This week on N and CF.

Happy New Year!! From Myrna Loy (pictured above).

ON TCM: Birthday Tribute Jan.3, 2011: Ray Milland (3 January 1905 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend (1945) and as Oliver Barrett III in the 1970 film, Love Story.

ON TCM: Jan. 3, 2011. Marion Davies Birthday tribute. Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often over shadowed her professional career.

On TCM Jan. 3, 2011. The Shanghai Gesture (1941). Please click picture on side bar to read review. Cast: Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature and Ona Munson. Based on the play by John Colton. Producer Arnold Pressburger. Director: Josef Von Sternberg. The Shanghai Gesture received Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Original Music Score.





Ona Munson (June 16, 1910 – February 11, 1955) was an American actress best known for her performance as prostitute Belle Watling in the film, Gone with the Wind (1939).

Her first starring role was in a talkie called, Going Wild (1930). Munson appeared the next year in a musical comedy called, Hot Heiress in which she sings several songs along with her co-star Ben Lyon. She also starred in Broadminded (1931) and Five Star Final (1931). She briefly retired from the screen, only to return in 1938. When David O. Selznick was casting his production Gone with the Wind, he first announced that Mae West was to play Belle, but this was a publicity stunt. Munson skills as an actress electrified her screen test. For the remainder of her career, she was typecast in similar roles. Two years later, she played another madam, in the film noir, The Shanghai Gesture.

ON TCM: Jan. 4, 2011. Jane Wyman (January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007). Was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Johnny Belinda (1948), and later achieved success during the 1980s for her leading role in the television series Falcon Crest.

ON TCM: Birthday Tribute Jan. 6, 2011: Loretta Young (January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) . Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the 1948 best actress Academy Award for her role in the 1947 film, The Farmer's Daughter, and received an Oscar nomination for her role in, Come to the Stable (1950).

ON TCM Jan. 7, 2011 : Jeanne Crain . An excellent ice skater, Crain first attracted attention when she was crowned Miss Pan Pacific at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. Later, while still in high school, she was asked to make a screen test opposite Orson Welles. She did not get the part, but in 1943, at age 18, she appeared in a bit part in the film The Gang's All Here. Please click picture to view featured films.

This month Monty and I are planning to feature, Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page (located on the sidebar). They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys.

Have a great week at the movies. It looks like TCM is off to a great start to a New Year!!