Alan K. Rode is an American film scholar and preservationist, cinema host and producer. He is best known for his books, Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film, Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy and Blood on the Moon.
Life and career
Rode was born in Orange, New Jersey. His mother was born and raised in Hollywood, where she was an extra in Our Gang comedy shorts and studied at Ben Bard Drama. His maternal grandfather was a violinist and composer who ascended from playing mood music on silent film sets and movie bit parts to Universal Studios house composer and eventually founded Corelli-Jacobs Recording Inc. A great-uncle doubled Gary Cooper and fought Jack Dempsey. Another grandfather promoted rodeos with cowboy star Hoot Gibson at Los Angeles Gilmore Stadium. After graduation from Summit High School, he enlisted in the United States Navy. He transitioned to his next career in the aerospace and services industries while earning advanced degrees in education and management. He began writing about film in 2000.
Rode is a charter director and treasurer of the Film Noir Foundation and co-hosts the NOIR CITY, Hollywood and Chicago film festivals. He has been the producer and host of the annual Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, California since 2008 and has hosted numerous other cinema events. In addition to his many filmed interviews of Hollywood artists, he has produced numerous classic film Blu-ray commentaries and special features and appeared as a Spotlight co-host on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in 2018.
Filmography
As producer/writer
2017 - Into the Darkness: Mann, Alton and T-Men
2017 - A Director's Daughter: Nina Mann
2017 - Below the Surface: He Walked by Night
2018 - Dennis O'Keefe: An Extraordinary Ordinary Guy
2018 - Deadly is the Male: The Making of RAW DEAL
2018 - The Man Who Cheated Himself-Revisited
2019 - A Sedulous Cinderella: Richard Fleischer Remembered
2019 - Freeing Trapped
2020 - Remembering Fay Wray
2020 - ‘’Martini Shot: William Atherton and The Day of the Locust” 2020 - ‘’Hollywood Champion: A Tribute to Kirk Douglas 2021 - “Facemaker: Peter Lorre and The Face Behind the Mask” 2021 - "Zanuck Goes to War: The World War II Films of Fox" 2021 - "Eagle Lion: A Noir-Stained Legacy" 2022 - "John Reinhardt: Direction Without Borders" 2022 - "Jack Wrather: A Legacy of Film and Friendship" 2022 - "The 3 Faces of M" As actor
2008 - Peril at Sea: Charting a Dangerous Crossing Featurette, Himself
2008 - Gene Tierney: Final Curtain for a Noir Icon, Himself
2008 - Henry Hathaway: When the Going Gets Tough, Himself
2008 - Turning of the Tide: The Ill-Starred Making of Moontide, Himself
2008 - The Western Grows Up, Himself
2008 - Killer Instincts: Richard Widmark and Ida Lupino at Twentieth Century Fox, Himself 2008 - From Journeyman to Artist: Otto Preminger and the Making of Daisy Kenyon, Himself 2008 - Arthur Miller: Painter with Light Himself 2011 - The Cost of Living: Creating the Prowler, Himself 2012 - Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of, Himself 2012 - Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic, Himself 2013 - Six Geniuses from Budapest, Himself 2013 - Eternal History: The Making of From Here to Eternity, Himself 2014 - The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh, Himself 2016 - Tiger Hunt: Restoring Too Late for Tears, Himself