Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968, William Wyler) “It’s been commonly said that the musical Funny Girl was a comfort to people because it carried the message that you do not need to be pretty to succeed. That is nonsense; the ‘message’ of Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl is that talent is beauty.” -Pauline Kael

Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968, William Wyler)

“It’s been commonly said that the musical Funny Girl was a comfort to people because it carried the message that you do not need to be pretty to succeed. That is nonsense; the ‘message’ of Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl is that talent is beauty.”

-Pauline Kael

Audrey Hepburn in publicity still for How to Steal a Million (1966, dir. William Wyler) (via drmacro)

Audrey Hepburn in publicity still for How to Steal a Million (1966, dir. William Wyler) (via drmacro)

William Wyler, Humphrey Bogart, & Claire Trevor on the set of Dead End (1937, dir. William Wyler) “What we remember is the gangster, the man who in a sentimental moment returns to the old home. He wants to see his mother and his girl: sentiment is mixed with pride -he’s travelled places; he shows his shirtsleeve - ‘Look - silk, twenty bucks.’ And in two memorable scenes sentimentality turns savage in him. His mother slaps his face (‘just stay away and leave us alone and die’), his girl is diseased and on the streets. This is the finest performance Bogart has ever given - the ruthless sentimentalist who has melodramatized himself from the start up against the truth, and the fine flexible direction supplies a background of beetle-ridden staircases and mud and mist.” -Graham Greene, Night and Day (1937)

William Wyler, Humphrey Bogart, & Claire Trevor on the set of Dead End (1937, dir. William Wyler)

“What we remember is the gangster, the man who in a sentimental moment returns to the old home. He wants to see his mother and his girl: sentiment is mixed with pride -he’s travelled places; he shows his shirtsleeve - ‘Look - silk, twenty bucks.’ And in two memorable scenes sentimentality turns savage in him. His mother slaps his face (‘just stay away and leave us alone and die’), his girl is diseased and on the streets.

This is the finest performance Bogart has ever given - the ruthless sentimentalist who has melodramatized himself from the start up against the truth, and the fine flexible direction supplies a background of beetle-ridden staircases and mud and mist.”

-Graham Greene, Night and Day (1937)

Sylvia Sidney in Dead End (1937, dir. William Wyler), a crime drama set in the grim, crowded tenements of East New York.

Sylvia Sidney in Dead End (1937, dir. William Wyler), a crime drama set in the grim, crowded tenements of East New York.

Bette Davis in publicity still for The Letter (1940, dir. William Wyler)

Bette Davis in publicity still for The Letter (1940, dir. William Wyler)

Laurence Olivier & Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights (1939, dir. William Wyler) “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”

Laurence Olivier & Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights (1939, dir. William Wyler)

“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”

Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953, dir. William Wyler)

Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953, dir. William Wyler)

Peter O’Toole, William Wyler, and Audrey Hepburn on the set of How to Steal a Million (1966, dir. William Wyler) Photographer: Terry O’Neill (via)

Peter O’Toole, William Wyler, and Audrey Hepburn on the set of How to Steal a Million (1966, dir. William Wyler) Photographer: Terry O’Neill

(via)