On this day in movie history - Two Hands (1999)

Two Hands

directed and written by Gregor Jordan,

was released in Australia on July 29, 1999.

Music by Cezary Skubiszewski.

Cast:

Heath Ledger, Bryan Brown, David Field, Tom Long, Tony Forrow, Steven Vidler, Dale Kalnins, Kiri Paramore, Bill Drury, David Moeaki, Mathew Wilkinson, Rose Byrne, Mary Acres, Evan Sheaves, Jarrah Darling, Andrew Hunter, Mariel McClorey, Stuart Fenton, Grant Bennett, Jacquy Phillips, Peter Mclean, Poppy Savakkis, Tim Wright, Lynden Jones, Susie Porter, Brian Staunton, Rob Duckworth, Moya O’Sullivan, Salvatore Coco, Jonno Zissler, Jim Webb, Mick Innes, Steve Le Marquand, Kieran Darcy-Smith, Daniel Amodeo, Kevin Smith, Imelda Corcoran, Waddah Sari, Damian Monk, Lisa Natalie, Adam Muncu, Jerome Ehlers, Richard Carter, Jai Kemp, Warwick Young, Avril Wynne, Chris Mitchell, Brett Praed, Stuart Spence, Katya Tarnawski, Damian Bradford, Glenn Suter, Mitchell Butel, Perin Davey, Kristine Stanley.

On this day in movie history - The Amazing Mr. X (1948)

The Amazing Mr. X

a.k.a. The Spiritualist,

directed by Bernard Vorhaus,

written by Crane Wilbur, Muriel Roy Bolton and Ian McLellan Hunter,

was released in the United States on July 29, 1948.

Music by Alexander Laszlo.

Cast:

Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O'Donnell, Richard Carlson, Donald Curtis, Virginia Gregg, Harry Mendoza, Norma Varden.

On this day in movie history - Midnight Club (1933)

Midnight Club

directed by Alexander Hall and George Somnes,

written by Leslie Charteris and Seton I. Miller,

based on the 1931 short story Gangster’s Glory by E. Phillips Oppenheim,

was released in the United States on July 29, 1933.

Music by W. Franke Harling and Howard Jackson.

Cast:

Clive Brook, George Raft, Helen Vinson, Alison Skipworth, Sir Guy Standing, Alan Mowbray, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Forrester Harvey, Ethel Griffies, Teru Shimada, Charles Coleman, Billy Bevan, Jean De Briac, Leo White, Rita Carlyle, Dennis O’Keefe.

Born on this day – David Warner:

 

Actor

July 29, 1941 – July 24, 2022

Born on this day – Frank Q. Dobbs:

 

Writer

Director

Producer

Cinematographer

July 29, 1939 – February 15, 2006

Born on this day – Chris Marker:

 

Director

Writer

Photographer

July 29, 1921 – July 29, 2012

Born on this day – Budd Boetticher:

 

Director

July 29, 1916 – November 29, 2001

Born on this day – Chester Himes:

 

Writer

July 29, 1909 – November 12, 1984

Born on this day – Clara Horton:

 

Actress

July 29, 1904 – December 4, 1976

Credits:

A Bit o' Heaven (1915); A Friend in Need (1914); A Grim Fairy Tale (1923); A Jungle Hero (1916); A Puritan Episode (1913); A Son's Devotion (1913); A Soul's Tragedy (1915); A Wise Judge (1913); Action (1921); All Around Frying Pan (1925); Almost a Husband (1919); Animated Weekly, No. 68 (1913); At the Court of Prince Make Believe (1914); Auntie's Money Bag (1914); Because of Bobbie (1912); Bengal Tiger (1936); Beyond the Trail (1926); Big Hearted Jim (1913); Blind Youth (1920); Christopher of Columbus (1923); Clara and Her Mysterious Toys (1913); Coming Home (1914); Dolls (1912); Down to the Sea in Cabs (1927); Everywoman (1919); Fighting Blood (1923); Filial Love (1912); For Better or for Worse (1913); For His Child's Sake (1913); Gall of the Wild (1923); Girls on Probation (1938); Golden Shackles (1927); Grandfather's Romance (1914); Huck and Tom (1918); In an Old Trunk (1914); In the Days of Old (1914); In Wrong (1919); It's a Great Life (1920); Judy Punch (1923); Just Kids (1914); Just Off Broadway (1942); Kidnapping the King's Kids (1915); Makers of Men (1925); Making Uncle Jealous (1912); Mind Over Motor (1923); Nadine of Nowhere (1916); Nineteen and Phyllis (1920); Oh, Bridget! (1925); Outside Inn (1927); Over Here (1927); Penrod (1922); Playmates (1913); Prisoners of Love (1921); Sailor Izzy Murphy (1927); Shadows of the Harbor (1915); Sherlock's Rival (1927); Six Second Smith (1923); Some Punches and Judy (1923); Speed Madness (1925); Stepping on the Gas (1927); Taxi (1931); That Night (1927); The Answer (1915); The Banker's Daughter (1913); The Bonnie, Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond (1912); The Broadway Gallant (1926); The Crimson Cross (1913); The Darling of the Mounted (1912); The Detective's Santa Claus (1913); The Dupe (1914); The End of a Perfect Fray (1923); The Faith Healer (1913); The Fightin' Comeback (1927); The Fortune Hunter (1927); The Girl from Outside (1919); The Governor's Veto (1913); The Greatest of These (1914); The Heart of a Woman (1920); The Higher Impulse (1914); The Homecoming (1912); The Key (1913); The Knight in Gale (1923); The Knight That Failed (1923); The Light in the Clearing (1921); The Little Band of Gold (1915); The Little Mother of Black Pine Trail (1913); The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1920); The Long Shift (1915); The Motive (1922); The New Dress (1915); The Passing Parade (1912); The Plow Woman (1917); The Return of Lady Linda (1913); The Servant in the House (1921); The Slippery Spy (1914); The Sons of a Soldier (1913); The Spectre Bridegroom (1913); The Trail of the Hanging Rock (1913); The Trouble Chaser (1926); The Vengeance of Guido (1915); The Violinist (1914); The Wheel (1925); The Whirlwind Finish (1918); The Winning Girl (1919); The Wondrous Melody (1914); The Yellow Dog (1918); Thirteen at Table (1913); Three Faces West (1927); Time to Kill (1942); Tom Sawyer (1917); Two Stones with One Bird (1923); Under the Lion's Paw (1916); Up in the Air (1927); Us Kids (1916); When Gale and Hurricane Meet (1923); When Little Lindy Sang (1916); Who Is Hope Schuyler? (1942); Why Aunt Jane Never Married (1913); Willie and the Muse (1914); Winning the Futurity (1926); Wrongs Righted (1924).

Born on this day – William Cameron Menzies:

 

Production designer

Director

Producer

July 29, 1896 – March 5, 1957

Born on this day – Theda Bara:

Actress

July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955

Credits:

Madame Mystery (1926); The Unchastened Woman (1925); The Prince of Silence (1921); Lure of Ambition (1919); La belle Russe (1919); Kathleen Mavourneen (1919); A Woman There Was (1919); The Siren's Song (1919); When Men Desire (1919); The Light (1919); The She Devil (1918); When a Woman Sins (1918); Salome (1918); Under the Yoke (1918); The Soul of Buddha (1918); The Forbidden Path (1918); Madame Du Barry (1917); The Rose of Blood (1917); Cleopatra (1917); Camille (1917); Heart and Soul (1917); Her Greatest Love (1917); The Tiger Woman (1917); The Darling of Paris (1917); The Vixen (1916); Romeo and Juliet (1916); Her Double Life (1916); Under Two Flags (1916); East Lynne (1916); The Eternal Sappho (1916); Gold and the Woman (1916); The Serpent (1916); Siren of Hell (1915); Destruction (1915); The Galley Slave (1915); Carmen (1915); Sin (1915); The Two Orphans (1915); Lady Audley's Secret (1915); The Devil's Daughter (1915); The Clemenceau Case (1915); Kreutzer Sonata (1915); A Fool There Was (1915); The Stain (1914).

Recommended reading - La Jetée: Ciné-Roman, by Chris Marker (1992)

La Jetée: Ciné-Roman,

by Chris Marker (1992).

 

Zone Books

Distributed by The MIT Press.

ISBN-10: 0942299663

ISBN-13: 978-0942299663

The inspiration for the movie 12 Monkeys (1995), directed by Terry Gilliam.

Description:

In the aftermath of World War III, both the earth’s surface and all of history – everything ever dreamed or known – lies irretrievably buried in a heap of radioactive devastation. Space has become off-limits, and the war’s few remaining survivors, huddled underground in the dank galleries beneath Chaillot, seek desperately an alternative path to survival – one perhaps that passes through Time. At the expense of madness, death, and unspeakable cruelty, they begin a set of experiments whose purpose will be to launch emissaries, in search of food, medicine and energy, through a hole in Time. A man is chosen for his unique quality of having retained a single clear image from pre-war days; no more than an ambiguous memory fragment from childhood – a visit to the jetty at Orly airport, the troubling glance of an unknown woman, the crumbling body of a dying man. These elements become crucial hinge-points in the ensuing narrative, thickening and accumulating nuance with each successful expedition into the historical past. The image of a woman, increasingly suffused with the time – and eros – bestowing capacities of a deep and impossible love, provides both the kernel for the recovery of the dimension through which humankind and history will be saved, as well as the tragic abyss into which both the hero and the narrative inexorably fall.

Although Chris Marker’s legendary film is no more than 29 minutes long and contains but a single moving image, perhaps no other film has matched its combination of devastating emotional power, former brilliance and philosophical complexity. The story marker tells – a stunning parable of our modern fate – is about the death of the world, about loss, memory, hope, and the indomitable power of love.

“This strange and poetic film, a fusion of science fiction, psychological fable, and photomontage … creates its own conventions from scratch. It triumphantly succeeds where science fiction invariably fails.” – J.G. Ballard. 

I love to read.

 

I love to read.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have a life.
It doesn’t mean I’m a nerd.
I only love the feeling that, even when you’re back in reality, you still feel like you’re in a different world.
- Author Unknown.

Born on this day – Clara Bow:

 

Actress

July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965

Credits:

100 Years at the Movies (1994); A Trip Through the Paramount Studio (1927); All You Need Is Love (1977); Arena (2012); Betty Boop: Queen of the Cartoons (1995); Beyond the Rainbow (1922); Biography (2002); Black Lightning (1924); Black Oxen (1923); Call Her Savage (1932); Capital Punishment (1925); Children of Divorce (1927); Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995); Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl (1999); Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess (2012); Dancing Mothers (1926); Dangerous Curves (1929); Daughters of Pleasure (1924); Down to the Sea in Ships (1922); E! Mysteries & Scandals (1998); Edith Head: The Paramount Years (2002); Empty Hearts (1924); Enemies of Women (1923); Eve's Lover (1925); Fascinating Youth (1926); Fashions in Love (1936); Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture (2010); Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films (2011); Free to Love (1925); Get Your Man (1927); Grit (1924); Helen's Babies (1924); Her Wedding Night (1930); Hollywood (1980); Hollywood Babylon (1971); Hollywood on Parade (1934); Hollywood on Parade No. B-9 (1934); Hollywood Rebellen (2013); Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies (1988); Hollywood Snapshots #11 (1929); Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963); Hollywood: The Golden Years (1961); Hoopla (1933); Hula (1927); It (1927); Kick In (1931); Kid Boots (1926); Kiss Me Again (1925); Ladies of the Mob (1928); Love Among the Millionaires (1930); Love Lust (2011); Mantrap (1926); March of the Movies (1933); Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend (1986); Maytime (1923); Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood (2010); Monty and the Movies (2024); Movies Golden Age (1961); MsMojo (2023); My Lady of Whims (1925); My Lady's Lips (1925); No Limit (1931); Paramount on Parade (1930); Parisian Love (1925); Poisoned Paradise (1924); Red Hair (1928); Rough House Rosie (1927); Screen Goddesses (2005); Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner (1949); Screen Snapshots Series 12, No. 12 (1932); Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 9 (1937); Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 1 (1937); Screen Snapshots Series 20, No. 1 (1940); Screen Snapshots Series 28, No. 6 (1948); Screen Snapshots Series 5, No. 4 (1924); Screen Snapshots Series 9, No. 11 (1930); Screen Snapshots, Series 4, No. 15 (1924); Screen Snapshots: Ramblin' Round Hollywood (1955); Sex in the 20th Century (2001); Shadow of the Law (1926); Sharon Stone - Una mujer de 100 caras (1998); Shooting the Hollywood Stars (2011); Sigrid Holmquist (2010); Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020); The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History (1999); The Adventurous Sex (1925); The Age of Ballyhoo (1973); The Ancient Mariner (1925); The Best Bad Man (1925); The Casting Couch (1995); The Daring Years (1923); The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies (1995); The Flapper Story (1985); The Fleet's In (1928); The House That Shadows Built (1931); The Keeper of the Bees (1925); The Lawful Cheater (1925); The Love Goddesses (1965); The Pill Pounder (1923); The Plastic Age (1925); The Primrose Path (1925); The Runaway (1926); The Saturday Night Kid (1929); The Scarlet West (1925); The Wild Party (1929); This Woman (1924); Three Week Ends (1928); True to the Navy (1930); Two Can Play (1926); Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007); Wine (1924); Wings (1927); Yesterday and Today (1953).