University at Buffalo: Reporter

Electronic Highways:
The Internet Movie Database

Who played the part of Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life? Did Alfred Hitchcock ever win an Academy Award? Does Bogart really say "play it again Sam" in Casablanca? If these types of questions are on your mind, then butter up some popcorn and point your Web browser to one of the best cinema sites on the Net, The Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com/).

The Internet Movie Database, built mostly through volunteer effort, is the largest single site on the Internet for trivia about movies. This gem of a database, which has information on over 70,000 movies, also provides hundreds of thousands of tidbits of data about actors, actresses, directors, producers and writers. The database can be searched by movie title, name of actor/actress, character's name, year of release, genre, ratings, production company, country of origin, and several other categories.

The site ranks the top 250 movies of all time (ranking is based on votes cast by visitors to the site). There's a feature called "On This Day in Movie History," which informs you of what movies were released, who was born, or who died, on that day of the year as well. The Internet Movie Database contains links to sound clips and image archives for individual movies. The site is also starting to provide convenient direct links to places where the movies or associated goods such as posters or T-shirts can be purchased.

Even though the Internet Movie Database is a great place for movie buffs, it is only one of several hundred sites on the Web specializing in information about cinema. Almost all of the major film studios have a presence on the Internet, and many sites provide information about actors and actresses, reviews, film festivals and trivia. For a hefty listing of such sites go to Yahoo! - Entertainment: Movies & Films ( http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Movies_and_Films/).

For assistance in connecting to the World Wide Web via UB computer accounts, contact the Computing Center's Help Desk at 645-3542.

­Gemma DeVinney and Don Hartman, University Libraries


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