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!

Through the looking glass...the primping sessions

Gloria Swanson

Ruth Chatterton
Kay Francis
Katharine Hepburn

Betty Grable

Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield

Ann Sothern

Ann Sheridan

Camera Shot!

Robert Montgomery and George Hurrell.

Ruth Chatterton most likely on the set of Frisco Jenny.


Burton and Taylor on the set of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Director Clarence Brown on the set of Anna Karenina with Garbo and March.

On the set of Gone With the Wind.

Herbert Brenon and Alla Nazimova.

Orson Welles

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Strange Cargo (1940) Devil's Island escapees are changed forever by a prisoner who thinks he's Jesus.Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre Dir: Frank Borzage

Pre-Code Dip: Frisco Jenny (1932)

In 1906 San Francisco, Frisco Jenny Sandoval (Ruth Chatterton), a denizen of the notorious Tenderloin district, wants to marry piano player Dan McAllister (James Murray), but her saloonkeeper father Jim (Robert Emmett O'Connor) is adamantly opposed to it. An earthquake kills both men and devastates the city. In the aftermath, Jenny gives birth to a son, whom she names Dan.

With financial help from crooked lawyer Steve Dutton (Louis Calhern), who himself came from the Tenderloin, she sets herself up in the vice trade, providing women on demand. Jenny has one loyal friend, the Chinese woman Amah (Helen Jerome Eddy), who helps take care of the baby.

At a party in Steve's honor, he catches gambler Ed Harris (an uncredited J. Carroll Naish) cheating him in a back room. In the ensuing struggle, Steve kills him, with Jenny the only eyewitness. The pair are unable to dispose of the body before it is found and are questioned by the police. However, neither is charged. The scandal forces Jenny to temporarily give up her baby to a very respectable couple who owe Steve a favor to keep the child from being taken away from her.

After three years, she tries to take her son back, but the boy clings to the only mother he can remember, so she leaves him where he is. He grows up and goes to Stanford University, where he becomes a football star, graduates with honors, and becomes first a lawyer, then an assistant district attorney. Jenny lovingly follows his progress. Meanwhile, she takes over the vice and bootlegging in the city.

When Dan runs for district attorney, his opponent is Tom Ford (an uncredited Edwin Maxwell), who does Jenny's bidding. In spite her best interests, she frames Ford so that Dan can win.
When Steve tries to bribe Dan to free some of his men, he is arrested. Out on bail, Steve asks Jenny to blackmail Dan into dropping the charges, but she refuses to jeopardize her son's future. In fact, she intends to retire to France with Amah. When Steve threatens to reveal that Jenny is Dan's real mother, she shoots and kills him at Dan's office.
She is quickly arrested and prosecuted by Dan. Refusing to defend herself, she is condemned to death by hanging. Amah pleads with her to tell Dan the truth in the hope that he can help her, but when he comes to see her, she remains silent. - Thanks to Wikipedia for film description.

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Summer Under the Stars: Audrey Hepburn

Marriage Among the Stars...

In the next few blog entries I will be posting pics and information about several classic actors and actresses and their marriages. I will be focusing on star on star marriages.

It's a well documented fact that being in the limelight is not conducive to a healthy marriage. The likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Gloria Swanson, and Cary Grant to name a few, are perfect examples of serial marrieds. Hectic schedules, romantic scenes with aesthetically pleasing co-stars, and basic human error often play roles of their own.


Let's begin with the stars that married more than one star.

George Brent's first wife was Ruth Chatterton (who was married to actor Ralph Forbes beforehand). After that marriage dissolved he tried his hand years later with the lovely Ann Sheridan.

Orson Welles was a talented man, he also had great taste in women. Before Rita Hayworth "couldn't take his genius anymore", he had a torrid affair with domestic partner Dolores del Río.

I was suprised to learn that Joan Blondell (who was also married to the notorious Mike Todd) and Dick Powell were married. I always thought it was just him and June Allyson.

I think Reagan would have been a one-time marriage guy if Jane Wyman had stuck around, from what I read she really broke his heart. But Nancy Davis put it back together and thus history was made.

I was under the impression that it wasn't really proven that Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard had married, I thoguht the general consensus was that they travelled extensively together until things went kaput. Guess they did. After Chaplin Goddard married funnyman Burgess Meredith and ironically (at least for me) I just read that she was also married to Erich Maria Remarque the author of All Quiet on the Western Front- a phrase I kept repeating to myself last night as I cooked dinner (I have no idea why).

Bogie and Bacall is practically a household name but little did I know that Bacall also married Jason Robards the crochety old man I remember fondly from Parenthood.

Ava Gardner first married Mickey Rooney (pardon me but, WTF?) Then she married Frank Sinatra who left his wife for her thus catipulting Ava into fame and leaving Frank to dependent on her studio clout to get him a desired part that brought him back into favor again. Ah, Hollywood.

Joan Crawford reportedly ended her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. due to her affair with Clark Gable (whom she starred in eight films with) and then married Franchot Tone (another repeat offender, he also married actresses Jean Wallace, Barbara Payton and Dolores Dorn) but it was Joan who reportedly took him into her home and cared for him until his death from lung cancer.

Carole Lombard knew how to pick em! She got herself two fine actors, William Powell and Clark Gable.

After his first marriage to actress Virginia Cherrill, Cary Grant went on to marry two more actresses, Betsy Drake and Dyan Cannon.

Other repeat offenders are:

George Sanders got himself two Gabors. Pictured above is Zsa Zsa and after his longest marriage stint to Benita Hume (who married him after the death of Ronald Colman), he married Zsa Zsa's sister, Magda. Whoa.
Benita Hume was married to Ronald Colman then George Sanders.

Mary Pickford left actor Owen Moore to marry Douglas Fairbanks Sr.. Then she married actor Charles "Buddy" Rogers.

Bogey was also married to actress Mary Phillips and also to Mayo Methot whom he divorced before marrying Bacall only two weeks later.

The king of them: John Barrymore married only actresses. Besides Dolores Costello, pictured below, he married Katherine Corri Harris, Blanche Oelrichs, and Elaine Barrie.

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Summer Under the Stars: Judy Garland

Risqué

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8:00pm
An American in Paris (1951) An American artist finds love in Paris but almost loses it to conflicting loyalties.Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guetary Dir: Vincente Minnelli

10:00pm
The Teahouse Of The August Moon (1956) An Okinawan translator introduces U.S. occupation forces to the joys of local life.Cast: Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Machiko Kyo, Eddie Albert Dir: Daniel Mann