Cliff Aliperti's Blog: Immortal Ephemera, page 11

Review: Sex In the Cinema: The Pre-Code Years (1929-1934) by Lou Sabini

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Sex In the Cinema: The ‘Pre-Code’ Years (1929-1934) by Lou Sabini. Published 2017 by BearManor Media. 408 pages covering 107 movies with 178 photographs. I received a complimentary PDF copy of the book for review from the author.

Lou Sabini’s collection of taut essays profiling 107 pre-Code era films, both well-known and obscure, is an essential for every classic film fan’s bookshelf. Sabini’s 3-4 page reviews are lean an...

More on the EMO Movie Club of the 1930s

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Well, let's get back at it. Slowly, but surely, I promise. For those who have newly subscribed since my last message (welcome aboard!), rest assured these collectibles-related posts don't come too often, though I do have a couple of them stored up.

And, hey, I won't apologize for allowing one of my all-time favorite collectibles to pull me back over to the blog—I'll warm my fingers up here, and eventually work my way back...

Ricardo Cortez TCM Movie Marathon: A Celebration of Smarm

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

I hope I caught you in time with this DVR alert: Ricardo Cortez movies fill the Turner Classic Movies daytime schedule on Thursday, April 27, 2017. The nine Cortez films include Torrent (1926)—the only Greta Garbo release in which she was not first billed (Cortez was)—followed by eight titles released between 1929-1934, two of which feature lesser-seen early directorial efforts from Frank Capra and John Ford. The complete...

Three on a Match (1932), A Second Look: Bogart, Action, Warren William

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

It’s still my favorite moment in Three on a Match: Vivian (Ann Dvorak) is outraged when Harve (Humphrey Bogart) and his boys barge into her apartment with hopes of upping the ransom on her five-year-old son. Dvorak rubs under her nose a couple of times between Vivian’s livid lines, and Bogie responds with a wry little smile and a simple, “Uh oh,” while taking a little swipe at his own nose, an acknowledgment of Vivian’s u...

Robert Osborne, 1932-2017

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Above: Shot of TCM host Robert Osborne. 05-07-2009 TBS, Inc.

Beloved Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne died Monday, March 6, 2017, in Manhattan. Mr. Osborne was 84.

You’ll find links to several obituaries covering the life and career of Robert Osborne at the bottom of this post. I just wanted to chime in with my own memories.

I never met or had any personal contact with Robert Osborne, though he was such a regular...

“TCM Ten” for March 2017 with Under Eighteen (1931) Capsule Review

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

This “TCM Ten” item was written for Classic Movie Monthly #6, but the short month is going to keep me from making that new issue of the eBook available until early March (cover peek if you care to see what will be inside issue #6).

Basically, these are my recommendations of ten 1930s releases playing on TCM this month, plus a capsule review of one of the ten. More info below that review.

TCM Ten For March 2017

Star of t...

Pick-Up (1933) Starring Sylvia Sidney and George Raft

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

This otherwise average romantic melodrama is lifted by Sylvia Sidney. It’s also a good trial run for the Sidney and George Raft team, establishing a chemistry that carried over to their later pairings in You and Me (1938) and Mr. Ace (1946). Fritz Lang’s You and Me is best of this trio, and I slightly preferred Mr. Ace to Pick-Up, but this earliest effort is entertaining too.

Some period reviews found British-born Lilia...

Are These Our Children? (1931) Starring Eric Linden and Arline Judge

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

“I played the real me in the end. The boy who said the prayer was Eric Linden. That was a very simple thing” (Parish 354).

Above: Linden confronted with his grandmother (Beryl Mercer) at end of Are These Our Children?

It’s at the very end of Are These Our Children?, when Linden’s Eddie Brandt is moments from execution, that the young actor made audiences cry with his recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a melancholy endi...

Classic Movie Monthly #5 Now Available

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Classic Movie Monthly #5 is now available for your Kindle (or other reading device, see details on Amazon page). In keeping with new tradition, the introduction to the issue is reprinted below so you can get a feel for what's inside.

(If you're outside the US, try this link instead.)

I had hoped to send out a new review post before announcing this latest issue of the monthly, but work on this issue's new article (The Stor...

Miriam Hopkins Biography — Star of Stage and Screen, 1902-1972

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

A few years ago I wrote a post about about the pre-Code output of Miriam Hopkins. The title of that post asks if Miriam Hopkins was the sexiest pre-Code star of them all, but I’ll now admit that I censored my original title a bit. What I really wanted to ask was if Hopkins could claim title of having played the most sex-hungry characters of the pre-Code era.

A brief survey of that period includes Hopkins’ three movies fo...