"In the Spotlight"

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A sultry Alexis Smith

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[whistlingypsy]

moirafinnie6: You are right about Alexis playing society ice maidens, but she plays such a good one in ONE MORE TOMORROW. She intimidated Ann Sheridan and kept her running, and poor Dennis Morgan didn?t know which way to turn!

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Director Mervyn LeRoy, Alexis & Gable "Any Number Can Play"

 

Alexis with Audrey Totter (1949)

 

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Glamourous Alexis Smith

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Alexis with Punkins in "One Last Fling" (1949)

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Alexis with Deborah Raffin in "Once Is Not Enough" (1975)

[kimpunkrock]

Mongo thank you so much for posting the lobby cards of The Two Mrs Carrol's and Conflict!!

Thank you so much. I was so stoked to see Conflict since I do not have it on DVD or VHS and it is hard to find and not even released on DVD yet. I do however have The Two Mrs. Carrol's burned to DVD from TCM. I am waiting for them to play Conflict.

 

Thanks again.

You are great!

-

kim

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It was my pleasure Kim. Glad that you liked the pictures.

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Alexis with Robert Young & hubby Craig Stevens on TVs "Marcus Welby, M.D."

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Alexis in her Tony Award winning part in "Follies"

 

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In the Spotlight: HERBERT MARSHALL

 

 

The distinguished actor was born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall, in London, England, on May 23, 1890.

His parents were Percy F. Marshall and Ethel May Turner. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Harrow and worked for a time as an accounting clerk.

Marshall overcame the loss of a leg during the Great War (World War I), where he served in the London Scottish Regiment. He was rehabilitated with a wooden leg. This did not stop him making good the stage vocation. He used a very deliberate square-shouldered and guided walk, largely unnoticeable, to cover up the limp, which was kept a secret to the public for most of his career.

 

His stage debut took place in 1911, and spent 20 years in distinguished stage work in London before motion pictures, which he entered with "Mumsie" in 1927.

He had a wonderful mellow baritone British accent which he rolled out with a minimum of mouth movement and a nonchalant ease that stood out as unique.

Initially he played romantic leads and later character roles. The suave actor spent many years playing romantic leads opposite such stars as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Bette Davis.

 

He was almost 40 when he appeared in his first Hollywood sound picture "The Letter" (1929), a worthwhile comparison (but for the primitive sound recording) with the more famous second version in 1940 with Bette Davis. Marshall is the murder victim in 1929 and the betrayed husband in 1940.

He was heavily in demand in the 1930s, sometimes in five or six pictures a year. Perhaps his best suave comedic role was in "Trouble in Paradise" (1932), the first non-musical sound comedy by producer/director Ernst Lubitsch. That same year Marshall did one of his most warmly human romantic roles in the marvelously erotic "Blonde Venus" with the captivating Marlene Dietrich.

 

Other films included, "The Painted Veil" with Garbo, "The Good Fairy" with Margaret Sullavan, "Angel" with Dietrich, Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent", "The Little Foxes" with Davis, "Crack-Up", "The Enchanted Cottage", "Duel In the Sun" in which Marshall's small but standout performance as Scott Chavez, with his nonchalance, calmly shoots his cantina entertainer Indian wife for her cheating ways.

Also in "The Razor's Edge" as Somerset Maugham, "The Secret Garden", and His voice was perfect to lend credence to some early sci-fi classics: "Riders to the Stars" and "Gog" and the "The Fly".

He also fitted comfortably into episodic TV into the 1960s.

 

Marshall was married five times, including marriages to the actress Edna Best, with whom he appeared in a few films. Their daughter Sarah Marshall is an actress. Also wed to actress Boots Mallory to whom he was married from 1947 until her death in 1958. He was the father of two other children.

His mistresses included Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins, and Gloria Swanson.

 

Herbert Marshall died of a heart attack on January 22, 1966 (aged 75). Burial took place at

Chapel Of The Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.

 

Although the gent never received an Oscar nomination, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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"BLONDE VENUS" (1932)

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A dashing Herbert Marshall

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Marshall with Kay Francis (1932)

[knitter45]

Love this guy! Joe, which of his movies was the one where he played a man pretending to be a butler? He would "scamper" up and down a trellis outside his living quarters at night to do his "real" job. I remember thinking how sad it must have made him to have to have a stunt man do the climbing for him. My favorite of his roles was in "The Enchanted Cottage". It was my first glimpse of this versatile actor, and I really believed he was blind.

 

Thanks for another great spotlight.

 

Nancy

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Thanks for your input, Nancy. Mr. Marshall played an executive pretending to be a butler in the movie "If You Could Only Cook" (1935) with Jean Arthur.

I also enjoyed his performance in "The Enchanted Cottage", among many others.

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Marshall with Greta Garbo in "The Painted Veil" (1934)

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Marshall with Ann Harding in "The Flame Within" (1935)

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Marshall with Margaret Sullavan in "The Good Fairy" (1935)

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Marshall with Sylvia Sidney in "Accent on Youth" (1935)

[cashette]

Hi Mongo, My two favorite Herbert Marshall roles are his evil father to a loving daughter in "Foreign Correspondant" and his loving father to an evil daughter in "Angel Face". Herbert graced every movie that he was in.

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Marshall escorting Gloria Swanson to the premiere of "Anthony Adverse" (1936)

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Marshall with Jeanne Eagels in "The Letter" (1929)

 

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