The Film Encyclopedia

The Complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry

Ephraim Katz, Ronald Dean Nolen

• Publisher: Collins Reference
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780062026156
• eBook ISBN:
  9780062277114
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Ephraim Katz's The Film Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive single-volume encyclopedia on film and is considered the undisputed bible of the film industry. Completely revised and updated, this seventh edition features more than 7,500 A–Z entries on the artistic, technical, and commercial aspects of moviemaking, including:

• Directors, producers, actors, screenwriters, and cinematographers;
• Styles, genres, and schools of filmmaking;
• Motion picture studios and film centers;
• Film-related organizations and events;
• Industry jargon and technical terms;
• Inventions, inventors, and equipment;
• Plus comprehensive listings of academy award–winning films
• And artists, top-grossing films, and much more!

B

Baarová, Lida. Actress. b. May 12, 1910, Prague. d. 2000. Leading lady of Czech, German, and Italian films of the 30s and early 40s, notorious for her romantic entanglement with Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels. She was Czechoslovakia’s top star and increasingly popular on the German screen when her relationship with Hitler’s aide began in 1934. Their infatuation was so strong that she turned down an offer by Louis B. Mayer to star in Hollywood films. In 1938, Goebbels asked Hitler’s permission to divorce his wife and marry the actress. Hitler not only rejected the request but ordered a ban of all of Baarová’s films. Defying confinement to Germany, the actress escaped to Prague, where she resumed her career and became active in anti-Nazi espionage. In 1941, when the authorities barred her from the Czech screen, she went to Italy for several assignments. After the war, Baarová was jailed in Prague for nearly two years for her association with the Nazis. After her release, she moved to Italy where she appeared in several films, including FELLINI’s I Vitelloni (1953). In 1960 she returned to Berlin as a stage actress, appearing in, among other plays, Rainer Werner FASSBINDER’s ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’ (1971).

FILMS INCLUDE: The Career of Pavel Camrda 1931; Okénko 1933; Barcarolle 1934; Die Stunde der Versuchung 1936; Die Fledermaus, Panenstvi/Virginity, Patrioten, Der Spieler 1938; Ohnivé Léto/A Fiery Summer 1939; Turbina 1940; La Fornarina 1942; Ti conosco Mascherina! 1943; Il Cappello de Prete 1945; Gli Amati di Ravello 1950; La Vendetta di una Pazza 1951; Carne inquieta/Restless 1952; I Vitelloni/The Young and the Restless/The Loafers 1953; Rhapsodia del Sangre 1958.

Babenco, Hector. Director. b. Hector Eduardo Babenco, Feb. 7, 1946, Buenos Aires. The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia, he left home at 17 and traveled extensively throughout Europe before turning to filmmaking. He worked as a house painter, a salesman, a freelance writer, and an extra in spaghetti Westerns, then settled in Brazil. He drew worldwide attention with Pixote, for which he shared the Grand Prix at the Biarritz Film Festival, and won the Silver Leopard at Locarno. After receiving an Oscar nomination as the director of the American-Brazilian co-production Kiss of the Spider Woman, he was invited to direct in the US.

FILMS INCLUDE: Rei da Noite/King of the Night 1975; Lucio Flavio—Passaqeioro da Agonia 1979; Pixote a Lei do mais fraco/Pixote (also co-scr.) 1981; Kiss of the Spider Woman (US/Brz.) 1985; Ironweed (US) 1987; Besame mucho (prod.) 1987; At Play in the Fields of the Lord (US) (dir., co-scr.) 1991; Amos Desfines, Corezon illuminado (also prod., scr.), Foolish Heart (also prod., scr.) 1996; The Venice Project (act. only) 1999; Before Night Falls (act. only) 2000; Carandiru 2003; El Pasado 2007.

Babochkin, Boris. Actor. b. Jan. 18, 1904, Saratov, Russia. d. 1975. A veteran of the Leningrad stage, he began playing minor roles in films in 1927 and won instant fame for his heroic portrayal of the title role in Chapayev (1934). He subsequently appeared effectively in many other films, even directing two, but never repeated his Chapayev triumph. He spent his final years working mainly in the theater as actor, director, and administrator, and teaching at Moscow’s Cinema Institute.

FILMS INCLUDE: Revolt 1927; Myatesh 1929; The Return of Nathan Becker 1932; Chapayev 1934; Podrugi/Girl-Friends/Three Women 1936; Drusya/Friends 1938; Chapayev Is with Us 1941; The Defense of Tsaritsin/Fortress on the Volga 1942; Actress, Invincible 1943; Native Fields (also co-dir.) 1944; Povest o Niestovom (also dir.) 1947; Story of a Real Man 1948; The Great Force 1950; Restless Youth 1955; Annushka 1959; Ivan Rybakov 1961; The Curse of Mr. McKinley 1975.

Baby LeRoy. Child actor. b. LeRoy Winebrenner, May 12, 1932, Los Angeles. d. July 28, 2001. While still a toddler of one year plus, he made several heartwarming appearances in films, most notably with W. C. FIELDS. He plagued the child-hating Fields in four films and in return got his share of abuse. At the ripe age of four, Baby LeRoy retired from the screen. As an adult he was, among other things, a merchant marine.

FILMS INCLUDE: Alice in Wonderland, A Bedtime Story, Tillie and Gus, Torch Singer 1933; It’s a Gift, The Lemon Drop Kid, Miss Fane’s Baby Is Stolen, The Old-Fashioned Way 1934; It’s a Great Life 1936.

Baby Peggy. Child actress, author. b. Peggy Jean Montgomery, Oct. 26, 1918, San Diego. Popular child star of the 20s; the Shirley Temple of her day. The daughter of a cowboy stuntman, she entered films at age three and before reaching ten starred in numerous two-reelers and more than a dozen features. Her popularity gradually diminished as she neared adolescence. In October of 1925, Baby Peggy left Hollywood to headline a vaudeville tour of the US and Canada for four years, returning to Hollywood in 1932 as Peggy Montgomery, coincidentally, a name also used by a silent film star (see MONTGOMERY, Peggy). Since retiring from the screen in the late 30s, she has been a freelance journalist, a greeting card company executive, and a book-buyer for a university bookstore. In 1975 she authored, under her married name Diana Serra Cary, The Hollywood Posse, a book about the silver screen’s cowboy extras and stuntmen. In 1979 she published Hollywood Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era. Her autobiography, Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy?, was published in 1996. Her first husband was actor Gordon Ayres.

FILMS INCLUDE: Little Miss Hollywood, Peggy Behave 1922; The Darling of New York 1923; Captain January, Helen’s Babies, The Law Forbids, The Family Secret 1924; April Fool 1926; Off His Base 1933; Eight Girls in a Boat 1934; Ah! Wilderness 1936; Having a Wonderful Time 1938.

Baby Sandy. Child performer. b. Sandra Lee Henville, Jan. 14, 1938, Los Angeles. Cute little tot who brightened several Universal films of the late 30s and early 40s. She was popular enough to make the cover of Life magazine and in 1940 was chosen “Baby of the Year” by Parents magazine, but her “meteoric” career had faded before she reached her fifth birthday. Today she is a legal secretary.

FILMS INCLUDE: East Side of Heaven, Unexpected Father/Sandy, Little Accident 1939; Sandy Is a Lady, Sandy Gets Her Man 1940; Sandy Steps Out, Bachelor Daddy, Melody Lane 1941; Johnny Doughboy 1942.

baby spot. A small spotlight used to highlight a limited area or to illuminate a close-up of a subject. It uses a 500- or 750-watt lamp, mounted in a housing with a lens.

baby tripod. A short-legged tripod, also called a “shorty,” for setting up a camera at a low angle.

Bacall, Lauren. Actress. b. Betty Joan Perske, Sept. 16, 1924, Bronx, N.Y. ed. Julia Richman High School, Manhattan. After some training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she played minor roles in several Broadway plays, then turned to modeling. In 1943, Mrs. Howard Hawks saw her photograph on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar and told her Hollywood producer-director husband of her discovery. Within a month Miss Bacall had a contract. In her Hollywood debut, she appeared with Humphrey BOGART in To Have and Have Not (1944). Both public and critics were highly impressed.

Studio publicity dubbed her “The Look,” because of the suggestive, come-on twinkle in her eye, and she was on her way to stardom at Warner Bros. In 1945 she married Bogart, with whom she later appeared in three more films, The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and ...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface to the First Edition
• Editor’s Note
• Note to the Reader
• Abbreviations
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z
• About the Author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher