Constance Cummings: Actress in minor Hollywood movies became major London stage star. Constance Cummings: Actress went from Harold Lloyd and Frank Capra to Noël Coward and Eugene O'Neill Actress Constance Cummings, whose career spanned more than six decades on stage, in films, and on television in both the U.S. and the U.K., died ten years ago on Nov. 23. Unlike other Broadway imports such as Ann Harding, Katharine Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, and Claudette Colbert, the pretty, elegant Cummings – who could have been turned into a less edgy Constance Bennett had she landed at Rko or Paramount instead of Columbia – never became a Hollywood star. In fact, her most acclaimed work, whether in films or – more frequently – on stage, was almost invariably found in British productions. That's most likely why the name Constance Cummings – despite the DVD availability of several of her best-received performances – is all but forgotten.
- 11/4/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Greta Garbo movie 'The Kiss.' Greta Garbo movies on TCM Greta Garbo, a rarity among silent era movie stars, is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” performer today, Aug. 26, '15. Now, why would Garbo be considered a silent era rarity? Well, certainly not because she easily made the transition to sound, remaining a major star for another decade. Think Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Fay Wray, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Warner Baxter, Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, etc. And so much for all the stories about actors with foreign accents being unable to maintain their Hollywood stardom following the advent of sound motion pictures. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, Garbo was no major exception to the supposed rule. Mexican Ramon Novarro, another MGM star, also made an easy transition to sound, and so did fellow Mexicans Lupe Velez and Dolores del Rio, in addition to the very British...
- 8/27/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
African-American film 'Bert Williams: Lime Kiln Club Field Day.' With Williams and Odessa Warren Grey.* Rare, early 20th-century African-American film among San Francisco Silent Film Festival highlights Directed by Edwin Middleton and T. Hayes Hunter, the Biograph Company's Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913) was the film I most looked forward to at the 2015 edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. One hundred years old, unfinished, and destined to be scrapped and tossed into the dust bin, it rose from the ashes. Starring entertainer Bert Williams – whose film appearances have virtually disappeared, but whose legacy lives on – Lime Kiln Club Field Day has become a rare example of African-American life in the first years of the 20th century. In the introduction to the film, the audience was treated to a treasure trove of Black memorabilia: sheet music, stills, promotional material, and newspaper clippings that survive. Details of the...
- 6/16/2015
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
There wasn’t a holiday that Hollywood publicists didn’t know how to use to their advantage, especially in the heyday of the studios when starlets under contract were obliged to pose for the staff photographers. None of this effort was in vain: newspapers and magazines around the world gladly published these silly shots, and as you may have discerned by now, I have a particular weakness for them. Here, then, is an array of Thanksgiving publicity pictures from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s for your enjoyment. Ingenue Barbara Kent seems especially eager to start carving in this Universal studios photo from the late 1920s. Kent was Harold Lloyd’s leading lady in two of his...
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- 11/22/2012
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Once again, let us thank those Hollywood studio publicists who kept their contract starlets busy posing for silly holiday-themed photos in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. If not for them we couldn’t enjoy a timely gallery like this one, which screams of patriotic fervor. (Ok, maybe not…but the photos are still fun to see.) Barbara Kent, who recently passed away at the age of 103, was a busy actress in the late 1920s, but when she wasn’t working on a film her home studio, Universal, had her pose for pictures such as this 1927 pose, cheerfully riding a skyrocket to celebrate Independence Day. Lovely June Collyer adds sparkle to the holiday in this pose, which suggests...
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- 7/4/2012
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Second #3290, 54:50
Sandy’s reaction, as she listens to Jeffrey’s theory about the significance of the severed ear. “I think she [Dorothy] wants to die,” he says. “I think Frank cut the ear I found off her husband as a warning to stay alive.” That’s a key sentence, almost lost in the film’s narrative momentum. The severed ear isn’t intended simply to secure a ransom, as might be expected, but rather as a message to Dorothy not to die. As the object of Frank’s furious desire, Dorothy is just another one of his addictions, his fascinations. Sandy’s face, softly lit and framed by the murky glow of the church’s stained glass windows, registers shock not so much at the content of what Jeffrey is telling her, but at how swiftly and deeply he cares about a woman he barely knows. Like a silent film actress,...
Sandy’s reaction, as she listens to Jeffrey’s theory about the significance of the severed ear. “I think she [Dorothy] wants to die,” he says. “I think Frank cut the ear I found off her husband as a warning to stay alive.” That’s a key sentence, almost lost in the film’s narrative momentum. The severed ear isn’t intended simply to secure a ransom, as might be expected, but rather as a message to Dorothy not to die. As the object of Frank’s furious desire, Dorothy is just another one of his addictions, his fascinations. Sandy’s face, softly lit and framed by the murky glow of the church’s stained glass windows, registers shock not so much at the content of what Jeffrey is telling her, but at how swiftly and deeply he cares about a woman he barely knows. Like a silent film actress,...
- 1/24/2012
- by Nicholas Rombes
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Elizabeth Taylor, Farley Granger, Jane Russell, Peter Falk, Sidney Lumet: TCM Remembers 2011 Pt. 1
Also: child actor John Howard Davies (David Lean's Oliver Twist), Charles Chaplin discovery Marilyn Nash (Monsieur Verdoux), director and Oscar ceremony producer Gilbert Cates (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, I Never Sang for My Father), veteran Japanese actress Hideko Takamine (House of Many Pleasures), Jeff Conaway of Grease and the television series Taxi, and Tura Satana of the cult classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
More: Neva Patterson, who loses Cary Grant to Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember; Ingmar Bergman cinematographer Gunnar Fischer (Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries); Marlon Brando's The Wild One leading lady Mary Murphy; and two actresses featured in controversial, epoch-making films: Lena Nyman, the star of the Swedish drama I Am Curious (Yellow), labeled as pornography by prudish American authorities back in the late '60s,...
Also: child actor John Howard Davies (David Lean's Oliver Twist), Charles Chaplin discovery Marilyn Nash (Monsieur Verdoux), director and Oscar ceremony producer Gilbert Cates (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, I Never Sang for My Father), veteran Japanese actress Hideko Takamine (House of Many Pleasures), Jeff Conaway of Grease and the television series Taxi, and Tura Satana of the cult classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
More: Neva Patterson, who loses Cary Grant to Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember; Ingmar Bergman cinematographer Gunnar Fischer (Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries); Marlon Brando's The Wild One leading lady Mary Murphy; and two actresses featured in controversial, epoch-making films: Lena Nyman, the star of the Swedish drama I Am Curious (Yellow), labeled as pornography by prudish American authorities back in the late '60s,...
- 12/14/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Silent film stars are like World War One vets. They’re dying off and will soon be an extinct species. “Baby Peggy”(Diana Serra Cary), born October 26, 1918 is still with is as is 91-year old Mickey Rooney, who starred in silent shorts (as Mickey MGuire) and Dickie Moore, another child star from the silents. But Barbara Kent may have been the last one standing to have achieved substantial fame during the silent film era as an adult.
Born in Canada, the 4’11″ Ms Kent began her movie career in 1925 and ended it ten years later. She was known for comedies, starring opposite Harold Lloyd and Reginald Denny, but her most famous role may be as the heroine pitted against Great Garbo’s femme fatale in Flesh And Blood in 1926. She made the transition to talkies smoothly enough but married talent agent Harry Edington in 1932 and dropped out of the movies three years later.
Born in Canada, the 4’11″ Ms Kent began her movie career in 1925 and ended it ten years later. She was known for comedies, starring opposite Harold Lloyd and Reginald Denny, but her most famous role may be as the heroine pitted against Great Garbo’s femme fatale in Flesh And Blood in 1926. She made the transition to talkies smoothly enough but married talent agent Harry Edington in 1932 and dropped out of the movies three years later.
- 10/24/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
From Farran Nehme comes word of the passing of Barbara Kent at the age of 103. Farran's "seen only two pictures starring Barbara Kent," one being "the 1933 shoestring Oliver Twist, with Kent as Rose. The other is Flesh and the Devil, in which Kent had the unenviable task of the being the forsaken lover to Garbo's lascivious temptress. Still, it's the silent Flesh and the Devil that left a far stronger impression. Sound seemed to diminish this diminutive actress, as it did so many others. In pantomime, her tiny body made her even sweeter and more fragile, and it added poignance to her hurt over John Gilbert's betrayal…. The Siren always knew she would most likely live to see every silent-film artist depart the planet before she did. But the Siren still wishes she'd gotten the chance to tell Kent, or any of the other artists that Kevin Brownlow has spent a lifetime celebrating,...
- 10/21/2011
- MUBI
One of the last stars of the silent movie era
It is in the nature of cinema that an actor who made her last film appearance more than seven decades ago, and who retreated from public view in the late 1940s, refusing photographs and interviews ever since, can still be appreciated on screen as young, as lovely and as fresh as ever. Barbara Kent, who has died aged 103, was one of the last surviving stars of the silent era. She appeared in the last great silent American film, Lonesome (1928), Paul Fejos's masterpiece of urban poetry. Kent played Mary, a switchboard operator, who meets Jim (Glenn Tryon), a factory worker, in Coney Island. They spend the day together, fall in love, and then lose each other in the crowd. The simple tale of "little people" is raised by the sincerity of the performances and by the director's expressive use of location,...
It is in the nature of cinema that an actor who made her last film appearance more than seven decades ago, and who retreated from public view in the late 1940s, refusing photographs and interviews ever since, can still be appreciated on screen as young, as lovely and as fresh as ever. Barbara Kent, who has died aged 103, was one of the last surviving stars of the silent era. She appeared in the last great silent American film, Lonesome (1928), Paul Fejos's masterpiece of urban poetry. Kent played Mary, a switchboard operator, who meets Jim (Glenn Tryon), a factory worker, in Coney Island. They spend the day together, fall in love, and then lose each other in the crowd. The simple tale of "little people" is raised by the sincerity of the performances and by the director's expressive use of location,...
- 10/21/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Barbara Kent, a minor leading lady during the transition from silent to sound films, died October 13 in Palm Desert, in Southern California. A resident of the local Marrakesh Country Club, Kent was either 103 or 104. No cause of death was given. Barbara Kent was never a star. Not even close. In fact, most of her 35 movies were probably forgotten the week after their release. Paradoxically, Kent has become one of the most important performers of the silent era. No, not because she was Harold Lloyd's leading lady in his first talkie, Welcome Danger (1929). Or because of her career highlight: romancing Glen Tryon in Paul Fejos' naturalistic drama Lonesome (1928), frequently compared to F. W. Murnau's Sunrise. Barbara Kent has taken an importance incommensurate to her actual movie career because she was the very last individual to have had notable adult leads in American silent films. Everybody else, from Lillian Gish to Joan Crawford,...
- 10/21/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
I apologize straightaway for the slower-than-usual posting the past few days. it's just been one of those weeks. co-miserate with me in the comments.
Pajiba "Goodwin's Law: Celebrity Edition" starring Susan Sarandon, Lars von Trier and more celebrities whose exaggerating mouths get them into trouble.
Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal tons of W&G items up for auction starting on November 1st. I love Wallace and Gromit.
EW Joss Whedon plots his return to the web with the apocalyptic Wastelanders.
In Contention I know you've heard this but it's worth noting that the Nyfcc, arguably the most important of the 17 million critics awards out there, have taken the crazy crazy "first!" position in awards season by jumping to (gasp) November.
Animation Magazine that animated marvel Persepolis is still shaking things up years later.
Self Styled Siren remembers Barbara Kent (1906-2011), another silent film star who has left this earth.
Awards...
Pajiba "Goodwin's Law: Celebrity Edition" starring Susan Sarandon, Lars von Trier and more celebrities whose exaggerating mouths get them into trouble.
Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal tons of W&G items up for auction starting on November 1st. I love Wallace and Gromit.
EW Joss Whedon plots his return to the web with the apocalyptic Wastelanders.
In Contention I know you've heard this but it's worth noting that the Nyfcc, arguably the most important of the 17 million critics awards out there, have taken the crazy crazy "first!" position in awards season by jumping to (gasp) November.
Animation Magazine that animated marvel Persepolis is still shaking things up years later.
Self Styled Siren remembers Barbara Kent (1906-2011), another silent film star who has left this earth.
Awards...
- 10/20/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Silent screen star Barbara Kent has died at the age of 103.
She was one of the first silver screen stars to transition into Hollywood 'talkies' in the 1920s and starred opposite funnyman Harold Lloyd in the comedies Welcome Danger and Feet First.
Born Barbara Cloutman in Gadsby, Canada, in 1907, she was a teenager when she signed a contract with Universal Pictures and adopted the stage name Kent.
She starred opposite Greta Garbo in 1926's Flesh and the Devil and appeared in William Wyler's The Shakedown - one of the first silent movies to feature spoken word sound.
In 1929, she was cast opposite Lloyd in his first talkie, Welcome Danger.
Kent also appeared onscreen with Edward G. Robinson in Night Ride and Gloria Swanson.
She was one of the first silver screen stars to transition into Hollywood 'talkies' in the 1920s and starred opposite funnyman Harold Lloyd in the comedies Welcome Danger and Feet First.
Born Barbara Cloutman in Gadsby, Canada, in 1907, she was a teenager when she signed a contract with Universal Pictures and adopted the stage name Kent.
She starred opposite Greta Garbo in 1926's Flesh and the Devil and appeared in William Wyler's The Shakedown - one of the first silent movies to feature spoken word sound.
In 1929, she was cast opposite Lloyd in his first talkie, Welcome Danger.
Kent also appeared onscreen with Edward G. Robinson in Night Ride and Gloria Swanson.
- 10/20/2011
- WENN
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