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The Shanghai Gesture
''The Shanghai Gesture'' is a 1941 American film noir directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature, and Ona Munson. It is based on a Broadway play of the same name by John Colton, which was adapted for the screen by Sternberg and produced by Arnold Pressburger for United Artists. It was the last Hollywood film Sternberg ever completed: Howard Hughes fired him halfway through production of ''Macao'' in 1951, as well as from '' Jet Pilot'' the year prior. Boris Leven received an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction, while Richard Hageman was nominated for Best Original Music Score. Plot Gigolo "Doctor" Omar (Victor Mature) bribes the Shanghai police not to jail the broke American showgirl Dixie Pomeroy (Phyllis Brooks); he invites her to seek a job at the casino owned by Dragon-lady "Mother" Gin Sling (Ona Munson), his boss. In the casino, Omar attracts the attention of a beautiful, privileged young woman (Gene Tierney ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josef Von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major Hollywood studios. He is best known for his film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s, including the highly regarded Paramount/UFA production, ''The Blue Angel'' (1930). Sternberg's finest works are noteworthy for their striking pictorial compositions, dense décor, chiaroscuro illumination, and relentless camera motion, endowing the scenes with emotional intensity. He is also credited with having initiated the gangster film genre with his silent era movie ''Underworld'' (1927). Sternberg's themes typically offer the spectacle of an individual's desperate struggle to maintain their personal integrity as they sacrifice themselves for lust or love. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Morocco'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Leven
Boris Leven (in early film credits – ''Boris Levin''; August 13, 1908 – October 11, 1986) was a Russian-born Academy Award-winning art director and production designer whose Hollywood career spanned fifty-three years. Born in Moscow in the family of Israel Levin and Zinaida Narkirier, Leven emigrated to the United States in 1927 and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in architecture from the University of Southern California, he attended the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City. Leven began his film career as a sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in 1933 and joined 20th Century Fox three years later. His first screen credit was as the art director for ''Alexander's Ragtime Band'' (1938), for which he received the first of nine Oscar nominations. The designs Leven created ranged from realistic to highly stylised. For ''Giant'' (1956), he constructed the Victorian home that sits isolated in a wide expanse of open field, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Mazurki
Mike Mazurki (December 25, 1907 – December 9, 1990) was a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in more than 142 films. His 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) presence and face had him typecast as often brainless athletes, tough guys, thugs, and gangsters. His roles included Splitface in ''Dick Tracy'' (1945), Yusuf in ''Sinbad the Sailor'' (1947), and Clon in '' It's About Time'' (1966–1967). Early years Mazurki was born Markiyan Yulianovich Mazurkevich ( uk, Маркіян (Михайло) Мазуркевич) ( pl, Markijan (Mychajlo) Mazurkiewicz) in the village of Kupchyntsi (in present-day Ternopil Raion), near what was then Tarnopol, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Ternopil, Ukraine). Mazurki attended LaSalle Institute in Troy, for high school. Upon finishing school, he changed his name to "Mike". He played football and basketball at Manhattan College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930. After earning his bachelor's deg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Lebedeff
Ivan Lebedeff (born Ivan Vasilyevich Lebedev ( rus, Иван Васильевич Лебедев), 18 June 1894 – 31 March 1953) was a Russian film actor, lecturer and writer. He appeared in 66 films between 1926 and 1953. In 1940, his novel, ''Legion of Dishonor'', was published. Biography Lebedeff was born in Ushpol, now Užpaliai, then part of the Russian Empire, now Lithuania, on 18 June 1894. He migrated to the United States in 1925 and in 1930 was recorded at Los Angeles as an actor. On 15 August 1937, he was recorded as re-entering the United States from Mexico, when it was noted that he had resided in the U. S. between 2 October 1925 and 14 October 1930, and again between 20 April 1932, and 13 August 1937. His closest relation was given as his sister Nathalie Lebedeff, of Nice, in the south of France. On 12 November 1937, he was naturalized in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. In 1944, he campaigned on behalf of Governor Thomas Dew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Blore
Eric Blore Sr. (23 December 1887 – 2 March 1959) was an English actor and writer. His early stage career, mostly in the West End of London, centred on revue and musical comedy, but also included straight plays. He wrote sketches for and appeared in variety. In the 1930s Blore acted mostly in Broadway productions. He made his last London appearance in 1933 in the Fred Astaire hit ''Gay Divorce''. Between 1930 and 1955 he made more than 60 Hollywood films, becoming particularly well known for playing butlers and other superior domestic servants. He retired in 1956 for health reasons, and died in Hollywood in 1959 at the age of 71. Life and career Early years Blore was born in Finchley, a north-London suburb on 23 December 1887, son of Henry Blore and his wife Mary, ''née'' Newton.Parker, p. 77 He was educated at Mills School, Finchley, and after leaving school he worked for an insurance company."Mr Eric Blore", ''The Times'', London, 3 March 1959, p. 12 He was drawn to a thea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya (russian: Мария Алексеевна Успенская; 29 July 1876 – 3 December 1949) was a Russian actress and acting teacher.Nissen, Axel. 2006. ''Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties.'' Illustrated ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.; , p. 141. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.Obituary for Maria Ouspenskaya, ''Variety'', 7 December 1949; page 63. Life and career Ouspenskaya was born in Tula, Tsarist Russia. She studied singing in Warsaw and acting in Moscow. She was a founding member of the First Studio, a theatre studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. There she was trained by Konstantin Stanislavsky and his assistant Leopold Sulerzhitsky. The Moscow Art Theatre traveled widely throughout Europe, and when it arrived in New York City in 1922, Ouspenskaya decided to stay there. She performed regularly on Bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Bassermann
Albert Bassermann (7 September 1867 – 15 May 1952) was a German stage and screen actor. He was considered to be one of the greatest German-speaking actors of his generation and received the famous Iffland-Ring. He was married to Elsa Schiff with whom he frequently performed. Life and career Bassermann began his acting career in 1887 in Mannheim, his birthplace, after he began to study chemistry at the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 1884/85. He then moved to Berlin. From 1899, he worked for Otto Brahm. He began work at the Deutsches Theater Berlin from 1904, the same year that his future wife, actress Elsa Bassermann (née Schiff), moved to Berlin to work at that same theater. In 1909, the year after they married, he started working at the Lessing Theatre, though he also continued at the Deutsches Theater, working there with Max Reinhardt from 1909 to 1915. Roles included ''Othello'' in 1910, Faust Part II with Friedrich Kayssler in 1911, Shylock in ''The Merchant o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () as the Spring (season), spring season in the lunisolar calendar traditionally starts with lichun, the first of the twenty-four solar terms which the festival celebrates around the time of the Chinese New Year. Marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season, observances traditionally take place from Chinese New Year's Eve, New Year’s Eve, the evening preceding the first day of the year to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February. Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture, and has strongly influenced Lunar New Year celebrations of its 5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragon Lady (stereotype)
Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna May Wong, the term comes from the female villain in the comic strip '' Terry and the Pirates''. It has since been applied to powerful women from certain regions of Asia, as well as a number of Asian and Asian American film actresses. The stereotype has generated a large quantity of sociological literature. "Dragon Lady" is sometimes applied to persons who lived before the term became part of American slang in the 1930s. "Dragon Lady" is one of two main stereotypes used to describe women, the other being "Lotus Blossoms". Lotus Blossoms tend to be the opposite of the Dragon Lady stereotype, having their character being hyper-sexualized and submissive. Dragon Lady is also used to refer to any powerful but prickly woman, usually in a derogat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllis Brooks
Phyllis Brooks (July 18, 1915 – August 1, 1995) was an American actress and model. She was born in Boise, Idaho. Some sources have also inaccurately cited 1914 as her year of birth, but 1915 is the correct year according to Social Security records. Career Modeling She was a model for two years before progressing to a career in film. She stated, "I started posing for photographers as a lark, and it was a lot of fun." She had been known as the "Ipana Toothpaste Girl", due to her work for that product.Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books; , pg. 170. Film Initially known as Mary Brooks, she began her career in films in 1934 at age 20, in '' I've Been Around''. Brooks, who had about 30 performances in films, was a B-movie leading lady during the 1930s and 1940s, with roles in such films as ''In Old Chicago'' (1937), ''Little Miss Broadway'' (1938) and ''The Shanghai Gesture'' (1941 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. With a population of 24.89 million as of 2021, Shanghai is the most populous urban area in China with 39,300,000 inhabitants living in the Shanghai metropolitan area, the second most populous city proper in the world (after Chongqing) and the only city in East Asia with a GDP greater than its corresponding capital. Shanghai ranks second among the administrative divisions of Mainland China in human development index (after Beijing). As of 2018, the Greater Shanghai metropolitan area was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (nominal) of nearly 9.1 trillion RMB ($1.33 trillion), exceeding that of Mexico with GDP of $1.22 trillion, the 15th largest in the world. Shanghai is one of the world's major centers for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a board of governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches. As of April 2020, the organization was estimated to consist of around 9,921 motion picture professionals. The Academy is an international organization and membership is open to qualified filmmakers around the world. The Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, now officially and popularly known as "The Oscars". In addition, the Academy holds the Governors Awards annually for lifetime achievement in film; presents Scientific and Technical Awards annually; gives Student Academy Awards annually to filmmakers at the undergraduate and graduate level; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
