Movies: Old hollywood

Reclusive Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo chooses an unknown reporter, Monique Grant, to tell her life story. Evelyn recounts her time in the Golden Age of Hollywood, her rise to fame, and her seven marriages — revealing stunning secrets and lies. But t...

When the ballerina star of a musical feature walks off in a huff, aided by the fit-throwing director, her understudy steps in and a star is born....

Hollywood on Parade was a series of short subjects produced by Paramount Pictures between 1932 and 1934. They showcased the studio's stars both in newsreel-type footage (glimpses of Hollywood figures at premieres, parties, the races, etc.) and in new...

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) caused a great impression on the lives of most of the American artists of that era, so many movies were made in Hollywood about it. The final defeat of the Spanish Republic left an open wound in the hearts of those w...

Comedy special spotlighting Tracey Ullman’s larger than life character Ruby Romaine from HBO's “Tracey Takes On”. After an illustrious career, veteran Hollywood makeup artist Ruby has decided to call it quits. Or has she? In her makeup trailer, Ru...

This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother and daughter go to town to buy a new dress. In the dress shop window is a designer dress worn by Joa...

This documentary recounts the difficult choice actress Mary Astor had to make after learning her personal, very intimate, diaries had been stolen. The film tells the story of Astor's 1936 child custody case....

Photographer and make-up artist François Nars reveals his visually stunning inner world in this feature-length documentary by filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland. Mr. Nars takes us on a tour of the fashions, designers and models of '70s Paris, the unde...

The life of Frank Sinatra, as an actor and singer and the steps along the way that led him to become such an icon....

The astonishing story of the genesis, production, worldwide success, and legacy of King Kong (1933), directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, a landmark of cinema, one of the most influential motion pictures in history....

An intimate portrait and saga of four film pioneers--Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack who rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies persevering to create a major studio with a social conscience....

Basically this is a commercial for Hollywood's Lido Lounge and for MGM contract players. The Lido is a large watering hole; we visit one afternoon with an orchestra playing, all sorts of stars and would-be stars sitting at tables near the pool alongs...

When Lavenza, a 19th-century noblewoman, overhears her husband complaining about her looks, she turns herself into his ideal wife by thrifting the body parts from all the women he desires....

A promotional short to hype the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)....

The whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1899-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a...

A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953....

Carter DeHaven announces that he will perform a series of "impressions." For each we see him applying makeup and changing the combing of his hair or putting on a wig. When he tilts his head down during each supposed makeover, up pops the actual celeb...

Martin Scorsese is among those paying tribute to Gene Tierney, the Academy Award-nominated American actress who was a leading lady in Hollywood throughout the 1940s and '50s....

Declassified FBI and CIA documents help director Paul Davids unravel the puzzle of Marilyn Monroe's demise, which was officially ruled a "probable suicide," while providing detailed evidence supporting the conclusion that Marilyn was murdered....

A governess put in charge of two young children begins to see the ghost of her dead predecessor....