Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on October 8, 2014

Jean Harlow was a star for the age she lived in. She often seems compartmentalized by the early thirties.  Her brief life embodied the Hollywood myth of meteoric rise – was it talent or studio grooming? We can look up the archives of major studios seeking memos, script revisions, publicity...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on September 14, 2014

Our intermission at STARDUST AND SHADOWS is over. Our Dreams were getting redone both literally and figuratively .  Going to to still maintain what we have been doing but  some added  items such as  opinion pieces on Jean Harlow who I think was stronger as  mature talent at the end...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on July 3, 2014

I posted on this site my views on remakes or reboots as we call them today (See The Remake and how to use it}  Filmmaking of this style requires that something new be added to a story, not just in terms of CGI, but material not previously used from a...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on June 12, 2014

We often romanticize the past, unconsciously editing out the unsavoury parts of a certain time or event.  This is not true for some events and experiences as they can mark us for life, inside and sometimes even the outside. I read a good amount of film biographies, histories, etc., purely...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on April 15, 2014

These are some final thoughts from 2014  TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL that we were very lucky to have attended with media credentials. TCM festival goers stay for the end credits of a film. TCM audiences will often applaud the star of the film name on screen and their first appearance...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on April 14, 2014

The next day at the festival was a hot as the weather yet still pretty cool for stuff to do. You have to make some choices in these things and sometime you guess wrong. Robert Osbourne gave us the anecdote that for years he had pushed the network to aquire...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on April 13, 2014

Things happen fast at a festival depending on pace that you set for yourself in the amount of films you wish to see. You can’t see everything.  The following are some first day rapid impressions from 2014 TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL I write this at a Hollywood party of sorts...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on April 9, 2014

I am beginning to feel a little like Merton Gill of the picture MAKE ME STAR  (1932) which featured an early role for Joan Blondell which was later remade as Merton of The Movies.  I did see this film a few days before leaving for this trip which made for...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on April 7, 2014

STARDUST AND SHADOWS is lucky enough to be writing this entry from Santa Monica near the famous pier. It is still a number of days before the TCM FESTIVAL begins yet I still have time in this neck of the wood to find some film history. First up , took...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on April 1, 2014

It goes without saying that people watch pictures from the Classic Hollywood era for sheer enjoyment. l have discussed at length in posts the nostalgia factor and will continue to do so as l am a romantic at heart. I have been fortunate to attend the 2011 TCM CLASSIC FILM...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on March 1, 2014

I have just had the opportunity to view the picture MR SKEFFINGTON (1944), directed by the black listed Vincent Sherman. What can you write about actor Claude Rains that would be different? This was a very private man, who, while apparently being held in high regard by many people, never...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on December 31, 2013

I recently saw a Gary Cooper/ Anne Sheridan picture called GOOD SAM  (1948), directed by Leo McCarey  (who gave us DUCK SOUP (1933),  THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), and many others).  The picture was in line with Cooper’s everyman image, with tender moments reading the children bedtime stories.   The pic   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on December 18, 2013

    Holidays are times that people love to watch the staples of the holidays.  Every generation has their favourites they put on and quite frankly watch without thinking. The films become like the Christmas cake or the poinsettia plant that someone brings you each year for no apparent reason...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on November 4, 2013

Let it be known that movie serials from Poverty Row studios and some major studios are a pleasure of mine. This section of Classic Hollywood seems to get left out of most film festivals and retrospectives; yet they are rollicking examples of film making on a budget . Many actors,...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on October 12, 2013

One of the pleasures of writing on what you enjoy is sharing something personal about a common subject. When I first discovered Marie Dressler, I was not impressed.  I had thought that film stars should fall into glamour and grace or tough guys with guns, swords, and horses.  It took...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on September 12, 2013

Been writing on some pretty dark themes recently so thought I would have some fun with a little picture called FOXY BROWN that was released recently on blu-ray  Hey man ..give me five…. don’t give me the jive because FOXY BROWN is alive? Yes.. dust off  those white bell bottoms  with the...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on July 23, 2013

I wrote last time regarding the absence of tough guys in today’s cinema world. There is little of that style of actor – with a few exceptions. I neglected to mention one brilliant piece of modern noir film making with an unlikely ‘tough guy’ in the person of Tom Hanks...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on May 18, 2013

I actually still think that if the ‘Studio System” as it was called was run today benignly it would be a brilliant success. Wishful thinking because technology of film production, the world itself and the audience have a changed. The way that the Studio ran the lives of people, sha   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on May 9, 2013

(NOTE FOR ADDED EFFECT. START THE U TUBE CLIP IN THE ARTICLE, LET THE MUSIC ESTABLISH ITSELF THEN SCAN TO THE TOP AND READ SLOWLY) Those of you out there that enjoy a good read concerning History of Hollywood in the Golden age which I do not seem to get...   read more

Stardust and Shadows Posted by Terry on April 4, 2013

TCM Classic film festival for 2013 announced their full program today. Found some interesting morsals among the always interesting program. Having the good fortune have attended this festival in 2011 I looked knowingly at the midnight screenings. TCM this year will be running a 35 mm print o   read more