ON TCM Coming Fridays In July. Singing Cowboys! This month in honor of Roy Rogers 100th anniversary year of his birth. I saw Roy Rogers and Trigger perform in person when I was a child. I remember thinking that Trigger was the most beautiful horse that I ever had seen.
Happy Birthday Leslie Caron! ( born 1 July 1931) is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. Caron is best known for the musical films An American in Paris (1951), Lili (1953), Daddy Long Legs (1955), Gigi (1958), and for the non-musical films Fanny (1961), The L-Shaped Room (1962), and Father Goose (1964). She received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. She speaks French and English. She is one of the few dancers or actresses who has danced with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev.
Happy Birthday: Olivia de Havilland.(born July 1, 1916) is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. Along with her sister, de Havilland is one of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s
ON TCM July 2nd: The Case of the Curious Bride. A woman learns that her first husband, presumed dead, is still alive, which makes things awkward for her since she has remarried. This story is based on the book written by Erle Stanley Gardner.
Happy Birthday: Gina Lollobrigida!(Born 4 July 1927) is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular european actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She wa s an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s.
ON TCM July 5th: Madeleine(1950). Directed by David Lean, based on a true story about Madeleine Smith, a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family who was tried in 1857 for the murder of her lover, Emile L'Angelier. The trial was much publicized in the newspapers of the day and was labelled "the trial of the century." Lean's adaptation of the story stars his then wife, Ann Todd with Ivan Desny as her French lover. Norman Wooland played the respectable suitor, and Leslie Banks the authoritarian father, who are both unaware of Madeleine's secret life
ON TCM July 6th: The Gambling Lady(1934). A 1934 black-and-white film starring Barbara Stanwyck as a professional gambler and Joel McCrea as her upper-class suitor.
ON TCM July 6th : Spiral Staircase(1945).The Spiral Staircase is a 1946 American psychological thriller film directed by Robert Siodmak, based on Ethel Lina White's novel Some Must Watch. The novel was adapted for a radio production starring Helen Hayes before reaching the screen.
Happy Birthday: Janet Leigh! (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis.
ON TCM July 8th: Secrets(1933). Mary Pickford's farewell to the screen was this wonderful film, Secrets.
Helen Jerome Eddy (February 25, 1897 - January 27, 1990), was a character actress who played in films such as: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917).
Eddy's first movie was, The Discontented Man (1915). Soon she left Lubin and joined Paramount Pictures. At this time she began to play roles for which she is remembered. Other films in which the actress participated include: The March Hare (1921), The Dark Angel, Camille, Quality Street, The Divine Lady (1929) and the first Our Gang talkie Small Talk (1929). She performed in the film, Girls Demand Excitement(1931) and her final film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty(1947). Even as a seasoned performer in the late 1920s it was remarked that Eddy looked very young to have been in pictures for so many years.
First video of 5. Old Wives For New(1918). The story is about how Charles Murdoc, neglects his fat and lazy and begins having a affair with Juliet Raeburn but, when Juliet's name is involved in murder, he marries Viola and takes her to Paris. Please click here to read movie review.
“Quality Street” (1927) is a silent comedy drama starring Marion Davies, Conrad Nagel and Helen Jerome Eddy. Based on the famous James M. Barrie play and directed by Sidney Franklin, “Quality Street” was a good showcase for Marion Davies. In this period story, Marion Davies plays Phoebe Throssel, a young woman who fails to land a proposal from her beloved, Dr. Valentine Brown, played by Conrad Nagel, before he leaves to the Napoleonic Wars. When he returns, Phoebe has become old and drab, and he is no longer interested in her. To punish him, Phoebe pretends to be her teenage niece Livvy in order to win him back.
Even though I’m not a big fan of costume dramas, I enjoyed this film mainly for the screen presence of Marion Davies. It was as a comedienne that Marion truly lit up the screen, and in this comedy of manners she is wonderful in the dual roles of Phoebe and Livvy. I think this silent version of “Quality Street” is terrific in its costumes, sets, and cinematography. I just wish there were more scenes where Marion could show off her comic skills. Although the film has some nitrate decomposition in some scenes, it shouldn’t deter from its enjoyment.
Marion Davies was born Marion Cecilia Douras to a large Brooklyn family on January 3, 1897. All three of her sisters went on the stage but, despite their beauty, never became big stars. The Douras family (soon stage-named Davies) moved to Manhattan and little Marion began finding the theater more fascinating than school. It was during her run in the 1917 “Follies” that she caught the eye of the married, powerful newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. It was life-long love at first sight for the fifty-four-year old Hearst. Within a few years, Marion was as dedicated to him as any wife could be. The legal Mrs. Hearst, however, refused him a divorce. Marion had made her film debut in “Runaway, Romany” (1917). The reviews were good, and Marion seemed well on her way to becoming another Mabel Normand, but then Hearst stepped in to guide her career. His taste ran to overblown period films. Ironically, Marion was a brilliant comedienne with limited dramatic skills.
In 1919, Hearst formed Cosmopolitan Pictures, a subsidiary of Paramount, through which the films were released. In 1924, Cosmopolitan changed the affiliation to Goldwyn, and thereby to MGM when the studios merged. Among Marion’s more successful costume dramas were “Little Old New York” (1923), “Lights of Old Broadway” (1925), “Beverly of Graustark” (1926), “The Red Mill” (1927), and “Quality Street” (1927). Later in the decade, Marion was given a few opportunities to show off her comic skills in films like “The Patsy” (1928) where she did hilarious imitations of Mae Murray, Lillian Gish and Pola Negri. In “Her Cardboard Lover” (1928), Marion did a wicked parody of costar Jetta Goudal. “Show People” (1928) was Marion’s finest hour. She showed great comic timing and the rare opportunity to poke fun at both herself and her profession.
Despite her slight stammer, Marion had nothing to fear from talkies. It was the quality of her scripts which gave her trouble. Hearst did fall out with Louis B. Mayer, and in 1934, Marion, Hearst, and Cosmopolitan moved to Warner Brothers. That studio dolled her up in stiff platinum-blonde wigs and starred her in four films. Only “Cain and Mabel” (1936) with Clark Gable really had any merit. Marion had enough and at the age of forty retired. She spent the next fourteen years as Hearst’s wife in all but name. Despite Hearst’s constant efforts to keep her away from liquor, Marion was an alcoholic. Her looks and health began to fade, but not her charm. After Hearst’s death in 1951, Marion quickly wed old friend Captain Horace Brown, more for companionship than for love. The marriage was a stormy one, but it endured. After suffering from jaw cancer for three years, Marion died on September 22, 1961. She was 64 years old.
It’s interesting to note that Marion’s beloved “niece,” Patricia van Cleve Lake, died in her early seventies on October 3, 1993, in California. Shortly thereafter, her son Arthur Lake, Jr. (son of the late actor Arthur Lake), announced that his mother was the daughter of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst, born in Paris sometime in the early 1920’s.
Elaine Stewart (May 31, 1930 – June 27, 2011), made her debut by winning Miss See in See Magazine in 1952. She was in many magazines such as Playboy and Photoplay.
She had a supporting role in the film, The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). She also performed in: Brigadoon, Night Passage and The Adventures of Hajji Baba.
She is also known as the co-hostess on two 1970s game shows, Gambit with Wink Martindale and the nighttime edition of High Rollers with Alex Trebek.
A Woman's Face(1941). Drama, directed by George Cukor, Cast: Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas and Conrad Veidt.
Most of the film is told in flashbacks: Anna Holm, is in the courtroom waiting for her murder trial to begin. The first witness, Herman Rundvik, begins his testimony:
Late one night, while aristocrat Torsten Barring is hosting a party, one of the guests named Vera, is the wife of a well known plastic surgeon, Gustav Segert. When the tavern will no longer allow Torsten credit, he charms the badly scarred Anna Holm, into paying his tab.
Bernard Dalvik, then testifies: that he and Anna and Rundvik made most of their money from blackmail.
Vera testifies: When Anna, brings her letters, she demands more money. So while Vera is getting her jewels to pay for the letters, Gustav comes home unexpectedly and Anna tries to distract him. Thinking that Anna is a thief, Gustav wants to call the police, but Vera convinces him not to. Gustav, sees Anna's scars, and offers to perform plastic surgery on her.
Anna is sworn in next: She testifies that her childhood scars were caused when her drunken father accidentally started a fire. Anna, also tells the court that she had twelve operations, because she was in love with Torsten.
After the operation, Anna, is now a beautiful woman when she goes to Torsten, who tells her that his rich uncle, Consul Magnus Barring, is leaving everything to his four-year-old grandson, but.. if something happens to the grandson, Torsten, is next in line to inherit everything.
Anna, agrees to help Torsten, with his plan to kill the boy, by posing as a governess. To her suprise she finds that she really likes the Consul Magnus Barringand and his grandson. One night, Torsten comes to the chateau for a party, as does Gustav, who does not reveal her true identity.
The next day, while trying to listen to a conversation between Torsten and Gustav, Anna leaves the boy too long under the sun lamp and she becomes so upset, it makes Torsten think, she maybe changing her mind about helping him. He then gives her an ultimatum, that the boy must die... will she be able to go through with it?
Joan Crawford, has one of her first great roles in this part thriller part courtroom drama. A Woman's Face, gives Crawford the kind of role that showed off all her talents as an actress. This film, along with Mildred Pierce, Possessed and Humoresque, might be one of her best.
Osa Massen (13 January 1914 – 2 January 2006) was a Danish movie actress who began her career as a newspaper photographer before becoming an actress. Her best known performance was as Melvyn Douglas' unfaithful wife dealing with blackmailer Joan Crawford in the film, A Woman's Face (1941).
She also appeared as a mysterious woman with something to hide in the film, Deadline at Dawn.
Later in her career she performed in guest roles on many television programs.
She performed with Lloyd Bridges in the B-movie, Rocketship X-M (1950).
I think my favorite Hitchcock films were made in the 50's. The first on the list being: Stage Fright( 1950). A British crime film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding and Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, Hitchcock's daughter Patricia Hitchcock in her movie debut and Joyce Grenfell. The story was adapted for the screen by Whitfield Cook, Ranald MacDougall and Alma Reville (the director's wife), with additional dialogue by James Bridie, based on the novel, Man Running by Selwyn Jepson.
The story begins when actress Eve Gill, is interrupted during rehearsal by her good friend, actor Jonathan Cooper, who tells her that he is having a affair with stage actress/singer, Charlotte Inwood. He also tells her that Charlotte visited him after killing her husband wearing a bloodstained dress and he agreed to go back to her home to get her a clean dress. When he gets there he finds the body of Mr. Inwood then tries to simulate a burglary gone wrong, only to be seen by Charlotte's maid, Nellie Goode.
Eve, takes him to hide in a house near the coast owned by her father Commodore, who notices that the blood on Charlotte's dress has been smeared on deliberately and he and Eve believe that Jonathan has been framed. He does not believe them, destroying the dress the only evidence they have on Charlotte.
Eve posing as a reporter, bribes Nellie Goode to say that she has fallen ill and cannot work for Charlotte for a couple of days. Eve, then takes the temporary job. Soon after, Eve meets Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith. Even though they have become fast friends Eve, has not been able to get much info. about the case from him. Smith visits Eve and her mother at their home in London. They are later joined by the Commodore who drops hints that Jonathan has left their house by the sea.
Meanwhile... Charlotte continues to perform in her musical and is secretly visited by Jonathan who wants her to go away with him. Then tells her that he still has the dress with the bloodstain. Charlotte, tells him that she will not give up her career. The truth is she is having an affair with her manager, Freddie Williams.
Jonathan, goes back to thank Eve for her help, but she feels torn because she has fallen in love with, Wilfred Smith. Will she continue to help Jonathan prove his innocence, or is he...
I thought Jane Wyman, gave a very charming, interesting performance. Marlene Dietrich, also plays her part well, and Alastair Sim gives nice comic relief as the father to Wyman's character. Loved the scene of Eve and the Inspector in the back of the taxi and Hitchcock fans will love the surprise ending...
Fun Facts:
Featured is an original Cole Porter song, The Laziest Gal In Town performed by Dietrich in a sultry fashion. Costumes were designed by Christian Dior.
Stage Fright gained some adverse publicity upon its initial release due to the "lying flashback" which is seen at the beginning of the film. However, some film critics, including those of Cahiers du cinéma, see the flashback as simply being an illustration of one person's version of the events: the events as recounted by the character whose voice-over we hear, which was presumably Hitchcock's intention.
The film has a few extra-long takes, reminiscent of those that Hitchcock used in Rope (1948) and Under Capricorn (1949).
In the biography of Dietrich by her daughter Maria, she shares how Dietrich did not like Jane Wyman, because they were such opposites. Hitchcock, however, may have used this animosity to the film's advantage. At one point in the film, Dietrich compliments Wyman for a change in the way she dresses, when Wyman appears at the garden party.
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Stage Fright he can be seen 39 minutes into the film as a man on the street turning to look at Eve as she rehearses her scripted introduction speech to Mrs. Inwood.
Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell (born July 7, 1928). Born in London as the only child of film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1939.
As a child, Hitchcock knew she wanted to be an actress. In the early 1940s, she began acting on the stage and doing summer stock. Her father helped her gain a role in the Broadway production of Solitaire (1942). She also acted in Violet (1944).
After graduating from Marymount High School in Los Angeles in 1947, she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and also performed on the London stage. In early 1949, her parents arrived in London to make Stage Fright, Hitchcock's first English-made feature film since moving to Hollywood. Pat did not know she would have a walk-on in the movie until her parents arrived. Because she had a resemblance to, Jane Wyman. Her father asked if she would mind also doubling for Wyman in the scenes that required "danger driving."
She had small roles in three of her father's movies: Stage Fright (1950) in which she played a jolly acting student named Chubby Bannister, one of Wyman's school chums, Strangers on a Train (1951), playing Barbara Morton, future sister-in-law of Guy Haines (Farley Granger), and Psycho (1960), playing Janet Leigh's plain-Jane office-mate, Caroline, who generously offers to share tranquilizers that her mother gave her for her wedding night.
Pat Hitchcock also worked for Jean Negulesco on The Mudlark (1950), which starred Irene Dunne and Alec Guinness, playing a palace maid, and she had a bit-part in DeMille's The Ten Commandments.
As well as appearing in ten episodes of her father's half-hour television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Hitchcock worked on a few others, including Playhouse 90, which was live, directed by John Frankenheimer. Acting for her father, however, remained the high point of her acting career, which she interrupted to raise her children. (Hitchcock has a small joke with her first appearance on his show - after saying good night and exiting the screen, he sticks his head back into the picture and remarks: "I thought the little leading lady was rather good, didn't you?") She also served as executive producer of the documentary The Man on Lincoln's Nose (2000), which is about Robert F. Boyle and his contribution to motion pictures.
Next on the list.. Strangers on a Train (1951). By a chance meeting on a train, two men meet and talk about getting rid of people who are causing them problems in their lives. Problem is.. one of the men is serious. Farley Granger uses some elements of his performance in Rope, Strangers continued the director's interest in the possibilities of blackmail and murder. Robert Walker, was best known for "boy-next-door" roles, plays the villain in this film.
Fun Facts:
The stunt where the man crawled under the carousel was not done with trick photography. Alfred Hitchcock claimed that this was the most dangerous stunt ever performed under his direction, and would never allow it to be done again.
Alfred Hitchcock originally wanted William Holden to play the part of Guy Haines.
The train station scenes in Metcalf were filmed at the former New Haven Railroad station, Danbury, Connecticut, which is today the home of the Danbury Railroad Museum.
This was the last full feature for Robert Walker who died eight months after filming from an allergic reaction to a drug.
The character of Bruno was named after Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the convicted kidnapper/killer of the Lindbergh baby.
Film debut of Marion Lorne.
This is the movie that determined the location of Carol Burnett's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1951, she was working as an usher when this film was playing at the Warner Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. A couple arrived late, and Burnett, having already seen the film, advised them that it was a wonderful film that should be seen from the very beginning. The manager of the theatre very rudely fired her for this. Years later, when Carol Burnett was asked where she would like to have her star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she requested that it be placed in front of that theatre.
Three very popular films starring Grace Kelly followed the first: Dial M for Murder (1954). was from the popular stage play by Frederick Knott. Ray Milland plays the villain, an ex-tennis pro who tries to murder his unfaithful wife Grace Kelly for her money. When she kills the hired assassin in self-defense, Milland manipulates the evidence to pin the death on his wife. Her lover, Mark Halliday, and Police Inspector Hubbard, try and save her from execution.
Fun Facts:
One of the best scenes is when Tony Wendice at a party, frequently looking down at his watch. It is already past eleven when he notices that it has stopped. He gets up from the table, hurries to the phone booth, has to wait there, and eventually calls his apartment after eleven o'clock, at the very moment Lesgate is about to leave. This is a race against time full of dramatic music, complete with a cut to the telephone exchange.
The courtroom scene: the camera is on Margot, using only various colored lights, and the people at a trial are only there in voice-overs, other than the judge when he is receiving his black cap.
The claustrophobic atmosphere of other Hitchcock films (Lifeboat, Rope, Rear Window) can also be found here. Most of the action is performed on a single set. The angle of the camera is also of interest, several times shot from a bird's eye view, other times shot low, so that the scene shows where the body was found.
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo, can be seen thirteen minutes into the film in a black-and-white reunion photograph sitting at a banquet table among former students and faculty.
Hitchcock then filmed, Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart, Kelly, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr. Stewart's character, a photographer, is layed up with a broken leg and out of boredom he watching his neighbours across the courtyard, and becomes convinced one of them has murdered his wife. Stewart tries to convince both his girlfriend, and his policeman friend to to believe him, and eventually succeeds. Hitchcock used closeups of Stewart's face to show his character's reactions to all he sees, "from the comic voyeurism directed at his neighbors to his helpless terror watching Kelly and Burr in the villain's apartment".
Fun Facts:
The film was shot entirely at Paramount studios. There was also careful use of sound, including natural sounds and music drifting across the apartment building courtyard to James Stewart's apartment. At one point, the voice of Bing Crosby can be heard singing "To See You Is to Love You", originally from the 1952 Paramount film Road to Bali. Also heard on the soundtrack are versions of songs popularized earlier in the decade by Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa", 1950) and Dean Martin ("That's Amore", 1952), along with segments from Leonard Bernstein's score for Jerome Robbins's ballet Fancy Free (1944), Richard Rodgers's song "Lover" (1932), and "M'appari tutt'amor" from Friedrich von Flotow's opera Martha (1844).
Hitchcock used costume designer Edith Head on all of his Paramount films.
Although veteran Hollywood composer Franz Waxman is credited with the score for the film, his contributions were limited to the opening and closing titles and the piano tune ("Lisa") played by one of the neighbors, a composer (Ross Bagdasarian), during the film. This was Waxman's final score for Hitchcock. The director used primarily "natural" sounds from the normal life of the characters in the film.
The third Kelly film, To Catch a Thief (1955), set in the French Riviera, paired Kelly with Cary Grant, who plays retired thief John Robie, who becomes the prime suspect for the robberies in the Riviera. An American heiress played by Kelly knows his true identity. The witty script and the good-natured acting proved a commercial success." It was Hitchcock's last film with Kelly. She married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, and the people of her new land were against her making any more films.
Fun Facts:
This was Hitchcock's first of five films in the widescreen process VistaVision. To Catch a Thief is unique in that it is the only Hitchcock film released by Paramount that is still owned and controlled by Paramount. The others were sold to Hitchcock in the early 1960s and are currently distribution with the exception to the "reversion to Hitchcock" rule was Psycho, which Universal bought directly from Paramount in 1968.
In this film Jessie Royce Landis plays Cary Grant's potential mother-in-law. In North by Northwest she would play his character's mother. In fact Grant was 10 months older than her.
This was Grace Kelly's final film for Hitchcock; she became Princess Grace of Monaco in 1956. Edith Head designed Kelly's clothes for the production, including a memorable golden ball gown. Hitchcock later tried to cast Princess Grace in Marnie (1964), but the citizens of Monaco expressed disapproval in her acting in another film; she later served as a narrator for at least two films
Hitchcock remade his 1934 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), starring Stewart and Doris Day, play a couple whose son is kidnapped to prevent them from interfering with an assassination.
Fun Facts:
Music plays an important part in this film. Although the film's composer, Bernard Herrmann, wrote little "background" music for this film, the performance of Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds, conducted by Herrmann, is the climax of the film. In addition, Doris Day's character is a well-known, now retired, professional singer. Several times in the film, she sings the Livingston and Evans song "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" which won the 1956 Best Song Oscar under the alternate title "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)." The song reached number two on the U.S. pop charts and number one in the UK.
Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film's climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined. Herrmann can be seen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and singers during the Royal Albert Hall scenes. The sequence in Albert Hall runs 12 minutes without any dialogue, from the beginning of Storm Cloud Cantata until the climax, when Doris Day screams.
The Wrong Man (1957), was a black-and-white film based on a real-life case of mistaken identity reported in Life Magazine in 1953. This was the only film of Hitchcock's to star Henry Fonda. Fonda plays a Stork Club musician mistaken for a liquor store thief who is arrested and tried for robbery. Hitchcock told Truffaut that his lifelong fear of the police attracted him to the subject and was added to many scenes.
Fun Fact:
Alfred Hitchcock narrating the film's prologue. The only time he actually spoke in any of his films.
Vertigo (1958), starred Stewart, this time with Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. Stewart plays "Scottie", a former police investigator suffering from acrophobia, who develops an obsession with a woman he is shadowing. Scottie's obsession leads to tragedy.Vertigo, marked the last collaboration between Stewart and Hitchcock.
The film North by Northwest (1959). Thriller film, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
North by Northwest is a story of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets .
This is one of several Hitchcock movies with a music score by Bernard Herrmann and features a opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass.
This weeks Chick Flicks at the Movies (Updated June 19th ): The Limping Man(1953) .World War II vet Frank Pryor (Lloyd Bridges pictured above) returns to London from America after six years to look up an old flame, Pauline French (Moira Lister), now a successful actress . Please click picture on side bar to view movie.
ON TCM June 28th: A Woman's Face(1941). Drama film directed by George Cukor, and starring Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas and Conrad Veidt. The film tells the story of Anna Holm, a facially disfigured blackmailer, who because of her appearance, causes problems for everyone she encounters. When a plastic surgeon performs an operation to correct this disfigurement, Anna becomes torn between the hope of starting a new life, and a return to her dark past.
Happy Birthday: Susan Hayward! (June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975). After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone With the Wind (1939). Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting roles over the next few years. By the late 1940s the quality of her film roles had improved, and she achieved recognition for her dramatic abilities with the first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her performance as an alcoholic in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). Her career continued successfully through the 1950s and she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958).
ON TCM Coming Fridays In July. Singing Cowboys! In honor of Roy Rogers 100th anniversary year of his birth. Pleas check Saddle and Spurs : Western Page for reviews.
Happy Birthday: Leslie Caron! ( born 1 July 1931) is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. Caron is best known for the musical films An American in Paris (1951), Lili (1953), Daddy Long Legs (1955), Gigi (1958), and for the non-musical films Fanny (1961), The L-Shaped Room (1962), and Father Goose (1964). She received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. She speaks French and English. She is one of the few dancers or actresses who has danced with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev. Please check Musical Page for review.
Happy Birthday: Olivia de Havilland !(born July 1, 1916) is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. Along with her sister, de Havilland is one of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.
ON TCM July 2nd: The Case of the Curious Bride. A woman learns that her first husband, presumed dead, is still alive, which makes things awkward for her since she has remarried. This story is based on the book written by Erle Stanley Gardner.
The Company She Keeps (1951). Director: John Cromwell. Cast: Lizabeth Scott, Jane Greer and Dennis O'Keefe.
The story begins the moment Mildred Lynch, is paroled from the State Prison for Women. She served two years for forging checks and changes her name to, Diane Stuart. After arriving in Los Angeles, her parole officer, Joan Willburn, takes her to her new boardinghouse and tells her that she will be working at the hospital. Diane, who is standoffish at first toward Joan, agrees to go out with her to dinner. While they are dining, Joan sees her boyfriend, reporter Larry Collins, in the restaurant and goes over to talk to him and invites Larry to meet Diane.
Diane, quickly leaves and later shares with Joan that she worries people will judge her. Joan, tells her to stop thinking like an ex-convict, then informs her that, she working the night shift at the hospital.
While on duty, Diane sees Larry visiting his sick boss. Larry at first avoids her, but Diane soon talks him into taking her out. Diane's date with Larry does not go well, because he innocently questions her about some money that has dropped out of her coat pocket. Diane, begins to cry and apologizes to Larry for tricking him. He forgives her and the two fall in love.
Joan senses that Larry has become interested in someone else, but does not know the other woman is Diane, until she sees her with Larry at the airport, while waiting for a plane. Heartbroken, Joan asks Diane to stop seeing Larry.
When, Larry telephones Diane the next day he asks her to fly to New York to be with him, Diane tearfully tells him that she cannot leave work and hangs up. Larry shows up at Diane's boardinghouse the next day, and Diane gives in to her feelings.
When Diane goes to Joan's office, she tells her that Larry has proposed to her. Joan, reminds her that, as a parolee, her plans must first be approved by the parole board.
Not wanting Larry to find out the truth about her past, Diane decides not to file her petition and leaves Joan's office. Larry arrives to break up with Joan and learns the truth about Diane. Even knowing the truth, Larry convinces her to file her petition. When the board decides to postpone making a decision, Diane accuses Joan of stopping the marriage. Then while trying to protect Tilly, who has been stealing drugs from the hospital, Diane is arrested. Joan pleads with the judge to be lenient. While awaiting the judge's decision, Diane sneaks away from the courthouse. Will Larry be able to find her and convince her not to run and stand before the judge?
The film, "The Company She Keeps" shows some interesting location shots of Los Angeles . I kept thinking throughout the film, " Friends like these who needs enemies".
Fun Facts:
Feature film debut of Jeff Bridges. His older brother, 'Beau Bridges', and their mother, Dorothy Dean Bridges, also appear in the film.
When this film was made, Howard Hughes owned both RKO, which produced it, and TWA, whose logo is featured prominently on the airplane in the airport sequence.
Lizabeth Scott (born September 29, 1922) , actress, singer best known for her film noir roles. In late 1942, she was trying to make a living in Manhattan summer stock company when she got a job as understudy for, Tallulah Bankhead in the play, The Skin of Our Teeth. However, Scott never had an opportunity to substitute for Bankhead.
When Miriam Hopkins was signed to replace Bankhead, Scott quit and returned to her drama studies and modeling. She then received a call that she was needed back at the theatre. She went on in the leading role of "Sabina".
Soon afterward, Scott was at the Stork Club when film producer Hal Wallis asked who she was, unaware that an aide had already arranged an interview with her for the next day. When Scott returned home, she found a telegram offering her the lead for, The Skin of Our Teeth.
A photograph of Scott in Harper's Bazaar magazine was seen by film agent Charles Feldman, who took her on as a client. Scott made her first screen test at Warner Brothers, where she and Wallis met. As soon as Wallis was at Paramount, she was signed to a contract. Her film debut was in, You Came Along (1945).
Scott's, sensuality and husky voice was perfect for the film noir genre and, beginning with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), the studio cast her in a series of noir thrillers. The dark blonde actress stared with Humphrey Bogart, in the film, Dead Reckoning(1947). The film was the first of many femme fatale roles for Scott. She also performed in, Desert Fury (1947), I Walk Alone (1948), Too Late for Tears(1949).
Peter Falk, (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011), was best known as the rumpled detective in "Columbo," which spanned 30 years was one of the most iconic characters. "Columbo" was part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series, appearing every third week. The show became by far the most popular of the three mysteries, the others being "McCloud" and "McMillan and Wife."
Columbo, never had a first name. "He looks like a flood victim," Falk once said. "You feel sorry for him. He appears to be seeing nothing, but he's seeing everything. Underneath his dishevelment, a good mind is at work."
Columbo's trademark was an raincoat Falk had once bought for himself. After 25 years on television, the coat became so tattered it had to be replaced.
Falk made his film debut in, "Wind Across the Everglades(1958)" and established himself as a talented character actor with his performance as the vicious killer Abe Reles in, "Murder, Inc." Some of his other movies: "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," "Robin and the Seven Hoods," "The Great Race," "Luv," "Castle Keep," "The Cheap Detective," "The Brinks Job," "The In-Laws," "The Princess Bride."
Falk also performed in the films: Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence, Wings of Desire, in which he played himself. Falk became prominent in television movies, beginning with his first Emmy for, The Price of Tomatoes (1961). His four other Emmys were for "Columbo."
When not working, Falk converted his garage into a studio where he created charcoal drawings.
I will never forget his catch praise "Just one more thing..."
Today We Live (1933). Cast: Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Robert Young, and Franchot Tone. The film is based on "Turnabout" by William Faulkner. Faulkner also provided the dialogue for the film, making it the only film version of his work that he co-wrote. Joan Crawford's character was added to the film to add a love interest. She met her future husband Franchot Tone on the set of the film. They married two years later.
In World War I, Diana, a English girl, gets caught up in a love triangle between British Naval Officer, Claude and an American fighter pilot, Bogard. A rivalry for Diana develops between the men. Claude is blinded in action, just as he realizes Diana and Bogard's true feelings for one another. A suicide mission comes up, the men all go off to fight the war. Who will come back for Diana?
Fun Facts:
Variety reported in its review that director Howard Hawks used footage from the movie, Hell's Angels (1930) for the big bomber expedition sequence, the main dogfight, and the head-on collision of two airplanes.
Film debut of Franchot Tone.
I thought this film had beautiful sets and interesting costumes. Joan Crawford's fans will find that she was at the height of her beauty and dominates the first forty-five minutes of the film. This love story is a strange one.
This Could Be the Night(1957). Comedy directed by Robert Wise. The movie is based on the short stories by Cornelia Baird Gross . Cast: Jean Simmons, Julie Wilson and Paul Douglas. Actor Anthony Franciosa made his debut in this film.
The story begins when, straight-laced Anne Leeds, answers a classified ad for a part-time secretarial job during the night shift at the Tonic nightclub, to work for owner with a big heart, who is charmed by her intelligence. She falls in love with his partner Tony Armotti, who is a womanizer.
Anne's first night includes witnessing an fight and decoding a bookie's message about one of Rocco's bets. Tony decides to fire her because he feels she doesn't belong in a nightclub, but his other partner Rocco rehires her. Anne becomes friends with many of the customers. The club staff are a like able bunch of "characters" ... from busboy Hassan, whose father won't let him change his name until he passes algebra, to strip-dancer Patsy, who really wants to be a cook.
Julie Wilson (born October 21, 1924). First working for the musical group, Hank's Hepcats, Wilson headed to New York and found work in two nightclubs, the Latin Quarter (nightclub) and the Copacabana.
She made her Broadway debut in the 1946, Three to Make Ready. In 1951, she moved to London to star in, Kiss Me, Kate and remained there for four years, performing in shows: South Pacific and Bells Are Ringing while studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She returned to New York to replace Joan Diener in Kismet. Other Broadway credits include: The Pajama Game (1954), Jimmy (1969), Park (1970), and Legs Diamond (1988), for which she received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She also toured in, Show Boat, Panama Hattie, Silk Stockings, Follies, Company, and A Little Night Music.
Wilson, landed a regular role on daytime soap opera, The Secret Storm. She also perform in, Kiss Me, Kate and many episodes of, The Ed Sullivan Show.
