Sexy Noir Gals

[jamesjazzguitar]

To me Ava was the most sexy but only in black and white movies and only for a few years (46 - 48).

 

I agree that her screen personality was 'so, so' but in a movie like The Killer - 1946 when she is standing by that Piano; No one every looked more sexy that that (with Rita in the Gilda hair flip scene a close second).

[arlenemccarthy]

Sorry to disagree, but I have found Rita very unsexy. Please dont get me wrong IMHO she is a very attractive woman, but not sexually alluring. Her " Put the Blame on Mame " routine is very mundane, it light any sexual passion is this gal. Sorry, I am sure that I am in a minority here Now if Linda Darnell or Rhonda, or Maureen had done that routine Oh Boy !!!!!!!

 

Edited by: arlenemccarthy on Jul 9, 2010 1:27 PM

[C.Bogle]

Now that everyone's "come clean", here's another photo of sweet, wholesome but

toothsome Pam from D.O.A. I'd bet anything the person on the other end of the

line is Frank...Bigelow. It is sad that Pamela was only 51 when she died.

 

 

 

 

 

Ava is lovely and somewhat sexy, but I wouldn't put her at the top of my Deserted Island

list. MM is sexy in an obvious, over the top way, but I wouldn't add her either. Ah, it's lonely

at the top.

[arlenemccarthy]

If it is Frank on the other end of the phone all I can say is LUCKY GUY !

[C.Bogle]

Got to head out, but I'll say he sure was. The sad thing was he didn't realize just how

lucky he was to be loved by Paula until it was too late.

[DownGoesFrazier]

The ultimate bad news-good news..... Oops! I got myself stranded on a deserted island. Hey, it looks as if Ava is the only other person on the island.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Don't feel sorry about disagreeing since that is the nature of this forum. Note I listed a specific Rita scene. Rita in other movies and often in color didn't do it for me either.

 

But hey I'm more of a classic beauty fan; Merle Oberon, Olivia De Havilland during the 30s, Ingrid Bergman, than bombshells types like Monroe. But a Lana in Postman Rings Twice is also something that is rings my bell, as well as Darnell and Tierney.

[misswonderly3]

That's not Ava, that's Broderick Crawford dressed in black.

[LoveFilmNoir]

Interesting analysis on Ava Gardner. I remember being in a conversation where someone was making the argument that today's starlets are practically identical and have no individuality. Well someone else immediately stepped in and said that this has been since the history of moving pictures. Then they started comparing actresses who looked alike, and some who even 'acted' similar...from pronunciations to line delivery.

 

One of the arguments was that Linda Darnell could have been in several roles Ava was given. They said Linda would have been better in *The Barefoot Contessa* particularly because they felt that Ava aged more noticably in the face and Technicolor wasn't as kind to her as it was Linda. I don't know if it is true, but having seen Linda in many Fox pictures, she would have done a decent job in The Killers, *Whistle Stop*, *The Bribe*, *Mogambo*, and *The Sun Also Rises*. However, I can't really see Ava in some of Linda's roles.

 

Unfortunately for Linda, she was at Fox during the prime time of her career, 'nuff said.

[Arturo]

LoveFilmNoir wrote:

*Interesting analysis on Ava Gardner. . .*

 

One scene for me that does it when it comes to feeling Ava exuding pure sexiness is the one in THE SNOWS OF KILIMAJARO where she leans over to get a light from Gregory Peck. Her answers to his questions evoke the qualities I get from her (besides beauty and sex), mystery and vulnerability.

 

*One of the arguments was that Linda Darnell could have been in several roles Ava was given. They said Linda would have been better in T*he Barefoot Contessa* particularly because they felt that Ava aged more noticably in the face and Technicolor wasn't as kind to her as it was Linda. I don't know if it is true, but having seen Linda in many Fox pictures, she would have done a decent job in The Killers, Whistle Stop, The Bribe, Mogambo, and The Sun Also Rises. However, I can't really see Ava in some of Linda's roles.*

*Unfortunately for Linda, she was at Fox during the prime time of her career, 'nuff said.*

 

Actually, Joseph Mankiewicz wrote a good part of THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA in Linda's room at a New York hotel. He led her to believe he was writing it with her in mind, as well as to play the lead. Later, when she read in the trades that Ava Gardner had been cast, she was crushed. She ended her affair with Mankiewicz, which had been going on since 1948.

 

I disagree that Ava didn't look very good in Technicolor. She is amazingly beautiful in, among others, PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, SHOW BOAT, THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, MOGAMBO and THE SUN ALSO RISES.

 

I believe the role that Ava played (Cynthia?) in SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, had been originally intended for Linda. However, she was exercising the clause in her revised contract at Fox allowing her to do outside film work, and had been busy filming ISLAND OF DESIRE and BLACKBEARD THE PIRATE. She contracted a tropical disease whil on location in Jamaica, and ended up being bedridden for close to six months. Thus, she missed filming LYDIA BAILEY. Her part went to new contractee Anne Francis. Francis was then cast as Cynthia (?), but since Gregory Peck's character is supposed to mistake Susan Hayward's for her TWICE, it was decided that Anne Francis did not look anything like Hayward, and was replaced. The studio borrowed Ava. Darnell did bear a resemblance to Hayward (more so than Gardner), and, still under contract to 20th, would have been the logical choice had she been available.

 

Edited by: Arturo on Jul 9, 2010 6:09 PM

 

Edited by: Arturo on Jul 9, 2010 6:12 PM

[C.Bogle]

Being alone with Ava on a deserted island would be good news-until someone else

washed ashore and then it's bad news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've always found Jean Simmons to be very easy on the eyes,

and she even brings her own island with her. What a gal.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Simmons was also in a noir; Angel Face with Mitchum. Yes, she is very easy on the eyes.

[C.Bogle]

 

Angel Face was a pretty good little noir. Jean Simmons gives Bob the Brewski Test,

to see if he will still drink a (domestic) beer, as he did doing his ambulance driving days,

or if he will refuse, demonstrating that he might fit into her rarefied social circle.

[DownGoesFrazier]

She was in one ot two other noirs also.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Well in the book Film Noir by Silver Ward she is only listed in Angel Face. Of course what is a noir is somewhat gray. What other noir movies did Simmons make?

[DownGoesFrazier]

FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG

[jamesjazzguitar]

I had to look that one up in the TCM database. One reviewier defined it as 'Somewhat reminiscent of "Gaslight", British film noir, and excellently done'.

 

I have to check it out if TCM ever shows it.

[Arturo]

*Being alone with Ava on a deserted island would be good news-until someone else*

*washed ashore and then it's bad news.*

 

Sounds like the plot of the recently released to DVD: ISLAND OF DESIRE, where Tab Hunter thinks he has Linda Darnell all to himself until Donald Gray crashes his plane on their paradise.

[Arturo]

FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG is reminiscent of GASLIGHT, except in colorm but not really a noir. She costarred with then-husband Stewart Granger.

[C.Bogle]

Just goes to show there's always someone to mess things up, even in paradise.

I was thinking I should have said it would be good news until some man washed

ashore instead of someone, but it being Ava, who knows what she was into.

 

Jean Simmons was in a film called Uncle Silas which is a gothic yarn, but if

they ever decide to come up with the subgenre gothic noir, there's another.

[dae666mon]

Nobody mentioned veronica lake . very hot .

I know i will get killed for this but Elvis made a semi noir film called king creole based on a Harold Robbins novel.With a good gangster part by walter mathow. (sic) . I think if Elvis pursued more like this he would have been taken more seriously film wise. Was colonel parker a genius or an idiot? I think it was just about pumping out film after film to line his own pockets with money. Sad

Dae666mon

[redriver]

While not a great actress, Veronica was a type. She slithers into the format seamlessly, playing it light, if not flat out for laughs. You can almost detect a wink as she teases Brian Donlevy in THE GLASS KEY. This demeanor enabled her to cross into comedy with some success, with I MARRIED A WITCH and SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS among her better efforts.

[jamesjazzguitar]

I'm a big fan of Lake but mostly because of the 4 movies she did with Ladd. This Gun For Hire and The Glass Key, and The Blue Dahlia are first class noir movies.

 

I also like her in the two comedies mentioned I MARRIED A WITCH and SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS.

 

She was a great actress but she filled the role well and she was a very sexy blond without having to be a bombshell type.

[DownGoesFrazier]

The fourth movie with Ladd, I believe, was an obscure turkey.

[jamesjazzguitar]

You are correct. It is called Saigon and by then the Ladd Lake magic had worn off.

 

But those are 3 are first rate noir movies. Ladd wasn't the best of actors (well he is good in Shane), but he had that 'I don't care, tough guy act' down well and his one-line come backs where often as good as Bogie or Mitchum.

 

Salty O'Rouke with Gail Russell is a very good movies in that vein. Not a noir but it has some noir elements and Gail is a peach.