Film History

The idea to reboot the legendary, award-winning miniseries Roots nearly 40 years later was executive producer Mark Wolper’s, and it did not come easily.

It was the late 1920s and Jack Foley was a producer, director and writer working at Universal Pictures at its old location on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.

Written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Arthur Miller, directed by Oscar winner John Huston, and starring two Hollywood legends — Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe — The Misfits premiered in New …

Shortly after graduating film school, I saw the motion picture City of God (Cidade de Deus) in a small art house theatre. I remember thinking to myself, “This is one …

This year, as part of its annual selection of fully restored classics, the 72nd International Venice Film Festival presented, along with Federico Fellini’s Amarcord (1973), Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard (1965) …

Have you seen Laurel and Hardy do exactly the same skit in both a silent and a sound version? Was it actually the quality of John Gilbert’s voice that doomed …

As a child growing up in Minneapolis, I thought it’d be crazy to live in an arid, season-less place where earthquakes could strike at any moment, but at some point …

Seventy-five years ago, on August 14, 1940 — back when studios still owned theatres — The Great McGinty, written and directed by Preston Sturges, premiered at the Paramount Theatre in …

The technical, artistic and economic tumult that roiled through Hollywood with the coming of sound sometimes led to wildly unusual experiments and partnerships. The widespread adoption of literary works and …

When I was little, I always dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Not exactly a glamorous dream, but I was a very practical kid.