Back to Golden Days

I started this blog six years ago as a way to share my passion for classic films and the Old Hollywood era. I used to watch dozens of classic films every month, and every time I discovered a new star I liked I would go and watch their entire filmography. But somewhere along the way, that passion dimmed down. For instance, I watched 73 classic films in 2016, and only 10 in 2020. The other day, I found this film with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. that I had never heard of, and for some reason it made me really excited about Old Hollywood again. It made me really miss the magic of that era and all the wonderful actors and actresses that graced the silver screen. And it also made me think of all the reasons why I fell in love with classic films. I came up with 80 reasons, which I thought would be fun to share. Most of them are just random little scenes or quirky little quotes, but put them together and they spell Old Hollywood to me. This is part three the 80 reasons why I love classic films. You ...

In honour of Olivia de Havilland's 100th birthday, which is today, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you the picture for which she won her first Academy Award for Best Actress. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, To Each His Own (1946) opens in London during World War II, where a middle-aged American woman named Jody Norris (Olivia de Havilland) is spending New Year's Eve with lonely Englishman Lord Desham (Roland Culver), whom she has just casually met. After Jody saves Desham's life, he invites her to supper, but she turns him down to meet a train. Onboard is Lieutenant Gregory Pierson (John Lund), the son of Jody's friends from her small hometown of Pierson Falls. While she waits, Jody recalls the story of her life, beginning in the summer just before the end of World War I, when she rejected a marriage proposal from Lieutenant Alex Pierson (Phillip Terry), who then weds Corinne Sturgess (Mary Anderson).   Olivia de Havilland with John Lund, Ronald Culver and Bill Goodwin...

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan. Her mother, Lilian Augusta Ruse, had been an accomplished student of music and voice who had won a scholarship to Reading Musical College in England at the age of thirteen. In the summer of 1907, Lilian was offered a position in Tokyo as a teacher of choral singing. While attending a tea party at the British embassy, she met Walter Augustus de Havilland, a «suave Englishman» who ran a successful firm of patent attorneys in Tokyo. Following a whirlwind courtship, Walter proposed to Lilian, but she was not interested in marriage. Instead, she decided to return to England in December 1911 to study acting at Sir Beerbohm Tree's Academy, now known as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. When World War I broke out in 1914, Walter went back to England to enlist with the British Army. Despite being an accomplished marksman, Walter was rejected for military service due to his advanced age (he was 42 at the time). At the same...