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A short romance novel followed by an extensive genealogy of the author's family.
The teaching profession has a long history in motion pictures. As early as the late 19th century, films have portrayed educators of young children--including teachers, tutors, day care workers, nannies, governesses, and other related occupations--in a variety of roles within the cinematic classroom. This work provides a broad index of more than 800 films (both U.S. and foreign) which feature educators as primary characters. Organized alphabetically by title, each entry contains a short plot summary and many also include cast and crew details. A detailed subject index is also included.
On the film Sherlock Jr. directed by Buster Keaton
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American silent film comedies were dominated by sight gags, stunts and comic violence. With the advent of sound, comedies in the 1930s were a riot of runaway heiresses and fast-talking screwballs. It was more than a technological pivot--the first feature-length sound film, The Jazz Singer (1927), changed Hollywood. Lost in the discussion of that transition is the overlap between the two genres. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd kept slapstick alive well into the sound era. Screwball directors like Leo McCarey, Frank Capra and Ernst Lubitsch got their starts in silent comedy. From Chaplin's tramp to the witty repartee of His Girl Friday (1940), this book chronicles the rise of silent comedy and its evolution into screwball--two flavors of the same genre--through the works of Mack Sennett, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harry Langdon and others.
Long before sound became an essential part of motion pictures, Westerns were an established genre. The men and women who brought to life cowboys, cowgirls, villains, sidekicks, distressed damsels and outraged townspeople often continued with their film careers, finding success and fame well into the sound era--always knowing that it was in silent Westerns that their careers began. More than a thousand of these once-silent Western players are featured in this fully indexed encyclopedic work. Each entry includes a detailed biography, covering both personal and professional milestones and a complete Western filmography. A foreword is supplied by Diana Serra Cary (formerly the child star "Baby Peggy"), who performed with many of the actors herein.
This revised and greatly expanded edition of a well-established reference book presents 5105 feature length (four reels or more) Western films, from the early silent era to the present. More than 900 new entries are in this edition. Each entry has film title, release company and year, running time, color indication, cast listing, plot synopsis, and a brief critical review and other details. Not only are Hollywood productions included, but the volume also looks at Westerns made abroad as well as frontier epics, north woods adventures and nature related productions. Many of the films combine genres, such as horror and science fiction Westerns. The volume includes a list of cowboys and their horses and a screen names cross reference. There are more than 100 photographs.
Buster Keaton "can impress a weary world with the vitally important fact that life, after all, is a foolishly inconsequential affair," wrote critic Robert Sherwood in 1918. A century later Keaton, with his darkly comic "theater of the absurd," speaks to audiences like no other silent comedian. If you thought you knew Keaton--think again!
Short subject films have a long history in American cinemas. These could be anywhere from 2 to 40 minutes long and were used as a "filler" in a picture show that would include a cartoon, a newsreel, possibly a serial and a short before launching into the feature film. Shorts could tackle any topic of interest: an unusual travelogue, a comedy, musical revues, sports, nature or popular vaudeville acts. With the advent of sound-on-film in the mid-to-late 1920s, makers of earlier silent short subjects began experimenting with the short films, using them as a testing ground for the use of sound in feature movies. After the Second World War, and the rising popularity of television, short subject films became far too expensive to produce and they had mostly disappeared from the screens by the late 1950s. This encyclopedia offers comprehensive listings of American short subject films from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Pearl White, William Duncan, William Desmond, Ben Wilson, Walter Miller, Francis Ford, Charles Hutchinson, Jack Dougherty, and Eddie Polo are just a few of the stars to start up a whirlwind of enthusiasm among serial devotees. They offered a thrill-a-minute world of ridiculous plots, weird disguises, hair-raising escapes, hidden treasures, diabolic scientific devices, wild animals, depraved men, runaway trains, and an endless procession of knock-down, drag-out fights. Who could resist? This reference work highlights 446 serial performers who thrilled generations. Each entry includes the performer's birth and death dates, serial credits, major films and details of life before and after the movies.