Behind the Scenes

Vintage: Behind the Scenes from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Vintage: Behind the Scenes from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

The story takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional “tired old town” of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. It focuses on six-year-old Jean Louise Finch (Scout), who lives with her older brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb…
Vintage Behind the Scenes: Funny Face (1956)

Vintage Behind the Scenes: Funny Face (1956)

Funny Face is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and written by Leonard Gershe, containing assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Although having the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face by the Gershwin brothers, and featuring the same male star (Fred Astaire), the plot is totally different and only four of…
Vintage: Behind the Scenes: Rear Window (1954)

Vintage: Behind the Scenes: Rear Window (1954)

Rear Window is a 1954 American mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story “It Had to Be Murder”. Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr.
Vintage – Behind the Scenes: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Vintage – Behind the Scenes: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Financed and distributed by American studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2001: A Space Odyssey was filmed and edited almost entirely in England, using the studio facilities of the MGM-British Studios and those of Shepperton Studios, mostly because of the availability of much larger sound stages than in the United States. Production was subcontracted to Kubrick’s production company and care was taken that the…
Vintage: Behind the Scenes from Return Of The Jedi (1983)

Vintage: Behind the Scenes from Return Of The Jedi (1983)

The Galactic Empire, under the direction of the ruthless Emperor, is constructing a second Death Star in order to crush the Rebel Alliance once and for all. Since the Emperor plans to personally oversee the final stages of its construction, the Rebel Fleet launches a full-scale attack on the Death Star in order to prevent its completion and kill the…
Vintage: Behind the Scenes of Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Vintage: Behind the Scenes of Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 political satire black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the USSR and the USA. The film was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, stars Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and features Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens. Production took place in the United Kingdom. The…
Behind the Scenes: Zulu (1964)

Behind the Scenes: Zulu (1964)

Zulu is a 1964 epic war film depicting the Battle of Rorke’s Drift between the British Army and the Zulus in January 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War. It depicts 150 British soldiers, many of whom were sick and wounded patients in a field hospital, who successfully held off a force of 4,000 Zulu warriors.  
Vintage: Little Caesar (1931)

Vintage: Little Caesar (1931)

Little Caesar released at the very beginning of 1931, was the first gangster “talkie” to truly capture that public’s fascination with a genre that has never really gone out of vogue since. The template for the classic gangster film is generally the rise and fall of the criminal and “Little Caesar” sticks to that script closely, telling the story of…
Behind the Scenes: The 39 Steps (1935)

Behind the Scenes: The 39 Steps (1935)

The 39 Steps is a 1935 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. Loosely based on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan, the film is about a man in London who tries to help a counter-espionage agent prevent an organisation of spies called The 39 Steps from stealing top…
The Godfather (1972) Behind the Scenes

The Godfather (1972) Behind the Scenes

The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family, the story spans the years 1945-55, concentrating on the transformation of Michael Corleone from reluctant family outsider…
Behind the scenes: Some Like It Hot (1959)

Behind the scenes: Some Like It Hot (1959)

Some Like It Hot is a 1959 American comedy film set in 1929, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The film is about two musicians who dress in drag in order to escape from mafia gangsters whom they witnessed commit the Valentines Day Massacre.
Behind the Scenes: Psycho (1960)

Behind the Scenes: Psycho (1960)

Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller-horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Janet Leigh. The screenplay is by Joseph Stefano, based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch loosely inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein.
Behind the Scenes: Scarface (1932)

Behind the Scenes: Scarface (1932)

With “Little Caesar” and “The Public Enemy” proving hits, plenty of imitators lined up and one of the first, and best, came from producer Howard Hughes, who lined up an impressive roster of talent for his cautionary crime tale “Scarface” (sometimes subtitled “The Shame Of A Nation”). Writer Ben Hecht was underway on the script when he received a visit…
Behind the Scenes: Gone With the Wind (1939)

Behind the Scenes: Gone With the Wind (1939)

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel. Set in the 19th-century American South, the film tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, from her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, to her marriage to…
Behind the Scenes: Vertigo (1958)

Behind the Scenes: Vertigo (1958)

Vertigo is a 1958 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The story was based on the 1954 novel D’entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac. The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson. Scottie is forced into early retirement because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an…
Behind the Scenes: The Birds (1963)

Behind the Scenes: The Birds (1963)

The Birds is a 1963 suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California, which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few days.
Behind the Scenes: Jaws (1975)

Behind the Scenes: Jaws (1975)

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, prompting the local police…