1.
Clifford Odets
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Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. Odets was widely seen as successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene ONeill as ONeill began to retire from Broadways commercial pressures, from early 1935 on, Odets socially relevant dramas proved extremely influential, particularly for the remainder of the Great Depression. Odets works inspired the next generations of playwrights, including Arthur Miller, Paddy Chayefsky, Neil Simon, David Mamet. After the production of his play Clash by Night in the 1941-42 season, Odets focused his energies on film projects and he began to be eclipsed by such playwrights as Miller, Tennessee Williams and, in 1950, William Inge. At the time of his death in 1963, Odets was serving as script writer and script supervisor on The Richard Boone Show, born of a plan for televised repertory theater. Though many obituaries lamented his work in Hollywood and considered him someone who had not lived up to his promise, director Elia Kazan understood it differently. The tragedy of our times in the theatre is the tragedy of Clifford Odets, Kazan began and his plan, he said, was to. Come back to New York and get plays on, they’d be, he assured me, the best plays of his life. Cliff wasnt shot. The mind and talent were alive in the man, Odets was born in Philadelphia to Louis Odets and Pearl Geisinger, Russian- and Romanian-Jewish immigrants, and was raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of school after two years to become an actor. In 1931, he became a member of the Group Theatre. This technique was based on the system devised by the Russian actor and director Constantin Stanislavski and it was further developed by Group Theatre director Lee Strasberg and became known as The Method or Method Acting. Odets eventually became the Groups primary playwright, Odets pursued acting with great passion and ingenuity. At the age of 19 he struck out on his own, under this moniker he procured bookings as a radio elocutionist. He moved away from his parents, to Greenwich Village, where he acted with the Poets Theatre under the direction of Village legend Harry Kemp. Odets claimed to have become Americas first real disc jockey at about time, at radio station WBNY. In this capacity he saw the 1926 Broadway production of Seán OCaseys Juno, OCaseys work would prove to be a powerful influence on Odets as a playwright. The young Odets spent several summers as a counselor at camps in the Catskills
2.
Jack Palance
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Jack Palance was an American actor and singer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1992 for his role in City Slickers, Palance was born in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, the son of Anna and Ivan Palahniuk, an anthracite coal miner. His parents were Ukrainian immigrants, his father a native of Ivane Zolote in southwestern Ukraine and his mother from the Lviv Oblast, one of six children, he worked in coal mines during his youth before becoming a professional boxer in the late 1930s. Years later he recounted, Then, I thought, you must be nuts to get your head beat in for $200, with the outbreak of World War II, Palances athletic career ended, and his military career began as a member of the United States Army Air Forces. Palances face, which took many beatings in the ring, was said to have become disfigured while bailing out of a burning B-24 Liberator bomber during a training flight over Southern Arizona. His distinctive cheekbones and deep-set eyes were said to have been the result of reconstructive surgery, one flack created the legend that I had been blown up in an air crash during the war, and my face had to be put back together by way of plastic surgery. If it is a face, why didnt they do a better job of it. Palance was honorably discharged from the Army Air Corps in 1944 and his last name was actually a derivative of his original name. In an episode of Whats My Line and he described how no one could pronounce his last name and it was suggested he be called Palanski. From that he decided to just use Palance instead, Palances acting break came as Marlon Brandos understudy in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he eventually replaced Brando on stage as Stanley Kowalski. In 1947, Palance made his Broadway debut and he debuted on television in 1949, and this was followed a year later by his screen debut in the movie Panic in the Streets. The same year he was featured in Halls of Montezuma about the United States Marines in World War II, Palance was quickly recognized for his skill as a character actor, receiving an Oscar nomination for his third film role as Lester Blaine in Sudden Fear. The following year, Palance was nominated for an Oscar for his role as the hired gunfighter Jack Wilson in Shane, several Western roles followed, but he also played varied roles such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula and Attila the Hun. I knew that Jack Palance would do the perfect Dracula, in 1957, Palance won an Emmy Award for best actor for his portrayal of Mountain McClintock in the Playhouse 90 production of Rod Serlings Requiem for a Heavyweight. Jean-Luc Godard persuaded Palance to take on the role of Hollywood producer Jeremy Prokosch in the nouvelle vague movie Le Mépris, although the main dialogue was in French, Palance spoke mostly English. Palance provided narration for the 1967 documentary, And Still Champion, later, in 1966, he appeared in the television movie Alice Through the Looking Glass, directed by Alan Handley, in which he played the Jabberwock. He had a role opposite Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster in the Western adventure The Professionals. In 1969, Palance recorded a music album in Nashville
3.
Ida Lupino
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Ida Lupino was an Anglo-American actress and singer, who became a pioneering director and producer—the only woman working within the 1950s Hollywood studio system to do so. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several of her own social-message films, in her 48-year career, she made acting appearances in 59 films and directed eight others, mostly in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She was the woman to direct episodes of the original The Twilight Zone series. Her father, a top name in musical comedy in the UK and he built a backyard theater for Lupino and her sister Rita, who also became an actress and dancer. Lupino wrote her first play at age seven and toured with a theater company as a child. She played leading roles in five British films in 1933 at Warner Bros, teddington studios and for Julius Hagen at Twickenham, including in The Ghost Camera with John Mills and I Lived with You with Ivor Novello. Dubbed the English Jean Harlow, she was discovered by Paramount in the 1933 film Money For Speed, playing a good girl/bad girl dual role. Lupino claimed the talent scouts only saw her play the girl in the film and not the part of the prostitute. When she arrived in Hollywood, the Paramount producers did not know what to make of their sultry potential leading lady, after this performance, she began to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress. As a result, her parts improved during the 1940s, and she referred to herself as the poor mans Bette Davis. Mark Hellinger, associate producer at Warner Bros, the film did well and the critical consensus was that Lupino stole the movie, particularly in her unhinged courtroom scene. Warner Bros. offered her a contract which she negotiated to include some freelance rights and she worked with Walsh and Bogart again in High Sierra, where she impressed critic Bosley Crowther in her role as adoring moll. Her performance in The Hard Way won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and she starred in Pillow to Post, which was her only comedic leading role. After the drama Deep Valley finished shooting, neither Warner Bros. nor Lupino moved to renew her contract, although in demand throughout the 1940s, she never became a major star, but was critically lauded for her tough, direct acting style. As a result, she spent a deal of her time at Warner Bros. suspended. In 1942 she rejected an offer to star opposite Ronald Reagan in Kings Row, eventually, a tentative rapprochement was brokered, but her relationship with her studio remained strained. She moved to Columbia Pictures in 1948, where she appeared as a singer in the film noir Road House. She starred in On Dangerous Ground in 1951, and may have taken on some of the tasks of the film while director Nicholas Ray was ill
4.
Wendell Corey
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Wendell Reid Corey was an American actor and politician. Corey was born in Dracut, Massachusetts, the son of Milton Rothwell Corey and his father was a Congregationalist clergyman. His ancestors included U. S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, before becoming an actor, Corey was a washing-machine salesman in a department store. Corey began acting in 1938 with the depression-spawned Federal Theatre Project and his Broadway debut was in Comes the Revelation. After appearing in a number of supporting roles, he scored his first hit as a newspaperman in Elmer Rices comedy Dream Girl. While appearing in the play, Corey was seen by producer Hal Wallis and his movie debut came as a gangster in Desert Fury starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, and Mary Astor. Corey appeared in Sorry, Wrong Number starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, and he co-starred with Stanwyck twice more in 1950 in The File on Thelma Jordon and The Furies, and also opposite Joan Crawford in Harriet Craig, which was released the same year. Coreys memorable roles include that of police Lt. Thomas Doyle in Hitchcocks Rear Window starring James Stewart and he starred with Casey Walters in the television series Harbor Command, co-starred on The Nanette Fabray Show, and had the lead role in the medical drama The Eleventh Hour. With Fabray, Corey played a widower who married Fabrays character, bobby Diamond also starred in the short-lived series. In The Eleventh Hour, Corey appeared as Dr. Theodore Bassett, in the second season of The Eleventh Hour, however, Corey was replaced by Ralph Bellamy, who assumed the role of psychiatrist Richard Starke. Corey made guest appearances on a number of programs, including Target, channing, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, Burkes Law, The Road West, and The Wild Wild West. He made a guest appearance during the season of Perry Mason in 1966 as murder victim Jerome Klee in The Case of the Unwelcome Well. Corey served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, a Republican campaigner in national politics since 1956, Corey was elected to the Santa Monica City Council in April 1965. The conservative politician ran for a California seat in the United States Congress in 1966 and he was still a councilman at the time of his death. Corey and Alice Wiley had one son and three daughters, Jonathan, Jennifer, Bonnie Alice, and Robin. Corey died November 8,1968, at age 54 at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, funeral services were held at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica, California. He is interred in Washington Cemetery in Washington, Massachusetts, Wendell Corey has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in TV at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Wendell Corey at the Internet Movie Database Wendell Corey at the Internet Broadway Database Wendell Corey at Find a Grave
5.
Jean Hagen
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Jean Hagen was an American actress best known for her role as Lina Lamont in Singin in the Rain, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Hagen was also nominated three times for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Margaret Williams on the television series Make Room For Daddy. Jean Shirley Verhagen was born on August 3,1923 in Chicago, to Christian Verhagen, a Dutch immigrant, the family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, when she was 12 and she subsequently graduated from Elkhart High School. She studied drama at Northwestern University, where she was a roommate of actress Patricia Neal and she graduated from Northwestern in 1945. She also worked as a theater usherette, Hagen began her show business career in radio in the 1940s, performing in Light of the World, Hollywood Story, and other programs. Using her maiden name, she played Betty Webster on Those Websters, Hagen first appeared on Broadway in Swan Song. She also acted in Another Part of the Forest, Ghosts, Born Yesterday and her film debut was as a comical femme fatale in the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn classic, Adams Rib, directed by the iconic George Cukor in 1949. The Asphalt Jungle provided Hagen with her first starring role alongside Sterling Hayden, Hagen received excellent reviews playing Doll Conover, a woman who sticks by criminal Dixs side until the bitter end. She appeared in the film noir Side Street playing a gangsters sincere, Hagen is best remembered for her comic performance in Singin in the Rain as the vain and talentless silent movie star Lina Lamont. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this memorable performance, by 1953, she had joined the cast of the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy. As the first wife of Danny Thomas, Hagen received three Emmy Award nominations, but after three seasons, she grew dissatisfied and left the series. Thomas, who produced the show, reportedly did not appreciate Hagens departing the successful series. This was the first TV character to be killed off in a family sitcom, marjorie Lord was cast a year later as Dannys second wife and played opposite Thomas successfully for the remainder of the series. Hagen starred in the 1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Season 3, Episode 7, entitled Enough Rope for Two as a woman accompanied by two thieves trying to retrieve stolen money from a desert mine shaft. In 1960, she appeared as Elizabeth in the episode Once Upon a Knight on CBSs anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson,16,1961 Andy and the Woman Speeder Season 2 episode 3. Although she made frequent guest appearances in television series, Hagen was unable to successfully resume her film career in starring roles. In the 1960s, Hagens health began to decline and she spent many years hospitalized or under medical care, after a marriage fraught with domestic violence, she divorced Seidel on November 1,1965, in Los Angeles, California. Hagen died at age 54 of esophageal cancer on August 29,1977, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House, Hagen was nominated for a 1956 Emmy Award in the Best actress category
6.
Rod Steiger
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Rodney Stephen Rod Steiger was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. His performance in that film won him the Academy Award for Best Actor, Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, the son of a vaudevillian. He had a childhood, with an alcoholic mother from whom he ran away at the age of 16. He made his debut in 1946, in a production of Curse you. At the Civic Repertory Theatre of Newark, and subsequently appeared in such as An Enemy of the People, Clifford Odetss Night Music, Seagulls Over Sorrento. Steiger made his debut in Fred Zinnemanns Teresa in 1951. Across the Bridge and Al Capone, the following year, he played a serial killer of many guises in No Way to Treat a Lady. During the 1970s, Steiger increasingly turned to European productions in his search for more demanding roles and he portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte in Waterloo, a Mexican bandit in Sergio Leones Duck, You Sucker. Benito Mussolini in Last Days of Mussolini, and ended the decade playing a disturbed priest in The Amityville Horror. By the 1980s, heart problems and depression took its toll on Steigers career, One of his final roles was as judge H. Lee Sarokin in the prison drama The Hurricane, which reunited him with In the Heat of the Night director Norman Jewison. Steiger was married five times, and had a daughter, opera singer Anna Steiger, and a son, Michael Steiger. He died of pneumonia and complications from surgery for a gall bladder tumor on July 9,2002, aged 77, in Los Angeles, and was survived by his fifth wife Joan Benedict Steiger. Steiger was born on April 14,1925 in Westhampton, New York, Rod was raised as a Lutheran. Biographer Tom Hutchinson describes him as a shadowy, fugitive figure, one who haunted Rod throughout his life and was an invisible presence, Hutchinson described Steigers mother as plump, energetic and small, with long auburn hair. She had a singing voice and nearly became a Hollywood actress. As a result, she quit show business and moved away from Westhampton to raise her son and they moved through several towns, including Irvington and Bloomfield, before settling in Newark, New Jersey. Her alcoholism caused Steiger much embarrassment, and the family was frequently mocked by other children, at the age of five he was sexually abused by a pedophile who lured him in with a butterfly collection. A loving, secure childhood in a New York minute, during the last 11 years of her life, Steigers mother stayed sober and regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
7.
Shelley Winters
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Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television, her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006. Winters won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue and she also appeared in such films as The Big Knife, A Double Life, Lolita, The Night of the Hunter, Alfie, Next Stop, Greenwich Village, and Petes Dragon. Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Rose, a singer with the Muny, and Jonas Schrift and her parents were Jewish, her father emigrated from Austria, and her mother was born in St. Louis to Austrian immigrants. Her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was three years old and her sister Blanche Schrift later married George Boroff, who ran the Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Winters studied at the New School in New York City, as the New York Times obituary noted, A major movie presence for more than five decades, Shelley Winters turned herself into a widely respected actress who won two Oscars. Winters originally broke into Hollywood films as a Blonde Bombshell type, but quickly tired of the roles limitations. She claims to have washed off her makeup to audition for the role of Alice Tripp, the girl, in A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens. As the Associated Press reported, the public was unaware of how serious a craftswoman Winters was. Although she was in demand as an actress, Winters continued to study her craft. She attended Charles Laughtons Shakespeare classes and worked at the Actors Studio and she studied in the Hollywood Studio Club, and in the late 1940s, she shared an apartment with another newcomer, Marilyn Monroe. Her first movie was What a Woman, working in films through the 1940s, Winters first achieved stardom with her breakout performance as the victim of insane actor Ronald Colman in George Cukors A Double Life, in 1947. She quickly ascended in Hollywood with leading roles in The Great Gatsby with Alan Ladd and she also returned to the stage on various occasions during this time, including a Broadway run in A Hatful of Rain, in 1955–1956, opposite future husband Anthony Franciosa. She won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1960 and she donated her Oscar for The Diary of Anne Frank to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. In The Poseidon Adventure, she was the ill-fated Belle Rosen and she returned to the stage during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably in Tennessee Williams Night of the Iguana. She appeared in cult films as 1968s Wild in the Streets. She also starred in the 1970 Broadway musical Minnies Boys as Minnie Marx, the mother of Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, as the Associated Press reported, During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics and she delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything. That led to a career as a writer
8.
Richard Boone
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Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel. Boone was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of Cecile and Kirk E. Boone. His father was a descendant of Squire Boone, brother to frontiersmen Daniel Boone and his mother was Jewish, the daughter of immigrants from Russia. Richard Boone graduated from Hoover High School in Glendale, California and he attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where he was a member of Theta Xi fraternity. He dropped out prior to graduation and went to work in oil-rigging, bartending, painting, in his youth, Boone had attended the San Diego Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, near Oceanside. There, Boone was introduced to theatre under the tutelage of Virginia Atkinson, robert Walker, another Academy graduate and member of the school’s theatre club, Masque & Wig, became a close acquaintance of Boones. After the war, Boone used the G. I, bill to study acting at the Actors Studio in New York. Serious and methodical, Boone debuted on the Broadway theatrical scene in 1947 with the play Medea and then appeared in Macbeth, elia Kazan used Boone to feed lines to an actress for a film screen-test done for director Lewis Milestone. Milestone was not impressed with the actress, but he was impressed enough with Boones voice to him to Hollywood. In 1950, Boone made his debut as a Marine officer in Milestones Halls of Montezuma. In 1953, he played Pontius Pilate in the first Cinemascope film released and he had only one scene in the film, in which he gives instructions to Richard Burton, who plays the centurion ordered to crucify Christ. When he was ordered to appear in film for Fox made at the same time as The Robe. During the filming of Halls of Montezuma he befriended Jack Webb, the writer of Dragnet was preparing a series about a doctor for NBC. From 1954 to 1956, Boone became a face in the lead role of that medical drama, titled Medic. While on Medic, he also guest-starred as the character Everett Brayer on NBCs Frontier anthology series, Boone also appeared in the 1954 Dragnet film based on Webbs series. The show had first been offered to actor Randolph Scott, who turned it down, the show ran from 1957 to 1963, with Boone receiving two more Emmy nominations, in 1959 and 1960. Boone starred in three movies with John Wayne, The Alamo as Sam Houston, Big Jake, and The Shootist, during the 1960s, Boone appeared regularly on other television programs. He was an occasional guest panelist and also a mystery guest on Whats My Line, the Sunday night CBS-TV quiz show
9.
Michael Luciano
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Michael Luciano was an American film and television editor with about forty feature film credits and many additional credits for television programs. From 1954 to 1977, Luciano edited 20 of the films directed, Aldrich was a prolific and independent maker of popular films who depicted corruption and evil unflinchingly, and pushed limits on violence throughout his career. Their early collaboration, the film noir Kiss Me Deadly, was entered into the US National Film Registry in 1999, Lucianos work with Aldrich was recognized by four Academy Award nominations, for Hush. Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences never recognized Aldrich himself. Nothing appears to have been published about Lucianos early career and education, in the era of the Hollywood studio system and the Big Five studios, Lucianos credits are for films produced by smaller companies. His first credit is as the editor of The Luck of Roaring Camp, a 1937 film produced by Monogram Pictures and he edited Gang War, which was produced by Million Dollar Productions. His last credit before the US entry into World War II was apparently for Meet the Chump, Lucianos first postwar credit was for The Return of Rin Tin Tin, which was the 41st feature film that starred the German shepherd dog Rin Tin Tin and his successors. Also in 1947, Luciano was the assistant to editors Robert Parrish, lyon on the boxing film Body and Soul, which was directed by Robert Rossen. The film won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, Luciano worked for Parrish again as the montage editor on the 1949 film, Caught, and then co-edited the 1951 documentary Of Men and Music with Parrish and two others. Parrish subsequently moved into directing, and Luciano was the editor for Parrishs 1959 western, Robert Aldrich was an assistant director on Body and Soul, Chase, and Of Men and Music. He asked Luciano to edit the 1954 film World for Ransom, Joseph F. Biroc was the cinematographer, and Frank De Vol composed the music. Luciano, Biroc, and De Vol became Aldrichs informal repertory company for the two decades. In 1955 Luciano edited Aldrichs Kiss Me Deadly, which is an important film noir that is now in the National Film Registry, Luciano edited almost all of Aldrichs films that followed Kiss Me Deadly, including three in the following year. Aldrich enjoyed particular success with the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. the latter film won Luciano his first major recognition with a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, which was just one of the seven Oscar nominations for the film. The following year, Lucianos editing of The Flight of the Phoenix was nominated both for the Oscar and for the Eddie Award of the American Cinema Editors. The film that was Aldrichs greatest commercial success was The Dirty Dozen, Luciano won the Eddie award for the picture, and was again nominated for the Oscar. The Longest Yard, again directed by Aldrich, garnered Luciano his second Eddie Award, the final film of the long Aldrich-Luciano collaboration was Twilights Last Gleaming. For about 23 years, Luciano had been a member of Aldrichs informal repertory company, ben Sachs has written of Aldrichs motivations in maintaining a core group of collaborators over more than two decades
10.
United Artists
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United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century. On December 14 of the year, however, MGM acquired the 48% stake of UAMG it did not own. UA was incorporated as a joint venture on February 5,1919, by Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over salaries and creative decisions. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized, when he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, The inmates are taking over the asylum. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo, formed their distribution company and its headquarters was established at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each of the stars to produce five pictures each year, UAs first film was a success. Without selling stock to the public, following the other studios, as a result, production was slow and the company distributed an annual average of five films during its first five years. By 1924 Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis, veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had been producing pictures for a decade, and he brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada and then in Mexico, by the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied a share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox, al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including, Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO, and Wanger to Universal Pictures, in the late 1930s, UA turned a profit
11.
Film noir
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Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywoods classical film noir period is regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively, before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world, many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, the questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike, another, while many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Because of the diversity of noir, certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a style. Other critics treat film noir as a mood, characterize it as a series, there is no consensus on the matter. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, the Universal horror that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility is The Invisible Man, directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era, josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as Shanghai Express and The Devil Is a Woman, with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, the commercial and critical success of Sternbergs silent Underworld was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French poetic realism, with its romantic, fatalistic attitude, the movements sensibility is mirrored in the Warner Bros. drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered films noir, perhaps none had an effect on the development of the genre than Citizen Kane
12.
Ilka Chase
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Ilka Chase was an American actress and novelist. Her mother, who became the editor-in-chief of Vogue, described Chases father and his father had been a banker and, depending on when you met them, the family had money. After her parents divorce, her father married artist Theodora Larsh and her mothers second husband was engineer Richard Newton. Chase made her society debut in 1923 and her Broadway debut a year later and she was in the original Broadway cast of Clare Boothe Luces play, The Women, and many years later appeared in Neil Simons Broadway hit Barefoot in the Park. Her films included Now, Voyager, Fast and Loose, Once a Sinner, The Animal Kingdom, The Big Knife and her last motion picture appearance came in Oceans 11 as Mrs. Restes. In the early 1940s, Chase was the hostess for Penthouse Party on CBS and Luncheon Date With Ilka Chase, for several years, she hosted the radio program, Luncheon at the Waldorf. Chase was a regular in Trials of OBrien on CBS in the mid-1960s, in 1957, she performed the role of the Stepmother in the television production of Rodgers and Hammersteins Cinderella, which starred Julie Andrews. Chase made a television sitcom appearance as Aunt Pauline on The Patty Duke Show. Chase was married to, Louis Calhern, actor, 1926–27 William B, murray, a radio executive, 1935–46 Norton Sager Brown, a physician, 1946–78 All of the unions were childless. Her autobiography Past Imperfect, which said Those who never fail are those who never try, was published in 1942, with Volume II, Free Admission, Chase died in Mexico City, Mexico, aged 72. She is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York and her epitaph reads, Ive finally gotten to the bottom of things. Chases personal papers, as well as those of her mother, are in The Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library
13.
Everett Sloane
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Everett H. Sloane was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films and television. He was also a songwriter and theatre director, everett H. Sloane was born in Manhattan October 1,1909, to Nathaniel I. Sloane and Rose Sloane. At age seven he played Puck in a play at Manhattans Public School 46 and he completed two years at the University of Pennsylvania, and left in 1927 to join Jasper Deeters Hedgerow Theatre repertory company. He made his New York stage debut in 1928, Sloane took a Wall Street job as a stockbrokers runner, but when his salary was cut in half after the stock market crash of 1929 he began to supplement his income with radio work. He became the assistant on WORs Impossible Detective Mysteries, played the title characters sidekick, Denny, in Bulldog Drummond. Sloane married Lillian Herman, an actress on stage and radio, January 4,1933, Sloane made his Broadway debut in 1935, playing Rosetti the agent in George Abbotts hit comedy, Boy Meets Girl. Sloane was a member of the company that presented the radio news dramatization series The March of Time. It was like a company, whose members were the aristocrats of this relatively new profession of radio acting. The March of Time was one of radios most popular shows, sloanes radio work led him to be hired by Orson Welles to become part of his Mercury Theatre. Sloane recorded one program with Mercury Theatre on the Air and became a player when the show was picked up by a sponsor. Sloane moved with the rest of the company to Los Angeles to continue recording the show after Welles signed his contract with RKO Pictures, Sloane played Mr. Bernstein in Welless first movie, Citizen Kane. After filming had wrapped, Sloane returned to New York to perform in Mercury Theatres last play, Richard Wrights Native Son, in 1947, Sloane also starred as lawyer Arthur Bannister in The Lady from Shanghai, also directed by Welles. He played an assassin in Renaissance-era Italy opposite Welles Cesare Borgia in Prince of Foxes, Sloane portrayed a doctor for paraplegic World War II veterans in 1950s The Men with Marlon Brando. Sloanes Broadway theater career ended in 1960 with From A to Z, in between, he acted in plays such as Native Son, A Bell for Adano, and Room Service, and directed the melodrama The Dancer. Sloane co-starred with Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie in Universals 1951 The Prince Who Was a Thief as a thief who adopts a baby, in 1953, he starred as Captain Frank Kennelly in the CBS radio crime drama 21st Precinct. In 1957, he co-starred in the episode of Suspicion co-starring Audie Murphy. In 1958, he played Walter Brennans role in a remake of To Have and Have Not called The Gun Runners, Sloane also worked extensively on television. In 1950, for example, he portrayed Vincent Van Gogh in The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouses production The Life of Vincent Van Gogh, later, in November 1955, he starred in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode Our Cooks a Treasure
14.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
15.
Wesley Addy
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Robert Wesley Addy was an American actor. Addy was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Maren S. Addy served in the United States Army during World War II. He played many roles on the Broadway stage, including several Shakespearean ones, also on television he played roles on The Edge of Night in the 1950s. He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, Alton Brent in the 1962 episode, The Case of the Weary Watchdog, later, during the 1970s-1980s, he played publisher Bill Woodard on Ryans Hope and patriarch Cabot Alden on the Agnes Nixon-Douglas Marland serial Loving. His television career also includes guest appearances on The Defenders, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Ironside, in motion pictures, Addys career spanned four decades. Robert Aldrich used him as supporting actor in pictures, such as Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Knife. Hush, Sweet Charlotte and The Grissom Gang, in 1976, Addy appeared in Paddy Chayefskys Network, directed by Sidney Lumet. They would work again in The Verdict, in which Addy played a doctor who nearly derails Paul Newmans case against a hospital for malpractice. Another of Addys best-remembered roles was that of Lt. Commander Alvin Kramer and he was married to actress Celeste Holm from 1961 until his death. The couple lived in Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey, – Marty McDonald 4 for Texas – Winthrop Trowbridge Hush. Hush, Sweet Charlotte – Sheriff Luke Standish Seconds – John Mister Buddwing – Dice Player The Rat Patrol - Col. Ulrich Leske Tora. Alvin D. Kramer The Grissom Gang – John P. Blandish Network – Nelson Chaney The Europeans – Mr. Wentworth The Verdict – Dr. Towler The Bostonians – Dr
16.
Michael Winkelman
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After its five-year run on ABC, The Real McCoys switched to CBS for its final season in 1962-1963 without the services of Kathleen Nolan as the young housewife, Kate McCoy. The series was created by Irving Pincus and directed by Hy Averback, in the last season on CBS, Winkelman, Lydia Reed as Hassie McCoy, and Tony Martinez as farmhand Pepino Garcia, all appeared less frequently than they had in the first years on ABC. Subsequently, Winkelman found few acting jobs and entered the United States Navy during the Vietnam War and he was later a groundskeeper at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, California. Winkelmans first television appearance was as 9-year-old Bruce Fuller in the 1955 television series The Great Gildersleeve and that same year, he also appeared in the Richard Boone series Medic on NBC. He appeared on Darren McGavins Mickey Spillanes Mike Hammer and on The Lone Ranger in the role of Chip Truett in the episode entitled The Prince of Buffalo Gap. He guest-starred on two episodes in 1955 and 1956 of both NBCs The Loretta Young Show and CBSs Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Winkelman appeared in the ABC anthology, TV Readers Digest, in a 1955 episode entitled Ordeal at Yuba Gap. In 1956, he appeared in two episodes of ABCs Cavalcade of America anthology series, one entitled The Boy Nobody Wanted. Winkelmans film roles, some uncredited, were in The Big Knife, Bobby Ware Is Missing, Sincerely Yours, and The Indian Fighter and he was a member of the Young Hollywood Hall of Fame. Winkleman died at the age of 53, and his remains are interred at the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside County, Winkelman was a brother of actress Wendy Winkelman. Michael Winkelman at the Internet Movie Database
17.
Strother Martin
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Martin perhaps is best known as the prison captain in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, in which he uttered the famous line, What weve got here is failure to communicate. The line is number 11 on the American Film Institute list of AFIs 100 Years.100 Movie Quotes, Martin was born in Kokomo in Howard County in north central Indiana. For a short time, the Martins moved to San Antonio, Texas, as a child, he excelled at swimming and diving, he was nicknamed T-Bone Martin because of his diving expertise. At 17, he won the National Junior Springboard Diving Championship and he served as a swimming instructor in the United States Navy during World War II and was a member of the diving team at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He entered the adult National Springboard Diving competition in hopes of gaining a berth on the U. S. Olympic team, after the war, Martin moved to Los Angeles, California and worked as a swimming instructor and as a swimming extra in water scenes in films. He was cast in 1955 as Landry Kersh in the episode Shadow of God on the ABC religion anthology series and he gave a memorable performance as a man with learning difficulties in the Cooter episode written by Sam Peckinpah in the first season of Gunsmoke. Martin appeared in the first Brian Keith series, Crusader, a Cold War drama on CBS and he guest starred as a circus tightrope walker in one of the 1957 episodes of CBSs Have Gun, Will Travel. He portrayed a soldier in a 1958 episode of the syndicated western series, Boots. That same year, he played the lead in the episode Pete Henke of NBCs western Jefferson Drum. In 1959, Martin played Polk, with Denver Pyle as Houston, in the episode No Place to Stop of the CBS western series, The Texan, starring Rory Calhoun as Bill Longley. In another 1959 western series, Martin was cast as Deputy Jess in the episode Johnny Yuma of ABCs The Rebel, in 1960, Martin guest starred in James Whitmores ABC crime drama, The Law and Mr. Jones. In 1962, Martin was cast as Harold Horton in The Chocolate Cake Caper of the CBS sitcom, Pete and Gladys, starring Harry Morgan and he guest starred in Jack Lords ABC adventure/drama series, Stoney Burke. In 1963, he was cast as Private Anton Copang in the episode Walk Through the Badlands of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, The Dakotas. In 1966, Martin appeared twice as Cousin Fletch in the short-lived ABC comedy western The Rounders, with Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne, earlier, he had guest starred with Harry Morgan and Cara Williams in their CBS sitcom, Pete and Gladys. In 1967, Martin played Arizona miner Ed Schieffelin in the episode Silver Tombstone of the television series Death Valley Days. In the story line, after years of failure, Schieffelin is convinced that he is on the verge of a bonanza and he invites his brother to join him in the pending strike. Jamie Farr appears as Dick Gird and his lunatic turn in the latter film as Lee Marvins characters insanely sadistic henchman, gleefully giggling in anticipation of each horrendous atrocity, remains a particularly memorable performance. Martin also excelled in comedy, playing an incompetent Indian agent in the John Wayne film, McLintock. and as a horse trader in the 1969 film
18.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
19.
Venice Film Festival
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The film festival is part of the Venice Biennale, which was founded by the Venetian City Council in 1895. The film festival has taken place in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, since its inception the Venice Film Festival has grown into one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The 74th Venice International Film Festival is scheduled to be held from 30 August to 9 September 2017, the first edition of the Venice Film Festival was carried out from the 6 to the 21 of August in 1932. The festival began with an idea of the president of the Venice Biennale Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata and Luciano De Feo, with good reason, the festival was considered the first international event of its type, receiving strong support from authorities. This first edition was held on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, and at that stage it was not a competitive event. The very first film to be shown in the history of the Festival was Rouben Mamoulians Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the second edition was held two years later, from 1 to 20 of August in 1934. For the first time it included a competition, at least 19 countries took part with over 300 accredited journalists. The Mussolini Cup was introduced for best foreign film and best Italian film, other awards were the Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment to best actor and actress. The prize for best foreign film went to Robert J. Flahertys Man of Aran and was a confirmation of the taste of the time for auteur documentaries, starting in 1935, the Festival became a yearly event under the direction of Ottavio Croze. The actors award was renamed Volpi Cup, in 1936 an international jury was nominated for the first time and in 1937 the new Cinema Palace, designed by the architect Luigi Quagliata, was inaugurated. The 1940s represent one of the most difficult moments for the review, the conclusion of the Second World War divides the decade in two. Before 1938 political pressures distorted and ruined the festival, in addition, few countries participated and there was an absolute monopoly of institutions and directors that were members of the Rome-Berlin Axis. The festival resumed full speed in 1946, after the war, with the return of normalcy, Venice once again became a great icon of the film world. In 1947 the festival was held at the Doges Palace, a most magnificent backdrop for hosting a record 90 thousand participants, surely it can be considered one of the greatest editions in the history of the festival. For the next twenty years the festival continued its development and expansion in accordance with the plan set in motion after the war. In 1963 the winds of change blow strongly during Luigi Chiarini’s directorship of the festival, during the years of his presidency, Chiarini aspired to renew the spirit and the structures of the festival, pushing for a total reorganization of the entire system. The social and political unrest of 1968 had strong repercussions on the Venice Bienniale, from 1969 to 1979 no prizes were awarded and the festival returned to the non-competitiveness of the first edition
20.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
21.
Nederlander Theatre
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The David T. Nederlander Theatre is a 1, 232-seat Broadway theater located at 208 West 41st Street, in New York City. One of the Nederlander Organizations nine Broadway theaters, the legacy of the theatre began with David Tobias Nederlander, the theater holds the distinction of being the southernmost theater in the theater district. The commonly held history is that Walter C. Jordan built the theatre at a cost of $950,000 and it opened September 1,1921, as the National Theatre and seated 1,200 people. The Shubert Organization owned the venue until 1956, when Harry Fromkes purchased it as part of the settlement of the Shubert antitrust case, Fromkes died after a fall from his apartment, and his estate sold it to Billy Rose, who renamed it after himself in 1959. The Nederlander Organization purchased the venue in 1979 and briefly renamed it the Trafalgar Theatre before dubbing it the David T. Nederlander Theatre in 1980 and it housed the Times Square Church before Nederlander sold the Mark Hellinger Theatre to the churchs pastor, David Wilkerson. This would mean that the Nederlander joins the Broadway and Winter Garden theatres as the only Broadway houses not originally built as such, and the Tony award winning Rent. Lena Horne won a 1981 Tony Award for her performance at the Nederlander in her eponymous Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music. When RENT, set in the Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattans East Village, opened in 1996, when Rent closed in 2008, refurbishing quickly got underway for the new show, a revival of Guys and Dolls starring Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham. The show played only 147 performances and was a box office failure when it closed June 14,2009, the Neil Simon plays, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound were to premiere at the theatre in the fall, and perform alternating shows. However, due to ticket sales for Brighton Beach Memoirs, the show closed November 1,2009. The musical Million Dollar Quartet made its Broadway debut at the theatre April 11,2010, following MDQ, Newsies opened for a limited engagement, which was subsequently converted to an open run. Newsies closed August 24,2014, and began touring in October, a musical, Honeymoon in Vegas began previews November 18,2014, with its official opening on January 15,2015. Amazing Grace, played from the summer through the fall of 2015, by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick, began performances on February 9,2016. 1939, The Little Foxes 1943, The Patriots 1948, Lend an Ear 1955, Inherit the Wind 1957, The Square Root of Wonderful 1962, motown, The Musical 2017, War Paint Newsies achieved the box office record for the Nederlander Theatre. The production played to 101% capacity and grossed $1,024,516.60 for eight performances the week ending April 15,2012
22.
Lee Strasberg
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Lee Strasberg was a Polish-born American actor, director, and theatre practitioner. He was born in a part of Galicia, Austrian Poland and he co founded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as Americas first true theatrical collective. The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute has its own sets of entrance criteria required for admission into their program. Former student Elia Kazan directed James Dean in East of Eden, as a student, Dean wrote that Actors Studio was the greatest school of the theater the best thing that can happen to an actor. Playwright Tennessee Williams, writer of A Streetcar Named Desire, said of Strasbergs actors and they communicate emotions they really feel. They give you a sense of life, directors such as Sidney Lumet, a former student, have intentionally used actors skilled in Strasbergs method. Kazan, in his autobiography, wrote, He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a doctor, a psychoanalyst. Was the force held the thirty-odd members of the theatre together. Today, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, and Harvey Keitel lead this nonprofit studio dedicated to the development of actors, playwrights and he also appeared in. And Justice for All. Strasbergs personal papers, including photos, are archived at the Library of Congress, Lee Strasberg was born Israel Strassberg in Budzanów in Austrian Poland, to Jewish parents, Baruch Meyer Strassberg and his wife, Ida, née Diner, and was the youngest of three sons. His father emigrated to New York while his family remained in their village with an uncle. His father, who worked as a presser in the garment industry, sent first for his eldest son, finally, enough money was saved to bring over his wife and his two remaining sons. In 1909, the family was reunited on Manhattans Lower East Side, a relative introduced him to the theater by giving him a small part in a Yiddish-language production being performed by the Progressive Drama Club. He later joined the Chrystie Street Settlement Houses drama club, when he was 23 years old, he enrolled in the Clare Tree Major School of the Theater. He became a naturalized United States citizen on January 16,1939, had his life-shaping revelation when Stanislavski brought his Moscow Art Theatre to the United States in 1923. He had seen good acting before, of course, but never an ensemble like this with actors completely surrendering their egos to the work. E observed, first of all, that all the actors, whether they were playing leads or small parts, worked with the same commitment, no actors idled about posing and preening. More important, every actor seemed to some sort of unspoken, yet palpable
23.
John Garfield
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John Garfield was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City, in the early 1930s, he became a member of the Group Theater. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner Bros. stars, called to testify before the U. S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities, he denied communist affiliation and refused to name names, some have alleged that the stress of this incident led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack. Garfield is acknowledged as a predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, in early infancy, a middle name—Julius—was added, and for the rest of his life those who knew him well called him Julie. His father, a presser and part-time cantor, struggled to make a living. When Garfield was five, his brother Max was born and their mother never fully recovered from what was described as a difficult pregnancy. She died two years later, and the boys were sent to live with various relatives, all poor, scattered across the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens. Several of these lived in tenements in a section of East Brooklyn called Brownsville. At school, he was judged a poor reader and speller and he would later say of his time on the streets there, that he learned all the meanness, all the toughness its possible for kids to acquire. His father remarried and moved to the West Bronx, where Garfield joined a series of gangs, much later, he would recall, Every street had its own gang. Thats the way it was in poor sections and he soon became a gang leader. At this time, people started to notice his ability to mimic well-known performers and he also began to hang out and eventually spar at a boxing gym on Jerome Avenue. At some point, he contracted fever, causing permanent damage to his heart. After being expelled three times and expressing a wish to quit school altogether, his parents sent him to P. S,45, a school for difficult children. It was under the guidance of the schools principal—the noted educator Angelo Patri—that he was introduced to acting, noticing Garfields tendency to stammer, Patri assigned him to a speech therapy class taught by a charismatic teacher named Margaret ORyan. She gave him acting exercises and made him memorize and deliver speeches in front of the class and, as he progressed, ORyan thought he had natural talent and cast him in school plays. She encouraged him to sign up for a citywide debating competition sponsored by the New York Times, to his own surprise, he took second prize
24.
American Airlines Theatre
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The American Airlines Theatre, originally the Selwyn Theatre, is a historic Italian Renaissance style Broadway theatre in New York City built in 1918. It was designed by George Keister and built by the Selwyn brothers, used for musicals and other dramatic performances it was eventually converted for film. It was used briefly as a visitors center but stood vacant for years until a 1997 renovation and restoration and it is located at 227 West 42nd Street. Originally named the Selwyn Theatre, it was designed by the architect George Keister and constructed by the Selwyn brothers, Edgar and Archie and it was one of three theatres they built and controlled on 42nd Street, along with the Apollo and the Times Square Theater. It was decorated in the style of the Italian Renaissance, at the time of its opening, the design had several innovations. Its most novel feature was separate smoking rooms for men and women, additionally, each dressing room was equipped with a shower and telephone. It would return to legitimate theater several times over the six decades. It was used briefly in the early 1990s as a home for the Times Square Visitors Center and for a production of Eugene ONeills The Hairy Ape. The City and State of New York took possession of the Selwyn in 1990, in 1992, it was one of six 42nd Street theatres to fall under the protection of the New 42nd Street organization. The Roundabout Theatre Company committed to renovating the Selwyn in 1997 and it was restored to its former grandeur, renamed the American Airlines in honor of its principal sponsor, and reopened on June 30,2000. The American Airlines Theatre currently serves as the home of the Roundabout, the production grossed $477,030 for the week ending April 30,2006
25.
Bobby Cannavale
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Robert Bobby Cannavale is an American actor known for his leading role as Bobby Caffey in the first two seasons of the crime drama series Third Watch. In 2016, he starred in the HBO drama series Vinyl, produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger. For his roles in Mauritius and The Motherfucker with the Hat, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, Cannavale has appeared in The Station Agent, Shall We Dance. Snakes on a Plane, The Other Guys, Woody Allens Blue Jasmine, Chef, the remake of Annie, Paul Feigs Spy, Cannavale was born and raised in Union City, New Jersey, the son of Isabel and Sal Cannavale. His father is of Italian descent, while his mother is Cuban and he was raised Catholic and attended St. Michaels Catholic School, where he participated in a number of extracurricular activities, including being an altar boy and member of the chorus. Cannavales parents divorced when he was 13 and his mother moved the family to Puerto Rico, after two years in the American territory, they settled in Margate, Florida. Cannavale returned to New Jersey after barely eking out a school diploma in the late 1980s from Coconut Creek High School, in order to be closer to New York. Following this, in 2001, he starred with Alan Arkin in 100 Centre Street – which was written and directed by Sidney Lumet, in 2002, he joined the cast of Ally McBeal for the last five episodes, but the show was then cancelled. Following this, he starred with Yancey Arias and Sheryl Lee in the miniseries Kingpin, in 2003, Cannavale briefly appeared on the last two episodes of Oz. He also appeared in the film The Station Agent as a man who befriends a little removed from society. From 2004 to 2006, he had a recurring guest role on Will & Grace as Vince DAngelo, for this role, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2005. He appeared in The Take alongside John Leguizamo and Tyrese Gibson, as Agent Steve Perelli. Cannavale serves as the voice of Corado R. Ciarlo, known as Babe, in the Ken Burns PBS film series The War from the perspective of the men who fought in combat and their loved ones at home. He also read the audiobook versions of Richard Prices 2008 novel Lush Life, on August 25,2008, ABC ordered his pilot Cupid, a remake of the 1998 program which had starred Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall, to series. In the new version of the series, Cannavale starred opposite Sarah Paulson with script development overseen by original series creator Rob Thomas, ABC debuted Cupid on March 31,2009, but it was cancelled on May 19,2009. In 2008, he received a Tony Award nomination for his role as Dennis in the Broadway play, in 2009, CBS announced Cannavale would reprise his role of Det. Eddie Saccardo on the show, Cold Case, for three episodes, starting with the third episode of Season 7. Cannavale was also in the film Win Win in 2011, as Terry Delfino and he later starred in the Broadway play The Motherfucker With the Hat alongside Chris Rock and Annabella Sciorra
26.
Richard Kind
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Richard Bruce Kind is an American actor and voice actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City. More recently, he has received recognition for his role as the voice of Bing Bong in the Pixar film Inside Out, for which he received substantial praise. Kind was born to a Jewish family, in the New Jersey capital of Trenton, the son of Alice, a homemaker, and Samuel Kind, together with his younger sister, Joanne, he grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Richard attended Pennsbury High School with fellow actor Robert Curtis Brown, in 1978 he graduated from Northwestern University, where he was in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He is also an alumnus of The Second City in Chicago, Kind portrayed Dr. Mark Devanow on Mad About You throughout the shows run, although after he took the role of Paul Lassiter on Spin City, he appeared on Mad About You with less frequency. Kind and Michael Boatman were the two actors to appear in every episode of Spin City. Kind created the role of Addison Mizner in Stephen Sondheim’s Bounce, and has appeared on Broadway in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, The Producers, and Sly Fox. He also appeared as the “Jury Foreman” in the film The Producers and he has a recurring role on the Disney Channel series Kim Possible, where he plays Frugal Lucre. He also plays the role of Gumbo in an episode of Chowder on Cartoon Network, in 2000 he did the voice of Mr. Dobbins in Tom Sawyer. In 2001–02, he voiced the character of Pongo in five episodes of the animated series Oswald and he also had a minor role as Gary Meyers, an archaeologist who translated the symbols on the Stargate prior to James Spaders characters involvement in the 1994 movie Stargate. He appeared in four episodes of Larry Davids Curb Your Enthusiasm between 2002 and 2009 as Larrys cousin Andy. Kind had a role in Scrubs as Harvey Corman, an annoying hypochondriac. Actor/director George Clooney is a friend, and was best man at Kinds wedding to Dana Stanley in 1999. Kind later went on to play the part of a director in Clooneys directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Kind also played himself in the short-lived HBO series Unscripted, which Clooney executive produced and directed with Grant Heslov, as well as Argo, Kind guest starred on the Disney Channel series Even Stevens, where he played the surly Uncle Chuck. He appeared in the film National Lampoons Bag Boy in 2007, Kind also starred in the independent black comedy feature, The Understudy in 2008. He also played a role on TNTs hit show Leverage playing the part of a corrupt mayor in the second season two-part finale. In 2007, Kind played a role in the indie film The Visitor as Richard Jenkinss neighbor
27.
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
28.
AllMovie
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AllMovie is an online guide service website with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. As of 2013, AllMovie. com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by All Media Network, AllMovie was founded by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine, who also founded AllMusic and AllGame. The AllMovie database was licensed to tens of thousands of distributors and retailers for point-of-sale systems, websites, the AllMovie database is comprehensive, including basic product information, cast and production credits, plot synopsis, professional reviews, biographies, relational links and more. AllMovie data was accessed on the web at the AllMovie. com website and it was also available via the AMG LASSO media recognition service, which can automatically recognize DVDs. In late 2007, Macrovision acquired AMG for a reported $72 million, the AMG consumer facing web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in August 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. The buyers also include the founders of SideReel and Ackrell Capital investor Mike Ackrell. All Media Network offices are located in San Francisco, California, AllMusic AllGame SideReel All Media Network Official website
29.
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
30.
YouTube
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YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005, Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, YouTube now operates as one of Googles subsidiaries. Unregistered users can watch videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos deemed potentially offensive are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old, YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not. YouTube began as a venture capital-funded technology startup, primarily from an $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006, YouTubes early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www. youtube. com was activated on February 14,2005, the first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23,2005, and can still be viewed on the site, YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005. The first video to reach one million views was a Nike advertisement featuring Ronaldinho in November 2005. Following a $3.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital in November, the site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. The site has 800 million unique users a month and it is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. The choice of the name www. youtube. com led to problems for a similarly named website, the sites owner, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being regularly overloaded by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www. utubeonline. com, in October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13,2006. In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, according to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event. On March 31,2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface, Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented, We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter. In May 2010, YouTube videos were watched more than two times per day. This increased to three billion in May 2011, and four billion in January 2012, in February 2017, one billion hours of YouTube was watched every day
31.
Big Leaguer
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Big Leaguer is a 1953 film. It starred Edward G. Robinson and was the first film directed by Robert Aldrich, although this story is fiction, Robinsons character in it, Hans Lobert, was an actual baseball player who played for five Major League Baseball teams and managed the Philadelphia Phillies. Third-billed in the cast, Jeff Richards was a professional ballplayer before he became an actor, john Hans Lobert runs a training camp in Florida for baseballs New York Giants. Every year, he evaluates the 18-22-year-old hopefuls to pick the best for a league contract. All have dreams and talent, but the elimination whittles them down to a few who will get the $150-a-month contract. Loberts niece comes down from the office in New York and finds herself attracted to one of the players. Little Joe Polachuk Bing Russell Harv Tomter, himself According to MGM records the film earned $467,000 in the US and Canada and $92,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $163,000. Big Leaguer at the Internet Movie Database Big Leaguer at AllMovie
32.
World for Ransom
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World for Ransom is a 1954 film noir drama film directed by Robert Aldrich, who was uncredited for his work. Many of the actors and sets used in the film were from the Dan Duryea television show China Smith, Duryea, Patric Knowles, Gene Lockhart, Reginald Denny, and Nigel Bruce starred in the film. Aldrich and cinematographer Joseph Biroc also worked on the series, mike Callahan is an Irish émigré and war veteran working in Singapore as a private detective. He takes on a case from a flame, now a nightclub singer. She thinks her husband Julian March is involved in criminal activities, Callahan learns that a man named Alexis Pederas has involved Julian in a plot to kidnap a prominent nuclear scientist Sean OConnor and hold him for ransom to the highest bidder. OConnor is one of the men in the world that knows how to detonate the H-Bomb. When the film was released, film critic Bosley Crowther was negative about the film but appreciated the actors, writing, Nothing gives it distinction, some day he may learn how. Aldrich was upset with censors for lifting the scene where Duryea learns his love interest is a lesbian and he could forgive her love for other men, but not with other women. The 1950s wasnt ready for such relationships, at least not in films, nevertheless, this was a compelling film doing a fantastic job exploring the uncertainty of partnerships and the indeterminate nature of trust. World for Ransom at the Internet Movie Database World for Ransom at AllMovie World for Ransom at the TCM Movie Database
33.
Apache (film)
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Apache is a 1954 Western film starring Burt Lancaster. Following the surrender of Geronimo, Massai, the last Apache warrior is captured and scheduled for transportation to a Florida reservation, on the way he manages to escape and heads for his homeland to win back his girl and settle down to grow crops. His pursuers have other ideas though and it was originally budgeted at $742,000. The film was a big hit, earning over $3 million in its first year of release, the film currently has a 75% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Whitewashing in film Apache at the Internet Movie Database Apache at the TCM Movie Database
34.
Vera Cruz (film)
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Vera Cruz is a 1954 American Western theatrical film starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, and featuring Denise Darcel, Sara Montiel, Cesar Romero, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and Jack Elam. The movie was directed by Robert Aldrich from a story by Borden Chase, during the Franco-Mexican War, ex-Confederate soldier Ben Trane travels to Mexico seeking a job as a mercenary. He falls in with Joe Erin, a gunslinger who heads a gang of cutthroats. Trane uses a compliment to the Countess to get the Emperor to double it, during a river crossing, Trane and Erin noticed that the stagecoach in which the countess is traveling is extremely heavy. Erin later discovers that the stagecoach contains six cases of gold coins, first Trane and then the countess discover him looking at the gold. The countess informs them that it is worth $3 million which is being transported to pay for troops for Maximilians French army and they form an uneasy alliance to steal and split the gold. Unfortunately for their plans, the Marquis was listening from the shadows, also involved in the mix is General Ramírez a heroic Juarista leader. He and the other Juarista leaders soon suspect that there is more to the expedition than the Countess, eventually, the rest of Erins group also learn that something suspicious is going on and they demand to be let in on the secret. The different groups, including Juarista secret agent Nina, conspire to steal the gold for their own purposes, alliances are formed, quickly dissolved and others are formed. A ruse is successful in getting the gold to Veracruz where the Juarista troops attack the French in a battle over the ownership of the gold. Erin attempts to steal the gold for himself by getting the countess to reveal the location of the ship she had hired to transport the gold, however, Trane arrives in time to stop him. In the end, Trane and Erin face off in a showdown that concludes with Erins death, Trane leaves the gold and walks through the dead bodies from the battle while the wives and mothers of the Juarista troops search among the dead and wounded for their loved ones. The movie was a big hit in France. Vera Cruz was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1st,2003 and you Cant Win Em All, a 1970 film with a similar plot set in the Greco-Turkish War. Vera Cruz at the Internet Movie Database Vera Cruz at the TCM Movie Database Vera Cruz at AllMovie
35.
Kiss Me Deadly
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Kiss Me Deadly is an 1955 film noir, produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, that stars Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A. I, Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. The film was released by United Artists Kiss Me Deadly grossed $726,000 in the United States, the film also withstood scrutiny from the Kefauver Commission, which called it a film designed to ruin young viewers, leading director Aldrich to protest the Commissions conclusions. Kiss Me Deadly marked the debuts of the actresses Cloris Leachman. Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre, in 1999, Kiss Me Deadly was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Ralph Meeker plays Mike Hammer, a tough Los Angeles private eye who is almost as brutal as the crooks he chases, Mike and his assistant/secretary/lover, Velda, usually work on penny-ante divorce cases. One evening on a country road, Hammer gives a ride to Christina. She has escaped from an institution, most probably the nearby Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Thugs waylay them and Hammer awakens in some unknown location where he hears Christina screaming and being tortured to death, the thugs then push Hammers car off a cliff with Christinas body and an unconscious Hammer inside. Hammer next awakens in a hospital with Velda by his bedside and he decides to pursue the case, for vengeance, a sense of guilt, and because she must be connected with something big behind it all. The twisting plot takes Hammer to the apartment of Lily Carver, Lily tells Hammer she has gone into hiding and asks Hammer to protect her. It turns out that she is after a box that. The great whatsit, as Velda calls it, at the center of Hammers quest is a small, mysterious valise that is hot to the touch and contains a dangerous, glowing substance. Later, at a beach house, Hammer finds Lily. Velda is their hostage, tied up in a bedroom, Soberin and Gabrielle are vying for the contents of the box. Gabrielle shoots Soberin, believing that she can keep the contents for herself. She also shoots and wounds Hammer, who manages to find Velda, as Gabrielle slyly opens the case, it is ultimately revealed to be stolen radionuclide material, which reaches explosive criticality when the box is fully opened. Horrifying sounds emanate from the material as Gabrielle and the house burst into flames, just as Hammer
36.
Autumn Leaves (film)
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Autumn Leaves is a 1956 American drama film by Columbia Pictures starring Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson in an older woman/younger man tale of mental illness. The screenplay was written by Jean Rouverol and Hugo Butler, though it was credited to Jack Jevne, Rouverol, the film was directed by Robert Aldrich and produced by William Goetz. Aldrich won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 1956 Berlin International Film Festival, spinsterish Millicent Millie Wetherby works at home as a self-employed typist. One evening in a diner, she meets a lonely Army veteran named Burt Hanson and they share a romantic date at the beach, kissing amidst the crashing waves, but Millie tells Burt to date someone his own age. A month later, Burt is waiting for the still-lonely Millie at her home and he proposes to her in a movie theater, and while she initially rejects the proposal, she reconsiders when she sees him walking away. The next day, the couple married in Mexico. However, on the license, he lists his place of birth as Chicago, though he had earlier told her he was born in Racine. Once home, Burts ex-wife, Virginia, appears, which shocks Millie because Burt told her that he had never been married, Virginia gives her a property settlement that she wants Burt to sign and tells her that Burt is a habitual liar about his life and his past. Millie also learns that Burts father is in Los Angeles to find him, Burt is haunted by the day when he discovered his wife and father making love, he begins displaying signs of mental instability with their sudden, unwelcomed presence in his life. When he becomes violent, Millie sends him to a mental hospital, Burts condition improves with treatment, and he severs connections with his past. Millie happily discovers he loves her and they look forward to a brighter future. Coles rendition is used over the title sequence. The songs original title is Les feuilles mortes with music by Joseph Kosma, english lyrics were written by the American songwriter Johnny Mercer. The song was introduced by Yves Montand in the French feature film Les Portes de la Nuit, Autumn Leaves was a modest box-office success, chiefly among Crawfords female fans. The actress thought highly of the film, deeming it the best older woman/younger man movie ever made, the cast was perfect, the script was good, and I think Bob handled everything well. I really think Cliff did a job, another actor might have been spitting out his lines and chewing the scenery. I think the movie on a whole was a lot better than some of the romantic movies I did in the past. and it was eclipsed by the picture I did with Bette Davis. The film has grown in stature among Aldrich fans since its 1956 premiere and is now regarded as one of the directors best films, dan Callahan of Slant Magazine wrote, All of Aldrichs early work is intriguing, but Autumn Leaves is his secret gem
37.
Attack (1956 film)
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Attack, also known as Attack. is a 1956 American anti-war drama film. It was directed by Robert Aldrich and starred Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, William Smithers, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel, Buddy Ebsen, as the official trailer put it, Not every gun is pointed at the enemy. The film won the 1956 Italian Film Critics Award, europe 1944, Fragile Fox is a company of the US National Guard based in a Belgian town near the front line. They are led by Capt. Erskine Cooney, who appears to be better at handling red tape than combat, Cooney freezes under fire and cannot bring himself to send more men into battle to reinforce those already under attack. The increasing and unnecessary loss of life caused by Cooneys actions is lowering unit morale, the executive officer, Lt. Harold Woodruff, is the voice of reason who tries to keep the peace between Cooney and Costa. Woodruff tries to get Cooney reassigned to a desk job, the judges influence could be very useful to Bartletts post-war political ambitions. When the Germans launch the Battle of the Bulge, Bartlett orders Cooney to seize the town of La Nelle, unsure whether the Germans are there or not, Cooney overrules an all-out attack and decides that Costa should lead a reconnaissance mission. Costa agrees, provided that both Cooney and Woodruff promise to send reinforcements if necessary, as the platoon approaches La Nelle, the men come under fire--the town, as it turns out, is strongly held by German troops backed up by mortars and tanks. Most of Costas squad is killed or wounded and he and the survivors take refuge in a farmhouse. When Costa calls for reinforcements, Cooney ignores his request and begins drinking, Costa and his men capture a German SS officer and a soldier, but when tanks start shelling the house, he has no choice but to retreat. He furiously tells Woodruff over the radio to warn Cooney that hes coming back, in the confusion Costa goes missing in action. The rest of the men manage to get back to town, the men show their contempt for Cooney. Bartlett reprimands Cooney for failing to send in his company to take La Nelle. As a result, the Germans are advancing on their position, he tells Woodruff, Bartlett threatens to arrest Cooney if he falls back, as it would leave another company unprotected and the Germans would be able to roll up the entire front line. When Cooney begs to be reassigned, an enraged Bartlett strikes him, with the pressure building up inside him, Cooney turns to drink again, but Woodruff smashes the bottle. After that, Cooney has a mental breakdown, feeling sorry for him, Woodruff tells him to sleep it off and is about to assume command when Costa suddenly reappears, determined to kill Cooney. As they argue, they are told by Cpl, Jackson that the town is being overrun. Costa disables an enemy tank with a bazooka, but is wounded when another tank he disables drives over his arm
38.
Ten Seconds to Hell
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Ten Seconds To Hell is a 1959 British and West German film directed by Robert Aldrich and based upon Lawrence P. Bachmanns novel, The Phoenix. The Hammer Films/UFA joint production stars Jack Palance, Jeff Chandler and their fatalistic duties lead them to form a macabre pact, they donate a part of their individual paychecks into a pool that those still surviving at the end of three months divide the money. Eventually, only two men are left, and they are both in love with the same woman, Robert Aldrichs direction is noted for its meticulous attention to the techniques of bomb deactivation and disposal. Delighted by the position, Karl bets Eric that he will outlive him. Although initially taken aback by the wager, the men soon agree that half of their salaries will go to the survivors of the dangerous mission in three months time. The British provide the men new uniforms and equipment, and assign Frau Bauer as their liaison, Karl volunteers to lead the unit, but the men vote for the reluctant Eric instead. Later, Karl and Eric move into an Allied-approved boarding house run by pretty young widow Margot Hoefler, several weeks go by in which the men successfully and safely defuse numerous bombs, then the men are stunned when young Globke is killed while defusing a British 1000-pound bomb. Suspecting that the bomb has double fuses, Eric asks Haven to request information from British armaments on its design, at the boardinghouse, Karl continually flirts with Margot, to Erics annoyance. One evening when Margot loudly protests Karls drunken advances, Eric bursts into Margots room to help her and Karl retreats, when Eric remains critical, Margot accuses him of denying his own desires. A few days later, Frau Bauer receives a report that Tillig has been trapped under a bomb by the partial collapse of a ruined building. With the other men away on assignments, Eric and Karl race to the site, after Eric defuses the bomb safely, a doctor arrives and upon examining Tillig declares there is no chance for his survival. Refusing to accept the pronouncement, Eric hurries outside to request equipment to lift the bomb, but as Karl expresses his doubts, the building collapses on Tillig, distraught, Eric returns to the boardinghouse where he seeks solace from Margot. The next day, Eric takes Margot to another ruined section of the city, Eric struggles to conceal his growing feelings for Margot, admitting that he is confused about becoming romantically involved while his life is in danger daily. Back at headquarters, Haven tells Eric that because of the post-war chaos, when Haven discloses that he knows of Erics former profession, Karl, unaware that his colleague was an esteemed architect, expresses surprise. Eric tells Haven that he was forced into demolitions when he fell into disfavor for making political statements. Karl and the men were all pressed into demolitions as punishment for some indiscretion. Mocking Erics growing anxiety, Karl urges him to quit the unit and give up the wager, a month before the wagers deadline, Sulke is killed while defusing a double fused bomb. Eric, Loeffler and the men agree to adhere to the terms of the wager but discuss giving the salaries to Sulkes widow, when Eric presents the proposal to Karl, he scoffs at the suggestion, explaining that his motto has always been to look after himself
39.
The Last Sunset (film)
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The Last Sunset is a 1961 American Western film directed Robert Aldrich starring Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, and Dorothy Malone. The film was released by Universal Studios, shot in Eastman color, the screenplay by Dalton Trumbo was adapted from Howard Rigsbys novel Sundown at Crazy Horse. The supporting cast includes Joseph Cotten, Carol Lynley, Neville Brand, brendan OMalley crosses the border into Mexico to escape justice for a murder. He arrives at the ranch of a lover, Belle Breckenridge and her husband. He is immediately attracted to Missy, who reminds him of Belle when they were years ago. Breckenridge, meanwhile, hires OMalley to drive his herd to Texas, sheriff Dana Stribling is pursuing OMalley. He arrives at the ranchero to serve a warrant for the murder of his brother-in-law, Stribling does not have jurisdiction to arrest OMalley in Mexico so he also agrees to join the cattle drive to Texas. He promises to deliver OMalley to the law upon their arrival, during the cattle drive some former Confederates confront Breckenridge in a bar and accuse him of cowardice during a battle in the Civil War. Although Stribling and OMalley team up to try and save Breckenridges life, Breckinridge is shot in the back, Stribling and OMalley respond by shooting the man who shot Breckinridge, and then bury Breckinridge back at the cattle drive camp. Along the journey, Stribling and Belle become attracted to other and plan to marry. On the eve of the showdown between the two men, Belle discloses the secret that Missy is the daughter of OMalley and their incestuous love cannot continue, at the gunfight, OMalley faces the sheriff with an unloaded gun, effectively committing suicide
