Michael Williams
Southampton, UK
Author's posts
Feb 25
Ivor Novello: A Story of the London Fog
Ivor Novello was the biggest male star of British cinema in the 1920s and early 1930s, starring in 22 films in a career that spanned 1919 to 1934. The handsome Cardiff-born star – with his celebrated ‘classic profile’ – first rose to fame in 1914 as the composer of hit WWI anthem, ‘Keep the Home …
Feb 13
The Guns of Loos
90 years ago, on 9 February 1928, the remarkable First World War drama, The Guns of Loos, received its press screening in London. Trade journal, The Bioscope, declared the film to be ‘as convincing a picture of modern warfare as has yet been shown on the screen’. Coinciding with this anniversary, and as part of …
Jan 15
Podcast: Film Stardom and the Ancient Past
Dr Michael Williams is an Associate Professor and Head of Film Studies at the University of Southampton. Figure 1: Gloria Swanson’s Venus Image, Pictureplay, September 1922 Figure 2: Regina Cannon, ‘Who Wants New Faces?’, Picture Play, April 1934, 29. Figure 3: Ruth Waterbury, ‘Olympus Moves to Hollywood’, Photoplay, April 1928, 34–36, 92 Figure 4: Michael’s upcoming publication Many thanks go to …