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Don Juan (1926 Film)
''Don Juan'' is a 1926 synchronized sound American Romance film, romantic adventure film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. The film is inspired by Lord Byron's 1821 epic poem Don Juan (Byron), of the same name. The screenplay was written by Bess Meredyth with intertitles by Maude Fulton and Walter Anthony. ''Don Juan'' stars John Barrymore as the hand-kissing womanizer. Plot In the prologue, Don José, warned of his wife's infidelity, seals his wife's lover alive in his hiding place and drives her from the castle. His jealous last mistress, Donna Isobel, stabs him. With his dying words he implores his son, Don Juan, to take all from women but yield nothing. Ten years later, young Don Juan, a graduate of the University of Pisa, is famous as a lover and pursued by many women, including the powerful Lucrezia Bor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Crosland
Frederick Alan Crosland (August 10, 1894 – July 16, 1936) was an American stage actor and film director. He is noted for having directed the first feature film using spoken dialogue, ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927) and the first feature movie with sychronization soundtrack, ''Don Juan (1926 film), Don Juan'' (1926). Early life and career Born in New York City, New York (state), New York to a well-to-do American Jews, Jewish family, Crosland attended Dartmouth College. After graduation, he took a job as a writer with the ''New York Globe'' magazine. Interested in the theatre, he began acting on stage, appearing in several productions with Shakespeare, Shakespearian actress Annie Russell. Crosland began his career in the motion picture industry in 1912 at Edison Studios in The Bronx, New York City, New York, where he worked at various jobs for two years until he had learned the business sufficiently well to begin directing short films. By 1917, he was directing feature-length films a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound-on-disc
Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent systems use timecodes. Examples of sound-on-disc processes France * The Chronophone ( Léon Gaumont) "Filmparlants" and phonoscènes 1902–1910 (experimental), 1910–1917 (industrial)Thomas Louis Jacques Schmitt, « The genealogy of clip culture » in Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena (dir.) ''Rewind, Play, Fast Forward'', transcript, United States * Vitaphone introduced by Warner Bros. in 1926 * Photokinema, short-lived system, invented by Orlando Kellum in 1921 (used by D. W. Griffith for '' Dream Street'') * Digital Theater Systems United Kingdom * British Phototone, short-lived UK system using 12-inch discs, introduced in 1928-29 ('' Clue of the New Pin'') Other * Systems with the film projector linked to a phonograph or cylinde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josef Swickard
Josef Swickard (June 26, 1866 – March 1, 1940) was a Prussian-born American stage and screen character actor, who had toured with stock companies in Europe, South Africa, and South America. Career Swickard emigrated to the United States from the German Empire in 1882. He was a stage actor for several years before entering films with D.W. Griffith in 1912 and by 1914 was playing supporting roles for Mack Sennett. He appeared in Charles Chaplin's ''Laughing Gas'' and ''Caught in a Cabaret''. He remained with Sennett until 1917, when he settled into his prolific career of playing mostly aristocratic characters. Modern audiences are perhaps most familiar with his role of Marcelo Desnoyers, the well-intentioned but impractical French upper class father in Rex Ingram's 1921 film '' The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse''. His career in sound films was somewhat limited and he played in low-budget and action serial type films. He played the villainous Prime Minister Kruel in the 1925 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montagu Love
Montagu Love (15 March 1877 – 17 May 1943) was an English screen, stage and vaudeville actor. Early years Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Love was the son of Harry Love and Fanny Louisa Love, née Poad; his father was listed as accountant on the 1881 English Census. Career Educated in Great Britain, Love began his career as an artist, with his first important job as an illustrator for ''The Illustrated Daily News'' in London. Love's acting debut came with an American company in a production in the Isle of Wight. His Broadway debut occurred in ''The Second in Command'' (1913). He was typically cast in heartless villain roles. In the 1920s, he played with Rudolph Valentino in ''Son of the Sheik (film), The Son of the Sheik'', opposite John Barrymore in ''Don Juan (1926 film), Don Juan'', and appeared with Lillian Gish in 1928's ''The Wind (1928 film), The Wind''. He also portrayed 'Colonel Ibbetson' in ''Forever (1921 film), Forever'' (1921), the silent film version of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estelle Taylor
Ida Estelle Taylor (May 20, 1894 – April 15, 1958) was an American actress who was the second of world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey's four wives. With "dark-brown, almost black hair and brown eyes," she was regarded as one of the most beautiful silent film stars of the 1920s. After her stage debut in 1919, Taylor began appearing in small roles in World and Vitagraph films. She achieved her first success with '' While New York Sleeps'' (1920), in which she played three different roles, including a femme fatale, or "vamp." She was a contract player of Fox Film Corporation and, later, Paramount Pictures, but for the majority of her career she freelanced. She became famous and was commended by reviewers for her portrayals of historical women in important films: Miriam in '' The Ten Commandments'' (1923), Mary, Queen of Scots in ''Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall'' (1924), and Lucrezia Borgia in ''Don Juan'' (1926). Although she made a successful transition to sound films, she ret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia (13 September 1475 – 12 March 1507) was a Cardinal (Catholic Church)#Cardinal_deacons, cardinal deacon and later an Italians, Italian ''condottieri, condottiero''. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI of the Aragonese people, Aragonese House of Borgia and was a sibling to Lucrezia Borgia. After initially entering the Church and becoming a cardinal on his father's election to the papacy, he resigned his diaconal profession after the death of his brother in 1498. He was employed as a ''condottiero'' for King Louis XII of France around 1500, and occupied both Milan and Naples during the Italian Wars. At the same time, he carved out a state for himself in Central Italy, but he was unable to retain power for long after his father's death. His quest for political power was a major inspiration for ''The Prince'' by the renowned Florence, Florentine historian, Niccolò Machiavelli. Early life Like many aspects of Cesare Borgia's life, the date of his birth i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Oland
Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund; October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor. His career included time on Broadway and numerous film appearances. He is most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American characters: Dr. Fu Manchu, Henry Chang in '' Shanghai Express'', and, most notably, Honolulu Police detective Lieutenant Charlie Chan in 16 films. Early years Oland was born in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden. He claimed that his vaguely Asian appearance was due to possessing some Mongolian ancestry,Hanke, Ken. Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism'. McFarland & Company: Jefferson, North Carolina, 1989.LoBianco, Lorraine.Daughter of the Dragon Turner Classic Movies. though his known ancestry contains no indication that this was so.Swedish genealogist Sven-Erik Johansson has traced Ölund's ancestry back 5 generations/ref> In his native Sweden, one theory (to explain his a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Roche (actor)
John Roche (May 6, 1893 – November 10, 1952) was an American actor of the stage and screen. Biography John Conklin Roche was born in the small village of Penn Yan, New York, on May 6, 1893. His father purportedly died by the time of the 1900 census. By 1910, Roche worked as a stenographer at a flour mill. He graduated from the University of Rochester, after which he began his acting career touring with stock companies during the 1910s and early 1920s. By the time of the 1920 census, he listed himself as divorced and worked as a motor truck engineer in Manhattan. In 1922, he broke into the film industry with a featured role in '' The Good Provider''. During the 1920s, he acted in both films and on stage, including several roles in Broadway productions, such as '' R.U.R.'' (1922). By 7 April 1930, he lived in Los Angeles with his partner, Newell Vanderhoef, with whom he stayed until at least 1950. He acted steadily in films until 1936, in both featured and supporting roles. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Winton
Jane Winton (October 10, 1905 – September 22, 1959) was an American film actress, dancer, opera soprano, writer, and painter. Early years Winton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1905. The deaths of her father when she was four years old and her mother when she was six led to Winton's being "swapped back and forth among relatives, none of whom had proper funds to support her and therefore offered her more resentment than affection." Eventually, an elderly doctor who was a family friend adopted her and raised her in a strict environment. After she graduated from a finishing school in Connecticut, she ran away rather than enter Bryn Mawr College and become a doctor, which was her guardian's desire for her. She went to stay with a friend in New York City and was discovered there by producers Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky, Jesse Lasky. Actress During the 1920s, she began her stage career as a dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies. After coming to the West Coast, Winton bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Juan
Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. The original version of the story of Don Juan appears in the 1630 play (''The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest'') by Tirso de Molina. The play includes most of the elements found and later adapted in subsequent works, including the setting (Seville), the characters (Don Juan, his servant, his love interest, and her father, whom he kills), moralistic themes (honor, violence and seduction, vice and retribution), and the dramatic ending in which Don Juan dines with and is then dragged down to hell by the stone statue of the father he had previously slain. Tirso de Molina's play was subsequently adapted into numerous plays and poems, of which the most famous include a 1665 play, ''Dom Juan'', by Molière; a 1787 opera, ''Don Giovanni'', with music by Mozart and a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte largely adapting Tirso de Molina's play; a sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was an Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She was a former governor of Spoleto. Her family arranged several marriages for her that advanced their own political positions, including to Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Gradara, Count of Cotignola; Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie and Prince of Salerno; and Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples, and tradition has it that Lucrezia's brother Cesare may have had him murdered after his political value waned. Notorious tales about her family have cast Lucrezia as a '' femme fatale'', a controversial role in which she has been portrayed in many artworks, novels, and films. Early life Lucrezia Borgia was born on 18 April 1480 at Subiaco, near Rome. Her mother was Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of the mistresses of Lucrez ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Pisa
The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, it is part of the Pisa University System. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place its origins in the 11th century. It is certain, however, that from the middle of the 12th century Pisa had a “Universitas” in the original sense of the word, that is, a group of students who gathered around masters. It was during this period that Leonardo Fibonacci was born and worked. He was one of the greatest mathematicians in history who, through his work, synthesized the spirit and processes of Greek geometry and the tools of Arabic mathematics for the first time in Europe. The papal seal “In Supremae dignitatis”, issued by Pope Clement VI on 3 September 1343, grant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
