Tracking Vera Miles – Exclusive Guest Post by Christopher McKittrick, author of Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away

Posted on October 14, 2025 by Guest Post

 
I’m very happy to share this exclusive guest post by Christopher McKittrick, author of Very Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away. A Big Thank You to Christopher for this article! –Annmarie at Classic Movie Hub

Tracking Vera Miles:
Clarifying a Golden Age Hollywood Star’s True Birth Year

Was THE SEARCHERS and PSYCHO star Vera Miles born in 1929 or 1930? 

Vera Miles The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away

I’ve been fortunate enough to do many interviews and film screenings followed by Q&As about my book, Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away, since its publication in March 2025 by University Press of Kentucky. The question that has come up most frequently is “Why write a book about Vera Miles?” While the obvious answer is that no one had ever written a book about the one Hollywood actress that can claim to have worked on multiple films with Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and Walt Disney (just to name a few of the prestigious filmmakers that she worked with), an equally important answer was to dispel some of the rumors about her career, particularly about her time working with Hitchcock. Miles herself disputed those rumors in interviews before she retired from public life, but as the decades passed, that allowed others to disseminate incorrect information about her career.

In the months since the book was released, I’ve received such wonderful feedback from film scholars, Hitchcock aficionados, John Ford fans, and even the son of a child actor who had appeared with Miles on the 1954 film Pride of the Blue Grass. Best of all, I was pleased to learn that the Circle Cinema, a historic cinema in Miles’s native Oklahoma, honored her in its Walk of Fame this past year and gave away a copy of my book as part of the celebration. It is a well-deserved honor for an actress who never received the awards recognition that she deserved in her career.

One aspect of Miles’s story that I did not expect to receive so much feedback about was regarding her birth year, though understandably so, because sources all over the internet inconsistently cite her birth year as 1929 or 1930. I thought I had provided a sufficient explanation in the first chapter of my book as to why Miles was born on August 23, 1930.

On the occasion of Miles’s birthday this year, I noticed an ongoing discrepancy on social media (and my email inbox) over Miles’s actual birth year. Several people cited my book as an authoritative source, while others cited various other sources for 1929.

As one of the last living stars who came to prominence during the Golden Age of Hollywood, Miles’s birthday is well worth celebrating. But shouldn’t we be celebrating the correct year?

Frankly, in most cases when a star has two or more disputed birth years, it is normally the earliest year that is likely accurate. This is because the whole purpose of cutting a year or more off a star’s age was to make him or her appear younger. For instance, Joan Crawford, who Miles starred opposite in 1956’s Autumn Leaves, may have shaved as much as four years off her birth year when she claimed 1908 as the year she was born.

Since 1929 is the earlier year commonly cited as Miles’s birth year, many have defaulted to that as her “true” birth year. For quite some time, this was the birth year that appeared on Miles’s IMDb and Wikipedia pages, despite sources like the Associated Press and United Press International consistently using 1930 as her birth year in their annual birthday listings on August 23. Notably, in September 2025 the Oklahoma Historical Society updated its bio of Miles to use the 1930 birth year after having listed the incorrect 1929 birth year since it was posted in 2010.

(Note: All documents/sources included in this article are publicly accessible)

Exhibit #1: The 1930 U.S. Census

An authoritative piece of documentation that casts doubt on the 1929 birth year is the 1930 U.S. Census. Vera Miles’s family was documented in Pratt, Kansas, on June 27, 1930, for the decennial U.S. Census. The list includes her parents, Thomas and Bernice Ralston, and older siblings Thelma (age 7), Tom Jr. (age 5), and Elmer (age 4). Neither Vera nor her older sister Wanda (who sadly died in August 1929 at just one year old after ingesting some of her father’s prescription medication) is listed in the census. Had Vera been born in August 1929, she surely would have been listed among her family. Her absence from the census indicates she was not yet born.

1930 US Census
Ralston Family’s 1930 U.S. Census Listing (Source: FamilySearch.org)

Inexplicably, neither Vera nor her mother, Bernice (Wyrick) Ralston, can be located in the 1940 Census (Bernice and Thomas Ralston divorced in the 1930s, and he was no longer living with the family), so there is no birth data to be gathered from that.

Exhibit #2: Boise City News

One undisputed fact about Vera Miles’s birth is the location. Though she is most identified with Kansas, the state where she grew up and later represented in the 1948 Miss America pageant, Miles was born in Boise City, Oklahoma, which, despite its urban name, had a population of just 1,256 in 1930.

This detail is consistent across all reputable sources. The first reference in print that I found mentioning Miles’s Boise City origins comes from Boston Globe film critic Marjory Adams in her November 2, 1953, “Movie Question Box” column. Starting in July 1956, when her birthplace became more widely known, the city’s newspaper, Boise City News, would regularly list Miles as “Boise City’s Vera Miles” in advertisements for movies featuring her at the local cinema.

Aside from some understandable errors throughout the decades claiming her to be a Kansas native, Miles has always been cited in authoritative sources as an Oklahoma native like her father, Thomas Ralston, though the Ralston family normally resided in Pratt, Kansas, a community over 200 miles northeast of Boise City.

Thomas Ralston was a preacher, and the arrival of the Ralston family in Boise City was reported in the July 25, 1930, edition of the Boise City News. “Rev. and Mrs. Tom Ralston and family of Pratt, Kansas, arrived in Boise City Friday of last week and will make Boise City their permanent home,” reads the blurb. “Reverend Ralston will preach at the Church of Christ beginning Sunday.”

Boise City News July 25, 1930
(Source: Newspapers.com)

Notably, this is just under a month after the Ralston family was documented in the 1930 U.S. Census living in Pratt, Kansas. The family of the soon-to-be born Vera Ralston did not live in Boise City in August 1929 (when Vera Ralston was purportedly born), and were not living there (albeit temporarily) until July 1930, nearly a year later. Thomas Ralston was mentioned again as the preacher of the Church of Christ in the August 8, 1930, edition of the Boise City News.

Unfortunately for the sake of posterity, the Boise City News did not feature a birth announcement for Vera Ralston, though a retrospective of the newspaper’s history and editor published in the August 16, 1970, edition of the Amarillo Sunday News Globe recalls Miles’s birth with the correct birth year. The article states, “Boise City became known as the birthplace of Vera Miles, a movie and television actress. She was born on Aug. 23, 1930, in a half-dugout in the southeast edge of town. Mrs. Ova McMann of Boise City attended her birth.” 

Amarillo Sunday News Globe Aug 16, 1970
(Source: Newspapers.com)

In a 1960 interview with the Daily Oklahoman, Miles said she only lived “the first nine days of my life” in Boise City before her family returned to Pratt, though that could be an understatement because Vera’s older sister, Thelma Ralston, is mentioned in the December 4, 1930, edition of the Boise City News. Regardless, Miles’s early life in Boise City was very brief before returning to Pratt, Kansas.

That should make things easy — if we find Vera Ralston’s Oklahoma birth certificate, we will know what year Vera Miles was born.

Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy.

While Oklahoma is one of the most user-friendly states for searching for birth records through its OK2Explore website, Vera June Ralston — either with a 1929 or 1930 birth year — is not found in its database. The OK2Explore website offers a helpful explanation as to why pre-1950 birth records are incomplete:

“The earliest birth record on file [is] 1865. Most birth records were not filed timely until 1950 after [the] Social Security Act was implemented and WWII was underway [sic].”

In fact, other notable celebrities born in Oklahoma during the same era are not included in the database. For example, James Garner (whose birth name was James Bumgarner) was born in 1928, but his birth record does not appear in a search on the website.

Still, the Boise City News gives us an indication of when the Ralston family was temporarily based in Boise City, which was not until July 1930.

Exhibit #3: The 1948 Miss America Pageant Program

While attending Wichita North High School in the late 1940s, Vera Ralston began working as a model and was eventually selected to represent Kansas in the 1948 Miss America competition. Since the mid-1930s, the pageant required contestants to be at least 18 years of age. Luckily for Vera, the pageant was held in early September, meaning it was just days after her eighteenth birthday. In newspaper coverage of the pageant, including her hometown Wichita Eagle, Vera Ralston is consistently depicted as 18 years old, corresponding to a 1930 birth year. The Miss America 1948 program also lists Miles as 18 years old, though it inaccurately says her birthday is on August 1 (however, I suspect she may have purposely listed her birthday as three weeks earlier to avoid any eligibility concerns).

Vera Miles 1948 Miss America Program
(Source: Atlantic City Public Library)

Though this would not be considered a legal document by any means, it represents the first nationwide professional representation of Miles’s age.

Exhibit #4: The 1950 U.S. Census

Shortly after being crowned third runner-up in the Miss America pageant, Vera Ralston signed a contract with RKO Studios, then owned by millionaire Howard Hughes, and moved to Los Angeles. Within a matter of weeks, she married Hughes employee Robert Jennings “Bob” Miles, Jr., in November 1948, and adopted “Vera Miles” as her professional name forever afterward. Unfortunately, this is another instance where vital records fall through the cracks. Their marriage predates the comprehensive California Marriage Index, 1949–1959, and their 1956 divorce predates the California Divorce Index, 1966–1984, both easily searchable online, so there are no easily accessible records.

Nevertheless, Vera and Bob Miles were married at the time of the 1950 U.S. Census. The couple was documented on May 24, 1950, and “Miles, Vera J.” (born in Oklahoma) is listed as 19 years old, corresponding to a 1930 birth year, as Miles would turn 20 on August 23, 1950.

Vera Miles 1950 US Census
Miles Family’s 1950 U.S. Census Listing (Source: FamilySearch.org)

Exhibit #5: Affidavit for Marriage License

In Yuma, Arizona, on April 14, 1956, Miles married her second husband, Gordon Scott, with whom she starred in the 1955 film Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle. On that date, Miles and Gordon Scott (under his birth name, Gordon Werschkul) filled out an Affidavit for Marriage License in the Superior Court of Yuma. In addition to confirming her birthplace of Oklahoma (written as “Okla.”), Miles stated her age as “25” years, corresponding to a 1930 birth year, as Miles would not turn 26 years old until August 23, 1956. That means that she stated in a sworn affidavit that she was born in 1930.

Vera Miles Affidavit for Marriage License
(Source: Yuma County Superior Court)

Miles and Scott’s 1960 “quickie” divorce was executed in Juárez, Mexico, and good luck finding a paper record for that.

Exhibit #6: 1958 Arrival-Departure Record

As a Hollywood star who shot a few films abroad, Miles did a fair amount of international travel, which provides yet another document that establishes her birth year. While not an authoritative source as a census or a marriage license, Miles (along with Scott and her two daughters) filled out an arrival record on December 20, 1958, upon arriving in New York from London. She wrote her “Birthplace” as “8/23/30” and “Birthdate” as “Oklahoma” with two lines indicating that she inadvertently switched the boxes on the form.

Vera Miles Arrival-Departure Record
(Source: Ancestry.com)

Note that Miles’s name is “Vera M(iles) Scott” on the form. In July 1957, she legally changed her last name to match her then-husband’s last name.

Exhibit #7: Divorce Record

There are also available records for Miles’s 1960 marriage to actor Erik Larsen, her third husband, whom she married several years after they co-starred together in The Rose Bowl Story (1952) and Wichita (1955). Their 1960 marriage documentation in Las Vegas does not list birth years, but their November 1969 divorce filing record in Los Angeles lists Miles’s birth year as [19]30 (I’ve edited the screenshot below so their listing appears directly below the header row).

Vera Miles Divorce Record
(Source: FamilySearch.org)

Note that Miles’s name is “Vera M(iles) Larson” [sic] on the record, and Larsen’s name is his birth name, “Keith L(arsen) Burt.”

The Verdict

While some of Miles’s vital documentation is unfortunately not traceable at this time, her birth year remains consistent across all available legal documents, including the 1950 U.S. Census, her 1956 Affidavit for Marriage License with Gordon Scott, and her 1969 divorce filing record with Keith Larsen. She also does not appear on her family’s 1930 U.S. Census listing, and contemporary newspaper reporting demonstrates that her family did not yet live in her birthplace, Boise City, Oklahoma, until July 1930. I have yet to find any legal document that supports the erroneously cited 1929 birth year.

Additionally, there are also dozens of other non-legal secondary sources that use the correct 1930 birth year for Miles, including the widely-distributed January 1957 Parade news story introducing Miles as “Hitchcock’s Newest Acting Find,” her profile and interview in the May 1973 edition of Films in Review, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, the International Motion Picture Almanac, and various editions of Who’s Who in America and other associated Who’s Who books, and many others use the correct 1930 year.

So, where did the 1929 birth year come from?

The earliest reference I can find in print using a 1929 birth year for Vera Miles is the 1970 reference book Forty Years of Screen Credits, 1929–1969, compiled by John T. Weaver. While I cannot say that this book is “patient zero” for the erroneous birth year because there may be earlier instances that I haven’t come across, 1929 was also used in Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia, which was an extremely popular reference book in the years before IMDb and Wikipedia served as one-stop shops for quick information look-ups. All other references I have found to Miles’s birth year in print before that — during the most notable years of her career — use the correct 1930 year.

While the 1929 birth year still appears in print and online sources, it does not make it accurate. Vera (Ralston) Miles was born on August 23, 1930, as established by legal documentation.

One might ask why this is so important. I think it’s a crucial lesson in how inaccurate information is spread. As of this writing, Miles was born just under a hundred years ago, and yet her birth year is frequently incorrectly cited by sources that the public considers authoritative. If those sources are inaccurate about this fact, what else could they be wrong about? The Internet is perhaps the greatest resource in human history for sharing information, but its widespread use means that it won’t always be accurate. And this inaccuracy started long before the Internet was in widespread use.

The history of the Golden Age of Hollywood consists of a mixture of truth, myth, embellishments, and educated guesses. It is one of the reasons why so many of us venerate that era and continue to study it. The sheer idea that someone can be born in a small town in Oklahoma, become a contestant in a nationwide beauty pageant, and then become a world-famous actress is the stuff of legend. And as said in one of Miles’s most famous movies, when legend becomes fact, print the legend.

But can we at least get Vera Miles’s birth year correct when we print it?

For more information on my book about Vera Miles and my other work, please visit my website, chrismckit.com

–Christopher McKittrick

Christopher McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and a contributor to entertainment websites. Christopher and his work have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Observer, Newsday, USAToday.com, CNBC.com, Time.com, RollingStone.com, and dozens of entertainment and news websites. He is the author of Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away, Can’t Give It Away on Seventh Avenue: The Rolling Stones and New York City, and Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles, among other music and entertainment books. You can follow Christopher on X @chrismckit.

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Silver Screen Standards: Mad Love (1935)

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Jennifer Garlen

Silver Screen Standards: Mad Love (1935)

I’m firmly in the “every day is Halloween” camp when it comes to classic horror movies, and I especially love the lesser-known, off-the-wall, really weird examples of the genre, from Murders in the Zoo (1933) to Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959). It’s hard to get much weirder or flat out bonkers than the 1935 MGM Peter Lorre chiller, Mad Love, a Hollywood adaptation of the French novel and 1924 film version both titled The Hands of Orlac. Although director Karl Freund’s update keeps the original premise of transplanted hands that might be murderous independent of their new owner, it adds Grand Guignol theater, romantic obsession, an insane genius, and a strikingly lifelike wax figure to the mix. If that’s not enough, we’re also treated to an over-the-top performance from Lorre as a brilliant but deranged surgeon, with Colin Clive as his traumatized patient and Frances Drake as the heroine whose love for her husband drives her to seek help from her dangerously devoted fan.

Mad Love, Frances Drake, Peter Lorre
Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake) knows that Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) is obsessed with her even after he learns of her marriage.

Lorre gets top billing as the famous but eccentric Dr. Gogol, whose groundbreaking work has made him a hero to Paris in spite of his odd appearance and behavior. Among his quirks is his dedication to actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake), the star of a horror stage show whose performances are promoted by a detailed waxwork model of her character in the theater lobby. Gogol is devastated to learn that Yvonne has gotten married to pianist Stephen (Colin Clive) and is quitting the stage, so he acquires the wax figure, which he names Galatea, to shower with his affection instead. When Stephen’s hands are mangled beyond repair in a train crash, Yvonne begs Gogol for help, but neither she nor her husband know that Stephen’s rebuilt hands are actually transplanted from the executed knife-throwing murderer, Rollo (Edward Brophy).

Mad Love, Colin Clive, Frances Drake
Stephen (Colin Clive) and Yvonne exhaust their finances paying for his recovery, but Stephen’s hands can no longer play as they once did.

Even a brief plot summary proves that there’s a lot going on in this movie, with each new element wilder and stranger than the last. I don’t want to spoil its roller coaster turns by explaining too much of the action, but it’s about as gruesome and disturbing as a 1935 American film could manage to be, with a pre-show warning about the content and a note on the promotional posters that declares the movie “suitable only for adults.” Horror fans who came of age after the rise of David Cronenberg won’t bat an injury to the eye motif at the various mutilations of Mad Love, but the scene in which Rollo appears to have been resurrected from the dead is a corker, nonetheless. I’m not a fan of gore, myself, and there’s no blood in Mad Love, but I can’t recommend it to a particularly squeamish viewer, given its depictions of mutilated hands, surgery, guillotine execution, and attempted strangulation. If, however, you can handle all of the Universal horror classics from this era (especially the body horror elements of the Frankenstein films), you should be able to enjoy the absurd terrors on offer here. The use of the actual Frances Drake to represent her wax figure every time the shot switches to a close up of the effigy is jarring, although it does add to the surreal, nightmarish feel of the picture, and it telegraphs the inevitable predicament the heroine faces in the third act.

Mad Love, Colin Clive, Peter Lorre
When Stephen gets a mysterious message about his hands, he seeks out the sender, who claims to be the hands’ previous owner, Rollo the knife thrower.

The performances of the stars, especially Lorre, make Mad Love compelling even at its most bizarre. Colin Clive, best remembered today as Dr. Henry Frankenstein in the two Universal films, comes unglued with perhaps too much authenticity given the actor’s well-known personal demons. Frances Drake has both the soulful beauty and force of character needed for her role as Yvonne, who gains fame as a theatrical scream queen and isn’t deterred from her mission to save Stephen’s hands by using Gogol’s obsession with her. Even the small parts are memorably played, from Keye Luke as Gogol’s assistant and May Beatty as the doctor’s housekeeper to Edward Brophy as Rollo. None of them, however, can steal a scene from Peter Lorre, who cuts loose in glorious fashion as the bald and increasingly maniacal Gogol. Lorre had become a film star thanks to his disturbing performance as the serial killer in M (1931), and over the course of his long career he became indelibly associated with a certain creepiness, often employed in noir films as well as horror. Mad Love, however, lets Lorre take center stage and really lean into the eerie menace of his character, right down to his deeply disturbing recitation of the Robert Browning poem, “Porphyria’s Lover,” in the third act. As his literary knowledge and surgical skill show, Gogol is a brilliant, sensitive, erudite villain, a sublime example of the mad scientist type, pitiable in his loneliness but too untethered from ethics or reality to check his own darker nature. Lorre captures all of those aspects in his performance, and he’s absolutely fascinating to watch, whether he’s quietly brooding over his Galatea or striving to drive Stephen mad.

Mad Love, Franes Drake, Wax
Yvonne is startled to find her wax effigy in Gogol’s house, where it has become a favorite perch for the housekeeper’s pet bird.

You can take a deep dive into Peter Lorre’s creepiest roles by pairing Mad Love with The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), which also involves a pianist and a murderous hand, or by seeing his late-career work in horror comedies like Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), and The Comedy of Terrors (1964), which also feature horror icons Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, and Vincent Price. Karl Freund is best remembered for directing the 1932 Universal classic, The Mummy, in which the title monster, like Gogol, suffers from unrequited obsession with the heroine. Although Mad Love was his final turn as a director, Freund was primarily a cinematographer, with an Oscar win for his work on The Good Earth (1937); he also provided cinematography for celebrated pictures like Metropolis (1927), Pride and Prejudice (1940), and Key Largo (1948). See more of Frances Drake, who retired after her marriage to an English earl in 1939, in Les Miserables (1935) and The Invisible Ray (1936). Colin Clive also appears in Christopher Strong (1933), Jane Eyre 1934), and History is Made at Night (1937).

…

— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub

Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.

Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.

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Classic Movie Travels: Allen Jenkins

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Annette Bochenek

Classic Movie Travels: Allen Jenkins

allen jenkins
Allen Jenkins

Allen Curtis Jenkins was born on April 9, 1900, on Staten Island, New York, to Robert and Leona Jenkins. His parents were musical comedy performers, but Jenkins did not begin performing until he was in his 20s.

Jenkins worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard before transitioning to work as a stage mechanic following World War I. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1922, and worked steadily on Broadway plays. Among his early stage roles was The Front Page (1928), in which Jenkins portrayed the character Endicott.

He eventually signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1932, quickly building a reputation as a character actor. He appeared in the film short Straight and Narrow (1931) and made his feature film debut in The Girl Habit (1931).

In films, Jenkins could be spotted across multiple genres as a regular Warner Bros. contract player. Jenkins could dance, so he appeared in musicals, not to mention also being used in comedies and dramas, entertaining audiences with exceptional wisecracking delivery. The New York Times labeled him the “greatest scene-stealer of the 1930s.” He could be seen in many hit films, including Grand Hotel (1932), Three on a Match (1932), 42nd Street (1933), and several others for Warner Bros.

Three on a Match, Allen Jenkins
Three on a Match, Allen Jenkins

In 1931, Jenkins married Mary Landee, with whom he had three children: Anthony, Dorothy, and Nancy. They divorced in 1962.

Off-screen, Jenkins was close friends with Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, and Frank McHugh—a group of Irish-American actors dubbed the “Irish Mafia” of classic Hollywood.  

Once Jenkins’ seven-year contract with Warner Bros. ended, he turned to freelancing for the remainder of his career. This included working at smaller-scale studios, such as Monogram Pictures and Republic Pictures. He also began appearing on television, which was steadily growing in popularity.

During World War II, Jenkins entertained soldiers overseas with the United Service Organizations (USO).

Despite largely focusing on television, Jenkins returned to films with Pillow Talk (1959) in addition to carrying out guest star roles on television shows such as I Love Lucy, The Tab Hunter Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, and more. Among his best remembered roles is providing the voice for Officer Dibble in the Top Cat (1961) cartoon series.

He also made a cameo appearance in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Just 11 days before his passing, Jenkins made his final film appearance in The Front Page (1974), which was released posthumously. The film was a remake of a 1931 film by the same name. Incidentally, Jenkins was a member of the original Broadway cast for the 1928 play of the same name.

Jenkins passed away from lung cancer on July 20, 1974, at 74 years old. His ashes were scattered at sea.

Today, some locations of relevance to Jenkins remain. In 1900, he lived at 69 Harrison Ave., Staten Island, New York. By 1910, the family relocated to 3368 N. Richmond Ter., Staten Island, New York. In 1918, the family lived at 8 Lincoln Ave., East Hampton, New York. None of these buildings remain.

In 1925, Jenkins was listed as living at 617 W. 143rd St., New York, New York. This location remains.

617 W. 143rd St., NYC
617 W. 143rd St., NYC

In 1930, his address is listed as 610 W. 143rd St., New York, New York, which also remains.

610 W. 143rd St., NYC
610 W. 143rd St., NYC

In 1940, Jenkins and his family lived at 456 Arbramar Ave., Pacific Palisades, California. This home also stands.

456 Arbramar Ave., Pacific Palisades, CA
456 Arbramar Ave., Pacific Palisades, CA

…

–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek pens our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. You can read all of Annette’s Classic Movie Travel articles here.

Annette Bochenek, Ph.D., is a film historian, professor, and avid scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the “Hometowns to Hollywood” blog, in which she profiles her trips to the hometowns of classic Hollywood stars. She has also been featured on the popular classic film-oriented television network, Turner Classic Movies. A regular columnist for Classic Movie Hub, her articles have appeared in TCM Backlot, Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, The Dark Pages Film Noir Newsletter, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.

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Western RoundUp: Lone Pine Film Festival 2025

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Laura Grieve

Lone Pine Film Festival 2025

The 35th Lone Pine Film Festival is coming soon!

Lone Pine Film Festival 2025 Poster
Lone Pine Film Festival 2025 Poster

The festival takes place in Lone Pine, California, on Columbus Day Weekend, October 9-12, 2025.

This year’s theme is “Reel Adventure in Lone Pine: Color – Action – Romance in the Alabama Hills.”

As always, plenty of Westerns will be shown, and this year the festival will also show a number of other types of films and TV shows shot in Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills, including desert action films and science fiction.

Museum of Western Film History 1
Museum of Western Film History

I’ve been attending and writing about the festival every year for over a decade, and this year will be no exception.

Additionally, for the last few years my husband Doug has volunteered as the festival’s guide for horseback location tours. Anyone who’s dreamed of following the trails ridden by the likes of Randolph Scott, Roy Rogers, Audie Murphy, or William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd, to name just a few, can sign up for one of his three tours. Horses are provided by McGee Creek Pack Station.

Horseback Tour

This year the festival’s special guests will include Patrick Wayne, Robert Carradine, Charlotte Barker of the Paramount Archives, Wyatt McCrea, Diamond Farnsworth, Petrine Day Mitchum, Tony Cameron, and many more.

Opening night will feature a 40th anniversary screening of Rustler’s Rhapsody (1985) with star Patrick Wayne in attendance. He’ll be hosted by moderator Rob Word; also participating will be Heath Holland, who recently did a Blu-ray commentary track for the film.

Movie Road Sign

Other screenings at the festival will include:

*The Hopalong Cassidy film Silent Conflict (1948), which like the majority of the films shown at the festival was filmed in Lone Pine.

*Hand Across the Border (1944) starring Roy Rogers, introduced by Charlotte Barker, Paramount’s Director of Film Preservation and Restoration, and Julie Rogers Pomilia, granddaughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Hands Across the Border

*The Star Trek: Voyager episode “Basics Part 2” (1996), introduced by the show’s first assistant director Louis Race, who will also guide a location tour and discuss filming the episode.

*The Fiddlin’ Buckaroo (1933) starring Ken Maynard.

*The Loves of Carmen (1948) with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford.

Loves of Carmen

*Flame of Araby (1951) starring Maureen O’Hara and Jeff Chandler. This will be a fun “Friday Night at the Movies” theme, presenting the film as it would have been seen in theaters, with short subjects, a cartoon, and a newsreel. Film historian C. Courtney Joyner will host.

*Bullets Don’t Argue (1964), a “spaghetti Western” starring Rod Cameron, introduced by Joyner and Rod Cameron’s son, Tony. I’ve heard Tony Cameron speak at a past festival and found him very interesting and knowledgeable regarding his late father’s career.

*Posse From Hell (1961), starring Audie Murphy and filmed in Lone Pine. Stuntman Diamond Farnsworth, who knew Audie Murphy, will participate in a panel discussion on the film along with Steve Latshaw, Ross Schnioffsky, and C. Courtney Joyner.

Posse From Hell

*The John Wayne film Tycoon (1947), which was filmed in Lone Pine and will be introduced by Robert Carradine.

*Bad Day at Black Rock (1954), which filmed just outside Lone Pine, introduced by actor Darby Hinton of TV’s Daniel Boone series.

*The silent film Riders of the Purple Sage (1925), introduced by Rob Word and followed by a talk by Festival Tour Coordinator Greg Parker. Parker will narrate a “then and now” slideshow on the film’s Lone Pine locations. Pianist J.C. Munns will provide live music accompaniment for the movie.

Riders of the Purple Sage 1925

There will be a handful of other screenings during the weekend as well.

The Lone Pine Film Festival is unique in that guests can watch a movie and then tour the movie’s locations the same weekend. Location tours will be given for several of the above-listed films.

Alabama Hills Sign

Other tour themes will include Owens River Locations, Mobius Ravine Locations, a Bar 20 Ranch tour, Audie Murphy movie locations, and a Lone Ranger Canyon Locations tour.

Lone Pine Museum Locations Map

The annual Sunrise Photography Tour will also take place, hosted by “cowboy poet” Larry Maurice, as well as a pair of tours centered on famed photographer Ansel Adams: Ansel Adams in the Alabama Hills and Ansel Adams at Manzanar. The Manzanar National Historic Site is approximately 10 miles north of Lone Pine on Highway 395. Thomas Kelsey will host both of the Adams tours.

Alabama Hills
Alabama Hills

Other festival activities include the opening night buffet BBQ in the Museum of Western Film History parking lot; a Western music fundraising concert at Lubken Ranch featuring Kristyn Harris; a nondenominational Sunday “Cowboy Church” service at Spainhower Anchor Ranch; the Sunday afternoon parade down Main Street featuring the festival’s special guests; and the Closing Night Campfire gathering at Spainhower Park.

Museum of Western Film History 2

Lone Pine is on California’s Highway 395 and is an easy drive north from Southern California airports. The town can also be reached flying into Las Vegas or other points north and then driving south.

Highway 395 is one of my favorite places in the world, where I enjoy spending time not only in Lone Pine but driving to points further north including Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, and Bridgeport. Last year we left for the festival a couple days early to enjoy the fall colors outside Bishop, which I highly recommend.

Fall Colors

It’s never too late to decide to attend the Lone Pine Film Festival! This is a relaxed, friendly festival where Western fans have ample opportunity to watch movies, visit locations, and chat with fellow guests about movies. I’d love to meet some of my readers in Lone Pine this October!

Lone Pine Peak

As noted above, I’ve attended the festival and visited Lone Pine locations a significant number of times over the years. I invite anyone interested in Lone Pine’s history – or visiting the film festival – to check out my past Western RoundUp columns on this subject which are linked below.

Lone Pine movie locations: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Lone Pine Film Festival: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024.

For more information, please visit the Museum of Western Film History and Lone Pine Film Festival websites.

…

– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns.  She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals.  Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.

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Silents are Golden: Chaplin’s Motion Picture Debut: The First Five Films

Posted on September 23, 2025 by Lea Stans

Chaplin’s Motion Picture Debut: The First Five Films

Chaplin early films
Early Charlie Chaplin

If you went back in time and met a young Charlie Chaplin struggling to get through a boyhood of poverty and neglect, and told him he’d have one of the most famous “rags to riches” stories of all time, he probably wouldn’t believe you. Even the twenty-four-year-old Chaplin, with years of work in English music halls behind him and a new contract with the Keystone Film Company under his belt, might still have been skeptical. For even a once-in-a-generation talent like Chaplin took a little time to find his footing in the daunting new medium of motion pictures.

But it didn’t take him too much time. Chaplin’s iconic “Little Tramp” character emerged relatively quickly after he joined Keystone in 1914, the familiar mustache, bowler hat and twirling cane making an appearance in his second film. It’s fascinating to analyze these early Chaplin film roles, because as primitive as some of these early Keystones might seem today, they were Chaplin’s essential stepping stones to fame and fortune.

…..

Making a Living (1914)

Chaplin - Making a Living 1914

Chaplin’s very first screen appearance featured a costume that practically appears alien to us today: a top hat, a monocle, and most strange of all in retrospect, a large drooping mustache. It shows he was attempting to fit in with the comedians of Keystone, who wore loud makeup and fake mustaches with happy abandon.

Stories differ about how Chaplin was recruited to the Keystone studio, but one sound explanation is that New York Motion Picture executive Harry Aiken saw him performing onstage with the Fred Karno troupe in Los Angeles. Famously, the N.Y.M.P. sent the Karno manager a telegram asking: “IS THERE A MAN NAMED CHAFFIN IN YOUR COMPANY OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.” By December 1913 Chaplin had taken up residence in L.A. and timidly awaited his very first screen role at the high-spirited Keystone studio.

Making a Living was a one-reeler filmed partly in the garden of a nearby house. Chaplin plays a swindler who ends up vying with a reporter for the affections of the same woman. Some of his mannerisms (like the little hat tips) are already recognizably Chaplinesque, while others seem to mimic Keystone’s current top comedian Ford Sterling. In the end Chaplin ended up disliking the film and also butted heads with its director, Henry Lehrman.

…..

Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)

Kid Auto Races at Venice 1914

The second Keystone Chaplin appeared in was actually Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914), but Kid Auto Races at Venice was released first. This seems like a happy stroke of fortune to us today, since not only did Chaplin wear his familiar “Tramp” outfit, but he wore it in front of a mass of ordinary onlookers who had no idea they were witnessing the ascension of a superstar–which makes this little film extra fascinating.

Many Keystone comedies took advantage of local places and events for film locations: parks, parades, city streets, beaches, and in this case, a children’s soapbox race. The split-reel Kid Auto Races simply showed a small film crew attempting to film the races while being repeatedly sabotaged by Chaplin, who keeps strutting over trying to get on camera. It’s a wonderful bit of fourth wall-breaking that’s aged very well today. Equally compelling is watching the reactions of the regular people in the background, who watch politely with perhaps a hint of bewilderment.

…..

Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914)

Mabel’s Strange Predicament 1914

Kid Auto Races may have been released first, but this was the film that marked the real debut of Chaplin’s Tramp costume. He had been feeling lackluster about his Making a Living getup and apparently created the new look on the fly, later recalling: “I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large…I added a small mustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression.”

Chaplin’s co-star and director was the very popular comedienne Mabel Normand. While the one-reeler bore her name, Chaplin had ample screentime to the point where he nearly ran away with the film. It’s set in a small hotel where the drunken Charlie is annoying his fellow guests in the lobby. Guest Mabel ends up locking herself out of her room in her pajamas, leading to an encounter with the obnoxious Charlie. Chaplin’s character is much more familiar here, with his cheeky mannerisms and waddling walk. Modern critiques of Chaplin often say he was “too sentimental,” but his early films show a much edgier character.

…..

A Thief Catcher (1914)

Chaplin A Thief Catcher 1914

While it was sometimes rumored that Chaplin may have appeared as a Keystone Cop (most Keystone actors doubled as cops at one time or another), historians eventually concluded it was unlikely. Enter the year 2010, when historian Paul A. Gierucki bought an old Keystone reel at an antique sale in Michigan. It turned out to be a print of A Thief Catcher, which, amazingly, contained a scene with a cop played by none other than Chaplin.

A Thief Catcher was actually a vehicle for the delightfully over-the-top Ford Sterling, playing a police chief who thwarts a gang of thieves. Chaplin’s little role is complete with his signature mustache. While his scenes are brief, he does make the most of them and your eye can’t help wandering to this confident little comedian.

…..

Between Showers (1914)

Chaplin Between Showers 1914

After imitating Ford Sterling (to a point) and appearing in a Ford Sterling film, it was only fitting that Keystone’s rising star would go toe-to-toe with Keystone’s established star. Chaplin and Sterling play rival “mashers” fighting over the same woman trying to cross a large puddle. The plot may have been inspired by a recent rainfall in L.A.–the crystal-clear print shows flooded gutters and muddy streets.

The two comedians are definitely equals, obviously enjoying playing off each other’s talents. Still, Chaplin’s (slightly) more subtle comedy has certainly aged better than Sterling’s enthusiastic mugging. This comes as little surprise to us today, knowing it would only be a few more months until Chaplin would leave Keystone for Essanay and then Mutual, working his way up to more elaborate and personal works–and global fame.

…

–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.


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Monsters and Matinees: Discovering Barbara Stanwyck, Horror Queen

Posted on September 20, 2025 by Toni Ruberto

Discovering Barbara Stanwyck, Horror Queen

The idea of having Barbara Stanwyck in my Monsters and Matinees column never crossed my mind. For starters, she isn’t known for horror films and, honestly, I didn’t feel worthy. Then I found her 1970 made-for-television horror movie The House That Would Not Die and couldn’t contain my excitement.

As we sometimes do when we watch a movie for the first time, I felt like I had “discovered” it and needed to shout to the world: Look at this Barbara Stanwyck horror film! It was an ABC Movie of the Week and I quickly learned she made another horror film for the weekly TV series just a year later called A Taste of Evil.

It’s love at first sight for Ruth Bennett (played by Barbara Stanwyck) and her niece Sara (Kitty Winn) when they see their ancestral home, also known as The House That Wouldn’t Die.

This was movie gold: two made-for-television horror films made in two years starring one of our greatest actresses.

Now if you’re a regular reader of Monsters and Matinees (thank you!), the ABC Movie of the Week may sound familiar. That’s because it was also the topic of the August column after I realized you can’t write about ABC Movie of the Week horror films without first acknowledging its most famous one: Trilogy of Terror. So that 1975 anthology horror classic and its tiny, but murderous, Kuni warrior doll was first up, and is now followed by Stanwyck’s horror films. It can’t be overstated how much she lifted these two movies by sheer talent and screen presence.

* * * * *

The House That Wouldn’t Die and A Taste of Evil share more than their leading lady and a spot on the ABC Movie of the Week. Both were produced by Aaron Spelling, directed by John Llewellyn Moxey (Mission Impossible, Magnum, P.I. and Murder, She Wrote) and featured designs by Nolan Miller (which explains why even Stanwyck’s nightgowns were so elegant).

Michael Anderson Jr., left, Kitty Winn, Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Egan try to find answers to strange happenings in The House That Wouldn’t Die.

The films aren’t great works of horror. In fact, if you look for references in Stanwyck biographies, they’re only mentioned in passing. But I found them worth watching because they held my attention and have a fascinating pedigree in front of and behind the camera.

The House That Wouldn’t Die co-stars Richard Egan, Michael Anderson Jr. and Kitty Winn. It’s based on the book Ammie Come Home by Barbara Michaels and was written for TV by Henry Farrell, whose novel Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was adapted into the noteworthy 1962 film of the same name.

A Taste of Evil was written by Jimmy Sangster, the acclaimed writer and director of early Hammer horror films. Stanwyck’s co-stars are Roddy McDowall, William Windom, Arthur O’Connell and Barbara Parkins.

See what I mean by pedigree?

The films came shortly after Stanwyck’s four-season run ended on the popular television series The Big Valley in 1969. Credited as the royalty she is as “Miss Barbara Stanwyck” at the start of each episode, she played matriarch Victoria Barkley, a strong, fierce and independent woman who fought for her family and her beliefs. You’ll see a lot of that in these two horror films.

* * * * *

New neighbors get to know each other as Pat (Richard Egan) and Ruth (Barbara Stanwyck) clink glasses before Pat has a startling – but temporary – change in demeanor in The House That Wouldn’t Die. Love the fur cuffs on her Nolan Miller gown.

THE HOUSE THAT WOULDN’T DIE

The title of this film about a woman who inherits a house with deadly secrets could also be called The House That Was Alive. Doors open and close on their own, objects move, the wind blows inside the house and there are eerie sounds like whimpers and screams. Outside, a man’s voice repeats a mournful cry of “Ammie, come home.”

Ruth Bennett (played by Stanwyck) arrives with her niece Sara (Kitty Winn) at the historic Campbell House (circa 1700-1800s) that was left to Ruth by her cousin. It’s love at first sight for them, but not for viewers. We’ve seen enough in the first few minutes to get freaked out as the camera moves like a character through the rooms. Pay attention as it lingers – it could be a clue of what’s to come. It’s especially eerie when “something” pulls the curtains apart to look at Ruth and Sara as they arrive. “Drive away,” you’ll be tempted to say.

But they are excited. The house is beautiful, though drafty, and you’ll hear sentiments like “we belong here” and Sara exclaiming “I found my room – I recognized it like I’ve been in it before.” (Oh, that’s not creepy.)

The curtains seem to open on their own to check out who just drove up in The House That Wouldn’t Die.

Even the neighbor who shows up within minutes of their arrival – and first appears as a sinister black silhouette in the doorway – says he feels the same though he’s never been inside. “I’ve always had a strange affection for this place,” he says. (That isn’t creepy either, is it?)

He’s college professor Pat McDougal, played by Richard Egan who I’ve always thought of as an unconventionally handsome and sturdy leading man since seeing him in A Summer Place. He does a great job here of turning a smiling face into a sinister gaze that’s necessary for the film to work.

Rounding out the main foursome will be one of his best students, Stan, who is played by Michael Anderson Jr., a handsome young fixture on TV during that time.

A friendly gathering at the professor’s that night has talk of holding a séance at the Campbell House and we all know how those turn out. (Yes, this is moving fast, but that’s required of a film that clocks in at a taut 74 minutes.)

A seance goes wrong (as they tend to do), especially for young Sara (Kitty Winn). Michael Anderson Jr. plays her new friend Stan.

The séance goes as expected with spooky happenings including a ghostly figure that superimposes itself over Sara. (That’s another clue.)

More things happen in the spooky house: Doors and windows mysteriously open unleashing a wild wind – and something else with it. In one intense scene, Sara inexplicably attacks her aunt as the wind whips and howls around them. When the attack ends, so does the wind.

Sara and Pat have strange moments where they intently stare at each other like something has taken over their bodies. (That old movie trick always gets my attention.) Even when they leave the house out of safety concerns, an evil follows them. Attempts at a second séance fail when the psychic ends it early. “Sorry I can’t stay here – this is a terrible place,” she says. I would have run out the door with her.

Instead, our quartet will search the spooky attic and scary basement for clues about the history of the house and its former inhabitants. They’ll find them, of course, although they may live to regret it. Still, they’ll take time to bring a thermos of coffee into the basement and sip from cups with saucers on the cellar steps. I chuckled, but I love that moment. Civility is alive, along with the house.

* * * * *

A TASTE OF EVIL

Barbara Parkins, left, and Barbara Stanwyck star in A Taste of Evil.

In A Taste of Evil, a young woman returns home after years of treatment following a childhood rape, only to be terrorized by strange visions and occurrences. Barbara Stanwyck plays her mother Miriam, a wealthy widow who has since remarried, and Barbara Parkins is the adult Susan.

The movie opens on the day of the attack as a child’s voice narrates the events. Young Susan’s parents are hosting a lawn party while she is in a little playhouse built by in the woods by her father. As in the first film, director John Llewellyn Moxey again uses the effective image of a large, imposing figure silhouetted in the doorway. Susan, drawing pictures of her dolls, screams.

A newspaper ad for A Taste of Evil.

Cut to her return seven years later as we learn more details. Though her mother downplays it, Susan was catatonic after the attack and didn’t speak for two years.

She’s since made enough progress to return home from the clinic in Switzerland, but is she cured? You’ll quickly begin to doubt it.

Visions and memory fragments start immediately, but Susan hides it. To her credit, she doesn’t shy away from revisiting the scary woods where she was attacked but she’s spooked by sounds and is clearly not as “over it” as she thinks.

Winds will swirl inside the house and the windows – left open so the curtains can atmospherically billow in the wind – slam shut.

Voices call out, lights turn off on their own and a strange figure lurks outside – repeatedly. Then there’s the dead body in the bathtub that disappears only to reappear alive the next day. And what is that strange breathing sound?

Dr. Lomas (Roddy McDowall) helps Susan (Barbara Parkins) who is having hallucinations when she returns home seven years after she was brutally attacked in A Taste of Evil.

Enter the kind Dr. Michael Loomis (McDowall), who once attended the posh parties held by Susan’s parents. He’s here to help, but can he – or has Susan traveled so far back down a dark path that she can’t return?

There is shocking turn of events that even if you think you saw it coming, you really haven’t. All will be cleverly explained at the end.

The last 12 minutes are an unexpected edge-of-your-seat thrill ride, thanks to an acting master class by Stanwyck. And isn’t that what we expect with any film she stars in? These may be low-budget films, but there’s no such thing as a run-of-the-mill movie starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck.

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member and board chair of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto or on Bluesky at @watchingforever.bsky.social

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Noir Nook: Autumn Noir

Posted on September 19, 2025 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Noir Nook: Autumn Noir

As the leaves once again begin to fall from the trees, we bid a fond farewell to the steamy days of summer and prepare to embrace shorter days, lower temps, and Halloween décor on department store shelves.

This month’s Noir Nook celebrates these changes by serving up six recommended noirs, each one corresponding with a letter for the spelling of the upcoming season. Grab a sweater and a cup of cider, and see how many of the following AUTUMN noirs you’ve seen!

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A is for Ace in the Hole (1951)

Ace in the Hole, Kirk Douglas
Ace in the Hole, Kirk Douglas

This feature focuses on Chuck Tatum (played to perfection by Kirk Douglas), an ambitious newspaper reporter whose bad decisions, trigger temper, and penchant for the bottle have landed him on a small publication in a sleepy town in New Mexico. Desperate for a story that will put him back in the big leagues, Tatum sees a possible path to restoration when he learns about a local man – Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) – who’s trapped by a boulder following a cave-in. But instead of working to free the man, Tatum teams with a corrupt local authority to prolong the rescue efforts and spearheads coverage of the incident, resulting in nationwide exposure. As Tatum rises in prominence, the scene outside the cave devolves into a circus-like atmosphere, complete with gaping tourists, rides and refreshments, and even a theme song – hence the alternate name of the film, The Big Carnival. The delayed rescue turns out to be a boon for all involved, including Minosa’s wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling), who can barely keep up with the customers who crowd into the family’s trading post – it’s a windfall for everyone, that is, except Leo.

Favorite quote: “I don’t go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.” – Lorraine Minosa

Trivia tidbit: The memorable nylon line delivered by Jan Sterling’s character was reportedly contributed by Audrey Young, the wife of the film’s director, Billy Wilder, who also co-wrote the screenplay.

…..

U is for Union Station (1950)

Union Station, William Holden and Nancy Olson
Union Station, William Holden and Nancy Olson

This feature is set primarily in the Chicago train depot of the film’s title, where William Calhoun (William Holden) works as a police lieutenant. Calhoun’s considerable investigative skills are summoned when a young blind girl (Allene Roberts) is kidnapped by a trio of hoods and spirited away into the bowels of the city’s municipal tunnel. Calhoun is aided in his search for the girl by his boss (Barry Fitzgerald) and an eagle-eyed train passenger, Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson, fresh off her co-starring role with Holden in Sunset Boulevard earlier in the year), whose employer is the father of the kidnapped girl. The film’s director was Rudolph Mate, who previously directed Holden in The Dark Past (1948); helmed the 1949 noir, D.O.A.; and served as cinematographer for the Rita Hayworth starrer, Gilda (1946).

Favorite quote: “I may have to beat your brains out. You’ll have to decide that.” – Lt. William Calhoun

Trivia tidbit: Both Alan Ladd and John Lund were considered for the role of Lt. Calhoun.

…..

T is for They Won’t Believe Me (1947)

They Won't Believe Me, Jane Greer, Robert Young and Susan Hayward
hey Won’t Believe Me, Jane Greer, Robert Young and Susan Hayward

If you only know Robert Young from the 1970s medical series, Marcus Welby, M.D., you’re in for a treat (or a shock, depending on your outlook). Here, Young plays Larry Ballentine, whose trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Verna Carlson (Susan Hayward), opens the film. In a flashback that lasts for most of the feature, we see that Ballentine is no saint – he steps out on his long-suffering wife Greta (Rita Johnson) with magazine writer Janice Bell (Jane Greer), then drops Janice like a hot poker when Greta finds out and insists on moving to another city. There, ever the skirt-chaser, Larry falls for his co-worker, Verna – in fact, he falls so hard that he plans to leave his wife, but when Verna winds up dead, all bets are off and all signs point to Larry. Deftly helmed by Irving Pichel (who began his career as an actor and makes a cameo here), this picture features one of my favorite endings in all of noir.

Favorite quote: “She looked like a very special kind of dynamite, neatly wrapped in nylon and silk. Only I wasn’t having any. I’d been too close to one explosion already. I was powder shy.” – Larry Ballentine

Trivia tidbit: Verna’s house in the film was also used in another RKO film released that year, The Devil Thumbs a Ride, starring Lawrence Tierney.

…..

U (number two) is for The Unsuspected (1947)

The Unsuspected, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, and Michael North
The Unsuspected, Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, and Michael North

I don’t subscribe to the often-popular opinion that most films noirs have confusing, labyrinthine plots – but this one, directed by Michael Curtiz, is certainly no walk in the park. Claude Rains stars as popular radio personality Victor Grandison, who hosts a true-crime show which shares its title with that of the film. When we first meet Grandison, he has just murdered his secretary and staged the death to appear as a suicide. And that’s not the only dead body with which Grandison will be connected before all is said and done. The list of potential victims includes Grandison’s niece Althea (Audrey Totter), who’s a man-chaser from way back; Althea’s alcoholic husband (Hurd Hatfield); Grandison’s wealthy ward, Matilda (Joan Caulfield); and Steven Howard (Michael North), who claims to be Matilda’s husband. There are a lot of moving pieces here, but even if they don’t all fit together, there’s no denying that this is one noir you won’t soon forget.

Favorite quote: “The nicest thing about guests is their departure.” – Victor Grandison

Trivia tidbit: This film marked the big screen debut of Fred Clark, who played a homicide detective, and the final feature of Michael North, who went on to become an agent, with a client list that included Amanda Blake, Red Skelton, and Milburn Stone.

…..

M is for My Name is Julia Ross (1945)

My Name is Julia Ross, Nina Foch
My Name is Julia Ross, Nina Foch

One of my favorite underrated noirs, My Name is Julia Ross stars Nina Foch in the title role of a woman whose entire life is turned upside down (and inside out) by a malevolent mother-son duo – Mrs. Williamson Hughes and Ralph (Dame May Whitty and the uber-creepy George Macready). They accomplish this by hiring Julia – ostensibly – to provide live-in secretarial services to Mrs. Hughes at her London home. But Julia learns that all is not what it seems when she goes to sleep in London and awakens in a Cornwall coast mansion, where she is confined to her room and told that she is Ralph’s mentally fragile, emotionally incapacitated wife. Joseph Lewis – who would go on to direct two top-tier noirs, Gun Crazy (1950) and The Big Combo (1955) – helms this one with dexterity, keeping the viewer firmly perched on their seat-edge from start to finish.

Favorite quote: “The next time I apply for a job, I’ll ask for their references.” – Julia Ross

Trivia tidbit: Nina Foch once joked that the low-budget film was “shot in about three and a half minutes,” but she also acknowledged that it gave her “the first [role] that I really liked.”

…..

N is for New York Confidential (1955)

New York Confidential, Richard Conte and Anne Bancroft
New York Confidential, Richard Conte and Anne Bancroft

I could cheerfully watch Richard Conte sweep the front porch for two hours, but he does far more than that in this grim feature, starring as Nick Magellan, the coolest hitman this side of Jason Bourne. After he efficiently carries out a job for New York syndicate chief Charlie Lupo (Broderick Crawford), Magellan rapidly rises in the ranks of the organization, but all good things must come to an end, and this movie demonstrates that adage more than once. Others on hand include Lupo’s daughter, Kathy (Anne Bancroft), who tries to distance herself from her father’s criminal exploits, and Lupo’s mistress, Iris Palmer (Marilyn Maxwell), who doesn’t hesitate to make it known that she has eyes for Magellan.

Favorite quote: “Loyalty – that’s something you can’t buy. Half the pigs that work for us can’t even spell it.” – Charlie Lupo

Trivia tidbit: The film was directed by Russell Rouse and the screenplay was penned by Rouse and Clarence Greene. This team also played the same roles for the 1953 noir Wicked Woman, which starred Rouse’s future wife, Beverly Michaels.

And that’s AUTUMN at the Noir Nook – what are your “AUTUMN” noirs? Leave a comment and let me know!

…

– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:

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Silver Screen Standards: To Catch a Thief (1955)

Posted on September 16, 2025 by Jennifer Garlen

Silver Screen Standards: To Catch a Thief (1955)

We mostly associate Alfred Hitchcock with tense thrillers and even horror, thanks to his later hits and TV series, but To Catch a Thief (1955) is something else entirely, a glamorous, action-filled romp that presages the age of 007 with its sun-soaked European locations, chase scenes, and a suave protagonist long accustomed to both luxury and women’s desire. Other film writers have connected the later North by Northwest (1959) to the rise of the Bond era, but To Catch a Thief also gives us a good idea of what Grant’s version of the iconic spy would have looked like, with Grace Kelly and Brigitte Auber as the two women competing for his attention. It’s not a particularly serious picture, and fans of Hitchcock’s darker work might prefer his other collaborations with its two leads, but To Catch a Thief is still a lot of fun if you’re looking for spectacle, romance, and pure escapism.

To Catch a Thief, Cary Grant on roof
Could Cary Grant look any more like 007 than as John Robie prowling a rooftop?

Grant stars as American expat and former cat burglar John Robie, aka The Cat, who has retired from his life of crime and later French Resistance heroism to a very comfortable French villa, while members of his old gang labor in a restaurant run by their associate, Bertani (Charles Vanel). When a string of new robberies copies Robie’s style, the police immediately suspect that The Cat is once again prowling the rooftops of the Riviera, and Bertani’s crew shows open hostility to Robie for endangering everyone’s hard-won parole. Robie sets out to prove his innocence by capturing the real thief with some help from insurance agent Hughson (John Williams) and his clients, wealthy widow Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and her beautiful daughter, Francie (Grace Kelly). As the crime wave continues and Robie closes in on the culprit, both the police and the criminals seem determined to stop him.

To Catch a Thief, Brigitte Auber in water
There’s danger in the water when the jealous Danielle (Brigitte Auber) spots Robie spending time with Francie.

Spectacle in the modern action movie generally means exotic locations, lavish events disrupted by some kind of conflict, chase scenes (both on foot and in high-speed vehicles of various kinds), and daring escapes, all of which To Catch a Thief amply provides. The glamor and excitement of the French Riviera are on full display, heightened for the folks in American movie theaters by the frequent use of French in the dialogue. While Kelly wears a dizzying array of gorgeous Edith Head outfits throughout the movie, the biggest fashion spectacle takes place at the 18th-century costume ball, where dozens of party guests in fancy dress show off their wealth and extravagant taste. Robie has to boat, swim, run, drive, and scurry across rooftops as he tries to elude the police and pursue his own prey. Sure, the rear projection car chase with Francie at the wheel seems quaint by today’s CGI-fueled, physics-defying vehicular pursuits, but for 1955 it’s quite thrilling, even projecting to the audience the danger of the moment by repeatedly showing Robie’s nervous hands in the passenger seat. Robie’s initial escape from the police is less frenetic, but it provides a perfect cameo opportunity for Hitchcock and teaches us to expect clever tricks from the protagonist at every turn.

To Catch a Thief, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in car
Francie (Grace Kelly) takes Robie out for a picnic drive even though she has already deduced his real identity as the infamous cat burglar.

Romance is the other necessary ingredient for this proto-Bond plot, and here, too, we have plenty on offer. Grant’s Robie, as charming and cool as any international man of mystery could hope to be, attracts three important ladies. Chief among them is Grace Kelly’s thrill-seeking heiress, Francie, who is tired of men constantly courting her for her wealth but fascinated by Robie’s notoriety. Her mother, Jessie, also takes a shine to Robie and frequently hints that if she were younger, Francie would have fierce competition for his attention. Finally, although she boasts a prior claim to Robie’s acquaintance thanks to her family’s long association with the gang, we have Danielle Foussard (Brigitte Auber), a young Frenchwoman who constantly offers to run away with him to South America. Robie, for his part, seems ambivalent about all of them and much more interested in clearing his name, and the movie’s most passionate moment lets fireworks stand in for any real ardor from our hero. Although Grant said that Kelly was one of his favorite leading ladies, he was also famously wary of the increasing age difference between himself and his female costars, a fact much discussed in relation to Charade (1963), and that might factor into Robie’s willingness to let the women chase him instead of the other way round. Grant was 51 when To Catch a Thief debuted, and Kelly was half his age at 26; ironically, the younger character, Danielle, was played by the 30-year-old Auber, making the scene where the two women argue about their respective ages even more amusing. Robie and Francie’s mother, Jessie, are really the closest age peers of the lot, but even though Jessie Royce Landis was only eight years older than Grant she ended up being cast as his mother in their next film together, North by Northwest. As gloriously lovely as Grace Kelly is in the movie, I always feel like Jessie deserves better than being sidelined as the lonely widow, denied even a spark with Hughson thanks to his reference to having a wife whose good opinion he seriously values. At any rate, Robie’s sense of distance from the women who want him only makes them chase him more, and it tracks with the way we later see James Bond rarely make real connections with the women he meets, with Tracy (Diana Rigg) in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) as the notable – and tragic – exception.

To Catch a Thief, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in hotel
While Robie might be known as The Cat, Francie is definitely the feline pursuer in their romantic cat and mouse game.

007 himself would arrive on the cinematic scene in 1962 with Sean Connery in the role for Dr. No, and From Russia with Love hit theaters in 1963, the same year as Grant’s appearance in Charade. Grant’s final screen role came in 1996 with Walk, Don’t Run, a remake of the 1943 picture, The More the Merrier, with Grant in the older matchmaker role originally played by Charles Coburn. For more of Cary Grant and Hitchcock, see Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), and, of course, North by Northwest. Grace Kelly made two earlier movies with the director: Dial M for Murder (1954) and Rear Window (1954), but she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for The Country Girl (1954). If handsome jewel thieves make your heart flutter, try Jewel Robbery (1932) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). For a few of my personal favorites from the Bond franchise, see A View to a Kill (1985), The Living Daylights (1987), and GoldenEye (1995).

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— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub

Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.

Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.

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Classic Movie Travels: Nick Long Jr.

Posted on September 14, 2025 by Annette Bochenek

Classic Movie Travels: Nick Long, Jr.

Nick Long Jr
Nick Long, Jr

While the name Nick Long may be obscure to many, Long’s talent as a dancer is well worth celebrating. In fact, Long was seen as a potential rival to Fred Astaire, though he never connected with audiences in the same way as Astaire.

Nick Long, Jr. was born on August 14, 1904, to vaudeville and theatre actors Nick and Idalene Long in Greenlawn, New York. As his entertainment career went on, Long shaved off two years from his birthday, typically listing that he was born in 1906.

By the age of three, Long was traveling along with his parents on their performance tours, visiting locations like Winnipeg and San Francisco. In 1907, Long and his parents were involved in a car accident in Huntington, New York, with his mother breaking her leg and Long being hurled into the air.

Once they recovered, Long and his parents were back on the road. He toured with his parents as they performed in The Banker and the Thief at the Wigwam Theatre and Managerial Trouble at the Empress Theater, both in San Francisco. By 1914, his parent filed for bankruptcy.

Soon, Long himself entered the entertainment world as a performer. He performed as part of the Hotel Astor Benefit for the Theater Club with two scenes from Things That Count as well as performances of Things That Count, co-starring his parents,at the DeKalb Theater in New York and the Belasco Theater in Washington, D.C. While working as a performer, he also attended the Professional Children’s School with Milton Berle. His first performance on camera occurred in the silent film Hearts of Men (1915) as a “Bad Little Boy.”

Long would go on to perform in Pollyanna at the Hudson Theater in New York before more steadily transitioning to films with The Corner Grocer (1917). He participated in independent plays and Broadway musicals in the 1920s before retiring from acting altogether in the 1930s.

June Knight, Nick Long Jr. and Robert Taylor in Broadway Melody of 1936
June Knight, Nick Long Jr. and Robert Taylor in Broadway Melody of 1936

In the 1930s, he took on three roles that were secondary and typically participated in dance numbers. From 1934 to 1939, he resided in London, where he worked as an actor and dancer with Danny Kaye. He went on to dance in Autumn Leaves of Frederick Ashton in both London and Manchester.

By far, Long was an active dancer and actor on Broadway. Though his film career was relatively short, his most famous acting and dancing role was in Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935). Moreover, his contemporaries considered him a rival to the likes of Astaire, but Long failed to connect with moviegoing audiences. As a result, Long was more interested in appearing in nightclubs and stage revues.

Long appeared in the pioneer BBC Television broadcast of “Autumn Laughter” in 1938 with Kaye.

In 1939, Long was recruited for service in World War II but was ultimately released after seven months.

Long passed away from severe head injuries following an automobile collision on August 31, 1949, in New York. The accident occurred on August 29, 1949, when he was returning from night club and vaudeville engagements in New England during a storm.

Long was laid to rest at Cypress Hills Cemetery in New York in the family plot, though his name is not on the family marker as he was the last family member to pass. He was 45 years old.

Today, some points of interest relating to Long remain. In 1920, he lived at 213 W. 109th St., New York, New York. In 1936, he lived at the Bristol Hotel at 129 W. 48th St., New York, New York. Both of these buildings have been razed.

In 1942, he lived at the Bryant Hotel. Today, this is the Ameritania Hotel and is located at 230 W. 54th St., New York, New York.

Ameritania Hotel (formerly the Bryant Hotel), New York City
Ameritania Hotel (formerly the Bryant Hotel), New York City

At the time of his passing, Long resided at the Markwell Hotel. Though the building is no longer functioning as the Markwell Hotel, it stands at 220 W. 49th St., New York, New York.

Markwell Hotel, New York City
Markwell Hotel, New York City

The automobile accident occurred on the corner of 236th St. and Henry Hudson Pkwy. in New York, New York.

Afterwards, Long was taken to Jewish Memorial Hospital, where he passed away. The hospital was razed in 1982.

Cypress Hills Cemetery is located at 833 Jamaica Ave., Brooklyn, New York.

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–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek pens our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. You can read all of Annette’s Classic Movie Travel articles here.

Annette Bochenek, Ph.D., is a film historian, professor, and avid scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the “Hometowns to Hollywood” blog, in which she profiles her trips to the hometowns of classic Hollywood stars. She has also been featured on the popular classic film-oriented television network, Turner Classic Movies. A regular columnist for Classic Movie Hub, her articles have appeared in TCM Backlot, Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, The Dark Pages Film Noir Newsletter, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.

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It Came From Texas Film Festival: Classic Films and True Tales

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Annmarie Gatti

So excited to announce
The Third Annual It Came From Texas Film Festival 🙂

For fans that can make it to Garland Texas next week, get ready for a true big-screen treat! The Third Annual It Came From Texas Film Festival is taking center stage at the historic Plaza Theatre in Downtown Garland from September 12–14, 2025, and this year’s lineup is more ‘Texas’ than ever.

Proudly sponsored by the City of Garland and Garland Cultural Arts, the festival celebrates True Texas Tales showcasing films made in the Lone Star State — plus special guests, experts, and even some comedy to keep things lively.

It Came From Texas Annual Film Festival poster

What’s Playing

This year’s schedule brings together classic films, documentaries, and cult favorites — all with Texas ties:

  • Bonnie and Clyde (1967) — Friday night kicks off with Arthur Penn’s classic. Includes a discussion with Bonnie Parker’s niece Rhea Leen Linder, Clyde Barrow’s nephew Buddy Barrow, and former FBI Analyst and Bonnie and Clyde expert Farris Rookstool III.
  • Secret Screening with Mocky Horror Picture Show — A Friday night surprise Larry Buchanan film with Live Comedy Riffing by Mocky Horror Picture Show.
  • Bernie (2011) — Saturday opens with Richard Linklater’s dark comedy, starring Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine. Includes a conversation with Skip Hollandsworth, the Texas Monthly journalist whose article inspired the film, and actor Larry Jack Dotson.
  • JFK: Breaking the News (2003) — A fascinating documentary about how Dallas reporters covered the Kennedy assassination, introduced by Stephen Fagin from The Sixth Floor Museum. Panelists include Dr. Sean Griffin (SMU film historian) and Farris Rookstool III (also a JFK assassination expert).
  • The Great Debaters (2007) + The Real Great Debaters (2008) — A Saturday night double-feature – Denzel Washington’s stirring drama paired with the inspiring true documentary. Includes a discussion with filmmaker Brad Osborne and Wiley University coach Ernest Mack.
  • The Alamo (1960) — Sunday brings out the big guns with John Wayne’s sweeping epic. Includes a discussion with Wayne’s granddaughter Anita La Cava Swift and historian/author Jack Edmondson.
  • Viva Max! (1969) — Closing night gets a comedic twist with this zany satire starring Peter Ustinov and Jonathan Winters — proof that Texans know how to laugh at their own legends. 🙂

Guest Stars & Experts

Festival director Kelly Kitchens has once again gathered authors, historians, and even family members of legendary figures to help put these films in context. And film historian, Gordon K. Smith, returns to add his encyclopedic knowledge (and personal memories from working on 2004’s The Alamo) to the mix.

It Came from Texas 3rd Annual Film Festival

Tickets & Festival Perks

  • All-Access Festival Pass: $75 (limited availability)
    • Early admission
    • Commemorative poster
    • Discounts at local businesses
  • Individual Tickets: $10–$20 per screening

👉 Buy passes and tickets here: Prekindle – It Came From Texas

When & Where

  • Dates: September 12–14, 2025
  • Venue: Plaza Theatre, 521 W. State Street, Downtown Garland, TX

More info at: GarlandArts.com

Hope you can drop by if you’re in the Garland area next week 🙂

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

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