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Classic Movie Friends of the Silver Screen Oasis

Posted: October 26th, 2007, 3:41 pm
by moira finnie
Here's a spot to showcase some of our members and friends' website appearances. Hoping that you'll suggest any sites we might like to include, especially if our members are writing and contributing to them. Thanks!
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Our own moderator Lzcutter is a driving force behind a site documenting Las Vegas History. If it happens in Vegas, it may stay in Vegas, but Lynn and her friends will be there to document it.:
http://www.classiclasvegas.com

Ms. Cutter also maintains a well written companion blog on that site, found here:
http://www.classiclasvegas.squarespace.com

Lynn is also the Digital Assets Manager, Archivist, and Media Producer at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

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In her spare time, our moderator is also one of the co-authors, along with Allen Sandquist and Carey Burke of Las Vegas: 1905-1965: 15 Historic Postcards.
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Dewey1960, one of our resident members with an expertise in film noir and pre-code films, has been keeping busy in the San Francisco area as the Director of Repertory Programming for the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, where his annual film noir festivals continue to draw huge crowds and generate enthusiastic press. In 2010 the “Marlon Riggs Award” was bestowed upon him by the San Francisco Film Critics' Circle for his “two decades of film programming, his revival of rare archival and independent titles and his role in the renewed popularity of film noir and pre-Production Code features.” He also teaches courses in film studies at Stanford University.

Elliot Lavine aka Dewey1960 is also the author of TV Noir 2011 I Wake Up Dreaming: The Legendary and the Lost
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Miss Goddess, one of our charter members, has begun the only site on the internet devoted exclusively to the works and life of directorJohn Ford. Long cherished for her insights into storytelling, composition and the impact of classic film, it is a delight to see her gifts applied to this fascinating website.
Directed By John Ford I http://directedbyjohnford.com/


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Ayres, one of most knowledgeable and entertaining members, maintains a discussion group devoted to all things Fred--the inimitable Fred Astaire, that is!

If you have a question about or passion for Mr. Astaire or would like to learn more about dance and musicals in general, Ayres' devotees are a terrific resource (and they are nice people--not surprisingly!):

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/astaire/
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Moxie, aka author and film historian Alan K. Rode, is a site member. Moxie is the author of the recent biography of actor
Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy and has what promises to be a major biography of Michael Curtiz forthcoming in the next year.
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He is also one of the driving forces behind the Film Noir Foundation, a lively film appreciation group promoting the preservation of movies that belong to or are influenced by that genre. He also maintains a blog, found at One Way Street.

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Dawtrina is one member who is documenting his moviegoing experiences on his blog as well as turning his discerning eye on other aspects of in-depth film analysis at the following links:
Hal and Dee at the Movies
http://www.dawtrina.com/personal/film/index.html

Apocalypse Later: A Cinematic Travelogue
http://dawtrina.blogspot.com/


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SSO member Rudyfan documents her passion for all things Valentino at her beautifully composed website Falcon Lair, which can be viewed at the address below:
http://www.rudolph-valentino.com

Rudyfan aka Donna Hill is also the author of Rudolph Valentino The Silent Idol: His Life in Photographs, which was published in 2010.

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Our member Ann Harding, our Paris-based cineaste, has a beautifully detailed website in French (with English translation available here). Her sit is devoted to lesser known actors from the twenties and thirties, with a particular emphasis on the work of Ann Harding and Ronald Colman. Ann's blog can be seen at the link below. Here's a link to the wonderful site:
http://annhardingstreasures.blogspot.com/
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SSO member pvitari (Paula Vitaris) has an impressive collection of high quality images at her website on Shutterfly, at The Ben Johnson Screencaps Page. Which is more impressive--Paula's devotion to this great character actor, or her technical skills creating this page? Either way, you will find yourself drawn into the site:
http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com/
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CarrieLiz, one of our members, has an elegantly designed site devoted to Frances Dee. Please visit this lovingly composed tribute to one of the most fondly remembered actresses from the studio era. There was always something ethereal about Ms. Dee. She struck me as a woman who was in the world, but not necessarily of the world. I think that CarrieLiz captures that quality beautifully. Don't miss the fine interview with the youngest son of Frances Dee and Joel McCrea, Peter McCrea, which is found within the site. The link to the site is:
http://www.francesdeemccrea.com/

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MichiganJ has this site dedicated to "Essays on Silent Films available on DVD and Laserdiscs." He is also a fan of music and has many posts here devoted to sharing and critiquing music we love. The link to the site is:

http://digitalsilents.com/Digital_Silen ... lents.html

More to come...

Scott Eyman, Our First Guest Star

Posted: December 20th, 2007, 10:20 am
by moira finnie
Scott Eyman, our first Guest Star at this site, whose q & a can be read here, visited us in October, 2007. His generosity has earned him a special place in the SSO community. If you'd like to check out any of his wonderfully researched and entertainingly written books and articles, here's a brief guide:

Scott is the author of a number of books on classic film, including books on John Ford, Mary Pickford, Ernst Lubitsch and Louis B. Mayer. He is also the books and arts editor for The Palm Beach Post. In addition, he has written and appeared in several documentaries.

Scott has just started his own blog at the Palm Beach Post, called Scott Eyman's Culture Club. It's lively and informative and allows us to enjoy his incisive, witty and elegant prose in a more casual setting. I hope that you'll check it out here.

His books are available at most bookstores, from Amazon.com and other internet vendors, or from your local library.

A partial list of his books includes:

Flashback: A Brief History of Film (A textbook written with Louis Giannetti)
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The Lion of Hollywood; the life and legend of Louis B. Mayer
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Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford
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John Ford: The Complete Films, written with Paul Duncan
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The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-1930
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Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise
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Mary Pickford: America's Sweetheart
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Five American CinematographersInterviews with Karl Strauss, Joseph Ruttenberg, James Wong Howe, Linwood Dunn, and William H. Clothier

Bergman: (Taschen Movie Icon Series)
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Robert S. Birchard, Our Second Guest Star

Posted: December 20th, 2007, 10:21 am
by moira finnie
Bob Birchard, one of our past Guest Stars here on the SSO, writes historical pieces about movies and Hollywood that appear regularly in "Statement" magazine. If you'd like to read the q & a that took place when Bob visited us, please click here. You can check out a couple of Mr. Birchard's articles at the link below:

Robert S. Birchard Articles

Click on the magazine cover, which will bring up a larger image of the magazine that you can navigate through page by page. The articles are about early director Francis Boggs and about making B Westerns.

Bob's most recent books may be found at:
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Silent-Era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara
by Robert S. Birchard
ISBN # 978-0-7385-4730-5
http://tinyurl.com/2dcwbv

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Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood
by Robert S. Birchard
ISBN # 0-8131-2324-0
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813123240

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His book, King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies can be obtained from:
Bookfellows
238 North Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
P: Malcolm Bert Bell
Tel: (818) 545-0206

Email: bookfellowsgowebway.com
Internet: http://www.mysteryandimagination.com

or through the Eassany Silent Film Museum
http://www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/

Mick LaSalle

Posted: December 20th, 2007, 10:36 am
by moira finnie
Mick LaSalle was one of our past guest star authors, at The Silver Screen Oasis. To read the q & a on our site with Mick, please click here.

The noted author and film historian Mick LaSalle may be of particular interest to the friends of Turner Classic Movies familiar with his groundbreaking book, Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, (St. Martin's Press, 2000). This critically hailed book is an entertaining and serious study of the freedom of Pre-Code actresses in the era prior to the enforcement of the Production Code in Hollywood movies in 1934. Mr. LaSalle's book was also adapted by TCM into a documentary special broadcast on TCM called Complicated Women (2003), which has aired several times since its initial broadcast. He also wrote Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man(Thomas Dunne Books, 2002) about the impact of male actors in that same period.
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In addition to these works, LaSalle is the film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and teaches at Stanford University. The quality of his mind and his lively writing style are on stimulating display in his columns at The Chronicle, where the writer touches on topics as diverse as the current and past movie scene, and coping with life in 21st century America.

Mr. LaSalle's books can be purchased at several internet sites, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as being available in your local library.

Posted: April 6th, 2008, 11:37 am
by moira finnie
The Silver Screen Oasis had the pleasure of chatting with Alan K. Rode at a weekend exploration of the shady side of the Film Noir street this coming Saturday, Jan. 19th & Sunday, Jan. 20th. You can read the entire conversation here.
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Our special guest star will be Alan K. Rode, whose expertise in film history has yielded the recent book, Charles McGraw, Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy. This well received portrait outlines the life and career of the actor who appeared in several outstanding noirs, including The Killers (1946), Roadblock(1951) and Narrow Margin(1952), as well as many other movies in all genres.

Some critical comments about Charles McGraw, Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy:
“A spellbinding account of the great noir heavy… and a must-have addition to all film noir libraries. Deft biography and overall wild tale”
James Ellroy, the world’s greatest living noir fiction writer

“It is a terrific book, and the research is amazing… buy it…if you're interested in Hollywood movies of the '40s-'50s, especially the film noirs, because it's the history of all THAT stuff too. “
Tom Weaver, film historian and author of over twenty books

Very little, if anything, seems to be left out. …an incredible history lesson for movie enthusiasts…The only thing that confuses us is how Rode managed to fit such a wealth of information in just under 230 pages. We chalk it up to great writing!
Gary Sweeney, The Midnight Palace


Mr. Rode is also a founding director of The Film Noir Foundation, which can be viewed here: www.filmnoirfoundation.org. This non-profit organization is dedicated to displaying and rescuing “America’s Noir Heritage”. He is a senior editor for the Foundation’s newsletter, The Noir City Sentinel, and is the associate producer, co-programmer and co-host for the Noir City film festivals in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Alan's own website, with news about what our pal "moxie" is up to currently can be viewed here:
http://alankrode.com/public/
We hope you visit!

Posted: April 6th, 2008, 12:56 pm
by moira finnie
The Silver Screen Oasis was visited in February, 2008 by our Guest Star that month, Lee Server. To read the Q & A with Lee, please visit here. The author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed biographies,
Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don't Care
("The film biography of the year" London Sunday Times)
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and
Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing
("Server's book is a gripping study of an elusive character, and a sizable contribution to the history of mid twentieth century cinema" Times Literary Supplement)
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Mr. Server is also the author of several other fascinating books, including:

Sam Fuller: Film Is a Battleground
Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures
Asian Pop Cinema: Bombay to Tokyo
Danger Is My Business: The Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines
The Big Book of Noir (co-edited with Martin H.Greenberg, and Ed Gorman).

Mr. Server's books are an engaging blend of frank yet affectionate gazes at some pivotal yet often neglected
cultural figures and their work. His books have been "highly recommended" by astute reviewers as"deliciously entertaining", and are, quite simply, "superb." Please look below if you'd like to read the recent critical reaction to Mr. Server's latest biography, Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing.

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Critical Comments on
Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing (St. Martin's/Bloomsbury)
by Lee Server

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"Enthralling...in the space of these pages, we befriend, then fall in love with, then finally mourn a remarkably beautful woman."
Peter Bogdanovich, New York Times Book Review

"Mr. Server, whose last book was a Robert Mitchum biography that lived up to its terrific title…can keep his cool. He is well suited to writing about sultry, iconic movie mavericks like these two Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing is a seductive book that avoids the pitfills that come with its territory. If her death is made palpable at the end of Mr. Server's book, that's understandable. He has spent 500 pages
successfully bringing her to life."
Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Server gets movie stars, and he gets movies…acute when he needs to be, dumbstruck when he needs to be, he reserves his judgments for the films and absolutely refuses to judge the people who make them-an almost perfect blend of qualities in a Hollywood biographer. This is every bit as thrilling as his previous biography of Robert Mitchum quite a trick for a biographer to pull off-both to immerse himself in his subjects and yet make them utterly his own at the same time. I can't wait to find out who he's doing next."
Tom Shone, Sunday Times (London)

"By the time we come to the end of Lee Server's irresistible and
finally heartbreaking new biography…it doesn't prepare us for the
sudden loss of the character he has made us fall in love with, suffer
and exult with for more than 500 pages…we'll be lucky to find a novel
this year with a character as vivid as he writes Gardner.
The Star-ledger

"The book is exceptionally well written, a huge step above most star
biographies. Server's style has punch and class. This is an
extravagantly researched book, rich with original sources."
Toronto Globe and Mail

"The most complete and engrossing biography yet of this exotic Southern girl who was just as insecure, perhaps even more unhappy than that mythically tragic figure Marilyn Monroe. An excellent book, full of juicy new detail."
Liz Smith, New York Post

"A life of much too much, all of it thoroughly and satisfyingly
recounted in Lee Server's biography. On the page, Server grants Gardner a dignity that eluded her in the final years of her life."
NY Daily News

"Server can tell a story dramatically or humorously-there is scarcely a
dull page. Diligently and widely researched, Server's book is a gripping
study of an elusive character, and a sizable contribution to the
history of mid twentieth century cinema."
The Times Literary Supplement

Posted: April 6th, 2008, 1:34 pm
by moira finnie
Film preservationist David Shepard joined us at Silver Screen Oasis from January 14-18, 2008. To read the lively discussion with David S., please click here.

Mr. Shepard's Film Preservation Associates has been responsible for the preservation of many classic silent films, including Birth of a Nation, Tol'able David, Orphans of the Storm, Nosferatu and many others.
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After acquiring the Blackhawk Film Library in the 1980s, Mr. Shepard began restoring silent films and making them available in top notch video editions, first on VHS and now on DVD.

Please join us while we talk to Mr. Shepard about his work in keeping these films alive for a new generation.
Here's a link to an interview with Mr. Shepard from the Silents are Golden website. A partial list of the illustrious restored films whose preservation is owed in part to David Shepard are below:
* The Affairs of Anatol (1921)
* America (1924)
* Atlantis (1913)
* Destiny (1921)
* The Birth of a Nation (1915)
* The Black Pirate (1926)
* The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
* Carmen (1915)
* City Lights (1931)
* Cobra (1925)
* Convict 13 (1920)
* The Coward (1915)
* Don Q Son of Zorro (1925)
* Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922)
* Faust (1926)
* Flirting With Fate (1916)
* Go West (1925)
* His New Job (1915)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
* The Indian Tomb (1921)
* A King in New York (1957)
* The Last Laugh (1924)
* The Lost World (1925) restored version released April 6, 2001
* The Man With the Movie Camera (1929)
* Mark of Zorro (1920)
* The Matrimaniac (1916)
* Modern Times (1936)
* The Mollycoddle (1920)
* Moods of the Sea (1941)
* Nanook of the North (1922)
* Nosferatu (1922) restored version released January 2, 2001
* Orphans of the Storm (1921)
* Our Daily Bread (1934)
* Phantom of the Opera (1925)
* The Pilgrim (1923)
* Prison Train (1938)
* Robin Hood (1922)
* Shadows (1922)
* Siegfried (1924)
* The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)
* Steamboat Bill (1928)
* Strike (1925)
* Sunrise (1927)
* The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
* The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
* Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)
* Tol'able David (1921)
* Twenty Minutes of Love (1914)

For a brief history of the Blackhawk Film Library, please follow this link:
Blackhawk Films

Posted: April 6th, 2008, 1:36 pm
by moira finnie
Author Eve Golden was our March Guest Star and you can read her discussion in detail here.
Eve also has her own website with information about her new and upcoming books.

Ms. Golden, who has written lively examinations of film in Classic Images and Films of the Golden Age, is the author of the following extensively researched and beautifully illustrated books, most of which can readily be found for sale on line, in bookstores, and libraries:

Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars
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Described as concise "essays on the careers of the era's host of actors. ...dense with information" by a review at Big Reel, this highly informative collection covers everyone from Clara Bow to Max Linder to Anita Page, quoting extensively from primary source material.

Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara
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This book of the first sex symbol in cinema has been called "…a much-needed full-length work that shows how Bara's precedent-setting career has contemporary resonance in mass-mediated images. With a critical eye for her primary sources, the fanzines, the author deconstructs Hollywood stardom without over-intellectualizing the star. Although Bara's films are dated, Golden gives due consideration to the icon Bara created-and to the life behind it." ~Library Journal.
You can read a portion of an essay on Theda Bara by Ms. Golden at Classic Images site, here.

Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow
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"This elegantly designed book presents an appealing portrait of screen legend Harlow, setting straight some widely circulated inaccuracies." ~ Publisher's Weekly
You can read an interview with Ms. Golden about Jean Harlow and this book here at The Platinum Page.

The Brief, Madcap Life of Kay Kendall
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The delightful comedienne, known for her sparkling performances in Genevieve, Les Girls, and The Reluctant Debutante, among other films, is given an overdue recognition by Ms. Golden, who wrote this with the cooperation of the late Kay Kendall's sister. "Golden, author of biographies on Jean Harlow and Theda Bara, has joined with Kendall's sister to write the first biography of this beautiful, ambitious woman. Golden's writing style is concise and evenly paced, and she uses firsthand information from the actress's family and friends" ~ Library Journal

Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution
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"Eve Golden writes an engaging story filled with interesting tidbits of information about her subjects and the period in which they were most well-known." ~Rene Camus, Founder and Artistic Director of Centuries Historical Dance

Anna Held and the Birth of Ziegfeld's Broadway
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"Journalist/biographer Golden presents a fascinating look at a dynamic period in Western history through the life of one extraordinary woman." about the woman who has been described "'the brains and inspiration' behind Ziegfeld's Follies"~ Library Journal

Posted: April 11th, 2008, 3:04 pm
by moira finnie
Scott Eyman, our first Guest Star Author here has just started his own blog at the Palm Beach Post, called Scott Eyman's Culture Club. It's lively and informative and allows us to enjoy his incisive, witty and elegant prose in a more casual setting. I hope that you'll check it out here and perhaps let him know your observations of this new venture.

Matthew Kennedy

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 2:00 pm
by moira finnie
The Silver Screen Oasis was very pleased to welcome our Guest Star from Monday, May 5th to Friday, May 9th, author, Matthew Kennedy. You can read the discussion with him here. Mr. Kennedy has written three lively looks at neglected and engaging figures in Hollywood history.

This author's well-researched portraits are an insightful blend of the dishy and the scholarly, with beautiful illustrations that remind a reader of the unique power of each individual's work. In addition to his writing, Matthew Kennedy is a contributor to the excellent Bright Lights Film Journal, teaches anthropology at City College of San Francisco, is a professor of film history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has his own website found here.

All are available at online book dealers such sites as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other sites, and may also be found in bookstores everywhere. We'll be looking forward to anything Matthew publishes in the future, which we'll try to list here as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, here are his current books:

Marie Dressler: A Biography (McFarland)
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In a book as touching and mirthful as the actress he portrays in this biography, Matthew Kennedy
evokes the spirit of the unlikely yet beloved star, Marie Dressler. Describing her bumptious life from the vaudeville stage in the Gilded Age to working with Chaplin in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) to Tugboat Annie (1933) and two Academy Award nominations, Kennedy captures the charisma and richness of her experiences as a performer and as a woman. Critic John McWhorter describes this book as: "Truly a bravura performance—Dressler lives again.” Others have praised it as "the royal treatment from the meticulous research and dedication to his subject that biographer Matthew Kennedy presents" and mentioned that the biography is written "with flair and impressively researched."

A thoughtful appreciation of this book by Dan Callahan can be seen here.

Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory (University of Wisconsin Press)
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The name of Edmund Goulding may not always be familiar to all film buffs, but the world, the style and the dark moments of grace evoked by such films as Love (1927), Grand Hotel (1932), Riptide (1934), The Dawn Patrol (1938), White Banners (1938), Dark Victory (1939), The Great Lie (1941), The Constant Nymph (1943), The Razor's Edge (1946) and Nightmare Alley (1947) mark this director's work as among the most cherished films of the studio era. Matthew Kennedy's finely drawn portrait makes the complex man behind these films, and his rise from working class London to the top of the Hollywood heap particularly moving and fascinating. The personal demons, artistic choices and possible motives that give Goulding's work such resonance to this day are examined frankly while the author outlines the arc of this remarkable director's career from these heights to relative anonymity as his energies flagged and the studio system disintegrated. As the Library Journal said when this book was published, Kennedy has "gone a long way toward rescuing Goulding from obscurity." The Bay Area Reporter described the book as "Terrific . . . . Kennedy's style is lively and erudite. Readers shouldn't be put off by this being a university press book: it's well illustrated, informative, funny, and fascinating, not remotely academic. Anyone interested in classic Hollywood or how creativity can simultaneously flourish and flounder should buy it at once."

Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (University Press of Mississippi)
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For his latest book, Matthew Kennedy turned to one of many film fan's unheralded favorites: Joan Blondell, that sweet, sexy workhorse of pre-code films, musicals, and gangster flicks in the '30s, who lent her humor and support to on screen partners James Cagney, Leslie Howard and Tyrone Power and off screen such complex men such as actor Dick Powell, producer Mike Todd and cinematographer George Barnes. As she also proved in several beautifully done character parts in the 1940s, beginning with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), she was also a mature woman of great warmth, talent and not a little rueful honesty, which eventually led to her recognition with an Oscar nomination for The Blue Veil (1951).

After reading Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes, noted film commentator Leonard Maltin wrote that "I wouldn't have thought it possible for anyone to produce a genuinely personal book about this popular actress so many years after her death, but Matthew Kennedy has done just that . . . . he has written a warm, appreciative, and amazingly intimate biography . . .Kennedy is a genuinely good writer who knows the language as well as he does vintage Hollywood movies. This book gets my highest recommendation." For a recent q & a that the author had at the Alternative Film Guide about Joan Blondell please click here.

Re: Classic Movie Friends of the Silver Screen Oasis

Posted: August 15th, 2012, 2:56 pm
by moira finnie
Miss Goddess, as most of her fellow SSO members may know, already has an absorbing website devoted exclusively to a man who might just be America's best director at Directed by John Ford. Fortunately for us, Miss G. has recently added a new arrow to her quiver, branching out to--as she so deftly phrased it--to create "an online 'scrapbook' of musings on living with singapura and siamese cats, classic film and television shows, provence and merry miscellany."

Miss Goddess' New Blog is called 148 Bonnie Meadow Road:

http://148bonniemeadowrd.blogspot.com/

Please check it out if you get a chance, as she kicks things off this week with some moments around the house as well as an insightful blog into Home Before Dark (1958), the well-acted Jean Simmons film directed by Mervyn LeRoy:
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Stone Wallace

Posted: October 9th, 2012, 11:57 am
by moira finnie
As many of us know, our fellow member, "Western Guy" aka Stone Wallace, is one of our most knowledgeable posters.

Stone, who posts from his home in Canada, is a professional biographer, a writer of fiction, a radio host, director and an actor who has been called "a writer’s writer." From an early age, he was interested in the classic era of film, especially in gangster movies and the actors who portrayed these vivid characters. He unpretentiously described his enchantment with the genre as rooted in the fact that they are "great fun. They're exciting. I grew up with TV shows like The Untouchables. It's been a lifelong obsession. I had relatives who lived in Chicago in the '20s and '30s. My aunt walked by the garage where the St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place just minutes later. When all the kids were out playing, I was in the library reading about Al Capone."

As a youthful writer, Stone had a series of encounters that allowed him to meet and interview many of the older individual performers he had admired growing up, including John Agar, Coleen Gray, Marc Lawrence, Lloyd Nolan, Anthony Quinn and (his last interview): Robert Stack. Now the author of fourteen published books, Stone is particularly well known for his biography, George Raft: The Man Who Would Be Bogart (BearManor Media, 2008), featuring a forward by fellow SSO member Alan K. Rode (moxie). This book and Raft's life and career has been discussed in considerable detail on our site on this thread:

http://silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/vie ... =22&t=5718

Over time, Stone also wrote and co-wrote several other nonfiction books, including a compendium of Famous Canadian Actors, Pioneer Canadian Actors, as well as biographical profiles of Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp and A Fuller Life: Hollywood, Ed Wood and Me, an autobiography of Dolores Fuller that he co-wrote. (Fuller was a performer and the girlfriend of filmmaker Ed Wood).

Several of Stone's nonfiction books in print can be seen here:

http://tinyurl.com/967xrgk

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In recent years, Stone has also begun writing more fiction, and met with considerable success. His most recent book, Montana Dawn, is one in a recent series of Western stories that have been well received by the press and public. In describing one of Stone's frontier novels, Tommy Lightfoot Garrett of the Canyon Newspaper in Beverly Hills, CA wrote "Stone Wallace will become an institution to Western fans after they read this novel. A genre that has been virtually lost since the days of Louis L'Amour's greatest literary work, Denim Ryder is filled with romance, intrigue and amazing depth. The bygone era of the old American West returns in Denim Ryder. It's a pager turner that you won't want to put down!"

Many of Stone's ventures into fiction are detailed here:

http://tinyurl.com/8zj4qvb

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Stone Wallace on the radio:

http://www.cjnu.ca/wallace.shtml

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George Raft: Hollywood's Reluctant Gangster at the Icons Radio Hour:

http://www.iconsradio.com/georgeraft.html

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