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Ben Bard
Ben Bard (January 26, 1893 – May 17, 1974) was an American movie actor, stage actor, and acting teacher. With comedian Jack Pearl, Bard worked in a comedy duo in vaudeville. In 1926, Bard, Pearl, and Sascha Beaumont appeared in a short film made in Lee DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. He had a small role in '' The Bat Whispers'' (1930). Later in the decade, he ran a leading Hollywood acting school, Ben Bard Drama. Bard was recruited to be a leading man at Fox Film Corporation. However, he was typecast as a "Suave Heavy"—a smooth-talking, well-dressed fellow with a dark side. An example of this type is his portrayal of "Mr. Brun" in ''The Seventh Victim'' (1943). Also in 1943, Bard appeared in two other Val Lewton-produced horror films: '' The Leopard Man'', as Robles, the Police Chief, and '' The Ghost Ship'', as First Officer Bowns. Bard became the head of the New Talent Department at Twentieth-Century-Fox in September 1956, eventually resigning in Au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States and the fifth-most populous city in the Midwest with a population of 577,222 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. The Milwaukee metropolitan area is the Metropolitan statistical area, 40th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. with 1.57 million residents. Founded in the early 19th century and incorporated in 1846, Milwaukee grew rapidly due to its location as a port city. History of Milwaukee, Its history was heavily influenced by German immigrants and it continues to be a Germans in Milwaukee, center for German-American culture, specifically known for Beer in Milwaukee, its brewing industry. The city developed as an industrial powerhouse during the 19t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound-on-film
Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an Analog signal, analog sound track or Digital data, digital sound track, and may record the signal either optical sound, optically or magnetism, magnetically. Earlier technologies were sound-on-disc, meaning the film's soundtrack would be on a separate phonograph record. History Sound on film can be dated back to the early 1880s, when Charles E. Fritts filed a patent claiming the idea. In 1923 a patent was filed by E. E. Ries, for a variable density soundtrack recording, which was submitted to the SMPE (now Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, SMPTE), which used the mercury vapor lamp as a modulating device to create a variable-density soundtrack. Later, Theodore Case, Case Laboratories and Lee De Forest#Phonofilm sound-on-film pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ghost Ship
''The Ghost Ship'' is a 1943 American black-and-white psychological thriller film starring Richard Dix and directed by Mark Robson. It was produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures as part of a series of low-budget horror films. The film can be seen as a "low-key psychological thriller", a "suspense drama", and a "waterlogged melodrama". Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Ben Bard and Edmund Glover appear in support. The film is about a young merchant marine officer who begins to suspect that his ship's captain is mentally unbalanced and endangering the lives of the ship's crew. The ship's crew, however, believes the vessel to be haunted and cursed and several mysterious deaths occur. Upon its theatrical release on Christmas Eve, 1943, the film was a box office success but received a mixed critical reception. In February 1944, Lewton was sued for plagiarism by playwrights Samuel R. Golding and Norbert Faulkner, who claimed that the script was based on a play that was sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chief Of Police
A chief of police (COP) is the title given to an appointed official or an elected one in the command hierarchy, chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. A chief of police may also be known as a police chief or sometimes just a chief, while some countries favour other titles such as police commissioner, commissioner or chief constable. A police chief is appointed by and answerable to a state or local government. Duties The precise role of a chief of police varies by country and sometimes within a country. The larger a police force or department, the more likely that some duties will be delegated to mid-ranked officers. The following list is a general sense of the actions and responsibilities held by any chief of police. * Oversight of a department's operations and budgeting * Oversight of officers ** Limited disciplinary actions to be addressed on infractions of policy, rules, regulations, laws or ordinances ** Full dismissal or heavy sanctioning o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Leopard Man
''The Leopard Man'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, and starring Dennis O'Keefe, Jean Brooks, and Margo. Based on the book ''Black Alibi'' by Cornell Woolrich, it follows a series of violent murders in a town in New Mexico, which coincide with the escape of a leopard from a nightclub. It is one of the first American films to attempt an even remotely realistic portrayal of a serial killer (although that term had yet to be coined). Plot In an unnamed New Mexico border town, nightclub promoter Jerry Manning hires a black leopard as a publicity stunt for his girlfriend, Kiki Walker, a performer there. Kiki uses the opportunity to upstage the act of her rival, Clo-Clo, by making an entrance into the night club with the leopard on a leash. Angered, Clo-Clo frightens the leopard with her castanets, and it escapes, fleeing into the night. Charlie, the Native American owner of the leopard who leased it to Jerry, begins pestering him for money to replace the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horror Film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Monster movie, monsters, Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, apocalyptic events, and Religion, religious or Folk horror, folk beliefs. Horror films have existed History of horror films, since the early 20th century. Early Inspirations predating film include folklore; the religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures; and the Gothic fiction, Gothic and Horror fiction, horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From its origins in silent films and German expressionist cinema, German Expressionism, horror became a codified genre only after the release of Dracula (1931 English-language film), ''Dracula'' (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Val Lewton
Val Lewton (May 7, 1904 – March 14, 1951) was a Russian-American novelist, film producer, and screenwriter best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s. His son, also named Val Lewton, was a painter and exhibition designer. Lewton was born in Yalta, Imperial Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1909. He began his career as a writer, producing novels, including the best-selling pulp novel ''No Bed of Her Own''. Lewton worked as a writer and publicist for MGM before being named head of RKO's horror unit in 1942. His first production, '' Cat People'', became a top moneymaker for RKO that year. Lewton produced several successful films, often writing the final draft of the screenplays himself. He gave first directing opportunities to Robert Wise and Mark Robson and worked with Boris Karloff, who credited Lewton with saving his career. After leaving RKO, Lewton worked for Paramount and MGM, producing various ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Seventh Victim
''The Seventh Victim'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Mark Robson and starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, and Kim Hunter. Written by Charles O'Neal and DeWitt Bodeen, and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures, the film focuses on a young woman who stumbles on an underground cult of devil worshippers in Greenwich Village, New York City, while searching for her missing sister. It marks Robson's directorial debut, and was Hunter's first onscreen role. O'Neal had written the script as a murder mystery, set in California, that followed a woman hunted by a serial killer. Bodeen revised the script, basing the story on a Satanic society meeting he attended in New York City and setting it as a prequel to '' Cat People'' (1942), with Conway reprising his role as Dr. Louis Judd. Filming took place over 24 days in May 1943 at RKO Studios in Los Angeles. Released on August 21, 1943, the film failed to garner significant income at the box office and re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typecasting (acting)
In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups. There have been instances in which an actor has been so strongly identified with a role as to make it difficult for them to find work playing other characters. Character actors Actors are sometimes so strongly identified with a role as to make it difficult for them to find work playing other characters. It is especially common among leading actors in popular television series and films. ''Star Trek'' One example of typecasting occurred with the cast of the original ''Star Trek'' series. During ''Star Trek''s original run from 1966 to 1969, William Shatner was the highest-paid cast member at $5,000 per episode (equivalent to $ in ), with Leonard Nimoy and the other actors being paid much less. The press predicted that Nim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American independent company that produced motion pictures and was formed in 1914 by the theater "chain" pioneer William Fox (producer), William Fox. It was the corporate successor to his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attraction Company (founded 1913). The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, but in 1917, William Fox sent Sol M. Wurtzel to Hollywood, California to oversee the studio's new West Coast of the United States, West Coast production facilities, where the climate was more hospitable for filmmaking. On July 23, 1926, Fox Studios bought the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, William Fox lost control of the company in 1930, during a hostile takeover. Under new president Sidney R. Kent, the new owners merged the company with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century Studios, Twent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leading Man
A leading actor, leading actress, or leading man or lady or simply lead (), plays a main role in a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typically plays such parts or an actor with a respected body of work. Some actors are typecast as leads, but most play the lead in some performances and supporting or character roles in others. Sometimes there is more than one significant leading role in a dramatic piece, and the actors are said to play ''co-leads''; a large supporting role may be considered a ''secondary lead''. Award nominations for acting often reflect such ambiguities. Therefore, sometimes two actors in the same performance piece are nominated Oscars for Best Actor or Best Actress—categories traditionally reserved for leads. For example, in 1935 Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone were each nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for '' Muti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drama School
A drama school, stage school, or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or Academic department, department at a college or university, or a free-standing institution (such as the drama section at the Juilliard School) that specializes in the pre-professional training in drama and "theatre" arts, such as acting, Technical theatre, design and technical theatre, arts administration, and related subjects. If the drama school is part of a degree-granting institution, undergraduates typically take an associate degree, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, or, occasionally, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Design. Graduate students may take a Master of Arts, Master of Acting, Master of Science, Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy degree. Entry and application process Entry to drama school is usually through a competitive audition process. Some schools make this a two-stage process. Places on an acting course are l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
