Every week I seem to have a conversation with someone about the rapid passage of time. Where did the summer go? The month of September? This week? Enjoying anything at a leisurely pace or taking time to ensure that a task is well done have become casualties of our fast-paced, urbanized lifestyles: The immediate delivery [...]

One of my favorite films airs tomorrow night, October 4, on TCM. In a Lonely Place is my favorite directorial effort by Nicholas Ray, with terrific performances by Humphrey Bogart and by Gloria Grahame.  Though a box-office disappointment when it was released in 1950, In a Lonely Place has since been recognized as a Nicholas [...]

Last Friday, the ABC soap opera All My Children aired its last episode on television after a 41- year run. In January, One Life to Live will broadcast its last episode, and though, it hasn’t been formally announced, General Hospital will follow suit in September 2012. Soap fans are angry and disappointed that their shows [...]

Brad Pitt was featured this past week in Parade magazine, the tiny Sunday supplement to most major-city newspapers. In the cover article, he beams about family life with wife Angelina Jolie and their six children. He created a stir among gossip columnists and Internet wags when he referred to his previous marriage to Jennifer Aniston [...]

When I was a little girl, I watched soap operas with my mother, making me a life-long fan of the many subgenres and stylings of melodrama. In addition to the daytime dramas, we faithfully tuned in every Tuesday and Thursday evening to watch Peyton Place, a prime-time soap based on Grace Metalious’s originally scandalous novel. [...]

Each month, my film-discussion group meets for a lively brunch to discuss a topic agreed on in the previous meeting. At the end of September, we will meet to talk about the films and careers of selected female directors. One of the films on the suggested viewing list is the early indie film Wanda, which [...]

As a former editor, I am annoyed that the items listed in the tagline above are not parallel: After all, it should be “Lesbians, Martial Arts, High Heels and Sciences.” But, then again, that is the least of the problems on the sellsheet for Minty the Assassin, a title offered by Cinema Epoch, which specializes [...]

In 1939, Joan Blondell left Warner Bros. for Columbia after her husband at the time, Dick Powell, decided that neither of them was getting their due from Jack Warner. Blondell worked regularly on the radio and on Broadway during the 1940s, only periodically returning to Hollywood. She divorced Powell, the love of her life, in [...]

The Silent Film Society of Chicago launched their Summer Film Festival a couple of weeks ago, and this year’s line-up includes A Girl in Every Port featuring Louise Brooks, Why Change Your Wife? with Gloria Swanson, Heart o’ the Hills starring Mary Pickford, Sunrise with Janet Gaynor, The Cardboard Lover featuring Marion Davies and The [...]