Midnight (1939)

Despite certain complications such as Claudette Colbert's penchant for only being filmed from her left side, Mary Astor being well into her pregnancy, and John Barrymore's obvious cue card reading, Midnight is delightful little screwball that also features Don Ameche, Monty Woolley, Hedda Hopper, and Barrymore's last wife, Elaine Barrie who was brought on to keep Barrymore somewhat sober and coherent. The very best scene in the entire film starts at minute 3:40. Enjoy!


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Enjoy some Lon Chaney!!

Stars! They're Just Like Us!

They get the works!

They fight for their right...to party! (Sorry, Beastie Boys fan)

They don't take any BS from anybody!

They feed chickens!

They flambé their own Banana Fosters! Yum!

They deal with some supremely embarrassing situations with dignity...and friends.

They sweat it out!

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In Which We Serve (1942) Survivors of a bombed British destroyer think back on the paths that led them to war. Cast: Noel Coward, John Mills, Celia Johnson. Dir: Noel Coward, David Lean.

Tuesdays with the Screen Guild Magazine

Why I Prefer The Stage To Pictures…Or Maybe I Don’t!

By Mary Astor
[Reprinted from The Screen Player, May 1934]


It has always been my opinion that one should stay in one’s own department, and while mine may not be acting, it certainly isn’t writing, so I’m going to pass the buck to Ye Ed and say that it was his idea, not mine!
Feg Murray, in the Examiner the other day, said that, although I had appeared in about eighty pictures in my fourteen years in business, and in only one stage play, I preferred working behind the footlights to working in pictures. Now, that seems to call for an explanation and maybe an apology, doesn’t it?

Well, it all dates back to the time I was about seven years old. (Don’t get scared, this isn’t going to be an autobiography.) I lived on a farm and went to a two-room country school; and if you know anything about country schools, you know that about twice annually they bust out with what is called an entertainment. All the mamas and papas come to watch their offspring do their stuff, which usually consists of a one-act play, a flag drill and an unending series of recitations---I always got in on the recitations. The usual technique was to stand up, staring straight ahead, arms woodenly at the sides, and get through it as fast as possible.

In one occasion I selected Riley’s “Brook Song” and unfortunately read it with some “expression” and a few little simple gestures. The audience tittered all through it, but I was quite oblivious, and when I came down off the stage to receive the customary congratulations, some of the kids were still laughing and whispering behind their hands. I asked the what was funny, thinking my sash was untied, or something, and one of them said, “It’s just that you make those funny motions.”

Of course, my family thought I was a potential Duse, and so, whether I liked it or not, by the time I was fourteen I found myself making “funny motions” in front of a camera. And, what’s more, I’ve been doing it ever since.

I’ve never had a great deal of ambition and never thought much of myself as an actress. I relied for years on a sort of stain-glass type of prettiness, and if I’m any good at all now, it’s simply because of the fact that you can’t work at acting for fourteen years and not absorb at least a few of the rudiments.

Along about 1929 came the talkie ogre and he swallowed me along with a lot of others. I took a test and was so frightened I couldn’t do a thing. As a result of that, I couldn’t get a job for ten months. I got so I was writing to casting directors, saying I was at liberty, and couldn’t they do something about it. I figured I was a pretty big shot and they ought to jump at the chance. They didn’t figure it that way.

At that time I was going around with a group of people that included Florence and Freddie March. Florence was very sympathetic and told me about a play she and Edward Everett Horton were going to do shortly, and there was a swell part in it, and maybe she could talk Eddie into giving me a try-out. She could and did. The show was Among the Married. It played at the old Majestic here is Los Angeles, and I’ve never been quite the same since. In the first place, I wasn’t able to see myself and see whether I was any good or not, so the result was that I thought I was pretty good. My own rushes have always given me a slight twinge of nausea.

The opening night, I went against all the rules, out of sheer ignorance. I had a huge dinner, got to the theatre early, made up, and re-read the whole play. I had no first night qualms, nothing but a pleasant glow of anticipation. Florence and I made our first entrance together, and she was sort of holding on to me. She told me afterwards that she had no idea what I might do the first time I saw the audience, and I guess she was afraid I’d fall over in a faint or something.

She kept giving me my cues very plainly and watching me anxiously. One of my first lines was a rather funny wisecrack and the audience laughed, and from them on nobody could have been happier than I was. I just relaxed and had a swell time. Florence saw that I was going to be all right, so then she started to think about herself and got jittery. We had some ad-lib conversation behind the piano upstage while the action was going on downstage, and she whispered to me, “Oh, Mary, I’m so nervous, I’ll never get through this thing.” I patted her on the shoulder and said, “There, there darling, you’re doing great.” Imagine me, a mere amateur, “there, there-ing” Florence Eldridge!

And that, children, is why I’m stage-struck and why I’ll never be happy ‘til I try it again.

There are those who may argue, “Think about having to do the same show, night after night.” True enough, but at least you have about twenty-two hours before you have to do it again, and certainly that’s pleasanter than having to do it over and over again after you’ve been squeezed dry, which happens all the time in pictures.
And think of only having to work two and a half hours a day! Think of being able to see the sun every day, if it’s shining. Think of not having to get up at an ungodly hour and hurry through breakfast, hurry to the studio, hurry through make-up, and then drag home at night to hurry to bed and grab a few hours’ sleep before starting all over again.
That’s a pretty dreary picture and probably if I’d been on the stage for fourteen years and made only one picture, I’d sing another song. But I doubt it.


With a career spanning forty-five years, Mary Astor is best remembered for her role of Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. She had a private life marked by scandal, death, alchoholism, and overdoses- all of which she overcame. She would eventually tread the boards again and in 1956 made a success of Don Juan in Hell which was directed by Agnes Moorehead. She also wrote two very successful autobiographies as well as several fictional books. 

Dodsworth (1936)

Dodsworth, hands down, is the best movie I have seen Ruth Chatterton in to date. Ironically Dodsworth is her most highly regarded film yet, it is not from the pre-code era that defined most of Chatterton’s film career. Though she is not a particular favorite of mine (I have only seen her in the more mundane of the pre-code quick flicks she did) I have never discounted her as being one of those actresses that successfully defines the independent woman. Or perhaps Female and Frisco Jenny is much on my mind as I write this. Up until this point her acting has not particularly inspired me. If possible, she speaks faster than her peer James Cagney and has a range of emotions one can measure by her facial expressions, meaning few. However, she has a radiant smile and a lively arch charm that lures you in and makes you realize that at least she isn’t horrible to watch.
Dodsworth is no exception to her range, she is still Chatterton, but she is so charmingly loathsome as the social reaching Mrs. Dodsworth, that you can’t help making a distinction between this role and her others. Quite simply, it was a good part and she delivered it admirably. It should be noted that Walter Huston was nothing to sneeze at either.
Without delving too far into the movie and making this a spoiler entry, Dodsworth is, in the simplest terms about an older married couple dealing with life in the retirement age. With their only child now married, Dodsworth has given up his business to enjoy the money he spent his life to earn. Ms. Dodsworth, still young looking and energetic, is bored with the same routine of life in a small town has convinced her husband to take her abroad. The instant they are on the boat, Ms. Dodsworth is changed and throughout the film she progressively gets worse. Dodsworth’s reaction to her change is at times hilarious, certainly indulgent but ultimately life changing. With wonderful performances by Mary Astor and Spring Byington as well, I would definitely recommend Dodsworth to anyone. It is a classic essential.

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Spotlight on Under the Sea! Let's get fishy!

Silence is Golden: Beau Brummell (1924)

After he sees his sweetheart, Lady Margery (Mary Astor), forced to marry Lord Alvanley (William Humphries), George Bryan Brummell (John Barrymore) decides to lead a reckless bachelor's life. In the process he wins the friendship of the Prince of Wales (Willard Louis), leaves his regiment, and becomes a "Beau Brummell" England's premier taste-maker. As his power grows, so does his insolence towards the elite class in which Alvanley belongs. Eventually his insolence and indiscretions with the ladies of the court make enemies, and he falls into disfavor. After escaping his creditors to France, he dies there in poverty, deserted by all but his servant, Mortimer (Alec B. Francis).

I think Barrymore is wonderful in both silents and talkies, due mostly to expressiveness of his face. His face can say things that words will not. There is a beautiful and touching scene where Lady Margery visits him to let him know that Lord Alvanley is no longer alive. Hoping to rekindle what they once had, she sadly leaves when Brummell refuses, stating he is old, changed and possibly tired of even love. The moment she is gone, you can see Brummell as he realizes he still loves her deeply and opens the door while simultaneously covering his mouth to call out to her. His emotions are at war with the hard truth that he cannot be the man he once was for her and his regrets are weighty. It's an extremely moving scene.

Ironically, as Barrymore is aged throughout the film, he looks more and more like his brother Lionel eventually will in old age in real life. It's downright eerie to watch him play this old man all twisted from loneliness and mental instability.

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John Huston Wednesdays!

Pre-Code Dip: Red Dust (1932)

Dennis Carson (Clark Gable) lives in Indochina taking care of the rubber plantation he grew up on. Tired of his life and threatening to leave, Vantine (Jean Harlow), a girl freshly arrived from Saigon and looking to lie low for a few weeks, shows up and offers a pleasant distraction. Vantine falls for Dennis but he treats her like a prostitute, giving her money she doesn't want before handing her up into the boat that will take her back to Saigon. That same boat, the only one that comes once a month also brings the arrival of Dennis' new surveyor Gary Willis (Gene Raymond) and his unexpected wife Barabara (Mary Astor).
Dennis at first is annoyed that Gary has brought his wife and Barbara shocked by his rude behavior, is contemptuous of Dennis until he nurses Gary back to health after an attack of malaria. Dennis is instantly smitten with Barbara and glad that Vantine got out of the picture so he could concentrate on wooing her. Unfortunately for Dennis, Vantine is arrives shortly after leaving, the boat got stuck in the mud, leaving Vantine stuck on the plantation. Ironically, Dennis tries to protect Barbara from Vantine's unsavory character. Vantine is wise to what is taking place and treats Barbara coldly. Dennis sends his new surveyor out on an assignment that will keep him seperated from Barbara for weeks. Dennis and Barbara become lovers and fall in love. Barbara and Dennis want to marry, but Dennis must tell Gary. He travels to the survey site to tell Gary but finds he is unable when he realizes how much Gary loves and depends on Barbara. Dennis rides all night to get home and starts drinking and necking with Vantine when he arrives. When Barbara interrupts them, Dennis pretends to be a cad and she shoots him. Gary arrives soon after having folloed Dennis when one of his co-workers jeered at him for being cuckholded. Vantine convinces Gary that Barbara was defending her honor against Dennis who has bothered her since Gary left on the assignment. Vantine nurses Dennis back to health and they live happily in sin.

This was a good, quick movie. As you can tell by the pictures, it was quite a steamy pre-code.








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Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
A cowboy drifts into a lawless town and brings things back together.
Cast: James Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan Dir: Burt Kennedy

Wardrobe!

Stars! They're just like us!

They get their mammal on!
They stretch it out!

They read the paper!

They goof around!

They shop for food!

They pose!

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Marnie (1964) A rich man marries a compulsive thief and tries to unlock the secrets of her mind.Cast: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker, Martin Gabel Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Before & After: Mary Astor

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

The second of a trilogy of similar horror films featuring psychotic women either directed and/or produced by Robert Aldrich, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is over the top but this time has scenes that were beautifully shot. I remember being impressed by the dream sequence when Charlotte opens the door to the ballroom and begins to dance with her murdered lover John Mayhew. It was very ahead of it's time, the other dancers in their white masks were eerily mesmerizing. Although the her performance was not as Oscar worthy as it was in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Bette Davis' character is nonetheless eccentric and worthy of the pity you feel for her despite her being a curmudgeon . Again, made out to look old and haggard, this time compared to Olivia de Havilland's serene reserve, I have to respect Bette's lack of ego when it comes to her characters in later films. Besides Bette Davis and Olvia de Havilland, this film is packed with a few more stars including Mary Astor, Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten and George Kennedy.

Synopsis: Charlotte Hollis, an aging recluse deluded into a state of dementia by horrible memories and hallucinations, lives in a secluded house where, thirty-seven years before, John Mayhew her married lover, was beheaded and mutilated by an unknown assailant.- IMDb

THE TRAILER


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In The Heat Of The Night (1967) A black police detective from the North forces a bigoted Southern sheriff to accept his help with a murder investigation.Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant Dir: Norman Jewison ***

"They call me MISTER Tibbs!"

Happy Mother's Day!

Angela Lansbury and son:
Joan Fontaine and children:

Lucille Ball and children:

Penny Singleton and children:
Mary Astor and children:

Lauren Bacall and child:

Joan Blondell and children:

Joan Crawford and children:

Jane Wyman and child: