A biography of Milton Sills, stage and silent film actor with a philosophy background. Poised to make a hit in talkies when he died in 1930. Article also includes a synopsis of Sills’ most famous film, The Sea Hawk.
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Movie Star Biographies
Grant Mitchell – WHAT A CHARACTER! – Broadway to Hollywood, 1902-1948
Biography of prolific Hollywood character actor Grant Mitchell. His great-uncle was a US President and his father a famed Civil War General. Mitchell tried careers in law and the military, but eventually took to the stage where he began a slow rise to stardom in 1902.
Marguerite Courtot – Biography of a Beauty of the Silent Screen
A long biography of silent film beauty Marguerite Courtot. She rose to fame as as teenager in the mid-1910’s and later married Down to the Sea in Ships co-star Raymond McKee. Mckee’s biographical details are covered as well.
Stanley Fields Biography — Blustery Thirties Character Actor
Unraveling truth and myth in the life of character actor Stanley Fields. Born Walter L. Agnew, you’ll know him from Cimarron, Little Caesar (1931), Island of Lost Souls (1932), Algiers (1938), and several other major 1930s Hollywood releases.
Harold Huber “A Sort of Assistant Gangster” You’ve Seen Many Times
Legendary journalist Ernie Pyle tabbed character actor Harold Huber as “a sort of assistant gangster.” Following is a biography of the youthful actor with the scarred cheek who appeared in so many 1930s gangster roles.
Marian Marsh – Forever Trilby, Biography of the 1930s Screen Beauty
Marian Marsh will always be first recalled as John Barrymore’s Trilby in Svengali but don’t overlook her in Beauty and the Boss and Crime and Punishment. A biography of the gorgeous young actress of the 1930s.
Movie Reviews & Articles
Somerset Maugham’s The Narrow Corner (1933) Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
A personal look at this Somerset Maugham fan’s discovery of The Narrow Corner (1933) from Warner Brothers starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Patricia Ellis, and Ralph Bellamy. A Maugham tale of the South Seas on film with all the sex and sin of the pre-code era.
Big City Blues (1932), Pre-Code Party in Depression-Era New York
Eric Linden finds fun, trouble and Joan Blondell in Depression-era New York in Warner Bros.’ Big City Blues (1932). Directed by Mervyn LeRoy with an unbilled supporting appearance by Humphrey Bogart along with several others.
Lawyer Man (1932) Starring William Powell and Joan Blondell
Warner Brothers’ Lawyer Man (1932) starring William Powell and Joan Blondell is one of a series of pre-code era lawyer films. Loosely based on the life and style of real-life mouthpiece William J. Fallon.
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935)
A look at MGM’s 1935 production of the Charles Dickens classic David Copperfield starring Freddie Bartholomew and WC Fields. Includes notes and quotes from David O. Selznick and George Cukor about production and casting, a brief outline of the film and its many characters, the latter highlighted by a biography of of the obscure Lennox Pawle, who played Mr. Dick.
Henry Hull is the Werewolf of London (1935)
The first werewolf movie in Universal’s horror cycle Werewolf of London (1935) takes a back seat to The Wolf Man (1941) today, but Henry Hull’s monster is underrated. Also starring Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson and Lester Matthews, a brief look at 1935s Werewolf of London.
White Woman (1933) Starring Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard
The boys play rough in White Woman (1933) with Charles Laughton and Charles Bickford upstaging Carole Lombard at every turn. Poor Kent Taylor seems to be more in peril than Lombard. Jungle terror from a Malaysian rubber plantation run by Laughton’s “King of the River.”