100 Favorite Classic Hollywood Films from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s PDF Download

Author: Gary Koca
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781077993440
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
In two past books that I have written, I focused on Forgotten Stars of the 1930s through the 1950s; that is stars who were pretty big movie stars in their time but that most people today would not be familiar with unless they were fans of classic Hollywood films of that era. I have also written books on great Western stars and on good and bad science fiction movies of the 1950s. In this book, however, I am concentrating on my favorite 100 movies of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. I have focused on American films only, with a few British films included also. (I am not an expert on foreign language films, so there are none in here.) Please note that this means that they are MY favorite films, not the BEST films of those three decades. For example, Citizen Kane (along with Casablanca) are generally regarded as the best two American films of the classic era. However, while I like Citizen Kane, it is just not one of my favorite films, and I'm not really sure why. Perhaps I never thought it really justified its ranking, so I dropped it from my list altogether. The same thing would apply to Vertigo, although I have two other Hitchcock films in the list. I will also admit that I am partial to certain genres of films, in particular the following: -Westerns-Film noir-Monster movies-Horror movies -Mysteries, particular those of Alfred Hitchcock-Swashbucklers-musicals

Author: Gary Koca
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781482575019
Category : Motion picture actors and actresses
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book provides information on 25 leading motion picture stars of the 1930's, 40's, and 50's who were relatively big stars in their heyday but are virtually unknown today to anyone under the age of 45. The book provides a biography, awards received, and a review of 4-8 of the best films of each star. Tyrone Power and Barbara Stanwyck are two of the 25 stars in the book.

Author: James L. Neibaur
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476680442
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
The 1930s represented the strongest and most significant decade in Clark Gable's career. Later known as The King of Hollywood, Gable started out as a journeyman actor who quickly rose to the level of star, and then icon. With his ruggedly attractive looks and effortless charisma, Gable was the sort of manly romantic lead that bolstered features alongside the likes of Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, and Spencer Tracy. The decade culminated with Gable's most noted movie, Gone With the Wind. This book traces Gable's early career, film-by-film, offering background information and a critical assessment of each of his movies released during the 1930s.

Author: Gary Koca
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
My previous books on Forgotten Movie Stars of the 1930s through 1950s have focused on the leading men and women of that era. While those individuals are pretty much the movie stars that we remember, their films would have gone nowhere without the contributions of supporting actors and actresses who made their movies great. After all, what would Casablanca have been without Claude Rains? The Manchurian Candidate without Angela Lansbury? The leading ladies and leading men could get by with their good looks, charisma, and not always great acting ability. On the other hand, supporting actors and actresses HAD to know how to act. And so, this book is a tribute to some of the greatest supporting actors of the classic film era in Hollywood from the 1930s through 1950s. Again, as in all my books, the people selected are based on my personal preferences. There are some people who probably should be in the book - Beulah Bondi comes to mine - but I just have not seen enough of her films to include her. You, the reader, may agree with some and disagree with others. That is your prerogative. I also never make a claim to have seen every film or actors from that era, but these are just the folks that have appealed to me. For each of these individuals, I have included some biographical information, including how they got their start in films: my favorite films of each individual; and other interesting notes about the person.

Author: Richard Misek
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444332392
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Chromatic Cinema Color permeates film and its history, but study of its contribution to film has so far been fragmentary. Chromatic Cinema provides the first wide-ranging historical overview of screen color, exploring the changing uses and meanings of color in moving images, from hand painting in early skirt dance films to current trends in digital color manipulation. In this richly illustrated study, Richard Misek offers both a history and a theory of screen color. He argues that cinematic color emerged from, defined itself in response to, and has evolved in symbiosis with black and white. Exploring the technological, cultural, economic, and artistic factors that have defined this evolving symbiosis, Misek provides an in-depth yet accessible account of color’s spread through, and ultimate effacement of, black-and-white cinema.

Author: Jeanine Basinger
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 030783154X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 806

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Book Description
Now, Voyager, Stella Dallas, Leaver Her to Heaven, Imitation of Life, Mildred Pierce, Gilda…these are only a few of the hundreds of “women’s films” that poured out of Hollywood during the thirties, forties, and fifties. The films were widely disparate in subject, sentiment, and technique, they nonetheless shared one dual purpose: to provide the audience (of women, primarily) with temporary liberation into a screen dream—of romance, sexuality, luxury, suffering, or even wickedness—and then send it home reminded of, reassured by, and resigned to the fact that no matter what else she might do, a woman’s most important job was…to be a woman. Now, with boundless knowledge and infectious enthusiasm, Jeanine Basinger illuminates the various surprising and subversive ways in which women’s films delivered their message. Basinger examines dozens of films, exploring the seemingly intractable contradictions at the convoluted heart of the woman’s genre—among them, the dilemma of the strong and glamorous woman who cedes her power when she feels it threatening her personal happiness, and the self-abnegating woman whose selflessness is not always as “noble” as it appears. Basinger looks at the stars who played these women and helps us understand the qualities—the right off-screen personae, the right on-screen attitudes, the right faces—that made them personify the woman’s film and equipped them to make believable drama or comedy out of the crackpot plots, the conflicting ideas, and the exaggerations of real behavior that characterize these movies. In each of the films the author discusses—whether melodrama, screwball comedy, musical, film noir, western, or biopic—a woman occupies the center of her particular universe. Her story—in its endless variations of rags to riches, boy meets girl, battle of the sexes, mother love, doomed romance—inevitably sends a highly potent mixed message: Yes, you women belong in your “proper place” (that is, content with the Big Three of the women’s film world—men, marriage, and motherhood), but meanwhile, and paradoxically, see what fun, glamour, and power you can enjoy along the way. A Woman’s View deepens our understanding of the times and circumstances and attitudes out of which these movies were created.

Author: Jeanine Basinger
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
This extraordinary book--published to commemorate the centennial celebration of the birth of American film and a 10-part PBS-TV series scheduled for the new year--surveys the phenomenon that is Hollywood, past and present. With more than 200 illustrations, 100 in full color, and including some never before published, this book celebrates the best of American films.

Author: Carla Valderrama
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762495855
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
In this one-of-a-kind Hollywood history, the creator of Instagram's celebrated @ThisWasHollywood reveals the forgotten past of the film world in a dazzling visual package modeled on the classic fan magazines of yesteryear. From former screen legends who have faded into obscurity to new revelations about the biggest movie stars, Valderrama unearths the most fascinating little-known tales from the birth of Hollywood through its Golden Age. The shocking fate of the world's first movie star. Clark Gable's secret love child. The film that nearly ended Paul Newman's career. A former child star who, at ninety-three, reveals her #metoo story for the first time. Valderrama unfolds these stories, and many more, in a volume that is by turns riveting, maddening, hilarious, and shocking. Drawing on new interviews, archival research, and an exhaustive library of photographs, This Was Hollywood is a compelling and visually stunning catalogue of the lost history of the movies.

Author: Jeremy Arnold
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0762459476
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Showcasing 52 Essential films from the silent era through the 1980s, Turner Classic Movies invites you into a world filled with stirring performances, dazzling musical numbers, and bold directorial visions that mark the greatest moments in film history. Since its inception on Turner Classic Movies in 2001, The Essentials has become the ultimate series for movie lovers to expand their knowledge of must-see cinema and discover or revisit landmark films that have had a lasting impact on audiences everywhere. Based on the TCM series, The Essentials book showcases fifty-two must-see movies from the silent era through the early 1980s. Readers can enjoy one film per week, for a year of stellar viewing, or indulge in their own classic movie festival. Some long-championed classics appear within these pages; other selections may surprise you. Each film is profiled with insightful notes on why it's an Essential, a guide to must-see moments, and running commentary from TCM's Robert Osborne and Essentials guest hosts past and present, including Sally Field, Drew Barrymore, Alec Baldwin, Rose McGowan, Carrie Fisher, Molly Haskell, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, and Rob Reiner. Featuring full-color and black-and-white photography of the greatest stars in movie history, The Essentials is your curated guide to fifty-two films that define the meaning of the word "classic."

Author: Ron Backer
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786469757
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
This companion volume to Mystery Movie Series of 1940s Hollywood (McFarland, 2010) focuses on 22 series and 167 individual films, primarily released during the 1930s. It was a decade that featured some of the most famous cinema detectives of all time, among them Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, Philo Vance, Nancy Drew, and such lesser known but equally entertaining figures as Hildegarde Withers, Torchy Blane, Mr. Moto, Mr. Wong, and Brass Bancroft. Each mystery movie series is placed within its historical context, with emphasis on its source material and the changes or developments within the series over time. Also included are reviews of all the series' films, analyzing the quality and cohesiveness of the mystery plotlines. For titles based on literary sources, a comparison between the film and the written work is provided.