Classic Film

In Vitagraph, Andrew A. Erish provides a comprehensive examination and reassessment of the company most responsible for defining and popularizing the American movie. This history challenges long-accepted Hollywood mythology that simply isn't true: that Paramount and Fox invented the feature film, that Universal created the star system, and that these companies, along with MGM and Warner Bros., developed motion pictures into a multimillion-dollar business.

In Come to the Garden, the main character, Jenn, wakes up on her birthday to discover an angel in her backyard garden. The angel, who calls herself Margaret, is charming and funny, and she knows that Jenn has been questioning a lot of things about God recently. Is he really there? How is anyone supposed to believe that God truly cares for us when we see so many bad things happening in our world, and we experience the disappointments and tragedies of life? But Jenn suspects that God has been trying to speak to her in mysterious ways.

Herman J. (1897-1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture's only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing All About Eve, which also won Best Picture.

In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai's tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime - and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected.

Victoria Amador utilizes extensive interviews and 40 years of personal correspondence with de Havilland to present an in-depth look at the life and career of this celebrated actress. Amador begins with de Havilland's early life; she was born in Japan in 1916 to affluent British parents who had aspirations of success and fortune in faraway countries, and her theatrical ambitions began at a young age. The book then follows her career as she skyrocketed to star status, becoming one of the most well-known starlets in Tinseltown.

Maureen O'Hara is the first book-length biography of the screen legend hailed as the "Queen of Technicolor". Following the star from her childhood in Dublin to the height of fame in Hollywood, film critic Aubrey Malone draws on new information from the Irish Film Institute, production notes from films, and details from historical film journals, newspapers, and fan magazines.

Ever wonder what the people who bring us our TV entertainment are thinking? Television and pop culture historian and author Herbie J Pilato has, and now takes listeners on a provocative and entertaining look into the agenda behind TV shows and the resulting trends. Even when it seemed television programming was primarily mindless, there was serious thought behind what audiences were presented. The networks, after all, believe in giving the people what they want, even when the people should have known better.

It's one of the most revered movies of Hollywood's golden era. Starring screen legend Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in her first significant film role, High Noon was shot on a lean budget over just 32 days but achieved instant box-office and critical success. It won four Academy Awards in 1953, including a best actor win for Cooper. And it became a cultural touchstone, often cited by politicians as a favourite film, celebrating moral fortitude.

It's one of the greatest movie romances of all time. Yet the friction and controversy surrounding The Way We Were was so enormous, the movie was nearly never made at all. Drawing on Laurents's and Pollack's unpublished writings, as well as interviews with Streisand, Redford, and other key players, this is the definitive account of a film that changed the rules of moviemaking and defined romance ever since.

Screenwriter Jeb Rosebrook presents a captivating behind-the-scenes memoir of the making of Junior Bonner, a 1972 Western classic starring Steve McQueen and directed by Sam Peckinpah.

The films, the stars, the filmmakers-all get their due in Hollywood Black, a sweeping overview of blacks in film from the silent era through Black Panther, with striking photos and an engrossing history by award-winning author Donald Bogle. The story opens in the silent film era, when white...

The late film icon and screen legend Kirk Douglas was married to Anne Buydens for more than six decades. Here they both look back on a lifetime filled with drama both on and off the screen. Sharing priceless correspondence with each other as well as the celebrities and world leaders they called...

The heart-lifting, heartbreaking story by Michael Morpurgo, the nation’s favourite storyteller.

In the Imperial War Museum is a wooden Dachshund, carved by a German prisoner of war for the children of the British family with which he stayed after the fighting ended...

For the first time in over a decade, Rudyard Kipling's timeless and enchanting stories of the jungle are brought back to life in The Jungle Book. When Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book nearly 120 years ago, he used his imagination and experiences in the Indian forest to create a majestic...

A smart, engaging investigation of the show that brought real teens to TV My So-Called Life lasted only 19 episodes from 1994 to 1995, but in that time it earned many devoted viewers, including the showrunners who would usher in the teen TV boom of the late ’90s and the new millennium. With its focus on 15-year-old Angela Chase’s search for her identity, MSCL’s realistic representation of adolescence on TV was groundbreaking; without her there would be no Buffy or Felicity, Rory Gilmore or Veronica Mars.

Une petite fille aux boucles blondes s'égare dans la forêt en cueillant des fleurs. Elle est fatiguée, elle a faim et elle pleure. Dans une clairière, elle découvre une étrange maison dont la cheminée fume. Elle s'approche d'une fenêtre et découvre alors une grande table avec, tout autour, trois chaises : une grande chaise, une moyenne chaise et une toute petite chaise. Et devant chaque chaise, un bol de soupe. Un grand bol devant la grande chaise, un moyen bol devant la moyenne chaise et un tout petit bol devant la toute petite chaise.

The making of the Oscar® Award-winning classic Rebecca is detailed in this enlightening and fascinating book which delves into the behind the scenes drama, struggles, and passion that went into the filming of this iconic movie. Biographical sketches of key figures such as author Daphne du Maurier and leading actors Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier are included.

Lassie ist zurück! Flo ist zwölf Jahre alt und die Collie-Hündin Lassie ist seine beste Freundin. Als Flos Vater seine Arbeit verliert, muss die Familie umziehen. In der neuen Wohnung sind aber keine Hunde erlaubt. Flo bricht es das Herz, sein über alles geliebtes Haustier wegzugeben. Lassie findet ein neues Zuhause. Doch sie reißt aus und macht sich auf die Suche nach Flo. Auch Flo weiß nur eins: Er muss seine Hündin wiederfinden! Eine abenteuerliche Suche beginnt.

Nach einem Roman von Daniel Defoe. Die Geschichte von Robinson Crusoe der auf einer einsamen Insel gestrandet ist. Robinson Crusoe, Sohn eines nach England ausgewanderten Bremer Kaufmanns, strandet nach einem Sturm als einziger Überlebender auf einer einsamen Insel. Sein Vater hatte den noch jungen Robinson davor gewarnt, zur See zu gehen. Diese Ermahnungen missachtend wird Robinson Crusoe auf einer seiner ersten Fahrten von Piraten gefangen genommen. Erst nach zweijähriger Gefangenschaft gelingt ihm die Flucht.

In "The Dunwich Horror" (1928), Wilbur Whateley, the son of a deformed albino mother and an unknown father, matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade. All the while, his sorcerer grandfather indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft. "The Thing at the Doorstep" was written five years later. Confessing to the killing of his friend Edward Derby, Daniel Upton hopes his account will prove he is not a murderer.