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Happy Cinco de Virginia Mayo!
From the whimsical suggestion of Comrade Lou Lumenick, who announced on Twitter a craving to see She's Working Her Way Through College, here's a little celebration of the gorgeous Virginia Mayo. A...
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Manhattan Thoughts on a Hot Evening
Tonight I stopped by the bank after work. I was all alone in the vast lobby, except for a long wall of ATMs and one young woman in a cheap but pretty dress. As I fed my card and got my cash I realized...
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Manhandled (1924): The Allan Dwan Dossier
June is Allan Dwan month here in New York, and it's been a long time coming. That's him up there, on the set of What a Widow!, wearing a suit and standing next to the reflector--somewhat in the...
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June 26, 2013: Love Conquers All
"The happiest marriage I've seen in Hollywood is Billy Haines and Jimmy Shields."--Joan Crawford (left to right, Jimmy, Billy, Joan, and Joan's husband, Pepsi executive Alfred Steele)
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Sweet November (1968)
So the Siren decided to plant herself in front of TCM and watch whatever was on, within reason, and what was on was the original 1968 Sweet November. Now the Siren had never bothered with this film due...
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Wallace Beery and the Persistence of Rumor
The Siren can't tell you exactly when and where she first heard the rumor that Wallace Beery, the great star of such movies as Beggars of Life, Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight, Viva Villa! and Treasure...
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Want to See Rediscovered Orson Welles Footage? You Can. Here's How
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Lost footage from Orson Welles has been discovered.It is not, alas, the original cut of The Magnificent Ambersons, but it is pretty goshdarned magnificent all the same....
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Four From Allan Dwan
The Museum of Modern Art's Allan Dwan series is over, and the Siren managed to see nine films there over the course of little more than a month (and one film on DVD, which she'll explain). Ever since,...
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Heaven Can Wait (1943): The Lubitsch Touch of Crime
Heaven Can Wait (1943) is one of the Siren's favorite Lubitsch films, which means in turn that it is one of her favorite films, period. It was made at 20th Century Fox, which you'd also know just from...
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Laver's Law: The Illustrated Cinematic Guide
Turner Classic Movies has declared September an unofficial cinema history month. They are beginning a months-long series of screenings of The Story of Film, and showing a variety of movies alongside...
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The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler
Hollywood was not exactly a beacon of overt anti-Nazi moviemaking in the years between Hitler's ascent to power and Confessions of a Nazi Spy in spring 1939, a fact known to anyone familiar with the...
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Autumn Sonata at The Criterion Collection
The Siren has written another essay for the Criterion Collection, this one to be included in the booklet for the new Blu-Ray release of Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata. This was one of the first times...
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Buster Keaton's Birthday, at The Baffler
Buster Keaton was born 118 years ago today. Earlier this year, the Siren was asked by The Baffler to write about the 14-disc Kino Blu-Ray set of Keaton's films. The Baffler is an excellent magazine of...
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Get Thee to MOMA's To Save and Project Festival
It’s that time of year again, when the Museum of Modern Art in New York offers a unique opportunity to see rare old movies, restored to their former luster and projected on film, the way the Goddess...
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The Uninvited (1944) at The Criterion Collection
Just in time for Halloween, the Criterion Collection has done us all an enormous favor by releasing one of the screen's great ghost stories, Lewis Allen's remarkable The Uninvited, starring Ray...
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Easy to Love: A Whole Bunch of Other Classic-Film Suggestions
The Siren rarely crowdsources anything; it feels like asking someone to do her homework. But she thought that this one time, it would be great to ask for recommendations on Facebook. So the Siren asked...
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Easy to Love: Ten Classics for People Who Don't Know Classics
Last month the Siren went up to Syracuse University to speak to Lance Mannion's delightful honors seminar. It’s called “Public Intellectuals and the Digital Commons” but Lance likes to call it...
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Lost and Found: American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive
Wednesday morning, the Library of Congress released a report by David Pierce, representing five years of research and writing, on the state of American studio silent-film preservation. Abridged...
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In Memoriam: Peter O'Toole, 1932-2013
He suffered from his eyes; he had eight operations on his left eye alone. He also suffered from intestinal trouble and relieved the pain by drinking. He adopted the persona of the professional...
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In Memoriam: Joan Fontaine, 1917-2013
Being a woman, I have found the road rougher than had I been born a man. Different defenses, different codes of ethics, different approaches to problems and personalities are a woman's lot. I have...
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