|
His Girl Friday
''His Girl Friday'' is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. It was released by Columbia Pictures. The plot centers on a newspaper editor named Walter Burns who is about to lose his ace reporter and ex-wife, Hildy Johnson, newly engaged to another man. Burns suggests they cover one more story together, getting themselves entangled in the case of murderer Earl Williams as Burns desperately tries to win back his wife. The screenplay was adapted from the 1928 play ''The Front Page'' by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. This was the second time the play had been adapted for the screen, the first occasion being the 1931 film which kept the original title ''The Front Page (1931 film), The Front Page''. The script for ''His Girl Friday'' was written by Charles Lederer with the most major alteration to the source material being the changing of Hildy Johnson's gender, an idea i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name." Roger Ebert called Hawks "one of the greatest American directors of pure movies, and a hero of Auteur Theory, auteur critics because he found his own laconic values in so many different kinds of genre material." He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Sergeant York (film), Sergeant York'' (1941) and earned the Honorary Academy Award in 1974. A versatile director, Hawks explored many genres such as comedies, dramas, gangster films, science fiction, film noir, war films and Westerns. His most popular films include ''Scarface (1932 film), Scarface'' (1932), ''Bringing Up Baby'' (1938), ''Only Angels Have Wings'' (1939), ''His Girl Friday'' (1940), ''To Have and Have Not (film), To H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB's inception in 1988. History Throughout the 1980s, several prominent filmmakers and industry personalities in the United States, such as Frank Capra and Martin Scorsese, advocated for Congress to enact a film preservation bill in order to avoid commercial modifications (such as pan and scan and editing for TV) of classic films, which they saw as negative. In response to the controversy over the Film colorization#Entertainment make-overs, colorization of originally black and white films in the decade specifically, Representatives Robert J. Mrazek and Sidney R. Yates introduced the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, which established the National Film Registry, its purpose, and the criteria for selecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Jenks
Frank Jenks (November 4, 1902 – May 13, 1962) was an American actor and vaudevillian. Biography Early years Jenks was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and his mother gave him a trombone when he was 9 years old. By his late teens he was playing with Eddie Peabody and his band. Later, he became a studio musician in Hollywood, California. Movie career Jenks began in vaudeville and went on to a long career in movies and television, mostly in comedy. He was one of the more familiar faces and voices of the Hollywood Studio era. For almost ten years beginning in the early 1920s, He was a song and dance man in vaudeville. In 1933, when sound films had become the norm, Broadway actors moved to Hollywood in droves. Jenks' flat, sarcastic delivery landed him a film career. Usually a supporting actor, Jenks did appear occasionally as a film lead for low-budget films for PRC. Jenks appeared in not a few classics. In the Cary Grant-Rosalind Russell classic ''His Girl Friday'' (1940), Jenk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roscoe Karns
Roscoe Karns (September 7, 1891 – February 6, 1970) was an American actor who appeared in nearly 150 films between 1915 and 1964. He specialized in cynical, wise-cracking (and often tipsy) characters, and his rapid-fire delivery enlivened many comedies and crime thrillers in the 1930s and 1940s. Acting career Karns began acting with a San Diego stock company when he was still in high school. "I’ve never earned a dime outside of show business. I can't even claim having a newspaper route as a kid," he claimed.The Actor Hollywood Forgot: Roscoe Karns Has Outlasted All Other TV Detectives, ''TV Guide'', July 31, 1953, pages 20 to 22. Though he appeared in numerous silent films, such as '' Wings'' and '' Beggars of Life'', his career didn't really take off until sound arrived. Arguably his best-known film role was the annoying bus passenger Oscar Shapeley, who tries to pick up Claudette Colbert in the Oscar-winning comedy ''It Happened One Night'', (1934)Roscoe Karns, Actor, Dies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarence Kolb
Clarence William Kolb, sometimes given as C. William Kolb, (July 31, 1874 – November 25, 1964) was an American vaudeville performer and actor known for his comedy routines that featured a Dutch dialect. Biography Kolb started out as one half of a vaudeville comedy team, Kolb and Dill, with Max Dill. They styled their act on the famous team of Joe Weber (vaudevillian), Weber and Lew Fields, Fields. In addition to their stage work, they appeared in a series of short films and a feature-length movie in 1917. Afterwards, Kolb made a return to vaudeville, only returning to the movies in the late 1930s. In 1935, Kolb left the act to work in films as a character actor, eventually appearing in 75 feature films. He became famous for portraying similar characters in several films, usually, a businessman or politician. He is best remembered for his role as Henry Kilbourne, the flustered father in the multi-Academy Award-nominated hit comedy film ''Merrily We Live'' (1938), and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Edwards
Clifton Avon "Cliff" Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), nicknamed "Ukulele Ike", was an American pop singer, musician and actor. He enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes, including a number one hit with "Singin' in the Rain (song), Singin' in the Rain" in 1929. Later in his career, he appeared in films and did voices for animated cartoons, and is well-remembered as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's ''Pinocchio (1940 film), Pinocchio'' (1940) (introducing the standard ''When You Wish Upon a Star'') and ''Fun and Fancy Free'' (1947), and Dandy Crow in Walt Disney's ''Dumbo'' (1941). Early life and musical career Edwards was born in Hannibal, Missouri. He left school at age 14 and soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and Saint Charles, Missouri, where he entertained as a singer in Bar (establishment), saloons. As many places had pianos in bad shape or none at all, Edwards tau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Truex
Ernest Truex (September 19, 1889 – June 26, 1973) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Career Truex was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He learned acting at an early age after his father, a doctor, treated actor Edwin Melvin, who paid his bill by giving the son elocution lessons. He started acting at age five and toured through Missouri at age nine as "The Child Wonder in Scenes from Shakespeare". As a young man, he lived in Denver and was among the supporting actors at the Elitch Theatre, appearing during the 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1907 seasons. Truex began his career of "walk-ons" at Elitch while he was still a student at East High School (where his classmates included Douglas Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd.) Among his performances at the theatre were the play of When Knighthood Was in Flower with Maude Fealy. and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, which featured Tyrone Power Sr. and a young Cecil B. DeMille in the supporting cast. In 1906, he appeared in severa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porter Hall
Clifford Porter Hall (September 19, 1888 – October 6, 1953) was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s. Hall typically played villains or comedic incompetent characters. Early years Hall was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, W.A. Hall, headed a cooperage business that ended because of prohibition in the United States. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati, Hall worked for the Fleischmann Company while also directing and acting in little theater productions in Cleveland. Career Hall's Broadway credits included ''The Great Gatsby'' (1926), ''Naked'' (1926), ''Loud Speaker'' (1927), ''Night Hostess'' (1928), ''It's a Wise Child'' (1929), ''Collision'' (1932), ''The Warrior's Husband'' (1932), ''The Dark Tower'' (1933), ''The Red Cat'' (1934). Hall made his film debut in the 1931 drama '' Secrets of a Secretary''. His last onscreen appearance was in the 1954 film '' Return to Treasure Island'', which was rele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Falls is a City (New York), city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and named after the famed Niagara Falls which they share. The city is within the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the Western New York region. While the city was formerly inhabited by Native Americans, Europeans who migrated to the Niagara Falls in the mid-17th century began to open businesses and develop infrastructure. Later in the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists and businessmen began harnessing the power of the Niagara River for electricity and the city began to attract manufacturers and other businesses drawn by the promise of inexpensive hydroelectric power. After the 1960s, however, the city and region experienced an economic decline. As industries left the region, affluent and middle-class families ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolltop Desk
A rolltop desk is a 19th-century reworking of the pedestal desk with, in addition, a series of stacked compartments, shelves, drawers and nooks in front of the user, much like the bureau à gradin or the Carlton House desk. In contrast to these, the compartments and the desktop surface of a rolltop desk can be covered by means of a ''tambour'' consisting of linked wooden slats that roll or slide through slots in the raised sides of the desk. In that, it is a descendant in function, and partly in form, of the cylinder desk of the 18th century. It is a relative of the tambour desk, whose slats retract horizontally rather than vertically. Jean-François Oeben is sometimes credited with designing the original rolltop desk around 1760, however his Bureau du Roi (completed by Jean Henri Riesener after Oeben's death) was a cylinder desk. The US Patent Office issued a patent for the first American-made rolltop desk to Abner Cutler of Buffalo, NY in 1882. Production Unlike the cyl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
