Table Talk

Alexis Smith and John Emery

Charles Boyer and Adolfe Manjou

Errol Flynn, Flo Hall and Bruce Cabot

Frances Dee and Joel McCrea with Barbara Stanwyck Robert Taylor

Cary Grant and Ava Gardner

Gary Merrill and Bette Davis

Joan Bennett and James Dunn

Lana Turner and Bob Topping with Joan Fontaine and Bill Dozier

Otto Preminger, Liza Minnelli and Ken Howard

Table Talk!

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable

Frank Sinatra and Walter Pidgeon

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner

Leslie Howard, Gary Cooper and Charles Farrell

Helen Hayes, Claudette Colbert and Ruth Gordon

Fay Wray and Cary Grant

George and Gracie Burns with Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan

Susan Hayward and Ingrid Bergman

Tonight on TCM!

Merchant Ivory- who knew I was such a fan? I have seen all but one in the line-up tonight!

The Remains of the Day (1993)

 Howards End (1992)

A Room With a View (1985)
Maurice (1987)

Tuesdays with the Screen Guild Magazine

THE THEATRE IS THE ONLY TRUE ACTOR’S MEDIUM


By Leslie Howard
[Reprinted from The Screen Guilds' Magazine. December 1935]


When one is asked as one so frequently is, which is the better medium for acting—the stage or the screen, one’s first emotion is that of amazement—or was, before the emotion faded from repetition. Amazement that the screen could be seriously regarded as an actor’s medium. For surely the first requirement of any craftsman in relation to his medium is that he have control of it. And surely no one can seriously contend that the actor has any control over the medium of the motion picture.

Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean physical control. Granting him all manner of authority over the writing, the direction, the photography, and the cutting (an inconceivable state of affairs under the present system), he still, as an actor, is practically in chains during the only period which counts for him—the period of actual performance. Nor can he ever be otherwise. He is fundamentally at the mercy of a dozen mechanical hindrances, of a constantly interrupted continuity, and, most important, he is deprived of that other vital element of drama, the audience.

On the stage, however, the actor is manifestly supreme. At the really crucial moment, the moment of raising the curtain, all the other contributors to the show have departed; the playwright, the director, the scene designer, costumer, lighting expert—everybody but the actor. He is left in solitary glory, in supreme command, with nothing between him and his living audience, to command and control as he thinks fit. Then commences that extraordinary partnership between actor and spectator which is the very essence of theatre. Here, to my mind, exists the only possible control over the art of acting.

But if the theatre is the only true actor’s medium, the screen is incomparably the superior for the director. For the ideal motion picture director should be also a writer, or a collaborator to a writer. He must be a natural storyteller, for it is he who tells the story. And what a great medium for storytelling the screen is. An to have at one’s disposal the innumerable devices for this purpose which the modern motion picture offers is indeed a millennium for the spinner of yarns the good director is.

Does that answer the question? Probably not. Except—very definitely—for me.

Leslie Howard was the epitome of lukewarm romantic charm. Best known for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, Howard up to this point was a popular leading man with movies such as Of Human Bondage, A Free Soul, Pygmalion, The Petrified Forest, and Romeo and Juliet already under his belt. The stage, however, continued to be an important part of his career.He usually served as either producer or director of the Broadway productions in which he starred, such as his 1936 production of Hamlet. He was also a playwright with productions such as Murray Hill, Out of a Blue Sky, and Elizabeth Sleeps Out making it to the Broadway stage.

Oscar trivia:
Leslie Haward was nominated the Academy Award for Best Actor twice in his career for his roles in Berkeley Square and Pygmalion.

Blossoms in the Dust (1941)

Edna (Greer Garson) and her adoptive sister Charlotte (Marsha Hunt) are happily set to be married into the upper crust of Wisconsin society. However, their destinies are changed when Edna breaks off her engagement to marry Texan Sam Gladney (Walter Pidgeon) an associate of her father’s who brashly declares he will marry her. When Sam returns a year later for Edna, after opening up his flourmill, Mr. and Mrs. Keats (Kathleen Howard and George Lessey), Charlotte's future in-laws, tell the Kahlys (Fay Holden and Samuel Hinds) that their son Allan (William Henry) cannot marry her because she was a "nameless" foundling. Charlotte is devastated by the news and kills herself.

Two years later, Edna, who has moved to Texas and married Sam, gives birth to a boy and is told that she can have no more children. On Christmas Day, a few years later, tragedy strikes when their son is killed in an accident. Edna hides her grief by becoming a society hostess until Sam and Dr. Max Bresler (Felix Bressart), who attended her at Sammy's birth, try to get her interested in caring for other children. Though reticent at first, she and Sam set up a day nursery for working mothers, which they finance from their own fortune until Sam loses his mill due to the decline of wheat prices.

Selling everything they own, they move to Fort Worth where Sam works as a mill hand while trying to develop a new wheat process. On the day that Edna takes his new process to be notarized, she sees some children in a courtroom and discovers that they are orphans, tagged like cattle, and rejected by prospective adoptive parents because they are illegitimate. She brings two children home; one of them is named Tony who is very ill. With very little money and a lot of help from her friends Zeke and Cleo (Clinton Rosemond and Theresa Harris), she opens a storefront orphanage called the Texas Children's Home and Aid Society and arranges for adoptions for her charges, making certain parents and children are well suited for each other. However, the city councilmen close the home for zoning violations. Determined to keep up the fight, Edna must do so without Sam who passes away. 

She travels throughout Texas, collecting funds until she is able to open a large new home. As the years pass, Edna finds good homes for many children, but realizes that she has additional work to do when she receives a donation from a despondent young woman who is in the same predicament as her sister Charlotte was. Determined to change the law that brands children "illegitimate" and have it removed from birth certificates she fights and wins her battle to have a bill passed in the Texas legislature. But once one battle is over she must fight another, this time she fights for Tony who is wanted by a husband and wife who recently lost their only child. Wanting Tony for herself, Edna must stop and think what’s best for the child she loves so much and eventually gives him away to a loving home where he can have all the attention from a mother and a father.

A story based on the real life of Edna Gladney, Blossoms in the Dust is a real heartwrencher. In my opinion, Greer Garson was the best at eliciting sympathy…and tears. She was a phenomenal actress as TCM will prove tonight by showing the five movies that garnered her the distinction of being the only actress besides Bette Davis to be nominated five times in a row for Best Actress! If you spend the evening with her, then you will also get a healthy dose of Walter Pidgeon, a dynamic and talented player in his own right.

Oscar trivia:

Greer Garson was nominated seven times in her career and holds the distinction of being nominated five times in a row, a distinction she share with Bette Davis. She was nominated for Best actress for her roles in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie, Mrs. Parkington, The Valley of Decision, and Sunrise at Campobello. She won her only Oscar for Mrs. Miniver.


Walter Pidgeon garnered two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his roles in Mrs. Miniver and Madame Curie.

Camera Shot!

Myrna Loy and William Powell on The Thin Man set.

Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson on the Autumn Leaves set.

Gloria Swanson and William Holden on the Sunset Boulevard set.

Ann Todd and Ethel Barrymore on The Paradine Case set.

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman on the Casablanca set.

Charlotte Henry and Sterling Holloway (as the toad) on the Alice in Wonderland set.

Bette Davis and Leslie Howard on The Petrified Forest set.

Tonight on TCM!

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist. Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore Dir: John Huston

Smilin' Through (1932)

John Carteret (Leslie Howard) spends his life mourning the death of his fiancée Moonyean Clare (Norma Shearer), who died on their wedding day. He spends his days talking with her spirit in the garden, the place where they were the happiest. When Moonyean’s sister dies, John takes in the orphaned daughter Kathleen. As she grows she becomes more and more the image of Moonyean to John’s delight. One day while taking refuge in an abandoned manor during a rain storm, Kathleen, also played by Norma Shearer, runs into Kenneth Wayne (Fredric March) a handsome American whose come to serve in WWI. The attraction is instant and as they get to know one another better Kenneth reveals that the old manor is his father’s home. When Kathleen tells Uncle John about her meeting, he demands that she cut off all connection with Kenneth. Confused, Kathleen seeks answers and learns that Kenneth’s father, Jeremy Wayne also played by Fredric March also loved Moonyean. In a drunken rage he crashed their wedding and aimed his pistol at John. Unfortunately the bullet hit Moonyean, causing her death. Kathleen then promises she will no longer see Kenneth but has difficulty keeping her promise as she is deeply in love with him.
The night before Kenneth is to report for active service, Kathleen tells her Uncle John that she is going to marry Kenneth. However, John threatened to cut her off completely if she does so. With no way to support her while he is at war or with any guarantee that he will return from war, Kenneth refuses to marry her. However, Kathleen devotedly waits for the war’s end and is devastated when the train bringing the soldiers home does not bring him. Kenneth is actually on the next train with the wounded soldier having lost the use of his legs. He is only in town long enough to grab his things from Wayne manor and then he will set off for America. When he is recognized by Dr. Owen (O. P. Heggie) an old family friend of the Carteret’s, he tried to persuade Kenneth to see Kathleen. Kenneth refuses. He does not want her pity. While at the manor Kathleen comes running having seen a light in the window. After proclaiming her love for him and relief of his return, Kenneth is given the difficult task of hiding his wounds and pretending her does not love her in return. Crushed, Kathleen leaves and admits to her Uncle that she will love Kenneth forever whether he loves her or not. Uncle John takes pity and admits to Kathleen what Dr. Owen told him, that Kenneth is wounded and putting on a charade for her benefit. As Kathleen runs to the station to bring Kenneth home, John passes away peacefully and is finally joined with his Moonyean.

Och! What a tear jerker! This film was lovely in so many ways. March and Shearer's chemistry comes off so simply. It's so believable that they have a hard time staying away from one another. The scene where they first meet is riveting. March is all in shadows and as he takes off his hat the room lights up and the camera comes in for a close up of his face and that wonderful smile of his. The camera then pans in on Shearer's reaction and there written all over her face is the future of Kenneth and Kathleen. Fantastically done! Then there is the scene where Kenneth refuses to marry Kathleen. March's reaction to her crying is priceless! He mixes a good amount of guilt, annoyance, and confusion coming off as the typical male who doesn't know how to deal with feminine tears. As they make up and Kathleen admits she is being silly, Kenneth's relief is palpable until they must really part and the scene ends with Kathleen crying and begging to go with him as Kenneth groans and refrains from rolling his eyes. Hilarious!
Then there is the parting at the station as Kenneth keeps kissing Kathleen trying to make the most of every second they are together, finally having to run after the train. It makes you wonder how many couples have played out this scene in real life during war time.
Finally, there is the ethereal quality of the relationship between John and Moonyean. She visits him often but finds it harder and harder to reach him as his hatred for Kenneth and his father Jeremy cloud his judgement. He seeks her comfort over the matter of Kathleen but doesn't understand why he can't receive it until Dr. Owen states what Moonyean has been trying to tell him from the beyond. If he continues to keep hatred in his heart he will never be reunited with his beloved Moonyean. This statement combined with his pity over Kathleen's plight encourages him to admit that Kenneth is wounded so that Kathleen will go after him.
A simply well executed movie displaying the 30's era of sincere emotion with dedicated creativity.


Fredric March on Norma Shearer:
"She had a wonderful sincerity and poise, and she was deeply emotional but she knew how to filter that emotion with discipline so that it came off the screen as deeply felt rather than merely sentimental. She had some very strong scenes with me in Smilin’ Through; I especially recall one in which we were to part as I went to war; she got across her agony in truly eloquent terms. I heard how perfectionist she was supposed to be, but if she gave her best, she expected everyone else around her to give theirs along with her, and I have always tried to set the highest standards for myself, I could hardly fault her for that.Yes, she did fuss around with Lee Garmes about “white” lighting and all that, but there was a reason for it as she had a peculiar face, beautiful as it could be, with eyes smaller than normal, and it took a combination of the right lighting and the right eye makeup to get her looking her best. I don’t think vanity had a thing to do with it- she just wanted to give- and look- her absolute best, and how can one fault an entertainer for that."

Side note:
There is also a 1941 musical version of Smilin' Through, starring Jeanette MacDonald, Brian Aherne and Gene Raymond.

Pre-Code Dip: A Free Soul (1931)

If there is one thing Stephen Ashe (Lionel Barrymore) taught his daughter it was to be a free thinker and not fall under the weight of the privileged family he and she come from. Unfortunately, Ashe cannot always practice what he preaches. Jan Ashe (Norma Shearer) loves her father more than anyone else in the world, despite the fact that he drinks too heavily and cannot get on with the rest of the family Jan would do anything for him. So when she throws over Dwight Winthrop (Leslie Howard), the ideal but slightly boring candidate for a proper marriage to start an affair with Ace Wilfong, a mobster that Ashe has defended in a murder trial; she must make a bargain with her father who vehemently disapproves. If he quits drinking, she quit Wilfong.
After three months of hiding out in the woods with both dealing with their demons, Jan and her father head into town to take the train home. Ashe succumbs immediately to his old habits and disappears. Jan returns home to find herself disowned from the rest of the Ashe family. Alone except for Eddie (James Gleason) her father’s right hand man, Jan decides to give in to temptation as her father has done and returns to Wilfong.
Unfortunately Wilfong, angry over how he has been treated by both Ashe who called him a mongrel for even suggesting he would like to marry his daughter, and Jan who left him without a word; shows his true colors by manhandling Jan and informing her she will marry him, by force if necessary. Jan manages to escape but Wilfong tracks her down the next day- there is a stand off with both Eddie and Dwight. Wilfong declares that jan has “cashed in her chips” with him already and that she belongs to him. He threatens murder should Jan and Dwight get married.
Dwight decides to take things into his own hands and shows up to Wilfong’s gambling house and murders him. His love for Jan and his need to protect her reputation force him to lie about why he killed Wilfong. In a trial to end all trials, Ashe is miraculously found and though seriously ill, he comes to Dwight’s rescue. Blaming everything that has happened to Jan and the murder of Wilfong on his bad parenting habits, he delivers an impassioned speech on his shortcomings and finally succumbs to his alcoholism when he collapses towards the close of his speech.
The movie closes on Dwight professing his love for Jan and how he would follow her anywhere.

Barrymore won his only Oscar for his performance as Stephen Ashe. I think he did a wonderful job of portraying a man fighting his drinking demons and wonder if his own brother’s addiction helped in part. This movie is also the first of the only two features that both Gable and Howard starred together in. The other being, of course, Gone with the Wind. Gable’s performance in A Free Soul made the executives sit up and take notice of him for the first time. He caused such a sensation that they expanded his role as Ace Wilfong and Gable’s career as a supporting character soon came to an end.
As for Norma Shearer, this was her at her most sensual. Complete with clingy satin dress and coy put-ons, she plays the temptress well. It’s rumored that in order for Shearer to get the role of Jerry Martin in The Divorcee, she first needed to convince her husband Irving Thalberg that she could break out her usually regal roles and be sensual. She employed the services of George Hurrell, photographer of the stars, to shoot some convincing pictures and won the role. However, I found her much, much more sensual in A Free Soul.
Overall, the film had some very touching moments but towards the end the melodrama and histrionics were a bit too much for me. However, it wasn’t too much for the Academy who awarded Barrymore an Oscar, most likely due to the long, uninterrupted and impassioned monologue he gives at the end of the film.

Tonight on TCM!

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) A Western rancher wins a British valet in a poker game.
Cast: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, ZaSu Pitts Dir: Leo McCarey

Intermezzo- a Love Story (1939)

Intermezzo, a Love Story is a highly symbolic story about a married man Holger Brandt (Leslie Howard) who meets a younger, unmarried woman, Anita (Ingrid Bergman in her first American film), they fall in love over their passion for music, they get together and then realize they have no future and decide to move on. It’s a Winter-Spring romance emphasized after a shared meal that ends on a bridge with the soon-to-be lovers looking down upon the melting ice that slowly rolls along with the river, symbolizing the arrival of Spring and a new season in their lives.
Further symbolism can be seen in what isn’t said. All the characters use music to speak their truths when words fail them either by playing it themselves or listening to it on the radio. We also learn of the two lovers styles through their music. Both Anita and Holger are bold but Anita plays with an open passion that speaks of her youthfulness while Holger’s playing is gentle and sentimental, bold but in a well honed, wise way.
Intermezzo is interesting in what it doesn’t show on film. Both the love affair and the confrontation between Holger and his wife Margit (Edna Best) about the affair take place off the screen making the film refreshingly brief (only 70 minutes long) while not taking away the impact of what’s happening between the characters. It also makes Intermezzo a fitting title- a Love Story was only added on after Selznick (probably via several memos) decided that the audience would be confused by the sole word, Intermezzo.

Side note:

I was watching The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988) a while back and learned that David O. Selznick bribed Leslie Howard into accepting the role of Ashley by giving him the right to co-produce Intermezzo. Producing is something that Howard yearned to do for a long time.