Film History

Still Laughing features never-before-told stories from the creation of one of the most groundbreaking shows in television history.

If Hollywood had a superhero throne, Spider-Man would be perched upon it. As the most popular superhero in the world, the web-slinger plays a pivotal role in three of the six highest-grossing film franchises in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe; the Avengers quadrilogy; and the Spider-Man movies themselves. Spidey has come a long way since Marvel guru Stan Lee first concocted him in 1962, but until now his cinematic journey has not been fully documented.

"Ist das Kunst oder kann das weg?", fragt man sich bei so manchem - vermeintlichen - cineastischen Meisterwerk. Ein Panel aus Filmnerds, bestehend aus Grimme-Preisträger und "Bernd das Brot" Erfinder Tommy Krappweis, den Machern des Hoaxilla Podcasts Alexa und Alexander Waschkau und Barbara Landsteiner von Storytel diskutiert über Kultfilme ... und solche, die es gerne wären. Im Zaum gehalten werden die Teilnehmer von dem Kinoexperten und Radiomoderator Florian Schmidt, der nicht nur interessante Fakten besteuert, sondern ab und zu auch noch einen weiteren Gast einlädt.

"Ist das Kunst oder kann das weg?", fragt man sich bei so manchem - vermeintlichen - cineastischen Meisterwerk. Ein Panel aus Filmnerds, bestehend aus Grimme-Preisträger und "Bernd das Brot" Erfinder Tommy Krappweis, den Machern des Hoaxilla Podcasts Alexa und Alexander Waschkau und Barbara Landsteiner von Storytel diskutiert über Kultfilme ... und solche, die es gerne wären. Im Zaum gehalten werden die Teilnehmer von dem Kinoexperten und Radiomoderator Florian Schmidt, der nicht nur interessante Fakten besteuert, sondern ab und zu auch noch einen weiteren Gast einlädt.

"Ist das Kunst oder kann das weg?", fragt man sich bei so manchem - vermeintlichen - cineastischen Meisterwerk. Ein Panel aus Filmnerds, bestehend aus Grimme-Preisträger und "Bernd das Brot" Erfinder Tommy Krappweis, den Machern des Hoaxilla Podcasts Alexa und Alexander Waschkau und Barbara Landsteiner von Storytel diskutiert über Kultfilme ... und solche, die es gerne wären. Im Zaum gehalten werden die Teilnehmer von dem Kinoexperten und Radiomoderator Florian Schmidt, der nicht nur interessante Fakten besteuert, sondern ab und zu auch noch einen weiteren Gast einlädt.

Come and join international best-selling author Mark Williams on a James Bond odyssey as he continues to explore the phenomenon that is James Bond, this time with the Bond film that made number nine on the list: On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

In this audiobook, Simon Louvish traces the early lives of Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy and the surrounding minstrel and variety theater, which influenced all of their later work. Louvish examines the rarely seen solo films of both our heroes, prior to their serendipitous pairing in 1927, in the long-lost short Duck Soup. The inspired casting teamed them until their last days. Both often married, they found balancing their personal and professional lives a nearly impossible feat.

Drawing on interviews with over 150 people who were called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee - including Elia Kazan, Ring Lardner Jr., and Arthur Miller award-winning author Victor S. Navasky reveals how and why the blacklists were so effective and delves into the tragic and far-reaching consequences of Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts.

15 years after Ondi Timoner’s film Dig! shot The Brian Jonestown Massacre to international fame comes the first ever book on the controversial band and their leader, Anton Newcombe, who together have been at the forefront of the resurgence of psychedelic rock in recent decades — and become one of the most infamous and controversial bands around in the process.

For decades, hidden from the public eye, William Morris agents made the deals that determined the fate of stars, studios, and networks alike. Mae West, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Danny Thomas, Steve McQueen--the Morris Agency sold talent to anyone in the market for it, from the Hollywood studios to the mobsters who ran Vegas to the Madison Avenue admen who controlled television.

Despite being underestimated due to his accent and origins, Desi Arnaz’s legacy is monumental. Purdum’s biography, enriched with unpublished materials and interviews, reveals the man behind the legend and highlights his enduring contributions to pop culture and television. This book is a must-hear biography about innovation, resilience and the relentless drive of a man who changed TV forever.

Do you want to learn more about Charlie Chaplin, but don’t have time to listen to huge, long biographies? Then let The History Journals take you on an hourly history tour of his life. Charlie Chaplin’s legacy lives on forever in the films that have been left behind, bringing the gift of laughter to viewers of every generation, past, present, and future.

Known as “Hitler's Filmmaker,” Leni Riefenstahl directed two of the most innovative and effective propaganda documentaries ever made, Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938), which glorified the Third Reich. In this definitive biography, Steven Bach illuminates the truths and lies regarding the self-proclaimed apolitical artist's involvement with Hitler and other Nazi leaders who financed and advanced her career. Probing the borders that divide art and beauty from truth and humanity, Bach untangles the past and gives an objective but unsparing appraisal.

Hollywood’s Dream Factory is now a nightmare of woke restrictions, identity politics run amok, and freedom-snuffing rules and regulations. The Oscars are unwatchable, as are many films and television shows thanks to the woke revolution. Virtue Bombs breaks down where Hollywood went so wrong, illustrates the slow-motion disaster infiltrating the industry, and offers a glimmer of hope for a woke-free tomorrow. Award-winning film critic Christian Toto has all the receipts, showcasing Hollywood’s virtue-signaling follies and how it could get much worse before it gets better.

In his first memoir, Ander Monson guides listeners through a scene-by-scene exploration of the 1987 film Predator, which he has watched 146 times. Some fighters might not have time to bleed, but Monson has the patience to consider their adventure, one frame at a time. He turns his obsession into a lens through which he poignantly examines his own life, formed by mainstream white male American culture.

"Don't you forget about me", lautet das Motto dieser Folge, die sich "The Breakfast Club", dem legendären Jugendfilm von John Hughes aus dem Jahr 1985 widmet.

With oodles of steamy romance, paranormal time travel, adventure, and much more, Outlander is sweeping the nation. From over a dozen volumes to its newest incarnation as a breathtaking Starz show, it continues to delight, even with subtle, clever changes. But what was life really like then - from kilts and bagpipes to selkies and the fair folk? Who was Bonnie Prince Charlie and why was his campaign so disastrous for the Highlanders?

Today, more than 70 years after it premiered, Sunset Boulevard remains the finest ever movie made about the pathology of fame: those who lose it, those who abuse it, and those who never attain it at all. By exploring the history of Sunset Boulevard in time for the movie’s 75th anniversary, from its inception to its making to its present-day legacy, Ready for My Closeup breathes life into a beloved masterpiece of American cinema.

For a moment in the 1980s, Carolyn Pfeiffer was the only woman in Hollywood who could greenlight a movie. Working with directors like Sam Shepard and Wes Craven, and with actors like River Phoenix and Bette Davis, she had a hand in producing or distributing many landmark films, among them Ridley Scott's The Duellists, Alan Rudolph's Choose Me, and the Academy Award-winning Kiss of the Spider Woman. However, long before establishing herself as a player in the world of film, Carolyn was a horseback-riding tomboy who dreamed of exploring the world beyond her small hometown.

In The Fatal Alliance the acclaimed film critic David Thomson offers us one of his most provocative books yet—a rich, arresting, and troubling study of that most beloved genre: the war movie. It is not a standard history or survey of war films, although Thomson turns his typically piercing eye to many favorites—from All Quiet on the Western Front to The Bridge on the River Kwai to Saving Private Ryan.