Swithin

A British actress who has aged quite gracefully, is Virginia McKenna, who played Joy Adamson in *Born Free*.

I am in that most exclusive of minorities that believes that *All About Eve* is a big, talky, bore. Despite all the fuss about whether Swanson or Davis should have won the Oscar that year, instead of Judy Holliday, I say that Eleanor Parker should have won for her brilliant work in *Caged*, with Holliday a close second.

*Jezebel* isn't one of my Davis faves. I generally prefer her in softer roles -- *All This and Heaven Too*, *The Sisters*, *Juarez*, *Marked Woman*, *Dark Victory*, *Now Voyager*, etc. Though I wanted her to win the Oscar for *...Baby Jane*.

Like Bette Davis, who become a write-in candidate for *Of Human Bondage* in 1934 (Claudette Colbert won); but then Bette got the Oscar the following year for *Dangerous*.

But what about baby doc?

O'Neill wrote a Greek tragedy. The film was a noble attempt at capturing his trilogy, but the acting style was intentionally different.

Betty Comden (and Adolph Green) wrote the lyrics. Leonard Bernstein wrote the music. It's a pretty sophisticated score -- listen to "Swing," and "The Wrong Note Rag," so perfect for Russell's voice. And "Ohio" makes perfect use of Russell's low voice in contrast to Edie Adams. Howard Hawkes also "orchestrated" Russell's voice with Cary Grant's in *His Girl Friday*. One of the great travesties of Oscar history was the award to Loretta Young in 1947. Should have gone to Russell for *Mourning Becomes Electra". Russell did win the Golden Globe that year.

That's what I thought. In any case, I loved Roz Russell as Mama Rose. And I like her singing voice -- listen to her on the recording of *Wonderful Town*, the musical version of *My Sister Eileen*. She recorded it twice -- the origiinal Broadway cast, for which she won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical; and the television version. Donald Saddler, who choreographed the show, told me that Russell was wonderful to work with, very professional.

Actually, she had been in many films but it was *The Prime...* that brought her real notice. The film was well known in the states -- that's why I went to see it, as a young teen. It even played our most local neighborhood theaters in the outer boroughs of NYC.

I think that 1968 was one of those years where hype dictated the best actress Oscar. I think the best performance was given by Patricia Neal, not by Hepburn or Streisand; but the following year, the Oscar went to the actual best actress: Maggie Smith, a virtual unknown, for her stunning performance in *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie*. The hyped ladies that year -- who gave decent performances -- included Jane Fonda and Liza Minnelli. But Smith was the best. These days, the hype seems always to win; but there was a time when that wasn't always the case, and 1969 was one of those times.

I actually think Roz Russell was terrific in the film of *Gypsy*. Yes, her singing was dubbed by Lisa Kirk; but Marni Nixon dubbed the singing for Deborah Kerr in *The King and I*, Natalie Wood in *West Side Story*, and Audrey Hepburn in *My Fair Lady*, and those films didn't suffer because of the dubbing. (My Fair Lady suffers for other reasons). Merman was a belter, but I don't think she was really a very good actress, which Russell was. Yes, *Mame* was an awful film for many reasons. Maybe it would have been better if Angela Lansbury, who starred in the musical on Broadway, was in the film. Btw, I saw Angela play Mama Rose on stage, she was great!

Here's a link to the archive. org print of *House of Rothschild*. It's not a terrific print, but you can see that the Beefeaters/redcoats are really red, and the other colors are pretty vivid as well. http://www.archive.org/details/The.House.of.Rothschild

Just checked archive.org again. And the reds are definitely red! So it must be three-strip.

There is a copy of the film at archive.org with the end segment in color.

I remember that year. I was rooting for Patricia Neal, thought she was wonderful in *The Subject Was Roses*, playing a post-WWII Irish-American housewife in the Bronx. Although I'm afraid her hairstyle was definitely '60s. Jack Albertson deserved his Supporting Actor Oscar for that film. I liked Streisand and Hepburn. Thought Streisand was great on stage in *Funny Girl*. Although I was very young, it was only the second show I'd seen on B'way. But I didn't like her at all in *Hello Dolly*, why oh why could they not give that film role to its creator, Carol Channing?

It's a good period piece, with a great cast. Relax and enjoy it! No movie about history is totally accurate -- far from it. But there's probably more truth in this movie than in any other movie about a Jewish character who happens to be a Savior.

Lina Wertmuller was a stage actress.

Can one ever forget Maggie Smith's face when she's talking to her "gels" about the love of Dante for Beatrice in *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie?*

Much as I love Carl Davis, I prefer Carmine Coppola's score/music restoration for the greatest of all silent films, Abel Gance's *Napoleon*. Davis's is fine; Coppola's is a magnificent synthesis of new music, the orginal score, and appropriate classical music and French folk song. But I would love to see a multi-disc DVD with as complete a print of that film as is possible; and a wealth of extras. Will we ever get it?

The new restoration of *Pandora's Box* (all 143 minutes as opposed to the considerably shorter Criterion print) premiered at the BFI -- London Film Festival in October. Hopefully it will soon be released on DVD. Sorry you don't like the film -- try the play by Wedekind or the opera by Berg.

It would be great if a restored version of *Wings* is shown. The very recent screening of *Pandora's Box* was unfortunately not the new restoration. The version shown was 110 minutes; the new restoration is 143 minutes.

I'm surprised, Jack Burley, that you didn't mention Jeanette MacDonald singing "San Francisco."

I was just thinking about one of Dame May Whitty's great lines in *Mrs. Miniver*. She says to Greer Garson, "I hate war, because it gives little people the chance to do something important!" Maggie Smith in *Downton Abbey* starts out like that, but grows a bit and becomes more sympathetic (as Dame May Whitty does). At first, I shared your concern about the gay character in *Dowton Abbey*. But then I remembered the Cambridge spies (Blunt, Burgess, etc.) of a slightly later generation, who were gay and turned against England because of the beastly way they were treated. So, perhaps we can have a little understanding for the roots of Thomas's wickedness. And O'Brien has a cross to bear for the rest of her life. It's funny, the two wicked characters are smokers!

The outbreak of WWI at a summer party, another lifting -- homage if you will. Those Guns of August have provided a dramatic "to be continued..." on many occasions!

I've very much enjoyed PBS's Masterpiece Theatre showings of the British series *Downton Abbey*, which concluded Sunday. Very high class period soap opera. Yes, it was derivative of so many other works. Particularly obvious was the lifting of the whole flower show scene from *Mrs. Miniver*. But to show you how obvious we need to be these days, when Maggie Smith, as the Dowager Lady, announces the winner, the camera has to show us the piece of paper that says she's the one the judges really picked. And then to underline that, she has to mention it sotto voce to the character who persuaded her to give the prize to the nice old gentleman with the beautiful rose. In *Mrs. Miniver*, Dame May Whitty crumples up the paper and announces the station master's name. We just know her name was on the paper, without having to see it or having to hear her mention it privately. But *Downton Abbey* has been great fun. I'm looking forward to next season.