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Desert Fury (novel)
''Desert Fury'' is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen, and starring Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak and Burt Lancaster. Its plot follows the daughter of a casino owner in a small Nevada town who becomes involved with a racketeer who was once suspected of murdering his wife. The screenplay was written by Robert Rossen and A. I. Bezzerides (uncredited), adapted from the 1947 novel of the same name 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. The film had its world premiere in Salt Lake City in July 1947, and earned mixed reviews from critics. In the years since its release, the film has been subject to significant film criticism from scholars and critics for its overtones of homosexuality, particularly in the relationship between two of its central male characters. Plot Gangster Eddie Bendix and his henchman, Johnny Ryan, arrive in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Journalism, journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets; and academic criticism by film scholars who are informed by film theory and are published in academic journals. Academic film criticism rarely takes the form of a review; instead it is more likely to analyse the film and its place in the history of its genre or in the whole of History of film, film history. Film criticism is also labeled as a type of writing that perceives films as possible achievements and wishes to convey their differences, as well as the films being made in a level of quality that is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Film criticism is also associated with the journalistic type of criticism, which is grounded in the media's effects being developed, and journalistic criticism resides in standard structures su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trailers From Hell
''Trailers from Hell'' (branded as ''Trailers from Hell!'') is a web series in which filmmakers discuss and promote individual movies through commenting on their trailers. While the series emphasizes horror, science fiction, fantasy, cult, and exploitation cinema, films from a wide variety of genres have been covered. ''Trailers from Hell'' launched as a website in October 2007, as a collaborative project by film director Joe Dante, new media entrepreneur Jonas Hudson, graphic artist Charlie Largent, web developer Tom Edgar, and producer Elizabeth Stanley. It also premiered at SXSW in 2009. Commentary Each trailer features commentary on the art, craft, and history of filmmaking, regarding both the trailer itself and the film it represents. Regular ''Trailers from Hell'' commentators, referred to as "gurus" on the series website, include (in addition to Joe Dante) John Landis, Guillermo del Toro, Roger Corman, and Eli Roth. Film editor and critic Glenn Erickson writes, "The host c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Novak
Jane Novak (born Johana Barbara Novak; January 12, 1896 – February 3, 1990) was an American actress of the silent film era. Background Jane Novak was born Johana Barbara Novak in St. Louis, Missouri to Bohemian immigrant Joseph Jerome Novak and his wife Barbara Medek. Joseph Novak died when Jane was still a child and Barbara was left to raise 5 children.The Independent, London, February 1990 Her younger sister Eva also became an actress. Novak attended School Sisters of Notre Dame convent school in St. Louis, but ran away with a friend with whom she created a vaudeville act. Although she returned home, her aunt, actress Anne Schaefer, invited her to California where she began acting in motion pictures in 1913 at the age of 17. The actress began in a stage stock company with her uncle in St. Louis. Novak's career extended into the sound film medium, appeared in a total of 115 movies in her career. Career She appeared in a movie on her first day in Southern California, before th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Harrigan
William Harrigan (March 27, 1894 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor who performed in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s and on stage. Early years Harrigan was born in New York City and attended New York Military Academy. Harrigan was the son of actor Edward Harrigan and the grandson of composer David Braham. His sister was Nedda Harrigan, which made him the brother-in-law of director/playwright Joshua Logan. Harrigan first performed on stage when he was 5 years old, joining his father in a production of ''Reilly and the 400'' at the Garrick Theater. During World War I, Harrigan was a captain in the 307th Infantry Regiment of the 77th Division. Career Following his school years, Harrigan acted in New York theaters in plays that included ''Bought and Paid For'' and ''Springtime''. He also toured Australia in 1915 as part of a company led by Charles Millward. Harrigan's Broadway debut was in ''Old Lavender'' (1906). He also performed with his father in a touring c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kristine Miller
Kristine Miller (born Jacqueline Olivia Eskesen, June 13, 1925 – 2015) was an American film actress, best-remembered for her appearances in film noir and Westerns. A discovery of Paramount producer Hal Wallis, she appeared in ''I Walk Alone'' (1948), '' Jungle Patrol'' (1948), ''Too Late for Tears'' (1949), '' Shadow on the Wall'' (1950), and the TV series '' Stories of the Century'' (1954–55). Early life Miller was born Jacqueline Olivia Eskesen, the younger of two daughters of Johannes Bach Eskesen, a Danish oil executive, and US-born Myrtle Bennett Eskesen (née Witham; 1890–1976), an Orpheum Circuit singer from Fresno, California. Her father was vice-president of Standard Oil of Argentina, headquartered in Buenos Aires, where Miller and her older sister, Dorothea, were born. After a decade in Argentina, the family sailed to New Orleans, landing in July 1931. They temporarily moved to Myrtle's hometown of Fresno for a year, then moved to Copenhagen, Denmark in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Astor
Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941). Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s. When talkies arrived, her voice was initially considered too masculine and she was off the screen for a year. After she appeared in a play with friend Florence Eldridge, film offers returned, and she resumed her career in sound pictures. In 1936, Astor's career was nearly destroyed by scandal. She had an affair with playwright George S. Kaufman and was branded an adulterous wife by her ex-husband during a custody fight over their daughter. Overcoming these stumbling blocks in her private life, she went on to greater film success, eventually winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of concert p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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