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As with everything they touch, Turner Classic Movies handles their yearly tribute with extraordinary class and delivers something subtle, lovely and touching; something always so much better than whatever the Oscars cook up that year.  (more…)

A few years ago I ranked my top-five all-time greatest performances by an actress and Jennifer Jones’ Oscar-winning work in “The Song of Bernadette” was a no brainer. She’s a marvel in a role begging for cloying sentiment. Her performance is so believable and measured you actually have to make a conscious effort afterwards to process what an achievement it is.

That was the thing about these Golden-Age stars: you never caught them acting.

From there Jones’ career pretty much faltered. There was “Portrait of Jennie,”  “Beat the Devil,” “Since You Went Away,” and the lusty dusty “Duel in the Sun,” but after an affair during the production of “Since You Went Away” broke up both their marriages (she was married to actor Robert Walker), legendary producer David O. Selznick wrapped all his hopes of achieving another “Gone With the Wind” triumph into Jones, which predictably resulted in a lot of bad decisions and the kind of meddling that kept directors who might have otherwise cast Jones from doing so. (more…)

Lillian Gish

The great twin tragedies of the fate of silent films in the modern era is indifference and ignorance. And for those who have seen clips from silent films, they invariably view muddy, degraded prints projected at the wrong speed, hence the jerky motions that give the impression that all silent films are bad slapstick.

Of course, we all owe a great debt to Robert Osborne and TCM for programming so many fine silent films. At last, film lovers have the opportunity to screen a varied selection of silent films and appreciate the great craft that was abruptly short-circuited with the advent of talkies. The best silent films were a universal language in which image, motion and emotion were paramount. (more…)