I've written at length about director/producer Cecil B. DeMille ( here , for example), one of the best and most influential of the silen...

Apropos of nothing: while researching a project unrelated to this blog, I read up on Lily Langtry ("Lillie" in Britain, usually; ...

Before Marlene Dietrich, before Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren or even Greta Garbo, Polish film star Pola Negri made the journey from Europe t...

"That's Typing" Tuesday, in which I share unpolished, unpublished writings from my vast store of unpolished, unpublished writi...

Be sure to look for a Joan Blondell double feature on Turner Classic Movies early Thursday, June 9, 2011, with Night Nurse at 6 a.m. EDT, f...

Katie-Bar-The-Door and I are back from the beach—that's Katie on the right. Except for a couple of moments on a borrowed computer to ans...

I'm working on another of those mammoth essays, this about the films of 1915 generally, which I am determined to post by Saturday at the...