misswonderly3 Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 12 minutes ago, Hibi said: Agree. For some reason, her career never really took off. She was always good in whatever role I've seen her in. Oddly, though she played mostly working class "tarts" she was well educated in real life. Hibs, have you seen her in Mystery Street ? This is a noir I really like, and, although Jan isn't exactly in a starring role in it, I enjoy her performance in it very much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 Yes, several times. A very good noir and she's good as always in a small role. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 On 11/24/2021 at 6:39 PM, Cigarjoe cellph said: Found another one today la Orta (1946) a Mexican Noir that takes place at Christmas. Stars Delores Del Rio, it was good 👍 That was the one where she played twins? (Remade years later as Dead Ringer w/Bette Davis?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arturo Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 9 minutes ago, Hibi said: That was the one where she played twins? (Remade years later as Dead Ringer w/Bette Davis?) Yes it is/was. But the title is La Otra “The Other (One). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 4 minutes ago, Arturo said: Yes it is/was. But the title is La Otra “The Other (One). That's what I thought. Was confused by the spelling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer5 Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 On 11/28/2021 at 1:54 PM, Bronxgirl48 said: Ginger seemed like she was auditioning for a sequel to CAGED as one of the "colorful" inmates. She didn't do it for me here, unfortunately. That hair did not help. And her character never shut up. I haven't watched Tight Spot yet. So I'm not going to comment on the film. But, I find that while I like Ginger Rogers and like her in her Astaire/Rogers films and in films like Stage Door, Kitty Foyle, Primrose Path, Monkey Business, Tom Dick and Harry, The Major and the Minor, Golddiggers of 1933, I'll Be Seeing You, It Had to Be You... there's just something about her that keeps her from being an absolute, top-10 fave of mine. I don't know exactly how to describe what it is about her on-screen persona that is sometimes off-putting. I read her autobiography and while it was interesting, I found some of it to be a little hard to swallow--especially when she kept claiming credit for seemingly every classic moment of her collaborations with Fred Astaire. Not saying that these things couldn't be true and maybe she truly kept coming up with one brilliant idea after another, but much of her memoir came across as very smug. Contrast her book with Fred Astaire's memoir which I also read, and he couldn't be more humble and willing to give credit where credit was due. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 12 hours ago, Hibi said: That was the one where she played twins? (Remade years later as Dead Ringer w/Bette Davis?) Yes it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronxgirl48 Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 On 11/29/2021 at 2:46 PM, Hibi said: Agree. For some reason, her career never really took off. She was always good in whatever role I've seen her in. Oddly, though she played mostly working class "tarts" she was well educated in real life. Jan Sterling came from money. Unlike, say, Dina Merrill, she never looked it, at least onscreen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 16 minutes ago, Bronxgirl48 said: Jan Sterling came from money. Unlike, say, Dina Merrill, she never looked it, at least onscreen. Took me a while to figure out who "she" was since it was used right after Merrill. Both did have wealthy parents but Merrill's mother was associated with the Post Cereal corporation and was a lot richer than Jan's parents. Merrill did always have that rich, stuck-up type screen persona, put to very good use in in The Courtship of Eddie's Father especially when contrasted with Shirley Jones. Jan Sterling's screen persona was that of an working-class woman. In fact I didn't know she came from wealth until I read this! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 12 minutes ago, Bronxgirl48 said: Jan Sterling came from money. Unlike, say, Dina Merrill, she never looked it, at least onscreen. I know. Quite a difference from the kind of roles she played. LOL. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 4 minutes ago, Hibi said: I know. Quite a difference from the kind of roles she played. LOL. Looks like one was acting and the other just playing themselves. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronxgirl48 Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Jan was particularly effective as Smootchie, the "C.P." (common prostitute) in CAGED. A very good actress. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoShear Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Dina Merrill was a double heiress: E. F. Hutton money as well as Post Cereal! It's my understanding that Merrill was struck from the social registrar after her slum with Cliff Robertson became official. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Yes, as if she cared....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoShear Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 8 minutes ago, Hibi said: Re: "Yes, as if she cared......." I didn't put any value on it one way or the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 21 minutes ago, NoShear said: I didn't put any value on it one way or the other. I wasn't implying you did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoShear Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 50 minutes ago, Hibi said: Re: "I wasn't implying you did!" Sorry for being defensive with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilypond Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 Does anyone else enjoy upcoming Sunday Noir Alley film "The Unsuspected", as much as I do? The director Michael Curtiz does a lot with this very 'camp' and sudsy mystery, with an interesting cast-- Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Hurd Hatfield, Joan Caulfield, Michael North, Fred Clark. Glamorous cocktail parties... autocratic, wealthy uncle (Raines)... seething family rivalries... death... amnesia .... disappearances.... Love slinky Audrey Totter in anything. Believe it or not, in this, I had trouble at times distinguishing her from Connie Bennett (in a spunky role that is rather a departure for her). They are made up to look somewhat similar in this-- or am I crazy. Am wondering if this has been on "Noir Alley" before. Eddie could have such a field day with this. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 12 minutes ago, lilypond said: Does anyone else enjoy upcoming Sunday Noir Alley film "The Unsuspected", as much as I do? The director Michael Curtiz does a lot with this very 'camp' and sudsy mystery, with an interesting cast-- Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Hurd Hatfield, Joan Caulfield, Michael North, Fred Clark. Glamorous cocktail parties... autocratic, wealthy uncle (Raines)... seething family rivalries... death... amnesia .... disappearances.... Love slinky Audrey Totter in anything. Believe it or not, in this, I had trouble at times distinguishing her from Connie Bennett (in a spunky role that is rather a departure for her). They are made up to look somewhat similar in this-- or am I crazy. Am wondering if this has been on "Noir Alley" before. Eddie could have such a field day with this. Yes! The Unsuspected 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 14 hours ago, NoShear said: Sorry for being defensive with you. No problem. Wasn't my intention at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 49 minutes ago, lilypond said: Does anyone else enjoy upcoming Sunday Noir Alley film "The Unsuspected", as much as I do? The director Michael Curtiz does a lot with this very 'camp' and sudsy mystery, with an interesting cast-- Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Hurd Hatfield, Joan Caulfield, Michael North, Fred Clark. Glamorous cocktail parties... autocratic, wealthy uncle (Raines)... seething family rivalries... death... amnesia .... disappearances.... Love slinky Audrey Totter in anything. Believe it or not, in this, I had trouble at times distinguishing her from Connie Bennett (in a spunky role that is rather a departure for her). They are made up to look somewhat similar in this-- or am I crazy. Am wondering if this has been on "Noir Alley" before. Eddie could have such a field day with this. No, its the first time. And agree, they could be sisters the way they look in this film. Sadly I've seen it before, so there's no mystery. But I'll probably watch it again. Haven't seen it in awhile. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 Jan Sterling had my favourite hard boiled line of dialogue, thanks to Billy Wilder, in Ace in the Hole. After unscrupulous reporter Kirk Douglas asks Sterling, wife of a man trapped in a mine, to go to church because it will look good in the press, Stevens, not quite so concerned about public images, replies, "I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons." 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavenderblue19 Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 1 hour ago, cigarjoe said: Yes! The Unsuspected Yes, love this one I have 2 copies of The Unsuspected . 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 3 hours ago, lilypond said: Does anyone else enjoy upcoming Sunday Noir Alley film "The Unsuspected", as much as I do? The director Michael Curtiz does a lot with this very 'camp' and sudsy mystery, with an interesting cast-- Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, Hurd Hatfield, Joan Caulfield, Michael North, Fred Clark. Glamorous cocktail parties... autocratic, wealthy uncle (Raines)... seething family rivalries... death... amnesia .... disappearances.... Love slinky Audrey Totter in anything. Believe it or not, in this, I had trouble at times distinguishing her from Connie Bennett (in a spunky role that is rather a departure for her). They are made up to look somewhat similar in this-- or am I crazy. Am wondering if this has been on "Noir Alley" before. Eddie could have such a field day with this. The Unsuspected is a good film and an interesting one in that the production company was Michael Curtiz Productions. I suspect that this is the reason for the interesting cast; other than Rains, the other leading actors (Bennett, Totter, Hatfield, Caulfield) were not Warner Brother contract players, but where either loan-outs from other studios or signed by Curitz's Production company. So we get a film that has that WB A production "feel" but with a very unique set of fine actors. This from wiki: By then, Warner Bros had just signed a 14-picture contract with Michael Curtiz's production company, and The Unsuspected was the first of three movies under the new arrangement. Curtiz's wife, Bess Meredyth, who was on the board of the company, was brought in to collaborate on the script.[9] Charles Hoffman was assigned the job of producer.[10] 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted December 3, 2021 Share Posted December 3, 2021 Here's a coincidence: Just a few days ago I discovered an ancient videotape I'd made of The Unsuspected. It's so old, I don't believe I taped it off of a TCM airing, I think it was from an Elwy Yost broadcast of "Saturday Night at the Movies" ( Oh, Elwy, you are missed.) Anyway, my husband and I decided it would be fun to watch it again...however, disappointingly - but not surprisingly - the videotape was so old, it wouldn't play. In fact, our VCR player ( yes, we still have one ) spat it out ! Two days later I hear Eddie Muller announcing it's going to be the feature on Noir Alley this weekend. It was meant to be. ( I mean, my re-watching of The Unsuspected. ) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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