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Ricardo Cortez in 'Ten Cents a Dance,' with Barbara Stanwyck. No matter how unthankful the role, whether hero or heel – or, not infrequently, a combination of both – Cortez left his bedroom-eyed, mellifluous-voiced imprint in his pre-Production Code talkies. Besides Barbara Stanwyck, during the 1920s and 1930s Cortez made love to and/or life difficult for, a whole array of leading ladies of that era, including Bebe Daniels, Gloria Swanson, Betty Compson, Betty Bronson, Greta Garbo, Florence Vidor, Claudette Colbert, Mary Astor, Kay Francis, Joan Crawford, Irene Dunne, Joan Blondell, and Loretta Young*. (See previous post: “Ricardo Cortez Q&A: From Latin Lover to Multiethnic Heel.”) Not long after the coming of sound, Ricardo Cortez was mostly relegated to playing subordinate roles to his leading ladies – e.g., Kay Francis, Irene Dunne, Claudette Colbert – or leads in “bottom half of the double bill” programmers at Warner Bros. or on loan to other studios. Would...

Considering everything that's been happening on the planet in the last several months, you'd have thought we're already in November or December – of 2117. But no. It's only June. 2017. And in some parts of the world, that's the month of brides, fathers, graduates, gays, and climate change denial. Beginning this evening, Thursday, June 1, Turner Classic Movies will be focusing on one of these June groups: Lgbt people, specifically those in the American film industry. Following the presentation of about 10 movies featuring Frank Morgan, who would have turned 127 years old today, TCM will set its cinematic sights on the likes of William Haines, James Whale, George Cukor, Mitchell Leisen, Dorothy Arzner, Patsy Kelly, and Ramon Novarro. In addition to, whether or not intentionally, Claudette Colbert, Colin Clive, Katharine Hepburn, Douglass Montgomery (a.k.a. Kent Douglass), Marjorie Main, and Billie Burke, among others. But this is ridiculous! Why should TCM present a...

Robert Pattinson and David Cronenberg ‘Maps to the Stars’ gets German distribution, Toronto screening Starring Robert Pattinson, Julianne Moore, John Cusack, and Mia Wasikowska, Maps to the Stars has found a German distributor. Screen Daily reports that Christian Meinke’s Mfa+ has acquired the rights to the David Cronenberg-directed Hollywood satire at the American Film Market, recently held in Santa Monica. Mfa+ also picked up Vincent Grashaw’s feature debut Coldwater and Tobias Lindholm’s Danish thriller A Hijacking / Kapringen, which has a similar premise to that of the Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks hit Captain Phillips. (Photo: Robert Pattinson on the set of Maps to the Stars.) In Map to the Stars, John Cusack (replacing Viggo Mortensen) plays a Los Angeles analyst and self-help guru whose wife (Olivia Williams) is immersed in the career of their teen star son (Evan Bird), fresh off of rehab. Their daughter (Mia Wasikowska...

Death did not come to silent movies on little cat feet. He burst in singing on October 6, 1927 when Warner Bros. released “The Jazz Singer.” The irony is that silent movies reached their artistic peak in 1928, something that was strikingly demonstrated Tuesday night when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science and the Mary Pickford Foundation presented King Vidor’s drama about one common man, “The Crowd.”As funny as it is sad, “The Crowd” had the audience at the half-filled Academy theatre laughing in all of the right places and none of the wrong ones. And the acting, particularly by Eleanor Boardman as the wife of a man fruitlessly trying to climb above the crowd (“One of the Mob” was Vidor’s original title) has nothing in common with the oversized gestures and dramatic poses that have made some silent films a modern joke. Boardman, Vidor’s wife, expresses...

The Crowd

Directed by King Vidor

Written by King Vidor and John V.A. Weaver

USA, 1928

The Crowd is that rarest of all Hollywood productions – a studio-made film that was never intended to make money. Released by industry leader MGM in March 1928, this magnificent cinematic treatise on the pitfalls of American Dreaming was greenlit by F. Scott Fitzgerad’s “Last Tycoon” himself, wunderkind Irving Thalberg, who believed that true success in the entertainment industry entailed tossing the occasional “pure prestige” production at the public, whether they wanted it or not. Made at the height of America’s dizzying 1920s business boom, The Crowd is perhaps even more timely today than it was 85 years ago, and Saturday’s Tsff screening (endlessly enhanced by the improvisational piano work of accompanist Laura Silberberg) proved that it has lost none of its capacity to dazzle and unsettle contemporary viewers, in equal measure.

King Vidor’s...

Lon Chaney on TCM: He Who Gets Slapped, The Unknown, Mr. Wu Get ready for more extreme perversity in West of Zanzibar (1928), as Chaney abuses both Warner Baxter and Mary Nolan, while the great-looking Mr. Wu (1927) offers Chaney as a Chinese creep about to destroy the life of lovely Renée Adorée — one of the best and prettiest actresses of the 1920s. Adorée — who was just as effective in her few early talkies — died of tuberculosis in 1933. Also worth mentioning, the great John Arnold was Mr. Wu's cinematographer. I'm no fan of Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), or The Phantom of the Opera (1925), but Chaney's work in them — especially in Hunchback — is quite remarkable. I mean, his performances aren't necessarily great, but they're certainly unforgettable. Chaney's leading ladies — all of whom are in love with younger, better-looking men — are Loretta Young (Laugh, Clown, Laugh), Patsy Ruth Miller...

Eleanor Boardman, John Gilbert in King Vidor‘s Bardelys the Magnificent John Gilbert on TCM: The Big Parade, Flesh And The Devil Schedule (Pt) and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Busher, The (1919) In this silent film, a minor-league baseball player gets his shot at the big leagues. Cast: Charles Ray, Colleen Moore, John Gilbert. Dir: Jerome Storm. Bw-55 mins. 4:00 Am He Who Gets Slapped (1924) In this silent film, a scientist flees his tragic past to become a circus clown. Cast: Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert. Dir: Victor Seastrom. Bw-72 mins. 5:30 Am Merry Widow, The (1925) In this silent film, a European nobleman courts the wealthy American widow he once loved to save his bankrupt homeland, Cast: Mae Murray, John Gilbert, Tully Marshall. Dir: Erich von Stroheim. Bw-137 mins. 8:00 Am Show, The (1927) In this silent film, a sideshow dancer secretly loves the show’s amoral barker.

John Barrymore and John Gilbert, legendary womanizers and pals who drank themselves to death, were two of the biggest stars of the silent era. Now some of their best work, unseen for decades, has surfaced on DVD.

Gilbert is at the top of his game in "Bardelys the Magnificent" (1926), a delightful, tongue-in-cheek swashbuckler that's been beautifully restored, with stills and footage from the trailer used to seamlessly replace a missing reel.

Adapted from a novel by Rafael Sabatini ("Captain Blood"), this reunion with the celebrated director...