Author: Laura Grieve
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Be My Valentine: Ten Films for Your Post-Valentine's Viewing
As Valentine's Day comes to a close, thoughts turn to left-over chocolates, flowers...and perhaps, in the case of classic film fans, romantic movies.Everyone has their favorite romantic classics, from Gone With the Wind (1939) to Now, Voyager (1942) to Casablanca (1942). Beyond those familiar films, there are many lesser-known romantic movies which are worth checking out. Below are ten suggestions of favorite lesser-known romantic films. They...
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Claudette Colbert: Star and Mentor
Claudette Colbert, an elegant star adept at both comedy and drama, was born in France on September 3, 1903.Colbert's family moved to the U.S. when she was young. By her early 20s she was acting on Broadway, where she found particular success in the 1927 production The Barker, costarring Walter Huston and her future first husband, Norman Foster.Colbert's film career began that same year, and by the early '30s she was the star of such films as Ernst Lubitsch's
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Santa's Surprises: 12 Overlooked Christmas Classics
'Tis the season for watching Christmas movies! There's something extra-special about the holiday classics we enjoy year after year. Beyond the pleasures of the films themselves, over time the movies also become wrapped up in our heightened memories of the holiday season as we remember sharing them with family and friends. For many of us, the season doesn't feel complete until we've watched Holiday Inn (1942), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Bish...
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Dana Andrews: Son of a Preacher Man
Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on New Year's Day, 1909, in Mississippi. He was a preacher's son, one of a large family which would eventually include his little brother, actor Steve Forrest, who was born William Andrews when Dana was 16. Dana came to California in the early '30s, intent on being an actor. He worked in a variety of jobs, and in the mid-'30s a pair of Van Nuys businessmen he knew took the unusual step of 'investing' in Dana, supporting him while he took a...
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Easy Living at the Lone Pine Film Festival
The 25th Lone Pine Film Festival took place in Lone Pine, California, in early October, providing film fans with a very special time in an area where hundreds of classic-era movies were filmed. Although I've been to the charming little Sierra town of Lone Pine on many occasions, this was my first visit to the festival, and I can't underline enough what a good time I had. Anyone who loves classic films, especially Westerns, will want to put the Lone Pine Film Festival on their 'mus...
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Alan Ladd: Hollywood's Great Gatsby
One of Alan Ladd's greatest performances -- though sadly also one of his least-seen -- was playing the title role in The Great Gatsby (1949). The off-screen Ladd had much in common with Jay Gatsby: outwardly successful, but inwardly insecure and vulnerable, the perfect meeting of man and role. And like Gatsby, Alan Ladd died far too young. Alan Ladd was born in Arkansas just over a century ago, on September 13, 1913. Ladd's father died when he was a kid. His c...
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Irene Dunne: First Lady of Hollywood
One of my earliest memories of Irene Dunne was of her singing Jerome Kern's 'The Folks Who Live on the Hill' in a revival house screening of High, Wide, and Handsome (1937) when I was growing up. That enchanted scene lingered in memory for decades and was a part of my falling in love with the 'silver screen' in general and Irene Dunne in particular. Irene Dunne was without question one of the most talented actresses of the 'Classic Hollywood' era, and yet she never won a...
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Marsha Hunt: Bloodied But Unbowed
Actress Marsha Hunt, born in Chicago on October 17, 1917, recently celebrated her 96th birthday. She's an elegant, articulate lady continuing to grace Southern California classic film screenings, sharing her memories of decades in the movie business. At a 2012 talk at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California, Marsha described having visited that theatre when on vacation as an 11-year-old child, dreaming of one day being a movie star. She said how amazing it was that not only...
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Anne Baxter: All About Anne
Anne Baxter is probably best remembered today for her Oscar-winning supporting role in The Razor's Edge (1946) and her Oscar-nominated performance in All About Eve (1950), but a closer look at her career shows she starred in a great many excellent films throughout the 1940s and '50s. Baxter, the granddaughter of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was born in Indiana on May 2, 1923. Anne aspired to an acting career from a young age, and she was just 13 when she ...
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Carole Lombard: Screwball Comedienne
January 16th, 2014, marked the 72nd anniversary of actress Carole Lombard's tragically early death in the crash of TWA Flight 3. Lombard was on a highly successful war bonds drive just weeks after Pearl Harbor when her plane crashed outside Las Vegas, Nevada, killing all 22 people on board. Details of Lombard's life and the ill-fated flight have been chronicled in Robert Matzen's outstanding new book Fireball. On the flight's anniversary I attended a lecture...
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