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The Strange Affair Of Uncle Harry
''The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry'', also known as ''Uncle Harry'' and ''The Zero Murder Case'', is a 1945 American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Ella Raines. It is based on the stage play ''Uncle Harry'' by Thomas Job, which was first performed in 1938. Plot Harry Quincey is an amiable middle-aged bachelor working as a designer in a fabric mill in the small New England town of Corinth. Younger people in town call him "Uncle Harry". He lives in the family's mansion with his two sisters, the younger Lettie and the older Hester. Lettie idles days away in bed, feigning numerous ailments. Although the Quinceys were once rich and influential, their money was lost in the Great Depression, and it is Harry's occupation which secures the family's income. Everything is disrupted by the arrival of a new female designer at the mill, Deborah, an elegant young woman from New York City. Harry and Deborah develop an interest in ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Siodmak
Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German Jewish film director. His career spanned some 40 years, working extensively in the United States and France, as well as in his native country. Though he worked in many genres, he was best known as a skilled craftsman of thrillers and film noir, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for '' The Killers'' (1946). Early life Siodmak was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of Rosa Philippine (née Blum) and Ignatz Siodmak and the brother of Curt, Werner and Roland. His parents were both from Jewish families in Leipzig (the myth of his American birth in Memphis, Tennessee was necessary for him to obtain a visa in Paris during World War II). He worked as a stage director and a banker before becoming editor and scenarist for Curtis Bernhardt in 1925 (Bernhardt directed a film of Siodmak's story '' Conflict'' in 1945). At twenty-six he was hired by his cousin, producer Seymour Nebenzal, to assemble origina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moyna Macgill
Moyna Macgill (born Charlotte Lillian McIldowie; 10 December 1895 – 25 November 1975) was a Scots-Irish actress from Belfast and the mother of actress Angela Lansbury and producers Edgar and Bruce Lansbury. In 2020, she was listed at number 35 on ''The Irish Times'' list of Ireland's greatest film actors. Early life Born Charlotte Lillian McIldowie at 42 Eglantine Avenue in south Belfast, she was the daughter of William McIldowie and Elizabeth Jane (née Mageean). Her father was a wealthy solicitor of Scottish parentage who was a director of the Grand Opera House in Belfast, a position that sparked her interest in theatrics. Career As a teenager she was noticed riding the London Underground by director and producer George Pearson, who cast her in several of his films. In 1918, she made her stage debut in the play ''Love is a Cottage'' at the West End theatres Globe Theatre. Encouraged by Sir Gerald du Maurier to change her name to Moyna Macgill (which invariably was mis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy William Neill
Roy William Neill (born Roland de Gostrie, 4 September 1887 – 14 December 1946) was an Irish-born American film director best known for producing and directing almost all of the Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series), Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Pictures. Biography With his father as the captain, Roy William Neill was List of people born at sea, born on a ship off the coast of Ireland. Neill lived in the United States for most of his career and was an American citizen. He began directing silent films in 1917 and went on to helm 111 films, 55 of them silent. He was also credited in some works as R. William Neill, Roy W. Neill, and Roy Neill. Neill was known for his striking visual style: meticulously lit scenes, careful compositions, and layered shadows that would become the tone of ''film noir'' in the late 1940s (his last film, ''Black Angel (1946 film), Black Angel'' (1946), is considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test Screening
A test screening, or test audience, is a preview screening of a film or television series before its general release to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold Lloyd is credited with inventing the concept, having used it as early as 1928. Test screenings evolved from these early examples into a systematic practice. According to research from Kevin Goetz's book "Audience-ology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love" (2021), by the 1970s, studios formalized the process as they invested more heavily in marketing and distribution strategies. Today, approximately 90 percent of widely released studio films undergo test screenings, with the average movie being tested three times. Test screenings have been recommended for starting filmmakers "even if a film festival is fast approaching". Notable examples and outcomes of test screenings In 2004, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
20th Century Studios
20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company. It is headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles, which is leased from Fox Corporation. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the films produced by this studio in theatrical markets. For over 80 years, 20th Century has been one of the major film studios, major American film studios. It was formed in 1935 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation by the merger of Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures, and one of the original "studio system, Big Five" among eight majors of Hollywood's Cinema of the United States#Classical Hollywood cinema and the Golden Age of Hollywood, Golden Age. In 1985, the studio remov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Classical Hollywood cinema#1927–1960: Sound era and the Golden Age of Hollywood, Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America studio were studio system, brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA executive David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name (an initialism of Radio-Keith-Orpheum). Two years later, another Kennedy concern, the Pathé Exchange, Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motion Picture Association
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Studios, as well as the video streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from 1945 until September 2019, its original goal was to ensure the viability of the American film industry. In addition, the MPA established guidelines for film content which resulted in the creation of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1930. This code, also known as the Hays Code, was replaced by a voluntary Motion Picture Association film rating system, film rating system in 1968, which is managed by the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA). The MPA has advocated for the motion picture and television in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Breen
Joseph Ignatius Breen (October 14, 1888 – December 5, 1965) was an American film censor with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America who applied the Hays Code to film production.Staff report (December 8, 1965). Joseph I. Breen, Film Code Chief; Watchdog of Movie Morals For Years Is Dead at 75. ''New York Times'' Early life and career Breen was the youngest of three sons born to Mary and Hugh A. Breen in Philadelphia. His father had emigrated from Ireland and met his mother Mary in New Jersey. Breen was raised in a strict Roman Catholic home and attended Gesu Parish School until the eighth grade. He then attended Boys Catholic High School. He attended Saint Joseph's College but dropped out after two years, after which he worked as a newspaper reporter for fourteen years in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. After working as a reporter, Breen worked for the United States Foreign Service for four years, serving in Kingston, Jamaica, and in Toron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frame Story
A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories. The frame story leads readers from a first story into one or more other stories within it. The frame story may also be used to inform readers about aspects of the secondary narrative(s) that may otherwise be hard to understand. This should not be confused with narrative structure. Notable examples are the ''1001 Nights'' and ''The Decameron''. Origins Some of the earliest frame stories are from ancient Egypt, including one in the Papyrus Westcar, the ''Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor'', and ''The Eloquent Peasant''. Other early examples are from Indian literature, including the Indian epic poetry, Sanskrit epics ''Mahabharata'', ''Ramayana'', ''Panchatantra'', Syntipas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of Broadway theaters, extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names. Many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also use the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional Theater (structure), theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End theatre, West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phantom Lady (film)
''Phantom Lady'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, and Alan Curtis. Based on the novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich, it follows a young Manhattan secretary and her endeavors to prove that her boss did not murder his wife. Plot After a fight with his wife on their anniversary, Scott Henderson, a 32-year-old engineer, picks up an equally unhappy woman at Anselmo's Bar in Manhattan, and they take a taxi to see a stage show. The woman refuses to tell him anything about herself. The star of the show they are watching, Estela Monteiro, becomes furious when she notices that she and the mystery woman are wearing the same distinctive hat. When Henderson returns home, he finds Police Inspector Burgess and two of his men waiting to question him; his wife has been strangled with one of his neckties. Henderson has a solid alibi, but the bartender, taxi driver, and Monteiro remember him but deny seeing the phantom lady. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Craig Reynolds (actor)
Craig Reynolds (born Harold Hugh Enfield, July 15, 1907 – October 22, 1949) was an American film actor of the 1930s and 1940s. Early life and career Reynolds was born in Anaheim, California, in 1907, the son of Leila Maybelle (née Goold) and Oscar Davenport Enfield. Reynolds enjoyed a film career spanning the 1930s and 1940s, although the majority of his roles occurred during the first decade of his career. In 1933 the actor signed with Universal Pictures, playing supporting roles in features and a Buck Jones serial. During this period he was billed as Hugh Enfield. The serial unit gave him a starring role in the 1934 version of '' The Perils of Pauline'', billing him as Robert Allen. After his tenure with Universal, he appeared in three features for Paramount Pictures in 1935 before being signed by Warner Brothers that same year. Warners rechristened him Craig Reynolds and groomed him as a rising star. He played second leads and featured roles in "A" pictures, and lead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
