Hollywood
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To be honest, I was never a great fan of Charlie Chaplin. I was always more of a fan of the Laurel and Hardy-type of humour. I find that Charlie Chaplin’s movies are quite dated when compared to the aforementioned, Laurel and Hardy films. However, there is one notable exception. There has been one Chaplin…
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On September 15, 1971, NBC aired the first official episode of Columbo: Murder by the Book. What could have been just another detective drama instead became a genre-defining moment. With Peter Falk stepping fully into the role of Lieutenant Columbo, a script by legendary writer Steven Bochco, and direction by a then-unknown Steven Spielberg, the…
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Introduction When Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back premiered in 1980, audiences in the United Kingdom were treated to an unusual and haunting short film titled Black Angel, shown before the main feature. Directed by Roger Christian—an Oscar-winning art director who helped define the look of Star Wars—Black Angel emerged as a brief but resonant…
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On April 6, 1906, the first animated film recorded on standard picture film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, was released. Running just three minutes, this silent short was created by British-American film pioneer J. Stuart Blackton. The film presents a sequence of simple yet inventive scenes, including a dog jumping through a hoop and a…
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Stewart’s draft number was 310, and when he appeared before Draft Board No. 245 in West Los Angeles in February 1941, the 6’3” actor weighed just 138 pounds—five pounds under the minimum requirement. He was rejected for service. Undeterred, Stewart took matters into his own hands. Aware he was nearing the age limit for flight…
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The highlight of the year for the movie industry is without a doubt, or at least it used to be. But when did it all start? In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was established by Louis B. Mayer, the founder of the Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation, which then would…
