I watched Universal's Tower of London (1939) to get a look at the Richard III legacy through the lens of popular entertainment. Basil Rathbone plays Richard, with chief henchman "Mord" played by Boris Karloff. The opening shot is telling, framing the children of Edward in the nursery. Rath...

This conversation reminds me of some of those brilliant silents made towards the end of the era. [Like Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl (but there are many others)]. It's stunning how much story can get told in between title cards.

Listening to interviews with Buster Keaton conducted later in his life, I think he had impeccable instincts during the transition to sound -- communicate visual story elements visually and use dialogue where it's needed. I know there were a lot of other factors impinging on his work during that peri...

Let me chime in too. Thanks Fossy. I'm a big fan of Ginger, and it's a treat to hear her voice through the writing you posted. It's also so interesting that Billy Wilder -- although it was his first time as a director -- had the poise and confidence to keep everyone's spirits high. That's pretty rem...

Thanks Fealto. I'm at work now, but I'll check the list to see if that one's on there. Also looking to hear back from CCF.

Back to my Warren William movies again. Hey CCF. I guy I know who has been sharing titles from his (enormous classic movie) catalog wrote to his mailing list to inform us that he was hanging it up. We've got a week to get in our final choices. You and I have shared an appreciation for Warren Willia...

My notes: I believe Lon Chaney did insist that he played both parts in the film when he was being humored by interviewers later in life. It's sad that Lugosi didn't have more screen time as the monster. There are glimmers here and there that he had definite ideas about the role. There's kind of a sw...

Thanks for your input, everyone. So enriching!

There's a nifty film included in my boxed-set Bela Lugosi collection called Black Friday (1940) which carries a Siodmac writing credit. In this one, Boris Karloff and co-star Stanley Ridges are on the faculty of a small college, the latter a meek, somewhat bumbling professor of English literature. O...

I always had the feeling that Hull was born with a cigar in his mouth... I KNOW he was born with a piece of scenery in his mouth! While this thread was percolating, I remembered the first time I saw The Wolfman as a teenager. The moment Larry realizes what has happened to him, there's a look of irr...

I have Helen Chandler in Dracula and The Last Flight , and those are pretty well known to us. I also have her in an early talkie called Mother's Cry where she plays the sister of David Manners in a family melodrama about one of the other brothers going bad. I became so interested in her after seeing...

...more on An American Tragedy ... I think it's one instance were I prefer the later movie but the former does have it's merits, it feels grittier, whereas the later version is beautiful the former is more what life is really like. It's not got as many Von Sternberg touches as I thought it would hav...

I watched the Von Sternberg film, An American Tragedy (1931) , and am still not sure what to make of it. It's a Paramount pre-code with a cast that includes many favorites of mine. Phillip Holmes plays a young man with few prospects but a great many social aspirations. By chance he gets a foreman jo...

Hi Mike. I had no idea that Huston was working so early in the thirties. I remember in the title credits that Florey is given credit for the story. As far as public objection is concerned, I have to sympathize a little. The scene where he experiments on and then disposes of the streetwalker is prett...

Robert Florey -- if I've got this right -- submitted a treatment for Frankenstein when Universal was kicking around the idea of bringing it to the screen. It may have been his script that Lugosi famously rejected because it rendered the monster as a grunting, murderous brute. In The Murders in the R...