Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Alfred Hitchcock

Thanksgiving 2017: The Children of the Children of Israel

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Studio photographers shot millions of still photos of their actors, often with holiday themes. This is the one of the few religiously inclined Thanksgiving stills I have come across. The actress is Barbara Kent, a minor star in the silent ear best known for starring opposite Harold Lloyd in “Welcome Danger” 1929. But her very best role was in a little known but quite wonderful silent film “Lonesome,” 1928.
Studio photographers shot mountains of photographs of contract actors, often with holiday themes. This is a charming Thanksgiving  photo. The actress is Barbara Kent, (b. Barbara Cloutman, 1907- 2011) a popular star in the silent era best known for twice starring opposite Harold Lloyd, “Welcome Danger” (1929), and then “Feet First,” (1930). But her very best role was in a little known but quite wonderful silent film “Lonesome,” (1928). Seraphic Secret wrote a memoriam for this lovely actress when she passed away. You can find it here.

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?

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“The main problem in marriage is that for a man sex is a hunger like eating. If the man is hungry and can’t get to a fancy French restaurant, he goes to a hot dog stand. For a woman, what is important is love and romance.”
—Joan Fontaine

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“Keaton had a great influence on me. A lot of his moves I intuitively copied in doing some numbers. I know I was thinking of him when I did a dance with a squeaky board and a newspaper. I didn’t look like him, but I often wish I did. He was a complete genius, and there was a lot of dance inherent in his movements.”
—Gene Kelly

Once again Friday Photos appears on Wednesday due to the last days of Sukkot which begin tonight and then run into Shabbat. Enjoy!

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Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s: 36 Hours

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Rod Taylor and James Garner, 36 Hours

We continue our survey of the 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.

From the 1960s I have already written about: Psycho, Spartacus,  Lawrence of Arabia,  The Manchurian Candidate,  Ride the High Country,  To Kill a Mockingbird,  The Birds,  Bye Bye Birdie,  Knife in the Water,  Zulu

11. 36 Hours, 1965

Caution, spoilers ahead!

This World War II thriller might be the most obscure movie in this series. In fact, when I mentioned 36 Hours to a few of my movie nerd friends they were totally baffled.

James Garner, one of the the most underrated male actors in Hollywood, plays U.S. Army Major Jeff Pike. After attending General Eisenhower’s final briefing on the Normandy invasion, Pike is sent to Lisbon on June 1, 1944, to contact a spy in order to confirm that the Nazis still expect the allied invasion to take place at the Pas de Calais.

In Lisbon, Major Pike is double-crossed, abducted, and whisked away to Germany.

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Hitchcock: The Primacy of Emotion

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Francois Truffaut: Are you in favour of the teaching of cinema in universities?
Alfred Hitchcock: Only on condition that they teach cinema since the era of Méliès and that the students learn how to make silent films, because there is no better form of training. Talking pictures often served merely to introduce the theatre into the studios. The danger is that young people, and even adults, all too often believe that one can become a director without knowing how to sketch a decor, or how to edit.

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