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Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth share a birthday and a film: Both Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth starred in Only Angels Have Wings — and both were born today October 17 (18 years apart!). Rita Hayworth as Judy MacPherson (left) and Jean Arthur as Bonnie Lee (right) opposite Cary Grant as read more

  Musicals 101: Analyze the Dance. Part 2: The Spectacle. The backstage musical is a beautiful thing. While it is true that all musical numbers are ripe for spectacle, it is in the backstage musical where spectacle reigns supreme. The marriage of storyline to the musical number typified by the read more

New York, New York, it’s a Wonderful Town… I can’t even begin to tell you how many times this native New Yorker promised herself that she would take her ‘hit list’ of New York City classic film sites and visit them one by one, memorializing them in photos and adding the read more

Born October 5, 1919 Character Actor Donald Pleasence Donald Pleasence appeared in over 220 film and television roles, playing lots of menacing villains to great effect! Some of his most notable roles include POW forger Colin Blythe in The Great Escape (1963), a vindictive market inspector in Look read more

Musical 101: Analyze the Dance. Part 1: Progression Integrated. As I mentioned before, not all musicals are made the same. Although housed under the genre’s umbrella, the integrated musical and backstage musical evolved into very different creatures in relation to their form and presentation o read more

Happy National Coffee Day! Well, well, well today, September 29, is National Coffee Day. Who would have ever dunk it — I mean thunk it!  And what better way to celebrate my love of coffee AND my love of classic movies than by sharing some classic movie quotes about coffee! ….. I canR read more

Born September 28, 1918 Character Actor Arnold Stang With thick black glasses and inimitable squawky voice, Arnold Stang‘s career spans radio, Broadway, television and film. His film and TV appearances include My Sister Eileen (uncredited debut role), The Man with the Golden Arm (Sinatra’ read more

The Birth of a Classic Film Buff Classic films have been a big part of my life for many years. They have been my friend when I have had a bad day, my companion when it was storming outside, and my date on New Year’s Eve.  The love I have for these films started when I was young, and as a resul read more

It’s that time of year again! TCM summons Classic Movie Fandom to Hollywood for its Annual Cinematic Celebration.. Well, what can I say — except that I can hardly contain my excitement! Not a minute after arriving home from the 2013 TCM Film Festival last April, I was already hankering t read more

Born September 23, 1945 Child Actor Paul Petersen Child star Paul Petersen started his acting career at age 10 as a Mouseketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club. His most notable film roles include playing Cary Grant’s son David in Houseboat (1958) and, much later (at age 22), playing Fred MacMurray&# read more

Born September 18, 1917 ‘Cartoon Queen’ June Foray! You may not recognize her face, but you will undoubtedly be familiar with her work! Voice actress June Foray has ‘voiced’ her share of little girls, grannies, dowagers, witches and animals — most famously Granny (from read more

Lauren Bacall & Producer Jerry Wald share a birthday and three films: Both Lauren Bacall and Producer Jerry Wald were born today September 16 (13 years apart!).  Wald produced both Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948) in which Lauren Bacall starred with hubby Humphrey Bogart — and Youn read more

How Many Films did Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart Star in Together? Despite their iconic on-screen and off-screen chemistry Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart only made FOUR films together — all currently available on DVD on Warner Home Video: To Have and Have Not (1944)   on DVD (Warner Home read more

Born September 15, 1908 Penny Singleton! Singleton appeared in a number of films during the 1930s including After the Thin Man and The Mad Miss Manton – but she hit it ‘big’ when she starred in the Blondie film series, 28 films in all, from 1938 through 1950. She also ‘starre read more

  Born September 15, 1922 Child Star Jackie Cooper! Jackie Cooper started out as a child star in silent shorts back in 1929, transitioning nicely into ‘sound’ films, and later into ‘adult’ roles and TV producing/directing. Jackie Cooper, young and ‘older’ C read more

  Movie Musicals 101: Integrated vs. Back Stage Musical, a formal difference.  Just like the other “big kid” genres, the movie musical can be divided into separate sub-genres based on their structural differences. The two main sub-genres of the musical are the integrated musical and the backsta read more

Born September 14, 1914 Clayton Moore! Clayton Moore spent the first part of his Hollywood career doing bit parts and stunts, gradually working his way up to supporting roles in ‘B’ westerns and serials. In 1949 however he hit his star ‘stride’ when he landed the role of the read more

How Many Films did Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy Star in Together? Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in Rose-Marie (1936, director W.S. Van Dyke) Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy made EIGHT films together — all currently available on DVD as part of the Warner Archives Collection: Nau read more

Munchkin Coroner, Meinhardt Raabe… Meinhardt Raabe was born September 2, in 1915, and is best known as the coroner who certifies the Wicked Witch of the East’s death in The Wizard of Oz – which was, incidentally, his only feature film appearance. Meinhardt Raabe as the Munchin Coro read more

  Movie Musical 101: A (semi) crash-course towards a more enlightened view on the most misunderstood genre. The movie musical is , in my opinion, a very misunderstood genre. Because the  musical is so innately unrealistic and its aesthetic is so utterly poppy, the genre tends to be lumped into read more