“You never see a high-class Mexican on the screen. It is always the poor, uneducated peasant or bandit. Consequently, the American people have come to look upon the Mexicans as a nation of cutthroats. The jails of America are full of criminals and there are just as many more of them at large. But this […]
“A director must be pretty bad if he can’t get a thrill out of war, murder, robbery.” — James Whale “He influenced every director that came after him in the genre, and his films aren’t relics…That’s quite an achievement.” — biographer James Curtis With director Boris Karloff. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). With […]
Frederick Ko’Vert (also spelled Frederic Ko Vert and Kovert) (1901-1949) was a female impersonator, male dancer/instructor, costume designer and silent movie player. In 1921, he got his big break after he wowed Fox Studio producers with his peacock costume and accompanying dance. He was then hired to cast, train and choreograph 36 dancers for the […]
“Like Garbo I have been given many labels by the newspapers. ‘Very nearly as handsome as Valentino‘… ‘the masculine version of that mysterious fascination that is Garbo’s.’ I am tired of being just a screen lover, and I hope some day to get a chance to be myself. I am rather like Greta in that […]
“I am the luckiest guy in the world. All my dreams came true. I was in a wonderful business, and I met great people all over the world.” — Van Johnson
“I can’t knock my pictures. They have tremendous box-office appeal.” — Vincent Price Source: Kevin Thomas (1970) Photo: The Masque of the Red Death (1964) “I played so many gentle men at the beginning of my career that I certainly wanted to play some villains and so I got kind of stuck in villains.” […]
“The secret of ‘charm’ is ‘bullshit.’” — Tyrone Power, Jr. “Tyrone Power was my ideal man.” — Sophia Loren The Razor’s Edge (1946). Artwork by Norman Rockwell. Co-stars Gene Tierney, John Payne, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb and Herbert Marshall. Tyrone Powers‘ grave, located at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Section 8, Lot […]
“It was the night of the Titanic all over again, with women grabbing the wrong children and Louis B. Mayer singing ‘Nearer My God to Thee.’” — William Haines talking about the arrival of talking pictures. If you don’t recognize the Ambassador Hotel offhand, it is the French room redecorated to resemble a Parisian […]
“When we talk of commercialism, most of us think of the sort of photoplays that people are enthusiastic about, and it means to most of us that we are going to forget all about art.” — Edwin August in 1915 “There are no friends like the old friends after all. I honestly believe that […]
“The leading man’s life is not a bed of roses…Pictures, particularly, have been too greatly dominated by women for their own good. In other words, the feminine influence has entered first through the use of domestic novels, largely written by women; and then the dominance of women stars on the screen. It was inevitable that […]