VP19

How about Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton, "The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek") or Penelope Newbold (Carole Lombard, "No One Man")?

> {quote:title=jamesjazzguitar wrote:}{quote} > Not sure I'm following you here; are you saying an actor's political view impacts if you enjoy their acting? Hey I might have different political views than say John Wayne but I can still enjoy his movies and his good work (I feel he is somewhat overrated but he did do some very good work like in The Searchers, Red River, etc..). > > As for Powell, I'm glad you asked that question. I don't see how that guy could get under someone's skin. What does too much class irritate people? (and unlike Hepburn, Powell's type of class doesn't come off like he is look down on others). Powell is #5 on my all time actor list. I really wasn't discussing politics when comparing Loy to K. Hepburn; certainly my political views probably wouldn't be considered dissimilar to Kate. (And I, too, like a lot of John Wayne's work.) It's simply a matter of approach -- Myrna never comes off as haughty.

Katharine Hepburn was a fine actress, to be sure, but she was always a bit too patrician for my tastes. Myrna Loy had similar progressive political views (as early as the 1930s, she publicly called for black actors to be cast in less stereotyped roles), but Myrna never had that upper-class air about her that Kate had. (Similarly, Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow both came from fairly well-off "society" families, but both had strictly middle-class personalities). And I'm still wondering about the person who earlier claimed to be "irritated" by William Powell, my all-time favorite actor. What quality that Powell possessed could irritate?

> {quote:title=MovieProfessor wrote:}{quote} > Years ago, I remember Elizabeth saying that she would prefer to be laid to rest next to Richard Burton, in Celigny Geneve, Switzerland. So far, the information about her burial has it for Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Her mother and father are buried in crypts and an empty one next to the parents is where Elizabeth will be buried. The three crypts are not far from where another, superstar legend is also buried, none other than Marilyn Monroe! Also in the adjoining area or other nearby crypts are buried Merv Griffin, Roy Orbison, Truman Capote, Farrah Fawcett, Natalie Wood and Dean Martin. Liz threw us a curve by going to Forest Lawn Glendale instead, specifically the Great Mausoleum, where her afterlife neighbors will include Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Irving Thalberg, Russ Columbo, Red Skelton, and of course Michael Jackson. Find more on the site at Carole & Co. http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/396251.html I'm not sure whether Taylor's parents will be moved to accompany her.

> {quote:title=thomasterryjr wrote:}{quote} > The films which I would have loved to see when they initially debut. On Thursday October 6, 1927 "The Jazz Singer" debut as the "first talkie". I would have loved to been there to see and feel the reaction of the movie audience after Al Jolson finished his singing and then said "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet". I would have loved to been part of the movie audience on Saturday June 28, 1928 when "Lights of New York" debut as the first full-feature film with synchronous dialogue. I bet that would have been a novelty with the movie audience. > > I also would have loved to been part of the movie audience on Saturday March 7, 1931 when Charlie Chaplin decided to go against the trend of "talking pictures" and released a "semi" silent film "City Lights". The word "semi" meaning the only sound of talking is gibberish. I would have loved to been part of the movie audience to experience for the first time seeing the blind girl character discovering that the "Tramp" was her benefactor. The last shot of Charlie Chaplin with the flower in his teeth, the violins playing in the background as the picture fades to black. I wish I knew someone who saw this film when it debuted. To hear this person speak of the audience reaction as they left the theatre and what the audience shared with their friends and family about "City Lights" would be priceless. Talking pictures weren't an entirely new item in 1927; Thomas Edison was exhibiting such films as early as 1913, and in the early '20s several such movies made the rounds as experimental items. However, none of them had the technological knowhow to be sustained successes, unlike Vitaphone and Fox's "sound on film," which eventually became the industry standard. I liked the earlier comment about seeing films now considered lost, and to that group I would like to add the notorious "Convention City" (1933) and the several movies Carole Lombard made for Fox in 1925 before an automobile accident left a scar on her face that caused the studio to drop her. The accident apparently made her learn a great deal about cinematography, lighting and such. Perhaps the pre-accident Lombard, relying on her youthful beauty, wouldn't have learned such things and might not have ultimately become successful in the 1930s. If even one of those early films were found, it could answer many questions about Carole's development as an actress.

I'm not the world's most avid Loretta Young fan by any means, but after having watched a number of her films -- especially those from the pre-Code era -- I have to come to her defense. Considering her youth (she was 18 when "Platinum Blonde" was filmed, and was a teenager until January 1933), she was a fine actress, with sophistication, sex appeal and maturity that belied her years. (Her first lead role was in "Laugh, Clown, Laugh," a 1928 silent opposite Lon Chaney -- senior.) The increased exposure of her pre-Code work over the past 20 years or so has caused many to reevaluate Loretta's career, and realize she was far more than the prim Catholic type she appeared to be in the 1940s and '50s. (I'm also glad she lived to see her early work appreciated.) As for comedic skills, she was certainly no Lombard or Loy in that department, but she made a few comedies that were okay ("Taxi!", "The Doctor Takes A Wife"). I'd certainly prefer to see Loretta in a comedy than, say, Joan Crawford (who, like Young, was best suited to dramatic fare); she had a deftness about her that Crawford lacked.

Just saw this film directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and while it's certainly not a top-tier screwball, it has a lot going for it, including four engaging leads (Don Ameche, Rosalind Russell, Kay Francis and Van Heflin) and a sly script. Ameche and Russell are sort of a poor man's William Powell and Myrna Loy, and Francis shines; one wishes that instead of being stuck at Warners in the mid- and late thirties, riding out her contract, Kay had gone to a studio that knew how to do screwball (Columbia, Paramount or RKO) and could fully utilize her often-neglected comedic talent.

I'm not going to call this W.S. Van Dyke film starring Don Ameche, Rosalind Russell, Kay Francis and Van Heflin a top-tier romantic comedy, but it is rather engaging, with a smart script and sly playing from the leads. Russell is great as per usual in screwball, and Ameche is effective (Roz and Don here are sort of a poor man's Powell and Loy). Kay Francis shines as well; one wishes that instead of largely being wasted at Warners in the middle and late thirties, riding out her contract, she had gone someplace else -- Columbia, RKO, Paramount -- where her comedic skills could have flourished.

> {quote:title=JefCostello wrote:}{quote} > Dietrich would have been a good addition to that list, especially in the 30's, when she was a leading sex symbol, albeit not as gorgeous as some of the women on that list. > > Bette Davis would have been a good match for him in terms of the alpha female vs. the alpha male. They would have clashed pretty well on the big screen. > > I guess my thread is about being envious of how many "hot" actresses Gable got to star with, and how I can't think of any other leading man who can match him in that regard. Gable did work with Dietrich -- but on the radio. In the first episode of "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast from Hollywood (June 1, 1936), they appeared in a story called "The Legionnaire And The Lady" (a retitled "Morocco"), with Gable in the Gary Cooper role. Oh, and among the great actresses Gable got to star with, let's not forget his third wife. And Barbara Stanwyck, too.

> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:}{quote} > VP19, what was the obvious goof? I guess I missed it?? But if you mention it, I may have recognized it? > > I fully agree with you about Loretta, OMG when I first encountered her in pre-code films, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! Always a beautiful woman, but wow! She was also amazing in THEY CALL IT SIN!! It featured a calendar in which September was shown to have 31 days! Now I know pre-Code Warners liked to get its films out quickly, but didn't anyone at the studio notice this error before it went out to theaters?

> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:}{quote} > I haven't seen EASY TO LOVE yet, on the DVR to watch! I've been watching flix like crazy over the weekend! Right now, I'm checking out (and digging) THEY CALL IT SIN! Just finished up with WEEK-END MARRIAGE. Looking forward to EASY TO LOVE, sounds fun! Did you see the obvious goof in "Week-end Marriage"? (Aside from that, it was a reasonably good film, and more proof that not only was the pre-Code Loretta Young an ethereal beauty, but a splendid actress, too. It's hard to believe that she could successfully play a businesswoman at age 19 -- just as she portrayed a newspaperwoman in "Platinum Blonde" at 18!)

> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:}{quote} > Just watched LONELY WIVES, what a hoot!! EEH in a great dual role (and well played!), and three luscious dames---Esther Ralston, Laura LaPlante, and Patsy Ruth Miller! Well, 4, if you count the maid: Georgette Rhodes! And the show stealers, the perennially tipsy butler, played by Spencer Charters, and the mother-in-law, played by Maude Eburne, a hoot! Racy, fun and funny! Loved it! Thank you, TCM! Until checking the cast list, I initially thought Esther Ralston's character was being played by Thelma Todd. They do look somewhat alike.

Was trying to figure out what radio appearance Carole Lombard appeared "jittery," and apparently it was the March 12, 1939 episode of "Screen Guild Theater." It was an original production called "Tailored By Toni," in which Lombard played the title character, a New York fashion designer (of men's clothes). Her co-star was James Stewart, at about the same time their "Made For Each Other" was making the rounds of theaters; supporting players included Spring Byington and Edward Everett Horton (whose work I enjoyed earlier today on TCM). For more on this and other Lombard radio performances, go to http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/3807.html and http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/4082.html.

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > > {quote:title=VP19 wrote:}{quote} > > Check David Stenn's Harlow bio, "Bombshell"; it has stills from both versions. > > I believe you, but it wasn't done for the South. It was done for the Midwest and the Northeast. The caption says the "white" version was distributed in the south. In fact, Stenn refers to it as the "southern version."

> {quote:title=MovieMadness wrote:}{quote} > Anyone letting their children watch all the movies on TCM? I can't believe it. > > Even a movie like Moby Dick ends with bloodshed. This reminds me of a true story I believe I've mentioned here before, but let me bring it up again. In 1964, as a child growing up in Syracuse, N.Y., one of the local TV stations aired "If I Had A Million" one evening, when I was either eight or nine; I wanted to watch it because it had W.C. Fields. Well, it turned out to be an uncut version of this pre-Code, multi-segment film (a rarity for 1964, as most movies from the early '30s were censored for TV), and the second segment featured Wynne Gibson as a, er, lady of the evening who inherits a million dollars from wealthy Richard Bennett and uses the money to sleep in a luxury hotel...alone. I don't think I quite understood what her character was up to, but the segment ended with Wynne stripping down to her lingerie, then unclasping the stockings from her garters before going to bed. Needless to say, this was something a boy my age had never seen before, and needless to say, my mother hurriedly changed the channel. I never did see W.C. Fields that night (I eventually saw his segment some years later), but I did develop an appreciation for attractive blondes in lingerie and stockings.

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > > {quote:title=VP19 wrote:}{quote} > > > > It would be nice if TCM could show both the "black" and "white" footage of "Hold Your Man." A preacher figures prominently in the film; in the version most of the country saw, the character is black. However, since MGM believed most white southerners wouldn't accept a black man in a position of authority (he marries white characters), the version issued for southern markets made the preacher white -- > > I don't think that's correct. There might be two versions of the film, but the South wouldn't have a problem with the preacher being black. It would be New Yorkers and other Northerners who would have had that problem. > > Show me some black people in the street scenes of any Doris Day or Judy Holliday movie that is set in New York, or in "Marty", or in "State Fair" set in Iowa. There aren't any. But black people are in just about every movie set in the South, and Southerners didn't care. > > Hattie McDaniel was certainly "in authority" in many of the scenes in "Gone With the Wind" and I remember the white audience in Mobile, Alabama, when I first saw the film in 1953, thought she was great, and she seemed to be the most honest and intelligent person in the cast. Check David Stenn's Harlow bio, "Bombshell"; it has stills from both versions.

> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:}{quote} > The grooves begin for me on Monday, Mar 21 with a daytime screening of THEY GAVE HIM A GUN (1937), featuring Spence and Franchot Tone--a film I've only seen once and I remember it as pretty darn powerful! Later that evening, I'm looking forward to the rarely aired CAUGHT (1949) with Robert Ryan! > > Tuesday night we again are treated to an evening of the Blonde Bombshell herself, Jean Harlow, in a range of films she starred in with the King of Hollywood himself, Mr. Clark Gable! My faves of the evening will be THE SECRET SIX (1931), a very bizarre pre-code that I really enjoy! RED DUST (1932) and HOLD YOUR MAN (1933) are both great flix, and long-time faves of mine as well! The evening is rounded out by WIFE VS. SECRETARY and Harlow's final film (sadly!), SARATOGA (1937). > It would be nice if TCM could show both the "black" and "white" footage of "Hold Your Man." A preacher figures prominently in the film; in the version most of the country saw, the character is black. However, since MGM believed most white southerners wouldn't accept a black man in a position of authority (he marries white characters), the version issued for southern markets made the preacher white -- and portrayed by none other than the great character actor Henry B. Walthall (whose most famous film, ironically, is "The Birth Of A Nation"). TCM has shown alternate footage beforehand; in 2006, it ran the ending of "Vigil In The Night" that aired in international markets in which the characters reacted to Germany's invasion of Poland. So I don't see any reason why it couldn't do likewise for "Hold Your Man" if the "white" footage exists.

As a Carole Lombard fan, I'd have loved to have seen her team up with another top actress of the time, preferably in some sort of buddy comedy. Imagine Carole with Jean Harlow (they were good friends in real life), or a Lombard-Loy teaming (ditto with Carole and Myrna as friends, though I don't think Lombard socialized as much with her as she did with Harlow). Even Lombard and Marlene Dietrich teaming up might have had potential.

Maltin's been rating so many films for so many years...I sense most of these mentioned were reviewed at the time with a thought to the audience, who for a long time frankly didn't "get" the sensibilities of most early thirties films. The pre-Code revival of the 1990s -- engineered in large part by TCM's predecessor, the original TNT, as well as writers like Mick LaSalle ("Complicated Women," "Dangerous Men") -- caused many of these movies to be (positively) re-evaluated by casual film buffs. From what I know about Maltin, he likely would now boost most of the films you cited by a half-star, maybe more. Also, as recently as the 1980s many pre-Code movies were only available in "censored" footage so as to pass muster with the Breen office in case of re-releases. Fortunately, the original versions of many of them have been uncovered and made available, although a few are deemed lost in their complete versions (e.g., "Love Me Tonight").

Warren William is a splendid actor representing the pre-Code sensibility. The 1990s pre-Code revival and books like Mick LaSalle's "Dangerous Men" helped re-establish him, sort of the male equivalent of Norma Shearer.

The 1936 "My Man Godfrey" -- quintessential Art Deco!

> {quote:title=30srbest wrote:}{quote} > Thursday, TCM will be showing 9 features directed by the underappreciated Gregory LaCava. Even though they have not included his masterpiece "Primrose Path" or popular favorites "My Man Godfrey" or "Stage Door", this is still an excellent group of pictures which deserve attention. > Frank Capra devoted two highly complimentary paragraphs of his autobiography "The Name Above the Title" to LaCava, describing him as a "meteor...an extreme proponent of inventing scenes on the set...with a brilliant, fertile mind...a precursor of the 'new wave' directors of Europe", lamenting the fact that LaCava's nonconformity to standard business practices resulted in his assignments being reduced from few to none. > Like Griffith before him and Welles after him, LaCava found the price for not playing by the rules and raising the bar of filmmaking possibilities beyond the reach of the average director was the lowering of the boom of industry disapproval. > Must see on the Thursday schedule---"The Half-Naked Truth", the most screamingly funny comedy of the entire decade of the 1930's, Lee Tracy as the fastest-talking, least scrupulous publicist ever, promoting the career of hooch dancer Lupe Velez (sporting the slightest of ladies' uppergarments) in a performance Roger McNiven termed "among the lewdest on film". Frank Morgan is a delight as the Broadway producer whose delicate world of created moods is barged into by these denizens of burlesque. > "Bed of Roses", Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton get out jail and wreak havoc on the free world. The second they are outside the prison gate, the lower half of hooker Kelton's body starts advertising and she barely travels twenty yards before she has negotiated a ride to the docks for them and collects two bucks to boot for her brief inconvenience. Joel McCrea is one of the victims of grifter Bennett, but his kind manner causes her to question her love of larceny. > "The Age of Consent", a delicate weepie about college sweethearts Dorothy Wilson and Richard Cromwell, whose conformity to the concept of premarital purity leads to a lot of suffering for everybody. Arline Judge is absolutely heartbreaking as a lower-class waitress who has eyes for Cromwell, the blue blood with the blue "discomfort". > Also delightful are "What Every Woman Knows" with Helen Hayes as a woman of limited marriage prospects whose brothers arrange to finance the education of Brian Aherne in exchange for his agreement to make an honest woman of their sister if nobody else will, "Laugh and Get Rich" with Edna May Oliver as a hard-headed lady struggling to make ends meet in spite of her unindustrious, weak-minded husband Hugh Herbert, and "Smart Woman" with Mary Astor as a wife whose homecoming from an overseas cruise is spoiled when she discovers her husband is planning to say "bon voyage" to their marriage. > Every LaCava movie is layered with ambivalence, as he subtly changes the way the audience feels about each character, demonstrating the good and bad qualities of all of them. His improvisational style yields wonderfully complex performances and stories unlike those of any other director. > I hope someday TCM will show a few of the other LaCava pictures I have not seen, like "Lady in a Jam", "Private Worlds", "The Affairs of Cellini", "Unfinished Business", or "Gallant Lady". "Bed Of Roses" is a good pre-Code film, one of Connie's better ones, with some fine wisecracks from Pert Kelton. And if you miss "The Half-Naked Truth," it will air again June 1 as part of a tribute to Frank Morgan on the anniversary of his birth. La Cava also directed the fascinating political polemic "Gabriel Over The White House," made at the nadir of the Depression. Its calling for a strongman may seem a bit fascistic to our eyes, but I think it more reflected a fantasy from a frustrated public rather than an actual call to totalitarianism. One of the unseen La Cava films I wish TCM would air is the other film he made with Carole Lombard -- "Big News," from Pathe in mid-1929. Lombard teams with Robert Armstrong (both play newspaper reporters), and it's supposedly the best (and by far the least seen) of the three talking features she made for Pathe. (To be fair, the bar isn't set very high, as "High Voltage" and "The Racketeer," both directed by the pedestrian Howard Higgin, are mediocre at best.) Years later, while making "Godfrey," Lombard spoke approvingly of "Big News" and working with La Cava; one wishes TCM could show us just what she meant. Incidentally, La Cava was an animator during the 1910s, working with several of the pioneers of that genre.

> {quote:title=Kinokima wrote:}{quote} > What about this great promo > > > > edit: Although I never heard reading was an antiquated activity. We can enjoy classic films, Jean Harlow and reading. lol > > Edited by: Kinokima on Mar 8, 2011 9:25 PM I would hope they weren't saying reading was an antiquated activity, but in these days of Kindles and Nooks, etc., reading a book is. Of course, some of us Luddites still embrace parts of the old technology (he said facetiously). Oh, and Jean was an avid reader of all sorts of material. In fact, one of the last books she read just before her death was "Gone With The Wind."

Yes, I see -- at the State, Stewart stays but Lombard leaves, replaced by Joan Crawford. Interesting; I understand that back some 14 years ago or so, in 1925, Carol (then a Fox starlet) and Joan (an MGM newcomer named Lucille LeSueur) were heated rivals on the dance floor at the Cocoanut Grove, doing the Charleston (the '20s equivalent of the jitterbug) in the olden days before jazz turned into swing.

Just gave this great thread another plug at "Carole & Co." for its coverage of the likely upcoming Gable-Lombard marriage as well as Carole's latest movie, "Made For Each Other" with the hotter-than-a-firecracker James Stewart: http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/391632.html