Before there was a mouse in the Walt Disney house, there was a rabbit. A rather unassuming creature-black and white with a rounded, simplistic design masterminded by Disney's brilliant early animator, Ub Iwerks-the hare, dubbed Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, made his debut in theaters in 1927. Oswald's tenure as Disney's first animated star was brief; the studio produced twenty-six Oswald shorts over the course of the next year, before Disney was forced to give up ownership of the character to his dis...
Read moreI've written previously about the evolution of cinema from the earliest experimental tinkering of the great inventors to the stylistic breakthroughs of D.W. Griffith and Louis Feuillade, a twenty-five year period when movies went from nothing more than a gleam in Louis Le Prince's eye to a world-wide phenomenon playing in a form not all that different from what we still enjoy today. The fastest and most startling evolution in film, though, may well have been in the genre of comedy...
Read moreRobert Taylor, a star at MGM for close to a quarter of a century, was one of Hollywood's best-loved actors, popular with moviegoers and colleagues alike. Taylor was born in Nebraska on August 5, 1911. As a young man he was interested in both medicine and music; he ultimately selected music and was headed toward a career as a professional cellist when he followed a favorite professor to Pomona College in California. Once in California, Taylor fell into acting and a career at MGM; ...
Read moreIn the November 7, 1959 issue of TV Guide, Rod Serling commented, “Here’s what The Twilight Zone is: It’s an anthology series, half-hour in length, that delves into the odd, the bizarre, the unexpected. It probes into the dimension of imagination but with a concern for taste and for an adult audience too long considered to have I.Q.s in negative figures. The Twilight Zone is what it implies: that shadowy area of the almost-but-not-quite; the unbelievable told in terms that can be believed. Here’...
Read moreHe had that face, that laugh, and that coast-to-coast grin that was a little aw-shucks humility and all sinister intent underneath. Richard Widmark often played characters so far in shadow they were invisible, yet your eyes were always searching for him in the frame. An innocuous 'come on' or 'heya, pal' had you leaning forward in your seat, rapt and unblinking, simultaneously fascinated and worried about what he would do next. Widmark possessed a delicious, contradictory combination of boyish c...
Read moreI had a great relationship with television when I was growing up. It amused me, thrilled me, and at times maybe even baby-sat me. But there were times when the images and sounds on that little set flat-out scared me. This month I 'fess up to some of the classic television elements that spooked me when I was younger. Count Von Count: I don't want to offend any Countsylvanians out there, but I must admit the Count's accent and appearance startled me when I first saw Sesame Street. I...
Read moreActress Coleen Gray may not be a household name today, but she is greatly appreciated by fans of film noir, having given outstanding performances in some of the all-time noir classics. Gray was a very fine actress, and it may be that her chameleon-like ability to submerge herself into her roles worked against her being as well remembered as some other actors of her era. It's also interesting to note that some of the films for which Gray is best known today – Nightmare Alley (1947) being a pri...
Read moreOnce a staple down at the local Bijou, the movie comedy team has gone the way of the sing-along bouncing ball and newsreel, vanished into cinema history. These days, actors may team for a film or two but only in between their multi-million-dollar solo paychecks; no more than occasional co-stars, more akin to Hope & Crosby and Tracy & Hepburn than to Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, and Dr. Howard. In this installment of Classics 101, I thought it’d be fun to review some of the best work of the movies’ grea...
Read moreAlmost from cinema's beginning, recurring characters were popular with filmmakers and theatergoers alike. With the actor's persona—Chaplin's Tramp, for example—clearly established before the film had even begun, audiences knew what to expect and could make their choices with some confidence. Directors meanwhile could dispense with character exposition, which ate up precious film time, and get right to the action. And theater owners, who drove the development of film much more than people reali...
Read more2020 will mark the true centenary of Alfred Hitchcock's entrance into the British film industry, as a title card illustrator. But to honor a man who often compressed and distorted time in his films, we can celebrate the Hitchcock century now. Hitch is with us as much as when he was alive and active, crafting his whimsical celebrity as the master of the macabre. Now we see him in the round, and there are few reputations as secure. He would savor the acclaim and the critical r...
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