IMDb > "City Confidential" Old Hollywood: Silent Stars, Deadly Secrets (2007)
« Prev | 135 of 136 Episodes | Next »

"City Confidential" Old Hollywood: Silent Stars, Deadly Secrets (2007)


Overview

User Rating:
7.7/10   27 votes »
Your Rating:
Saving vote...
Deleting vote...
/10   (delete | history)
Sorry, there was a problem
Director:
Scott Colthorp
Writers:
Zak Weisfeld (writer) &
Geoffrey Proud (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Old Hollywood: Silent Stars, Deadly Secrets on IMDbPro.
TV Series:
"City Confidential" (1998)
Original Air Date:
16 January 2007
Genre:
Crime | Documentary See more »
Plot:
A look at the 1920s murder of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor, which officially remains unsolved. Many historians, biographers, and a few survivors are interviewed. | Add synopsis »
Plot Keywords:
User Reviews:
Good Look at the Death of Taylor See more (3 total) »

Cast

 (Episode Cast) (in credits order)
Sidney Kirkpatrick ... Himself
Jennifer Niven ... Herself
Brandon D. Hogan ... Himself (as Brandon K. Hogan)

Gloria Stuart ... Herself
Duncan St. James ... Himself
Marc Wanamaker ... Himself
Charles Higham ... Himself
Betty Lasky ... Herself

Johnny Grant ... Himself
Laurie Jacobson ... Herself
William Desmond Taylor ... Himself (archive footage)
Bruce Long ... Himself

Mabel Normand ... Various Characters (archive footage)

Mary Miles Minter ... Herself (archive footage)

Olive Thomas ... Herself (archive footage)

Mary Pickford ... Herself (archive footage)
Raul Moreno ... Himself
Ellen Strain ... Herself
Will Hays ... Himself (archive footage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle ... Various Characters (archive footage) (uncredited)

Nicolas Cage ... Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Charles Chaplin ... The Little Tramp (archive footage) (uncredited)

Claudette Colbert ... Ellie Andrews (archive footage) (uncredited)

Joan Crawford ... (archive footage) (uncredited)

Bette Davis ... (archive footage) (uncredited)

Ellen DeGeneres ... Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Robert Downey Jr. ... (archive footage) (uncredited)

Douglas Fairbanks ... (archive footage) (uncredited)

Clark Gable ... Peter Warne (archive footage) (uncredited)

John Gilbert ... (archive footage) (uncredited)

Cary Grant ... (archive footage) (uncredited)

Anne Heche ... Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Katharine Hepburn ... (archive footage) (uncredited)

Al Jolson ... Jack Robin (archive footage) (uncredited)

Steve Martin ... Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Gwyneth Paltrow ... Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

O.J. Simpson ... Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Gloria Swanson ... Norma Desmond (archive footage) (uncredited)

Spencer Tracy ... (archive footage) (uncredited)
Create a character page for: ?

Episode Crew
Directed by
Scott Colthorp (recreations director)
 
Writing credits
Zak Weisfeld (writer) &
Geoffrey Proud (writer)

Produced by
Maryellen Cox .... executive producer: A&E Network (as MaryEllen Cox)
Deborah Dawkins .... producer
Mary Helen Glover .... recreations producer
Stephen Land .... executive producer
Jude Gerard Prest .... additional field producer (as Jude Prest)
Geoffrey Proud .... executive producer
Cindy Robinson .... additional field producer
Zak Weisfeld .... supervising producer
 
Original Music by
Brian Langsbard 
 
Cinematography by
David McCauley  (director of photography) (as Dave McCauley)
 
Film Editing by
Carolyn Gay 
Brad Kurtz 
 
Art Department
J.L. Bean .... graphic artist
Ed Richardson .... graphic artist
 
Sound Department
Tom Backus .... sound designer
Tom Backus .... sound mixer
David Brow .... voiceover recordist
Alex Ramos-Ariansen .... location sound
 
Camera and Electrical Department
Bill Bradshaw .... camera operator: additional photography
Matthew Pierce .... assistant camera
Jeffrey Woods .... camera operator: additional photography (as Jeff Woods)
 
Other crew
Bruce Long .... archive courtesy of
Justina McClellan .... production assistant
Trisha McCoy .... project accountant
Michael Rogers .... archive researcher
Robert Twilley .... archive researcher
Michelle Weiss .... production assistant
 
Thanks
Charles Higham .... special thanks
Bruce Long .... special thanks
Ray Long .... special thanks
Vincent Sherman .... special thanks
Mike Sutherland .... special thanks
 

Series Crew
These people are regular crew members. Were they in this episode?
Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)
Alan Gratz  writer

Produced by
Michael Hart .... producer (2004)
David Lane .... associate producer
David Madison .... producer (2004)
Mike Mart .... producer (2004)
Melissa May .... producer (2004)
Brian O'Connor .... associate producer (2004)
Victoria Raschke .... associate producer (2003)
David Wallach .... producer (2003)
 
Original Music by
Justin Melland 
 
Film Editing by
Daniel Callis 
 
Visual Effects by
James P. Hilton .... visual effects
 
Camera and Electrical Department
James P. Hilton .... grip
 
Other crew
Maryellen Cox .... production executive (2003)
Sara Huddleston .... series coordinator
Ryan Moran .... production assistant
 
Production CompaniesDistributorsOther Companies
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
USA:120 min (with commercials)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (color and black & white archive footage)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 See more »
Sound Mix:
Stereo
Company:
Jupiter EntertainmentSee more »

Did You Know?

Trivia:
Paul Winfield's last project.See more »
Goofs:
Factual errors: One important fact about murder victim William Desmond Taylor, which was quite a revelation when it was uncovered during the official investigation, was that back East he had walked out on his wife and children, whose existence was heretofore unknown in Hollywood, and assumed the phony name of Taylor en route to California. This is not acknowledged at all in this program.See more »

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

   (Review this title)
Good Look at the Death of Taylor, 23 October 2011
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

Old Hollywood: Silent Stars, Deadly Secrets (2007)

*** (out of 4)

This episode of the "City Confidential" series takes a look at the silent era of Hollywood and the various troubles they tried to keep their stars from getting into. The documentary starts off talking about how the movies ended up moving from New York to Hollywood and we get a brief history of some of the stars and the problems they were facing. The documentary also goes into detail how certain groups in America were getting fed up with the sex, drugs and violence in the city. All of this leads to the main story, which was the death of director William Desmond Taylor. He was found murdered in his home, shot to death, and just minutes after actress Mabel Normand had left. Many people thought it might have been her but others pointed the finger at an ex-friend while the most possible person was either Mary Miles Minter or her mother. The documentary, for the most part at least, is pretty good at giving people the basic details of the story. I thought the most interesting parts of the film were the things dealing with the death of the director and why it might have possibly happened. The weakest aspect of the film is how much time it spends talking about how dark Hollywood is. I don't mind a little of this being thrown it but it just takes up too much space when the more interesting story was the death of Taylor. If you're unfamiliar with the story then there's some nice information here but it still could have been much better.

Was the above review useful to you?
See more (3 total) »

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for "City Confidential" (1998)

Related Links

Main series Episode guide Full cast and crew
Company credits IMDb TV section IMDb Crime section
IMDb USA section

You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Edit page' button will take you through a step-by-step process.