Scarlet O'Hara is going to be a thankless and difficult role. The part I'd like to play is Rhett Butler.
It is impossible to get anything made or accomplished without stepping on some toes; enemies are inevitable when one is a doer.
The morals of yesterday are no more. They are as dead as the day they were lived. Economic independence has put woman on exactly the same footing as man.
Never let them see you in public after you've turned 35. You're finished if you do!
Her Cardboard Lover(1942). Comedy film directed by George Cukor. The film is the third screen adaptation of the play, following The Cardboard Lover in 1928 and The Passionate Plumber in 1932. Joan Crawford and Hedy Lamarr were each offered the part of "Consuela", but both turned it down.
Songwriter Terry Trindale, has fallen head over heals over Consuelo Croyden, a woman he has watched from a distance every night at a Palm Beach casino. Even though, he has gone out of his way to be seated at the gambling tables next to Consuelo, Terry has never spoke to her.
One night, he finally gets the courage to speak to her and lets it slips out, that he loves her and then he asks if she could ever fall in love with him. She says "absolutely not" and warns him not to be so "clingy", if he wants a woman to return his love.
Consuelo, then heads for the gambling tables, with a stuffy Tony Barling, not far behind, but.. because he is not dressed properly he cannot enter the casino. When, Terry learns that Tony wants to give a note to Consuelo, he volunteers to take it to her, but as soon as Tony leaves, he tears it up.
Terry, then watches from the side lines.. Consuelo, win at chemin de fer and yells out "Banco", to play against her. After, she wins again, he now owes her a great sum of money. He tells her that he does not have the money to pay her. At first, she feels a little sorry for him, but when he gives her the pieces of Tony's note, angrily she asks him what the letter said.
After, telling her what he remembered she then asks him to come to her house. She then comes up with the idea for him to work as her secretary to pay off his debt. Assuming the role of her "cardboard lover," she asks for a written contract to pretend to be her fiance. She then explains that Tony is her fiance, with who she broke off because of the "madness" of their on and off again relationship.
Just then Tony, arrives and Consuelo has Terry hide on the patio. Although, she tells Tony, that she is in love with someone else, he does not believe her. Terry, then comes waltzing in, acting very affectionate. Tony, recognizes him from the casino and is suspicious, and when Terry goes to get ice, Tony tells Consuelo that he knows this is an act and begs her to come to a friend's yacht before they sail in the morning.
After Tony leaves, Consuelo, quickly packs her bags to meet Tony. Terry, is waiting at her front door, to stop her.
Four weeks later, Terry is still working as Consuelo's "Cardboard Lover". Chappie Champagne, Terry's partner, cannot talk him into coming back with him to New York to sell their new song, "I Dare You," which they have been composing on Consuelo's piano.
Wanting to get rid of Terry, she pretends that she is cured of Tony, once and for all and offers to cancel the rest of Terry's debt. Terry then leaves, saying he is going to the airport. Consuelo, receives a call from Tony, saying that he is going away with another woman and she convinces him to stop by her house. Tony, asks her wear a negligee and unlatch the door for him. But... it is Terry who arrives, admitting that it was he who called, disguising his voice to sound like Tony.
When Tony really does arrive, she tells Terry hide and then explains to Tony that Terry, is not really her lover. At this moment Terry, comes out wearing pajamas and gets into her bed. Consuelo, tries to make Terry tell the truth, but he refuses and Tony leaves.
Consuelo, locks Terry in the bathroom, but he has already left and is waiting in the hall. She slaps him, but he again reminds her of his promise to keep her from Tony. Frustrated with him, Consuelo says that his songs are "tripe," but soon apologizes and admits that she is in love with Tony. She calls Tony and says she has kicked Terry out and is leaving to see him. Terry then threatens to jump out the window, but.. is unsuccessful.
Terry, goes back to his hotel, where Tony is also staying. After meeting in the elevator, the two men begin a wild fight.
During their hearing on charges of disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer, Consuelo shows up angry with Terry, but when Chappie arrives with tickets to New York and money from the sale of their song to pay Terry's fine, she begins to realize her true feelings.
Norma Shearer, in her last film, wears gorgeous clothes and played her part perfectly. Robert Taylor, looks very young and handsome. There are some wonderful scenes: one where Taylor threatens to jump over a balcony and one when he is wearing her pajamas.
Elizabeth Patterson (November 22, 1874 – January 31, 1966), born in Savannah, Tennessee. Her father, who had been a Confederate soldier, was a judge in Hardin County. She was educated in the county's public schools and at colleges in Pulaski and Columbia, where her participation in college theatricals helped to form her interest in drama.
Her parents sent her to Europe in the hope of discouraging her interest in the theater, but her determination to become an actress was only reinforced by her experiences attending productions at the Comédie Française. After returning from Europe, Patterson used a small inheritance to move to Chicago, where she joined a theatrical troupe, and subsequently toured with repertory companies.
In 1913, she made her Broadway debut in the play Everyman. She remained active in New York City theatre through 1954. In 1926, at the age of 51, Patterson was cast in her first movie, The Boy Friend. Additional screen credits include: A Bill of Divorcement; Tarnished Lady; Dinner at Eight; High, Wide, and Handsome; Intruder in the Dust; Remember the Night; No Man of Her Own; The Shocking Miss Pilgrim; Little Women; My Sister Eileen; and Pal Joey.
In 1952, at the age of 77, Patterson made her first appearance on the hit CBS-TV sitcom I Love Lucy in the episode entitled "The Marriage License". In that installment, Patterson's character, Mrs. Willoughby, was the wife of the Greenwich, Connecticut justice of the peace (played by character actor Irving Bacon) who re-marries Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.
The following year she was cast in a featured guest role as Mrs. Matilda Trumbull in the episode "No Children Allowed". Patterson's character of Mrs. Trumbull was initially an ornery curmudgeon who also resided in the Ricardos' apartment building. In that installment, she threatened to make trouble for the Ricardos since the building did not allow children. At the end of the episode, however, her character softens as she holds the Ricardos' baby for the first time and, as a result, Mrs. Trumbull becomes friends with both the Ricardos and the Mertzes. In fact, Patterson's role was so popular (as well as useful to the writers of the series) that she continued in the role for three more years as the babysitter for "Little Ricky". In the fall of 1956, with I Love Lucy in its final season, Patterson made her last appearance as Mrs. Trumbull in the episode, "Little Ricky Learns To Play The Drums". Her character was mentioned one last time in the 1957 episode "Lucy Raises Chickens". In that installment, Fred and Ethel Mertz decide to follow the Ricardos and move to Connecticut to be near them and Mrs. Trumbull's sister moves into 623 East 68th Street to manage the apartment building for Fred.
Never married, Patterson lived alone at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel during her thirty five-year motion picture career. She died in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia at the age of 91. She is buried in her hometown of Savannah.
Strange Interlude(1932). Romantic drama. D: Robert Z. Leonard. Cast: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, May Robson, Maureen O'Sullivan, Robert Young, Ralph Morgan, Henry B. Walthall and Mary Alden.
In a small New England town, shortly after the World War, writer Charlie Marsden returns home from Europe to visit the woman he is secretly in love with. There he finds Nina Leeds, angry with her father for preventing Gordon from marrying her before he died in a plane crash during the war. Announcing, that she is going to move to Boston to work as a nurse in a sanitarium for wounded soldiers.
One year later, Nina is called home when her father becomes ill. By the time she arrives home with, Dr. Ned Darrell, and Sam Evans, her father has already died.
Later when, Nina confesses to Charlie that her obsession with Gordon has caused her to be promiscuous with men, Charlie, even though he wants to marry her, realizes that Nina needs a strong man, suggests that she should marry Sam. Wanting a normal married life, Nina agrees .
Nina, soon realizes her mistake, when Sam's mother confides in her that insanity runs in the family and they should not any children. Mrs. Evans then tells Nina that Sam knows nothing about the "family curse" and suggests Nina have children by another man.
Nina, soon regrets her marriage and when Ned visits, she tells him about the Evans curse and the two decide to conceive a child. During their afternoon together, Nina realizes that she loves Ned, but.. Ned is not ready to get married and to prevent Nina from telling Sam, Ned announces that Nina is pregnant and that he is leaving for Europe for a year. After Ned's leaves, Nina gives birth to a son, named Gordon.
Realizing that he made a mistake, Ned returns and begs her to run away with him but, Nina, realizing that Sam would be destroyed, tells him that she is happy with the way things are.
Ned and Charlie, become silent partners in Sam's business and Sam makes them all wealthy.
Later when Ned, Charlie, Nina and Sam come to watch Gordon, now a collage athlete compete in a regatta, Ned announces that Gordon plans to marry, Madeleine. Nina, objects and asks Ned to stop the marriage and tell Sam the truth about his paternity. When Ned refuses, Nina decides to tell Charlie the truth. Gordon wins the regatta and Sam, overcome with excitement, suffers a fatal heart attack.
After the funeral, Gordon and Ned get into an argument and Gordon hits Ned, causing Nina to blurt out that he has struck his own father. Gordon, misunderstands and says that he always knew Nina and Ned were in love and gives them his blessing. Ned is about to tell Gordon the truth, but.. will Nina have a change of heart and stop him?
Fun Fact: This was the first film in which Clark Gable's trademark mustache appeared.
By the end of this emotionally moving film, you feel sorry for just about everyone in it and they all deprived themselves of happiness. Great acting, especially for Norma Shearer and Clark Gable
May Robson (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942). In 1884, after being widowed, she became an actress simply to support her children. Over the next several decades, she flourished on the stage. She starred in the 1916 silent film, A Night Out, an adaptation of the play she co-wrote, The Three Lights. She made several other silent films, then successfully transitioned to talkies. She made 45 films during the 1930s. Among her starring roles was 1931's The She-Wolf, in which she was cast as a miserly millionaire businesswoman based on Hetty Green. She also starred in the final segment of the anthology film, If I Had a Million (1932) as a rest home resident who gets a new lease on life when she is given a $1,000,000 check by a dying business tycoon. She played the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1933), Countess Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1936), Aunt Elizabeth in Bringing Up Baby (1938), Aunt Polly in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and a sharp-tongued Granny in A Star Is Born (1937). Miss Robson was top-billed as late as 1940, starring in Granny Get Your Gun at age 82. Her last film was 1942's Joan of Paris.
From Rambo to Norma Shearer. You never know what you’re going to find on the Corner.
“Marie Antoinette” (1938) is considered by many to be one of the most sumptuous mega productions of Hollywood’s Golden Age. And it is. It’s also long and meandering, but wonderfully acted and boasts one scene that is truly heart wrenching.
Despite M-G-Ms’ abundance of female stars in the 1930s (Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, etc.) Norma Shearer was the queen of the M-G-M lot. But she was off the nation’s theater screens for two years following the death of her husband, M-G-M production head Irving Thalberg in 1936. Thalberg had started production on the film before his premature death, and M-G-M studio head Louis B. Mayer halted pre-production on the film until she was ready to step before the cameras again. And she was ready two years later.
True to its subject, “Marie Antoinette” is a stunning production, with the Court of Versailles captured in all its magnificence and decadence. Shearer is most convincing as the young Hapsburg princess catapulted into marriage with the future king of France, Louis XV (Robert Morley, in his film debut). The Hays Office watched carefully that good taste was not overstepped in detailing the non-consummation of their married relationship. Through carefully scripted dialogue, however, the audience fully understands what is happening. They also understood why the married Marie would begin an affair with a handsome visitor from the Swedish court, Axel de Fersen (Tyrone Power).
Eventually Louis XIV dies (the gloriously lecherous John Barrymore, not in the film nearly as much as we’d like), and Louis XV ascends to the throne. With his father’s shadow now dissipated, Louis XV is now ready to come into his own. He fathers a son and a daughter, the Swedish count is away in America and he and Marie settle into a happy relationship. Things may be happy in the palace, but not the rest of France. The peasants are starving, and revolution is afoot.
The recent DVD release of the film showcases “Marie Antoinette” in a way not seen since its 1938 engagement. The DVD boasts an overture, intermission and exit music, courtesy of M-G-M staff composer Herbert Stothart. With the extra music the film runs a healthy 157 minutes. It could use a little judicious cutting, mainly in the pre-revolution scenes in the first half.
This was the big, prestigious production of 1938, so much so that Twentieth Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck loaned their biggest male star, Tyrone Power, to appear alongside Shearer. Upon seeing the completed film, he immediately regretted his decision, and never loaned Power out again. In retrospect, it’s hard to see why. After all Power shares top billing with Shearer above the title, and it didn’t hurt Power to be in one of the top films of the year. Shearer’s return to the screen after two years meant the film enjoyed an unusually high level of interest and publicity. He’s given plenty of footage, and wears his costumes beautifully. Certainly the role is no worse than what Fox was giving him. His romantic scenes with Shearer were sure to please his many female admirers, especially a beautifully shot scene on a moonlit balcony.
Perhaps Zanuck was incensed that his top star was not the center of attention, but subservient to the top female star of another studio. It’s too bad he felt that way, since it lost Power other loan out roles, where he would have been able to show his acting chops in ways he was never allowed to at Fox. For instance, Warner Bros. wanted Power to play the idealistic Parris Mitchell in “King’s Row” (1941) but Zanuck said no. Too bad, he would have been perfect in the role and it would have made that magnificent film even better. (Many people feel that the eventual Parris Mitchell, Robert Cummings, is the weak link of “King’s Row”).
What’s odd is how much the film favors the Shearer-Power romance. A natural point for the intermission occurs when it is announced Louis XV will be King of France and Marie Antoinette Queen of France. The scene ends with music swelling and a radiant close-up of Shearer. In fact, I thought it was intermission time (i.e. bathroom break) and started to get up. But no, the film continues and the intermission comes after the farewell scene between Marie and Axel. It’s a beautifully played (and photographed) scene, and the camera tracks Power as he leaves her, walking forward while she recedes in the background. It’s obvious the makers felt the love story was the more important element of the film, and not Marie becoming Queen of France. You would think Zanuck would be happy about the film’s focus.
The film’s second half is much livelier, as revolution threatens the French kingdom. Peasants are starving, yet Marie is spending a million plus francs on a new necklace. (She really hasn’t, though, being part of a scheme to embarrass the French court. She needed Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan to get that necklace back.)
One can’t say enough good things about Robert Morley’s performance as Louis. It’s obvious the poor guy doesn’t want to be king, and is thrust into a role he can barely comprehend. Things get worse when revolution threatens the land and he tries to rally his soldiers. He can barely get the words out and you feel his shame and humiliation as the troops laugh at him.
Curiously though the revolution seems to embolden him. In the film’s best scene, he enjoys a last dinner with his wife and children. The four dine together on onion soup in a prison cell. Louis knows he’s going to the guillotine the next morning but doesn’t let on to his children, putting up a brave front and even offering to fix his son’s broken toy. It’s a beautifully played scene and probably the best scene in the film.
Shearer is good too in her final scenes. She allows herself to be aged and dirtied up as she is released in prison and led to her execution. No careful lighting or make up for her, she looks likes been through the wringer as she takes her final steps.
A few years ago, Kirsten Dunst essayed the role of Marie Antoinette. It wasn’t a bad movie, and I didn’t even mind the contemporary songs on the soundtrack. But it’s pretty dull; “dramatically inert” I remember telling a friend. The 1938 version also has its flaws, but its virtues eventually outweigh them.
