Coleen Gray (October 23, 1922), performed in many leading roles in the Los Angeles stage productions, Letters to Lucerne and Brief Music, which won her a 20th Century Fox contract in 1944. After playing a small part in, State Fair (1945), she became pregnant and briefly stopped working, only to return a year later as the love interest of John Wayne in, Red River (1948). Later she performed in films noirs: Kiss of Death (1947) opposite Victor Mature and Nightmare Alley (1947) opposite Tyrone Power(pictured below).
List of Coleen Gray's best known films:
Kiss of Death (1947) Nightmare Alley (1947) Red River (1948) Father Is a Bachelor (1950) Riding High (1950) The Sleeping City (1950) I'll Get You for This (1951) Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Sabre Jet (1953) Tennessee's Partner (1955) The Killing (1956)
Death of a Scoundrel (1956) The Leech Woman (1960) The Phantom Planet (1961) P.J. (1968) Mother (1978)
Constance Bennett (October 22, 1904 – July 24, 1965),was born in New York City, the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison. Her younger sisters were actress/dancer Barbara Bennett and actress Joan Bennett. Constance Bennett, the first Bennett sister to enter the movie bisness, where she performed in New York produced silent movies before a meeting with Samuel Goldwyn, which led to her Hollywood debut in, Cytherea(1924).
She left her acting career in silent film for marriage to Philip Plant, in 1925. She went back to her film career after her divorce. Because of her glamorous fashion style, she quickly became a popular film star.
She had a short-lived contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, where she performed in the movie, The Easiest Way. The next year she moved to RKO, where she performed in, What Price Hollywood? (1932). Bennett next showed her versatility in the films: Bed of Roses (1933), The Affairs of Cellini (1934), After Office Hours (1935) with Clark Gable, the original Topper (1937), as Marian Kerby opposite Cary Grant,
She repeated her role in the 1939 sequel, Topper Takes a Trip, Merrily We Live (1938) and Two-Faced Woman (1941).
By the 1940s, Bennett was working less frequently in film but was in demand in both radio and theatre. Her wise investments made her a wealthy woman, and she founded a cosmetics and clothing company.
TCM is celebrating Constance Bennett birthday. with the movies listed below:
Lady With A Past (1932). A good girl raises her popularity when she pretends to be bad. Cast: Constance Bennett, Ben Lyon, David Manners. Dir: Edward H. Griffith.
Rockabye (1932). A Broadway star tries to hold onto an adopted child and a younger man. Cast: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Lukas. Dir: George Cukor.
What Price Hollywood? (1932). A drunken director whose career is fading helps a waitress become a Hollywood star. Cast: Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton. Dir: George Cukor.
Outcast Lady (1934).A spoiled rich girl sacrifices her reputation to preserve her dead husband's memory. Cast: Constance Bennett, Herbert Marshall, Hugh Williams. Dir: Robert Z. Leonard.
Topper (1937) A fun-loving couple returns from the dead to help a henpecked husband. Cast: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod. Please click to view Topper (1937) movie review.
Topper Takes a Trip (1939) A glamorous ghost helps a henpecked husband save his wife from gold-digging friends. Cast: Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod.
Merrily We Live (1938). A society matron's habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants leads to romance for her daughter. Cast: Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Billie Burke. Dir: Norman Z. McLeod.
The Unsuspected(1947), The producer of a radio crime series commits the perfect crime, then has to put the case on the air. Cast: Claude Rains, Joan Caulfield, Constance Bennett.
Joan Fontaine, (born October 22, 1917). Is the younger sister of actress Olivia De Havilland(pictured below), also an Academy Award winner.
Video: Joan Fontaine talks about her relationship with her sister, Olivia de Havilland (1979).
Her film debut was a small role in, No More Ladies (1935). She also performed with Fred Astaire, in his first RKO film, A Damsel in Distress (1937) without Ginger. Next, she went on to perform in the film, The Women (1939). After which her contract was not renewed.
Her luck changed one night, at a dinner party when she meet producer David O. Selznick and they began discussing the novel, Rebecca. Selznick asked her to audition for the part of Rebecca.
Video: A scene from the film Rebecca.
Rebecca, is a gothic tale about the memory of Maxims first wife Rebecca, which still affects Maxim, his new bride, and Mrs. Danvers long after her death. Rebecca marked the debut of British director, Alfred Hitchcock. In 1940, Joan was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She did not win that year (Ginger Rogers took home the award for Kitty Foyle) but Fontaine, did win the following year for Best Actress in Suspicion, which was also directed by Hitchcock.
Tortilla Flat (1942). Cast: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan, Akim Tamiroff, and Sheldon Leonard based on the novel by John Steinbeck. It was directed by Victor Fleming.
In Monterrey, California, Danny Alvarez inherits a gold watch and two houses in the area known as Tortilla Flat from his grandfather. One of his friends by the name of, Pirate, is saving money which Pilon makes plans to steal, until he learns that he is saving to buy a golden candlestick, which he plans to burn for St. Francis.
One of the houses burns down, so Danny allows his friends to move into the other house with him. Things are fine at first until Danny's love for a girl causes him to look for work at the cannery. A misunderstanding causes Danny to become drunk and almost dies in an accident. He then marries his sweetheart with the promise that he will become a fisherman now that Pilon has the money to buy a boat.
This is a wonderful movie, with strong performances from: Spencer Tracy, Frank Morgan, who is very memorable as a hermit dog lover. Hedy Lamarr, who gives a wonderful performance as a poor Portuguese girl. She went on to make only five more films.
Frank Morgan, is best known for his performance of the title character in the film, The Wizard of OZ (1939). . His first film was in, The Suspect (1916). Morgan's career continued as talkies began, he was usually typecast in roles of a befuddled but good-hearted middle-aged man. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in, The Affairs of Cellini(1934), where he played the, Duke of Florence and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in, Tortilla Flat(1942), where he played a Hispanic man.
Other well known movies: The Great Ziegfeld, The Shop Around the Corner, The Human Comedy, The Mortal Storm, The White Cliffs of Dover and his last movie, Key to the City.
Like most character actors of the studio era, Frank Morgan had numerous roles in many motion pictures. One of his last roles was in, The Stratton Story, a true story about a ballplayer who makes a comeback after losing a leg in a hunting accident.
Béla Lugosi (20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956) . Was best known for playing Count Dracula in the Broadway play and Film . Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in a Broadway production of Dracula adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel.
The film: Dracula (1931). The story begins when, Renfield travels to Transylvania and is met at the castle by Dracula. Renfield soon passes out from drinking drugged wine, Dracula attacks him. Dracula boards an England-bound ship, which also carries his coffin in which he sleeps during the day. When the ship docks in Whitby Harbor, the entire crew is found dead. Only Dracula and Renfield, who is scared out of his mind, survive. Renfield is taken to a sanitarium, where a doctor tries to figure out what is wrong with him.
One night at the opera, Dracula introduces himself to Dr. Seward and his daughter Mina, her fiance, John Harker, and friend Lucy who is later attacked and killed by Dracula .
Dracula takes advantage of his ability to transform himself into a bat to attack his next victim, Mina. She does not die immediately, but begins to change over several nights.
Van Helsing confirms for Seward and Harker that Dracula is a vampire when Dracula's reflection does not show in the mirror of a cigarette box. Even though Van Helsing, takes many precautions to prevent Dracula from getting into Mina's room. Dracula hypnotizes her maid to open the windows for him. After, Mina becomes a vampire, she tells Van Helsing that she has seen Lucy, which confirms his suspicions that she is the "woman in white" who has been attacking children. Will Van Helsing be able to find a way to resist Dracula and release Mina from his spell?
Bela Lugosi, became a legend after this movie, and his performance of Dracula introduce us to the vampires, we know and love today. ;)
Fun Facts:
Cinematographer Karl Freund achieved the effect of Dracula's hypnotic stare by aiming two pencil-spot-lights into actor Bela Lugosi's eyes.
The Royal Albert Hall sequence of the movie was filmed on the same stage where The Phantom of the Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney had been filmed.
Among the other actors mentioned as possible candidates for the role of Count Dracula were John Wray, Paul Muni, Conrad Veidt, Chester Morris, and William Courtenay.
The spider webs in Dracula's castle were created by shooting rubber cement from a rotary gun.
There was no real musical soundtrack in the film because it was believed that, with sound being such a recent innovation in films, the audience would not accept hearing music in a scene if there was no explanation for it being there (e.g., the orchestra playing off camera when Dracula meets Mina at the theatre).
Bette Davis (who had a contract at Universal at the time) was considered to play the part of Mina Harker. However, Universal head Carl Laemmle Jr. didn't think too highly of her sex appeal.
In the scene where Dracula and Renfield are traveling to London by boat, the footage shown is borrowed from a Universal silent film called The Storm Breaker (1925).
In the first scene, the young woman reading from the tourist book was played by Carla Laemmle, niece of Carl Laemmle, founder and head of Universal Pictures.
When Bela Lugosi died in 1956, he was buried wearing the black silk cape he wore for this film.
Bela Lugosi never blinks even once throughout the film.
The Devils Mask(1946).Cast: Anita Louise, Jim Bannon , Michael Duane, Mona Barrie, Barton Yarborough, Ludwig Donath, Paul E. Burns, Frank Wilcox , Thomas Jackson , Richard Hale.
When a plane headed for South America crashes, the police find five shrunken heads in the wreckage, one with red hair. Capt. Quinn of the San Francisco police department visits the local museum to find out if any of its collection is missing. There, Quinn meets up with private detectives Jack Packard and Doc Long. Quinn shows the shrunken head to curator Raymond Halliday, who asks taxidermist Leon Hartman to examine it.
Soon after, Mrs. Louise Mitchell, the wife of museum director Quentin Mitchell, who disappeared while on an expedition in South America. Tells the detectives that a man named Rex Kennedy has been following her and believes that he may be planning with her stepdaughter Janet to kill her.
That night Janet and Rex, visit Hartman and shares their belief that Louise is romantically involved with Arthur Logan. They also believe that they murdered her father. Louise introduces the detectives to Logan, who has come to show them slides of the expedition where Mitchell disappeared. As Logan shows the slides on the screen, an unseen person shoots a blow gun at him through the window. When the butler sees the fleeing person, he is killed by a dart from the gun. The daughter from inside the house also sees the killer... does she recognise him... could it be her father?
When you mix a blackmailing psychiatrist, a crazy taxidermist, a black panther, a few characters with shady reputations, you have a wonderful atmospheric little chiller that's very entertaining.
Anita Louise, was described as one of films most fashionable and stylish women. She was best known for her Hollywood society parties .
Anita Louise best known films: Madame Du Barry (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938), The Sisters (1938), and The Little Princess (1939).
By the 1940s, she performed in minor roles until television in the 1950s. She played one of her most widely seen roles in the CBS television series, My Friend Flicka from 1956–1957.
Rosalind Russell, was an actress of stage and screen, best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame. She won all 5 Golden Globes for which she was nominated, and was tied with Meryl Streep. Russell was known for playing character roles, wealthy, ladylike women. She had a career span from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Rosalind Russell featured films on TCM:
Craig's Wife (1936). Cast: Rosalind Russell, John Boles, Billie Burke. Dir: Dorothy Arzner. While Harriet is out of town taking care of her sister, her husband Walter is accused murder. Only thinking of herself, Harriet decides that her ill sister does not really need her and decides togo back to her beautiful home. She soon learns that Walter is under suspicion for murder and she does everything she can to protect him from the police, only so it won't inconvenience her.The only thing she really only cares about is her beautiful house and puts it before her family.For Rosalind Russell fans, the film is quite a change of pace from those who may know her best from thefilm, "His Girl Friday."
Trouble For Two (1936). Before he can marry, a European prince gets mixed up with a suicide club. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Reginald Owen. Dir: J. Walter Ruben.
Man-Proof (1938). A woman refuses to give up on the man she loves, even after he marries someone else. Cast: Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon. Dir: Richard Thorpe.
What a Woman! (1943). A female literary agent tries to make her star client as adventures as his most famous character. Cast: Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Willard Parker. Dir: Irving Commings.
The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947). A hard-drinking reporter tries to help the embittered widow of the soldier who had saved his life during the war. Cast: Rosalind Russell.
Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles Listed below are the Miriam Hopkins movies TCM will feature, October 18, 2010:
Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932). Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a scientist who unleashes the beast within. Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian.
Richest Girl in the World, The (1934). To put off fortune-hunters, an heiress trades places with her secretary. Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray.
Wise Girl (1937) . A rich girl plays poor to win over a Greenwich Village artist. Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Ray Milland, Walter Abel. Dir: Leigh Jason.
Lady With Red Hair (1940) . An actress hopes to regain her lost son by making it to the top. Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Claude Rains, Richard Ainley. Dir: Curtis Bernhardt.
Virginia City (1940). A rebel spy poses as a wild West dance hall girl. Cast: Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Humphrey Bogart. Dir: Michael Curtiz. Please click to view Virginia City movie review.
Heiress, The (1949) .A plain young woman's money makes her prey to fortune hunters. Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson. Dir: William Wyler.
List of Miriam Hopkins films I have seen: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1939 The Old Maid 1940 Virginia City 1949 The Heiress 1951 The Mating Season 1961 The Children's Hour 1966 The Chase
Please click on Miriam Hopkins name, in the tag line, located at the bottom of this article to view more info.
Dragon Seed(1944).War film. Cast: Katharine Hepburn. Based on a best-selling book by Pearl S. Buck, the film is about a peaceful village in China that has been invaded by the Imperial Japanese army during the Second Sino-Japanese war.
In the valley of Ling, China, Ling Tan and his family plant rice paddies, unaware of the destruction that is about to take over their lives. Ling's middle son, Lao Er, worries that his wife Jade attends too many meetings in the village. Where they discuss Japanese invasions,instead of at home where she belongs, taking care of him. Jade asks Lao Er to buy her a book, unlike most of the women of her time, she knows how to read. At first, Lao Er says that Jade is too independent, but finally agrees to buy her the book.
The next day, Lao Er asks his brother-in-law, Wu Lien, a city merchant, to recommend a book for Jade. Wu Lien suggests the book, All Men Are Brothers. On his way home, Wu Lien is then confronted by a mob of angry young people, who demand that he stop selling Japanese merchandise. When Wu Lien refuses, his shop is destroyed.
Sometime later, after Jade shares with Lao Er that she is pregnant, they hear Japanese airplanes bombing the nearby city. Ling, goes to the city with Lao San and is shocked to see the destruction there. The men in the village choose to keep a peaceful attitude to keep alive, but Jade (played by Hepburn), stands up for her believes.
I just finished watching the movie, Dragon Seed. I ignored the bad makeup on the non-Asian actors, so it would not ruin the wonderful story about the people, living and coping with the war. The film did remind me of another Pearl S. Buck wonderful film, The Good Earth (1937). Cast: Paul Muni as Wang Lung and Luise Rainer. I hope you get a chance to see this amazing film. I thought it was one of the best films that the golden age of Hollywood ever filmed. It is a story about Farmer Wang Lung who marries O-Lan, a servant at the Great House.
All is well until a drought and famine drive the family to starvation. Desperate, They travel to a city in search of work.After the city changes hands and O-Lan joins a mob looting a mansion, where she finds a bag of jewels. This treasure allows the family to go home and thrive once more... Or do they?
Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987), Film actress and dancer who became famous in the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as a great sex symbol. Rita, is best known for her performance in the film, Gilda (1946).
List of Rita Hayworth films that I have seen:
Only Angles Have Wings Blood and Sand (1941) You Were Never Lovelier (1942) Cover Girl (1944) Tonight and Every Night (1945) Gilda (1946) Down to Earth (1947) The Lady from Shanghai (1947) The Loves of Carmen (1948) Fire Down Below (1957) Pal Joey (1957)
Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966), first film performance was in, Red River(1946). Next Clift went on to perform in the film, The Search. Clift was unhappy with the script, and rewrote most of it himself. The movie was nominated for a screenwriting Academy Award, but the original writers were credited instead. Clift's performance got him nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Clift's next movie was, The Heiress. He signed on for the movie in order to avoid being typecast.
Clift's next movie was The Big Lift. Although Clift gave an amazing performance, the movie ended up being a box office bust. Clift was set to appear in Sunset Boulevard (which was written specifically for him) but he dropped out at the last minute, as he felt that his character was too close to him in real life.
List of Montgomery Clift movies I have seen: 1961 The Misfits 1959 Suddenly, Last Summer 1957 Raintree County 1953 From Here to Eternity 1951 A Place in the Sun 1949 The Heiress 1948 Red River
Spring Byington (October 17, 1886 – September 7, 1971), first film was a short film titled, Papa's Slay Ride(1931) and her second, and most famous performance was in, Little Women (1933) as "Marmee" with Katharine Hepburn as her daughter "Jo". She worked as a character actress in Hollywood for many years. In 1938, Byington was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for, You Can't Take it With You, which was won by Fay Bainter for Jezebel (in which Byington also had a role, as antebellum society matron Mrs. Kendrick).
One of my favorite Spring Byington performances was as Larry Hagman's mother on, I Dream of Jeannie(1967).
List of Spring Byington films I have seen:
Little Women (1933) Werewolf of London Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) The Buccaneer (1938) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) Meet John Doe (1941) When Ladies Meet (1941) Rings on Her Fingers (1942) Heaven Can Wait (1943) The Heavenly Body (1944) The Enchanted Cottage (1945) Thrill of a Romance (1945) Dragonwyck (1946) In the Good Old Summertime (1949) Angels in the Outfield (1951) Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
Linda Darnell (October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965). Film actress that began her career as a child model, and moved onto theater and film acting. She made her first film in 1939, and performed in supporting roles for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s. She rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone Power in adventure films and established a main character career after her role in, Forever Amber (1947). She is also known for her performance in, Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).
List of Linda Darnell movies I have seen:
1940 Mark of Zorro 1941 Blood and Sand 1946 My Darling Clementine 1949 Letter to Three Wives 1952 Blackbeard the Pirate
This video, is a scene from one of my favorite movies, Blood in Sand(1941). Starring: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth and Alla Nazimova.
Marlene Dietrich, first film performance was playing a bit part in the 1922 film, So sind die Männer (1922). She met her future husband, Rudolf Sieber, on the set of another film made that year, Tragödie der Liebe.
Dietrich continued to work on stage and in film both in Berlin and Vienna throughout the 1920s. On stage, she had roles in, Pandora's Box, The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night Dream, Back to Methuselah and Misalliance. It was in the musicals, Es Liegt in der Luft and Zwei Krawatten, that she received the most attention.
By the late 1920s, Dietrich was also performing on screen in, Cafe Elektric (1927), Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame (1928) and Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen (1929).
In 1929, Dietrich landed the breakthrough role of Lola-Lola in the film, The Blue Angel (1930). The film was directed by Josef von Sternberg, who took credit for having "discovered" Dietrich. The film is best known for having introduced Dietrich's signature song "Falling in Love Again".
After The Blue Angel's success, Dietrich moved to the U.S. on contract to Paramount Pictures. Her first American film, Morocco(1930), Directed by von Sternberg, earned Dietrich her only Oscar nomination. The film is about a Foreign Legionnaire, who meets and falls in love with a singer. Cast: Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich and Adolphe Menjou. It was nominated for four Academy Awards in the categories of: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Marlene Dietrich, who knew little English, and spoke her lines phonetically), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Director (Josef von Sternberg).
Dietrich's other stylish cinema film performances that were directed by von Sternberg between 1930 and 1935: Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman.
Dietrich was labeled "box office poison" after her 1937 film, Knight Without Armour. In 1939, her stardom revived when she played the cowboy saloon girl Frenchie in the western, Destry Rides Again, opposite James Stewart.
The movie also introduced another favorite song, "The Boys in the Back Room".She played a similar role with John Wayne in The Spoilers(1942).
Dietrich also worked with directors: Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, in films that included A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Rancho Notorious, Touch of Evil and Stage Fright .
My Halloween movie pick is the film, Stage Fright(1950). Directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, Hitchcock's daughter Patricia Hitchcock in her movie debut and Joyce Grenfell.
Actress Eve Gill, is interrupted in the middle of rehearsals by actor, Jonathan Cooper. He tells her that he is the secret lover of stage actress/singer, Charlotte Inwood. He also shares with her that Charlotte came to him after killing her husband. She was wearing a bloodstained dress and Jonathan agreed to go back to her house and find her blue dress to change into. While there He sees the body of Mr. Inwood laying on the floor. He tries to make it look like a burglary gone wrong, only to be caught in the act by Charlotte's maid.
Eve takes him to hide in a house near the coast owned by her father, Commodore Gill, who notices that the blood on Charlotte's dress has been put there not by accident. He and Eve believe that Jonathan has been framed. Eve decides to find out the truth by posing as a reporter, she bribes maid Nellie Goode, to pretend that she is ill and cannot work for Charlotte for a couple of days.
Soon after Eve becomes friends with Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith, who is now on the case.
Meanwhile, Charlotte continues to perform in her musical show. She is visited by Jonathan who wants her travel abroad with him. Charlotte makes it clear that she will not give up her career.
Eve continues to helps Jonathan hide from the police, but she is beginning to have second thoughts. Will Eve and Wilfred Smith ever get Jonathan and/or Charlotte to make a confession to the police?
I was amazed how wonderful this movie is. It is suspenseful, humorous and touching. Jane Wyman and Richard Todd are wonderful in this film. Marlene Dietrich, was very believable as the flamboyant theater star. It is too bad "Stage Fright" is not more well known.
* Spoiler* Alfred Hitchcock's cameo in, Stage Fright, is walking on the street turning to look at Eve as she rehearses her scripted introduction speech to Mrs. Inwood.*
Dial M for Murder(1954). Is based on a successful stage play and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings . The supporting cast includes: John Williams and Anthony Dawson .
Having seen the play on Broadway, Cary Grant really wanted to play the role of Tony Wendice, but studio chiefs did not feel the public would accept him as a man who arranges to have his wife murdered.
The story begins when, Tony Wendice a professional tennis player, now retired lives in a London with his wealthy wife, Margot. Who is having an affair with crime-fiction writer, Mark Halliday. Needing money, Tony comes up with what he thinks is the perfect plan to have Margot murdered.
When Mark shows up at the apartment, Margot introduces her "old friend" to Tony. After sending them off to see a play, Tony makes an excuse to stay behind so he can meet with, Swann.
Tony has been following Swann, one of his old college friends and has learned that he has become a small time crook. He uses the information to blackmail him into committing the murder. Tony shows Swann a love letter from Mark to his wife. After tricking Swann into leaving his fingerprints on the letter, Tony offers to pay him £1,000 to kill Margot. If he refuses, Tony will turn him in to the police for trying to blackmail his wife.
After Swann agrees, Tony tells him his plan: First, He will take Mark for the evening, leaving Margot alone at home. Next, he tells him where he will hide her key. Then Swann, is to sneak into the apartment after Margot goes to bed and hide behind the curtains and wait for Tony to telephone. That will be the signal for the plan to go into motion. Swann is to kill her and leave signs of a failed burglary, then exit through the front door, again hiding the key under the staircase carpet. Will Swann complete their perfect plan for murder?
Dial M for Murder, is one of my favorite films. It is a wonderfully fast paced film. The ending, is very entertaining.
After the success of Mogambo, Kelly starred in a TV play The Way of an Eagle, before being cast in the film, Dial M for Murder. Alfred Hitchcock was the director of the film and would become Kelly's mentor. Dial M for Murder, opened in theaters in May 1954, to both positive reviews and box-office triumph.
Patsy Ruth Miller (January 17, 1904 – July 16, 1995). After being discovered by the actress Alla Nazimova at a Hollywood party, Patsy Ruth Miller got her first break with a small role in Camille(1921). A silent film starring Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova.
Other Patsy Miller movies: Trimmed (1922) Fortune's Mask (1922) Omar the Tentmaker (1922)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). Cast: Lon Chaney as Quasimodo and Patsy Ruth Miller as Esmeralda, and is directed by Wallace Worsley. The film is the most famous adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel, aside from the 1996 Disney adaptation. The film was Universals "Super Jewel" of 1923 and was their most successful silent film. The film is best known for the beautiful sets that showcase 15th century Paris as well as Lon Chaney's performance and spectacular make-up . The film elevated Chaney, to full star status in Hollywood. It also helped set a standard for many later horror films. ON TCM: Silent Sunday, October 17, 2010. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).
Other Patsy Ruth Miller films: Why Girls Go Back Home (1926) So This Is Paris (1926) The First Auto (1927)The First Auto(1927). Silent's review. The Aviator (1929) Mother (1978)
Another Lillian Gish favorite film and my Halloween movie pick, The Night of the Hunter(1955). Thriller directed by Charles Laughton. Cast: Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters.
The Night of the Hunter (1955). The film begins when family man Ben Harper, is sentenced to hang for his part in a robbery in which two men were killed. Before he is caught he hides the stolen money, telling only his son John, where the money is.
Reverend Harry Powell, a serial killer and self-appointed preacher with the two words "LOVE" and "HATE" tattooed across his knuckles, shares a prison cell with Harper. While Harper sleeping he says: "And a little child shall lead them."
Powell, now believes that Harper's children, are the only ones who know the secret of where the money is and marries Harper's widow, Willa. Powell, asks the children about the money and John becomes suspicious of Powell and does not trust him. Willa, overhears her new husband questioning the children and she now that she knows the truth, he kills her.
After Powell dumps her body in the pond, a beautiful/horrific under water scene of their mother sitting in the car at the bottom of the lake. He learns where the money is and the children escape down the river with the money. The river scene is one of many moments of pure beauty and the music keeps you drifting along. They find safety with an eccentric old woman named, Rachel Cooper. Powell, eventually catches up with them, but Rachel knows that he is evil and takes matters into her own hands.
I will never forget his tall dark shadow looming over the children. This movie had me sitting at the edge of my seat..
Lillian Gish, was considered for a couple of roles in, Gone with the Wind. Ranging from Ellen O'Hara, Scarlett's mother, to the role of the prostitute, Belle Watling.
Gish made many television appearances from the 1950s into 1980s. Her most well known television performance was, The Trip to Bountiful(1953). Gish became one of the leading advocates on the lost art of the silent film, giving speeches and touring to screenings of classic works. In 1975, she hosted The Silent Years, a PBS film program of silent films.
Gish received a Special Academy Award in 1971 "For superlative artistry and for distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures." In 1984 she received an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming only the second female recipient (Bette Davis was first in 1977), and the only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era.
Her last film performance was in, The Whales of August (1987) at the age of 93, with Vincent Price, Bette Davis and Ann Sothern, in which she and Davis starred as elderly sisters in Maine. The film was shot on location on Maine's Cliff Island. The film was directed by Lindsay Anderson, his final feature film, and the screenplay was adapted by David Berry from his own play.
The story is about two elderly widowed sisters near the end of their lives, spending a summer in beach house in Maine. While visiting there they think back to all the summers they had there in the past. They talk about the passage of time, and all the misunderstandings that kept them from having a close relationship.
Libby, played by Davis, is bitter and cold . Sarah, played by Gish, is a softer and more tolerant, wanting very much to have a relationship with her sister. The resentment that Libby has towards her, stifles Sarah's every move at becoming friends.
Vincent Price a fisherman, plays the romantic interest for Gish. Sothern a lifelong friend provides the fun and laughter. In flashbacks actresses Margaret Ladd, Mary Steenburgen and Tisha Sterling (Sothern's real-life daughter) play, the Davis, Gish, and Sothern characters as young women.
Her final performance was a cameo on the 1988 studio recording of Jerome Kern's Show Boat, starring Frederica von Stade and Jerry Hadley, in which she affectingly spoke the few lines of The Old Lady on the Levee in the final scene. The last words of her near century-spanning career: "Good night, dear."
Please click on Lillian Gish's name in the tag line, located at the bottom of the article, to view more information and pictures about this wonderful actress..
Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944 article in Time magazine about the difficulties experienced by men returning home to civilian life. Goldwyn hired war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write the screenplay.
The film was directed by William Wyler, with cinematography by Gregg Toland. The film won seven Academy Awards, including those for best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, editing, screenplay, and original score. Cast:Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, and Hoagy Carmichael. It also features Harold Russell, a U.S. paratrooper who had lost both hands in a training accident.
At the end of World War II, three servicemen meet on a flight to Boone City, their hometown. The men, Air Force Captain Fred Derry, sailor Homer Parrish, and Army Sergeant Al Stephenson, quickly become friends, even though they come from different backgrounds. Al is a banker with a wife and two children. Fred is a former soda jerk from the wrong side of the tracks, and Homer, who has lost both hands in the war. As they share a taxi from the airport, they talk about many favorite places they used to hang out at, including a tavern run by Homer's uncle, Butch Engle. Each share their concerns about the future and how they will adapt to civilian life. Just as they expected, each of the veterans faces a crisis on their first day home. I thought this was a very powerful movie, one you will not soon forget..
I posted one of my favorite scenes from the movie.
Fun facts:
Director William Wyler was furious when he learned that Samuel Goldwyn had sent Harold Russell for acting lessons; he preferred Russell's untrained, natural acting.
William Wyler wanted a completely unglamorous look, requiring all costumes to be bought off the rack and worn by the cast before filming, and making sure all sets were built smaller than life-size. In order to give the film a documentary-style realism, the director drew each member of the crew - props, grips, mixers, etc. - from the ranks of WWII veterans.
This was the first time Myrna Loy had worked with William Wyler and she was wary of his reputation as "90-Take Willy". As it turned out, the two got along very well.
In 1946 this became the most successful film at the box office since Gone with the Wind (1939) which was released 7 years earlier.
Myrna Loy receives top billing as she was the most successful female star at the time.
During the wedding scene at the end, Harold Russell fluffed his lines during his vows. Rather that calling cut and ordering a re-take, William Wyler liked how natural it sounded and this was the take used.
Virgina Mayo, worked as a dancer, then signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and performed in several movies with Danny Kaye. She played the dream-girl heroine in: Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). In her Hollywood heyday, Mayo was known as the voluptuous beauty in the film, The Girl from Jones Beach.
In 1949's White Heat she played the unsympathetic role of "Verna Jarrett", opposite James Cagney. She was also cast against type as a gold digger in, The Best Years of Our Lives. Her film career continued through the 1950s and 1960s, frequently in B-movie westerns and adventure films. While she also appeared in musicals, Mayo's singing voice was always dubbed.
Virginia and her husband, actor Michael O'Shea (of Jack London film fame) co-starred in: Tunnel of Love, Fiorello, and George Washington Slept Here. She has also starred in Cactus Flower, How the Other Half Loves, and the musical comedy, Good News.
Charles Laughton (July 1, 1899 – December 15, 1962). Was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producerand two-time director. Laughton was best known for his historical roles in films.
John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994). Best known for his role as "Ox" in the comedy film Stripes(1981). Another well known performances was that of Del Griffith in the comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
