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She Done Him Wrong
''She Done Him Wrong'' is a 1933 pre-Code American crime/comedy film starring Mae West and Cary Grant. The plot includes melodramatic and musical elements, with a supporting cast featuring Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery Sr., Rochelle Hudson, and Louise Beavers. It was directed by Lowell Sherman, and produced by William LeBaron. The film is famous for West's many double entendres and quips, including her best-known (and frequently misquoted), "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was adapted from the successful 1928 Broadway play ''Diamond Lil'' by Mae West. The Hays Code declared the play banned from the screen and repeatedly demanded changes to remove associations with or elements from the play, including suggested titles with the word "diamond". The adaption was finally allowed under the condition that the play not be referred to in publicity or advertising. ''Blonde Venus'' (with Marlene Dietrich) and ''Madame Butterfly'' (with Sylvia Sidney), both p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lowell Sherman
Lowell J. Sherman (October 11, 1888 – December 28, 1934) was an American actor and film director. In an unusual practice for the time, he served as both actor and director on several films in the early 1930s. He later turned exclusively to directing. Having scored huge successes directing the films ''She Done Him Wrong'' (starring Mae West) and ''Morning Glory'' (which won Katharine Hepburn her first Academy Award), he was at the height of his career when he died after a brief illness. Early life and career Born in San Francisco in 1888 to John Sherman and Julia Louise Gray, who were both connected with the theater; John as a theatrical management agent and Julia as a stage actress. His maternal grandmother had been an actress, starring with the actor Edwin Booth (brother of actor-assassin John Wilkes Booth). Sherman began his career as a child actor appearing in many touring companies. As an adolescent he appeared on Broadway in plays such as ''Judith of Bethulia'' (1904) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design and all the creative aspects of filmmaking. The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within the budget. There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, producers, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended a film school. Directors use different approaches. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely. Some directors also write thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bowery
The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "Bowery" in , p. 148 The eponymous neighborhood runs roughly from the Bowery east to Allen Street and First Avenue, and from Canal Street north to Cooper Square/East Fourth Street. The neighborhood roughly overlaps with Little Australia. To the south is Chinatown, to the east are the Lower East Side and the East Village, and to the west are Little Italy and NoHo. It has historically been considered a part of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the 17th century, the road branched off Broadway north of Fort Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan to the homestead of Peter Stuyvesant, director-general of New Netherland. The street was known as Bowery Lane prior to 1807. "Bowery" is an anglicization of the Dutch , derived from an a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gay Nineties
The Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term and a periodization of the history of the United States referring to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the United Kingdom as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly decadent art of Aubrey Beardsley, the witty plays and trial of Oscar Wilde, society scandals and the beginning of the suffragette movement. Despite the term, part of the decade was marked by an economic crisis, which greatly worsened when the Panic of 1893 set off a widespread economic depression in the United States that lasted until 1896. Etymology The term ''Gay Nineties'' itself began to be used in the 1920s in the United States and is believed to have been created by the artist Richard V. Culter, who first released a series of drawings in ''Life'' magazine titled "the Gay Nineties" and later published a book of drawings with the same name. History Novels by authors like Edith Wharton and Booth Tarkington documented the high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edith Head
Edith Head (October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making her the most awarded woman in the Academy's history. Head is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential costume designers in film history. Born and raised in California, Head started her career as a Spanish teacher, but was interested in design. After studying at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, Head was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in 1923. She won acclaim for her design of Dorothy Lamour’s trademark sarong in the 1936 film ''The Jungle Princess'', and became a household name after the Academy Award for Best Costume Design was created in 1948. Head was considered exceptional for her close working relationships with her subjects, with whom she consulted extensively; these included virtually every top female star in Hollywood. Head worked at Paramount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Leipold
John Leipold (February 26, 1888 – March 8, 1970) was an American film score composer. Selected filmography * ''Behind the Make-Up'' (1930) * '' Playboy of Paris'' (1930) * '' Monkey Business'' (1931) * '' Horse Feathers'' (1932) * ''It’s a Gift'' (1934) * ''This Reckless Age'' (1932) * '' One Hour With You'' (1932) * '' Make Me a Star'' (1932) * '' Hot Saturday'' (1932) * '' El Príncipe gondolero'' (1933) * ''The Old Fashioned Way'' (1934) * '' Forgotten Faces'' (1936) * '' A Son Comes Home'' (1936) * '' Bulldog Drummond's Revenge'' (1937) * '' Girl Overboard'' (1937) * '' Bulldog Drummond's Peril'' (1938) * '' Bluebeard's Eighth Wife'' (1938) * '' Touchdown, Army'' (1938) * ''Stagecoach'' (1939) * '' The Quarterback'' (1940) * '' Doomed Caravan'' (1941) * '' Shut My Big Mouth'' (1942) * '' Two Yanks in Trinidad'' (1942) * '' Daring Young Man'' (1942) * ''The Desperadoes'' (1943) * '' Doughboys in Ireland'' (1943) * '' Nine Girls'' (1944) * ''Incendiary Blonde ''Incendiary B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Rainger
Ralph Rainger ( Reichenthal; October 7, 1901 – October 23, 1942) was an American composer of popular music principally for films. Biography Born Ralph Reichenthal in New York City, United States, Rainger initially embarked on a legal career, having obtained his law degree at Brown University in 1926. He had, however, studied piano from a young age and attended the Institute of Musical Art in New York. Public performances include radio broadcasts from New York and WOR (New Jersey) as early as 1922. These were as soloist, accompanist to singers, and as duo-pianist with Adam Carroll or "Edgar Fairchild" (the name Milton Suskind used for commercial work).“Round the Radio Circuit.” New York Telegram and Evening Mail, 2 July 1924. He also prepared piano rolls between 1922 and 1928 for Ampico, Standard, and DeLuxe. Some of these used the "Reichenthal" surname, others the "Rainger" name he was gradually adopting commercially. Other early musical activities include arranging for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvia Sidney
Sylvia Sidney (born Sophia Kosow; August 8, 1910 – July 1, 1999) was an American stage, screen and film actress whose career spanned over 70 years. She rose to prominence in dozens of leading roles in the 1930s. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in '' Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams'' in 1973. She later gained attention for her role as Juno, a case worker in the afterlife, in Tim Burton's 1988 film '' Beetlejuice'', for which she won a Saturn Award as Best Supporting Actress. Early life Sidney was born Sophia Kosow in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Rebecca (née Saperstein), a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who worked as a clothing salesman. Her parents divorced by 1915, and she was adopted by her stepfather Sigmund Sidney, a dentist. Her mother became a dressmaker and renamed herself Beatrice Sidney. Now using the surname Sidney, Sylvia became an actress at the age of 15 as a way of overco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madame Butterfly (1932 Film)
''Madame Butterfly'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code drama film directed by Marion Gering, based on David Belasco's Madame Butterfly (play), play and the story by John Luther Long. It was adapted by Josephine Lovett and Joseph Moncure March. It stars Cary Grant and Sylvia Sidney. Music is credited to W. Franke Harling (although much of it is an adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's opera ''Madama Butterfly''), cinematography by David Abel, art direction by Ward Ihnen. It premiered on December 30, 1932. Plot At Goro's Tea House, we are introduced to Cho-Cho San (Sylvia Sidney) who is bidding farewell to her mother and grandfather. She is about to undergo training as a geisha in exchange for money that will support her family. After the relatives leave, Goro introduces Prince Yamadori, a prospective husband, to Cho-Cho San. When Yamadori finds her withdrawn, Madame Goro explains that Cho-Cho San is high-born and is not yet used to the geisha life style. Meanwhile, on b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992) was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s. In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich performed on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in Josef von Sternberg's '' The Blue Angel'' (1930) brought her international acclaim and a contract with Paramount Pictures. She starred in many Hollywood films, including six iconic roles directed by Sternberg: ''Morocco'' (1930) (her only Academy Award nomination), '' Dishonored'' (1931), '' Shanghai Express'' and '' Blonde Venus'' (both 1932), '' The Scarlet Empress'' (1934) and '' The Devil Is a Woman'' (1935), '' Desire'' (1936) and '' Destry Rides Again'' (1939). She successfully traded on her glamorous p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blonde Venus
''Blonde Venus'' is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film starring Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall and Cary Grant. It was produced and directed by Josef von Sternberg from a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren, adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The original story "Mother Love" was written by Dietrich herself. The musical score was by W. Franke Harling, John Leipold, Paul Marquardt and Oscar Potoker, with cinematography by Bert Glennon. Dietrich performs three musical numbers in the film, including "You Little So-and-So" (music and lyrics by Sam Coslow and Leo Robin) and "I Couldn't Be Annoyed" (music and lyrics by Leo Robin and Richard A. Whiting). The film's highlight may be the performance of the infamous "Hot Voodoo" (music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Sam Coslow), which is nearly eight minutes in length and mostly instrumental, featuring jazz trumpet and drums. Dietrich sings the lyrics toward the end of the sequence, which takes place in a n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motion Picture Production Code
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 combine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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