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The Silent Film Fanatic TCM Film Festival Preview!

Beth Ann Gallagher
Film Festivals, Silent Film, TCM Film Festival
Feb 21, 2015
4 Comments

Classic film circles are abuzz about March’s Turner Classic Movies Film Festival. This year’s theme is History According to Hollywood, and many movie buffs are guessing what film favorites fitting that theme will screen. While the festival is only about a month away, its full schedule has not been announced yet. I’ve gone over what titles…

More San Francisco Silent Film Festival Fun!

Beth Ann Gallagher
Film Festivals, San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Silent Film
Nov 8, 2014
0 Comments

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival has gotten a little longer for its 20th anniversary. A day has been added to the festival! The event now runs Thursday, May 28, 2015 through Monday, June 1, 2015. Past years, programming ended on the Sunday evening. This is great news for attendees. An extra day of films…

CMBA Forgotten Stars Blogathon: The Time Bebe Daniels Couldn’t Get Out of a Speeding Ticket

Beth Ann Gallagher
Bebe Daniels, Blogathons, CMBA, Forgotten Stars
Oct 31, 2014
25 Comments

It reads like a publicity stunt out of the movie Bombshell. Silent film sweetheart Bebe Daniels was ticketed for speeding, tried, convicted, sentenced to jail, and forced to serve time. Rather than being planned like the stunts in that movie, Bebe did like to speed, and she had gotten caught. Her press agent helped her spin a potentially…

World War One in Classic Film Blogathon: Dark Journey (1937)

Beth Ann Gallagher
Blogathons, Conrad Veidt, Spy Films, Vivien Leigh, War Films, World War One in Classic Film
Sep 7, 2014
16 Comments

Vivien Leigh viewed Dark Journey as a “personal failure.” It was her sixth film, but “her first true leading role,” and her lack of confidence during the production made her overly critical of her performance. She might not have counted it among her best, but she plays the part of Madeleine Goddard better than she thought. A double agent during World…

That’s Not Musidora! A Case of Mistaken Identity Compounded by Tumblr

Perhaps it’s not unexpected that an actress who’s best remembered for playing a disguised thief suffers from a case of mistaken identity on the internet. In the silent film Les Vampires, Musidora plays Irma Vep, who dons a catsuit for convenience in movement as she commits her crimes. This may be the first cinematic catsuit, and it…

Quote: Silent Film Can Become An Addiction

“Silent cinema can become like an hypnotic experience. I think you can get entranced. It’s almost like a voodoo experience. At least it has happened to me, and I really believe that some of film viewers, they have to give a chance to silent cinema because they have to be brave, because I have a…

We Want Ice Cream!

This weekend I celebrated a milestone birthday, and my confectionery of choice was ice cream. That got me thinking of the technicolor conclusion of Kid Millions (1934). If you’ve never seen the film, watching the above clip won’t spoil you. It’s pure fantasy that’s mostly unrelated to the film’s complicated comedy plot. In this film,…

Happy Fourth of July!

Have a happy Fourth of July! Don’t be like Joan and get too close to fireworks. After the holiday, expect posts on recent Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum events, Charlie Chaplin Days and the 16th Annual Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival, the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and the PFA’s Raoul Walsh film series….

Quote: The Power of Silence

“One of the things that Scorsese said right from the beginning was that I want silence, silence, as much silence as possible. Of course the instinct of the sound editors is always to put tons of sounds in–things echoing, footsteps echoing, dripping water, and all of those things. When I first went in to do…

Happy Birthday, Edward Gorey!

Beth Ann Gallagher
Birthdays, Edward Gorey, Film Fanatics, Special Occasions
Feb 22, 2013
0 Comments

I first got my hands on an Edward Gorey anthology as a little girl, and I devoured it. The black and white imagery of other eras, the humor, and the outrageous outcomes appealed to me. Children like their grim tales, and these were beautifully illustrated. Gorey isn’t just for children. He can be appreciated by…

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