Zachary Scott: Hollywood’s Sophisticated Cad Ronald L. Davis Release Date: July 24, 2013 (Reprint); February 27, 2006 (Original printing) University Press of Mississippi Softcover, 238 pages Last summer, the University Press of Mississippi reprinted Ronald L. Davis’ biography of character actor Zachary Scott, subtitled Hollywood’s Sophisticated Cad, in paperback. As today marks the centennial of Scott’s…
Sandra Kovak (Mary Astor) is a world-class pianist, playing to adoring fans all over the world. On an impulse (and in a drunken haze), she marries Peter Van Allen (George Brent), not realizing that her divorce from her previous husband was not yet valid. Peter is secretly relieved that the marriage to the demanding Sandra…
Mary Wickes: I Know I’ve Seen That Face Before Steve Taravella Release Date: June 1, 2013 University of Mississippi Press Hardcover, 370 pages Throughout a seven-decade career in show business, Mary Wickes was a welcome and hilarious presence in hundreds of movies, television series and films, stage productions, and radio broadcasts. Much like contemporaries such…
By all accounts, Mary Wickes did not start out her life with the intention to become an actress. She was a St. Louis debutante who attended college early, graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in political science with plans to attend law school–that is, until she gave in to the allure…
Blogathons, blogathons, blogathons! It seems like every classic movie blog on the web is hosting one in the next couple of months. And that is not a complaint–it’s fantastic to see the interest in classic films that such blogathons tend to generate and promote among movie fans. We told you about several upcoming events in our…
If you’re a classic movie fan, you’ve probably seen Joyce Compton in dozens of minor film roles–she played a wide variety of nurses, waitresses, and random girlfriends in almost two hundred movies throughout her three-decades-long career. But she wasn’t merely relegated to these type of blink-and-you’ll-miss-her roles. In the heyday of her career in the…
One of the most visible and beloved supporting players of the 1950s was a middle-aged, theater-trained actress from Brooklyn, Thelma Ritter. You may not know her name, but if you’re a classic movie fan, you know her face. Ritter appeared in supporting roles in a series of big-name films opposite some big-name stars—Bette Davis, Marilyn…
Nothing makes me smile more than when I’m watching a movie on TCM that I have never seen before and the smiling, round face of Cuddles Sakall appears on the screen. And this past Friday’s lineup had double the Cuddles; the network’s night of Gordon MacRae films featured two movies co-starring Sakall, Tea for Two…
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