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Stranger On The Third Floor
''Stranger on the Third Floor'' is a 1940 American film noir directed by Boris Ingster and starring Peter Lorre, John McGuire, and Margaret Tallichet, and featuring Elisha Cook Jr. It was written by Frank Partos. Modern research has shown that Nathanael West wrote the final version of the screenplay, but was uncredited. ''Stranger on the Third Floor'' is often cited as the first "true" film noir of the classic period (1940–1959), though other films that fit the genre such as ''Rebecca'' and '' They Drive by Night'' were released earlier. Nonetheless, it has many of the hallmarks of film noir: an urban setting, heavy shadows, diagonal lines, voice-over narration, a dream sequence, low camera angles shooting up multi-story staircases, and an innocent protagonist desperate to clear himself after being falsely accused of a crime. Plot Reporter Michael Ward is the key witness in a murder trial. His evidence – that he saw the accused, Joe Briggs, standing over the body of a ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Ingster
Boris Ingster was a Russian-American screenwriter, film and television director, and producer (October 29, 1903 in Riga, then in the Russian Empire - August 2, 1978 in Los Angeles, California) notable for his role in launching the film noir genre. In the 1930s he was a screenwriter on several films. He made his directorial debut in 1940 with the film noir movie '' Stranger on the Third Floor''. In the 1950s and 1960s he shifted much of his attention to producing television series in genres ranging from drama to Westerns and spy thrillers. Early life and family Boris Ingster is a literal Yiddish translation for Boris Jr. His real name and family name was Boris Mikhailovich Azarkh (russian: Борис Михайлович Азарх). He was born on October 29, 1903 in Riga, Russian Empire (now Latvia), in the family of guild merchant Moses Ber-Itsikovich Azarh (1869, Velizh - 1941, Riga) and Miriam-Basi Leizerovna Gottlieb (1876, Moscow - 1941, Riga). His older brother was Alexe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Clark
Cliff Clark (June 10, 1889 – February 8, 1953) was an American actor. He entered the film business in 1937 after a substantial stage career and appeared in over 200 Hollywood films. In the last years of his life, he also played in a number of television productions. Clark mostly played minor supporting roles, a specialty of his were policemen, inspectors and sheriffs. He appeared in a recurring role as Inspector Donovan in the Falcon film series at RKO Pictures during the 1940s. Selected filmography *''Big Time or Bust'' (1933) - Carnival Barker (uncredited) *'' Mountain Music'' (1937) - Pretty Panther Medicine Show Proprietor *''The Patient in Room 18'' (1938) - Inspector Foley *''Daredevil Drivers'' (1938) - Mr. McAullife *''He Couldn't Say No'' (1938) - Auctioneer *''Mr. Moto's Gamble'' (1938) - McGuire *'' Cocoanut Grove'' (1938) - Auctioneer (uncredited) *''Speed to Burn'' (1938) - Auctioneer (uncredited) *'' The Crowd Roars'' (1938) - George James (uncredited) *' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited as the greatest film ever made. The ''Sight & Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For 50 consecutive years, it stood at number 1 in the British Film Institute's ''Sight & Sound'' decennial poll of critics, and it topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update. The film was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories and it won for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Mankiewicz and Welles. ''Citizen Kane'' is praised for Gregg Toland's cinematography, Robert Wise's editing, Bernard Herrmann's music, and its narrative structure, all of which have been considered innovative and precedent-setting. The quasi-biographi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1939 Film)
''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' is a 1939 American romantic drama film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. Directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman, the film is based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel. Plot In Paris during the late Middle Ages, Louis XI, the King of France, and his Chief Justice of Paris, Jehan Frollo, visit a printing shop. Frollo is determined to do everything in his power to protect Paris from anything he sees as evil, including the printing press and gypsies. That day is Paris' annual celebration, the Feast of Fools. Pierre Gringoire, a poor street poet, does a play in front of an audience until it is interrupted by Clopin, the King of the Beggars. Esmeralda, a young gypsy girl, is seen dancing in front of an audience of people. Quasimodo, the hunchback and bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral, is crowned the King of Fools until Frollo catches up to him and takes him back to the church. Esmeralda is caught by a guard and seeks safet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Kong (1933 Film)
''King Kong'' is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure fantasy horror monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was developed from an idea conceived by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. It stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and tells the story of a giant ape dubbed Kong who attempts to possess a beautiful young woman. It features stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and a music score by Max Steiner. It is the first entry in the King Kong franchise. ''King Kong'' opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews, and has since been ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. A sequel, titled ''Son of Kong'', was fast-tracked and rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Van Nest Polglase
Van Nest Polglase (August 25, 1898 – December 20, 1968) was an American art director. He was nominated for six Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. Best remembered as head of the design department at RKO Pictures, he worked on 333 films between 1925 and 1957. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in Los Angeles, California. His death notice noted that he was "survived by his son Dr. Van Nest Polglase and 2 grandchildren", his wife, Helen, having predeceased him six months earlier. Education and early career Polglase studied Beaux-Arts architecture and interior design in New York City where he entered practice with the architectural firm of Berg and Orchard, before moving to Havana in 1917 where he was an associate designer on the Presidential Palace.Donald Albrecht "The Art of RKO. Van Nest Polglase And The Modern Movie Set: A Pioneer Who Changed The Cinematic Landscape" ''Architectural Digest'' June 2009 http://www.architecturaldigest.com/resources/not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turner Classic Movie
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown Atlanta, Midtown business district of Atlanta, Georgia. The channel's programming consists mainly of Golden age (metaphor), classic theatrically released feature films from the Turner Entertainment film library – which comprises films from Warner Bros. (covering films released before 1950), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (covering films released before May 1986), and the North American distribution rights to films from RKO Pictures. However, Turner Classic Movies also licenses films from other studios and occasionally shows more recent films. The channel is available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta (as Turner Classic Movies), Latin America, France, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, the Nordic countrie ... [...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] |
German Expressionism
German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as architecture, dance, painting, sculpture and cinema. This article deals primarily with developments in German Expressionist cinema before and immediately after World War I, approximately from 1910 to the 1930s. History The German Expressionist movement was initially confined to Germany due to the country's isolation during World War I. In 1916, the government banned foreign films, creating a sharp increase in the demand for domestic film production: from 24 films in 1914, to 130 films in 1918. With inflation also on the rise, Germans were attending films more freely because they knew that their money's value was constantly diminishing.Thompson, Kristin. Bordwell, David. ''Film History: An Intro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. He was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is noted in particular for his silent films ''Strike'' (1925), ''Battleship Potemkin'' (1925) and ''October'' (1928), as well as the historical epics ''Alexander Nevsky'' (1938) and ''Ivan the Terrible'' (1944, 1958). In its 2012 decennial poll, the magazine ''Sight & Sound'' named his ''Battleship Potemkin'' the 11th greatest film of all time. Early life Sergei Eisenstein was born on 22 January 1898 in Riga, Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire in the Governorate of Livonia), to a middle-class family. His family moved frequently in his early years, as Eisenstein continued to do throughout his life. His father, the architect Mikhail Osipov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, Canada Births, 1869–1911''. ancestry.com April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian actor and singer. Huston won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', directed by his son John Huston. He is the patriarch of the four ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Wyler
William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1946), and '' Ben-Hur'' (1959), all of which also won for Best Picture. In total, he holds a record twelve nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. Born in Alsace, then in Germany, but later part of France, Wyler was a troublemaker in the schools of his youth. He immigrated to United States in 1921, working first for Universal Studios in New York before moving to Los Angeles. By 1925, he was the youngest director at Universal, and in 1929 he directed '' Hell's Heroes'', Universal's first sound production filmed entirely on location. In 1936, he earned his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for '' Dodsworth'', starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor, "sparking a 20-year run of alm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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