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Frances Dee movies: From 'An American Tragedy' to 'Four Faces West' Frances Dee began her film career at the dawn of the sound era, going from extra to leading lady within a matter of months. Her rapid ascencion came about thanks to Maurice Chevalier, who got her as his romantic interested in Ludwig Berger's 1930 romantic comedy Playboy of Paris. Despite her dark(-haired) good looks and pleasant personality, Dee's Hollywood career never quite progressed to major – or even moderate – stardom. But she was to remain a busy leading lady for about 15 years. Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is showing seven Frances Dee films, ranging from heavy dramas to Westerns. Unfortunately missing is one of Dee's most curious efforts, the raunchy pre-Coder Blood Money, which possibly features her most unusual – and most effective – performance. Having said that, William A. Wellman's Love Is a Racket is a worthwhile subsitute, though the...

By Fred Blosser

Many books have been written about Hollywood Westerns. After 45 years, the late William K. Everson’s “A Pictorial History of the Western Film” (The Citadel Press, 1969) remains one of the best: a coffee-table book with substance. Everson appropriately tips his sombrero to John Ford, John Wayne, Henry Hathaway, and Howard Hawks (with measured praise for “Red River”), and his comments on films spanning the history of the genre up to the end of the 1960s, from “The Great Train Robbery” (1903) to “The Wild Bunch” (1969), are incisive and thought-provoking. As a film scholar and preservationist, Everson was particularly knowledgeable about older and often obscure movies from the silent and early sound eras. Three of the classic titles he highlights are worthy of his approval and deserve to be better known than they are.

King Vidor’s “Billy the Kid” (1930) is slow going at times, particularly if you’re...

Jean Dujardin Jean Dujardin backstage at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood on February 26. Dujardin was the year's Best Actor winner for his performance as a Douglas Fairbanks- and John Gilbert-like silent film star in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. (Photo: Richard Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.) Jean Dujardin's fellow Best Actor contenders were Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. A first-time Oscar nominee, Dujardin became the first Frenchman to win an Oscar in the acting categories. (French-born actresses have been luckier at the Academy Awards: It Happened One Night's Claudette Colbert, Room at the Top's Simone Signoret, La Vie en Rose's Marion Cotillard, and The English Patient...

Uggie (front), Thomas Langmann, Jean Dujardin, Michel Hazanavicius, James Cromwell, Bérénice Bejo, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle Some of The Artist talent: Producer Thomas Langmann, son of Claude Berri; Jean Dujardin, Oscar winner for Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Michel Hazanavicius, Oscar winner for Achievement in Directing; James Cromwell, Oscar nominee for Babe (2005), and son of director John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson; Best Supporting Actress nominee Bérénice Bejo; Penelope Ann Miller; Missi Pyle, and, once again stealing the show, Uggie the dog (also seen last year opposite Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in Water for Elephants). The Artist crowd and canine posed for the media backstage following the 84th Academy Awards held at the Hollywood and Highland Center on February 26, 2012. (Photo: Richard Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) This year, there were nine Best Picture nominees. Besides The Artist, the contenders were: Alexander Payne's The Descendants,...

Jean Dujardin, Natalie Portman This year's Best Actor Oscar winner, Jean Dujardin, poses with 2010 Best Actress Oscar winner Natalie Portman backstage at the 2012 Academy Awards Awards, held at the Hollywood and Highland Center on February 26. Dujardin won his Oscar for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. Portman won hers for Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Jean Dujardin was a first-time nominee. His Best Actor competition consisted of Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, and Brad Pitt for Moneyball. In the past year, in addition to the Oscar Dujardin took home three major Best Actor awards: the BAFTA, the SAG Award, and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy/Musical. Thus, Dujardin became the first actor ever to win all four trophies.

Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin Best Actor Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin did his Oss 117 act backstage at the 84th Academy Awards last Sunday, February 26, 2012. Dujardin won the Oscar for his portrayal of a fast-fading silent-film star in Michel Hazanavicius' Best Picture winner The Artist. Dujardin's two Oss films, Oss 117: Cairo Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio, were both directed by Hazanavicius, who also helmed one segment of Dujardin's latest movie, Les Infidèles / The Players. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Dujardin's Best Actor competition consisted of Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. A first-time Oscar nominee, Dujardin became the first Frenchman to take home an Oscar in the acting categories. (French-born actresses...

Mario Lopez, Anna Stuart, James Cromwell Mario Lopez interviews James Cromwell and guest Anna Stuart at the 84th Academy Awards from Hollywood, CA, on February 26, 2012. Cromwell wasn't nominated for anything this year, but he is one of the featured players in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, which won five Oscars, including Best Picture. Thus, Cromwell got the chance to hop onstage with his fellow cast members, among them Penelope Ann Miller, Bérénice Bejo, and Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin. (Matt Brown / ©A.M.P.A.S.) An animals rights advocate and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for Chris Noonan's Babe, Cromwell is also the son of filmmaker John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson, both of whom were kept quite busy at the dawn of the sound era — the time period in which The Artist is set. John Cromwell directed three 1929 releases, including two Nancy Carroll musicals, The Dance of Life and Close Harmony.

Jean Dujardin Jean Dujardin at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday, February 6, 2012. Dujardin is a Best Actor nominee for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) Dujardin's Best Actor competition consists of Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Dujardin is a first-time Oscar nominee. Just recently, he won three major Best Actor awards: the BAFTA, the SAG Award, and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy/Musical. Among Dujardin's other movie credits are two James Bond-ish spoofs directed by Michel Hazanavicius: Oss 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and Oss 117: Lost in Rio. In addition, Dujardin starred or was featured in numerous French productions,...

Jean Dujardin Jean Dujardin, winner of the SAG Award for Male Actor in a Leading Role for Michel Hazanavicius' silent comedy-drama The Artist, poses in the press room during the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The SAG Awards ceremony was broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/WireImage.) Jean Dujardin was the somewhat surprise winner, as most had been expecting George Clooney to take home SAG's The Actor statuette for his performance in Alexander Payne's family drama The Descendants. Dujardin and Clooney's SAG Award competitors were Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Leonardo DiCaprio for Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. Last Sunday, Dujardin also won the British Academy of Film's Best Actor Award. He's now the odds-on favorite in the Oscar race. Among Dujardin's other movie credits...

Chicago – The character actor has always been a fixture in Hollywood culture, and there are few as unique as James Cromwell. He’s had many memorable roles in films like “Babe,” “L.A. Confidential” and within the “Star Trek” legacy. Currently, he portrays Clifton in the Oscar-nominated “The Artist.”

Cromwell was born of Hollywood royalty. His father was director John Cromwell (”Of Human Bondage,” “Since You Went Away”) and his mother was notable 1930s film actress Kay Johnson. He grew up in New York City, and studied acting at the Carnegie Mellon school in Pittsburgh. After years of stage work, he broke into TV in the mid-1970s, with a noteworthy role in “All in the Family,” as the talked-about-yet-never-seen character of Stretch Cunningham (see story below). This started a series of supporting parts in films and TV throughout the next couple of decades.

James Cromwell as Clifton in ‘The Artist...

I was first attracted to being in the silent movie The Artist for the most unexpected reasons. Firstly, I love ideas that don't usually get traction in Hollywood and this was certainly an idea that seemed like a risk. I also knew from the start that this was not just an homage to a bygone era, it was going to be a story that would be as contemporary today as it was back in the early days of the "talkies." In and around the beautiful love story was a nugget of an idea that appealed to me as an actor -- the idea of the world moving on without you and the knowledge that we actors are all too aware of -- that we are replaceable. Looking back now, I was probably the most likely among my 67 fellow ensemble actors to find myself in this black-and-white silent film. And why?...

Silent All Quiet On The Western Front: TCM's Library of Congress Tribute [Photo: Kay Francis, Leslie Howard in British Agent.] Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 8:00 Pm The Constant Nymph (1943). A composer finds inspiration in his wife's romantic cousin. Dir: Edmund Goulding. Cast: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith. Bw-112 mins. 10:00 Pm Baby Face (1933). A beautiful schemer sleeps her way to the top of a banking empire. Dir: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook. Bw-76 mins. 11:30 Pm Two Heads On A Pillow (1934). Once-married attorneys face off during a heated divorce case. Dir: William Nigh. Cast: Neil Hamilton, Miriam Jordan, Henry Armetta. Bw-68 mins. 12:45 Am All Quiet On The Western Front (1930). Young German soldiers try to adjust to the horrors of World War I. Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray. Bw-134 mins. 3:15 Am : Will Rogers Winging Around Europe (1927). Bw-0 mins. 3:30 Am...