Blog
The Unfamous of Hollywood (1934) 🇺🇸
The people you never hear about. They contribute the studio sounds, write the song hits and take the lovely pictures of the stars you admire.
Twenty Impertinent Questions (Movie Classic Magazine, 1933) 🇺🇸
In 1933, Movie Classic Magazine made itself unpopular in Hollywood by asking A-list stars "impertinent" questions.
Motion Picture Magazine — Men Behind the Stars (1936 to 1938) 🇺🇸
Short introductions of Movie Directors and Film Crew by Motion Picture Magazine: Richard Boleslawski | Clarence Brown | Frank Capra | George Cukor | Roy Del Ruth | William Dieterle | Victor Fleming | John Ford | Tay Garnett | E. H. Griffith | Gregory La Cava | Robert Z. Leonard | Mervyn LeRoy | Frank Lloyd | Archie Mayo | Hal Mohr | Wesley Ruggles | Mark Sandrich | John M. Stahl | Richard Thorpe | King Vidor | William Wyler
Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945) 🇺🇸
“Tell me about your dreams and I’ll tell you who you are.” This is one dream we certainly won’t forget, fresh from the unbridled imagination of the man who lent the film his talents as a surrealist painter – or rather, sold them if his anagrammatic nickname, Avida Dollars, is anything to go by – the one and only Salvador Dalí!
Man in the Shadow (Jack Arnold, 1957) 🇺🇸
A year before Touch of Evil, Orson Welles was already being haunted by a devil, the one who gives this modern western a distinct feeling of film noir.
How to Design a Great Movie Poster
Poster and cover designs are arguably one of the most important elements in the distribution of a movie. A good poster can not only help sell more tickets, but also helps with marketing and general media presence, helping to give a movie exposure outside of the cinema.
The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947) 🇺🇸
The impression we get is of a ballroom scene, endlessly repeated in an enigmatic interplay of mirrors. His hand placed firmly on her bare back, the man leads his partner (the marvellous Rita Hayworth) in a dizzying dance of death. They have played the game right to the bitter end, but it is almost midnight – the moment of truth is nigh! – and he holds her tight. Will he manage to see what exactly lays hidden on the other side of the mirror?
Night Must Fall (Richard Thorpe, 1937) 🇺🇸
Robert Montgomery, usually starring in comedies, offers us a show-stopping turn of real darkness.
King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) 🇺🇸
It all started with a misunderstanding. When Cooper told actress Fay Wray that she would be starring with the “tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood”, she had no inkling that she’d end up captured by a hairy monster who was nothing like Clark Gable at all! The name is Kong, King Kong.
James Bond — Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979) 🇺🇸
Glowing like a silver star in his state-of-the-art spacesuit, James Bond has found a cure for space sickness: a swarm of interstellar nymphets he has brought into orbit with the force of his irresistible charm. From his position at the centre of the universe, Roger Moore defies the laws of gravity and lights up the eleventh 007 outing with the usual array of stunts and chases, mostly in the air rather than on the ground.
James Bond Inspired Gift Ideas
After years of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bond lovers finally got their fix and the latest installment to the franchise, “No Time To Die”, has been released in 2021. Time to get in your mission to discover James Bond inspired gift ideas that will really hit home with any die hard fan!
The Endless Summer (Bruce Brown, 1965) 🇺🇸
Three male figures are silhouetted in the slanting light of the setting sun. They are bathed in the warm colours of an orange and red summer sky where the sun will soon sink into the depths of Neptune’s kingdom. The mysterious call of the sea is pulling at them; they know that if they want to catch the perfect wave, it’s now or never. How long will they have to wait, eyes scanning the horizon? It doesn’t matter because, for these surfer-travellers, “elsewhere is a better word than tomorrow”.
James Bond — The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 1977) 🇺🇸
It’s summer 0077 and the most famous spy in Her Majesty’s secret service is back: 007! After three years of well-deserved rest, our champion who vanquished “the man with the golden gun” has returned to the ring, more determined than ever to rid us of a new enemy, the fearsome Stromberg!
Boy on a Dolphin (Jean Negulesco, 1957) 🇺🇸
“I was nearly nine when I fell in love for the first time. I was swept away by a violent, all-consuming passion which totally poisoned my existence and almost cost me my life,” Romain Gary confessed to us in his childhood memoir. This is exactly what could have happened to you if your father had let you watch Boy on a Dolphin.
Singapore (John Brahm, 1947) 🇺🇸
Sin-ga-pore: three highly evocative syllables we see here adorning the bright yellow diaphanous folds of a film star’s gown. How many adventurers, priests, crooks and smugglers have gone there to lose themselves – only to find themselves? The choppy waters of its port teem with junks, sails unfurled, yoke carriers struggling to make their way through the ballet of rickshaws, the mysterious gleam of gazes hidden by deftly wielded parasols, an enticing scene that lures and misleads the traveller.
Flying Tigers (David Miller, 1942) 🇺🇸
What is the strange bird fallen from the sky setting the night ablaze on this marvellous poster? The jagged teeth and killer stare suggest a shark bearing down on its prey in the midst of strange, phosphorescent creatures, dwellers of the ocean depths. But the action is all happening in the air: what looks like a sea anemone hatching is actually an explosion lighting up a starless sky.
World without Sun (Jacques-Yves Cousteau, 1964) 🇺🇸
Eight years after the release of his film The Silent World, Captain Cousteau directed this second innovative documentary, worthy of a Jules Verne novel. This human adventure tells the story of a team of "oceanauts" sent to live in an underwater village for a month. It’s a scientific experiment called "Precontinent II".
Ferry to Hong Kong (Lewis Gilbert, 1959) 🇺🇸
In Macao, we saw Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell landing in the port city from the Hong Kong ferry. Here we climb aboard the good old steam ferry, Fa Tsan, with the promise of plenty of romance and adventure ahead – although we’ll be needing our sea legs.
The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960) 🇺🇸
When Robert Lomax steps off the Star Ferry onto the soil of Hong Kong for the first time, the thought never enters his head that the island will become his chosen home. It is, after all, hard to think about making a home for yourself when you live in a “borrowed place on borrowed time”.
The Plainsman (Cecil B. DeMille, 1936) 🇺🇸
“Where sun rises, white man’s land. Where sun sets, Indian’s land.” The two “Pale Faces” don’t seem to have understood Indian law and appear on the wrong side, bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun. This 1936 western takes place in the mythical period spanning the life of the legendary Buffalo Bill. The film whisks us away on an extraordinary ride across the Great Plains.
James Bond — The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974) 🇺🇸
James Bond always comes up with ideas that sparkle and shine. The year when the price of black gold kept climbing, he was presented with the ultimate gadget – in solid gold, appropriately enough! It could well be seen as a poisoned Christmas gift, since it takes the form of a pistol designed to “assassinate James Bond”, as the slogan tells us. Poor Roger Moore!
James Bond — Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962) 🇺🇸
The time when cowboys in their Stetsons galloped across still-smoking plains littered with slain feathered Indians and bison seems to have receded far into the past. Other substances have replaced the tobacco smoked in peace pipes, probably inspiring the acid green of this unmistakeably 1960s poster for the very first James Bond film.