Queen Norma Shearer ~ Hollywood Revue of 1929

I finally sat down and watched The Hollywood Revue of 1929 all the way through! And by golly I enjoyed every minute of it. Well, all the minutes in between Conrad Nagel's presentations, because geez louise was he NOT funny. Basically, the revue consisted of varied segments. Dancing, singing, comedy routines and acted dramas.

Almost everything was black-and-white, except for three sequences shot in color. And one of those three sequences included Queen Norma Shearer (the reason I wanted to watch the revue in the first place)! Norma and John Gilbert did the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet. Director Lionel Barrymore says the studio wants new dialogue, so they re-do the scene in flapper slang. All in Technicolor splendor! I was so excited I was literally jumping up and down in my sofa chair. This was purportedly the scene that ended John Gilbert's career. His fans from his silent screen career where appalled at his voice and it led to his downfall. I don't really see what the big deal was; he sounded fine to me. However, I wasn't from that era and I'm sure his fans had felt that his voice shattered the image they had of him in their heads. Shearer did however make the transition to talkies smoothly and in this scene she was excellent. This would be the precursor to her playing Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (1936).

Buster Keaton in drag, performing for the Mermaid king.

Laurel & Hardy doing their thing. Falling on a banana peel is a requisite.

Busby Berkeley-esque dance numbers. Pretty!

Technicolor ballet sequence. Dazzling!

All the MGM stars in raincoats in front of a humongous painting of Noah's Ark. Creepy! (watch it here)

Marion Davies dance number (she still freaks me out though).

Joan Crawford's singing and dancing number. She did a decent job. And luckily there were no wire hangers in sight.

All the Singin' in the Rain. This is the official song of the revue and was the inspiration to the 1952 movie. I scoff at you if you thought Gene Kelley was the first to sing that! ::scoff::

There are quite a number of camera tricks and cool choreography that make this still a pleasure to see even today, with all our technology and advancements. Which just goes to show you, entertainment is timeless!

Jungle Red!

I hadn't originally planned to see the newest incarnation of The Women (2008), but that's what I was doing last Sunday evening. As I spoke before about this subject (see previous post), there have been good and bad remakes. I didn't expect to like this one, but luckily when I went to the theater, I left all preconceived expectations behind and opened myself up to what was going to grace the screen. And guess what ? I kind of liked it!


There are some obvious flaws. First of all, the dialogue. The original, The Women (1939), had the most amazing cutting, witty and catty dialogue. Plus the pacing in the original is fast, where as its much slower and more casual in the remake. My biggest gripe is that while Cukor did such an excellent job showcasing all of the talent in the original, the remake did not take advantage of its ensemble cast as it should have. Poor Bette Midler gets only a couple minutes of screen time and her whole plotline is reduced to one flighty conversation. Gah!


Most of the bloggers who have reviewed the 2008 version did not like it. And I can see why. The original is just so great that it really can't be matched. But the remake is very conscious of its predecessor, making references to it throughout the movie. On its own however, the film was very enjoyable. My favorite was the climax scene (spoiler alert to those who aren't familiar with the original story), when Mary decides to get back together with Stephen. It happens in a delivery room when one of the characters is having a baby. It was so funny I near fell out of my chair laughing. And the remake made MUCH better use of the author character (Nancy Blake played by Florence Nash and Alex Fisher played by Jada Pinkett-Smith). The Sylvia Fowler character is very 3-dimensional in the remake. She can be evil, but she has a history and she's a good person at heart. Whereas, the Sylvia Flower in the original is a conniving stock character that Rosalind Russell played oh so well. In the same way Russell did in 1939, Annette Benning really does steal the picture. All in all, it was an enjoyable film.



And of course, I painted my nails my version of "Jungle Red" in honor of the movie!

The Ultimate Norma Shearer Fan

A friend of mine on Facebook is the ultimate Norma Shearer fan. Her profile page is plastered with Norma Shearer mentions. She owns the official Norma Shearer member page and fan group on the website. She even lists her religion as "Norma Shearer Worshipper". While all of this must seem mundane, she showed her true devotion recently with something that even astounded myself. And I consider myself quite a fan. She had the name "Norma Shearer" tattooed on what looks to be her forearm. For many reasons, I would not post the picture or even indicate this person's name, but I thought it worthy of a post. Now it is one thing to have an image of a celebrity tattooed on your body (it can be considered artwork in addition to radical devotion), but it is quite another to have their name tattooed. I was quite amazed. I wonder what Norma would think if she were still alive?

DISCLAIMER: Please withhold your judgment as getting a tattoo is a very personal decision and everyone has their own reasons for getting one. I'm just posting this as an interesting story to share.

All in the name of the queen. Long live the queen.

Tout en la nom de la Reine. Vive la Reine.

Out of the Past, Into the Now: The Women (1939) or is it (2008)?

The Sunday New York Times featured an article discussing the newest incarnation of the famous Clare Booth Luce play The Women. Nothing, since the George Cukor film that so many of us love and hold dear to our hearts, has been able to capture the magic of that theatrical all-women spectacle. There have been some really bad remakes like The Opposite Sex (1956), which in my opinion was the opposite of good (its got men, people!!!). And there have been some good remakes, like the televised Broadway play that featured Cynthia Nixon, of Sex and the City fame, in the title role.

It's been a long process to get the newest remake underway and in theatres. But can it hold up? Can Eva Mendes capture the cutting wit and ruthlessness of Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford in the original) when she says "there is a word for you ladies, but it isn't used in society... outside of a kennel". We'll just have to wait and see. The new film, features "little-girl-voiced blonde" Meg Ryan (in contrast to the "mellifluent brunet" Norma Shearer) and hits theatres on September 12th, with TCM fast on its heels, showing the original version on September 15th. In the meantime, check out the NYT article online as well as their chart comparing and contrasting the 1939 version to the 2008 one. Enjoy!

Article

Chart

The Stolen Jools (1931)

I had the pleasure of watching this 19-minute short filled with a whole slew of MGM stars. The premise of the story is that at a ball the previous night, Norma Shearer's jewels went missing. A detective sets on the case bumping into suspicious MGM stars along the way.

Everyone is a suspect! There are lots of cameos and its fun to watch purely for star spotting. Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Edward G. Robinson, Buster Keaton, Gary Cooper, the Little Rascals, Irene Dunne, Richard Barthelmess (I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw him!) and Barbara Stanwyck among others.

Some of the scenes make sense, but it's a little ridiculous when the introductions are stilted like:

"Hey I know you, you're Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. And everybody knows you! You're Loretta Young!"

Really? Run out of ideas, mayhaps? Besides that, it's campy fun and a pleasure to watch! You'll find it among the Bonus Materials on the Laurel & Hardy DVD The Flying Deuces.

12 Movies Meme

Tag! I'm it!

Ibetolis over at Film for the Soul tagged me to participate in the 12 Movies Meme started by Lazy Eye Theatre. I don't really get the rules so I kind of just went with a similar form based off of Ibetolis' entry. Basically I'm creating line-ups for 6 double-feature nights (Monday through Saturday), each with it's own theme. I've also provided a reason for why I chose that line-up. I have to tag 5 people and with an interesting twist, I'm tagging 3 guest bloggers (their responses I'll post here) and 3 bloggers. I know that's 6, but since I'm already breaking rules... My double-features and tags are listed below. Enjoy!

Monday
Theme: Right in the Belly - Poisonous Stories
Films: D.O.A. (1950) & Notorious (1946)
Reason: My favorite film noir matched with an astounding Hitchcock classic, both feature protagonists who have been poisoned.

Tuesday
Theme: Blonde Bette Davis Does Not Want to Kiss You
Films: Cabin in the Cotton (1932) & Of Human Bondage (1934)
Reason: Two great Bette Davis films, with her as a blonde, both include famous lines about kissing. Cabin in the Cotton - "I'd like to kiss ye, but I jus' washed ma hair". Of Human Bondage - "And after ya kissed me, I always used to wipe my mouth! WIPE MY MOUTH!"

Wednesday
Theme: Robert Mitchum Just Wants to Love on You
Films: Holiday Affair (1949) & Two for the Seesaw (1962)
Reason: Robert Mitchum's softer side shines through with these two romances. A delight for anyone who crushes on him.

Thursday
Theme: The Morning After ~ Ultra Sexy Pre-Codes
Films: Female (1933) & The Divorcee (1930)
Reason: One thing leads to another and well, you know... Women in charge of their sexuality. And a little Norma Shearer never hurt anyone.

Friday
Theme: Triumphant Triumvirates ~ Everything's Better in Threes
Films: Three on a Match (1932) & A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
Reason: It's a shame I couldn't make this one into a triple-feature! Based on threes, great films about three very different women coming together in unusual circumstances.

Saturday
Theme: Multiple Families, Multiple Problems
Films: Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) & With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)
Reason: Two films that gave birth to The Brady Bunch. What happens when two families come together as one? Laughter is sure to follow.

TAGS
Frank ~ Guest Blogger
Bob ~ Guest Blogger
Kevin ~ Guest Blogger
Carrie ~ Classic Montgomery
Ginger ~ Asleep in New York
Steve ~ Film Noir of the Week

Partying Norma Shearer Style

My good friend Kevin had his 30th Birthday party on Saturday night. On his invitation, it suggested that people dress as their favorite movie character. I decided to dress up as Norma Shearer when she played Jerry in The Divorcee (1930). There was one particular outfit she had on that I wanted to try to duplicate. It was a silk v-neck blouse with long sleeves (I'm guessing it's cream) and a high-waisted skirt. She also sports a cocktail ring and an art-deco necklace. And of course, her crown of curls which was Queen Norma Shearer's trademark. I like to think that my version was a contemporary take on that one outfit. I even had my hair done and don red lipstick to complete the ensemble. I'm happy to say that lots of other people joined in. Of those who were there included Clifton Webb, Carmen Miranda, one of the Slapshot Hanson brothers, Elaine Page's Juno, Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra, Faye Dunaway's Bonnie and Warren Beatty's Clyde, and even Johnny Depp's. One of my favorites was Olivia Newton-John's Kira from Xanadu.

Below is my original inspiration as well as me and Kevin (he's dressed up as James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause).

Their Own Desire (1929)

There has been a lot of blogging about this lesser known Norma Shearer - Robert Montgomery vehicle.

Classic Montgomery
Laura's Miscellaneous Musings
Classic Ramblings

So I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and share a few thoughts about Their Own Desire (1929).

1) Style - Art deco at it's finest. Also, rich people at play. Complete with polo playing, swimming and adultery. I want to steal all of Norma Shearer's clothes, as I do with pretty much any film she does that isn't a period piece.

2) Divorce - Today, films about people getting divorced would probably involve one party moving on and finding love with someone else. But I noticed in films from 20's to the 40's, it usually involves the divorcees getting back with each other. Interesting.

3) Lewis Stone - He is the spitting image of one of my favorite toll collectors, Mike. And otherwise, I think he was very elegant and graceful. While he didn't quite fit with either of his two love interests (his wife and his mistress), he and Norma Shearer went together beautifully as father and daughter.

Queen Norma Shearer Viewing

I thought after yesterday's post, that I should probably track my progress on here. This list is only 58 movies. I think I may have removed some lost or destroyed ones when I originally made this list.

Norma Shearer

The Flapper (1920)*
Way Down East (1920)*
The Stealers (1920)
The Man Who Paid (1922)
The Bootleggers (1922)
Channing of the Northwest (1922)
Lucretia Lombard (1923)
A Clouded Name (1923)
Man and Wife (1923)
The Devil’s Partner (1923)
The Wanters (1923)
Pleasure Mad (1923)
Trail of the Law (1923)
The Snob (1924)
The Wolf Man (1924)
Broadway After Dark (1924)
Broken Barriers (1924)
Married Flirts (1924)
Empty Hands (1924)
He Who Gets Slapped (1924) ~ seen part then misplaced tape!
Excuse Me (1925)
Lady of the Night (1925) *
Waking Up the Town (1925)
A Slave to Fashion (1925)
Pretty Ladies (1925)
The Tower of Lies (1925)
His Secretary (1925)
The Devil’s Circus (1926)
The Waning Sex (1926)
Upstage (1926)
Too Many Wives (1927)
The Demi-Bride (1927)
After Midnight (1927)
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1928) *
The Latest From Paris (1928)
The Actress (1928)
A Lady of Chance (1928) *
The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) ~ coming up!
Their Own Desire (1929) ~ taped!
The Divorcee (1930) *
Let Us Be Gay (1930) ~ coming up!
Stolen Jools (1931)*
Strangers May Kiss (1931) *
A Free Soul (1931) *
Private Lives (1931) *
Smilin’ Through (1932)
Strange Interlude (1932)
Riptide (1934) *
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) *
Romeo and Juliet (1937) ~ can't quite finish this for some reason.
Marie Antoinette (1938) *
Idiot’s Delight (1939) *
The Women (1939) *
Escape (1940) *
We Were Dancing (1942) *
Her Cardboard Lover (1942) *

Lifetime Achievement Viewing

Some time ago I had made set goals to watch every single film which feature my top favorite personalities. I say personalities because these are people I am captivated by and it extends beyond any acting abilities or their appearance in good stories (sometimes they lack both!). Hunting for those films reach makes watching their work even more enjoyable.

Norma Shearer ~ 17 out of 61
Bobby Darin ~ 5 out of 14
Sandra Dee ~ 10 out of 24
Marilyn Monroe ~ 25 out of 29
Blonde Bette Davis ~ 14 out of 33
Doris Day ~ 17 out of 39

Lately I've come across a few more opportunities to advance towards my final goal. Sandra Dee's Tammy Tell Me True (1961) and Tammy and the Doctor (1963) were released on DVD a few months ago and Netflix just added it to their extensive library. I immediately added it to my queue, bypassing the original film Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) with Debbie Reynolds, which I guess I really should have seen first to fully understand the storyline. But while Debbie Reynolds is cute, I've always found Sandra Dee even cuter and much more fun to watch on screen!

With The Forbidden Hollywood Collection Vol. 2 I got an opportunity to see The Divorcee (1930) and A Free Soul (1931) in their entirety. Two marks on my list. But these I knew would eventually turn up on DVD. However, two more even rarer opportunities presented themselves recently. My friend Frank is a Laurel & Hardy fan and let me borrow one of his DVDs which contains the short film Stolen Jools (1931) a comedy which features many MGM stars, including Norma Shearer. And TCM recently had a Robert Montgomery marathon (one of Norma's best-known leading men), and they showed Their Own Desire (1929), (which I taped) an elusive film I know very little about but am very happy to see.

There are other actors whose film work I'd like to view in their entirety, but making a goal of it would be quite a feat, and very likely impossible (Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, etc). Those whom I think may be manageable and whom I would like to add include:

Kim Novak
George Sanders
Tom Conway
Dennis Morgan
Bonita Granville
Susan Peters
Richard Barthelmess

Do you have anyone whose life's work is your goal to consume? Or have you already seen the entire canon of films of a favorite star? Let me know!

C'mon. Put 'em around me.

I just thought I'd share these two very sexy images of Norma Shearer.

from The Divorcée (1930)

from A Free Soul (1931)

Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 2

So on Friday I broke down and went ahead and purchased the TCM Archives Boxed Set "The Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 2". I was going to buy it eventually but had just been renting it. Since I have a unique passion for Pre-Codes, I should be supporting the ones that are being put out on DVD. Especially ones that I'm interested in, like The Divorcee (1930), A Free Soul (1931) and Night Nurse (1931), all of which I had been waiting a substantial amount of time to view and all of which I had missed or only seen part of when aired on TCM.

So I forked over the $40 (hey I finished paying for school, so it's not so bad right?) and my set should be coming in a few days. I did happen to catch the Thou Shalt Not documentary, before I returned my second DVD to Netflix. I was very impressed by it. I wrote a lot of film names down, all of which, to my dismay, are not available on DVD, grrr. The documentary is very informative and chic, in that TCM style. There was one comment at the end that switched on the proverbial light bulb above my head. One of the interviewees said that although the Hays Code did a lot to stifle films in the late 30s to early 50s with its strict censorship, it was also a blessing to the film industry. It forced filmmakers to be more creative about conveying things in their stories in such a way that it would squeak by the censors. And thus we get some of the most well-written stories in the history of film. If you ever watch Family Guy, you'll know young Chris always does a funny "whhhhhhaaaaatt?" when he finds out something truly shocking. I had that kind of a moment. Here I was thinking that the films from that 20+ year span were being held back and I always wondered what they could be without so many restrictions. But now I realize that they may not have been as clever without the Hays Code restrictions. What would Out of the Past (1947) be with all its witty dialogue? So in the end, this documentary made me appreciate something that I had been taking for granted all this time!

Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol 2 on TCM Monday night

Madly preoccupied with homework, it completely slipped my mind that the Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Volume 2 is out on DVD this week Yay! It features 2 Norma Shearer classics, a Blonde Bette Davis film as well as an early Stanwyck. Pretty much everything to make a Pre-code fan like me jump with glee.

If you simply cannot wait for the DVD to be out on the 4th, TCM is featuring all the films including the added documentary Monday night!

The Divorcee (1930) ~ 8:00 pm (EST)

Thou Shall Not - Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) ~ 9:30 pm (EST)

Night Nurse (1931) ~10:45 pm (EST)

Three on a Match (1932) ~ 12:00 am (EST

A Free Soul (1931) ~ 3:45 am (EST)

The Ultimate Story: The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1928)

Imagine a young prince, very young, still fresh with youthful ideals and not yet tainted by the burden of royal duty. Then comes a long a beautiful young girl, a commoner only in status, but marvellous in all other respects. The young prince meets the young girl and they fall in love. All seems right until the royal burden puts a damper on their romance. They have arrived at a crossroads in their romance and their fate depends upon the prince making a major decision about his future.

This story has appeared in the history of mythology, literature and film in many forms and variations (Cinderella anyone?). Personally, I have very little information about its history, but I feel that I've come across it so many times that I have a somewhat good understanding of it. I didn't make much of this story until I read about The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1928) and after much waiting, got the chance to watch it when TCM aired it a couple of months ago. Norma Shearer plays Kathi, a maid at a beergarten who falls for the young prince Karl Heinrich, played by the very handsome Ramon Novarro, who happens to be lodging at the beergarten as a temporary escape from the palace. When the king dies, and young prince Karl takes over the throne, he has a very important decision to make. Whether to follow his heart and marry young Kathi or to honor his father's memory by fulfilling his royal obligations and marrying Princess Raquel (yes, Raquel, I did a double-take when I saw her name written on the marriage contract!).

So I thought about all the other places this story has appeared in film. With its name "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" it was released in 1919, 1928 and 1954. The most recent incarnation of this story is Prince & Me (2004) with Julia Stiles. In that variation, the girl doesn't know that the guy she is falling for is in fact a prince. There have been subsequent sequels of that film, sans-Julia Stiles. If you are a Marilyn Monroe fan like I am, you may also recognize the story in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). Its also appeared as a sub-story with minor characters in other films, such as Black Narcissus (1947). Since monarchy is an ever-dying establishment, today we seek this same story in other types of authority figures. Like the unrealistic romantic scenarios involving single presidents or prime ministers. Take for example, Michael Douglas in The American President (1995) or Hugh Grant as prime minister in Love, Actually (2003).

So why is this story so important? I don't really know. Is it a way for us to sympathize with royalty? Or does its sole purpose serve to give little girls the hope that they one day may become a princess, regardless of their current status? I'm interested enough to keep exploring the mythology of this story in film and in literature, to see how its become our ultimate story.

Queen Norma Shearer: Avec Robert Montgomery Poll

I just had the pleasure of watching Private Lives (1931) which recently aired on TCM and I had managed to tape it. It's so difficult to find Norma Shearer films to watch (see my previous rant about this subject) that when I get the opportunity to see one for the first time I feel like I found a $10 bill I didn't know I had. This particular one was a treat because it's one of the many pairings of Norma Shearer with Robert Montgomery.

This duo, although not as famous as, say Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy or Doris Day and Rock Hudson, was a successful one in it's own right and produced some wonderful movies. My personal favorite one is Strangers May Kiss (1931). For those of you out there who are Norma Shearer fans (or Robert Montgomery fans), let me know which of these is your favorite by posting a comment (I love getting those).

Their Own Desire (1929)
The Divorcee (1929)
Private Lives (1931)
Strangers May Kiss (1931)
Riptide (1934)

Queen Norma Shearer: Boxed Set?

Why is it, that on this good, green earth there has yet to exist a boxed set of DVDs of Norma Shearer films? It seems shameful that there are legions of classic film fans out there that are not capable of owning their own small library of Norma Shearer DVDs. It is a damn shame. In fact, there are only 2 DVDs out there. The Women (1939), because of the ensemble cast and the familiarity with the broadway play, and Marie Antoinette (1938) as a tie-in to Sofia Coppola's version. That will keep broadway buffs and Norma-Shearer-as-Marie-Antoinette-fans happy (yes, there is a whole underground society of such people) but what about those folks, like me, who like her broad range of silents and talkies?

So Warner Home Video and TCM, listen up! We the people who love Norma Shearer films demand a DVD boxed set of her movies! Or at least a larger selection of DVDs in print! Here are some suggestions of what I think would make for excellent boxed sets.

Norma Shearer: The Silent Years

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1928)

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

The Flapper (1920)

Lady of the Night (1925)

The Snob (1924)

Norma Shearer: Queen of MGM

Marie Antoinette (1938)

The Women (1939)

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
Private Lives (1931)

A Free Soul (1931)

Norma Shearer: Drama

The Divorcée (1930)

A Free Soul (1931)

Idiot's Delight (1939)

Escape (1940)

The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)