May 2013
8 posts
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RIP, Frederic Franklin, 1914-2013
In The Nutcracker:
Partnering Alexandra Danilova:
As the Champion Roper in Rodeo:
Curtain call:
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April 2013
14 posts
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RIP, Maria Tallchief, 1925-2013
The Firebird
Swan Lake
Orpheus
The Four Temperaments
Rehearsing with George Balanchine
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Maria Tallchief wasn’t George...
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The James Cagney Energy Boost
Although he became famous in films as a tough guy, James Cagney liked to think of himself as a song-and-dance man, and that’s the tack we take in our newest Grand Old Movies post on his 1933 musical, Footlight Parade. Cagney sings and dances in this film, but even between the music numbers he keeps the momentum going. In one scene he takes a phone call and, although he’s sitting down, he keeps...
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March 2013
2 posts
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Strawberry Blonde
Jean Harlow donned a red wig for her role as the title character in MGM’s 1932 sex farce Red Headed Woman, the subject of our newest Grand Old Movies post. Harlow became famous as a platinum blonde, but she didn’t need the bleached hair to make her impact. She’s a wriggling little bundle of carnal delights in this film, and she’s sensational. She’d have been a hit...
February 2013
3 posts
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Anna Pavlova in Hollywood
From The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916), Pavlova’s only feature film:
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With Charlie Chaplin:
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With Mary Pickford:
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Screen shots from short films of her dance solos filmed at the Pickford-Fairbanks...
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Our Favorite Year
New York City’s best revival house, Film Forum, is hosting a four-week retrospective on pre-Code cinema: “1933: Hollywood’s Naughtiest, Bawdiest Year,” from February 8 to March 7, 2013. This is a major series on a group of films that constitutes some of the best entertainment ever released by classic-era Hollywood studios—films that are, as the festival title...
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The Spell of Giselle
Anna Pavlova
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Tamara Karsavina (with Vaslav Nijinsky)
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Olga Spessivtzeva
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Alicia Markova
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Galina Ulanova
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January 2013
2 posts
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Underground Movie
Our new Grand Old Movies post is up, and, contrary to our title, it’s not about avant-garde cinema. It’s about a more conventional film, the 1942 comedy-mystery, A Night to Remember, whose plot concerns a mystery writer and his wife encountering a real murder. However, even conventional films have their charms, which is largely supplied in this film by its stars, Loretta Young and,...
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December 2012
6 posts
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Benny Blows a Bugle
Our last Grand Old Movies post for 2012 is now up! It is, rather appropriately for New Year’s Eve, a look at Jack Benny’s last starring film, The Horn Blows At Midnight. This 1945 black comedy, about the travails of an angel sent to destroy Earth on the stroke of midnight, is probably best known today as a flop, namely through Benny himself making its box-office thudding a running...
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Borrah Minevitch Will Play It All For You
Who is Borrah Minevitch and why should you care? He was (to get to the facts) an actor, mime, and harmonica player, founder of the Harmonica Rascals. The Rascals, a group of all-harmonica-playing musicians, appeared in several films of the 1930s and 1940s. They were more than players; they were also clowns, who performed a brand of roughhouse comedy while swinging out sweet music on their mouth...
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Carmen Miranda and Company
The lady herself.
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Judy Garland
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Lucille Ball
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Milton Berle
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Jerry Lewis
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Zeppo's Last Stand
Our newest Grand Old Movies post is part of the Late Show Blogathon, hosted by the stimulating Shadowplay blog from Dec. 1-7, 2012. The Blogathon’s name refers to the last, or late movies of Hollywood directors, actors, and other significant workers in the Dream Factory. Our own entry looks at the last film of Zeppo Marx, which just happens to be Duck Soup. We not only look at...
November 2012
5 posts
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Ralph Meeker Is A Sexy Beast
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In the 1953 Broadway stage version of Picnic:
(with Eileen Heckart)
(with Paul Newman, who is facing camera)
(with Kim Stanley)
(with Janice Rule)
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Glory Alley (1952):
(wilth Leslie Caron)
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Curly Stuffs A Turkey
Just in time for Thanksgiving, we’re posting at our Grand Old Movies blog a tutorial on how to stuff your Thanksgiving turkey. Your host for this demonstration is Curly Howard, better known as one of the Three Stooges (some might say he’s the essential Stooge). But Curly also had a way in the kitchen that was nothing short of jaw-dropping (considering what a Stooge routine is like,...
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Swan Queens
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Anna Sobeshchanskaya (who performed Odette in the first production of Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Ballet in 1877; her crossed-arms pose has become an iconic gesture for this role)
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Pierina Legnani (the first Odette/Odile for the 1895 production of Swan Lake at...
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Zsa Zsa Gabor is Out of This World
Our newest Grand Old Movies blog post is now up, and it’s out of this world — by which we mean we’re looking at a science fiction cult film classic, the 1958 camp masterpiece Queen of Outer Space. Set on an all-female-inhabited Venus, the story follows a futuristic battle of the sexes when four Earthmen land on the planet and discover they’re the only males there. Noted...
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Yet Even MORE Golden-Age Hollywood Stars in Tutus
Ann Miller
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Lucille Ball (with Mary Wickes)
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Bessie Love
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Betty Grable
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Clara Bow
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October 2012
4 posts
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Boris and Bela, Together Again
In our new Grand Old Movies post for Halloween, we’re looking at the two greatest classic-Hollywood horror stars and two of their teamed pictures: Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in The Black Cat of 1934 and The Raven from 1935. Taking their cues from Edgar Allan Poe, the nominal inspiration for these two films, Boris and Bela indulge in such Poe-ish activities as torture, murder, and...
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Lionel Atwill Before The Movies
Ca. 1920, in a pose from the title role of his hit play, Deburau.
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With second wife Elsie Mackay in 1922 publicity photo for The White-Faced...
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The Stan 'n Ollie Dance Team
Our new Grand Old Movies post is up. We’re not looking at a whole film this time, but at a particular segment of one: Laurel and Hardy’s dance sequence from their 1937 comedy Way Out West. It’s a sheer delight to watch, which is why we wrote about it. And it’s pure Laurel and Hardy. If you’re L&H fans, no further explanation is necessary. But whether...
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New Grand Old Movies Post: The Granddaddy of...
As the above poster indicates, show business means Girls. The more the merrier, and the more of them on display, the better. That’s true of the film we look at at in our new Grand Old Movies blog post, the 1929 musical The Broadway Melody, MGM’s first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing film, and the first musical to win a Best Picture Oscar. We definitely get the girls here, lined...
September 2012
4 posts
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Margot Fonteyn Offstage
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Relaxing during rehearsal (Frederick Ashton can be seen in the mirror)
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Making up for Odile in Swan Lake
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With husband Tito Arias
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Beach Movies and Women II: Female on the Beach
Our second essay in our two-part look at women and beach movies is now up at our Grand Old Movies Wordpress blog: 1955’s Joan Crawford starrer, Female on the Beach. As we note in our post, Joan’s presence pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this film. She is the Star, the focus, the reason for its being. And she’s damn fine in the film, both tough and...
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More Golden-Age Hollywood Stars in Tutus
Ida Lupino
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Debbie Reynolds
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Merna Kennedy (in The Circus, 1928)
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Marilyn Monroe
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Greta Garbo (in Grand Hotel,...
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Beach Movies and Women: The Woman on the Beach
There’s more to the beach movie than Beach Blanket Bingo. It’s also the site of noir, as our current Grand Old Movies post demonstrates: The Woman on the Beach, directed by Jean Renoir during his Hollywood exile and released in 1947, looks at a noirish attempt at murder. Coast Guard lieutenant Scott Burkett (Robert Ryan) tries to bump off Peg Butler’s (Joan Bennett) husband Tod...
August 2012
3 posts
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Golden-Age Hollywood Stars in Tutus
Viven Leigh, Waterloo Bridge (1941; with director Mervyn LeRoy)
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Maureen O’Hara, Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
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Norma Shearer, He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
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Elizabeth Taylor, filming Love is Better Than...
