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Never Give A Sucker An Even Break
''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'' (known in some international releases as ''What a Man!'') is a 1941 Universal Pictures comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Fields also wrote the original story, under the pseudonym "Otis Criblecoblis." Fields plays himself, promoting an extravagant screenplay he has written. As he describes the script to a skeptical producer, the often surreal scenes are shown. The title is derived from lines from two earlier films. In ''Poppy'' (1936), he tells his daughter, "If we should ever separate, my little plum, I want to give you just one bit of fatherly advice: Never give a sucker an even break!" In ''You Can't Cheat an Honest Man'' (1939), he tells a customer that his grandfather's last words, "just before they sprung the trap", were, "You can't cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump." Fields fought with studio producers, directors, and writers over the content of his films. He was determined to make a movie hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jody Gilbert
Jody Gilbert (March 18, 1916 – February 3, 1979) was an American actress. Biography Gilbert was born in Fort Worth, Texas. She studied voice and acting at Columbia University, and was a graduate of Pasadena Playhouse. One of her first notable roles was in the W.C. Fields film ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'' (known in some international releases as ''What a Man!'') is a 1941 Universal Pictures comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Fields also wrote the original story, under the pseudonym "Otis Criblecoblis." Fields ...'', playing a quick-witted diner waitress who has a verbal duel with Fields. She appeared in numerous roles in the movies, radio and television, often in supporting roles as "sizeable" but confident women. Gilbert died from complications from an auto accident in 1979. Filmography References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Jody 1916 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American actresses American film a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coloratura
Coloratura is an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material,''Oxford American Dictionaries''.Apel (1969), p. 184. or a passage of such music. Operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, and singers of these roles, are also called coloratura.Steane, J. B.; Jander, Owen, "Coloratura" in Sadie (1992) 1: 907. Its instrumental equivalent is ornamentation. Coloratura is particularly found in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and 19th centuries. The word ''coloratura'' ( , , ) means "coloring" in Italian, and derives from the Latin word ''colorare'' ("to color"). History The term ''coloratura'' was first defined in several early non-Italian music dictionaries: Michael Praetorius's ''Syntagma musicum'' (1618); Sébastien de Brossard's ''Dictionaire de musique'' (1703); and Johann Gottfried Walther's ''Musicalisches Lexicon'' (1732). In these early texts "the term is dealt with briefly and always with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Mankiewicz
Benjamin Frederick Mankiewicz (born March 25, 1967) is an American television personality, political commentator, and film critic. He is a host on Turner Classic Movies and has been a commentator on ''The Young Turks'' and ''What the Flick?!'' Early life Mankiewicz was born in Washington, D.C., to press secretary Frank Mankiewicz and Holly Mankiewicz (née Jolley) of German–Jewish descent. He is the cousin of screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz and filmmaker/television producer Nick Davis, the grandson of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, the grand-nephew of screenwriter, producer, and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and the brother of NBC News reporter Josh Mankiewicz. He attended Georgetown Day School for his primary and secondary education, Tufts University for undergraduate studies, and Columbia University for graduate studies. Career Mankiewicz began his career as a reporter and an anchor for WCSC-TV (a CBS affiliate) in Charleston, South Carolina. He joined WAMI in Miami, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abbott And Costello
Abbott may refer to: People *Abbott (surname) *Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921), American painter and naturalist * Abbott and Costello, famous American vaudeville act Places Argentina * Abbott, Buenos Aires United States * Abbott, Arkansas * Abbott, Mississippi * Abbott, Nebraska * Abbott, Texas * Abbott, Virginia * Abbott, West Virginia * Abbott Township, Potter County, Pennsylvania Companies * Abbott Laboratories, an American health care and medical devices company * Abbott Records, a former American record label * E. D. Abbott Ltd, an English maker of car bodies between 1929 and 1972 Other uses * Abbott-Detroit, an American luxury automobile * Abbott's Get Together, a magic convention held in Michigan * Abbott 33, a Canadian sailboat design * Abbott House (childcare agency), an American human services agency See also * Justice Abbott (other) * Abbot, an ecclesiastical title * Abbot (other) An abbot is the head of a monastery; the term is usually us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Nagel
Anne Nagel (born Anna Marie Dolan; September 29, 1915 – July 6, 1966) was an American actress. She played in adventures, mysteries, and comedies for 25 years. She also appeared in television series in the 1950s. One book described her as "one of Hollywood's true hard-luck gals". Early life Born in Malden, Massachusetts,An Associated Press story about Nagel's filing papers to marry Keenan states "The actress...listed her maiden name as Anna Marie Donan, born in Malden, a Boston suburb..." Nagel was enrolled by her parents in Notre Dame Academy, with the expectation that she would become a nun. Membership in the Shubert Theatre company turned her away from religious life. In the meantime, Nagel's mother had divorced and remarried. When Nagel's new stepfather, Curtis Nagel, a Technicolor expert, was hired by Tiffany Pictures in Hollywood, he moved the family to California, where he employed his stepdaughter in several experimental Technicolor shorts he had been asked to direct. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hellzapoppin' (film)
''Hellzapoppin'' is a 1941 film adaptation of '' Hellzapoppin'', the musical that ran on Broadway from 1938 to 1941. It was a production for Universal Pictures directed by H. C. Potter. Although the Broadway cast was initially slated to appear in the film, except for Olsen and Johnson and the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, no one else from any of the stage productions appeared in the movie. The cast includes Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson, both of whom produced and starred in the Broadway musical, as well as Martha Raye, Mischa Auer, Shemp Howard, Slim and Slam, and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. The film is fourth wall breaking and full of surreal humour. Plot Shemp Howard begins the film as Louie, the projectionist of a cinema, exhibiting what appears to be the start of a song-and-dance number including classily dressed performers walking down a staircase. The staircase collapses and turns into a slide, conveying the dancers straight to hell, where they are tortured by demons. Ole Olson and C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott MacGillivray
Scott MacGillivray (born June 29, 1957) is an American non-fiction author specializing in motion picture history. His book ''Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward,'' revised and expanded in 2009, chronicles the later films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Some of his other books are ''The Soundies Book: A Revised and Expanded Guide'' (2007, co-authored with Ted Okuda), ''Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven'' (2005, co-authored with Jan MacGillivray), and ''Castle Films: A Hobbyist's Guide'' (2004, foreword by Okuda). MacGillivray has been the chairman of the Boston chapter of the international Laurel and Hardy society ''The Sons of the Desert The Sons of the Desert is an international fraternal organization devoted to the lives and films of comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The group takes its name from a fictional lodge that Laurel and Hardy belonged to in the 1933 film ''Son ...'' since 1977, and is the longest-tenured chairman in the organization. His commentarie ... [...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] |
Dark Eyes (Russian Song)
"Dark Eyes" ( rus, Очи чёрные, Óči čjórnye, ˈotɕɪ ˈtɕɵrnɨjɪ, , Black Eyes, links=y) is a well-known and popular Russian romance, written by the Ukrainian poet Yevhen Hrebinka. The lyrics were written by the poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka, born in Poltava , now in Ukraine. The first publication of the poem was in Hrebinka's own Russian translation in '' Literaturnaya Gazeta'' on January 17, 1843. A song using these lyrics is attested already in the 1870s, but its melody was not known. The melody now associated with the lyrics was likely borrowed from the "Valse hommage", Op. 21 for piano, by the German composer Florian Hermann, published in 1879. In ''The Book of World-famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk'' (2000) James Fuld reports that a Soviet musicologist told him that the song is not "a Russian traditional song but a cabaret song", published in 1884 and reprinted as number 131 in a songbook by A. Gutheil in 1897, where it is described as a "Gyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Strauss II
Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer" (Emperor Waltz), "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, ''Die Fledermaus'' and ''Der Zigeunerbaron'' are the best known. Strauss was the son of Johann Strauss I and his first wife Maria Anna Streim. Two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, also became composers of light music, although they were never as well known as their brot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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