This month I watched Citizen Kane for the first time! It was different from what I expected. The story line didn't seem that unique to me but the cinematography and editing was interesting! I also watched the classic Dracula. Last October I watched half of The Story of Mankind (1957) but was bored so I didn’t finish it. TCM aired it again this month and, like I mentioned in last years post, I am a completest and therefore watched the second half. It was better. The Marx Brothers were funny.
The part they gave Anna May Wong in Impact was insulting to her talent and embarrassing to watch.
I read the novel Rebecca and rewatched the 1940 film. You can read my thoughts on them here (including the new Netflix adaptation).
Our Modern Maidens (1929) - Joan Crawford & Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Anita Page, Rod LaRoque
One Heavenly Night (1931) - John Boles & Evelyn Laye, Leon Errol
The Erl King (1931-French)
Dracula (1931) - Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler
The Solitaire Man (1933) - Herbert Marshall & Elizabeth Allen, May Robson, Mary Boland, Lionel Atwill
Murder on the Blackboard (1934) - Edna May Oliver, James Gleason
The Mark of the Vampire (1935) - Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allen, Lionel Atwill, Jean Hersholt, Bela Lugosi
Stolen Holiday (1937) - Kay Francis, Claude Raines, Ian Hunter
Breakfast for Two (1937) - Herbert Marshall & Barbara Stanwyck, Eric Blore, Glenda Farrell, Donald Meek
*Rebecca (1940) - Laurence Olivier & Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders, Reginald Denny, Florence Bates
Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick,
Mr. & Mrs. North (1942) - Gracie Allen & William Post Jr., Virginia Grey, Tom Conway, Felix Bressart, Keye Luke, Jerome Cowan
Impact (1949) - Brian Donlevy & Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Anna May Wong
Across the Wide Missouri (1951) - Clark Gable, Ricardo Montalban, John Hodiak, Adolph Menjeu, J. Carroll Naish, Jack Holt
Flesh and Fury (1952) - Tony Curtis, Jan Sterling, Kim Hunter
Bright Road (1953) - Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte
The Runaway Bus (1954) - Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark
The Story of Mankind (1957) - Ronald Colman, Vincent Price, Marx Brothers
Jailhouse Rock (1957) - Elvis Presley & Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Dean Jones
The Blob (1958) - Steve McQueen
The Journey (1959) - Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Jason Robards Jr., Ronny Howard
*Psycho (1960) - Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam
Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966) - Carl Reiner (voice)
Double Trouble (1967) - Elvis Presley
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) - Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway
The Lonely Guy (1984) - Steve Martin
*Letters to Juliet (2010) - Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Egan
Least Favorite Film: Double Trouble was terrible!
Favorite Movie: Loved The Thomas Crown Affair!!! Breakfast for Two was really cute and The Runaway Bus was unexpectedly funny. Tony Curtis was adorable in Flesh and Fury (the film would have been more effective if the sound had been handled differently).
Last week I realized that the new Netflix adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca was about to drop so I finally pulled out my copy of the original novel to read first. Now, my introduction to the story was with Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 classic starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine as Mr. and Mrs. De Winter and Judith Anderson as the creepy Mrs. Danvers. It's such an amazing movie, as I'm sure many of you will agree. The book was equally amazing. Only a few chapters in I was already dreading getting to the end. It is exquisitely written, with descriptions that would have made it come alive even if I had not already had seen the visual masterpiece that came about with the Hitchcock/Selznick adaptation.
Florence Bates IS Mrs. Van Hopper
One of the things that immediately struck me was how faithful the movie was to the novel. We have David O. Selznick to thank for that. Another was that Florence Bates WAS Mrs. Van Hopper. She is probably the most perfectly cast character in the 1940 film. Yes, even over Mrs. Danvers, as brilliantly portrayed by Judith Anderson. As I read, I never fully imagined Olivier and Fontaine in the roles. Most of the characters are described slightly different in the novel than the stellar actors that portrayed them in the film. The cast is ridiculously talented. I mean, George Sanders, Reginald Denny, Gladys Cooper, C. Aubrey Smith... I could go on. The most notable character differences were with the Favell character, played in the film by Sanders, and the old servant Frith. Frith seemed a tad more sinister in the novel. In the film he definitely seems more kindly. Jack Favell is described vastly different from the suave George Sanders. Here is the introduction to his character:
He was a big, hefty fellow, good-looking in a rather flashy, sunburnt way. He had the hot, blue eyes usually associated with heavy drinking and loose living. His hair was reddish like his skin. In a few years he would run to fat, his neck bulging over the back of his collar. His mouth gave him away, it was two soft, too pink. I could smell his breath from where I stood. He began to smile. The sort of smile he would give to every woman.
One has trouble seeing Rebecca even associating with him!
I wish I had a gif of this moment. Sanders even jumps through the window gracefully!
The character of Frank
Crawley, played by Reginald Denny, seems less sophisticated and rather socially
awkward in the novel but always a gentleman and very tactful. It's hard to
imagine Denny being awkward. He plays Crawley quiet and dependable.
The other big change from the novel seems to be Manderley itself. Throughout the book it mentions its "perfect symmetry. In the film, while Manderley is extremely impressive (it was a large model built on a table) it is rather rambling, with nothing being repeated in its outward design. The interior however is very symmetrical, with its central staircase in the great hall with rooms and passages leading to the east and west wings.
I revisited the film after reading the book and was surprised that the novel was almost entirely there (only chapter 15 where Mrs. De Winter meets Maxim's grandmother was left out ). Sometimes a different character said a certain line or the action took place in a different room, but it was virtually all there exactly as it was in the book. However, after reading the slow-pace novel with its many descriptions of Manderley and the grounds and Mrs. De Winter's thoughts, the film seemed to rush a little, with sometimes several chapters condensed into fifteen minutes. And the film is over two hours long!
Warning! If you have not read the novel or watched the
1940 film yet you may want to skip the next two paragraphs.
Spoilers!
There are two major departures from the novel in the film, one of them a direct result of the Hays Code. In the novel, Maxim actually kills Rebecca - he shoots her after she tells him she is going to have a child, which is of course a lie. In the film, Rebecca's death becomes and accident, as a character cannot go unpunished in a film if he commits a crime according to the Hays Code.
The second difference is the fate of Mrs. Danvers. Who can forget that terrifying scene when she sets Manderley on fire and stands there in Rebecca's room surrounded by flames with that creepy smile on her face? In the book she still sets fire to the De Winter ancestral home, but she doesn't stay and die. One knows this immediately upon reading the novel as Mrs. De Winter wonders where she is in the first chapter.
End of Spoilers
The 2020 Film
I almost didn't want to watch this version, despite my initial excitement when I first learned of it (I like both Armie Hammer and Lily James), as the novel was SO GOOD! But I decided to watch it anyway and... stopped after 30 minutes. It was underwhelming, crude, and in general not very well made. The early interior shots of Manderley looked like they were trying to go for a horror movie look but minus the horror? I don't know. They DID get the symmetry of the exterior correct.
Menabilly, Du Mauriers home that she based Manderley on.
Manderley 2020
I thought Mrs. Danvers would be the character I would be most critical of, but her portrayal by Kristin Scott Thomas seems fine. I HATED Mrs. Van Hopper.
I didn't get this far of course, but the creative choice of changing the dress pitured below from white to red is baffling to me. The irony of Rebecca wearing the white dress is that, while she may have fooled everyone around her but her husband, she was definitely not innocent and sweet and virginal like the white gown suggests, whereas it IS perfect for the second Mrs. De Winter (Fontaine). Changing it to a more seductive red dress takes that underlying meaning away and the viewer is easily able to imagine Rebecca flaunting herself in it.
I may still finish this film one day. If it had been an original story I probably would have watched it and liked it, loved it even. If you look at the films I watch every month you've most likely noticed I rarely watch anything from this century, and if I do it's usually a rewatch (or it stars a current crush). As movies rely more and more on sex, crude humor, and excessive violence to entertain their audience, I find myself staying away from them more and more. There are many times when I see a movie trailer that looks really good but then I discover it has nudity or lots of violence so I decide not to watch it. And if I DO end up watching it I'm quick to use the skip/fast-forward button.
Rebecca
Who do you imagine Rebecca to be when you watch the film or read the novel? Who would you cast as Rebecca if a prequel had been made? I have always subconsciously imagined a combination of Gale Sondergaard and Gail Patrick and, suddenly realized recently, Wallis Simpson! A friend of mine imagines Vivian Leigh in the role (she tested for the lead role of the second Mrs. De Winter but was all wrong for the part). I could also easily see Joan Crawford playing Rebecca if Hollywood had made a prequal in the early 40s. Many of her characters in the 30s were likable yet, as we see in The Woman (1939) she could also play the "There's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society... outside of a kennel" type.
In which adaptation is her presence most strongly felt? Which version is your favorite (there is also a 1997 TV movie which I have not seen). Did you watch the 2020 version?
It has been six years since I began this blog. Last year I shared a list with my favorite film from each year starting with 1928. I had to skip a few years because I either hadn’t seen any from that year or the ones I had seen I didn’t really care for. This year I’m able to fill in a few of those “blanks:”
1929 -
1930 - Wide Open - Edward Everett Horton
1970 -
1971 -
1972 - A Warm December - Sidney Poitier
1973 - Paper Moon - Ryan & Tatum O’Neal
1974 -
1975 - Three Days of the Condor - Robert Redford & Faye Dunaway
CHANGE 1978 from Hooper to - Foul Play - Goldie Hawn & Chevy Chase
1981 - Gallipoli - Mel Gibson (likely to change)
1984 - Protocol - Goldie Hawn (likely to change)
1991 -
2013 -
2020 - this would have probably been the new James Bond...
This month I watched some movies that have been on my “to watch” list for a long time: The Gold Rush, Foreign Correspondent, Sun Valley Serenade (Sonja Henie was cute!), and Sergeant York. I also started binging Sister, Sister on Netflix. Who else misses the 90s?
The Gold Rush (1925) - Charlie Chaplin
The Last of Mrs. Cheney (1929) - Norma Shearer & Basil Rathbone, Hedda Hopper
Flying Down to Rio (1933) - Dolores Del Rio & Gene Raymond, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939) - Walter Pidgeon, Donald Meek
Sky Murder (1940) - Walter Pidgeon, Donald Meek
Foreign Correspondent (1940) - Joel McCrea & Laraine Fay, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Edmund Gwenn
Sergeant York (1941) - Gary Cooper & Joan Leslie, Walter Brennan, George Tobias, Ward Bond
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) - Sonja Henie & John Payne, Milton Berle, Glenn Miller
*Now, Voyager (1942) - Bette Davis & Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville
We Were Dancing (1942) - Norma Shearer & Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick, Lee Bowman, Marjorie Main, Reginald Owen, Alan Mowbray
Her Cardboard Lover (1942) - Norma Shearer & Robert Taylor, George Sanders, Frank McHugh
The Crystal Ball (1943) - Ray Milland & Paulette Goddard, Gladys George
Pan-Americana (1945) - Philip Terry & Audrey Long, Eve Arden, Robert Benchley
Of Human Bondage (1946) - Paul Henreid & Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, Edmund Gwenn, Janis Paige
A Dangerous Profession (1949) - George Raft & Ella Raines, Pat O’Brien, Jim Backus, Bill Williams
The Secret Fury (1950) - Claudette Colbert & Robert Ryan
Devil’s Doorway (1950) - Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, Paula Raymond, Marshall Thompson, Edward Buchanan, Spring Byington
Westward the Women (1951) - Robert Taylor
Latin Lovers (1953) - Lana Turner & Ricardo Montalban, John Lund, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, Beulah Bondi, Rita Moreno
Carmen Jones (1954) - Dorothy Dandridge & Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll
Nightfall (1956) - Aldo Ray & Anne Bancroft, Brian Keith
The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) - Marilyn Monroe & Laurence Olivier
Cry Terror! (1958) - James Mason & Inger Stevens, Rod Steiger, Angie Dickinson, Neville Brand
Party Girl (1958) - Robert Taylor & Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) - Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Michael Redgrave
The League of Gentlemen (1961) - Jack Hawkins, Robert Livesly
*Come Fly with Me (1963) - Dolores Hart & Karlheinz Bohm, Karl Malden & Lois Nettleton, Hugh O’Brian & Pamela Tiffin
*Man’s Favorite Sport (1964) - Rock Hudson & Paula Prentiss
Charro! (1969) - Elvis Presley
Skyjacked (1972) - Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, James Brolin, Mike Henry, Walter Pidgeon, Nicholas Hammond, Jeanne Crain
Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (1970) This is Elvis (1981)
Anne Bancroft & Aldo Ray in Nightfall (1956).
Least Favorite Film: Flying Down to Rio needed a stronger leading man. I don't really get the charm of Gene Raymond but apparently he had appeal in the early 30s. Also the finale was ridiculous. Charro! could have been better. Pan-Americana would have been better with Robert Cummings in the lead.
Favorite Movie: Her Cardboard Lover was hilarious. Also greatly enjoyed The Wreck of the Mary Deare. The first half was especially exciting. I highly recommend Westward the Women. Nightfall was really good. What are some of your favorite snowy noirs?
John Payne in a cozy sweater in Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
Hamlette of Hamlette's Soliloquy nominated me for a Sunshine Blogger Award! Thanks Hamlette!! Rules:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you in the blog post and link back to their blog. 2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you. 3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions. 4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog. Questions:
1. What's something good that's happened to you this year? Everyone in my family is still healthy and have been able to keep working. And we've been able to go to church since May (a month or so of outdoor services followed by indoor with plenty of precautionary measures). And in the recent hurricane named after me (Laura), my relatives survived with only minor damage to their homes. 2. What was your favorite movie when you were ten years old? Probably The Quiet Man (1952). John Wayne has been the guy for me for as long as I can remember ;)
3. Have you ever discovered you now like a movie or book that you used to dislike? When I first saw The Maltese Falcon (1941) I was so disappointed by the ending I said the entire movie stunk. Then I gave it a second chance and realized how amazing it is. But usually my first inclination stays with me.
4. How long have you been blogging? Well, I started my first blog, Solidmoonlight, in late 2012. I started my movie blog in October 2014. 5. What's your favorite joke? "Fat and Skinny went to bed. Fat rolled over. Skinny's dead."
~ Morey Amsterdam
6. What's a movie or book that people are surprised to learn you enjoy? They might be surprised when they first learn I love Rocky (1976). I have three Rocky t-shirts so I don't always have to tell them ;)
Wearing my Rocky shirt on another set of stairs that Sylvester Stallone ran on. I didn't know it at the time, but Jack Lemmon chased Stallone down these stairs located at the Bethesda Terrace in Central Park in The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975). You can watch the scene below.
7. Do you play croquet? *opens mouth extremely wide and curtsy's* YES! Your Majesty.
8. How many blog posts have you published? On this blog, 420. 9. What's the next book you plan to read? Well, the next book I WANT to read is Straight Shooting by Robert Stack. As soon as my library starts letting people request items from other libraries I will!
10. What's the next movie you plan to watch? Whatever's next on my TCM watchlist :) 11. Do you want to build a snowman? I'd rather go sledding :) I always struggle to come up with bloggers who haven't already been nominated so I'm just going to stop here :)
This month I finally got to see all of Duel at Diablo (1966). I caught the end of it on tv several years ago and have wanted to see it since. I started The Barbara Stanwyck Show (free trial of Amazon Prime).
Fun in Acapulco (1963) - Elvis Presley, Ursula Andress, Paul Lukas
Seven Days in May (1964) - Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Fredric March, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, Edmond O’Brien
Duel at Diablo (1966) - James Garner, Sidney Poitier, Bibi Anderson, Bill Travers
Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) - Elvis Presley
Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) - Elvis Presley, Dodie Marshall, Pat Priest, Frank McHugh, Elsa Lanchester
Foul Play (1978) - Goldie Hawn & Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith
Protocol (1984) - Goldie Hawn
Little Nikita (1988) - Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix
Submergence (2017) - Alicia Vikander & James McAvoy
Charlie Chaplin shorts (1914-1922) Screen Directors Playhouse: Rookie of the Year (1955) - John Wayne, Patrick Wayne, James Gleason Theatre 62: Rebecca (1962) - James Mason & Joan Hackett, Nina Foch Elvis Thru the Years (2007)
Least Favorite Film: Paradise, Hawaiian Style was not that great. Even the gorgeous Hawaiian scenery couldn’t save it.
Favorite Movie: Foul Play was hilarious!! I loved Embraceable You (1948). It was so sweet. I was really impressed with Elvis’s acting in King Creole!
Well, this month I randomly fell for Robert Stack. Maybe because I finally watched a movie where he didn’t fall apart lol (Written on the Wind, The High and the Mighty, etc.). I started watching John PaulJones because Bette Davis was in it (she basically just has a cameo scene at the end) and ended up really enjoying it. Then I watched House of Bamboo, which I’ve been meaning to watch for Robert RYAN but hadn’t been in the mood for. I’m glad I waited. Then of course I watched anything I could find with Stack online, including some of his television appearances (YouTube and Internet Archive). I really want to watch The Untouchables but my library is only allowing in-house checkouts so I can’t request it from another library :( Same goes for Stack’s autobiography, Straight Shooting. There are some great interviews on YouTube, especially one from 1999 where he talks about Hollywood in length.
Robert Stack and Olivia de Havilland
I’ve also been getting a hoot out of listening to The Jack Carson Show. Side effects include singing the Campbell’s Soup jingle constantly... Other familiar voices are Arthur Treacher and Irene Ryan (Granny from The Beverley Hillbillies). Take a listen!
I was greatly saddened to hear of the death of Olivia de Havilland a few days ago. I hosted four blogathons in her honor beginning with her 100th birthday in 2016. I did not end up hosting one this year however. I wanted to share a post I wrote for that first blogathon on My Journey with Olivia
.
The Cocoanuts (1928) - Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont
Wide Open (1930) - Edward Everett Horton, Louise Beavers
Arrowsmith (1931) - Ronald Colman & Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy
Consolation Marriage (1931) - Pat O’Brien & Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy
Gambling Lady (1934) - Barbara Stanwyck & Joel McCrea, Pat O’Brien, Claire Dodd, C. Aubrey Smith
Blackwell’s Island (1939) - John Garfield & Rosemary Lane
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
The Mortal Storm (1940) - James Stewart & Maureen Sullavan, Frank Morgan, Robert Young, Irene Rich, Maria Ouspenskaya, Bonita Granville, Robert Stack, Gene Reynolds, Ward Bond, Dan Dailey
The House of Seven Gables (1940) - George Sanders, Margaret Lindsey, Vincent Price
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - James Cagney & Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeanne Cagney, George Tobias, S.Z. Sakall
Casanova Brown (1944) - Gary Cooper & Teresa Wright, Frank Morgan, Anita Louise
The Sign of the Ram (1948) - Susan Peters, Phyllis Thaxter, Peggy Ann Garner, Diana Douglas, Dame May Whitty
Silver River (1948) - Errol Flynn & Ann Sheridan, Thomas Mitchell
The Bribe (1949) - Robert Taylor & Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, John Hodiak
Stranger from Venus (1954) - Patricia Neal
The Long Gray Line (1955) - Tyrone Power & Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp, Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr., Patrick Wayne
House of Bamboo (1955) - Robert Stack, Robert Ryan
Saddle the Wind (1958) - Robert Taylor & Julie London, Donald Crisp
The Gift of Love (1958) - Lauren Bacall & Robert Stack, Lorne Greene
John Paul Jones (1959) - Robert Stack, Charles Coburn, Jean Pierre Aumont, Bette Davis
Scent of Mystery (1960) - Denholm Elliot, Peter Lorre, Beverly Bentley, Paul Lukas
Spartacus (1960) - Kirk Douglas & Jean Simmons, Lawrence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis, Woody, Strode, John Ireland, John Gavin, Nina Foch
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) - Gregory Peck & Angie Dickinson, Tony Curtis, Bobby Darin, Eddie Albert, Robert Duvall
Cattle King (1963) - Robert Taylor
Three Days if the Condor (1975) - Robert Redford & Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson
International Velvet (1979) - Tatum O'Neal, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Hopkins, Nanette Newman
Airplane! (1980) - Leslie Neilson, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack
Seems Like Old Times (1980) - Goldie Hawn & Chevy Chase
Bird on a Wire (1990) - Mel Gibson & Goldie Hawn
*The Bourne Identity (2002) - Matt Damon & Franke Potente
Psych 2: Lassie Come Home (2020) - James Roday Rodriguez, Dule Hill, Timothy Odmunson, Maggie Lawson, Jazmyn Simon Hill, Kirsten Nelson, Corbin Bernson,
This is Cinerama (1952) The 20th Century-Fox Hour: A Portrait of Murder aka Laura (1955) - Robert Stack, Dana Wynter, George Sanders
Least Favorite Film: Cattle King wasn't anything special. I only watched it for Robert Taylor since earlier this year I ended up watching several of this films so now I'm watching any that TCM shows that I haven't seen yet.
Favorite Movie: Three Days if the Condor was soooo good!! I also read the book it was based on by James Grady, Six Days of the Condor. House of Bamboo was really good. I loved the way it was filmed. Airplane! was hilarious! I also really liked The Bribe and Wide Open, which was cute.
