Kim Novak wasn’t Alfred Hitchcock’s first choice for the leading female role in Vertigo (1958). He wanted Vera Miles to take the part, only she became pregnant and couldn’t do it. Miles had plenty of talent (check out her performances in Psycho and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). On the other hand, I can’t imagine her bringing the same mysterious quality to the role.
When was the first sound film made? The Warner Bros. studio began experimenting with its Vitaphone technology in 1925. This technology used a mechanical system to lock the projected film to a phonograph turntable. The synchronized audio worked well most of the time, but could be thrown out of sync if everything didn’t go perfectly. It improved enough within two years for the part-sound, part-silent The Jazz Singer (1927) to become a popular hit. Later, the accompanying sound track was incorporated onto the film itself.
The very first attempts at synchronizing sound with film reach almost as far back as the invention of film. Thomas Edison’s assistant, W.K. Laurie Dickenson, produced an experimental sound film in 1884 using Edison’s “kinetophone” process, which attempted to link a Kinetoscope movie projector with Edison’s phonograph player. The film shows two men dancing to the accompaniment of a violinist. As far as we know, it was never shown outside the Edison movie studio.
Production photo from Kid Brother (1927)
Only one time in my life have I witnessed someone laughing so hard he fell out of his chair. It was during a screening of Kid Brother (1927), one of Harold Lloyd’s best silent comedy features. Near the end of the film as the Lloyd character is being pursued inside a cargo ship, a small monkey tries on a pair of shoes and proceeds to walk along the deck. Lloyd hears the clomping and assumes it must be the villain. It was the sight of the monkey in the oversized shoes that struck a chord with my friend Dean, who eventually landed on the floor, no worse for wear.
Italian Poster for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
One of the best alien-invasion movies from the 1950s, it was remade in 1978, 1994, 2007, and 2019. It is often cited as having an anti-Communist or anti-McCarthite subtext, though director Don Siegel has denied he had any political intentions for the film.
What was the first movie ever made? It depends on what you consider to be a movie. In 1877, Eadweard Muybridge photographed a galloping horse using a split-second sequence of images, in order to prove the horse had all four hoofs off the ground. When displayed in real time, the sequence resembled to a motion picture.
Here is a link to stream what may be the earliest celluloid film. Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the Le Prince single-lens camera.
Thomas Edison’s assistant, W.K. Laurie Dickenson, is often credited with building the first movie camera, movie projector (the “Kinetoscope”), and movie studio (the “Black Maria”). The first short films produced at Black Maria include “Fred Ott’s Sneeze,” “Buffalo Bill’s Shooting Skill,” and “Boxing Cats.” By 1894, the public could see these and similar films at Kinetoscope Parlors established in cities around the U.S., including New York and San Francisco. Only one person could view a Kinetoscope at a time, so the parlors had multiple machines lined against a wall.
Production photo from Superman (1948)
Before Superman Returns (2006), Superman (1978), and even the television series Adventures of Superman (1952-1958), there was the movie serial Superman (1948), starring Kirk Alyn in the title role. Though it may spoil the magic, this image reveals some of the technical wizardry that allowed him to fly through the air unaided by wires or trampolines. Alyn made a cameo appearance in the 1978 Superman movie as young Lois Lane’s father (they’re on a train together).
What movie has played continuously in a theater for the longest time? That depends on what you consider to be a movie. The 34-minute Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot has run in Colonial Williamsburg since 1957. In 2002, it was shown to its 30 millionth person.
Among feature-length movies, the record may go to the Indian-film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). It had played in a Bombay theater for more than 500 weeks, as of May 2005. The title translates as “The brave-hearted will take away the bride.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out when its run ended, or if it’s still playing at the same theater.
Image from Woman in the Moon (1929)
This silent German science-fiction film from Fritz Lang introduced the concept of counting backwards before a rocket lift-off. Lang was looking for a way to dramatize the launch and hit on the idea of having someone count down to zero. The count down procedure became commonplace in both films and novels and was later adopted by NASA for the real thing. This movie also explored the effects of zero gravity in space and accurately predicted a two-stage rocket powered by liquid fuel.
Leonard Maltin is credited with the shortest movie review. His review for Isn’t it Romantic? was simple and to-the-point, “no.” James Agee is supposed to have written off You Were Meant for Me with, “That’s what you think.” And Kenneth Tynan summed up the allure of I Am a Camera with, “Me no Leica.”
There’s even a website devoted to short movie reviews. The name of the site says it all: The Four Word Film Review. Examples of its four-words-or-less opinions include Groundhog Day (Monotony in Punxatawney), The Mummy (America’s first wrap star), The Ten Commandments (Runaway Jewry), and Citizen Kane (Publisher has last word).
What’s the longest movie ever? According to the Guinness Book of Records, it would be the aptly named The Cure for Insomnia (1987), which runs an incredible 5,220 minutes (87 hours). It doesn’t have a plot and was shot on video rather than on film, so it may not technically quality as the world’s longest movie. And no, I haven’t seen it, though I did sit through a 190-minute screening of Michael Snow’s The Central Region (1970), which also doesn’t have a plot.
Other contenders for longest movie include the 1,620-minute The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple (1928–1931), the 1,452-minute Grandmother Martha (1996), the 873-minute Resan (1987), the 773-minute Out 1 (1971), the 643-minute Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004), the 566-minute Shoah (1985), and the 511-minute War and Peace (1968).