Princess of Tap

I Can't Act, but I'm So Beautiful that you'll get your money's worth just looking at me--VOL I -- Constance Bennett-- Topper-- She almost makes you forget that Carole Lombard is just as beautiful and could have acted the role much better. Two-Faced Woman-- She has to compete with the Sumptuous Beauty of Garbo, which makes her scream a lot in this movie. After Office Hours-- She has Beauty equal to her male co-star Clark Gable. She's finally met her match! Constance Bennett - - She may be the biggest and the most beautiful no acting movie star of the 1930's. Don't miss this box collection. She didn't get the reputation of being a human clothes hanger for nothing!

Eric Blore with obstreperous as Edward Everett Horton's butler in Top Hat.

scsu 1975-- Thank you - - and this gives me a chance to compliment you for the amusing and insightful Juvenile delinquent and sci-fi film commentaries that you offer on this website. You put Svengoolie to shame. And speaking of shame, my ltd technical machinery is shamefully challenged and cannot project images. So, I will throw it back up to you. Since you're a big boy, you can decide to continue or open the thread. Ciao

Azure, yes-- this is a French Cinema classic and a favorite on French TV. Watching this movie is the first time I ever saw Maria Casarès. She was truly stunning. Bresson directed and wrote this movie, but Cocteau seems to get an awful lot of credit for writing the dialogue. It's way out there. Have they shown this movie recently on TCM? Azure, merci bien-- it's all yours!

To me it looks like either Will Rogers or Ray Davies of The Kinks. I think I'll go with Will Rogers.

Paulll-- thanks I just love this! Well, I've danced with Cyd all my life - that's how I learned how to dance until I got professional dance training. Next: Who would you rather study acting with Marlon Brando are Bette Davis?

People put up with unprofessionalism in Hollywood and in other professions because they make a lot of money off that so-called unprofessional person. My favorite quote about working with Marilyn Monroe in a movie came from Tony Curtis in relationship to his experience on Some Like It Hot. (When you see this quote you should recall his Jewish ethnicity-- Bernie Schwartz from Hell's Kitchen--) According to Tony Curtis," Kissing Marilyn Monroe was like kissing Hitler." This may be a bit strong, but I did hear that there were an awful lot of interruptions and schedule readjustments on the Some Like It Hot set because Marilyn was often upset and having difficulties. On the Misfits location it was even worse. Some days she didn't showup at all. Clark Gable's wife, Kay Gable leveled sharp accusations at Marilyn Monroe after the death of her husband. Kay blamed Marilyn for Clark's heart attack-- claiming the hours of waiting for Marilyn in the heat and the hot sun took its toll, plus it encouraged him to do dangerous, exhaustive stunts that otherwise he would not have done. If Kay's accusations seemed extremely harsh, it has to be remembered, at this time she had just given birth to Clark Gable's first son, after his death. Also, when you talk about extremely talented actresses like Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe having trouble showing up on time or disrupting the shooting schedule because they disappear, it's not because they don't want to work or they have the big head--they obviously are having emotional problems over which they have no control. As disruptive as that may be in making a movie, it's probably a good point to remember that none of those people from Billy Wilder and George Cukor (A Star is Born)-- on down to the stage grips-- would have had their jobs anyway if Judy Garland or Marilyn Monroe had not been the star carrying the vehicle, i.e. the reason the people were putting down the money at the box office.

7) Judy introduced Liza to the public in England at the Palladium in 1964 for a Gala concert series that produced a Capitol recording - Live at the London Palladium.

That's right, Lav-- the beautiful Gail Patrick was not only a memorable movie star but she was also the first woman to be an executive director of an hour-long drama TV series, Perry Mason. Her success with Perry Mason led her to being the first female vice- president of the television Academy for the Emmy Awards. And Stage Door was certainly one of her bitchiest moments, Directed by Gregory LaCava who also directed her as the nasty sister in My Man Godfrey. She was the weird pseudo wife and stepmother in my 2nd favorite screwball, My Favorite Wife. And came in as an evil financeé for Ray Milland in the Loretta Young vehicle, The Doctor Takes a Wife. Lav, it's all yours--

As much as Sexy Rexy had a bad reputation with women, Carole Landis' sex life with men and women had long been out of control, as well as her emotional life. She lived to be only 29 but she was married four times, twice to one man. Her affair with Busby Berkeley led to a lawsuit and her affair with 20th Century Fox's Darryl F Zanuck probably gave her a career, though Berkeley started it. And of course, she was involved with Joan Crawford's lawyer-lover Greg Bautzer because she had to have a lawyer, didn't she? To add insult to injury, she was a deliberate copy of Carole Lombard and became one of Clark Gable mistresses, along with Lana Turner,during his marriage to Carole Lombard. To Finish it all, she's was the inspiration for Valley of the Dolls because she had an affair with Jacqueline Susann during a Broadway show, that they both appeared in. Carole Landis was pathetic and sad before Rex Harrison ever met her. Her friends said she had a self-destructive streak.

This woman was tall, dark and handsome. Truly a strikingly attractive woman, but she never got the guy in an A movie because she was too tall. So she had to play the nasty woman-- She was nasty to her sister in a legendary screwball. She was an extremely disagreeable wife and stepmother in another legendary screwball. And-- She was an obnoxious fianceé in a good but lesser-known screwball. If you know the actress, then you'll know her movies. Extra credit if you can come up with one of your own.

Advert-- ( voice over with music from The Trolley Song) "Forget, Clang clang clang went the trolley, Babes in the backyard and that little dog named Toto, this DVD box-set presents the real Judy Garland! The one that only her family, close friends and colleagues have been able to enjoy previously. This is the Judy Garland that you've all heard about-- the tremendously talented, no emotional control, substance abuse girl-woman whose impetuous,impulsive, impossible behavior you've heard about but here-to-for have not been able to see. *See Judy sing her heart out and then have a theatrical nervous breakdown in Cukor's A Star Is Born. **See Judy sing her heart out and actually have a nervous breakdown on stage in front of a live Plalladium audience in London in I Could Go On Singing. *** And for those "we want more idolaters", See Judy's most emotional and heart-rendering performance as a Nazi victim in Judgment at Nuremberg, When you buy this box set, you will have the REAL JUDY GARLAND!

No-- it's so very sad because it's the real deal.

This story gets more bizarre as years go by. The way I heard it was that Cubby Broccoli, the original James Bond producer, was also present and involved in the murder. Berry has a bad rep. I once attended a public interview with Gloria Swanson. And she said that Beery raped her on their wedding night. And then forced her to have an abortion. Has anybody ever said anything good about Wallace Beery?

In an interview with Robert Osborne I believe Tony Curtis said that Kirk Douglas also turned down The Defiant Ones. Given the controversy of the film at the time, there were lot of reasons that an actor might turn down that role.

Fred Astaire - - I Won't Dance-- Don't Ask Me On the Beach The Towering Inferno The Notorious Landlady

Spencer Tracy as Dad and Grandad Father of the Bride Father's Little Dividend Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Theodora Goes Wild

And before the war there was an overseer played by Victor Jory. And I can recall Scarlett O'Hara calling him white trash when after the war he had made some money and wanted to marry her. Southern white people who worked for Scarlett O'Hara's family certainly were not rich either. But it would make sense that the people that associated with Scarlett O'Hara would be on the same social level that she was on.

Has anybody seen French and Saunders at the Movies? Two parodies I remember the best are from Gone With the Wind and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I think Dawn French made a beautiful Maggie the Cat.

Can a girl from Salina, Kansas find happiness in San Francisco?

Eugenia-- I've seen it advertised on Acorn and it looked very good. Thanks for the recommendation.

I don't think there's anything Supernatural about Vertigo. It's really all very simplistic - - these people drive James Stewart crazy because he thinks he's responsible for the suicide of a woman he loved. When he finds out the truth he is crazy with revenge and anger. What may seem Supernatural is actually just his Madness. For some reason the European censors demanded a coda on the movie. One that actually explains what happened and shows the guilty party being identified. There may have been some legal or moral reason for that, but the way Hitchcock ended the movie was just brilliant - - and was just typical Hitchcock. That ending is what you'd get from a great director. You never knew what to expect and then when you see you couldn't believe it.

I've had a number of Americans ask me why I'm so crazy about Britcoms. They don't get the humor and don't understand the accents. Where I live we have a crazy minority of people who love this sort of stuff. The height of the madness was one summer when the local PBS station placed Hyacinth Bucket on a Billboard in the center of town, inviting everyone to a candlelight supper! When people ask me why I like this foreign claptrap, I tell them I had no choice. I was in London for a séjour and I got hooked on Only When I Laugh. I haven't been the same since. Between Patricia Routledge in Keeping Up Appearances and Dawn French as The Vicar of Dibley, I can never seem to make up my mind-- between the Dishy Vicar or the Hostess with the Mostess. So some evenings, I just settle for Judi Dench in As Time Goes By. I like Doc Martin too, but I don't know exactly what genre it's in? Do you know?

Entrance-- Fred Astaire reading a newspaper in Top Hat Scarlett O'Hara descending the staircase at The Barbeque. Myrna Loy and Asta in the Thin Man Exit - - Bogart and Rains at the end of Casablanca Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers exit dancing the Piccolino into the night and into film history in Top Hat*** my heart beats so that I can hardly speak!