Hollywood (1923)

Hollywood (1923) was a Comedy Film directed by James Cruze .

Hollywood and the Office of War Information, 1942-1945

The other day as I was eating breakfast, I began to think (as normal people do) about wartime food rationing. Today, few people blink an eye when eating an omelette or a cookie, which consist almost entirely of foods rationed during wartime, but when the United States entered World War II and began ... Read full article

Zelig (1983) and Gordon Willis’s Mimicry of Classical Hollywood

I never thought I’d be saying this about a Woody Allen film, but it feels more like a technical marvel than purely a testament to story or dialogue. Although The Purple Rose of Cairo did something similarly compelling, Zelig is literally a film relying on a look that is authentic to a time per... Read full article

On Blu-Ray: The Luscious, Vicious Hollywood of The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

In telling the story of a charismatic cad, The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) encapsulates all the glory, glamour, despair, and depravity of Hollywood. Director Vincente Minnelli’s portrait of the manipulative filmmaker Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) feels so real that you can’t help wond... Read full article

Our Christmas present: Mapping out Hollywood, 1926

Carole Lombard wishes you cheer this holiday season, as do I. It's currently a clear Christmas Day in Los Angeles, but rain is more likely than not over the next few hours. (Much of the U.S. is without snow today, rather atypical for Dec. 25.) With that in mind, let's escape 2019 and visit the '20s,... Read full article

Happy Holidays From Hollywood

As Christmas Day comes to a close and Hanukkah enters its 4th day, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very joyful holiday season. Hollywood has always gone all out this time of year, and I have assembled some of my favorite Hollywood moments commemorating the season. For ... Read full article