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After the success of It Happened One Night (1934), Claudette Colbert became the biggest actress under contract to Paramount Pictures. Although the film had been made at Columbia, its popularity did not escape the attention of Paramount's executives, who decided to capitalize on Colbert's newfound fame as a comedienne. The studio commissioned screenwriter Claude Binyon to create another romantic comedy for the actress, and the result was The Gilded Lily (1935), the story of a stenographer who becomes a member of café society and must choose between a dashing English aristocrat and a common newspaper reporter. Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert appeared in seven pictures together. Whereas the part of the Englishman was perfectly suited for Ray Milland, there was some difficulty in casting the role of the reporter. Paramount initially wanted Franchot Tone, but MGM refused to loan him out. Cary Grant was considered, but his light cockney accent made him «not American enough» ...

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny (1954) begins in 1944, when Ensign Willie Keith (Robert Francis) of the Naval Reserve is assigned to the dilapidated destroyer-minesweeper USS Caine , stationed at the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The ship is under the command of the casual Captain William De Vriess (Tom Tully), who is soon replaced by the tyrannical Lieutenant Commander Francis Philip Queeg (Humphrey Bogart). At first, Queeg's strict discipline appears to be an improvement on the Caine 's lax crew, but he quickly begins to behave erratically, displaying cowardice during a beachhead landing and drastically overreacting when strawberries go missing from the officers' mess. LEFT: Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis, Van Johnson and Humphrey Bogart. RIGHT: Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny .   As Queeg's mental condition worsens, Lieutenant Tom Keefer (Fred MacMurray) pushes the executive officer, Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Van Jo...

Directed by Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity (1944) begins with insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) returning to his office late one night. Bleeding from a gunshot wound, he records his murder confession on a Dictaphone, addressing his boss and friend, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a meticulous and intuitive claims manager. In a flashback, Walter then remembers the day when it all started. While making a routine call on an automobile insurance client, Mr. Dietrichson (Tom Powes), he meets the man's alluring blonde wife Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck), who greets Walter wearing only a towel. Although she seems to be subtly seducing him, Phyllis coldly rebuffs Walter's advances and sends him away. Soon, however, they mutual attraction develops into an illicit romantic affair.   Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity . When Phyllis asks how she could take out an accident policy on her husband's life without his knowledge, Walter de...

Of all God's gifts to the sighted man, colour is holiest, the most divine, the most solemn. (John Ruskin, English art critic and writer, 1819-1900)   The efforts to join colour to the moving image are as old as cinema itself. At least since the release of Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895) by the Edison Manufacturing Company, filmmakers had been hand-painting frames to add colour to black-and-white prints. In this 45-second short, Broadway dancer Annabelle Moore is dressed in white veils that appear to change colours as she swirls them. Hand colouring was often used in early European trick and fantasy films, especially those produced by pioneer French filmmaker George Méliès, who amazed audiences with his astonishingly intricate visual effects. Méliès first experimented with colour in Jeanne d'Arc (1900), leading to a more spectacular use of the technique in Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) and Le Voyage à travers l'impossible (1904), which offers four hues in at least t...