|
Storm Center
''Storm Center'' is a 1956 American film noir drama directed by Daniel Taradash. The screenplay by Taradash and Elick Moll focuses on what were at the time two very controversial subjects—Communism and book banning—and took a strong stance against censorship. The film stars Bette Davis, and was the first overtly anti-McCarthyism film to be produced in Hollywood. Plot Alicia Hull is a widowed small town librarian dedicated to introducing children to the joy of reading. In exchange for fulfilling her request for a children's wing, the city council asks her to withdraw the book '' The Communist Dream'' from the library's collection. When she refuses to comply with their demand, she is fired, and branded as a subversive. Especially upset by this is young Freddie Slater, a boy with a deep love of books whom Alicia has closely mentored. Judge Robert Ellerbe feels Alicia has been treated unfairly, and calls a town meeting, hoping to rally support for her. However, ambitious attorne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saul Bass
Saul Bass (; May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Oscar-winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. During his 40-year career, Bass worked for some of Hollywood's most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his best known title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's ''The Man with the Golden Arm'', the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock's ''North by Northwest'', and the disjointed text that races together and apart in '' Psycho''. Bass designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the Geffen Records logo in 1980, the Hanna-Barbera "swirling star" logo in 1979, the sixth and final version of the Bell System logo in 1969, as well as AT&T Corporation's fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Communist Manifesto
''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848, the ''Manifesto'' remains one of the world's most influential political documents. It presents an analytical approach to class struggle and criticizes capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, without attempting to predict communism's potential future forms. ''The Communist Manifesto'' summarises Marx and Engels' theories concerning the nature of society and politics, namely that in their own words " e history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism. In the last paragraph of the ''Manifesto'', the authors call for a "forcible ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was a favorite of directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra, and made 85 films in 38 years before turning to television. Orphaned at the age of four and partially raised in foster homes, she always worked. One of her directors, Jacques Tourneur, said of her, "She only lives for two things, and both of them are work." She made her debut on stage in the chorus as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923, at age 16, and within a few years was acting in plays. Her first lead role, which was in the hit ''Burlesque'' (1927), established her as a Broadway star. In 1929, she began acting in talking pictures. Frank Capra chose her for his romantic drama ''Ladies of Leisure'' (1930). This led to additio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films running through a special camera (3-strip Technicolor or Process 4) started in the early 1930s and continued through to the mid-1950s when the 3-strip camera was replaced by a standard camera loaded with single strip 'monopack' color negative film. Technicolor Laboratories were still able to produce Technicolor prints by creating three black and white matrices from the Eastmancolor negative (Process 5). Process 4 was the second major color process, after Britain's Kinemacolor (used between 1908 and 1914), and the most widely used color process in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Technicolor's #Process 4: Development and introduction, three-color process became known and celebrated for its highly s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irving Reis
Irving Reis (May 7, 1906 in New York City – July 3, 1953 in Woodland Hills, California) was a radio program producer and director, and a film director. Biography Irving Reis was born into a Jewish family.http://www.hillsidememorial.org/pdfs/DistResBook_webversion3.pdf Reis began his career as a motion picture photographer. The most notable of his screen efforts was being one of the photographers for ''The Hollywood Revue of 1929''. A 1931 notice in ''Variety'' declared that he was transitioning into a playwright. By 1933, ''Variety'' took notice of his radio play ''St. Louis Blues''. His radio play ''Meridian 7-1212'' first broadcast on January 24, 1935, received an "above par" comment from Variety. Observing that he wrote and produced the play, the unnamed reviewer noted the numerous radio effects, and that compared to his two previous radio plays, this was the best. Reis was the creator of ''Columbia Workshop'', the experimental anthology program on the radio, and its ini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Kramer
Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message picture, message films" (he would call his movies ''heavy dramas'') and a liberal movie icon.Film-maker Stanley Kramer dies a February 2001 BBC obituary As an independent producer and director, he brought attention to topical social issues that most studios avoided. Among the subjects covered in his films were racism (in ''The Defiant Ones'' and ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner''), nuclear war (in ''On the Beach (1959 film), On the Beach''), greed (in ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''), creationism vs. evolution (in ''Inherit the Wind (1960 film), Inherit the Wind'') and the causes and effects of fascism (in ''Judgment at Nuremberg''). His other films ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Pickford
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founded Pickford–Fairbanks Studios and United Artists, and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Pickford is considered to be one of the most recognisable women in history. Cited as "America's Sweetheart" during the silent film era, she is named on the list of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars as the 24th top female stars from the Classical Hollywood Cinema era and the "girl with the curls", Pickford was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. She was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name, and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies". She is credited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Wendell
Howard David Wendell (January 25, 1908 – August 11, 1975) was an American actor. Wendell's Broadway credits include ''Make a Wish'' (1951), ''The Curious Savage'' (1950), ''Arms and the Man'' (1950), ''The Show Off'' (1950), and ''The Great Campaign'' (1947). Between 1949 and 1970, Wendell made a number of film appearances but worked mostly on TV, in such programs as '' Dragnet'', ''Perry Mason'', ''Wagon Train'', ''Bonanza'', ''Batman (season 1, episodes 3 and 4)'', ''The Munsters'', ''The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet'', '' Leave it to Beaver'', ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', ''Hazel'', and ''The Big Valley''. His final appearance was in ''Adam-12 ''Adam-12'' is an American television police procedural crime drama television series created by Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb. The series follows Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed as they patrol the stre ...''. Filmography References External links * * 1908 births 1975 death ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby (born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff; November 25, 1933) is a retired American actress and singer who performed in films under the stage names Kathryn Grant and Kathryn Grandstaff. Life and career Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff in West Columbia, Texas, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1955. Two years later she became Bing Crosby's second wife, being more than thirty years his junior. The couple had three children, Harry, Mary Frances, and Nathaniel. She appeared as a guest star on her husband's 1964–1965 ABC sitcom '' The Bing Crosby Show''. Crosby largely retired from acting after her marriage, but did have featured roles as Princess Parisa in ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' (1958), and in the courtroom drama ''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959). She also played the part of "Mama Bear" alongside her husband and children in ''Goldilocks'' and co-starred with Jack Lemmon in the comedy ''Operation Mad Ball'' (1957), w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Platt
Edward Cuthbert Platt (February 14, 1916 – March 19, 1974) was an American actor best known for his portrayal of the Chief in the 1965–70 NBC/CBS television series: ''Get Smart''. With his deep voice and mature appearance, he played an eclectic mix of characters over the span of his career. Early life and military service Platt was born in Staten Island, New York. He spent a part of his childhood in Kentucky and upstate New York, where he attended the Northwood School, a private school in Lake Placid, and was a member of the ski jump team. He also studied at the Juilliard School. He attended Princeton University, but left after his freshman year. He served in the United States Army during World War II. Acting career An operatically trained bass-baritone with a powerful voice, he debuted on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''Allegro''. José Ferrer, who performed with Platt in the Broadway play ''The Shrike'', helped him land his first film role in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Kearns
Joseph Sherrard Kearns TV Guide. July 15–21, 1961, Savetheorgan.org; retrieved September 28, 2011. (February 12, 1907 – February 17, 1962) was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as George Wilson ("Mr. Wilson") on the television series '' Dennis the Menace'' from 1959 until his death in 1962. He was also a prolific radio actor, and provided the voice of the Doorknob in the 1951 animated Disney film, '''' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Raffetto
Michael Raffetto (born Elwyn Creighton Raffetto; December 31, 1899 – May 31, 1990) was an American radio actor who starred as Paul Barbour (1932–1956) in the NBC Radio series ''One Man's Family'' and as Jack Packard in '' I Love a Mystery'' during the heyday of radio in the 1930s and 1940s. Early life Elwyn Creighton Raffetto was born in Placerville, California, the son of John Augustus Raffetto, a hotelier, and Adela Creighton. (His grandparents, Domenico Raffetto and Anna Pensa, came first to nearby Newtown, California, from Ognio, a mountain village northeast of Genoa.) He graduated cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall in 1925. He practiced law in San Francisco until 1928, when he directed drama at Berkeley as well as Los Angeles' Greek Theatre Career Raffetto pitched a program concept to NBC Radio's Tom Hutchinson in San Francisco. He went on to star, direct, and produce the show, called '' Arm of the Law''. Soon af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
