Remembering JFK

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguY_aYfSMuzo2rwxiSoaYiXzB_lYjVfSqEPaYuWgZDNytGEHWoWp2T6kTBc49TxnEa8zgNFJtl0VWjcb_Nmsj4OCqY7Ci-5O3k6oMi8c9BQX9JH5sBhXiumw-halt-B91ld4-IuAaM_Ig/s1600/JFK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguY_aYfSMuzo2rwxiSoaYiXzB_lYjVfSqEPaYuWgZDNytGEHWoWp2T6kTBc49TxnEa8zgNFJtl0VWjcb_Nmsj4OCqY7Ci-5O3k6oMi8c9BQX9JH5sBhXiumw-halt-B91ld4-IuAaM_Ig/s1600/JFK.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Personal Memories of John F. Kennedy</i></span></span> </span></span></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At 43, he was the youngest man to be elected and the only Catholic President of the United States. His youth and religion were issues in 1960 when he won the office by quite a bit less than a landslide. After his assassination in 1963, at age 46, those issues became irrelevant - and 64% of those polled at the time claimed to have voted for him when he was elected, though his margin of victory was just over 50%.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Yes, John F. Kennedy was charismatic and handsome, but as important were his intelligence and cool head, major assets as he was drawn into intense Cold War world politics during his three years in office.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I was very young then. I remember reading in <i>My Weekly Reader</i>, a newspaper for grammar-schoolers, about him and other Democratic candidates in an article on presidential primaries. Little did I know that his candidacy would actually make primaries relevant to election politics. Later, when he’d won the nomination and was campaigning in Southern California, my parents took us to Lindbergh Field, San Diego’s airport, where Kennedy was to land and say a few words before delivering a major speech downtown. Dad had gotten a pass of some sort through political contacts that gave us admittance to the area on the tarmac where Kennedy would arrive. The enthusiastic airport audience was contained within a small fenced area where we awaited the candidate. Kennedy landed in a private plane and spoke briefly from a raised podium nearby. Then he began shaking hands with the crowd. I’d already moved from the back of the crowd, where my family was standing, to the front so I could hear better and get a good look. As the handshaking began, I climbed on top of a fallen papier mache donkey in front of the podium and reached for his hand. Success! I was thrilled. I’d been captivated by his eloquent words and magnetic presence. Now I’d shaken his hand.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ED87HO4aZlQN0Imuq24Q6BwMZL8ctofW8Fd2qoazCaV0wyfVY9nSPGhZg6575ls34yRh0HXy-CWcUIevG5tCKy5uot63fjubQqj6kY0gYlynhu8HXowcGSanum9oNcjmAqwHfUBsOok/s1600/JFK_press.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ED87HO4aZlQN0Imuq24Q6BwMZL8ctofW8Fd2qoazCaV0wyfVY9nSPGhZg6575ls34yRh0HXy-CWcUIevG5tCKy5uot63fjubQqj6kY0gYlynhu8HXowcGSanum9oNcjmAqwHfUBsOok/s320/JFK_press.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Two months later he was elected. His iconic inaugural address and the grand inaugural ball (partly orchestrated by Frank Sinatra) followed in January. Soon came the Bay of Pigs fiasco, for which Kennedy took full responsibility – while learning just how much to trust the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There was a triumphant trip to Paris with Jackie – and it seemed the U.S. had at last attained a stature in the world that, until then, had seemed the sole province of Europe. The Peace Corps was established and ‘physical fitness’ (the 50-mile hike!) was promoted. Kennedy’s frequent televised press conferences and speeches proved him to be the true ‘great communicator’ among modern American presidents. He spoke out and proposed a bill on civil rights, he signed the first limited nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union and the UK…</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYR0FL4e7cVopQ9Pg_vOYLVlwZG-RM_rDKjR7H12QdRLEAjRsoejay0HRUwagXTBoljdzljifzE2JR83FAvCsXnxDRReWSx14NlYQPyn5BJ6soXQNHrn0u2zjEZERNtQZ4GP49MmKpmPA/s1600/JFK_wh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYR0FL4e7cVopQ9Pg_vOYLVlwZG-RM_rDKjR7H12QdRLEAjRsoejay0HRUwagXTBoljdzljifzE2JR83FAvCsXnxDRReWSx14NlYQPyn5BJ6soXQNHrn0u2zjEZERNtQZ4GP49MmKpmPA/s400/JFK_wh.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And then he was gone.</span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It was the morning of November 22, 1963, sometime between 10:00 and 11:00am, Pacific Standard Time. I was in the language lab which was in the school's library building. I began to hear what sounded like a radio or TV at loud volume coming from the library. I wondered what was going on. My next class was gym and while I was changing clothes I began to hear rumors that shots had been fired at President Kennedy. I knew that someone had tried to shoot Harry Truman when he was in office and assumed this was the same kind of thing – an attempt. It was basketball season and we girls were on the court when the school principal’s voice suddenly came over the public address system and announced that President Kennedy was dead. My best friend was in the class with me and I remember that we sat on the court, hugging each other and sobbing.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That night, mother didn’t feel like cooking, so we went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was packed with families like ours. Apparently a lot of other mothers didn’t feel like cooking that night either. The eerie thing was that as we sat there in that restaurant full of people, no one spoke, not anyone at any table. The room was completely silent and it stayed silent.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My brother and I were glued to the TV through the rest of the weekend and, on Sunday morning, watched together in disbelief as Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed while in police custody. Then, on Monday, there was no school – it was the day of the President’s state funeral – and with it came all those never to be forgotten images…a widow heavily draped in black, heads of state from all over the world walking in the street with the family behind the coffin-bearing caisson, a riderless horse, the doleful sound of the funeral march as it played on and on, a little boy saluting his father's casket.</span></span><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5U1S3fyI1dAV9qLvKs2W_Hw5qLcmPjxAmF5YssxTAuYeNnliFlYtUguM4uRsIoiDeWkFxa2J4XN3GKDEiZ0umGnXXAimEowoPraWEu8Nl1B1fKNb0WWxl6g5MFpVbolq2jpZq7w8Nz20/s1600/jfk_jr.salute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5U1S3fyI1dAV9qLvKs2W_Hw5qLcmPjxAmF5YssxTAuYeNnliFlYtUguM4uRsIoiDeWkFxa2J4XN3GKDEiZ0umGnXXAimEowoPraWEu8Nl1B1fKNb0WWxl6g5MFpVbolq2jpZq7w8Nz20/s400/jfk_jr.salute.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As I've watched some of the 50th anniversary specials about JFK's life, presidency and death this past week and mulled over my own memories and all that has transpired since, I've realized that so much more than innocence was lost 50 years ago today. </span></span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnoyxKKXm4nSWxlVbQcFbW72cmPYUECdVzof20NnIiitgEgU7LieYtqLP57Zq-SMB0k5jFIAumRQIwIW3bJ_hSXxPuyEHPP6D78pDSuD4aBmM-rAtqKUrWtrjYHTzSzxlrHoXYO3OAB9s/s1600/JFK_flame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnoyxKKXm4nSWxlVbQcFbW72cmPYUECdVzof20NnIiitgEgU7LieYtqLP57Zq-SMB0k5jFIAumRQIwIW3bJ_hSXxPuyEHPP6D78pDSuD4aBmM-rAtqKUrWtrjYHTzSzxlrHoXYO3OAB9s/s320/JFK_flame.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div>

John F. Kennedy The Lady Eve (author) Remembering JFK

Personal Memories of John F. Kennedy At 43, he was the youngest man to be elected and the only Catholic President of the United States. His youth and religion were issues in 1960 when he won the office by quite a bit less than a landslide. After his …

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What a Character: Gladys Cooper

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyB0yH45P_indI81lJO_HFurOVhcQ2ASNCHBiis3m0N4umZ1Ii8WVGACNioJXrWjVBv3ENY970Oarxj9_DVJRlKu_yuVTpgZ5qepnTPAnloKqSShE_gWvKQt25ayavREspbplQyFIv0FQ/s1600/Gladys_Collage+2.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyB0yH45P_indI81lJO_HFurOVhcQ2ASNCHBiis3m0N4umZ1Ii8WVGACNioJXrWjVBv3ENY970Oarxj9_DVJRlKu_yuVTpgZ5qepnTPAnloKqSShE_gWvKQt25ayavREspbplQyFIv0FQ/s1600/Gladys_Collage+2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The <b>What a Character! </b>blogathon is in progress now, hosted by </i><b>Once Upon a Screen</b><i>, </i><b>Outspoken and Freckled</b><i> and </i><b>Paula's Cinema Club</b><i>. <a href="http://aurorasginjoint.com/2013/11/06/what-a-character-blogathon-schedule/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Click here</span></a> for more information and links to participating blogs. My entry for the event follows...</i> </span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JKYogDfkPFzxqs5oCs_kRiSpXg3vvu_Rk7Z4XCyJK9gub1g7-aswQ3003a-8UX7MqoXviDFk4B8Zr5zZoy9JpMEu-Aop0r_uXpM6yf2dJlawhV6mp_RzSCRhveBRKaPFm_dl0aSXl7E/s1600/Gladys_model2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JKYogDfkPFzxqs5oCs_kRiSpXg3vvu_Rk7Z4XCyJK9gub1g7-aswQ3003a-8UX7MqoXviDFk4B8Zr5zZoy9JpMEu-Aop0r_uXpM6yf2dJlawhV6mp_RzSCRhveBRKaPFm_dl0aSXl7E/s320/Gladys_model2.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Young Gladys</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She was a beautiful child, wide-eyed and wistful, who began modeling at age six; during World War I she was the favorite 'picture postcard' pin-up of British troops; she went on tour in a musical at age 17 and by the time she neared 40 she was a star of the London stage. In 1940, at age 51, she began working as a character actress in Hollywood and would, over the course of the next three decades, earn three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Her name was Gladys Cooper and she is best remembered for her performance as Bette Davis's cruel, steel-willed mother, Mrs. Vale, in <i>Now, Voyager</i>...</span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q6KD7DATyj0" width="420"></iframe> </div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gladys Cooper and Alfred Hitchcock launched their careers in Hollywood at the same time on the same film - <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/11/chill-in-air-part-i.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>Rebecca</i></span></a> (1940). Cooper's was the small role of a tweedy aristocrat, the sister of Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier), who offered warmth and kindness to the beleaguered second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine). <i>Rebecca</i>, Selznick Pictures' follow up to <i>Gone with the Wind</i>, took the year's Best Picture Oscar and put Cooper (not to mention Hitchcock, Fontaine and Olivier) on the Hollywood map. Her obvious talent and commanding presence brought two less sympathetic roles next: Dennis Morgan's disapproving socialite mother in <i>Kitty Foyle</i> (1940) and the spurned wife of Laurence Olivier in <i>That Hamilton <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTyxnZ215_mm8L7eLYjfHK1ajlzGUiFsj9ZFwLRBamVugdaZBVcsABi7AIsJGMsxXMQG_si4y93L6pu0H1Q59Ak9Dt7nVn-7b98mjxwzio8wyQW16Rm5p5kh9yZpKlqRvyFJmg5pydd7c/s1600/Gladys_Morgan_GDS.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTyxnZ215_mm8L7eLYjfHK1ajlzGUiFsj9ZFwLRBamVugdaZBVcsABi7AIsJGMsxXMQG_si4y93L6pu0H1Q59Ak9Dt7nVn-7b98mjxwzio8wyQW16Rm5p5kh9yZpKlqRvyFJmg5pydd7c/s320/Gladys_Morgan_GDS.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Gladys Cooper and Frank Morgan in <i>Green Dolphin Street</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Woman </i>(1941). Her facility in these roles paved the way for Cooper to be cast as the villain in <i>Now, Voyager</i>. She earned her first Oscar nomination in 1942 for her portrayal of this archetypal <a href="http://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2010/01/this-weeks-poll-whos-your-mommie.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">devouring mother</span></a>. The following year she earned her second nomination as Sister Marie Therese, a severe and punishing nun in <i>The Song of Bernadette </i>(1943).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Typecast? Yes and no. Cooper was fortunate (and versatile) enough to be cast in sympathetic roles - in <i>Mr. Lucky </i>(1943), <i>The White Cliffs of Dover </i>(1944), <i>The Valley of Decision </i>(1945), <i>Green Dolphin Street </i>(1947) and other popular films - but she was as often cast as uppercrust autocrats. In 1947, she brought one of her most memorable wealthy dowagers to the screen as Mrs. Hamilton in the holiday fantasy <i>The Bishop's Wife</i>. This time, though, there was a twist; the imperious widow's hardened heart<i> </i>was melted by no less an angel than Cary Grant - giving Cooper the rare chance to render both harsh and tender facets of her character. </span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFLygBLTIvGFgELzYhligaE67sSh4cfOGtLXV16TCaCw5aEA7i_5lWRpyhaoMAu4hDQLMudxz7gY1HXE-J0lmZKLs-VIG_h_s2miioeyivdknBNcq0LecNNxvmgfIUM46vjPtRHH6rPI/s1600/Bishop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFLygBLTIvGFgELzYhligaE67sSh4cfOGtLXV16TCaCw5aEA7i_5lWRpyhaoMAu4hDQLMudxz7gY1HXE-J0lmZKLs-VIG_h_s2miioeyivdknBNcq0LecNNxvmgfIUM46vjPtRHH6rPI/s400/Bishop.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Gladys Cooper and Cary Grant, <i>The Bishop's Wife</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The 1950s brought the actress far more work on television that in films, but she would add one more notable ill-tempered and overbearing mother to her gallery of silver screen harridans. Maude Railton-Bell, her role in Delbert Mann's <i>Separate Tables</i> (1958), doesn't command the wealth or position of Mrs. Vale of the "Boston Vales," but she does maintain the same kind of suffocating stranglehold on her dowdy spinster daughter (Deborah Kerr).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gladys Cooper's credits during TV's early, golden days are impressive. She appeared on two legendary drama anthologies, <i>The Alcoa Hour</i> and <i>Playhouse 90</i>; she was featured on both <i>Alfred Hitchcock Presents</i> and <i>The Alfred Hitchcock Hour</i>; she guested on <i>The Ann Sothern Show, Naked City</i>, <i>The Outer Limits</i>, <i>Burkes Law</i>, <i>Ben Casey</i>, <i>The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. </i>(!) and was nominated for a <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdM9W5Usi3ZEHfm0dUqUxUwafY1UcYZG1E-OHVwFnf1KG92Ndd7daH_NBQhc_5CmuI9qvDjft2socy9veDpoOjDy8qKEYWCGBEH8M3BT6T4kkniim0mofDX_IzIOstlZawbhTQhHifBcE/s1600/Rogues.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdM9W5Usi3ZEHfm0dUqUxUwafY1UcYZG1E-OHVwFnf1KG92Ndd7daH_NBQhc_5CmuI9qvDjft2socy9veDpoOjDy8qKEYWCGBEH8M3BT6T4kkniim0mofDX_IzIOstlZawbhTQhHifBcE/s320/Rogues.JPG" width="299" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>The Rogues</i></span> </td></tr></tbody></table>1964 primetime Emmy for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057782/"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>The Rogues</i></span></a>, a crime caper series in which she </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">co-starred with Charles Boyer, David Niven, Gig Young and Robert Coote</span>. Most often talked about among her many TV performances, though, are her appearances on the venerable series, <i>The</i> <i>Twilight Zone</i>. Cooper first appeared in a haunting 1962 episode entitled "Nothing in the Dark," in which she portrayed an elderly woman utterly terrified of death (personified by fledgling actor Robert Redford). Her second guest spot came the following year when she played one of several elderly travelers who have booked "Passage on the Lady Anne." Finally, later in 1963, came "Night Call," directed by Jacques Tourneur, in which she starred solo as an elderly woman who lives alone and begins to receive unnerving, anonymous phone calls.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now in her mid-70s, Gladys Cooper still had a last good film or two ahead of her. She was a member of John Huston's illustrious cast in <i>The List of Adrian Messenger </i>(1963) and earned her third and final Academy Award nomination for her performance as Mrs. Higgins, mother of Henry (<a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2013/08/summer-under-stars-unfaithfully-rex.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Rex Harrison</span></a>), in the Oscar-winning musical, <i>My Fair Lady </i>(1964).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And that's not all. Before she embarked on her Hollywood career, Cooper had starred on Broadway several times. She returned to the New York stage in her late career and earned Tony nominations in her final two roles. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Play in 1956 for her performance in <i>The Chalk Garden</i> and again in 1962 for her performance in <i>A Passage to India</i> (in a role that would bring an Oscar to Peggy Ashcroft 20+ years later).</span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGnBwKCYAxxIDxN7jI9LjjQnCEx-7uGTqDUv1fjUVrozPrl3_pjkk34qWF0pK5G07dbtmgplrFW0yR1pUqLNhV1YTRJ7NKe_Ec5uUQi5Rk4DdzbqOIwD8wiWAOxGvBX8uo7fVzAtucVkI/s1600/chalk_garden_revival.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGnBwKCYAxxIDxN7jI9LjjQnCEx-7uGTqDUv1fjUVrozPrl3_pjkk34qWF0pK5G07dbtmgplrFW0yR1pUqLNhV1YTRJ7NKe_Ec5uUQi5Rk4DdzbqOIwD8wiWAOxGvBX8uo7fVzAtucVkI/s400/chalk_garden_revival.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Gladys Cooper (center) in a 1971 revival of <i>The Chalk Garden</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At last, in 1967, as she approached 80, Gladys Cooper was named a Dame of the British Empire. Her life in the public eye had begun because of the great beauty with which she was naturally endowed; she was long considered the most beautiful woman in England. But Cooper was blessed with more than looks, she had striking talent and presence and profound devotion to her craft. The blush of youthful beauty would, as it always does, fade, but her power as an actress only matured and deepened through the years. Dame Gladys Cooper had been about to embark on a Canadian tour with a revival of <i>The Chalk Garden </i>in 1971 when she was stricken with pneumonia and died. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bette Davis was set to tape a guest appearance on <a href="http://dickcavettshow.com/"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>The Dick Cavett Show</i></span></a> when she learned of Gladys Cooper's death; she shared her thoughts during the interview: </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">  </span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4wsgpF-InEY" width="420"></iframe></div>

Gladys Cooper Now Voyager The Bishop's Wife The Lady Eve (author) What a Character What a Character: Gladys Cooper

The What a Character! blogathon is in progress now, hosted by Once Upon a Screen, Outspoken and Freckled and Paula's Cinema Club. Click here for more information and links to participating blogs. My entry for the event follows... ~Young GladysShe was…

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Three (Mesmerizing) Hitchcock Villains Revisited on Halloween

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtSnqgNb87Y0Ng5pmOACjMm2jPPAmtBgMQ5x2DsyCg9O23qxd8oNZHUbOC6kPYdfIbHsghcAX6RvY-yGEGmroVmcfDcn2-QGwrLnb7offHNexh9mLMcKXRaIU5bnWZBi1BqPQmM5GL_88/s1600/Hitchcock_Halloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtSnqgNb87Y0Ng5pmOACjMm2jPPAmtBgMQ5x2DsyCg9O23qxd8oNZHUbOC6kPYdfIbHsghcAX6RvY-yGEGmroVmcfDcn2-QGwrLnb7offHNexh9mLMcKXRaIU5bnWZBi1BqPQmM5GL_88/s400/Hitchcock_Halloween.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today (and today only) our friend Lara of <i>Backlots</i> is hosting a one day <i>Hitchcock Halloween</i> blogathon and for the occasion I'm resurrecting an old favorite from the <i>Reel Life</i> archives.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In January 2011 the Classic Movie Blog Association hosted a Hitchcock blogathon and I decided rather than blog about a particular film, I'd take another approach. The result was an exploration of three legendary Hitchcock killers and the actors who portrayed them: Joseph Cotten's Uncle Charlie in <i>Shadow of a Doubt </i>(1943), Robert Walker's Bruno Anthony in <i>Strangers on a Train </i>(1951) and Anthony Perkins's Norman Bates in <i>Psycho </i>(1960). I was and still am fascinated by the complex characters of Uncle Charlie, Bruno and Norman - and with the masterful performances of the three daring actors who took their turns as what film critic/historian David Thomson calls Hitchcock's "smiling psychopaths."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/cmba-hitchcock-blogathon-three-classic.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Click here to read </span></a><i><a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/cmba-hitchcock-blogathon-three-classic.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Three Classic Hitchcock Killers</span></a><span style="color: black;">.</span></i></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For links to Lara's blog and and more on <i>Hitchcock Halloween</i>, <a href="http://backlots.net/2013/10/31/the-hitchcock-halloween-blogathon-the-entries/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">click here</span></a>.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ATvefdWqpCu1fTzNykEpJ4m1FgXaXYs1CpK9_yRW8aU1I19JETubqPw-NpP-K1rfr2VZoeDSNJTIPxX3X3w6CtDOZABiUq6DZ2HBFnCvtl8BRW6eugzV51ePZK4cF4F_PVBbSl-0DE8/s1600/Classic_Killers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ATvefdWqpCu1fTzNykEpJ4m1FgXaXYs1CpK9_yRW8aU1I19JETubqPw-NpP-K1rfr2VZoeDSNJTIPxX3X3w6CtDOZABiUq6DZ2HBFnCvtl8BRW6eugzV51ePZK4cF4F_PVBbSl-0DE8/s1600/Classic_Killers.JPG" /></a></div><span id="goog_1974639347"></span><span id="goog_1974639348"></span><br />

Alfred Hitchcock Backlots Hitchcock Halloween Psycho Shadow of a Doubt Strangers on a Train The Lady Eve (author) Three (Mesmerizing) Hitchcock Villains Revisited on Halloween

Today (and today only) our friend Lara of Backlots is hosting a one day Hitchcock Halloween blogathon and for the occasion I'm resurrecting an old favorite from the Reel Life archives.In January 2011 the Classic Movie Blog Association hosted a Hitchc…

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Hitchcock Week...and more...at the San Francisco Symphony

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVX-wczSvLpB0a9Gsuto9lXfJ38szFDfx6FUbKAeoWOMXZNtfjNcQlKsNa2TcqdSyrJ2nzX3sstbfCS1lTJ4y5tAXdu0fPW7azbr_9AwVaOPnnecvVvczFqymK1sTrkXwZVJ_W1HhVCuc/s1600/psycho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVX-wczSvLpB0a9Gsuto9lXfJ38szFDfx6FUbKAeoWOMXZNtfjNcQlKsNa2TcqdSyrJ2nzX3sstbfCS1lTJ4y5tAXdu0fPW7azbr_9AwVaOPnnecvVvczFqymK1sTrkXwZVJ_W1HhVCuc/s400/psycho.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Just over two years ago I attended – and was astounded by - “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casablanca</i> with the San Francisco Symphony” at Davies Hall. Conductor Michael Francis led the orchestra in accompanying the beyond-iconic classic with Max Steiner’s unforgettable score. What an experience it was (<a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/07/casablanca-with-san-francisco-symphony.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">click here</span></span></a> for my reaction)...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Now the symphony is about to present a Halloween season series, <b>Hitchcock Week</b>, spotlighting several of the Master’s films with live musical accompaniment. The <span class="st"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pièce</i></span><i>de résistance</i><i><span style="font-style: normal;"> will be “World Premiere: </span></i><i>Vertigo</i><i><span style="font-style: normal;">” on Friday, November 1, with the symphony accompanying Hitchcock’s great masterpiece with Bernard Herrmann’s brilliant, haunting and, some would say, peerless score.</span></i> </span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bay Area film lovers, get thee to a box office, online or otherwise! Hitchcock Week is about to begin…<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Wednesday, October 30, 8pm, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psycho</i></b>, with Joshua Gersen conducting Herrmann’s legendary score<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thursday, October 31, 7:30pm, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog</i></b>, live organ music will accompany Hitchcock’s early silent thriller on Halloween night </span><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvVQAs_cYsBf2DoSIBAuEdLXgwqu55s0RN1LSGCmmalRlo-8MlogbNlUV1oN7FfCyAJLslAyS7DXNqhCFTJ7_n6l6rePCyH0FOPAebR8HrsdlZ5I_LnDt91C9UwmO4GgCpK2P5JCpMl4/s1600/vertigo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvVQAs_cYsBf2DoSIBAuEdLXgwqu55s0RN1LSGCmmalRlo-8MlogbNlUV1oN7FfCyAJLslAyS7DXNqhCFTJ7_n6l6rePCyH0FOPAebR8HrsdlZ5I_LnDt91C9UwmO4GgCpK2P5JCpMl4/s400/vertigo2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Kim Novak and James Stewart, </span><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Vertigo </span></i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(1958)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Friday, November 1, 8pm, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo </i></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">-</i></span> <i>Vertigo </i>accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony…what more is there to say?<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Saturday, November 2, 8pm, Hitchcock! Greatest Hits</b>, clips from several Hitchcock classics – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Catch a Thief, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, North by Northwest</i> – to be hosted by Eva Marie Saint, with Joshua Gersen conducting</span><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdeqmiCwtJZxnDukC9UFY-DtbtdZSWKuX0AsOziij6YKZvD_IGcWQxH7zZyd38YNyKPjigyiQ5zxtPXaFSo9H5ZXPBCSsSmnu86M7aJkT2AvWVKfvmw6MN_744yC5F720hF9IV-h9HDTc/s1600/NxNW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdeqmiCwtJZxnDukC9UFY-DtbtdZSWKuX0AsOziij6YKZvD_IGcWQxH7zZyd38YNyKPjigyiQ5zxtPXaFSo9H5ZXPBCSsSmnu86M7aJkT2AvWVKfvmw6MN_744yC5F720hF9IV-h9HDTc/s400/NxNW.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in <i>North by Northwest </i>(1959)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The symphony has scheduled more classic films with orchestral accompaniment through the rest of its 2013/2014 season:<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Friday and Saturday, December 6 and 7, 7:30pm, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Singin’ in the Rain</i> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Saturday, February 15, 8pm, A Night at the Oscars </b>will feature celebrated scenes and scores from memorable films<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Saturday, April 12, 8pm, Charlie Chaplin's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City Lights</i> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Saturday, May 31 at 8pm and Sunday, June 1 at 4pm, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantasia</i></b> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A “Compose Your Own Film Series” package offers savings to those who buy tickets to three or more of these film concerts: <a href="http://www.sfsymphony.org/Buy-Tickets/Calendar.aspx"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Click here</span></a> to go to the symphony website or call (415)864-6000.</span><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3vnW-q7jVEyRNX9kgQQ107VC1DTbYE1Lmqyx1W-JOp6ag73bSMT36AFmooLCYVYF9TAnUMKSlgQtdMGp0ZC3qDpltZMk4tN2al8uubTKwVuF57Xz49XHcw0dwnKpGEooAgB2apQmR-A/s1600/Fantasia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3vnW-q7jVEyRNX9kgQQ107VC1DTbYE1Lmqyx1W-JOp6ag73bSMT36AFmooLCYVYF9TAnUMKSlgQtdMGp0ZC3qDpltZMk4tN2al8uubTKwVuF57Xz49XHcw0dwnKpGEooAgB2apQmR-A/s400/Fantasia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Fantasia </span></i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(1940)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />

Alfred Hitchcock Psycho San Francisco Symphony The Lady Eve (author) The Lodger Vertigo Hitchcock Week...and more...at the San Francisco Symphony

Just over two years ago I attended – and was astounded by - “Casablanca with the San Francisco Symphony” at Davies Hall. Conductor Michael Francis led the orchestra in accompanying the beyond-iconic classic with Max Steiner’s unforgettable score. Wha…

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TCM Presents Five Tyrone Power Films in Primetime and Late Night

<div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Nightmare Alley </span></b></i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">to Make Its TCM Premiere</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhecv-hSBfkvdWmxu4sTIvfki8zuULI7lcakXWNRespp87gEYmrZXZpQHxXhlQibeWNpCMkARSSVZawHP40Dk_1eHUOUGw_0wGzF3JypfRez7h3yAmpdnBCzqQNklF9dzsRE8M4isp5hdc/s1600/nightmare_alley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhecv-hSBfkvdWmxu4sTIvfki8zuULI7lcakXWNRespp87gEYmrZXZpQHxXhlQibeWNpCMkARSSVZawHP40Dk_1eHUOUGw_0wGzF3JypfRez7h3yAmpdnBCzqQNklF9dzsRE8M4isp5hdc/s400/nightmare_alley.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>Nightmare Alley</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2012/08/remembering-tyrone-power.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Tyrone Power</span></a> was one of <i>the</i> biggest stars in Hollywood from the late 1930s through the late 1950s and he was 20th Century Fox's<i> </i>most famous star until <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2012/08/marilyn-monroe-out-of-dream.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Marilyn Monroe</span></a> came along. Turner Classic Movies hasn't traditionally aired as many films of Fox's great stars as those from other studios - this has been about film rights more than anything else. Since TCM entered into an exclusive licensing deal with Fox, though, that has begun to change.</span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In August 2012, Tyrone Power was honored for the first time with a day filled with his films as part of TCM's annual <i>Summer Under the Stars</i> event. Soon after, more of Power's films began appearing on the channel than in the past, but Wednesday evening, October 16, marks the first time since then that TCM's primetime schedule and late night hours are being devoted to his movies.  Among the films to be aired are two that will be making their TCM debuts: <i>Rawhide </i>(1951), a Western, and <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2013/02/cmba-blogathon-nightmare-alley-1947.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>Nightmare Alley</i></span></a> (1947), a film noir that contains what most consider Power's best dramatic performance.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Schedule (all times Eastern/Pacific):</span></u></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8:00pm/5:00pm  <i>Rawhide</i> (1951), co-starring Susan Hayward, directed by Henry Hathaway</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">9:45pm/6:45pm  <i>Nightmare Alley </i>(1947), co-starring Joan Blondell, directed by Edmund Goulding</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">11:45pm/8:45pm  <i>The Mark of Zorro</i> (1940), co-starring Basil Rathbone and Linda Darnell, directed by Rouben Mamoulian</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1:30am/10:30pm  <i>The Black Swan </i>(1942), co-starring Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell and Anthony Quinn, directed by Henry King</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3:00am/midnight  <i>Marie Antoinette </i>(1938), co-starring Norma Shearer, directed by W.S. Van Dyke </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZqjC3I1X0a6nG8lIBqrHHsD-tb9wb0Q-Ep-_CawiYox7O1xlNdPlMUUVfHv8igAVoJjHUbUFLVRZwtno-G4amFfJWBf4AxmjS22RzZ2HmM9c7jjuEOnxo7TD_j0HaHKwUNk5EN_UlU_E/s1600/black_swan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZqjC3I1X0a6nG8lIBqrHHsD-tb9wb0Q-Ep-_CawiYox7O1xlNdPlMUUVfHv8igAVoJjHUbUFLVRZwtno-G4amFfJWBf4AxmjS22RzZ2HmM9c7jjuEOnxo7TD_j0HaHKwUNk5EN_UlU_E/s400/black_swan.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Black Swan</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>

Marie Antoinette Nightmare Alley Rawhide TCM The Black Swan The Lady Eve (author) The Mark of Zorro Tyrone Power TCM Presents Five Tyrone Power Films in Primetime and Late Night

Nightmare Alley to Make Its TCM PremiereNightmare AlleyTyrone Power was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood from the late 1930s through the late 1950s and he was 20th Century Fox's most famous star until Marilyn Monroe came along. Turner Classic Mo…

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Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me): My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZdNBBjrMt3_Lp3vI0eDkypL81YjWVzLdaTsfNZlNE9MzP-oWa7kzKTrdLzQnx4NSeweCAc9aYnS0iOwxosqk_0-rXHb30zoMeNYgAFGWMIlo-rVevrM9UIGKz57ZiK2sg_DPRdSK56X4/s1600/My_Mortal_Enemy2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZdNBBjrMt3_Lp3vI0eDkypL81YjWVzLdaTsfNZlNE9MzP-oWa7kzKTrdLzQnx4NSeweCAc9aYnS0iOwxosqk_0-rXHb30zoMeNYgAFGWMIlo-rVevrM9UIGKz57ZiK2sg_DPRdSK56X4/s1600/My_Mortal_Enemy2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Davis</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>The Metzinger Sisters of </i>Silver Scenes<i> are hosting a classic film event</i></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>,</i>The Great Imaginary Film Blogathon -<i> and this is my entry. <a href="http://silverscenesblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-great-imaginary-film-blogathon-is.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Click here</span></a> for links to participating blogs.</i></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPV17ua1bHxxq9zonSrUeY70qgOMzeSKztegLP1yNUenpQAHwD_Ns0uB1E3QlfLfuyXgUtUPGsUqWwygN6fZkElD8mgEMxfMzlQ7Zv6bGExDQwROo_LMlpGsqDaCut7nY3nkSxMqamgs/s1600/Lost_Lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPV17ua1bHxxq9zonSrUeY70qgOMzeSKztegLP1yNUenpQAHwD_Ns0uB1E3QlfLfuyXgUtUPGsUqWwygN6fZkElD8mgEMxfMzlQ7Zv6bGExDQwROo_LMlpGsqDaCut7nY3nkSxMqamgs/s320/Lost_Lady.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 1926, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather published her eighth novel, a novella, really, titled <i>My Mortal Enemy</i>. Among the writer's many poetic works of prose fiction, the book earned a reputation for both its lean structure and dramatic plot. When I read it for the first time, I couldn't help but imagine what a powerful film <i>My Mortal Enemy</i> might be. Yet I also knew that, because of Cather's profound unhappiness with the film version of <i>A Lost Lady </i>(1934, starring Barbara Stanwyck), she hadn't allowed her other works to be adapted in her lifetime and that at the time of her death in 1947, the terms of her will dictated a ban on future film adaptations. Mostly because I saw in <i>My Mortal Enemy</i>'s central character, Myra Driscoll Henshawe, a role that would provide a golden opportunity for the right actress to deliver a blistering tour de force performance, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I despaired that it would never be dramatized.</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The tale unfolds from the point of view of its narrator, a young Midwestern woman named Nellie, who grew up enchanted by the local legend of a great romance that had taken place not too many years before she was born. Myra Driscoll had been the pampered only heir of her great-uncle, the wealthiest man in town. Though well-educated and handsome, Oswald Henshawe was of more humble origins, and the love that developed between the two was unacceptable to Myra's guardian. Myra threw away the certain inheritance of most of her great-uncle's enormous fortune when she defied him and eloped with Oswald. For young Nellie, Myra and Oswald's "runaway marriage" was "the most interesting, indeed the only interesting" story among those told on "holidays or at family dinners." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Myra had been taken in by her great-uncle when she was orphaned in childhood. He took her traveling with him to Europe, had her portrait painted by an esteemed painter, lavished her with clothing and jewelry as well as a riding horse and "a Steinway piano." She was spirited and witty and pretty and her guardian took pride in her. Though she enjoyed a close, affectionate relationship with her uncle, she was also proud and willful. When he solemnly promised he would "cut her off without a penny" if she married Oswald, she didn't react immediately. Some months later, though, Myra went out on a sleigh-ride with friends and never returned. She and Oswald met at a pre-arranged time and place, were married with his parents and her friends on hand and departed in the wee hours on an express train.</span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0u9EvBAxCDd7-Y4N6zgYdn4TH95zqDpQ70ArMU11J_WrttISqnSR0jq76A6I_31neoIBUv8W2LkH1z0MtBTtpBG16gEfsr90VFj9UBgebrVFoA76g0Rg4sIRgsTjkEq80gyMkSubv0U/s1600/train+interior+lovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0u9EvBAxCDd7-Y4N6zgYdn4TH95zqDpQ70ArMU11J_WrttISqnSR0jq76A6I_31neoIBUv8W2LkH1z0MtBTtpBG16gEfsr90VFj9UBgebrVFoA76g0Rg4sIRgsTjkEq80gyMkSubv0U/s320/train+interior+lovers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Drawing by Edward Hopper</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="goog_868207947"></span><span id="goog_868207948"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Myra we glimpse through Nellie's reminiscences of the stories she's been told all her life is  passionate, impulsive, determined and full of self-confidence. The Myra we encounter when Nellie meets her in person is much older and very worldly. Myra and Oswald return to the small town 25 years after their elopement and Nellie, now 15, is finally introduced to the couple she has idealized as storybook lovers. She meets Myra first and is both bewitched and intimidated by the still-handsome but heavier-than-expected middle-aged woman. Myra's "charming, fluent voice, her clear light enunciation" bewilders Nellie, who also notes that her "sarcasm was so quick, so fine at the point - it was like being touched by a metal so cold that one doesn't know whether one is burned or chilled." Oswald is less imposing though also charismatic, and Nellie is captivated by his "dark and soft" eyes, shaped "exactly like half-moons." She observes "something about him that suggested personal bravery, magnanimity, and a fine, generous way of doing things." Nellie was more comfortable with Oswald than Myra, "because he did not frighten one so much." By the time the Henshawes leave days later, it has been decided that Nellie and her aunt will spend the Christmas holidays in New York and stay at a hotel near Oswald and Myra's apartment on Madison Square.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0KUck9-Q3OTP0bDpCSzFpplxdQNoRTNOi-b-ZC880CU6Wy-ccTWpD94T78kz0CGmcA7yRYn2PjEHbbe3vMNFN0oWLhToKjhv4EB3V0fpYnv5r59ZTV47HZ4cfRhtz20dalgxu-rqxR4Y/s1600/Madison_Square_1900_Paul_Cornoyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0KUck9-Q3OTP0bDpCSzFpplxdQNoRTNOi-b-ZC880CU6Wy-ccTWpD94T78kz0CGmcA7yRYn2PjEHbbe3vMNFN0oWLhToKjhv4EB3V0fpYnv5r59ZTV47HZ4cfRhtz20dalgxu-rqxR4Y/s400/Madison_Square_1900_Paul_Cornoyer.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Madison Square painted by Paul Cornoyer, circa 1900</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once in New York, Nellie falls instantly in love with the couple's apartment in a brownstone on the north side of the Square. She enthusiastically takes in every detail - including long velvet curtains "lined with that rich cream-colour that lies under the blue skin of ripe figs." She is dazzled at the celebrity-studded New Years' Eve party the Henshawe's host, and enthralled when an opera star sings an aria from Bellini's <i>Norma</i> to piano accompaniment. But she also observes first-hand a darker side to the Henshawe marriage.  After spending a pleasant day with Myra in Central Park, Nellie notices in her friend what seems an "insane ambition" when the woman offhandedly reveals her deep disappointment that her lifestyle isn't at all grand enough to suit her. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, finally, Nellie walks in on the pair in the midst of a ferocious argument. Myra has found a key on Oswald's key-ring that he cannot or will not explain to her satisfaction. Already, Nellie is aware that a young woman of Oswald's acquaintance has given him a gift of topaz cufflinks and that, to avoid Myra's jealous wrath, he had asked her aunt to pretend they were a Christmas present from her. As Nellie and her aunt leave New York, Myra makes sure to tell them that she knows the cufflinks were not a gift from the aunt, "I was sure to find out, I always do," she says. Nellie will not see the Henshawes for another ten years and when she does encounter them again, it comes as a complete surprise.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At 25, Nellie ventures, without much conviction, to a West Coast city (reminiscent of Los Angeles then) to teach. She takes rooms in an apartment-hotel and once there finds that the Henshawes are living in the same building. Their circumstances are much reduced and Myra, now a wheelchair-bound invalid, is dying. Oswald, who holds a low-paying job with the city while carefully tending to his wife's needs, looks far older than his years. Myra appears to Nellie "strong and broken, generous and tyrannical, a witty and rather wicked old woman." Those traits the younger woman had admired and disliked have become ever more distilled.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As death approaches, Myra grows more demanding and difficult, as does her dark resentment of Oswald. She is openly suspicious of him and seems to blame him for her every discomfort and complaint. On one particularly bad night she laments that she must "die like this, alone with my mortal enemy..." Nellie, chilled as she listens to these bitter words, reflects that "...violent natures like hers sometimes turn against themselves..." </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipi5ASM9BCnde5dSDlMT7HVN_VnbLZpQR1o6WQ13IPB5efbZOwBlN1O7cmcMo1VM0yN1gWySiqR7ZcA2zs78ss94Kr27y7kEMH9B3eLSb2e-3lq9r6aQXgMTwvU94WkZ_SxpJ_ol_QepM/s1600/myras_end.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipi5ASM9BCnde5dSDlMT7HVN_VnbLZpQR1o6WQ13IPB5efbZOwBlN1O7cmcMo1VM0yN1gWySiqR7ZcA2zs78ss94Kr27y7kEMH9B3eLSb2e-3lq9r6aQXgMTwvU94WkZ_SxpJ_ol_QepM/s400/myras_end.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I’ve envisioned many actresses in the role of Myra Henshawe.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A rich, multifaceted character like Myra would have tantalized Miss Bette Davis during her heyday. With William Wyler in the director’s chair, Davis had turned in three outstanding performances – in <i>Jezebel </i>(1938), <i>The Letter </i>(1940) and <i>The Little Foxes </i>(1941), all of them earning Best Actress Oscar nominations for her, and <i>Jezebel </i>bringing the gold statuette. And all three characters possessed traits in common with Myra – spoiled, impetuous Julie, manipulative Leslie Crosbie and fierce Regina Giddens. So, with Wyler directing Davis and an evocative score by Max Steiner, <i>My Mortal Enemy </i>could easily have been another stellar Warner Bros. release during Hollywood’s Golden Age. While Warners might’ve been inclined to put George Brent or Herbert Marshall in the role of Oswald, the studio’s best bet would’ve been Paul Henreid. It seems to me, though, that another actor, someone like Lew Ayres, would've been a better fit.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I’ve also imagined <i>My Mortal Enemy </i>as a Technicolor production from the 1950s starring Deborah Kerr and Gregory Peck. Kerr’s lofty poise and ability to convey tumultuous emotions (<i>Black Narcissus</i>,<i> From Here to Eternity, The Innocents</i>)<i> </i>would've made for an interesting take on Myra, who was as haughty as she was passionate. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Gregory Peck would have had no trouble portraying gentle, magnetically attractive Oswald. </span></span>A good pick to direct might’ve been John Huston, who so often and successfully adapted literary gems (<i>The Treasure of the Sierra Madre</i>, <i>Moby Dick</i>). Huston also devised the vivid color concept of <i>Moulin Rouge </i>(1952) and directed both Kerr and Peck in popular films of the 1950s.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the late 1960s, <i>My Mortal Enemy </i>could’ve provided a high profile vehicle as well as a solid follow-up to <i>Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? </i>for Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The characters were within their range, but Liz & Dick's  tabloid notoriety and worldwide superstardom at the time might well have overpowered the actual characters and story. Perhaps with Mike Nichols, who directed <i>Virginia Woolf</i>, at the helm, <i>My Mortal Enemy </i>could’ve been one of those memorable transitional films that bridged the shift from the studio era to the age of “easy riders and raging bulls.”</span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHjoI5tOmjuLxAUJbT-Vqh45ahpcIH7w2A5nqZHHKupp1JnQHxeOSJ1SoTdcQADqbsUay-pZVQ2sEyFCaKO3G10oyUrCTuJNv2qRwuQAEjjj4yQkOdRraF1-0W752Tl2XG7evpDbfPkIw/s1600/streep_irons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHjoI5tOmjuLxAUJbT-Vqh45ahpcIH7w2A5nqZHHKupp1JnQHxeOSJ1SoTdcQADqbsUay-pZVQ2sEyFCaKO3G10oyUrCTuJNv2qRwuQAEjjj4yQkOdRraF1-0W752Tl2XG7evpDbfPkIw/s320/streep_irons.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, <i>The French Lieutenant's Woman</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Meryl Streep was well established by the 1980s, and a complex and meaty role like Myra would’ve seemed tailor-made for her remarkable talents. Teaming her with Jeremy Irons, her co-star in <i>The French Lieutenant’s Woman</i> (1981), would’ve worked well. On the other hand, there’s the superb but relatively underrated Judy Davis, who emerged with <i>My Brilliant Career</i> (1979) and <i>A Passage to India </i>(1984), earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the latter. Davis possesses, along with an ability to express the deep anguish of a divided soul, the vivacity and sharp humor integral to Myra’s personality. I would pair Davis with William Hurt and put them under the direction of Martin Scorsese, who later rendered a moving and meticulous adaptation of Edith Wharton’s <i>The Age of Innocence</i> (1993).</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">By the early 1990s, adaptations of Willa Cather’s fiction for television had begun to surface. Perhaps the ban on “film” adaptations did not, technically, apply to broadcast media. A PBS production of <i>O Pioneers!, </i>starring Mary McDonnell, appeared in 1991 and a Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of the same novel appeared in 1992, starring Jessica Lange. In 1995, the USA Network aired a TV-movie version of <i>My Ántonia</i>, the second novel in Cather’s Prairie Trilogy (after <i>Pioneers</i>), starring Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint. Finally, in 2001, the third book in the trilogy, <i>The Song of the Lark</i>, was adapted for PBS, starring Maximilian Schell and Alison Elliot.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Following the death of the last living executor of Willa Cather’s estate, Charles Cather, in 2011, The Cather Trust dropped the prohibition contained in her will against the publication of her letters and the adaptation of her fiction to film. In April of this year Knopf published <i>The Selected Letters of Willa Cather</i>. A dramatization of <i>My Mortal Enemy</i>, it seems, could actually come to pass. Cate Blanchett, now in her early 40s, is still young as well as old enough for the plum role of Myra. But the possibilities are endless - and fascinating. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgQng9CQLw-VTloraPDo25n9SLDzgk53S_oSvXEktgy-ZK4QSfQkNHZPlITGmeSPRW3EkNKKbrgfihd2svuLsjvRGmddVjPjyWfmWyUaHy72uJFzQC0mNK2RUI0ChDwFa7cnKcu-4oyw/s1600/Blanchett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgQng9CQLw-VTloraPDo25n9SLDzgk53S_oSvXEktgy-ZK4QSfQkNHZPlITGmeSPRW3EkNKKbrgfihd2svuLsjvRGmddVjPjyWfmWyUaHy72uJFzQC0mNK2RUI0ChDwFa7cnKcu-4oyw/s320/Blanchett.jpg" width="262" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Cate Blanchett by David Downton</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

Bette Davis Cate Blanchette Deborah Kerr Elizabeth Taylor Judy Davis Julie Christie Meryl Streep My Mortal Enemy Silver Scene The Great Imaginary Film Blogathon The Lady Eve (author) Will Cather Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me): My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather

Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy DavisThe Metzinger Sisters of Silver Scenes are hosting a classic film event,The Great Imaginary Film Blogathon - and this is my entry. Click here for links to participating blogs.~In 1926, Pulitzer Prize-winning a…

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Summer Under the Stars: Unfaithfully Rex

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font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWOOcrw_Eg1aQCBmMEfFH8qs_JHgKpHzM3HdaKzLN6HTpFUFmILnbvy8bGYlX2-VgmWR0QBvTbCLT03S0Sch6hyphenhyphenXXY3_itJiYfVGjXl5IwZQJpOyUKrke6VVXDDYouZ3kG2vmpksDddRg/s1600/unfaithfully-yours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWOOcrw_Eg1aQCBmMEfFH8qs_JHgKpHzM3HdaKzLN6HTpFUFmILnbvy8bGYlX2-VgmWR0QBvTbCLT03S0Sch6hyphenhyphenXXY3_itJiYfVGjXl5IwZQJpOyUKrke6VVXDDYouZ3kG2vmpksDddRg/s1600/unfaithfully-yours.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When Rex Harrison came to Hollywood in 1945 to make a movie, he was 37 years old, had already been on the stage in England for 22 years and had been making films there since 1930. Orson Welles later claimed it was on his recommendation that Harrison was given his first American role, a part that Welles himself turned down, that of the King in the 1946 production of <i>Anna and the King of Siam</i>. Welles told his friend, director Henry Jaglom, over one of their now famous lunches, “I suggested him. Rex made pictures that only played in England, teacup comedies and things. No one in Hollywood knew who he was.” Welles had refused the role, he said, because he didn’t want to work with Irene Dunne, who had already been cast as Anna. And so, Rex Harrison made his American film debut.</span></span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTd5V-4uc3NW4g7buI5JCzhZy9rcRELdI24nahbkezkwRxK2GMsFnS7BSRWfwkFHifFDIaV9xdqwKUOsdpiAIiA8eT6a7Wewi2jpcIcJMHKzr0xK64S93ekFiwX8_UKUiedMPNNVZlMM/s1600/anna-and-the-king-of-siam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTd5V-4uc3NW4g7buI5JCzhZy9rcRELdI24nahbkezkwRxK2GMsFnS7BSRWfwkFHifFDIaV9xdqwKUOsdpiAIiA8eT6a7Wewi2jpcIcJMHKzr0xK64S93ekFiwX8_UKUiedMPNNVZlMM/s320/anna-and-the-king-of-siam.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Anna and the King of Siam</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At the time he arrived in Hollywood, Harrison was married to his second wife, German actress Lilli Palmer. She also began making movies in the U.S. and started by co-starring with Gary Cooper in Fritz Lang’s <i>Cloak and Dagger</i>in 1946. Both Mr. and Mrs. Harrison starred in 1947 classics - for Rex, the first and best of his three films for Joseph L. Mankiewicz, <i>The Ghost and Mrs. Muir</i>, with Gene Tierney; for Lilli, Robert Rosen’s <i>Body and Soul</i>, opposite John Garfield. Rex also starred in <i>The Foxes of Harrow</i> in 1947; Lilli would star in <i>My Girl Tisa</i> in 1948. Then came the scandal that ruined Harrison’s personal reputation and may or may not have brought him the nickname “Sexy Rexy.”</span></span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_5nmAgHJNcBLaFSszcfbSL8U31Y_olDLlblmZw10huHFkAQHWLo8KJe-pBJKahO98AZLre43DqwbsUsD3xIy-rFt_XdNKPnIb2E5AV8eHSyPMjFvq6nevjnweXMxhcoPsyVYGrfd25nk/s1600/Lilli+Palmer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_5nmAgHJNcBLaFSszcfbSL8U31Y_olDLlblmZw10huHFkAQHWLo8KJe-pBJKahO98AZLre43DqwbsUsD3xIy-rFt_XdNKPnIb2E5AV8eHSyPMjFvq6nevjnweXMxhcoPsyVYGrfd25nk/s320/Lilli+Palmer.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lilli Palmer</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Rex Harrison, it seems, was a ladies’ man. By 1947, he had become involved in a romance with actress Carole Landis. The affair was no secret in Hollywood and was apparently made public by columnist/radio commentator Walter Winchell. On the night of July 4, 1948, after Harrison spent the evening with her at her home, Landis consumed a lethal dose of barbiturates. Ruled a suicide, her death was naturally surrounded by a storm of hearsay and speculation. The rumor mill had it that Landis was despondent because Harrison refused to leave Lilli Palmer and/or because he was soon to depart for New York to star on Broadway in <i>Anne of the Thousand Days</i>. There was even some conjecture that Harrison had murdered the woman and staged the scene to look like suicide.</span></span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKMY0TWOq_t-bLKZDaXMsGghstYZGazLX3_kjd-I-owzDVNDtLRBA2fjnoxZs7k_p9OIn3GF4xL3LVh5VIiJwwdyg1ZMvfKILmkvD-4P3wgYXyT_ClbLpf8XukhooQTwHhQTXqVGFLHPw/s1600/Carole_Landis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKMY0TWOq_t-bLKZDaXMsGghstYZGazLX3_kjd-I-owzDVNDtLRBA2fjnoxZs7k_p9OIn3GF4xL3LVh5VIiJwwdyg1ZMvfKILmkvD-4P3wgYXyT_ClbLpf8XukhooQTwHhQTXqVGFLHPw/s320/Carole_Landis.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Carole Landis</span></td></tr></tbody></table>A few months before Landis’ death, Harrison had completed production on a film for legendary writer/director Preston Sturges. It would be the one-time wunderkind’s final cinematic gem, a darkest-black comedy titled – perhaps unfortunately – <i>Unfaithfully Yours </i>(1948). The lurid and lingering Landis tragedy would have an impact on the fate of the film. In an attempt to distance it from the scandal, the film’s release date was held up for several months. Additionally, publicity was dialed back - and the marketing campaign changed drastically. It was labeled a murder mystery, it was touted as “six kinds of picture all rolled into one” – confusing and misleading the movie-going public.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Preston Sturges had written a Broadway hit in 1929 and trekked to Hollywood following the play’s adaptation to the screen. He penned several films for Paramount, including <i>Easy Living </i>(1937) and <i>Remember the Night </i>(1940). In 1940 he asked for and was given a chance to direct as well as write. The result was his political sendup, <i>The Great McGinty</i>, a break-out hit that brought Sturges an Oscar for his original screenplay. A string of sly and exhilarating classics written and directed by Preston Sturges followed, namely: <i>The Lady Eve </i>(1941), <i>Sullivan’s Travels </i>(1941), <i>The Palm Beach Story </i>(1942), <i>Hail the Conquering Hero </i>(1944) and <i>The Miracle at Morgan’s Creek </i>(1944). But Paramount had begun to view its genius-in-residence as next-to-impossible to deal with, and relations between the studio and the man soured. When his split from Paramount finally came, Sturges went into partnership with Howard Hughes on California Pictures Corporation for three disastrous years. Sturges and Hughes parted ways in 1947 and the writer/director soon went to work for Darryl F. Zanuck at 20^th Century Fox. Zanuck was interested in a story Sturges had written years earlier titled <i>Matrix</i>. In the end, <i>Matrix </i>was dropped for lack of interest and a treatment of another early Sturges story - he called it <i>The Symphony Story</i> - was picked up instead and retitled…</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibjOmLYlFIt9swMPpDFCTLH0xjQjRasi47jOyLZWEG0uZlJU7ABxWPqVSEX98Y_v68EpyZtg4C40uTUfGLHiebSnv5ES039xhb3qHTwM7_Owz6MwbNgZIWQ92DFSrTcFZ5mczWHjAJxkQ/s1600/sturgespreston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibjOmLYlFIt9swMPpDFCTLH0xjQjRasi47jOyLZWEG0uZlJU7ABxWPqVSEX98Y_v68EpyZtg4C40uTUfGLHiebSnv5ES039xhb3qHTwM7_Owz6MwbNgZIWQ92DFSrTcFZ5mczWHjAJxkQ/s320/sturgespreston.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Preston Sturges</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Unfaithfully Yours</i> bears most trademark Sturges elements – it moves at a dizzying pace, overflows with clever dialogue, is peopled with assorted (and well-cast) eccentrics and its plot completely confounds audience expectations. But in this case Sturges ventured into especially dark farce…</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The film opens with the return to New York of Sir Alfred de Carter (Harrison), a well-known symphony conductor, who has been in London. He is warmly welcomed by his beautiful young and doting wife, Daphne (Linda Darnell). But soon the mischief begins. It seems that before leaving New York, Sir Alfred had asked his rich but dull brother in law (Rudy Vallee) to keep an eye on Daphne while he was away. The brother in law misinterpreted the request and took it upon himself to hire a private detective to monitor her. And now he has come to deliver the detective’s report. Sir Alfred, initially shocked and outraged at the misunderstanding, eventually manages to read the report and works himself into a frenzy of jealousy and suspicion. While conducting a concert after quarreling with his wife, Sir Alfred begins to fantasize about how to handle what he believes is her infidelity. As he conducts three orchestral pieces, he vividly imagines three different possible scenarios – each played out onscreen. The first fantasy involves murder and a frame-up, in the second Sir Alfred is noble and obliging, in the third he falls victim to his own bravado. When the concert finally comes to an end, Sir Alfred sets out to make one of his fantasies real.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-IYFC9k7u_2X-_vjCOCxZ0GRbWKh9TJIkqVVInMXz-LfkWqQ5br7tKpeZRJraZqt_9G9mUgNPFkLc7X8MnqveT8QN5q9Je-yuresrpaheQqAfioqxnhzLqZNSJThNtZqgRxjhlR5lKcU/s1600/unfaithfully-yours2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-IYFC9k7u_2X-_vjCOCxZ0GRbWKh9TJIkqVVInMXz-LfkWqQ5br7tKpeZRJraZqt_9G9mUgNPFkLc7X8MnqveT8QN5q9Je-yuresrpaheQqAfioqxnhzLqZNSJThNtZqgRxjhlR5lKcU/s400/unfaithfully-yours2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Unfaithfully Yours </span></i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">- fantasy or reality?</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Although Sturges wasn’t entirely happy with the film’s final cut (which came courtesy of Mr. Zanuck), he was pleased with the performances – Rex Harrison executes a superb turn as the temperamental artist/bungling schemer. Sturges was also particularly fond of the fantasy segments. He wrote that he tried to construct the three scenarios envisioned by the conductor “as if written and directed by Sir Alfred, who is neither a writer nor a director.” In his fantasies, the conductor imagines his own behavior “vividly” while the other characters are “marionettelike.” Sturges believed this would be “the natural result of Sir Alfred’s ability to have them say and do <i>exactly </i>what he wants them to say and do.”</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The film’s themes are dark and, perhaps, for the audience of its time, too much so for “six kinds of picture all rolled into one." Its timing in proximity to the leading man's notorious Hollywood scandal was extremely unlucky. For whatever reason or combination of reasons, <i>Unfaithfully Yours </i>was not a success. In his autobiographical notes Sturges reflected, “<i>Unfaithfully Yours</i> received much critical acclaim and lost a fortune.” That the film failed to find an audience contributed to the steep decline of his increasingly precarious career. He would write and direct only one more Hollywood film (<i>The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend</i> in 1949) and it was a resounding flop.</span></span><br /><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zHjwUYa4nh3RjiM65yGYM49ckWAk1mVpi7MiucZgPFm9rtW1yZb_1hqqE7OaeYMcGzRRZsbI29H1ROixsrQE4Wxfxx2MIxT03GQPofAGwvA514oBXjI9R9pkwgOiM62PSgFy1NTPHco/s1600/My_Fair_Lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zHjwUYa4nh3RjiM65yGYM49ckWAk1mVpi7MiucZgPFm9rtW1yZb_1hqqE7OaeYMcGzRRZsbI29H1ROixsrQE4Wxfxx2MIxT03GQPofAGwvA514oBXjI9R9pkwgOiM62PSgFy1NTPHco/s320/My_Fair_Lady.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>My Fair Lady</i>, with Audrey Hepburn</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Rex Harrison continued to work steadily and successfully on stage, film – and TV – for the rest of his life. He gained worldwide stardom with his performance in George Cukor’s 1964 film adaptation of <i>My Fair Lady</i>, a long-running Broadway hit in which Harrison originated the role of Henry Higgins and for which he won a Tony Award. For transferring his Henry Higgins from stage to screen, he duly took home an Oscar for Best Actor. Knighted in 1989 at age 81, Sir Rex would, as the producer of <i>The Circle</i>, Harrison’s final Broadway play, put it, very nearly die “with his boots on;” his last stage appearance preceded his death, in 1990 of pancreatic cancer, by only six months.<i> </i>Harrison’s long Hollywood career had brought him two Oscar nominations and one win; his even longer career on Broadway brought him five Tony nominations and three awards as well as a special Drama Desk Award in 1985. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for film and one for television.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPqs9gJBHiAA8Fd0hEkUSeRlB5RoaRX9upAfVsokljn8YipMVTGgPzlL7K2nTaprjGl5ePLyKwUBQK9DZ9DOKKNt6BvL-kQiyiBwswPJ-7Uc7erkP2TSjPzPQIDF-tVVGtEdecLp4WyQ/s1600/Kay_Kendall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPqs9gJBHiAA8Fd0hEkUSeRlB5RoaRX9upAfVsokljn8YipMVTGgPzlL7K2nTaprjGl5ePLyKwUBQK9DZ9DOKKNt6BvL-kQiyiBwswPJ-7Uc7erkP2TSjPzPQIDF-tVVGtEdecLp4WyQ/s320/Kay_Kendall.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Kay Kendall</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Rex Harrison would also continue to be inconstant in his private life. Sandy Sturges, Preston’s widow, recalled walking in New York with her husband and Harrison in the early 1950s. Suddenly and unexpectedly Rex walked away and left them – he’d spied a lovely young thing on the street and simply followed her. His interest in women, Mrs. Sturges recalled, was “not subtle at all.” Harrison’s marriage to Lilli Palmer continued until 1957, when the two divorced so that he could marry his lover, actress Kay Kendall, who was dying of leukemia. He married Welsh-born, Oscar-nominated, Tony-winning actress Rachel Roberts in 1962. That marriage ended in divorce many years later and, it is said, she reacted by drinking ever more heavily and by finally taking her own life. Harrison was married to the ex-Mrs. Richard Harris, Welsh actress/socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams, for a time, and his 6^th and final wife was Mercia Tinker, to whom he remained married until the end of his life.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-RSHo6S3xnWs8ezJYb-tROmCrDvpCAG4KqawK7iTrh_cUzenYmjV9waXc19X0LEmGxxpsEmzuO1yVDZostDADZEXu5OQoFPwrNugj0lpmn-GCTd7sKmqkl3Mj90MqRvLAjQydLJ4k5Q/s1600/rachel_rex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-RSHo6S3xnWs8ezJYb-tROmCrDvpCAG4KqawK7iTrh_cUzenYmjV9waXc19X0LEmGxxpsEmzuO1yVDZostDADZEXu5OQoFPwrNugj0lpmn-GCTd7sKmqkl3Mj90MqRvLAjQydLJ4k5Q/s320/rachel_rex.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Rachel Roberts and Rex Harrison</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Harrison has garnered much praise for his work on stage and screen, but not much admiration for his conduct out of the limelight. One of his biographers, Nicholas Wapshott (<i>Rex Harrison</i>, 1991) met the actor while doing research for a biography on British director Carol Reed. Wapshott considered Harrison a “technical genius” capable of “effortless delivery of difficult prose.” He noted that the actor didn’t make much visible effort, “he was inescapably Rex in everything - but his understanding of the text meant that he hit every note the first time.” On the other hand, the author found Harrison, in person, “a cad of the first order,” and at first hesitated to take on the biography of a man whose “black-hole egotism meant he could not appreciate the worth of others, particularly other men, and his attitude to his string of wives…and lovers was often hard and heartless.” Wapshott blamed Harrison’s involvement in the Carole Landis scandal for the fact that <i>Unfaithfully Yours </i>“languished for years.” </span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQkPHecQmazP4h_wsXN-HHN1FhYoqq_nTtNhY24FJufSP7N6jzQ7nGS_hQCg495i50hatfsh2cAu7wwx7JEOlI3xl4zxXz2eC4thvsha2BWsNapGPCpqEMexK7HPlMuAE5D8saBsX4pTM/s1600/arent_we_all.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQkPHecQmazP4h_wsXN-HHN1FhYoqq_nTtNhY24FJufSP7N6jzQ7nGS_hQCg495i50hatfsh2cAu7wwx7JEOlI3xl4zxXz2eC4thvsha2BWsNapGPCpqEMexK7HPlMuAE5D8saBsX4pTM/s320/arent_we_all.jpg" width="309" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert in <i>Aren't We All</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Tony-winning, Oscar-nominated actor Frank Langella admired Rex Harrison’s work extravagantly; “He was my idol. I thought him the most accomplished, technically perfect, and totally believable English actor of his time.” Langella managed to meet Harrison twice. Their first meeting occurred in the early ‘70s at a cocktail reception in the older actor’s honor. Langella encountered his idol in the foyer where he was removing his hat and coat. The young actor put out his hand and began to extend a greeting when Harrison flung both his coat and his wife’s over Langella’s arm, as if he was a servant, and made his entrance into the party. The two met again in 1984 when a friend of Langella’s was appearing in <i>Aren’t We All</i> on Broadway with Harrison and Claudette Colbert. Forgoing dinner with his friend and Miss Colbert (who utterly charmed him) in order to try once more to pay his respects to Harrison, Langella found him in his dressing room and finally delivered his heartfelt homage. The old actor heard him out and dismissed him with, “Thank you. Very kind. I’m afraid I can’t ask you to sit down.” Langella was not amused and would remember that his good friend, Harrison’s 5^th wife, Elizabeth, told him of Rex, “He was the only man I ever knew who would send back the wine at his own dinner table.”</span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4KeE1U9zW4sdQmVrnqOSY2sLWslv_kCSZ1z67RQoSfilrWkYhOCyN0Rswwzw8vIhbIwj6YWUYNmSSUDjTovYDhleMV8NBET_WasjTq0QJlx5dRuxpF_UCZ6dRIL2cEES-DQqfsuR2dxE/s1600/rex_preston.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4KeE1U9zW4sdQmVrnqOSY2sLWslv_kCSZ1z67RQoSfilrWkYhOCyN0Rswwzw8vIhbIwj6YWUYNmSSUDjTovYDhleMV8NBET_WasjTq0QJlx5dRuxpF_UCZ6dRIL2cEES-DQqfsuR2dxE/s1600/rex_preston.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Rex Harrison and Preston Sturges on the set</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">British film critic and historian David Thomson‘s view of Harrison the actor is fairly restrained, seeing in most of his screen roles the personification of the stereotypically empty-headed aristocrat. However, Thomson allows that <i>Unfaithfully Yours </i>is “one of the few films that made use of his grating charm.”</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Harrison is in top form in Sturges’ black-humored classic, adapting with surprising ease to the writer/director’s penchant for slapstick. <i>Unfaithfully Yours</i> airs on Saturday, August 31, at 3:00pm Eastern/noon Pacific, part of TCM’s 2013 <i>Summer Under the Stars</i> tribute to Rex Harrison.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>This is my entry for the <b>2013 TCM Summer Under the Stars Blogathon</b></i> <i>now in progress and hosted by Jill Blake of<span style="color: red;"><a href="http://sittinonabackyardfence.com/"><span style="color: red;">http://sittinonabackyardfence.com/</span></a></span> and Michael Nazarewycz of</i><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://scribehardonfilm.wordpress.com/"><i><span style="color: red;"> http://scribehardonfilm.wordpress.com/</span></i></a></span><i>. Visit their sites for more information and links to participating blogs.</i></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><u>Notes</u>:<i> </i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>My Lunches with Orson </i>by Henry Jaglom and Peter Biskind (Metropolitan Books, 2013)<i> </i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges</i> adapted by Sandy Sturges (Simon & Schuster, 1990)<i> </i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>The New York Sun</i>, “Unfaithfully Yours, Rex” by Nicholas Wapshott, March 8, 2008<i> </i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Dropped Names, a Memoir</i> by Frank Langella (Harper, 2012)<i> </i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>The New Biographical Dictionary of Film</i> by David Thomson (Knopf, 2010)</span></span></div>

Preston Sturges Rex Harrison Summer Under the Stars TCM The Lady Eve (author) Unfaithfully Yours Summer Under the Stars: Unfaithfully Rex

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