BearManor Media News — film

  Q&A with Raymond Valinoti, Jr., author of The Joe McDoakes Comedies - A Critical Filmography     Q: Who was Joe McDoakes? A: Joe McDoakes was a character played by actor George O'Hanlon in a series of comedy short subjects. They were released by Warner Brothers from 1942 to 1956 and were popular with filmgoers. George O'Hanlon is best known as the voice of George Jetson on the Hanna Barbera cartoon show The Jetsons. His character of Joe McDoakes was an ordinary fellow who found himself in extraordinary situations. Each of the shorts had a title beginning with So...

  What was your first experience with the films of director Tobe Hooper?   I first encountered Hooper’s work when I saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at the tender age of 15. It was on an unlikely triple-bill with Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon and Michael Findlay’s absurdly violent Shriek of the Mutilated. Hooper’s film made sleep difficult for the next three weeks. Few films before or since have affected me so deeply.   From that point on, I obsessively followed his career, from 1976’s Eaten Alive, his scrappy follow-up to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, to his justly...

10 Questions for Trav S.D. Regarding the Marx Brothers Miscellany Who were the Marx Brothers? – The Marx Brothers were the most critically acclaimed and successful stage and screen comedy team in history. Their period of activity lasted from roughly 1905, when two of the five brothers started out in vaudeville, through 1977, when the most famous of the brothers (Groucho) passed away. The members were Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo (who quit in 1918), and Zeppo (who replaced Gummo and performed with the team through 1933). The brothers starred in movies, radio, television, and on Broadway. Two of them also...

Q&A on the Movie Girls book Bear Manor Media: What exactly is Movie Girls: Lillian and Dorothy? Ben Urish: Well, it’s a picture book about The Gish Sisters, and how they met future star Mary Pickford, the great director D.W. Griffith, and got involved in the early days of movies.   Bear Manor Media: So, it’s a children’s book, then? Ben Urish: Partly, I suppose. It is geared for young readers, but anyone interested in films would enjoy it. It is great story of family bonding, discovering your talents, and the development of technology, an artform, and a business.  ...

          Girls Just Want to Have Funny: Female Film Comedies of the 1980’s                                     Short Interview with Author Dan Lalande   What first got you interested in the subject? My previous book, Heroes of The New Hollywood: Hoffman, Hackman, Nicholson, Pacino, Duvall and De Niro in the 70’s, was about the greatest generation of male actors the screen has ever seen, covering their peak period. But while the 70’s, on screen, was a great decade for men, it was a terrible time for women. Despite the fact that feminism was nearing full stride, there were few vehicles for women....