Category Archives: Movies

By Robert J. Avrech | May 15, 2014

Hollywood Hat Game

Tweet There was a time when wearing a hat was de rigueur. Fine millinery was considered a sign of good taste, good breeding, and good fashion. Hollywood actresses were rarely seen in public without hat, gloves and a designer outfit. Those were the days when Hollywood insisted on projecting style and glamour. Of course, with the […]

Also posted in Glamour, Gloria Swanson, Hollywood, Hollywood Hats, Hollywood Stars | Tagged Agnes Ayres, Ann Harding, Dolores Costello, Erroll Flynn, Gloria Swanson, Lili Damita, Sadie Thompson, Sean Flynn, Sunset Boulevard, Theda Bara | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 11, 2014

In Memoriam: Mickey Rooney, 1920-2014

Tweet At five feet, two inches, he was the biggest star in the world. Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule, Jr.) was probably the most talented star Hollywood ever produced. His astonishing career started in the silent era as a child actor. Rooney made the transition to sound with ease, and his career saw work in radio, television […]

Also posted in Ava Gardner, Colleen Moore, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Wedding Nights, Mickey Rooney | Tagged A Midsummer's Night Dream, Andy Hardy, Colleen Moore, Drive a Crooked Road, Judy garland, L.B. Mayer, Lewis Stone, Max Reinhardt, Orchirds & Ermine, Puck, Quicksand, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Human Comedy | 9 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 27, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s: Psycho

Tweet We begin our survey our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s, click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here. 1. Psycho, 1960 […]

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Great Movies, Greatest Movies of the 1960s, Hollywood, Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s | Tagged Anthony Perkins, Bernard Herrmann, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Marion Crane, Norman Bates, Sam Loomis | 14 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 18, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Some Like It Hot

Tweet We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here. 19. Some Like It Hot, 1959. “Look at that!” Jack Lemmon tells […]

Also posted in Billy Wilder, Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe, Some Like It Hot, Tony Curtis, Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s | Tagged I.A.L. Diamond, Jack Lemmon, Orry-Kelly, Screwball Comedy | 10 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 28, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Night of the Hunter

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 13. Night of the Hunter, 1955 Night of the Hunter, more than any other movie I have ever seen, succeeds brilliantly in evoking the terrors of […]

Also posted in Great Movies, Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Lillian Gish | Tagged Billy Chapin, Charles Laughton, David Grubb, Jeffrey Couchman, Night of the Hunter, Robert Mitchum, Shelly Winters, The Killing | 27 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 21, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Rear Window, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Seven Samurai

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 10. Rear Window, 1954 Photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies (James Stewart) breaks his legs while photographing a car racing accident. Now, he is confined in his Greenwich […]

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Great Movies, Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Hollywood | Tagged Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, Michael Kidd, Rear Window, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Seven Samurai, Stanley Donen | 27 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 14, 2013

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: Shane, The Big Heat, Ugetsu

Tweet We continue our survey of the twenty greatest movies of the 1950s. For a complete listing of the greatest movies of the 20, 30s and 40s, click here. 7. Shane, 1953. The gunshots in Shane are unlike any other gunshots in Hollywood history. They are heart-stopping thunderbolts, from either heaven or hell. Shane, a […]

Also posted in Great Movies, Greatest Movies of the 1950s, Hollywood | Tagged Alan Ladd, Brandon deWilde, Fritz Lang, George Stevens, Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Kenji Mizoguchi, Lee Marvin, Machiko Kyo, Shane, The Big Heat, Ugetsu, Yoshikata Yoda | 34 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 22, 2012

Thanksgiving: The Children of Israel and the Children of the Children of Israel

Tweet As far as I know, there are only two countries in the world that were founded on the idea of hope. America and Israel. And what was the hope? The hope of achieving religious freedom, and freedom from the tyranny of centralized government. The Children of Israel, fleeing Egyptian slavery and religious persecution, settled […]

Also posted in America, Israel, Thanksgiving | Tagged A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Debbie Reynolds, George Washington Thanksgiving Proclamation, Thanksgiving | 2 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 8, 2012

Fay Wray: Beauty and the Beasts, Part I

Tweet Actress Fay Wray achieved screen immortality as Ann Darrow, the girl in King Kong’s paw, the beauty who tamed, at least for a while, the raging beast. For most of us growing up after Hollywood’s Golden Age, Fay Wray (born Vina Fay Wray; September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was nothing more than […]

Also posted in Fay Wray, Hollywood | Tagged Classic Hollywood, Hollywood Memoir, King Kong, On the Other Hand | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 5, 2012

Days of Heaven

Tweet There was a moment on my walk this morning, at about 5:30 a.m., when I just stopped dead in my tracks and watched the horizon change from blue-black to blushing violet. In the movie industry, this stretch of time is known as magic hour. Cinematographers who shoot in these few precious moments, if they […]

Also posted in 2012 Election, Mitt Romney, Obama Watch, Screenwriting | Tagged Big Government, Days of Heaven, Haskell Wexler, Magic Hour, Nestor Almendros, Terence Malick | 18 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 3, 2012

Mary Pickford: She Built It

Tweet Being a Conservative means conserving the wisdom of our ancestors, preserving what is best of our cultural heritage. Too often, modern man plunges headlong into the future and never looks back. Nowhere is this more evident than with the history and preservation of silent films. Last week I spoke with a group of high […]

Also posted in 2012 Election, Hollywood, Mary Pickford, Silent Movies | Tagged DNC, Mary Pickford, progressive feminists | 18 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | August 23, 2012

2016: Obama’s America, Plus a Mild Digression About Bette Davis

Tweet Into the San Fernando Valley we rode, 10.2 miles from Casa Avrech, to see Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary 2016: Obama’s America. Karen ordered our tickets in advance through Fandango. There are no theater listings for 2016 in the LA Times. They claim there was a computer glitch, but I think we all know what’s really […]

Also posted in 2012 Election, 2016: Obama's America, Obama Watch, Remembering Ariel | Tagged Bette Davis, Dinesh D'Souza, George Obama, In This Our Life, Stanley Ann Dunham, Stanley Timberlake | 20 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | August 16, 2012

Mae Clarke, Jimmy Cagney: The Tricks of the Trade

Tweet In Lady Killer (1933) Dan Quigley (Jimmy Cagney) a movie theater usher, gets fired and drifts into a life of petty crime with a gang of con men and their slinky, hardboiled gun moll, Myra, played by the incomparable Mae Clarke. On the lam from the police and the gang who betrays him, Dan […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Jimmy Cagney, Mae Clarke | Tagged Acting, Classic Hollywood, Featured Player: An Oral Biography of Mae Clarke, Lady Killer, Yiddish | 19 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 12, 2012

Joan Bennett Wants You To Be Attractive

Tweet Besides starring in several noir classics, The Woman in the Window ( 1944), Scarlet Street (1945), Hollow Triumph (1948) and our favorite, The Reckless Moment (1949), Joan Bennett delivered the most famous adulterer’s line of dialogue in Hollywood history. In 1951, Bennet’s marriage to producer Walter Wanger was on the rocks. Wanger’s distinguished career […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Joan Bennett | Tagged Hollywood adultery, Hollywood Self-Help Books, How to be Attractive by Joan Bennett, Jennings Lang, Walter Wanger | 11 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 31, 2012

Three Notable War Movies from Britain, Russia, & Finland

Tweet After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a close friend who commanded a tank in the Sinai and killed at least 35 Egyptian tanks—“You forget to count after a while”—in a drunken moment said to yours truly: “You know what’s great about desert warfare? No civilians. No cities. No nothing. Just you and the enemy. […]

Also posted in Great Movies, Hollywood, War Movies | Tagged 1612, Ambush, Anthony Quayle, Continuation War, Finnish Jews, Finnish Movies, Harry Andrews, Ice Cold Alex, John Mills, Soviet Propaganda, Sylvia Syms | 20 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 24, 2012

Movie Posters: Hollywood’s Golden Age

Tweet The major studios had a staff of artists who designed posters and lobby cards. These talented men and women toiled in relative obscurity, but the sophistication of their graphic designs are simply jaw dropping. Major films usually had several versions of posters that went out to theaters.

Also posted in Hollywood, Movie Posters, Silent Movies | Tagged Alla Nazimova, Body Double, Cecil B. De Mille, Clara Bow, Jeanie MacPherson, Salome, Saturday Night, The Crimson Skull, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Wings | 19 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 23, 2012

The Religious Wisdom of Preston Sturges

Tweet The Great McGinty (1940) charts the rise and fall of a Depression era hobo to mayor of a city, then Governor, and finally exile in a banana republic. Though a satire, Preston Sturges, certainly the greatest writer-director in Hollywood history, was a keen observer of American political life. McGinty, played by Brian Donlevy, finds […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Preston Sturges, Screenwriting, Wisdom of Hollywood Screenwriters | Tagged The Great McGinty | 12 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 22, 2012

The Political Wisdom of Preston Sturges

Tweet Preston Sturges wrote and directed The Great McGinty, 1940, a political satire that, seen today, is astonishingly accurate in its depiction of big city politics and the corruption and self-interest of politicians who claim to serve the interests of “the little people.” Though the film is carefully non-partisan, depicting all politicians as crooked, one […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Obama Watch, Preston Sturges, The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood | Tagged Muriel Angelus, The Great McGinty, William Demarest | 15 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 3, 2012

When Ingrid Bergman Shattered Ingrid Bergman’s Image

Tweet Movies, specifically Hollywood movies, are the greatest machinery of propaganda the world has ever known. So powerful is Hollywood and its ability to convey a message that in modern times America has never achieved victory in war without Hollywood’s support. When the Hollywood community turns against an American conflict, defeat is assured. Witness Vietnam, […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Ingrid Bergman | Tagged Coming Home, Hollywood Scandal, Italian Neo-Realism, Jane Fonda, Joan of Arc, Jon Voight, Roberto Rossellini, Sidney Lumet, Stromboli, The Bells of St. Mary's | 20 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 12, 2012

Notable War Movies, Russian and Finnish

Tweet Seraphic Secret watches movies in thematic clusters. Last year I concentrated on the work of specific actors, among them: Clara Bow, John Gilbert, Mary Nolan, Lon Chaney, Esther Ralston and, adolescent sigh, Brigitte Bardot. For the past few weeks I’ve been screening war movies, with an emphasis on films from Russia and Finland. World […]

Also posted in War, War Movies | Tagged Antti Tuuri, Birth of a Nation, Continuation War, Cuckoo, Finland, Lappland, Lielle Meital, Passover, Russia, Sami, Shabbat, Suomi submachine gun, The Brest Fortress, Winter War | 13 Responses

How I Married Karen

The new book
by Robert J. Avrech

Available in All Major Book Stores

Adobe Digital Edition's version is available through the Lulu store!
About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California
I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
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Annual Ariel Avrech
Memorial Lectures
Young Israel of Century City

Eleventh: June 8, 2014
Michael Medved: "Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 97MB)

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: "The War Against Judaism on the University Campus." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: "The Mainstream Media's Betrayal of Israel." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: "What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: "Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: "Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?" Blog Post | Audio (mp3 64MB)

Fifth: June 15, 2008
Rabbi Dr. Gil S. Perl: "What Was the Rosh Yeshiva Reading: Intellectual Openness in 19th Century Lithuania." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 70MB)
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