hepclassic

[hepclassic]

JANE FONDA AND LILLY TOMLIN ARE ON THEIR OWN LEVEL OF LEGENDS

[hepclassic]

1937. Luise Rainer as O-Lan finds pearls that she hides in her coat, while looking on a firing squad. She eventually gets pulled into the firing squad, but is saved at the last minute when its called off. Directed by Sidney Franklin. 

[hepclassic]

1936. Luise Rainer as Anna Held reads in the news of Flo Ziegfeld’s marriage to Billie Burke, and Marcelle Cordray as Marie tries comforting her. The scene that won her her first Oscar. Directed by Robert B. Leonard. 

[hepclassic]

Luise Rainer: Indelible Impressionist

*Published at the TCM Classic Film Union in 2010- thanks to BeKindRewind (the youtube channel)- thought it was worth a revisit!* 

She was only on screen for a short time in film history, yet has made a considerable impact to film. She reminds me of Edelweiss, small, delicate, yet powerful. Like the Edelweiss, she has made her film career small, presenting delicate images of women on film, but powerful characters that impact the rest of the players around her. My first image of her is that of a delicate strength that can survive whatever the world can throw at her. She has been through it all on screen and in life. The woman I am referring to is none other than the incomparable Luise Rainer.

  Born in 1910 in Dusseldoff, Germany, Luise Rainer was born prosperous and educated in one of Europe's affluent capitals, Vienna. She worked her way to the stage and made her first appearance on the Dumont Theatre in Dusseldoff in 1928. She then appeared in various theatres in Jacques Deval's Mademoiselle, Sydney Kingsley's Men In White, George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, and Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters In Search Of An Author. The icing on the cake of theatrical success was when Luise was discovered by legendary director Max Reinhardt and became a member of his theatre company in in Berlin and Vienna. It was natural that film was calling for her, and it did. In 1932, she made her screen debut as Kitty in Sensucht 202, a musical comedy about a mishap at a perfume shop. Her next film was the lead in Madame hat Besuch, followed by the role of Marita Costa in Heut' kommit's drauf an. She could have risen to superstar status in her native Germany, but Germany would end up turn its tide against her as Hitler was rising and blaming economic depression on Jewish people, and since Rainer and her family were Jewish. She would have been a victim of Hitler's Holocaust if it weren't for an MGM talent scout who offered her a seven year contract. She immediately took it and emigrated to the United States.

Rainer moved to Hollywood and studied English with famed English actress Constance Collier. Her American debut in film was with William Powell in 1935's Escapade, who, was so impressed by Rainer that he demanded she be given co-billing. It just so happens that her first film in America was a remake of the 1934 German film Maskerade. MGM hoped that Rainer would bring in the same audience as Greta Garbo. Powell and Rainer had such good screen chemistry that she was automatically casted in 1936's The Great Ziegfeld.

As Florence Ziegfeld's first wife, actress Anna Held, she made a great impact on the film even though it was a short time she was actually on screen. People to this day remember the telephone scene where she congradulates Powell's Flo on his marriage to Myrna Loy's Bille Burke. Her trademark vulnerability expressed after showing fragile strength was heartbreaking to see. Even though that is her last scene in the movie, she is the underdog we are all rooting for. She was the character that held the story together and made it possible for us to find some comfort in the rest of the story on screen between William Powell and Myrna Loy. Also, in Depression times, when everyone was looking for underdogs in the movies to make themselves feel better about themselves, she was the unforgettable underdog. The following year, Luise Rainer shocked moviegoers and the movie industry by winning that previous year's Best Actress distinction at the Academy Award dinner. No one could believe that someone in that short amount of screentime would be worthy to win such a prestigious honor. And, considering that she was up against Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey, Norma Shearer in Romeo And Juliet, and Irene Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild.Luckily, her next role proved to show the movie industry as well as the rest of us just what she was made of, the role of O-Lan in 1937's The Good Earth. 

In the modern eye, and in the realistic one, it is obvious that casting Anglo-Americans to play Asians was racist. And I do not condone or excuse producers for doing such a thing that prevented Asian American actors from getting work outside of stereotypical performances in Hollywood. Yet, as a thespian myself, if given such limitations and me still getting the role of someone I am not culturally connected with, is there a way that I can make this character real and challenge this stereotype and limitation that my industry suffers from? How can I make her real to show that this casting call is offensive? Back then, the only relatively successful Asian American actress was Anna May Wong, yet here was Luise Rainer in the part of an Asian woman. Luise Rainer answered those questions in her performance as O-Lan in this movie. She gave dignity to an undignified position Irving Thalberg and Sidney Franklin gave her. She made O-Lan real to her audience. Watching her portrayal is like watching Monet paint Giverny. The base of her performance is her body language. It acts like a paintbrush and the lines she is speaking is when the painter decides to paint in one spot. A memorable scene, one of many, is after she gives birth to Paul Muni's Wang Lung's son and says: "When I go back in that house, it will be with my son in my arms. I'll have a red coat on him... and red flower trousers... and a hat with a gilded Buddha and tiger-faced shoes, and I'll go into the kitchen where I spent my days as a slave and into the great hall where the old mistress sits with her pipe, and I'll show myself and my son to all of them. Hmm." Rainer portrays O-Lan with such accomplishment and pride in that moment, we are hooked on her character. As her family goes through plague, famine, and war, Rainer's O-Lan brings detailed empathy to her character and exerts it with such and understanding and struggle. In a film that also highlights with a indirect story to America in the Great Depression/Dust Bowl, she personifies the American struggle through that time through the dust and ash of her character, and offers strength, knowledge, reality, and hardship. We, as a country, supported Luise Rainer with a glimpse of the unforgettable underdog in The Great Ziegfeld, all the while wondering if she can hit the knitty gritty, and with The Good Earth, she did. It is no wonder she became the first actor to win consecutive Oscars, and the first actress to win consecutive Oscars, which she earned her second in 1938 for 1937's Best Actress Oscar.

 Throughout the rest of the thirties, her career maintained promise as she made The Emperor's Candlesticks where she reteamed with William Powell and starred alongside Margaret Sullivan and  Big City with Spencer Tracy in 1937. 1938 had her with Melvyn Douglas in The Toy Wife and the lead in the story of Johann Strauss, The Great Waltz and Dramatic School with Lana Turner and Paulette Goddard. She took a break to appear in several plays between 1938 and 1944- appearing in Jacques Deval's Behold The Bridge, James M. Barrie's A Kiss For Cinderella, and the Clifford Odet's play version of Clash by Night. She made one more American film appearance in Hostages in 1943 and then went on random appearances on television. It wasn't until 1997's The Gambler did she return to film again, playing Grandmother. Currently, she is listed to work on Noi che abbiamo fatto la dolce vita.

 Luise Rainer still is a trailblazer. As of last year, she is the oldest and most senior member of Academy Award acting winners and the only German to have won a Best Actress Oscar. She is a living legend and will always be a classic.

  *On December 30, 2014- Luise Rainer passed away at 104 from pneumonia.* 

[hepclassic]

[hepclassic]

1973. George Segal as Steve Blackburn comes into the apartment as Glenda Jackson as Vicki Allesio prepares dinner, and she tells him where she saw him earlier, and where to stick it as she expresses her frustration. Directed by Melvin Frank. 

[hepclassic]

1969. Glenda Jackson as Gudrun Brangwen and Jennie Linden as Urusula Brangwen notice horned cattle while eating lunch and dancing. Gudrun decides to keep dancing away, intimidating the cattle. As she succeeds, Oliver Reed as Gerald Crich and Alan Bates as Rupert Birkin enter and Gerald tries to save Gudrun. Directed by Ken Russell. 

[hepclassic]

Glenda Jackson: The Meticulous Intellectual

*Written in 2011- but seeing how she’s back acting, I felt now it was time to share.* 

I hope that people did not think my blog on Shelley Winters was in bad taste regarding recent tragedies in Japan, and I hope the blog I am about to write is not in bad taste today either. Movies have to power to console and well as help us recover, and remind us no matter where we are and what has happened, we can and we do move forward for the better. Besides watching movies, reading plays, and other active things I do to help me cope with loss, writing seems one of the ways that helps me. My only hope that it can help you too.

I am a feminist. I believe that genders should be social equals to each other in all definitions and constructions. I do not believe that one gender is better than another nor superior to another. In movies and other entertainments, I am drawn to men and women who strive for and contribute to fighting for the end of social inequalities through the work they do on screen and off screen. When it comes to classic movies, often I have found great actors who plant, challenge, and explore through their performances ideas of social equality in their work. But, amidst the seeds, plants spring forth from them and create an impact in modern film because of their contributions. One of the plants that have sprouted from the seeds of the previous generation is an actor of whom I am going to pay tribute to today. The actor is Glenda Jackson.

Born in Birkenhead in the Wirral Chesire of England in May of 1936 to a bricklayer and charlady, Glenda was used to hard work at an early age. When she was very young, her father was recruited by the British Naval Fleet and worked abroad a minesweeper. She was educated at the West Kirby Grammar School for Girls where she graduated at sixteen. She then found work at a local pharmacy. Bored to death, she took interest in acting and auditioned to get in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was accepted. At the Royal Academy, she made her professional stage debut in Separate Tables in 1957, having previous appeared as a uncredited Extra in the 1956 film The Extra Day with Richard Baseheart and Simone Simon.She also appeared on the television shows "ITV Play of the Week" and  "Z Cars." She studied with Peter Brook for four years and appeared in several productions. In 1963, she made her second venture into film as an uncredited Singer at Party in This Sporting Life with Richard Harris. The film did not fair well outside of a small audience, but Jackson continued her theatre work and appeared in the plays The Jew of Malta, The Persecution and Assassination of Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis De Sade, Hamlet, and The Investigation. The play, Marat/Sade, was an original and controversial work and was really drawing appeal, carrying the play to London and to Broadway.She also appeared on the television shows "The Wednesday Play," "Armchairs," and "ITV Saturday Theatre." Peter Brook decided to make it a movie, and keeping the theatricality of the piece. In 1967, Jackson reprised her role as Charlotte Corday in the film Marat/Sade with Patrick Magee, Ian Richardson, Michael Williams, Clifford Rose, Freddie Jones, and William Morgan Sheppard. Her performance managed to steal the show away from the leads and elevated her star status in England. In 1968, she made her first credited performance as Guest in Tell Me Lies with Stokey Carmichael, Paul Scofield, Peggy Ashcroft, and her first lead role as Vivien in Negatives with Peter McEvery and Diane Cilente. In 1969, she appeared on the "BBC Play of the Month," and then she was cast in a movie that forever changed her career and helped change the course of film history. The role was Gudrun Brangwen in Women In Love.

With Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Jennie Linden, Eleanor Bron, and Michael Gough, Jackson shone through above an amazing ensemble playing an unconvetional woman who wanted to be sexually and artistically free and not limited by her gender role, no matter how society wanted to limit her. The film was controversial in that it was one of the first films after the Hays Code was abolished to show what new freedoms were available, and while American films were gradually beginning to strip down its restrictive layers, the bravery of this European film went ahead with it. The film would not be released in the United States until 1970, and when it was released, it captured America's attention as both feminism penetrated the national consciousness and the idea of sexual freedom was being discussed left and right. Her character was both emancipated and equal to her male peers. The following year, Jackson was awarded the Best Actress Oscar distinction of the previous year. She also became the first actress to win an Oscar for a performance that had a couple nude scenes.She officially was recognized internationally as an intense and versatile actress. But, recognition and fame was not something she wanted to put a lot of value in. Having enjoyed working with Ken Russell, she worked for him again, appearing as Nina (Antonia Milyukova) in 1970's The Music Lovers with Richard Chamberlain. In 1971, she started the year appearing in the miniseries "Elizabeth R," and then appeared in a string of movies, starting off playing Alex Greville in Sunday Bloody Sunday with Peter Finch and Murray Head, an uncredited performance as Rita in  The Boyfriend with Christopher Guest, Max Adrian, and Tommy Tune, then finished off the year as Queen Elizabeth in Mary, Queen of Scots with Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick McCoohan, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Davenport, Trevor Howard, and Ian Holm. Also that year, she appeared on the British comedy television program "The Morecambe & Wise Show" in what is called one of the funniest skits in British television. She was nominated for Best Actress for her work in Sunday Bloody Sunday, but did not care to attend the Oscars and she lost to Jane Fonda in Klute. In 1972, she played Alice in The Triple Echo with Brian Deacon. In 1973, she started off the year playing Lady Hamiliton in The Nelson Affair with Michael Jayston and Anthony Quayle. She then did the play The Collaborators at the Duchess Theatre. Her next film would be another memorable performance of hers that would seal her international fame and prove her versatility.

As Vicki Allessio in A Touch Of Class with George Segal, Paul Sorvino, and K Callan, Jackson showed that she could be as funny as she could be dramatic. Here, her technique of meticulous intellect shines through as her character navigates what resembles a perfect love affair with Steven Blackburn, played by George Segal. Not only is she his equal, but she brings such a force to her role in this as she does all her roles. Her character refuses to be treated like a card in a sexual game of poker, asserts her independence and does not compromise to satisfy her lover's ego. In the same year as the National Organization of Women was founded, Jackson brings the goals and nuances of feminism to the screen. It is said that comedies are more dramatic than a regular drama, and in this movie's case, as well as in the case of Jackson's performance, that proves it true. Jackson's Allessio is as sarcastic as she is smart, filling in the much needed tense air with moments of humor, but at the same time, giving it dramatic depth. The picture wouldn't carry at all if not buoyed by her strong performance. The following year she was nominated for Best Actress again at the Oscars, and won that year for Best Actress. She did not attend the ceremony as there was much work to be done on her next film, 1974's The Devil Is A Woman playing Sister Gertude with Claudio Casswell, Lisa Harrow, and Arnoldo Fod. In 1975, she returned to her stage roots as international fame was taking a toll on the hard work she was putting in in film. In 1975, she toured England and the United States in Hedda Gabler.Also that year, she played Solange in The Maids with Susannah York and Vivien Merchant, and Elizabeth in The Romantic Englishwoman with Michael Caine, Helmut Bager, and Kate Nelligan. In 1976, she started at the Old Vic in London in The White Devil, then reprised her stage role as Hedda Gabler in Hedda with Peter Eyre, Timothy West, and Patrick Stewart, and finished the year playing Sarah Bernhardt in The Incredible Sarah with Daniel Massey, Yvonne Mitchell, Simon Williams, and John Castle. Audiences were starting to lose touch with her, not that it mattered to Glenda, who was just glad to work continually as an actress. In 1977, she appeared as Sister Alexandria in Nasty Habits with Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Anne Jackson, Anne Meara, Jerry Stiller, Edith Evans, Rip Torn, and Eli Wallach. She also did the play Stevie at the Vaudeville in London.  In 1978, she appeared as Ann Atkinson in House Calls with Walter Matthau and Art Carney and Steve Smith in Stevie with Mona Washbourne and Alec McCowen, then returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company where she acted in Anthony and Cleopatra where she tourned England fir the next year. Regarding her film work, she appeared as Conor MacMichael in The Class of Miss MacMichael with Michael Murphy, Rosalind Cash, and Phil Daniels and as Tricia in Lost and Found with Maureen Stapleton and John Candy.

The eighties continued the cycle of Glenda's acting career that the late seventies tapered off to. As feminism itself was fastly becoming demonized, audiences began to not connect easily with her work as before, but, as someone who knew the value of working hard, Jackson continued amidst the changing tide of audience views. She began the decade playing Isabella Garnell in HealtH with Carol Burnett, James Garner, Lauren Bacall, Paul Dooley, Donald Moffat, Henry Gibson, and Alfre Woodard, followed by Isobel in Hopscotch with Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty, and Herbert Lom. She also acted in Rose at the Duke of York Theatre and Macbeth on Broadway. She also made a return appearance on "The Morecambe & Wise Show." In 1981, she played Patricia Neal in "The Patricia Neal Story." In 1982, she appeared as Sophie in Giro City, then went back to the London stage in Summit Conference. In 1983, she was in The Return of the Soldier with Julie Christie and Ann-Margaret, and in the play Great and Small in London. In 1984, she toured England and America with Strange Interlude, and she also appeared in "Sakharov" which won her rave reviews and rose her stature a little bit more. In 1985, she appeared as Neaera Duncan in Turtle Diary with Ben Kingsley, Michael Gambon, Jeroen Krabbe, and Nigel Hawthorne.In 1986 she was in Across From the Garden of Allah at the Comedy Theatre in London. In 1987, she appeared as Charlotte in Beyond Therapy with Julie Hagerty, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Canti, and Genevieve Page, then returned to London to do The House of Bernado Alba at the Globe Theatre. In 1988, she reprised her role in the play she last toured inthe television version "Strange Interlude." She also appeared as Herodias/Lady Alice in Salome's Last Dance with Douglas Hodge and Ken Russell. She also revived Macbeth on Broadway. As her acting career continued to dwindle, so did her enthuisasm of her profession, but she still had to work in order to put food on the table. In 1989, she appeared as Miss in Doombeach, Anna Brangwen in The Rainbow with Sammi Davis, Amanda Donohoe, and David Hemmings, and as Babs Flynn in Business As Usual with Stephen Dillane. In 1990, she put an end to her film career, appearing in the short The Real Story of Humpty Dumpty as Glitch the Witch and as Queen Caroline in King of the Wind with Frank Finlay. That year was also the same year that she was on stage last, appearing in Mother Courage and Scenes From An Execution. Considering diving into politics, she had to put up so much money for herself in order to go through campaigning, so she finished her acting career on television, appearing in "T-Bag's Christmas Ding Dong," "A Murder of Quality," and "The Secret Life of Arnold Bax." In 1992, she ran for Parliament of the regions of Hampstead and Highgate, and became the first Labour Party member to get the seat since 1966 for her district. In 1994, she was appointed the Labour Transport Team Campaigns Co-ordinator. In 1997, with a high elective margin, she was made Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State for Transport, where she managed the ins and outs of transportation in the city of London and other important national responsibilities of that sort. In 1999, she resigned from her position so she could run as a candidate for the Mayor of London, but did not secure the nomination from her party. In the past decade between 2000 and 2004, she was a member of the Greater London Assembly advisory cabinet for homelessness, holding regular meetings for rough sleepers and working with the Mayor to promote measures to tackle problems faced by rough sleepers in the city of London. Currently, as of 2010, she is still the representative of the district of Hampstead and Highgate, even though her constituent boundary has expanded to include the region of Kilburn.In her position she was a tough critic of Tony Blair regarding introducing top-up fees to England, as regarding in-politics relating to the war in Iraq, being a stalking horse candidate to Tony Blair if he did not stand down in 2005, and backed inquiry of the war in Iraq in 2006. She currently lives in South London and remains politically active.

She is not well known for her contributions to film due to the fact that many films outside of the ones that have been recognized are not mainstream, but then again, neither has she ever been mainstream herself in how she worked in them. Most of her films are over twenty-five years old, and by that definition, they are classic, but I think what makes her a classic movie star is not only due to her meticulous intellect that shaped her performances, but her theatrical tenancity to meet them head-on and deliver her best. Nowadays, people frown at the idea of an actor or actress appearing naked in a movie, because they think it demeans the quality of their work. Glenda Jackson's career reminds us that so long as being naked in a movie does not deviate away from what characters are trying to accomplish in the roles they were given, not to mention having that artistic freedom at all, is important to consider. Also, the fact that her performances captured a time when society was changing its views on what a woman can do and her characters often reflected these changes and showed emancipation growing from those that planted the seeds for it in the movies, and the bravery that fueled her performances and letting that plant grow, is what makes her a classic movie star.

This blog is lovingly dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away today. Her brazen attitude that reflected in her professional choices helped make women in film like the one I just paid tribute to possible. May she rest in peace.

*In 2016, she appeared at the Royal Shakespeare Co.’s production of King Lear, where she portrayed King Lear, and in 2017, won an Evening Standard Award of Excellence for her performance. In 2018, she returned to Broadway, portraying A in Three Tall Women with Alison Pill and Laurie Metcalf. She is nominated for a Tony.* 

[hepclassic]

1947. Loretta Young as Katrin Holstrom tells Joseph Cotten as Glenn Morely what she can do, after he introduces her to Ethel Barrymore as Agatha Morely. Directed by H.C. Potter. 

[hepclassic]

1933. Sandy Roth as Blimp asks Harold Huber as Puggy and Halliwell Hobbes as Churchill what they think of his new suit. He then asks Ricardo Cortez as Leo Darcy his opinion. He then ask Loretta Young as Mary Martin what she thinks, which leads to a temper tantrum that his girlfriend, Una Merkel as Bunny comments on. Mary then says something about marriage.Directed by William A. Wellman.

[hepclassic]

Loretta Young: Of Valiant Humaness

*Originally published in  December 2011 on the Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Union page*

Though we try to find comfort in familiar surroundings and familiar people, often times the familiar remains scary based on relationships with people whom our past might not exactly has been friendly leading to present discord. How anyone finds a way to meet up during this time of reconnection for warmth can be an achievement, however scary. But, it is the little things that keep a bind. If not by obligation, then by ritual, be it family party or individual get together centering around a distraction, like a film or a play. The distractions deflect away from confronting the obvious, and no one is not human for wanting to deflect away from confronting what needs to be confronted. It could be that we want the other person to act and we hope that yearly rituals can bring a peace on their end. It could also be that we have to be the ones to act as we are the only ones who can bring peace to discord. It could also be that the holiday season might also bring a miracle, that the past can be forgiven, and we move on with each other. But, it takes an honest look at the other person in order to do so. It takes a fair look at the other person in order to do so. So, in order to do so, we need to look at the other person objectively as you and how you would like to be treated. I'm not perfect in any of what I am writing just now, but I am glad that film has shown me people that can relate to my circumstances, and can offer empathy indirectly in that light. In the holiday season, every film we consider classic relates to this on some level. And, no matter who the people who were who portrayed said characters, their performances touch us with this relatable empathy. One of those actors who has done this, at least for me, is Loretta Young.

She was born in January of 1913 in Salt Lake City, Utah. When she was only two, her parents separated and she went with her mother to Hollywood, California, where her mother ran a boarding house. To supplement income, her mother thought her children should try out for extras in film. In 1917, Loretta made her film debut as the uncredited Fairy in The Primrose Path with Mae Murray and Tom Moore, followed by playing the Child in Sirens of the Sea with Louise Lovely, Carmel Myers, Jack Mulhall, and Sally Blane. Her father briefly moved back in with his family, but it didn't last long as he cheated on her with the family maid and was kicked out. Still, her mother was glad her children stayed devoted to her and had faces for film.While that business was sorted out, Loretta and her sisters stayed temporarily at Mae Murray's house. In 1919, Loretta played Child On The Operating Table in The Only Way with Theodore Roberts and Fannie Ward. Of course, her mother did not want her daughters to be without education either, so as film opportunities came and went, she went to the Ramona Convent Secondary School. In 1921, she played the uncredited Child in White and Unmarried with Thomas Meighan and Jacqueline Logan, and the uncredited Arab Child in The Sheik with Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Ruth Miller, and Adolphe Menjou. After that, Loretta's mother thought that they had enough to sustain themselves and she continued her education and help out at the boarding house. When she was fourteen, she picked up the phone on an offer for her sister to appear in a film, and ended up getting hired by the man making the offer, John McCormick, who thought that she had potential and she was contracted with First National Pictures. In 1927, she returned to film, this time as a young actress and not as an extra, but in an uncredited role in Naughty But Nice with Colleen Moore, followed by the uncredited Woman By Ping Pong Table in Her Wild Oat with Larry Kent and Gwenn Lee. In 1928, she played The Girl in The Whip Woman with Estelle Taylor, Antonio Moreno, Lowell Sherman, and Hedda Hopper, Simonetta in Laugh, Clown, Laugh with Lon Chaney, Bernard Siegel, and Nils Asther, Denise Laverne in The Maginificent Flirt with Florence Vidor and Ned Sparks, Carol Watts in The Head Man with Charles Mowbray, and ended the year playing Margaret Barbour in Scarlet Seas with Richard Barthlemess and Betty Compson. Though she was mostly doing film work with First National, she was often loaned out to Fox Studios for films as well. In 1929, she played the uncredited Victim in Seven Footprints to Satan with Thelma Todd, Irma in The Squall with Richard Tucker, Alice Joyce, Zasu Pitts, and Myrna Loy, Gladys Cosgrove in The Girl in the Glass Cage with Carol Nye and George E. Stone, Patiricia Mason Stratton in Fast Life with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., William Holden, and Chester Morris, Muriel in The Careless Agewith Holmes Herbert, George Baxter, and Ilka Chase, Patiricia Carlyle in The Forward Pass with Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, and ended the year as the Performer in the 'Meet My Sister' Number in The Show of Shows with H.B.Warner, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Noah Beery, and Monte Blue. The thirties started for Loretta making it as a film actress and barely even an adult at that. Still, her ambition to act trumped whatever age issue presented itself at the time, and the older she got, the more independent she became with her career. That ambition also made it easier for her to transition from silent film to sound as well. In 1930, she began the year portraying Ann Harper in Loose Ankles with Louise Fazenda and Inez Courtney, Margery Seaton in The Man from Blankey's with Fanny Brice, an uncredited Cameo Appearance at Premiere in Show Girl in Hollywood with Alice White and Blanche Sweet, Marion Ferguson in The Second Floor Mystery with Grant Withers, Mary Brennan/Margaret Waring in Road to Paradise with Raymond Hutton, the uncredited Nurse in War Nurse with Robert Montgomery, Anita Page, and Marie Prevost, Marsinah in Kismet with David Manners and Sidney Blackmer, Phyllis Erickson in The Truth About Youth with Conway Tearle and J. Farrell MacDonald, and ended the year portraying Dorothy Hope in The Devil to Pay!. In 1931, she graduated from the Ramona Convent Secondary School, and portrayed Isobel Brandon in Beau Idealwith Ralph Forbes and Irene Rich, Rosalie Evantural in The Right Of Way with Conrad Nagel, appeared as herself in the short The Stolen Jools with Wallace Beery, Buster Keaton, Edward G. Robinson, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Norene McMann in Three Girls Lost with Lew Cody and John Wayne, Elaine Bumpstead  in Too Young To Marry with O.P. Heggie and Emma Dunn, Claire 'Mac' McIntyre in Big Business Girl with Frank Albertson, Ricardo Cortez, and Joan Blondell, Diane Forsythe in I Like Your Nerve with Henry Kolker and Boris Karloff, Gloria Bannister in The Ruling Voice with Walter Huston and John Halliday, Gallagher in Plantinum Blonde with Jean Harlow and Reginald Owen, and ended the year portraying the uncredited Loretta in the shortHow I Play Golf, By Bobby Jones No.8: "The Brassie." with Bobby Jones. In 1932, she portrayed Sue Riley Nolan in Taxi! with James Cagney and Guy Kibbee, Sun Toya San in The Hatchet Man with Charles Middleton, Buster 'Bus' Green Dennis in Play-Girl with Winnie Lightner and Norman Foster, Lola Davis Hayes inWeek-End Marriage with Aline MacMahon, Grant Mitchell, and Roscoe Karns, Grace Sutton in Life Begins with Glenda Farrell, Preston Foster, and Frank McHugh, and ended the year portraying Marion Cullen in They Call It Sin with George Brent, Una Merkel, Louis Calhern, and Nella Walker. In 1933, she portrayed Madeline in Employees' Entrance with Warren William, Wallace Ford, and Frank Reicher, Marcia Stanislavsky in Grand Slam with Paul Lukas, Eve in Zoo in Budapest with Gene Raymond and Paul Fix, Peggy in The Life of Jimmy Dolan with Lyle Talbot,  and. Ruth in Heroes For Sale with Charley Grapewin, James Murray, and Edwin Maxwell. Her next film would highlight the best she had to offer Hollywood, especially considering the time was moving away from creative freedom and more in line with her theological upbringing.

As Mary Martin in Midnight Mary, she gives a liberating performance as a street-wise, gutter, prostitute and gangster moll. Like any precode woman, she embraces her sexuality and argues for agency over her life choices. With Franchot Tone and Andy Devine, Loretta, based on her standards could have easily stated that she hated this performance and the role, but with any great actor, regardless of how they feel towards the role they play, you can never tell based on how well they perform their character, and this is one of her best because she can empathize with the struggle of her character to be seen, brave enough to take the necessary risks her character has to take, and deliver a performance that makes this previously unlikeable character likeable. Though she might have been ashamed of this performance, she really embraces the freedom to create a performance like this and stands alone as an actress because of it. She followed this amazing performance portraying Florence in She Had To Say Yes with Regis Toomey and Hugh Herbert, Margot Lesesne in The Devil's In Love with Victor Jory and Vivienne Osbourne, and ended the year portraying Trina in Man's Castle. In 1934, she portrayed Julie Rothschild in The House of Rothschild with George Arliss, Robert Young, C. Aubrey Smith, and Reginald Owen, Letty Strong in Born To Be Bad with Cary Grant and Henry Travers, Lola Field in Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back with Ronald Colman, Warner Oland, and Mischa Auer, Countess Wilma in Caravan with Charles Boyer, Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette, and Billy Bevan, and ended the year portraying June Arden in The White Parade with John Boles, Jane Darwell, and Jane Barnes. The following year, The House of Rothschild and The White Parade were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but both lost to It Happened One Night. In 1935, the year began as the previous years did, with Loretta busy as ever, and her films getting relative notice by her peers. She also switched from First National, now Warner Brothers studio, to Fox Studios.In 1935, she portrayed Margaret Maskelyne inClive of India with Colin Clive, Cesar Romero, Montague Love, and Leo G. Carroll, Barbara Holland in Shanghai with Alison Skipworth, Walter Kingsford, Keye Luke, and Willie Fung, Call of the Wild with Clark Gable, Jack Oakie, and Sidney Toler, Berengaria- Princess of Navare in The Crusades with Henry Wilcoxon, Ian Keith, Katherine DeMille, Joseph Schildkraut, and Alan Hale, and the uncredited Crusades Actor in the documentary short Hollywood Extra Girl with Cecil B. DeMille and Ann Sheridan. Also during that year, she told the press that she wasn't feeling well, but she was actually pregnant after having a brief affair with Clark Gable on the set of Call Of The Wild, and didn't want the world to know it. In November of that year, she gave birth to a girl, Judy, and made it so that she adopted her own daughter months later, without public knowledge about who her father was. In 1936, she resumed her career as if nothing had happened. She began the year portraying Lady Helen Dearden in The Unguarded Hour with Lewis Stone, Roland Young, Jessie Ralph, and Henry Daniell, Ellen Neal in Private Number with Basil Rathbone, Patsy Kelly, Joe E. Lewis, and George Irving, Ramona in Ramona with Don Ameche and John Carradine, and ended the year portraying Susie Schmidt in Ladies In Love with Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, Simone Simon, and Tyrone Power. In 1937, she portrayed Tony Gateson in Love Is News with Stepin Fetchit, George Sanders, and Elisha Cook Jr., Laura Ridgeway in Cafe Metropole with Gregory Ratoff, Myra Cooper in Love Under Fire, Ina Heath Lewis in Wife, Doctor, and Nurse with Warner Baxter and Minna Gombell, and ended the year portraying Vicky in Second Honeymoon with Stuart Erwin and Claire Trevor. In 1938, she portrayed Miss Lynn Cherrington inFour Men and a Prayer with Richard Greene, David Nivien, Reginald Denny, and Barry Fitzgerald, Pamela Charters in Three Blind Mice with Joel McCrea, Binnie Barnes, and Franklin Pangborn, Countess Eugenie de Montijo in Suez with Annabella, Henry Stephenson, Sig Ruman, and Leon Ames, and ended the year portraying Sally Goodwin in Kentucky with Walter Brennan, Douglas Dumbrille, Karen Morely, and Charles Lane. The following year, her costar, Walter Brennan, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Kentucky, and won the honor. In 1939, she portrayed Doris Borland in Wife, Husband, and Friend, Mrs. Mabel Hubbard Bell in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell with Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Gene Lockhart, Spring Byington, and Harry Davenport, and ended her golden year in film portraying Anita Halstead inEternally Yours with Billie Burke, Broderick Crawford, and Eve Arden. By the time the forties began, she was an established film actress who survived many a transition in the industry, and who avoided what would have been a major scandal. She also was one of the first actresses in Hollywood to command a six figure salary. Still, her ambition kept her career afloat, next to the indirect recognition her film work was receiving. In 1940, she appeared as June Cameron in The Doctor Takes A Wife with Ray Milland, Reginald Gardiner, Gail Patrick, and Edmund Gwenn and Marianna Duval in He Stayed For Breakfast with Melvyn Douglas, Alan Marshal, and Una O'Connor. In 1941, she appeared as Annie Morgan in The Lady from Cheyenne with Robert Preston, Edward Arnold, and Gladys George, Lina Varsanna in The Men in Her Life with Conrad Veidt, Dean Jagger, and Otto Kruger, and ended the year appearing as Jane Drake inBedtime Story with Fredric March, Robert Benchley, and Dorothy Adams. In 1942, she appeared as Nancy Troy in A Night To Remember with Brian Ahrene and Gale Sondergaard. In 1943, she appeared as Carolyn Grant in China with Alan Ladd and William Bendix. In 1944, she appeared as Roberta Harper in Ladies Courageous with Geraldine Fitzgerald, Diana Barrymore, and Samuel S. Hinds, and Emily Blair in And Now Tomorrow with Susan Hayward, Barry Sullivan, Beulah Bondi, and Cecil Kellaway. In 1945, she appeared as Cherry de Longpre inAlong Came Jones with Gary Cooper, William Demarest, and Dan Duryea. In 1946, she appeared as Mary Longstreet in The Stranger with Orson Welles. In 1947, she began the year appearing as Maggie Williams in The Perfect Marriagewith Eddie Albert, Charles Ruggles, and Howard Freeman. Her next film would change her career in a very interesting way.

As Katrin Holstrom in The Farmer's Daughter, she gives the performance of a lifetime as a second generation Swedish American who speaks her mind and is not afraid to do so. With Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Charles Bickford, Rhys Williams, Lex Barker, and Keith Andes, Young is challenged as an actress yet again, and brings the right kind of braveness to a daring role. Though the film is comedy, there are many dramatic and social elements explored that make the film appear moreso than what it was advertised to be, and the reason why that is is her performance in it. Young meets the challenged of playing a character with an accent, but she doesn't call attention to the accent itself, but the character with the accent. She also meets the challenge of making this character believable by approaching her character, as she does with all her characters, with an amazing breadth of empathy. Through each of her character's hardships, Young displays her dramatic talent by capturing the nuances of her character subtlety but openly, so that we know what she is thinking. This empathy is then drawn outward to criticisms of American political culture as her character gets deeper and deeper into politics, her voice speaks out, and we believe her. The scene where this is most evident is when she calls out the candidate her employer has chosen out on his record of corruption. Actresses at the time were not given much opportunities to have a role in which to do that since the precode days in film, and with the changing political climate of transitioning from wartime America to post-war, and from post-war to McCarthyist witch hunts, Young's characterization is able to communicate what some of the country was thinking about it all. Because we are able to empathize with this assertive character, we are also convinced that there needs to be more like her in our government, and that even though she is fictional, the message of "she should run" rings true. She ended the year appearing as Julia Brougham in The Bishop's Wife with Monty Woolley, James Gleason, Gladys Cooper, Elsa Lanchester, and Karolyn Grimes. The following year, she was up for Best Actress for her performance in The Farmer's Daughter andThe Bishop's Wife was up for Best Picture. Though The Bishop's Wife lost toGentleman's Agreement, Loretta Young won the Best Actress Oscar, an honor well deserved for an amazing performance. In 1948, she appeared as Rachel Harvey in Rachel and the Stranger with William Holden, Robert Mitchum, and Gary Gray. In 1949, she appeared as Dr. Wilma Tuttle in The Accused with Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey, Sam Jaffe, Douglas Dick, Sara Allgood, and Ann Doran, Abigail Fortitude Abbott in Mother Is A Freshman with Van Johnson, Rudy Vallee, Betty Lynn, and Kathleen Hughes, and ended the year as Sister Margaret in Come To The Stable with Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Thomas Gomez, Arthur "Dooley" Wilson, and Mike Mazurki. The following year she was nominated again for Best Actress for her performance in Come To The Stable, but lost to Olivia de Havilliand in The Heiress. Marking her forty years in film, the fifties began with Loretta wanting to venture out into something new, as she finally did have the recognition of her peers and looked for new challenges with her work. In 1950, she interpreted the role of Clarissa Standish in Key to the City with Frank Morgan, Marilyn Maxwell, Raymond Burr, and Bert Freed. In 1951, she interpreted the role of Ellen Jones inCause for Alarm! with Bruce Dowling and Richard Anderson and Nora Gilpin inHalf Angel with Jim Backus. In 1952, she interpreted the role of Paula Rogers inPaula with Kent Smith, Alexander Knox, Thomas Pettig, Otto Hulett, and Will Wright and Christine Carroll Kimberly in Because of You with Jeff Chandler, Frances Dee, and Mae Clarke. In 1953, she interpreted the role of Jane MacAvoy in It Happens Every Thursday with John Forsythe and Edgar Buchanan. Also that year, she announced her retirement from film, and premiered her television show called "The Loretta Young Show, which ran until the beginning of the next decade. In 1955, she became the first actress to have won an Oscar and an Emmy Award, as she won for Best Actress Starring In A Regular Series, which she won again for Best Continuing Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic Series in 1957 and Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series in 1959. That year her show also won a Golden Globe for Best TV Show. In 1960, she received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her film and television work. In 1961, "The Loretta Young Show" ended its run. In 1962, "The New Loretta Young Show" premiered, but only lasted until 1963. Young decided to concentrate her activities towards charity work. She was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish in Los Angeles. She also was an active member of the Catholic Motion Picture Guild. In 1966, she filed a lawsuit against NBC for showing reruns of her television show to foreign markets with segments of her entrances, to which she contended showed her in outdated gowns. She also owned a cosmetics company that was headquartered in New York City. In 1972, a jury awarded her monetary compensation for her breach of contract suit against NBC. In 1973, her son, Christopher, was accused of child molestation and filming and distributing child pornography, and later indicted, sentenced to probation, and paid a fine. In 1976, there was talk of a film comeback, playing Mother Cabrini, the first American to achieve sainthood in what was to be directed by Martin Scorsese, but nothing ever materialized. Every now and then, she would make public appearances, like at award shows, but they were few and far between. She liked spending her time with her charity work. In 1982, she presented the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards. In 1986, she made her comeback to television appearing in the film "Christmas Eve." The following year, she won the Golden Globe for Best Performance By An Actress appearing in a Mini Series or Motion Picture Made for TV. In 1988, she was awarded the Women In Film Crystal Award. In 1989, she made her last television film "Lady in the Corner," for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1994, she stated the truth about her daughter's parentage in her autobiographyUncommon Knowledge, narrated the television documentary "The Great Steamboat Race," and narrated the television film "Life Along The Mississippi." In 1999, she appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, looking younger than her actual age, but she attirbuted that to air brushing techniques. In August of 2000 in Santa Monica, California, she passed away of ovarian cancer. Loretta Young dealt with a lot of adversity in her life, but she also gave amazing performances and great contributions to the entertainment industry as well. Through her brazen, empathetic performances, she was able to touch us with warm images of ourselves and our humanity that remain timeless and priceless.

This article is dedicated in the memory of Judy Lewis (1935-2011).

[hepclassic]

1946. Jennifer Jones as Pearl Chavez tries to reassure Lillian Gish as Laura Belle McCanles that she did not go swimming with Gregory Peck as Lewton “Lewt” McCanles. Then he comes in and implies she did, and he gets his just desserts. Directed by King Vidor. 

[hepclassic]

1943. Jennifer Jones as Bernadette Soubirous  tries to help Ermadean Walters as Marie Soubirous and Mary Anderson as Jeanne Adadie get firewood, but they don’t let her cross the river. She decides to try, when she sees Linda Darnell as The Virgin Mary and is transfixed. Her sister and her friend come back, and think the worst, and she wonders where the Lady went. Directed by Henry King. 

[hepclassic]

Jennifer Jones: Cinema’s Soul

*Originally published on the TCM Classic Film Union in November 2010* 

I do not know whether or not it is the oversaturation of media drowning out knowledge in our society, or just not appreciating something good while you still have it, but when I heard of this actor's death last year, I felt that I did not gratify her existence and her contributions while she was still alive. I felt the same way when Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. I felt that they were in the background of my life, contributing to my knowledge and appreciation of the arts for which I try to make a living. I had only seen this actor in one film, and I felt that I would not do this again and open my life to every suggestion I get about who to see, what to see, and who to recognize. As Thanksgiving draws near, I can be thankful that I let myself experience the gifts she gave us with her talent. Luckily, I am thankful that I can pay tribute to her today: Jennifer Jones.

She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in March of 1919, to travelling tent show performers for which they also owned and operated that toured in the Midwest. She attended the local Catholic school when she wasn't with her parents touring. When touring with her parents, she would take tickets, sell candy, and acted in the company. She attended the Monte Cassino Junior College in Tulsa and then went to Northwestern University. At Northwestern, she was a member of the soroity Kappa Alpha Theta before she transferred to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, where she made her stage debut as Elizabeth Barrett in The Barretts Of Wimple Street. Upon graduating, she returned to Tulsa and performed in a thirteen week radio program that her father performed and produced, and from there she went to Hollywood. Upon moving to Hollywood, she made her film debut as Celia Braddock in 1939's New Frontier with John Wayne. Sadly, her performance did not get noticed, but she kept pushing as she was a very ambitious person. She then appeared and her first and only television movie in "The Streets Of New York," followed by playing Gwen Andrews in Dick Tracy's G-Men. In 1939, Hollywood's Golden Year, her star wasn't even shining. However, pursuing her dreams led her to appear in radio programs and modeling hats for the Powers Agency while preparing for auditions. While auditioning for a movie, David O'Selznick took notice of her and signed her for a seven year contract. First, he had her as a lead in the William Saroyan play Hello Out There where she and the play received rave reviews. Her next film would signal a permament return to Hollywood, appearing as Saint Bernadette Soubirous in 1943's The Song of Bernadette. 

Alongside Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb, Gladys Cooper, and Anne Revere, the spotlight shined down on her for the first time, and did she radiate. It is in this performance was a method born and a technique realized. What Jennifer Jones brings to her characters is that she taps into the glow of soul. She can pinpoint with her performances what keeps a character living, the motivation of their undercurrent goal for which her characters are bound to accomplish on some level with the other characters around her. There is no one scene that reveals this, since she fixates us on her the whole time she is on screen. In a time where freedoms were treasured and tested themselves through the threat of fascism in Europe and Asia, her performance is a testament for the freedom of religion that we should value in this country. In the following year, she was rewarded the Best Actress Oscar for the year of 1943, beating out Ingrid Bergman, Jean Arthur, Joan Fontaine and Greer Garson. The success she achieved was realized at last. Taken with this success, however, she did not let it get to her head, and remained a private person. This success led her to be a protege of sorts to David O'Selznick. In 1944, she was cast as Jane Deborah Hilton in Since You Went Away with Claudette Colbert, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Monty Wooley, Lionel Barrymore, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead, and Alla Nazimova. This led to second Oscar nomination this time for Best Supporting Actress, but she lost to Ethel Barrymore in None But The Lonely Heart . 1945 led to her third Oscar nomination for Best Actress as Singleton in Love Letters   with Cecil Kellaway and Anita Louise but she lost to Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce. 1946, she asserted her stardom, appearing in two films. One of the was Cluny Brown as Cluny Brown alongside Charles Boyer, Peter Lawford, Reginald Gardiner, Reginald Owen, and C. Aubrey Smith. The other was a film that challenged both herself and her audience.

As Pearl Chavez in Duel In The Sun the innocent image was blown away as she played her biracial character who does not want to end up like her mother did, but finds herself unable to resist temptation to the likes of Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston, and Butterfly McQueen. Rather than play the biracial as a seductive temptress, she is pretty but falling into temptation by coincidence. The motivation of this character's soul is that of confused passion. With this role, she received her fourth Oscar nomination for Best Actress, but she lost to Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own. She maintained her stature and ended the decade well, appearing as Jennie Appleton in 1948's Portrait of Jennie with Ethel Barrymore and David Wayne, and in 1949, appearing as China Valdes in We Were Strangers with John Garfield and Ramon Novarro and as Emma Bovary in Madame Bovary with James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Gene Lockhart, and Harry Morgan. The fifties saw a continuation of her stardom, but a steady decline of her work. She was still O'Selznick's protege and that may had something to do with the quality not being so good Still, she pressed on. In 1950 and 1952, she appeared as Hazel Woodus in both Gone To Earth with Cyril Cusack and Hugh Griffith and The Wild Heart. Also in 1952, she played Ruby Gentry in Ruby Gentry with Charlton Heston and Karl Malden and playing Carrie Meeber in Carrie with Laurence Olivier, Miriam Hopkins, and Eddie Albert. In 1953 she appeared as Mary Forbes in Indiscretion of an American Wife with Montgomery Clift and Beat The Devil as Mrs. Gwendolyn Chelin with Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre. 1955 was a good year for Jennifer as she portrayed Dr. Han Suyin in Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing with William Holden, which scored her her last Oscar nomination for Best Actress, for whom she lost out to Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces Of Eve, and Miss Dove in Good Morning, Miss Dove with Robert Stack and Mary Wickes. 1956 she only played one role as Betsy Rath in The Man in the Gray Fannel Suit with Fredric March, Ann Harding, and Keenan Wynn. In 1957, she portrayed Elizabeth Barrett in a remake of The Barretts of Wimpole Street with John Gielgud and Catherine Barkley in A Farewell To Arms with Rock Hudson, Vittorio De Sica, Mercedes McCambridge, and Elaine Strich. She was beginning to feel the pressure of now being married to David O'Selznick who already controlled her career, that her own mental health went into question, and attempted suicide and was hospitalized, after being found temporarily in a coma at the bottom of a cliff in Malibu, California. Upon recovery, she returned to film work, appearing in 1962's Tender Is The Night as Nicole Diver with Jason Robards, Joan Fontaine, Tom Ewell, and Paul Lukas. She herself was fastly becoming disillusioned with Hollywood and acting in movies, as her mental health certainly was fragile enough to begin with. But, her ambition brought her a sensibility that she would not return to the screen unless she was ready. After the death of David O'Selznick in 1965, she ventured into film again playing Carol in The Idol. But, she found the pressure still there and overdosed on sleeping pills in 1967, for which she soon recovered. Her tenancity proved to be its own testament and was beginning to find it more important than making movies. She appeared in 1969's Angel, Angel Down We Go as Astrid Steele with Roddy McDowell and Lou Rawls and that ended her contributions of films for that decade. Her life shifted and changed for the better when she married famed art collector Norton Simon in 1971, and she found herself investing her time in the nature of art collecting. In fact, art collecting drew her to the screen one last time playing Liselotte in 1974's The Towering Inferno where her husband's art work was showcased alongside Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O.J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, and Robert Wagner. She would no longer return to the screen, and later attempts for a return did not work out in her favor. After the suicide of her daughter and son, Jones became involved in charity work regarding mental health issues. Also, she was a breast cancer survivor as well.In the latter part of her life, she devouted herself to charity work and keeping her husband's legacy alive. In December of 2009, she passed away of natural causes.

Looking back, I am thankful that she left the legacy that she did that expanded well beyond her movie career. She brought the glow of her stardom to causes that needed a light to shine on, and by fighting for those causes, was she able to cure herself. She will be remembered for her film performances that had such soulful depth. I am thankful that I let myself be exposed to what made her a legend, and calling her just a classic movie star is un-befitting to the legacy she left.

[hepclassic]

BUtterfield 8 (1960)

[hepclassic]

Marlene Dietrich by Cecil Beaton | 1930

[hepclassic]

this show is a gift