Arturo

I had.always heard.that.Lana.Turner did not do MADAME BOVARY, because she had taken a leave. She had remarried, and I believe she became pregnant; in any event, she was off the screen for about two years. I think Lana would have made a great Bovary.

Linda Darnell is one of those actresses, like Ann Sheridan, whose looks were diminished substantially by the short, curly hairstyles of the late 40s and the 50s. They didn't flatter them. Linda, always trying to be fairly up to date with hairstyles (she wore many of those upturned dos of the war years), would cut her hair short, starting in early 1948. At that point, she did it to get rid of the last of the reddish blonde she had worn over a year, initially for FOREVER AMBER, and then for the following film, THE WALLS OF JERICHO. Anyway, she would alternate the short cuts with the longer styles that suited her better. The style that seemed to work least on her was a short, tight fitting cut, with curls framing her face. When she was a little full in the face, that look seemed to exacerbate this significantly. In any event, she never wore this short style in a movie, but.there are.plenty of photos, and she did a.few.tv.shows.in the second.half of the 50s with variations of this cut; while the prevailing style, it didnt suit her.

I too love Jean Simmons. She also reminded me of Audrey Hepburn, and if it wasn't for Hepburn's meteoric rise shortly after Simmons first.started.making.waves in the US, I always felt that Jean's career might've soared higher than if did. She did do very well, buy Audrey overshadowed her substantially.

I totally agree, and what a visual disparity.........the platinum blonde replaced by the raven colored hair.

On FMC (all times eastern): Saturday, 5/16: 3:30 am: HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (1966).............6 am: I WAS AN ADVENTURESS (1940)............7:25 am: TAILSPIN (1939).............8:50: NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY (1951).............10:30 am: MY WIFE'A BEST FRIEND (1952)..............12 pm: THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE (1953)...........1:25 pm: BOBBIKINS (1959)............. SUNDAY, 5/17: 3 am: THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW (1958)...............4:45 am: RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1964)................6 am: REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1938)................7:30 am: LLOYDS OF LONDON (1936).................9:30 am: THE SECRET OF CONVICT LAKE (1951)...........11 am: THE LITTLE.SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME (1961)..............1 pm: THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW (1958)............. Monday, 5/18: 3 am: BOBBIKINS (1959)............4:35 am: REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1938).............6 am: RAMONA (1936)..............7:30 am: BRIGHAM YOUNG (1940)............9:30 am: JANE EYRE (1944).............11:15 am: BOBBIKINS (1959).............12:45 pm: MODESTY BLAISE (1966)...........

While their distinct concepts should have them as two channels, it's.actually just one with a split personality,.depending.on the time.of day you tune in.

I had read that before. It would have been interesting to see, especially as it would have been her American film debut, something she always chose not to do.

I'd be Gilbert.Roland, Arturo de.Cordoba or some other suave, smarmy, slightly oily Latin Lover. With my pencil moustache and bedroom eyes, I'd have a lucrative, and enjoyable, career.as a.second.lead, leading the leading ladies astray from their true, if whitebread love, until the final.moments of the final reel.

You're welcome,.and glad you finally caught it. It had probably been shown several times since you asked about when would it be repeated.

I admit, I do wish fo see which actors will get.selected, especially those chosen for th first.fime. And I will get upset when certain stars get.selected for the 8th or 9th time, even 4th time. But it doesn't matter to me how early they release the schedule; I can barely keep upa with what TCM is showing tomorrow, much less three months from now.

I selected FRENCH CANCAN as an Essential for the tribute TCM will do for Maria Felix, in my 2017 schedule I posted last week in the If You Could Program SOTM For A Year thread.

I agree that ZERO HOUR is a good.movie, and Linda Darnell is good in it; she just doesn't have a whole lot to do. And yes, she is gorgeous in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES, but I actually think not quite as beautiful as in some of her films before and after. It seems that it has to do with the hairstyles, or something. If you see her in SLATTERY'S HURRICANE or EVERYBODY DOES IT, both Also released.in 1949, she seems.even more stunning than in ALTTW, although the movies aren't nearly as good.

Jean Harlow was to have been loaned to Fox along with Clark Gable; her death scuttled the deal. This ended up being a good thing, because the other part of the deal was to have been loaning Shirley Temple to MGM to do THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Actually, it is no longer.known as FMC. Awhile back,.it changed to FXM.and FXM Retro. The Retro portion is what I list here; it features classic era films, commercial free, from approximately 3 am to 3 pm daily. The other portion has more recent Hollywood blockbusters,.which are shown with commercials.

i Well where I live, it seems girls are called "dude" by other guys or girls. I first noticed this in college, some 20 or more years ago.

Gene.chose to remove herself from "polite" society, fleeing her in-laws after.her widowhood, to live.in isolation along the coast. Her one opportunity for love, that she allowed herself, turns out disastrously for her. She then chooses to forgo earthly male companionship. Years later, she tells her daughter she wasn't lonely.and didn't miss (out on) anything. I can see that story arc as totally believable. I know quite a few women, and some men, who gave up searching for a partner after a bad relationship or experience, whether they were drop dead gorgeous or not. Tierney is perfectly cast in this; her looks have nothing to do with the believability of her choices.

Tomorrow, 5/13 @ 8 am eastern, TCM will air ZERO HOUR (1957) as the leadoff film for that night's Sterling Hayden SOTM lineup. This was one of the last films Linda Darnell did; she would spend the next few years doing tv, stage programs, even a nighclub act. She must've been discouraged by the movie offers she was now getting; ZERO HOUR did not give her.much to do. This programmer has since become rather well known, with the DVD even marketed as a Camp Classic. This is actually not intentionally so, but as the source material of AIRPLANE, with frequent identical dialogue, ZH has taken on this latter day rep. Apparently, some people cannot view it without laughing hysterically. Based on a Canadian television drama, ZERO HOUR stars Dana Andrews as the scarred WW2 pilot afraid of flying, who is called to help land a plane whose pilot and copilot come down with food poisoning. Darnell plays his estranged wife, no longer willing to put up with his inability to get his life together. Hayden is the pilot on the ground who must guide Andrews on how to fly and land the commercial plane. The location remains in Canada (the flight is from Winnipeg to Vancouver), probably because of the relatively infrequent locations of airports.

On FMC (all times eastern): Wednesday, 5/13: 3:30 am: THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1939)............ 4:45 am: ISLAND IN THE SKY (1938).............6 am: JITTERBUGS (1943)............7:15 am: aam: THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM (1946)............8:45 am: DREAMBOAT (1952)...........10:10 am: MY WIFE'S BEST FRIEND (1952)............11:40 am: THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW (1958)...........1:25 pm: IT HAPPENED IN ATHENS (1962).......... Thursday, 5/14: 3 am: SHOCK TREATMENT (1964).............4:35 am: DREAMBOAT (1952)............6 am: BORN RECKLESS (1930).............7:20 am: I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)............8:45 am: WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS (1950)............10:25 am: DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952)...........11:35 am: BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956)..............1:25 pm: SHOCK TREATMENT (1964)......... FRIDAY, 5/15: 3 am: GOOD MORNING MISS DOVE (1955)..............4:50 am: JUST OFF BROADWAY (1942)...............6 am: REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1938)..............7:30 am: RAMONA (1936)............9 am: GOOD MORNING MISS DOVE (1955)............11 am: ALL HANDS ON DECK.... (1961)................12:45 pm: HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (1966)...........

TB, sorry but I thought I was responding to this post, but I inadvertently do so to Andy's post above yours.

She had gotten some publicity as the ingenue in "The Male Animal", I believe the role.DeHavilland did in the film. However, she hadn't been long in it, when she was spotted.by Darryl Zanuck and a talent scout of his. Zanuck said, "Sign that girl". Later that night, he was entranced with a beautiful girl on the dance floor of some nightclub. Zanuck to his scout, "Never mind the girl in the play, sign this girl". It turned out to be Tierney. Overall, however, her stage experience before coming to Hollywood was limited. EDIT: Sorry Andy, I thought I was responding to Topbilled's query about Gene Tierney's stage experience.

I think that RINGS ON HER FINGERS was.the right.movie at the right time for.Gene Tierney. It was a step away from the miscasting missteps of the first.couple.of years of her career, which could've derailed it. I believe Tierney herself said that Zanuck (I think) had later praised her by saying he knew she'd make it after being able to survive so many errors.in.casting. Here she is, a beautiful upper middle class WASP, and she is cast.as.Ellie May in TOBACCO ROAD, literally wallowing in dirt and.filth. Or as exotics in SUNDOWN or THE SHANGHAI GESTURE, both on loan, or in SON OF FURY, at.home studio Fox. Or as BELLE STARR, that racuous outlaw.bandit. Despite.the total.inappropriateness.of.each, as well as her own inexperience, she survived. So the studio casts her as a nice young American girl in a comedy, and she holds her own with the more experienced.cast. The studio sees that.she has not only survived.the miscasting, but has become a popular.commodity, and.decide to feature her as their top leading lady of nonmusicals. Within a couple of years, she starts giving her iconic performances. She would surely have continued upwards were it not for the incipient signs of her mental illness by the, late.40s,.and her begging off of roles that.were more than leading lady roles, as she could not handle much memorization by then. But till the end, she was always good in whatever she did; she just chose to step back from the limelight for her own sanity. Gale.Sondegaard, like Booth and Streisand, had already had.much stage.success by the time she made her film.debut. I didn't mention her earlier, because unlike the other two,.she did not start out doing the film version of a Broadway success she was known for. But yes, like them, she arrived.in Hollywood "fully prepared.to succeed"after.years of stage experience. Yes, Tierney was hired for her looks, not her talent, which is what.all.the studios did back then. It is to her credit that,.with her lack of experience.and.the early career.miscues, she not only survived, but thrived. It was her inner turmoil that didn't allow her to remain on top as long as she might've. I think your comparing of Tierney with Ava Gardner is much more appropriate.than the earlier comparison to the experienced.stage.actresses. And I think Gene was just as good as Ava was in their respective roles.

DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK has been on fairly regularly on FMC these last.few months. NATC has not.been on in awhile, but it can always be brought back in rotation at any point. It seems they haven't been doing their blocks of classic noirs as they had been a year or two ago.

I do think that Tierney WAS proficient in ROHF. However, I remember her as being miscast in several of her early performances, and people commented here re. same. If you are most familiar.with Tierney from her classics of the mid 40s and later, earlier performances may be surprising. I just think her comedy timing wasn't all it could've been, and would soon be. As for a Booth or a Streisand in the debut movies, they had honed those performances from HUNDREDS of shows on Broadway. So it's not as if they miraculously appeared out of nowhere.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH is a standout,.although some here are not fans of its somber earnestness. The two JAMES movies are each goodin their own ways, and Fonda excels in both. You have a chance to see Linda Darnell this Wednesday on TCM; she is featured in ZERO HOUR (1957), which is the leadoff film in Sterling Hayden's SOTM that night. As one of the last films she did, Linda doen't have a whole lot to.do,.and her fluctuating weight.is.already noticeable here. An earlier film, BLACKBEARD THE PIRATE (1952), was shown this past Saturday on TCM. Darnell's two most zcclaimed roles, in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (1949) and NO WAY OUT (1950), have aired a few times on the station in the last 2 or 3 years. Both are highly recommended. On FXM Retro (FMC), some of Linda's Fox films are shown, such as the aforementioned CHAD HANNA or BRIGHAM YOUNG (both from 1940), which will be on in a few days. Linda was only 16 when she filmed these.