Tag: film history

Buster Keaton, “Neighbors”: Film History Series

Buster Keaton Remix from “Neighbors”, December 22, 1920 Release Date, Length: 17 minutes

“Neighbors” was a two reel silent film produced by Joseph M. Schenk for Comique Film Corporation. Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline wrote and directed. The film was photographed by Elgin Lesley and Metro Pictures was the distributer. The story followed the romance between the boy, Buster Keaton, and the girl, Virginia Fox, who lived in neighboring tenant buildings. Keaton’s actual father played the role of the boy’s father in this film.

The silent film, without any added soundtrack, is in the public domain and can be viewed here: https://publicdomainmovie.net/movie/buster-keatons-neighbors-1920

Reblogged with thanks to http://ensalada-de-lengua-de-pajaritos.tumblr.com

Calendar: February 23

Year: Day to Day Men: February 23

Brown Cable Knit Sweater

The twenty-third of February in 1940 marks the theatrical release date of the American animated musical fantasy film “Pinocchio”. Based on Italian author Carlo Collodi’s 1883 children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, it was Walt Disney Production’s second animated feature film. preceded by the 1937 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.

A translated version of Collodi’s novel was brought by animator Norman Ferguson to the attention of Walt Disney in September of 1937 during the studio’s production of “Snow White”. After reading the book, Disney commissioned storyboard artist Bianca Majolie to write a new story outline for the book; however, he found the outline too faithful to the original story. As “Pinocchio” was based on a novel with a very fixed, episodic story, the storyboard outline underwent major changes before its final form. 

In the original novel, Pinocchio was presented as a cold, rude and ungrateful personality. The Disney writers modernized the character for the film and depicted him similar to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s dummy Charlie McCarthy, a mischievous figure who made snide remarks and misbehaved. Originally drawn exactly like a real wooden puppet with pointed nose and bare wooden hands, animators slightly redesigned the figure of Pinocchio to make him more appealing. An animated test scene refined the final adjustments to Pinocchio’s appearance; he became a more innocent, naive, somewhat coy personality with a child’s Tyrolean hat and standard four fingered (three fingers and a thumb) gloved hands similar to those of Mickey Mouse. 

In the summer of 1938, Walt Disney and the story team established the character of the cricket whom Disney named Jiminy. At first only a minor figure in the film outline, the cricket became the character who would guide Pinocchio into making the right decisions. Animator Ward Kimball, who had spent two months animating two unused sequences for “Snow White”, was promoted by Disney to the position of supervising animator for Jiminy Cricket. For the final design of the character, Kimball did not use the characteristic toothed-legs and waving antennae of a cricket. He instead designed a well-dressed little man who had an egg-shaped head with no ears, essentially a cricket in name only.

“Pinocchio” marks the first time an animated film used celebrities as voice actors. Due to the huge success of the 1937 “Snow White”, Disney wanted more famous voices for the second animated Disney production. Popular 1930s musician and singer Clifton Avon “Cliff” Edwards was cast as the voice of Jiminy Cricket. Clifton had in 1929 a number one hit with his “Singin’ in the Rain”. Disney did not want an adult actor for the voice of Pinocchio. He chose eleven-year old child-actor Richard “Dickie” Jones, a B-movie Western star who had just appeared in the 1939 “Nancy Drew..Reporter”.

Austrian-born character actor Christian Rub was chosen for the voice of Geppetto the wood-carver. Comedian and character actor Walter Catlett played the con artist Honest John the Fox and Honest John’s mute, dimwitted feline partner Gideon. Gideon’s hiccups were separately provided by veteran voice actor Mel Blanc. Actor Charles Judels voiced both the villainous  Stromboli and The Coachman who takes all disobedient boys to Pleasure Island. The Blue Fairy who brings Pinocchio to life and transforms him into a real boy was played by actress Evelyn Venable.

Animation on “Pinocchio” began in January of 1938; supporting character animation began in April. After a brief hiatus on the project, revisions on Pinocchio’s character and the film’s narrative structure were completed in September and work resumed. “Pinocchio” took two years and required more than seven hundred and fifty artists and technicians to bring the animated characters to life. The film was a groundbreaker in animation effects. The team of artists gave realistic movement to vehicles and machinery as well as rain, water, lightning, smoke and shadows. 

“Pinocchio” was initially premiered on the seventh of February in 1940 at New York City’s Center Theater on Sixth Avenue. The theatrical release through the nation occurred on the twenty-third of February. Though not initially a box-office success, “Pinocchio” won two Academy Awards in 1941: Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “When You Wish Upon a Star”. Many film historians consider “Pinocchio” to be the film of all the Disney animated features that most closely approaches technical perfection. In 1994, the film was added to the National Film Registry and the American Film Institute, in 2008, selected it the second best film in the medium of animation, after Disney’s “Snow White”.

Insert Images: Directors Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, “Pinocchio”, 1940, Film Scenes, Producer Walt Disney, Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures

Calender: February 14

A Year: Day to Day Men: 14th of February

Sports Attire

On February 14, 1931, the film “Dracula” directed by Tod Browning is released throughout the United States.

“Dracula”, starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, was produced by Universal Studios and is based on the 1924 stage play “Dracula” written by Hamilton Deane and John L Balderston. The play was based loosely on the novel by Bram Stoker.

Bram Stoker’s novel had already been filmed without permission as “Nosferatu” in 1922 by the German expressionist film maker F.W. Murnau. Bram Stoker’s widow sued for plagiarism and copyright infringement, and the courts decided in her favor, essentially ordering that all prints of “Nosferatu”  be destroyed. Enthusiastic young Hollywood producer Carl Laemmie, Jr. also saw the box office potential in Stoker’s gothic chiller, and he legally acquired the novel’s film rights.

Decision on casting the title role proved problematic. Initially, Laemmle was not at all interested in Lugosi, in spite of good reviews for his stage portrayal. Lugosi had played the role on Broadway, and to his good fortune, happened to be in Los Angeles with a touring company of the play when the film was being cast. Against the tide of studio opinion, Lugosi lobbied hard and ultimately won the executives over, thanks in part to him accepting a paltry $500 per week salary for seven weeks of work.

Due to the limitations of adding a musical score to a film’s soundtrack during 1930 and 1931, no score had ever been composed specifically for the film. The music heard during the opening credits, an excerpt from Act II of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, was re-used in 1932 for another Universal horror film, “The Mummy”. During the theatre scene where Dracula meets Dr. Seward, Harker, Mina and Lucy, the end of the overture to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Numberg can also be heard.

Today, “Dracula” is widely regarded as a classic of the era and of its genre. In 2000, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. It was ranked 79th on Bravo’s countdown of The 100 Scariest Movie Moments. To many film lovers and critics alike, Lugosi’s portrayal is widely regarded as the definitive Dracula.

Calendar: February 6

A Year: Day to Day Men: 6th of February

The Gray Sweatshirt

Ninety five years ago, on February 6, 1921, Charlie Chaplin’s silent film “The Kid” was released around the country.

“The Kid” is an American silent film written, directed, produced by and starring Charlie Chaplin in 1921. Since this film was written and shot during the economic depression of 1920-1921, one can see a very strong influence of the classic lifestyle of a lower class citizen with economic struggles throughout the film. This was Chaplin’s first feature film and was a huge success when it was released, making it the second highest grossing film in 1921.

“The Kid” is a highly meaningful, perhaps philosophical film about fatherhood and childhood. It is almost pure drama and Chaplin shows himself more of a dramatic actor and less of a clown than in any previous film. Laughter springs most often to the situation or pantomime, not rude or playful harlequinades. The scenario is studied and the dramatic situations are dealt with in a realistic style that foreshadowed his previous films. The film lets see how this misery can give a powerful sensitivity to those who suffer. Among these beings hunted and constantly on the defensive, the least little dramas soon take a look, a tone of tragedy.

The film made Jackie Coogan, then a five year old vaudeville performer, into the first major child star of the movies. Many of the Chaplin biographers have attributed the relationship portrayed in the film to have resulted from the death of Chaplin’s firstborn infant son just ten days before the production began.

In December 2011, “The Kid” was chosen to be preserved in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. The Registry said that the film is “an artful melding of touching drama, social commentary and inventive comedy” and praised Chaplin’s ability to “sustain his artistry beyond the length of his usual short subjects and could deftly elicit a variety of emotions from his audiences by skillfully blending slapstick and pathos.”

Calendar: February 4

A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of February

Breath of Fresh Air

February 4, 1895 was the birth date of William Nigel Ernie Bruce, a British character actor on stage and screen.

Nigel Bruce made his first appearance on stage on May 12, 1920 at the Comedy Theater, a theater in the West End of London, as a footman in the play “Why Marry?”. In October of that year, he went to Canada as stage manager to Henry Esmond and Eva Moore, also playing “Montague Jordan” in “Eliza Comes to Stay”. Upon returning to England, he toured acting the same part. He appeared constantly onstage thereafter, and eight years later started also working in silent films.

Nigel Bruce typically played buffoonish, fuzzy-minded gentlemen. During his film career, he worked on seventy-eight films, including “Treasure Island”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, ”Rebecca”, and “Suspicion”. He took a role out of character when he played a detestable figure in “The Rains Came”.

Bruce’s signature role was that of Doctor Watson in the 1939-1946 Universal Studios’ Sherlock Holmes film series with close friend Basil Rathbone as Holmes. Bruce starred as Watson in all 14 films of the series and over 200 radio programs of “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. Though for most viewers Nigel Bruce formed their vision of Dr. Watson, Holmes purists have long objected that the Watson of the books was intelligent and capable (although not an outstanding detective), and that Bruce’s portrayal made Watson far dimmer and more bumbling than his literary original.

Basil Rathbone, however, spoke highly of Bruce’s portrayal, saying that Watson was one of the screen’s most lovable characters. The historian David Parkinson wrote that Bruce’s “avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbone’s briskly omniscient sleuth”. Cinema historian Alan Barnes notes that, despite the criticisms against him, Bruce rehabilitated Watson, who had been a marginal figure in the cinematic Holmes canon to that point: “after Bruce, it would be a near-unthinkable heresy to show Holmes without him”.

“Cheer up old fellow, cheer up. As Dr Samuel Johnson once said, “There’s no problem the mind of man can set, that the mind of man can not solve.” — Nigel Bruce as Watson in “Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code”, 1945 BBC Serial Series

Calendar: January 20

Year: Day to Day Men: January 20

The Passageway

The twentieth of January in 1929 marks the general release of Raoul Walsh and Irving Cumming’s pre-Code talkie “In Old Arizona”. This film was a major innovation for Hollywood as it was the first major Western to employ the newly developed sound technology and the first “talkie” to be filmed outdoors. 

The 1928 film “In Old Arizona” was based on the character of the Cisco Kid in the 1907 story “The Cabellero’s Way” written by William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry. Originally a murderous criminal in O. Henry’s story, the Cisco Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero or horseman for radio, film and television adaptations.

Raoul Walsh was originally scheduled to play the role of the Cisco Kid; however, an accident on location caused the loss of one eye. Silent film actor Warner Baxter took on the lead role of the film with Edmund Lowe as Sergeant Dunn and Dorothy Burgess as Tonia Maria.

The cinematographers Arthur Edeson and Alfred Hansen extensively used authentic locations for the sets. Filming took place in Utah’s Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Mojave Desert area of California, and at the colonial Mission San Juan Capistrano. “In Old Arizona” was the film that began the iconic image of the singing cowboy as its star Warner Baxter does some incidental singing in this first Western talkie.

“In Old Arizona” premiered in Los Angeles on Christmas Day, December 25th of 1928. At the 2nd Academy Awards in 1930, the film was nominated for five awards: Outstanding Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Cinematography. Warner Baxter won the Best Actor Award for his performance. In 2004, Walsh and Cumming’s “In Old Arizona” was preserved in the Academy Film Archive at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study. 

Calendar: January 19

A Year: Day to Day Men: 19th of January

Parallel Fences

On January 19, 1955, the television program “The Millionaire” premieres on the CBS channel.

The Millionaire was an American anthology series that aired from 1955-1960 and  was sponsored by the Colgate-Palmolive Company. The series, produced by Fred Henry and Don Fedderson, explored the ways that sudden and unexpected wealth changed life, for better or for worse. The show became a five season hit during the “Golden Age of Television”. The series told stories of people who were given one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted that he remain anonymous.

The benefactor was named John Beresford Tipton, Jr. Viewers heard his voice, making observations and giving instructions; they saw only his arm as he reached for a cashier’s check for one million dollars each week and handed it to Michael Anthony, his executive secretary. It was Anthony’s job to deliver that check to its intended recipient.

Invariably, The Millionaire began with a very brief opening theme fanfare behind the ascending title frame, followed by the camera’s training directly upon Michael Anthony, played by veteran character actor and radio and
television announcer Marvin Miller. The unseen John Beresford Tipton was played by another veteran character actor and voice artist, Paul Frees.

The series ran for 206 episodes, and Tipton made 206 millionaires. The beneficiaries were not always poor but could be from any social class or occupation, from secretaries and construction workers to professionals like doctors and lawyers. Nor were they always likely to find their lives changed for the better because of their sudden wealth.

Calendar: January 3

A Year: Day to Day Men: 3rd of January

A Spread on the Wood Floor

On January 3, 1927, the first Laurel and Hardy film, “Putting Pants on Philip”, is released.

The team was composed of the English thin man, Stan Laurel, and the American fat man, Oliver Hardy. Laurel played the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous bully Hardy in their slapstick comedy routines, well known during the late 1920’s through the mid- 1940’s.

Prior to emerging as a team, both actors had well-established film careers. Laurel had appeared in over 50 films while Hardy had been in more than 250 productions. They were not a comedy team during that time;  and it was not until 1926 that they appeared in a movie short together, when both separately signed contracts with the Hal Roach film studio. Laurel and Hardy officially became a team in 1927 when they appeared together in their first silent short film “Putting Pants on Philip”.

They appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. They also made 12 guest or cameo appearances that included the “Galaxy of Stars” promotional film of 1936. Since the 1930s, the works of Laurel and Hardy have been released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals, 8-mm and 16-mm home movies, feature-film compilations, and home videos.

In 2005, they were voted the seventh-greatest comedy act of all time by a UK poll of fellow comedians. The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is known as ‘Sons of the Desert’ which was named after a fictitious fraternal society featured in the Laurel and Hardy film of the same name. While much of their comedy remained visual, various lines of humorous dialogue appeared in Laurel and Hardy’s talking films. Some examples include:

“You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be led.” (Laurel, “Brats”, 1930)

“I was dreaming I was awake but I woke up and found meself asleep.” (Laurel, “Oliver the Eighth”, 1934)

“A lot of weather we’ve been having lately.” (Hardy, “Way Out West”, 1937).

Fritz Lang, “Metropolis”: Film History Series

Fritz Lang, “Metropolis” 1927

“Metropolis” is the classic silent-movie industrial dystopia from 1927. It portrays a futuristic city comprising a two-tier society of haves and have-nots who are kept unaware of each other’s existence. It had a budget of five million Reichsmarks, making it the most expensive film produced in 1927.

Numerous attempts have been made to restore the film since the 1970s. A new reconstruction of “Metropolis” was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001, and the film was inscribed on  UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in the same year, the first film thus distinguished. In 2008 a damaged print of Lang’s original cut of the film was found in a museum in Argentina. After a long restoration process, the film was 95% restored and shown on large screens in Frankfurt and Berlin simultaneously on 12 February 2010.

Fred M. Wilson, “Forbidden Planet”: Film History Series

The Beast from “Forbidden Planet”, 1956, Computer Graphics, Film Gifs

“Forbidden Planet” is a 1956 American science fiction film from MGM, produced by Nicolas Nayfack, directed by Fred M Wilcox and starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope, it is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s, and a precursor of contemporary science fiction cinema. The characters and isolated setting have been compared to those in William Shakespear’s “The Tempest”.

Reblogged with thanks to https://pacificrim.tumblr.com

Sal Mineo: Film History Series

Sal Mineo

Twice nominated for an Academy Award for “Rebel Without a Cause”, and “Exodus”, Sal Mineo was the youngest actor in history to be nominated for an Oscar up until that time for “Rebel.” He won the Golden Globe award for Best Supporting actor in, “Exodus’ and also won the Golden Laurel award for “Exodus.” Sal Mineo was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Best Single Performance by an actor in 1957, “Studio One in Hollywood: Dino.”

Sal Mineo also had a very prolific and acclaimed stage career on and off Broadway, including starring in and directing and producing the ground breaking off-Broadway production of “Fortune and Men’s eyes.” He also had a short stint as a pop singer, which spawned a huge hit solo album, and 3 major top 40 singles.

Sal Mineo was an artist and visionary. A cultural icon, and also a humanitarian that supported gay rights, but didn’t like to be confined to being labeled, he was open about his sexuality long before most mainstream celebrities chose to be.

Sal Mineo’s brilliant career spans three decades of magnificent work, cut short in 1976 by his tragic murder. Playing the role of a gay burglar in a San Francisco run of the stage comedy ‘P.S. Your Cat Is Dead,’ he received substantial publicity from many positive reviews and moved on to Los Angeles with the play. Arriving home after a rehearsal on February 12, 1976, Mineo was stabbed to death in the alley behind his West Hollywood apartment building. He was stabbed just once, but the blade struck his heart leading to immediate and massive internal bleeding. He died shortly thereafter at the age of 37.

David Velduque, “No Place Like Home”: Film History Series

David Velduque, “No Place Like Home”, A Film for LGBTIQ Rights, World Pride 2017, Produced by NEURADS

“No Place Like Home”, starring Marius Praniauskas, is the story of Niko, a guy who enjoys his life and his sexuality at it’s full potential. Suddenly he will have to go back home to his country in eastern Europe to take care of his ill mother. Nothing is what it seems and soon he will realize what is really going on. A breathtaking roadtrip about the discrimination and violence against the LGTBIQ community around the world.

David Velduque was born on January 28, 1984 in Madrid, Spain. He is an actor and director, known for “No Place Like Home” (2017), “Por un Beso”(2016) and “Crudo”(2017).

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Ralph Eggleston

Ralph Eggleston, “For the Birds”

“For the Birds” is a 2000 animated short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Ralph Eggleston. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2001.

I saw this many years ago and just recently came across it on a journey down the internet rabbit hole. Funny little short film.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)