This Week on Noir and Chick Flicks:

This month on TCM there is going to be what I call "Glamors Fun". All the Ginger Rodgers you could ever hope to see. Please check side bar for more info. Monday a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to one of my favorite dancers of all time, Cyd Carrise (pictured above). Also a note to ESTHER WILLIAMS fans. ON TCM: Wed. March 10 th. Jupiter's Darling (1955) is a musical romance film. Check local listings for times. And Veronica Lake will be the CHICK FLICKS at the Movies, Spotlight. Please check side bar for more info. I'm also planning a Sandy Dennis mini profile.

Have a great week at the movies..


List of Cyd Carrise films to air on TCM:

Band Wagon, The (1953)
A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop. Cast: Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, Cyd Charisse. Dir: Vincente Minnelli.

Brigadoon(1954)
Two American hunters in Scotland discover a mystical village that only materializes once every century. Cast: Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Van Johnson. Dir: Vincente Minnelli.

It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
World War II buddies get mixed up with gangsters and an egotistical TV star when they hold a 10-year reunion. Cast: Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse. Dir: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen.

Meet Me In Las Vegas (1956)
A ballerina becomes a gambler's lucky charm. Cast: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead. Dir: Roy Rowland.

Silk Stockings (1957)
A straitlaced Soviet agent is seduced by Paris and a high-stepping film producer. Cast: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian.

Two Weeks In Another Town (1962)
A recovering alcoholic film director tries for a comeback in Rome. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse. Dir: Vincente Minnelli.

NIGHT LIFE IN RENO(1931)- Pre Code.

NIGHT LIFE IN RENO (1931). Pre-code. Director: Raymond Cannon. Cast: Virginia Valli, Jameson Thomas and Dorothy Christy.

John Wyatt is caught with another woman which angers his wife. June decides to make a trip to Reno for a divorce. Since Reno requires a six-week wait for a divorce to become final, June decides to take advantage of the night life. John, not wanting a divorce follows his wife to Reno. Her new lover is married to a jealous woman who shoots him when she learns of their affair. Will June reconcile with her husband?
NIGHT LIFE IN RENO, MOVIE.
I loved the costumes and most of the story line. Although.. I thought it dragged a little during the drunk scene between John and Roy.

Dorothy Christy, performed in the early 1930s as second lead. Christy seemed most at home in slapstick comedies she played the older sister who must be married off to clear the way for her younger sister's happiness in Buster Keaton's Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931) and in Laurel & Hardy's Sons of the Desert (1933). She was also in Devil and the Deep (1932) Jane Withers' in the 1934 Shirley Temple musical Bright Eyes. Perhaps her most offbeat role was in the serial Phantom Empire (1935).

Jameson Thomas, English film actor. He appeared in 82 films between 1923 and 1939. On the stage from his early teens, Jameson first performed in The Squaw Man. He made his screen debut in the film Chu Chin Chow(1923). He performed in Piccadilly(1929) as Valentine Wilmot opposite Anna May Wong. .

VERONICA LAKE

Veronica Lake, breakthrough film was, I Wanted Wings (1941), Lake played the second female lead and stole all the scenes she performed in. This was followed by, Hold Back the Dawn. She had starring role in, Sullivan's Travels, This Gun for Hire, I Married a Witch, The Glass Key, and So Proudly We Hail!.

She became best known for onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. The couple were teamed together because Ladd, was 5 feet 5 inches tall and she was the only actress short enough to pair with him at 4 feet 11½ inches.

Although popular with the public, Lake had a difficult personality and had the reputation for being hard to work with.

In the film, Star Spangled Rhythm, Lake took part in a song about her hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang", performed with Paulette Goddard and Dorothy Lamour.

Lake's career began to fade with her role as Nazi spy in, The Hour Before the Dawn(1944).

Paramount cast Lake, in mostly forgotten films, with the exception of, The Blue Dahlia (1946), in which she again co-starred with Ladd.



From the film , Now You See It Now you Dont(1942), thriller.

FUN FACT:

Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, made 7 movies together: The Blue Dahlia (1946), Duffy's Tavern (1945), The Glass Key (1942), Saigon (1948), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), This Gun for Hire (1942) and Variety Girl (1947). In Variety Girl (1947), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Duffy's Tavern (1945) they appear as themselves.

THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942)

This Gun for Hire (1942). Crime drama/film noir. Director: Frank Tuttle. Based on the novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene. Cast: Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Alan Ladd and Yvonne De Carlo.

In San Francisco, during World War II, Philip Raven, a hired killer, wakes from his late morning nap, to carry out a job to murder Albert Baker, a chemist in possession of a formula for poison gas, which he is using to blackmail the company.

Raven, completes his job on Baker and his secretary and is paid by Willard Gates, an executive for Nitrochemical and an nightclub owner. Gates, had the money registered and claims that Raven stole the $20,000 from Nitrochemical.

Los Angeles police lieutenant Michael Crane, is assigned to the case. As luck would have it, Gates hires Michael's fiancee, Ellen Graham, to work at his Neptune Club, in Los Angeles. Both men are unaware that Ellen, is working undercover, for Senator Burnett, to find out Gates's involvement with the poison gas.

Raven, realizing that Gates, has double-crossed him, follows him onto the train to Los Angeles. Ellen, shares her seat on the train to Los Angeles with Raven. Looking, in her purse, she finds that he has stolen five dollars.

In the morning, Gates, sees Raven and Ellen, asleep on the same seat and suspects that they are in league together. He contacts the Los Angeles police, who search for Raven.

Raven, takes Ellen hostage and looses the police.

Later, he plans to shoot her in a condemned building. Michael, tries to track Raven, while wondering if his girlfriend has been kidnapped or is a willing accomplice.

I thought the film had wonderful casting, this maybe my favorite Ladd performance. Lake and Ladd have awesome on screen chemistry and you get the feeling that if the circumstances had been different they would be together.. Fun, to to see a young Yvonne De Carlo. Warning* there are some intense scenes.

GUN FOR HIRE MOVIE TRAILER.

Pamela Blake (August 6, 1915 – October 6, 2009). Her film career lasted for fifteen years, with her starring mostly in B-movies.

Her first film role was uncredited, playing a bit part in the 1934 film, Eight Girls on a Boat.

In 1938 she starred in the western, The Utah Trail with Tex Ritter.

In 1939 she starred in five films, a crime drama, a mystery and one a western, where she starred with John Wayne, in the 1939 film, Wyoming Outlaw..

In total, she had roles in fifty four films.

In 1946 she starred in Chick Carter, Detective.

 Her last role was in 1954, in the film, The Adventures of the Texas Kid: Border Ambush.

Silent Film Actress: Anna May Wong.

Anna May Wong was working at Hollywood's Ville de Paris department store when Metro Pictures needed 300 girl extras to perform in the film The Red Lantern (1919). Without her father's knowledge, a friend of his with movie connections helped Anna May land a role as an extra carrying a lantern.

By the age of the age of 19, Anna May Wong was cast in a supporting role as a Mongol slave in, The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Playing a "Dragon Lady" role she caught the attention of audiences and critics. Even though she received favorable reviews, she became disappointed with her casting and began to look for success in other rolls.

In 1925 she joined a group of stars on a tour with vaudeville. When the tour turned out to be a failure, Wong and the rest of the group returned to Hollywood. Four years after The Thief of Bagdad, Wong was cast in a supporting role" In Old San Francisco (1927).

In 1926, Wong put the first rivet into the structure of Grauman's Chinese Theater when she joined Norma Talmadge for its groundbreaking ceremony, although she was not invited to leave her hand and foot prints in cement.

Dolores Costello "Old San Francisco" (1927)

"Old San Francisco" (1927) is a silent romantic drama starring Dolores Costello, Warner Oland, Charles Emmett Mack, and Josef Swickard. Directed by Alan Crosland and adapted from the story by Darryl F. Zanuck, this film is about a family of noble Spanish blood living in San Francisco in the early twentieth century. Until 1906, the Vasquez family has prospered in San Francisco where they own a ranch. However, the Vasquez family, who is now composed of only Don Hernandez de Vasquez, played by Josef Swickard, and his granddaughter Dolores Vasquez, played by Dolores Costello, are threatened with the loss of their property by a cruel city boss, Chris Buckwell, played by Warner Oland, a Chinese disguised as an Occidental. Buckwell doesn't let anyone know he's really Chinese and even keeps his dwarf brother in a cage. In addition to his greed and pursuit of power, he has lustful desires for Dolores. Meanwhile, an Irish gentleman, Terrence O' Shaughnessy, played by Charles Emmett Mack, has his eyes and heart set on Dolores, but her grandfather would prefer her to marry a rich Spaniard. Unfortunately, Dolores' grandfather suffers from a fatal heart attack shortly after he witnesses the evil Buckwell attempting to rape his granddaughter. At this point, Dolores aligns herself with Terrence to combat the sinister Buckwell and his underworld white slavers. Just when Dolores and Terrence are fighting to escape the lecherous grasp of Buckwell and his gang, buildings shake and crumble. Rubble buries unfortunate victims and flame rages throughout the city.
"Old San Francisco" is a relatively well-produced Darryl F. Zanuck silent. It is a visually beautiful film set to a Vitaphone soundtrack with synchronized music and sound effects. Dolores Costello, who was known as the "Goddess of the Silent Screen," is simply luminous in many of the scenes. Under the direction of Alan Crosland, who would make history later the same year with "The Jazz Singer," the action moves rapidly from ranch to saloon to secret dungeon. The climaxing special effects depicting the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire are visually satisfying. Unfortunately, some aspects of the film date it greatly. One is the use of yellow face, the long-standing practice of casting white actors as Asians. The storyline follows an Asian character, portrayed by the Swedish actor Warner Oland in yellow face, passing as a white character until his true identity unravels. The casting practice of the film follows long established norms of white stars garnering leading roles and Asian actors remaining as bit and extra players. In the film, for example, Chinese American actress Anna May Wong has a bit role while Warner Oland is one of the leads. Today's viewers may also be appalled at the racial stereotypes of the Chinese in the film. However, modern viewers should not lose perspective that the film was made over eighty years ago. If today's viewers can overlook the dated plot and negative stereotyping, they can take a glimpse at the high level of expertise Warner Brothers had attained just before the advent of talkies.


*It is interesting to note that Warner Oland played the part of Cantor Rabinowitz in "The Jazz Singer" (1927). His greatest success was when he was cast in the role of Charlie Chan, a Chinese American police detective, in 16 films before he died in 1938.

Madge Evans

Madge signed with Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1927. She often performed as the fiancee of the leading man. Working for MGM in the 1930's, she performed in Dinner at Eight(1933), Broadway to Hollywood(1933), Hell Below(1933), and David Copperfield(1935).

In 1933, she performed with James Cagney in The Mayor of Hell. She also performed in Beauty for Sale(1933), Grand Canary(1934), What Every Woman Knows(1934) and Pennies From Heaven (1936).