Classic Couple

Posting this in honor of Harper Lee’s birthday today (April 28, 1926–February 19, 2016). “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Gregory Peck speaks these lines as Atticus Finch to Mary Badham as his daughter Scout […]

Carnival Story (1954) starring Anne Baxter and Steve Cochran tells the story of Grayson’s, an American traveling circus performing in Munich, Germany. Baxter plays Willi, a local girl down on her luck who arrives on the midway hungry and with only the clothes on her back. Desperate, she picks the pocket of carnival barker Joe, […]

Special Guest Blog By Caroline Lappetito, Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter Member Ben-Hur! From the opening credits you are smacked right between the eyes and you know you are going to see something very, very special. The booming, soaring musical score, the iconic Sistine Chapel painting of Michelangelo’s God creating Man upon which the credits roll, […]

The Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter recently went bicoastal. On Sunday, April 14, while some of us attended the 2019 TCM Film Festival, several chapter members attended the 60th Anniversary TCM Big Screen Classics presentation of Ben-Hur. The two groups texted one another during breaks. Chapter President Chris and “First Lady” Kami sent the group a […]

130 years ago today on April 16, 1889 Charlie Chaplin was born in Walworth, London. In a 75-year career he showed us what it means to be a comic genius and a true storyteller. My favorite quote attributed to him is, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” I could not agree more.

Experience the evolution of slapstick comedy on film in three films released in 1914: Caught in a Cabaret released April 27, His Trysting Place released on November 9, and Tillie’s Punctured Romance released December 21. Keystone Studios served as production house, Mack Sennett worked as producer and Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain starred […]

As the Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter prepares to see the 60th Anniversary TCM Big Screen Classics presentation of Ben-Hur, I looked for some tidbits related to how the epic film came together. The visual magnificence and thundering action of this historic drama made it a record-setting winner of eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and […]