LIMERICK CONTEST

There once was a photographer named, Jeff.
Who accidentally broke his leg and needed a chef.
His "rear window" looks out into others apartments.
Which turned out to be not so nice,
Because, it got his leg broken, not once, but twice...

There once was a dancer on the wall
I often wonder why he didn't it fall
Some how his feet just stuck...
Or, was it just his luck
Or, does gravity miss dancers so small?

There once was a man who had "Vertigo",
Up the tower he would not go...
He had one obsession, we all know..
A vision of a girl...
Who, caused his life to unfurl.

Our blogger friends over at friends at True Classics Movie website are running a limerick contest. (The link to their site and contest rules can be found at top right on my sidebar.) The limericks must be related to classic movies. Good luck!

Of Human Hearts(1938).

Of Human Hearts(1938). Directed by Clarence Brown.Cast: Walter Huston, James Stewart and Beulah Bondi. Bondi was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The story begins when Rev. Ethan Wilkins moves his family from a wealthy parish in Maryland to an impoverished village on the banks of the Ohio River. His wife Mary understands but their son Jason cannot adjust to their new life. He looks up to Dr. Charles Shingle, a alcoholic physician and resents it when Ethan refuses to let him accept the magazines that Shingle wants to give him.  Mary, trying to keep peace in the family sells her silver spoons to buy Jason a subscription to Harper's Monthly, Ethan finds even that magazine inappropriate.

Ten years later, the now-grown Jason is still resentful of his father. Later Ethan, insists that his son join him on a backwoods tour of older parishoner's cabins, Jason refuses to wear a shabby second-hand coat that an elderly woman gives to him. Jason, who had enough of this lifestyle leaves home and goes to study medicine in Virginia.

Over the years, the broken-hearted Mary sells all of her family's treasures to send money to Jason, but she never complains, nor does Ethan, who is now very ill. Mary writes to her son that Ethan is dying, but by the time Jason returns home, his father has already died. Now, Mary must take in sewing to survive. 

One Christmas, Jason writes to say that he is coming home, then sends another letter saying that he must stay in Virginia during the holidays and needs more money. Mary sells her gold wedding ring, to greedy general store-owner George Ames in order to send Jason the money. When Dr. Shingle finds out, he convinces Ames that he needs a "bleeding" and slips the ring off Ames' finger and gives it back to Mary.

As the Civil War marches on, Jason is called to duty and stops writing to his mother. He later receives a summons to the White House, where he meets President Abraham Lincoln, who tells Jason that his mother Mary, had written to him because she believes that he must be dead. Lincoln, makes him promise to write to his mother every week.

After, Jason returns to his post, he sees his old horse Pilgrim and finally realizes his mother must be very poor to have sold their beloved horse. When Jason saves the arm of his superior, Captain Griggs, his reward is a leave to see Mary. Jason then rides home on Pilgrim and is reunited with his mother.

This is a very emotional story about the relationship between father and son. A must see for John Huston and Jimmy Stewart fans, maybe one of Stewart's best performances.

Beulah Bondi (May 3, 1889 – January 11, 1981) began her acting career on the stage at age seven, playing the title role in the play, Little Lord Fauntleroy in a production at the Memorial Opera House. She graduated from the Frances Shimer Academy (later Shimer College) in 1907, and gained her Bachelors and Masters degrees in oratory at Valparaiso University in 1916 and 1918. She made her Broadway debut in Kenneth S. Webb's, "One of the Family" at the 49th Street Theatre on December 21, 1925. She next performed in, Maxwell Anderson's "Saturday's Children" in 1926.


 It was Bondi's performance in Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Street Scene," which opened at the Playhouse Theatre on January 10, 1929, that brought Bondi to the movies at the advanced age of 43. Her debut movie role was as "Emma Jones" in, Street Scene (1931), which starred Sylvia Sidney, and in which Bondi reprised her stage role, followed by "Mrs. Davidson" in Rain (1932), which starred Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. She was one of the first five women to be nominated for an Academy Award in the newly-created category of "Best Supporting Actress" for her work in The Gorgeous Hussy, although she lost the award to Gale Sondergaard. 


Two years later, she was nominated again for Of Human Hearts, and lost again, but her reputation as a character actress kept her employed. She would most often be seen in the role of the mother of the star of the film for the rest of her career, with the exception of Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) as the abandoned Depression-era 'Ma' Cooper. She often played mature roles in her early film career even though she was only in her early 40s.


Fun Facts: 


Bondi played James Stewart’s mother in four films: It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts and Vivacious Lady. Beulah Bondi portrayed James Stewart's mother five times: In It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts and Vivacious Lady, and once on his television series, The Jimmy Stewart Show.

Made for Each Other (1939)

Made for Each Other (1939). Drama. D: John Cromwell. Cast: Carole Lombard, James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson, Alma Kruger, Esther Dale, Ward Bond and Louise Beavers.

The story begins when, a young New York attorney John Mason marries Jane, soon after meeting, which disappoints his boss, Judge Doolittle and his mother who had both hoped that John would marry the bosses daughter.

Soon after, their honeymoon is delayed by a court case, the newlyweds move into their new apartment and invite John's disproving mother to live with them. Things do not get any easier when, John is unfairly passed over for a partnership in Doolittle's law firm.

After, baby John is born, financial pressure builds and Jane wants her husband to ask for a raise, but the judge beats him to the punch, by asking him into accept a twenty-five percent pay cut. Jane, is forced to go back to work causing problems between John and Jane. Leaving all the housework for the very unhappy mother-in-law.

On New Year's Eve, the couple have reached the end of their rope and they decide to separate. When Jane calls home to check on the baby she learns that her son has come down with phenomena. When the baby, arrives to the hospital by ambulance, they are told that the baby may die,  if he does not receive a special serum. The only place where the doctors can locate the serum is in Salt Lake City, which is snowed in by a blizzard.

Desperate, John turns to Judge Doolittle, who offers the five thousand dollars to pay the pilot, Conway, to deliver the medicine. The storm turns deadly and Conway has to parachute out of his plane before it crashes, breaking his leg. Will the medicine make it in time to save the baby?

Even though, Carole Lombard is known for comedy, she plays her part very seriously, which shows her versatility. Stewart, is equally as good..

Please click on link to view whole movie. http://archive.org/details/madefor_each_other

Lucile Watson (May 27, 1879 – June 24, 1962),  first film role was in the 1916 silent film, The Girl with Green Eyes. She did not appear in another movie until 1930, when she had an uncredited role in, The Royal Family of Broadway. Watson was primarily a stage actress, starring in such plays as Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, Heartbreak House, Ghosts, The Importance of Being Earnest and Pride and Prejudice. Lucile reached the height of her adult acting career in, Watch on the Rhine on Broadway in 1941. Two years later in Hollywood, she and Lukas reprised their roles in the film adaptation. In perhaps her best known film role, Lucile Watson's performance as 'Mrs. Fanny Farrelly' was also acknowledged with a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, but she lost to actress, Katina Paxinou for her performance as Pilar in, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Pawsome Pet Pictures: Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.

Personal Quote:

Jimmy Stewart: [on Grace Kelly] We all say she made as good a princess as she did a movie actress, even better.

Grace Kelly: I hated Hollywood. It's a town without pity. I know of no other place in the world where so many people suffer from nervous breakdowns, where there are so many alcoholics, neurotics, and so much unhappiness.