurants and bars serve the hotel, including Smeraldis Restaurant, newly relaunched Bugis Street Brasserie, the Rendezvous Court, and the Gallery Bar. The Los Angeles Biltmore is known for being a home to the Academy Award Ceremony for the Oscars. Legend has it that MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, who was in attendance, immediately grabbed a linen Biltmore napkin, eight Oscar ceremonies were held in the Biltmore Bowl during the Academys early years of 1931, 1935–39, and 1941-42. In 1977 Bob Hope hosted the Academys 50th Anniversary banquet in the same room, the Biltmore Theater was situated at the corner of 5th and Grand from 1924–1967, now the Biltmore Court & Tower location. Will Rogers emceed the opening of the theater in 1924, which then ran plays starring luminaries such as Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, in 1929, Germanys Graf Zeppelin airship soared over the hotel on its round-the-world voyage, sponsored by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Crew and passengers were fed by Biltmore culinary staff, who replenished their on-board supplies
2.
You Can't Take It with You (film)
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You Cant Take It with You is a 1938 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Capra and starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, and Edward Arnold. The film received two Academy Awards from seven nominations, Best Picture and Best Director for Frank Capra and this was Capras third Oscar for Best Director in just five years, following It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. It was also the picture of the year. A successful banker, Anthony P. Kirby, has just returned from Washington, D. C. where he was granted a government-sanctioned munitions monopoly. He intends to buy up a 12-block radius around a factory to put him out of business. Kirby instructs his real estate broker, John Blakely, to offer a huge sum for the house, Kirbys son, Tony, a vice president in the family company, has fallen in love with a company stenographer, Alice Sycamore. When Tony proposes marriage, Alice is worried that her family would be looked upon poorly by Tonys rich, in fact, Alice is the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, led by Grandpa Vanderhof. Unbeknownst to the players, Alices family lives in the house that will not sell out, Kirby and the snobbish Mrs. Kirby strongly disapprove of Tonys choice for marriage. Before she accepts, Alice forces Tony to bring his family to become acquainted with their future in-laws. But when Tony purposely brings his family on the day, the Sycamore family is caught off-guard. As the Kirbys are preparing to leave after a disastrous meeting. Held up in the drunk tank preparing to see the court judge, Mrs. Kirby repeatedly insults Alice. At the court hearing, the judge repeatedly asks why the Kirbys were at the Vanderhof house and this causes a sensation in the papers, and Alice flees the city. With Alice gone, Grandpa decides to sell the house, thus meaning the whole section of the town must vacate in preparation for building a new factory, now, the Kirby companies merge, creating a huge fluctuation in the stock market. Kirby visits the Vanderhofs as they are moving out of the house, Alice takes Tony back and the film ends with the Vanderhofs and Kirbys enjoying a meal together. In November 1937, Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures bought the rights of the original play for $200,000. Barrymores infirmity was incorporated into the plot of the film and his character was on crutches the entire movie, which was said to be due to an accident from sliding down the banister. In reality, it was due to his increasing arthritis – earlier in the year he had forced to withdraw from the movie A Christmas Carol
3.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
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The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film, produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, that stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, written by Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. The Adventures of Robin Hood has been acclaimed by critics since its release, in 1995, the film was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. Alan Hale, Sr. who plays Little John, had played the character in the 1922 version of the film and went on to play him again in Rogues of Sherwood Forest. Richard the Lionheart, the King of England, is taken captive in 1191 by Leopold V, richard’s treacherous brother Prince John usurps the throne and proceeds to oppress the Saxons, raising taxes to secure his own position. Only the Saxon nobleman Sir Robin of Locksley opposes him, Robin acquires a loyal follower when he saves Much the Millers Son from being arrested for poaching by Sir Guy of Gisbourne. At Gisbournes castle, Robin boldly tells Prince John and his followers, Robin escapes, despite attempts by Johns men to stop him. Robin and his men capture a party of Normans transporting tax money extorted from the people of England. Among Robins guests are Sir Guy of Gisbourne, the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham, at first disdainful of Robin, Marian comes to accept his good intentions and begins to see the reality of Norman brutality. Robin allows the humiliated Sir Guy and the Sheriff to leave Sherwood, All goes as planned, Robin wins the match, is taken prisoner, and is sentenced to hang. Marian helps Robins men rescue Robin, and he later scales a castle wall to thank her, each pledges their love for each other but Marian declines to leave, believing she can best help the rebellion as a spy by staying where she is. King Richard and several trusted knights have returned, disguised as monks, at an roadside inn, the Bishop of the Black Canons discovers their presence and alerts Prince John and Gisbourne. Dickon Malbete, a former knight, is given the task of disposing of Richard in return for the restoration of his rank, with Robins manor. Marian overhears their plot and writes a note to Robin, but Sir Guy finds it and has her arrested, pending trial, Marians nurse, Bess, romantically involved with Much, sends her paramour to warn Robin. On his way, Much intercepts and kills Dickon, being wounded in the process, King Richard and his liegemen journey through Sherwood Forest and are soon stopped by Robin and his men. Richard assures him that he is traveling on the Kings business, when asked if he supports Richard, will finds the injured Much, who tells Robin of Marians peril and that Richard is now in England. Robin orders a search to find Richard and bring him to Robin for safety. Now certain of Robins loyalty, Richard reveals himself to the outlaws, Robin devises a plan to sneak his men into Nottingham Castle
4.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
5.
12th Academy Awards
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The 12th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honored the best in film for 1939. The ceremony was held on February 29,1940, at a banquet in the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and it was hosted by Bob Hope. David O. Selznicks production Gone with the Wind received the most nominations of the year with thirteen and this was the first year in which an Academy Award was awarded in the category of special effects. This was also the first time that two awards for cinematography were presented, hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to receive an Academy Award, winning in the Best Supporting Actress category for Gone with the Wind. Sidney Howard became the first posthumous winner for his screenplay for Gone with the Wind, AMPAS presented Academy Awards of Merit in twenty categories. Nominees for each award are listed below, award winners are listed first, among those who campaigned in favour of the film were Hedda Hopper who declared it as great as Lincolns Gettysburg speech, while Sheilah Graham called it the best talking picture ever made. Screen Book magazine stated that it should win every Academy Award, frank Capra, the director, and James Stewart, the films star were considered front runners to win awards. Gone with the Wind premiered in December 1939 with a Gallup poll taken shortly before its release concluding that 56.5 million people intended to see the film. The New York Film Critics Award was given to Wuthering Heights after thirteen rounds of balloting had left the voters deadlocked between Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Gone with the Wind, the press were divided in their support for the nominated actors. West Coast newspapers, particularly in Los Angeles, predicted Bette Davis would win for Dark Victory, observing that Davis had achieved four box office successes during the year, one paper wrote, Hollywood will stick by its favourite home-town girl, Bette Davis. Capra was the incumbent President of the Academy, and in a first for Academy Awards ceremonies, sold the rights for the event to be filmed. Warner Bros. obtained the rights, for $30,000 to film the banquet and the presentation of the awards, to use as a short, among these were Clark Gable and Bette Davis. Following the banquet, Capra opened proceedings at 11pm with a speech before introducing Bob Hope who made his first appearance as host of the awards. Looking at a table laden with awards awaiting presentation, he quipped, mickey Rooney presented an Academy Juvenile Award to Judy Garland, who then performed Over the Rainbow, a Best Song nominee from The Wizard of Oz. As the evening progressed, Gone with the Wind won the majority of awards, making a speech, Selznick paused to extend praise and gratitude to Olivia de Havilland, a Best Supporting Actress nominee, and made it clear in his speech he knew she had not won. Hattie McDaniel became the first black performer to win an Academy Award, de Havilland was among those to make their way to McDaniels table to offer congratulations, though it was reported de Havilland then fled to the kitchen, where she burst into tears. The press reported an irritated Irene Mayer Selznick followed her, and told her to return to their table, robert Donat, the winner for Best Actor, was one of three nominated actors not present. Accepting the award for Donat, Spencer Tracy said he was sure Donats win was welcomed by the entire motion-picture industry before presenting the Best Actress award to Vivien Leigh, the press noted Bette Davis was among those waiting to congratulate Leigh as she returned to her table
6.
Harry Cohn
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Harry Cohn was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation. Cohn was born to a working-class Jewish family in New York City and his mother, Bella Joseph, was from Russia, and his father, Joseph Cohen, was a tailor from Germany. After working for a time as a conductor, and then as a promoter for a sheet music printer, he got a job with Universal Pictures. In 1919, Cohn joined his brother and Joe Brandt to found CBC Film Sales Corporation, the initials officially stood for Cohn, Brandt, and Cohn, but Hollywood wags noted the companys low-budget, low-class efforts and nicknamed CBC Corned Beef and Cabbage. Harry Cohn managed the film production in Hollywood, while his brother managed its finances from New York. Most of Columbias early work was action fare starring rock-jawed leading man Jack Holt, Columbia was unable to shake off its stigma as a Poverty Row studio until 1934, when director Frank Capras Columbia comedy It Happened One Night swept the Academy Awards. Exhibitors who formerly wouldnt touch Columbia product became steady customers, as a horizontally integrated company that only controlled production and distribution, Columbia had previously been at the mercy of theater owners. Columbia expanded its scope to offer moviegoers a regular program of economically made features, short subjects, serials, travelogues, sports reels, Columbia would release a few class productions each year, but depended on its popular budget productions to keep the company solvent. During Cohns tenure, the studio always turned a profit, Cohn did not build a stable of movie stars like other studios. Instead, he generally signed actors who worked for more expensive studios to attract a pre-sold audience. Columbias own stars generally rose from the ranks of small-part actors, some of Columbias producers and directors also graduated from lesser positions as actors, writers, musicians, and assistant directors. Cohn was known for his autocratic and intimidating management style, when he took over as Columbias president, he remained production chief as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He respected talent above any personal attribute, but he made sure his employees knew who was boss, writer Ben Hecht referred to him as White Fang. An employee of Columbia called him as absolute a monarch as Hollywood ever knew and it was said he had listening devices on all sound stages and could tune in any conversation on the set, then boom in over a loudspeaker if he heard anything that displeased him. Throughout his tenure, his most popular moniker was King Cohn, moe Howard of the Three Stooges recalled that Cohn was a real Jekyll-and-Hyde-type guy. Socially, he could be very charming, Cohn was known to scream and curse at actors and directors in his office all afternoon, and greet them cordially at a dinner party that evening. There is some suggestion that Cohn deliberately cultivated his reputation as a tyrant, Cohn is said to have kept a signed photograph of Benito Mussolini, whom he met in Italy in 1933, on his desk until the beginning of World War II. Cohn also had a number of ties to organized crime and he had a long-standing friendship with Chicago mobster John Roselli, and New Jersey mob boss Abner Zwillman was the source of the loan that allowed Cohn to buy out his partner Brandt
7.
Frank Capra
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Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, during World War II, Capra served in the U. S. Army Signal Corps and produced propaganda films, such as the Why We Fight series. After World War II, Capras career declined as his films such as Its a Wonderful Life. In succeeding decades, however, these films have been favorably reassessed, outside of directing, Capra was active in the film industry, engaging in various political and social issues. He served as President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, worked alongside the Screenwriters Guild, Capra was born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, a village near Palermo. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvatore Capra, a grower. The name Capra, notes Capras biographer Joseph McBride, represents his familys closeness to the land, and means goat. For Capra, the journey, which took 13 days, remained in his mind for the rest of his life as one of his worst experiences, very few people have trunks or anything that takes up space. They have just what they can carry in their hands or in a bag, theres no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. Its the most degrading place you could ever be, Capra remembers the ships arrival in New York Harbor, where he saw a statue of a great lady, taller than a church steeple, holding a torch above the land we were about to enter. He recalls his fathers exclamation at the sight, Ciccio, look, thats the greatest light since the star of Bethlehem. The family settled in Los Angeless East Side which Capra described in his autobiography as an Italian ghetto, Capras father worked as a fruit picker and young Capra sold newspapers after school for 10 years, until he graduated from high school. Instead of working after graduating, as his parents wanted, he enrolled in college and he studied chemical engineering and graduated in the spring of 1918. Capra later wrote that his education had changed his whole viewpoint on life from the viewpoint of an alley rat to the viewpoint of a cultured person. Soon after graduating college, Capra was commissioned in the US Army as a second lieutenant, in the Army, he taught mathematics to artillerymen at Fort Point, San Francisco. His father died during the war in an accident, in the Army, Capra contracted Spanish flu and was medically discharged to return home to live with his mother. He became a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1920, living at home with his siblings and mother, Capra was the only family member with a college education, yet he was the only one who remained chronically unemployed. After recovering at home, Capra moved out and spent the few years living in flophouses in San Francisco and hopping freight trains
8.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
9.
Jean Renoir
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Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made and he was ranked by the BFIs Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honors accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Renoir was born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France. He was the son of Aline Renoir and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His elder brother was Pierre Renoir, a French stage and film actor, Renoir was also the uncle of Claude Renoir, the son of Pierre, a cinematographer who worked with Jean Renoir on several of his films. Renoir was largely raised by Gabrielle Renard, his nanny and his mothers cousin, shortly before his birth, she had come to live with the Renoir family. She introduced the boy to the Guignol puppet shows in Montmartre. He wrote in his 1974 memoirs My Life and My Films, She taught me to see the face behind the mask and she taught me to detest the cliché. Gabrielle was also fascinated by the new invention, and when Renoir was only a few years old she took him to see his first film. As a child, Renoir moved to the south of France with his family and he and the rest of the Renoir family were the subjects of many of his fathers paintings. His fathers financial success ensured that the young Renoir was educated at boarding schools, from which, as he later wrote. At the outbreak of World War I, Renoir was serving in the French cavalry, later, after receiving a bullet in his leg, he served as a reconnaissance pilot. After the war, Renoir followed his fathers suggestion and tried his hand at making ceramics and he was particularly inspired by Erich von Stroheims work. In 1924, Renoir directed Une Vie Sans Joie or Catherine and she was also his fathers last model. At this stage, his films did not produce a return, Renoir gradually sold paintings inherited from his father to finance them. During the 1930s Renoir enjoyed great success as a filmmaker, in 1931 he directed his first sound films, On purge bébé and La Chienne
10.
La Grande Illusion
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La Grande Illusion is a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relationships among a group of French officers who are prisoners of war during World War I and are plotting an escape. The title of the film comes from the book The Great Illusion by British economist Norman Angell, the perspective of the film is generously humanistic to its characters of various nationalities. La Grande Illusion is regarded by critics and film historians as one of the masterpieces of French cinema, orson Welles named La Grande Illusion as one of the two movies he would take with him on the ark. Empire magazine ranked it #35 in The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema in 2010 and they are shot down by a German aviator and aristocrat, Rittmeister von Rauffenstein, and both are taken prisoner by German ground forces. Upon returning to base, Rauffenstein sends a subordinate to find out if the aviators are officers and, if so, during the meal, Rauffenstein and Boeldieu discover they have mutual acquaintances—a depiction of the familiarity, if not solidarity, within the upper classes that crosses national boundaries. During the performance, word arrives that the French have recaptured the fort, Maréchal interrupts the show, and the French prisoners spontaneously burst into La Marseillaise. Boeldieu and Maréchal also help their fellow prisoners to finish digging an escape tunnel, however, just before it is completed, everyone is transferred to other camps. Because of the barrier, Maréchal is unable to pass word of the tunnel to an incoming British prisoner. Rauffenstein tells them that Wintersborn is escape-proof, at Wintersborn, the pair are reunited with a fellow prisoner, Rosenthal, from the original camp. Rosenthal is a wealthy French Jew, a naturalized French citizen, the son of a Polish father and a Danish mother, Boeldieu comes up with an idea, after carefully observing how the German guards respond to an emergency. He volunteers to distract the guards for the few minutes needed for Maréchal and Rosenthal to escape, after a commotion staged by the prisoners, the guards are ordered to assemble them in the fortress courtyard. During the roll call, it is discovered that Boeldieu is missing and he makes his presence known high up in the fortress, drawing the German guards away in pursuit. Maréchal and Rosenthal take the opportunity to lower themselves from a window by a homemade rope, Rauffenstein stops the guards from firing at Boeldieu with their rifles and pleads with his fellow aristocrat to give himself up. Boeldieu refuses, and Rauffenstein reluctantly shoots at him with his pistol, aiming for his legs, nursed in his final moments by a grieving Rauffenstein, Boeldieu laments that their usefulness to society will end with this war. He also pities Rauffenstein, who will have to find a new purpose in the social order. Maréchal and Rosenthal journey across the German countryside, trying to get to nearby Switzerland, Rosenthal injures his foot, slowing Maréchal down. They quarrel and part, but then Maréchal returns to help his comrade and she generously takes them in, and doesnt betray them to a passing German army patrol
11.
John Ford
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John Ford was an American film director. His four Academy Awards for Best Director remain a record, one of the films for which he won the award, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture. In a career spanned more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films and he is widely regarded as one of the most important. Fords work was held in regard by his colleagues, with Orson Welles. Ford made frequent use of shooting and long shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast, harsh. Ford was born John Martin Jack Feeney in Cape Elizabeth, Maine to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara Abbey Curran and his father, John Augustine, was born in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland in 1854. Barbara Curran had been born in the Aran Islands, in the town of Kilronan on the island of Inishmore, John A. Feeneys grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of a local gentry family, the Morrises of Spiddal. John Augustine and Barbara Curran arrived in Boston and Portland respectively in May and they married in 1875 and became American citizens five years later on September 11,1880. John Augustine lived in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine with his family, and would try farming, fishing, working for the gas company, running a saloon, and being an alderman. Feeney attended Portland High School, Portland, Maine, where he was a successful fullback and he earned the nickname Bull because of the way he would lower his helmet and charge the line. A Portland pub is named Bull Feeneys in his honor and he later moved to California and in 1914 began working in film production as well as acting for his older brother Francis, adopting Jack Ford as a professional name. In addition to credited roles, he appeared uncredited as a Klansman in D. W. Griffiths 1915 The Birth of a Nation and he married Mary McBride Smith on July 3,1920, and they had two children. His daughter Barbara was married to singer and actor Ken Curtis from 1952 to 1964, what difficulty was caused by the two marrying is unclear as the level of John Fords commitment to the Catholic faith is disputed. A strain would have been Fords many extramarital relationships, John Ford began his career in film after moving to California in July 1914. He followed in the footsteps of his older brother Francis Ford, twelve years his senior. John Ford started out in his brothers films as an assistant, handyman, stuntman and occasional actor, frequently doubling for his brother, Francis gave his younger brother his first acting role in The Mysterious Rose. Despite an often combative relationship, within three years Jack had progressed to become Francis chief assistant and often worked as his cameraman, by the time Jack Ford was given his first break as a director, Francis profile was declining and he ceased working as a director soon after. One notable feature of John Fords films is that he used a company of actors
12.
William Wyler
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William Wyler, born as Willy Wyler was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Wyler received his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth in 1936, starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor, Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a bona fide perfectionist, whose penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance, became the stuff of legend. Through his talent for staging, editing, and camera movement and he helped propel a number of actors to stardom, finding and directing Audrey Hepburn in her Hollywood debut film, Roman Holiday, and directing Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl. He directed Olivia de Havilland to her second Oscar in The Heiress and Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights, Olivier credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen. And Bette Davis, who received three Oscar nominations under his direction and won her second Oscar in Jezebel, said Wyler made her a far, far better actress than she had ever been. Other popular Wyler films include, Hells Heroes, Dodsworth, The Westerner, The Letter, Friendly Persuasion, The Big Country, The Childrens Hour, Wyler was born to a Jewish family in Mulhouse, Alsace. His Swiss father, Leopold, started as a traveling salesman which he turned into a thriving haberdashery business in Mulhouse. His mother, Melanie, was German, and a cousin of Carl Laemmle, during Wylers childhood, he attended a number of schools and developed a reputation as something of a hellraiser, being expelled more than once for misbehavior. His mother often took him and his older brother Robert to concerts, opera, sometimes at home his family and their friends would stage amateur theatricals for personal enjoyment. Wyler was supposed to take over the family business in Mulhouse. After World War I, he spent a year working in Paris at 100.000 Chemises selling shirts. He was so poor that he spent his time wandering around the Pigalle district. After realizing that Willy was not interested in the business, his mother, Melanie, contacted her distant cousin, Carl Laemmle who owned Universal Studios. Laemmle was in the habit of coming to Europe each year, in 1921, Wyler, while traveling as a Swiss citizen, met Laemmle who hired him to work at Universal Studios in New York. As Wyler said, America seemed as far away as the moon, booked onto a ship to New York with Laemmle upon his return voyage, he met a young Czech man, Paul Kohner, aboard the same ship. Their enjoyment of the first class trip was short-lived, however, after working in New York for several years, and even serving in the New York Army National Guard for a year, Wyler moved to Hollywood to become a director. Around 1923, Wyler arrived in Los Angeles and began work on the Universal Studios lot in the gang, cleaning the stages. His break came when he was hired as an assistant editor
13.
Fay Bainter
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Fay Okell Bainter was an American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Jezebel and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one of fewer than a hundred female actors in Hollywood history to receive both acclaims. She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Charles F. Bainter, in 1910, she was a traveling stage actress. She made her first appearance on stage in 1908 in The County Chairman at Moroscos Theater in Burbank, California and she appeared in a number of successful plays in New York like East is West, The Willow Tree, and Dodsworth. In 1926 she appeared with Walter Abel in a Broadway production of Channing Pollocks The Enemy, MGM persuaded her to try films and her movie debut was in This Side of Heaven, the same year she appeared in Dodsworth on Broadway and in the film It Happened One Day. Since then, only nine other actors have won dual nominations in a single year, in 1940 she played Mrs. Gibbs in the film production of the Thornton Wilder play Our Town. In 1945 she played Melissa Frake in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair and she was again nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Childrens Hour. Finally, in 1962, Fay appeared as a guest star on The Donna Reed Show and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood Fay Bainter and Reginald Venable married on June 8,1921, in Riverside, California. The couple had one son, Reginald Venable Jr. who became an actor, Bainter was the aunt of actress Dorothy Burgess. As her husband, Reginald Venable, was a United States Navy Officer, Fay Bainter at the Internet Movie Database Fay Bainter at the Internet Broadway Database Fay Bainter at AllMovie Fay Bainter and son Reggie Jr. Fay Bainter at Virtual History
14.
67th Academy Awards
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During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 23 categories honoring the films released in 1994. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates, comedian David Letterman hosted the show for the first time. Forrest Gump won six awards, including Best Picture, the telecast garnered more than 48 million viewers in the United States, making it the most watched Oscars telecast since the 55th Academy Awards in 1983. Forrest Gump earned the most nominations with thirteen and it was the most nominated film since 1966s Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf. and the fifth film to earn that many nominations. Bullets over Broadway, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction tied for second with seven each, the winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 27,1995. For only the time in Oscar history, three of the four acting winners were previous winners. The 11th ceremony held in 1939 previously accomplished this feat and he also was the sixth person to win Best Actor twice. Best Supporting Actress winner Dianne Wiest became the first person to win two acting Oscars for performances in films directed by the same person and she first won in that same category for her role in Woody Allens 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters. Franz Kafkas Its a Wonderful Life and Trevors joint win in the Best Live Action Short category marked the fifth occurrence of a tie in Oscar history, winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger. Michelangelo Antonioni Quincy Jones Clint Eastwood The following individuals, in order of appearance and she added that her role in the upcoming movie Bogus would jeopardize her busy schedule. Producer Gil Cates hired actor, comedian, and Late Show host David Letterman as host of the 1995 ceremony, Cates explained his decision to hire the late night talk show host saying, Hes punctual, hes well groomed, and he knows how to keep an audience awake. As with previous ceremonies he produced, Cates centered the show around a theme, even with television, its not a community experience unless you have a very big family. So its unique to movies and theater, and its this very human thing, in tandem with the theme, the ceremonys opening number featured a montage produced by Chuck Workman featuring scenes of humorous moments from a variety of both comedic and non-comedic films. During that segment, actors Tim Curry, Kathy Najimy, several collections of film clips were shown throughout the broadcast highlighting various aspects of comedy such as troupes and dialogue. Several other people were involved with the production of the ceremony. Bill Conti served as director and conductor for the event. Production designer Roy Christopher designed a new stage for the ceremony which featured a proscenium which was designed to resemble the iris of a camera. Moreover, Christopher commented that the motif was inspired by the iris shot prominently featured in several comedic films
15.
Spencer Tracy
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Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American actor, noted for his natural style and versatility. One of the stars of Hollywoods Golden Age, Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor. Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College and he spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. Tracys breakthrough came in 1930, when his performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful debut in Up the River, Tracy was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. His five years with Fox were unremarkable, and he remained unknown to audiences after 25 films. In 1935 Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, at the time Hollywoods most prestigious studio and his career flourished with a series of hit films, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. By the 1940s, Tracy was one of the top stars. In 1942 he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, Tracy left MGM in 1955 and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite an increasing weariness as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a struggle against alcoholism. Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s, but never divorced, towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, Guess Whos Coming to Dinner in 1967, during his career, Tracy appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screens greatest actors. In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema, Tracy was born on April 5,1900, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the son of Caroline and John Edward Tracy. His mother was a Presbyterian from a wealthy Midwestern family, and his one brother, Carroll, was four years older. Spencer was a difficult and hyperactive child with poor school attendance, raised as a Catholic, at nine years old he was placed in the care of Dominican nuns in the hope of transforming his behavior. Later in life he remarked, I never would have back to school if there had been any other way of learning to read the subtitles in the movies. He became fascinated with motion pictures, watching the same ones repeatedly and then re-enacting scenes to his friends, Tracy attended several Jesuit academies in his teenage years, which he claimed took the badness out of him and helped him improve his grades
16.
Tom Hanks
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Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Hanks films have grossed more than $4.5 billion at U. S. and Canadian box offices and more than $9.0 billion worldwide, Hanks has been nominated for numerous awards during his career. In 2004, he received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2014, he received a Kennedy Center Honor and, in 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, in 2010, Spielberg and Hanks were executive producers on the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Hanks was born in Concord, California, the son of Janet Marylyn, a worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks. His mother was of Portuguese descent, while his father had English ancestry. The familys three oldest children, Sandra, Larry and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, in his childhood, his family moved often. By the age of ten, Hanks had lived in ten different houses, while Hanks family religious history was Catholic and Mormon, he has characterized himself as being a Bible-toting evangelical for several years as a teenager. In school, Hanks was unpopular with students and teachers alike, later telling Rolling Stone magazine, I was a geek, I was horribly, painfully, terribly shy. At the same time, I was the guy whod yell out funny captions during filmstrips, but I didnt get into trouble. I was always a good kid and pretty responsible. In 1965, his father married Frances Wong, a San Francisco native of Chinese descent, Frances had three children, two of whom lived with Hanks during his high school years. Hanks acted in plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, and transferred to California State University, Sacramento, Hanks told New York magazine in 1986, Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant. I spent a lot of going to plays. I wouldnt take dates with me, id just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, and then get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Ibsen, during his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. At Dowlings suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival and his internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, and stage management, prompting Hanks to drop out of college
17.
KNX (AM)
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KNX is an AM radio station broadcasting on 1070 kHz in Los Angeles, California, United States. The station is owned by the CBS Radio subsidiary of CBS Corporation, KNX holds a Class A license as one of the original clear-channel stations allocated under the 1928 U. S. band plan. Its non-directional 50, 000-watt signal can be heard during the day around Southern California and some nights through much of the Western United States and parts of Mexico, KNX broadcasts from facilities shared with sister stations KCBS-FM, KTWV and KAMP-FM located on Los Angeles Miracle Mile. Its transmitter and antenna array site are located at Columbia Park in Torrance, the station also broadcasts an HD Radio signal, streams online, and simulcasts on the FM band on KAMP-FM-HD2, and on KTWV-HD3. KNX is one of nine All-News stations owned by CBS, KNX began as a five-watt amateur radio station, 6ADZ, which Fred Christian put on the air on September 10,1920, broadcasting on a wavelength of 200 meters. In December 1921, the moved to 360 meters and became KGC. On May 4,1922, the increased power to 50 watts. Power was raised to 100 watts in 1923, a year later, Fred Christian sold KNX to Guy Earl, owner of the Los Angeles Evening Express. In 1929, the transmitter was upgraded from 500 to 5,000 watts. During this time, the station changed owners and was operated by the Western Broadcast Company. In 1933, the station moved its studios to another part of Hollywood, after being granted permission by the FRC on June 7,1932, the following year, KNXs transmitting power was raised to the nationwide maximum of 50,000 watts, which the station continues presently. It changed to its current 1070 AM channel in 1941, CBS purchased and began operating KNX as its West Coast flagship station in 1936, ending CBSs eight-year affiliation with KHJ. In 1938, the CBS Columbia Square studios were dedicated for KNX as well as West Coast operations for the entire CBS radio network and that October, the station carried Orson Welles celebrated version of The War of the Worlds. KNX was a competitor in the Los Angeles market while Crane was a morning personality. Following the example of sister station WCBS in New York City. In August 2005, KNX moved out of Columbia Square after operating there for 67 years, in 2009, KNX adopted the slogan All News, All the Time. It was previously used for 40 years by KFWB, KNXs historic rival in the news radio wars before both became sister stations through the 1995 merger of Westinghouse Electric and CBS, the stations antenna array features a 494-foot main antenna. The original main antenna was destroyed by vandals on September 14,1965, an unused 365-foot tower was brought in from KFAC and was used while the new main antenna was constructed
18.
Columbia Pictures
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The studio was founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jacks best friend Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924, and went public two years later and its name is derived from Columbia, a national personification of the United States, which is used as the studios logo. In its early years, it was a player in Hollywood. With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbias major contract stars were Jean Arthur, in the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studios premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio, in 1982, the studio was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company, and launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia, which was sold to Tri-Star, after a brief period of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining a financial interest, the combined studio was acquired by Sony in 1989. It is one of the film studios in the world. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood. The studios early productions were short subjects, Screen Snapshots, the Hall Room Boys. The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio on Hollywoods famously low-rent Gower Street, among Hollywoods elite, the studios small-time reputation led some to joke that CBC stood for Corned Beef and Cabbage. Brandt eventually tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, and sold his stake to Harry Cohn. In an effort to improve its image, the Cohn brothers renamed the company Columbia Pictures Corporation on January 10,1924, Cohn remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for the next 34 years, the second-longest tenure of any studio chief, even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jacks relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, because it has so many Cohns, Columbias product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was an integrated company. It controlled production and distribution, it did not own any theaters, helping Columbias climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra
19.
Hal B. Wallis
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Harold Brent Hal Wallis was an American film producer. He is best remembered for producing Casablanca and True Grit, along many other major films for Warner Bros. featuring such film stars as Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis. Later on, for a period, he was connected with Paramount Pictures and oversaw films featuring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley. Aaron Blum Wolowicz was born October 19,1898 in Chicago, Illinois and his family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros. in 1923. Within a few years, Wallis became involved in the end of the business. In a career spanned more than 50 years, he was involved with the production of more than 400 feature-length movies. Among the more significant movies he produced were Casablanca, Dark Victory, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York and he left Warner Bros. in 1944, after a clash with Jack L. Warner over Warners acceptance of the Best Picture Oscar for Casablanca, to work as an independent producer, the first screenwriters he hired for his new enterprise were Ayn Rand and Lillian Hellman. Among his financial hits were the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies and he produced True Grit, for which John Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor of 1969, and its sequel. After moving to Universal Pictures, he produced Mary, Queen of Scots and he received 16 Academy Award producer nominations for Best Picture, winning for Casablanca in 1943. For his consistently high quality of motion picture production, he was honored with the Academy Awards Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was also nominated for seven Golden Globe awards, twice winning awards for Best Picture, in 1975, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, in 1980, he published his autobiography, Starmaker, cowritten with Charles Higham. In the 1930s Mr. Wallis used his investment dollars to develop real estate in Sherman Oaks. He named one of the streets after himself using his nickname Hal, halbrent Avenue, Sherman Oaks, CA is the street and most of the original homes are still standing today. Its very close to Ventura and Sepulveda Boulevards near the infamous Sherman Oaks Galleria used extensively in the 1982 movie romp Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Wallis was married twice, to actress Louise Fazenda from 1927 until her death in 1962 and he had one son with Fazenda, Brent Harris. Wallis died in 1986 of complications of diabetes in Rancho Mirage, California, news of his passing was not released until after his private memorial service was completed
20.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
21.
Alexander's Ragtime Band (film)
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The story spans more than two decades from the 1911 release of its name-sake song to some point in time after the 1933 release of Heat Wave, presumably 1938. It stars Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley, there are no mentions of the primary importance of blacks in creating and playing jazz anywhere in the film. The story was written by Berlin himself, with Kathryn Scola, Richard Sherman and it was directed by Henry King. Alexanders Ragtime Band features several hit songs by Irving Berlin including Heat Wave, Some Sunny Day, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, previously released songs were re-arranged and used in conjunction with new songs written by Berlin for the film. The film had its New York premiere at the Roxy Theatre on August 5,1938, contemporary reviews from critics were positive. Variety wrote, Superlative in conception, execution and showmanship, it provides a theatrical and emotional experience. Film Daily declared it solid entertainment that should play to big returns, harrisons Reports called it Excellent entertainment, capably directed and acted. Alfred Newman won an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring, the adaptation starred Faye and Robert Preston. Alexanders Ragtime Band at AllMovie Alexanders Ragtime Band at the TCM Movie Database Alexanders Ragtime Band at the Internet Movie Database
22.
Darryl F. Zanuck
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Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American film producer and studio executive, he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors. He earned three Academy Awards as producer for Best Picture during his tenure, but was responsible for many more, Zanuck was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, the son of Louise and Frank Zanuck, who owned and operated a hotel in Wahoo. Zanuck was of part Swiss descent and was raised a Protestant, at age six, Zanuck and his mother moved to Los Angeles, where the better climate could improve her poor health. At age eight, he found his first movie job as an extra, in 1918, despite being sixteen, he deceived a recruiter, joined the United States Army, and served in France with the Nebraska National Guard. Upon returning to the US, he worked in many jobs while seeking work as a writer. He found work producing movie plots, and sold his first story in 1922 to William Russell and he moved into management in 1929, and became head of production in 1931. In 1933, Zanuck left Warners over a dispute with studio head Jack L. Warner. A few days later, he partnered with Joseph Schenck to form 20th Century Pictures, Inc. with financial help from Josephs brother Nicholas Schenck, mayer, President and Studio head of Loews, Inc and its subsidiary Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, along with William Goetz and Raymond Griffith. 20th Century released its material through United Artists, after a dispute with United Artists over stock ownership, Schenck and Zanuck negotiated and bought out the bankrupt Fox studios in 1935 to form Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. Zanuck was Vice President of Production of this new studio and took an approach, closely involving himself in scripts. When the U. S. who was chauffeured by limousine to Long Island each morning from a luxury Manhattan hotel. Appalled by such privileged cosseting, Zanuck stormed down to Washington, D. C. and into the War Department, demanding a riskier assignment from Chief of Staff and he even persuaded Lord Mountbatten to allow him along on a secret coastal raid across the Channel to occupied France. The daring nighttime attack on a German radar site was a success, navy even before the U. S. entered the war, and he was horrified to discover himself drafted into Zanucks Africa unit. Cant I ever get away from you, I bet if I die and go to heaven, youll be waiting for me under a sign reading Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. Unlike Col. Warner, most colonels from the studio system—Col, Frank Capra, Col. Anatole Litvak, Col. Hal Roach—were actually doing their cinematic jobs, often, like Zanuck, under enemy fire. Nonetheless, when Col. Zanuck was named in this investigation in 1944, whatever the reason, despite having published his own first-person account of his wartime adventures he resigned. Zanuck returned to Twentieth Century-Fox in 1944 and he avoided the studio and instead read books at home, surrounded by his growing family, and caught up on all the films he had missed while overseas in his private screening room
23.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
24.
Boys Town (film)
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Boys Town is a 1938 biographical drama film based on Father Edward J. Flanagans work with a group of underprivileged and delinquent boys in a home that he founded and named Boys Town. Legendary MGM Studio head Louis B, mayer, who was a Ukrainian-American Jew known for his respect for the Catholic Church, later called this his favorite film of his tenure at MGM. Although the story is fictional, it is based upon a real man. Boys Town is a community outside of Omaha, Nebraska, in 1943 Boys Town adopted as its image and logo a sculpture of a boy carrying a younger boy on his back, captioned He aint heavy, Father. In 1941, MGM made a sequel, Men of Boys Town, with Spencer Tracy, a convicted murderer asks to make his confession on the day of his execution. He is visited by an old friend, Father Flanagan who runs a home for indigent men in Omaha, after the convicted man asks the officials to leave, Father Flanagan provides some comfort and wisdom. Father Flanagan believes there is no such thing as a bad boy and he battles indifference, the legal system, and often even the boys, to build a sanctuary that he calls Boys Town. The boys have their own government, make their own rules, one boy, Whitey Marsh, is as much as anyone can handle. Whiteys older brother, in prison for murder, asks Father Flanagan to take Whitey — a poolroom shark, whiteys older brother escapes custody during transfer to federal prison. After thinking he has caused the death of a boy, Whitey leaves the un-fenced Boys Town. Whitey is accused of robbery and murder on circumstantial evidence. Popular sentiment — stirred by sensationalized media reports headed by a newspaper owner — turns against Boys Town. Whitey joins his brother, but Father Flanagan rescues Whitey and helps capture the gang in the act of robbery, Whitey and Father Flanagan return to Boys Town. Graves Everett Brown as Barky The film was a hit and earned MGM over $2 million in profit, in February 1939, when he accepted his Oscar for the role, Spencer Tracy responded graciously by spending all of his acceptance speech talking about Father Flanagan. If you have seen him through me, then I thank you, an overzealous MGM publicity representative announced that Tracy was donating his Oscar to Flanagan without confirming it with Tracy. Tracys response was, I earned the, the Academy hastily struck another inscription, Tracy kept his statuette, and Boys Town got one, too. It read, To Father Flanagan, whose great humanity, kindly simplicity, according to the IMDB trivia page, theres an alternative version of the Spencer Tracy Oscar story. Tracy agreed to make the donation if the Academy would send him a replacement Oscar, when the replacement arrived, the engraving on the award read, Best Actor — Dick Tracy
25.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
26.
The Citadel (film)
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The Citadel is a British film based on the novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1937. The film was directed by King Vidor and produced by Victor Saville at Denham Studios, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer distributing the film in the UK, initially, he has many lofty scientific goals, but meets local resistance in his research. After his laboratory and notes are destroyed by the miners, he moves to London, there, his purpose erodes when a chance encounter with a medical school friend, Dr. Frederick Lawford leads to his quiet seduction by an unethical medical establishment, treating rich hypochondriacs. Christine, his wife tries to set him back on the original path, Dr. Philip Denny, Mansons best friend and still working for improved working class health, dies at the hands of an incompetent, social-climbing surgeon. The film is based on the novel, but departs from it in certain vital respects, in the original text the character of Christine Manson is killed off in a road accident at the point when she and her husband have begun to address problems in their relationship. The incident involving the incompetent surgeon occurs, but it is a character who dies. Denny survives, and the understanding is that he and Manson went into practice together, the 1982 BBC adaptation of the novel stays closer to the original text. The film won the Best Picture Award from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review and it is a New York Times Critics Pick and is also listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made
27.
Victor Saville
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Victor Saville was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954 and he also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962. His first picture as director was The Arcadians, in 1929 he and Michael Balcon worked together again on a talkie remake of Woman to Woman for Balcons company, Gainsborough Pictures, this time directed by Saville himself. In 1937, he left to set up his own company, Victor Saville Productions. Both films starred Robert Donat and were a success in the USA as well as in Britain. After the war he continued directing films for MGM but eventually returned to Britain and he produced two final films in the 1960s, The Greengage Summer and Mix Me a Person. BFI screenonline biography Saville, Victor Retrieved on 2 February 2009 Lloyd & Robinson, Victor Saville at the Internet Movie Database Victor Saville at AllMovie
28.
Four Daughters
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The movie stars the Lane Sisters, and features Gale Page, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield and Dick Foran. The three Lanes were sisters and members of a singing trio. The film was written by Lenore J. Coffee and Julius J. Epstein, adapted from the Fannie Hurst novel Sister Act, the movies success led to two sequels with more or less the same cast, Four Wives and Four Mothers. The Lemp sisters, Emma, Thea, Kay, and Ann are prodigies in a family headed by their father. The Lemps also run a house, and among the tenants is Felix Deitz. Emma, the oldest daughter, is the object of affection of a neighbor, Ernest, Thea, a pianist and the second eldest, is courted by wealthy Ben Crowley, another neighbor, but she is not sure she loves him. Kay, the daughter, is a talented singer and has a chance at a music school scholarship. The youngest daughter is Ann, a violinist, mickey, an orchestral arranger and friend of Felix, falls for Ann, but Felix also has had his eyes on her and proposes marriage. Nominations Outstanding Production, Warner Bros. -First National Best Directing, Michael Curtiz Best Sound Recording and it was followed by 1939s Daughters Courageous, also directed by Michael Curtiz and co-starring Claude Rains and John Garfield, though it is a story about a different family. However, the storyline of Four Daughters and the Lemp family is continued in the 1940 film, Four Wives, Four Daughters was remade in 1954 as Young at Heart starring Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. Putting aside Mr. Garfield who is so bitterly brilliant, Warner Archive released Four Daughters on DVD in August 4,2009. The film was released by Warner Archive in the Four Daughters Movie Series Collection in August 1,2011. Four Daughters at the American Film Institute Catalog Four Daughters at the Internet Movie Database Four Daughters at AllMovie Four Daughters at the TCM Movie Database
29.
First National Pictures
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First National Pictures is a defunct American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors Circuit, Inc. an association of independent theater owners in the United States, and became the countrys largest theater chain. Expanding from exhibiting movies to distributing them, the company reincorporated in 1919 as Associated First National Theatres, Inc. and Associated First National Pictures, Inc. In 1924 it expanded to become a motion picture production company as First National Pictures, Inc. in September 1928, control of First National passed to Warner Bros. into which it was completely absorbed on November 4,1929. A number of Warner Bros. films were thereafter branded First National Pictures until 1936, the First National Exhibitors Circuit was founded in 1917 by the merger of 26 of the biggest first-run cinema chains in the United States. It eventually controlled over 600 cinemas, more than 200 of them first-run houses, First National was the brainchild of Thomas L. Tally, who was reacting to the overwhelming influence of Paramount Pictures, which dominated the market. In 1912, he thought that a conglomerate of theaters throughout the nation could buy or produce, in 1917 Tally and J. D. Williams formed First National Exhibitors Circuit. The first film released through First National was the 1916 British film, between 1917 and 1918, the company made contracts with Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin, the first million-dollar deals in the history of film. Chaplins contract allowed him to produce his films without a set release schedule, however, the production of the feature film The Kid ran so long that the company started to complain. That patience was rewarded when The Kid became a major critical. First Nationals distribution of films by independent producers is credited with launching careers including that of Louis B, adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures was threatened by First Nationals financial power and its control over the lucrative first-run theaters, and decided to enter the cinema business as well. With a $10 million investment, Paramount built its own chain of movie theaters after a secret plan to merge with First National failed. In the early 1920s, Paramount attempted a takeover, buying several of First Nationals member firms. Associated First National Pictures expanded from only distributing films to producing them in 1924 and changed its name to First National Pictures. It built its 62-acre studio lot in Burbank in 1926, the financial success of The Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool enabled Warner Bros. to purchase a majority interest in First National in September 1928. Warner Bros. held 42,000 shares of common stock out of 72,000 outstanding shares while Fox Pictures held 21,000 shares,12,000 shares were publicly held. Warner Bros. acquired access to First Nationals affiliated chain of theaters, Warner Bros. and First National continued to operate as separate entities. On November 4,1929, Fox sold its interest in First National to Warner Bros. for $10 million, the First National studio in Burbank became the official home of Warner Bros. –First National Pictures
30.
Jezebel (film)
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Jezebel is a 1938 American romantic drama film released by Warner Bros. and directed by William Wyler. It stars Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, supported by George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Richard Cromwell, the film was adapted by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston, and Robert Buckner, from the play by Owen Davis, Sr. The film tells the story of a headstrong young Southern woman during the period whose actions cost her the man she loves. The film is based on a 1933 stage play starring Miriam Hopkins, tallulah Bankhead was originally slated for the role, but fell severely ill during rehearsals. In 1852 New Orleans, spoiled, strong-willed belle Julie Marsden is engaged to banker Preston Pres Dillard, all of Julies friends are shocked, but no one can convince her to give up her whim. At the Olympus ball, Pres and Julies entrance is met with shock and she finally realizes the magnitude of her social blunder and begs Pres to take her away, but instead he forces her to dance with him. All of the dancers leave the floor. When the orchestra playing at the instruction of one of the balls sponsors. Pres and Julie finish the dance, afterwards, Pres takes his leave of Julie, implicitly breaking their engagement. In a final bit of spite, Julie slaps him in the face, aunt Belle Massey urges her to go after Pres and beg his forgiveness, but she refuses, confident that he will return to her. Instead, he goes north on business, Julie shuts herself up in her house and refuses to see visitors. A year later, Pres finally returns, to help Dr. Livingstone try to convince the city authorities to take measures against an outbreak of yellow fever, before Pres can stop her, Julie humbles herself and begs for his forgiveness and a return of his love. Then Pres introduces her to his wife, Northerner Amy, dismayed, Julie eggs on her admirer, skilled duellist Buck Cantrell, to quarrel with Pres, but the scheme goes awry. Press inexperienced brother Ted is the one who is goaded into challenging Buck, in an unexpected twist, Ted shoots and kills Buck. Then something happens that overshadows everything else, as Dr. Livingstone had warned repeatedly, a deadly epidemic of yellow fever sweeps the city, as it had done numerous times before. Pres is stricken and, like all other victims, is to be quarantined on an island. Amy prepares to go along to care for him, risking her own life and she begs to go in her place, as an act of redemption. Amy agrees, but only after Julie admits that Pres no longer has any love for Julie, the Turner Classic Movies Database states that the film was offered as compensation for Bette Davis after she failed to win the part of Scarlett OHara in Gone with the Wind
31.
Pygmalion (1938 film)
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Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same name, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, the film was a financial and critical success, and won an Oscar for Best Screenplay and three more nominations. The screenplay was adapted into the 1956 theatrical musical My Fair Lady. The Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal wished to create a set of films based on Shaws works, beginning with Pygmalion, the resulting Pygmalion scenario by Cecil Lewis and W. P. Lipscomb removed exposition unnecessary outside a theatrical context and added new scenes and dialogue by Shaw himself. Ian Dalrymple, Anatole de Grunwald and Kay Walsh also made uncredited contributions to the screenplay, a long ballroom sequence was added, introducing an entirely new character, Count Aristid Karpathy, written wholly by Shaw himself. Against Shaws wishes, an ending was added, with Eliza fleeing Higgins with Freddy. Shaw and his fellow writers did, however, retain the controversial line Not bloody likely, from the playtext, making Hiller the first person to utter that swear word in a British film and giving rise to adverts for the film reading Miss Pygmalion. Shaws choice for Higgins had been Charles Laughton, the movie also includes the very first film appearance of Anthony Quayle, as an Italian wigmaker. Cathleen Nesbitt, credited here as Kathleen Nesbitt in the role of A Lady, the films crew included David Lean, set designer Laurence Irving and the camera operator Jack Hildyard. The film also received nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Shaws reaction to his award was, Its an insult for them to offer me any honour, as if they had never heard of me before – and its very likely they never have. They might as well send some honour to George for being King of England, however, his friend Mary Pickford later reported seeing the award on display in his home. At the 1938 Venice Film Festival, Leslie Howard won the Volpi Cup, the Great British Films, pp. org Criterion Collection essay by David Ehrenstein
32.
Gabriel Pascal
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Gabriel Pascal was a Hungarian film producer and director. A follower of Meher Baba, Pascal was the first film producer to bring the plays of George Bernard Shaw to the screen. His most successful production was Pygmalion, for which Pascal received an Academy Award nomination as its producer, later adaptations of Shaw plays included Major Barbara and Caesar and Cleopatra. Pascal was born during June 1894 in Arad, Austria-Hungary, Pascal coined his own name and his real name remains unknown. Pascals early life is shrouded in mystery and he claimed to have been an orphan taken from a burning building as a child and raised first by Gypsies before being taken away to an orphanage. He also claimed that the Gypsies taught him to beg, steal, Pascal, who was decidedly unfit for military life, became interested in theatre and studied at the Academy of the Hofburgtheater in Vienna. Later his interest expanded into the newly burgeoning cinema and he made films in Germany, becoming teetotal at an early age, he smoked cigars prodigiously, later provoking admonishments from George Bernard Shaw that he would ruin his voice. Pascal had one son, Peter, conceived in Germany during the delirium of a fever with his landladys sister Elsie, unable to care even for himself, Pascal fled to the Netherlands. After WWII ended, Pascal returned to Germany to search for his son Peter, Elsie had been killed by a bomb. As a young man, Pascal found a job tending horses in Hungary, leading the horses through the forest to a stream each day, Pascal developed the habit of riding bareback naked through the Hungarian countryside. One day he accidentally rode stark naked through the set of a silent movie in production and was discovered. The films director asked him to repeat the ride for the cameras, soon he was making his own movies. Pascal had another auspicious encounter when he was young while walking along the shore of the Mediterranean, a much older man, George Bernard Shaw, was swimming naked holding onto a buoy. A conversation ensued and Shaw dared the young Pascal on the shore to take off his clothes and he was impressed when Pascal immediately did so and this began their friendship. Shaw was impressed with Pascals youthful enthusiasm for art and his bravado and this chance meeting was to play a major role in Pascals later career. Pascal began his career making silent movies in Italy for German distribution through UFA Studios in Berlin. His directorial debut was Populi Morituri in which he also starred and he later produced comedies in Germany. In 1934, during a trip to Hollywood, Pascal was contacted by Princess Norina Matchabelli about a project based on the teachings of Meher Baba
33.
Test Pilot (film)
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Test Pilot is a 1938 film directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, and featuring Lionel Barrymore. The film tells the story of a daredevil test pilot, his wife, Test Pilot was written by Howard Hawks, Vincent Lawrence, John Lee Mahin, Frank Wead, and Waldemar Young. The screenplay was based on an original story by former naval aviator Wead. Reckless test pilot Jim Lane is forced to land on a Kansas farm in his aircraft, the Drake Bullet and they spend the day together and fall in love. Once Jims best friend and mechanic, Gunner Morris, arrives, to spur him, she gets engaged to her sweetheart. Jim leaves in the morning, but soon comes back for her, Jim loses his job at Drake, when he clashes with the owner, and takes a job with another outfit, flying a very experimental aircraft. Ann soon finds out how dangerous her husbands occupation is, Jim wins the race, but Benson, the man Drake sends in Jims place, dies, leaving a wife and three children behind. Jim tries to reform his ways and begins by taking a job testing aircraft, Gunner remains true to his friend. One day, Gunner accompanies Jim on a test flight of a new bomber, upon reaching 30,000 feet, something goes wrong, the bomber goes into a spin and sandbags break loose, pinning Gunner. Unwilling to bail out without his buddy, Jim manages to land, and pulls a badly injured Gunner out of the wreckage right before it burst into flames. When Jim realizes the toll his job has taken on his wife, he gives it up. Tracy was aware his male co-star, and tacitly the lead actor, was awed by acting with him, at the climax of another lengthy take where he was cradling his comrades head in his arms, Gable was reported to have said, Die, goddamn it, Spence. I wish to Christ you would, and dropped Tracy’s head with a thud. The Drake Bullet was actually the SEV-S2 NR70Y, a civilian racer version of the U. S. Army Air Corps P-35. The other test aircraft that is flown to its top diving speed is a Northrop A-17 attack bomber, renowned movie stunt pilot Paul Mantz served as the second unit director in charge of the flying sequences. Although uncredited, real-life test pilot Sammy Wroath did the flying sequences, proving to be an audience-pleaser, becoming one of MGMs top money-makers in 1938, Test Pilot also found favor with critics. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called it a bang-up aviation drama and it is a generous show by any reckoning, long in its running time, star-studded and spectacular, and Victor Fleming, its director, has paced it wisely. Film Daily raved, Spectacular romance thriller, other air pictures have been made, but for sheer thrills, this one leads them all because of the realistic way it has been done
34.
Academy Award for Best Director
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The Academy Award for Best Director is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of a director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the directors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. For the first eleven years of the Academy Awards, directors were allowed to be nominated for multiple films in the same year, the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture have been very closely linked throughout their history. Of the 89 films that have been awarded Best Picture,63 have also been awarded Best Director, since its inception, the award has been given to 69 directors or directing teams. John Ford has received the most awards in this category with four, william Wyler was nominated on twelve occasions, more than any other individual. As of the 2017 ceremony, Damien Chazelle is the most recent winner in category for his work on La La Land. Chazelle also became the youngest director in history to receive this award, two directing teams have shared the award, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1961 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2007. The Coen brothers are the siblings to have won the award. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full calendar year from January 1 to December 31. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com
35.
Michael Curtiz
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Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian-born American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywoods Golden Age, Curtiz was already a well-known director in Europe when Warner Bros. invited him to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 38 years of age. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtizs direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself was nominated five times and won twice, once for Best Short Subject for Sons of Liberty and he introduced to Hollywood a unique visual style using artistic lighting, extensive and fluid camera movement, high crane shots, and unusual camera angles. He was versatile and could handle any kind of picture, melodrama, comedy, love story, film noir, musical, war story, Western, or historical epic. He always paid attention to the human interest aspect of story, stating that the human. Curtiz helped popularize the swashbuckler with films such as Captain Blood. He directed many dramas which today are considered classics, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Sea Wolf, Casablanca. He directed leading musicals, including Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army and White Christmas, Curtiz was born Mihaly Kertesz to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary in 1886, where his father was a carpenter and his mother an opera singer. Curtiz had a lower to middle-class upbringing and he recalled during an interview that his familys home was a cramped apartment, where he had to share a small room with his two brothers and a sister. Many times we are hungry, he added, after graduating high school, he studied at Markoszy University, followed by the Royal Academy of Theater and Art, in Budapest, before beginning his career. Curtiz became attracted to the theater when he was a child in Hungary and he built a little theater in the cellar of his house when he was 8 years old, where he and five of his friends reenacted plays. They set up the stage, with scenery and props, after he graduated college at age 19, he took a job as an actor with a traveling theater company where he began working as one their traveling players. From that job, he became a pantomimist with a circus for a while and they played Ibsen and Shakespeare in various languages, depending on what country they were in. They performed throughout Europe, including France, Hungary, Italy and Germany and he had various responsibilities, We had to do everything—make bill posters, print programs, set scenery, mend wardrobe, sometimes even arrange chairs in the auditoriums. Sometimes we traveled in trains, sometimes in stage coaches, sometimes on horseback, sometimes we played in town halls, sometimes in little restaurants with no scenery at all
36.
Angels with Dirty Faces
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Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 American crime film directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Brothers. It stars James Cagney, Pat OBrien, The Dead End Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, the screenplay was written by John Wexley and Warren Duff, and is based on the story by Rowland Brown. The film chronicles the rise and fall of the notorious gangster William Rocky Sullivan, after spending three years in prison for armed robbery, Rocky intends to collect $100,000 from his co-conspirator, Jim Frazier. All the while, Father Jerry Connolly tries to prevent a group of youths from falling under Rockys influence, Angels with Dirty Faces was released on November 28,1938 to positive reviews. At the 11th Academy Awards, the film was nominated in three categories, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Story, in 1923, Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connolly attempted to rob a railroad car carrying fountain pens. Jerry, the runner, escaped from police, while Rocky was caught. Thirteen years later, Rocky is arrested for armed robbery and his lawyer and co-conspirator, Jim Frazier, asks him to take the blame and, in exchange, he will give Rocky the $100,000 stolen on the day he is released. Rocky agrees, and is sentenced to three years in prison, after serving his sentence, he returns to his old neighborhood and visits Jerry, who is now a Catholic priest. Jerry advises Rocky to get a place in the old parish, he does so, renting a room in a house run by Laury Martin. He then pays a visit to Fraziers casino, Frazier claims to have been unaware of Rockys release, but promises to have the $100,000 ready by the end of the week. In the meantime, he gives Rocky $500 spending money, Rocky is pickpocketed after leaving the casino. The culprits turn out to be a group of youths, Soapy, Swing, Bim, Pasty, Crab and they admire Rockys reputation and criminal lifestyle so, after retrieving his wallet, Rocky invites them to dinner. While they are eating, Jerry shows up and asks the gang why they havent been playing basketball, with Rockys help, he convinces them to play against another team. At the match, Jerry and Laury express equal concern over the negative influence Rocky may be having on the gang, while walking home, an attempt is made on Rockys life by Fraziers hit squad. Rocky survives, and retaliates by kidnapping Frazier and raiding his house at gunpoint, stealing $2,000, Fraziers business partner, Mac Keefer, gives Rocky his $100,000 in full, but informs the police of the kidnapping. Rocky is arrested, but after discovering he has possession of the ledger, Frazier tells the police it was all a misunderstanding, Jerry learns of the kidnapping, and decides to go to the press in an effort to expose the corruption in New York. Rocky tries to reason with him, but to no avail, on the radio, Jerry publicly denounces the corruption, as well as Rocky, Frazier and Keefer. Frazier and Keefer assure Rocky that no harm come to Jerry
37.
Norman Taurog
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Norman Rae Taurog was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films, at the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for Skippy. He is the second youngest person ever to win the award after Damien Chazelle and he was later nominated for Best Director for the film Boys Town. Taurog directed six Martin and Lewis films, and nine Elvis Presley films, for his contribution to the motion picture industry, Norman Taurog has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1600 Vine Street. Norman Taurog was born February 23,1899 in Chicago, Illinois, to Arthur Jack Taurog and his fathers naturalization records claim that Arthur was born in the Russian Empire in 1872 or 1873 and naturalized as a minor, while his mother was from New York. Later census records claimed that Arthurs parents were from Germany, the couple were married in Chicago in 1896. Norman became a performer on the stage at an early age, making his movie debut at the age of 13 in the short film Tangled Relations. In the eight years until his next screen credit, he worked in theater, in 1919, Taurog returned to the movie industry as a director, collaborating with Larry Semon in The Sportsman. In the coming decade, he made 42 silent films, mostly shorts, during this time, he developed his style, his forte being light comedy although he could also deal with drama and maintain complex narratives. In 1931, he made his breakthrough, directing Skippy, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director, recently, Taurogs award statue sold for $301,973 at auction in Beverly Hills. The next few years saw Taurog enter the third chapter of his career and he directed a series of well-received films, including If I Had a Million, which showed his ability to work with an all-star cast—Gary Cooper, George Raft, Charles Laughton, and W. C. In 1934, he directed Were Not Dressing, starring Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard, George Burns, Gracie Allen, in 1935, he directed the star-studded musical showcase The Big Broadcast of 1936 starring Bing Crosby and George Burns and Gracie Allen. The year also brought Boys Town, showing Taurog to be more capable of sustaining a dramatic narrative. Lucky Night starring Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor was a turkey, Taurog was reassigned to work on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a change which he had little to no say in. However, Taurog went on to earn a Best Director nomination for Boys Town later that year and he did, however, helm the last of MGMs big pre-war musical showcases, 1940s Broadway Melody, starring Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. He expanded his range into biographies, working with Mickey Rooney again, in the well-received Young Tom Edison and he directed Judy Garland twice, in Little Nellie Kelly and the small-town-girl-gets-big-break Presenting Lily Mars. After directing re-takes for a propaganda film, Rationing, Taurog entered new territory with a docudrama of the atom bomb. It was back to his metier of light comedy for his next couple of outings, The Bride Goes Wild with Van Johnson and June Allyson and it starred, among others, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney and Cyd Charisse
38.
King Vidor
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King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1979, he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for his achievements as a cinematic creator and innovator. He was nominated five times for a Best Director Oscar, Vidors best known films include The Big Parade, The Crowd, Stella Dallas, and Duel in the Sun. Vidor was born in Galveston, Texas, where he survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, based on that experience, he published a fictionalized account of that cyclone, titled Southern Storm, for the May 1935 issue of Esquire magazine. Erik Larson excerpts a passage from that article in his 2005 book, Isaacs Storm, as we stood there in the sandy street, my mother and I, I wanted to take my mothers hand and hurry her away. I felt as if the sea was going to break over the edge of the bowl and his grandfather, Károly Vidor, was a refugee of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, who settled in Galveston in the early 1850s. A freelance newsreel cameraman and cinema projectionist, Vidor made his debut as a director in 1913 with The Grand Military Parade, a successful mounting of Peg o My Heart in 1922 won him a long-term contract with Goldwyn Studios. Three years later he made The Big Parade, among the most acclaimed war films of the silent era, and this success established him as one of MGMs top studio directors for the next decade. In 1928, Vidor received his first Oscar nomination, for The Crowd, widely regarded as his masterpiece, Vidors first sound film was Hallelujah. A groundbreaking film featuring an African-American cast and he had no difficulty adjusting to sound and he continued making feature films until the late 1950s. Some of his better known films include Stella Dallas, Our Daily Bread, The Citadel, Duel in the Sun, The Fountainhead. He directed the Kansas sequences in The Wizard of Oz when director Victor Fleming had to replace George Cukor on Gone with the Wind, in 1962 he was head of the jury at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1969 he was a member of the jury at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival and he was nominated five times for an Oscar but never won in direct competition, he received an honorary award in 1979. In 1967, Vidor researched the unsolved 1922 murder of fellow director William Desmond Taylor for a possible screenplay, Vidor never published or wrote of this research during his lifetime, but biographer Sidney D. Kirkpatrick posthumously examined Vidors notes. He alleged in his 1986 book A Cast of Killers that Vidor had solved the sensational crime, in 1944, Vidor joined the anti-communist Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Vidor published his autobiography, A Tree is a Tree, in 1953 and this books title is inspired by an incident early in Vidors Hollywood career. Vidor wanted to film a movie in the locations where its story was set, a budget-minded producer told him, A rock is a rock. King Vidor was a Christian Scientist and wrote occasionally for church publications, such as The Bible and his remains were cremated and scattered on the ranch property
39.
Academy Award for Best Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, since its inception, the award has been given to 79 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars, spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Casey Affleck is the most recent winner in category for his role as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
40.
Charles Boyer
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Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage and his memorable performances were among the eras most highly praised, in romantic dramas such as The Garden of Allah, Algiers, and Love Affair, as well as the mystery-thriller Gaslight. He received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, Boyer was born in Figeac, Lot, France, the son of Augustine Louise Durand and Maurice Boyer, a merchant. Boyer was a shy, small-town boy who discovered the movies, Boyer performed comic sketches for soldiers while working as a hospital orderly during World War I. He began studies briefly at the Sorbonne, and was waiting for a chance to study acting at the Paris Conservatory and he went to the capital city to finish his education, but spent most of his time pursuing a theatrical career. In 1920, his quick memory won him a chance to replace the man in a stage production. In the 1920s, he not only played a suave and sophisticated ladies man on the stage, MGM signed Boyer to a contract, and he loved life in the United States, but nothing much came of his first American stay from 1929 to 1931. At first, he performed film roles only for the money, however, with the coming of sound, his deep voice made him a romantic star. His first Hollywood break came with a small role in Jean Harlows Red-Headed Woman. Subsequently, he co-starred with Claudette Colbert in the psychiatric drama Private Worlds, until the early 1930s, Boyer mainly continued making French films, and Mayerling co-starring Danielle Darrieux in 1936 made him an international star. This was followed by Orage, opposite Michèle Morgan, the offscreen Boyer was bookish and private, far removed from the Hollywood high life. In 1938, he landed his famous role as Pepe le Moko, the thief on the run in Algiers, although in the movie Boyer never said to costar Hedy Lamarr Come with me to the Casbah, this line was in the movie trailer. The line would stick with him, thanks to generations of impressionists, Boyers vocal style was also parodied on the Tom and Jerry cartoons, most notably when Tom was trying to woo a female cat. In contrast to his glamorous image, Boyer began losing his hair early, had a pronounced paunch, when Bette Davis first saw him on the set of All This, and Heaven Too, she did not recognize him and tried to have him removed. In 1943, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar Certificate for progressive cultural achievement in establishing the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles as a source of reference. He is particularly known for Gaslight in which he played a thief/murderer who tries to convince his newlywed wife that she is going insane. In 1947, he was the voice of Capt. Daniel Gregg in the Lux Radio Theaters presentation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, in 1948, he was made a chevalier of the French Légion dhonneur. When another film with Bergman, Arch of Triumph, failed at the box office, in 1956, Boyer was a guest star on I Love Lucy
41.
Algiers (film)
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Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. Written by John Howard Lawson, the film is about a notorious French jewel thief hiding in the labyrinthine native quarter of Algiers known as the Casbah. Feeling imprisoned by his exile, he is drawn out of hiding by a beautiful French tourist who reminds him of happier times in Paris. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, Algiers was a sensation because it was the first Hollywood film starring Hedy Lamarr, whose beauty became the main attraction for film audiences. The film is notable as one of the sources of inspiration to the screenwriters of the 1942 Warner Bros. film Casablanca who wrote it with Hedy Lamarr in mind as the female lead. Charles Boyers depiction of the character, Pepe Le Moko, inspired the Warner Bros. animated character. In 1966, the film entered the public due to the claimants failure to renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. Pepe Le Moko is a thief, who, after his last great heist. Since his escape, Moko became a resident and leader of the immense Casbah, or native quarter, French officials arrive insisting on Pepes capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe begins to feel trapped in his prison-like stronghold, a feeling which intensifies after meeting the beautiful Gaby. His love for Gaby soon arouses the jealousy of Ines, Pepes Algerian mistress, cast notes Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr made her American film debut in Algiers, although she was already known for her appearance in the 1937 Czech film Ecstasy, in which she appeared nude. Howard Dietz, the head of MGMs publicity department, quizzed her about this, then its all right, he said, no damage has been done. Wanger used most of the music from the French film in this remake, backgrounds and exteriors for the film were shot in Algiers by a photographer named Knechtel, who was based in London. These photographs were integrated into the film by cinematographer James Wong Howe. Cromwell says about Lamarr that she could not act, after youve been in the business for a time, you can tell easily enough right when you meet them. But the principle applies, and Hedy also had no personality, how could they think she could become a second Garbo. … Ill take some credit for making her acting passable but can only share credit with Boyer fifty-fifty, Boyer did not enjoy his work on Algiers. An actor never likes to copy anothers style, he said, director Cromwell would run a scene from the original and insist we do it exactly that way — terrible, a perfectly terrible way to work
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James Cagney
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James Francis Cagney Jr. was an American actor and dancer, both on stage and in film, though he had his greatest impact in film. Known for his energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing, he won acclaim. He is best remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in movies such as The Public Enemy, Angels with Dirty Faces, and White Heat, and was typecast or limited by this view earlier in his career. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among its list of greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Orson Welles said of Cagney, maybe the greatest actor who appeared in front of a camera. In his first professional acting performance, Cagney danced costumed as a woman in the line of the revue Every Sailor. He spent several years in vaudeville as a dancer and comedian and he secured several other roles, receiving good notices, before landing the lead in the 1929 play Penny Arcade. After rave reviews, Warner Bros. signed him for an initial $500-a-week, three-week contract to reprise his role, Cagneys seventh film, The Public Enemy, became one of the most influential gangster movies of the period. Notable for a scene in which Cagney pushes a grapefruit against Mae Clarkes face. He became one of Hollywoods biggest stars and one of Warner Bros. biggest contracts, in 1938, he received his first Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, for Angels with Dirty Faces, for his subtle portrayal of the tough guy/man-child Rocky Sullivan. In 1942, Cagney won the Oscar for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He was nominated a third time in 1955 for Love Me or Leave Me, Cagney retired from acting and dancing in 1961 to spend time on his farm with his family. He exited retirement,20 years later, for a part in the movie Ragtime, Cagney walked out on Warner Bros. several times over the course of his career, each time returning on much improved personal and artistic terms. In 1935, he sued Warner for breach of contract and won and this was one of the first times an actor prevailed over a studio on a contract issue. In reference to Cagneys refusal to be pushed around, Jack L, Warner called him the Professional Againster. Cagney also made numerous morale-boosting troop tours before and during World War II and was president of the Screen Actors Guild for two years, Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. His biographers disagree as to the location, either on the corner of Avenue D. His father, James Francis Cagney, Sr. was of Irish descent, at the time of his sons birth, he was a bartender and amateur boxer, though on Cagneys birth certificate, he is listed as a telegraphist
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Robert Donat
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Friedrich Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcocks The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Donat was also a successful stage actor, despite the challenge of chronic asthma from which he suffered. Donat was born in Withington, Manchester, the fourth and youngest son of Ernst Emil Donath, an engineer of German origin from Prussian Poland. He was of English, Polish, German and French descent and was educated at Manchesters Central High School for Boys and he took elocution lessons with James Bernard. Donat made his first stage appearance in 1921, at the age of 16, with Henry Bayntons company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, playing Lucius in Julius Caesar. His real break came in 1924 when he joined the company of Shakespearean actor Sir Frank Benson, Donat married Ella Annesley Voysey in 1929, the couple had three children together but divorced in 1946. The British cinemas one undisputed romantic leading man in the 1930s was Robert Donat, the image he projected was that of the romantic idealist, often with a dash of the gentleman adventurer. Initially, around 1930 and 1931, he was known as screen test Donat in the industry because of his many unsuccessful auditions for film producers. MGMs producer Irving Thalberg spotted him on the London stage in Precious Bane, instead, Donat made his film debut in a quota quickie Men of Tomorrow for Alexander Kordas London Films. An abysmal screen test for Korda had ended with Donats laughter, reputedly, Korda in response exclaimed, Thats the most natural laugh I have ever heard in my life. Donats first great screen success soon followed in his fourth film and this was as Thomas Culpeper in The Private Life of Henry VIII for the same producer. Korda loaned him to Edward Small for the only film Donat made in Hollywood and he did not care for the film colony and, despite being offered the lead role in Captain Blood, returned to Britain to begin work on Alfred Hitchcocks The 39 Steps opposite Madeleine Carroll. Lejeune observed that he possessed an easy confident humour that has always regarded as the perquisite of the American male star. For the first time on our screen we have the British equivalent of a Clark Gable or a Ronald Colman, Mr Donat, himself, I fancy, is hardly conscious of it, which is all to the good. Hitchcock wanted Donat for the role of the Detective in Sabotage, in 1936 Donat took on the management of the Queens Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue where he produced Red Night by J. L. Hodson. He made two films under his contract with Korda, The Ghost Goes West, and Knight Without Armour. Korda became committed to the project because of Donats indecision. Madeleine Carroll had read the James Hilton novel while shooting The 39 Steps, Donat acquired the rights and passed them on to Korda, although by now Carroll was unavailable
