Catching Up with Quelle (14)

January, a Month of Liars - During this month of January, several liars have been publicly exposed. First there was Lance Armstrong's doping scandal and televised confession to Oprah, then it came to light that Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend wasn't a real person, Beyonce may have lip synced the national anthem at the President's inauguration and Jodi Arias, accused of murdering Travis Alexander, lied twice and a jury in Arizona is trying to figure out if her third story is a lie or the truth. (My thoughts on Beyonce and my thoughts on Jodi Arias)

Classic film fans on Twitter found themselves face-to-face with another liar. Someone pretending to be Shirley Temple on Twitter. I fell for it and so did a lot of other people. Shirley Temple wouldn't be the first classic film star on Twitter. Both Shirley MacLaine and Debbie Reynolds have accounts. For a few folks, Shirley on Twitter was too good to be true and her tweets were deemed suspicious. Reps of the retired actress confirmed that the account was a hoax and it was quickly turned into a SPAM account. I guess having a major figure of film history on Twitter is too good to be true. If you ever see a Mickey Rooney or Deanna Durbin account on Twitter, don't believe it! (Watch Ben Stiller explain Twitter to Mickey Rooney).

Recording of Cary Grant on the Phone with his daughter - Posted by Warner Archive on their Tumblr, this is absolutely charming. Listen to it here.

I highly recommend the memoir Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father by Jennifer Grant. You can read my review of the book here.

Hats, Hats, Hats! - The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA currently has an exhibition devoted to Hats. And I just love hats so it was imperative that I attend. For the occasion I wore my best cloche hat, a cream and black wonder made by the San Diego Hat company and acquired from Kate Gabrielle. I got so many compliments on my hat and someone even asked to take my picture. Wow!

We all know hats were an important accessory in classic movies. Hats are not as appreciated today as they were back then but that should change! I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the exhibit unfortunately. We did get to see hats worn by Charles Boyer, Marlene Dietrich and a couple 1940s toppers from model and burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese's collection. It wasn't the best exhibit and there were an unfortunate paucity of men's hats but I still had a great time.

Warner Archive Wednesday ~ Dancing Co-Ed (1939)

What a rush it is to discover a movie that becomes a new favorite. I love that feeling, the moment of discovery, the wash of pleasure that passes over you and the settling in of contentment.

Dancing Co-Ed is from the golden year of 1939. There must have been something magical in the water in Hollywood in 1939 because it was consistently a good year for movies, even B ones.

Dancing Co-Ed (1939) is an MGM production starring Lana Turner, Richard Carlson, Ann Rutherford (she was the last surviving cast member when she passed away last year) and features popular musician Artie Shaw, Lana Turner's soon-to-be first husband.

The Dancing Tobins are a married dancing duo who are famous for their movies. When ToddyTobin announcing she's expecting their first child, it leaves Freddy Tobin without a dance partner for their upcoming movie Dancing Co-Ed. Producer Joe Drews (Roscoe Karns) has promised Patty (Lana Turner) a part in the picture but now it all seems unlikely. Drews, under pressure to make the film without a major star, comes up with the idea of a college contest in which unknowns try out for the part in the movie. They'll send Artie Shaw and his Orchestra to perform at the college and it would get the movie studio great publicity. But Joe Drews and Freddy Tobin don't want to risk the movie being a flop so they chose a dancer to replace Mrs. Tobin and plant her at a college so she can pretend to be a student, enter the contest and win. And that dancer is Lana Turner's Patty.

It's a "potato of an idea"! Joe Drews sends Patty with his secretary Eve (Ann Rutherford) who will accompany her as a student, keep an eye out for her and help her with all the academic stuff. At the college they meet Pug Braddock (Richard Carlson), a college student and editor of the school's newspaper The Porcupine. He thinks the contest is a scam and is investigating it. But he also has a crush on Patty not knowing she's the contest's plant. While rehearsals and auditions are going on, Patty has to keep Pug off her back. She comes up with a new potato of an idea that she'll "help" Pug with his investigation so that she'll be ruled out. It all becomes a lovely complicated mess as the big contest date looms.

Dancing Co-Ed is charming and fun. It has collegiate culture, dance, music, romance, a little bit of drama and a delightful, light-footed and well-dressed Lana Turner. I love the conceit and the actors are all wonderful especially Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford and Leon Errol who plays Patty's showbiz father. It's hard for me to articulate why I adore this movie so. I'm still trying to pinpoint my decade long love affair with Bachelor Mother (1939) so I imagine this one will not be easy either.

This movie reminds me a little bit of The Disenchanted, the Budd Schulberg novel I recently reviewed, with it's Hollywood meets College campus theme. 

Dancing Co-Ed (1939) is available on DVD from Warner Archive. I rented this film from Classicflix but I'm going to buy it on my next Warner Archive purchase.

The Jelly Jar seems like a jivin' place to be! 

Pug: Go on, you heard what the man said. Get hysterical.

Patty: I can't, it gives me hiccups.

Lana Turner, Sweater Girl

Pug to Patty: You look like you swallowed a sunset.

Warner Archive Wednesday - On (random) Wednesdays, I review one title from the Warner Archive Collection. I rented Dancing Co-Ed (1939) from Classicflix.

Catching Up with Quelle (13)

Happy Sunday! How are all of you? I am finally getting around to another edition of Catching Up with Quelle.

TCM Classic Film Festival - It looks almost certain that Carlos and I will be attending the TCM Classic Film Festival in April. We have our tickets and our hotel booked. All we need is to buy plane tickets. There is still a chance we won't be able to go but it looks more certain that we will than it did before. I am excited to go, to see Hollywood, to meet a lot of classic film fans and of course to watch some great movies!

New Robert Mitchum iPhone Case - Remember the Robert Mitchum iPhone case I had custom made in September? Well it broke. I have a tendency to drop my iPhone a lot. So I got a new one and am determined to not abuse my iPhone as much so I can keep this case a lot longer. Otherwise this will be an expensive new hobby of mine!

I like this iPhone case better than the last one. It's a great colorful of image of Robert Mitchum's 1953 visit to Hawaii. If you want to create your own custom iPhone case, I recommend using CafePress. You can get one made for $25 but I suggest you wait for a sale or a good coupon code. I ended up getting a few dollars knocked off the price with a custom iPhone case sale.


Sidney Poitier's letter to President Roosevelt - I love the blog Letters of Note which shares real letters from notable figures. They include a scan of the real letter along with the text typed out for those who may not be able to read the handwriting. I have read some of the most fascinating and endearing letters on that blog. Recently they posted a letter from a young Sidney Poitier to President Roosevelt. Poitier wrote the letter before he became a famous actor and when he was poor living in the U.S. and hoping to get a loan from President Roosevelt so he could go back to his family in Nissau. It's a very intriguing letter given the time period and also how Poitier became such a successful actor in the U.S. afterwards. You can find it here:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2013/01/my-name-is-sidney-poitier.html

Classic Film Books on Goodreads - Do you love books on classic films as much as I do? Please come join me on Goodreads and add to my Classic Film Books list and vote for your favorites. I'm thinking of starting a book club but am not sure if there is enough interest. So I thought I'd start off with a list to see how it goes:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/30492.Classic_Film_Books

5 films you can watch for free on TCM.com

Did you know that TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has 5 full-length feature films from the 1930s available to watch for free on their website? I have listed the films below and have included the video. The links are to the IMDB pages and the Media Room - TCM page for each movie.

This is nothing new. These films have been available for years in the Media Room of the TCM website but I am not sure how many people are aware of them. So I thought I'd post them here. They are free and available to watch at anytime. I'm not sure about country restriction but these should be available for anyone in the U.S. at least.

I highly recommend Double Harness (1933). I have seen that film a couple times and it's a good pre-code starring William Powell and Ann Harding. Also, Topper (1937) is just a delight and I enjoyed Living on Love (1937) too.

I hope TCM will consider posting a few more of these in the future!

Update: I tried to embed all the movies on this page but it wasn't working. So I left up just one of them: Double Harness.

Kelly the Second (1936)
Watch on TCM

Topper (1937) 
Watch on TCM

One Man's Journey (1933)

Watch on TCM

Living on Love (1937)
Watch on TCM

Double Harness (1933)
Watch on TCM