"14"

Clark Gable inhabited masculinity so purely and originally from the 1930s on that he came to represent the quintessential leading man, earning himself the title “King of Hollywood.” Even today, stars don’t come any bigger than Gable. But what made this awkward former tire factory worker into the dynamic presence that appealed to both men and women?

In the roughly eighty outsize years he actually had on this earth, writer/director John Huston seems to have lived several lives and lifetimes. Those who remember him best for his occasional acting forays (most memorably as Noah Cross in “Chinatown”) should also explore Huston’s indelible work behind the camera.

James Byron Dean, born in Indiana in 1931, was the comet that crashed to earth, throwing it off its rotation when he showed up on America’s movie screens in the mid-1950s. Then, he crashed in a far more earthbound way when, on September 30, 1955, his Porsche collided into another car at a rural California intersection, killing him and the friend traveling with him.

If you’re trying to quit smoking, we support the effort enthusiastically. Just don’t look to the movies for much help. First, older films, with their smoke-filled rooms, reflect those bygone days when a lot more people were puffing. And cigarettes help form and define the characters we see: when these people smoke, the habit looks so cool and richly pleasurable that one can see the draw.

The attention always goes straight to her violet eyes, and why shouldn’t it? Violet eyes don’t show up every day, and when magnified on screen, they will knock you off your feet. But Elizabeth Taylor was so much more than those mesmerizing irises, and her beauty did not hold her back from delivering passionate, believable performances.

A few months ago, I was watching a flavorful early Cagney entry called “Taxi!” (1932), and in one early scene, witnessed the diminutive but feisty actor of Irish/Norwegian stock speaking Yiddish…not one or two words, mind you, but whole sentences. And I thought to myself — yet another reason to love Jimmy Cagney.

Few artists in the popular culture transcend the passage of time and continue to leave their mark long after their passing. Sinatra is one such performer — a true icon whose indelible renditions of the Great American Songbook you can still hear in films, on the radio, and on the digital playlists of fans, whose ages span from twelve to 102. 

We’ve all done it, watched a movie and thought, “How do they think this stuff up?” and, “Do they expect us to believe this?” Yes, “they” do, because movies depend on the suspension of disbelief for their magic. Musicals, horror, and romantic comedies are all fueled by the high octane of fantasy.

She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1908, and was, by her own admission, a Yankee.