Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever written, Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial installments from 1875 to 1877, all but the last part appearing in the periodical The Russian Messenger.
Possessed is a 1947 American psychological drama directed by Curtis Bernhardt, starring Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, and Raymond Massey in a tale about an unstable woman's obsession with her ex-lover. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Silvia Richards was based upon a story by Rita Weiman.
The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929. At these luncheons they engaged in wisecracks, wordplay, and witticisms that, through the newspaper columns of Round Table members, were disseminated across the country.
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 American biographical drama film directed by Alan Rudolph from a screenplay written by Rudolph and Randy Sue Coburn. The film stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as writer Dorothy Parker and depicts the members of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers, actors and critics who met almost every weekday from 1919 to 1929 at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel.
Brigitte Horney was a German theatre and film actress. Best remembered was her role as Empress Katherine the Great in the 1943 version of the UFA film version of Baron Münchhausen, directed by Josef von Báky, with Hans Albers in the title role.
John Conrad Nagel was an American film, stage, television and radio actor. He was considered a famous matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s. He was given an Academy Honorary Award in 1940 and three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
Helene Deutsch was a Polish American psychoanalyst and colleague of Sigmund Freud. She founded the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1935, she immigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she maintained a practice. Deutsch was one of the first psychoanalysts to specialize in women. She was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Joseph Henry Kolker was an American stage and film actor and director.
Donald Ogden Stewart was an American author and screenwriter, best known for his sophisticated golden age comedies and melodramas, such as The Philadelphia Story, Tarnished Lady, and Love Affair. Stewart worked with a number of the directors of his time, including George Cukor, Michael Curtiz, and Ernst Lubitsch. Stewart was a member of the Algonquin Round Table and, with Ernest Hemingway's friend Bill Smith, the model for Bill Gorton in The Sun Also Rises. His 1922 parody on etiquette, Perfect Behavior, published by George H Doran and Co, was a favourite book of P. G. Wodehouse.
Frank Reicher was a German-born American actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Captain Englehorn in the 1933 film King Kong.
Hilda Crane is a 1956 American drama film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Philip Dunne and produced by Herbert B. Swope Jr. from a screenplay adapted by Dunne from the play by Samson Raphaelson. The music score was by David Raksin and the cinematography by Joseph MacDonald. The film was made in Technicolor and Cinemascope.
Farewell is a 1930 German comedy drama film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Brigitte Horney, Aribert Mog and Emilia Unda.
Walter Edward Hart Massey was a Canadian actor, best known for voicing Principal Herbert Haney on the animated series Arthur and The Doctor in the English version of The Mysterious Cities of Gold. He was based in Montreal, Quebec.
A Woman's Face is a 1941 American drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas and Conrad Veidt. It tells the story of Anna Holm, a facially disfigured blackmailer, who because of her appearance, despises everyone she encounters. When a plastic surgeon corrects this disfigurement, Anna becomes torn between the hope of starting a new life and a return to her dark past. Most of the film is told in flashbacks as witnesses in a courtroom give their testimonies. The screenplay was written by Donald Ogden Stewart and Elliot Paul, based on the play Il était une fois... by Francis de Croisset. Another version of the story, a Swedish production, was filmed in 1938 as En kvinnas ansikte, starring Ingrid Bergman.
Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter is a 1968 British musical comedy film starring Peter Noone. The film showcases the British rock band, Herman's Hermits, and is their second and final feature film, following Hold On! in 1966. In Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter the group sings nine songs including the title track and the romantic hit song "There's a Kind of Hush".
A Woman's Face is a 1938 Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander, based on the play Il était une fois... by Francis de Croisset. The cast includes Ingrid Bergman in the lead as a woman criminal with a disfigured face.
Slander House is a 1938 American film directed by Charles Lamont. The film's producer was Ben Judell of Progressive Pictures, known for low-budget exploitation films with provocative titles; other films released by Progressive the same year included Rebellious Daughters and Delinquent Parents.
The House of the Spaniard is a 1936 British comedy thriller film directed by Reginald Denham and starring Peter Haddon, Brigitte Horney and Allan Jeayes. It is set in Lancashire and Spain, during the ongoing Spanish Civil War. It was shot at Ealing Studios in west London, England, and on location in Lancashire and Spain. Art direction was by Holmes Paul. It was based on a novel of the same title by Arthur Behrend, which was published in 1935.
Confessions of a Vice Baron is a 1943 American crime film directed by S. Roy Luby, William A. O'Connor, Melville Shyer, and Herman E. Webber. The film was created using edited footage for the flashback scenes from Mad Youth (1940), The Wages of Sin (1938), Smashing the Vice Trust (1937), Race Suicide (1937), and The Pace That Kills (1935). Willy Castello appears in each of these films except for The Pace That Kills.
Reinhold Schünzel was a German actor and director, active in both Germany and the United States. The son of a German father and a Jewish mother, he was born in St. Pauli, the poorest part of Hamburg. Despite being of Jewish ancestry, Schünzel was allowed by the Nazis to continue making films for several years until he eventually left in 1937 to live abroad.
