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Jack Warner had been shouldering in on credit from one of his studio’s top producers. At least that’s what Hal Wallis may have told you after the 1944 Academy Awards when Jack Warner accepted the Casablanca Oscar that some felt should have been palmed by Wallis, the Warner Bros. film’s producer. But who should accept the best picture award? Today it’s the producers, but during Hollywood’s Golden Age it was sometimes the producer, sometimes the studio chief.

Wallis had been with the company for many years, first joining the studio in 1923, their first year of incorporation. Soon, Wallis was managing essential Warner films such as Little Caesar (1931), The Petrified Forest (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1937), Dark Victory (1939), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and, of course, Casablanca (1942). Despite being released in late 1942, Casablanca didn’t go into wide release until early 1943 and wasn’t...

You probably know more about Ronald Reagan from U.S. History than Film Studies. Make no mistake. Before Reagan ever ran for office, he was an actor. The 40th U.S. president started his entertainment career as "Dutch" Reagan, a radio sports announcer in Des Moines, Iowa. Reagan honed his storytelling chops by recreating Chicago Cubs games with nothing but a slip sent to him by telegraph. The 26-year-old dreamed of big-screen stardom, so he joined the Cubs for spring training in Southern California — to snag a screen test with Warner Brothers. The WB studio suits liked what they saw, and film actor Ronald Reagan was born.

While Reagan had a better Hollywood career than most, he never became a bonafide movie star. Throughout Reagan's political career, opponents and detractors slandered him as a "B-movie actor." However, Reagan was a B-movie actor. No, he wasn't starring in the 1940s equivalent...

Chicago – The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Cso) has come up with the perfect celebration for the pre-holiday weekend, presenting Frank Capra’s classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life in Concert.” On Dec. 10th and 11th, 2016. The Cso will accompany the soundtrack on a restored version of the film.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

This is “It’s a Wonderful Life” (Iawl) as you’ve never seen it before, restored to a brilliant print and with the original Dimitri Tiomkin soundtrack score enhanced by the majesty of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The film is projected above the orchestra, and with each symphonic moment in the story, the musicians and choral singers take over the music live. Iawl had many variations of themes in the soundtrack, so besides the Tiomkin original score, there are snippets of WW2 songs “Over There” and “This is the Army, Mr. Jones,” along with the holiday songs “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,...

Joan Leslie. Joan Leslie: Actress who fought Warner Bros. and costarred opposite Gary Cooper and Fred Astaire dead at 90 Joan Leslie, best (somewhat mis)remembered as sweet girl next door types in Hollywood movies of the '40s, died on Oct. 12, '15, in Los Angeles. Leslie (born on Jan. 26, 1925, in Detroit) was 90. Among her best-known movies are Howard Hawks' Sergeant York (1941), opposite Best Actor Oscar winner Gary Cooper; Michael Curtiz's Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), opposite Best Actor Oscar winner James Cagney; and Curtiz's militaristic musical This Is the Army (1943), opposite George Murphy and Ronald Reagan, and with songs by Irving Berlin. All three movies were mammoth box office hits. And all three did their best to showcase Leslie, who was not even 18 at the time, as insipid young things; in the first two – and in The Sky's the Limit (1943), opposite Fred Astaire – paired up with men more than...

Hollywood star Joan Leslie has died, aged 90.

An obituary published by her family in The Los Angeles Times confirmed that Leslie passed away in Los Angeles on Monday (October 12).

Leslie got her career breakthrough at the age of 15 as a disabled young woman in the Humphrey Bogart thriller High Sierra.

While still in her teenage years, Leslie racked up roles in the Oscar-winning Sergeant York, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army and The Sky's the Limit.

In her later years, Leslie worked on television and made memorable appearances in Charlie's Angels, The Incredible Hulk and Murder, She Wrote, among other shows.

Leslie got married in 1950 to obstetrician Dr William Caldwell, with whom she had twin daughters. Dr Caldwell died back in 2000.

Watch a trailer for Yankee Doodle Dandy below:...

American TV's great comedian of the 1950s

Early on in their careers, Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon and Mel Brooks all produced gags for the American comedian Sid Caesar, who has died aged 91. "Writing for Caesar was the highest thing you could aspire to," said Allen, adding: "at least as a TV comedy writer. The presidency was above that." Simon later based the play Laughter on the 23rd Floor on his experiences of working for Caesar's popular variety programme Your Show of Shows (1950-54), and Reiner's time with Caesar inspired him to create The Dick Van Dyke Show.

At the height of his fame in the 1950s, Caesar was making more than $1m a year and Your Show of Shows was drawing audiences of up to 25 million. Broadway theatre owners complained that as a result of his popularity, they always had empty seats on Saturday nights – the...

A couple of interesting tidbits have come in regarding the Steve Rogers character in both Captain America 2 and The Avengers. First up, screenwriter of Captain America 2, Christopher Markus, who is working alongside Stephen McFeely, revealed that he is pushing to have Modok as the film's main villain. Not only that, he wants to cast Peter Dinklage in the role of this man whose head grew so large for his body that he can only get around in an exoskeleton and armed hoverchair.

It certainly isn't a conventional choice, though Modok is an original villain of Steve Rogers from the 60s era comic books. This is what Christopher Markus had to say about the character and why he wants Modok in the movie.

"I love Modok and I think you could make a terrifying movie with Modok but nobody seems to be on my side at the moment. I...

A couple of interesting tidbits have come in regarding the Steve Rogers character in both Captain America 2 and The Avengers. First up, screenwriter of Captain America 2, Christopher Markus, who is working alongside Stephen McFeely, revealed that he is pushing to have Modok as the film's main villain. Not only that, he wants to cast Peter Dinklage in the role of this man whose head grew so large for his body that he can only get around in an exoskeleton and armed hoverchair.

It certainly isn't a conventional choice, though Modok is an original villain of Steve Rogers from the 60s era comic books. This is what Christopher Markus had to say about the character and why he wants Modok in the movie.

"I love Modok and I think you could make a terrifying movie with Modok but nobody seems to be on my side at the moment. I...

Chicago – As Veterans Day approaches on November 11th, the generation that fought in World War 2 are dying off with each passing day. “The 95th: The Iron Men of Metz” profiles those few good men left, so that they can tell their story.

DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0

The 95th refers to the 95th Infantry Division, a World War Two army sector that was under the command of General George S. Patton. Their assignment? Bring down the German stronghold of Metz, a heavily fortified city in the northeast region of France. Their eventual liberation of the city, fraught with heavy casualties, earned them the nickname “The Iron Men of Metz” and the “Bravest of the Brave.”

WWII-era Uniform with the 95th Infantry Division Insignia

Photo credit: SoldiersandSailors.us

Four veterans of the division – Steve Finik, Nick Fusco, Chuck Wood and Paul Madden – tell their stories throughout the documentary, adding personal recollections to the broader...

In 1917, at Camp Upton in Yaphank, NY, an officer asked Sgt. Irving Berlin to write a show to help raise money for the Army. The result was Yip Yip Yaphank, a revue that ran for the better part of a year, featuring a cast of more than 300 servicemen. In 1942, Berlin revived the concept for This Is The Army, another soldier-driven revue that ran for three years; in 1943, Warner Brothers made a feature film called This Is The Army that combined numbers from both Berlin shows with a loose retelling of how they came to be. The screen version is more pep rally than drama, designed to emphasize the sentimental tradition of military service more than the killing and dying. But it's well-directed by journeyman Michael Curtiz—who could always be counted on to emphasize how ordinary people reacted to sweeping historical events—and it's a fascinating document of...