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Throughout American movie history, historical accuracy has certainly not been one of Hollywood's strong suits. Most Hollywood films distort the truth, utilizing their right to artistic license to add heightened drama to their narratives. High-profile movies such as JFK, Argo, and Selma have garnered significant controversy for their deviations from historical fact.

The Western, a genre whose foundation is built upon the mythology of the Old West, is one of Hollywood's most historically inaccurate genres. While no film will ever be one hundred percent historically accurate, there are some Westerns that have attempted to be more true to reality than others. Westerns such as The Covered Wagon and The Big Trail opted for realistic approaches in their depictions of Westward Expansion. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Killers of the Flower Moon tried their best to portray real historical events properly. The John Ford Westerns...

One of cinema's early comediennes, Dorothy Devore: between 1918 and 1930, the Ft. Worth-born actress was seen in nearly 100 movies, both features and shorts. Among them were 'Salvation Sue,' 'Naughty Mary Brown' and 'Saving Sister Susie,' all with frequent partner Earle Rodney. 'Comediennes of the Silent Era' & film historian Anthony Slide at the American Cinematheque Film historian and author Anthony Slide, once described by Lillian Gish as “our preeminent historian of the silent film,” will attend the American Cinematheque's 2017 Retroformat program “Comediennes of the Silent Era” on Sat., May 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the Spielberg Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Slide will be signing copies of his book She Could Be Chaplin!: The Comedic Brilliance of Alice Howell (University Press of Mississippi), about the largely forgotten pioneering comedy actress of the 1910s and early 1920s. The book signing will take place at 6:30 p.

Constance Cummings in 'Night After Night.' Constance Cummings: Working with Frank Capra and Mae West (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Actress Went from Harold Lloyd to Eugene O'Neill.”) Back at Columbia, Harry Cohn didn't do a very good job at making Constance Cummings feel important. By the end of 1932, Columbia and its sweet ingenue found themselves in court, fighting bitterly over stipulations in her contract. According to the actress and lawyer's daughter, Columbia had failed to notify her that they were picking up her option. Therefore, she was a free agent, able to offer her services wherever she pleased. Harry Cohn felt otherwise, claiming that his contract player had waived such a notice. The battle would spill over into 1933. On the positive side, in addition to Movie Crazy 1932 provided Cummings with three other notable Hollywood movies: Washington Merry-Go-Round, American Madness, and Night After Night. 'Washington Merry-Go-Round...

As you prepare to watch the tremendous Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 3D this weekend with your fancy, modern 3D glasses, here's a fun look back at what those 3D glasses looked like when they first arrived in theaters almost 100 years ago.  This pair of 3D glasses currently for sale on eBay appears to have been used during a double feature of The Ten Commandments and The Covered Wagon all the way back in June of 1924 at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City, which was one of the first theaters to project 3D.  That wasn't the first audience to experience 3D, however, as you'd have to back up to 1915 and a series of test reels that were projected to an audience inside New York's Astor Theater. The first completed film to be projected in 3D was The Power...

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As you prepare to watch the tremendous Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 3D this weekend with your fancy, modern 3D glasses, here's a fun look back at what those 3D glasses looked like when they first arrived in theaters almost 100 years ago.  This pair of 3D glasses currently for sale on eBay appears to have been used during a double feature of The Ten Commandments and The Covered Wagon all the way back in June of 1924 at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City, which was one of the first theaters to project 3D.  That wasn't the first audience to experience 3D, however, as you'd have to back up to 1915 and a series of test reels that were projected to an audience inside New York's Astor Theater. The first completed film to be projected in 3D was The...

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For moviegoers growing up in the last 20-30 years, big is the new normal. I’m talking about those big-budget, over-produced, effects/action-packed extravaganzas that are as expected and routine an arrival as a commuter bus, and never more so than during the summer months. Come a rise in temperatures, there’s an almost ceaseless parade of these megabuck behemoths through multiplexes starting in May and continuing until the kids go back to school, one rolling out almost every week.

Consider these May-August releases and their eye-popping price tags:

5/4: Marvel’s The Avengers — $220 million

5/11: Dark Shadows — $150 million

5/18: Battleship — $209 million

5/25: Men in Black 3 — $250 million

6/8: Prometheus — $120-130 million

7/3: The Amazing Spider-Man — $220 million

7/20: The Dark Knight Rises — $250 million

7/31: Total Recall — $200 million

8/5: The Expendables 2 — $100 million

For those of you who haven’t been keeping count, that’s a little over $1.7 billion in productions...

©Paramount Pictures

“My momma always said, .Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get..” That line was immortalized by Tom Hanks in the award-winning movie “Forest Gump” in 1994. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today selected that film and 24 others to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental motion pictures. Representing the rich creative and cultural diversity of the American cinematic experience, the selections range from Walt Disney.s timeless classic “Bambi” and Billy Wilder.s “The Lost Weekend,” a landmark film about the devastating effects of alcoholism, to a real-life drama between a U.S. president and a governor over the desegregation of the University of Alabama. The selections also...

I’m never one to put significant stock in the film-based choices made by any kind of committee — be it an awards group, critics circle, soup kitchen line, etc. — but the National Film Registry is a little different. Not that they’re any different than those aforementioned organization types, but because the government assemblage preserves works deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” No small potatoes.

Their latest list — created for both public awareness and the opportunity to grumble, as I’ll do in a second — has been unveiled, and the selections are none too out-of-left-field. The biggest of these 25 would have to be Forrest Gump, a choice I fully understand but completely disagree with on an opinion and moral scale. The only other true objection I can raise is toward El Mariachi, film school-level junk from a director whose finest works are the direct result of working with those more talented.

Gloria Grahame, The Big Heat Forrest Gump, Bambi, The Silence Of The Lambs: National Film Registry 2011 Movies Besides the aforementioned Hester Street and Norma Rae, women are also at the forefront of Julia Reichert and Jim Klein's Growing Up Female (1971); Chick Strand’s Fake Fruit Factory (1986), a documentary about Mexican women who create ornamental papier-mâché fruits and vegetables; and the recently deceased George Kuchar’s experimental short I, an Actress (1977), which is available on YouTube. I couldn't find any titles focusing on gay, lesbian, bisexual, multisexual, etc., or transgender characters. As so often happens, political correctness will go only so far. Anyhow, more interesting than p.c. choices was the inclusion of A Cure for Pokeritis (1912), an early comedy starring then-popular (and quite odd) couple John Bunny and Flora Finch; and what may well be my favorite noirish crime drama, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953), starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame.

Beverly Hills, CA .The Photoplay Magazine Medal of Honor winner .Humoresque. (1920) will kick off a summer-long screening series of silent films at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday, June 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. A restored 35mm print from UCLA Film & Television Archive will be screened with live musical accompaniment composed by Michael Mortilla, and performed by Mortilla on piano and Nicole Garcia on violin.

Directed by Frank Borzage, .Humoresque. is the film version of Fannie Hurst.s short story about a young violinist who rises from New York.s Jewish slums to international fame with the help of his doting mother. The film was the first to receive the Photoplay Magazine Medal of Honor, the first significant annual film award, pre-dating the establishment of the Oscars®. The Medal of Honor was voted by the readers of Photoplay Magazine and...

Beverly Hills, CA . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will kick off its summer screening series, “Summer of Silents: Photoplay Award Winners of the Silent Era,” on Monday, June 13, with a big-screen presentation of “Humoresque” (1920) with live musical accompaniment. The eight-film series, which will run through August 8, will showcase silent films of the 1920s, all of which were Photoplay Magazine Medal of Honor award winners. All screenings will be held on Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Pre-show festivities will begin at 7 p.m.

The Photoplay Magazine Medal of Honor was the first significant annual film award, pre-dating the establishment of the Oscars®. First awarded in 1920, it was voted by the readers of Photoplay Magazine and given to the producer of the year’s winning film.

The evenings also will feature live musical accompaniment as well as pre-show presentations of such...

Coming hot off of the heels of Janus Films picking up the rights to the Charlie Chaplin catalog, it looks like Kino is set to bring to DVD and Blu-Ray one of Buster Keaton’s, Chaplin’s silent counterpart, most legendary films, Steamboat Bill, Jr. Several months back,

Kino leapt into the world of Blu-ray with the Buster Keaton film, The General.

Kino International released a press release this weekend announcing that the film is set to come to DVD and Blu-Ray, with some really excellent special features. Included in the release will be three different musical backing tracks in the form of two scores (one organ and one piano) as well as a complete score by the Biograph Players, as well as a documentary on the making of the film, a stills gallery, a musical montage of stunts and pratfalls, and two recordings of the folk song, Steamboat Bill.