Back in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Hollywood operated with a different set of rules. Before the Hays Code cracked down on content in the middle of 1934, films were brushed with hot topics such as sex, female liberation, alcoholism, and depression. These movies are the Pre-Code films.
Working within this realm was just one female director – the Queen, Dorothy Arzner. This director not only created films at a time where men dictated and controlled the industry, she also produced films that had a clear feminist voice. With snappy and head-strong female leads dominating her movies, Arzner helped change the landscape with these incredible films. She was so popular that she was the first woman to be included in the Directors Guild of America.
Thanks to the BFI Film On Film Festival, audiences got to see a newly restored print of her nifty comedy, Working Girls (1931).
Written by Zoe Akins...
Working within this realm was just one female director – the Queen, Dorothy Arzner. This director not only created films at a time where men dictated and controlled the industry, she also produced films that had a clear feminist voice. With snappy and head-strong female leads dominating her movies, Arzner helped change the landscape with these incredible films. She was so popular that she was the first woman to be included in the Directors Guild of America.
Thanks to the BFI Film On Film Festival, audiences got to see a newly restored print of her nifty comedy, Working Girls (1931).
Written by Zoe Akins...
- 6/14/2023
- by Sarah Cook
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Laura"
Where You Can Stream It: Criterion Channel
The Pitch: Directed by Otto Preminger and released in 1944, "Laura" is, simply put, the story of a detective who falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Vera Caspary, the story follows Detective Lieutenant Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) as he investigates the murder of one Laura Hunt (played by the...
The post The Daily Stream: Laura, A Strange Experiment in Love ... and Murder! appeared first on /Film.
The Movie: "Laura"
Where You Can Stream It: Criterion Channel
The Pitch: Directed by Otto Preminger and released in 1944, "Laura" is, simply put, the story of a detective who falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Vera Caspary, the story follows Detective Lieutenant Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) as he investigates the murder of one Laura Hunt (played by the...
The post The Daily Stream: Laura, A Strange Experiment in Love ... and Murder! appeared first on /Film.
- 11/21/2021
- by Ariel Fisher
- Slash Film
On March 19, 1934, The Hollywood Reporter published a special issue devoted to screenwriting, featuring the voices of industry notables on trade topics such as “Should Writers Produce?,” mulling censorship (“Sense or Censors”) and discussing the craft of writing for the big screen. Author Vera Caspary, who had published several novels by this time and had seen stories adapted for film, tackled a pressing question: should writers devote time to original stories to pitch to studios? Caspary’s full guest column is below:
I have been warned more often against the dangers of writing movie originals than I ...
I have been warned more often against the dangers of writing movie originals than I ...
- 3/19/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On March 19, 1934, The Hollywood Reporter published a special issue devoted to screenwriting, featuring the voices of industry notables on trade topics such as “Should Writers Produce?,” mulling censorship (“Sense or Censors”) and discussing the craft of writing for the big screen. Author Vera Caspary, who had published several novels by this time and had seen stories adapted for film, tackled a pressing question: should writers devote time to original stories to pitch to studios? Caspary’s full guest column is below:
I have been warned more often against the dangers of writing movie originals than I ...
I have been warned more often against the dangers of writing movie originals than I ...
- 3/19/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The curtain is falling on the MGM musical, and Gene Kelly’s final song and dance at the studio is for a Paris-set show biz tale about a dancing star and his trio of showgirls. Actually, the comedy and the actresses get more attention than does Kelly. The gimmick is a Rashomon– like clash of conflicting testimony, but we prefer to concentrate on the sexy dancing and Kay Kendall’s hilarious drunk act. Who thought a boozy beauty wailing opera songs would be funny?
Les Girls
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 114 min. / Cole Porter’s Les Girls / Street Date April 17, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.9
Starring: Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, Taina Elg, Jacques Bergerac, Leslie Phillips, Henry Daniell, Patrick Macnee.
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Film Editor: Ferris Webster
Costumes: Orry-Kelly
Choreography: Jack Cole
Original Music: Cole Porter, arranged and orchestrated by Alexander Courage, Adolph Deutsch, Skip Martin
Written...
Les Girls
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 114 min. / Cole Porter’s Les Girls / Street Date April 17, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.9
Starring: Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, Taina Elg, Jacques Bergerac, Leslie Phillips, Henry Daniell, Patrick Macnee.
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Film Editor: Ferris Webster
Costumes: Orry-Kelly
Choreography: Jack Cole
Original Music: Cole Porter, arranged and orchestrated by Alexander Courage, Adolph Deutsch, Skip Martin
Written...
- 4/14/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
The Criterion Collection have revealed their February 2016 line-up (click titles for more information):
On The Cinephiliacs, Peter Labuza talks with Jonathan Rosenbaum about his career and Out 1.
Watch Roger Deakins talk Sicario and more in a recent talk, and read our interview with him:
David Bordwell discusses the women crime writers of the 1940s and 1950s:
You might say that Double Indemnity and Out of the Past are quintessentially 1940s-1950s films, and I’d agree. But so too are works based on women writers. The list of Highsmith adaptations, starting with Strangers on a Train (1951), is too long to recite here, but let’s remember that...
The Criterion Collection have revealed their February 2016 line-up (click titles for more information):
On The Cinephiliacs, Peter Labuza talks with Jonathan Rosenbaum about his career and Out 1.
Watch Roger Deakins talk Sicario and more in a recent talk, and read our interview with him:
David Bordwell discusses the women crime writers of the 1940s and 1950s:
You might say that Double Indemnity and Out of the Past are quintessentially 1940s-1950s films, and I’d agree. But so too are works based on women writers. The list of Highsmith adaptations, starting with Strangers on a Train (1951), is too long to recite here, but let’s remember that...
- 11/16/2015
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Like so many great American films of the era, A Letter to Three Wives has a touch of trash at its core. Writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz crafts well-rounded characters, thoughtful explorations of class via small-town postwar America, and snappy dialogue to spare. But this is still a story that really kicks off when three women receive a letter from another claiming to have run off with one of their husbands, timed to a daylong excursion where she knows they can’t do a damned thing about it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that at all.
The bulk of the movie takes place in flashback, as each woman reflects on the more tumultuous moments in their relationships, and why each husband would be motivated to abandon ship for the highly-desirable Addie Ross. Addie seems to have gotten around often enough to have gotten around to those same husbands in some capacity.
The bulk of the movie takes place in flashback, as each woman reflects on the more tumultuous moments in their relationships, and why each husband would be motivated to abandon ship for the highly-desirable Addie Ross. Addie seems to have gotten around often enough to have gotten around to those same husbands in some capacity.
- 7/30/2015
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
It's beyond dispute — Otto Preminger's 1944 film noir "Laura" is a stone cold classic, so of course it's going to be remade. The original starred Gene Tierney, Dana Andwers, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price, and concerned a murder investigation that turns obsessive. So if there must be a new version, we're glad it's in good hands. THR reports that legendary writer James Ellroy will craft a screenplay for the redo for Fox 2000. The author has dipped his toes into screenwriting before ("Street Kings," "Rampart"), and likely knows first hand how adaptations can both be regrettable ("Black Dahlia") and great ("L.A. Confidential"). We presume Ellroy will examine Vera Caspary's novel, from which Preminger's film was derived, and we're interested to see what his way into the story will be. If you haven't yet seen "Laura" (or want to again), you can watch the whole below with an easy click of the mouse.
- 8/26/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) was one of a kind in the history of American cinema, the only woman to carve out a professional career as a director in Hollywood's Golden Age. In its 62nd edition, the San Sebastian Festival pays homage to the work of Arzner, today considered a pioneer in women's incorporation to the film industry, proclaimed as a filmmaker of strong style and personality for which she earned undeniable prestige within the Hollywood studio system.
Born in San Francisco but raised in Los Angeles, Dorothy Arzner made her directorial debut with "Fashions for Women" (1927), going on the following year to become the first women ever to direct a talkie with Manhattan Cocktail (1928). Arzner directed 15 films throughout the 30s and the early 40s, working with Hollywood stars such as Clara Bow, Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Rosalind Russell, Claudette Colbert, Maureen O'Hara and Joan Crawford in comedies and melodramas with particular focus on female characters. In 1933 she became the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America and was its only female member for several decades. Although her name was progressively forgotten, Arzner's career was ratified in the 60s by feminist movements and received numerous tributes, including one by the Directors Guild of America in 1975. Today her films are not only newly appreciated for being an unusual exception in the history of American film, but also f or their intrinsic values. Arzner left her stamp on several films of refined visual style that questioned traditional sexual roles and the part played by women in society or which, according to certain critics, introduced veiled homosexual undertones to the rigid Hollywood structure of the time.
The retrospective dedicated by the San Sebastian Festival to Dorothy Arzner will feature her twelve surviving films. It is organised together with Filmoteca Española. To accompany the cycle, a bilingual (English and Spanish) book will be published on the filmmaker, written by Judith Mayne.
The Wild Party Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1929 The explosive Clara Bow (in her first talkie) and the man who would become one of Arzner's favourite actors, Fredric March, star in this surprising and brazen film shot before the Hays Code of censorship was imposed upon Hollywood.
Sarah and Son Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1930 A melodrama that earned the leading lady, Ruth Chatterton, an Academy Award nomination for her part as an opera singer searching for the son she lost many years ago.
Anybody's Woman Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1930 A rather daring romantic comedy for its day; a lawyer and a chorus girl waken man and wife after a night on the tiles. All sorts of confusions ensue.
Honor Among Lovers Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1931 A luxury cast (Claudette Colbert, Fredric March and Ginger Rogers) for a melodrama in which Dorothy Arzner looked at a rather unusual subject for films of the time: sexual harassment in the working environment.
Working Girls Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1931 Adaptation of a play by the author popular in her day, Vera Caspary, this film represents yet another shrewd look at the world of women by Dorothy Arzner seen through the portrayal of two friends in search of work and a husband.
Merrily We Go to Hell Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1932 The tale of an alcoholic author and the woman who rescues him is turned in Dorothy Arzner's hands into a romantic comedy taking yet another look at the role of women in a couple's relations.
Christopher Strong Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1933 Katharine Hepburn embodies one of her typical spirited female characters in this eye-opening melodrama from Arzner, a full-on snub of the nose to the usual roles played by women in classic movies: the love affair between an MP and an aviatrix.
Nana Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1934 Dorothy Arzner adapted Émile Zola's classic novel into a film to flatter a would-be star soon forgotten by Hollywood, Anna Sten. Set in 19th century Paris, this is a curious foray by the director into period melodrama.
Craig's Wife Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1936 This melodrama sees another of the big Hollywood stars who worked under the orders of Dorothy Arzner, Rosalind Russell, play a domineering woman who marries a wealthy man for money and power.
The Bride Wore Red Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1937 Joan Crawford and a spectacular red dress by the famous designer Adrian star in one of Dorothy Arzner's most popular romantic comedies, a tale of love and luxury once again featuring an unforgettable female character.
Dance, Girl, Dance Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1940 Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball wrangle in a professional and sentimental duel set in the world of show business and spiced up with musical numbers.
First Comes Courage Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1943 Dorothy Arzner's last film was her contribution to the warring efforts of the allies during World War II; a spy story where Merle Oberon brings life to an anti-Nazi resistance worker in Norway who must choose between love and duty.
Born in San Francisco but raised in Los Angeles, Dorothy Arzner made her directorial debut with "Fashions for Women" (1927), going on the following year to become the first women ever to direct a talkie with Manhattan Cocktail (1928). Arzner directed 15 films throughout the 30s and the early 40s, working with Hollywood stars such as Clara Bow, Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Rosalind Russell, Claudette Colbert, Maureen O'Hara and Joan Crawford in comedies and melodramas with particular focus on female characters. In 1933 she became the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America and was its only female member for several decades. Although her name was progressively forgotten, Arzner's career was ratified in the 60s by feminist movements and received numerous tributes, including one by the Directors Guild of America in 1975. Today her films are not only newly appreciated for being an unusual exception in the history of American film, but also f or their intrinsic values. Arzner left her stamp on several films of refined visual style that questioned traditional sexual roles and the part played by women in society or which, according to certain critics, introduced veiled homosexual undertones to the rigid Hollywood structure of the time.
The retrospective dedicated by the San Sebastian Festival to Dorothy Arzner will feature her twelve surviving films. It is organised together with Filmoteca Española. To accompany the cycle, a bilingual (English and Spanish) book will be published on the filmmaker, written by Judith Mayne.
The Wild Party Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1929 The explosive Clara Bow (in her first talkie) and the man who would become one of Arzner's favourite actors, Fredric March, star in this surprising and brazen film shot before the Hays Code of censorship was imposed upon Hollywood.
Sarah and Son Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1930 A melodrama that earned the leading lady, Ruth Chatterton, an Academy Award nomination for her part as an opera singer searching for the son she lost many years ago.
Anybody's Woman Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1930 A rather daring romantic comedy for its day; a lawyer and a chorus girl waken man and wife after a night on the tiles. All sorts of confusions ensue.
Honor Among Lovers Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1931 A luxury cast (Claudette Colbert, Fredric March and Ginger Rogers) for a melodrama in which Dorothy Arzner looked at a rather unusual subject for films of the time: sexual harassment in the working environment.
Working Girls Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1931 Adaptation of a play by the author popular in her day, Vera Caspary, this film represents yet another shrewd look at the world of women by Dorothy Arzner seen through the portrayal of two friends in search of work and a husband.
Merrily We Go to Hell Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1932 The tale of an alcoholic author and the woman who rescues him is turned in Dorothy Arzner's hands into a romantic comedy taking yet another look at the role of women in a couple's relations.
Christopher Strong Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1933 Katharine Hepburn embodies one of her typical spirited female characters in this eye-opening melodrama from Arzner, a full-on snub of the nose to the usual roles played by women in classic movies: the love affair between an MP and an aviatrix.
Nana Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1934 Dorothy Arzner adapted Émile Zola's classic novel into a film to flatter a would-be star soon forgotten by Hollywood, Anna Sten. Set in 19th century Paris, this is a curious foray by the director into period melodrama.
Craig's Wife Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1936 This melodrama sees another of the big Hollywood stars who worked under the orders of Dorothy Arzner, Rosalind Russell, play a domineering woman who marries a wealthy man for money and power.
The Bride Wore Red Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1937 Joan Crawford and a spectacular red dress by the famous designer Adrian star in one of Dorothy Arzner's most popular romantic comedies, a tale of love and luxury once again featuring an unforgettable female character.
Dance, Girl, Dance Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1940 Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball wrangle in a professional and sentimental duel set in the world of show business and spiced up with musical numbers.
First Comes Courage Dorothy Arzner (USA) 1943 Dorothy Arzner's last film was her contribution to the warring efforts of the allies during World War II; a spy story where Merle Oberon brings life to an anti-Nazi resistance worker in Norway who must choose between love and duty.
- 8/25/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
For the tenth edition of Film Art: An Introduction, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson are partnering with Criterion to present Connect Film, an hour-long set of twenty videos on various aspects of filmmaking addressed in the now-classic textbook. Above: "Elliptical Editing in Vagabond (1985)." Kristin Thompson: "Most of the other Connect examples illustrate the chapters on the four types of film technique: mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound. There's also a short documentary about digital animation."
More books. You may remember that Dave Kehr is quite an admirer of the writing of Arlene Croce, a dance critic for the New Yorker from 1973 to 1998. She's also the author of The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book and, in the new issue of the New York Review of Books, she reviews Todd Decker's Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz and Kathleen Riley's The Astaires: Fred and Adele. As the Boston Globe's Mark Feeney writes,...
More books. You may remember that Dave Kehr is quite an admirer of the writing of Arlene Croce, a dance critic for the New Yorker from 1973 to 1998. She's also the author of The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book and, in the new issue of the New York Review of Books, she reviews Todd Decker's Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz and Kathleen Riley's The Astaires: Fred and Adele. As the Boston Globe's Mark Feeney writes,...
- 3/19/2012
- MUBI
Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain, A Letter to Three Wives Linda Darnell, the gorgeous leading lady of numerous 20th Century Fox productions of the '40s, is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" player this Saturday, August 27. TCM, which has leased titles from the Fox library, is showing 14 Linda Darnell movies, including no less than 9 TCM premieres. [Linda Darnell Movie Schedule.] Right now, TCM is showing writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (1949), winner of Academy Awards for Best Direction and Best Screenplay. This curious comedy-drama about a husband who leaves his wife for another woman — but whose husband? Linda Darnell's, Jeanne Crain's, or Ann Sothern's? — also earned Mankiewicz the very first Directors Guild of America Award and a Writers Guild Award (which Mankiewicz shared with Vera Caspary) for the Best Written American Comedy. The husbands in question are Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas, and Jeffrey Lynn.
- 8/28/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Clifton Webb, Gene Tierney, Laura Starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and Clifton Webb, Otto Preminger’s classic film noir Laura (1944), one of the best in the genre, will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ series “Oscar Noir: 1940s Writing Nominees from Hollywood’s Dark Side” on Monday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Laura will be introduced by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Minority Report). Based on the novel by Vera Caspary, Laura earned four Academy Award nominations: Screenplay (Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein and Betty Reinhardt), Actor in a Supporting Role (Clifton Webb), [...]...
- 5/22/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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