Classic film book reviews including my entries in the three past Summer Classic Film Reading Challenges hosted by the Out of the Past blog.
Over eighty years after his death, Cecil B. DeMille remains one of the most recognizable classic Hollywood figures. In large part due to The Ten Commandments airing on ABC Easter weekend every year for the past half a century, Cecil B. DeMille stands as a …
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Another year, another round of classic film-related summer reading. Luckily my new apartment has a lovely balcony and front yard so I will finally have a cozy place to enjoy the summer weather while reading all about classic films. With a special focus on book-to-movie …
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Some of the most valuable sources of information for silent and early sound films can be found in Moving Picture World, Variety, and numerous other motion picture trade publications. Summaries of lost films, gossip about long-forgotten stars, thousands of movie reviews from critics and …
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Last year I enjoyed reading Zane Grey’s most influential and frequently adapted for the screen Western Riders of the Purple Sage. This year I read Grey’s first Western novel the 1910 Heritage of the Desert and watched a couple of 1930s B-Western adaptations.
The …
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There may be no other sound more synonymous with the moviegoing experience than 20th Century Fox’s opening fanfare. When the Fox Film Corporation held a small stable of B-tier stars in the 1920s, it would be hard to predict that a generation of moviegoers would …
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I have a strange fascination with silent stars who never translated their careers successfully into the sound era. Last year I dove into David Stenn’s Clara Bow biography. This year I’ve already read and reviewed Tracy Gossel’s Douglas Fairbanks biography. Eve Golden’s John Gilbert: …
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