OS CINEASTAS
List activity
3 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
6 people
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. From 1910 to 1914, he traveled in Europe, and he would later claim, also in Asia and North Africa. He studied painting in Paris from 1913-14. At the start of World War I, he returned to Vienna, enlisting in the army in January 1915. Severely wounded in June 1916, he wrote some scenarios for films while convalescing. In early 1918, he was sent home shell-shocked and acted briefly in Viennese theater before accepting a job as a writer at Erich Pommer's production company in Berlin, Decla. In Berlin, Lang worked briefly as a writer and then as a director, at Ufa and then for Nero-Film, owned by the American Seymour Nebenzal. In 1920, he began a relationship with actress and writer Thea von Harbou (1889-1954), who wrote with him the scripts for his most celebrated films: Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924), Metropolis (1927) and M (1931) (credited to von Harbou alone). They married in 1922 and divorced in 1933. In that year, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels offered Lang the job of head of the German Cinema Institute. Lang--who was an anti-Nazi mainly because of his Catholic background--did not accept the position (it was later offered to and accepted by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl) and, after secretly sending most of his money out of the country, fled Germany to Paris. After about a year in Paris, Lang moved to the United States in mid-1934, initially under contract to MGM. Over the next 20 years, he directed numerous American films. In the 1950s, in part because the film industry was in economic decline and also because of Lang's long-standing reputation for being difficult with, and abusive to, actors, he found it increasingly hard to get work. At the end of the 1950s, he traveled to Germany and made what turned out to be his final three films there, none of which were well received.
In 1964, nearly blind, he was chosen to be president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. He was an avid collector of primitive art and habitually wore a monocle, an affectation he picked up during his early days in Vienna. After his divorce from von Harbou, he had relationships with many other women, but from about 1931 to his death in 1976, he was close to Lily Latte, who helped him in many ways.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
In 1920, Merian C. Cooper was a member of volunteer of the American Kosciuszko Squadron that supported the Polish army in the war with Soviet Russia, where he met best friend and producing partner Ernest B. Schoedsack. On 26 July 1920, his plane was shot down, and he spent nearly nine months in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp. He escaped just before the war was over. He was decorated by Marshall Jozef Pilsudski with the highest military decorations: Virtuti Military. He had a successful career in the military and in the movie business.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Ernest B. Schoedsack was born on 8 June 1893 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Dr. Cyclops (1940), The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and Rango (1931). He was married to Ruth Rose. He died on 23 December 1979 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the toothbrush mustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane, and a funny walk.
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in Walworth, London, England on April 16, 1889, to Hannah Harriet Pedlingham (Hill) and Charles Chaplin, both music hall performers, who were married on June 22, 1885. After Charles Sr. separated from Hannah to perform in New York City, Hannah then tried to resurrect her stage career. Unfortunately, her singing voice had a tendency to break at unexpected moments. When this happened, the stage manager spotted young Charlie standing in the wings and led him on stage, where five-year-old Charlie began to sing a popular tune. Charlie and his half-brother, Syd Chaplin spent their lives in and out of charity homes and workhouses between their mother's bouts of insanity. Hannah was committed to Cane Hill Asylum in May 1903 and lived there until 1921, when Chaplin moved her to California.
Chaplin began his official acting career at the age of eight, touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads. At age 18, he began touring with Fred Karno's vaudeville troupe, joining them on the troupe's 1910 United States tour. He traveled west to California in December 1913 and signed on with Keystone Studios' popular comedy director Mack Sennett, who had seen Chaplin perform on stage in New York. Charlie soon wrote his brother Syd, asking him to become his manager. While at Keystone, Chaplin appeared in and directed 35 films, starring as the Little Tramp in nearly all.
In November 1914, he left Keystone and signed on at Essanay, where he made 15 films. In 1916, he signed on at Mutual and made 12 films. In June 1917, Chaplin signed up with First National Studios, after which he built Chaplin Studios. In 1919, he and Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists (UA).
Chaplin's life and career was full of scandal and controversy. His first big scandal was during World War I, at which time his loyalty to England, his home country, was questioned. He had never applied for American citizenship, but claimed that he was a "paying visitor" to the United States. Many British citizens called Chaplin a coward and a slacker. This and other career eccentricities sparked suspicion with FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), who believed that he was injecting Communist propaganda into his films. Chaplin's later film The Great Dictator (1940), which was his first "talkie", also created a stir. In the film, Chaplin plays a humorous caricature of Adolf Hitler. Some thought the film was poorly done and in bad taste. However, the film grossed over $5 million and earned five Academy Award Nominations.
Another scandal occurred when Chaplin briefly dated 22 year-old Joan Barry. However, Chaplin's relationship with Barry came to an end in 1942, after a series of harassing actions from her. In May 1943, Barry returned to inform Chaplin that she was pregnant and filed a paternity suit, claiming that the unborn child was his. During the 1944 trial, blood tests proved that Chaplin was not the father, but at the time, blood tests were inadmissible evidence, and he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the child turned 21.
Chaplin also was scrutinized for his support in aiding the Russian struggle against the invading Nazis during World War II, and the United States government questioned his moral and political views, suspecting him of having Communist ties. For this reason, HUAC subpoenaed him in 1947. However, HUAC finally decided that it was no longer necessary for him to appear for testimony. Conversely, when Chaplin and his family traveled to London for the premier of Limelight (1952), he was denied re-entry to the United States. In reality, the government had almost no evidence to prove that he was a threat to national security. Instead, he and his wife decided to settle in Switzerland.
Chaplin was married four times and had a total of 11 children. In 1918, he married Mildred Harris and they had a son together, Norman Spencer Chaplin, who lived only three days. Chaplin and Harris divorced in 1920. He married Lita Grey in 1924, who had two sons, Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin. They were divorced in 1927. In 1936, Chaplin married Paulette Goddard, and his final marriage was to Oona O'Neill (Oona Chaplin), daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1943. Oona gave birth to eight children: Geraldine Chaplin, Michael Chaplin, Josephine Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin, Eugene Chaplin, Jane Chaplin, Annette-Emilie Chaplin, and Christopher Chaplin.
In contrast to many of his boisterous characters, Chaplin was a quiet man who kept to himself a great deal. He also had an "un-millionaire" way of living. Even after he had accumulated millions, he continued to live in shabby accommodations. In 1921, Chaplin was decorated by the French government for his outstanding work as a filmmaker and was elevated to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1952. In 1972, he was honored with an Academy Award for his "incalculable effect in making motion pictures the art form of the century". He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1975 New Year's Honours List. No formal reason for the honour was listed. The citation simply reads "Charles Spencer Chaplin, Film Actor and Producer".
Chaplin's other works included musical scores that he composed for many of his films. He also authored two autobiographical books, "My Autobiography" (1964) and its companion volume, "My Life in Pictures" (1974).
Chaplin died at age 88 of natural causes on December 25, 1977 at his home in Vevey, Switzerland. His funeral was a small and private Anglican ceremony according to his wishes. In 1978, Chaplin's corpse was stolen from its grave and was not recovered for three months; he was re-buried in a vault surrounded by cement.
Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Charlie Chaplin is considered one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of American cinema, whose movies were and still are popular throughout the world and have even gained notoriety as time progresses. His films show, through the Little Tramp's positive outlook on life in a world full of chaos, that the human spirit has and always will remain the same.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Director William K. Howard was born in St. Marys, OH, in 1893. He studied engineering and law at Ohio State University but gravitated towards film distribution when he took a job as sales manager for Vitagraph. After serving in an artillery unit with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, he relocated to Hollywood and trained as an assistant director at Universal. Howard began directing films in 1921, first for Fox, then at Famous Players-Lasky (1924). Many of his early silents were commercially popular westerns, characterized by powerful images of rugged landscapes, often featuring sweeping plains and imposing monoliths. He excelled equally at spectacular action sequences, such as the one at the climax of Volcano (1926), set on the island of Martinique on the eve of the eruption of Mt. Pelee. Howard was also influenced by German expressionism--notably by the films of F.W. Murnau--as reflected, for example, in the stylized, somber look of White Gold (1927). This was the first of his films to attract critical notice, but, ironically, did less well at the box office than his others.
With the onset of talking pictures, Howard made the rounds of the major studios, acquiring a reputation for turning out superior melodramas. He became increasingly prodigious, turning out two or three pictures per year. He did some of his best work at Fox between 1928-33. This included one of the first multiple-story films made up to that point, the shipboard mystery Transatlantic (1931). A formula that would become commonplace during the 1970s, it was aptly described by "Variety" as "an aquatic Grand Hotel (1932)". However, unlike "Grand Hotel", "Transatlantic" was less about performance and dialogue than it was about mobile camera movement, tracking shots, clever angles and neat visual touches, such as a climactic chase through the stylized interior of the ship, where steam and inventive expressionist lighting devices helped to convey a threatening and claustrophobic atmosphere.
Howard reached his peak with the compact courtroom drama The Trial of Vivienne Ware (1932), characterized again by fluid camera work and prodigious use of flashbacks. Even more innovative was The Power and the Glory (1933). This seedy tale of a railway tycoon's rise to the top and his inevitable corruption by power is often referred to as a precursor to Citizen Kane (1941). It employs the same technique of narrative flashback and has as misanthropic a view of human nature. In the opinion of Mordaunt Hall, commenting for "The New York Times": "no little praise for the excellence of this film is due to William K. Howard for the direction and to Preston Sturges, who is responsible for the story and its development" (August 17, 1933).
After brief spells at MGM (1934-35) and Paramount (1935-36), Howard crossed the Atlantic to work on three films for Alexander Korda. Best of these was the excellent Fire Over England (1937), a lavish costume epic about the defeat of the Spanish armada in the 16th century. Visually and dramatically one of his best films, its success was due in no small measure to the fact that Howard had been able to hire his favorite cinematographer, fellow American James Wong Howe, as well as having on board the excellent Russian-born art director Lazare Meerson. After Howard returned home, he found worthwhile assignments difficult to come by and his career went into sudden free fall. It is unclear whether this was due to his increasing struggle with alcoholism or to a notorious incident in 1936, in which he ordered his production supervisor off the set (of The Princess Comes Across (1936)) for "too much interference", in keeping with new guidelines set by the Screen Directors Guild. Whatever the true reasons for his decline, Howard finished his career directing routine second features. After being replaced by Lloyd Bacon as director of Knute Rockne All American (1940) for being "excessively slow", he had his last unsuccessful comeback attempt with the James Cagney vehicle Johnny Come Lately (1943). Howard made two more films--one for "B" studio Republic Pictures and the other for bottom-of-the-barrel Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC)--before calling it quits in 1946. He died in February 1954 at the age of 60. There is a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street that bears his name.- Music Department
- Producer
- Composer
American lyricist and author Lawrence L. 'Larry' Morey was chiefly noted for co-writing (with the composer and songwriter Frank Churchill) the musical numbers for Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), including "Heigh-Ho", "I'm Wishing" and "Whistle While You Work". He also worked on the picture as a sequence director. His second claim to fame was adapting Felix Salten's 1923 book, "Bambi, a Life in the Woods", for the screen (as well as co-writing the score with Churchill). Assisted by Perce Pearce, he is further credited with devising the characters of Thumper the rabbit and Flower the skunk, primarily to lighten the mood of the picture. One of the musical numbers from Bambi (1942), "Love is a Song", was nominated for an Oscar, as was "Lavender Blue" (sung by Burl Ives) for So Dear to My Heart (1948). This piece was adapted from a popular folk song.
Morey worked for Disney from 1933, following stints at Paramount and Warners. He joined ASCAP in 1938.