As my last post for the year 2009, I thought it might be fun to recount the last words of some of Hollywood’s illustrious, notorious, and even forgotten stars. And, I don’t mean their last spoken words, but the epitaphs on their gravestones. These are the thoughts, comments, and quips that they chose to be [...]

A friend and I have been mulling over cinematic portrayals of real-life historical figures, stars, and celebrities. We’re not particularly interested in historical or biographical accuracy but in which famous figures are most often depicted in the movies and by whom. Just as I was thinking about how to turn this idea into a blog [...]

I have always resisted making an end-of-the-year top-ten list of “best movies” as so many critics and bloggers do. There are just way too many of them, and they tend to include the same Hollywood movies and high-profile independent films. However, there are some notable exceptions, including the lists generated by my coworkers at Facets [...]

When I was a little girl, my father taught me about Pearl Harbor Day. He was a World War II army veteran and had served in the Philippines and New Guinea. Like many vets of that generation, he did not talk much about his experiences, which I am sure were as horrific as they are [...]

I spent Thanksgiving with Dracula, and I don’t mean that creepy relative who likes to dress in black or my cold-hearted, soul-sucking “ex.”  On Thanksgiving evening, I watched the 1931 Universal film interpretation of Bram Stoker’s novel about the world’s most famous vampire, except it wasn’t the one with Bela Lugosi. Instead, I devoured the [...]

Last week, I showed William Friedkin’s The French Connection in my film history class to represent the era of the Film School Generation, which was that remarkable group of young directors who ruled Hollywood during the 1960s and 1970s. Enormously popular when released in 1971, The French Connection not only holds up 38 years later, [...]

On the evening of November 30 on Turner Classic Movies, Anthony Hopkins cohosts his selection of four movies as part of TCM’s Guest Programmer series.  Hopkins settled on a set of well-known films from four important directors: Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai, John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, John Ford’s The Grapes [...]

The Morlocks’ tribute to Robert Ryan, which leads up to Turner’s multi-film celebration of the actor on November 10-11, has not only offered insightful comments on some of his most famous performances but also shed light on his lesser known films. Interestingly, there has been a notable preference for Ryan’s dark characters—the bigots, the villains, [...]

Prior to watching the silent thriller The Bat (1926) a couple of weeks ago at Chicago’s Portage Theater, my only knowledge of the film’s director, Roland West, was his connection to the mysterious death of actress Thelma Todd. West’s involvement with Todd and the link to her death resulted in his withdrawal from Hollywood, meaning [...]