Sylvia Scarlett
''Sylvia Scarlett'' is a 1935 American romantic comedy film starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, based on '' The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett'', a 1918 novel by Compton MacKenzie. Directed by George Cukor, it was notorious as one of the most famous unsuccessful movies of the 1930s. Hepburn plays the title role of Sylvia Scarlett, a female con artist masquerading as a boy to escape the police. The success of the subterfuge is in large part due to the transformation of Hepburn by RKO makeup artist Mel Berns. This film was the first pairing of Grant and Hepburn, who later starred together in '' Bringing Up Baby'' (1938), ''Holiday'' (1938), and '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1940). Grant's performance as a dashing rogue sees him incorporate a Cockney accent and remains widely considered the first time Grant's famous personality began to register on film. (Grant used the Cockney accent in only a few other films, notably 1939's ''Gunga Din'', 1943's '' Mr. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including '' What Price Hollywood?'' (1932), '' A Bill of Divorcement'' (1932), '' Our Betters'' (1933), and '' Little Women'' (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed '' Dinner at Eight'' (1933) and '' David Copperfield'' (1935) for Selznick, and ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) and '' Camille'' (1936) for Irving Thalberg. He was replaced as one of the directors of '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939), but he went on to direct '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1940), '' Gaslight'' (1944), '' Adam's Rib'' (1949), '' Born Yesterday'' (1950), '' A Star Is Born'' (1954), '' Bhowani Junction'' (1956), and won the Academy Award for Best Director ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Box Office Bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after release has technically "bombed", the term is more frequently used for major studio releases that were highly anticipated, extensively marketed and expensive to produce that ultimately failed commercially. Causes Negative word of mouth With the advent of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in the 2000s, word of mouth regarding new films is easily spread and has had a marked effect on box office performance. A film's ability or failure to attract positive or negative commentary can strongly impact its performance at the box office, especially on the opening weekend. External circumstances Occasionally, films may underperform because of issues largely unrelated to the content of the film, such as the timing of the film's re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Andre Sennwald
Andre David Sennwald (August 4, 1907 — Jan 12, 1936) was a motion picture critic for ''The New York Times''. Life After graduating from Columbia University School of Journalism, Sennwald was hired as a reporter for ''The New York Times'' in 1930. As the film critic Mordaunt Hall gave up his post in October 1934, Sennwald became his successor. He lived at 670 West End Avenue, Upper West Side. He was married to the former Yvonne Beaudry. He died on January 12, 1936, as a result of gas poisoning before his penthouse apartment exploded because of a gas leak. The explosion wrecked the penthouse and the top three floors of the 17-story building. Sennwald had an appointment with his ex-wife Yvonne Beaudray and did not appear, which is why she went to see him, only to find him dead in the ruins of his home. Since Sennwald was believed by friends to be in good health and no suicide note was found, nor was one ever officially released, whether it was an accident or a suicide is unknown ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Lennox Pawle
Lennox Pawle (27 April 1872, in Marylebone, Middlesex – 22 February 1936, in Los Angeles, California) was an English stage and film actor. Life and career John Lennox Pawle was born in Marylebone, London, on 27 April 1872, the son of John Christopher Pawle, a London solicitor, and his wife, Maria. Before becoming an actor Pawle worked as a newspaper reporter; later he began his acting career at Sarah Thorne’s Dramatic School. The heavyset actor gained experience in London, where before the turn of the century he was already known as a comic actor and eventually became a member of Maude Adams's Playhouse company. Pawle arrived in America in 1910 and worked at the Broadway Theatre, where he acted in five plays. He married Dorothy Parker when they returned to England in 1914. It was Pawle’s second (possibly third) marriage after being granted a divorce from Janet Mary Pawle in 1909. Lennox Pawle remained in England during the years of the First World War but returned to Broa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Dennie Moore
Dennie Moore (born Florence Moore; December 30, 1902 – February 22, 1978) was an American film and stage actress. Early life Moore was born in New York City on December 30, 1902, to immigrant parents of Scottish and Irish descent. She was raised in Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan. Her brother, Joe Moore, was an Olympic champion speed skater, and she had two step-sisters and one step-brother. She received six years of schooling. Career In the late 1920s, she decided to pursue an acting career, using the name Dennie Moore to avoid confusion with the actress Florence Moore. Starting in 1927, she appeared on Broadway in such plays as ''A Lady in Love'', ''The Trial of Mary Dugan'', ''Cross Roads'', ''Torch Song'', ''Twentieth Century'', ''Phantoms'', ''Conflict'', ''Anatol'', and ''Jarnegan''. She also appeared in productions in Chicago, Illinois and London, England. In 1935, Moore arrived in Hollywood and made her screen debut in an uncredited but substantial role in the Ca ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, but the idea of vaudeville's theatre changed radically from its French antecedent. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in South West England. The wider Bristol Built-up Area is the eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Iron Age hillforts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon. Around the beginning of the 11th century, the settlement was known as (Old English: 'the place at the bridge'). Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county corporate. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities, after London, in tax receipts. A major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
None But The Lonely Heart (film)
''None but the Lonely Heart'' is a 1944 American drama romance film which tells the story of a young Cockney drifter who returns home with no ambitions but finds that his family needs him. Adapted by Clifford Odets from the 1943 novel of the same title by Richard Llewellyn and directed by Odets, the movie stars Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, and Barry Fitzgerald. The title of the film is taken from Tchaikovsky's song " None but the Lonely Heart", which is featured in the background music. Plot Ernie Mott is a restless, irresponsible, wandering Cockney with a good musical ear. On Armistice Day, Ernie visits the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, which memorializes those who died in World War I, including his father. Ernie wants a better life but does not want to settle down or work for it. When he returns home, his mother Ma asks why he has returned after so long, and she gives him an ultimatum that he must stay home now or leave forever. He informs her that he wil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdraw from Broadway's commercial pressures and increasing critical backlash. From January 1935, Odets's socially relevant dramas were extremely influential, particularly for the remainder of the Great Depression. His works inspired the next several generations of playwrights, including Arthur Miller, Paddy Chayefsky, Neil Simon, and David Mamet. After the production of his play '' Clash by Night'' in the 1941–42 season, Odets focused his energies primarily on film projects, remaining in Hollywood for the next seven years. He returned to New York in 1948 for five and a half years, during which time he produced three more Broadway plays, only one of which was a success. His prominence was eventually eclipsed by Miller, Tennessee Williams, an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Gunga Din (film)
''Gunga Din'' is a 1939 American adventure film from RKO Radio Pictures directed by George Stevens and starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., loosely based on the 1890 poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling combined with elements of his 1888 short story collection ''Soldiers Three''. The film is about three British sergeants and Gunga Din, their native ''bhisti'' (water bearer), who fight the Thuggee, an Indian murder cult, in colonial British India. The supporting cast features Joan Fontaine, Eduardo Ciannelli, and in the title role, Sam Jaffe. The epic film was written by Joel Sayre and Fred Guiol from a storyline by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, with uncredited contributions by Lester Cohen, John Colton, William Faulkner, Vincent Lawrence, Dudley Nichols, and Anthony Veiller. In 1999, ''Gunga Din'' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Cockney
Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or born within earshot of Bow Bells, although it most commonly refers to the broad variety of English native to London. Estuary English is an intermediate accent between Cockney and Received Pronunciation, also widely spoken in and around London, as well as in wider southeastern England. In multicultural areas of London, the Cockney dialect is, to an extent, being replaced by Multicultural London English—a new form of speech with significant Cockney influence. Words and phrases Etymology of Cockney The earliest recorded use of the term is 1362 in passus VI of William Langland's '' Piers Plowman'', where it is used to mean "a small, misshapen egg", from Middle English ''coken'' + ''ey'' ("a cock's egg"). Concurrently, the mythical la ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Philadelphia Story (film)
''The Philadelphia Story'' is a 1940 American romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor, starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Ruth Hussey. Based on the 1939 Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry, the film is about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist. The socialite character of the play—performed by Hepburn in the film—was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia socialite known for her hijinks, who married a friend of playwright Barry. Written for the screen by Donald Ogden Stewart and an uncredited Waldo Salt, it is considered one of the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, a genre popular in the 1930s and 1940s in which a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders, and then remarry—a useful story-telling device at a time when the depiction of extramarital affairs was blocked by the Production Code. The film ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |