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In the early 1950s, 20th Century Fox, like all the Hollywood studios, began facing massive declines in theatre attendance. The advent of television provided Americans with a cheaper and more convenient form of entertainment at home, where families could watch a wide variety of programmes at little additional cost. Desperate to lure potential moviegoers away from their television sets, studio chiefs began exploiting the two obvious advantages that film enjoyed over the new medium: the size of its images and, at a time when television broadcasting was in black-and-white, the ability to produce photographic colour. The introduction of Kodak's Eastmancolor film stock in 1950 made movie production more affordable and efficient, since it could be used with conventional cameras, unlike the previous and more cumbersome Technicolor system. Within four years, over 50 percent of all Hollywood features were being produced in colour.   LEFT: A typical 1950s American family gathered around a te...

After World War II, the world was divided into two competing ideological and military blocs: the West, led by the capitalist United States, and the East, which operated within the Soviet Union's communist sphere. Under the authoritarian rule of Mao Zedong, China initially aligned with the USSR, securing much-needed economic and industrial aid, as well as military support to counter American influence in East Asia. In the late 1950s, however, border disputes and ideological disagreements led China to break the alliance with the Eastern Bloc and become an independent power, challenging both Soviet and American policies. As a result of the Sino-Soviet split and the trade restrictions imposed by the United States after the Korean War, China experienced a significant period of economic and cultural isolation that ended only in the early 1970s. In the midst of the political tensions of the Cold War, Chinese-born Eurasian physician and author Han Suyin emerged as a key figure in bridging...

In the pantheon of fictional monsters, the zombie has been around for almost a hundred years. The first popular reference to these resurrected corpses dates back to the book The Magic Island , published by William Seabrook in 1929. Seabrook was an American occultist (and an alcoholic) who found success travelling to various parts of the world and publishing exaggerated accounts of witchcraft and satanism. Written after a trip to the Caribbean island of Haiti, The Magic Island supposedly details Seabrook's real-life encounters with the walking dead. The section dealing with zombies is titled «Black Sorcery» and it colourfully narrates a story a local told to Seabrook about voodoo rites used to revive the dead as soulless slaves to work in the sugar cane fields.   Now in the Public Domain, The Magic Island was praised by critics at the time of its original release for its characterization of the Haitian people and culture, as well as its exploration of voodoo. Although Seabrook...

Carole Lombard is undoubtedly one the greatest comediennes in cinema history. Born Jane Alice Peters to a wealthy Indiana family on October 6, 1908, Lombard began her acting career at the age of 12, when director Allan Dwan cast her as Monta Blue's sister in A Perfect Crime (1921). Although the film was not widely distributed and paid only $50, the experience spurred Lombard's mother to enroll her in drama school. In 1924, just as she turned 16, she was screentested by Fox Film Corporation, which led to a co-starring role opposite Edmund Lowe in Marriage in Transit (1925). Both movies are now considered lost.   Unlike many other actors, Lombard made an easy transition to sound, signing a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures in 1930. Four years later, she was loaned out to Columbia to work on Twentieth Century (1934), a film that not only made her a major star, but also became the prototype of screwball comedies.   LEFT: Carole Lombard and Monta Blue in A Perfect Crim...