VP19

Nice screen grab on the top one, MissGoddess. It may not be an optimal print, but it certainly looks better than the other one. I trust most of you who are Lombard fans have visited "Carole & Co.", my site dedicated to classic Hollywood in general and her in particular. If not, what are you waiting for? It's at http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/

TCM engages in niche programming of a sort, although its niche is wide-ranging, appealing to some at one time and others the next. For example, I'm among those who love movies from the '20s up to the early '40s, whereas others go for post-World War II titles. TCM has to please both of these groups (and many others as well) in its unofficial role as the repertory house of television. Also, by now TCM knows what -- and when -- to program. Someone earlier mentioned its more male- and youth-oriented weekend programming; also, the channel tends to limit early or lower-tier features to its daytime or late-night schedule, unless it ties into a prime-time theme.

A black crepe dress Carole Lombard wore in her role as small-town librarian Connie Randall in "No Man Of Her Own" (1932), probably designed by Paramount's famed Travis Banton, is being auctioned next month -- though it will likely cost the winning bidder several thousand dollars... http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/348873.html

Just watched "Rockabye." Connie was sexy and riveting, one of Hollywood's all-time beauties. Regarding the comment about the book "Topper Takes A Trip": I'm a bit surprised no one has tried to remake "Topper" using the more bawdy elements of Thorne Smith's book that couldn't be done on screen after the Code was strictly enforced in mid-1934. Done properly (and tastefully), it could be plenty of ribald fun -- though it would admittedly be hard to displace the ghosts, pardon the pun, of Constance, Cary Grant, Roland Young and Billie Burke.

> {quote:title=TikiSoo wrote:}{quote} Last night I watched DESIGN FOR LIVING and was blown away. Not only was the story titillating, but she was great in it. I kept thinking, "this could have been so easily cast with Carole Lombard" another actress I don't find appealing. But I thought Miriam just nailed it and Carole would have overdone it. > > {quote:title=Kinokima wrote:}{quote} > > *Tikisoo* I am not sure how Carole Lombard would have done in Miriam's role but I think she is brilliant in To Be Or Not to Be another Lubitsch film and sadly Carole's last role. > > TO BE OR NOT TO BE is a fave of mine-love Jack Benny! I didn't realize it was a Lubitsch film (I seem to be drawn to his films for some reason) > > Carole Lombard just comes across too loud, she seems to shout her lines. And Carole doesn't hold nearly the range of expression in her face, (her bug eyes especially) when compared to Hopkins. > > Hopkins struck me as an "entire whole body" actress, not unlike Bette Davis. Although Hopkins is overly dramatic, she's not crazy "over the top" like Davis. > > I can't believe how "into" Hopkins I am after seeing that film! Hopkins is wonderful, and it's possible the pre-"Twentieth Century" Lombard might have been in over her head in "Design For Living." But the later Lombard evolved into a pretty good actress, and could tone down her act when the story warranted it (watch "Hands Across The Table" and "Vigil In The Night" for respective comedic and dramatic proof). The irony is that for a while, Miriam and Carole were perceived as interchangeable by Paramount (they worked together in Hopkins' first Paramount talkie, "Fast And Loose"). Lombard wanted the role Hopkins got in "The Smiling Lieutenant," and Miriam was to have starred opposite Clark Gable in "No Man Of Her Own" -- but as a condition of loaning out Gable, MGM insisted he have sole top billing, and Hopkins subsequently withdrew from the film. Finally, Hopkins was Lubitsch's first choice to play Maria Tura in "To Be Or Not To Be," but Jack Benny was cool to working with her, so Ernst called his old Paramount friend Lombard (whose career he aided during his short tenure as head of production), and she agreed to the role.

> {quote:title=cujas wrote:}{quote} > I can think of as many stars who went to college or college prep as you can think of who didn't. There's no trend here--they were people just like the general public. > > But it's well to remember that back in The Depression days, a lot of people never went to college. The average person was considered to be "Well-Educated", if he/she had a High School Diploma. > > FYI --college stars were: > > Katharine Hepburn--Bryn Mawr--1928 > Spencer Tracy--Ripon College > Henry Fonda--University of Minnesota > James Stewart--Princeton, 1932 > Gene Kelly--University of Pittsburgh, 1933 & University of Pittsburgh Law School > William Powell--American Academy of Dramatic Arts. 1912 > Miriam Hopkins--Syracuse University > William Holden--Pasadena Jr. College > Larry Parks--University of Illionis > Fredric March--University of Wisconsin-Madison (Alpha Delta Phi) > Bette Davis--John Murray Anderson School of Theatre, Studied Dance with Martha Graham > Humphrey Bogart--Philips Academy (expelled from prestigious College prep school in 1918) > Robert Stack--Bridgewater State University > Ingrid Bergman--Royal Dramatic Theatre School in Stockholm (Scholarship Prize Winner) > Greta Garbo " " > > I got tired, but there are so many more--and some even graduated! > > FYI--Errol Flynn was in a number of prestigious preps Down Under, but he got kicked out of them all for, you can guess what. > > Edited by: cujas on Oct 13, 2010 7:05 PM > > Edited by: cujas on Oct 13, 2010 7:10 PM The Syracuse University registrar's office reportedly has no record of Hopkins attending there... http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/38343.html

I don't believe Travis Banton has been mentioned yet. He was the fashion designer at Paramount, someone who trained Edith Head but never got anywhere as much attention as she would later on. Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Claudette Colbert...Banton worked with them all, helping to make each look ethereal.

Constance Bennett on the 22nd (TCM is airing nine of her films, including both "Topper" movies she made).

Nothing personally against Nelson Eddy, but I find the Jeanette MacDonald of the Paramount era and Lubitsch films a far more intriguing (and sexy) personality as opposed to her rather bland MGM persona. Must be those step-ins...

It's a Pathe film; who owns the rights? Some of that studio's films have fallen into public domain, such as two of Carole Lombard's earliest talkies, "High Voltage" and "The Racketeer," neither of which has much going for it. (In between, Lombard made a film for Pathe called "Big News," which is supposed to be pretty good; it was directed by Gregory La Cava, seven years before his triumph with Lombard in "My Man Godfrey," but that's never been shown on TCM either.) I have no idea who controls the rights to "The Trespasser," but like you I would appreciate seeing it.

Perhaps the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a copy of the original script, or contemporary accounts (reviews, etc) of "Virtue." Then again, I don't know whether Sony still has the original Columbia archives, or if those moved from Gower Gulch to Culver City when Sony took over the lot initially built by Thomas Ince for Triangle and was later MGM's home for more than 60 years.

I'm not entirely sure myself. I theorize it may have been intentional, in order to focus on the backstory of Mae (Lombard's character) without visuals getting in the way. If that was indeed the case, it certainly was different, to say the least.

> {quote:title=MyFavoriteFilms wrote:}{quote} > Groove on, my friend. I'm anxious for PENTHOUSE, too. I don't know if I'll enjoy Lombard's early films...I don't feel she hit her stride till the middle of the 30s. Hopefully, I will be pleasantly surprised! I think you will be. "Virtue" may be Lombard's best performance prior to "Twentieth Century" (the other might be "No Man Of Her Own," not on Wednesday's schedule, where she sparkles in the first half but the film deteriorates in the second). "No More Orchids" isn't quite up to that level, but it has its moments, and Walter Connolly, as her father, is always welcome (he's also in "Lady By Choice," portraying a judge). Say what you will about Harry Cohn; Lombard was one of the few actresses who got along well with him, and the films she made at Columbia on the whole were more suited for her talents than those she made at her home base of Paramount. There, she was deemed rather interchangeable, and it wasn't until Ernst Lubitsch briefly became head of production that Carole was at last given films worthy of her. Also looking forward to Loy in "Penthouse," one of the films that enabled her to move from playing vamps and Asians into multi-dimensional characters.

Another one gone...in TCM terms, it's been a busy week for the windshield wipers.

Glad to see "The Affairs Of Cellini" coming up in November (it's from Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Films before its merger with Fox -- does anyone know where its studio was located?). Frank Morgan was nominated for best actor in this, but lost to Clark Gable for "It Happened One Night"), and Constance Bennett supposedly plays one of her sauciest roles. Fay Wray and Fredric March are also in the cast. I would love to see "The Arizona Kid," a 1930 oater and followup of sorts to "In Old Arizona." Carole Lombard, then in between stints at Pathe and Paramount, had a supporting role -- and unless Fox has uncovered one of her 1925 pre-auto accident films (all presumed lost), it's likely the only Lombard movie FMC has in its library.

Part of me wishes Alice Faye had spent her peak years at a studio other than Twentieth Century-Fox, whose musicals were splashy (and often in color) but on the whole rather pedestrian to what RKO, MGM and even Paramount were putting out at the same time. Also, I understand Darryl F. Zanuck generally refused to let Alice make recordings, a mistake considering the success that Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire had in both mediums. Faye began as sort of a musical Jean Harlow type, a very flashy platinum blonde -- great to look at, but clearly imitative. She eventually found her own niche, though, and had significant success in films and then radio. A footnote: In the late 1980s, I was doing some work on a film history project, and wrote a number of people for assistance. Alice Faye called me and we talked for about a minute or two; even though she said she really couldn't provide much assistance on the topic, she was quite gracious. I will always cherish her for doing that.

Stuart never reached the top tier of actresses in the 1930s; she was a good and respected female lead, but never had film vehicles designed expressly for her. And that was the case for most actresses; for example, one of her contemporaries, Carole Lombard, was stuck in largely the same situation (although at Paramount, she had a wider range of roles than Stuart had at Universal) until having a hit with "Twentieth Century" at Columbia in 1934. Even then, Paramount didn't really know what to do with her until Ernst Lubitsch gave her "Hands Across The Table" in 1935. Had it not been for "Twentieth Century," Lombard's career might have proceeded along a meandering path similar to Stuart's in the '30s.

It has been reported that Gloria Stuart, whose career dated back to the early 1930s as a Universal contract player and who gained a new generation of fans through James Cameron's "Titanic," has passed on, nearly three months after celebrating her 100th birthday. RIP.

There are so many more goodies your friend has yet to see -- the Lubitsch comedies from the early thirties, "Libeled Lady" with Bill Powell's fishing scene, "The Awful Truth" with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant one-upping each other, "My Man Godfrey" with Carole Lombard as the definitive daffy heiress -- that in a way I envy him. Happy future viewing to your poker pal!

I definitely believe so. You had the continuation of two comedic traditions from the silent era -- the "gag" comedy of Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, etc. -- and the romantic comedy (whose practitioners in silent days included Constance Talmadge and Dorothy Gish, forerunners of Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy and others), which around 1934 evolved into the "screwball" genre, bringing William Powell and Cary Grant to the forefront. Sound enabled vaudeville-style comedy to come to the fore in the Marx Brothers, Wheeler & Woolsey and the Three Stooges, as well as Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, etc. And let's not forget the snappy pre-Code comedies made by James Cagney and others. Simply a splendid decade for those who wanted to laugh -- and given the condition the world was in for much of the '30s, people needed to laugh.

TCM has shown it several times -- in fact, once it showed both the American and international endings to the film. (The latter adds the characters learning that Germany has invaded Poland, leading to England going to war.) I believe it was shown as part of the Lombard day on Summer Under The Stars for Aug. 17, 2006.

Just to clarify: "The March Of Time" wasn't a traditional newsreel; while it often used actual news footage, some elements of it were re-creations. Moreover, for most of its run, the episodes generally dealt with a single topic, whereas conventional newsreels showcased a variety of subjects.

I could think of more than a few, but I'll limit myself to five of each gender: _*Women:*_ *1. Carole Lombard --* it's no secret she's my all-time favorite actress, yet I not only admired her acting style, but her vivacity and zest for life. One wonders what it would be like to experience a full day around someone with such energy (not to mention warmth, beauty and humor). *2. Myrna Loy --* great lady (read her autobiography for proof) who possessed intelligence, charm and wit. It'd be fascinating to see her at work. *3. Barbara Stanwyck --* the epitome of professionalism. What made her tick? *4. Claudette Colbert --* Spending a day with the consummate Gallic sophisticate --.ooh la la! *5. Jean Harlow --* Publicly a sex symbol, privately a bright, thoughtful lady beloved by the film community. Spending a day with her would help reconcile these personas. _*Men:*_ *1. Orson Welles --* Watching his genius at work, whether it be writing or acting, film or radio, would be remarkable. *2. William Powell --* We see him epitomize suaveness and urbanity on screen. What did he have off it that endeared him to such goddesses as Lombard and Harlow? *3. James Stewart --* He would likely admit he wasn't the most exciting person to be around, but he seemed so quintessentially American. *4. James Cagney --* On screen, a dynamo; off screen, intelligent and thoughtful. How much of each was he? *5. Cary Grant --* Spending a day with someone exuding that aura must have been special indeed.

There was a 1974 book by Warren G. Harris called "Gable & Lombard" (the film is officially titled "Gable And Lombard"), but the movie is not derived from that or any other book. Garson Kanin directed Lombard in the 1940 drama "They Knew What They Wanted," and wrote a wonderful portrait of her in his book "Hollywood." The movie has all sorts of errors: It gives the assumption that Lombard was a bigger star than Gable, which was never true; implies they had never met, let alone worked together, before 1936; and, worst of all, puts Gable in the army at the time of Lombard's death. Screenwriter Barry Sandler explains why he did this at http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/321033.html.

I think many stars from the 1930s could have succeeded today, but in TV rather than film (because most movies today are driven by action, special effects or marketing tie-ins rather than story). Which, in a way, would be rather unfortunate, because it would leave someone such as Carole Lombard or Claudette Colbert playing the same character in a sitcom for several years, rather than portraying a variety of roles and personas.