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Christmas Holiday
''Christmas Holiday'' is a 1944 American film noir crime film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly. Based on the 1939 novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham, the film is about a woman who marries a Southern aristocrat who inherited his family's streak of violence and instability and soon drags the woman into a life of misery. After he is arrested, the woman runs away from her husband's family, changes her name, and finds work as a singer in a New Orleans dive. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score for Hans J. Salter. Plot On Christmas Eve in New Orleans, U.S. Army officer Charlie Mason meets beautiful Maison Lafitte hostess "Jackie" (whose real name is Abigail Manette). She tells him, in flashbacks, the story of the decline of her marriage with the charming but unbalanced Robert Manette. When her husband kills a bookie, his controlling mother tries to cover it up. When he is caught, she and her son blame A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Siodmak
Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German film director who also worked in the United States. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of films noirs he made in the 1940s, such as ''The Killers'' (1946). Early life Siodmak was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of Rosa Philippine (née Blum) and Ignatz Siodmak and the brother of Curt, Werner and Roland. His parents were both from Jewish families in Leipzig (the myth of his American birth in Memphis, Tennessee was necessary for him to obtain a visa in Paris during World War II). He worked as a stage director and a banker before becoming editor and scenarist for Curtis Bernhardt in 1925 (Bernhardt directed a film of Siodmak's story ''Conflict'' in 1945). At twenty-six he was hired by his cousin, producer Seymour Nebenzal, to assemble original silent movies from stock footage of old films. Siodmak worked at this for two years before he persuaded Nebenzal to finance his first feature, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cerem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turhan Bey
Turhan Bey (born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Şahultavi, 30 March 192230 September 2012). was an Austrian-born actor of Turkish and Czech-Jewish origins. Active in Hollywood from 1941 to 1953, he was dubbed "The Turkish Delight" by his fans.. After his return to Austria, he pursued careers as a photographer and stage director. Returning to Hollywood after a 40-year hiatus, he made several guest appearances in 1990s television series including ''SeaQuest DSV'', ''Murder, She Wrote'' and ''Babylon 5'' as well as a number of films. After retiring, he appeared in a number of documentaries, including a German-language documentary on his life. Life and career Bey was born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Şahultavi in Vienna, Austria, on 30 March 1922, as the son of a Turkish diplomat and a Czechoslovakian-Jewish mother. After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany and his parents' divorce, he and his mother emigrated to the United States in October 1938, initially settling in New Hampshi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dwight Taylor (writer)
Dwight Oliver Taylor (January 1, 1903 – December 31, 1986) was an American author, playwright, and film/television screenwriter. Background Dwight Taylor was the son of actress Laurette Taylor and her husband, Charles A. Taylor (playwright), Charles A. Taylor. Dwight Taylor attended Lawrenceville School in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey where he began drawing and painting and wrote a book of poetry. After refusing an opportunity to work as a Novice, cub reporter for ''The New York World'', he began his career as a journalist for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, serving as one of the first editors for their "Talk of the Town". He began screenwriting for Hollywood, California, Hollywood films in 1930 and for television in 1953. His first produced play was ''Don't Tell George'' (1928). Other plays included such as ''Lipstick (play), Lipstick'' and ''Gay Divorce''. Taylor's first screenplay was ''Jailbreak''. First National Pictures bought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nightclub Singer
A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may also be referred to as a ''nightclub act''. A scheduled performance, such as a wedding gig, is a club date.Church , Joseph (2015). ''Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium'', pp. 57–58. Oxford University. . Acts may resemble revues and, "a good part of the music heard in nightclubs is standard popular song (jazz standards and the so-called Great American Songbook) and theater music repertoire...comedy songs, novelty songs, and the occasional torch song." "Cabaret, literally, is a subset of nightclub performance...In actual modern usage the terms 'nightclub' and 'cabaret' are virtually interchangeable." The role of the female nightclub singer occurs frequently in fiction: books, movies, television, and even songs; she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American films during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised, in romantic dramas such as '' The Garden of Allah'' (1936), ''Algiers'' (1938), and '' Love Affair'' (1939), as well as the mystery-thriller ''Gaslight'' (1944). He received four Oscar nominations for Best Actor. He also appeared as himself on the CBS sitcom ''I Love Lucy''. Life and career Early years Boyer was born in Figeac, Lot, France, the son of Augustine Louise Durand and Maurice Boyer, a merchant. Boyer (which means "cowherd" in the Occitan language) was a shy small-town boy who discovered the movies and theatre at the age of eleven. Early acting career Boyer performed comic sketches for soldiers while working as a hospital orderly during Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady On A Train
''Lady on a Train'' is a 1945 American film noir crime film directed by Charles David and starring Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, and David Bruce. Based on a story by Leslie Charteris, the film is about a woman who witnesses a murder in a nearby building from her train window. After she reports the murder to the police, who quickly dismiss her story, she turns to a popular mystery writer to help her solve the crime. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound. Western star Lash LaRue played a waiter in the film, uncredited. Plot San Francisco debutante Nicki Collins goes to visit her aunt in New York. Her father's employee, Haskell, is to meet her and facilitate her stay. Before reaching Grand Central, Nicki's train makes a brief stop and, when she looks up from the book she is reading - a mystery by novelist Wayne Morgan - she witnesses a murder in a nearby building. Upon arrival, she slips away from Haskell and goes to the police, but the desk sergeant, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hays Office
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays's leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began rigidly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. From 1934 to 1954, the code was closely identified with Joseph Breen, the administrator appointed by Hays to enforce the code in Hollywood. The film industry followed the guidelines set by the code well into the late 1950s, but it began to weaken, owing to the combined i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Wanger
Walter Wanger (born Walter Feuchtwanger; July 11, 1894 – November 18, 1968) was an American film producer active from the 1910s, his career concluding with the turbulent production of '' Cleopatra,'' his last film, in 1963. He began at Paramount Pictures in the 1920s and eventually worked at virtually every major studio as either a contract producer or an independent. He also served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1939 to October 1941 and from December 1941 to 1945. Strongly influenced by European films, Wanger developed a reputation as an intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas. He achieved notoriety when, in 1951, he shot and wounded the agent of his wife, Joan Bennett, because he suspected they were having an affair. He was convicted of the crime and served a four-month sentence, then returned to making movies. After his death, his production comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Bruce (actor)
David Bruce (born Marden Andrew McBroom; January 6, 1914 – May 3, 1976) was an American film actor. He was a company member of Peninsula Players Theatre in Fish Creek, Wisconsin in 1939. Life and career Born in Kankakee, Illinois, Marden Andrew McBroom was known as "Andy" to his friends. McBroom entered Northwestern University in 1934 intending to study law but became a drama major. In 1940, after extensive travel for theater work, McBroom made his way to California and signed with a Hollywood agent, Henry Willson. The agent changed his name to David Bruce and got him a stock contract at Warner Brothers. Bruce's first role was in the Errol Flynn movie ''The Sea Hawk'' (1940). The 6' 1" (1.85 m) actor was released from his Warner's contract to join the Naval Air Force at the outset of World War II, but he was discharged due to a chronic ear infection. After appearing in the John Wayne movie ''Flying Tigers'' (1942), Universal Pictures offered him a long-term contract. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) was an American actress. Sondergaard began her acting career in theater and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in ''Anthony Adverse'' (1936). She regularly had supporting roles in films during the late 1930s and 1940s, including '' The Cat and the Canary'' (1939), '' The Mark of Zorro'' (1940) and '' The Letter'' (1940). For her role in '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1946), she was nominated for her second Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. After the late 1940s, her screen work came to an abrupt end for the next 20 years. Married to director Herbert Biberman, Sondergaard supported him when he was accused of communism and named as one of the Hollywood Ten in the early 1950s. She moved with Biberman to New York City and worked in theatre, and acted in film and television occasionally from the late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gladys George
Gladys George (born Gladys Clare Evans; September 13, 1904 – December 8, 1954) was an American actress of stage and screen. Though nominated for an Academy Award for her leading role in ''Valiant Is the Word for Carrie'' (1936), she spent most of her career in supporting roles in films such as ''Marie Antoinette'' (1938), ''The Roaring Twenties'' (1939), '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1946), and '' Flamingo Road'' (1949). Early life George was born on September 13, 1904 lists Gladys Clare Evans born September 13, 1904, Maine - died December 8, 1954, Los Angeles, California. in Patten, Maine to British parents, Sir Arthur Evans Clare, a "noted Shakespearean actor", and his wife, Lady Alice. Another source indicated "Gladys was born in a little town in Missouri, where the troupe her parents belonged to happened to be stranded at the time." Career George went on the stage at the age of 3 and toured the United States, appearing with her parents, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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