While Dorothy Dare appeared in her fair share of Pre-Code films, her name is not remembered as strongly as the names of her peers. Her early roles in film shorts showed promise but, unfortunately, the roles she received in feature films failed to place her in the spotlight. Nonetheless, her work and cheery persona are worth celebrating, as she lent on-screen support to many leading stars of the day.
Dorothy M. Herskind was born on
August 6, 1911, to Fritz C. Herskind–hailing from Denmark–and Katharine
Paillet Herskind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to a 1914 ship roster
of passengers sailing from Liverpool to New York, the family lived at 426 N.
Franklin Street in Philadelphia.
Young Dorothy
From an early age, Dorothy showed an interest in performing. She sang in church and would appear in her first stage role at the age of seven. Later, she would find herself performing in Ziegfeld‘s shows, entertaining audiences night after night.
As the film industry grew, so, too, did Dorothy’s interest in the medium. She took on the stage name of Dorothy Dare and appeared in several Vitagraph shorts – working with the likes of Hal Le Roy and other stars – which would pave the way for her transition to Warner Brothers. In 1934, Dorothy secured a contract with the studio and would appear in films such as Happiness Ahead (1934), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Front Page Woman (1935), and more. She would also perform songs as part of some of her film roles.
Dick Powell and Dorothy Dare in Happiness Ahead (1934)
In 1937, Dorothy left Warner Brothers to begin freelancing. She worked in two films which were shot in the United Kingdom, which included Clothes for the Woman (1937) and Rose of Tralee (1937). Upon returning to the United States, her freelance work continued but the roles she was receiving were lackluster. Over time, she became disenchanted with acting and would appear in her final role as Peggy in The Yanks Are Coming (1942).
As the years went on, Dorothy would
marry and, for the most part, remained quiet about her time in Hollywood. Any
reflections or interviews regarding her entertainment career were few and far
between.
The Yanks are Coming (1942)
She passed away at age 70 on
October 4, 1981. She is buried alongside her mother at Pacific View Memorial
Park in Corona Del Mar, California.
Today little exists in relation to Dorothy’s life. Her family home has long since been razed and there are no current physical tributes to her, aside from her gravestone. This is the area in which her childhood home once stood:
Dorothy’s family residence no longer stands
However, in addition to watching
her films, fans of her work may also consider visiting the Warner Brothers
Studio in Burbank, California, where she once was under contract. The studio
has crafted a tour focusing upon the
classic films made
at the studio, which will take visitors past the various soundstages to which
Dorothy had reported.
While Dorothy is not memorialized as heavily as her counterparts, she continues to delight audiences in her few but enjoyable film appearances.
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.
As was the case with last month’s recommendations, these films are all currently available
for streaming from Amazon. They’re free at no additional cost for members of
Amazon Prime.
I’d like to note that many additional Westerns are available for
streaming via Amazon, often for a fee. I’ve focused on Amazon simply because of
the much greater availability of classic-era Westerns there compared to other
streaming services.
Please note that titles tend to come and go from streaming
services, so it’s possible they’ll disappear from Amazon in the future, but
they can also be found on DVD.
Under Western Stars (Joseph Kane, 1938)
Under Western Stars (1938) Movie Poster
Roy Rogers became a Western movie star thanks to Under Western Stars. This Republic Pictures film was originally planned for established star Gene Autry, but Gene went on strike, resulting in Roy getting his big break. Roy proved to be a success, so Gene decided not to stay on strike long!
Roy, born Leonard Slye, plays a character named Roy Rogers in this
film, and that of course was also his professional name from that point
forward. Under Western Stars is a rather different type of
Western; Roy is elected to Congress, where he tries to aid Depression-era Dust
Bowl farmers desperately in need of water.
Roy Rogers & Smiley Burnette
Somewhat unusually for a “B” Western, Under
Western Stars received an Academy Award nomination for the song
“Dust” by Johnny Marvin. This somber song is memorably performed as
Roy sings it while showing documentary-style footage of struggling farmers.
The score also includes the terrific song “Listen to the
Rhythm of the Range,” which Marvin wrote with the film’s originally
planned star, Gene Autry.
Roy was teamed in this film with Autry’s perennial sidekick, Smiley Burnette. Leading lady Carol Hughes, the wife of character actor Frank Faylen, would go on to appear in multiple Autry films. This was the last screen appearance for the music group the Maple City Four, who had previously appeared in a pair of Autry films.
Like most “B” Westerns the movie is short, at just 65
minutes. It’s worth the investment of a little over an hour for the unusual
story, the Oscar-nominated music, and the look at one of our greatest Western
stars at the outset of his long career.
The Gunman From Bodie (Spencer Gordon Bennet, 1941)
The Gunman From Bodie (1941)
Monogram Pictures’ Rough Riders series of 1941-42 starred Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton as crime-fighting marshals.
The first film in the series, Arizona Bound (1941), is available for streaming and is good to watch to understand the origins of the series. The three marshals, all working undercover, arrive in a Western town to solve stagecoach robberies, eventually revealing their true identities as lawmen. One might almost think of the series as foreshadowing the superhero films of decades later, with a trio of great Western crime fighters uniting to work as a team.
I like the second Rough Riders film, The Gunman From Bodie (1941),
even better than Arizona Bound. I feel it’s a marvelous example of
a quality “B” Western.
Buck Jones & Tim McCoy
In a spooky, atmospheric opening sequence, Bob “Bodie”
Bronson (Jones) enters a darkened home, seeking shelter from a storm, only to
discover a pair of bodies. The woman is holding a note naming their killer
which also says “Take care of my baby.” Bodie locates the baby and
soon thereafter finds the little one a home at a ranch owned by Alice Borden
(Christine McIntyre).
Bodie then ingratiates himself with the unsavory characters around
town, while carefully avoiding Marshal Tim McCall (McCoy), who’s in possession
of a “wanted” poster for Bodie.
Late in the game, it’s also revealed that Alice’s cook Sandy (Hatton) is a marshal just like Marshall McCall… and is Bodie really the bad man he seems to be when he’s not saving a baby? Hmmm.
McCoy occasionally seems to be on the verge of overacting, yet his
confident persona is compelling enough to push those infrequent awkward moments
aside. Viewers won’t soon forget the scene where he describes a hanging to a
murderer.
Jones is terrific as a seemingly dark, conflicted character, while
Hatton provides the “third wheel” comic relief.
The story of this 62-minute film, scripted by Jess Bowers (aka
Adele Buffington), was sturdy enough that it was remade on at least two
occasions.
This is an attractive movie that was filmed at various Southern California locations. Incidentally, what’s now the California ghost town of Bodie, referenced in the title, is never seen.
The trio of Jones, McCoy, and Hatton appeared in a total of eight Rough Riders films, with Jones and Hatton also starring with Rex Bell in a ninth film after McCoy was called up from the Army Reserves for active duty in World War II. That final film, Dawn on the Great Divide (1942), was released a month after Jones’s tragic death in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, and with that, a wonderful series came to a sad end.
In Old Colorado (Howard Bretherton, 1941)
In Old Colorado (1941) Movie Poster
Over 30 Hopalong Cassidy films had been released in the half-dozen years between the first film, Hop-a-long Cassidy (1935), which I wrote about for Classic Movie Hub last fall, and In Old Colorado.
With over 60 Hoppy films produced, a great many of these titles can be found streaming, and I recommend Western fans explore them as they are generally solid, enjoyable films with good production values. Over the last few years, I’ve become quite a fan of the series thanks to repeated exposure to Hoppy at the Lone Pine Film Festival.
Hopalong Cassidy and cast in a scene from “In Old Colorado”, 1941. William Boyd (third from left, black hat) played Hopalong Cassidy in 66 theatrical features between 1935 and 1948, and more than a third of them were shot in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California.
I chose to highlight In Old Colorado here as not only have I enjoyed watching it, but I’ve been fortunate to visit the locations where it was filmed outside Lone Pine. It’s also notable as the screenplay was co-written by Russell Hayden, who plays Hoppy’s sidekick Lucky. It was Hayden’s only feature film writing credit.
Hoppy, Lucky, and their sidekick California (Andy Clyde) are on their way to buy cattle for the Bar 20 Ranch when they’re robbed of $20,000. They had planned to buy the cattle from Ma Woods (Sarah Padden), who desperately needs the income. She’s also dealing with nasty Joe Weiler (Morris Ankrum), who’s keeping her cattle from getting to water as well as causing conflict with one of her neighbors (Stanley Andrews).
In a compact 66 minutes, viewers can rest assured that Hoppy will take care of everyone’s problems. It’s a simple but well-made film from Paramount Pictures, beautifully shot in black and white by Russell Harlan. It’s a wonderful way for Western fans to spend some time in Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills, where so many Westerns, from “B’s” to classics, were filmed over a span of decades.
Happy streaming!
…
— 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.
“While the city sleeps, ev’ry night he creeps Just surveyin’ his domain He roams around like he owns the town He’s the King, he makes that plain He knows ev’ry trick, doesn’t miss a lick When it comes to keepin’ track Some city slicker, no one is quicker than That darn cat…”
That Darn Cat! movie poster
The theme song for Robert Stevenson‘s That Darn Cat! (1965) was written by the Sherman brothers (Richard M. and Robert B.), with vocals by Bobby Darrin. It’s a very catchy tune to introduce us to a charismatic kitty named D.C. in the popular Disney classic, That Darn Cat!
Take a peek at the intro:
Hayley Mills as Patti, aged nineteen years old, here with a Seal-Point or “traditional” Siamese cat as D.C.
Recently, our family decided to sign up for one of this year’s most anticipated new streaming services, Disney+. We don’t exactly fit the typical demographic for this new platform. Our four kids are all grown up and we’ve never visited a Disney park (although I very much hope to someday). Our main interest to explore Disney+ was simple and singular. We wanted to see the Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. But after further exploring the site, I discovered a treasure of Disney family classics from my youth, including a collection of live-action films with a focus on our furry friends.
The Disney studios were riding a high of success when Mary Poppins (1964) and its director Robert Stevenson received both critical acclaim and box office gains. Based on the 1963 novel “Undercover Cat” by Gordon and Mildred Gordon, this is a family classic with a feline twist on the crime caper.
Mills as Patti Randall, as she finds a secret message on a wristwatch around her cat’s neck, which holds a clue for an unsolved crime.
“D.C.” (an acronym for Darn Cat) is an independent-thinking Siamese tomcat who swaggers about the neighborhood. On his nightly constitutional, this curious kitty runs into a criminal hideout, where a bank teller Margaret Miller (Grayson Hall) has been kidnapped by bank robbers. D.C.’s home is with the Randall sisters, Patti (Hayley Mills) and Ingrid (Dorothy Provine). When DC comes home one night with a gold wristwatch around his neck with a potential cry for help scratched on the back, super sleuth Patti seeks out help from the FBI. Agent Zeke Kelso (Dean Jones) takes on the case, tracking DC’s every move as a madcap adventure ensues.
If you’ve never seen this film, or if it’s been a few
decades as it was with me, it may seem that this is just a simplistic, overly
saccharine, juvenile yawn. But I encourage you to give it another look as this
fun flick has a lot going for it, including a packed cast of familiar
faces.
Dean Jones as FBI agent Kelso has unusual challenges with D.C. the cat.
Dean Jones as G-man agent Kelso provides the perfect balance of stalwart straight man, romantic lead, and roll-with-the-punches slapstick comedian. This was his very first Walt Disney film, which he followed with continued success into the next decade. Jones went on to make other popular light-hearted Disney comedies including The Love Bug (1968) and The Ugly Dachshund (1966) with a focus on a family of cute canines, co-starring Suzanne Pleshette.
Dorothy Provine portrays the big sister, Ingrid Randall, trying to keep Patti and D.C. out of trouble.
In contrast, this was Hayley Mills’ last Disney film as a juvenile. Her next Disney film came along in 1986 as a sequel in The Parent Trap II. Mills as Patti Randall is thoroughly charming as D.C.’s main human. Along with her sister, Ingrid (Dorothy Provine), the Randall sisters have the house all to themselves as their parents are vacationing in Italy. You may recognize Provine as Emeline who first spies the buried treasure in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and as Lily the swingin’ singer in The Great Race (1965).
The Fussbudget Don Juan aka Gregory Benson is portrayed by Roddy McDowall, who finds more than he bargained for with the Randall sisters and their feline hero.
Ingrid has her daily routine where neighborhood fussbudget Gregory Benson (Roddy McDowall) picks her up for their daily carpool, constantly praises his mother, and bemoans the habitual meddlings of D.C. Patti is bored with her humdrum teen life, and her surfer pal Canoe (Tom Lowell). There is a funny, insider joke moment between Patti and Canoe when she complains of their typical drive-in surfer flicks. This was a cheeky nod to Walt Disney’s disapproval of his star Annette Funicello’s beach party films.
Patti’s constant companion Canoe is portrayed by Tom Lowell, whom you may recognize from a 1959 episode of The Twilight Zone
Patti doesn’t remain bored for long. Soon, news of a local bank robbery brings D.C. right in the center of an FBI investigation. Upon his nightly constitutionals, D.C. runs into the bank robbers (Frank Gorshin as Iggy and Neville Brand as Dan) and the kidnapped bank clerk, (Grayson Hall) Margaret Miller. Ms. Miller leaves a clue, her wristwatch with a partially inscribed cry for help, on D.C. Amateur sleuth Patti wastes no time putting the clues together and marches right into the FBI office, wherein agent Kelso goes undercover at the Randall home.
Dean Jones
Even the G men are hot on the trail after D.C.
The mayhem in this caper kicks into high gear as the FBI, despite Kelso’s allergic reaction to D.C., pursues D.C. as their key witness. For me, in addition to the many slapstick moments as they clumsily follow an independently-minded feline, a big highlight are the grouchy neighbors. Elsa Lanchester as the overly curious Mrs. MacDougall and William Demarest as Mr. MacDougall adds to the storyline. It’s a reminder that Disney knew the power of character actors as an enrichment to any film, especially a light comedy.
Veteran actors William Demarest and Elsa Lanchester take on the roles of the quibbling neighbors.
Nothing gets back meddling Mrs. MacDougall (Elsa Lanchester)
Not to discount this silly comedy as mere fluff, this film also garnered six award nominations, including the 1966 Best Written American Comedy award from the Writers Guild of America. I encourage you to take a break from the world’s worries and take a nostalgic trip to a silly, simpler cinematic escape with That Darn Cat!
When not performing marketing as her day gig, Kellee Pratt teaches classic film courses in her college town in Kansas (Film Noir, Screwball Comedy, Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and more). She’s worked for Turner Classic Movies as a Social Producer and TCM Ambassador (2019). Unapologetic social butterfly, she’s an active tweetaholic/original alum for #TCMParty, member of the CMBA, and busy mom of four kids and 3 fur babies. You can follow Kellee on twitter at @IrishJayhawk66 or her own blog, Outspoken & Freckled (kelleepratt.com).
Silents are Golden: Silent Superstars – Remembering Diana Serra Cary, Or “Baby Peggy”
On February 24, 2020, the world lost its last bona fide silent film star – Diana Serra Cary, who had passed away at age 101. While there is a very small handful of people left who appeared in silent films in some capacity – usually as extras or even as infants – Cary was the last “name in lights” star. Known to 1920s audiences as Baby Peggy, she would act alongside such luminaries as Clara Bow and be photographed with the likes of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.
Diana Serra Cary, or “Baby Peggy”
Cary was born on October 29, 1918, in San Diego. Her birth name was Peggy-Jean Montgomery, and she had one older sister, Louise. Cary’s father, a strict and rather unstable man, was a former cowboy and horse trainer. He soon moved his family to Los Angeles so he could work as a stuntman in westerns. One day a neighbor took Cary (then 19 months old) and her mother and sister to visit Century Studios. Director Fred Fishback was impressed with how well-behaved the toddler was – and especially how obedient she was. Cary later recalled that her father had trained his two daughters much like they were his horses: “My father would snap his fingers and say ‘Cry!’ And I would cry. ‘Laugh!’ And I would laugh. ‘Be frightened!’ And I’d be frightened. He called it obedience.”
The Family Secret (1924)
Fishback thought the chubby-cheeked Cary would work well with Century’s resident animal star, Brownie the Wonder Dog. They starred together in a series of charming comedy shorts, starting with Playmates(1921). The films were so well-received that Cary got a longer-term film contract, working long hours even at that tender age – “We were making them like hotcakes!” When Brownie died a year after the series began, directors started getting creative: little Peggy-Jean would play characters like Little Red Riding Hood, “Little Miss Hollywood,” and dress up as Rudolph Valentino and Pola Negri to satirize various movie tropes.
The Film Daily, September 3, 1922
Now called “Baby Peggy,” Cary’s popularity was exploding, but fame took its toll on her family: “At less than two years of age I was earning more than my father. Those are the kinds of things that turn a family upside down.” She would say that memories of her early career would be fuzzy if it weren’t for her parents’ frequent fights over money. She also clearly remembered various catastrophes that would happen on set, in those hazardous days – like the time she was accidentally thrown from a speeding truck and another time when an elephant stampeded the studio and had to be put down.
Picture Show Magazine, 1924
Soon the popular tyke was starring in features like Captain January(1923), co-starring Hobart Bosworth (who Cary remembered liking very much) and The Law Forbids (1924). And she wasn’t just expected to act – sometimes she even had to do stuntwork. The Darling of New York (1923) is somewhat notorious as the film with the “burning bedroom” scene. As part of an exciting climax, the crew doused parts of the set with gasoline, set it on fire, and three-year-old Cary was instructed to exit the burning set through a certain door. But the fire grew more out of control than the crew realized. When she discovered the door was hot to the touch, Cary, fortunately, ignored the director’s instructions and carefully crawled through a burning window instead. Even at that tender age, she had realized that adults don’t always know everything.
The Darling of New York (1923)
By 1924 “Baby Peggy” was receiving hundreds of
thousands of fan letters and was raking in around $1 million per year.
Unfortunately, her parents spent the money almost as fast as she earned it. Her
father, always an impulsive negotiator, took his demands too far and Cary’s
contract was terminated. Around this time the family’s business manager (a
relative) took the remainder of the Baby Peggy fortune and fled, leaving them
broke.
Cary with her doll
To make ends meet, Cary’s family went on vaudeville tours, where Baby Peggy made appearances around the country. These tours were successful, but by the early 1930s, they decided to try their luck in Hollywood again – much to Cary’s chagrin since she’d already been working nonstop for so many years. But the slicker Hollywood of the ‘30s was a different place: “They talked about silents as the stone age. And they treated former stars terribly, just terribly.”
Diana as a teenager
After taking bit parts and working as an extra for a few years, she retired from film in 1938, the same year she married her first husband, Gordon Ayres – partly to escape her parents. They were married for ten years, and after their 1948 divorce, Cary realized she needed to deal with her past. “…I had had identity problems from the time I was growing up. Baby Peggy was very powerful. She was very popular…I couldn’t be me as long as I was carrying her.” Putting her famous persona behind her, she began working on a long-buried dream: to become a writer. Freelancing led to work in radio and publishing, and she began making a name for herself as a historian. Her second marriage, to Bob Cary, was successful and would last until his death.
In later years Cary grew at peace with her “Baby Peggy” image and started attracting the interest of film historians. She would sit for many interviews and publish several books on early Hollywood, such as Jackie Coogan: The World’s Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood’s Legendary Child Star, and What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy: The Autobiography of Hollywood’s Pioneer Child Star. She advocated passionately for child actors, recalling the difficulties she once had as a pint-sized star. Always sharp and eloquent, at age 99 she would publish her first novel, The Drowning of the Moon.
Diana Serra Cary, “Baby Peggy” lived to be 101 years young!
Incredibly, Diana Serra Cary (the name she later adopted) would outlive all her silent era contemporaries, passing away at age 101. Her passing made headlines around the world; in a sense, it brought the silent era to a close. And she will always remain an inspirational figure, thanks to her dedication to sharing her experiences in early Hollywood. In 1999 she stated in an interview: “I see [my early career] as all of a piece. It’s kind of like putting a quilt together. Quilt-making is very good because everything becomes equally important and equally valid, and everything forms the core of yourself. So both the good and the bad – I always felt that was the hand life dealt, and I’ve tried to handle it as best I could. I don’t have any rancor or any anger or anything toward anyone – or toward Hollywood. Even when it was happening, I realized it was nobody’s fault, but you get hurt in spite of that. But, I’m very peaceful about it.”
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 Quarterlyand has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
VERTIGO” ( 1958 ) ~ YOU STEPPED OUT OF MY DREAMS…AND INTO THE NIGHTMARE I CREATED
VERTIGO is my favorite movie. Hands down, this is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie. In fact, caveat emptor…if you fall in love in Hitchcock’s world, straight up, you will be put through the ringer, no doubt about it. To make any good soufflé you need ingredients:
* Use a man’s illness against him to make the perfect foil
* Add a dash of accomplice who’ll never be able to testify against you
Voila! The Soufflé ~ The Perfect Crime.
Gavin Elster (actor Tom Helmore) wants his wife followed
Gavin Elster doesn’t need to win The Movie Villain Award for Egotistical Self-Satisfaction by explaining and showing off HOW smart and clever he is. (That always trips them up; watch any James Bond movie ). The entire movie hides his crime in plain sight. We don’t even know what we’ve seen until later in the movie. And when we bite into that soufflé we get a tasty twisty tangy little love story. Who better than Alfred Hitchcock to hide a love story inside a crime. Oh, I can see you scrunching up your little face now:
“Love story?! What kind of sick, twisted thing are you calling a love story? Next you’ll be calling ‘Vertigo’ a film noir.”
I’ll get to THAT later. Don’t forget what I told you last time… Hitchcock subverts themes (court rooms, confessionals, Mother Nature). You’re in Hitchcock’s world and when he speaks of Love he’s not going to bring you flowers and candy and put a ring on it. Love is messy and fraught with bargains, bartering, missed cues… things unsaid. Hitch looks at love and deconstructs what it means to fall in love, be in love. And as with Psycho he changes the movie’s trajectory half-way through leaving you totally bolloxed.
Scottie and the Streets of San Francisco
The plot’s a deceptively simple one. Shipping magnate Gavin Elster wants old school chum now ex-detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) to follow his wife; he suspects she might harm herself and wants Scottie to tell him where she goes…what she does. In tailing her, Scottie falls in love with her. But because of his vertigo, he can only follow her but so far and is unable to save her when she goes up the church tower TO harm herself.
Head over heels
Maybe I have a soft spot for movie detectives…poor schmoes. They deal in blood and guts, murder and mayhem and “…just the facts, ma’am.” Their job is to put together pieces of the puzzle, solve mysteries, come up with solutions. When they get tripped up by their emotions, they fall like a ton of bricks. And boy does Scottie fall.
Come ona my house
James Stewart and Kim Novak are star-crossed lovers in Vertigo. Hitch really has the usually affable Stewart play against type (even more so than in an Anthony Mann western) as an obsessive stalker. I know I know…you think he’s a monster. You hate him. He was controlling. But I can’t be mad at him. Sorry. He drains any animus I might feel with this:
Why did you have to pick on me? Why me?!!!
Working girl Bel Geddes
Mystery woman Kim Novak
You can’t get better than Barbara Bel Geddes, ever the good smart actress. She plays the good, smart, wry, stable, woman of common sense. She’d be supportive. Isn’t that what a man needs as a partner in life? But then Hitchcock gives us the dream, the impossible, the other-worldly. He gives us Kim Novak.
He introduces her by having her walk up to the camera, (supposedly) not paying any attention to us. He lets us look at her. He has her stand there, giving us ample, unblinking, unself-conscious time to gaze. Objectification? C’mon! Bring it down a notch. I’d say we look at her as we would art in a museum; or as she would look at Carlotta. Yeah…I’m justifying staring. That first shot of her on camera is simply devastating. You fall as Scottie falls. And if you do your part right as the audience, you’ll feel that. We see what ‘Scottie’ sees. We are Scottie, for the moment. (Take it easy…don’t panic! You’re still the you that’s you!) She is photographed by Academy Award-winning Director of Photography Robert Burks. (He won for To Catch A Thief.) Novak gives a poignant performance as a woman desperate to be loved. She gives the performance of her career.
Wandering
Who we love…how we love…why we love…what IS love. WHO loves US…Does who and how we love say more about us than the person we love? Hitchcock looks into all that and pretzels us into a pickle.
Walking out of a dream
You know what I think: The real villain in all this is Hitchcock collaborator: Bernard Hermann. It is physically and humanly impossible to fight against the dizzying, lyrical, romanticism of Hermann’s score; at turns it opens like flower petals. It climbs higher and higher. Then drops you into an abyss. I dare you. I dare you not to fall for the music which informs the action on screen. If you can do that, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.
Hitchcock explores all this in Vertigo. He does this with romance. He does this with suspense. He does this with style. He does this with love. Love with a twist.
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.
Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid gather at the airport for the emotional finale of Casablanca.
Very few classic films enjoy the iconic status of Casablanca (1942), the wartime romance that helped humanize the crisis in Europe and completed Humphrey Bogart’s rise to true stardom. The Best Picture winner would come to define the careers of many of its stars, and its lines remain some of the most quoted bits of dialogue in movie history almost 80 years later.
Most people who see the film today respond to it primarily as a love story between Bogart’s world-weary American, Rick, and his former flame, Ilsa, played by a radiantly beautiful Ingrid Bergman, but there’s a lot more to Casablanca than romance. It’s a deeply political picture made by people for whom the film’s message and the crisis in Europe were painfully personal, and their emotional investment in the story makes Casablanca all the more meaningful. For me, the stories of the people who made the film lie at the heart of its appeal; they transform a fictional romance into something very real and pressing, a call to arms to care not just about a pair of lovers but about the many thousands of innocent people whose lives were threatened by Hitler’s genocidal march across Europe.
French actress Madeleine Lebeau, seen here with Russian costar Leonid Kinskey, escaped the Nazis with her Jewish husband, Marcel Dalio, who also appears in Casablanca as the croupier Emil.
Humphrey Bogart might be the star of the movie, but his Rick is one of only two American characters present, along with Rick’s friend and piano player, Sam (Dooley Wilson). Rick’s initial position is one of self-interest and isolationism; “I stick my neck out for nobody,” he says, and his callous statement is meant to prick the consciences of Americans who had dragged their feet about interfering while the Nazis terrorized Europe. Fortunately, Rick is a dynamic character who evolves over the course of the film and comes to realize that the problems of a world on fire matter more than his own. He laments the willful ignorance of his countrymen when he says, “I bet they’re asleep in New York. I bet they’re asleep all over America.” By the end of the story he has saved a young Bulgarian couple, rescued the freedom fighter Victor (Paul Henreid) from the Nazis, given up the love of his life, shot a high-ranking Nazi, and inspired his Vichy pal to defect, all of which leads to the final scene in which he and Louis (Claude Rains) depart Casablanca to join the Free French in the fight against the Third Reich. It’s the start of a beautiful friendship, but it’s also the end of a long process by which Rick evolves from selfish loner to heroic team player. Getting Paris back is both a statement about rekindling romantic memories and literally getting Paris back from the Nazis, which Rick and Louis head off to help reclaim by joining the French freedom fighters.
S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall, who plays Carl the waiter, suffered the loss of several close family members in Nazi concentration camps. He and his wife escaped from their native Hungary in 1940.
The rest of the cast hail from a wide swath of European countries for whom the war was already a violent reality long before the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941 catapulted the United States into the fray. Many had fled the Nazis in their own countries and eventually landed in Hollywood, and many of them were Jewish or had Jewish relatives. For them the story of Casablanca was all too real. Claude Rains and Sydney Greenstreet, the two British actors in the ensemble, had watched their native country endure the wrath of the German Blitz in 1940 and 1941. Hungarian Peter Lorre, who had been a film actor in Germany, left when Hitler came to power and became a naturalized US citizen in 1941. Lorre and his fellow Hungarian, S.Z. Sakall, were both Jewish. Sakall had also acted in Germany before the rise of the Nazis, and he and his wife fled Hungary for the United States in 1940, much like the couple to whom Sakall’s character, Carl, speaks while they practice their English. Sakall’s family members were not so lucky; all three of his sisters died in concentration camps. Madeleine Lebeau, who plays Yvonne, fled her native France in 1940 with her Jewish husband, the actor Marcel Dalio, who plays the croupier in Rick’s casino; their escape was every bit as fraught and dramatic as those of the refugees depicted in the film. Paul Henreid’s family had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, but the Austrian actor opposed the Nazis so publicly that he was declared an “official enemy of the Third Reich” and left Europe in 1935, first for England and then for Hollywood. In England, the man who vouched for Henreid was none other than Conrad Veidt, a German-born actor with a Jewish wife whose own outspoken opposition to the Nazis had caused him to emigrate to Great Britain in 1933. Casablanca casts Henreid and Veidt as enemies, with Veidt’s Major Strasser as the embodiment of Nazism, but in real life, they were friends bound by their common commitment to stand against the Nazis no matter the personal cost.
Although he plays a Nazi in the film, German-born actor Conrad Veidt was a vocal and dedicated foe of the Third Reich.
It’s true that Casablanca was meant to be a propaganda film to encourage Americans to support the war effort, and it succeeded in that goal just as Mrs. Miniver (1942) did, with both films winning Best Picture Oscars and capturing the hearts of moviegoers across the country. The fact that Casablanca is a political film with political aims doesn’t make it any less compelling as an artistic achievement; in fact, the more you know about the personal stories of its cast and crew the more meaningful the film becomes as both political statement and art. Michael Curtiz, himself a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, won the Oscar for Best Director for his work on Casablanca, but several of his relatives died at Auschwitz; Curtiz only managed to get his mother to the United States with the help of Jack Warner. The people who made Casablanca wanted America to wake up because it wasn’t just faceless, unknown people who were suffering and dying, it was their families, their friends, the people they had been forced to leave behind. When I watch Casablanca today, almost 80 years later, I watch the faces of those actors and think about how important this movie and its message were to them, and then I really understand the tears in Yvonne’s eyes as the band plays “La Marseillaise.” The problems of three little people might not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but the message of Casablanca still resonates. We’ll always have Paris, friends, and we’ll have always have Casablanca, too.
Claude Jarman Jr, Child Star of The Yearling Talks about the Iconic MGM 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Photo
In our 4th interview with Claude Jarman Jr, Claude tells us about his participation in one of the most famous classic movie photos of all time — the MGM 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Photo of Stars.
Claude reminisces about that special day in April 1949 when he left school early, dressed up in a suit and tie, and went to meet everyone at Stage 29. He tells us about the hour-long wait while the shot was being set up, how everyone was arranged in the photo, who came from a movie set, who couldn’t make it to the shoot – and more.
Claude Jarman Jr. and the famous 1949 MGM Class Photo
If you’re already familiar with this photo, you’ll know that Claude sits among some of the most iconic Hollywood stars of all time, including Fred Astaire, Lionel Barrymore, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Ava Gardner and more.
Now, I don’t want to ruin anything for you, so if you’d like to try your hand at picking out all the stars in the photo, don’t scroll down below this photo (aka Spoiler Alert). But, if you’re ready to ‘give up’, well then, go for it. 🙂
MGM 1949 ‘class photo’ courtesy of Claude Jarman Jr. (Claude is in middle row, 3rd person from left)
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MGM 1949 Class Photo aka 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Photo
Front/Bottom Row – left to right: Lionel Barrymore, June Allyson, Leon Ames, Fred Astaire, Edward Arnold, Lassie, Mary Astor, Ethel Barrymore, Spring Byington, James Craig, Arlene Dahl
2nd Row – left to right: Gloria DeHaven, Tom Drake, Jimmy Durante, Vera-Ellen, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland, Betty Garrett, Edmund Gwenn, Kathryn Grayson, Van Heflin
3rd Row – let to right: Katharine Hepburn, John Hodiak, Claude Jarman Jr., Van Johnson, Jennifer Jones, Louis Jourdan, Howard Keel, Gene Kelly, Christian Kent (Alf Kjellin), Angela Lansbury, Mario Lanza, Janet Leigh
4th Row – left to right: Peter Lawford, Jeanette MacDonald, Ann Miller, Ricardo Montalban, Jules Munshin, George Murphy, Reginald Owen, Walter Pidgeon, Jane Powell, Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton.
5th/Top Row – left to right: Alexis Smith, Ann Sothern, J. Carroll Naish, Dean Stockwell, Lewis Stone, Clinton Sundberg, Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, Spencer Tracy, Esther Williams, Keenan Wynn.
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A Big Thank You to Claude Jarman Jr. for sharing his wonderful memories with us — and for sharing the below photo with us from his private collection.
Stay tuned for more from Claude Jarman Jr. over the next few months, including more videos and some guest articles. And, if you want to learn more about Claude’s experiences in Hollywood, you can read his book My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood.
Thanks so much for watching and reading. Hope you enjoyed!
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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub
About Claude Jarman Jr.: Claude Jarman Jr. was discovered in a fifth grade class room in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1945 by film director Clarence Brown, taken to Hollywood where he starred with Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman in THE YEARLING. After receiving an Academy Award for his performance he went on to appear in ten additional films including John Ford’s RIO GRANDE with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara and also William Faulkner’s story of racial strife in INTRUDER IN THE DUST.
Universal’s True Original Monster and Other She-Wolves
We love our Universal Monsters.
Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and The Wolfman – these guys
are legends for a reason.
But it’s time to ask the guys to move over and make room for Phyllis Gordon – the original Universal monster.
Yep, you read that right.
The Canadian actress is the star of the 1913 silent filmThe Werewolf– a lost film that is technically Universal’s first monster movie. The two-reeler was produced by Bison Film Co. and released by Universal Film Manufacturing Co., a precursor to Universal Studios.
Unfortunately, the film was destroyed in a 1924 fire at Universal so not much is known about it. Even the author’s name of the origin story, published in Century magazine in 1898, is disputed as either Henry Beaugrand or Honore Beaugrand (who penned The Werwolf). That’s too bad since the author deserves credit for the story that’s also the basis of another lost film, White Wolf (1914) and Le Loup-Garou (1923, French).
The story and film used the Navajo legend about a witch,
Yea-naa-gloo-shee (“he who goes on all fours”), who can take on wolf form.
Here’s what I’ve culled together about the plot: a Navajo woman, who is a witch, turns dangerously bitter thinking she has been deserted by her “trail blazer” husband who she doesn’t know has been killed. She raises their daughter, Watoma (Phyllis Gordon), to hate white men and teaches her skills to transform into a werewolf. Watoma suffers her own tragedy and returns to life 100 years after her death seeking vengeance on the reincarnation of the man who killed her boyfriend.
A 1914 item in The Daily Republican (Rushville, Ind.) is to the point, writing ”the story is based on an old Indian legend and makes an attractive picture.”
Sadly, that’s all I’ve learned about The Werewolf but I’m happy to know the film existed.
As to Phyllis Gordon, she made mostly silent shorts during her acting career which lasted from about 1911 to 1941. Her most notable feature film role was that of the housekeeper in Another Thin Man (1939).
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Other Wolf Girls
Gordon, however, wasn’t the only actress to be a wolf/werewolf
in classic cinema.
Cry of the Werewolf is a rare chance to see actress Nina Foch at the start of her career. She was only 20 in this film.
Cry of the Werewolf(1944) starred Nina Foch as a cursed Gypsy princess. In She-Wolf of London(1946), a terrified June Lockhart lived under the fear of a family curse. And two women played large roles in The Undying Monster(1942) with one yet again under a family curse and the other trying to solve the beastly crimes.
These movies were good old-fashioned yarns that talked of curses and legends and sometimes ended up being more mystery than horror film. They were atmospheric, pulling out all the goodies: darkness lit by lanterns and moonlight; creaky, slow-opening doors; clocks stopping to mark a terrible event and secret passages where horror awaits.
They loved to use melodramatic quotes to set the mood, too,
like “Perhaps there are still things in the world that science hasn’t found out
about.”
In Cry of the Werewolf, the transformation from a woman into beast is illustrated by shadows on the wall.
Because they didn’t have the technology to pull off the effects for the transformation of human into beast, the films played a lot with shadows and fog, another fun element. In Cry of the Werewolf, shadows are used to show a woman turning into a beast. In She-Wolf of London, fog billows up at the most opportune time to engulf a lone person in danger or shroud the identity of the attacker.
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Here’s a bit more about these films.
Nina Foch, right, plays the cursed gypsy princess in Cry of the Werewolf.
Cry of the Werewolf
Classic film fans should catch Cry of the Werewolf (also known as Daughter of the Werewolf) if only to see 20-year-old Nina Foch early in her career. I found it fun right from the opening credits of a close-up of a wolf’s face chomping away on something. Then we’re taken into the LaTour Museum in New Orleans where we join a tour about “werewolfism, vampirism and voodoism.”
This opening museum scene not only sets the stage for what is to come but makes the film worth watching for me. It’s like listening to ghost stories around the campfire as the guide tells us there’s “much to be seen, more to be heard and plenty to imagine,” and weaves spooky stories like the one about a picture purported to be the exchange of souls that was secretly taken at the risk of death by museum director Dr. Charles Morris.
The most important tale is that of the former mistress of
this house, Marie LaTour, who was thought to be a werewolf and disappeared the
night she killed her husband. Dr. Morris is close to learning the truth about
Marie, but unfortunately won’t live to share his findings.
This film doesn’t try to hide what is happening or who killed the doctor. It spells out enough of the plot that we know what’s going on. Meet Celeste (Foch), Marie’s beautiful daughter who was raised by gypsies and learns of her tragic “matriarchal inheritance” from the Old One. “Weep child, weep. It is your destiny,” the Old One says.
Celeste’s matriarchal inheritance is another name for a family curse that is a prevalent part of werewolf movies. It helps with the portrayal of werewolves as sympathetic creatures who aren’t at fault for their actions. In this film, it allows us to empathize with Celeste, who is so angry about not being able to love the doctor’s son, that she hypnotizes his fiancée, Elsa, so she will suffer, too. “Since I am forbidden to love him, so shall you be. You will learn to live as I must live – apart – beyond the reach of men and mortals,” Celeste tells Elsa.
The Undying Monster
Another family curse is at the forefront of The Undying Monster (also known as the Hammond Mystery). Since the Crusades, family members of the House of Hammond, set atop a seaside cliff, have mysteriously died or committed suicide. Current residents Oliver (John Howard) and his sister Helga (Heather Angel) scoff at the legend, but still live under the shadow of their grandfather’s suicide 20 years earlier.
Recently, signs are pointing to trouble returning. Nights are frosty and stars are bright which is not good news according to an old Scottish saying, repeated in the film: “When stars are bright on a frosty night, beware thy bane on the rocky lane.” (A clear variation of the classic quote from The Wolf Man.)
Helga is a great character: , all spunky and independent. “If there is something out there – I’d like to get a crack at it and I’m a jolly good shot,” she says about a possible creature attack. Hearing screams, she’s the first one running across the countryside and down the cliffs in her dress.
The gang’s all here looking for secret rooms and dead bodies in The Undying Monster.
As attacks occur, more people are introduced into the film
giving us a group of characters who could be future victims or the person/animal
responsible for the attacks. A scientist from Scotland Yard and his female
sidekick are a bit of comic relief as they investigate.
Soon the whole motley gang is off to find the much hyped “secret room” – the legendary lair of the Hammond relative who sold his soul to the devil and started it all. Sadly (for me at least), the secret room is not-so-secret, but just another room in the basement and is quite empty. (Far scarier is the mausoleum, also in the basement.)
Yes, it may look like a set, but the stark landscape and eerie trees in The Undying Monster hold a particular type of haunting beauty.
The Undying Monster is an atmospheric film that benefits greatly from the cinematography of Lucien Ballard who captures the beauty in the stark landscape accented with scattered rocks and wind-blown trees that seem frozen in time. The architecture inside the massive Hammond Hall – all arches and magnificently large windows – is grand and ominous at the same time.
She-Wolf of London
She-Wolf of London comes under the Universal horror banner, but feels more like a psychological suspense film. It stars one of television’s most popular moms (June Lockhart of Lost in Space) as Phyllis Allenby, a timid young woman who lives with her aunt and cousin in a nice house in London.
Engaged to a handsome barrister, she should be happy, but Phyllis
is unbearably maudlin and frail, yet draws a violent reaction from the family
dog. (“He’s so gentle around everyone but Phyllis,” her cousin says.) Though
Phyllis apologizes for being such a coward, she also believes she suffers from
the Allenby Curse which turns her into a werewolf.
Phyllis (played by June Lockhart), who is already afraid of everything, is terrified to wake up with blood on her hands in the Universal film She-Wolf of London.
When she finds blood on her hands, mud on her slippers and nightgown and has a memory loss each morning following a murder by something witnesses call a “she-wolf,” Phyllis is sure she is to blame and falls deeper into depression, refusing to see her fiancé.
Later in the film, director Jean Yarbrough and cinematographer Maury Gertsman unexpectedly start to play with the camera. Low shots and tilted angles lend to a feeling of psychological terror and give the viewer a hint as to other things going on, without using words. It works.
Just like Cry of the Werewolf, facts are laid out for the viewer. But surely there are some missing pieces (hence that interesting camera work). What’s the history of the curse? What’s really going on with this family? Who are all these people leaving the gated home at night? Why is there so much fog? I asked all those questions, too, but I suggest doing what I did: sit back and enjoy the ride through early 20th Century London. When that fog lifts, you’ll have the answers you want.
Where you’ve seen them
Eily Malyon has a name you may not know, but a distinct face you won’t forget. She was in both The Undying Monster and She-Wolf of London, playing a familiar role of a maid skulking about the house. (Is she part of the problem or an innocent bystander?) Her lengthy and distinct filmography – too long to list – also includedThe Devil-Doll, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyreand Going My Way.
Heather Angel, who played Helga in The Undying Monster, was Phyllis Clavering in the Bulldog Drummondseries, Kitty Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (1940) and was Miss Faversham in the TV series Family Affair.
Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and now leads the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto.
Whenever I think and talk and write about film noir, I have a tendency to focus on the distaff characters: the Phyllis Dietrichsons, the Kathie Moffats, the Gildas and the Lauras and the Mildreds.
For this month’s Noir Nook, I’m giving the gents a much-deserved nod and shining the spotlight on one of my favorite noir fellas: Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) in Double Indemnity (1944).
Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity (1944)
Since Double Indemnity is my favorite film noir, it stands to reason that I would be especially fond of its characters – and insurance salesman Walter is no exception. On the surface, Walter appears to be a good guy – a little smart-alecky, perhaps, with an eye for the ladies, and maybe just a little bit bored. But it may just be his boredom, his desire for a little excitement in his humdrum life, that not only led Walter into an affair with one of his very married clients, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) but also to conspire with her to murder her spouse and collect a cool ten grand from a double indemnity accident insurance policy.
From the very start, Walter proves himself to be shrewd, intelligent, and unflappable. When, shortly after their second meeting, Phyllis none-too-subtly reveals her desire to get rid of her husband, Walter quickly sees through her artifice. He even wisely makes a rapid exit, after asking her, “Who’d you think I was anyway? The guy that walks into a good looking dame’s front parlor and says, ‘Good afternoon, I sell accident insurance on husbands. You got one that’s been around too long? One you’d like to turn into a little hard cash?’ Boy, what a dope you must think I am.”
Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray
But Walter was no dope. Although he later allowed himself to be wooed by Phyllis’s considerable wiles, it was Walter who took control – planning every step of the intricately designed crime, from secretly securing Mr. Dietrichson’s signature on the insurance policy, to making the murder appear as an accident, to set himself up with an airtight alibi once the deadly deed was done. Even when his best-laid plans started to unravel, Walter didn’t lose his cool. He first cozied up to Phyllis’s stepdaughter, Lola (Jean Heather), in an effort to allay her justifiable suspicions. Then, after realizing that Phyllis was stepping out on him with Lola’s ex-boyfriend, Nino Zachetti (Byron Barr), Walter simply amended his original plan to include a new twist: kill Phyllis and pin the crime on the new guy.
Walter did manage to take one brief detour before resuming
his irreversible descent into criminality and malevolence – instead of allowing
Nino to take the fall for Phyllis’s murder, Walter had a change of heart and
let the would-be sucker off by giving him a nickel and suggesting that he give
Lola a call: “She’s in love with you,” Walter tells him. “Always has been.
Don’t ask me why. I couldn’t even guess.” After that last good deed, though,
all bets were off.
“Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money – and a woman – and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?”
Outwardly upright, with an undeniable immoral bent, Walter
Neff was a fascinating, unforgettable noir character. Unlike the experience of many
a noir everyman who was led astray by a scheming woman, Walter’s relationship
with Phyllis simply turned out to be the key that unleashed the inner villain that
was lurking deep inside him all the time.
And how can you not love a guy like that?
Stay tuned for future Noir Nook posts that shine the spotlight on those deserving noir gents!
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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages. If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
Claude Jarman Jr. Child Star of The Yearling Talks about his First Western, Roughshod (1949)
In our 3rd interview with Charles Jarman Jr, he talks about starring in his first western, Roughshod (1949), opposite Robert Sterling and Gloria Grahame. Claude talks about working with up-and-coming actresses Martha Hyer, Jeff Donnell, Gloria Grahame, and Myrna Dell, and meeting Natalie Wood at the RKO school while he was on loan to RKO from MGM.
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A Big Thank You to Claude for his time — and for sharing his wonderful memories with us!I
Stay tuned for more from Claude Jarman Jr. over the next few months, including more videos and some guest articles. And, if you want to learn more about Claude’s experiences in Hollywood, you can read his book My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood.
Thanks so much for watching and reading. Hope you enjoyed!
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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub
About Claude Jarman Jr.: Claude Jarman Jr. was discovered in a fifth grade class room in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1945 by film director Clarence Brown, taken to Hollywood where he starred with Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman in THE YEARLING. After receiving an Academy Award for his performance he went on to appear in ten additional films including John Ford’s RIO GRANDE with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara and also William Faulkner’s story of racial strife in INTRUDER IN THE DUST.
