Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929—September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and became styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, but was commonly referred to as Princess Grace.

After embarking on an acting career in 1948, at the age of 18, Grace Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions as well as in more than forty episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. In October 1953, with the release of Mogambo, she became a movie star, a status confirmed in 1954 with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination as well as leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance as Best Actress. Retiring from acting at 26 and entering upon her duties in Monaco, she and Prince Rainier became the parents of three children: Caroline, Albert, and Stephanie. She also retained her American roots, maintaining a dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. Her death, two months before her 53rd birthday, was the result of an automobile accident caused by cerebral hemorrhage. In June 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her #13 in their list of top female stars of American cinema.

Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924) is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her husky voice and sultry looks.

She is perhaps best known for being a film noir leading lady in such films as The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), as well as a comedienne, as seen in 1953’s How to Marry a Millionaire and 1957’s Designing Woman. Bacall also enjoyed Tony-winning success in the Broadway musicals Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981. Her performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

In 1999, Bacall was ranked as one of the 25 actresses on the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Stars list by the American Film Institute. In 2009, she was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Academy Honorary Award at the inaugural Governors Awards.

Humphery Bogart and The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 American Warner Bros. film based on novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. Written and directed by John Huston, the movie stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his femme fatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and Peter Lorre. The film was Huston’s directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

The story concerns a San Francisco private detective’s dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers who compete to obtain a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon.

The Maltese Falcon has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by Roger Ebert, and Entertainment Weekly, and was cited by Panorama du Film Noir Américain, the first major work on film noir, as the first film of that genre.

The film premiered on October 3, 1941 in New York City and in 1989 was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.

Gregory Peck and To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and stars Mary Badham in the role of Scout and Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch.

In 1995, the film was listed in the National Film Registry. It also ranks twenty-fifth on the American Film Institute’s 10th anniversary list of the greatest American movies of all time, and #1 on AFI’s list of best courtroom films. In 2003, AFI named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century.

Marilyn Monroe and that famous scene

Before her death, Marilyn Monroe was an iconic Movie star who’s movies thrilled millions. This famous scene shot for the movie, The Seven Year Itch is probably her most famous image. Filmed on location on Lexington Ave, New York the New Yorkers who turned up to watch the filming got so out of control that the director couldn’t use any of the footage taken because of the noise of the crowd. The scene had to be recreated in Studio but then was cut by the censors for being to steamy. In the actual movie her skirt never rises above her knees.

James Stewart and Its A Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and loosely based on the short story “The Greatest Gift” written by Philip Van Doren Stern.

The film takes place in the fictional town of Bedford Falls shortly after World War II and stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve gains the attention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) who is sent to help him in his hour of need. Much of the film is told through flashbacks spanning George’s entire life and narrated by Franklin and Joseph, unseen Angels who are preparing Clarence for his mission to save George. Through these flashbacks we see all the people whose lives have been touched by George and the difference he has made to the community in which he lives.

Clint Eastwood and the spaghetti westerns

Sergio Leone’s western remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was not released to American audiences until 1967, after it had become a box office hit in Europe. The setting is changed to a dusty desert town where the Man With No Name arrives on a mule and quickly sums up the situation with “There’s money to be made in a place like this”. And he proceeds to do just that by working for both the towns rival gangs – the Rojos and the Baxters. Eastwood plays one faction off against another. This time Eastwood plays a bounty hunter along with Lee Van Cleef (Colonel Mortimer). They join forces to collect the huge reward for a recently escaped and crazed bandit, Indio, played by Gian Maria Volonte, Eastwood’s co-star from the first film (Rojo). With such a huge reward at stake, it becomes clear that the two hunters must watch each other as closely as they watch Indio. A one million dollar plus budget, 3 American actors and an unforgettable movie score by Ennio Morricone combine to make this one of Sergio Leone’s best and one of the all time greatest westerns.
Again, the theme is about the quest for easy money. The stories of the three are intricately interwoven with a backdrop of the Civil War and culminate in one final three way shootout. Lee Van Cleef returns to play “Angel Eyes”, a ruthless hired gun who ends up killing his employer to get the gold himself. He tracks Eastwood, again playing the relatively good guy with no name, and the comic two bit criminal Tuco, played marvelously by Eli Wallach, when he learns that each of them knows something about the gold’s location.

John Wayne and The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man is a 1952 American romantic drama film  directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen and Barry Fitzgerald. It was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh. The film is notable for its lush photography of the Irish countryside and the long, climactic, semi-comic fist fight between Wayne and McLaglen.

Alfred Hitchcock Movies

Alfred Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980)

Alfred Hitchcock was a successful
film director creating suspense triller
movies. He appears in all of the movies
that he directed.

Alfred Hitchcock movies:

The Lodger (1926 – Silent)
The Ring (1927 – Silent)
Easy Virtue (1927 – Silent)
Champagne (1928 – Silent)
The Farmer’s Wife (1928 – Silent)
Manxman (1929)
Blackmail (1929)
Juno and the Paycock (1930)
Murder! (1930)
Skin Game (1931)

James Dean and his success

James Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955)

 Major movies he starred in are

1. East is Eden (1955)
2. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
3. Giant (1956)

Although James Dean died aged 24, he
has become an icon for cinema. These
three movies and then his sudden dead
fastened his fame and legendary career.