1.
Michael Gordon (film director)
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Michael Gordon was an American stage actor and stage and film director. Gordon was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in a middle class Jewish community and he was a member of the Group Theatre, and was blacklisted as a Communist in the McCarthy era. He later joined the faculty of the UCLA Theater Department, Gordon summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut. Pinebrook is best known for becoming the home of the Group Theatre. Some of the artists who summered there were, Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan, John Garfield, Lee J. Cobb, Will Geer, Clifford Odets, Howard Da Silva. As a result of being blacklisted, Gordons Hollywood career falls into two phases, in 1940, he started as a dialogue director and went on to direct B-movies. In the late 1940s, he distinguished himself by directing not just action movies but also melodramas and he also directed the 1950 film, Cyrano de Bergerac, for which José Ferrer won a Best Actor Academy Award. Subsequently, Gordons second creative phase was concerned with light-hearted comedy films, Gordon and his wife Elizabeth Cohn had three children, Jonathan, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Jane Gordon-Levitt, graduate of University of California, Berkeley and Susannah. Gordon is the grandfather of American actor, director, screenwriter, producer. He died of natural causes on April 29,1993, Michael Gordon at the Internet Movie Database Michael Gordon at Find a Grave
Michael Gordon (film director)
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Michael Gordon
2.
Kirk Douglas
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Kirk Douglas is an American actor, producer, director, and author. He is one of the last living people of the film industrys Golden Age, after an impoverished childhood with immigrant parents and six sisters, he had his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s and 1960s, known for dramas, including westerns. During a 64-year acting career, he has appeared in more than 90 movies, other early films include Young Man with a Horn, playing opposite Lauren Bacall and Doris Day, Ace in the Hole opposite Jan Sterling, and Detective Story. He received a second Oscar nomination for his role in The Bad and the Beautiful, opposite Lana Turner. In 1955, he established Bryna Productions, which began producing films as varied as Paths of Glory, in those two films, he starred and collaborated with the then relatively unknown director, Stanley Kubrick. Douglas helped break the Hollywood blacklist by having Dalton Trumbo write Spartacus with an official on-screen credit and he produced and starred in Lonely Are the Brave, considered a cult classic, and Seven Days in May, opposite Burt Lancaster, with whom he made seven films. In 1963, he starred in the Broadway play One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, a story he purchased, which he gave to his son Michael Douglas. As an actor and philanthropist, Douglas has received three Academy Award nominations, an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as an author, he has written ten novels and memoirs. Currently, he is No.17 on the American Film Institutes list of the greatest male screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema, after barely surviving a helicopter crash in 1991 and then suffering a stroke in 1996, he has focused on renewing his spiritual and religious life. He lives with his wife, Anne, a producer. He turned 100 on December 9,2016, Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Bryna Bertha and Herschel Harry Danielovitch. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Chavusy, Mogilev Region, in the Russian Empire, and his fathers brother, who emigrated earlier, used the surname Demsky, which Douglass family adopted in the United States. Douglas grew up as Izzy Demsky and legally changed his name to Kirk Douglas before entering the United States Navy during World War II. Even on Eagle Street, in the poorest section of town, where all the families were struggling, and I was the ragmans son. Growing up, Douglas sold snacks to mill workers to earn enough to buy milk, later, he delivered newspapers and during his youth worked at more than forty different jobs before getting a job acting. He found living in a family with six sisters to be stifling, in a sense, it lit a fire under me. In high school, after acting in plays, he knew he wanted to become a professional actor
Kirk Douglas
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Douglas in 1969.
Kirk Douglas
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College graduation, 1939
Kirk Douglas
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With
Lauren Bacall in
Young Man with a Horn (1950)
Kirk Douglas
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With
Eve Miller in The Big Trees (1952)
3.
Mitzi Gaynor
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Mitzi Gaynor is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Gaynor was born as Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago to Pauline Fisher, a dancer, and Henry von Gerber, a violinist, cellist, after her father remarried, she became step-sister to anti-war activist Donald W. Duncan. Her family first moved to Elgin, Illinois, then to Detroit and she trained as a ballerina as a child and began her career as a chorus dancer. At 13, she was singing and dancing with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera company and she lied about her address so she could attend Hollywood High School, and signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox at age 17. She sang, acted, and danced in a number of film musicals, a Fox Studio executive thought that Mitzi Gerber sounded like the name of a delicatessen, and they came up with a name that used the same initials. She married Jack Bean, a talent agent and public relations executive for MCA, in San Francisco, California and they resided on North Arden Drive in Beverly Hills, California. She had just been released from Twentieth Century-Fox with four years left on her contract, after their marriage, Bean quit MCA and started his own real estate business and managed Gaynors career. In 1956, the remake of Anything Goes, co-starring Bing Crosby, Donald OConnor, in 1957, she also appeared in Les Girls, directed by George Cukor, with Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall. Her biggest international fame came from her role as Ensign Nellie Forbush in the film version of Rodgers. For her performance, she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award and she made her last film to date in the early 1960s. One of her last films was the United Kingdom production Surprise Package and her co-stars were Yul Brynner and Noël Coward. The film had a song by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn Following her film work. She often performed songs at Academy Awards ceremonies, at the 1967 Oscar telecast, she sang the theme from the film Georgy Girl. Gaynor later added the number to her concert repertoire, throughout the 1960s and 70s, she starred in nine acclaimed television specials that garnered 16 Emmy nominations. As an interesting footnote, she appeared between two sets by The Beatles when they made their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show of February 16,1964. She performed for an unprecedented nine-minute segment from the stage of the Deauville Hotel, in Miami Beach and she sang Too Darn Hot and a blues medley. Gaynor recorded two albums for the Verve label, one called Mitzi and the second called Mitzi Gaynor Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin and she is thought to have earned more from the record royalties on the South Pacific soundtrack album than her salary for the movie. She also recorded the song from her film, Happy Anniversary for the Top Rank label
Mitzi Gaynor
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Mitzi Gaynor, c. 1954
Mitzi Gaynor
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Mitzi Gaynor from the trailer for
There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)
4.
Thelma Ritter
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Thelma Ritter was an American actress, best known for her comedic roles as working class characters and her strong New York accent. She received six Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Ritter was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1902. After appearing in school plays and stock companies, she trained as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She established a career but took a hiatus to raise her two children by her husband, Joseph Moran, an actor turned advertising executive. Ritter did stock theater and radio shows early in her career, ritters first movie role was in Miracle on 34th Street. She made an impression in a brief uncredited part, as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle has promised her son. Her second role, in writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewiczs A Letter to Three Wives, left a mark, mankiewicz kept Ritter in mind, and cast her as Birdie in All About Eve, which earned her an Oscar nomination. A second nomination followed for her work in Mitchell Leisens classic ensemble screwball comedy The Mating Season starring Gene Tierney and she enjoyed steady film work for the next dozen years. She appeared in many of the episodic drama TV series of the 1950s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theater, other film roles were as James Stewarts nurse in Rear Window and as Doris Days housekeeper in Pillow Talk. Although best known for roles, she played the occasional dramatic role, most notably in With a Song in My Heart, Pickup on South Street, Titanic. Her last work was an appearance on The Jerry Lewis Show on January 23,1968, Ritter died of a heart attack in New York City, nine days before her 67th birthday. During her career, Ritter was nominated for an Oscar six times, the current record for all actors is Peter OToole with eight nominations without a win, followed by Richard Burton with seven nominations. Both Kerr and OToole received honorary awards from the Academy, however, in 1954, Thelma Ritter co-hosted the Oscar ceremony, notably trading wisecracks with Bob Hope. Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for, All About Eve The Mating Season Boeing Boeing Awarded Best Actress in a Musical for New Girl in Town in a rare tie, Thelma Ritter at the Internet Broadway Database Thelma Ritter at the Internet Movie Database
Thelma Ritter
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Ritter in 1955
5.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
Universal Pictures
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Mark Dintenfass was co-founder of Universal Studios.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Studios Inc.
Universal Pictures
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Boris Karloff in
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Universal Pictures
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Ceremonial gate to Universal Studios Hollywood (the theme park attached to the studio lot)
6.
Romantic comedy film
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Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is a movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily. Another definition states that its primary distinguishing feature is a plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled. Romantic comedy films are a genre of comedy films as well as of romance films. However a romantic comedy is classified as a film with two genres not a new genre. Some television series can also be classified as romantic comedies, a wedding-bells, fairy-tale-style happy ending is practically mandatory. The basic plot of a comedy is that two characters meet, part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately reunite. Sometimes the two meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes they are hesitant to become involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are, in fact, attracted to each other, the protagonists often separate or seek time apart to sort out their feelings or deal with the external obstacles to their being together. While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them realizes that they are ideal for each other, or that they are in love with each other. Then, after one of the two makes some effort to find the other person and declare their love, or through an astonishing coincidental encounter. Then, perhaps with some comic friction or awkwardness, they declare their love for each other, the couple does not, however, have to marry, or live together happily ever after. The ending of a comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in its protagonists lives. There are many variations on this basic plotline, sometimes, instead of the two lead characters ending up in each others arms, another love match will be made between one of the principal characters and a secondary character. Alternatively, the film may be a rumination on the impossibility of love, the basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources, such as Shakespeare plays like Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Nights Dream. Some comedy films, such as Knocked Up, combine themes of romantic comedies and stoner comedies, often known as bromance, such films usually use sexual elements which bring the two characters together. Films in this genre include American Pie 2 and even Wedding Crashers, romantic comedies have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory
Romantic comedy film
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Marilyn Monroe and
Tom Ewell in
The Seven Year Itch trailer.
Romantic comedy film
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Kathryn Grayson in Seven Sweethearts (1942), a musical romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy film
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Mary Astor and
Joel McCrea in
The Palm Beach Story, a screwball romantic comedy
7.
Gig Young
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Gig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a slimy dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, an alcoholic, Young was implicated in the murder-suicide that resulted in the deaths of his wife and himself in 1978. Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, he and his siblings were raised by his parents, John and Emma Barr. When he was six, his family moved back to their hometown of Waynesville, North Carolina and he developed a passion for the theatre while appearing in high school plays, and after some amateur experience he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse. While acting in Pancho, a play by Lowell Barrington, he. Both actors were signed to supporting player contracts with the studio and his early work was un-credited or as Byron Barr. Young appeared in supporting roles in films during the 1940s. Young took a hiatus from his career and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard in 1941 where he served as a pharmacists mate until the end of World War II. In early 1942, in a bit part and nearly unseen, in his distinctive voice, he had one line. Less than two years later, he played opposite her as her beau in Old Acquaintance. After Youngs return from the war, Warner Bros. dropped his option and he then began freelancing at various studios, eventually obtaining a contract with Columbia Pictures before returning to freelancing. During those years, Young began to play the type of role that he would become best known for, in 1955, Young became the host of Warner Bros. Presents, a title for three television series that aired during the 1955–56 season on ABC Television. He played a role the same year in the Humphrey Bogart thriller The Desperate Hours. Young is also remembered by many James Dean fans for the driving safety interview made shortly before Deans fatal car accident in September,1955, on the 1964–65 NBC series The Rogues, he shared appearances on a rotating basis with David Niven and Charles Boyer. Young won the Academy Award for his role as Rocky, the dance marathon emcee and promoter in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Dont They. According to his wife, Elaine Williams, What he was aching for. For Young, the Oscar was literally the kiss of death, Young himself had said to Louella Parsons, after failing to win in 1951, so many people who have been nominated for an Oscar have had bad luck afterwards
Gig Young
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Young in 1953
8.
Matchmaking
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In some cultures, the role of the matchmaker was and is quite professionalized. Tarot divination has also employed by some matchmakers. Social dance, especially in frontier North America, the dance and square dance, has also been employed in matchmaking. However, when farming families were separated and kept all children on the farm working. It may be fair to say only that they were able to speed up, or slow down, in this sense they were probably not distinguishable from relatives, rivals, or others with an interest. Clergy probably played a key role in most Western cultures, as they continue to do in modern ones, Matchmaking was certainly one of the peripheral functions of the village priest in Medieval Catholic society, as well as a Talmudic duty of rabbis in traditional Jewish communities. Today, the shidduch is a system of matchmaking in which Jewish singles are introduced to one another in Orthodox Jewish communities and these services often rely on personality tests, aiming to maximize the identification of the best match. The acceptance of dating systems, however, has created something of a resurgence in the role of the traditional professional matchmaker and those who find dating systems or services useful but prefer human intelligence and personal touches can choose from a wide range of such services now available. According to Mark Brooks, you can find people who are compatible. He also stated that matchmakers offer “a chance to connect” and “a chance to authenticate” prospects in ways the Web sites can’t. In Singapore, the Social Development Unit, run by the government, offers a combination of professional counsel and dating system technology. Various academics and practitioners in sexology and marriage counseling have developed matchmaking methods with the goal of maximising its success, for example, profiles produced by personality tests can be evaluated for compatibility. Academics who have written books on this topic include Pepper Schwartz, Helen Fisher, Neil Clark Warren, Hugo Schmale, the concept of matchmaking is also used in the business world and known as B2B Matchmaking, Investor Matchmaking, Business Speed Dating or Brokerage Events. In contradiction to social networking solutions, real meetings between people are in focus. Trade fair organisations e. g. find this concept an added value for their exhibitors because it gives them the opportunity of advanced planned meetings, following the inspiration of dating sites, some online B2B networking platforms developed advanced business matching solutions enabling relevant business partners identification. People Robert Stewart Sparks, Los Angeles City Hall matchmaker, 20th century Nelle Brooke Stull, founder and president of the Widows & Widowers Club, 20th century
Matchmaking
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Gerard van Honthorst, The Match-Maker (1625)
Matchmaking
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Finding a Match is easier than finding a Parking Space,
Chennai, India
Matchmaking
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Traditional matchmaking is a usual folk program in Russian museums
9.
Julie Newmar
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Julie Newmar is an American actress, dancer and singer, known for a variety of stage, screen, and television roles. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Katrin Sveg in the 1958 Broadway production of The Marriage-Go-Round, in the 1960s, she starred for two seasons as Catwoman in the television series Batman. Her other stage credits include the Ziegfeld Follies in 1956, and Irma in Irma la Douce in regional productions. She appeared in the video for George Michaels 1992 single Too Funky. Her voice work includes the 2016 film Batman, Return of the Caped Crusaders and she was born in Los Angeles as Julia Chalene Newmeyer, the eldest of three children born to Don and Helen Newmeyer. Her Swedish-French mother was a designer who used Chalene as her professional name. Newmar began her career as a dancer, training with Denishawn and later appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies, Newmar has two younger brothers, Peter Bruce Newmeyer and John A. Newmeyer, a writer, epidemiologist, and winemaker. Newmar was a dancer-assassin in Slaves of Babylon and the girl in Serpent of the Nile. She danced in other films, including The Band Wagon and Demetrius and the Gladiators. She also worked as a choreographer and dancer for Universal Studios and her first major role, billed as Julie Newmeyer, was as Dorcas, one of the brides in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Her three-minute Broadway appearance as the leggy Stupefyin Jones in the musical Lil Abner in 1956 led to a reprise in the version released in 1959. She was also the lead in a low-budget comedy, The Rookie. Newmar had first appeared on Broadway in 1955 in Silk Stockings which starred Hildegarde Neff and she also appeared in the film, The Marriage-Go-Round, which starred James Mason and Susan Hayward. Newmar developed the role of the Swedish vixen and won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress and she later appeared on stage with Joel Grey in the national tour of Stop the World - I Want to Get Off and as Lola in Damn Yankees. And Irma in Irma La Douce. and in Mackennas Gold and she also appeared in a pictorial in the May 1968 issue of Playboy magazine, which featured Playmate Elizabeth Jordan. The film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar pays homage to the actress, Newmar herself makes a cameo appearance near the films end. Newmars fame stems mainly from her television appearances and her statuesque form made her a larger-than-life sex symbol, most often cast as a temptress or Amazonian beauty, including an early appearance in sexy maid costume on The Phil Silvers Show. She starred as Rhoda the Robot in the TV series My Living Doll, Newmar modified her Catwoman costume—now in the Smithsonian Institution—and placed the belt at the hips instead of the waist to emphasize her hourglass figure
Julie Newmar
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Newmar in 1965
Julie Newmar
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With
Bob Cummings in
My Living Doll (1964)
Julie Newmar
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From the trailer for The Maltese Bippy (1969)
Julie Newmar
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As
Catwoman (1966)
10.
William Bendix
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William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered in films for the role in The Babe Ruth Story. He also memorably portrayed the clumsily-earnest aircraft plant worker Chester A. Riley in radio and he received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for Wake Island. Bendix, named William after his grandfather, was born in Manhattan. His uncle was composer, conductor, and violinist Max Bendix, in the early 1920s, Bendix was a batboy for the New York Yankees and said he saw Babe Ruth hit more than a hundred home runs at Yankee Stadium. However, he was fired after fulfilling Ruths request for an order of hot dogs and soda before a game. In 1927, Bendix married Theresa Stefanotti and he worked as a grocer until the Great Depression. Bendix began his career at age 30 in the New Jersey Federal Theatre Project. He made his debut in 1942. He played in supporting roles in dozens of Hollywood films, usually as a gangster, detective. He began with appearances in film noir, including a performance in The Glass Key and he soon gained attention after appearing in Alfred Hitchcocks Lifeboat as Gus, a wounded and dying American sailor. He played Nick the bartender in the version of William Saroyans The Time of Your Life starring James Cagney. Bendix had appeared in the version, but in the role of Officer Krupp. He was also cast in The Blue Dahlia, starring for the time alongside Ladd. In 1949, Bendix starred in an adaptation of his radio program The Life of Riley. It was Bendixs appearance in The McGuerins of Brooklyn, playing a rugged blue-collar man, the show began as a proposed Groucho Marx radio series, The Flotsam Family, but the sponsor balked at what would have been essentially a straight head-of-household role for the comedian. Then creator and producer Irving Brecher saw Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roachs The McGuerins from Brooklyn, Brecher stated, He was a Brooklyn guy and there was something about him. I thought, This guy could play it, hed made a few films, like Lifeboat, but he was not a name
William Bendix
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Bendix in 1960.
William Bendix
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Bendix as Riley with
Sterling Holloway, 1957.
11.
Leslie Parrish
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Leslie Parrish is an American actress who worked under her birth name, Marjorie Hellen, until she changed it in 1959. She is also an activist, an environmentalist, a writer, as a child, Parrish lived in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. At the age of 10, she settled in Upper Black Eddy. At the age of 14, Parrish was a talented and promising piano, at the age of 16, Parrish earned money for her tuition by working as a maid and a waitress, and by teaching piano. At the age of 18, to earn money to be able to continue her education at the Conservatory, her mother convinced her to become a model for one year. In April 1954, as a 19-year-old model with the Conover Agency in New York City and she was quickly discovered and signed with Twentieth Century Fox in Hollywood. In 1956, she was put under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, because acting allowed her to help her family financially, she remained in Hollywood and gave up her career in music. Parrish co-starred/guest-starred in numerous films and television throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1962 she appeared in the classic film The Manchurian Candidate, playing Laurence Harveys on screen wife, other film credits include starring opposite Kirk Douglas in For Love or Money and Jerry Lewis in Three on a Couch, among others. Parrish amassed an extensive résumé of television credits, among many other credits, Parrish appeared in guest starring roles on episodes of The Wild Wild West, My Three Sons, The Man From U. N. C. L. E. Mannix, Police Story, Batman and McCloud, in 1967, she guest-starred on Star Trek in an episode entitled Who Mourns For Adonais. She played Lt. Carolyn Palamas, the love interest for the character Apollo, the following year she played opposite Peter Breck in an episode of The Big Valley entitled A Bounty on a Barkley. Parrish was the Associate Producer on the version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. When the relationship between author Richard Bach and director Hall Bartlett disintegrated and a lawsuit followed, Parrish was appointed as the mediator between the two men, however, her final credit was demoted from Associate Producer to Researcher. While acting provided financial stability, her main interest was in causes including the anti-war and civil rights movements and, as far back as the mid 1950s. Over time, her interests in social movements and politics became her main work and she was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, a member of the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, a group of notable women who fought against the war and for civil rights. In 1967 she participated in a march in Century City where she and thousands of other protestors were attacked and beaten by police. Parrish started to make speeches in the Los Angeles area, telling residents what the media did not report, impressed with her speaking abilities several anti-war professors from UCLA asked her to organize more like-minded actors and actresses willing to speak out
Leslie Parrish
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Parrish with
Gary Lockwood in
Follow the Sun, 1962
12.
Dick Sargent
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Richard Stanford Cox, known professionally as Dick Sargent, was an American actor, notable as the second actor to portray Darrin Stephens on the television series Bewitched. The actor took the name Dick Sargent from a Saturday Evening Post illustrator/artist of the same name, born Richard Stanford Cox in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, on April 19,1930, to Ruth McNaughton, daughter of John McNaughton who founded Los Angeles famed Union Stockyards. She appeared under the nom-de-arte of Ruth Powell, and had important supporting bit roles in such classics as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Hearts. Sargents father, Colonel Elmer Cox, who served in World War I, later became a manager to such Hollywood alumni as Douglas Fairbanks. Sargent attended the San Rafael Military Academy in Menlo Park, California before majoring in drama at Stanford University, Sargent had appeared in films since his debut in Prisoner of War. He appeared on the short-lived sitcom Broadside and the even shorter-lived Tammy Grimes Show, later, he played Darrin Stephens on Bewitched for three years between 1969 and 1972, replacing ailed actor Dick York. His later movies included the 1979 film Hardcore as Jake Van Dorns straight-laced brother-in-law, Wes DeJong and he also played Sheriff Grady Byrd on two 1979–1980 season episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard. Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, The Devlin Connection, Trapper John, M. D. Alice, Matt Houston, Benson, in 1990, he also portrayed himself on an episode of Columbo. In the mid-1980s, he landed the role of Richard Preston. He also appeared in the movie Teen Witch in 1989 and on Diffrent Strokes, throughout the 1980s, he joined actress Sally Struthers as an advocate for Christian Childrens Fund, which brought relief to developing nations children. On National Coming Out Day in 1991, Sargent publicly declared his homosexuality, the high rate of suicide among young homosexuals was the main reason, he jokingly referring to himself as a retroactive role model. Sargent recognized that his ill health from prostate cancer may have led people to assume he suffered from AIDS and he lived with his domestic partner, Albert Williams, until his death. In June 1992, Sargent was a Grand Marshal of the Los Angeles Gay Pride parade along with Elizabeth Montgomery, Sargent was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1989. Doctors were initially optimistic that it could be treated, however, the disease continued to spread and, by early 1994, he had become seriously ill. Sargent died from the disease on July 8,1994, at age 64, former Bewitched co-star Elizabeth Montgomery commented, He was a great friend, and I will miss his love, his sense of humor and his remarkable courage. Montgomery herself died of cancer a year later. Dick Sargent is Out and Proud, archived from the original on September 20,2011. Dick Sargent at the Internet Movie Database Dick Sargent at AllMovie Dick Sargent at the TCM Movie Database Dick Sargent at Find a Grave
Dick Sargent
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Dick Sargent
13.
Elizabeth MacRae
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Elizabeth Herndon MacRae was brought up in Fayetteville, North Carolina her family relocated from Fort Jackson to Fort Bragg when she was a child. MacRae is an actress who starred on television shows, movies. She is probably best known for her role as Lou-Ann Poovie on the series Gomer Pyle, USMC and her papers, which include many scripts from the various shows on which she appeared, are held in the Southern Historical Collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Crystal Plummer Wild Is My Love, mrs. Lumquist Eddie and the Cruisers II, Eddie Lives. Reporter #3 Naked City Harrigan and Son, emily Todd The Asphalt Jungle Surfside 6. Carla Wilson/Marcy Johnson/Margia Knight/Carla Wilson 77 Sunset Strip, fanny Fields, April Clomley Sam Benedict. Myra Engles For Love or Money, molly Weams I Dream of Jeannie. Lou-Ann Poovie Judd for the Defense, aunt Rose Caillous Holiday Movie CMT, The Greatest -20 Greatest Country Comedy Shows. Herself Elizabeth MacRae at the Internet Movie Database Inventory of the Elizabeth MacRae Papers
Elizabeth MacRae
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Elizabeth MacRae
14.
William Windom (actor)
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William Windom was an American actor. He was perhaps best known for his work on television, including two episodes of The Twilight Zone, Windom was born in New York City, the son of Isobel Wells and Paul Windom, an architect. He was the great-grandson of the United States Secretary of the Treasury of the same name. He served in the United States Army in the European Theater of Operations in World War II, as a paratrooper with Company B, 1st Battalion 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Windoms first motion picture role was as Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor of Tom Robinson in the 1962 Academy Award-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. Windom appeared in 1961 All Is Forgiven episode of The Donna Reed Show as Ed Corwin, in 1968, he starred with Frank Sinatra in The Detective, playing a homophobic killer. The role received great reviews from The New York Times, after the cancellation of the series, Windom toured the country for a time in a one-man Thurber show. After the run was completed, Windom filmed the pilot for a new series Is there a Doctor in the House and he was a regular for a decade on the series Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury as mystery writer Jessica Fletcher. His initial appearance in the role was in October 1985, the producers enjoyed his work, and consequently invited him to return at the beginning of the second season to take on the role permanently. He briefly left the show to work on series in 1990. He died on August 16,2012, at the age of 88 at his home in Woodacre, California and he was survived by four of his children – Rachel, Heather, Hope and Rebel – and four grandchildren. William Windom at the Internet Movie Database William Windom at the Internet Broadway Database William Windom at AllMovie William Windom at Memory Alpha In Memory of William Windom
William Windom (actor)
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Windom in
My World and Welcome to It
William Windom (actor)
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Playbill: Windom Plays Thurber
15.
Billy Halop
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William Billy Halop was an American actor. Halop came from a family, his mother was a dancer. In 1933, he was given the lead, Bobby Benson, in the new radio show The H-Bar-O Rangers. From 1934 to 1937, he starred in one of his first radio series, playing Dick Kent, the son of Fred and Lucy Kent, in Home Sweet Home. Usually called Tommy in the films, he had the role of a gang leader in a series of films that featured the Dead End Kids. In his later years, he claimed that he was more than the other Dead End actors, which had contributed to bad feelings in the group. After serving in World War II, he found that he had grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame, at one point, he was reduced to starring in a cheap East Side Kids imitation at PRC studios, Gas House Kids. Diminishing film work, marital difficulties, and a problem eventually ate away at his show business career. In the 1970s, he played the character Bert Munson, cab driver and close friend to Archie Bunker on the television series All in the Family, Halop was married at least four times, according to interviews given near the end of his life. Helen Tupper was his first wife from 1946 until their divorce in 1947, on Valentines Day,1948, he married Barbara Hoon. Their marriage lasted ten years until their divorce in 1958 and his third marriage in 1960 to Suzanne Roe, who had multiple sclerosis, lasted until their divorce in 1967. The nursing skills he learned while taking care of his wife led him to steady work as a registered nurse at St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica. His fourth marriage, to a coworker, whose name has not been publicized, was quickly annulled after she allegedly attacked him. He later moved back in with his wife, Suzanne. Late in life, Halop supplemented his income with film and television roles. Halop died on November 9,1976 at the age of 56 from an attack and is interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles
Billy Halop
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Billy Halop was an American film actor.
16.
Turner Classic Movies
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Turner Classic Movies is an American movie-oriented basic cable and satellite television network owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner. TCM is headquartered at the Techwood Campus in Atlanta, Georgias Midtown business district, historically, the channels programming consisted mainly of featured classic theatrically released feature films from the Turner Entertainment film library – which comprises films from Warner Bros. However, TCM now has licensing deals with other Hollywood film studios as well as its Time Warner sister company, Warner Bros. and occasionally shows more recent films. The channel is available in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, France, Spain, Nordic countries, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In 1986, eight years before the launch of Turner Classic Movies, concerns over Turner Entertainments corporate debt load resulted in Turner selling the studio that October back to Kirk Kerkorian, from whom Turner had purchased the studio less than a year before. As part of the deal, Turner Entertainment retained ownership of MGMs library of films released up to May 9,1986, Turner Broadcasting System was split into two companies, Turner Broadcasting System and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and reincorporated as MGM/UA Communications Co. The film library of Turner Entertainment would serve as the form of programming for TCM upon the networks launch. After the library was acquired, MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner to continue distributing the pre-May 1986 MGM and to begin distributing the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film libraries for video release. Turner Classic Movies debuted on April 14,1994, at 6,00 p. m. Eastern Time, the date and time were chosen for their historical significance as the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City. The first movie broadcast on TCM was the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, at the time of its launch, TCM was available to approximately one million cable television subscribers. AMC had broadened its content to feature colorized and more recent films by 2002. In the early 90s AMC abandoned its format, leaving TCM as the only movie-oriented cable channel to devote its programming entirely to classic films without commercial interruption. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, which besides placing Turner Classic Movies, in March 1999, MGM paid Warner Bros. and gave up the home video rights to the MGM/UA films owned by Turner to Warner Home Video. In 2008, TCM won a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, in April 2010, Turner Classic Movies held the first TCM Classic Film Festival, an event – now held annually – at the Graumans Chinese Theater and the Graumans Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. In 2007, some of the films featured on TCM were made available for streaming on TCMs website. The networks programming season runs from February until the following March of each year when a retrospective of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies is shown, called 31 Days of Oscar. Turner Classic Movies presents many of its features in their original aspect ratio whenever possible – widescreen films broadcast on TCM are letterboxed on the standard definition feed. TCM also regularly presents widescreen presentations of films not available in the format on any video release
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Robert Osborne at the 73rd Annual Peabody Awards
17.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
IMDb
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Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
18.
One Dangerous Night
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One Dangerous Night is the ninth Lone Wolf film produced by Columbia Pictures. It features Warren William in his seventh and second-to-last performance as the protagonist jewel thief turned detective Lone Wolf, and Warren Ashe as Sidney Shaw, the film was directed by Michael Gordon and written by Arnold Phillips, Max Nosseck, and Donald Davis. One Dangerous Night centres on former jewel thief Michael Lanyard, also known by his alias Lone Wolf, filming took place in September 1942. One Dangerous Night was theatrically released in the United States on January 22,1943, former jewel thief and reformed detective Michael Lanyard, or the Lone Wolf, is driving to a party with his butler Jamison. Halfway through the journey, they come across Eve Andrews, who requests that they bring her to Harry Coopers residence. Meanwhile, Cooper, a criminal, is carrying out a scheme to loot the jewellery of select wealthy persons — namely, Jane Merrick, Sonia Budenny. Cooper is killed before he can finish his plans by an unknown assailant, Lanyard, who happens to be at the scene, is pinpointed by the suspicious police as the perpetrator. He escapes but is found by magazine writer Sidney Shaw, who agrees not to rat Lanyard out in exchange for a scoop, the Lone Wolf interrogates the women at the murder scene but is unable to find a lead. He is then captured by two working under Arthur, Coopers right-hand man. Lanyard breaks free and flees, reuniting with Jamison and Shaw, the trio sneak into Coopers house and decide to tail Arthur, who is leaving for the airport. The criminal turns out to be meeting a female teen named Patricia Blake, unaware of Coopers death, she becomes distressed when the news is broken to her. Arthur and Blake later leave for a hotel, in the middle of his confidence trick on Blake, Arthur is halted by Lanyard, Jamison, and Shaw, who rush into the hotel room. A heated fight ensues, with Arthur managing to escape, Blake injures herself and is quickly attended to by Shaw. When she admits her love for Cooper, Shaw seethes in infuriation, Lanyard realizes that Blake is Shaws spouse and by piecing two-and-two together, he concludes that Shaw was Coopers killer. The police arrive in time to arrest the jealous lover and the Lone Wolf is exonerated from all charges, while still a work-in-progress, the film was referred to as The Lone Wolf Goes to a Party. The film marked American actor Warren Williams seventh and second-to-last portrayal of the Lone Wolf and it was the film debut of Ann Savage, who played Vivian, an acquaintance of the Lone Wolfs. One Dangerous Night was directed by Michael Gordon, the script was written by Donald Davis, based on Arnold Phillips and Max Nossecks story. L. W. OConnell was signed on as cinematographer, while David Chatkin was in charge of producing for Columbia Pictures, viola Lawrence was editor and M. W. Stoloff directed the films music
One Dangerous Night
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Theatrical release poster
19.
Crime Doctor (film)
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Crime Doctor is a crime film adapted from the radio series of the same name. The film stars Warner Baxter as a man with amnesia determined to remember his past, the film was released by Columbia Pictures. Nine sequels followed, all starring Baxter and these later movies were somewhat more conventional mysteries than the original film. Baxter finished his career with the series, which was easy work for him after a nervous breakdown he had suffered. He died two years after the final Crime Doctor movie, during the Great Depression, a man is thrown out of a speeding car. When he regains consciousness in a hospital, he has amnesia and he is visited by a man who accuses him of faking his condition. The stranger calls the patient Phil and demands to know happened to a valise. When the man recovers, he takes the name Robert Ordway, ordways doctor, John Carey, wants to continue treating him and offers lodging in his house. All attempts to discover his identity fail, so Ordway decides to learn all he can about his condition, after ten years, he has become a successful psychiatrist, in partnership with Carey. He is so successful, he is named head of the parole board. While on a date in a nightclub with social worker Grace Fielding and they and a third man, Emilio Caspari, are unsure if he is their partner in crime. They convince convict Pearl Adams, their associates ex-girlfriend, to apply for parole, at her hearing, she calls Ordway Dr. Morgan. Ordway badgers her until she reveals that he is Phil Morgan, to trigger his memory, he contacts the three men and reenacts the events of the day he lost his memory. Tempers flare and the men fight, during the struggle, Ordway is struck on the head and remembers his past. He calls the police and has the gang arrested, insisting on being tried for the robbery, Morgan admits his wrongdoing, but takes pride in his accomplishments since. The jury finds him guilty, but recommends clemency, the judge sentences him to the minimum term of ten years, then suspends the sentence, saying, We need men like you. Robert J. Ordway Margaret Lindsay as Grace Fielding John Litel as Emilio Caspari, the mystery man Ray Collins as Dr
Crime Doctor (film)
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theatrical poster
20.
The Web (film)
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The Web is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Michael Gordon starring Ella Raines, Edmond OBrien, William Bendix and Vincent Price. Leopold Kroner, formerly of Colby Enterprises, is released five years in prison for embezzlement. Andrew Colby, claiming that Kroner has threatened him, hires lawyer Bob Regan as a personal bodyguard and that evening, Regan hears a gunshot from Colbys study and finds Kroner there, apparently trying to kill Colby. Regan kills Kroner when he turns around, pointing the gun at him, Regan believes Colbys explanation that Kroner had become delusional and threatening, until Regans police buddy Damico lets on that hes suspicious that Regan murdered Kroner. Kroners daughter Martha Kroner shows up at Regans apartment and tries and she reveals that Colby had invited Kroner to the house that night and Kroner was of sound mind. Regan investigates further, getting information about Kroners embezzlement case from a reporter and Colbys secretary, Regan has a friend impersonate one of Colbys associates on the phone to deceive him into providing information about the embezzlement, unknowing that this associate is already long dead. Colby uses this situation to his advantage to set a trap for Regan and he innocently asks Noel to remove money from his safe, then after she leaves, he kills his associate Charles with a weapon having Regans fingerprints. The two of them are framed for theft and murder, but Lt. Damico tricks Colby into thinking Charles is still alive, since Charles would reveal all of Colbys actions, that night Colby tries to sneak down and strangle Charles, only to be caught red-handed. Ella Raines as Noel Faraday Edmond OBrien as Bob Regan William Bendix as Lt, but hes not nearly as dumb as he makes out and, on the other hand. The Web is not nearly as good as it might have been, more recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film a positive review, writing, Top-of-the-line B film crime drama. A great cast digs into this film noir with relish, director Michael Gordon keeps things breezy and topped off with zesty mustard. Writers Bertram Millhauser and William Bowers keep the story by Harry Kurnitz free of any dull momenta, the Web at the Internet Movie Database The Web at AllMovie The Web at the TCM Movie Database The Web scene on YouTube
The Web (film)
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Theatrical release poster
21.
Another Part of the Forest (film)
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Another Part of the Forest is a 1948 American drama film starring Fredric March and directed by Michael Gordon. The screenplay by Vladimir Pozner is based on the 1946 play of the name by Lillian Hellman. Set in the town of Bowden, Alabama in June 1880, the plot focuses on the wealthy, ruthless. Patriarch Marcus Hubbard was born into poverty and toiled at menial labor while teaching himself Greek philosophy and he ultimately made his fortune by exploiting his fellow Southerners during the American Civil War. Shrewd, amoral elder son Benjamin is plotting to usurp his fathers power, time said, Under Michael Gordons direction it is a nearly perfect example of how to film a play. TV Guide stated, This utterly depressing film is salvaged through intense performances that rivet the viewer, along with the literate, another Part of the Forest at the Internet Movie Database
Another Part of the Forest (film)
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Publicity still with, from left to right, Dona Drake, Dan Duryea, Ann Blyth, Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, Edmond O'Brien, and John Dall
22.
An Act of Murder
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An Act of Murder is a 1948 American film noir crime film directed by Michael Gordon starring Fredric March, Edmond OBrien, Florence Eldridge and Geraldine Brooks. It was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, calvin Cooke, a principled but stubborn judge, presides over a murder case in which lawyer David Douglas is unsuccessful in proving that his clients state of mind was a mitigating factor. Cookes daughter Ellie complains to her mother Cathy about how unyielding her father can be, anyway, it is their 20th wedding anniversary and she is planning to celebrate with friends at their house. Cooke does not know that Ellie and Douglas are romantically involved until Douglas arrives during the party to take her on a date, Cooke and Douglas exchange sharp words of disagreement about their philosophies of the law. At the party, Cathy talks to Dr. Morrison, an expert neurologist and friend of the family, about her intermittent symptoms of weakness, at his office, Morrison performs a series of tests and then consults other experts. Rather than tell her the truth, Morrison contacts her husband, Cathy has an inoperable brain tumor and will suffer increasingly until it kills her. Cooke agrees, rather than spoiling her remaining days, to keep the information secret, the doctor gives him a bottle of pills called Demarine for pain relief, strongly warning him about the maximum dosage, and a prescription for more. Cooke, who said he was too busy with cases to take Cathy on a second honeymoon as she wished. But her condition worsens rapidly, including excruciatingly painful headaches, Cooke gives her a dose of Demarine, pretending it is aspirin. While he is calling the doctor from a pay phone so Cathy will not hear, a dog is run over in the street, Cooke, evidently feeling disgust at similar thoughts of his own, discards the remaining pills. Cathy, looking through their luggage for toiletries, accidentally discovers the doctors written diagnosis, when Cooke returns to the room, she says she is feeling better but would like to return home. In the car, her symptoms return and they stop at a gas station to have a car problem repaired and Cooke asks urgently about the nearest drugstore. Back on the road, Cathy collapses in the car, Cooke can stand it no more. He deliberately drives off an embankment, not caring if he is also killed and he survives, confesses that he crashed on purpose, and in keeping with his philosophy, demands to be prosecuted for murder. At Ellies request, Douglas agrees to defend Cooke and he requests an autopsy in case Cathy had actually died from her illness before the crash. The finding is a surprise, she did die before the crash, Douglas shows that she had had the prescription filled before the drive home, and taken the drug while at the gas station. The trial judge then dismisses the charge, but declares that Cooke knew very well that what he tried to do was wrong. Russell Francis McDonald as Mr. Russell Mary Servoss as Julia Don Beddoe as Pearson Clarence Muse as Mr. Pope An Act of Murder at the Internet Movie Database
An Act of Murder
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Film poster
23.
The Lady Gambles
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The Lady Gambles is a 1949 film noir drama film directed by Michael Gordon starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Preston and Stephen McNally. When his estranged wife Joan is found badly beaten after using loaded dice in a back-alley game, a reporter from Chicago, he is on an assignment at Hoover Dam, so he and his wife stay at a hotel in Las Vegas. There the casinos owner, Corrigan, introduces her to gambling with a few chips on the house, Joan eventually loses $600 of Davids expense money, as well as pawning a camera, before winning it back. When her sister Ruth joins them in Nevada, her husband decides to leave, Ruth has always been a divisive presence, manipulative and neurotic. Corrigan flirts with Joan and persuades her to be his proxy in a poker game and she wins $4,000 and is given a share. But the game lasts till dawn, and when David phones from the road and he returns to Vegas and can see how gambling has her hooked. David quits his job and takes her to Mexico, where he intends to write a book, a couple Joan met in Vegas get her into a dice game, where she loses all of their life savings. David leaves, intending to file for a divorce, not knowing where else to go, Joan returns to Vegas, where she is hired by Corrigan to front a horse-racing operation. But she double-crosses his partners just to cash in on a long-shot bet, on her own again, Joan descends into a world of disreputable characters, partnering in Shreveport with a crooked gambler named Frenchy. By the time David rejoins her after the beating, Joan is hospitalized and he must fight to convince her that it is not too late to kick her gambling habit and save their marriage. The Lady Gambles at the TCM Movie Database The Lady Gambles at the Internet Movie Database
The Lady Gambles
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The Lady Gambles
24.
Woman in Hiding
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Woman in Hiding is a 1950 film noir crime film directed by Michael Gordon starring Ida Lupino, Stephen McNally and Howard Duff. Deborah Chandler Clark watches police drag a North Carolina river for her body and she recounts the events that brought her to this, beginning when her father, a mill owner, disapproved of a romance between Deborah and the mills general manager, Seldon Clark. Her father falls to his death at the mill, on their honeymoon, a jealous and angry woman named Patricia Monahan turns up and claims shes been romantically involved with Seldon, insisting he married Deborah simply to gain control of her mill. Deborah demands an annulment of the marriage, while leaving, the brakes fail on her car. She leaps out just before it crashes into the river, believing she would be unable to prove her husbands guilt, Deborah disappears, moving to Knoxville and going by the name Ann Carter. An ex-soldier, Keith Ramsay, seems interested in Ann and follows her, what hes really interested in is a $5,000 reward offered by her husband. At a hotel hosting a convention, Seldon nearly succeeds in killing his wife. Keith finally realizes that Deborah is in genuine danger, Patricia can confirm her story, so Deborah tracks her down. Patricia betrays her, however, still being in love with Seldon, at the mill, he attempts to throw Deborah to her death the same way he murdered her father. In the darkness, he mistakenly kills Patricia instead, and dies himself after a fight with Keith and he wrote, Although it never pretends to be anything but melodrama, Woman in Hiding, unlike so many offerings in this genre, adds some convincing characterizations to its suspense. The combination of the two succeeds in raising this new arrival at the Criterion a notch or two above the normal in this category emanating from the Coast. Recently film critic Dennis Schwartz called the film a Patchy melodrama and he wrote, Patchy melodrama with too many contrived suspense escape scenes and too pat an ending to be anything better than a modest thriller, but Ida Lupino as the damsel-in-distress is terrific. Michael Gordon directs in a workmanlike and capable way, Woman in Hiding at the American Film Institute Catalog Woman in Hiding at the Internet Movie Database Woman in Hiding at AllMovie Woman in Hiding at the TCM Movie Database
Woman in Hiding
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Theatrical release poster
25.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 film)
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Cyrano de Bergerac is a 1950 drama romance film based on the 1897 French Alexandrine verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. It uses poet Brian Hookers 1923 English blank verse translation as the basis for its screenplay, the film was the first motion picture version in English of Rostands play, though there were several earlier adaptations in different languages. The 1950 film was produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by Michael Gordon, josé Ferrer received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring performance as Cyrano de Bergerac. Mala Powers played Roxane, and William Prince portrayed Christian de Neuvillette, the film lapsed into the public domain in the mid-1980s, and is available in both Blu-ray and DVD formats. In seventeenth-century Paris, poet and supreme swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac stops a play from being shown because he ostensibly cannot stand the bombastic style of the principal actor, an annoyed aristocratic fop, the Vicomte de Valvert, provokes him into a duel by tritely insulting Cyranos enormous nose. Cyrano first mocks his lack of wit, improvising numerous inventive ways in which Valvert could have phrased it and he then composes a ballade for the occasion on the spot and recites it during the sword fight. With the last line, he stabs his opponent, Cyranos friend Le Bret, Captain of the Gascony guards, warns him he has made powerful enemies of his victims friends, but he is unconcerned. When Le Bret presses him to reveal the reason he hates Montfleury. He confesses that he is in love with her, but harbors no hope of it being returned because of his nose, when he receives a request from Roxane to see her in the morning, he is finally emboldened to act. Then pastry chef and fellow poet Ragueneau approaches him for help, Ragueneau has learned that a nobleman he had mocked with his verses, the Comte De Guiche, has hired a hundred ruffians to teach him a lesson. Cyrano escorts him, kills eight of the horde, and drives off the rest. The next day, before he can tell Roxane of his feelings, she informs him that she has fallen in love with a handsome guardsman, Christian de Neuvillette, Cyrano hides his devastation and agrees to help her. Cyrano befriends the man and discovers that he is infatuated with Roxane. To help him, Cyrano composes Christians love letters to Roxane, later, Christian decides he wants no more help and tries to speak to Roxane face to face, but fails miserably and she re-enters her house in an angry huff. Cyrano, hiding in the bushes, comes to his rescue and he is so eloquent that he wins a kiss for Christian from Roxane. When the arrogant Comte De Guiche, who is also wooing Roxane, pressures her to marry him, furious, De Guiche, Christians commander, orders him to join his unit immediately for a war against the Spanish, preventing the couple from spending their wedding night together. With Cyrano under his command as well, De Guiche earns the swordsmans respect by his conduct in the war, from the field, Cyrano sends Roxane letters every day, supposedly written by Christian. Roxane visits her husband in camp and tells him that she now has fallen in love with him not merely for his looks but because of his words, and would love him even if he were ugly
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 film)
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DVD cover (Synergy edition)
26.
I Can Get It for You Wholesale (film)
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I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a 1951 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Gordon. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky is based on Vera Casparys loose adaptation of the 1937 novel of the title by Jerome Weidman.95 dresses. Harriet dupes Marge and her fiance Ray into giving her the money, Teddy, who has fallen in love with Harriet, is dismayed when she flirts with lecherous buyer Mr. Savage during a business dinner, so he proposes marriage. She declines his offer, telling him she enjoys her freedom and her refusal prompts Teddy to try to back out of their partnership, but he discovers their contract is ironclad. Harriet begins dating J. F. Noble, the owner of a chain of department stores. Her uncertainty puts her on edge, and when Teddy discusses her change in attitude, she claims she is stressed by overwork, Teddy repeats his offer of marriage and this time Harriet considers accepting. Heartbroken and angry, Teddy departs, and soon leaves town for a sales trip. During his absence, Harriet shifts money from Sherboyco to a new company she is founding, stops production on Sherboycos dresses, unaware what has happened, Teddy continues to take orders for Sherboycos popular low-cost womens wear while on the road. Not until buyer Hermione Griggs contacts him about an order she has not received does he learn about Harriets deception, Harriet prepares to sail to Paris with Noble, but at the last moment she realizes her commitment to Sam and Teddy is too important to ignore. She returns to Sherboyco, where she admits she loves Teddy and asks him, the protagonist of Weidmans novel had been an ambitious businessman, but his gender was changed to accommodate Twentieth Century Fox contract player Susan Hayward. She and co-star Dan Dailey reprised their roles for a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on March 31,1952. Shortly after the film was released, screenwriter Abraham Polonsky was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, although he refused to deny or confirm affiliation with the Communist Party, he found himself blacklisted. He continued to write under pseudonyms, but it was not until Madigan in 1968 that he received credit under his own name. The film was released in the United Kingdom as This Is My Affair, however, give Susan Hayward some quick recognition for bringing to life a hard-shelled dame, who travels just as fast and loose as the screenplay written by Abraham Polonsky permits her to. Within the story laid out by Miss Caspary, Mr. Polonsky has written some crisp, double-edged dialogue. With less whitewash and more honesty, I Can Get It for You Wholesale could have been an exciting, instead of just an average good, entertainment. TV Guide rated it three out of four stars, calling it a smooth but not stellar adaptation of Weidmans novel, I Can Get It for You Wholesale at the Internet Movie Database
I Can Get It for You Wholesale (film)
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Original poster
27.
The Secret of Convict Lake
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The Secret of Convict Lake is a 1951 American black-and-white western film starring Glenn Ford and Gene Tierney. It was directed by Michael Gordon and produced by Frank P. Rosenberg, the film was a critical and commercial success. Ethel Barrymore and Ann Dvorak co-starred, the story is fiction, based on legends of Convict Lake, located in the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges of northern California. In 1871, six convicts escape from a Carson City prison, a posse loses them in a mountain blizzard, and after the posse turn back, the convicts continue on foot and one of the fugitives freezes to death. The five remaining are Canfield, Greer, Cockerell, Anderson and they make it to a lake called Monte Diablo, where five women live in a settlement while their men are away prospecting for silver. Granny is the elder, watching over Marcia, Rachel, Harriet, frightened by these men who arrive at night, the women however permit them to use an empty cabin. Granny hides guns where the men cant find them and they soon realise that the men are escaped convicts. In exposition, it clear that Canfield has returned to this small town for a reason. Canfield, we learn, had been convicted of killing a mine owner, Morgan, Canfield learns that the local woman Marcia, to whom he is attracted, is engaged to be married to a man named Rudy Schaeffer. It was Rudy Schaeffer whose testimony led to Canfield being sent to the penitentiary, Marcia finds it hard to accept his version of events, a damning version against her fiancé, while at the same time she is attracted to Canfield. A barn catches fire due to Rachels carelessness and the convicts help put it out, the women are grateful and treat them more kindly. The other four plot to get firearms and escape as soon as there is a thaw in the frigid cold, in private conversation it is revealed they have no compunction in killing Canfield once they have all that they want. Meanwhile, the men of the town are returning from their silver prospecting, Rudy Schaeffer spots a wanted poster identifying Canfield and the other fugitives as escapees. He and his men back on horseback to the lake. Meanwhile, Greer has worked his charms on Rachel and she reveals to Greer where the guns are. He, Cockerell and Anderson burst in on Granny, remove her from her bed and he convinces her that he is indeed an innocent, good man. She believes him and tries to him out of his revenge plot. He says that the mine owner Morgan had swindled him out of the money, Morgan had pulled a gun on him, they had scuffled and the gun had gone off accidentally, killing Morgan
The Secret of Convict Lake
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The Secret of Convict Lake movie poster
28.
Pillow Talk (film)
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Pillow Talk is a 1959 Eastmancolor romantic comedy film in CinemaScope directed by Michael Gordon. It features Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter, the film was written by Russell Rouse, Maurice Richlin, Stanley Shapiro and Clarence Greene. It tells the story of Jan Marrow, a decorator and Brad Allen. The scheme seems to work until Brads mutual friend and Jans client Jonathan Forbes finds out about this, causing a love triangle in the process. In 1947, they sold it as a play, but bought it back again four years later, finally selling it in 1958 to Arwin Productions. In August 1959, however, the title was reinstated. This is the first of three comedies in which Day, Hudson and Randall starred together, the other two being Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers. Upon its release, Pillow Talk brought in a then staggering domestic box-office gross of $18,750,000 and gave Rock Hudsons career a comeback after the failure of A Farewell to Arms earlier that year. On July 14,1980, Jack Martin reported on Pillow Talk as “biggest hit of 1959. ”In 2009, it was entered into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant and preserved. Jan Morrow is a successful, self-reliant interior decorator in New York City and she lives alone and claims to be quite happy, when questioned on that subject by her drunken housekeeper, Alma. The only irritant in her life is the party line that she shares with Brad Allen and she is unable to obtain a private phone line because the telephone company has been overwhelmed by the recent demand for new phone lines in the area. Jan and Brad, who have ever met on the telephone. Jan and Brad bicker over the party line, with Brad suggesting that the single Jan is jealous of his popularity, one of Jans clients is millionaire Jonathan Forbes, who repeatedly throws himself at her to no avail. Unknown to Jan, Jonathan is Brads old college buddy and current Broadway benefactor, one evening in a nightclub, Brad finally sees Jan dancing and learns who she is. Attracted to her, he fakes a Texan accent and invents a new persona, Rex Stetson and he succeeds in wooing Jan, and the pair begin seeing each other regularly. Jan cannot resist bragging about her new beau on the phone to Brad Allen, while Brad teases Jan by having Rex show an interest in traditionally effeminate things, thereby implying Rexs homosexuality. When Jonathan finds out about Brads masquerade, he forces Brad to leave New York City, Brad invites Jan to join him. Once there, romance blossoms until Jan stumbles upon a copy of Rexs sheet music and she plunks the melody on the nearby piano and recognizes Brads song
Pillow Talk (film)
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Theatrical poster
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Portrait in Black
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Portrait in Black is a 1960 American neo-noir crime drama/thriller film directed by Michael Gordon and starring Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn. Produced by Ross Hunter, the film was based on the play of the same by name by Ivan Goff, the film was distributed by Universal-International. This was the film appearance by veteran actress Anna May Wong. Sheila Cabot becomes increasingly disturbed as she cares for her ailing, along the way, she falls in love with Dr. David Rivera, who is tending her husband. This leads to a series of events, resulting in the death of the husband. The film was based on a play premiered in London at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1946 was at Penge Empire w/c 23 September 1946 and had a short run on Broadway the following year. The writers, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, had worked on it for 13 months, Film rights were sold almost immediately for a reported $100,000 against a sliding percentage of the gross to reach a maximum of 15% at $2.5 million. A clause was added if a film was not released by 30 June 1950. Diana Wynyard appeared in the London production and her husband, Carol Reed was going to direct the film version, however he disagreed with Universal about how best to adapt it. Another director, Michael Gordon, encountered similar difficulties, in 1948 Goff approached Universal to buy the project back - they said it would cost $316,00, which Goff said was too much. When the 30 June 1950 deadline passed, the project reverted to the authors and they tried to get the film financed with Michael Gordon and Joan Crawford. According to Variety, the film earned $3,600,000 in rentals in 1960, portrait in Black was presented on Theatre Guild on the Air March 2,1952. The one-hour adaptation starred Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Widmark, list of American films of 1960 Schwartz, Ronald. Neo-Noir, The New Film Noir Style from Psycho to Collateral,2005
Portrait in Black
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VHS cover
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Move Over, Darling
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Move Over, Darling is a 1963 American comedy film starring Doris Day, James Garner, and Polly Bergen and directed by Michael Gordon. The picture was a remake of a 1940 screwball comedy film, My Favorite Wife, with Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and Gail Patrick. In between these movies, a version entitled Somethings Got to Give began shooting in 1962, directed by George Cukor and starring Marilyn Monroe. The film was chosen as the 1964 Royal Film Performance and had its UK premiere on 24 February 1964 at the Odeon Leicester Square in the presence of H. R. H. At the 21st Golden Globe Awards, Doris Day was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, Ellen Wagstaff Arden, a mother of two young girls named Jenny and Didi, was believed to be lost at sea following an airplane accident. Her husband, Nick Arden, was one of the survivors, after five years of searching for her, he decides to move on with his life by having her declared legally dead so he can marry Bianca, all on the same day. However, Ellen is alive, she is rescued and returns home that particular day, at first crestfallen, she is relieved to discover from her mother-in-law Grace that her husbands honeymoon has not started yet. Nicks mother has him arrested for bigamy and all appear before the same judge that married Nick. Bianca and Ellen request divorces before the judge sends them all away, Bianca leaves Nick, while Ellen storms out, still married to Nick, declared alive again. Ellen returns to Nicks house unsure if her children will recognize her and her children welcome her home, and so does Nick. The story is an update of the 1864 poem Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This was the film version based on the Lord Tennyson poem. The film was originally to be a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe. Dean Martin was cast as Nick Arden after initial choice James Garner was committed to doing The Great Escape, Marilyn Monroe was fired early in its production cycle for often not showing up for shooting, ultimately appearing in only about 30 minutes of usable film. At first, they tried to continue with Lee Remick in Monroes place, Monroe was re-hired but died before she could resume filming, and that version was never completed. James Garner accidentally broke Days rib during the scene when he pulls her off of Bergen. He wasnt aware of what had happened until the next day, the film utilizes some of the interiors and stage-built exteriors from the original Cukor production for the Arden home, which were based on Cukors actual Beverly Hills home at 9166 Cordell Drive. However, the exteriors for the Arden home for the Gordon production were filmed about three miles west at 377 South Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills
Move Over, Darling
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1963 Theatrical poster
