I just finished George Arliss' autobiography My Ten Years in the Studio , published in 1940. I suppose I could have posted this in our book section, but I was hoping that this discussion would have a higher profile, and include some thoughts on the actor's films as well. While Arliss may not be ever...

Wish I could just plop down and watch Manhandled , JF, mostly on the strength of your write-up. I'm not always won over by Swanson -- knowing her mostly from her films with DeMille -- but when I am, I'm won over big. I've got a trilogy of pre-codes that I'm fixing to write about, ones in which shop-...

I recently secured a copy of D.W. Griffith's 1930 film Abraham Lincoln with Walter Huston in the title role. I haven't seen much of Griffith's work, nor did I catch the recent bio-pic in theaters. [That would have made this a more interesting post]. Still, I have the irrepressible urge to knock off ...

Thanks for the clarification, ChiO. Going by the tone of the documentary, it sounded more like a collegial interchange between the two filmmakers, not a struggle over intellectual property rights.

You're right about "stacking the deck," KR. I was thinking about how Verdoux treats his victims to more romance than they would have otherwise been likely to have experienced, if that makes any sense.

I forgot to mention how much I loved your post. It's interesting that you mentioned Welles. According to that documentary that I loaned to my son, Welles suggested the idea for Verdoux to Chaplin. They also appeared on the same bill at a benefit to support the USSR during the war, although, accordin...

I think that even in the twenties, Chaplin was edgy. However: 1) Much of the humor either went over the audiences' head, or 2) It is done so charmingly and naturally, it gets a laugh before you realize what button has been pushed. Here's an example. In The Kid , after failing to dispose of the baby ...

Thanks for telling me about Alice, JF. She sounds like a sweet child. My kids aren't at the point where they would go to my library and pick out something for themselves. Then again, it might be a question of knowing what's out there in the classic film universe to choose from. I think they're begin...

I watched this film over the weekend with my boys (12 & 14). It's a "novelty film," produced by the Hal Roach studios. In addition to the principals Fossy lists above, it has an excellent supporting cast that includes Veree Teasdale, Donald Meek, Marjorie Main, and Franklin Pangborn. T...

Jeanette really is a very good actress.

The print I have is pretty near perfect. I have to do a little experimenting, but I'm pretty sure I can make a faithful copy. Let's PM about it.

I'm half way through watching Maytime (1936) with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. John Barrymore plays Jeanette's Svengali-esque mentor (though not quite as evil). The setting is nineteenth century Paris. What a sumptuous production! Boy, when Jeanette turns it on, there's nothing like her. My n...

We were scratching our heads about him earlier in this thread about his work in An American Tragedy , weren't we? ...wondering whether his dull, lackluster treatment of the character was by design, or due to other factors. I thought of that conversation later when I saw Douglass Montgomery in the 19...

Yes. When the element of the voice is added, the character (or on-screen avatar) goes from something universal to something extremely specific...to your point. Chaplin doesn't give himself a proper speaking part until The Great DIctator. -- more than twelve years after the advent of sound. By that t...

And if I remember correctly from the documentary "So Funny It Hurt," those MGM talkies made good money. They might seem painful to us in retrospect, but the Depression Era audiences (I suppose) thought they were just fine.

So do I, Nitrate. Right now I am in the midst of two intertwined retrospectives of Keaton and Ophuls, two artists who remind us, each in his own way, why they are called Motion pictures! I'll keep this in mind as I get to Buster's sound work. Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, in the same interview...