|
The Blue Gardenia
''The Blue Gardenia'' is a 1953 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang from a screenplay by Charles Hoffman, based on the novella ''The Gardenia'' by Vera Caspary. The film stars Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, and Ann Sothern. An independent production distributed by Warner Bros., ''The Blue Gardenia'' – a cynical take on press coverage of a sensational murder case (the Black Dahlia) – was the first installment of Lang's "newspaper noir" film trio, being followed in 1956 by both ''While the City Sleeps'' and ''Beyond a Reasonable Doubt''. The song " Blue Gardenia" was written by Bob Russell and Lester Lee and arranged by Nelson Riddle. The director of cinematography for ''The Blue Gardenia'' was RKO regular Nicholas Musuraca, then working at Warner Brothers. Plot In Los Angeles, Norah Larkin ( Anne Baxter) is a single woman who works as a switchboard operator along with her roommates, Crystal Carpenter (Ann Sothern) and Sally Ellis ( Jeff Donnell). On her birthday, she d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 63. One of the best-known ''émigrés'' from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Lang's most celebrated films include the groundbreaking futuristic ''Metropolis'' (1927) and the influential '' M'' (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film '' Woman in the Moon'' showcased the use of a multi-stage rocket, and also pioneered the concept of a rocket launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956 Film)
''Beyond a Reasonable Doubt'' is a 1956 film noir directed by Fritz Lang and written by Douglas Morrow. The film stars Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer, and Arthur Franz. It was Lang's second film for producer Bert E. Friedlob, and the last American film he directed. Plot Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer), a newspaper publisher who opposes the death penalty, wants to prove a point about the inadequacy of circumstantial evidence. He talks his daughter's fiancé, Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews), into participating in a hoax, in an attempt to expose the ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is for Tom to plant clues that will lead to his arrest for the recent murder of a female nightclub dancer, Patty Gray. Once Tom is found guilty, Spencer is to reveal the setup and humiliate the District Attorney. Tom agrees to the plan, and is convicted on the circumstantial evidence. But Spencer dies in a car accident before he can clear Tom, and the photographic e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex texture (mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic. Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–54), and this led to his becoming a household name (especially in the United States) through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. Biography Early years Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the local music conservatory, where he studied the cello. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh and strict. For example, the menu at the conservatory consisted almost entirely of fish; in his later years, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tristan Und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hoftheater und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting. Wagner referred to the work not as an opera, but called it "" (literally ''a drama'', ''a plot'', or ''an action''). Wagner's composition of ''Tristan und Isolde'' was inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (particularly ''The World as Will and Representation''), as well as by Wagner's affair with Mathilde Wesendonck. Widely acknowledged as a pinnacle of the operatic repertoire, ''Tristan'' was notable for Wagner's unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonal ambiguity, orchestral colour, and harmonic suspension. The opera was enormously influential among Western classical c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celia Lovsky
Celia Lovsky (born Cäcilia Josefina Lvovsky, February 21, 1897 – October 12, 1979) was an Austrian-American actress. She was born in Vienna, ancestry.com; accessed October 7, 2015. daughter of Břetislav Lvovsky (1857–1910), a minor Czech ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Almira Sessions
Almira Sessions (September 16, 1888 – August 3, 1974) was an American character actress of stage, screen and television. Born in Washington, D.C., her career took her through all the acting mediums of the 20th century. She appeared in over 500 films and television shows. She worked into her 80s, finally retiring shortly before her death in 1974 in Los Angeles. Early life and career Sessions was born into a very well-known family in Washington D.C. on September 16, 1888. A debutante, she followed her coming out party with her introduction into the acting profession, appearing in a 1909 performance of the comic operetta ''The Sultan of Sulu'' by George Ade and Nathaniel D. Mann. Her early career was spent performing in cabarets before she moved to New York City, where she began performing on the stage and on Bob Hope's radio show. During the 1930s she appeared in many stage productions, including several Broadway productions. Film and television While appearing on the stage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackout (drug-related Amnesia)
A drug-related blackout is a phenomenon caused by the intake of any substance or medication in which short-term and long-term memory creation is impaired, therefore causing a complete inability to recall the past. Blackouts are frequently described as having effects similar to that of anterograde amnesia, in which the subject cannot recall any events after the event that caused amnesia. Research on alcohol blackouts was done by E. M. Jellinek in the 1940s. Using data from a survey of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members, he came to believe that blackouts would be a good determinant of alcoholism. However, there are conflicting views whether this is true. The negative psychological after effects of heavy alcohol use are worsened in those with anxiety disorders. The same groups may also experience anxiety around their activities during an alcohol-related blackout, as they have no memory of their actions. Impairment of the liver will also allow more alcohol to reach the brain and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire Poker
A fire iron is any metal instrument for tending a fire. Types There are three types of tools commonly used to tend a small fire, such as an indoor fireplace fire or yule log: the spade, the tongs and the poker itself. These tools make it possible to handle a fire without risk of burns or blisters. A fireplace poker (also known as a fire iron) is a short, rigid rod made of fireproof material used to adjust coal and wood fuel burning in a fireplace, and can be used to stir up a fire. A fireplace poker is usually metallic and has a point at one end for pushing burning materials (or a hook for pulling/raking, or a combination) and a handle at the opposite end, sometimes with an insulated grip. Iron is the most popular metal from which the pokers are wrought. Brass is a more expensive alternative for a home poker set. A slice bar has a flatter tip and can be used to stir up the fire or to clear the grates of ashes. Other fire irons include the fire rake (not to be confused with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950) , place = Korean Peninsula, Yellow Sea, Sea of Japan, Korea Strait, China–North Korea border , territory = Korean Demilitarized Zone established * North Korea gains the city of Kaesong, but loses a net total of {{Convert, 1506, sqmi, km2, abbr=on, order=flip, including the city of Sokcho, to South Korea. , result = Inconclusive , combatant1 = {{Flag, First Republic of Korea, name=South Korea, 1949, size=23px , combatant1a = {{Plainlist , * {{Flagicon, United Nations, size=23px United Nations Command, United Nations{{Refn , name = nbUNforces , group = lower-alpha , On 9 July 1951 troop constituents were: US: 70.4%, ROK: 23.3% other UNC: 6.3%{{Cite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Switchboard Operator
In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated systems, first those allowing direct dialing within a local area, then for long-distance and international direct dialing. Description A typical telephone switchboard has a vertical panel containing an array of jacks with a desk in front. The desk has a row of switches and two rows of plugs attached to cables that retract into the desk when not in use. Each pair of plugs was part of a cord circuit with a switch associated that let the operator participate in the call or ring the circuit for an incoming call. Each jack had a light above it that lit when the customer's telephone receiver was lifted (the earliest systems required the customer to hand-crank a magneto to alert the central office and, later, to "ring off" the completed call). Lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1923 by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner, the company established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation, television, and video games and is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The company is known for its film studio division the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, the Warner Animation Group, Castle Rock Entertainment, and DC Studios. Among its other assets, stands the television production company Warner Bros. Television Studios. Bugs Bunny, a cartoon character created by Tex Avery, Ben Hardaway, Chuck Jones, Bob Givens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
