Robert Wise remembered

Reuters’ story on director Robert Wise’s death Thursday afternoon emphasized the director’s contributions to big screen musicals like “West Side Story” and, of course, “The Sound Of Music”. For me and many other fans of 1940’s and 1950’s black and white cinema, however, he may be remembered more for fascinating and extremely watchable movies, even by today’s standards, like “Blood on the Moon”, a fascinating noir western and, of course, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. For the updated Reuters’ story see this link and for a full bio click here. For a lengthy interview from 1998 from the “Conversations with History” series for the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley, check this out. Information about Wise’s Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute including the above photo is posted here.

GWTW still on top

It’s probably no surprise to connoisseurs of the oldies but goodies that the burning of Atlanta still outshines the blowing up of the Death Star for sheer box office charisma. Check out the full story to see how today’s blockbusters stack up against the classics. You can purchase the full report compiled by Screen Digest here, or just check out the raw data for free at this link. Check out photos like this from the original film at this link.

Dead stars online

Here’s something kinda creepy. Elizabeth of Reel Classics: The Classic Movie Site says it’s got a niche all its own on the net, and I think she’s got something there. Type in your favorite movie star and get a brief bio and information on where he or she is buried. Some entries even have a photo of the gravestone like Bela Lugosi’s above. To check out the famous grave search click here. To visit the Find A Grave homepage for the whereabouts of even more dead people visit this link.