|
Julius Tannen
Julius Tannen (May 16, 1880 – January 3, 1965) was a monologist in vaudeville. He was known to stage audiences for his witty improvisations and creative word games. He had a successful career as a character actor in films, appearing in over 50 films in his 25-year film career. He is probably best known to film audiences from the musical ''Singin' in the Rain'', in which he appears as the man demonstrating a talking picture early in the film. Early years After the deaths of his parents, Tannen was placed in an orphanage in Indianapolis, Indiana, when he was seven years old, and he lived there until he was 13. He worked as a private secretary until he was 21. Career Tannen never intended to become a performer. As a young man, he was a salesman whose pitch was so good that he began to get offers to entertain at parties. He made his professional vaudeville debut at the age of 21, and soon developed into a monologist, the predecessor to today's stand up comic. He would frequen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manhattan, New York City
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. Located near the southern tip of New York State, Manhattan is based in the Eastern Time Zone and constitutes both the geographical and demographic center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. Over 58 million people live within 250 miles of Manhattan, which serves as New York City’s economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and the city’s historical birthplace. Manhattan has been described as the cultural, financial, Media in New York City, media, and show business, entertainment capital of the world, is considered a safe haven for global real estate investors, and hosts the United Nations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stranded (1935 Film)
''Stranded'' is a 1935 American drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Kay Francis, George Brent and Patricia Ellis. The film's sets were designed by the art director Anton Grot. Plot Lynn Palmer is a volunteer for Travelers Aid in San Francisco who goes out of her way to help for immigrants, travelers, the unemployed and the homeless. Mack Hale is a construction manager on the Golden Gate Bridge (which would not be completed until 1937), who comes to Lynn's station seeking information about a worker he wants to hire. Lynn and Mack are attracted to each other, despite their different personalities and outlook. Lynn's roommate, Velma Tuthill, is the daughter of one of the bridge's backers and is also attracted to Mack. Lynn and Mack date, even though he is often put off by how she turns her attentions to people he thinks are unworthy. In the meantime, Mack comes under pressure from a protection racket mob led by "Sharkey". Sharkey bribes and manipulates some wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sturges
John Eliot Sturges (; January 3, 1910 – August 18, 1992) was an American film director. His films include '' Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955), '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'' (1957), ''The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), '' The Great Escape'' (1963), and '' Ice Station Zebra'' (1968). In 2013, ''The Magnificent Seven'' and 2018, '' Bad Day at Black Rock'' were selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Career Sturges started his career in Hollywood as an editor in 1932. During World War II, Sturges directed documentaries and training films as a captain in the United States Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit. Sturges's mainstream directorial career began with '' The Man Who Dared'' (1946), the first of many B movies. In the suspense film '' Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955), he made imaginative use of the widescreen CinemaScope format by placing Spencer T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Remember The Night
''Remember the Night'' is a 1940 American Christmas romantic comedy trial film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray and directed by Mitchell Leisen. The film was written by Preston Sturges and was the last of his scripts shot by another director, as Sturges began his own directorial career the same year with '' The Great McGinty''.TCNotes/ref> Plot Lee Leander is arrested for stealing a bracelet from a New York City jewelry store. The assistant district attorney, John "Jack" Sargeant, is assigned to prosecute her. The trial begins just before Christmas, but to avoid facing a jury filled with the holiday spirit, Jack has the trial postponed on a technicality. When he hears Lee complaining to her lawyer about spending Christmas in jail, Jack feels guilty and asks bondsman Fat Mike to post bail. Fat Mike assumes that Jack intends to seduce Lee, and after he posts bail for her, he delivers her to Jack's apartment. Discovering that Lee is a fellow Hoosier (native of Indiana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unfaithfully Yours (1948 Film)
''Unfaithfully Yours'' is a 1948 American screwball black comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallée and Barbara Lawrence. The film is about a jealous symphony conductor who imagines three different ways to deal with the supposed infidelity of his beautiful wife—murder, forbearance, and a suicidal game of Russian roulette—during a concert of three inspiring pieces of classical music. At home, his attempts to bring any of his fantasies to life swiftly devolve into farce—underscored with humorous adaptations of the relevant music. In the end, the truth comes out, and love triumphs. Although the film, which was the first of two Sturges made for Twentieth Century-Fox, received mostly positive reviews, it was not successful at the box office. Plot Sir Alfred de Carter is a world-famous symphony conductor who returns from a visit to his native England and discovers that his rich and boring brother-in-law, August ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sin Of Harold Diddlebock
''The Sin of Harold Diddlebock'' is a 1947 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring the silent film comic icon Harold Lloyd, and featuring a supporting cast including female protagonist Frances Ramsden, Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Edgar Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn, J. Farrell MacDonald, Robert Dudley, Robert Greig, Lionel Stander and Jackie the Lion. The film's story is a continuation of '' The Freshman'' (1925), one of Lloyd's most successful movies. ''The Sin of Harold Diddlebock'' was Sturges' first project after leaving Paramount Pictures, where he had made his most popular films, but the film was not successful in its initial release. It was quickly pulled from distribution by producer Howard Hughes who took almost four years to re-shoot some scenes and re-edit the film,Erickson, Ha"The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (Allmovie)/ref> finally re-releasing it in 1950 as ''Mad Wednesday'' – but the reception by the gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Great Moment (1944 Film)
''The Great Moment'' is a 1944 biographical film written and directed by Preston Sturges. Based on the book ''Triumph Over Pain'' (1940) by René Fülöp-Miller, it tells the story of Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a 19th-century Boston dentist who discovered the use of ether for general anesthesia. The film stars Joel McCrea and Betty Field, and features Harry Carey, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn and Porter Hall. The movie was filmed in 1942 but not released for over two years. Paramount Pictures disliked the film Sturges had made, and pulled it from his control, re-titled and re-edited it. The studio's released version was marketed in a way that made it appear to be one of Sturges' comedies. The film was not well received by the critics or the public, and marked the end of a sustained run of success for Sturges, who had already left Paramount by the time the film was released.TCNotes/ref>Nixon, Ric"The Great Moment" (TCM article)/ref> Plot Eben Frost is seen headin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hail The Conquering Hero
''Hail the Conquering Hero'' (1944) is a satirical comedy-drama film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines and William Demarest, and featuring Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson, Bill Edwards and Freddie Steele. Sturges was nominated for a 1945 Academy Award for his screenplay. Many critics consider the film to be one of Sturges's best.TCNotes/ref> It was the eighth film he made for Paramount Pictures, and also his last, although '' The Great Moment'' was released after it. Sturges later wrote about his departure, "I guess Paramount was glad to be rid of me eventually, as no one there ever understood a word I said." In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith is a small town boy whose father, "Hinky Dinky" Truesmith, was a Marine who die ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek
''The Miracle of Morgan's Creek'' is a 1944 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall. Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff reprise their roles from Sturges' 1940 film '' The Great McGinty''. ''The Miracle of Morgan's Creek'', which was filmed in 1942 and early 1943, but not released until 1944, was nominated for a 1945 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and in 2001, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film ranks #54 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list of the top 100 funniest films in movie history. Plot Trudy Kockenlocker is the daughter of the police chief of the small town of Morgan's Creek. Against her father's orders, she attends a wild farewell party for a group of soldiers at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Palm Beach Story
''The Palm Beach Story'' is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced variation of the '' William Tell Overture'' for the opening scenes. Typical of a Sturges film, the pacing and dialogue of ''The Palm Beach Story'' are very fast. Plot Inventor Tom Jeffers and his wife Gerry are down on their luck financially. Married for five years, the couple are still waiting for Tom's ship to come in. Anxious for the finer things in a life she's no longer enjoying, Gerry decides that they both would be better off if they split. Before she can act she ends up entangled with the Wienie King, a strange old man being shown round her apartment with his wife by a building manager anxious to rent it out from beneath his delinquent tenants. Sympathetic to her plight - and utterly taken by her youth and charm - the man gives her $ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sullivan's Travels
''Sullivan's Travels'' is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. A satire on the film industry, it follows a famous Hollywood comedy director (Joel McCrea) who, longing to make a socially relevant drama, sets out to live as a tramp to gain life experience for his forthcoming film. Along the way he unites with a poor aspiring actress (Veronica Lake) who accompanies him. The title is a reference to ''Gulliver's Travels'', the 1726 novel by satirist Jonathan Swift about another journey of self-discovery. ''Sullivan's Travels'' received disparate critical reception: ''The New York Times'' described it as "the most brilliant picture yet this year", praising Sturges's mix of escapist fun with underlying significance, and ranked it as one of the ten best films of 1941. But ''The Hollywood Reporter'' said that it lacked the "down to earth quality and sincerity which made turges'sother three pictures of 1941 – '' The Great McGinty'', '' The Lady Eve'', and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lady Eve
''The Lady Eve'' is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda."The Lady Eve." ''IMDB.'' Retrieved: November 17, 2011. The film is based on a story by about a mismatched couple who meet on board an . In 1994, ''The Lady Eve'', which is included on many "Top 100" films of all-time lists, was selected for preservation in the United States |
