TopBilled

*JOHN BOLES* RESURRECTION (1931) with Lupe Velez SEED (1931) with Genevieve Tobin FRANKENSTEIN (1931) with Colin Clive & Mae Clarke ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT (1931) with Evelyn Laye & Leon Errol BACK STREET (1932) with Irene Dunne CARELESS LADY (1932) with Joan Bennett CHILD OF MANHATTAN (1933) with Nancy Carroll ONLY YESTERDAY (1933) with Margaret Sullavan THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1934) with Irene Dunne BELOVED (1934) with Gloria Stuart WILD GOLD (1934) with Claire Trevor THE WHITE PARADE (1934) with Loretta Young THE LIFE OF VERGIE WINTERS (1934) with Ann Harding MUSIC IN THE AIR (1934) with Gloria Swanson BOTTOMS UP (1934) with Spencer Tracy THE LITTLEST REBEL (1935) with Shirley Temple & Karen Morley CURLY TOP (1935) with Shirley Temple & Rochelle Hudson ORCHIDS TO YOU (1935) with Jean Muir REDHEADS ON PARADE (1935) with Dixie Lee & Jack Haley A MESSAGE TO GARCIA (1935) with Wallace Beery & Barbara Stanwyck CRAIG'S WIFE (1936) with Rosalind Russell & Billie Burke SHE MARRIED AN ARTIST (1937) with Luli Desti AS GOOD AS MARRIED (1937) with Doris Nolan & Walter Pidgeon STELLA DALLAS (1937) with Barbara Stanwyck & Anne Shirley FIGHT FOR YOUR LADY (1937) with Jack Oakie & Ida Lupino SINNERS IN PARADISE (1938) with Madge Evans & Bruce Cabot ROMANCE IN THE DARK (1938) with Gladys Swarthout & John Barrymore BETWEEN US GIRLS (1942) with Diana Barrymore & Kay Francis THOUSANDS CHEER (1944) with Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly & Mary Astor BABES IN BAGDAD (1952) with Paulette Goddard & Gypsy Rose Lee

*Una Merkel* To Eleanor Powell in BORN TO DANCE: Say, whoever gave _you_ the gong ought to be hit over the head with it.

The rules seem to be different for British actors and actresses. Glynis Johns is another one. Things really change in Hollywood at the end of the classic studio era. I watched FATSO which aired recently on FMC. Dom DeLuise has above-the-title billing, ahead of Anne Bancroft. It's a character-driven piece, but he's the star of it, and it's not necessarily a low-budget film.

*Plastic Surgery* Rock Hudson undergoes a complete transformation in SECONDS, while Liz Taylor has some cosmetic alterations done to save her marriage in ASH WEDNESDAY.

*THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)* From Agee on December 7, 1946: The film seems to have started as a gleam in Samuel Goldwyn's eye when he saw in a mid-war issue of Time a picture and article about returning veterans. At a later stage it was a verse novel by MacKinlay Kantor. Robert E. Sherwood turned this into a screenplay; the director William Wyler and the cameraman Gregg Toland and a few hundred others turned the screenplay into a movie. The movie has plenty of faults, and the worst of them are painfully exasperating. Yet this is one of the very few American studio-made movies in years that seem to me profoundly pleasing, moving and encouraging.

*Cedric Hardwicke* To Jimmy Lydon in TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS: I believe you, Brown, because you are your father's son and because a liar would have told a more plausible story.

*ANABEL SHAW* SHOCK (1946) with Vincent Price, Lynn Bari & Frank Latimore STRANGE TRIANGLE (1946) with Signe Hasso & Preston Foster KILLER AT LARGE (1947) with Robert Lowery BULLDOG DRUMMOND STRIKES BACK (1947) with Ron Randell HIGH TIDE (1947) with Lee Tracy IN THIS CORNER (1948) with Scott Brady

>Much as I love Jane Darwell and her award-winning performance in The Grapes of Wrath, I wish Beulah Bondi had played Ma Joad. She wanted the role and would have been perfect. I think Darwell knows how to nail rural types and I do like her performance very much in this film, but I agree that the part should've gone to Beulah.

Beulah won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. It was for her special appearance as Martha Corinne on The Waltons in the episode entitled 'The Pony Cart' which was broadcast in late 1976. She received the award in 1977 at the age of 88. She died three years later.

I pretty much agree with your definition of a character actor. It is usually someone who cannot carry a film because they lack sex appeal and the physical good looks that cause young movie patrons to buy tickets. It may be a star who was very attractive back in the day but no longer holds that distinction. Charles Coburn is a good example of a character actor that was allowed to take top billing in several films of the mid-1940s. When we do see a character actor top-billed, it is likely to be in a B-film, not an A-budget release.

>This thread goes to show how may films there are,that are never shown. You're right. That was the purpose of this thread...to show how much of our American film history is overlooked and continually obscured by the replaying of the same titles. Anyone who watches TCM knows who Bette Davis is, but they do not know who the Weavers are (unless they stream classics on Netflix). As for this thread, I did not expect it to zoom up toward 11,000 views so quickly. But it shows how hungry people are for the volumes of classic titles that do not show up on TCM.

When I read Brando's comments, I get the feeling he considers James Dean an unoriginal poseur. James Garner has accused Steve McQueen of being a poseur, too. Some of it probably has to do with rivalry. Though for every rivalry, there are life-long friends like Garner and Clint Eastwood.

*Joel McCrea Directed by Preston Sturges* The writer-director guides McCrea through the motion picture process in THE PALM BEACH STORY and THE GREAT MOMENT.

*Beulah Bondi* To Ralph Remley in READY FOR LOVE: Chester, stay away from that cider. Remember the strawberry festival when you were flirting about telling everyone you were a butterfly.

*CHICK CHANDLER AS SNAPPER DOOLAN* TIME OUT FOR MURDER (1938) Gloria Stuart & Michael Whalen WHILE NEW YORK SLEEPS (1939) with Michael Whalen & Jean Rogers INSIDE STORY (1939) with Michael Whalen & Jean Rogers

*THE CLOCK (1945)* From Agee on May 26, 1945: One of the best scenes in Vincente Minnelli's new picture has a soldier (Robert Walker) and a girl (Judy Garland) walk, as if hypnotized, into their first embraced. A kind of sentimental mysticism is tried for her, and more than achieved. It is strictly a romance, and in every essential respect a safe one. Emotionally, it is perceptive, detailed and sweet. There is more ability, life, resource and achievement in it than in any fiction film I have seen in a long time. Minnelli appears to know better than most directors how to use his individual players. He is willing to turn the show over to Keenan Wynn for his alcoholic cadenza; to retract slightly James Gleason and to leave his wife Lucille a long tether; to develop in Robert Walker his singular gentleness and pathos and to rid him of infantile mannerisms; and to prove for the first time beyond anybody's doubt that Judy Garland can be a very sensitive actress.

*Chris-Pin Martin* To Randolph Scott in FRONTIER MARSHAL: Doc, he drink whiskey like crazy man.

*I'LL BE SEEING YOU (1944)* From Agee on January 22, 1945: This is Hollywoo'd first attempt to focus on the predicament of a shell-shocked soldier, trying to find his way back to normal life. Joseph Cotten's muted, excruciating performance is the best, single effort in the film. There are some moments of deep warmth and sympathy from Ginger Rogers. And the rest of the cast and David O. Selznick, Producer Dore Schary and Director William Dieterle have done a good many unpretentiously remarkable things.

*DINAH SHORE* UP IN ARMS (1944) with Danny Kaye & Dana Andrews BELLE OF THE YUKON (1944) with Randolph Scott & Gypsy Rose Lee AARON SLICK FROM PUNKIN CRICK (1952) with Alan Young & Adele Jergens

*Vera Ralston & John Wayne* Republic's top female star is paired with Duke in DAKOTA and THE FIGHTING KENTUCKIAN.

Dargo, I felt Lindsay's work as the shrink was very good. I guess it's how you look at the performance.

And Patty Duke did transition into adult roles with relative ease. She's had a long and varied acting career.

*Jane Darwell* To Don Ameche and Loretta Young in RAMONA: As far as I'm concerned, a Christian's a Christian, no matter what the color of his skin.

I wanted to find a photo of Ward Bond in his youth, and this was the best one I could locate.

*Deep Sea Diving* Jane Russell & Richard Egan go UNDERWATER while Robert Wagner & Terry Moore explore BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF.