To celebrate Halloween, I thought I would join, The Girl With the White Parasol, in answering her great list of horror movie questions. Here are my trick or treats of favorites:
Kim Novak, in the classic film, Bell, Book and Candle (1958). A romantic/comedy about Gillian, your average, modern day, witch, living in a New York apartment/Bohemian art studio with her Siamese cat, Pyewackt.
2. What is the first movie you can remember being scared by?
Frankenstein (1931). The king of horror films, was the first movie I remember being scared by. Mostly.. because my sister freaked out so bad, that she hit her head on the floor, trying to hide under her pillow. Which resulted in a huge goose egg on her head..
3. Name a classic horror film that would be substantially improved by better special effects.
The first movie that pops into my head is... "The Blob". I think that it would have been awesome, if he looked more like Java, from Star Wars..
4. Name your favorite Val Lewton film.
I have only seen one Val Lewton film, I walked with a Zombie( 1943). For me it was a perfect "scary chick flick".
5. What movie villain or monster has the most frightening "stare-into-the-camera" moment?
Psycho(1960). A suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I will never forget the moment when, the camera focuses on the hideous mummified body of Mrs. Bates.
6. What is the most irritating horror film cliche? I dunno.. that is part of the horror film, that makes it fun.
7. Are there any movies you refuse to watch alone?
Nobody, in my house can watch Rosemary's Baby, alone..
8. Picture an old childhood nightmare of yours. Now try to adapt it to film. Can it be done?
As a child I had the recurring dream of falling. So, whenever I watch one of my favorite Hitchcock film Vertigo. I remember my own dream of falling.. Although.. my dream was not as colorful.
9. Who's your favorite "scream queen?"
I do not think anyone can beat "screem queen".. Fay Wray
10. What is the most disappointing horror remake?
I try and stay away from remakes. So, none come to mind.
11. We've all seen our share of vampires, zombies, and werewolves on film, but are there any mythical creatures or monsters out there that you think deserve more movies (i.e. golems, changelings, the Minotaur, etc.)?
I think Medousa, with the face that could turn onlookers to stone. Would make a great horror film.
12. Along the lines of "Scary Mary Poppins," can you think of any non-horror flicks that could easily be adapted to fit the genre?
How about, the children's story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The sequence where Snow White, is running through the forest is very scary. Also, the evil queen’s transformation from icy beauty to old crone.
13. And now, just for fun, pick one movie monster or villain to be remade into a cuddly plush toy, just for you.
How about a Medousa, doll with a head of snakes for hair?
Cass Timberlane, is a novel written by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1945. It is Sinclair Lewis' nineteenth novel and one of his last.It was made into a romantic drama film starring Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner, directed by George Sidney, and released in 1947. Timberlane is a minor character in Lewis's novel Kingsblood Royal.
While Judge Cass Timberlane, a kind-hearted, bachelor, is trying a boring divorce case, he finds a notebook that Jinny left in the courtroom. Attracted to the much younger Jinny, Cass searches for her in the neighborhood where she lives, and finds her playing baseball. Cass offers to umpire her game, after which he takes her out to dinner.
The two fall in love, much to the disappointment of Cass's society friends, who believe that he is wrong to cross social lines. With the exception of his friend attorney, Bradd Criley.
Cass, marries Jinny and as time passes, Cass soon realizes that Jinny is unhappy living in the small town of Grand Republic.
Jinny eventually becomes pregnant, but when the baby is stillborn, she goes into a deep depression. Cass, tries to cheer up his wife by teaching her how to fly an airplane and supporting her while she becomes a stage actress.
Jinny, gets herself into trouble with her performance, while rehearsing a love scene with her co-star, Bradd, who is transferred to his company's office in New York City as a result.
Cass, suggests they take a trip to New York, so he can visit an old friend to look into becoming partners in his law firm. Jinny, wants to stay in New York, after her wonderful day in New York with Brad. When Cass, tells her that he has rejected a job offer in the city, she breaks it off with him.
Cass, tells Jinny that she is welcome to stay in New York with Bradd. It turns out that Bradd, does not really want to marry Jinny. Heartbroken, she jumps out of the speeding car in which they are driving and is seriously injured.
After Lillian Drover, the wife of Jinny's doctor, tells Cass about Jinny's injuries, will Cass rush back to New York to be with her?
This is one of my favorite Spencer Tracy films and he gives an excellent performance. Lana Turner, is also very good. The scenes between she and Zachary Scott have enough sparks to make you wonder if they are guilty of adultery. This is a wonderful film that was well worth seeing.
Fun Facts:
MGM reportedly paid close to $150,000 for the film rights to Lewis' novel.
Walter Pidgeon who has a brief cameo in the film, was at one point considered for the title role.
Jennifer Jones, Vivien Leigh, and Virginia Grey were among those thought out for the female lead.
Fay Hendry, the mother of Sonya Hendry, a young girl who appeared in the film, was awarded nearly $30,000 for injuries she sustained when the girl was struck by a falling reflector at the site of location filming.
Tracy was not initially pleased with the studio's choice of director, hoping to have George Cukor or Vincente Minnelli assigned the position.
The poem that Cass Timberlane recites at the picnic with Virginia is "First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay and goes "My candle burns at both ends / It will not last the night / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends / It gives a lovely light!"
In late 1946, Marie McDonald campaigned for the female lead.
Margaret Lindsay (September 19, 1910 - May 9, 1981) After attending National Park Seminary in Washington, D.C., Lindsay convinced her parents to enroll her at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
She then went abroad to England to make her stage debut. She performed in plays: Escape, Death Takes a Holiday and The Romantic Age.
Lindsay was often mistaken as being British due to her convincing English accent, which impressed Universal Studios enough to sign her for their 1932 version of, The Old Dark House.
After some minor roles in Pre-Code films such as Christopher Strong and Baby Face, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, Lindsay was cast in the award-winning, Cavalcade.
Later, Lindsay performed in a small but memorable role as Edith Harris, a doomed English bride whose honeymoon voyage takes place on the Titanic.
Her work in Cavalcade earned her a contract at Warner Bros. where she became a supporting player, working with Paul Muni, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, Warren William, Leslie Howard, George Arliss, Humphrey Bogart, Boris Karloff and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Lindsay was cast four times as the love interest of James Cagney, from 1933-1935. She performed with Cagney in four films: Frisco Kid, Devil Dogs of the Air, G-Men and Lady Killer.
Lindsay co-starred with Bette Davis in four films: 1934's Fog Over Frisco; in 1935's Dangerous (for which Davis won her first Best Actress Academy Award); in Bordertown, co-starring Paul Muni, and as Davis's rival for Henry Fonda's affections in Jezebel (1938), which earned Davis her second Best Actress Academy Award.
The Law in Her Hands (1936), she performed a leading role as a mob lawyer. It was rare among gangster films of the 30's to have a female in such a male-dominated role. Made after the Motion Picture Production Code came into effect, The Law in Her Hands was forced into a reactionary stance towards the gender switch and concluded with a plot twist that was the complete opposite of the Pre-Code period (1929–1934), when "female characters on the screen could say, do and be whatever they wanted".
Lindsay's best known film role was, The House of the Seven Gables in 1940, with George Sanders and Vincent Price.
Her 1940s film series work in Hollywood included: Ellery Queen series from 1940-1942.
Lindsay, performed in a supporting role in the 1942 film, The Spoilers, starring John Wayne and in Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street in 1945. While her work in the late 1940s would occasionally involve a supporting role in MGM films like Cass Timberlane with Spencer Tracy, her film career faded, soon after.
She returned to the stage and co-starred with Franchot Tone, in The Second Man. 1950s and 1960s She made her television debut in 1950 in, The Importance of Being Earnest. More television work soon followed.
Lindsay performed in only four films during the 1950s and two in the 1960s. Her final feature film was, Tammy and the Doctor (1963).
Lindsay lived with her sister Helen in Hollywood. Later in life, she lived with her youngest sister Mickie.
Despite being romantically linked to actors such as William Gargan and Edward Norris, she never married.
Margaret Lindsay's sister, Jane Kies (1909–1985), was also an actress under the name of Jane Gilbert. In 1940, Jane married the son of Hedda Hopper, actor William Hopper, best known for his role as Paul Drake in the Perry Mason television series. Their daughter Joan was born in 1942, and the couple divorced in the early 1960s. Lindsay's niece Peggy Kenline and great-nephew Brad Yates were also actors.
Her Cardboard Lover(1942). Comedy film directed by George Cukor. The film is the third screen adaptation of the play, following The Cardboard Lover in 1928 and The Passionate Plumber in 1932. Joan Crawford and Hedy Lamarr were each offered the part of "Consuela", but both turned it down.
Songwriter Terry Trindale, has fallen head over heals over Consuelo Croyden, a woman he has watched from a distance every night at a Palm Beach casino. Even though, he has gone out of his way to be seated at the gambling tables next to Consuelo, Terry has never spoke to her.
One night, he finally gets the courage to speak to her and lets it slips out, that he loves her and then he asks if she could ever fall in love with him. She says "absolutely not" and warns him not to be so "clingy", if he wants a woman to return his love.
Consuelo, then heads for the gambling tables, with a stuffy Tony Barling, not far behind, but.. because he is not dressed properly he cannot enter the casino. When, Terry learns that Tony wants to give a note to Consuelo, he volunteers to take it to her, but as soon as Tony leaves, he tears it up.
Terry, then watches from the side lines.. Consuelo, win at chemin de fer and yells out "Banco", to play against her. After, she wins again, he now owes her a great sum of money. He tells her that he does not have the money to pay her. At first, she feels a little sorry for him, but when he gives her the pieces of Tony's note, angrily she asks him what the letter said.
After, telling her what he remembered she then asks him to come to her house. She then comes up with the idea for him to work as her secretary to pay off his debt. Assuming the role of her "cardboard lover," she asks for a written contract to pretend to be her fiance. She then explains that Tony is her fiance, with who she broke off because of the "madness" of their on and off again relationship.
Just then Tony, arrives and Consuelo has Terry hide on the patio. Although, she tells Tony, that she is in love with someone else, he does not believe her. Terry, then comes waltzing in, acting very affectionate. Tony, recognizes him from the casino and is suspicious, and when Terry goes to get ice, Tony tells Consuelo that he knows this is an act and begs her to come to a friend's yacht before they sail in the morning.
After Tony leaves, Consuelo, quickly packs her bags to meet Tony. Terry, is waiting at her front door, to stop her.
Four weeks later, Terry is still working as Consuelo's "Cardboard Lover". Chappie Champagne, Terry's partner, cannot talk him into coming back with him to New York to sell their new song, "I Dare You," which they have been composing on Consuelo's piano.
Wanting to get rid of Terry, she pretends that she is cured of Tony, once and for all and offers to cancel the rest of Terry's debt. Terry then leaves, saying he is going to the airport. Consuelo, receives a call from Tony, saying that he is going away with another woman and she convinces him to stop by her house. Tony, asks her wear a negligee and unlatch the door for him. But... it is Terry who arrives, admitting that it was he who called, disguising his voice to sound like Tony.
When Tony really does arrive, she tells Terry hide and then explains to Tony that Terry, is not really her lover. At this moment Terry, comes out wearing pajamas and gets into her bed. Consuelo, tries to make Terry tell the truth, but he refuses and Tony leaves.
Consuelo, locks Terry in the bathroom, but he has already left and is waiting in the hall. She slaps him, but he again reminds her of his promise to keep her from Tony. Frustrated with him, Consuelo says that his songs are "tripe," but soon apologizes and admits that she is in love with Tony. She calls Tony and says she has kicked Terry out and is leaving to see him. Terry then threatens to jump out the window, but.. is unsuccessful.
Terry, goes back to his hotel, where Tony is also staying. After meeting in the elevator, the two men begin a wild fight.
During their hearing on charges of disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer, Consuelo shows up angry with Terry, but when Chappie arrives with tickets to New York and money from the sale of their song to pay Terry's fine, she begins to realize her true feelings.
Norma Shearer, in her last film, wears gorgeous clothes and played her part perfectly. Robert Taylor, looks very young and handsome. There are some wonderful scenes: one where Taylor threatens to jump over a balcony and one when he is wearing her pajamas.
Elizabeth Patterson (November 22, 1874 – January 31, 1966), born in Savannah, Tennessee. Her father, who had been a Confederate soldier, was a judge in Hardin County. She was educated in the county's public schools and at colleges in Pulaski and Columbia, where her participation in college theatricals helped to form her interest in drama.
Her parents sent her to Europe in the hope of discouraging her interest in the theater, but her determination to become an actress was only reinforced by her experiences attending productions at the Comédie Française.
After returning from Europe, Patterson used a small inheritance to move to Chicago, where she joined a theatrical troupe, and subsequently toured with repertory companies.
In 1913, she made her Broadway debut in the play Everyman. She remained active in New York City theatre through 1954.
In 1926, at the age of 51, Patterson was cast in her first movie, The Boy Friend. Additional screen credits include: A Bill of Divorcement; Tarnished Lady; Dinner at Eight; High, Wide, and Handsome; Intruder in the Dust; Remember the Night; No Man of Her Own; The Shocking Miss Pilgrim; Little Women; My Sister Eileen; and Pal Joey.
In 1952, at the age of 77, Patterson made her first appearance on the hit CBS-TV sitcom I Love Lucy in the episode entitled "The Marriage License". In that installment, Patterson's character, Mrs. Willoughby, was the wife of the Greenwich, Connecticut justice of the peace (played by character actor Irving Bacon) who re-marries Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.
The following year she was cast in a featured guest role as Mrs. Matilda Trumbull in the episode "No Children Allowed". Patterson's character of Mrs. Trumbull was initially an ornery curmudgeon who also resided in the Ricardos' apartment building. In that installment, she threatened to make trouble for the Ricardos since the building did not allow children. At the end of the episode, however, her character softens as she holds the Ricardos' baby for the first time and, as a result, Mrs. Trumbull becomes friends with both the Ricardos and the Mertzes. In fact, Patterson's role was so popular (as well as useful to the writers of the series) that she continued in the role for three more years as the babysitter for "Little Ricky". In the fall of 1956, with I Love Lucy in its final season, Patterson made her last appearance as Mrs. Trumbull in the episode, "Little Ricky Learns To Play The Drums". Her character was mentioned one last time in the 1957 episode "Lucy Raises Chickens". In that installment, Fred and Ethel Mertz decide to follow the Ricardos and move to Connecticut to be near them and Mrs. Trumbull's sister moves into 623 East 68th Street to manage the apartment building for Fred.
Never married, Patterson lived alone at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel during her thirty five-year motion picture career. She died in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia at the age of 91. She is buried in her hometown of Savannah.
Outcast Lady(1934). Directed by Robert Z. Leonard. With Constance Bennett, Herbert Marshall, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Hugh Williams.
Sir Maurice, disproves of Iris March and his sons Napier Harpenden's, up coming marriage, because he believes that Iris will hurt his son's political career. As a compromise, Napier suggests that they wait to marry until he has established himself in the British diplomatic service in India.
After four years of waiting, Iris accepts the proposal of Fenwick, a wealthy friend of her brother.
When Napier receives word of Iris' engagement, he leaves India to attend her wedding in England. Just before the ceremony, a woman hands Iris a note, which Iris pockets without reading.
Then on her honeymoon, Iris remembers the note and starts to read it in front of Fenwick. Disturbed by the note, Iris tries to throw it away, but Fenwick insists on reading the note. When Iris asks if the note, which claims that, under an assumed name, Fenwick committed and served prison time for a heinous crime, is true. Boy, says that it is true. Although, Iris dismisses the confession, Fenwick is overcome with shame and jumps out of the hotel window to his death.
A passerby, Dr. Masters, and Hilary, a family friend, learn Boy's secret but, because Iris refuses to reveal the reason for Boy's suicide to anyone else, she is suspected both of pushing him out of the window and of causing his death. In spite of their love for her, even Napier and Gerald, who worshiped Boy, suspect Iris of treachery and turn their backs on her. Condemned by family and friends, Iris moves to France and becomes known as Europe's most notorious widow.
Five years later, Iris is notified by Hilary that Gerald is seriously ill and living in squalor and immediately returns to England to see him. After seeing Napier and hearing of his engagement to Venice, Iris goes to her brother's tenement.
Still angry at his sister, the drunken Gerald refuses to see her and fearing that he will die without forgiving her, Iris agrees to allow Hilary to tell him the truth about Boy. Before Hilary reveals Boy's past, Gerald declares his love for Iris and dies without learning the secret.
Although relieved by Gerald's forgiveness, Iris returns to France and lapses into a feverish, state. When he learns of Iris' illness, the now married Napier, who has just distinguished himself as a Parliamentary leader, rushes to be with her. When Venice sees Iris and Napier together, she understands the depth of their love but, because of Iris' unexplained past, worries that her husband will one day be hurt.
Unable to keep Boy's secret any longer, Hilary finally tells Napier and Venice the truth, and Venice agrees to a divorce. Bothered by the thought that Napier has forgiven her without knowing Boy's secret, Iris recovers and prepares to face Sir Maurice. Although Sir Maurice, backs down from his condemnation of Iris when Napier finally tells him about Boy, Iris is unable go through with the divorce plan and commits suicide by deliberately crashing her automobile.
Constance Bennett, a first class actress, plays Iris, a penniless heiress, who she and her drunken brother live very well despite their circumstances...
Elizabeth Allan (9 April 1908 – 27 July 1990) was an English actress who worked in both Britain and Hollywood, making about 50 films over more than a quarter century.
She was born at Skegness, Lincolnshire in 1908 (some sources indicate 1910), and after four years onstage with the Old Vic, she made her film debut in 1931, first appearing in Alibi. She began her career appearing in a number of films for Julius Hagen's Twickenham Studios but also featured in Gainsborough's Michael and Mary and Korda's Service for Ladies.
In 1932 she joined Wilfred J. O'Bryen — to whom she had been introduced by actor Herbert Marshall — in a marriage that lasted until his death in 1977.
Her first US/UK co-production and first US production came in 1933, and she worked in the United States under contract with MGM. 1935 was her most memorable year in Hollywood, when she not only distinguished herself in two memorable Dickens' adaptations as David's unfortunate young mother in George Cukor's David Copperfield and as Lucie Manette in Jack Conway's A Tale of Two Cities, but was also featured in Tod Browning's Mark of the Vampire.
Allan did not think highly of the latter film, to which she had been assigned, and considered it "slumming". MGM announced her for a leading part in King Vidor's The Citadel, and, when she was subsequently replaced by Rosalind Russell, Elizabeth sued the studio. The studio retaliated by refusing to let her work, and, frustrated, she returned to the UK in 1938.
By the 1950s, Allan had made the transition to character parts. Particularly memorable is her appearance as Trevor Howard's brittle and dissatisfied wife in the film adaptation of Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter (1953). In 1958, she appeared as Boris Karloff's wife in The Haunted Strangler.
The Letter (1929), is a drama film which was made in both silent and talking versions by Paramount Pictures. Cast: Jeanne Eagels, O.P. Heggie, Reginald Owen and Herbert Marshall, and was directed by Jean de Limur. Eagels was posthumously put "under consideration" for nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the married woman. She was the first performer to be so recognized by the Academy after her death.
Bette Davis was later to receive an Oscar nomination for playing the same role in William Wyler's 1940 remake. Herbert Marshall appeared also in the later film, this time as the husband.
The story begins when the Crosbie's, are marooned on a rubber plantation in the East Indies. Leslie Crosbie begins an affair with Geoffrey Hammond, looking for the love that her husband does not give to her.
Her lover Hammond, falls in love with a Chinese woman and out of jealously, Leslie shoots and kills him.
Placed on trial for her lovers death, Leslie convinces both the jury and her husband that she killed Hammond in self defense. The Chinese woman has an incriminating letter written by Leslie to Hammond and demands Leslie to pay $10,000 to get back her letter. Will her husband continue to stand beside her after reading the letter?
I just finished viewing this version of the classic film, The Letter. I'm so glad that Lady Eve, recommended this movie. I would have been very disappointed if I had missed seeing it.. I was really looking forward to seeing Jeanne Eagels, perform. The film is very good, and I think it is worth seeing, but.. it does not have the wonderful chemotherapy and lighting as the 1940's version. Although.. The scene where Jeanne's character travels to the East Indies town, to buy back her letter, is beautiful and full of suspense. Jeanne's performance was good, but.. she spoke in a rushed and some what jerky manner. I was very surprised at the ending.. If I were to pick between the two versions the 1940's version is my favorite.
Jeanne Eagels (June 26, 1890 – October 3, 1929) began her acting career in Kansas City, appearing in a variety of small venues at a very young age.
She left Kansas City around the age of 15 and toured the Midwest with the Dubinsky Brothers' traveling theater show. At first, she was a dancer, but in time she went on to play the leading lady in several comedies and dramas.
She married Morris Dubinsky, who frequently played villain roles.
Around 1911, she moved to New York City, working in chorus lines and eventually becoming a Ziegfeld Girl. Her hair was brown, but she bleached it when she went to New York. During this period, one of her acting coaches was Beverly Sitgreaves.
Eagels was in the supporting cast of, Mind The Paint Girl at the Lyceum Theatre in September 1912. Eagels played opposite George Arliss in three plays in 1916 and 1917.
In 1915, she appeared in her first motion picture. She also made three films for Thanhouser Film Corporation in 1916-17.
In 1918, she performed in Daddies. She quit this show due to illness and then traveled to Europe.
She made her first performance as a star in the play Rain, by John Colton, based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham. Eagels played her favorite role, that of Sadie Thompson, a free-loving spirit who confronts a fire-and-brimstone preacher on a South Pacific island. She went on tour with Rain for two more seasons, and returned to Broadway to give a farewell performance in 1926.
In 1925, Eagels married Edward Harris "Ted" Coy, a former Yale University football star turned stockbroker. They had no children and divorced in 1928.
In 1926, Eagels was offered the part of Roxie Hart in, Maurine Dallas Watkins's play Chicago, but Eagels walked out of this role during rehearsals. She next performed in the comedy, Her Cardboard Lover (1927), in which she appeared on stage with Leslie Howard. She then went on tour with Her Cardboard Lover for several months. After missing some performances due to ptomaine poisoning, Eagels returned to the cast in July 1927 for an Empire Theater show.
After a season on Broadway, she took a break to make a movie. She appeared opposite John Gilbert in the MGM film Man, Woman and Sin (1927), directed by Monta Bell.
In 1928, after failing to appear for a performance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Eagels was banned by Actors Equity from appearing on stage for 18 months. The ban did not stop Eagels from working in film, and she made two "talkies" for Paramount Pictures, including The Letter and Jealousy (both released in 1929).
Just before she was to return to the Broadway stage in a new play, Eagels died suddenly in a private hospital in New York City on October 3, 1929 at the age of 39. Medical examiners disagreed on the cause of death there were three separate coroner's reports, all reaching different conclusions but the available evidence pointed to the effects of alcohol, a tranquilizer, or heroin. After services in New York, Eagels received a second funeral service when her body was returned to Kansas City, where she was buried in Calvary Cemetery.
Eagels was posthumously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Letter, but the Oscar went to Mary Pickford for the film Coquette.
In 1957, a mostly fictionalized film biography entitled Jeanne Eagels was made by Columbia Pictures, starring Kim Novak as Eagels.
Personal Quote:
I am still a little nervous, a little self-conscious about my English. I cannot express myself well at parties. I speak haltingly. I feel awkward, shy, afraid. In Hollywood, where every teat table bristles with gossip-writers, what I say might be misunderstood. So I am silent as the grave about my private affairs. Rumors fly about. I am mum. My private affairs are strictly private.
Camille(1936). Director: George Cukor. Produced: Irving Thalberg and Bernard H. Hyman, from a screenplay by James Hilton, Zoe Akins and Frances Marion. The picture is based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Cast: Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Jessie Ralph, Henry Daniell, and Laura Hope Crews.
The film inspired Milton Benjamin to write a song called "I'll Love Like Robert Taylor, Be My Greta Garbo." Portions of the film, including the final scene, are featured in the 1982 musical film Annie after the number "Let's Go To The Movies."
Marguerite Gautier, is known as "the lady of the camellias" because of her love for the flowers. Marguerite's friends know her as a woman whose heart is bigger than her bank account. Though she is given money and jewels by her many suitors, she has trouble keeping up her lifestyle.
Prudence Duvernoy, comes to Marguerite and tells her, she must find a rich man who can take care of her and arranges for her to meet, Baron de Varville. When Prudence leaves the theater box to find de Varville, Armand Duval, who has been in love with Marguerite and has been following her for weeks, joins her.
Because they have never met, she thinks that he is the baron.
When she is introduced to the real Baron, Marguerite is disappointed, but she still leaves with him. Soon, Marguerite, becomes de Varville's mistress. When he goes on a business trip to Russia, her frail health keeps her home.
At a coach auction, she meets Armand again and is told by her maid, that he came to ask about Marguerite's health every day.
Later, Marguerite invites him to a party at her home, and when she becomes ill, he carries her into her bedroom and tells her that he is deeply in love with her and wants to take care of her. Marguerite, must choose between the young man who loves her and the baron who wants her.
A very romantic film and one of my favorite Garbo performances. The cinematography and costume design are absolutely beautiful. The supporting performances from Lionel Barrymore, Laura Hope Crewes and Maureen O'Sullivan are perfect. Robert Taylor, is very young and handsome. A wonderful classic film you will not soon forget.
Fun Facts:
Greta Garbo's personal favorite of all her films.
Greta Garbo wore bedroom slippers under all her fancy dresses so she could be comfortable.
Film debut of Joan Leslie.
Elizabeth Allan (9 April 1908 – 27 July 1990) was an English actress who worked in both England and Hollywood, making about 50 films over more than a quarter century.
She made her movie debut in 1931, first appearing in Alibi. 1935 was her most memorable year in Hollywood, when she not only distinguished herself in two memorable Dickens' adaptations as David's young mother in, David Copperfield and as Lucie Manette in Jack Conway's, A Tale of Two Cities, but was also featured in, Mark of the Vampire.
By the 1950s, Allan had made the transition to character parts. Particularly memorable is her appearance in, The Heart of the Matter (1953). In 1958, she appeared as Boris Karloff's wife in, The Haunted Strangler.
This is my contribution to Letter the Stars Blogathon.
Hosted by:
Marcela (Best of the Past): http://best-ofthepast.blogspot.com.br/
Rianna
(Frankly, my dear): http://franklymydear-blog.blogspot.com/
Natalie (On the Mood): http://theswingmood.blogspot.com/
Please click on poster located on side bar to learn more.
Dear Cyd Charisse, I wanted to write to let you know how much I enjoyed watching you perform in one of my all time favorite classic musicals, Singin’ In The Rain. It was a thrill to see one of the best musical numbers ever filmed, “Broadway Melody Ballet” on the big screen.. I have watched Singin’ In The Rain, more times than I can remember and one of the first classic movies, that I added to my ever growing classic movie DVD movie collection.
I have always thought of you as one of the most talented female icons of dance. Because, of all your unforgettable contributions to the Golden Age of MGM Hollywood musicals which include: Silk Stockings, The Bandwagon, Brigadoon and the classic Singin’ In The Rain.
I loved watching your dance performances with two of the greatest male dancers in film history, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. How was it acting with Gene Kelly? I've always been a fan of his and if he is starring in a movie, it's guaranteed that I'll be a fan of the film.
My 3 favorite Esther Williams movies are: Fiesta, On an Island with You and Easy to Love. Mostly, because of your dance routines with the very handsome and talented, Ricardo Montalban. You and Ricardo made an amazing dance couple and it seems.. no matter who was your partner, you always remained powerful and glamorous. I was sorry to learn that you broke your leg during the filming of the big ceremonial dance in the classic musical, On an Island with You and they used another dancer.
You would be a perfect celebrity for Dancing With The Stars! Bruno, Carrie and Len would have loved you! You would have definitely taken home the mirror ball!
I would like to end this letter thanking you for your dedication to your dancing and acting. For me... your performances will always remain timeless.
Wise Girl(1937). Romantic/comedy. Cast: Miriam Hopkins and Ray Milland.
The story begins when the rich, socialite Susan, travels to the Greenwich Village incognito, to take two little girls' away from the charming artist and free spirit John O'Halloran, who is taking care of his dead brother's two young daughters, so they can be raised by her rich father.
Susan, tries to fit in by pretending to be an out-of-work actress and befriends John, the girls, a boxing sculptor Mike and Karl Stevens, an alcoholic painter.
Susan, soon falls in love with the eccentric John and she tries to talk him into participating in an art contest sponsored by her father, but .. he refuses out of pride.
After, John loses his sign painting job at Walker's department store and then unsuccessfully tries to sell vacuum cleaners door to door, Susan proposes to him and is about to tell him the truth about herself when authorities from the juvenile aid remove the girls from his home.
At the custody hearing, both Susan and John plead their cases to the judges, who grants custody to Susan and her father.
Although, they are well taken of, Katie and Joan miss John. Susan, then comes up with the plan to force John into painting an entry in her father's art contest, so he will have the money to support the girls. Will he come through with the winning painting?
Wise Girl, may not show Miriam Hopkins at her best, but it's a wonderful thirties comedy. Best scene is the chaos she causes at one of Guinn Williams' prizefights. Milland, has some fun scenes as well, especially trying to unsuccessfully sell vacuum cleaners door to door.
Margaret Dumont (October 20, 1882 - March 6, 1965), is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films. Groucho called her " the fifth Marx brother."
She was born Daisy Juliette Baker in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of William Baker and Harriet Anna Harong. As a child Daisy Baker lived in the southern states, where she was mainly raised by her godfather, the writer Joel Chandler Harris.
Dumont trained as an operatic singer and actress in her teens, and began performing on stage in both America and Europe, under the name Daisy Dumont and later as Margaret (or Marguerite) Dumont.
Her theatrical debut was in Beauty and the Beast at the Chestnut Theater in Philadelphia, and she also appeared as a singer/comedienne in a vaudeville act in Atlantic City.
She was best known for her vocal and comedic talents in: The Girl Behind the Counter (1908), The Belle of Brittany (1909), and The Summer Widower (1910).
In 1910, she married millionaire sugar heir and industrialist John Moller Jr. and retired from stage work, although she had a small uncredited role as an aristocrat in the film, A Tale of Two Cities(1917).
After her husband's sudden death in 1918, she returned to the Broadway stage, and soon gained a strong reputation in musical comedy productions. Her Broadway career included roles in the musical comedies and plays: The Fan (1921), Go Easy, Mabel (1922), The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly (1923/24), and The Fourflusher (1925), and she had an uncredited role in the film, Enemies of Women(1923).
She then came to the attention of writer George S. Kaufman, who hired her to play Mrs. Potter, alongside the Four Marx Brothers in their Broadway production of, The Cocoanuts (1925).
In October 1928, the Broadway show, Animal Crackers, opened, and Dumont was again cast as the wealthy society straight woman Mrs. Rittenhouse, in Animal Crackers (1930), Mrs. Gloria Teasdale in Duck Soup (1933), Mrs. Claypool in A Night at the Opera (1935), Emily Upjohn in A Day at the Races (1937), Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury in At the Circus (1939), and Martha Phelps in The Big Store (1941). Her work in A Day at the Races earned her a Best Supporting Actress Award.
She also played the same dignified dowager in other movies, with W.C. Fields (Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, 1941) and (Tales of Manhattan, 1942), Abbott and Costello (Little Giant, 1946), Laurel and Hardy (The Dancing Masters, 1943), Red Skelton (Bathing Beauty, 1944), Jack Benny (The Horn Blows at Midnight, 1945), Wheeler and Woolsey and George "Spanky" McFarland (Kentucky Kernels, 1934) and (High Flyers, 1937, with Lupe Vélez thrown in for good measure), radio comedian Joe Penner (The Life of the Party, 1937), George "Gabby" Hayes (Sunset in El Dorado), and Danny Kaye (Up In Arms, 1944), and on television with Martin and Lewis (The Colgate Comedy Hour, December 1951).
Dumont also played some dramatic parts, such as Youth on Parole (1937) and Dramatic School (1938). She also appeared in Stop, You're Killing Me (1952), Three for Bedroom C (1952), Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956), and Zotz! (1962).
Her last movie was What a Way to Go! (1964), in which she played Shirley MacLaine's mother, Mrs. Foster.
Eight days before her death she made her final acting appearance on the television program The Hollywood Palace on February 26, 1965, where she was reunited onstage with Groucho—that week's guest host—one final time. They performed material adapted from Captain Spaulding's introductory scene in Animal Crackers. The taped show was aired on April 17, several weeks after her death.
The Old Maid (1939). Director: Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1935 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same title by Zoë Akins, which was adapted from the 1924 Edith Wharton novella The Old Maid: the fifties.
On the day of Delia Lovell's wedding to socially prominent Jim Ralston, Clem Spender, to who Delia had once been engaged, reappears after being gone for two-years. Delia's cousin Charlotte, who was also in love with Clem, slips away to console him, coming home very late that night.
The next day Clem enlists in the Union army and dies on the battlefield.
Four years later, Charlotte has made a home for war orphans. Tina, Charlotte and Clem's own daughter comes to live with her. Charlotte lives with her secret until the day she is to marry Jim's brother Joe. Delia, who still loves Clem, decides to destroy Charlotte's chance to marry Joe and Charlotte goes into seclusion.
She reappears several months after Jim has died in a riding accident, and accepts Delia's invitation to move into the Ralston mansion with Tina.
Over the years Tina, considers Delia to be her mother, while Charlotte has become a miserable woman. Delia adopts Tina legally to provide her with a name.
On the eve of her wedding, Charlotte insists on telling Tina her true identity. Will Charlotte be able to keep her secret forever hidden?
I thought both Davis and Hopkins were amazing in this passionate film with many pull on your heart string scenes. Davis is wonderful in her transformation from beautiful debutante to embittered old maid. This movie reminded me of what a good actress Miriam Hopkins really was.
Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972). At the age of 20, she became a chorus girl in New York City. In 1930, she signed with Paramount Pictures, and made her official film debut in, Fast and Loose.
Her first great success was in, Trouble in Paradise (1932). During the remainder of the decade, she appeared in such films as: The Smiling Lieutenant and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both 1931), Design for Living (1933), Becky Sharp (1935), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Barbary Coast (1935), These Three (1936) (the first of four films with director William Wyler) and The Old Maid (1939).
Hopkins had well-publicized fights with Bette Davis (Davis was having an affair with Hopkins' husband at the time, Anatole Litvak), when they co-starred in their two films: The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance(1943). Davis admitted to enjoying very much a scene in Old Acquaintance in which she shakes Hopkins.
After Old Acquaintance, she did not work again in films until The Heiress (1949).
In The Mating Season, she gave a comic performance as Gene Tierney's character's mother. She also acted in The Children's Hour, which is a remake of her film These Three (1936). In the remake, she played the aunt to Shirley MacLaine, while MacLaine took Hopkins' original role.
Personal Quote:
(In a 1990 interview, Garson deplored the violence of many modern films) "I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it's reflecting life -- toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging, all those things -- and not tilted down to the gutter part of the time, into the troubled vistas of conflict."
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 19, 1896, Mary
MacLaren was barely pretty, but she had the appearance of an average
working-class girl. Director Lois Weber found the actress easy to direct and
was impressed by her ordinary features. As a result, Mary was perfect for the
lead in Shoes (1916) where she is a shop girl.
It was a heartrending melodrama that might have been over
the top were it not for Weber’s direction and Mary’s performance. Weber
directed Mary again in Idle Wives (1916) , Wanted –a Home (1916), and The
Mysterious Mrs. M. (1917), in which the actress had the opportunity to play a
lighter role.
Weber brought out in Mary a talent that others could not
discern. David O. Selznick was particularly harsh, stating that Mary could not
act. However, audiences enjoyed Mary’s performances because she seemed able to
weep profusely on camera.
Persuaded by her sister, actress Katherine MacDonald not to
renegotiate a Universal contract, and unable to come to terms with Paramount,
Mary became an independent player in the late teens, but she was unsuccessful
at finding adequate roles.
Mary’s last prominent appearance is as the queen of France
in Douglas Fairbanks’ production of The Three Musketeers (1921). Mary’s last
silent film is The Dark Swan (1924), in which she is seventh billed. In 1924,
Mary married a British colonel George H. Young and moved with him to India. The
marriage was not successful and the couple divorced.
Mary returned to the screen in 1933 as a bit player in more
than seventy-five films made over the next two decades. In the late 1940’s,
Mary began operating the home in which she had moved in 1917 in Hollywood as a
boarding house. She sank slowly into poverty.
Mary was involved in automobile wrecks in 1946 and 1961. In
1965, Mary married Robert S. Coleman, a blind amputee veteran of World War I.
She described it as a “marriage of mercy.” In 1981, a fire destroyed the upper
floor of Mary’s house.
A visit to Mary’s house after the fire was certainly an
experience. She would sit down on the decomposing couch on the front porch.
Mary also slept on a rotted mattress with her five dogs and four cats. The
welfare of the animals was far more important to Mary than her wellbeing, and
whatever money was available, she spent on them.
In December 1983, the house in which Mary had lived for 65
years was auctioned off. Mary passed away on November 9, 1985 as a resident of
the Virgil Convalescent Hospital. She was eighty-nine years old.
It is very sad that the 1929 stock market crash wiped Mary’s
fortune and in her final decades she was declared incompetent and living like a
bag lady while her sister actress Katherine MacDonald died in luxury. It’s also
ironic that Mary was a more talented actress than Katherine.
