Best movies & TV Shows like Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood Starring Paul Merton, and more. If you liked Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood then you may also like: Nightmares in Red, White and Blue, An Open Secret, Overnight, The James Dean Story, Jodorowsky's Dune and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood is a 2011 BBC documentary series written, directed and presented by Paul Merton. The three-part series traces the rise of the American film-making industry in Hollywood through from the early years of film-making to the foundation of the major motion-picture studios and the new class of the film star.
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An Open Secret
An investigation into accusations of teenagers being sexually abused within the film industry.
The James Dean Story
Released two years after James Dean's death, this documentary chronicles his short life and career via black-and-white still photographs, interviews with the aunt and uncle who raised him, his paternal grandparents, a New York City cabdriver friend, the owner of his favorite Los Angeles restaurant, outtakes from East of Eden, footage of the opening night of Giant, and Dean's ironic PSA for safe driving.
Jodorowsky's Dune
Shot in France, England, Switzerland and the United States, this documentary covers director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) and his 1974 Quixotic attempt to adapt the seminal sci-fi novel Dune into a feature film. After spending 2 years and millions of dollars, the massive undertaking eventually fell apart, but the artists Jodorowsky assembled for the legendary project continued to work together. This group of artists, or his “warriors” as Jodorowsky named them, went on to define modern sci-fi cinema with such films as Alien, Blade Runner, Star Wars and Total Recall.
Altman
Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.
The Bad and the Beautiful
Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film
This historical and critical look at slasher films, which includes dozens of clips, begins with Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Prom Night. The films' directors, writers, producers, and special effects creators comment on the films' making and success. During the Reagan years, the films get gorier, budgets get smaller, and their appeal wanes. Then, Nightmare on Elm Street revives the genre. Jump to the late 90s, when Scream brings humor and TV stars into the mix.
Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Shocking Truth
A documentary primarily focusing on the filming and release of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The Last Producer
An old-time mogul struggles to reenter the club where power and money make the rules.
I Am Steve McQueen
"I Am Steve McQueen" tells the incredible life story of this legendary actor, racer, and cultural icon. Extensive interviews, movie clips, archival footage and sound bites chronicle his extraordinary career while focusing on the correlation between his on-screen and off-screen experiences. Narrated by Robert Downey Jr.
Carl Laemmle
A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.
I Am Patrick Swayze
An inside look at the life of Patrick Swayze as told by the people who knew him best.
Hollywood Uncensored
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Peter Fonda host an examination of the history of decency standards for movies from the early 1920s onwards.
Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror
Explore the most legendary horror studio of all time with this fascinating, frightening journey hosted by terror titans Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. England's most successful independent film company, the "fear factory" of Hammer Studios, has a history filled with feuds, censorship battles and streaks of luck both good and bad. Now the legacy of horror returns, featuring interviews with such Hammer legends as Raquel Welch, Veronica Carlson, Caroline Munro, Ingrid Pitt, Jimmy Sangster, Hazel Court, Martine Beswicke, Freddie Francis, Val Guest and Ray Harryhausen. Plus you'll be treated to behind-the-scenes home movies and nonstop shock scenes from over 40 classic films, including Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein, The Devil Rides Out, Curse of the Werewolf and many more! It's the definitive study of one of the greatest names in horror!
Movers & Shakers
Joe Mulholland, Head of Production at a Hollywood studio, makes a rather fool-hardy promise to a dying friend. He undertakes to make a major movie using the title - if not the content - of a best-selling sex manual "Love in Sex". Enlisting the help of depressed screenwriter Herb Derman and rather off-centre director Sid Spokane to try and come up with an idea or two, Joe soon wishes he was not one of those people who always try to keep their promises.
The Brothers Warner
An intimate portrait and saga of four film pioneers--Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack who rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies persevering to create a major studio with a social conscience.
Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn
The story of Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn whose short & flamboyant life, full of scandals, adventures, loves and excess was largely played out in front of the camera - either making movies or filling the newsreels and gossip magazines. Tragically he was dead from the effects of drugs and alcohol by the time he was only 50 & the myths live on. But there is another side of Flynn that is less well known - his ambitions to be a serious writer and newspaper correspondent, his documentary films and his interest in the Spanish Civil War and Castro's Cuba
Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown
Since the early days, Jerry Lewis—in the line of Chaplin, Keaton and Laurel—had the masses laughing with his visual gags, pantomime sketches and signature slapstick humor. Yet Lewis was far more than just a clown. He was also a groundbreaking filmmaker whose unquenchable curiosity led him to write, produce, stage and direct many of the films he appeared in, resulting in such adored classics as The Bellboy, The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy, and The Nutty Professor.
Stewart & Mitchum: The Two Faces of America
With his naïve air, his rangy and reassuring silhouette, James Stewart symbolizes success, someone who everybody wants to look like. Behind his legendary nonchalance, Robert Mitchum is the figure of the bad boy, the kind-hearted hooligan who anyone would like to have for accomplice. What is the legacy left by these two big myths of the Hollywood cinema and in which way they fed the American dream?
Marlon Brando: The Wild One
An examination of the craft of Marlon Brando, narrated by professionals of the film industry. The film follows his career from the stage with "A Streetcar Named Desire", through the Actors Studio and professional relationships with Elia Kazan and Stella Adler to Hollywood. An actor who redefined the limits to which a professional may go in becoming the character not only intellectually but emotionally, Brando changed the meaning of film acting.
Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood
Documentary about the making of 20th Century Fox's 1963 film "Cleopatra," then the most expensive film of all time.
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props. By extension this provides a general history of Hollywood's Golden Age and the legendary studio system.
Forever Ealing
This is a history of the England's Ealing Film Studios, from its beginnings in 1902. It follows the studio's successes through the 1930's, World War II dramas, the well-known 'Ealing comedies' with Alec Guinness, and the BBC's television productions
Paul Merton's Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema
Paul Merton goes in search of the origins of screen comedy in the forgotten world of silent cinema - not in Hollywood, but closer to home in pre-1914 Britain and France. Revealing the unknown stars and lost masterpieces, he brings to life the pioneering techniques and optical inventiveness of the virtuosos who mastered a new art form. With a playful eye and comic sense of timing, Merton combines the role of presenter and director to recreate the weird and wonderful world that is early European cinema in a series of cinematic experiments of his own.
The Scarlett O'Hara War
The trials and tribulations of David O. Selznick as he attempts to find an actress to play the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
Mike Epps, Richard Pryor Jr. and others recount the culture-defining influence of Richard Pryor - one of America's most brilliant, iconic comic minds.
Birth of the Living Dead
A behind the scenes look into George Romero's groundbreaking horror classic Night of the Living Dead.
Love, Marilyn
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
Access Hollywood
Access Hollywood is a weekday television entertainment news program covering events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. It was created by former Entertainment Tonight executive producer Jim Van Messel, and is currently directed by Robert Silverstein. In previous years, Doug Dougherty and later Christopher A. Berry directed the program. Access Hollywood primarily focuses on news in the music, television, and film industries. The United States version began broadcasting on September 9, 1996, and is nationally syndicated in the United States. In 2003, a British version of the show began production and in an Irish version began in 2006 airing on the now defunct Channel 6, now known as 3e. In Canada, CTV Two has aired the program since September 5, 2011.
Entertainment Tonight
Daily tabloid television news show on entertainment and celebrity news with unprecedented access to Hollywood's biggest stars, exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at upcoming film and television projects, as well as the real story behind Hollywood's latest news.
E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and also well-known public figures. Among the topics covered on the program include salacious re-tellings of Hollywood secrets, show-biz scandals, celebrity murders and mysteries, porn-star biographies, and "where-are-they-now?" investigations of former child stars. It frequently features in-depth interviews, actual courtroom footage, and dramatic reenactments. When aired on the E! network, episodes will be updated to reflect the current life or status of the subject.
The Toys That Made Us
The minds behind history's most iconic toy franchises discuss the rise -- and sometimes fall -- of their billion-dollar creations.
Terry and Julian
Terry and Julian is a British sitcom that aired on Channel 4 in 1992. Starring Julian Clary, it was written by Clary, Paul Merton and John Henderson. The title is a spoof the title of the long-running BBC sitcom Terry and June, whose star June Whitfield made a guest appearance in one episode of Terry and Julian.
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World is a 7-part British documentary/docudrama television miniseries that originally aired from 4 September 2003 to 16 October 2003 on BBC. The programme examines seven engineering feats that occurred during the Industrial Revolution.
Trials of Life
A study in animal behaviour, it was the third in a trilogy of major series (beginning with Life on Earth) that took a broad overview of nature, rather than the more specialised surveys of Attenborough's later productions. Each of the twelve 50-minute episodes features a different aspect of the journey through life, from birth to adulthood and continuation of the species through reproduction. The series was produced in conjunction with the Australian Broadcasting Service and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. The executive producer was Peter Jones and the music was composed by George Fenton. Part of David Attenborough's 'Life' series, it was preceded by The Living Planet (1984) and followed by Life in the Freezer (1993).
The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood
Ed Asner tells the story of RKO Pictures from the 1920s to the 1960s.
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.
Hollywood U.K.: British Cinema in the Sixties
Five programmes that trace a remarkable decade in British film-making through interviews with its stars and directors.
Five Came Back
The extraordinary story of how Hollywood changed World War II – and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the interwoven experiences of five legendary filmmakers who went to war to serve their country and bring the truth to the American people: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Based on Mark Harris’ best-selling book, “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War.”
Black Hollywood: 'They've Gotta Have Us'
A unique portrait of how art and activism for black people in film are indivisible from race and cinema.
Kendra Sells Hollywood
Kendra Wilkinson embarks on a new career in real estate with only eight weeks to land a spot on one of the most prestigious property firms in the world. She must rise above her old party-girl past to prove she's got what it takes to sell Hollywood.
The Dream Merchants
This star-laden adaptation of Harold Robbins' best-selling 1949 novel about the birth of the movies features Mark Harmon as a drifter who comes under the wing of visionary nickelodeon operator Vincent Gardenia and goes on to become a pioneer in the incipient film business, facing the good times and the bad over a 20-year period.
Brink of Disaster
Across North America and the rest of the world, hurricanes, storm surges, earthquakes and sea level rise, threaten our major cities and lead to natural catastrophes.
100 Years of Warner Bros.
Tracing a century of movie and TV history, these four documentary specials explore the unparalleled global impact of Warner Bros. on art, commerce, and culture.
Mary Pickford: The Muse of the Movies
This documentary traces the life and work of the legendary "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, silent film star, movie pioneer and keen businesswoman. Pickford's life also parallels an even larger story, telling of the birth of the cinema itself.
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue
An exploration of the appeal of horror films, with interviews of many legendary directors in the genre.