jakeev Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 She was one of my favorite actresses of the 30's (didn't like some of her stuff in the 40s though) and she had some great character roles as an elderly actress when she returned to films in the 70s after being off a decade. She seemed typecast a lot at Columbia as a tragic figure, and she definitely wasn't a Bette Davis or Greta Garbo. But she made the most of her roles and one of my favorite scenes in film is the sheer horror on her face when she thinks her beau played by Spencer Tracy in Fury is being burned alive in jail. Very chilling moment on screen. Any other fans of her? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulasmithy Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 Absolutely! She had an amazing combination of fragility of appearance and intensity in her acting. Unfortunately, she did a lot of her work at Paramount, which is why, I'm sure, only a few of her films show up on TCM. She was great in Fury, and in Dead End, But I would love to see things like Jennie Gerhardt or Street Scene again. She was great in Beetlejuice, too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackBurley Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 Sylvia Sidney was my father's favorite actress, and I love her too. "Bette Davis Eyes"? I always thought Blondie's song should have been "Sylvia Sidney Eyes". Even if Truffaut thought her eyes were reminiscent of Peter Lorre's! She was heartbreaking in An American Tragedy (the original version of 1951's A Place in the Sun) and Dead End, and "killed" Oscar Homolka in Hitchcock's Sabotage. I'd love to see her in Street Scene and as Madame Butterfly against Cary Grant's Pinkerton. I'm only sorry that her final movie was Tim Burton's disappointing Mars Attacks, but she was swell in Bettlejuice and Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpressman Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 Oh baby! Those lips and eyes remind me of Angelina Jolie! I love "Dead End" and still can't see why Joel McCrea would be interested in Wendy Barrie over Silvia. Great actress too! Watch her scene when she talks about the rich man she met on the subway. By the way, I saw "Dead End" on stage here in LA this summer and her character was played by an ordinary looking actress which made the lack of interest in her more believable. Ms. Sidney was a customer of my Dad's gourmet store in Manhattan in the 60's and 70's but I had no idea who she was. Missed opportunity! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 She was an excellent actress and had a very "intriguing" quality; I've seen only a few of her films: "Street Scene", "Fury", "Dead End", "Sabotage", "Les Miserables", "Damien: Omen II" and the ultra-campy-but-nevertheless-entertaining TV Film "Death at Love House" aka as "The Shrine of Lorna Love". She is simply magnificent in "Street Scene", "Fury" and "Dead Scene", social documets of its times. Sadly, most of her films of the first half of the 1930s, were made at her home Studio then, Paramount, whose rights belong now to Universal, and which haven't been aired on TV for ages, nor have they been released on VHS or DVD. Let's pray that one day there will be a Sylvia Sidney Collection of those 1930s Paramounts ("Confessions of a Coed", "Merrily We Go to Hell", "Thirty Day Princess", "An American Tragedy", "City Streets", "Pick-Up" et al) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michellej Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 I liked Sylvia,but her films never seem to get the air time like other stars.i thought she was pretty,with those eyes and voice.Had a vulnerable quality.I've seen her in Dead End Kids.Always liked her.There are some stars you like,no matter their roles, material, or popularity.She's one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 BTW Jack, as far as I can remember, the song belongs to Kim Carness not to Blondie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackBurley Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 Oh jeez, you're right, feaito: Kim Carnes! Thank you! I understand that Miss Davis contacted her to thank her and the songwriters (Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon) for making her a part of "modern history". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busterchaney Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 Sylvia Sidney fans, and regular viewers of TCM, keep an eye out for the 1930 short film Five Minutes from the Station, one of her earliest screen performances in which she plays the determined wife of a man who brings his boss home for dinner with little notice in hopes of winning a promotion. However, it is only because of her strong-willed character that success rules the outcome. This short has been shown several times on TCM, but as the network is unable or unwilling to post a schedule of short subjects airing between features, the viewer will have to maintain a diligent watch to catch it. If you find a Sylvia Sidney film being shown with a twenty minute gap between the previous or next movie, then set your recorders accordingly and you may capture this fourteen minute "One Reel Wonder". Good Luck! By the way, I am not much impressed by the work of Tim Burton but I find "Mars Attacks" to be very well done and highly entertaining, and Sylvia Sidney absolutely wonderful in it ("C'mon, kid, I'm not that old" -- in reference to the invention of the train!). After all, she does save the world..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpressman Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 busterchaney, After you described it, I realized that I DID see "Five Minutes From The Station" and for the life of me, did not realize that it was Sylvia Sidney as the wife. I probably couldn't get by the stilted acting (and dialogue) of the husband and his boss that was so prevalent in the early talkies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokey15 Posted May 16, 2006 Share Posted May 16, 2006 I have been a Sylvia Sidney fan for decades. I still remember being about 10 years old and watching her in a movie called "Mary Burns: Fugitive" on the late show. Her performance was magnificent. Unfortunately, this movie is never shown since it is a Paramount movie owned by Universal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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