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Missing Reels: Publication and Schedule of Appearances
Updated, Nov. 22It's publication day for the Siren’s novel, Missing Reels! This happy occasion was supposed to occur last week, but her book about lost movies apparently decided on the very Method...
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It Happened One Night (1934) at Criterion
The Siren is still writing, oh yes she is. Here is an excerpt from her essay about It Happened One Night, part of the Blu-Ray package now available from the fine and fabulous folks at Criterion. You...
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19 People Who Share the Siren's Birthday
Greetings! It’s the Siren's birthday, and she thought she'd pop in to have a little fun. The fact that one shares a birthday with someone famous is probably not significant, but then again, maybe it...
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Charles Laughton: Actor as Artist
The folks at New York City’s Film Forum have just started a three-week, 35-film tribute to Charles Laughton. Obviously, they love the Siren and want her to be happy. That’s her working theory, anyway....
View ArticleNotice: Boston appearance canceled
The Siren deeply apologizes, but due to personal circumstances, she has had to cancel her Missing Reels reading on Feb. 24 at Brookline Booksmith. This is a disappointment to her, as she loves Boston...
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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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The "Paradine" Letters, Part 2
(The Siren is having a dialog with her Close Personal Friend Glenn Kenny about the much-maligned The Paradine Case. Part 1 was published yesterday at Some Came Running and should be read before the...
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The "Paradine" Letters, Part 4
These are the Siren's final thoughts on The Paradine Case, at least for these purposes. If you haven't already, please go to Some Came Running to read the Mighty Glenn Kenny's Part 3.David O....
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For the Love of Film IV: Did the Talkies Doom Norma Talmadge?
This post is my contribution to this year’s blogathon, For the Love of Film. This year the beneficiary of the blogosphere’s largess is Cupid in Quarantine (1918), which Marilyn Ferdinand calls“a...
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Claude Rains: An Actor's Side-Eye
Think of Claude Rains, and what usually come to mind is The Voice. That liquid, caressing baritone, with just enough of an English accent. Voices don't come much sexier than Rains'. (If you need...
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La Verité sur Bébé Donge (Lost & Found for Sight & Sound)
This is the Siren's essay for the "Lost and Found" column in the June issue of Sight and Sound magazine, reprinted (with slight differences) by kind permission of the editors. Last year’s darkly...
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Kirk Kerkorian Is Dead at 98
MGM's fabled Lot 2From The World of Entertainment: Hollywood's Greatest Musicals, by Hugh Fordin (1975):[In 1969] entered Kirk Kerkorian, millionaire head of Tracy Investment [later Tracinda]...
View ArticleOne Sunday
Of all the terrible details about what happened in South Carolina, I can’t get over the fact that the shooter went to their bible meeting — Wednesday, when you get the true-blue Christians — prayed...
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Film Series at the Czech Center Includes Erotikon and Other Early Gems
The Czech Center, proprietor of the landmark Bohemian National Hall on East 73rd St. in New York City, has inaugurated a “Rooftop Ciné-Concert Series” every Tuesday through August 25th. They are...
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Mexico at Midnight: Film Noir From Mexican Cinema's Golden Age
Dear friends and residents of the greater New York City metropolitan area, has the Siren got a series for you.It’s Mexico at Midnight, presented by film-preservation hero and friend of the Siren Dave...
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"Hello, Elaine? ... I Am Going to Kill You": The Tale of Elaine Barrie and...
The curtain parted swiftly with a clang of rings on rod.“I repeat, Madam, what would you do if I tried to throw you off the terrace?”The scene is a twentieth-floor apartment on East 79th Street,...
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Get Your Man (1927): Restoration Plays MoMA on Nov. 15 and 19
Back in 2000, David Stenn’s biography of Clara Bow, Runnin’ Wild, changed the way the Siren looked at this star. Years of scurrilous gossip about Bow, combined with films that were seldom screened (the...
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Truly, Madly, Deeply; Alan Rickman; and Loss
The Siren starts by admitting that she rented Truly, Madly, Deeply some twenty-odd years ago only because she had a raging crush on the late Alan Rickman. (How the Siren hates having to put “the late”...
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In Memoriam: The Ziegfeld Theater, 1969-2016
Last week the Siren was in Midtown, meeting a friend for drinks, and she passed the Ziegfeld Theater, Manhattan’s most glorious movie venue. And she saw that The Force Awakens was playing there, and...
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What I Think About When They Say Donald Trump Cannot Possibly Become President
... From The Past Is Myself, the memoir of an Englishwoman named Christabel Bielenberg. In the early 1930s she fell in love with a German law student named Peter Bielenberg, married him in 1934, and...
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