In today’s LA Times: Douglas Fairbanks
In today’s LA Times, I review the new cinematic biography Douglas Fairbanks by Jeffrey Vance with Tony Maietta. In my years researching early silent film, I’d always skirted around Fairbanks,…
Category Archives: movies
Happy smiling Cormac
USA Today had the temerity to approach Cormac McCarthy pre-Oscars, and found he was all smiles. …while the Kodak Theatre lobby bustled with stars, the famously reclusive author quietly slipped…
There has been blood
I’ve just seen There Will Be Blood, and assertions that it’s based on oilman Edward Doheny are a stretch. Yes, Doheny started out as a miner; yes, he found oil;…
Obsessing the Mysteries at Sundance
Shortly after beginning my graduate career at Pitt, the place where Michael Chabon was an English major undergrad, I was an extra in the film version of his book Mysteries…
While I’m on this silent film thing
The Silent Movie Theatre in LA is doing subscriptions, under the new banner of the Cinefamily. Pay $25 a month and go to as many movies as you like; they’ll…
A few words about the silents
From the October 22 issue of the New Yorker, in which Denby meditates on film idols, but can’t bring himself to discuss the silent period beyond this one paragraph. Let…
Grindhouse, grindstone
Taking a break from my end-of-semester work delgue, I saw Grindhouse last night. If you’re curious about the Robert Rodriguez – Quentin Tarantino double feature, put on your inverse glasses…
Taking the pants off the Oscars
What better way to experience the Oscars(TM) than with a liveblog of stellar authors and slightly inebriated litbloggers? The magic will be happening here, courtesy of the hardest working man…
More noir history
Sure, you knew her as Lili Munster. But Yvonne DeCarlo first was a wickedly good film actress. Like when she starred opposite Burt Lancaster in Criss Cross, one of my…
