feaito
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Posts posted by feaito
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"Major Barbara" has been aired at the Bravo/Film & Arts Channel.
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I agree with Path "Pygmalion" is one of the best movies and one the best adaptation of any of Shaw's work ever. Try "Major Barbara" (1940) with Rex Harrison and Wendy Hiller too.
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Beauty For The Asking with Lucille Ball
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Great thread MovieJoe! Exciting to read.
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I agree with Lolite and Mary Lou...this thread is so great, just like Deanna Durbin's...I've learnt so much about Miss Dee, thanks to Susan and Deborah. These are the threads!!!
I'm amazed by Susan's deep knowledge about Frances, Joel McCrea and family, and she seems to be so young indeed, to know so much! Congratulations on your comprehensive knowledge Deborah and thanks for sharing all those tidbits with us.
And congrats Susan for your great work on your beautiful website!
When years ago I searched for info/stuff on such actresses as Nancy Carroll, Miriam Hopkins, Ruth Chatterton, Ann Harding, Martha Eggerth, Lilian Harvey, Lillian Roth, Eleanor Boardman, etc...I felt so isolated, 'cos nobody knew they existed! The not even knew who Joan Crawford was so less they'd know about the others.
I'll let you and Susan know when I watch both "Monte Carlo" and "Playboy of Paris", hope they'll arrive soon!
I'd love to watch "The Silver Cord", all I've read of it sounds too thrilling.
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Susan,
Glad the stuff I've sent you has been useful to your website...I've gathered some things along the years. Last night I was reading some books I own and there are reviews and synopsis for "An American Tragedy", "King of the Jungle", "The Silver Cord"... and also, I've got "The Paramount Story" where I can find more stuff about Frances.
Greetings!
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No time for Comedy?
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"Rosie!" what a great film. Thanks for reminding me of it MovieJoe, both Roz Russell and Sandra Dee were great in it.
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I know that Greer Garson's speech was one of the longest, but I do not know if she thanked the most people.
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Susan, Hi...no "Playboy of Paris" yet...I'm anxiously waiting. Probably the package is stuck at Customs.
I've got the book "The Films of Maurice Chevalier", but sadly in the analysis of "Playboy of Paris", Frances is mentioned once, as his leading lady, but nothing is said about her performance. The author states that the french version (simultaneously shot, "Le P?**** Caf?") is superior and that Chevalier had the same opinion-well, Frances' role was played by Chevalier's wife, Yvonne Vall?e-and most of the stills included in the book are from the french version, and there's only one photo of Maurice & Frances.
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Of sea-weed, I guess?
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Maybe Randolph Scott or John Wayne?
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You're right..sorry for the spelling mistake. And I hope TCM will schedule "The Pagan" soon..
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More sad news, I loved her in "La B?te Humaine" and "Cat People", she was gorgeously beautiful. May she rest in peace.
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I'm not sure if TCM has shown it, but being a Fox film it surely must be aired on "Fox Classics Channel".
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Reviews for Manslaughter (1930):
The New York Times:
A melancholy discussion of the matter of special privilege...the courtroom scenes of the picture are well done and so are some of the incidents scattered along the way. It cannot be denied that Claudette Colbert-given an even chance-is capable of excellent acting. She shows some of it in her part of Lydia, although the film is so busy going on its way that there isn't much time. Fredric March also is capable; he does not, however, need to turn so many curiously-built corners.
Abel Green in Variety:
One is always a bit suspicious of those courtroom mellers where the uncompromising D.A. must prosecute his amour and send her to jail, but George Abbott carried it out rather well...although never wholly maintaining a consistent pace. No average audience can rationally accept Miss Colbert's carelessness with expensive jewels or her nonchalant distribution of diamond bracelets as bribes to motorcycle cops. The entire structure, so far as Abbott readapted it along these lines, doesn't ring the bell...As a completed product, it will stand up for the average fans because it holds a competent admixture of acting, production and action. It is also susceptible to the usual ballyhoo of "sending his own sweetheart to prison for manslaughter" and that routine.
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Well, what I promised...
First of all "Manslaughter" (1930), directed by George Abbott is a remake of the 1922 silent starring Leatrice Joy and Thomas Meigham (I guess you already knew this).
It's stated that the 1930 version (starring Colbert and March) was considerably updated and de-sentimentalized by Abbott, for 1930 consumption.
Synopsis: A Poor honest young district attorney (March) sends to prison a rich girl (Colbert) who had killed a motorcycle cop with her car. Sounding the theme that there is but one law for rich and poor, the adamant attorney sends this girl he loves off to the clink for what he righteously presumes will be a decade or so of penance, but politics and "connections" intervene and she gets out in two years. Then she waxes vindictive, but melts into a reasonable facsimile of virtuous breast-beating at the end, of course, and chases her young district attorney down the street for an "I Love You" fadeout.
It is stated in the book that the prison scenes were sharply delineated and realistically played, with Miss Colbert's acting in these and other scenes getting favorable notice. At first bitter and hostile, she gradually grows accustomed to prison life and when later discovers her ex-maid is a fellow-inmate, she has unbent to the point where she asks her what her first name is.
Soon the former society girl has become so democratized that she becomes popular with the other inmates, who always want her on their side in spelling-bees. But of course Colbert can't forget the man she loved and who, she thought, loved her, put her into the clink (it takes time to get all that straightened after she leaves prison), but at the end all is well.
The screenplay was based on a Saturday Evening Post Story by Alice Duer Miller. There was much praise for the courtroom and prison sequences, and both Colbert & March drew good notices. Abbott put care into his direction and the result was a well-tooled product that helped boost both players' careers.
Nothing is said about Frances Dee and she's not listed in the cast (although at us.imdb.com she's listed as having a minor role as "party guest").
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Welcome Lolite...I love "The Hurricane" too...I'd like to watch the South Seas drama "The Pagan", released in 1929 by MGM, with Ramon Novarro, R?nee Ador?e, Dorothy Janis and Donald Crisp. Has TCM even aired it?
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Still stumped...Lady On A Train?
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Walter Huston should have won for "Dodsworth", he lost to Paul Muni ("The Story of Louis Pasteur").
And Joan Fontaine's restrained, subtle, magnificent performance in the 1948 wan't even nominated. The same applies to Jennifer Jones luminous performance in "Portrait of Jennie" that same year.
Just my opinion.
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Stumped....The Thin Man?
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William Faulkner?
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I think Lolite's got it, 'cos I'm almost sure now, that Gary was dressed as a veiled-woman in "Morocco" and maybe he did as well in "Desire".
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Haven't the slightest idea...maybe Ronald Colman?
Frances Dee Fans
in Your Favorites
Posted
Deborah,
I'll say it again...I'm in AWE, how can you know so much, it's like you did a post-grade on Frances Dee and the McCreas, amazing. How can such a young person know so much...Susan has been so lucky of having your great feedback and supply of insight/knowledge about Frances. She'll be able to continue doing an excellent job in her beautiful web site.
I feel sort of ashamed to post anything I can search about Frances on my books, 'cos beside all you know and have written, it'll look kind of pale in comparison
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