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Desert Fury
''Desert Fury'' is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen and starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster. The story was adapted for the screen by Robert Rossen and A. I. Bezzerides (uncredited), based on the racy novel ''Desert Town'' by Ramona Stewart. The picture was produced by Hal Wallis, with music by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography in Technicolor by Edward Cronjager and Charles Lang. Plot Fritzi Haller (Mary Astor) is the powerful owner of Purple Sage, a saloon and casino in the small fictional mining town of Chuckawalla, Nevada. Her daughter, Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott), has just quit school and returned home at the same time that gangster Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak) has returned. He was once involved with Fritzi, but left town under suspicion of murdering his wife. Paula does not have a good relationship with her mother Fritzi and when she sees how unpleasant Eddie is for her, she begins a relationship with the crook. Paula's old bo ...
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Lewis Allen (director)
Lewis Allen (25 December 1905 – 3 May 2000) was a British-born director whose credits included classic television series and a diverse range of films. Allen worked mainly in the United States, working on Broadway theatre, Broadway and directing 18 feature films between 1944 and 1959. From the mid-1950s he moved increasingly into television and worked on a number of the most popular shows of the time in the US. Career Allen was born in the small Shropshire town of Oakengates and attended Tettendan Hall in Staffordshire. On leaving school he joined the Merchant Navy (United Kingdom), Merchant Navy for four years.Obituary: Lewis Allen Vallance, Tom. The Independent 11 May 2000: 6. After leaving the service he became, briefly, an actor, before moving into London theatrical management, first for Raymond Massey and later for Gilbert Miller. Broadway In 1935 he began working on Broadway. His credits include directing the U.S. premieres of J.B. Priestley's ''Laburnum Grove (play), La ...
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James Flavin
James William Flavin Jr. (May 14, 1906 – April 23, 1976) was an American character actor whose career lasted for nearly half a century. Early life The son of a hotel waiter of Canadian-English descent,Flavin's obituary, distributed by United Press International, says that he was born in Portland, Oregon. the Portland, Maine-born Flavin attended the United States Military Academy, where he played football. Career Summer stock companies flocked to Maine each year, and in 1929 Flavin was asked to fill in for an actor. He did well with the part and the company manager offered him $150 per week to accompany the troupe back to New York. Flavin accepted and by the spring of 1930, he resided in a rooming house at 108 W. 87th Street in Manhattan. Flavin worked his way across the country in stock productions and tours, arriving in Los Angeles around 1932. He quickly made the transition to movies, landing the lead role in his very first film, a Universal serial, '' The Airmail Myste ...
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Eddie Muller
Eddie Muller (born October 15, 1958) is an American writer based in San Francisco. He is known for writing books about movies, particularly film noir, and is the host of Noir Alley on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Early life and education Muller is the son of a famous San Francisco boxing writer of the same name. Muller studied with filmmaker George Kuchar at the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 1970s. Career Muller is the founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation and is co-programmer of the San Francisco Noir City film festival. Muller is considered a noir expert and is called on to write and talk about the film genre, notably on wry commentary tracks for Fox's film noir series of DVDs and introducing Turner Classic Movies's weekly "Noir Alley" movie block. Every Saturday, Noir Alley visits classic noir films featuring some of the best set-ups and shake downs involving iconic antiheroes and the unforgettable, fatalistic dames they fall for. Laura Sheppard, dir ...
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Film Noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ''film noir''. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. The term ''film noir'', French for 'black film' (literal) or 'dark film' (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint Série noire, founded in 1945. Cinema historians and critics defined the category ...
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Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 after his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis. In the 1950s, he achieved his greatest commercial success with film melodramas ''Magnificent Obsession'', ''All That Heaven Allows'', ''Written on the Wind'', ''A Time to Love and a Time to Die'', and '' Imitation of Life''. While those films were initially panned by critics as sentimental women's pictures, they are today widely regarded by film directors, critics, and scholars as masterpieces. His work is seen as "critique of the bourgeoisie in general and of 1950s America in particular", while painting a "compassionate portrait of characters trapped by social conditions". Beyond the surface of the film, Sirk worked with complex mises-en-scène and lush Technicolor to ...
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Foster Hirsch
Foster Hirsch is the author of sixteen books on subjects related to theatre and movies. A native of California, Hirsch received his B.A. from Stanford University, and holds M.F.A, M.A. and PhD degrees from Columbia University. Hirsch joined the English Department of Brooklyn College in 1967, and in 1973 became one of the first professors to join the school's newly established Film Department. He has also been associated with the Pine Bluff Film Festival since its inception in 1994. Selected books *''The Hollywood Epic'' (1979) *''Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Screen'' (Da Capo Press, 1983) *''A Method to Their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio'' ( W. W. Norton, 1984) *''Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre'' (Cambridge University Press, 1989) *''Acting Hollywood Style'' (Harry N. Abrams, 1991) *''Film as Film'' by V.F. Perkins (1972), new introduction by Foster Hirsch (Da Capo, 1993) *''The Boys from Syracuse: The Shuberts' Theatrical Empire'' Southern Illinois ...
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Melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action. Characters are often flat, and written to fulfill stereotypes. Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of the home, focusing on morality and family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, filmed, or on television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers cues to the audience of the drama being presented. In scholarly and historical musical contexts, ''melodramas'' are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term is now also applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, films, tel ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Kino International (company)
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, such as documentary films, classic films from earlier periods in the history of cinema, and world cinema. In addition to theatrical distribution, Kino Lorber releases films in the home entertainment market and has its own streaming services for its digital library. History 1977–2008; Founding as Kino International Kino Lorber was founded as Kino International in 1977 by Bill Pence. It was then purchased by Donald Krim who at the time worked for United Artists as the head of the nontheatrical department. It began by importing and releasing international films that may have not otherwise reached the market in the United States. One of the first films imported under Krim was ''Ballad of Orin''. In 1977, the company acquired rights to t ...
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Cottonwood, Arizona
Cottonwood is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 11,265. Geography Cottonwood is located at (34.7321, -112.0186). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Climate Cottonwood has a semi-arid steppe climate. In January the normal high temperature is with a low of . In July the normal high temperature is with a low of . Annual precipitation is approximately . Demographics At the 2000 census there were 9,179 people, 3,983 households and 2,369 families in the city. The population density was . There were 4,427 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 85.2% White, 0.5% Black or African American, 1.6% Native American, 0.4% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 9.7% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. 20.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 3,983 households 25.3% ha ...
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Clarkdale, Arizona
Clarkdale (Yavapai: Saupkasuiva) is a town in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. The Verde River flows through the town as does Bitter Creek, an intermittent tributary of the river. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town was 4,097. Clarkdale, formerly a mining town, is now largely a retirement community and arts community. History Clarkdale was founded in 1912 as a company smelter town by William A. Clark, for his copper mine in nearby Jerome. Clarkdale was one of the most modern mining towns in the world, including telephone, telegraph, electrical, sewer and spring water services, and was an early example of a planned community. The Clark Mansion, a local landmark, was built in the late 1920s by William Clark III, Clark's grandson and heir to the United Verde Copper Company. The structure, east of town across the Verde River near Pecks Lake, was destroyed in 2010 by a fire of "suspicious" origin. The town center and business district were built in Span ...
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Piru Mansion
The Piru Mansion is a Queen Anne Style home located in Piru, California. History Also known as the Newhall Mansion or Cook Mansion, the Piru Mansion was built in 1886 and is Ventura County Historical Landmark #4. It was built by Piru's founder, David C. Cook, a wealthy publisher of Sunday School tracts and supplies from Illinois, who had wanted to establish a "Second Garden of Eden," specifying, tradition says, the planting of Biblical apricots, dates, figs, grapes, olives, and pomegranates. Cook's house became known as the Piru Mansion because of Sunkist's "Mansion Brand" valencia oranges, which can still be found in the area. The mansion originally utilized natural gas as it possessed no electricity or running water. The mansion and the surrounding land, Piru Fruit Rancho, was purchased by Hugh Warring, of Buckhorn Ranch, and his wife, Orie J., in 1912. He had two adjoining bathrooms installed upstairs. In 1934, the Warrings built another home on the property, now known ...
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