This is my contribution to "The Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon". Please click on poster located on the side- bar to view the other bloggers participating in the event.
Barbara Stanwyck, one of Hollywood's most natural and talented actresses, throws herself whole-heartedly into the role of Julia. She perfectly performs all of Julia's wide-ranging emotions ranging from: frustration, vindictive, calculating, loving, blunt, empathetic and heartbroken.
The film opens with the wealthy, Sturges family, who enjoy traveling from one exotic location to another. Julia worries that her children, Annette and Norman, will grow up spoiled and conceded. She lies to her husband Richard, saying that she is going back home to America for a visit. Julia books reservations for herself and the children on the Titanic, with no plans of returning to Europe.
Video: boarding the ship..
Her husband Richard wanting to change her mind boards the liner at the last minute.
Once they are face to face the couple lets loose with 20 years of repressed anger and bringing out in the open a shocking heartbreaking secret.
Richard Sturges: My dear Julia, I've been around enough bridge tables to recognize someone who's holding a high trump - play it now if you will.
Julia Sturges: We'll discuss it later.
Richard Sturges: Now!
Julia Sturges: All right, Richard. One question first?
Richard Sturges: If it's about Norman, you know the answer. No court in the world, no power in the heavens can force me to give up my son.
Julia Sturges: He is not your son....
After, the ship hits an iceberg, their argument seems unimportant and eventually bringing their relationship full circle.....
Julia Sturges: Oh Richard, where did we miss out on each other? I beg your pardon, Sir. I put you down as a useless man, someone to lead a cotillion.
Richard Sturges: After all, it was my major talent.
Julia Sturges: I'm sorry, sorry about everything.
Richard Sturges: We have no time to catalog our regrets. All we can do is pretend 20 years didn't happen. It's June again. You were walking under some Elm trees in a white muslin dress, the loveliest creature I ever laid eyes on. That summer, when I asked you to marry me, I pledged my eternal devotion. I would take it as a very great favor Julia, if you would accept a restatement of that pledge.
They embrace passionately...
You know that Stanwyck took her part very seriously when she said: "It was bitter cold. I was 47 feet up in the air in a lifeboat...the water below was agitated. We were re-creating an actual tragedy and I burst into tears. I shook with great racking sobs and couldn't stop."
Costume: Dorothy Jeakins Courtesy of the Icon Museum.
Dorothy Jeakins (January 11, 1914 – November 21, 1995). After graduating High School, she was offered a scholarship to study at the Otis Art Institute (now known as Otis College of Art and Design).
Jeakins got her start working as a Disney artist in the 1930's. Her fashion career began as a designer at I. Magnin's, where she was spotted by director Victor Fleming.
She worked steadily for the next thirty-nine years and was best known for her period costumes. Jeakins, who retired in 1990, once summed up her designing: "I can put my world down to two words: Make beauty. It's my cue and my private passion."
Strangers on a Train(1950). Psychological thriller produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman and Robert Walker featuring: Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock and Laura Elliott.
While traveling by train, socialite, mamas boy Bruno Antony recognizes the famous tennis player Guy Haines and they pass the time together eating pork chops. While using Guy's cigarette lighter, Bruno notices it is inscribed "From A to G," and guesses that "A" is Senator Morton's daughter Anne, whom Guy intends to marry after his divorce from Miriam. Bruno, then shares with Guy how much he hates his father and suggests a plan for a perfect murder... two strangers, who each want someone killed, swap murders. In that way, each has murdered a perfect stranger and is unlikely to be caught. Bruno, then suggests... he could kill Miriam and Guy would kill Bruno's father in return. Believing Bruno is only joking, Guy agrees and gets off the the train at his stop in Metcalf, leaving behind his lighter on the train.
Guy, wastes no time getting to the music store where his wife Miriam works. There, Miriam informs him that she is pregnant with another man's baby, but has no intention of divorcing him. In front of everyone, they get into a heated argument and soon after, Guy calls Anne and yells that he would like to "strangle his wife".
After arriving home Bruno, overhears his father threaten to institutionalize him and decides he better go ahead with his plans.
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After traveling to Metcalf by bus, he follows Miriam and her two boyfriends through an amusement park and when Bruno's strangles Miriam, it is shown in her eyeglass lens.
While all this is going on, Guy is on the train to Washington, D.C. with the only other passenger an extremely drunk, Prof. Collins.
Later, Guy runs into Bruno outside his home, who informs him of Miriam's murder and shows him her eyeglasses as proof. When Guy threatens to call the police, Bruno convinces him that the police will not believe him and now expects Guy to complete his part of the "bargain." Guy is called to Senator Morton's home, where Morton informs him of Miriam's death. Hoping the drunk Collins will give him an alibi, but Collins says that he does not remember him from that night on the train.
The police department assign police detective Hennessey, to keep an eye on him. Bruno sends Guy a map of his father's bedroom, a key to the house and a gun. Anne, who has become concerned by Guy's strange behavior, confronts him. He finally admits to her that Bruno killed Miriam and tells her about their meeting on the train. Guy, comes up with a plan of his own, then telephones Bruno and tells him that he will kill his father that night. He uses the key to enter the Antony house, intending to tell Antony everything. The not so dumb Bruno, suspecting Guy's motives, is waiting for him in his father's room.
The following day, Anne goes to visit Bruno's very odd mother, who insists that Bruno must be playing a practical joke. Before Anne leaves, Bruno informs her that Guy really killed Miriam and offers as proof Guy's lighter that he dropped at the scene of the crime.
Guy, now realizes that Bruno plans to use his lighter to frame him for his wife's murder. Guy is scheduled to play in a tennis tournament in Washington, D.C., but believing that Bruno will plant the lighter after dark. In order to reach Metcalf before Bruno, Guy must win the tournament in three sets. Meanwhile, Bruno arrives in Metcalf and accidentally drops the lighter down a storm drain. After recovering the lighter, Bruno heads for the amusement park. Guy wins the final match and while Barbara distracts Hennessey and his partner Hammond, Guy jumps into a cab headed for the train station.
In Metcalf, the police, stake out the park. Bruno blends into the crowed of people waiting for the tunnel-of-love boat to the island, but is recognized. Guy arrives just as a man points out Bruno to the police and the police mistakenly believe that the operator has identified Guy as the killer. Will the police ever figure out that it was Bruno that was there on the night of the murder and clear Guy?
Strangers on a Train, is one of Hitch's best films and the fairground finale is very exciting and will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. The music score sets the mood for the entire film..
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance in this movie occurs 11 minutes into the film. He is seen carrying a double bass as he climbs onto the train.
Fun Facts from Wikipedia:
Hitchcock, originally wanted William Holden for the Guy Haines role, but Holden declined.
Warner Bros. wanted their own stars, already under contract and when casting the character Anne Morton, Jack Warner got what he wanted when he assigned Ruth Roman, over Hitchcock's objections. The director found her "bristling" and "lacking in sex appeal". Roman became the target of Hitchcock's scorn throughout the production. Granger diplomatically describes it as Hitchcock's "disinterest" in the actress and said he saw Hitchcock treat Edith Evanson the same way on the set of Rope (1948). "He had to have one person in each film he could harass", Granger said.
Kasey Rogers, had perfect vision at the time the movie was made, but Hitchcock insisted she wear the character's thick eyeglasses, even in long shots when regular glass lenses would have been undetectable. Rogers was effectively blind with the glasses on and needed to be guided by the other actors. In one scene, she can be seen dragging her hand along a table as she walks, this was in order for her to keep track of where she was.
Robert Burks considered his fourteen years with Hitch the best of his career: "You never have any trouble with him as long as you know your job and do it. Hitchcock insists on perfection. He has no patience with mediocrity on the set. Robert Burks received Strangers on a Train's sole Academy Award nomination for its black and white photography.
Hitchcock himself designed Bruno's lobster necktie, which was a gift from his mother. This gift is appropriate since Bruno wants to use his hands like a lobster and strangle his mother. Later in the film Bruno will use his hands in this way when he strangles Miriam.
Hitchcock also showed intense interest in a seldom-considered detail of character delineation: Food.
"Preferences in food characterize people..." Hitchcock said. "I have always given it careful consideration, so that my characters never eat out of character. Bruno orders with gusto and with an interest in what he is going to eat — lamb chops, French fries, and chocolate ice cream. A very good choice for train food. And the chocolate ice cream is probably what he thought about first. Bruno is rather a child. Guy, on the other hand, shows little interest in eating the lunch, apparently having given it no advance thought, in contrast to Bruno, and he merely orders what seems his routine choice, a hamburger and coffee."
One of the most memorable single shots in the Hitchcock canon — it "is studied by film classes", says Laura Elliott, who played Miriam—is her character's strangulation by Bruno on the Isle of Love. "In one of the most unexpected, most aesthetically justified moments in film," the slow, almost graceful, murder is shown as a reflection in the victim's eyeglasses, which have been jarred loose from her head and dropped to the ground. The unusual angle was a more complex proposition than it seems. First Hitchcock got the exterior shots in Canoga Park, using both actors, then later he had Elliott alone report to a sound-stage where there was a large concave reflector set on the floor. The camera was on one side of the reflector, Elliott was on the other, and Hitchcock directed Elliott to turn her back to the reflector and "float backwards, all the way to the floor... like you were doing the limbo." The first six takes went badly—Elliott thudded to the floor with several feet yet to go—but on the seventh take, she floated smoothly all the way. Hitchcock's even-strained response: "Cut. Next shot." Hitchcock then had the two elements "ingeniously" double printed, yielding a shot of "oddly appealing originality with a stark fusion of the grotesque and the beautiful.... The anesthetizing of the horror somehow enables the audience to contemplate more fully its reality."
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Into the Tunnel of Love he follows the threesome, in a boat named Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld The explosion is triggered by the attempts of a carnival man to stop the ride after crawling under the whirling carousel deck to get to the controls in the center. Although Hitchcock admitted to under cranking the shot, it was not a trick shot: the man actually had to crawl under the spinning ride, just inches from possible injury. "Hitchcock told me that this scene was the most personally frightening moment for him in any of his films", writes biographer Charlotte Chandler. "The man who crawled under the out-of-control carousel was not an actor or a stuntman, but a carousel operator who volunteered for the job. 'If the man had raised his head even slightly", Hitchcock said, "it would have gone from being a suspense film into a horror film."
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Composer Dimitri Tiomkin was Jack Warner's music choice to score Strangers on a Train. While he had previous Hitchcock experience on 1943's Shadow of a Doubt and would go on to score two more consecutive Hitch films, director and composer "simply never developed much of a kinship" and "the Hitchcock films are not Tiomkin's best.
Nevertheless, the score does pick up on the ubiquitous theme of doubles — often contrasting doubles — right from the opening title sequence: "The first shot — two sets of male shoes, loud versus conservative, moving toward a train — carries a gruff bass motif set against Gershwin-like riffs, a two-part medley called "Strangers" and "Walking" that is never heard again." The powerful music accurately underscores the visuals of that title sequence — the massive granite edifice of New York's Pennsylvania Station, standing in for Washington's Union Station—because it was scored for an unusually large orchestra, including alto, tenor and baritone saxes, three clarinets, four horns, three pianos and a novachord.
Hitchcock and Burks collaborated on ingenious double printing technique to create iconic shot still studied in film schools today.
Tiomkin's contrasting musical themes continue throughout the film, delineating two characters with substantial differences: "For 'Guy's Theme', Tiomkin created a hesitant, passive idea, made-to-order music for Farley Granger's performance. Bruno, who tells Guy on the train that he admires people "who do things", gets a more vigorous musical treatment from Tiomkin: "Harmonic complexity defines the motifs associated with Bruno: rumbling bass, shocking clusters, and glassy string harmonics. These disturbing sounds, heard to superb effect in cues such as 'The Meeting,' 'Senator's Office,' and 'Jefferson Memorial,' are not just about Bruno, but about how he is perceived by those whose lives he crosses—first Guy, then everyone in Guy's entourage." But perhaps the most memorable music in Strangers is the calliope music heard first at the fairground and again, later, when Bruno is strangling Mrs. Cunningham at Senator Morton's soiree and experiences his unfortunate flashback and subsequent fainting spell. It was Hitchcock, not Tiomkin, whose idea brought the four evocative numbers — "The Band Played On", "Carolina in the Morning", "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", and "Baby Face" — to the soundtrack:
In one of Hitchcock's most explicit operatic gestures, the characters at the fateful carnival sing the score, giving it full dimension as part of the drama. In a conventional movie, the tune would play in the background as a clever ironic backdrop. But Hitchcock takes music to another level. Miriam and the two boyfriends in her odd ménage à trois bring "The Band Played On" to life by singing it on the merry-go-round, lustily and loudly... Grinning balefully on the horse behind them, Bruno then sings it himself, making it his motto. The band plays on through Bruno's stalking of his victim and during the murder itself, blaring from the front of the screen, then receding into the darkness as an eerie obbligato when the doomed Miriam enters the Tunnel of Love.
"The Band Played On" makes its final reprise during Guy's and Bruno's fight on the merry-go-round, even itself shifting to a faster tempo and higher pitch when the policeman's bullet hits the ride operator and sends the carousel into its frenzied hyper-drive.
The film includes a number of puns and visual metaphors that demonstrate a running theme of crisscross, double-crossing and crossing one's double. Bruno can be viewed as Guy's dark double. The pair has what writer Peter Dellolio refers to as a "dark symbiosis. "Bruno embodies Guy's dark desire to kill Miriam, a "real-life incarnation of Guy's wish-fulfillment fantasy".
The theme of doubles is "the key element in the film," Hitchcock uses: two taxicabs, two redcaps, two pairs of feet, two sets of train rails that cross twice. Once on the train, Walker orders a pair of double drinks, "The only kind of doubles I play". In Hitchcock's cameo he carries a double bass. There are two respectable and influential fathers, two women with eyeglasses, two women at a party who delight in thinking up ways of committing the perfect crime. There are two sets of two detectives in two cities, two little boys at the two strips to the fairground, two old men at the carousel, two boyfriends with the woman about to be murdered and two Hitchcocks in the film.
Hitchcock carries the theme even further, crosscutting between Guy and Bruno with words and gestures: one asks the time and the other, miles away, looks at his watch; one says in anger "I could strangle her!" and the other, far distant, makes a choking gesture.
Even though Guy and Bruno are in some ways doubles, but in many more ways, they are opposites. The two sets of feet in the title sequence match each other in motion, but they establish immediately the contrast between the two men: the first shoes "showy, vulgar brown-and-white brogues, the second, plain, unadorned walking shoes."
They also demonstrate Hitchcock's gift for deft visual storytelling: For most of the film, Bruno is the actor, Guy the reactor and Hitchcock always shows Bruno's feet first, then Guy's. And since it is Guy's foot that taps Bruno's under the table, we know Bruno has not engineered the meeting. Roger Ebert writes that "it is this sense of two flawed characters — one evil, one weak, that makes the movie intriguing and halfway plausible and explains how Bruno could come so close to carrying out his plan."
Hitchcock, was very talented at blurring the lines between good and evil in his films. In this film Guy, represents the life where people play by the rules, while Bruno is thrown out of multiple colleges for drinking and gambling. Yet "both men are insecure and uncertain of their futures:
Guy, does not know whether to continue on with his tennis career or go into politics. He also can not decide between his tramp of a wife or the senator's daughter.
Bruno is trying to establish his identity through violent actions and a flamboyant life style.
Bruno tells Guy: "I certainly admire people who do things". "Me, I never do anything important." Bruno, then describes his "theories" over lunch.
As Guy listens to Bruno we see it in his face, the blurring of good and evil.
Guy fails to refuse Bruno's suggestive statement about murdering Miriam, "What's a life or two? Some people are better off dead." Video:
"When Bruno suggests he would like to kill Guy's wife, he merely grins and says 'That's a morbid thought," but we get the idea he would not mind if she were out of his life for good. When he leaves behind his cigarette lighter they are now tied together...
Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell (born 7 July 1928), was born in London as the only child of film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville.
In the early 1940's, 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 appeared on the London stage.
In early 1949, her parents arrived in London to make Stage Fright, Hitchcock's first British-made feature film since emigrating to Hollywood. Pat did not know she would have a walk-on part in the film until her parents arrived. Because she bore a resemblance to the star, 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 films: 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.
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 programme, 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 bring up 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 films.
She married Joseph E. O'Connell, Jr., 17 January 1952, at Our Lady Chapel in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. They decided to have their wedding there because Pat had many friends on the East Coast and Joe had relatives in Boston. They have three daughters, Mary Alma Stone (born 17 April 1953), Teresa "Tere" Carrubba (born 2 July 1954) and Kathleen "Katie" Fiala (born 27 February 1959).
She supplied family photos and wrote the foreword of the book Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco by Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal, which was published in 2002.
In 2003, she published Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man, co-written with Laurent Bouzereau.
She is an annual major sponsor of the Menlo Charity Horse Show.
Pirates of Tripoli (1955). Directed by Felix E. Feist. Cast: Paul Henreid, Patricia Medina, Paul Newlan and John Miljan.
After, the Conquer Malek the Bay of Tunis, takes over the kingdom of Misurata, he orders the death of Princess Karjan, only to learn that she has escaped with her maid across the desert to the port of Tripoli. He then orders his men to follow and capture the Princess Karjan.
Now, disguised as a boy, Karjan asks where to find Edri-Al-Gadrian, the captain of Tripoli's pirates and is informed by a street beggar, that he is staying at the Inn of the Golden Tavern. There, Karjan is unmasked and laughed at by Gadrian and his men, when she asks for their help. Not believing that Karjan is really a Princess, Gadrian flirts with her and takes her up stairs but.. when three of Malek's men arrive to kill her, he fights them off and one of the men escapes. After the prisoners confirm Karjan's identity, Gadrian accepts the princess's offer of gold and makes plans to attack Misurata, after kissing her hand. The escaped man overhears the plans and returns to Misurata to inform Malek, who orders his navy to destroy Gadrian's fleet the following day.
Video: Gadrian's jealous girlfriend Rhea, tells him that he is now ruined for agreeing to help Karjan. After, Rhea tries to kill Karjan, Gadrian orders her from the inn. Karjan, says that maybe she is right and then suggests that they steal the Misurata palace treasure, to buy a new fleet.
Insisting that she come along to show them how to enter the palace, Karjan, tells Gadrian and his lieutenant, Hammid Khassan, the location of the hidden treasure, which she tells them is guarded by one of her friends.
The three travel to Misurata, where Gadrian and Hammid battle the guards as they enter the palace, but at the location of the treasure, Karjan is surprised to find that her friend has been replaced. The new guard reveals that there are three chests and only he knows which holds the treasure and offers to help the pirates. The guard lied and tries to escape with Hammid not far behind, who forces him to retrieve the chest. After getting the treasure, they run into Malek and his guard. Karjan and Hammid escape with the treasure to Abu Tala's, but Gadrian is captured and imprisoned.
Hammid refuses to leave Tripoli without Gadrian and he and Karjan come up with a plan to return to the palace disguised as a guards escorting female slaves. They find Gadrian weak from torture, but all are able to escape. They are followed back to Tripoli, where the pirates agree that Gadrian should go to Italy to buy ships. Rhea overhears the plans and informs Malek's spy, who then murders her.
Once told of the plan, Malek orders Gadrian killed and Karjan arrested and tried before her execution. On board an Italian cargo ship, Gadrian and Hammid soon realize that they are being followed. When the ships engage in battle, Karjan orders Gadrian to be hidden in order to stop the killing and then surrenders to Malek's men.
Abu Tala, travels to Tripoli to inform Gadrian's men that Karjan has been taken prisoner. When, the cargo ship returns to Tripoli with Gadrian and Hammid and they plan how to invade Misurata.
Karjan, is tried and sentenced to death for conspiring to overthrow his government. As Karjan waits for her execution, the town's people fill the streets, Hammid and Abu Tala hiding among them. When a ship is spotted in the harbor flying the plague flag, the guards run to report the ships arrival to Malek, who orders the ship sunk. Gadrian's ship is under attack until they reach the dock.. battling their way through the town, until Gadrian and Hammid can enter the palace. Will he be able to over throw Malek and his men and save the Princess Karjan?
The narration at the beginning of the film, is a bit odd for this is a fast pace "B" pirate movie, with plenty of sword fighting and cannons blasting back and forth between ships. This was my first viewing of a Patricia Medina film, she reminded me just a little of Maureen O' Hara. The rest of the cast really did not measure up to my idea of Pirates or guards. I looked up the actress Maralou Gray, who that played Gadrian's jealous girlfriend Rhea and could not kind any information on her.
Patricia Medina (19 July 1919 – 28 April 2012), began acting as a teenager in the 1930's and by the 1950's she performed in the pirate movies: Fortunes of Captain Blood, with Louis Hayward. She and Hayward performed together in the films: The Lady and the Bandit(1952), Lady in the Iron Mask and Captain Pirate, both from (1952).
Medina was often typecast in period melodramas: The Black Knight, Stranger at My Door and Mr. Arkadin, based on episodes of the radio series, The Adventures of Harry Lime, taken from The Third Man film.
In 1958, she performed in four episodes as Margarita Cortazar on Walt Disney's series, Zorro.
In 1958, she performed as "The Lady" Diana Coulter in Richard Boone's western series, Have Gun, Will Travel.
She was then cast in an episode of Darren McGavin's western series, Riverboat.
Later that year she appeared in Perry Mason as husband murderer Harriet Balfour in "The Case of the Lucky Loser."
In 1960, she was cast as different characters in two episodes, "Fair Game" and "The Earl of Durango", of the ABC western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams.
In 1968, she returned to the big screen in Robert Aldrich's adaptation of the lesbian-themed drama, The Killing of Sister George.
Medina and her husband, actor Joseph Cotten, toured together in several plays and on Broadway in the murder mystery Calculated Risk.
Other television performances: of Bonanza ("The Spanish Grant", 6 February 1960) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ("See the Monkey Dance", 9 November 1964), She appeared as Harriet Balfour in the 1958 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Lucky Loser", and as the character Lucia in the 1965 episode, "The Foxes and Hounds Affair", The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
In 1998, Mrs. Cotten published an autobiography, Laid Back in Hollywood: Remembering.
Medina married British actor, Richard Greene, 24 December 1941 and divorced in 1951.
Medina married Joseph Cotten on 20 October 1960, in Beverly Hills at the home of David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones. No children were born from either marriage.
Medina died at age 92 on 28 April 2012, from natural causes. Her remains are buried beside Joseph Cotten.
Latin Lovers(1953). Romantic/musical/comedy was directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The music score is by Nicholas Brodszky and the cinematographer was Joseph Ruttenberg. Fernando Lamas was originally cast in the role that Ricardo Montalban played. Lamas and Lana Turner were lovers and when they broke up, she insisted he be replaced.
After a meeting with the board of directors of her New York corporation, Nora Taylor is off to meet with her analyst Lionel Newman, to talk about her problems with boyfriend, Paul Chevron. Nora, became rich when her father struck oil, now she wonders if he only loves her for her money. Newman reminds her that Paul is also rich.
Meanwhile, Paul is meeting with his analyst for advice on proposing to Nora. Later that evening, Paul brings up the subject of marriage and asks Nora, not give him her answer until he's back from Brazil in three weeks.
Before she can answer, Nora is asked to dance by a Brazilian man, who tells her "that the atmosphere in Brazil makes all men passionate about women." Nora, worried decides to keep an eye on her Paul and secretly flies to Brazil. She checks into the same hotel as Paul and goes to his room to surprise him... what she finds is that he was injured in his polo game.
The next day, while Paul and Nora are looking at some horses, Nora finds herself in the the stables and in Roberto arms for a passionate kiss. Will Nora find true love while vacationing in Brazil? Or.. will Nora's money continue to control her heart.
This film has beautiful sets and costumes that really show-off Lana Turner's icy elegance. Ricardo Montalban, is very handsome and a wonderful dancer. They make a gorgeous couple dancing the sexy samba.
June Hagan's, first film was as a femme fatale in Adam's Rib(1949).
The Asphalt Jungle (1950), was Jean Hagen's first starring performance.
She is best known for her wonderful performance in Singin' in the Rain. As the talent-less silent movie star Lina Lamont, Hagen received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
By 1953, she was performing in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy. As the first wife of Danny Thomas, for three seasons. Hagen received three Emmy Award nominations. Thomas, who also produced the show, was not happy with Jean leaving the show and her character was killed off rather than recast. This was the first TV character to be killed off on a family sitcom.
Hagen performed as Frida Daniels in The Shaggy Dog starring with Fred MacMurray.
In 1960, she performed as "Elizabeth" in the episode "Once Upon a Knight" with June Allyson.
She made guest appearances in many television series and for the remainder of her career played supporting roles, such as Marguerite LeHand, personal secretary to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960), and the friend of Bette Davis in Dead Ringer (1964).
In the 1960's, Hagen's started having trouble with her health and she spent many years hospitalized.
In 1976, she performed in episodes of the television series Starsky and Hutch and The Streets of San Francisco, and made her final film performance in the 1977 television movie Alexander. The Other Side of Dawn.
Monkey Business (1952), a comedy film directed by Howard Hawks. Cast: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn and Marilyn Monroe. It is a story about a chemist, who's life is turned upside down after one of the chimpanzees, mixes some chemicals together and pours the mix into the water cooler. After drinking the drink he feels like a new man... Barnaby leaves the laboratory.. getting a crew-cut and buying a wild, sportscoat.
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In one of my favorite scenes in the film, is when Barnaby is at the car dealership, buying a new sports car and asks Miss Laurel (who has been sent to go out and find him) to go for a ride...
Houseboat (1958). Romantic/comedy starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Paul Petersen, Charles Herbert and Mimi Gibson. Directed by Melville Shavelson, who also directed the original 1968 version of Yours, Mine and Ours.
When Tom Winston, takes custody of his three children Elizabeth, David and Robert soon after their mother's death, he is surprised by their hostile feelings toward him. His sister-in-law, Carolyn Gibson, explains that after the loss of their mother, they are not doing well and little Robert seems to hate everyone and does nothing but play the harmonica.
Tom decides to take his children to Washington, D.C., where he rents a small apartment which turns out to be to small for all of them to live in.
After a concert, Robert takes off and hides in a rowboat on the Potomac River. Also attending the concert is Cinzia Zaccardi, who is traveling with her father, a famous Italian conductor, on a tour of the United States. Cinzia has a wild heart and wants a little fun, escapes by climbing out a window and into Robert's rowboat.
After realizing that the little boy is in the row boat, Cinzia spends time with him at a Amusement Park and later takes him home. Tom threatens to spank the boy until Cinzia suggests he be "a parent, not a policeman." Seeing that all three children like Cinzia, Tom, offers her a job to take care of them. At first Cinzia turns down the job and returns home but, after an argument with her father, she decides to accept the job.
When the guest house is accidentally demolished, Italian Angelo Donatello offers to sell Tom his rickety houseboat. Cinzia and the children work very hard to fix up the houseboat.
David, becomes tired his father's criticism and decides to run away one stormy night. When David's rowboat capsizes, Tom leaps into the river and saves him. When, Cinzia tells Tom to be more accepting of David, they realize that they are attracted to each other.
Tom begins to date Carolyn and buys her a dress for the country club dance. Just as, Carolyn and her friends arrive and after one of them insults Cinzia, Tom orders them from the houseboat. He then takes Cinzia to the country club dance and as they kiss, he realizes he is in love with her...
This is one of those feel good, funny, family films where Cary Grant's performance charms us right from the beginning.
Sophia Loren, lights up the screen and she seems a natural with the children.
Video: Movie trailer.
Mimi Gibson (October 19, 1948). After the death of her father, her mother took her and her sister to Los Angeles. At only 18 months, she was a calendar model, posing with cute animals. By age two she was performing in movies.
During the 1950's and early 1960's she would appear in 35 movies and over 100 TV programs. Her last roles was playing teenage girlfriend in episodes of My Three Sons.
In 1957 she and child actress Evelyn Rudie played the daughters of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in, The Wings of Eagles. She and Rudie were not credited. The same year she was in the horror B-movie, The Monster That Challenged the World.
In 1958 she had a role as Cary Grant's daughter with Paul Petersen and Charles Herbert playing her brothers in the romantic comedy, Houseboat. Gibson said, "I'd like to be remembered for Houseboat." She said "Houseboat was fun, wonderful and I loved it".
They filmed Houseboat for a month on location in Washington, D.C. The actual houseboat was on the Virginia (or south) side of the Potomac River. The scene at the amusement park was filmed at Glen Echo Amusement Park, on the northern side of the river. After the movie was finished, Loren gave Gibson a pendant with a houseboat on one side and "To Mimi from Sophia" on the other. Grant gave each of the kids a $50 savings bond.
In 1961 she performed in The Children's Hour. Gibson played a schoolgirl at a private school run by Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine.
On television, she appeared in eight Playhouse 90 dramas and many episodes of The Red Skelton Show, as well as some episodes of Whirlybirds.
In 1999 she testified before a California legislative panel on the need for statutory protection for child actors' earnings. She did this with Paul Petersen, who played her older brother in Houseboat. Petersen has remained a lifelong friend and is the founder in 1990 of A Minor Consideration, a non-profit group devoted to protecting and advancing the interests of child actors. Gibson has also been active in this group.
Today Gibson guards her privacy. She is happily married and raises goats and lamas.
Bell, Book and Candle(1958). Romantic/comedy directed by Richard Quine, based on the successful Broadway play by John Van Druten. Cast: James Stewart and Kim Novak in their second on-screen pairing (after Vertigo, released earlier the same year).
The film, adapted by Daniel Taradash, was Stewart's last film as a romantic lead. The supporting cast includes: Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs.
On Christmas Eve, Gillian Holroyd, the owner of a New York gallery of native primitive art, is bored with her life and wants to think up a way to meet her new upstairs neighbor, publisher Sheperd Henderson. When Shep returns home from work that evening, he finds Queenie snooping through his desk, she then introduces herself as Queenie, his neighbor.
After Shep kicks Queenie out of his apartment, her feelings are hurt and to get even with him, casts a spell on his phone. After, discovering his phone is out of order, Shep goes downstairs and asks to use Gil's phone. Before Shep leaves to meet his fiancee, Queenie mentions that she and Gil are going to the Zodiac Club later that night.
At the club, while Gil's bongo-playing, warlock brother Nicky is playing his drums, Gil tells Queenie that she is bored with her life.
Soon after, Shep enters with his snobbish fiancee Merle Kittridge, who Gil remembers she went to college with and that she reported her to the dean for not wearing shoes. She also remembers, Merle is terrified of thunder and Gil simulates a thunderstorm by directing Nicky and the other musicians to blare their instruments into Merle's ear....
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At Gil's apartment/gallery later that night, the family of witches exchange Christmas gifts and Nicky gives Gil a "magic potion" to summon whomever she wants too. Remembering that Shep was interested in best-selling author Sidney Redlitch and Gil uses the potion to bring Redlitch to New York.
When Shep returns home from his date with Merle, he sees flames in Gil's apartment/gallery. Alarmed by the fire, Shep walks in and Nicky and Queenie call it an evening. Gil offers him a glass of Christmas cheer. Then picks up her magic cat Pyewacket and casts a magic spell on Shep.
After a magical night together, Shep feels "spellbound" and later that morning, Shep breaks off his engagement with Merle, who does not know what to think.
Later, that morning when Shep goes to his office, he finds the authority on witches, Redlitch sitting in the waiting room, confused and wondering why he is in New York to discuss his new book. Not believing in witches Shep is skeptical. When Redlitch mentions that witches hang out at the Zodiac Club, Shep invites Redlitch to have a drink with him and Gil at the Zodiac that night to see if Redlitch really can spot a witch.
After, Redlitch shares his new book idea with Gil, Gil tells Nicky to do whatever he can to stop the project. When Nicky, walks home with Redlitch, he offers to help him with his book for fifty percent of the profits. When Nicky informs him that he is a warlock and wants to help Redlitch. The author is skeptical until Nicky, casts a spell that makes the street light flash on and off.
When Shep proposes to Gil one night, at first she worried about losing her magical powers, but quickly reconsiders and accepts Shep's proposal. After Gil informs Nicky that she plans to renounce witchcraft and marry Shep, he does not believe her. Not wanting Shep to find out that she was a witch, Gil then asks Nicky to stop helping Redlitch, and when he refuses, warns him that she is going to put out a spell to stop the book from being published. Gil puts a hex on Redlitch's manuscript, causing Shep to throw it in the garbage.
Feeling guilty about using her powers on Shep, Gil confesses to him that she is a witch and Nicky a warlock, but he thinks she is joking. As Shep is thinking that it might be true, he runs into Queenie, who confirms that Gil put a spell on him to spite Merle. Shep then confronts Gil, demanding to know if she ever loved him. After storming out of the gallery, Shep goes to the Zodiac to talk to Nicky and Redlitch.
They drive him to the home of Mrs. Bianca De Pass, a sorceress, who mixes a potion to break Gil's spell. After drinking the potion, Shep returns to his apartment to pack a suitcase. Stopping at the gallery, Shep hands Gil a broom and says goodbye. When Gil threatens to put a spell on Merle, Shep runs to Merle apartment to warn her, but she thinks he has lost his mind.
As Gil prepares to cast her spell, she can not find Pyewacket anywhere. When Queenie returns Pyewacket to Gil, the cat runs away from her and as Gil begins to cry, she realizes that she has lost her powers. Concerned about her niece, Queenie decides to come up with a plan to reconcile Gil and Shep.
One day, Pyewacket unexpectedly jumps through Shep's office window. When Shep brings the cat back to Gil at her gallery, he finds that the primitive masks have been replaced by beautiful shells. Will he have a change of heart?
As always Jack Lemmon is very funny, in a supporting role as Gillian's brother. Janice Rule, is perfect as the snobby ex-college rival of Gillian. Ernie Kovacs, was perfect as the eccentric author. Lanchester and Gingold, are always wonderful in whatever film they are in. Kim Novak's cool personality was perfect to play the part as Gil . Also.. loved her wardrobe.
Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold ( 9 December 1897 – 24 May 1987) was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona, along with her deep voice, caused by vocal nodes which her mother encouraged her not to remove. Gingold was also known for her unruly hair. It was said she styled it by sticking her head out the window and letting the wind style it.
In the 1930's, her quirky personality became well known through musicals. She married British publisher Michael Joseph in 1918, with whom she had two sons, Stephen and Leslie (1925).
Leslie became an actor and photographer using the stage-name Roy Dean.
After the couple's divorce in 1926, she married writer and lyricist Eric Maschwitz, whom she divorced in 1945.
After she moved to the United States in 1951, her first engagement was in, It's About Time.
In December 1953, she opened in John Murray Anderson's Almanac which made her an instant Broadway success and for which she won the Donaldson Award in 1954.
She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Gigi(1958) in which she played Madame Alvarez, Gigi's grandmother. She sang "I Remember it Well" with Maurice Chevalier.
Gingold soon followed this with the film Bell, Book and Candle (1958).
In October 1963, she opened in Arthur Kopit's Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, playing a possessive mother who is driving her son crazy. She also played this role in London.
Gingold played Mayor Shinn's snooty wife Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn in, The Music Man (1962) (in which her son Roy Dean (Leslie Joseph) also had a small role).
Also, was part of the original 1973 Broadway cast of A Little Night Music in the role of the elderly Madame Armfeldt, a former courtesan, this time Swedish, which she reprised in London (1975) and in the unsuccessful film version of the musical (1977).
In 1977, with conductor Karl Bohm, she won a Grammy Award for Best Album for Children for Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf and Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals.
She was a regular guest on television talk shows: Jack Paar's and Merv Griffin's Show.
New York area TV audiences saw her in a ad for Coco Goya, a coconut drink made by Goya Foods. In the commercial, she's dressed to the nines and reclining on a chaise lounge and shaking two cans of the drink like maracas!
She died from heart problems and pneumonia on 24 May 1987 at the age of 89.
Sabrina(1954). Romantic/comedy directed by Billy Wilder, adapted for the screen by Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor and Ernest Lehman from Taylor's play Sabrina Fair. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn and William Holden. This was Wilder's last film released by Paramount Pictures, ending a 12-year relationship.
During an annual party at Oliver Larrabee's Long Island estate, the chauffeur's daughter Sabrina, follows and watches the three timed divorced David romancing a giggling socialite, on the indoor tennis court. Heartbroken, Sabrina runs, crying, back to her room.
Her father Thomas, tells Sabrina to quit "reaching for the moon" and reminds her that, she is leaving for the best cooking school in the world.
Later, in her bedroom, Sabrina writes her father a suicide note and then shuts herself in the garage and starts the engines of all eight cars. As Sabrina is beginning to feel the effect of the fumes, Linus, hears the rumbling of the engines and opens the garage to investigate. Linus, finds Sabrina coughing and asks her what she is doing there, she explains that she was testing the spark plugs. He carries her back to her bedroom and gives her a stern warning about the dangers of carbon dioxide.
Now in Paris, Sabrina, still in love with David, struggles through her cooking classes and writes letters to her father, telling him about how she is doing in Paris, he then reads them to the rest of the staff. An elderly baron who is enrolled in the school takes charge of her, transforming her into a sophisticated woman.
David, who continues on with his irresponsible behaviors storms into Linus' New York office, angry over a newspaper article announcing his engagement to socialite Elizabeth Tyson. Linus admits that he planted the article, as he wants David to marry Elizabeth, because her father owns sugar factories in Puerto Rico and Larrabee Industries needs sugar to manufacture a new type of plastic.
Later, Sabrina, having completed her two-year cooking course, returns to the Larrabee's Long Island estate. With a new hairdo, stylish Paris clothes and poodle dog named David, Sabrina waits for her father at the Long Island train depot and is surprised when David drives up and offers her a ride. Not recognizing Sabrina, David flirts with her and drives her all the way home before realizing who she is. David, then asks her out that night, then remembers that his family is hosting a party to announce his engagement to Elizabeth.
Sabrina, insists on attending, telling her father later that the moon is now "reaching for her." At the party, David slips away from Elizabeth to dance with Sabrina. David asks Sabrina to wait for him in the tennis court, but before he can leave with his bottle of champagne and glasses, he is stopped by Linus and Oliver.
It is Linus, who meets Sabrina at the tennis court. When Sabrina admits that she is in love with David, Linus pretends to be happy about the romance.
The next day, Linus takes Sabrina sailing, David thanks Linus for "taking care of" Sabrina. Elizabeth shows up to nurse him after he sat on broken glass.. Linus informs his father that he is trying to keep Sabrina from David to protect the merger. On the boat, Linus talks about his two long-lost loves and Sabrina suggests that he go to Paris to forget his troubles.
Sabrina Fairchild: Maybe you should go to Paris, Linus.
Linus Larrabee: To Paris?
Sabrina Fairchild: It helped me a lot. Have you ever been there?
Linus Larrabee: [thinks] Oh, yes. Yes. Once. I was there for thirty-five minutes.
Sabrina Fairchild: Thirty-five MINUTES?
Linus Larrabee: Changing planes. I was on my way to Iraq on an oil deal.
Sabrina Fairchild: Oh, but Paris isn't for changing planes, it's... it's for changing your outlook, for... for throwing open the windows and letting in... letting in la vie en rose.
Linus Larrabee: [sadly] Paris is for lovers. Maybe that's why I stayed only thirty-five minutes.
The next day, while driving Linus to town, Thomas overhears Linus making a date with Sabrina and asks him to be "gentle" with his daughter. Linus assures Thomas, that he is sending Sabrina back to Paris, first-class, but when Sabrina arrives at his office, Linus tells her that he is sailing to Paris.
On the drive home, Sabrina sings the romantic French song "La vie en rose," and Linus hints that he is falling in love with her.
Suddenly, she finds herself also falling in love with Linus and she finds that Linus is also falling in love with her. Which brother will Sabrina choose?
Audrey Hepburn, is very charming in this Cinderella story and you will quickly see why she was one of the most beloved actresses of her time.
Fun Facts:
Humphrey Bogart was a last minute replacement for Cary Grant. Bogart and William Holden couldn't stand each other. Bogart disapproved of Audrey Hepburn (he wanted his wife Lauren Bacall in the role), while Holden fell in love with her. Bogart got $300000, Holden got $150000, and Hepburn only $15000. Asked how he liked working with Hepburn, Bogart replied: "It's OK, if you don't mind to make 20 takes."
Although Edith Head won an Oscar for costume design, most of Audrey Hepburn's wardrobe was by Hubert de Givenchy. In fact, Hepburn chose her own clothes to wear from de Givenchy's collection. This was her first time working with the French designer, and he would become her costumer of choice for most of her career.
This was the second film in a row where Audrey Hepburn gets her hair cut as a symbol of maturity. The first was in Roman Holiday. It is also the first of four films in a row where she'd play a character romantically linked with a man old enough to be her father.
When Linus takes Sabrina to the theatre, they see the play "The Seven Year Itch", which was director/writer Billy Wilder's next movie project. The play is mentioned at least twice.
Co-stars Audrey Hepburn and William Holden fell in love during the making of this film, but Hepburn broke off the relationship on learning that Holden could not have children.
The estate on which the film was shot actually belonged to Paramount Pictures chairman Barney Balaban.
Hubert de Givenchy originally thought he would be providing wardrobe for Katharine Hepburn, as he had never heard of Audrey Hepburn before they were introduced.
Like Sunset Blvd., this film started production without a finished script. Ernest Lehman worked himself to exhaustion working on the script with Billy Wilder during production. One day, when Lehman did not have an extra copy of a scene rewrite to give to Humphrey Bogart, Bogart exploded. Wilder told his crew they would not film another foot of film until Bogart apologized to Lehman. Bogart invited Lehman to his dressing room and shooting eventually continued.
During production Billy Wilder was continuously working on the script. One day he asked Audrey Hepburn to feign illness so he would have enough time to finish the scene to be shot.
The sports car driven by the brothers is a Nash-Healey, is a two-seat sports car that was produced for the American market between 1951 and 1954. It was "America's first post-war sports car"and the first introduced in the U.S. by a major automaker since the Great Depression.
Humphrey Bogart did not get along with either of his co-stars Audrey Hepburn or William Holden, whom he nicknamed "Smiling Jim". He also said that Hepburn was quite untalented and could not act.
In addition to Billy Wilder's two mentions in the screenplay of his next project, The Seven Year Itch, there was also a line of dialogue that included the name of a film just written by Wilder's co-writer, Ernest Lehman - Executive Suite. Linus (Humphrey Bogart) uses the phrase in the sailboat scene with Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn).
Many critics felt that Humphrey Bogart was miscast in the film, and that William Holden should have played Linus with a younger actor as David.
Line up of cars in the classic film Sabrina(1954).
Martha Hyer (born August 10, 1924), her first film appearance was an uncredited part in The Locket (1946).
She had roles in: So Big (1953), Sabrina (1954), The Delicate Delinquent (1956), Houseboat (1958) and Once Upon a Horse, also in 1958 with Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.
She was considered the best replacement for Grace Kelly.
Hyer would play in films such as: The Best of Everything (1959), Ice Palace (1960), Desire in the Dust (1960), The Carpetbaggers (1964), First Men in the Moon (1964), Blood on the Arrow (1964) and The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Night of the Grizzly (1966).
She co-starred with Keenan Wynn in Bikini Beach (1964), one of the Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.
On television, Hyer played the part of "Hannah Haley" in the episode "Incident West of Lano" on the Western series Rawhide.
Her most significant role came as the love interest of Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running for director Vincente Minnelli in 1958, for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Hyer was one of the actresses considered for the Janet Leigh role of the doomed Marion Crane in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho.
Her last film was, Day of the Wolves, in role of Maggie Anderson in 1971 and her last television appearance was as Peggy Hamilton in the McCloud episode "A Cowboy in Paradise" in 1974.
Hyer married producer Hal B. Wallis in 1966, and the couple remained together until his death in 1986.
Her autobiography, Finding My Way: A Hollywood Memoir, was published in 1990.
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