Arturo

*with the ones staying behind seeming to be the slaves that served and lived in the master's house. Maybe these slaves were looking at the economic end of things in relation to their own personal situations rather than the ideal of freedom? After all, there is no more basic human instinct than the preservation of one's own self-interest, and living in a big house with light duty and good treatment compared to the slaves in the field might have been something they considered in their best interest.* During the period that slavery held sway in the South, to work in the house, as opposed to the field, was considered the better situation, There was a terrible, if terribly descriptive, term used in conjunction with this, "house n*****".

*The late 1940s/early 1950s is certainly the best part of Linda's career at Fox...at least in my opinion. One classic hit after another.* I agree. She did manage to get herself in a number of very good films, and this despite Zanuck's indifferent (on his part) handling of her career. His dislike of her had him make shortsighted decisions; instead of trying to build on her fan base by carefully choosing appropriate vehicles for her, he tossed her into whatever was available. Worse, he had her idle for long stretches at this time.

*I think the one I read was named after her first movie, or was similarly worded..........* AndyM108 is correct. Well, it probably couldn't have been named after her first movie (I don't think), HOTEL FOR WOMEN (1939). You are probably thinking of her third movie, STAR DUST (1940), which was actually semi-biographical; it was based on Linda's discovery by a talent scout, premature Hollywood screen test, and eventual successful contract player. Linda's segment of the "Biography" series is named after another of her films, FALLEN ANGEL (1945).

Linda Darnell was having a good year in 1946, and it was about to get better. However, there were some clouds on the horizon. Linda had three movie released that year: ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM, CENTENNIAL SUMMER and MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. She was next assigned to do CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE, from a popular novel. This was to be Tyrone Power's second film after returning from the war, after the yet to be released THE RAZOR'S EDGE. It would also reunite him and Linda for the first time since 1941, and would be his first swashbuckling role since 1942's THE BLACK SWAN. Linda would play Catana, a Spanish gypsy who falls in love with Power's conquistador, accompanies him to the New World, Mexico specifically. This Technicolor epic was slated to be a big success, and Linda, now physically matured since her last teaming with Power, would get to play another sexy, earthy ethnic character, like the ones she played in SUMMER STORM and MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. It was a part perfectly suited for her, and Zanuck had earmarked it for Linda since the studio bought this property. Linda looked forward to the filming, which would be done on-location in Mexico. Meanwhile, Linda had found herself being pursued by Howard Hughes. She had rejected his advances and overtures, since she was still married. She further reasoned that she didn't need to know him, because she had several more years on her contract. Hughes found out that Linda was taking golf lessons, and signed up to finagle his was to pairing with her on the course. She began to be impressed and won over by this, more so as she and husband Pev Marley were increasingly having vicious fights. She and her husband were passengers on a cross country flight on Hughes' Constellation. Soon, the papers reported that Linda and her husband had separated. Hughes continued to sweep Linda off her feet, quite literally in fact. Besides showering her with expensive gifts, he picked her up for a lunch date, flew her to San Francisco, where they had an orchestra play as they ate a banquet at th Fairmont Hotel. Linda, a simple naive small-town girl at heart, was overwhelmed by this attention, and soon found herself falling in love with Hughes. Hughes gave her flying lessons, and she was reportedly the first to arrive to the hospital when Howard crashed his plane in Beverly Hills. Problems arose with Pev Marley, Linda's estranged husband. He reputedly told Hughes he would allow Linda to divorce him if Hughes gave him $25,000 a year. At a meeting between all three, Linda yelled, "You're discussing me like I was a ham" and left in disgust. Thereafter, Hughes cooled his attentions to Linda, who really thought she would marry the eccentric tycoon. While all this was going on, Linda got the news that she would replace Peggy Cummins and star in FOREVER AMBER, which had shut down production after nearly six weeks of filming. Linda was thrilled, but as the director newly assigned to FA, Otto Preminger, demanded re-writes to the script, resumption of filming would not start for three months. This meant that it would overlap with that of CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE, so Linda was removed from that cast. Zanuck then offered the role of Catana to Jennifer Jones, but that didn;t work out. Eventually a newcomer, Jean Peters, would get the part. Ironically, it would be Peters who would eventually marry Howard Hughes.

*Fred Astaire, the studio's original choice. Indeed, having Astaire play a backwoods brute with curative powers may have been even more a stretch.* What was up with RKO in the mid-30s, casting some of their most urbane stars as backwoods folk, although the incongruity of Kate Hepburn in SPITFIRE probably made them come to their senses and not have Astaire do this role. Fox repeated this error some years later, in insisting another patrician actress, Gene Tierney, play the Ellie May role in TOBACCO ROAD.

Thanks Andy. Yes I think this SOTM for Linda Darnell is do-able by TCM, and one that would raise her awareness with many regular viewers as well as more casual viewers of the channel.

*Didnt you mention you were working on writing one?* I'm toying with the idea of either writing a biography or a play/screenplay. The script would not be a full blown biography, but rather would deal with a specific time and place in her life. What I would really love to do in addition to the above is assemble a large sized book, writing about her filmography and illustrating it with stills from her films as well as her own life. Edited by: Arturo on Jan 3, 2013 9:38 PM

*Her birthday is on Sunday the 6th, and Palm Springs, California is declaring that Loretta Young Day.* Wow that's awesome. I wonder if they have anything special planned. Maybe I can swing down there for the day, although I have to be back that evening for the cutting of the Rosca.

*Together we watched "All About Eve" (1950). He thoroughly enjoyed it. From then on, less resistance from him about watching a B&W film.* It seems that I would introduce my college friends to classic movies with the usual...ALL ABOUT EVE, MY MAN GODFREY, SUNSET BLVD. etc. While everybody seemed to enjoy them, I don't think it took with most of them, but one of them has bought copies, first in VHS and then on DVD, of EASY LIVING (the Jean Arthur movie) and MIDNIGHT, as well as of other classics, all of which he was first exposed to through me. Edited by: Arturo on Jan 2, 2013 8:40 PM

Linda Darnell's third movie release of 1946 was the classic John Ford western, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. A remake of the studio's FRONTIER MARSHALL (1938), it is considered a pure, poetic western mythologizing the story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Clanton gang. Filmed in the Monument Valley, it offered glorious albeit innappropriate vistas, since it was supposed to be set in Tombstone, in Southeastern Arizona. It was Linda's first western in a couple of years (being allergic to horses, she didn't really care for them-late in her career she turned down at least one western film). It was also the first film back from service for the two male stars, Henry Fonda and Victor Mature. Linda plays Chihuahua, variously described as an Apache, a Mexican and a half-breed. She is in love with Doc Holliday (Mature), who happens to have his Boston fiancee, Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs), catch up with him in Tombstone. Newly-deputized town sheriff Wyatt Earp (Fonda), who doesn't care much for Chihuahua, becomes smitten with Clementine, especially since Doc wants nothing to do with her. The film climaxes in the shootout at the OK Corral. Fonda is good as the laconic Earp, and Mature probably gives his best performance as the tuburcular Holliday IMHO (with the possible exception of KISS OF DEATH the following year). Newcomer Cathy Downs does well as the prim miss in the wild west. Her role had originally been meant for Jeanne Crain, but Zanuck realized after STATE FAIR that he had a Star, and felt the role in MDC was not big enough. Anne Baxter was also considered before Downs was selected. Linda is fiery and sexy as Chihuahua, singing a couple of ditties in the cantina, wearing peasant blouses seemingly poised to slip off the shoulder, and confronting Earp, Doc, and especially, Clementine. Her playing here is what convinced Zanuck that she would be right for the role of Amber in that film's reshuffling, about to take place as this movie was being filmed. A host of familiar faces pepper the supporting cast of MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, and it was a hit upon release in the fall of 1946. The movie is generally considered one of Ford's best, and one the best westerns ever made.

Is this like New Year's Eve or what? We're at the point of the countdown to the start of Loretta Young's monthlong tribute....

*When you say "otherwise the country would know exactly what Cinco Mayo is about", what country do you mean? USA or Mexico?* That would be my comment,which was a response to Sepiatone stating that groups in the US were "ramming" their heritage down the general public's throat; to whic I countered with the above, adding that that is not the case.

*Spencer Tracy was MGM's original choice to play Pa Baxter.* Tracy did some filming in Florida when the original production started in 1941. After a couple of months, production was halted and the film shelved. It got a couple more starts and stops, in what was probably the most trouble plagued movie shoot of the 40s; it makes the FOREVER AMBER debacle look like a trouble free filming. The story of the filming of THE YEARLING would make a compelling book.

I noticed there are three movies with Linda Darnell in the month of January (there may be more but I perused through the schedule rather quickly). They are: Jan. 13 ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM Jan. 21 NO WAY OUT - as part of he MLK tribute. Jan. 28 THE MARK OF ZORRO - as part of a night of swashbucklers.

*I think this film would have been better, especially with this cast, if it had been made by some other studio 5 years earlier.* Well Fox in the late 40s and into the early 50s made some of the best noirs around. And by 1954, all the studios were using Cinemascope or coming out with their own widescreen process. I do agree about the closeups. But in the early days of Cinemascope, it was like the first days of talkies: static cameras instead of fluid camerawork, and closeups were considered disruptive, especially jarring for the new ratios.

*As for Cinco De Mayo being "real"...What can one say about a "holiday" that celebrates the victory in ONE BATTLE in a war that was eventually LOST? Most of the Mexican-Americans that make up my wife's side of my family don't have ANY idea what it's all about anyway. Either do any of the "whettoes" who only see it as an excuse to get away with drinking too much tequila.* Well Cinco De Mayo celebrates one battle in 1862 of much smaller Mexican troops against much larger invading French forces. Yes the French remained In Mexico for several years but were defeated and sent packing in 1867. So just how was this "a war that was eventually LOST"? It was just the opposite. Cinco de Mayo's resonance is that the underdog won against incredible odds,in a country that has seen more than its share of foreign invaders. I sincerely regret that most people are clueless to what 5 de Mayo signifies, or that the liquor and beer companies that helped to popularize it here didn't have an educational campaign also,or that people of my heritage don't bother to at least look it up online instead of professing ignorance. *But it seems to be a trend in recent decades that not only do some people wish to wear their "heritage" on their sleeves, they also insist on cramming that heritage down everybody else's THROATS.* No one's cramming anything down anybody's throat (whoever choses to down shots of tequila, it's on them), otherwise the country would know exactly what Cinco Mayo is about. An as you point out, that isn't the case.

Overlapping with Linda's filming of ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM in the Fall of 1945, she was also doing scenes for the musical CENTENNIAL SUMMER at another soundstage. CENTENNIAL SUMMER was the second movie she did with director Otto Preminger, the first being FALLEN ANGEL. As mentioned already, CS didn't start life out as a musical, but its concept was revamped due to the huge success of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS. This story also dealt with a family's travails during a World's Fair in their hometown, in this case the Philadelphia Centennial Exposiion of 1876. Darryl F. Zanuck put together a big-name cast: besides Linda as the scheming daughter Edith, there was Zanuck favorite Jeanne Crain, having just attained stardom in 1945's STATE FAIR, and Linda's replacement as the studio's girl-next-door, here top-cast as her sister Julia; new heartthrob Cornel Wilde, whose contract Fox shared with Columbia, also soaring into stardom since the previous year's A SONG TO REMEMBER, playing an envoy for the French Pavilion; William Eythe, as Edith's hapless beau; Constance Bennett, as the girls' worldy aunt; and Dorothy Gish and Walter Brennan as the parents. Zanuck hired Jerome Kern to work on the songs. This would prove to be his last score; he woud die before the movie opened. The movie received mixed reviews when released in the summer of 1946, but with its big-name cast, beautiful Technicolor and beguiling score, it did well at the boxoffice. Linda played a schemer, as she had in her breakthrough 1944 film, SUMMER STORM, and as she would several times more. Linda and Cornel Wilde were costarred for the first time, as were Linda and Jeanne Crain. Linda would be reteamed in more auspicious circumstances.

I considered that, but I had never heard or seen it that way. I couldn't figure out a way to say it, and was going to change it to "the studio decided to forego" after I posted, but decided to leave it alone.

*Laugh Clown Laugh (1928) with Lon Chaney & Bernard Siegel* *In this silent film, a professional clown and a count help each other with their problems, but become romantic rivals.* *Platinum Blonde (1931) with Robert Williams & Jean Harlow* *In this pre-code, a young woman from a wealthy family impulsively marries a reporter.* *Taxi (1932) with James Cagney & George E. Stone* *Drivers struggle against a cab company.* *Life Begins (1932) with Eric Linden & Aline MacMahon* *Comedy and tragedy about a hospital maternity staff and their patients.* *The Squall (1929) with Myrna Loy & Richard Tucker* *Hungarian farmers take in a Gypsy girl who runs away from her cruel master.* *The Show of Shows (1929) with Frank Fay & H.B. Warner* *A grandiose music comedy revue. Loretta is a performer in the 'Meet My Sister' number* TB, Actually the first day of her tribute continues into the early morning hours with: LOOSE ANKLES (1930) I LIKE YOUR NERVE (1931) ROAD TO PARADISE (1930) THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUTH (1930)

*Instead, Zanuck and Preminger have focused on the more entertaining elements of a man's life unraveling because of adultery* lol....I find it funny, if not odd, with the phrase above. *...but as much as one enjoys Michael Rennie, he's a little too British to be believed as an immigrant who has lived in Quebec for any length of time in this picture.* If I remember correctly, the script establishes that Rennie is a fairly recent arrival to the town in Quebec. He even explains to Darnell's character what happened to his marriage, when he was a Dr, in London. The fall of that marriage led to his leaving Britain. *Because of Darnell's apparent unimportance to Preminger's cinematic world,* Despite four films together, Linda Darnell and Otto Preminger did not like each other, or liked working together. Linda was very upset when she was cast in another Preminger movie, but acquiesced because she liked the idea of playing a cripple. Don't know if her part was originally more prominent, and Preminger, or Zanuck, subsequently cut out some of her scenes.

"Glory" too... 'Tho Spike Lee doesn't like that movie either. Too much focus on the white characters, he thinks. +Would be interesting to see what Mr. Lee would do for a movie on slavery in the U.S.? Oh well...+ He already has. CSA (?) I think it was called, for CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. it envisions the South winning the Civil War, and the country having slavery still. Quite an eyeopener, especially the names of many products, and advetisements, terribly un-PC, and then the end credits state that they were all actual products and ads at some point in the country's history. PS - Spike Lee is highly critical of Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED, feeling that he treats the slavery issue much too lightly and disrespectfully just for laughs. Edited by: Arturo to add the postscipt

*I have had more relationships founder because I like movies for entertainment and friends just don't share the same tastes;* This sounds contradictory to me. Someone who likes movies for entertainment are going to enjoy what they saw and that's about it. Movies that are to be discussed for point of view, symbolism, camera angles, etc. are no longer entertainment only, but now an intellectual discussion, which is something else entirely different. This statement of yours shows considering movies for the art form as opposed to entertainment *I don't expect them to love the same types, just appreciate the art form. Most of my friends like a recent feature, but even then can't recall anything to discuss about it afterwards.*

Santa Barbara CA is a quite attractive town, what with its fairly uniform 1920s Spanish Colonial-style architecture in the downtown area (thanks to the 1925 earthquake), nice beaches and natural setting, and a superb climate, all due to its facing south and protected by the Santa Ynez mountains. I've even been to Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, a mining town in the southern part of that Mexican state. A friend is from there, plus my uncle is from Parral (officially Hidalgo del Parral), a nearby city. Pancho Villa was rifled with bullets here some 90 years ago. Sorry to go so off-topic while on a thread with OT in its title. Guess I really don't wanna get up and go to work this morning. Well to get on-topic, I have been accused of harrassment and stalking here more than once, for pointing out inaccuracies in posts. I even had some PMs waiting up to two years for me until a couple of months back, stating as much (I found out about the PM function thanks to a recent thread here). While I mention perceived inaccuracies across the board (although I don't seem to see my own), one PM from this individual even stated to correct others but not that person. Edited by: Arturo on Dec 31, 2012 10:39 AM

At the very least I'd add: BALL OF FIRE THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS SORRY, WRONG NUMBER THE FURIES THE FILE ON THELMA JORDAN CLASH BY NIGHT

*Roget's Thesarus will jack you up to Agee's level.* Especially if it's the unabridged version.