Hollywood is releasing a steady stream of sentimental dog movies these days, from A Dog’s Purpose (2017) and A Dog’s Journey (2019) to A Dog’s Way Home (2019) and The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), which makes this a perfect time to revisit one of the first and best of the genre, Lassie Come Home (1943). All dog movies that have come after the Lassie films owe a debt to the original, but none of them has managed to improve on it. Lassie Come Home is a superior dog movie for several reasons, including, of course, its canine star, but subtler elements also work to make this picture an enduring classic that viewers of all ages can enjoy.
Adapted from the novel by Eric Knight, Lassie Come Home tells the now-familiar story of a loyal dog who refuses to be separated from her beloved boy no matter the obstacles. Child star Roddy McDowall and veteran character actor Donald Crisp – who had already played son and father in the Best Picture winner How Green Was My Valley (1941) – provide the main human points of interest as Joe and Sam Carraclough, whose poverty drives them to sell Lassie to a rich duke (Nigel Bruce). After Lassie returns home twice from the Duke’s estate, she is taken to Scotland, where she escapes again and embarks on the long journey home to Yorkshire.
Roddy MocDowall stars as Joe, the boy Lassie loves. Every day Lassie meets Joe in the schoolyard when classes end.
Lassie herself, played by a male dog named Pal, has become legendary, and in this first screen appearance, it’s easy to see why generations of dog lovers have fallen under Lassie’s spell. A magnificent rough collie with soulful eyes, Lassie manages to be remarkable but believable throughout her adventures. Unlike most of the current movie dogs, Lassie does not talk, and it’s just as well because her interior monologue would be very dull. “I’ve got to get home to my boy” seems to be her constant, driving thought. Lassie’s silence, however, is part of her appeal. She doesn’t have to tell us what she’s thinking because her actions clearly show it. Besides, this is not a cute, funny dog story. It’s a seriously moving story about hardship and devotion. Silence becomes it.
The significance of silence extends to the main human characters. Neither Joe nor Sam talks much in the film, but their actions show what they are feeling at every moment. Donald Crisp has a particularly effective way of being very still and silent at moments when Sam is too overcome with grief to do anything else. When Mrs. Carraclough, played by the inimitable Elsa Lanchester, tries to fill the men’s silences with words, she only ends up showing how useless they are. Though she claims multiple times that she’s glad Lassie is gone, it’s obvious that she’s heartbroken, too, and it tells us more that she keeps Lassie’s bowl close at hand even after the dog has been taken off to Scotland.
Elsa Lanchester and Donald Crisp play Joe’s parents, who show their devotion to the family dog even after they are forced to sell Lassie to put food on the table.
In addition to McDowall, Crisp, and Lanchester, Lassie Come Home boasts an impressive roster of top-notch actors, most notably a very young Elizabeth Taylor in her second screen appearance. The role would launch Taylor’s career at MGM and also provide a lifelong friend in McDowall. Filling in the other supporting roles are Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn, J. Pat O’Malley, Alan Napier, and Arthur Shields, a veritable who’s who of British character actors. Whitty and Gwenn have particularly fine scenes as kindly people who help Lassie along her way, while J. Pat O’Malley has the unenviable task of being a villainous servant who mistreats her.
Elizabeth Taylor and Nigel Bruce play the granddaughter and grandfather who buy Lassie from the impoverished Carraclough family.
Too often modern movies about dogs succumb to a
temptation to be cute or clever; the going feeling seems to be that family
movies require a lot of levity to be palatable, but Lassie Come Home
avoids these traps without being mawkishly sentimental, either. We get a few
moments of humor, but jokes would not suit a story about a family so desperate
that they part with the dog they dearly love, and between the lines of the
movie we can read the wartime mood and the film’s effort to remind us how stoic
and determined the British people are in the face of adversity. As the film’s
introduction observes, the creator of Lassie, Eric Knight, was himself killed
in War World II while serving in the United States Army. There’s a seriousness
of purpose underlying the film that has nothing to do with dogs but everything
to do with loyalty, sacrifice, and perseverance, and that, too, makes Lassie
Come Home a film that endures.
If you fall in love with Lassie and her human costars, you’ll find many of them reunited in different roles in the sequels: Son of Lassie (1945), Courage of Lassie (1946), Hills of Home (1948), and Challenge to Lassie (1949). TCM has a DVD set of the original and three of the subsequent films if you’re looking to get a head start on holiday shopping for the dog lover in your life.
The Golden Age of Hollywood boasted many wonderful dancers, with some remembered more than others. While often overlooked, Hal LeRoy was one of the top dancers in early Hollywood, often appearing in early Vitaphone and Warner Brothers shorts.
John LeRoy Schotte was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December
10, 1913, where he learned tap dancing from an African-American friend. The two
boys sold newspapers in town and attempted to imitate the latest vaudeville
acts that passed through town. While lanky in frame and possessing a strong
overbite, LeRoy excelled in dancing and enthusiastically danced in venues
throughout Cincinnati. His first professional job would occur as part of the Hoboken
Heroes at the Lyric Theater in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1928, thanks to his
dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn.
Later, he secured work in the 1931 Broadway show, The Gang’s All Here, and soon found
himself working for the Ziegfeld Follies.
There, LeRoy was encouraged to develop his own choreography to entertain the
crowd. As he devised routines in advance and on-the-spot, he delighted
audiences with his dancing abilities. While working on the Broadway circuit, he
befriended Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who would invite him along to various
dancing clubs and test his skills.
Thanks to his reputation within the Follies, LeRoy soon worked in film shorts for Vitaphone in Vitaphone’s Brooklyn studio, where he would appear in musical shorts alongside other up-and-coming starlets including June Allyson and June Preisser. Throughout the 1930s, he also appeared in stage productions such as Thumbs Up (1935), Too Many Girls (1939), and Count Me In (1942). In addition, he performed regularly in reviews, vaudeville, and in the New York nightclub scene.
June Allyson and Hal LeRoy in Ups and Downs (1937)
In 1935, LeRoy found himself in a poor financial situation,
which caused him to sue his father. He found that when he married his dancing
partner, Ruth Dodd, his father withdrew $70,000, which had been on deposit per
LeRoy’s late mother. As his relationship with his father became strained, LeRoy
and his wife lived with her in-laws in the 1940s.
Despite this challenge, LeRoy continued to appear in films and in shows throughout the 1930s and 1940s at notable venues such as Radio City Music Hall, the Capitol Theatre, and more. He maintained a role in the film version of Too Many Girls but also played the title role in a series of Harold Teen films for Warner Brothers. When television arrived, he was chosen to be a featured performer for Bob Hope’s television premiere. On the side, he also appeared in summer stock and supper club productions such as Show Boat, Where’s Charley?, and High Button Shoes until he became ill.
By the 1960s, LeRoy turned to directing, as he did not
maintain the energetic physicality he needed for his dancing style. As a result,
he directed an off-Broadway show called Summer’s
Here and a musical version of The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1966.
LeRoy passed away on May 2, 1985, following heart surgery in
Hackensack, New Jersey. He left behind no heirs and his funeral arrangements
were private.
To this day, not many tributes to LeRoy remain. The home he
lived in during the 1940s does remain at 495 Maywood Ave in Maywood, New
Jersey. Here is the property today:
495 Maywood Ave in Maywood, New Jersey
The best way to remember him is to not only view his films but to also enjoy the rare musical shorts in which he appeared—many of which are available to viewers thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Vitaphone Project.
Annette Bochenek of Chicago, Illinois, is a PhD student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the Hometowns to Hollywood blog, in which she writes about her trips exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the “Hometowns to Hollywood” film series throughout the Chicago area. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies and is the president of TCM Backlot’s Chicago chapter. In addition to writing for Classic Movie Hub, she also writes for Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Chicago Art Deco SocietyMagazine.
“Hollywood at the Races” We have FOUR Books to Give Away this month!
It’s time for our next book giveaway contest! This month CMH is very happy to announce that we will be giving away FOUR COPIES of Hollywood at the Races: Film’s Love Affair with the Turf by Alan Schubak, courtesy of University Press of Kentucky, from now through Oct 26.
Hollywood at the Races, in stores on Oct 22
In order to qualify to win one of these prizes via this contest giveaway, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, Oct 26 at 9PM EST. However, the sooner you enter, the better chance you have of winning, because we will pick a winner on four different days within the contest period, via random drawings, as listed below… So if you don’t win the first week that you enter, you will still be eligible to win during the following weeks until the contest is over.
Oct 5: One Winner
Oct 12: One Winner
Oct 19: One Winner
Oct 26: One Winner
We will announce each week’s winner on Twitter @ClassicMovieHub, the day after each winner is picked at 9PM EST — for example, we will announce our first week’s winner on Sunday Oct 6 at 9PM EST on Twitter. And, please note that you don’t have to have a Twitter account to enter; just see below for the details…
…..
And now on to the contest!
ENTRY TASK (2-parts) to be completed by Saturday, October 26 at 9PM EST — BUT remember, the sooner you enter, the more chances you have to win…
1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post
2)ThenTWEET (not DM) the following message*: Just entered to win the “Hollywood at the Races” #BookGiveaway courtesy of @KentuckyPress & @ClassicMovieHub You can enter too here http://ow.ly/WMge50wE4qx
THE QUESTION: Do you have any favorite movies about the races? If not, why do you want to win this book?
*If you do not have a Twitter account, you can still enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.
ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…
About the Book: Horse racing was so popular and influential between 1930 and 1960 that nearly 150 racing themed films were released, including A Day at the Races, Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, and National Velvet. This fast-paced, gossipy history explores the relationship between the Hollywood film industry, the horse racing industry, and the extraordinary participation of producers, directors, and actors in the Sport of Kings. Alan Shuback details how all three of Southern California’s major racetracks were founded by Hollywood luminaries: Hal Roach was cofounder of Santa Anita Park, Bing Crosby founded Del Mar with help from Pat O’Brien, and Jack and Harry Warner founded Hollywood Park with help from dozens of people in the film community. The races also provided a social and sporting outlet for the film community―studios encouraged film stars to spend a day at the races, especially when a new film was being released. The stars’ presence at the track generated a bevy of attention from eager photographers and movie columnists, as well as free publicity for their new films. Moreover, Louis B. Mayer, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Betty Grable, and Don Ameche were all major Thoroughbred owners, while Mickey Rooney, Chico Marx, and John Huston were notorious for their unsuccessful forays to the betting windows.
Click here for the full contest rules.
Please note that only Continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the territory of Puerto Rico) entrants are eligible.
And — BlogHub members ARE eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States (as noted above).
Good Luck!
And if you can’t wait to win the book, you can purchase the on amazon by clicking here:
Cooking with the Stars: Gloria Stuart’s Cream Vermont
Gloria Stuart
Happy October to all of my Hollywood-obsessed readers out there! As we ease into fall and get ourselves into the Halloween spirit, it’s time to break out the chilling old scary movies and pay tribute to the screen icons who made them possible. I’ve made it a personal tradition to highlight a star known for horror films in this column each October. In the past two years that I’ve been sharing the history and recipe of stars, I’ve saluted Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. These two articles specifically mean a lot to me because my write-up of Vincent was my first original Cooking with the Stars post, and my Boris tribute was the first installment of Cooking with the Stars as a monthly series.
This year I wanted to continue my horror-themed streak, but so far, I’ve only honored men during this month! I knew that this had to change in 2019, but at first, I wasn’t sure who to write about. My first choice was Elsa Lanchester, but I was unable to find any recipes associated with the original Bride of Frankenstein. Julie Adams, the leading lady from The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), was my second choice, but I had to nix that idea for the same reason. However, it didn’t take much more time to figure out exactly who my first Cooking with the Stars scream queen would be: none other than Gloria Stuart!
Since I couldn’t find any suitable pictures of Gloria Stuart as a child, here she is with Shirley Temple, the most famous child star of her day.
Gloria Stuart was born under the name Gloria Stewart on July 4, 1910, on her family’s dining room table in Santa Monica, California. Her mother, Alice Deidrick, was a third-generation Californian, and her maternal great-grandmother settled in the area during the gold rush after leaving Missouri in a covered wagon. Gloria’s father, Frank Stewart, was an attorney who originally practiced law in San Francisco.
Frank, unfortunately, passed when Gloria was only nine years old after he sustained injuries from a passing car. Around the same time, Gloria was expelled from school for kicking her teacher in the leg. (“To be honest, she deserved it,” Gloria claimed later.) These two events put a strain on Stewart’s mother, who struggled to make ends meet for herself, her daughter, and Gloria’s two younger brothers, so she soon remarried a businessman named Fred Finch.
When it was time for Gloria to return to school, she adopted her stepfather’s last name, and since she was never given a middle name, she decided to give herself one: Frances, the feminine form of her father’s name in his honor. Gloria excelled in the arts during her high school years as she improved on her writing and acting skills, ultimately winning the lead role in her school’s production of The Swan. Her stormy relationship with her stepfather led to her enrolling in UC Berkeley as soon as she graduated high school in order to leave her home situation.
Gloria Stuart and Boris Karloff in a publicity photo for her first significant movie, The Old Dark House (1932)
During her time at Berkeley, Gloria continued to hone her artistic talents, majoring in theater and philosophy. Her liberal surroundings allowed her to sympathize with the plight of blue-collar workers, and at one point she even attempted to join the Young Communists League but was rejected due to her young age. It was also during this time that Gloria began signing her name as “Stuart”. During her junior year, she met her first husband, Blair Gordon Newell, a sculptor and an idealist like herself. The two began living in Carmel-by-the-Sea and adopted a bohemian lifestyle.
After settling into their new home, Gloria took on a variety of jobs, including performing at their local theater and working as a florist, seamstress, and a waitress. It was during one of her theater performances that she was chosen to fill a role at The Playbox Theater in Pasadena, which was attended by talent scouts from Universal and Paramount. The studios were both desperate to sign the blonde ingenue, and ultimately there was such a stalemate between them that they ended up flipping a coin. Universal won the toss, and Stuart was immediately signed.
Her career instantly skyrocketed when she was chosen alongside stars like Ginger Rogers and Mary Carlisle to become a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1932. For her first significant film role, she was chosen by esteemed director James Whale to star in The Old Dark House (1932), a thrilling work of suspense that still holds up today that paired Stuart with honored professionals like Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, and Melvyn Douglas.
Gloria Stuart and Claude Rains in a scene from The Invisible Man (1933), one of the finest and most underrated of the Universal horror films
While she was on set for The Old Dark House (1932), Melvyn Douglas, who had become an outcast during production along with Gloria, approached her and asked her if she would be willing to help form an actor’s union with him. She was delighted to do so, and their concept and hard work eventually formed into The Screen Actor’s Guild the following year. At the same time, she was cast in film after film, such as Air Mail (1932) with Pat O’Brien, Sweepings (1933) with Lionel Barrymore, and Secret of the Blue Room (1933) with Paul Lukas.
It was due to her positive mentions in reviews for these pictures that she was chosen to collaborate with James Whale once again in one of her most well-known pictures, and the primary reason why I chose to spotlight her this month: The Invisible Man (1933), in which Stuart portrays mad scientist Claude Rains‘ love interest. Her husband grew tired of their life in Hollywood while Gloria was at the height of her career, and the two amicably split during the production of The Invisible Man (1933).
It was on the set of her film that followed, Roman Scandals (1933), that Stuart met her second husband, screenwriter Arthur Sheekman. The pair wed in 1934 and Gloria continued making movies at a rapid speed, even during her first pregnancy in 1935, when she most notably starred as Dick Powell‘s love interest in Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935). However, she received some of her first negative reviews due to her lack of singing and dancing in the film due to her pregnancy.
Gloria Stuart, shown here with Jane Withers in a scene from Keep Smiling (1938)
While Gloria still maintained an array of devoted fans, the negative reviews did not end there. After leaving Universal in favor of Twentieth Century Fox, she starred in a series of B pictures. Afterwards, she began receiving supporting roles in films that starred child actresses, such as Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (1937), where she received the following review: “Listing Temple’s supporting players hastily then, before we forget them entirely, we might mention Miss Faye and Gloria Stuart as having been permitted a scene or two while Miss Temple was out freshening her costume.” She also co-starred opposite Temple in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) and opposite child actress Jane Withers in Keep Smiling (1938).
Stuart made a multitude of pictures during the late 1930s, but unfortunately, the quality of these films declined, and in some reviews, Gloria never even received a mention for her work. It was after this sad streak that Fox decided not to renew her contract with the studio, though it was reported in the news at the time that Stuart left on her own free will.
After leaving Hollywood in 1939, Gloria traveled the world with her husband, wandering from Asia to Egypt, Italy, and eventually to France, right as Great Britain declared war on Germany. The coupled begged the American consul to remain in the country and join the war effort, with Stuart willing to work as a hospital volunteer and her husband wishing to be a war correspondent, but the offer was rejected and they were forced to travel back to New York.
Gloria Stuart and actress Hillary Brooke visiting two convalescing troops at O’Reilly General Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, c. 1944.
Upon her return to America, Stuart had hopes of making it on Broadway, but it wasn’t long before she realized that her dream would not come to pass. As she later stated, “I wanted to be a theater actress, but I thought it would be easier to get to New York and the theater if I had a name than if I just walked the streets as a little girl from California. When I went back to New York with somewhat of a name, they didn’t want movie actresses.” Gloria was accepted in a variety of summer stock productions on the east coast, however, and also took singing and dancing lessons in order to tour the country as part of the USO.
Stuart took on a few more parts in minor films before effectively retiring from the screen in 1946. Not long after returning to New York, Gloria discovered the studio of a noted découpage artist and fell in love with the artistic medium, deciding to fill her time by opening a découpage shop on Los Angeles’s decorators’ row named Décor, Ltd. Most of her work comprised of various decorated furniture pieces, which became a hit in Hollywood circles — Judy Garland was a noted customer and fan of her work. It wasn’t long before her pieces were being sold across the country. Stuart was eventually forced to close her shop due to the expense and time needed in order to create découpage pieces, but she continued to create art using many mediums in the following decades, and her work is still owned and displayed around the world in locations like The Los Angeles Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Her most notable return to the screen following her retirement was as the older Rose in Titanic (1997), for which she was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and finally won a Screen Actors Guild Award, which I find ironic considering her role in the Guild’s establishment. On July 4th, 2010, the Academy threw a 100th birthday tribute and party for Stuart, the only time that the Academy had ever done so for a living person. She passed away nearly three months later of respiratory failure on September 26, 2010.
Gloria Stuart’s Cream Vermont
Gloria Stuart shown cooking at her home in the January 1933 issue of Photoplay magazine.
Before I go into this recipe, I also want to mention that Stuart was a skilled cook, hosting frequent dinner parties in Hollywood. She was close friends with food writer M.F.K. Fisher, and her daughter Sylvia Thompson later wrote of Stuart’s cooking style, “My mother has never made ‘Just Roast Beef’ in her life. It wouldn’t interest her. Her style is based on the intricacies of composition. It borders on the baroque. Everyone adores it.” After tasting one of Gloria’s dishes, writer Samuel Hoffenstein composed a poem which he said was inspired by “hearing the wings of all the poets brush through Gloria’s kitchen.”
While Gloria herself never authored a cookbook, her daughter Sylvia, with the help of Fisher, penned her own cookbook and included some of Gloria’s recipes. Here’s how to make her Cream Vermont, which was featured in a lovely cookbook from the 1930s promoting the Norge freezer!
Gloria Stuart sharing some of her recipes in an advertisement for the Norge freezer, c. 1930s.
1 cup pure maple syrup
8 egg yolks
2 cups whipped cream
½ chopped nutmeats (I used walnuts)
Heat syrup in a double boiler until a slight coating forms on the surface.
Beat yolks with rotary beater until thick and lemon-colored.
Pour one-third of syrup over yolks, stirring constantly.
Pour this mixture slowly over remaining syrup in the double boiler, stirring constantly until mixture coats a metal spoon.
Place in freezer tray until frozen to a mush.
Fold in whipped cream and nuts and return to freezer tray.
Freeze without stirring. Serves 10.
My version of Gloria Stuart’s Cream Vermont!
One of the reasons why I chose to make this recipe, aside from my desire to honor Gloria Stuart and her work, was because I had never even heard of Cream Vermont before. Apparently, neither had the internet. Making something that had been seldom attempted before, if at all over the past few decades, was highly intriguing to me, and I felt like a Claude Rains-esque mad scientist myself as I prepared this dish in the kitchen.
For a dessert that contained only four ingredients, the actual preparation of this Cream Vermont was still complex and required a lot of technique and fast work. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I don’t usually struggle with the average recipe anymore and I can usually work with whatever’s thrown my way, but this time I couldn’t get the mixture to fully combine until it was frozen into a mush. Even the finished result still had a bit of a swirl to it as opposed to being one solid color.
My theory going into this recipe was that it would have some sort of an ice cream taste and consistency, and I wasn’t too far off. The flavor was really good, and while it felt like ice cream, it tasted purely like maple syrup and whipped cream. As you might imagine, the egg yolk and walnut were completely masked, and the finished product was WAY TOO SWEET. Just ONE spoonful gave me an instant headache and I worried that I’d go into a diabetic coma.
When my boyfriend heard my reaction, it made him instantly want to try it because he claimed that he could tolerate any sweetness level. He ended up eating about a quarter of a bowl and also woke up with a horrible headache the next morning. I can’t give this too low of a rating because the flavors were still nice and I didn’t hate this dish, but to me it’s essentially inedible, so I’ll go ahead and give it three out of five Vincents despite the fact that this is not for the faint of heart and I wouldn’t really recommend it.
Stuart’s Cream Vermont recipe gets Three Vincents!
…
–Samantha Ellis for Classic Movie Hub
Samantha resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania and is the author of Musings of a Classic Film Addict, a blog that sheds light on Hollywood films and filmmakers from the 1930s through the 1960s. Her favorite column that she pens for her blog is Cooking with the Stars, for which she tests and reviews the personal recipes of stars from Hollywood’s golden age. When she isn’t in the kitchen, Samantha also lends her voice and classic film knowledge as cohost of the Ticklish Business podcast alongside Kristen Lopez and Drea Clark, and proudly serves as President of TCM Backlot’s Philadelphia Chapter. You can catch up with her work by following her @classicfilmgeek on Twitter.
Win tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics: The Godfather Part II” on the Big Screen! In Select Cinemas Nationwide Sun Nov 10, Tues Nov 12 and Wed Nov 13
“My father taught me many things here – he taught me in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”
CMH continues with our 4th year of our partnership with Fathom Events – with the 13th of our 14 movie ticket giveaways for 2019, courtesy of Fathom Events!
We’ll be giving away EIGHT PAIRS of tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics: The Godfather Part II” on the Big Screen — starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro.
In order to qualify to win a pair of movie tickets via this contest, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, Oct 26 at 6pm EST.
We will announce the winner(s) on Twitter on Sunday, Oct 27, between 6PM EST and 7PM EST. If a winner(s) does not have a Twitter account, we will announce that winner(s) via this blog in the comment section below.
Godfather Part II won six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor (De Niro)
ENTRY TASK (2-parts) to be completed by Saturday Oct 26 at 6pm EST…
1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post
THE QUESTION: Although not officially a classic-era film, what in your opinion makes “The Godfather Part II” a classic? And, if you haven’t seen it, why do you want to see it on the Big Screen?
2) Then TWEET* (not DM) the following message: I just entered to win tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics Presents: The Godfather Part II” on the Big Screen courtesy of @ClassicMovieHub & @FathomEvents – you can enter too at http://ow.ly/w1L750wE4mO
IMPORTANT: If you don’t have a Twitter account OR if your Twitter account is private, you can still enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: I do not have a Twitter account (or it is private), so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.
ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, 1974. (Photo by Paramount/Getty Images)
About the film: In what is undeniably one of the best sequels ever made, Francis Ford Coppola continues his epic Godfather trilogy with this saga of two generations of power within the Corleone family. Coppola, working once again with the author Mario Puzo, crafts two interwoven stories that work as both prequel and sequel to the original. One shows the humble Sicilian beginnings and New York rise of a young Don Vito, played by Robert De Niro in an Oscar®-winning performance for Best Supporting Actor. The other shows the ascent of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the cast members who helped make The Godfather®, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision, the film received eleven Academy Awards® nominations, winning six including Best Picture of 1974. A timeless classic best revered on the big screen, time tested fans and newcomers alike won’t want to miss this special event featuring exclusive insight from Turner Classic Movies.
Please note that only United States residents are eligible to enter this giveaway contest. (see contest rules for further information)
BlogHub members ARE also eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States (as noted above).
The new film is bound to cause controversy among classic movie fans but Zellweger’s performance is Oscar-worthy.
Winter 1968: Showbiz legend Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) arrives in London to perform in a sell-out run at Talk of the Town. It’s been decades since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz and many other MGM classics and if her spectacular voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown.
As Judy prepares for the show, battles with management, charms musicians, and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, her wit and warmth shine through. Even her dreams of romance seem undimmed as she embarks on a courtship with Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), her soon-to-be fifth husband. And yet Judy is fragile. After working for 45 of her 47 years, she is exhausted — haunted by memories of a childhood lost to Hollywood and gripped by a desire to be back home with her kids. Will she have the strength to go on?
Being a classic movie fanatic, I admit that I was skeptical about this film, but I have to say that British director Rupert Goold has created something quite remarkable. There are definitely some factual items that Judy’s diehard fans will take issue with along with some timeline inaccuracies, but as far as I’m concerned, Renée Zellweger’s performance is one for the ages. She captures late 1960s Judy Garland in a way I never dreamed possible, tapping into Garland’s humor, intelligence, and pathos with exquisite sensitivity and compassion.
Having worked for several years on a book with Meredith Ponedel about her aunt, Dottie Ponedel, Judy’s personal makeup artist and one of her closest friends, I have been steeped in first-person stories of Judy and I believe those stories mesh beautifully with the woman I see in this film.
I was delighted to sit down with Rupert Goold for Classic Movie Hub to talk about the joys and challenges of telling this story.
Danny Miller: In my classic movie circles, Judy Garland is hallowed territory. How nervous were you about taking on someone who is so revered by so many people?
Rupert Goold
Rupert Goold: Oh, quite nervous, I assure you! Judy Garland is also very disputed territory. I recognized that Judy has this aura among many people as being kind of like a secular saint. And there are definitely these Calvary-like qualities in this last period of her life, someone who feels abandoned at the hour of her departure. But I tried to move away from the idea that we were making a movie about the mythology. I had to. When I approached Judy as a character to be developed it finally helped me stop losing sleep over questions like “What if we don’t get the voice right?” “What if the hair is wrong?”
And yet the recreation, while not exact, is phenomenal, I thought it really conveyed the essense of Judy.
We had many extremely talented people in the tapestry working very hard to get their bit right: the costumes, hair, voice, makeup, posture. We figured all that out, but there was so much more we had to do. I remember one of our tests when we had finally all those pieces in place, and Renée was great — but I could see her kind of doing an impression of Judy. We worked to get away from that. In the end, we both felt that we needed to make this person a human character and not feel enslaved to a specific representation.
Which is why I think her performance is so extraordinary. As much as she gets Judy’s look and mannerisms down, in my view she never succumbs to the stereotypical depictions of the myth, she seems like a real person with that wonderful humor and intelligence and vulnerability intact. It’s such a remarkable performance. I wondered if all of your work with Shakespeare in the theater may have informed your work on this film.
Oh, that’s an interesting question. I think it may have in the sense of how Shakespeare looks at life. To see a great life on the wheel and those who bear witness to it.
Maybe it’s the other way around — maybe your work here will inform your future Shakespeare projects.
Yes, I think it might! (Laughs.) Working on this film certainly made me think of the years I spent in rehearsal rooms with great actors. It’s a weird thing when you direct opera or theater — you see things in the rehearsal room that you may never see on the stage.
Like a certain kind of vulnerability as the actor strives to find the character?
Yes, and also just extraordinary performances. In my opinion, no performance is greater than one of discovery. I remember doing a Pinter play with Michael Gambon a few years ago. We were all a bit worried, Mike was getting on a bit, and then I remember one rehearsal where the room just collapsed, I couldn’t believe what I was watching. It’s such a privilege to bear witness to that. For me, a big motivation for doing this film was that I wanted to make a love letter to what it means to be a performer. No one knew how to do that better than Judy Garland.
Director Rupert Goold working with Renée Zellweger on set
For all the problems she was having at this point in her life, magic could happen when she was out on that stage.
Absolutely. It’s so fascinating to me. I remember some doctor once did this study with heart monitors and he concluded that when someone goes out to perform in front of an audience it’s the equivalent of going through a 40 mile-per-hour car crash. My favorite line in the film is when Renée finishes her incredible opening night performance at Talk of the Town and Jessie (Buckley, who plays her London assistant Rosalyn Wilder) tells her how great she was and Renée turns to her and says, “What if I can’t do it again?” That’s based on something Olivier said to Ralph Richardson, and it’s something I think most performers can relate to — the fear and the bewilderment about why it worked that night.
Yes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen in any film the alchemy that is shown during that first performance at Talk of the Town. Judy is absolutely terrified and not on the top of her game, and then we slowly see her being fed by the audience to the point of giving an electric, killer performance. Renée did such a fantastic job in that scene. How nerve-wracking was that to shoot?
Oh God, there was a pin in that day for the whole schedule. I knew that if we didn’t get it just right, we didn’t have a film.
And I assume she was performing that live on the set?
Yes, it was a live vocal. We ended up doing nine takes which was pushing it, and quite exhausting. Everything about it was challenging. We built the whole scene around this very complicated crane shot but when we got the crane in, we realized it was too heavy for the floor. We lost the first three hours of the day figuring out how to make it work. Renée had the orchestra playing in her ear and during one of her best performances the feed cut out. She sang perfectly but the timing was just a bit off so we couldn’t use it. It was a very difficult day.
And yet the take you use in the film is just extraordinary. I was one of the people who was initially horrified that you weren’t using Judy Garland’s actual voice. But after seeing the film, I think I was wrong. It didn’t matter that Renée didn’t sound exactly like Judy Garland, what mattered was the overall performance and her relationship to it.
Exactly. And one thing I kept saying to Renée is that I bet Judy herself would have gone out on that stage in 1968 knowing that she no longer sounded like she used to. She only had about an octave left at the end of her life, it really wasn’t the voice people were accustomed to back in the day.
But because of her amazing performances and the history she brought with her, I imagine people listened to her through their own memories of what that voice was. It was still incredibly powerful and emotional, and wildly entertaining, just like Renée’s performance in that scene. But what a task she had for that day. Was Renée very nervous going in?
Oh, extremely.
But, of course, in this case those emotions could be used in the scene.
Absolutely. It was a bit of a risk doing that song because Renée sings Garland’s bluesy repertoire much better. She sang the hell out of “The Man That Got Away” even though we didn’t end up using it in the film, and she also sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” so beautifully, some of those songs fit her range perfectly. But I really wanted to use “By Myself.” It has this aria-like quality to it and I just loved the lyrics.
Every word of that song has a double meaning to where Judy was in her life at that time.
Definitely. It builds and builds and is wonderfully theatrical, but it was a real stretch for her, we rehearsed the hell out of it!
I can totally see both Judy AND Renée saying after that scene, “What if I can’t do it again?” I was quite nervous about her performing “Over the Rainbow” before seeing the film, it almost seemed like some kind of sacrilege, and yet I admit my wife and I both sobbed during that scene, she so perfectly nailed the emotions in that moment.
Yeah. I remember the orchestrator really wanted to put strings in the song and I resisted. We had a bit of a wrestle about it, I just felt it would be too synthetic, too MGM for this moment which needed to feel more delicate, more intimate.
I’m glad you won out. It was more about that exact time in her life.
Yes. And, in a way, the impossibility of hope that we still cling to. Renée was very nervous about doing that song, of course, from the beginning. But I think it helped that it came right off of “Come Rain or Come Shine.” Her adrenaline was pumping and then she just went down into it. I remember when she got to the line “That’s where you’ll find me” she was reaching for the note and it came out a bit cracky. I found that so moving.
I thought it was perfect. I think when Judy Garland sang that song towards the end of her career it had a different emotional resonance every single time based on what was happening in her life.I think Renée Zellweger did Judy proud with that rendition.
Western RoundUp: Preview of the 2019 Lone Pine Film Festival
Last fall I shared some of the history of Westerns filming in Lone Pine, California, along with a
look at five movies filmed in the area.
Those five films were just a tiny percentage of the Westerns which
have been filmed in Lone Pine over the years, which are celebrated annually at
the Lone Pine Film Festival. This year the 30th edition of the Lone Pine Film
Festival, titled “They Went That-a-Way,” will take place from October
10-13, 2019.
Lone Pine Film Festival 2019 Poster
This will be my sixth consecutive year at the festival, and I thought this year I would share a festival preview here outlining some of the films and experiences available at the festival. Perhaps this overview will inspire a few readers to make the trek up from Los Angeles to Lone Pine and join in the Western fun!
Lone Pine is a small, walkable town on Highway 395. Many of the festival’s events occur at the Museum of Western Film History, a “must-see” for Western fans in and of itself; some festival events take place in a small theater inside the museum, while the majority of screenings take place across the street in the Lone Pine High School Auditorium.
The Museum of Western Film History
In addition to screenings and other festival events, there are also over 15 guided car caravan tours to various spots in the Alabama Hills outside of town, as well as other area locations. In past years, for example, I have visited the ghost town of Dolomite, briefly seen as “Soda City” in Hitchcock‘s Saboteur (1942), and the town of Keeler, seen in Greed (1924) and I Died a Thousand Times (1955). Many of the tours are given multiple times during the festival, so guests can find times which fit their schedules.
This year, as always, the festival kicks off with a gala buffet at
the museum. This is often an opportunity to mingle with festival guests; for
instance, last year my husband took this snap of Robert Wagner (in pink) and
his friend and frequent co-author Scott Eyman:
Robert Wagner & Scott Eyman
This year’s scheduled honored guests will include Robert Carradine, Patrick Wayne, Bruce Boxleitner, Darby Hinton (Daniel Boone), stuntman Diamond Farnsworth (son of actor-stuntman Richard Farnsworth), Cheryl Rogers Barnett and Julie Rogers Pomilia (daughter and granddaughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans), Wyatt McCrea (grandson of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee), William Wellman Jr. (son of William Wellman), and Jay Dee Witney (son of director William Witney).
Many of the discussions will be moderated by film historians Ed
Hulse and Rob Word. Live piano accompaniment for a pair of silent films is
provided by the excellent Jay C. Munns.
Films shown at the fest most often were either filmed locally or feature festival guests. Or both! A few of the movies being shown this year:
*Bill Tilghman and the Outlaws (2019), a new film with
a cast of old favorites including Robert Carradine, Johnny Crawford, Lana Wood,
and Darby Hinton.
*Gunga Din (1939), which was filmed in the Alabama Hills; you can still see the spots where the bridge was anchored to boulders and occasionally stumble across a piece of 80-year-old plaster from a set.
*Saga of Death Valley (1939) starring Roy Rogers, introduced by his daughter Cheryl.
*The Round-Up (1920), a Fatty Arbuckle film which is believed to be the first feature-length film shot in the area.
The Round-Up (1920)
*Red River (1988), a TV remake starring James Arness, introduced by costar Bruce Boxleitner. (Update: This was cancelled due to Boxleitner’s filming schedule and replaced with a screening of The Way West introduced by cast member Michael McGreevey.)
*The Cowboys (1972), followed by a discussion with Robert Carradine, Patrick Wayne, and Diamond Farnsworth.
*Hopalong Rides Again (1937), one of many “Hoppy” films shot in Lone Pine; it costars child actor Billy King, a lovely man met at past fests, who recently passed away.
Hopalong Rides Again (1937)
*Blazing Days (1927), directed by the great William
Wyler.
*King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) starring Tyrone Power, who made several films in Lone Pine and was beloved by local citizens for his friendliness and lack of pretension.
*Indian Agent (1948) starring Tim Holt, who has a street named after him in Lone Pine! Other streets are named for Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassidy.
This is just a partial list of the movies available to see during
the festival!
Indian Agent (1948)
Tours will be available specifically based on some of the films shown, including Gunga Din (a must for festival newcomers) and King of the Pecos. Other tours this year include “Randolph Scott in Lone Pine”; multiple Hopalong Cassidy tours with varied locations; a tour of the townsites from Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and The Law and Jake Wade (1958); a tour based on The Twilight Zone episode “The Rip Van Winkle Caper”; a tour of science fiction and fantasy locations including Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Iron Man (2008); a sunrise tour of the Alabama Hills, including a light breakfast; and several more.
The Law and Jake Wade (1958)
Some of the tours, such as the sunrise tour, repeat annually,
while others vary year to year. Most of the guides have many years of
experience conducting tours in the Alabama Hills and other areas around Lone
Pine; they provide outstanding history and insights into movie production along
with pointing out locations.
Other events typically available during the festival include a stunt show (held this year at the high school gymnasium); a horseback ride in the Alabama Hills, led by wranglers from McGee Creek Pack Station; “Cowboy Church,” a nondenominational Christian service held Sunday morning (this year it will take place at the nearby Anchor Ranch movie location site); Sunday breakfast at the town VFW Post; a Sunday afternoon parade down Main Street featuring festival celebrities and local civic groups; and a Sunday evening closing campfire at Russell Spainhower Park, which is named for the man who spearheaded bringing the movie business to Lone Pine in the early days of Southern California filmmaking.
The Lone Pine Mountains
For complete information, please visit the festival section of the Museum of Western Film History website.
I can’t stress enough how much fun this festival is for a Western
film fan. The vibe is relaxed, the folks are friendly, the scenery is gorgeous,
and there are many activities and screenings from which to choose. And where
else will you see cowboys on horseback going through the McDonald’s
drive-through line?!
Some cowboys on a lunch break!
Most importantly, there is simply nothing like watching a Western
with fellow fans and then minutes later standing in the Alabama Hills in the
very spot where that movie had been filmed.
Hope to see you there!
…
– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
Silents are Golden: The Irrepressible Harold Lloyd
If we can credit a single figure for being a silent comedy legend, a gifted performer, a pioneer of the cinema, and the very personification of the can-do spirit of the 1920s, it’s comedian Harold Lloyd. While he’s perhaps not as well known today as fellow clowns Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton (indeed, you can rarely keep the names of the three entertainers separate), few souls out there won’t recognize Lloyd’s signature round spectacles–or that famous still of him dangling from a clock in Safety Last!(1923).
Lloyd hangs from a clock in Safety Last! (1923)
And if you take a look at Lloyd’s films,
you’ll quickly discover a fresh, funny, and timeless body of work that can
still delight and inspire us today. It’s not for nothing that Lloyd was one of
the most popular entertainers of the entire silent era–and that’s no
exaggeration.
He was born April 20, 1893, in the tiny village of Burchard, Nebraska (today, its population hovers around a mere 80 people). His father “Foxy” Lloyd and his mother Elizabeth clashed over Foxy’s failed business endeavors and they would divorce in 1910–which was unusual for the time period. Lloyd would decide to move with his father to San Diego. Family lore holds that the two Lloyds couldn’t decide whether to move to California or New York and decided to flip a coin. Fortunately for the world, California was the winner.
a young Harold
In 1913, the Edison Film Company was shooting
in San Diego and was looking for extras. Since he always had the ambition to be
an actor, Lloyd decided to give moving pictures a shot, making his first
appearance in Edison’s The Old Monk’s
Tale (1913). Enjoying the work, he decided to head to Los Angeles and
become a part of this fascinating new business.
Always a go-getter, Lloyd was so determined to be in pictures that he figured out how to sneak onto the Universal lot. He’d later recall: “The gatekeeper was a crabby old soul who let me understand that it would be a pleasure to keep me out. As I lurked about I noticed that at noon a crowd of actors and extras drifted out in make-up to eat at a lunch counter across the way, passing the gatekeeper without question each way. The next morning I brought a make-up box. At noon I dodged behind a billboard, made up, mingled with the lunch-counter press and returned with them through the gate without challenge.” Lloyd’s daring paid off, and he would be an extra in films like Rory O’ the Bogs(1913) and The Patchwork Girl of Oz(1914)–working alongside fellow extra Hal Roach, who would later be pivotal to his career.
In the spring of 1915 Lloyd briefly worked at the Keystone Film Company–the mighty “Laugh Factory” itself. After this stint, Hal Roach contacted him with an offer to star in a silent comedy series as a Chaplinesque character named “Willie Work.” The series was rather tepid, so Lloyd changed his character to “Lonesome Luke,” who became more popular. By 1917, Lloyd decided he wanted to be more unique–and decided to be a normal-looking, energetic “everyman,” distinguished only by his round spectacles (he’d call his “everyman” the “Glass” character). In the sea of screen clowns in pancake makeup, ill-fitting clothes and fake mustaches, this truly did make him stand out.
Harold as the “Glass” character
A tireless worker, Lloyd made short after short and was swiftly making a name for himself. He was only slowed down by a freak accident in 1919 when a prop bomb he was holding during a photoshoot turned out to be the real deal. The explosion caused burns, temporary blindness, and destroyed his right thumb and one of his fingers. His later recollections of the accident sum up his amazingly optimistic attitude toward life: “I thought I would surely be so disabled that I would never be able to work again. I didn’t suppose that I would have one five-hundredth of what I have now. Still, I thought, ‘Life is worthwhile. Just to be alive.’ I still think so.” He would continue with acting and even performing stunts with a special glove concealing his injured hand.
Mildred Davis and Harold Lloyd in Number, Please? (1920)
By the 1920s Lloyd made a savvy transition to comedy features, starting with A Sailor-Made Man(1921). He set high standards for his work and made sure to have a solid team of writers and gag men. His carefully-crafted features were widely acclaimed and wildly popular–some of the biggest box office hits of the 1920s. His thrill comedy Safety Last! (1923) became his most iconic film thanks to the famous clock-dangling scene, and he was critically admired for the nuanced Grandma’s Boy (1922) and inspiring The Kid Brother(1927). To the adoring public, the beaming, thrill-seeking boy-next-door Harold Lloyd could do no wrong. He was very much a national role model.
Fabulously wealthy, Lloyd would build a 44-room mansion called Greenacres that even had its own 9-hole golf course. He and his wife Mildred Davis–a former actress in his films–had two children, Gloria and Harold Jr., and also adopted a girl, Marjorie. He and Mildred would stay married until her death in 1969–and it was their only marriage, too.
The Freshman (1925)
By the 1930s his star finally started to fade, although his initial talkies did well. After a few hits, a flop, and an unsuccessful homage film called The Sin of Harold Diddlebock(1947), Lloyd retired from his filmmaking endeavors and concentrated on hobbies and family. He became a noted photographer and was heavily involved with the Freemasons and the Shriners, frequently visiting sick children at Shriner hospitals.
Lloyd in a traditional Freemason’s hat
The beloved Harold Lloyd would pass away in 1971 from prostate cancer. He had guarded his films zealously, not wanting subpar prints circulating with bad music. While this made his films less familiar to today’s audiences than, say, Chaplin’s, you might say that Lloyd had been right all along. In this 21st-century digital era, his films have been restored and are frequently exhibited with beautiful scores, just as he would’ve wished. And if he could see one of our modern audience enjoying his lovingly-made comedies, laughing just as much as they did back in the 1920s, he would be justly proud.
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterlyand has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
Not long ago, I was interviewed on a podcast about my very favorite film noir – Double Indemnity (1944). I had an absolute ball talking about the superb writing and direction, the distinctive cinematography and music, and the first-rate performances by Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, and the rest of the film’s perfect cast.
In case you don’t know the story (not The Philadelphia Story!), it focuses on a steamy affair between insurance salesman Walter Neff (MacMurray) and L.A. housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck), who team up to murder Dietrichson’s husband and collect the proceeds from his accident insurance. Also on hand is insurance claims manager and Walter’s best pal, Barton Keyes (Robinson), who tosses a monkey wrench into their best-laid plans. The film’s title refers to the insurance policy clause that pays double for certain fatal accidents that rarely occur.
Billy Wilder directs Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray
I’m still basking in the glow of my recent deep dive into this classic, so I’m devoting this month’s nook to sharing some of my favorite Double Indemnity trivia and fun facts. Enjoy!
An early version of the Double Indemnity screenplay contained a line in which Walter advises
Phyllis to wear gloves when she handles the insurance policy. Joseph Breen,
head of the Production Code Administration – to which films had to be submitted
to receive a stamp of approval – objected to this sentence because he felt it
would give the heads-up to would-be criminals that they could be traced through
their fingerprints. The line was removed.
Indemnity’s director, Billy Wilder, was the first to win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay for the same film – The Apartment (1960). Only eight directors have earned this honor.
Jean Heather and Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was initially reluctant to take
on the role of the murderous Phyllis. Up to that time, she’d never played what
she termed “an out-and-out, cold-blooded killer.” According to Stanwyck, Billy
Wilder asked her, “Are you a mouse or an actress?” Stanwyck responded that she
was an actress and Wilder said, “Then take the part.”
Cinematographer John Seitz was nominated for an Oscar for Double Indemnity, although he lost to Joseph LaShelle for Laura (1944). During his career, Seitz was nominated for a total of seven Oscars, including nods for two other Billy Wilder-directed features, The Long Weekend (1945) and Sunset Boulevard (1950).
The luckless Mr. Dietrichson was played by Tom Powers, who started his career in silent movies and appeared in stage and radio productions for nearly 30 years. Double Indemnity was his first big-screen appearance since his last silent film in 1917. Speaking of Mr. Dietrichson, his first name is never spoken in the film.
Double
Indemnity is set in 1938, but in the scene where Walter and Phyllis first
meet, he makes a reference to The
Philadelphia Story, which didn’t open on Broadway until a year later, in
1939, and was made into a film in 1940.
Tom Powers with Fred MacMurray, Jean Heather, and Barbara Stanwyck
The film was inspired by the real-life 1927 murder of Albert Snyder, who was killed by his wife, Ruth, and a traveling corset salesman named Judd Gray. Prior to the murder, Ruth had taken out an insurance policy on her husband’s life that contained a double indemnity clause. Unlike Phyllis and Walter’s intricate, well-designed scheme, the murder plot hatched by Snyder and Gray was so inept that famed newsman Damon Runyon labeled it “the dumb-bell murder case … because it was so dumb!”
Phyllis’s stepdaughter in the film was played by Jean Heather, who had roles in only nine movies during her five-year Hollywood career. Ironically, one of her films was Going My Way, which beat out Double Indemnity in the Oscar race in three categories: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. (Insert massive eye-roll.)
James M. Cain, the author of the novel on which the film was based, was pleased with the adaptation penned by Wilder and mystery writer Raymond Chandler. He said that “it’s the only picture I ever saw made from my books that had things in it I wish had thought of.”
What do you think of Double Indemnity? Leave a comment and let us know!
…
– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages. If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
The 2018 documentary, Truly Miss Marple – The Curious Case of Margaret Rutherford, is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime, so this is a perfect time to learn more about the iconic character actor and revisit some of her most memorable roles. Agatha Christie fans, of course, know her as the original film incarnation of the lovable busybody Miss Marple, but Margaret Rutherford also made an impression with her portrayals of other quirky characters, eventually winning an Oscar for her performance as the Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s (1963). Although Rutherford came to acting rather late in life and never possessed the glamorous beauty of traditional leading ladies, she deserves a place of honor among the many great character actors of classic cinema because she always delights and amuses with her distinctive screen presence.
Rutherford’s Miss Marple is a quirky character, seen here sticking out her tongue while riding a train in Murder, She Said.
As one might expect from the title, Truly Miss Marple focuses primarily on Rutherford’s embodiment of the spinster sleuth first introduced by Agatha Christie in a short story in 1927, a role that has since been played by Angela Lansbury, Helen Hayes, Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan, and Julia McKenzie. Rutherford, despite being quite different from Christie’s vision of the character, had the advantage of being the first actor to play Miss Marple on screen, starting with Murder, She Said in 1961. Three more Miss Marple films followed: Murder at the Gallop (1963), Murder Most Foul (1964), and Murder Ahoy (1964). While Agatha Christie was not thrilled with the light, comical turn of the pictures, she liked Rutherford enough to dedicate one of the Miss Marple novels, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1962), to the performer. Like the various screen versions of Philip Marlowe, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot, every Miss Marple is different and has her devotees, but Rutherford’s Marple pictures are great fun even if they stray far afield from their source material. Along as the sleuth’s sidekick in each movie is Rutherford’s real life husband, Stringer Davis, and the oddball chemistry between the two companions is part of the films’ appeal.
Madame Arcati summons the spirits during a séance in Blithe Spirit.
Rutherford, however, was much more than Miss Marple, with a career that spanned thirty years and over 50 film and television appearances, not including her extensive work in live theater. Born in 1892, Rutherford became a stage actor at 33 and was already 44 years old when she made her screen debut in 1936. She played a number of small roles in various British pictures but got her first really memorable part in the 1945 film adaptation of Noel Coward’s play, Blithe Spirit, in which Rutherford reprised her role as Madame Arcati from the stage production.
Rutherford plays the dotty Miss Prism in the 1952 film version of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Stage play adaptations continued to be fertile ground for Rutherford, who went on to play not one but two different characters in different adaptations of The Importance of Being Earnest; she appeared as the indomitable Lady Bracknell in a 1946 TV movie but really made a mark with her portrayal of the flighty Miss Prism in the 1952 film version directed by Anthony Asquith. In 1950 she also reprised her stage role from The Happiest Days of Your Life for the film adaptation co-starring Alastair Sim. Other notable film roles include Mistress Quickly in Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight (1965) and, of course, her Oscar-winning turn as the Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s (1963), but I’m personally quite fond of her performance as Nurse Carey in the delightfully odd mermaid comedy, Miranda (1948), and its sequel, Mad About Men (1954).
Rutherford plays the role of Mistress Quickly in the 1965 Orson Welles film, Chimes at Midnight, seen here with costar Jeanne Moreau.
Rutherford’s real life was as unconventional as her film
characters, although it was tinged with early tragedies that affected her
deeply. Her father murdered his own father in a fit of insanity, her mother
committed suicide while living in India, and Margaret was told that her father
had died when in fact he had ended up being committed again to a psychiatric
hospital. Rutherford herself suffered from depression and anxiety and
eventually succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease; her devoted husband, Stringer
Davis, died within a year of her own passing. Truly Miss Marple delves
into these darker elements of Rutherford’s life and provides interviews with
some of Rutherford’s friends, making it a very intimate source for insights on her
personal history. If you’re already familiar with the most notable of
Rutherford’s film roles, the documentary is an excellent way to learn more
about her, but if you haven’t actually seen Margaret Rutherford in action then
start with Blithe Spirit, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Murder,
She Said to get a sense of her legacy before diving into the details of her
biography.
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