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Strictly Dishonorable (1951 Film)
''Strictly Dishonorable'' is a 1951 romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, and starring Ezio Pinza and Janet Leigh. It is the second film to be based on Preston Sturges' 1929 hit Broadway play of the same name after a pre-Code film released by Universal Pictures in 1931 with the same title. Plot In New York in the 1920s, amorous opera star Augustino "Gus" Caraffa (Ezio Pinza) crosses paths with Isabelle Perry (Janet Leigh), a naive music student from Mississippi who is his biggest fan. When a news photographer catches them in a kiss, it is proposed that they get married in name only to avoid a scandal. Isabelle, who is in love with Gus, agrees to the charade, hoping that he will eventually fall in love with her. Cast *Ezio Pinza as '' Count Augustino "Gus" Caraffa'' *Janet Leigh as '' Isabelle Perry'' *Millard Mitchell as ''Bill Dempsey'' *Gale Robbins as ''Marie Donnelly'' *Maria Palmer as ''Countess Lili Szadvany'' *Esther Minc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank (13 August 1913 – 13 October 1988) was an American screenwriter, film producer and film director. He is known for his partnership with Norman Panama and their work on films such as ''Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1948), '' White Christmas'' (1954), and ''The Court Jester'' (1956). He also directed films such as ''Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell'' and '' A Touch of Class'' (1973). Life and career Born to a Jewish family, Frank met his future collaborator Norman Panama in 1933 when they were both at the University of Chicago. After graduating, they formed a partnership in 1935 which endured for four decades; first writing for Milton Berle before becoming writers for Bob Hope's radio show. In 1941, they sold their first script to Paramount Pictures, ''My Favorite Blonde'' (1942), which starred Hope. They worked for Paramount for five years where, among others, they wrote ''Road to Utopia'' (1946), starring Hope and Bing Crosby, for which they received an Acade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Franz
Arthur Sofield Franz (February 29, 1920 – June 17, 2006) was an American actor whose most notable feature film role was as Lieutenant, Junior Grade, H. Paynter Jr. in ''The Caine Mutiny (film), The Caine Mutiny'' (1954). Early life Franz was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. His interest in acting developed while he was still a student in high school. Military service During World War II, Franz served as a B-24 Liberator navigator in the United States Army Air Forces. He was shot down over Romania and incarcerated in a POW camp, from which he later escaped. Stage Franz's Broadway theatre, Broadway credits include ''Command Decision'' (1947), ''The Moon Vine'' (1942), ''Little Darling'' (1942), and ''Hope for a Harvest'' (1941). Film Franz made his screen debut in ''Jungle Patrol (1948 film), Jungle Patrol'' (1948). He appeared in ''Roseanna McCoy'' (1949), ''Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man'' (1951), ''Eight Iron Men'' (1952), ''Invaders from Mars (1953 film), I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886October 8, 1941) was an American lyricist who contributed a number of songs to the Great American Songbook, including "Pretty Baby", "Ain't We Got Fun?", "Carolina in the Morning", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)", " My Buddy" " I'll See You in My Dreams", " It Had to Be You", " Yes Sir, That's My Baby", " Love Me or Leave Me", "Makin' Whoopee", " My Baby Just Cares for Me", "I'm Through with Love", "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream". Life and career Kahn was born in 1886 in Bruschied, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Theresa (Mayer) and Isaac Kahn, a cattle farmer. The Jewish family emigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago in 1890. After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk in a mail order business before launching one of the most successful and prolific careers from Tin Pan Alley. Kahn married Grace LeBoy in 1916 and they had two children, Donald and Irene. In hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isham Jones
Isham Edgar Jones (January 31, 1894 – October 19, 1956) was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter. Career Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, United States, to a musical and mining family. His father, Richard Isham Jones (1865–1945), was a violinist. The family moved to Saginaw, Michigan, where Jones grew up and started his first ensemble for church concerts. In 1911 one of Jones's earliest compositions "On the Alamo" was published by Tell Taylor Inc. (Taylor had formed a publishing company the year before when his song "Down by the Old Mill Stream" became a hit.) In 1915 Jones moved to Chicago, Illinois. He performed at the Green Mill Gardens, then began playing at Fred Mann's Rainbo Gardens. Chicago remained his home until 1932, when he settled in New York City. He also toured England with his orchestra in 1925. In 1917, he composed the tune "We're In The Army Now" (also known as "You're In the Army Now") when the United States entered World War I. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cerem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman (February 17, 1923August 23, 2001) was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost invariably to comic effect. In film, she is perhaps best remembered for appearing in 11 Jerry Lewis comedies in the 1950s and 1960s, ''The Blues Brothers'' (1980) and its sequel, and '' Naked Gun : The Final Insult'' (1994). Early life Freeman was born on February 17, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois. She began her career as a child, dancing in her parents' vaudeville act. Freeman was a Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election. Career Film Freeman made her film debut in ''Wild Harvest'' (1947). For a short time in the early 1950s, Freeman was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, appearing mostly in small and uncredited bit parts. Her most notable early role was an uncredited part in the 1952 MGM musical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Rosing
Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United Kingdom and the United States. In his formative years he experienced the last years of the "golden age" of opera, and he dedicated himself through his singing and directing into breathing new life into opera's outworn mannerisms and methods. Rosing was considered by many to rank as a singer and performer of the quality of Feodor Chaliapin. In ''The Perfect Wagnerite'', George Bernard Shaw called Chaliapin and Vladimir Rosing "the two most extraordinary singers of the 20th century". Vladimir Rosing's best known recordings are his performances of Russian art songs by composers such as Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Gretchaninov, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was the first singer to record a song by Igor Stravinsky: ''Akahito'' fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Woman Of Affairs
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Stone
Lewis Shepard Stone (November 15, 1879 – September 12, 1953) was an American film actor. He spent 29 years as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was best known for his portrayal of Judge James Hardy in the studio's popular '' Andy Hardy'' film series. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929 for his performance as Russian Count Pahlen in '' The Patriot''. Stone was also cast in seven films with Greta Garbo, including in the role of Doctor Otternschlag in the 1932 drama ''Grand Hotel''. Early life Born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1879, Lewis was the youngest of four children of Philena (née Ball) and Bertrand Stone."United States Census, 1880", digital image of original census page documenting Lewis Stone in household of Bertrand Stone, Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts; enumeration district (ED) 903, sheet 608D; National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C. FamilySearch database with images, Salt Lake City ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gilbert (actor)
John Gilbert (born John Cecil Pringle; July 10, 1897 – January 9, 1936) was an American actor, screenwriter and director. He rose to fame during the silent film era and became a popular leading man known as "The Great Lover". His breakthrough came in 1925 with his starring roles in ''The Merry Widow'' and ''The Big Parade''. At the height of his career, Gilbert rivaled Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw. Gilbert's career declined precipitously when silent pictures gave way to talkies. Though Gilbert was often cited as one of the high-profile examples of an actor who was unsuccessful in making the transition to sound films, his decline as a star had far more to do with studio politics and money than with the sound of his screen voice, which was rich and distinctive. Early life and stage work Born John Cecil Pringle in Logan, Utah, to stock-company actor parents, John George Pringle (1865–1929) and Ida Adair Apperly Gilbert (1877–1913), he struggled through a childhoo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, tragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on its list of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film ''The Saga of Gosta Berling, The Saga of Gösta Berling''. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She stirred interest with her first American silent film, ''Torrent (1926 film), Torrent'' (1926). Garbo's performance in ''Flesh and the Devil'' (1927), her third movie, made her an international star. In 1928, Garbo starred in ''A Woman of Affairs,'' which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist. Born in Poland, Stern came to the US when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union and China, and performing extensively in Israel, a country to which he had close ties since shortly after its founding. Stern received extensive recognition for his work, including winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom and six Grammy Awards, and being named to the French Legion of Honour. The Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall bears his name, due to his role in saving the venue from demolition in the 1960s. Biography The son of Solomon and Clara Stern, Isaac Stern was born in Kremenets, Poland (now Ukraine), into a Jewish family. He was 14 months old when his family moved to San Francisco in 1921. He received his first music lessons from his mother. In 1928, he enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied until 1931 b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
