There’s a brilliant bit of dialogue in the middle of Howard Hawks’ 1940 screwball masterpiece His Girl Friday that succinctly sums up the film’s derisive views on the profession of journalism. [At this point, I should probably go ahead and warn you that this post will be chock-full of spoilers.] A group of reporters have gathered…
Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 Italian opera La bohème has seen many forms in the century since its first performance in Turin. The story–itself borrowed from Henri Murger’s 1851 collection Scènes de la vie de bohème–has been retold in many forms, with and without the music. It’s been made into films, produced in countless venues featuring storied performers like…
Two decades after burning up the screen with Jean Harlow in Red Dust (1932), Clark Gable returned to the material that had made him one of the preeminent leading men of the 1930s when he starred in Mogambo (1953). This time around, the action–shot on location and brought to life in splendid Technicolor–was moved from Indochina to…
Maria (Olivia de Havilland) is a princess of a small, unnamed European country that has been overtaken by the Nazis. As the war rages on, she and her uncle, Holman (Charles Coburn), have settled into a posh New York apartment, where Maria spends her days reading in relative solitude. Though Holman pressures her to marry…
With all of the posts we do here at True Classics, I had honestly never thought about doing a post about Natalie Wood. I have no idea why, but I haven’t. Today, TCM’s Summer Under the Stars will be featuring twenty-four hours of her films, and suddenly it makes sense for me to offer some…
Several years ago, I was flipping through the TCM listings for films to record and came across The Valley of Decision (1945), with a star-studded cast featuring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck, and decided to give it a shot. I am so glad I did. The film opens in 1873 as Mary Rafferty (Garson), Irish immigrant…
“If this letter reaches you, believe this – that I love you now as I’ve always loved you. My life can be measured by the moments I’ve had with you and our child. If only you could have shared those moments, if only you could have recognized what was always yours, could have found what…
“One of the best actresses I ever worked with.” –Joel McCrea Over the course of twenty-three years–from 1934’s Gambling Lady through 1957’s Trooper Hook–Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea starred in six films together. By all accounts, the two of them formed a supportive and friendly relationship; each spoke highly of the other in interviews, and on…
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