Just a heads-up to my Warren William loving friends that Raquelle from Out of the Past ~ A Classic Film Blog has just posted a 10 question interview with John Stangeland, author of Warren William: Magnificent Scoundrel of Pre-Code Hollywood. Just to tease you over there here’s Raquelle’s first question and a truncated version of John’s answer:
How did you first develop an interest in Warren William?
I’ve been watching classic Hollywood movies since I was a young kid in the early 70’s, but it wasn’t until 2004 that I encountered the essential Warren William. That summer, a friend gave me a tape of Skyscraper Souls, The Mouthpiece and Employees’ Entrance, and I was both completely baffled and utterly fascinated. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t aware of him, especially since I was such a long time Warner Brothers fan. I subsequently realized that I had seen him multiple times before …
Me too, John, me too–pretty much exactly in fact!
Two days previous to this interview Raquelle posted an insightful review of the book, which I thought offered a nice look at it from the non-obsessive’s viewpoint (ie: not me!): That review is also posted on Out of the Past.
Looking back here are the links to the Magnificent Scoundrel review and my interview with author John Stangeland right here on Warren-William.com.
The still up above, featuring Warren William second from the left, is intended as a little tribute to the Warner Archives release of the Warren William Collection which I wrote about in the previous post here. Left to right that photo shows the stars of The Woman from Monte Carlo: Walter Huston, William, Lil Dagover, and Robert Warwick.
And I absolutely promise that a newer in depth post is coming to this site soon. I’ve likely promised as such before but this time I can tell you I’m actually in the middle of writing it and it’s going to be a special one! Employees’ Entrance, mentioned above by John in his talk with Raquelle, is not only my favorite Warren William film, it is my favorite of all pre-code films. As such I’m going to give it a bit of the royal treatment with the plan of posting a general introductory review on my other site, Immortal Ephemera, and a more in-depth piece, likely with spoilers, here on Warren-William.com.
I don’t know how soon I’ll be posting it, but I will say that the plan is for it to be the next post on each of my sites. Talk to you then–
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Thank you so much for this post and for recommending me to the author! I learned so much about Warren William throughout the process and I come to appreciate what you and Stangeland see in him!
Thank you for writing it, Raquelle, I really enjoyed both pieces.
Warren William is beginning to feel not so underappreciated anymore … now the trick going forward is going to be to get people to recognize him for the right movies (big hint to TCM!)
Warren William was my father’s cousin and I grew up with his name. Thus a great fan and appreciate the book as it gives me a good family history which began in Aiken.
Well, Warren, I’m glad the book found it’s way to you. I’ve had nothing but sheer enjoyment talking with Warren’s nieces and other family – another reason I had so much fun writing the book. If you have any insight or stories, I’d love to hear them!