Vintage Ads

Virginia Bruce for Royal Gelatin Desserts

Greer Garson for Lucky Strike

Edward G. Robinson for PBR

Bing Crosby for Philco

Maureen O'Hara for Camels

Joan Crawford for Blackglama furs

Betty Furness for Westinghouse

Tonight on TCM!

Three Came Home (1950) A woman fights to survive as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II.Cast: Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Florence Desmond, Sessue Hayakawa Dir: Jean Negulesco

The Bee's Knees: Famous Flappers

Norma Talmadge

Marie Prevost

Marion Davies

Joan Crawford

Louise Brooks

Edna Perviance

Dorothy Sebastian

Clara Bow

Betty Compson

Anita Page

Barbara Stanwyck

Joan Crawford

Louise Brooks

Norma Shearer

1920's slang!

Tonight on TCM!

Gone With the Wind (1939)
Classic tale of Scarlett O'Hara's battle to save her beloved Tara and find love during the Civil War. Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland. Dir: Victor Fleming

Stars! They're just like us!

They go el toro loco!

Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles

They live on the edge!

Edward G. Robinson

They give music lessons!

Gary Cooper

They clean their guns!

They work it out!

Randolph Scott and Cary Grant

They eat sandwiches!Jane Mansfield

Tonight on TCM!

Gold Diggers Of 1933 (1933)
Three chorus girls fight to keep their show going and find rich husbands.
Cast: Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler Dir: Mervyn LeRoy

11:00pm Footlight Parade (1933)
A producer fights labor problems, financiers and his greedy ex-wife to put on a show.
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Irene Dunne and James Stewart

Hooray! Hurrell!

William Blakewell

Gene Tierney

The Ultimate Home Movie

Spike Jones, Marilyn Monroe, and Ken Murray

Over the weekend I watched another film compilation of Ken Murray's. This leaves only Ken Murray's Shooting Stars for me to complete his collection.

I admire Ken Murray in that he was innovative enough to cut out a particular niche for himself in Hollywood by taking home movies of the stars. I hate how the paparazzi and by extension, we the viewers and readers of star rags, allow no privacy for the stars of today. I long for contract players in studios with a publicity machine like days of old. Offering up false but comforting fronts of actors and actresses in their own homes. Ken Murray was able to capture this type of publicity in a unique way- stars playing sports, swimming in the pool with their children, boating, picniking, showing off their homes, or simply walking down their neighborhood street. Mixed in with galas and awards ceremonies, his home movies were played just like that, home movies. By the mid 1930s, as his name became better known and his famous subjects increased, his movies were used by Columbia for short subject series called "Screen Snapshots", clips that we can still see today in documentaries and retrospects. If you have a chance to check out these unique little treasures, do!

Besides putting together these compilations, Ken Murray was also known for his long-running show, Ken Murray's Blackouts.

Ken Murray's Shooting Stars (1979)
Hollywood, My Home Town (1965)
Hollywood Without Makeup (1963)

Weekend at the movies...

I promise I have a life outside of TCM. Kind of. It's so hard not to flip to the DVR and check out what exciting things TCM has lined up for me! I thought instead of doing different blog entries for each movie I saw this weekend, I would just list them here.


A Night to Remember is the second film I have seen featuring Brian Aherne. I first saw him in Sylvia Scarlett and despite my Cary Grant adoration, thought that he was the best thing about Sylvia Scarlett. He was just as perfect in A Night to Remember- watching him run around with Loretta Young (also fantastic in the film) and solve a murder case is delightful. Full of fast quips and comedic misunderstandings, the viewer is treated to Aherne's natural talent for comedy and charmed by his Britishness. Naturally, I am excited to learn that he is in Juarez (with Bette Davis) which is currently in my queue as I am fast becoming a fan of this actor. Oh! I just realized I will be making a three degrees of separation reference in this blog! Brian Aherne to George Sanders to Bette Davis. Let's segway...

Later in life, after retiring from films Brian Aherne wrote a biography of his friend George Sanders entitled, A Dreadful Man. As I am a huge George Sanders fan, I cannot wait to get my hands on that book! Which leads into the next film I saw.



The Saint Strikes Back is one of those suave sleuth stories, well, it would have to be if George Sanders is playing the sleuth. The first in a series of five Saint films, this was good movie if only because George Sanders plays the lead, talks a lot, and manages to be both villain and hero simultaneously. Other than that, the story is a bit hard to follow and the Saint takes a few unnecessary detours (I thought) to get the case solved.

The third movie I saw, much to my regret was Return From Witch Mountain. I have set a goal to see every film that Bette Davis made that's available. That means the bad ones too. And boy, was this one a doozy! The problem was that it was a film for children and it didn't require any real talent from Davis. Quite frankly, she played the role like one who expects to get a paycheck whether she's fabulous or not. I have seen films of hers done at a later date and she was much better so, maybe she just had contempt for this film (couldn't blame her, it had an imprecise and unimaginative storyline). It's just sad to see such a great talent wain.


Brian Aherne on Bette Davis:
"Surely nobody but a mother could have loved Bette Davis at the height of her career".

The last film I saw was Toys in the Attic. I'm not yet a fan of sixties cinema but it had Geraldine Page in the cast and I'll just say it, anything that has Geraldine Page in it is good. Real good. She is the best character actress I have ever seen and I look forward to watching anything she has been in. This film was no exception, she was absolutely fantastic as Dean Martin's sister who holds an incestuous love for her brother (oh, Hellman you are good!).

Tonight on TCM!
Bells Are Ringing (1960) An answering service operator gets mixed up in her clients' lives. Cast: Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark, Eddie Foy Jr. Dir: Vincente Minnelli

Manhattan Melodrama (1934)

With the upcoming film Public Enemies, TCM decided to show a gangster film of their own, Manhattan Melodrama. A fitting film considering that in 1934, John Dillinger came out of hiding to watch this movie at the Biograph Theater. Afterwards he was shot outside the theater by the police and died. It's said that he was a huge fan of Myrna Loy's and couldn't resist not seeing her onscreen.

Orphans Edward "Blackie" Gallagher (Clark Gable) and Jim Wade (Willaim Powell) are lifelong friends who take different paths in life. Blackie thrives on gambling and grows up to be a hard-nosed racketeer. Bookworm Wade becomes a D.A. vying for the Governorship. When Blackie's girlfriend Eleanor (Myrna Loy) leaves him and marries the more down to earth Wade, Blackie harbors no resentment. In fact, their friendship is so strong that Blackie murders an attorney threatening to derail Wade's bid to become Governor. The morally straight Wade's last job as D.A. is to convict his friend of the murder, and send him to the electric chair. After he becomes Governor, Wade has the authority to commute Blackie's death sentence-- a decision that pits his high moral ethics against a lifelong friendship. - IMDb

This was a good film. A little unbelievable on the whole human aspect. I mean, if I did a friend a favor like killing off a rat who wanted to ruin my career, I would like to think it wouldn't take them up to last minute to commute my sentence and spare me the electric chair. I certainly wouldn't have been as brave as Blackie to refuse the offer of a commuted sentence and nonchalantly walk to my death.

Tonight on TCM!

High Noon (1952) A retired Marshal must defend his town from a revengeful villain.Cast: Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado Dir: Fred Zinnemann

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) inherits 20 million dollars from his late uncle, Martin Semple. His uncle's scheming attorney, John Cedar (Douglass Dumbrille), personally travels to Mandrake falls to collect Deeds and takes him to New York City. He and his firm have been skimming off the top and they need Deeds signature to give them Power of Attorney to keep their actions secret. Cedar thought he had it in the bag when he met small town Deeds who owns a tallow works,writes poetry for greeting cards and passionately plays the tuba. But Deeds is smarter then he looks.
Cedar has Cornelius Cobb (Lionel Stander), act as a buffer between Deeds and the hungry reporters looking for a story. But he is undermined by reporter Louise "Babe" Bennett (Jean Arthur), posing as a stenographer by the name ofMary Dawson. She is everything Deeds is looking for in a girl and he falls for her while she writes a series of articles mocking Deed's odd behavior, and dubbing him the "Cinderella Man".

While fending off Cedar and other greedy opportunists he proposes to Mary. Mary realizes she's in love with Deeds as well. She decides to quit the newspaper and come clean but Cobb reaches Deeds first and reaveals Mary's true identity, leaving Deeds heartbroken.

Ready to return to Mandrake Falls, a dispossessed farmer breaks into his mansion and threatens him with a gun making Deeds realize what good he can do with his troublesome fortune: buy up and give free land to thousands of homeless families for them to work on.

Alarmed at the prospect of losing control of the fortune, Cedar joins forces with Deeds' only other relative and has Deeds declared mentally incompetent.
During his sanity hearing, Deeds who has been left broken and despondent initially refuses to defend himself. But when it's revealed that Babe truly loves him, he crushes Cedar's case so thoroughly that the judge declares him to be "the sanest man who ever walked into this courtroom".

I love this movie. Gary Cooper slays me with his small town innocent ways and those dopey but lovable faces he makes. I just can't get enough of them! Even Jean Arthur puts on a good performance, especially in the courtroom scenes. Gary Cooper comes off as such an innocent, even the viewer can't help but want to come to his defense. This movie was set in the middle of the Deppression Era and I bet it went over really well with the audiences. Nothing like looking out for your fellow American!

Tonight on TCM!

A Night at the Opera (1935) Three zanies turn an operatic performance into chaos in their efforts to promote their protege's romance with the leading lady.Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle Dir: Sam Wood (Hilarious movie!)

Speakeasy: Gary Cooper

Stiff Competition!

These are some seriously cute dogs!

Jean Arthur

Gary Cooper

The Gangsters

The three most popular gangster actors of the 1930's:

George Raft's success came via Scarface. It was speculated that Raft was a gangster due to his life-long friendship with Owney Madden, and acquaintances with other crime figures, including Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky.

His "tough guy" performance in Little Caesar led Edward G. Robinson to similar rolls in Five Star Final, Smart Money, Tiger Shark, Kid Galahad, A Slight Case of Murder and The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse.



The Public Enemy, became one of the most influential gangster movies of the period and launched James Cagney to fame.

Tonight on TCM!

Oh! It's 1939 Thursday! There's a great line up!

Of Mice and Men (1939) A drifter and his slow-witted pal try to make their way in the West.Cast: Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bickford Dir: Lewis Milestone
Dark Victory (1939) A flighty heiress discovers inner strength when she develops a brain tumor.Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald Dir: Edmund Goulding (Listen for Bogey's horrendous Irish accent.)

Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) A cold-hearted teacher becomes the school favorite when he's thawed by a beautiful young woman.Cast: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills Dir: Sam Wood (Robert Donat simply melts my heart in this film.)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption. Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold Dir: Frank Capra (He makes a good point!)

Old Maid, The (1939)
An unmarried mother gives her illegitimate child to her cousin. Cast: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, George Brent, Jane Bryan Dir: Edmund Goulding (Miriam is so conniving!)