Classic Cinema Zone

A consummate craftsman and one of the most esteemed directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, George Cukor directed a number of classic movies in a career that spanned five decades. Many of his films focused on strong female characters and starred the era’s top actresses, earning him a reputation as a women’s director. Cukor’s body of work contained numerous hits and Oscar winners, all which displayed his talent with pacing, rapid-fire dialogue and a flawless attention to detail. Few directors of any generation have been able to match his craft. Here are eight classic movies by master director George Cukor.

A consummate craftsman and one of the most esteemed directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, George Cukor directed a number of classic movies in a career that spanned five decades. Many of his films focused on strong female characters and earned him a reputation as a women’s director. Over the course of his career, Cukor worked with some of Hollywood’s top actresses like Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn and most notably Katharine Hepburn, with whom he made eight films in three decades. Cukor’s body of work contained numerous hits and Oscar winners, all which displayed his talent with pacing, rapid-fire dialogue and a flawless attention to detail. Few directors of any generation have been able to match his craft. Here are eight classic movies by master director George Cukor. Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart in George Cuckor’s classic comedy ‘The Philadelphia Story’ (1940)/MGM Home Entertainment

A consummate craftsman and one of the most esteemed directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, George Cukor directed a number of classic movies in a career that spanned five decades. Many of his films focused on strong female characters and earned him a reputation as a women’s director. Over the course of his career, Cukor worked with some of Hollywood’s top actresses like Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn and most notably Katharine Hepburn, with whom he made eight films in three decades. Cukor’s body of work contained numerous hits and Oscar winners, all which displayed his talent with pacing, rapid-fire dialogue and a flawless attention to detail. Few directors of any generation have been able to match his craft. Here are eight classic movies by master director George Cukor. Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart in George Cuckor’s classic comedy ‘The Philadelphia Story’ (1940)/MGM Home Entertainment

Possessing a down-home persona that was quintessentially American, Gary Cooper spent five decades making dozens of classic movies. At his peak, he was a top box office draw who earned five Academy Award nominations and won twice. Cooper died relatively young and still in his prime, but left behind a staggering cinematic legacy filled with extraordinary performances. Here are eight classic movies starring laconic everyman Gary Cooper.

He spent over six decades working in Hollywood as an actor, writer and director. Raoul Walsh was a prolific craftsman who worked in a wide range of genres. His style was straightforward and unpretentious, but at the same time vibrant and compelling. … Read Full Post

As an actor, writer and director, Raoul Walsh’s career spanned over six decades and produced some of Hollywood’s most iconic class movies. He was a capable director in a wide range of genres whose straightforward style was vibrant, but unpretentious. He did his best work in the 1940s with Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Virginia Mayo. Despite his career faltering after he left Warner Bros., Walsh was undeniably one of the most prolific craftsman ever to step behind the camera.

Before computer graphics took audiences back to ancient worlds, Hollywood built massive sets and employed a literal cast of thousands. Fearful of the new medium of television, studios staged these films in order to draw people to theaters. It worked for a time, but by the early 1960s these epics proved too costly to make. Studios shied away from making these epics for decades, and it would take computer generated effects for studios to even think about doing such large scale movies again.

On Saturday March 17th, Turner Classic Movies will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a number of Irish-themed classics. The Festival of Patrick kicks off early with the Michael Curtiz -directed drama, The Key , which stars William Powell as a womanizing British solider stationed in 1920s Dublin. The morning continues with 1947′s My Wild Irish Rose , a musical biography of songwriter Chauncey Olcott, and 1950′s The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady , which stars Debbie Reynolds and Gordon MacRae. … Read Full Post

Hollywood in the 1970s was markedly different than the one that existed in the previous three decades. The old studio system was gone thanks to financial struggles and a seismic cultural shift that saw the rise of the youth-oriented counterculture. Hollywood responded by opening the doors wider to more experimentation, resulting in a second golden age known as New Hollywood. Unlike the heroes of movies past, actresses were featured more as strong independent women. In the 1970s, leading actresses bucked their male counterparts while seeking independence from male power structures, while in some cases becoming the very definition of women’s lib.

Hollywood in the 1970s was markedly different than the one that existed in the previous three decades. The old studio system was gone thanks to financial struggles and a seismic cultural shift that saw the rise of the youth-oriented counterculture. Hollywood responded by opening the doors wider to more experimentation, resulting in a second golden age known as New Hollywood. Unlike the heroes of movies past, actors played a wide range of loners, iconoclasts and anti-heroes, a reflection of the new focus on gritty realism and the dark underbelly of the American experience.