Stars I grew up with

As a kid, I loved technicolor movies with Alice Faye, Betty Grable, John Payne, Don Ameche, Carmen Miranda, and Maria Montez. I just saw Cobra Woman with Montez. She was so beautifully talentless with a great strong accent. Below is a video from That Night in Rio with 3 fabulous Latins, Ameche, Miranda, and Montez. I found Don Ameche very handsome and lucky to have seen him film Cocoon.

RIP Jean Simmons (1929-2010)

Here we go again.  Jean Simmons died on January 22.  She was formerly married to actor Stewart Granger. My first Simmons film was definitely The Robe.  I saw it almost every Lenten season growing up. As a horror fan, I also watched her in the 1991 revival of Dark Shadows.  In the wikipedia entry it states the Gulf War as causing the new hit show to lose it’s audience due to constant re-scheduling. I can’t stand war.  I don’t even really like war films no matter how critically acclaimed. 

I am so aware of Simmons’ filmography including her pre-Hollywood British films, Great Expectations, Hamlet and Black Narcissus as well as her Hollywood films like Elmer Gantry and Guys and Dolls. Nonetheless other than The Robe, I’ve only seen her in Angel Face and  Spartacus . This is a wake-up call that I need to see more of her movies since she starred in a lot of acclaimed classics.

Raul Roulien, Brazilian in old Hollywood

Raul Roulien is a rather obscure name.  I wonder if he enjoyed feijoada. He had a short sejour in 1930s Hollywood but maybe you’ve seen some of his films. He’s most famous for his role in the enjoyable, Flying Down to Rio (1933), with the exquisite Dolores Del Rio and first teaming of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

He also had roles in Eran Trece (1931), the Spanish-language version of Charlie Chan, Delicious (1931) with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, Careless Lady (1932) with my idol, Joan Bennett, The Painted Woman (1932) with Spencer Tracy, It’s Great To Be Alive (1933) with Edna May Oliver and Gloria Stuart, and John Ford’s The World Moves (1934). He then moved back to Brazil, acting, directing and producing.

Did Carmen Miranda like feijoada?

Tomorrow my friend will cook Portuguese-style feijoada as a post-birthday gift. Portuguese-style uses white beans but the more famous version is Brazilian, utilizing black beans.  I favor the white bean version that I first tried in Guatemala.

Anyway my anticipation for feijoada has me thinking about Carmen Miranda.  Miranda was Portuguese-born remaining a Portuguese national till she died. Nevertheless she was Brazilian at heart having been raised there since infancy.  She must have eaten feijoada since it’s Brazil’s national dish. I wonder if her parents could make the white bean version that I love.

Miranda was instrumental in my discovery of classic Hollywood movies. I was first exposed to the Fox studio films starring Alice Faye, Betty Grable, John Payne, Don Ameche and of course, Miranda.  On Halloween in elementary school, I dressed up like her with my own tutti frutti hat.

Jan 17, a special day for Moira Shearer and me

January 17 is my birthday.  I knew James Earl Jones, Betty White and Benjamin Franklin shared my birthday but I just learned this month that Moira Shearer also was born on Jan. 17.

Have you ever seen the ballet movie, The Red Shoes, her most famous film?  I first saw it at the Cinemateque in Nice, France.  I lived there 3 months and would go to weekly screenings. She collaborated with Michael Powell, co-director and co-producer of The Red Shoes, in other films including The Tales of Hoffmann and the controversial  Peeping Tom as a dancer in both.   Red-headed Shearer was one of those women who certainly grew more beautiful with age. She was a prima ballerina but became more famous as an actress even though her film roles were minimal.

Favorite star profile: Joan Bennett

As a blonde before dyeing her hair dark

I don’t know why it has taken me forever to blog about my favorite classic star, Joan Bennett.  Do I think she was the most talented? No. The most beautiful? No. The most magical? No.

Joan Bennett is my favorite because when I was in middle school, I mailed her a fan letter to her address in Scarsdale, New York. I also mailed a letter to Olivia deHavilland in Paris and I think Maureen O’Hara in St. Croix.  Anyway Bennett is the only one who replied.  I received her autographed photo w/my name 6 months after I wrote her. In pubescent years 6 months is like 3 years.  I was so happy.

Forever brunette like me

I don’t remember why I wrote to her.  I think I had seen her in The Son of Monte Cristo and Father of the Bride.  I also had already been exposed to Dark Shadows.  I was still unaware she was a film noir queen in such films as The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street. She also starred in the cult horror classic Suspiria. Joan Bennett worked with a lot of European directors including Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, Max Ophuls, and Dario Argento

I’m positive my autographed photo was signed directly from Bennett not a secretary because I read the biography, The Bennetts: An Acting Family. Author, Brian Kellow states in the last decade of her life, she enjoyed watching Jeopardy and answering fan mail.

Born to be Bad (1950)

Trailer

Born to be Bad is a hoot.  It’s a fun soap opera and wish people would stop calling it a poor man’s All About Eve.  This film has it’s own identity. I first heard of it after watching a Carol Burnett parody. Now that I’ve seen the film, I can truly appreciate Burnett’s hilarous parody.  Joan Fontaine is a conniving manipulator and all smiles throughout.  She and handsome Robert Ryan make a hot couple. Ryan’s character is an arrogant narcissist who thinks Fontaine’s Christabel is so lucky to have him.  She was so stupid to give up sexual Ryan for Zachary Scott’s boring character.  What puzzles me is that while Scott’s character is rich, Ryan’s eventually becomes a successful author so why stay with Scott?

Carol Burnett parody

RIP Jennifer Jones (1919-2009)

I can’t take this.  First Richard Todd, now Jennifer Jones.  These two better not be forgotten at the Oscars In Memoriam.  You know how they left out uber-important people like Dorothy McGuire and Anita Page previously.  Such cretins with no respect for Hollywood history!

I’ve never been a Jennifer Jones fan but I love Duel in the Sun aka Lust in the Dust. What an amazing film!  It has one of the most memorable cinematic endings I’ve ever scene.   Personally I think her role as the Eurasian, Han Suyin nee Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow, in Love is a Many- Splendor Thing should be remade but keep the song.

How could Jennifer Jones have dumped Robert Walker though? I suppose her second husband David O. Selznick had the money and/or was better in bed because Robert Walker was such a handsome and great actor.

While she wasn’t my favorite actress, I still want to see her in Cluny Brown.

Nice clip from Duel in the Sun

We’re No Angels (1955)

I just saw We’re No Angels for the first time. It was very cute.  I saw it for two reasons 1) It’s a Christmas film 2) I love Joan Bennett.  The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov with Bennett, Basil Rathbone and Leo G. Carroll.  It’s not a normal Christmas movie since Bogart, Ray, and Ustinov play escaped convicts who bring Christmas joy to a family through theft, lies, forgery, and other crimes. 

Bogart is quite funny and I just read he used to do comedy on stage.  I adored Leo G. Carroll’s character though.  He was so cute and as someone else noted, the film’s real mystery is how did he ever bag such an attractive wife as Joan Bennett.

RIP Richard Todd (1919-2009)

 Irish actor Richard Todd died yesterday.  All these actors born in the teens are disappearing.  I first saw him in A Man Called Peter when I was in high school.  A few months ago I saw him in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright and The Hasty Heart.  I highly recommend The Hasty Heart. The Dam Busters and The Longest Day are also two of his most famous WW2 films.  He certainly was a gifted actor. He was also  World War 2 veteran. Unfortunately he lost 2 of his sons to suicide.

Here the veteran speaks about D-Day