LornaHansonForbes

i grow tired of Dan Dailey doing anything. ps- don't forget the airplane in the pool at the Officer's Tea. That's taxpayer money, to say nothing of the potential injuries. PSS- I also imagine a Hell of a bill from your Pool Guy too.

And also a very nice and valuable poster.

The thing that gets me about WINGS OF.... is the fact that you can practically hear the sound of squealing tires as the movie all of a sudden veers from slapstick buddy comedy to serious drama. HUNCHBACK is on now, and even though they air it a bajillion million 4 billion times a year, I watch it each time. It's a damn watchable movie.

Yeah, the gown in my post is downright demure compared to most of the wardrobe in Pre-Code Norma films.

God, I wish they hadn't shown MCCLINTOCK! In fact, I nominate MCCLINTOCK! for inclusion in the "Crow T. Robot Film Anti-Preservation Foundation (FAPS)", to be stored in a warm, wet, salty place...like your mouth. (I came home right in time for the spanking scene.)

Dude, c'mon:

HANGOVER SQUARE just SO NEEDS to be shown on TCM.

this is it. it makes me uncomfortable to watch, but Shelley is a CLASS ************ ACT about it. Personally I would have given Bobby a full double gun salute on national television.

if i could think of any one term that seems to really cover the life of Linda Darnell- and I mean this in no disrespect- it would be: TRIAL BY FIRE We've all read the downright eerie coincidences about Linda being terrified of fire in real life, about her playing at least two characters whose bodies were burned (in ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM and HANGOVER SQUARE) and about the fire-related near-misses she had in her life (on the way to the studio one day, her car broke down and burst into flames, and I think there were some others)...to her tragic and untimely death. But the irony of all this is that Linda came through the metaphorical fire of one of the greatest challenges of her life unsinged (at least outwardly)- and that would be her first several years at Fox. Can you imagine being a young, unworldly girl- manipulated and pushed by others into something you weren't too keen on doing- on being exposed to the world at an age where so few are equipped to handle the complications of life, let alone massiive fame- to have to run this obstacle course of roles when you yourself are so new to the acting game- having to play sophisticates and s l a tterns, contemporary women and 19th century heroines, American, Hispanic and many other nationalities, to suffer the slings and arrows of critics, fans and studios and constantly STEP UP YOUR GAME ALL ALONG THE WAY? I'd crack in about a week of it. And- of course- Linda was left with demons from this which haunted her inwardly, but HER WORK (that which lives long after her) doesn't falter- she started strong and matured, running a gamut of roles that would've tested any actress, new or old at the game- from THE MARK OF ZORRO to FALLEN ANGEL to HANGOVER SQUARE to ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM to NO WAY OUT and A LETTER TO THREE WIVES and does superlative work in each one them. Of the many figures of classic HOLLYWOOD- there are few who I found more personally admirable than Miss Darnell, who was able to do such honest work, where the seams and the stitching, the pressures she faced, the personal demons that dogged her- are not evident.

MM's one and only appearance at the Academy Awards- presenting Best Sound in 1951. She's so nervous, she doesn't even look up from the podium.

BING IMAGES...I vastly prefer BING as a search engine to GOOGLE, their images are usually a lot more inappropriate. ps- white socks with cuffed jeans?! C'mon Joan, you know better than that....

EXT.- ACROSS THE STREET FROM MARILYN'S BRENTWOOD BUNGALOW "Yes, Cliquot...Mother Dearest sees the studio car coming around the corner. Our prey will be emerging any minute, and then the game shall once more be afoot!"

anyone else get the feeling that Norma never wore a bra until 1934?

Two corrections after rereading my post about Shelley: the title of the movie she did with Debbie Reynolds is NOT "whatever happened to Helen?" but "what's the matter with Helen?" And, big DUH here, her version of "An American Tragedy" was, of course, called " a Place in the Sun." All apologies to Speedy for the derailment of the Marilyn thread, but I have a feeling we will get back to MM soon enough....and wherever Shelley is, I wager she's thrilled the pieces to be upstaging Marilyn if even for a moment.

EXCELLENT POST. ( although I do consider myself a big fan of pre codes..)

here's an interesting article about the media's depiction of the story: http://jezebel.com/the-media-freakout-over-charlie-sheens-hiv-status-is-a-1743524287

i've watched the video a bunch of times and I have a few different takeways from it: 1. Eleanor Powell and Ann Miller were MACHINES. That is some POWER DANCING. 2. Judy Garland. Damn. To have the voice would be enough, but then there was the acting talent BUT THEN there is the DANCING ABILITY, which I don't think she is lauded for anywhere near as much as she should be. THE MOST TALENTED HUMAN BEING IN HISTORY. But finally: 3. 4:30 in the video and again at 4:40, how exactly did that conversation go between those guys and the director? "Okay, we're going to crash through the railing and then jump off the 15 foot balcony and land in three simultaneous splits..." director: "are you SERIOUS?" "yeah, but then you're gonna wanna have someone close by to toss us our canes, 'cause we're gonna leap to our feet and start spinning them like nunchucks while tap dancing. That cool?"

in re: SHELLAY In the annals of HOLLYWOOD, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more SCUD-missile-like career than that of Shelley Winters, ups, downs and everything in between... Being born in 1978, I was raised on Shelley Winters fat jokes (I remember Billy Crystal as that Fernando Llamas character of his telling a bit about sharing a booth at Chasen's with Shelley who was going to "fill out the rest of the booth.") Looking back now, that was some extremely malicious stuff (her final Oscar nomination for POSEIDON ADVENTURE was ruined by a really boorish case of bad manners by presenter Robert Duvall, who burst into laughter AT THE PODIUM when Shelley's name came after that of Susan Tyrrell for FAT CITY), but I wonder if it maybe had some roots in Shelley not exactly being Miss Congeniality to work with (both Debbie Reynolds and Neil Patrick Harris (her costars in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HELEN? and PURPLE PEOPLE EATER) had less-than-flattering stories about workin' with Shel (Harris's in particular is tantamount to child abuse.) It was surprising for me to discover that she was once considered a sex symbol, and moreso that she was once considered to be one of THE big method talents, a quote I've read about her was that when she first came to HOLLYWOOD "She had people running up the walls in a search for perfection." Not something you'd expect from someone who played a black-leather clad Lesbian Pimp in CLEOPATRA JONES later on. She was one of the first BIG STARS to take on supporting roles in the prime of her career, although again, one wonders if this was perhaps a result of her having a hard time finding work above the title. In the end, it is kind of surprising how many films revolved on the plot point of killing Shelley, I think she ended up being one of the most "killable" actresses of the time- LOLITA, ANNE FRANK, AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, A DOUBLE LIFE, THE BIG KNIFE, POSEIDON ADVENTURE- these are all films where we are manipulated into liking her via rather manipulative performances on her part, and thusly should be all the more affected by her character's deaths- which for the record sometimes worked (I STILL wish she'd've made it out of POSEIDON alive and had Carol Lynley or Red Buttons bite the big one instead.) The pathetic routine does not always work necessarily- I actually don't think her performance in A PLACE IN THE SUN is the triumph some have called it, she literally whimpers in some of her scenes....but there's still something to her, and you just have to admire anyone who could appear in the range of films she did- from blockbusters to classics to noirs to very effective dramas, to some outright **** later on (ie TENTACOLI, THE PICKLE, STEPPIN' OUT.) Shelley was HOLLYWOOD to the bone. PS- BELLE ROSEN LIVES !!!!!!!

as much as i hate to correct you on this, STRANGER MAY KISS was a TOTAL PRECODE, made in 1931 and evident by Norma's lack of bra and the frank dialogue that pretty much puts it out there that she and Hamilton have "done the deed"- and while he was MARRIED (unbeknownst to her.) So I don't think the ending was ascribing to any sense of morality at all.

OMG. I'm using that from now on. LOVE IT.

I used to feel that way about Red a little...but then I sat through WHISTLING IN THE DARK one afternoon, and damned if he ain't kinda funny. Sometimes I admit he's a bit much to take, but if you're going to have a comedian whose chief "bit" is cranking it up to an 11 on the Spazzometer, PLEASE gimme Red over Jerry Lewis or Danny Kaye or Jim Carrey any damned day of the week. ps- plus, from various things I've read here and there, Skelton at least seems like he was a pretty decent guy in real life.

I recall "I'm a bad widdle boy!" and "i sawer what I sawer when I sawer it", but no "I dood it!" from Lou.

that's why I saw she was "the look" of the thirties- any gal going to see Garbo or Crawford would think "no way could I pull THAT off" but any woman film-goer (and no doubt a few of the men) might see a little of themself in Norma.

I saw it, but I have to admit I did not pay terribly close attention to a lot of it....I do have to say that I don't think Norma was ever lovelier than in STRANGERS MAY KISS- she may not have been a great beauty in real life, but MAN did the camera love her! The assymetrical sweep of hair; the gowns; the smoky eyes- I could see why people would line up to see her movies no matter what the quality. Norma Shearer WAS "the look" of the early thirties. but as for the film itself? Eh. And...SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER- What THE actual HELL? She ends up with Neil Hamilton at the end?!?! I mean, no matter what the time or decade: Robert Montgomery > Commissioner Gordon PLUS Hamilton was SUCH A "rhymes with Rick" for the WHOLE PICTURE. Why on EARTH would she end up with him? (Am I remembering it wrong?) EDIT: Just looked the film up on imdb and wa sinterested to see that The Director (George Fitzmaurice) was UNCREDITED, which is weird...maybe he was unhappy with the end result. also, copied and pasted from the trivia section for the movie: Norma Shearer had just had a child and was extremely self-conscious about her postpartum appearance. Cinematographer William Daniels remembered, "She worried about her figure and her complexion, and we dickered a lot about the lighting. I had to assure her several times that her figure was as svelte and shapely before her pregnancy." "I don't want the fans to see any difference," she said nervously, "I did my exercises, watched my diet, and I deserve to look good in this. I've earned the right!"

I thought "I dood it" was a Red Skelton saying....