John Ford is one of America’s foremost Academy Award-winning film directors. His impressive and influential directing style has included adaptations of classic 20th century American novels like The Grapes of Wrath along with some of the most exciting Westerns in motion picture history. Ford’s impressive directorial career includes more films than could possibly be listed here and his use of stunning cinematography is legendary.

Continue Reading

How is a Hollywood film genre created, and who creates it? The answer is really quite uncomplicated. There are two creators of film genre; the audience and the studio. While popular forms of genre entertainment had already existed in fiction and theater, it was the film industry that brought this type of entertainment to its peak. In the early days of motion picture production movie studios would produce films that were universal in appeal. It was their hope that any film they made would be loved by everyone regardless of who they were or how old they may be.

Continue Reading

April, 1922 - Actor Rudolph Valentino, as a result of a misunderstanding regarding California divorce law, has been arrested and held on a charge of bigamy. 

After marrying for the second time in Mexico to costume designer Natasha Rambova, the matinee idol now finds himself in an embarrassing spotlight. Valentino's first marriage to actress Jean Acker, having never been consummated, ended in divorce after three months.

The catch was that California divorce law required a one year time period before remarrying making Valentino technically a bigamist. After spending a brief time in custody, Valentino was able to convince the authorities that he was unaware of the law regarding the one year time period and was released.

Free again, Valentino immediately reunited with Rambova with whom he now hopes to be able to find the true happiness for which he has been searching.
 

April, 1922 - It took four months and three trials, but Roscoe Arbuckle has been found innocent of all charges brought against him in the death of actress Virginia Rappe. 

After the first two trials ended with hung juries, it took the third jury only five minutes on April 12th to declare Arbuckle innocent of all charges. However, the legal victory was bittersweet.

The sensational and controversial nature of the charges against Arbuckle brought so much negative publicity to both the comedic actor and Hollywood in general, that Paramount Studio has removed all of his films from circulation and canceled any further projects. These actions have reportedly cost Paramount over $1 million.

Arbuckle himself is financially ruined and has been forced to pay his legal fees through the sale of his home and cars. In addition, the damage that resulted due to the nature of the charges brought against him seems to have permanently destroyed his once thriving career as one of the Kings of Comedy.

April, 1922 - With more excitation, enthusiasm, and technical achievement, Robin Hood has proven to be Douglas Fairbanks best film to date. Financed by Fairbanks himself, at a cost of over $1.5 million, the brilliant production was made in a new studio located on Santa Monica Boulevard housing the largest movie sets ever created. 

Art Director William Buckland's spectacular settings included the building (by 500 workers) of a castle that required 90-foot-high walls. The action scenes themselves had Fairbanks exceeding anything he had previously done.

Initially, after reviewing the project and its script, Fairbanks had not wanted to play the legendary hero of Sherwood Forest stating, "I don't want to play a flat-footed Englishman". Fortunately for United Artists, and the movie viewing public (not to mention Fairbanks himself), he was persuaded to take on the role.

The rest is cinematic history.

March, 1922 - Those voices calling for some form of film industry censorship have become loud enough to finally be heard. With the recent scandal involving comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, and the apparent murder of director William Desmond Taylor under awkward circumstances, Hollywood's leading studios have decided on a program of self-regulation to be administered by a newly formed organization called the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). 

Former postmaster general Will H. Hays will head the organization and has issued this statement regarding its aim, "To foster the common interest of those engaged in the industry by establishing and maintaining the highest possible moral and artistic standards in motion picture production, by developing the education as well as the entertainment value and general usefulness of the motion picture… and by reforming abuses relative to the industry…"

From now on, the Hollywood film industry will be closely scrutinized.

Some people feel that there are few real Hollywood classics made these days. While this is not necessarily true, it does seem as though they are a little harder to come by. Today’s advanced technology has certainly made films that are visually very appealing, but many of the story lines are merely copies of, or modified versions of the originals. One of the most appealing factors in the makeup of old movie classics is the fact that a great many were indeed original. 

Continue Reading