Noir Nook: Noir Vets on Mystery Science Theater 3000
I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to get into cinematic obsessions. One week, I won’t want to watch anything but William Holden movies, another week, nothing but westerns. You get the idea. Well, I’m currently in the midst of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) obsession – for those of you who don’t know, it’s a cult classic TV series that aired during the 1990s, first on Comedy Central and then on the Sci-Fi channel, the original premise of which involves two mad scientists who launch a hapless janitor into outer space, force him to watch bad ‘B’ movies, and monitor his thought processes as part of their plot for world domination. While watching these lousy films, the janitor – and a pair of robots he constructs for company – rake the movies over the coals, hilariously “riffing” and making fun of the plots, the acting, the writing, and whatever else they come across. Ever seen it? I’ve always been a huge fan – a proud MSTie, if you will – and I recently discovered that the streaming service Pluto has a channel that airs MST3K 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So I’m in heaven. It provides the perfect backdrop while working from home!
Anyway – what does this have to do with film noir, you might ask? Well, during my daily back-to-back (to back) viewings of the show, I occasionally run across a familiar face starring in one of these “cheesy” movies – I’ve seen such notables as Martin Balsam, Ann-Margret, Beau Bridges, Peter Lawford, Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, and Jack Palance. It’s always a little startling, at first, to see these stars in these, shall we say, less than stellar vehicles. But then I settle back and enjoy the show – somehow, the skewering that these movies receive only serves to make me appreciate the performers all the more.
In addition to the aforementioned celebs, some of my
favorite MST3K episodes feature movies starring some well-known film noir
veterans. This month’s Noir Nook takes a look at two of these noir stars, some
of their best noir offerings, and, of course, their best-loved (by me) Mystery
Science Theater 3000 movie!
Marie Windsor
I love Marie Windsor. I love her impressive, commanding physique. I love her ultra-sassy line delivery like she’s spitting out something that doesn’t agree with her palate. I love that, while a student at Brigham Young University, she won the beauty contest titles of “Miss Covered Wagon Days” and “Miss D. & R.G. Railroad.”
Marie Windsor and Jil Jarmyn in Swamp Diamonds (1956)
Born Emily Marie Bertelsen in Marysvale, Utah, Windsor was drawn to acting from an early age: “At the age of eight, after going to a movie with my grandmother, I wanted to be another Clara Bow,” she said in a 1984 interview with Drama-Logue magazine. During a career that spanned five decades, Windsor starred in two of my all-time favorite noirs – The Narrow Margin (1952), where she played a brassy gangster’s widow being shuttled by train from coast to coast to testify against her dead husband’s cronies, and The Killing (1956), Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant time-bending feature about an intricately planned heist, in which Windsor was a standout as a duplicitous housewife. Her other noirs were Force of Evil (1948), with John Garfield; The Sniper (1952), helmed by Edward Dmytryk; and City That Never Sleeps (1953), which depicts a single night of drama and crime in the city of Chicago.
On Mystery Science Theater 3000, Windsor stars in Swamp Diamonds (released as Swamp Women in 1956, the same year as The Killing). In it, she is one of a trio of feisty felons (and one undercover cop) who breaks out of prison and head for the swamps of Louisiana to unearth a stash of diamonds they buried there before being sent to the pokey. Along the way, they take a young couple hostage – the male half of which is played by Mike Connors (billed back then as Touch Conners), best known as the titular star of TV’s Mannix. Windsor is top-billed as Josie Nardo, the level-headed leader of the group, who seems to spend half the movie breaking up battles between her comrades, but still finds time to deliver lines like: “Sit down – it’s just an alligator.“
The film – directed by Roger Corman, who is famous for his low-budget exploitation pictures – runs a concise 67 minutes and is fairly overflowing with catfights, ridiculously short shorts, alligator battles, double-crosses, and rivalry over the one man in the group. It’s an experience all on its own, but given the MST3K treatment, it’s a positive scream.
Coleen Gray
I interviewed Coleen Gray by phone for my first book, and had the honor of meeting her in person at a Turner Classic Movies film festival several years ago; needless to say, she has a very special place in my heart. But even before my personal encounter with her, I was a big fan. On-screen, she could be a sweet as peach pie and innocent as a baby, or a pleasant and charming murderess, with equal skill.
Coleen Gray and Dolores Faith in The Phantom Planet (1961)
Gray was born Doris Bernice Jensen in Staplehurst, Nebraska, and moved with her family at an early age to Hutchinson, Minnesota, where she attended grade school and high school. Like Windsor, she had dreams of becoming an actress from an early age. “In seventh or eighth grade, our English teacher had each person voice their ambition in life, and most of the girls wanted to be a teacher or a nurse or a housewife,” Gray once recalled. “I said I wanted to be a movie star and they laughed at me – boy, did they laugh – so I never said it again, ever. But it was in my consciousness.” She appeared in a total of five noirs during her career, including Kiss of Death (1947), where she was the young wife of ex-convict Victor Mature, The Killing (1956), where she was seen in a small part as the devoted girlfriend of Sterling Hayden. Her best noir performances came in Nightmare Alley(1947), The Sleeping City (1950), and Kansas City Confidential (1952) – in each of these wildly divergent roles, her talent and versatility was on full display.
Gray in The Leech Woman (1960)
On Mystery Science Theater 3000, Gray was in two separate episodes; in The Phantom Planet(1961), she played a supporting part as the devious daughter of a planetoid ruler, but in The Leech Woman (1960), she was the star. In the title role of this film, Gray portrayed Jane Talbot, an unhappily married alcoholic whose scientist husband wants to use her as a human guinea pig in his quest to find an anti-aging formula. As it happens, a necessary ingredient of the formula is the secretions from the male pineal gland – and extracting the secretions necessitates a fatal procedure. As you can imagine, this minor detail doesn’t stop Jane from killing (and killing again) in her never-ending quest for youth and beauty. Co-starring Phillip Terry, Grant Williams, Gloria Talbott, and Kim Hamilton, The Leech Woman is actually quite watchable – but it’s also perfect fodder for the treatment on MST3K.
You can find Swamp
Diamonds, The Leech Woman, and The Phantom Planet on YouTube – if you
want to see a couple of film noir vets like you’re never seen them before, tune
in and check ‘em out!
…
– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Marilyn: Behind the Icon — Monroe Catapults to Global Fame in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Gentlemen Prefer Blondessignified an ideal pairing of star & role, catapulting Marilyn Monroe into global superstardom, endearing her to the public, and cementing her comedic & musical talents. According to Sarah Churchwell, the breakout role of Lorelei Lee remains Marilyn’s iconic role “because she so closely approximates the cultural fictions about Marilyn herself.”
Monroe’s interpretation of the
role of Lorelei—with affected speech, exaggerated lip and eye movements, and
deadpan delivery—provided fodder for impersonators for generations to come. The
role was a perfect embodiment of the Marilyn Monroe persona and became the
screen image that the public and critics would equate with the actress for the
remainder of her career. Yet, what Monroe made look so natural and effortless
on screen was a well-crafted performance.
The plot of 20th
Century-Fox’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes involves gold-digging,
diamond-obsessed showgirl Lorelei Lee and her loyal sidekick Dorothy Shaw.
Lorelei is described as a girl “who can stand on stage with a spotlight in her
eye and still see a diamond inside a man’s pocket.” She is focused solely on
marrying for money. Lorelei’s fiancé, Gus Esmond, sends her to Paris with
Dorothy to test her fidelity. Esmond’s father employs a private detective to
spy on the women and report back any suspicious behavior.
Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe
During the transatlantic cruise,
Dorothy and the private detective fall in love while Lorelei befriends a
married diamond merchant, Sir Beekman, and convinces him to give her his wife’s
diamond tiara. Beekman covers his tracks by feigning theft of the tiara and
retreats to Africa. When Esmond learns of Lorelei’s escapades, he cuts off her
line of credit. She is eventually charged with grand larceny. Dorothy poses as
her friend in a court hearing and straightens out the mess. Spoiler alert: The
film ends with a double wedding.
Tommy Noonan, Monroe and Taylor Holmes
Monroe engenders the audience’s
sympathy by effectively projecting a perfect balance of kindheartedness and
materialism. She also mastered the art of gaining laughs by pretending to be
ignorant while endearing herself to the audience. Neither is an easy feat for
any actress. In one of her final scenes, Monroe skillfully delivered a
thoughtful speech to the father of her fiancé:
“Don’t you know that a man
being rich is like a girl being pretty? You might not marry a girl just because
she’s pretty, but my goodness, doesn’t it help? And if you had a daughter,
wouldn’t you want her to have the most wonderful things in the world? Then why
is it wrong for me to want those things?”
“Hey, they told me you were
stupid,” the fiancé’s father exclaims. “You don’t sound stupid to me.
“I can be smart when it’s
important,” Lorelei responses in a line Monroe herself seized the power to
amend. “But most men don’t like it.”
Director Howard Hawks with Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe
Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck tapped Howard Hawks as director. Having directed Monroe in Monkey Business (1952), Hawks was known for a wide range of films including dramas, Scarface (1932) and The Big Sleep (1942), as well as screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940). “We purposely made the picture as loud and bright as we could,” Hawks said about Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, “and completely vulgar in costumes and everything.”
Zanuck needed “loud and bright”
name recognition for box office draw and passed on Carol Channing who portrayed
Lorelei Lee on stage. He envisioned Betty Grable as the blonde & Monroe in
a brunette wig as Dorothy. After hearing a recording of Monroe singing “Do It
Again” for the Marines at Camp Pendleton, he decided she would remain blonde as
the perfect Lorelei Lee. Zanuck was also getting a bargain. The second year of
Monroe’s contract stipulated her salary of $750 per week, compared to Grable’s
$150,000 per film.
In an early script conference, Zanuck realized the necessity of the audience’s belief that Dorothy felt genuine affection for Lorelei. This bond motivates Dorothy to defend her friend in the courtroom scene near the end of the film. Ultimately, Fox appropriately cast Jane Russell to deliver Dorothy’s acerbic wisecracks. Russell was five years older than Monroe and assumed the role of her big sister during the production. Russell had graduated from Van Nuys High School, and Monroe’s first husband James Dougherty was Russell’s classmate. Russell had also met Monroe when she was still Norma Jeane at a dance in the early 1940s.
Tommy Noonan, Charles Coburn and Monroe
As Lorelei’s fiancé, Gus Esmond, Fox considered David Wayne before deciding upon the often-bespectacled Tommy Noonan. Monroe was again joined by swag-bellied Charles Coburn, her costar in Monkey Business, as Sir Francis Beekman.
Norma Varden and Monroe
British-born Norma Varden was cast as Lady Beekman. In a delightful scene, Lady Beekman offers Lorelei to wear her diamond tiara. When Lorelei tries to display it around her neck, Lady Beekman explains that it designed to wear on the head. Lorelei squeals, “Oh, I just adore finding new places to wear diamonds!”
Monroe and George Winslow
George “Foghorn” Winslow (1946-2015),
a six-year-old with a stentorian voice and deadpan delivery, portrayed Henry
Spoffard III. A child with the voice of a man, Winslow contrasted with Monroe,
a woman with the voice of a child.
John Weidemann, a stunningly
handsome and well-built 1950s physique model, was heavily featured in close-ups
with Jane Russell in “Bye Bye Baby” and “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?”
The production, beginning in
November 1952 and ending in February 1953, recycled ocean liner sets used for Titanic
(1953) and required weeks of grueling pre-production rehearsal and sound
recording. Monroe
was the first to arrive on the set each morning and worked on the dance routines
for an hour or two after Russell went home in exhaustion. She begged for extra
coaching to allay her insecurity, but her dancing needed no improvement.
Was Monroe difficult on the set? According to musical director Lionel Newman, Monroe was always punctual for rehearsals and courteous and friendly to the men in the orchestra. Monroe made a special point to personally thank everyone who worked with her. Although she had a definite idea of what she wished to accomplish vocally, Newman saw no signs of a temperamental diva. Monroe received Newman’s blessing upon her first take recording “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” a particularly challenging playback because of its length. Monroe asked to record eleven takes. In the end, she led Newman to the podium where she apologized to him and the orchestra. Monroe announced that he was correct and requested to use the first take.
Marni Nixon
Did Monroe sing in the soundtrack? Although Monroe’s voice is clearly on the soundtrack, she was challenged to hit some high notes only in “Diamonds” and required minor assistance. Enter Marni Nixon, a soprano who ghosted for Deborah Kerr & Natalie Wood. Nixon provided vocals for only Monroe’s highest notes in the final lyrics “Are a girl’s best…best friend” and sang the song’s operatic prelude of repetitive “No-no-no!” “I don’t even know why they wanted to re-dub [portions of] her voice,” Nixon said, confident of Monroe’s rendition. “Thank goodness they let her sing in her own way. That breathless, sexy sound suited her screen persona perfectly, even if she did need a little help on the high notes.”
Monroe rehearses on set with choreographer Jack Cole & Gwen Verdon
Working with legendary choreographer Jack Cole, Monroe felt a sense of confidence that few of her directors inspired. “There was no sexual tension,” wrote William J. Mann, referencing Cole’s sexual orientation as gay, “and besides, Cole had no loyalty to the studios in the way her directors might: he loathed them and all they stood for, and so could afford to be fully present and attentive to Monroe’s insecurities.” The Cole-Monroe partnership created magic, and Monroe would collaborate with him on five additional films. Gwen Verdon also assisted with choreography. ““My mom liked both Marilyn and Jane,” said Verdon’s son, James Heneghan. “Marilyn especially displayed a tough work ethic that was a big deal with my mother.”
Future Oscar-winner George Chakiris at far right in Marilyn’s chorus
For Monroe’s big production
number, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” Fox spared no expense to showcase
her talents for what would become the single most identifiable film sequence of
her career. Shot in long takes requiring few edits, the number’s perfect blend
of dramatic art design and superb choreography is forever enshrined as an
iconic film scene and aided by Monroe’s incomparable execution.
Joseph C. Wright’s original art
direction called for Monroe in black against a black background, an Empire bed with
pink sheets emblazoned with black satin Napoleonic emblems. William Travilla’s original
costume for the number was excessively revealing, comprised of a pair of black
fishnet hose attached to a leotard that came up to a bodice of nude fabric. In
the wake of the discovery of Monroe nude calendar pose from 1949, Zanuck called
Travilla and ordered him to “Cover her up.”
What about Jane Russell’s solo? The
premise for Russell’s solo number “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?” is her
seeking the attention of the Olympian gymnasts while they exercise, none
breaking concentration to notice her. The humor exists in the subtext. Many of
the male dancers were gay, and in real life on the set, were disinterested in
her. The number is hugely homoerotic. The men wear flesh toned short swimming
trunks, simulating a nude appearance if not for the black band on the leg
openings. Jack Cole coordinated the body-builders’ exercise routines to music.
“The resulting images could have come straight out of the then-popular gay magazine
Physique Pictorial.
What happened to Monroe’s gold
lame gown? In her deleted number “Down Boy,” Monroe performed in the gold
tissue lamé halter gown with plunging neckline forever linked to her image
through publicity photographs. An audio recording of “Down Boy” surfaced in
2006, but film footage remains lost. The only glimpse of Monroe wearing the
gown onscreen is a brief longshot of Lorelei dancing with Lord Beekman, seen
from the perspective of Dorothy watching through a window.
Isn’t there another number in
the trailer cut from the film? “Four French Dances,” a
quartet of orchestral arrangements, was another musical number edited just
before the film’s release. Wearing yellow-trimmed bustiers and Napoleon-style
hats, Monroe & Russell perform the act while suspended on a quarter-moon
and climbing down an ornate ladder onto a set with the Eiffel Tower. The number
also included a French language version of “Two Little Girls from Little Rock.” Although the sequence appeared in
promotional trailers released while Blondes was still in production, the
film’s final version includes only a brief scene that followed.
Did Monroe & Russell get
along with each other? At the end of her life, Monroe still appreciated
Russell’s kindness in her last interview: “She was quite wonderful to me.”
Russell coached Monroe, dating Joe DiMaggio at the time, explained how couples
could be happy together without surrendering identities. She also coached
Monroe on managing a household & balance the roles of wife & mother while maintaining a career.
“We got along great together,” Russell said, “[She] was very shy and very sweet
and far more intelligent than people gave her credit.”
Wasn’t the film produced in
3-D?Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was originally filmed in the 3-D process,
providing the viewer with the three-dimensional illusion that characters or objects
project off the screen. The leading ladies’ ample breasts risked poor taste in
the use of this new photographic application. Several scenes displayed specific
staging for the visual gimmick: Lorelei tossing a rope of diamonds to her
fiancé, dancers carrying and thrusting her forward as if to catapult her into
the laps of the film’s audience, and Lorelei jutting forward when she gets
caught exiting a stateroom through its porthole.
Didn’t ‘I Love Lucy’ re-create
Monroe’s porthole scene? Lucille Ball copied the porthole scene in
1954 episode of I Love Lucy on television when her character, Lucy
Ricardo, crosses the Atlantic on an ocean liner. In Blondes, Monroe gets indelicately
stuck in a too-small porthole. Little Henry Spoffard III agrees to help her get
unstuck for two reasons: “The first is, I’m too young to be sent to jail. The
second is, you’ve got a lot of animal magnetism.”
Was Monroe denied a dressing
room during production? Monroe had warranted only a cubicle in the
studio’s changing room. Fox. “I couldn’t even get a dressing room,” Monroe
later told Life magazine. “Finally, I said, ‘Look, after all, I am the
blonde and it is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Because still they always
kept saying, ‘Remember, you are not a star.’ I said, ‘Well, whatever I am, I am
the blonde!’” offered her Betty Grable’s plush dressing room, but the gesture was
intended more to dethrone Fox’s former blonde champion than to coronate its
current one. “They tried to take me into her dressing room as if I were taking
over,” Monroe said. “I couldn’t do that.” Instead, Fox gave Monroe a large
dressing room next to Russell’s.
On June 26, 1953, Grauman’s
Chinese Theatre invited Monroe & Russell to make impressions of their
signatures, hands, and high heeled shoes in the theater’s famed cement
forecourt. As they simultaneously made imprints of their hands, Monroe turned
to Russell & asked excitedly, “This is for all time, isn’t it?” Then they
shook hands.
As the women held hands and
stepped into the wet cement, the newsreel cameras recorded the event and
described them as “friendly as sorority sisters.” Monroe cement was tinted
yellow, and the “i” in Marilyn was dotted with a rhinestone that would be
repeatedly pried out by fans and replaced.
The little girl who once fit
her hands and feet in the prints of her film idols had now achieved success and
joined their ranks. When Monroe reminisced about visiting the Chinese Theatre
as a child, she acknowledged inspiring the next generation: “It’s funny to
think that my footprints are there now, and that other little girls are trying
to do the same thing I did.”
The Chinese Theatre’s immortalization
of Monroe was symbolic. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes cemented Marilyn
Monroe’s legacy as a superstar. The performance elevated her beyond the
restraints of her pin-up persona and showed her as a full-fledged and
multifaceted actress. The four minutes of Monroe’s flawless breakout solo
number established her as an actress with no formal training who could sing and
dance superbly in a musical comedy. Zanuck now had a formula for his star.
“In her own class is Marilyn
Monroe,” announced Motion Picture Herald. “Golden, slick, melting,
aggressive, kittenish, dumb, shrewd, mercenary, charming, exciting sex
implicit…Miss Monroe is going to become part of the American fable, the dizzy
blonde, the simple, mercenary nitwit, with charm to excuse it all.”
Other reviews were equally positive. “There is the amazing, wonderful vitality and down-to-earth Jane Russell…AND—there is Marilyn Monroe!” lauded the LA Examiner. “Zounds, boys, what a personality this one is! Send up a happy flare. At last, she is beautifully gowned, beautifully coiffed, and a wonderful crazy humor flashes from those sleepy eyes of her…Her natural attributes are so great, it’s like a triple scoop of ice cream on a hot August day, to realize she is also an actress— but, by golly, and Howard Hawks, she is…She’ll do more for 20th Century-Fox than their discovery of oil on the front lot.”
Classic Movie Hub’s July picks for our CMH-Curated BCE Channel More than 40 Titles Streaming Free All Month Long!
As we announced last month, we are thrilled to have partnered with Best Classics Ever (BCE), a mega streaming channel dedicated to classic films and TV shows!
And, we are proud to have our own Classic Movie Hub Channel there, where CMH fans can stream lots of classic movies and TV shows for free each month!
That said, this month on the CMH Channel, we’re featuring over 40 classic movies and TV shows that our fans can watch for free– all you need to do is click on the movie/show of your choice, then click ‘play’ — you do not have to opt for a 7-day trial.
We really hope that you enjoy these films, and please feel free to explore the entire BCE channel. If you click to the BCE Home Page, you can watch even more free classic movies and shows. BCE is able to provide this content for free to you because it includes some commercials – so it’s kind of like watching ‘regular’ TV. There is no sign-up necessary to enjoy this free content, and there are hundreds of movies and TV episodes available with this option. If, instead, you prefer to enjoy your classic movie content ‘straight’ aka commercial-free or if you want access to LOTs more movies and shows, please feel free to check out a 7-day free trial.
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When thinking of early musicals, the output of Warner Bros. studios is certainly worth noting. In the Gold Digger musicals and so many others, a wide variety of Warner Bros.’s triple-threat talents shone in the musical genre. Though Ruby Keeler was not considered a strong singer, she was an exceptionally gifted dancer and charmed audiences with her many film roles.
Ethel Ruby Keeler was born in
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on August 25, 1909. Her family was of
Irish-Catholic descent, with her father working as a truck driver to support
the family. Keeler was one of six children, with the family living on East 70th
St. in Manhattan. Though born in Canada, Keeler and her family would relocate
to New York City, where her father would earn higher pay.
While growing up, finances were a
constant issue for the Keeler family. Though Keeler expressed an interest in
dancing, it was not financially plausible for the family.
a young Keeler
Keeler studied at St. Catherine of Siena while residing in New York. In addition to the academic curriculum, the school also had a dance teacher on staff to teach the students to dance once a week. The instructor noticed Keeler’s affinity for dance and met with Keeler’s mother to arrange for regular dance lessons. They worked out an agreement that would not put the Keeler family’s finances in a worse situation, and Keeler was able to receive training.
As Keeler continued her classes, opportunity struck when a stage production was seeking chorus girls. Though Keeler was three years under the legal age of 16, she lied about her age and auditioned anyway. Keeler typically danced in the buck dancing style, focusing on heaving taps and little to no movement of the arms. Keeler would be hired to dance at nightclubs and speakeasies, including El Fay nightclub in New York. Soon, she would be performing in Broadway productions produced by the likes of George M. Cohan and Flo Ziegfeld.
In 1928, Keeler met performer Al Jolson in Los Angeles, where she was sent to assist in the publicity campaigns for The Jazz Singer(1927). After a whirlwind courtship, the two married in New York.
Ruby, Al Jolson, and their adopted son
In the 1930s, Keeler would regularly work in films. Producer Darryl Zanuck cast Keeler in 42nd Street (1933) alongside Dick Powell and Bebe Daniels, which was a huge success in addition to being her film debut. Warner Bros. signed Keeler to a long-term contract and starred her steadily in many musicals, typically continuing to cast Powell as her love interest. Though Powell was usually Keeler’s on-screen suitor, Jolson and Keeler did star together in one film: Go into Your Dance(1935).
Keeler and Powell in Gold Diggers of 1933
Sadly, Keeler’s marriage to Jolson
was not a happy one. Though they were initially happy and went on to adopt a
son, there are many anecdotes and resources documenting Jolson’s abusive
behavior towards Keeler. They divorced in 1940.
By 1941, Keeler met and married
businessman John Lowe, leaving the film industry. The couple had four children
and remained married until Lowe’s passing.
Keeler devoted herself to family life upon her second marriage and did not have any screen credits for just over 20 years. In the 1960s and 1970s, she made occasional television appearances. In 1971, her popularity was revived alongside the revival of No, No, Nannette on Broadway. The production was supervised by Busby Berkeley, with whom she worked in 42nd Street and many other musicals. Keeler starred in the musical for two seasons on Broadway and in as part of the show’s tour.
Keeler in the Broadway revival of No, No, Nannette in 1971
In 1974, she suffered a brain
aneurism and dedicated herself to work as a spokesperson for the National
Stroke Association. She passed away from kidney cancer on February 28, 1993, at
age 83. Keeler was buried beside her husband at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange,
California.
Today, some of Keeler’s past
residences remain, in addition to her family continuing to celebrate her
legacy.
In 1928, Keeler and Jolson lived at
465 Park Ave. in New York. This is the building today:
465 Park Ave., New York, NY
The home she shared with Jolson in
the 1930s was within the Talmadge Apartments, which still stand. They are
located on 3278 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.
3278 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
By 1940, she was living at 4326
Forman Ave. in Los Angeles. This is the home today:
4326 Forman Ave., Los Angeles, CA
Keeler was honored with a Golden
Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Fame.
Ruby Keeler’s Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame
Keeler also has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 6730 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles.
Keeler’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
In 2005, Keeler’s granddaughter,
Sarah Lowe, performed Keeler’s dance from the title number in 42nd Street (1933) as part of
the L.A. STAGE Benefit.
Today, Keeler is remembered for her many musical film roles and her enthusiastic dancing style that was featured in many Warner Bros. Pre Code musicals.
Annette Bochenek of Chicago, Illinois, is a PhD student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the Hometowns to Hollywood blog, in which she writes about her trips exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the “Hometowns to Hollywood” film series throughout the Chicago area. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies and is the president of TCM Backlot’s Chicago chapter. In addition to writing for Classic Movie Hub, she also writes for Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Chicago Art Deco SocietyMagazine.
Marilyn: Behind the Icon Marilyn Monroe Steals Scenes in All About Eve
Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe and George Sanders
On the heels of winning the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) director Joseph L. Mankiewicz casted an A-film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox. The story, originally titled Best Performance, centered on a fortyish grande dame of the Broadway stage, Margo Channing (Bette Davis), and her young stand-in and rival, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). Eve, seemingly a down-on-her-luck star struck ingénue, insidiously ingratiates herself to the actress and becomes her personal assistant and later, her understudy. Slowly, Eve is revealed as a calculating opportunist who arranges for Margo’s absence to perform her role, attract the attention of New York critics, and eventually replace her.
Mankiewicz’s brilliant and
textured screenplay twists and turns in plot and contains sharp, snarky
dialogue and memorable lines. It is a smart exploration of the backstabbing
competition between egotistical actresses and the dynamics and politics of the
theater, written by a heterosexual man with a gay man’s sensibility. The
American Film Institute ranked the film as twenty-eighth among the Greatest
American Films of All Time, and it was the only one of Monroe’s films to win a
Best Picture Academy Award (fourteen Oscar nominations and six wins).
Marilyn Monroe’s performance in
All About Eve redeemed her in the eyes of Zanuck and would lead to
contract with the studio which lasted until her death twelve years later. Previously
under contract with Fox in 1946, Monroe appeared in walk-on parts in two
productions until her option was dropped the following year. She returned
modeling and freelanced at rival studios, delivering a solid performance in MGM’s
The Asphalt Jungle (1950).
Monroe and Mankiewicz
“I felt Marilyn had
edge,” Mankiewicz recalled in casting Monroe after interviewing nearly a dozen
actresses. “There was breathlessness about her and sort of glued-on innocence
about her that I found appealing.” Monroe had prepared for the role of Miss
Caswell, creating a performance out of a handful of lines and only minutes of
screen time. Monroe played her with humor as vacuous but ambitious. Serious
about her craft, Monroe put her soul into menial parts as if they were leading
roles.
The American Film Institute ranked the film’s star, Bette Davis, as second among the greatest actresses in the history of motion pictures. With a strong-willed character, clipped New England diction, large eyes, and idiosyncratic mannerisms, Bette Davis swept across the screen as a force of nature in over one hundred films over the course of six decades. She earned two Best Actress trophies for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938), and received a total of ten Academy Award nominations, including one unofficial write-in nomination for Of Human Bondage (1934). By 1950, her twenty-year career was in a slump after leaving Warner Brothers, where she peaked in Dark Victory (1939), The Letter (1940), and Now, Voyager (1942). The comeback role of formidable Margo Channing seemed to define her both professionally and personally at age forty-two, although she played it as a near parody of over-the-top actress Tallulah Bankhead.
Gregory Ratoff, Anne Baxter, Gary Merrill, Celeste Holm, George Sanders, Marilyn Monroe
Davis and Monroe had little in
common aside from their dislike of Zanuck. Davis had not set foot on the Fox
lot, nor had she spoken to the mogul since the two had a major falling out
during the time she served as the first woman president of Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences. “You’ll never work in Hollywood again,” Zanuck told
Davis, but she proved indomitable. Indeed, she was not Mankiewicz or Zanuck’s
first choice for Margo. Only after Claudette Colbert injured her spine and
could not perform did Zanuck pick up the phone, make amends, and offer Davis
the role.
Anne Baxter and Monroe
As a contract player at Fox, Anne Baxter was loaned to RKO Pictures for a role in Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). Mankiewicz cast her as Eve partly because she resembled Claudette Colbert, originally cast as Margo, to suggest that Margo was being replaced by her younger self. In 1947, Baxter won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Sophie MacDonald in The Razor’s Edge (1946).
Bette Davis and Gary Merrill
Gary Merrill portrayed Bill Sampson, Margo’s younger boyfriend. He had only completed four films, including Twelve O’Clock High (1949), before playing opposite the diva of all screen divas. All About Eve brought Merrill and Davis together in an impassioned affair while each awaited a divorce from respective spouses. They married shortly after filming ended, but the tumultuous union ended in divorce in 1960.
Merrill, Davis, Celeste Holm and Hugh Marlowe
As Karen Richards, Margo’s best friend and the wife of her playwright, Celeste Holm outlived her co-stars in the film. Holm signed with Fox in 1946 and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in the studio’s groundbreaking film about anti-Semitism, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947). As the subdued playwright of Margo’s successful show, Lloyd Richards, Hugh Marlowe delivered the proper toned-down stereotype of a writer. Like Marilyn, he was no stranger to studio rejection. Marlowe had been dropped twice from MGM, hired by Fox in 1948, and had starred in Twelve O’Clock High (1949) and Night and the City (1950).
Acid-tongued Broadway critic Addison DeWitt, described as a “venomous fish-wife,” was splendidly portrayed by George Sanders, who embodied suave and snobbish onscreen. For his performance in Eve, Sanders earned the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor of 1950.
Davis and Thelma Ritter
Appearing with Monroe in the first of three films together, Thelma Ritter played the crusty former Vaudevillian entertainer, Birdie Coonan, working as Margo’s maid and companion and intuitively suspicious of Eve from the start. Notorious for stealing scenes, Ritter, with her Brooklyn accent, responded to Eve’s sob story with the comical line, “What a story! Everything but the blood hounds snappin’ at her rear end.”
The role of Miss Claudia
Caswell in All About Eve was an important assignment for Monroe in a
significant film starring several of Hollywood’s veteran actors. When a
supporting actress in Margo’s antebellum play becomes pregnant and requires
replacement, Miss Caswell vies for the role with the support of her benefactor,
critic Addison DeWitt. We learn of Miss Caswell’s lack of professional acting
experience when Addison describes her as “a graduate of the Copacabana School
of Dramatic Art,” implying she had been one of the famous Latin-themed New York
nightclub’s showgirls.
At a Fox’s soundstage nine dressed as Margo’s sprawling brownstone townhouse in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Mankiewicz filmed the legendary cocktail party in which Margo Channing delivers the film’s most memorable line, “Fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be a bumpy night,” and sashays past her guests toward the second-floor landing to her living room. Miss Caswell ascends the stairs with Addison DeWitt and meets the hostess on the landing.
Monroe is arresting in a white
ermine coat over a strapless white brocade gown with a sweetheart bodice and
white tulle bouffant skirt, designed by Charles LeMaire but credited to Edith
Head. Monroe’s hair was pulled back on each side of her face and pinned up in
the back in curls. Her widow’s peak was prominent, and a wave of hair casually
touched her forehead. For the first time, Allan Snyder had darkened the small
mole on Monroe’s left cheek between her nose and mouth. The “beauty mark” was
her signature makeup trick for the rest of her life.
Monroe steals a scene from
Davis with an adorable, girlish air, and perfectly timed delivery of
Mankiewicz’s sparkling dialogue. In the scene, Miss Caswell meets Margo, much
like the way Monroe had met Davis. The characters paralleled the actress’
actual status in Hollywood at the time. Like Miss Caswell, Monroe was a
fledgling, whose beauty outshone her developing skill-set. Margo, like Davis,
was a diva with decades of acting experience and success behind her.
When Addison asks Margo if she remembers Miss Caswell, the older actress emphatically states she does not. With a sweet smile, Miss Caswell explains the reason — obvious to the others — is because they have never met. Addison makes the introduction, and when Eve joins them, Margo presents her to Addison and Miss Caswell. Until now, he tells Eve, they have only met “in passing.”
“That’s how you met me,” Miss
Caswell reminds Addison.
Margo sarcastically introduces
Miss Caswell to Eve as “an old friend of Mr. DeWitt’s mother.”
Addison pulls Miss Caswell
aside and points to Max Fabien, the producer. While removing the ermine coat
from her shoulders, Addison advises her to “go do yourself some good.” Miss
Caswell asks him why producers always look like “unhappy rabbits.” He tells her
that is exactly what producers are and suggests she advance her career by
making this one happy.
Monroe appears in another scene
in which Margo’s cocktail party winds down. Miss Caswell sits on the stairs
with the film’s stars and Gregory Ratoff as Max Fabien. After calling out, “Oh, waiter”
to a server carrying a tray of cocktail who ignores her, Addison explains that
he is not a waiter, but instead a butler. Miss Caswell retorts, “I can’t yell
‘Oh, butler,’ can I? What if somebody’s name is Butler?” Addison responds, “You have a point. An
idiotic one, but a point.”
Seconds later, Max offers to
bring Miss Caswell a drink, and she smiles coyly at him. “Well done,” Addison
comments, admiring her charms. “I can see your career rising in the east like
the sun.” As art imitated life, the line describes the truth about Monroe in
this film.
“Thees girl ees going to be a beeg star!” Ratoff correctly
predicted in his thick Russian accent.
Whenever Monroe appears on the
screen, she commands the audience’s complete attention, no matter who else
inhabits the camera’s frame, or even if she remains silent. In the cocktail
party scene, all eyes are on Monroe, and she upstages the Hollywood veterans.
Davis was not amused.
Photography for Monroe’s third
scene took place on location in San Francisco in the lobby and main hall of the
Curran Theatre. To film her brief scene, Monroe arrived in the lobby of the
theatre wearing her own sweater-dress previously worn in 1950’s Fireball and
Hometown Story. Wardrobe attendants draped a fur chain of lynx pelts
over her shoulders. Mankiewicz blocked the movements. Davis, as Margo, arrives
at the theater late to Miss Caswell’s audition as Addison sits in the lobby
waiting for Miss Caswell, who is in the ladies’ restroom being “violently ill
to her tummy.” He tells Margo that Eve’s performance was filled with “fire and
music” and had been hired as her understudy. Margo conceals her fury. As Miss
Caswell exits the ladies’ room, Addison asks how she is feeling.
“Like I just swam the English
Channel,” Miss Caswell replies as she undulates across the lobby. Addison
suggests her next option is television.
When Miss Caswell inquires if
producers hold auditions for television, he explains that television is
“nothing but auditions.” The exchange is a joke demeaning the perceived
inferior medium competing with both theater and film.
Monroe was playing in the big
league with an all-star cast, and her anxiety skyrocketed. According to Celeste
Holm, she kept her co-stars waiting as she vomited off-stage, just as her
character had at the Curran Theatre.
Marilyn appreciated George Sanders’
kindness in San Francisco. They started having lunch together at the studio’s
Café de Paris. Sanders said she was “very inquiring and unsure; humble,
punctual and untemperamental. She wanted people to like her, her conversation
had unexpected depth. She showed an interest in intellectual subjects.”
Sanders was not the only male
on the set that found Monroe intelligent and complex. Mankiewicz drew the same
conclusion after he saw her carrying a copy of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters
to a Young Poet and asked if someone had recommended it to her. “No,”
Marilyn explained, “I go into the Pickwick and just look around. I leaf through
some books, and when I read something that interests me, I buy the book.”
Mankiewicz told her it was a good way to select reading material, and she
smiled.
In All About “All About
Eve”: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made,
author Sam Staggs noted that among her veteran costars, Monroe’s career was the
only one to ascend. For the others, this film was the peak. In the final scene,
Eve wins the fictitious Sarah Siddens Award as Best Actress and returns to her
apartment to find a young woman, Phoebe (Barbara Bates). The woman identifies
herself as the president of the Eve Harrington Fan Club and ingratiates
herself. Later, Phoebe quietly slips on Eve’s satin cape, clutches the award,
admires herself in a four-mirrored cheval, and repeatedly bows, echoing an
early scene in which Eve had bowed before a mirror while holding Margo’s
costume close to her body. Phoebe’s infinite reflections represent multiple
ambitious ingénues poised in the wings to replace aging actresses.
Monroe and Thomas Moulton
Monroe’s performance garnered 20th
Century-Fox signing her to a seven-year contract which she effectively
renegotiated in 1955. She also appeared at the Academy Award Ceremony in 1951
and presented the Best Sound Record Oscar to Thomas Moulton for All About
Eve. Like Eve and Phoebe, Monroe was poised in the wings and equally
ambitious for a successful acting career, but not at the expense or
exploitation of another established performer. Like Eve, she was willing to
sacrifice a personal life to achieve the goal of stardom.
Until her death, Monroe used the name “Miss Caswell” in phone messages for her friend, columnist Sidney Skolsky.
Western RoundUp: Review – The Cariboo Trail (1950)
It’s hard to believe, but this month’s column marks two years
since the Western Roundup debuted here at Classic Movie Hub.
My introductory post covered Five of My Favorite Westerns, and since then it’s been a great honor
to share my love for Westerns from a variety of angles including looks at
additional favorite Westerns, movies available for streaming, books on the
Western genre, film festivals, locations, and visits to interesting
Western-related places such as the Autry Museum of the American West and McCrea Ranch.
I appreciate everyone who stops by to read my columns, as I
certainly enjoy writing them!
This month I’m going to take a “close-up” look at a single Western movie. My last such review earlier this year was of a new-to-me Audie Murphy film, Seven Ways From Sundown (1960).
This time around I’ve watched The Cariboo Trail (1950), a movie I’ve never seen starring another Western film legend, Randolph Scott.
The Cariboo Trail (1950)
Scott is supported by a tremendous cast of great Western faces such as Dale Robertson, Jim Davis, Gabby Hayes, and Bill Williams, for starters; reliable character actors such as Victor Jory, Douglas Kennedy, and James Griffith are also on hand. Leading lady Karin Booth is also a familiar face for fans of the genre.
The Cariboo Trail, set in British Columbia, might more properly be termed a
“Northerner,” as some of us like to call films set on the Canadian
frontier. The movie combines familiar Western themes of cattle driving and gold
prospecting, with Jim Redfern (Scott) doing a little of both.
Jim and his partners Mike (Williams) and Ling (Lee Tung Foo) are driving cattle along the Cariboo Trail from Montana to British Columbia. They drive their cattle across a toll bridge controlled by local tycoon Frank Walsh (Jory) without paying, but in turn, Walsh’s men (including actors Davis and Kennedy) later stampede Jim and Mike’s cattle.
Dale Robertson, Randolph Scott and George “Gabby” Hays
Mike loses his arm in the incident; Jim, Ling, and new friend
Grizzly (Hayes) get him to safety in the nearest town, but Mike becomes an
embittered alcoholic, spending far too much time drinking at the local saloon
owned by Francie (Booth).
Francie and Jim regard one another with noticeable interest, but
for the time being Jim is focused on building his future. Walsh wants Francie
himself, and her preference for Jim gives him one more reason to cause Jim
problems.
Randolph Scott & Karin Booth
With the cattle gone, Jim, Ling, and Grizzly go gold prospecting, looking for a new stake, but are captured by Indians. They manage to get away but are separated in the process; Jim, making his own way through the wilderness, stumbles across a creek with enough gold to get a fresh start in the cattle business.
The three men make a pact with Grizzly’s relatives Martha (Mary
Kent) and Jane (Mary Stuart), along with Martha’s foreman Will (Robertson), to
go into partnership, taking Martha’s cattle to land Jim has found in a
beautiful valley; along the way the group will face plenty more trouble, from
both Indians and Walsh’s men.
The Cariboo Trail may not be a great film, but this Randolph Scott fan found it a very enjoyable, solid Western tale. It features a top cast and packs a great deal of story into 81 minutes, and on the whole, I was quite entertained.
In fact, while I’m definitely a fan of shorter films, in this case, I would have liked the movie to be few minutes longer so the supporting cast had more time to shine; in particular, I would have enjoyed seeing more of the secondary love story between Robertson and Stuart.
Dale Robertson & Mary Stuart
Scott is terrific, as always. He plays a level-headed man who
reminds his partners that while it might be nice to do a little gold
prospecting, their long-term future will more reliably be found in good land
and raising cattle. He’s also remarkably good-natured and understanding when
Mike repeatedly lashes out at him in anger after losing his arm.
Williams’ Mike becomes such an angry man that it’s almost hard to
watch him at times, but late in the film he starts down the path toward
redemption and becomes a more multi-shaded character. A scene where the
one-armed Mike takes down two gunmen is a terrific bit of staging.
Storywise there are some interesting elements scattered throughout the movie. For instance, I found it notable that the loyal cook, Ling, was not relegated to a minor hired servant’s role but was a full, equal partner with Jim, Mike, and Grizzly. Ling has a couple of nice moments in the film, including providing Jim with a getaway horse when it’s needed in a hurry.
Lee Tung Foo, Gabby Hayes and Randolph Scott
Women turn up as independent businesswomen with perhaps surprising
regularity in Westerns, typically either running a saloon, a boarding house, or
a restaurant. Francie is interesting in that while she runs a business often
associated with “bad” women in Westerns — while the “good”
women run more respectable establishments — there is never any question about
her being Jim’s love interest and potential wife. While Francie looks briefly
worried at possible competition from young Jane, that issue is immediately
dropped, with Jane and Will having eyes for one another.
Leading lady Karin Booth, who plays Francie, spent much of the ’40s in minor roles, along with occasional more substantive parts such as a ballerina in MGM’s The Unfinished Dance (1947). The Cariboo Trail marked her first film as a Western lead. She would appear opposite George Montgomery in a trio of Westerns and also starred with Sterling Hayden in Top Gun (1955). Booth’s film career ended in 1959.
This was only the fifth film credit for Dale Robertson, who was
working his way up from uncredited bit parts. Although the role is small, he’s
extremely handsome, and it’s easy to see why his career soon progressed forward
into lead roles, including many film and TV Westerns.
Mary Stuart plays Jane, who’s interested in Robertson’s Will.
Stuart had played bit roles for the past decade; the year after this film she
would star in a new TV soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, and remain
with the show for its entire 35-year run. After Search for Tomorrow ended
she joined the cast of another soap, The Guiding Light. The
Cariboo Trail is a rare opportunity to see Stuart in a nice-sized
movie role.
The Cariboo Trail was produced by Nat Holt and released through 20th
Century-Fox. The film’s production values waver somewhere between an
“A” and a “B” film; the second-unit photography, filmed in
Colorado, is extremely good, but at the same time it’s quite clear that
stand-ins are used in the long shots and the main cast never left California.
Some of the exterior scenes with cast members are actually filmed
inside a sound stage, while other sequences, such as the opening cattle drive,
at least took them outdoors to Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.
The rocky Bronson Canyon backgrounds will look familiar to anyone who’s been
there.
The movie was originally filmed by Fred Jackman Jr. in two-strip Cinecolor, and for many years it could only be seen in a black and white print. Happily, the film was restored to its original color a few years ago, a process that took over a year, and the restored print is now available on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber.
Director Edwin L. Marin spent the last few years of his career directing Westerns, including half a dozen starring Scott; sadly, he died less than a year after The Cariboo Trail was released, at only 52 years of age.
Randolph Scott
While Randolph Scott’s Western career later reached its zenith working with director Budd Boetticher — along with his very last film, Ride the High Country (1962), for director Sam Peckinpah — he made many Westerns in the ’40s and early ’50s which are quite entertaining. The Cariboo Trail is a strong exemplar of this phase of Scott’s Western career and illustrates why he continues to have so many fans.
…
– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
Marilyn: Behind the Icon – The Asphalt Jungle, Monroe’s Break-Out Performance
In April 1955, Marilyn Monroe appeared on Edward R Murrow’s television series Person to Person featuring celebrity interviews. From his armchair in a studio, Murrow conversed with Monroe, who appeared remotely from the living room of a Connecticut farmhouse owned by her business partner and his wife, Milton and Amy Greene. Monroe had fled Hollywood five months earlier to establish her own production company — Marilyn Monroe Productions — and to study The Method at Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio. “What the best part you’ve ever had in a movie?” Murrow asks. Monroe immediately references The Asphalt Jungle in addition to her latest role in The Seven Year Itch, a film she was promoting.
Five years before this
interview and shortly after 20th Century-Fox Studio dropped her as
contract player, Monroe dazzled critics for the first time in The Asphalt
Jungle (1950). The MGM Studio’s Oscar-nominated drama was one of the most influential crime
films of the 1950s.
The plot centers on a corrupt lawyer, Alonzo D. “Uncle Lon” Emmerich (Louis Calhern), who fronts an elaborate jewel heist executed by criminal mastermind Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) and a team of experienced thieves; Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden), Gus Ninissi (James Whitmore), and Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso). While the robbery is precisely designed, a series of mishaps, including Emmerich’s betrayal, thwarts its success. Ultimately, each criminal succumbs to his inner weakness and faces prison or death.
Influenced by neorealism, director John Huston combined the naturalism of that genre with the stylized look of film noir & crime films. Huston was nominated for fifteen Oscars over the course of his five-decade career and won the Best Director and Best Screenplay statuettes for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). In the fall of 1949, he began production on producer Arthur Hornblow’s The Asphalt Jungle. Once a successful screenwriter for Warner Brothers, Huston had transitioned to directing with The Maltese Falcon (1941), followed by classics such as Key Largo (1948) and The African Queen (1951).
Angela Phinlay, Emmerich’s much-younger mistress, was a small but featured role in a major film with a veteran cast delivering strong performances. The character was significant in both the film’s plot and theme and had the potential to push Monroe into the limelight. She nearly lost the opportunity to portray Angela when Huston chose Lola Albright. Cher’s mother, Georgia Holt, had also auditioned for the role.
Working alongside Monroe’s agent, John Hyde, was Lucille Ryman, Monroe’s benefactor and — serendipitously — the casting director at MGM. Ryman reminded Huston of Albright’s recent success in the acclaimed Champion (1949) and the actress’s resulting increased fee. When Huston paused, Ryman recommended Monroe as a more affordable and equally effective alternative. Coincidentally, Huston’s gambling debts prevented him from paying his $18,000 bill for the boarding and training of his twenty-three horses at Lucille’s ranch. Allegedly, Ryman agreed to a payment plan contingent upon Monroe’s audition for the role. [
In preparing for her audition, Monroe rehearsed with her acting coach Natasha Lytess for three days and three nights, exploring the character’s inner psychology and relationship to the plot. “I played a vacuous, rich man’s darling attempting to carry herself in a sophisticated manner in keeping with her plush surroundings,” Monroe told columnist Dorothy Kilgallen. “I saw her as walking with a rather self-conscious slither and played it accordingly.”
With Monroe’s performance honed, Ryman called on Sydney Guilaroff, the studio’s official hairstylist, to lend his expertise. “I trimmed her hair carefully,” Guilaroff wrote in his memoir, “curling it under in the beginnings of a pageboy but leaving it free to move and shift with Marilyn’s motions. It was an original style, much shorter than the standard length at that time and structured to follow the contours of her face. It was the look that would help make her famous and become her trademark.” Ryman next called Louis B. Mayer, the head of the studio, to tell him that an important audition would take place the next Wednesday.
Monroe’s audition scene was her
character’s introduction twenty minutes into the film. Emmerich stands above
his young mistress as she naps on a sofa in an elegant striped pants suit, his
expression a mixture of admiration and contempt. “What’s the big idea standing
there staring at me, Uncle Lon?” Angela asks. He instructs her stop calling him
“Uncle.” Sitting up, Angela seeks his approval by reporting she ordered the
delivery of salt mackerel because he enjoys it for breakfast. “Some sweet kid,”
Emmerich remarks in a soft voice.
Angela stretches and yawns. Emmerich
mentions the late hour and suggests she go to bed. Angela leans over to kiss him
goodnight, and he takes her in his arms, pulls her down onto his armchair, and
kisses her passionately. Angela gently pushes him away and lowers her eyes from
his. Monroe’s expression suggests the melancholy of a young woman being kept by
an older man for whom she feels no passion. Angela slinks off the chair, pats
his hand, and slowly walks across the room. The camera cuts to a long shot of
Angela walking down the hall to her room and slowly closing the door as she
shyly smiles at Emmerich. “Some sweet kid,” he repeats.
Monroe recalled trembling with
fear when she auditioned for Huston. She had studied her lines the previous
evening but could not relax. He invited her to sit on one of the
straight-backed chairs in the room, but she asked to lie on the floor. Hoping
to increase her comfort, she also asked permission to remove her shoes. Having
been told Monroe was unusual, the request did not surprise Huston.
“When it was over,” Huston recalled, “Marilyn looked very insecure about the whole thing and asked to do it over. I agreed. But I had already decided on the first take. The part of Angela was hers.” She impressed him more off screen than on. “There was something touching and appealing about her,” the director remarked in The Legend of Marilyn Monroe. Monroe was convinced her reading was “awful,” but before she could apologize, Huston smiled and announced she had earned the part. He told she would probably develop into a very good actress, the goal to which she aspired.
When Monroe filmed the scene in
the fall of 1949, she looked over Huston’s shoulder for Natasha Lytess’s
approval. In the finished film, as she walks across the living room and off
camera, Monroe can be seen glancing off-camera toward her coach.
Monroe played most of her scenes with 55-year-old actor Louis Calhern who portrayed Emmerich. In 1950, his career peaked with three exceptional performances: as Buffalo Bill in the musical Annie Get Your Gun, as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and as Monroe’s sugar-daddy in The Asphalt Jungle.
In her second scene, Monroe
wears a tight black dress with off-the-shoulder straps designed by Otto Kottke,
a diamond necklace, and bracelet. “Uncle” Lon tells Angela that he will be busy
with cases and offers to send her on a trip.
With girlish delight, Angela
darts to her bedroom to retrieve a magazine advertisement for a vacation in
Cuba and rests her head on his lap. Monroe makes the most of a few lines, which
now appear dated by slang interjections of the era: “Imagine me on this beach
with my green bathing suit. Yipes! I almost bought a white one, but it wasn’t
quite extreme enough. Don’t get me wrong. If I’d gone in for extreme-extreme,
I’d have bought the French one.”
A pounding on the door
interrupts her excitement. Angela becomes frightened by the disturbance at such
a late hour and asks “Uncle” Lon to see who is calling. Monroe completed the
scene in one take. Her acting ability shines in this final sequence. The police
commissioner and detectives have arrived at Emmerich’s home to present the
signed confession of his accomplice and arrest him.
One of the detectives knocks on
Angela’s bedroom door. When she opens the door, Monroe speaks in a natural
voice. “Haven’t you bothered me enough, you big banana-head?” she booms
angrily. “Just try breaking my door, and Mr. Emmerich will throw you out of the
house.” Her posture is bold and determined.
When the detective announces
the commissioner is ready to interrogate her, Angela’s anger turns to
little-girl fear as her shoulders cave and she clings to the door- knob. In a
slight, tremulous voice, she asks if she can talk to the detective instead. He
gently advises her to comply by telling the truth. The policeman leads Angela
by the arm into the living room where the commissioner stands over Emmerich as
he calmly reads his accomplice’s confession. The commissioner interrogates
Angela, who has provided her lover with an alibi, and threatens her with a jail
sentence for perjury. She looks pleadingly at Emmerich, who directs her to tell
the truth. Breaking down in to tears, Angela buries her face in her hands; the
policeman leads her away to sign a statement.
Monroe satisfied Huston on the
second take. Angela apologizes through tears as she grabs Emmerich’s hand. He
assures that, all things considered, she did well. She asks about the status of
their trip to Cuba. “Don’t worry about the trip baby,” Emmerich responds.
“You’ll have plenty of trips.”
Monroe would cite her
experience of working in The Asphalt Jungle as one of the most rewarding
of her career. “I don’t know what I did, but I do know it felt wonderful,” she
told Natasha, as told to Jane Wilkie in an unpublished manuscript. Cinematographer
Harold Rosson, who had been Jean Harlow’s last husband, lighted and filmed
Monroe beautifully.
In her first starring role, Jean Hagen is effective as Doll Conovon, the woman who loves Dix Hanley and remains at his side until the bitter end. Like Monroe, she is best known for comedic roles; Hagen was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
When The Asphalt Jungle
premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on May 23, 1950, Los Angeles police
officer James Dougherty served with a squad of other officers to restrain the
crowds. He looked at the posters advertising the film and saw the image of his
former wife, but she was not in attendance.
Photoplay lauded
Marilyn’s enormous screen presence: “There’s a beautiful blonde, too, name of
Marilyn Monroe, who plays Calhern’s girlfriend, and makes the most of her
footage.” New York Herald-Tribune acknowledged Monroe’s performance as
lending “a documentary effect to a lurid exposition.”
The next spring The Asphalt
Jungle won four Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Sam Jaffe;
Best Cinematography, Black-and White, Harold Rosson; Best Director, John
Huston; and Best Screenplay, Ben Maddow and John Huston.
Monroe and Huston worked together again during the summer of 1960, when she achieved another dramatic milestone in her last completed film, The Misfits (1961).
Classic Movie Hub’s June picks for our CMH-Curated BCE Channel
As announced a few weeks ago, CMH is thrilled to have partnered with Best Classics Ever (BCE), a mega streaming channel dedicated to classic films and TV shows! And, we are proud to have our own Classic Movie Hub Channel there, where CMH fans can stream lots of classic movies and TV shows for free each month! We’ll be specially curating our channel, so we’ll be sure to feature a nice selection for fans, which we’ll announce each month!
That said, without further ado, here are some of the films we’re featuring this month on our channel – all you need to do is click on the image below, then click ‘play’ — you do not have to opt for a 7-day trial:
In celebration of June birthdays: Errol Flynn (Errol Flynn Theater), Gail Patrick (My Man Godfrey), Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes: Dressed to Kill), Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy (His Girl Friday) and Jane Russell (The Outlaw).
What a nifty little spitfire of a movie Foreign Correspondent is. Joel McCrea stands in for America in this ‘thirty-seconds-before-WWII-begins’ thriller. A Dutch ambassador (poignantly played by Albert Basserman) possesses “The MacGuffin” and the bad guys want it…by any means necessary.
“It’s a secret clause. I know it. Clause 27. But they, they mustn’t know it. It will help them if they make war.”
And here stumbling in on the world scene is beat reporter, McCrea. His newspaper upgrades him to the level of foreign correspondent but Kronkite and Murrow, he ain’t. Broad, twangy monotone voice, trading in a fedora for a bowler he can’t keep track of, and a cavalier attitude towards world events…heck, that ain’t even our fight. Added to this fish-out-of-water trope are two more Hitchcock ingredients stirred in to make this a bona fide Hitchcock movie:
1. a feisty and pretty girl (this time not necessarily a blonde)
and
2. a smooth, sleek, cultured villain.
“It’s true then, what I wouldn’t believe”
Well, he’s got that in Laraine Day and Herbert Marshall. There’s a slight twist…they are father and daughter, so loyalty gets a good going over. Now, I never really quite buy them as father and daughter no matter how many times Day says ‘cahnt’ instead of ‘caint.’ But what the hey. What matters is Marshall cares very much for her and she can be used as a pawn against him.
“He’s not your friend, Mr. Van Meer.”
George Sanders makes a jolly good showing in this film. I love him as a journalist wanting to join forces with McCrea. He’s fast-talking, playful, charming and free-wheeling, physical and shows emotion. I’ve never seen Sanders like this again in his career.
Hitchcock has all sorts of set-pieces in Foreign Correspondent as it moves along at a clip:
* a chase underneath a sea of umbrellas
* a windmill turning the wrong way (mind your trenchcoat Joel)
* an assassin sent in as a body guard
* that spectacular plane crash (before CGI)
Two aspects in Foreign Correspondent are explored more and less in two later Hitchcock films. One is Lifeboat (1944) for reasons obvious after you see this 1940 film. And if I might stretch this a bit, the father ~ daughter relationship in Foreign Correspondent is given a nod in Notorious (1946) by the Alicia Hubermann character though it’s only touched upon there.
Boy-meets-girl, spy meets future son-in-law. And it all hangs in the balance by a kindly white-haired gentleman. Hitchcock’s works are such a many layered thing… there’s enough there to mine for its parts.
Theresa Brown is a native New Yorker, a Capricorn and a biker chick (rider as well as passenger). When she’s not on her motorcycle, you can find her on her couch blogging about classic films for CineMaven’s Essays from the Couch. Classic films are her passion. You can find her on Twitter at @CineMava.
Silents are Golden: A Closer Look At – Safety Last! (1923)
Few images from cinema are more iconic than the
1920s, black-and-white photo of a young man in round glasses dangling from a
clock. Even if you’ve never seen a silent film, it’s guaranteed that you’ve
seen this famous still at some point – and
you’ve probably seen more than a few homages to it, too.
Harold Lloyd in the famous clock scene from Safety Last!
Yet relatively few people have seen the film it’s from – Safety Last!(1923), Harold Lloyd’s silent comedy classic. This is a shame because it’s not only timelessly funny, but it can still give audiences a thrill even in this age of elaborate special effects (not for nothing did the American Film Institute include it on their “100 Most Thrilling Movies” list).
By the early 1920s, Harold Lloyd was flying high. He had energetically worked his way up from being a bit player and supporting comedian to becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest box office stars, with an appealing “everyman” persona in signature round spectacles. Usually called “The Boy” in his comedies, Lloyd portrayed hardworking, optimistic go-getters who strove for success – characters very much in tune with 1920s culture.
Harold Lloyd
At the time, “thrill comedies” were a popular subgenre, with comedians braving dizzy heights, out-of-control automobiles, speeding steam trains, and other assorted terrors all in the name of laughs (often doing the dangerous stunts themselves). Stunt work had been common in slapstick films since the earliest days of cinema and only accelerated as the years went by. Studios like Keystone Film Company were legendary for their goofy stunts, and comedians like Larry Semon specialized in crazy spectacles. The thrill comedies of the Roaring Twenties were the natural result of years of comedians trying to outdo each other, one spinning Model T or lengthy fall from a window, at a time.
Stunts weren’t only popular in the movies,
either. Fairs often included frenetic shows involving everything from diving
horses to people being shot out of cannons — even staged locomotive crashes.
Stores used “ballyhoo,” or publicity stunts, to attract fresh crowds of
customers, which could be as simple as paying someone to wear a sandwich board
all day or as dangerous as having someone bungee jump off the store building.
In general, folks in the 1920s seemed to have an endless appetite for crazy
stunts.
Just a few of the daring “barnstormers” of the era.
In fact, it was witnessing a man perform a public stunt that gave Harold Lloyd the idea of making Safety Last! Years later he recalled: “Without too much ado he started at the bottom of the building and started to climb up the side of this building. Well, it had such a terrific impact on me, that when he got to about the third floor or fourth floor, I couldn’t watch him anymore. My heart was in my throat, and so I started walking up the street…but, of course, I kept looking back all the time to see if he was still there…I just couldn’t believe he could make that whole climb, but he did…”
As hair-raising as this climb was to watch, it turned out to be inspiring. Lloyd decided he simply had to meet this daredevil. Nicknamed “the Human Spider,” Bill Strother had become famous for climbing buildings in front of amazed crowds to advertise various businesses. With an idea for a new comedy brewing, Lloyd got Strother a contract with his producer Hal Roach and started work on what would become Safety Last! Lloyd had made several “thrill pictures” by 1923, such as High and Dizzy (1920) and Never Weaken(1921), but he was determined that this newest film — involving the daring climb of a tall building — would top them all.
A still for Never Weaken.
Safety Last! is basically a two-part film, the first half introducing us to “the Boy” (Lloyd) who travels to the big city to “make good” so he can marry his girl (Mildred Davis). He ends up working as a lowly sales assistant in a department store. In the second half, the Boy comes up with the idea for a publicity stunt to boost the store’s sales. He enlists his pal “Limpy” Bill (played by Strother) to climb to the top of the 12-story building that houses the department store. Unfortunate circumstances keep Bill from climbing, however, and the Boy takes his place.
Parts of this hair-raising sequence were done for real. Strothers, dressed like Lloyd’s character, is shown climbing a building in several long shots, which were interspersed into the closing scenes with Lloyd.
The famous clock scene building is located at 908 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, California
But film wizardry was also heavily involved, of
course. Lloyd would build a set on top of an actual building in downtown Los
Angeles, near the edge of the roof, with a tower for the cameramen built
nearby. When angled slightly downwards, the camera captured Lloyd climbing the
faux building in the foreground with a real view of the busy downtown in the
background. A simple but convincing effect. Several buildings were used for
these shots to get footage at escalating heights — the set for the famous clock
scene was apparently atop 908 S. Broadway.
Safety Last! was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1994.
This being the 1920s, those rooftop sets weren’t
all that safe, either. Lloyd still could’ve gotten injured in a fall, or even
fallen from the rooftop itself. Apparently, the clock scenes were filmed with a
mattress underneath, which Lloyd decided to test one day by dropping a dummy
onto it. The dummy bounced off the mattress and right over the edge of the
roof. (They filmed the scene anyways.)
If this all weren’t exciting enough, Lloyd
performed those climbing scenes with a hidden disability. In 1919, he had posed
for publicity stills that showed him lighting a cigarette with a prop bomb. By
some bizarre twist of fate, the “prop” bomb turned out to be an actual
explosive. The blast blew off the thumb and index finger of Lloyd’s right hand
and left him bedridden for weeks. In time, he returned to films, using
skin-color gloves to conceal his mangled hand. That he did those rigorous
scenes so well, is a testament to his remarkable “can do” attitude.
Harold Lloyd first tested the safety precautions for the clock stunt by dropping a dummy onto the mattress below. The dummy bounced off and plummeted to the street below.
All that hard work, and throwing caution to the
wind paid off. Safety Last! was a
huge hit in its time, thrilling countless audiences. Some theaters even
advertised that they had nurses in attendance in case anyone fainted. Today
it’s rightfully considered a cultural milestone, and not only because it’s the
source of one of cinema’s most famous images. If it’s ever playing on a big
screen near you, drop everything and go experience it with an audience. You’ll
never forget all those laughs–and gasps.
…
Historian John Bengtson’s posts on Lloyd’s filming locations for Safety Last! were a very helpful source for this post–take a look at them here
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
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