Tag Archives: Movies

Director Michael Powell and Zionist Leader Chaim Weizmann

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: February 21, 2018

Director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger were responsible for some of the finest, most distinctive movies made in Britain from the late 30s to the late 40s: The Spy in Black (1939), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), 49th Parallel (1941), One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp […]

Posted in Chaim Weizmann, Christianity, Emeric Pressburger, Great Movies, Hollywood, Michael Powell, Movies, Quotes, Screenwriting | Also tagged Chaim Weizmann, Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell | 3 Responses

A Great Thanksgiving Movie: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: November 23, 2016

Seraphic Secret usually recommends classic Hollywood movies to help celebrate our national holidays. But this year we’re going to switch gears and recommend one of our favorite Thanksgiving movies, Plains, Trains and Automobiles, 1987. Not only is this one of the finest, most touching Thanksgiving movie ever made, but it’s also the best film written, directed and produced […]

Posted in America, Movies, Thanksgiving | Also tagged Holiday Movies, John Candy, John Hughes, Steve Martin | 3 Responses

How to Write a Screenplay

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: September 21, 2016

I get a fair amount of email from readers asking me about writing. More specifically, how do I go about writing a movie? Writing is ninety percent perspiration, ten percent inspiration. In other words do not wait to get struck with inspiration. That’s a load of romantic nonsense. In fact, that’s a sure way not […]

Posted in Hollywood, Movies, Screenwriting | Also tagged Screenplays, Writing | 17 Responses

Bag of Tricks

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 8, 2011

In Rear Window, 1954, Grace Kelly’s elegant Mark Cross bag emerges as something of a major character, a twin symbol of desire—Kelly cooly snaps opens the bag, unfurling a fetching neglige—and the domesticity Jimmy Stewart finds so intimidating. Women’s handbags are more than repositories of oh-so-necessary possessions but a reflection of a woman’s priorities in […]

Posted in Friday Fashion, Handbags | Also tagged Celine, Fendi, Glamour, Grace Kelly, Hermes, Jill Sander, Jimmy Stewart, Karen, Klein Tool Bag, Mark Cross, Rear Window, Shabbat, Vuitton | 10 Responses

Fourth of July Movie: Raid on Entebbe

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 4, 2011

July 4th is Independence Day. It is also the 35th anniversary of the Israeli Raid on Entebbe, July 4, 1976, in which the IDF planned and carried out one of the most audacious, innovative, and courageous rescue operations in military history. To the jihadists America is the Big Satan and Israel is the Little Satan […]

Posted in Fourth of July | Also tagged Edgar J. Scherick, Hollywood, IslamoNazis, Israel, Raid on Entebbe, Yoni Netanyahu | 9 Responses

Four Movies for the Fourth of July

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 3, 2011

Family, friends, backyard barbecue. You’re going to load up on burgers, hot dogs and french fries. Naturally, you will be exhausted from celebrating Independence Day. Time to heave your starch-laden body into a club chair and enjoy some rousing entertainment. Here are Seraphic Secret’s suggestions: four spectacular movies that are uniquely appropriate for this great […]

Posted in Fourth of July | Also tagged Akira Kurosawa, Ava Gardner, George C. Scott, Hollywood, Jeff Daniels, Mel Gibson, Patton, Seven Samurai, Terrorism, The Crossing, The Patriot | 32 Responses

Silent Jewish-Catholic Film

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 29, 2011

After much soul searching, I have decided that I made a mistake. This post is not appropriate for Seraphic Secret. It will, however, appear in BIG Hollywood in a few days.

Posted in Silent Movies | Tagged Movies | 25 Responses

Haunted Hollywood

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 26, 2011

In Seraphic Secret’s move to WordPress last week, this post was, for a while, lost in cyberspace. Due to the kindness and tech know-how of our faithful reader Alter Ben-Zion, we have been able to snatch this blog out of its spectral prison. Alter also sent all the comments and they are included. In 1925, […]

Posted in Joan Crawford | Also tagged Esther Williams, Hollywood, Joan Crawford, MGM | 21 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
NOTE: Click on video titles inside the thumbnail images, below, to open that video in YouTube

Fifteenth: June 10, 2018
Jackie Danicki: “Confessions of a Convert: A Humbling, Joyful Journey to Judaism.”

Blog Post | Audio: (94 MB)

Fourteenth: June 11, 2017
Daniel Greenfield: “Fighting Anti-Semitism and Defending Israel in the Age of BDS.”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Thirteenth: May 22, 2016Ben Shapiro: “How You Can Save Israel”

Blog Post | Audio: (70 MB)

Twelfth: June 7, 2015
Larry Elder: “The New Black Anti-Semitism”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Eleventh: June 8, 2014
Michael Medved: “Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do.”

Blog Post | Audio: (97MB)

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: “The War Against Judaism on the University Campus.”

Blog Post | Audio: (16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: “The Mainstream Media’s Betrayal of Israel.”

Blog Post | Audio: (15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: “What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me.”

Blog Post | Audio: (18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: “Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion.”

Blog Post | Audio: (80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: “Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?”

Blog Post | Audio: (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: (70MB)
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