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Song Of Russia
''Song of Russia'' is a 1944 American war film made and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The picture was credited as being directed by Gregory Ratoff, though Ratoff became ill near the end of the five-month production, and was replaced by László Benedek, who completed principal photography; the credited screenwriters were Paul Jarrico and Richard J. Collins. The film stars Robert Taylor, Susan Peters, and Robert Benchley. Most of the score is adaptations of Tchaikovsky compositions by Herbert Stothart. Jerome Kern and Yip Harburg contributed the song "And Russia Is Her Name". Plot American orchestra conductor John Meredith (Robert Taylor) and his manager, Hank Higgins (Robert Benchley), travel to the Soviet Union shortly before the country is invaded by Germany. Meredith falls in love with beautiful Soviet pianist Nadya Stepanova (Susan Peters) while they tour the country on a 40-city tour. Their bliss is destroyed by the German invasion. Cast Production Metro-Gol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregory Ratoff
Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was best known for his role as producer "Max Fabian" in ''All About Eve'' (1950). Early life Ratoff was born in Samara, Russia, to Jewish parents. His mother was Sophie (née Markison) who claimed to have been born on September 1, 1878, but was married on June 14, 1894, when she would have been 15, to Benjamin Ratner (born 1864),Ancestry Library Edition with whom she had four children, the eldest of whom was Grigory, whose date of birth she gave as April 7, 1895 but later April 20 was cited as Gregory Ratoff's birthdate, and the year given as 1893, 1896 and 1897, variously. Sophie Ratner later adopted her son's stage surname (Ratoff) when she herself became a naturalized United States citizen. Sophie Ratoff died on August 27, 1955. Her date of birth is given as September 13, 1877 in the California Death Index (1940� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Stothart
Herbert Pope Stothart (September 11, 1885February 1, 1949) was an American songwriter, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won Best Original Score for '' The Wizard of Oz''. Stothart was widely acknowledged as a prominent member of the top tier of Hollywood composers during the 1930s and 1940s. Life and career Herbert Stothart was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied music in Europe and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he later taught. Stothart was initially hired by producer Arthur Hammerstein to serve as a musical director for touring companies of Broadway shows. He soon began composing music for Oscar Hammerstein II, the producer's nephew. Notably, Stothart composed music for the famous operetta, ''Rose-Marie''. He collaborated with renowned composers such as Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin and Franz Lehár. Stothart achieved success on the pop charts with standards like "Cute Little Two by Four," "Wildflo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wengraf
John Wengraf (23 April 1897 – 4 May 1974) was an Austrian actor. Early years Wengraf was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Career Wengraf became a matinee idol in the 1930s, and was director of the Vienna State Theatre. He emigrated to Britain in 1939 as the National socialism, Nazis began their rise to power in Austria. While in London, he was involved with more than 100 plays as either director or actor. Wengraf appeared unbilled in a couple of films, as well as in some of the first BBC live-television shows ever presented. In 1941 he appeared on Broadway theatre, Broadway with Helen Hayes in ''Candle in the Wind (play), Candle in the Wind'' and decided to stay in the US. His other Broadway credits included ''The Traitor'' (1949) and ''The French Touch'' (1945). The following year he settled in the Los Angeles area. He found himself invariably playing the very characters he detested. Some of his more nefarious nasties surfaced in such films as the Humphrey Bogart classic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konstantin Shayne
Konstantin Shayne (born Konstantin Veniaminovich Olkenitski; , November 29, 1888 – November 15, 1974) was a Russian-American actor. Biography Shayne was born in Kharkov, Russian Empire (now Kharkiv, Ukraine) to the family of Veniamin Olkenitsky-Nikulin, a Jewish actor. His siblings were actress Tamara Shayne and writers Lev and Yuriy Nikulin. World War I intervened before he could join the Moscow Arts Theatre, and during the conflict he fought with General Wrangel and the White Armies. Shayne was married two times and he also had children. Shayne emigrated to the United States in 1928, travelling as a second-class passenger on board the S/S ''Berengaria'', which arrived at the Port of New York on September 14, 1928. He was listed as Konstantin Schein, an artist residing in Berlin, Germany. As an actor, Shayne performed in movies such as '' None but the Lonely Heart'' (1944) and '' The Stranger'' (1946), starring (and directed by) Orson Welles. He performed in ''The Secret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Sokoloff
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sokoloff (; December 26, 1889 – February 15, 1962) was a Russian actor of stage and screen. After studying theatre in Moscow, he began his professional film career in Germany and France during the Silent era, before emigrating to the United States in the 1930s. He appeared in over 100 films and television series, often playing supporting characters of various nationalities and ethnicities. Early life and education Sokoloff was born in Moscow, Russian Empire. He was raised bilingual, speaking both Russian and German. He studied theatre in Moscow, first at the Moscow State University and later at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating in 1913. At one point a pupil of Constantin Stanislavski, he would later reject Method acting (as well as all other acting theories). Career Upon graduation, he joined the Moscow Art Theatre as an actor and assistant director. Later in the decade, he joined the Kamerny Theatre. In the early 1923, he toured with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Lorring
Joan Lorring (born Madeline Ellis; April 17, 1926 – May 30, 2014) was an American actress and singer known for her work in film and theatre. For her role as Bessy Watty in ''The Corn Is Green'' (1945), Lorring was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Lorring also originated the role of Marie Buckholder in '' Come Back, Little Sheba'' on Broadway in 1950, for which she won a Donaldson Award (an early version of the Tony Award). Early years Lorring was born in Hong Kong. Her family fled Hong Kong in 1941 following the Japanese invasion, traveling by boat to Honolulu, and then landing in San Francisco. Soon after, they moved to Los Angeles and Madeleine (known by her nickname "Dellie") began working as a child actress in radio and film – she was credited as "Dellie Ellis" when she played the title role in the radio program '' A Date With Judy'' (1942). She eventually adopted ''Joan Lorring'' as her stage name. Radio Lorring began her career as a child ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacqueline White
Jacqueline Jane White (born November 27, 1922) is an American actress who had a career in Hollywood from 1942 until 1952, where she was featured in approximately 25 feature films. White, at the age of 17, signed on a film contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and subsequently with RKO, where she found her greatest success and is perhaps best remembered for her roles in films ''Crossfire'' (1947), ''Banjo'' (1947) , '' Mystery in Mexico'' (1948) and '' The Narrow Margin'' (1952). She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Early years White was born on November 27, 1922, in Beverly Hills, California to Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Garrison White. Her cousin, Frank Knox, was a Secretary of the Navy and a newspaper owner and publisher. She was from Beverly Hills, California. She attended Beverly Hills High School and the University of California, Los Angeles. White and actress Lynn Merrick were childhood friends until White moved. They were reunited when both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darryl Hickman
Darryl Gerard Hickman (July 28, 1931 – May 22, 2024) was an American actor, screenwriter, television executive, and acting coach. He started his career as a child actor in the Golden Age of Hollywood and appeared in numerous television serials as an adult, including several episodes of the CBS series ''The Nanny''. He appeared in films such as ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1940) and ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1945). He was the older brother of Dwayne Hickman, an actor, television executive, producer and director. Child actor in the 1930s and 1940s In the mid-1930s, Darryl was discovered by a dance-school director, and subsequently became a student there. The following year, Hollywood studio Paramount signed a contract with the child actor. His first film role was as Ronald Colman's son in ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' in 1937. He attended Paramount's school in California and his classmates included Gene Nelson and Jackie Cooper. In preparation for the 1939 Bing Crosby movie '' Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Chekhov
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Chekhov (; 16 August 1891 – 30 September 1955), known as Michael Chekhov, was a Russian-American actor, Theatre director, director, author, and theatre practitioner. He was a nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov and a student of Konstantin Stanislavski. Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student. Although mainly a stage actor, he made a few notable appearances on film, perhaps most memorably as the Freudian analyst in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Spellbound (1945 film), Spellbound'' (1945), for which he received his only Academy Awards, Academy Award nomination. Life He was born in Saint Petersburg, the son of Alexander Chekhov (the elder brother of Anton Chekhov) and his wife Natalya Aleksandrovna Golden. It was his father's second marriage. His mother, a Russian Jew, had been the governess to the children from his father's first marriage. He was raised in a middle-class family; his father was in the Imperial Customs Service and was a mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felix Bressart
Felix Bressart (March 2, 1895 – March 17, 1949) was a German-born actor of stage and screen whose career spanned both Europe and Hollywood. Early days Bressart (pronounced "BRESS-ert") was born in Eydtkuhnen, East Prussia, Germany (now in Nesterovsky District, Russia). Career Bressart’s acting debut came in 1914 as Malvolio in ''Twelfth Night'' and he went on to act in Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. He was an experienced stage actor when he had his film debut in 1927. He began as a supporting actor, for example as the bailiff in the boxoffice hit '' Die Drei von der Tankstelle'' ('' The Three from the Filling Station''), but soon established himself in leading roles of minor movies. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, the Jewish Bressart left Germany and continued his career in German-speaking movies in Austria, where Jewish artists were still relatively safe. After acting in 40 German films, he immigrated to the United States in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hodiak
John Hodiak ( ; April 16, 1914 – October 19, 1955) was an American actor who worked in radio, stage and film. Early life Hodiak was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Anna (Pogorzelec) and Walter Hodiak. He was of Ukrainian and Polish descent. Hodiak grew up in Hamtramck, Michigan. Career Radio When Hodiak first tried out for a radio acting job, he was turned down because of his accent. He became a caddie at a Detroit golf course, then worked at a Chevrolet automobile factory – and practised his diction. When he conquered the diction hurdle, he became a radio actor and moved to Chicago. There Hodiak created the role of the comic strip character Li'l Abner on radio.Maltin 1994, p. 491. Hodiak also had the role of McCullough in the radio soap opera '' Girl Alone''. Hollywood Hodiak was cast in a few small parts at MGM, including '' A Stranger in Town'' (1943), '' I Dood It'' (1943) and '' Maisie Goes to Reno'' (1944). Stardom Hodiak then caught th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a front, with the main goal of capturing territory up to a line between Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan, known as the A-A line. The attack became the largest and costliest military offensive in history, with around 10 million combatants taking part in the opening phase and over 8 million casualties by the end of the operation on 5 December 1941. It marked a major escalation of World War II, opened the Eastern Front—the largest and deadliest land war in history—and brought the Soviet Union into the Allied powers. The operation, code-named after the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa ("red beard"), put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goals of eradicating communism and conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
