5 Things You May Not Know about Betty Grable

Posted on December 18, 2017 by minooallen

 

5 Things You May Not Know about Betty Grable

 betty-grable_portrait

Like that today would have been her birthday. Happy 101th Birthday to the legend Betty Grable!

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1.) That Stage Mother Tho

I couldn't find a photo of Grable as a child, but I did one of Grable with her children. So, I was close.I couldn’t find a photo of Grable as a child, but I did one of Grable with her children. So, I was close.

If Betty Grable was born in the 1990s, there’s a chance she would have been on Toddlers and Tiaras. Her mother, Lillian, was a true stage mother who enrolled Betty in dancing classes as soon she could walk. In fact, Lillian was so determined to shape her youngest daughter into a star that she left her husband and eldest daughter behind in St. Louis to bring Betty to Hollywood.

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2.) That Stage Fright Tho

Betty Grable graumans prings Looks like she got over it...Looks like she got over it…

Despite her career as an entertainer, Grable suffered from “demophobia” AKA the fear of crowds. She also was a somnambulist, AKA a sleepwalker. Probably not the best combination of disorders for an entertainer but, hey, I guess none of that matters if your mother is grooming you for stardom.

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3.) That Baby Bump Tho

Betty Grable pinup There are actually 2 people in this photo.There are actually 2 people in this photo.

In her iconic pin-up photo, Grable has her back to the camera as she looks over her shoulder, smiling coyly. While it may seem like the pose is an artistic moment of genius, the pose was actually done for a very practical reason: Grable was pregnant and showing. Yup, Grable flaunting a baby-bump definitely would have taken away from that “everyman’s gal” fantasy they were building.

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4.) That Pay Tho

How to Marry a Millionaire? Well, just marry Grable.How to Marry a Millionaire? Well, just marry Grable.

In 1946, Grable was highest paid woman in American, with the Treasury Department noting that she made over $300,000 a year. Nice!

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5.) Them legs Tho

Betty Grable Those legs are worth than my, well, everything I own and have ever owned.Those legs are worth more than my, well, everything I own and have ever owned.

OK, so perhaps you already know this one, but at the height of her fame, Grable’s legs were insured for 1 million dollars. To put that in perspective, that’s a little over 9 million in 2016 dollars. That’s 4.5 million per leg…who needs the left leg anyway, am I right?

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Minoo Allen for Classic Movie Hub

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Noir Nook: Christmas Holiday

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Noir Nook: Christmas Holiday

 It’s called Christmas Holiday.

It stars famed hoofer Gene Kelly and popular singer Deanna Durbin.

This is noir?

You bet your rain-swept streets it is.

Christmas Holiday 1944 poster Deanna Durbin Gene KellyChristmas Holiday, 1944, stars Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly

Released in 1944 and directed by Robert Siodmak, Christmas Holiday is fairly overflowing with unexpected events and a twisty-turny plot from start to finish. It opens during the war at Christmastime, where we see a soldier, Lt. Charlie Mason (Dean Marens) about to take advantage of his leave by jetting off to San Francisco to marry his lady love, Mona. Unfortunately for him, he gets a telegram from Mona before his departure, informing him that she’s said “I do” to someone else. Turning down a pal’s sympathy-inspired offer to accompany him to New York, Charlie insists on going to San Francisco: “She’s not going to get away with this,” he growls. But his flight encounters inclement weather and is forced to land in New Orleans, where Charlie is put up in a hotel. There, he meets newspaper reporter Simon Fenimore (Richard Whorf), who takes him to a local nightclub, where he’s introduced to singer Jackie Lamont (Deanna Durbin).

Christmas Holiday 1944 Deanna Durbin Gene KellyDeanna and Gene

And then the noir begins. Here’s how:

  1. When we first see Deanna Durbin’s character, she’s singing on stage, wearing a knockout black dress and a world-weary, why-can’t-I-be-somewhere-else attitude. She literally has no expression on her face whatsoever. It’s really a quite startling performance.
  2. Twenty minutes into the film, we launch into the first of two flashbacks – narrated in voiceover by Jackie Lamont, Deanna Durbin’s character.
  3. Jackie Lamont’s name is not Jackie Lamont. It’s Abigail Mannette. She changed it to distance herself from her husband, Robert – who’s serving a life sentence in prison . . . for MURDER!!
  4. In the flashback, we see that Abigail and Robert lived with Robert’s mother (played to perfection by Gale Sondergaard), who is domineering and wholly devoted to her baby boy – no matter what he does. She’s also quite obviously in charge of the entire household; Mama is running the show.Gale Sondergaard

     Gale Sondergaard

  5. On the outside, Robert appears to be a charming, fun-loving, devil-may-care type of guy. It doesn’t take long for him to be exposed as a gambler, a liar and very probably a sociopath.
  6. There’s an atmosphere of doom in the Mannette home; the feeling that something’s not quite right. Robert comes home in the middle of the night. (“I do keep terrible hours, don’t I?” he asks.) His mother finds a wad of cash in his pants pocket. Robert’s clothes have a mysterious stain on them. When Robert comes down to breakfast, his mother cryptically assures him that there’s nothing in the paper. (“You know what I mean,” she says.) After first seeing Robert’s mother trying to scrub the stain out of Robert’s pants, Abigail later spies her burning the garment in the incinerator.
  7. Before long, Robert’s asking Abigail to lie for him. “If anybody asks you, you never saw me with that money,” he instructs her grimly. “My life may depend upon it.”
  8. In the film’s second flashback, which focuses on Abigail and Robert’s courtship, we learn that Robert’s connection with his mother was “pathological,” according to Abigail: “Robert was the only thing in the world she cared about. He wasn’t just her son. He was her everything.”
  9. In an interesting manipulation of time that I can’t recall seeing in any other noir, the second flashback, which started earlier than the first, then catches up with and passes the first one. If that makes any sense.
  10. The movie contains this awesome monologue from Robert’s mother: “From the day you married him, I think now from the day you met him, you’ve closed your eyes to what it was all about. To what he was all about. Selfishly. Just so you could be happy. He needed your strength. That’s why I let him marry you. And all you gave him back was his own weakness. You weren’t blind because you had to be. You wanted to be. It might have hurt to know that Robert is what he is. But if you had been willing to be hurt for his sake, you could have helped him. I tried to make him strong myself. I couldn’t alone, so I relied on you. You have failed.”
Christmas Holiday 1944 Deanna DurbinDurbin

After Abigail finishes telling her story to the lieutenant, the film takes yet another unexpected noirish turn that I’ll let you discover for yourself. Suffice it to say that it further supports the contention that Christmas Holiday. Is. Noir.

If you’ve never seen this underrated film, treat yourself during this wintry season and snuggle up with Gene, Deanna, and Christmas Holiday. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

– 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:

 

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Vitaphone View: Victor Pict-Ur-Music: In Case the Silents Hang Around

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Hutchinson, Founder of The Vitaphone Project

Victor Pict-Ur-Music: In Case the Silents Hang Around

It is hard to believe, nine decades after the talkie revolution began, that at the time many felt sound films would be a passing fad soon rejected by the public.  After all, hundreds of earlier attempts to synchronize motion pictures and sound had consistently failed. Some of the biggest producers of the period publicly stated that talkies would soon disappear and that the public would always prefer a quality silent to a sound picture. No less than Thomas Edison and Charlie Chaplin said as much.

Cover of the Victor Pict-Ur-Music recordings catalogCover of the Victor Pict-Ur-Music recordings catalog

With its premiere, The Jazz Singer truly kicked off the sound revolution. But heads of the other major studios (except Fox, which had its own sound system in Movietone) decided to take a “wait and see” approach. MGM, Paramount, First National, Universal, and Producers Distributing Company met secretly to decide what to do. The resulting “Five Cornered Agreement” stipulated that none of their studios would convert to making talking pictures unless all of them did.  And that they would all adopt the same sound process. Needless to say, a revolution waits for no one, and within a few months it was clear that any studio that resisted the switch to sound would soon be out of business.

So by mid-1928, the studios decided to play catch-up with Fox and Warner Bros and began wiring their studios for sound and testing their stars’ voices. But even then, many studio heads felt that before long, the public would reject talkies and they would be back making silent pictures.

Sample page from Victor's catalog of available mood music and sound effectsSample page from Victor’s catalog of available mood music and sound effects 78s

Amid this uncertainty, the Victor Talking Machine Company saw a business opportunity. One of the pioneering makers of phonographs and 78 rpm records for the home, Victor constantly changed with the times. Before being bought by RCA in 1929, they had rolled out increasingly sophisticated phonographs, a electrical recording process, automatic record changing players, radio-phonograph combinations, and an all-star roster of artists.

In 1928, Victor launched its “Pict-Ur-Music” line of hundreds of 10- and 12-inch 78’s with mood music and sound effects. Targeting theatres seeking to fire their house musicians or resisting conversion to sound films, their catalog offered recordings for every conceivable category of mood: romance, hurry, danger, peppy comedy, and dozens more.

Example of recommended cue sheets show where in a film specified Pict-Ur-Music disks could be usedExample of recommended cue sheets show where in a film specified Pict-Ur-Music disks could be used.

The key behind the Pict-Ur-Music concept was the use of a dual turntable console that allowed switching from one disk to the other to provide continuous accompaniment to a silent feature. Music could also be played on one turntable while a sound effects disk (bells, horns honking, wind, etc.) was played on the other. For a time, Victor issued “cue sheets” that would suggest which disks could be used to back each scene of a film.  Rehearsal was strongly suggested, and today one can only imagine how stressful and hectic the operator’s job was.

The Victor Pict-Ur-Music disks were two sided, with the same selection on both sides. The idea here was that once one side became too worn, the other could be used. Some of the disks derived from non-vocal commercial Victor 78s that were already offered to the home market. In other cases, new “mood” tunes were specifically recorded for the series.

Label for a 1929 Victor Pict-Ur-Music disk Happy Go Lucky One StepLabel for a 1929 Victor Pict-Ur-Music disk

To give you an idea of what some of these recordings sounded like, here are links to a few of my own Pict-Ur-Disks:

https://soundcloud.com/vitaphone/13-gaeity

https://soundcloud.com/vitaphone/04-step-on-it

https://soundcloud.com/vitaphone/here-we-go

https://soundcloud.com/vitaphone/04-heads-up-0379

Enough theatres apparently bought these disks as they still turn up today on eBay and on record collector auction lists. I own about a hundred myself. The number two and three phonograph record companies of the time, — Columbia and Brunswick respectively — saw a business opportunity and came out with their own series of mood and sound effects 78s after Victor launched their Pict-Ur-Music line.

A dual turntable system used for 1928-29 mood music recordingsA dual turntable system used for 1928-29 mood music recordings.

Needless to say, none of this lasted very long. Launched in mid-1928, the dual turntables and mood disks were finished in theatres within a year. By mid-1929, every Hollywood film being made was with synchronized sound, although silent versions were also offered for a short time.

Many of these recordings survive today because they soon found another home and use: radio. Both the mood music and sound effects disks found extensive use on radio programs and often batches of them have turned up when a station cleans out their storage rooms.

– Ron Hutchinson, Founder of The Vitaphone Project, for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Ron’s Vitaphone View articles here.

Ron is widely recognized as one of the country’s foremost film historians, with special emphasis on the period covering the transition to sound (1925-30) and early attempts to add sound to film. As the founder of The Vitaphone Project, he has worked with Warner Brothers, UCLA, LOC and private collectors worldwide to find previously lost soundtrack discs and restore early sound shorts. Ron’s unique knowledge has  been sourced in over 25 books as well as documentaries for PBS and TCM, and commentary for “The Jazz Singer” DVD boxed set. He was awarded the National Society of Film Critics “Film Heritage Honor” for his work in film preservation and discoveries, and was the presenter of rare Vitaphone shorts at the 2016 TCM Film Festival. For more information you can visit the Vitaphone Project website or Facebook Group.

And, if you’re interested in exploring some of these newly discovered shorts and rarities, you can pick them up on DVD via amazon:

               

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Win Tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (70th Anniversary) (Giveaway runs December 14 – December 30)

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Annmarie Gatti

Win Tix to see “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” on the Big Screen!

In Select Cinemas Nationwide Sunday, Jan 14 and Tuesday, Jan 16!

“Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.”

CMH is thrilled to announce the 3rd year of our partnership with Fathom Events — and the 1st of our 13 movie ticket giveaways for 2018, courtesy of Fathom Events!

That said, we’ll be giving away EIGHT PAIRS of tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” – the timeless classic starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt — the way it was meant to be seen — on the Big Screen!

In order to qualify to win a pair of movie tickets via this contest, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, December 30 at 6 PM EST.

We will announce the winner(s) on Twitter on Sunday, December 31, between 6PM EST and 7PM EST. If a winner(s) does not have a Twitter account, we will announce that winner(s) via this blog in the comment section below.

treasure of the sierra madre-posterThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948

The film will be playing in select cinemas nationwide for a special two-day-only event on Sunday, January 14 and Tuesday, January 16 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time. Winners will be responsible for their own transportation to the Event. Only United States entries are eligible. Please click here before you enter to ensure that the Event is scheduled at a theater near you and that you are able to attend. (please note that there might be slightly different theater listings for each date)

About the film:  Tampico, Mexico. Three down and out Americans pool the meager resources they have to follow a rumor of gold ore to be found somewhere in the Sierra Madre mountains. The three friends agree to split everything equally, but then they discover a fortune in gold ore… Academy Award winners Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston star with Tim Holt in this classic tale of the cunning, greed and paranoia caused by The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This 70th Anniversary event includes exclusive insight from TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.

ENTRY TASK (2-parts) to be completed by Saturday, December 30 at 6PM EST…

1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post

THE QUESTION:

What is it about “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” that makes it a Classic? And, if you haven’t seen it, why do you want to see it on the Big Screen? 

2) Then TWEET* (not DM) the following message:

I just entered to win tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics Presents: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” on the Big Screen courtesy of @ClassicMovieHub & @FathomEvents #EnterToWin #CMHContest link here: http://ow.ly/MMoq30hgmMu

*If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can still enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.

NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.

ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…

Please note that only United States residents are eligible to enter this giveaway contest. (see contest rules for further information)

BlogHub members ARE also eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States (as noted above).

You can follow Fathom Events on Twitter at @fathomevents

Good Luck!

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

 

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German Expressionism 101 – Part Two (The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari)

Posted on December 12, 2017 by minooallen

German Expressionism 101
Part Two

Like the pretty much all of the art in 1920s Germany, Expressionism dominated German Cinema. Before WWI, the German Film Industry lagged behind countries such as the US, France, and Italy due to its lack of innovation and primitive story-telling. After the war the German Government (now called the Weimar Republic) consolidated most of the industry into the state-sponsored production company UFA (Universum-Film AG). The government then quickly instituted a ban on the importation of foreign films in hopes of further developing their own industry. This, of course, caused a high demand of German films within Germany, basically meaning their plan worked. Although UFA initially produced large-scale costume dramas as means of provided breads and circuses to their downtrodden citizens, it soon became apparent that the German people did not want mindless entertainment to distract them from their lives. Rather than escapism, the German people wanted Expressionism – a means of seeing their own fragile collective psyche portrayed on the screen. The best example of this came along in 1920 when little independent studio called Decla produced the film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari poster

The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari was written by a couple of World War I vets named Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Needless to say, they were severely psychologically scared from their time in the trenches and channeled their horrific wartime experiences and deep-seeded distrust in authoritarian leadership into the film’s screenplay. The story follows Francis, who recalls his horrifying experiences when a Carnival and the titular character, Dr. Caligari, strolls into town. Caligari is power-hungry, calculating and posseses the great gift of gab. He is easily able to lure in audiences with his powerful presence and captivating showmanship. He is representative of German Leadership – both brutal yet awe inspiring, using their power to manipulate those under their jurisdiction. The somnambulist (a sleepwalker), Cesare, who is under the control of Dr. Caligari, can be seen as the German solider; forced to carry out the evil deeds of his master with no agency of his own – adrift in world that has lost all reality. These themes where brought to life through the masterful direction of Robert Wiene.

Like the painting of Otto Dix, Wiene did not concern himself with creating a realistic portrayal of the physical world. Instead, he wanted to delve into psyche of the characters, characters that represented the collective malaise of the German people. The film could pretty much be considered the anti-Hollywood in its visual style. Everything from the screenplay to the sets and even the title cards were done in way to challenge modernism’s highly formal elements and need for objective realism.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari title cardFor real, you ever see a title card as angsty as this…

To create the dark and unsettling world of Dr. Caligari, Weine hired two Expressionists painters as the film’s set designers. Rather than reaching for the verisimilitude of the world, the painters used Expressionism to distort perception. They opted to paint many of the background props and cityscapes rather than build them, as was normal practice of the time. The result was a world of crooked landscapes, starkly painted shadows that cast irregular patterns on the walls and ground with little concern of its light source. Jagged edges of a town that seemed to taper into nothing and rooftops seemed to bleed into bridges. The world of Caligari simply did not look like the “real world” but that was point of it all. As mentioned in my last German Expressionism post, the zeitgeist of German at this point was not a happy one. People were full of anxiety about the future, anger about past and confused about the present.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari setI , for one, don’t think even google maps could help me navigate through this town…

The narrative structure and morose stylization was something the world had yet to see in film and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari became an international hit. It was clear German had something completely new to offer the film world with films such as The Golem: How He Came Into the World, and Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler soon followed Dr. Caligari’s stylish lead. Despite Germany’s fumbling economy (people were using the German mark as wallpaper, it was so worthless), the film industry boomed. The hyperinflation of the mark during the Weimar Republic made it so cheap to export films to foreign markers that everyone and their mother countries were buying films. It quickly went from a struggling, primitive industry to Hollywood’s main competitor on the world stage. Over the next 10 years, classic such as Nosferatu, Metropolis, The Man Who Laughs and M would all become not German Expressionist masterpieces, but legends in hall of cinema itself.

But like all great movements, this one also came to end. On January 30, 1933 Germanay named Adolf Hitler as their Chancellor and like that, the Weimar Republic was over and something new, and insidious came to take its place. The time of art that questioned their government and its moral failures was over. It wasn’t long before Propaganda ruled the cinema of Germany, goose steps replaced crooked steps  and expressionism would be all but outlawed…stupid Nazis.

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Minoo Allen for Classic Movie Hub

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Barbara La Marr: Life on Her Own Terms, Exclusive Guest Post by Author Sherri Snyder

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Guest Post

Barbara La Marr: Life on Her Own Terms
Guest Post by Author Sherri Snyder

Barbara La Marr, circa early 1924; Melbourne Spurr imageBarbara La Marr, circa early 1924; Melbourne Spurr image.

Born into an era governed by stifling Victorian mores, a time when many women led lives of submissive domesticity, Barbara La Marr played by her own rules, charted her own course through life.  Her inherent love for life and insistence upon giving vent to what she described as a “passion of expression…a pent-up restless force” which ceaselessly called to her, served as a powerful example to those yearning for alternatives.  Despite her innate talent, however, her success on multiple career fronts—dancing, screenwriting, and acting—and her ascension to worldwide fame as one of the silent screen’s foremost actresses and sex goddesses had not come easily.

She entered the world as Reatha Watson on July 28, 1896, in North Yakima, Washington, the daughter of Rose Watson, a homemaker and occasional seamstress, and William Watson, a newspaperman and irrigationist.  Her father’s positions as a reporter and newspaper editor, and proprietor of various papers throughout the Pacific Northwest and in California profoundly impacted her childhood.  As an adult, when speaking of her father’s profession and the resultant chain of migrations that dominated her early years, Reatha would recall the cheap, dilapidated boarding rooms her family inhabited, the coarse cotton clothes she wore, and laboring as a thirty-cents-per-column typesetter on her father’s newspapers.

Young Reatha dreamed of more.  She discovered her destiny at the age of eight while viewing a play with her mother in Tacoma, Washington, announcing her intention to go on the stage soon after.  Her subsequent appearance in an amateurs’ showcase hosted by the Allen Stock Company was met with booming applause and an offer to perform with the company.  Employment with other stock companies followed until her pre-teen years; having outgrown children’s parts but still too young to play adults, she was advised by a stock company manager to step down from the boards for several years.

Disheartened but undeterred, Reatha next set her sights upon motion pictures, traveling with her mother at age fourteen from their home in Fresno, California, to Los Angeles.  But Reatha’s dream of success as a film actress became a nightmare.  She was shoved into low-paying extra roles.  After rejecting the advances of certain directors, she was mistreated and, as one story goes, fired.  Then, in the wake of the sordid publicity accompanying her marriage to Lawrence Converse, a garage owner with a wife and children (she wed Converse to escape her protective parents’ authority, unaware that he was married), and his death from an operation intended to remedy his irrational behavior, seventeen-year-old Reatha was barred by studios from appearing in their films.  Reatha refused to give up.  She told a reporter that she alone determined her fate; after departing from Los Angeles, she vowed to ballroom dancer Robert Carville that she would one day return and become a film star.

Barbara La Marr - Reatha as she appeared in the Los Angeles Examiner, June 10, 1914, when the press was aflame over her bigamous marriage to Lawrence Converse.Reatha as she appeared in the Los Angeles Examiner, June 10, 1914, when the press was aflame over her bigamous marriage to Lawrence Converse.

Needing to earn a living and unable to silence her gnawing ambitions, Reatha drew upon her other talents for a time.  She formed a dancing partnership—and began a romance—with Robert Carville in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve 1914.  She also reinvented herself; adopting the name Barbara La Marr, she disassociated from her scandalous past.  Together, she assured Carville, they would become famous dancers.  True to Barbara’s word, she and Carville took San Francisco by storm, performed with great success in some of Chicago’s most renowned venues, and, in 1916, made a hit headlining on Broadway.

Barbara was again forced to reassess her life in 1917.  The United States entered World War I, Carville joined the army, and cabarets, debilitated by losses of liquor revenue with the approach of Prohibition, struggled to pay dancers’ salaries.  Barbara partnered with acclaimed comedian and vaudeville headliner Ben Deely, touring the vaudeville circuits as a supporting actress in his three-person act, earning plaudits from critics and eventually receiving equal billing with Deely until dancing injuries and frequent bouts of ill health ended her vaudeville career in 1919.

Barbara pushed ahead.  Returning to Los Angeles, she took to the pen, yielding, she said, to an instinctive desire to write.  Unfazed by her lack of experience, she completed her first story in a single summer, submitted it to film studio executives, and won a $10,000 (about $138,000 today) contract with Fox Film Corporation, commencing in 1920, for six original stories, all of which appeared on screens around the world.

All the while, Barbara’s dream of being a film actress smoldered within her.  Providence intervened in 1921; following a meeting with action hero Douglas Fairbanks, she was given one of her first big breaks in films when Fairbanks cast her as the villainous Milady de Winter in his box office smash The Three Musketeers.

Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer, November 2, 1921, image of Barbara as Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers.Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer, November 2, 1921, image of Barbara as Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers.

Her fear of being recognized as notorious Reatha Watson, and stiff resistance to her venture into film acting from Ben Deely (by this time her husband) notwithstanding, Barbara resolved to pursue a career on the screen immediately after The Three Musketeers wrapped.  By early 1922, she had landed a role in a film she later credited with having made her.  Trifling Women, directed by Rex Ingram and summarized by a film poster as “The Love Affairs of a Heartless Woman,” features Barbara as Zareda, a diabolical sorceress who leads men to ultimate destruction.  Film goers and critics were enraptured when the film was released that October; Barbara and her performance were hailed as brilliant.

Trifling Women further elevated Barbara to the realm of a rising breed of screen idol: the vamp.  The antithesis of the traditional, virtuous heroine, the vamp shamelessly used her femininity to seduce and ensnare men—and was quite a shocking figure in the early 1920s.  Barbara embraced her screen image, declaring that she had often been called something very like a vamp off the screen, and that part of the joy in womanhood “is to exercise fascinations on the male.”

Barbara La Marr poses on a gilded bed owned by singer, dancer, and actress Gaby Deslys.Barbara poses on a gilded bed owned by singer, dancer, and actress Gaby Deslys.  Patterned after the boat from the “Grotto of Venus” scene in the opera Tannhäuser, the bed was imported from France by director Rex Ingram and Metro Pictures for Trifling Women (1922).

In August 1923, Barbara’s prophecy that she would achieve stardom as a film actress came true.  Unrelenting work and a string of successful films netted her a five-year contract for starring pictures produced by Arthur Sawyer and Herbert Lubin’s Associated Pictures and distributed by First National, the industry’s leading distributor at the time.  Barbara’s contract, according to an announcement made by Lubin in the trades, was worth over $3 million (around $42 million today).

Barbara La Marr on the April 5, 1924, cover of Movie WeeklyBarbara on the April 5, 1924, cover of Movie Weekly, one of many magazine covers she graced during the height of her fame.

Enduring stardom took every shred of Barbara’s strength.  Increased pressure to succeed and global scrutiny exacerbated her seething insecurities, spurring her alcoholism.  Her weakening lungs plagued her.  After becoming pregnant while separated from Ben Deely, she had staged her son’s adoption; amid mounting suspicions, she continued posing as his adoptive mother to avoid losing her career to scandal.  Her career nonetheless suffered during Deely’s divorce suit against her; an attempt by Herman L. Roth, Deely’s wily attorney, to blackmail her and Arthur Sawyer, her alleged lover, culminated in Roth’s sensationalized trial, the complete exposure of her infamous past, and a storm of negative publicity.  As the public began associating Barbara with her errant film persona, and sprightly flappers eclipsed vamps as the screen’s preeminent sex symbols, Barbara slipped from favor.

Beset by incipient pulmonary tuberculosis—brought on by her brutally-paced career, severe dieting methods, and tendency to “burn the candle at both ends”—, Barbara began her final film the summer of 1925, determined to complete it and make a comeback.  Disappointed with the way Arthur Sawyer (also acting as her business manager) had handled her career and heretofore denied her a say in the material chosen for her, she had insisted upon the sort of film she had been longing to make.  The Girl from Montmartre, the story of a genuine character, was a departure from the superficial vamp roles Barbara had been playing, a deviation from her typecasting.  Bolstered by her iron will, loyal fans, and critics who had applauded her talent and versatility in her sympathetic portrayals in such films as Poor Men’s Wives (1923) and Thy Name Is Woman (1924), Barbara struggled to work at United Studios each day, concealing the extent of her illness and suffering.

Barbara La Marr pictured with her maid and chauffeur, often arrived at the studio in her bathrobe throughout filming of The Girl from Montmartre (released in 1926).Thin and gravely ill beneath her brave front, Barbara, pictured with her maid and chauffeur, often arrived at the studio in her bathrobe throughout filming of The Girl from Montmartre (released in 1926).

As she had so many times in her life, Barbara encountered opposition.  Her doctor demanded that she retire from the screen and immediately retreat to the mountains to rest.  Her parents begged her to heed the doctor.  Her body deteriorated by the day.  She collapsed repeatedly on the film set.  Still, Barbara continued waging one of her greatest gambles—a gamble she wanted desperately to win.

…..

–Sherri Snyder for Classic Movie Hub

Actress and writer Sherri Snyder is the author of Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood; she regularly portrays Barbara La Marr in a one-woman performance piece she wrote for the Pasadena Playhouse and Pasadena Museum of History production, Channeling Hollywood; and she maintains the tribute website, www.barbaralamarr.net.

Posted in Books, Guest Posts | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Announcing our 2018 Year-Long Partnership with Fathom Events: “TCM Big Screen Classics” Movie Tickets Giveaways!

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Annmarie Gatti

Classic Movie Hub and Fathom Events Partner Again for
Year-Long Movie Ticket Giveaways to TCM Big Screen Classics

For the third consecutive year, Fathom Events and TCM present TCM Big Screen Classics — a year-long series of 13 unforgettable movie classics shown on the Big Screen, each accompanied by insightful, specially-produced commentary from favorite TCM hosts (including Ben and Tiffany). But that’s not all — CMH is now thrilled to say that — also — for the third consecutive year — CMH will be partnering with Fathom Events for our monthly classic movie ticket giveaways.

fathom events tcm big screen classics 2018

That said, Classic Movie Hub will be giving away EIGHT PAIRS of tickets to each of the 13 TCM Big Screen Classics playing throughout 2018. And, just like last year, it will be simple to enter… All you have to do is check back on this Blog every month OR follow us on Twitter at @ClassicMovieHub or on Facebook for our monthly contest announcements. Then complete that month’s entry task, and you will be entered into a random drawing to win a pair of tickets to that month’s movie event! That’s it! And there is no limit to how many contests you enter (and win) during the year — so feel free to enter all 13 of them…

We will kick off our first contest via a blog announcement for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” on Thursday, December 14th…

And — if you can’t wait to win tickets, you can purchase them online by visiting FathomEvents.com, or at participating theater box offices.

So, now, as they say, let’s get the show on the road — with a list of the movie events. 

…..

JANUARY: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

treasure of the sierra madre-poster

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 70th Anniversary (1948)
Sunday, January 14, and Tuesday, January 16

Many critics consider The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to be director John Huston’s finest cinematic offering, a gritty depiction of the cancerous effects of gold lust upon a man’s soul. There are countless films that deal with the subject matter of money and greed and the deadly combination the two can create, but what makes this film stand out is the artistry behind the movie. From the direction of Huston, to the performances of Humphrey Bogart and Huston’s father, Walter, to the stellar camera work of Ted McCord, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre achieves an uncompromising look into the dark side of human nature. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre celebrates its 70th anniversary by leading the 2018 “TCM Big Screen Classics” series.

…..

FEBRUARY: The Philadelphia Story

philadelphia story-poster

The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Sunday, February 18, and Wednesday, February 21

In one of her most famous roles, Katharine Hepburn plays Tracy Lord, the daughter of a well-to-do Pennsylvania family in The Philadelphia Story. The young socialite is about to embark on a second marriage and the lucky groom is George Kittredge (John Howard), a comparatively staid but extremely wealthy gentleman. Her first husband was C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), who is certainly more colorful than Kittredge, if slightly less responsible. When Dexter makes an unexpected appearance at the Lords’ home on the eve of Tracy’s wedding, it is not so much to wish her well as to shield her from the prying eyes of an overly ambitious reporter (James Stewart) assigned to cover the nuptials.

…..

MARCH: Vertigo

vertigo-poster

Vertigo 60th anniversary (1958)
Sunday, March 18, and Wednesday, March 21

Dreamy, suspenseful and hypnotic – not to mention enormously influential – Alfred Hitchcock‘s San Francisco-set thriller is a unique blend of ghost story, mystery and romance. James Stewart stars as John “Scottie” Ferguson, a detective with a crippling fear of heights who is hired to trail, but falls in love with, the mysterious Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak). When he witnesses Madeleine fall to her death, Scottie is despondent … until his paths cross with Judy Barton, a woman who seems eerily familiar. With a haunting score by Bernard Herrmann, Vertigo is a cinematic milestone that has lost none of its ability to captivate audiences, even as it celebrates its 60th anniversary.

…..

APRIL: Grease

grease-poster

Grease 40th Anniversary (1978)
Sunday, April 8, and Wednesday, April 11

Forty years later, Grease is still the word! John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John star in the beloved classic featuring an explosion of song and dance that made an indelible impact on popular culture. Boasting a world-famous soundtrack including “Greased Lightnin’,” “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” “Summer Nights,” “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” and “Beauty School Drop Out,” the film remains an iconic, feel-good celebration that’s perfect to watch with friends or for an unforgettable date night.

…..

MAY: Sunset Boulevard

sunset boulevard-poster

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Sunday, May 13, and Wednesday, May 16

Director Billy Wilder’s cinematic masterpiece Sunset Boulevard captures the often disturbing reality behind Hollywood’s illusions with stellar performances by Gloria Swanson and William Holden. The film was nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, and won three for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Original Music Score and Best Story and Screenplay. It remains a timeless tale of fame, power and greed.

….. 

JUNE: The Producers

producers-poster

The Producers 50th Anniversary (1968) 
Sunday, June 3, and Wednesday, June 6

“Bialystock and Bloom! Bialystock and Bloom!” Writer-director Mel Brooks delivered one of the most uproarious comedies ever made with The Producers – one that almost didn’t see the light of day as the original distributor felt it was “in bad taste.” Fifty years later, The Producers not only proved to be an Oscar® winner (Best Original Screenplay) but cemented the status of Gene Wilder (Oscar® nominated for his role) as a comedy legend and inspired one of the most popular musicals in Broadway history. Newly restored by Studiocanal for its 50th Anniversary, the film stars Zero Mostel, Kenneth Mars and Dick Shawn. 

…..

JULY: Big

big-poster

Big 30th Anniversary (1988)
Sunday, July 15, and Wednesday, July 18

It’s been 30 years since Josh Baskin (played by Tom Hanks and David Moscow) first met the mechanized carnival genie Zoltar and uttered: “I wish I were big” – and his ensuing adventure turned the already-popular Hanks into a mega-star. Directed by Penny Marshall, Big became a box-office sensation as audiences fell in love with the exploits of 12-year-old Josh becoming a 30-year-old man overnight. Voted by the American Film Institute as one of the 10 best fantasies in American movie history, Big is a delight for all movie lovers – big and small.

…..

AUGUST:  The Big Lebowski AND South Pacific

the big lebowski-poster

The Big Lebowski 20th Anniversary (1998)
Sunday, August 5, and Wednesday, August 8

Part absurdist comedy, part noir crime drama, and utterly Coen, The Big Lebowski has continued to grow in both popularity and reputation since its first release in 1998. Loosely inspired by the writings of Raymond Chandler, The Big Lebowski is almost impossible to define — except as a modern classic. So much so, that in 2014 the Library of Congress named The Big Lebowski to the esteemed National Film Registry, citing its “tale of kidnapping, mistaken identity and bowling.” With Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and David Huddleston, it’s a singular achievement from the singular filmmaking team of Joel and Ethan Coen.

…..

south pacific-poster

South Pacific 60th Anniversary (1958)
Sunday, August 26, and Wednesday, August 29

It’s some enchanted evening for movie fans as director Joshua Logan’s widescreen, color-soaked adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic musical makes a rare cinematic return in honor of its 60th anniversary. Filled with impossibly lush scenery – shot both in Kauai and on the island of Ibiza – and memorable performances by Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, Ray Walston and Juanita Hall, the Oscar®-winning South Pacific was a box-office smash upon release. Its soundtrack, which also set records, includes such unforgettable songs as “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair,” “Some Enchanted Evening” and “Bali Ha’i.”

…..

SEPTEMBER: Rebel Without a Cause

rebel without a cause-poster

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Sunday, September 23, and Wednesday, September 26

One of James Dean’s three major starring roles, Rebel Without a Cause turned an actor into a Hollywood legend when it was released less than a month after Dean’s untimely death. On its own, though, the film set off cultural shock waves as teenagers flocked to see one of the first realistic portrayals of youth Hollywood had attempted. DirectorNicholas Ray catches lightning in a bottle not just with Dean’s performance, but with perfectly cast Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo as equally troubled youths and a revelatory performance by Jim Backus as Dean’s ineffectual father. Rebel Without a Cause remains as riveting as the day it was released.

…..

OCTOBER: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

mr smith goes to washington-poster

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Sunday, October 14, and Wednesday, October 17

Appointed on a whim to serve a vacant seat on the U.S. Senate, Boy Rangers leader Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) moves to Washington filled with enthusiasm – which quickly turns to disbelief bordering on cynicism when he sees how the nation’s political system actually works. This classic, directed by Frank Capra, with story by Lewis R. Roster and screenplay by Sidney Buchman, was a milestone of Hollywood’s “golden year” of 1939. It quickly became a lightning rod of controversy among real politicians, and a perennial favorite among moviegoers. Whether they’ve seen it a dozen times or it’s brand-new to them, audiences rally behind Jeff Smith, proving that the power of an individual to change the way of the world is an optimistic American ideal. 

…..

NOVEMBER: Die Hard 

die hard-poster

Die Hard 30th Anniversary (1988)
Sunday, November 11, and Wednesday, November 14

Yippee-ki-yay … John McClane is back in the iconic action-thriller. In his first major movie role, Bruce Willis is a sly, sardonic combination of action-hero and wisecracker who has to single-handedly protect L.A.’s fictional Nakatomi Plaza from a team of terrorists led by the suave Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman, also making his big-screen debut). Inside the 35-story high-rise, McClane can use little more than his wits to save the day. Under the assured direction of John McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October, Predator), Die Hardbecame a game-changing action film that remains the gold standard three decades later.

…..

DECEMBER: White Christmas

white christmas-poster

White Christmas (1954) 
Sunday, December 9, and Wednesday, December 12

One of the best-loved, most quintessentially American of all holiday classics, White Christmas will charm longtime fans and young audiences alike with its blend of timeless music and big-hearted emotion. Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen star in the delightful musical directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), which features unforgettable songs by the legendary Irving Berlin. The 2018 “TCM Big Screen Classics” series wraps up by celebrating the season with a rare cinematic presentation of this holiday favorite that moviegoers of all ages can enjoy together.

…..

Please stay tuned for contest announcements throughout the year for your chance(s) to win!

Click here to see the contest rules and more info!

…..

–Annmarie for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Contests & Giveaways, Fathom Events, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | 21 Comments

Kino Lorber Holiday (Facebook/Blog) Blu-Ray/DVD Giveaway Contest (December)

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Annmarie Gatti

Happy Holidays with Kino Lorber!
DVD/Blu-Ray Giveaway, Winner’s Choice of 3 Holiday Classics

Yay! The contest is over and the winners are: Millie and Javier! Congratulations!

Okay, now it’s time for the Facebook/Blog version of our Kino Lorber Holiday Giveaway Contest! This time we’ll be giving away two Holiday Classics via Facebook and this blog, courtesy of Kino Lorber. Each of our two winners will be able to choose their prize from the three titles listed below. And, remember, we’re also giving away EIGHT MORE DVDs/Blu-Rays via Twitter this month as well, so please feel free to enter that contest too…

In order to qualify to win this prize via this Facebook/Blog contest giveaway, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, January 6 at 10PM EST. We will pick our two winners via a random drawing and announce them on this Blog the day after the contest ends (Sunday January 7).

If you’re also on Twitter, please feel free to visit us at  @ClassicMovieHub for additional giveaways — because we’ll be giving away EIGHT MORE Kino Classics there as well! PS: you don’t even need a twitter account to enter! (Click here for twitter contest details)

Glenn Ford, Peter Falk and Bette Davis in Pocketful of MiraclesGlenn Ford, Peter Falk and Bette Davis in Pocketful of Miracles
…..

ENTRY TASK to be completed by Saturday, January 6 at 1oPM EST —

1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post

THE QUESTION:
What is one of your favorite holiday movies and why? (does not have to be one of the prize titles)

NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.

ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…

…..

Here are the titles up for grabs:

  

The Lemon Drop Kid (1951): Blu-Ray or DVD available. Comedy legend Bob Hope (My Favorite Brunette) stars as Sidney Milburn (A.K.A. The Lemon Drop Kid, named so after his love of the simple candy), a con man who offers a friendly “sure thing” horse tip to the girlfriend of mobster Moose Moran (Fred Clark, Visit to a Small Planet) at the race track. When the horse loses and Moose’s original pick wins, Moose gives Sidney until Christmas to pay back the money he lost or his thug, Sam the Surgeon (Harry Bellaver, Naked City), will “open up” Sidney after Christmas. To pay back the money he owes Moose, Sidney enlists some pals to hit the street corners of New York dressed as Santa Claus accepting donations for a bogus elderly ladies’ home, but soon after, gangster Oxford Charlie (Lloyd Nolan, The House on 92nd Street) tries to move in on Sidney’s scam. What follows is vintage Hope shenanigans, highlighted by a heart-warming rendition of the Christmas classic “Silver Bells” sung by Hope and Marilyn Maxwell (Lost in a Harem). Also starring William Frawley (I Love Lucy) and Tor Johnson (The Black Sleep).

I’ll Be Seeing You (1944):  Blu-Ray or DVD available. Hollywood greats Ginger Rogers (Swing Time), Joseph Cotten (The Third Man) and Shirley Temple (Since You Went Away) top a stellar cast in this tender wartime love story about two troubled strangers who long for a normal life, meet by chance and try to crowd a lifetime of love and laughter into eight days. Studded with brilliant performances, I’ll Be Seeing You manages to ambush your emotions and hasten your heartbeats. After serving half of a prison sentence for accidental manslaughter, Mary Marshall (Rogers) is allowed a holiday furlough to visit her family. Keeping her history a secret, she falls in love with a kindhearted G.I. (Cotten) who’s struggling to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder. This David O. Selznick (Duel in the Sun) holiday classic features stunning cinematography by Tony Gaudio (The Adventures of Robin Hood) in glorious black-and-white and wonderful direction by William Dieterle (Portrait of Jennie).

Pocketful of Miracles (1961):  Blu-Ray or DVD available. Capricious, winsome, whimsical, and all together delightful! Superbly directed by the peerless Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), this remake of Lady For A Day is pure Hollywood magic – an unforgettable combination of comedy, whimsy and romance that was nominated for three Oscars including Supporting Actor (Peter Falk, TV’s Columbo), Costume Design, and Original Song. Impoverished Broadway peddler “Apple Annie” (Bette Davis, All About Eve) has a problem, her daughter Louise (Ann-Margret, Tommy), educated abroad since infancy, is coming for a visit and bringing her wealthy fiance with her. The problem is that Louise has believed all her life that Annie’s a wealthy dowager, and the poor old women doesn’t know what to do. Enter “Dave the Dude” (Glenn Ford, 3:10 to Yuma), a kindhearted racketeer who enlists the aid to pass Annie off as a high-society granddame so Louise can marry her fairy-tale prince and everyone can live happily ever after! This Christmas classic was the final film in Frank Capra’s glorious career and featured a great supporting cast that included Hope Lange, Arthur O’Connell, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton and Barton MacLane.

You can visit Kino Lorber on their website, on Twitter at @KinoLorber or on Facebook.

Please note that only Continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the territory of Puerto Rico) entrants are eligible.

And — BlogHub members ARE eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States (as noted above).

For complete rules, click here.

And if you can’t wait to win any of these titles, you can click on the images below to purchase on amazon :)

            

Good Luck!

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Contests & Giveaways, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged , | 21 Comments

Barbara La Marr Book Giveaway (Facebook/Blog December)

Posted on December 9, 2017 by Annmarie Gatti

“Barbara La Marr: The Girl who was Too Beautiful for Hollywood”
Book Giveaway via Facebook and this Blog

Yay! The contest is over and the winner is: Denyse! Congratulations!

Okay, now it’s time for the Facebook/Blog version of our of  “Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood” Giveaway Contest! This time we’ll be giving away one copy of the book via Facebook and this blog, courtesy of University Press of Kentucky and author Sherri Snyder. And, remember, we’re also giving away FIVE MORE copies via Twitter this month as well, so please feel free to enter that contest too…

In order to qualify to win this prize via this Facebook/Blog contest giveaway, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, Jan 6 at 10PM EST. We will pick one winner via a random drawing and announce him/her on Facebook and here on this Blog the day after the contest ends (Sunday January 7).

If you’re also on Twitter, please feel free to visit us at  @ClassicMovieHub for additional giveaways — because we’ll be giving away FIVE MORE books there as well! PS: you don’t even need a twitter account to enter! (Click here for twitter contest details as well as more information about the book.)

barbara_la_marr_biography_250px

…..

ENTRY TASK to be completed by Saturday, January 6 at 1oPM EST —

1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post

THE QUESTION:
What is it that intrigues you most about Barbara La Marr or her career? And, if you’re not familiar with Barbara La Marr, why do you want to win this book?

NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.

ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…

Barbara La Marr James A. Woodbury portrait 1921
Barbara La Marr (James A. Woodbury portrait 1921)

About the Book:  In the first full-length biography of the woman known as the “girl who was too beautiful,” Sherri Snyder presents a complete portrait of one of the silent era’s most infamous screen sirens. In five short years, La Marr appeared in twenty-six films, including The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), Trifling Women (1922), The Eternal City (1923), The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924), and Thy Name Is Woman (1924). Yet by 1925―finding herself beset by numerous scandals, several failed marriages, a hidden pregnancy, and personal prejudice based on her onscreen persona―she fell out of public favor. When she was diagnosed with a fatal lung condition, she continued to work, undeterred, until she collapsed on set. She died at the age of twenty-nine. Few stars have burned as brightly and as briefly as Barbara La Marr, and her extraordinary life story is one of tempestuous passions as well as perseverance in the face of adversity. Drawing on never-before-released diary entries, correspondence, and creative works, Snyder’s biography offers a valuable perspective on her contributions to silent-era Hollywood and the cinematic arts.

…..

Click here for the full contest rules. 

Please note that only Continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the territory of Puerto Rico) entrants are eligible.

And — BlogHub members ARE eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States (as noted above).

Good Luck!

And if you can’t wait to win the book, you can purchase the on amazon via the below link (click on image):

Good Luck!

…..

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

 

Posted in Contests & Giveaways, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged , | 20 Comments

Kino Lorber Holiday Blu-Ray/DVD Giveaway Promotion (via Twitter)

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Annmarie Gatti

Celebrating the Holidays with Kino Lorber!
DVD/Blu-Ray Giveaway, Winner’s Choice of 3 Classic Titles

This month we celebrate the Holidays courtesy of Kino Lorber! We are happy to say that we have EIGHT classic Holiday DVD or Blu-Rays to giveaway on Twitter this month, winners’ choice of three titles. But please stay tuned because we’ll also be giving away TWO more DVDs/Blu-Rays via a separate Facebook/Blog giveaway this month too. That said, here we go…

Glenn Ford, Peter Falk and Bette Davis in Pocketful of MiraclesGlenn Ford, Peter Falk and Bette Davis in Pocketful of Miracles

In order to qualify to win one of these prizes via this contest giveaway, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, Jan 6 at 10PM EST. However, the sooner you enter, the better chance you have of winning, because we will pick two winners on four different days within the contest period, via random drawings, as listed below… So if you don’t win the first week that you enter, you will still be eligible to win during the following weeks until the contest is over.

  • December 16: Two Winners
  • December 23: Two Winners
  • December 30: Two Winners
  • January 6: Two Winners

We will announce each week’s winner on Twitter @ClassicMovieHub (or this blog, depending how you entered), the day after each winner is picked at 10PM EST — for example, we will announce our first week’s winners on Sunday December 17 at 10PM EST.

…..

Here are the titles up for grabs:

  

The Lemon Drop Kid (1951): Blu-Ray or DVD available. Comedy legend Bob Hope (My Favorite Brunette) stars as Sidney Milburn (A.K.A. The Lemon Drop Kid, named so after his love of the simple candy), a con man who offers a friendly “sure thing” horse tip to the girlfriend of mobster Moose Moran (Fred Clark, Visit to a Small Planet) at the race track. When the horse loses and Moose’s original pick wins, Moose gives Sidney until Christmas to pay back the money he lost or his thug, Sam the Surgeon (Harry Bellaver, Naked City), will “open up” Sidney after Christmas. To pay back the money he owes Moose, Sidney enlists some pals to hit the street corners of New York dressed as Santa Claus accepting donations for a bogus elderly ladies’ home, but soon after, gangster Oxford Charlie (Lloyd Nolan, The House on 92nd Street) tries to move in on Sidney’s scam. What follows is vintage Hope shenanigans, highlighted by a heart-warming rendition of the Christmas classic “Silver Bells” sung by Hope and Marilyn Maxwell (Lost in a Harem). Also starring William Frawley (I Love Lucy) and Tor Johnson (The Black Sleep).

I’ll Be Seeing You (1944):  Blu-Ray or DVD available. Hollywood greats Ginger Rogers (Swing Time), Joseph Cotten (The Third Man) and Shirley Temple (Since You Went Away) top a stellar cast in this tender wartime love story about two troubled strangers who long for a normal life, meet by chance and try to crowd a lifetime of love and laughter into eight days. Studded with brilliant performances, I’ll Be Seeing You manages to ambush your emotions and hasten your heartbeats. After serving half of a prison sentence for accidental manslaughter, Mary Marshall (Rogers) is allowed a holiday furlough to visit her family. Keeping her history a secret, she falls in love with a kindhearted G.I. (Cotten) who’s struggling to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder. This David O. Selznick (Duel in the Sun) holiday classic features stunning cinematography by Tony Gaudio (The Adventures of Robin Hood) in glorious black-and-white and wonderful direction by William Dieterle (Portrait of Jennie).

Pocketful of Miracles (1961):  Blu-Ray or DVD available. Capricious, winsome, whimsical, and all together delightful! Superbly directed by the peerless Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), this remake of Lady For A Day is pure Hollywood magic – an unforgettable combination of comedy, whimsy and romance that was nominated for three Oscars including Supporting Actor (Peter Falk, TV’s Columbo), Costume Design, and Original Song. Impoverished Broadway peddler “Apple Annie” (Bette Davis, All About Eve) has a problem, her daughter Louise (Ann-Margret, Tommy), educated abroad since infancy, is coming for a visit and bringing her wealthy fiance with her. The problem is that Louise has believed all her life that Annie’s a wealthy dowager, and the poor old women doesn’t know what to do. Enter “Dave the Dude” (Glenn Ford, 3:10 to Yuma), a kindhearted racketeer who enlists the aid to pass Annie off as a high-society granddame so Louise can marry her fairy-tale prince and everyone can live happily ever after! This Christmas classic was the final film in Frank Capra’s glorious career and featured a great supporting cast that included Hope Lange, Arthur O’Connell, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton and Barton MacLane.

Joseph Cotten and Ginger Rogers in I'll Be Seeing You (1944)Joseph Cotten and Ginger Rogers in I’ll Be Seeing You

…..

ENTRY TASK (2-parts) to be completed by Saturday, January 6 at 10PM EST— BUT remember, the sooner you enter, the more chances you have to win…

1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post

2) Then TWEET (not DM) the following message:
Just entered to win the Holiday #DVDGiveaway courtesy of @KinoLorber and @ClassicMovieHub #CMHContest link: http://ow.ly/ASI130h5Gss

THE QUESTION:
Which of the above films would you like to win and why? 

*If you do not have a Twitter account, you can still enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.

ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…

…..

You can visit Kino Lorber on their website, on Twitter at @KinoLorber or on Facebook.

Please note that only Continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the territory of Puerto Rico) entrants are eligible.

And — BlogHub members ARE eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States (as noted above).

For complete rules, click here.

And if you can’t wait to win any of these titles, you can click on the images below to purchase on amazon :)

            

Good Luck!

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged , | 45 Comments