Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Bogie & Bacall with the B17 “Hells Angels” of the 303rd Bombardment Group during the war bond tour (1944). (via)

Bogie & Bacall with the B17 “Hells Angels” of the 303rd Bombardment Group during the war bond tour (1944).

(via)

Fred Astaire, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball, & Jose Iturbi rehearse the routine they will put on for troops during the WWII USO tour (via)

Fred Astaire, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball, & Jose Iturbi rehearse the routine they will put on for troops during the WWII USO tour (via)

Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940, dir. Charlie Chaplin) “Had I known of the actual horrors of Nazi concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator. I wanted to ridicule their mystic bilge about a pure-blooded race. The English office at United Artists were against my making an anti-Hitler film - until the war had started.” -Charlie Chaplin, My Life in Pictures (1974)

Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940, dir. Charlie Chaplin)

“Had I known of the actual horrors of Nazi concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator. I wanted to ridicule their mystic bilge about a pure-blooded race. The English office at United Artists were against my making an anti-Hitler film - until the war had started.”

-Charlie Chaplin, My Life in Pictures (1974)

“Before the war my way of participating in this universal concert was to try to raise a voice of protest. I do not think my criticism was ever very bitter - I love humanity too much, so that I hope my sarcasm was always mixed with a little tenderness. Today, the new being that I am realises that it is no longer the time for sarcasm and that the only thing I can bring to this illogical, irresponsible, and cruel universe is my love.” -Jean Renoir (1952, via)

“Before the war my way of participating in this universal concert was to try to raise a voice of protest. I do not think my criticism was ever very bitter - I love humanity too much, so that I hope my sarcasm was always mixed with a little tenderness.

Today, the new being that I am realises that it is no longer the time for sarcasm and that the only thing I can bring to this illogical, irresponsible, and cruel universe is my love.”

-Jean Renoir (1952, via)

Moira Shearer & Robert Helpmann in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) (via) “I am often asked why The Red Shoes, of all our films, became such a success in every country of the world. More than a success, it became a legend. Even today, I am constantly meeting men and women who claimed that it changed their lives. This is natural enough for women who were girls at the time, and who were growing up in countries that had been wracked by war. But my friend Ron Kitaj, who was thinking of becoming an art student at the time, has told me the same thing. ‘It changed my direction,’ he said. ‘It gave art a new meaning to me.’ These are personal reactions, but I think that the real reason why The Red Shoes was such a success was that we had all been told for ten years to go out and die for freedom and democracy, for this and for that, and now that the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art.” -excerpted from Michael Powell’s A Life in Movies

Moira Shearer & Robert Helpmann in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) (via)

“I am often asked why The Red Shoes, of all our films, became such a success in every country of the world. More than a success, it became a legend. Even today, I am constantly meeting men and women who claimed that it changed their lives. This is natural enough for women who were girls at the time, and who were growing up in countries that had been wracked by war. But my friend Ron Kitaj, who was thinking of becoming an art student at the time, has told me the same thing. ‘It changed my direction,’ he said. ‘It gave art a new meaning to me.’

These are personal reactions, but I think that the real reason why The Red Shoes was such a success was that we had all been told for ten years to go out and die for freedom and democracy, for this and for that, and now that the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art.”

-excerpted from Michael Powell’s A Life in Movies

Vera Lynn - We’ll Meet Again (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940, dir. Charlie Chaplin) (via) “Had I known of the actual horrors of Nazi concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator. I wanted to ridicule their mystic bilge about a pure-blooded race. The English office at United Artists were against my making an anti-Hitler film - until the war had started.” -Chaplin, quoted in My Life in Pictures (1974)

Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940, dir. Charlie Chaplin) (via)

“Had I known of the actual horrors of Nazi concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator. I wanted to ridicule their mystic bilge about a pure-blooded race. The English office at United Artists were against my making an anti-Hitler film - until the war had started.”

-Chaplin, quoted in My Life in Pictures (1974)

Bogie & Bacall with the B17 “Hell’s Angels” of the 303rd Bombardment Group during the war bond tour (1944) (via)

Bogie & Bacall with the B17 “Hell’s Angels” of the 303rd Bombardment Group during the war bond tour (1944) (via)