Genres
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Film Noir: Topic PageGenre of dark, cynical crime film.
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Musical: Topic Page20th-century form of dramatic musical performance, combining elements of song, dance, and the spoken word, often characterized by lavish staging and large casts.
Directors
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Frank Capra (1897 - 1991): Topic PageFilm director. Earned Oscars for It Happened One Night (1934), Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and You Can’t Take It With You (1938); also made It’s A Wonderful Life (1947).
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Walt Disney (1901 - 1966): Topic PageUS film producer, animator, and pioneer of family entertainment. Disney created many world-famous cartoon characters, including Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, made phenomenally successful feature-length animated films, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
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Howard Hawks (1896 - 1977): Topic PageFilm director, screenwriter, and producer of a broad spectrum of genres, from gangster films (Scarface, 1932) and Westerns (Red River, 1948) to screwball comedies (Bringing Up Baby, 1938) and musicals (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953).
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Alfred Hitchcock (1899 - 1980): Topic Page
English-American film director, writer, and producer. In his suspense thrillers, Hitchcock unsettled audiences both through the use of intense set pieces and the suggestion that normality as usually defined masks humanity's true and much darker nature. -
John Huston (1906 - 1987): Topic PageFilm director, screenwriter, and actor. His masterpiece was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1947), for which he won Academy Awards for best director and best screenplay.
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Elia Kazan (1909 - 2003): Topic PageStage and film director. He won two Academy Awards as best director for Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954).
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Leni Riefenstahl (1902 - 2003): Topic PageNotorious for having made the Nazi propaganda movie Triumph of the Will (1935).
Producers
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Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974): Topic PageUS film producer. He founded the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation in 1917, which merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1924, although he was not part of the deal.
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Louis B. Mayer (1885 - 1957)From The Reader's Companion to American History
Motion picture producer. -
Studio SystemFrom Encyclopedia of American Studies
The studio system was a key feature of Hollywood moviemaking in the period between about 1920 and 1954. -
Warner BrothersFrom The Columbia Encyclopedia
American movie studio executives and producers. Sons of poor E European Jewish immigrants, the brothers were Harry Morris (1881-1958), Albert (1884-1967), Samuel Louis (1887-1927), all b. Poland, and Jack Leonard (1892-1978), b. London, Ontario, Canada -
Darryl Zanuck (1902 - 1979): Topic PageOf all the movie magnates he was probably the most involved with his studio's products, taking an active part in creative and editorial processes.
Actors
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Tallulah Bankhead (1902 - 1968)From The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography
American actress. She was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and her uninhibited, rather disreputable public persona belied her staid establishment origins. -
Ingrid Bergman (1915 - 1982): Topic PageBergman is best known for her performances in Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s – most famously Casablanca (1942), in which she starred opposite Humphrey Bogart.
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Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)
From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
He created an indelible and enduring screen persona of the lone wolf; cynical but heroic, abrasive, romantic and stubbornly faithful to his own code of ethics. -
Marlon Brando (1924 - 2004): Topic Page
Film and stage actor, born in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. A product of the New York Actors’ Studio, he made his debut in 1943, and appeared in several plays before achieving fame in A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). -
Joan Crawford (1908 - 1977): Topic Page
Appeared in several “working-girl-makes-good-but-doesn't-necessarily-achieve-happiness” roles which were extremely popular with audiences and earned Crawford a place among the most popular actors of the 1930s. -
Bette Davis (1908 - 1989): Topic PageFilm actress, born in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA.
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Doris Day (1924 - ): Topic PageSinger and actress. Her singing was sweet, smooth, and intimate, and because she looked like everyone’s ideal ‘girl next door’, she was soon making light romantic comedies (39 films in all).
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Henry Fonda (1905 - 1982): Topic PageFilm and stage actor. His film debut in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935) led to more than 100 screen appearances, culminating with his Oscar-winning role in On Golden Pond (1981).
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Judy Garland (1922 - 1969): Topic Page
A Hollywood legend, Judy Garland achieved the status of superstar before dependence on drugs and alcohol prematurely ended her life. Her portrayal of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1938) made her an international star. -
Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993): Topic PageAudrey Hepburn was internationally famous for her elegance and beauty as well as for her elfin charm; her most memorable roles include the call girl Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1964).
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Katharine Hepburn (1907 - 2003)From The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women
Katharine Hepburn was the winner of four Academy Awards as Best Actress (the last when she was 74) and also received eight nominations. -
Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942): Topic PageCarole Lombard was one of the best comedic talents of the 1930s and held the unofficial title of “screwball comedy queen."
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Marx Brothers: Topic Page
Comedy team, all born in New York City, New York, USA. The three most prominent were Chico (b. Leonard) (1886–1961); Harpo (b. Adolph, but known as Arthur) (1888–1964); and Groucho (b. Julius Henry) (1890–1977). -
James Mason (1909 - 1984): Topic PageActor, born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, N England, UK. He became one of the most prolific, distinguished, and reliable of cinema actors.
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Robert Mitchum (1917 - 1997): Topic PageUS film actor. Mitchum's hard-boiled performances in a series of war films, melodramas, films noirs, and Westerns of the 1940s and early 1950s established him firmly in the pantheon of Hollywood's leading male performers.
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Donald Pleasence (1919 - 1995): Topic PageEnglish character actor.
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George Scott (1927 - 1999): Topic PageStage and film actor, born in Wise, Virginia, USA.
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James Stewart (1908 - 1997): Topic PageUS film actor. His films included Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), for which he won an Academy Award, and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
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Mae West (1893 - 1980): Topic PageMae West raised the spirits of cinemagoers during the Depression of the 1930s with her unique blend of comedy and sexuality.
