Actors
Why the Versatile Dick Powell Deserves to Be Remembered
Dick Powell: always underrated, and today, perhaps even unknown. While any movie buff worth their salt will certainly remember him, for most anyone else not holding an AARP card, the mention of his name will likely elicit a questioning look.
Actors
Dan Duryea— How a Good Man Excelled at Playing the Bad Guy
Never a big star but a welcome fixture in westerns and film noirs over three decades, Dan Duryea specialized in playing the heel. In those kinds of parts, no one could touch him.
Actors
Dancing like a Man: The Masculine Moves of Gene Kelly
It always irked Gene Kelly that dancing was considered an effeminate activity for men. When his mother first enrolled him and his brother in dance classes when Gene was still a boy, he had to endure taunts from his classmates which he promptly settled with his fists.
Actors
How Actor Joel McCrea Created His Own Stardom
Joel McCrea was always clear-eyed about his place in the Hollywood firmament. He once said that he got offered the comedies that Cary Grant passed on, and the Westerns Gary Cooper rejected.
Actors
How Greer Garson Combined Refined Beauty With Raw Talent
During the Second World War, there was no bigger female star in Hollywood than Greer Garson. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar five consecutive times over that period, from 1941-1945. (Only Bette Davis matched Garson’s record, between 1939-1943).
Actors
The Sizzle of Cyd Charisse — Hollywood’s Dynamite Dancer
Fred Astaire called her “beautiful dynamite.” After nearly a decade in films, it was hardly surprising that she finally broke through playing a vamp who ensnares Gene Kelly in the immortal “Gotta Dance” sequence from “Singin’ in the Rain.”
History
11 Outstanding Anti-War Movies That Prove War Is Hell
Though movies have often fueled our country’s propaganda machine in times of war, for me personally those films that expose war’s folly are more interesting simply because they feel more authentic and honest.
Actors
The Endless Wit and Wisdom of John Barrymore
For those who only think of Drew when they hear the name Barrymore, here’s some news: a glimpse back into history will reveal that it was not she but her ancestors who first made the name famous.
Actors
Staying Power — The Wonder of Angela Lansbury
Roughly two years ago, I had the honor of dining with Angela Lansbury. It was at a private event, where we screened “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), which features perhaps her most indelible film role, as the diabolically wicked mother of a would-be presidential assassin. Rarely have I met a more grounded, down-to-earth lady. She had no airs whatever. She might have been the British granny of anyone’s happiest dreams: smart, sensible, with a ready laugh and the confidence to listen.