|
Naked Alibi
''Naked Alibi'' is a 1954 American film noir crime film directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame and Gene Barry. It was released on October 1, 1954 by Universal Pictures, Universal-International. Portions of the film were shot in Tijuana. Plot In a California city, police lieutenant Fred Parks interrogates mild-mannered baker Albert Willis about his suspected involvement in a series of violent robberies. When Willis angrily assaults Parks during questioning, Chief Joseph "Joe" E. Conroy intervenes but is pressured to release Willis due to political scrutiny from city councilman Edgar Goodwin, who is investigating allegations of police brutality. That night, Parks is murdered, and Joe takes charge of the case. Despite circumstantial evidence linking Willis to the crime—notably matching bullets from the murder—the police lack definitive proof. Willis flees during a subsequent arrest attempt, sustaining a head injury. Public outrage over his treatment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Hopper
Harold Hankins Hopper (July 29, 1907 – December 17, 1988), known professionally as Jerry Hopper, was an American film and television director, active from the mid-1940s through the early 1970s. Early life Jerry Hopper was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Career Hopper started as an office assistant at Paramount Pictures before becoming a radio scriptwriter and an editor before moving to the directors' chair for several installments of their Musical Parade series (1946–48). Hopper went on to direct feature films, such as, ''The Atomic City'' (1952), ''Pony Express (film), Pony Express'' (1953), ''Secret of the Incas'' (1954), and ''The Private War of Major Benson'' (1955), the latter three with actor Charlton Heston. In 1958 he directed Brandon deWilde and Lee Marvin in ''The Missouri Traveler''. He then moved primarily into episodic television, having appeared in ''Colt .45 (TV series), Colt .45'', ''Bachelor Father (U.S. TV series), Bachelor Father'', ''Wagon Train'', ''Guns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Chapin
William McClellan Chapin (December 28, 1943 – December 2, 2016) was an American child actor, known for a considerable number of screen and TV performances from 1943 to 1959 and best remembered for both his roles as the "diaper manager" Christie Cooper in the 1953 family feature '' The Kid from Left Field'' and little John Harper in Charles Laughton's 1955 film noir movie '' The Night of the Hunter''. Chapin was the brother of former child actors Lauren Chapin, known as Kathy "Kitten" Anderson from the TV series ''Father Knows Best'' and of Michael Chapin, another child performer of the 1940s and 1950s. Life and career Born William McClellan Chapin on December 28, 1943, in Los Angeles, he was the second of three children of Roy Chapin, a bank manager, and Marquerite Alice Barringer, who later became a kind of personal coach for all of her children's acting careers. His sister Lauren later told about alcohol problems and sexual abuse in the troubled family. Early roles an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1954 Films
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones. Top-grossing films United States The top ten 1954 released films by box office gross in the United States are as follows: International Events * A reproduction of "America's First Movie Studio", Thomas Edison's Black Maria, is constructed. * May 12 — The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda. The two were married in 1927. * September 29 — '' A Star is Born'' premieres and marks Judy Garland's comeback after her termination from her contract at MGM. An astounding success with critics and audiences, ''A Star is Born'' not only marks the first time that legendary director George Cukor has made a film musical or a film in Technicolor and in anamorphic widescreen format, but also becomes regarded as one of Garland's best performances in her film career. * November 3 — The film '' Godzilla'' premieres in Japan. It becomes a huge success and the first in the ''Godzilla'' film fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letterboxd
Letterboxd ( ) is an online social cataloging service for film founded (partially with investment company Tiny since 2023) and owned by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011, and headquartered in New Zealand. Members can rate and review films, keep track of which ones they have seen in the past and when, make lists of films, showcase their favorites, tag films using text keywords, and interact with other cinephiles. It has been described as "Goodreads for movies." Letterboxd's popularity spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. It had over 17 million registered users as of January 2025. Although the website is generally limited to films, its leadership intends to add television shows in the future. History Development Seeking to develop a "Goodreads for film," web designers Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow launched a private version of the Letterboxd website at the Brooklyn Beta web conference in October 2011. The name "Letterboxd" is an allusion to letterboxing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Ratio
The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 (abbreviated as 1.37:1) is an aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio of a film frame, frame of 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film when used with negative pulldown, 4-perf pulldown.Monaco, James. ''How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media''. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. .Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin. ''Film Art: An Introduction''. Rev. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993. . It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although similar-sized ratios were used as early as 1928. History Silent films were shot at a 11/3:1 aspect ratio (also known as a 1.:1 or 4:3 aspect ratio), with each frame using all of the negative space between the two rows of film perforations for a length of 4 perforations. The frame line between the silent film frames was very thin. When sound-on-film was introduced in the late 1920s, the soundtr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangle is oriented as a "landscape format, landscape". The aspect ratio is most often expressed as two integer numbers separated by a colon (x:y), less commonly as a simple or decimal Fraction (mathematics), fraction. The values x and y do not represent actual widths and heights but, rather, the proportion between width and height. As an example, 8:5, 16:10, 1.6:1, and 1.6 are all ways of representing the same aspect ratio. In objects of more than two dimensions, such as hyperrectangles, the aspect ratio can still be defined as the ratio of the longest side to the shortest side. Applications and uses The term is most commonly used with reference to: * Graphic / image ** Aspect ratio (image), Image aspect ratio ** Display aspect ratio ** Pape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kino International
The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the Berlin Wall#The Fall, fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today it is a protected historic building and one of the venues of the annual Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). Karl-Marx-Allee construction After the completion of Karl-Marx-Allee from Strausberger Platz to Proskauer Straße, the next phase (1959–1965) was to extend the street to Alexanderplatz. After the plans of Hermann Henselmann were rejected, a competition was held in which seven architectural firms participated. In contrast to the first phase of construction of the Allee, dominated by the construction of elaborate Stalinist Architecture, Socialist Classicist buildings, the second phase included a mixture of Plattenbau, retail stores, restaurants, and cultural facilities according to plans of Edmund Collein, Werner Dut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-definition video ( HDTV 720p and 1080p). The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The name refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs, resulting in an increased capacity. The polycarbonate disc is in diameter and thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Conventional (or "pre-BDXL") Blu-ray discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual-layer discs (50GB) being the industry standard for feature-length video discs. Triple-layer discs (10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Mell
Joseph Mell (June 23, 1915 – August 31, 1977) was an American film and television actor. He was known for starring as Burt Stone in the 1971 film '' The Ski Bum''. Mell died on August 31, 1977 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 62. Partial filmography *''Hollywood Story'' (1951) - Sylvester (uncredited) *''When Worlds Collide'' (1951) - Glen Spiro (uncredited) *'' The Big Night'' (1951) - Mr. Ehrlich, Store Owner (uncredited) *'' Just This Once'' (1952) - Mr. Green (uncredited) *'' The Sniper'' (1952) - Joe, Presser (uncredited) *'' Deadline – U.S.A.'' (1952) - Lugerman (uncredited) *''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952) - Projectionist (uncredited) *''The Atomic City'' (1952) - Dr. Gus Schwambach (uncredited) *''Kid Monk Baroni'' (1952) - Gino Baroni *''Young Man with Ideas'' (1952) - Municipal Judge (uncredited) *''Actor's and Sin'' (1952) - George Murry *'' Sally and Saint Anne'' (1952) - Mr. Shapiro (uncredited) *'' Monkey Business'' (1952) - Barber (uncredited) *'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fay Roope
Fay Roope (born Winfield Harding Roope; October 20, 1893 – September 13, 1961) was a Harvard graduate and a character actor who appeared in American theater in New York City from the 1920s through 1950, and in American film and television from 1949 through 1961. Early life Winfield Harding Roope was born October 20, 1893, in Allston, Massachusetts, near Boston, the only son of George Winfield Roope and Lucie Mattie Jacobs, a wealthy couple listed in Newton's '' Blue Book''. He "prepared" at Stone School for Boys, a Boston boarding school, and attended Harvard University from 1912 to 1916. During his time there he appeared in varied dramatic and musical roles in school productions. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the university in 1916."Quinquennial catalogue of the Officers and Graduates, Harvard University", Harvard University (1920), p. 503 Acting career He began acting professionally on stage in New York City in the early 1920s, and continued to do so for almost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tol Avery
Taliaferro Ware "Tol" Avery (August 28, 1915 – August 27, 1973) was an American film and television character actor who appeared in more than 100 separate works between 1950 and 1974. Biography Early in his career, Avery portrayed Lieutenant Steve King on ''The Thin Man''. Noted for his girth and cultured voice, Avery usually played sophisticated and articulate villains, including the featured nemesis in six out of seven episode appearances on the ABC/Warner Brothers western television series '' Maverick'' starring James Garner, Jack Kelly and Roger Moore between 1957 and 1962. The episodes were "According to Hoyle" with Garner and Diane Brewster, "Rope of Cards" with Garner, "Yellow River" with Kelly, "Maverick Springs" with Garner and Kelly as well as Kathleen Crowley, "Last Wire from Stop Gap" with Kelly and Moore (in which Avery does not play a villain), "Maverick at Law" with Kelly, and "Poker Face" with Kelly. In 1958, he appeared in the episode "Devil to Pay" of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Wilcox
Frank Reppy Wilcox (March 13, 1907 – March 3, 1974) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films and television series, as well as Broadway plays. Background Wilcox was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roger V. Wilcox. He was born in De Soto, Missouri, but the family moved to Atchison, Kansas. Wilcox worked in Kansas City as an oil company's sales manager. Acting career Wilcox joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse. By December 1924, he headed the Frank Wilcox Company, which produced plays in venues that included the Lyceum in Baltimore. In 1927, he became a member of The Lambs Club. Wilcox became a contract player for Warner Bros., beginning with the 1939 short film ''The Monroe Doctrine'', in which he was chosen to portray the American statesman Henry Clay during the early 1820s. He played Abraham Lincoln as a militia captain in another 1939 film short ''Old Hickory'', based on key events in the public career of President Andrew Jackson. During World War II Wilcox se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
