Eve Arnold, from A (Anouk, Antonioni) to V (Vitti)

More on the late Magnum photographer Eve Arnold - she certainly moved in the best circles, here she is with some of my favourites, showing her great eye for composition:

One of Arnold's great mid-50s Monroe shots.
Joan Crawford in 1959 in front of that marvellous 40s portrait of her.
Dirk Bogarde and Ingrid Bergman in 1964 - Ingrid was his houseguest when she did her stage run in A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, one of the first plays I saw, in 1965.
Sophia Loren with Chaplin on the set of THE COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG, 1966
(I really need to re-see that, I have totally forgotten it!).
Anouk Aimee on the set of JUSTINE, 1969.
Monica Vitti on the set of MODESTY BLAISE, 1966.
Joe Losey in Paris, with Eve's reflections in the mirror as she takes the picture.
Michelangelo Antonioni on the set of BLOW-UP, 1966, what a great shot.
- all from her terrific book "Film Journal"

Interestingly, Yul Brynner's photographs are now on exhibition and there should be a book, these fascinating candid photos of his colleagues at work and play have not been seen before. I particularly like that nice shot of Ingrid Bergman on the set of GOODBYE AGAIN. Yul always had a camera around his neck.

Showpeople: when Joan met Greg, Sophia and Max; and when Margaret met Harry ...

My 400th post! So here is another look at that great photo of the 1962 Oscar winners, with as was the custom, the previous year's winners, plus a great Margaret Sullavan anecdote, which I have to thank my pal Daryl for!



I wrote a while back about Loren and Peck presenting each other with Oscars - here again is that great shot of Joan Crawford graciously sharing their limelight! You have to hand it to Joan! No wonder Bette was left seething with rage in the wings!



The 1961 winners (Maximilian Schell and Loren) as was the custom presented the 1962 best actor and actress awards. Bette was nominated for WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? but Joan (who hadnn't been nominated for their little film) had volunteered to accept the best actress award on behalf of any nominee who could not be present. Peck got his from Sophia and Max announced that Anne Bancroft had won as best actress, but Anne was not there so Joan swept past Bette (they were both backstage) and (as legend has it, said "excuse me, I have an Oscar to collect") graciously accepted the award on Anne's behalf and she (looking terrific by the way) got to pose with the other winners! [that is Max next to Joan - looking like her hot date for the night]. So there was Bette empty-handed while Joan posed clutching an Oscar (so what if it was not hers) with Greg and Sophia and Schell basking in the publicity! Things were even less cordial between Joan and Bette after that !



And the Margaret Sullavan story? Margaret was one of the great stars of the '30s and '40s (as noted previously, at label). When she made NO SAD SONGS FOR ME at Columbia in 1950 (which turned out to be her last film), there is the story that she had a meeting with the head of the studio, the notoriously vulgar Harry Cohn. Cohn was supposed to have said to her, "Willie Wyler tells me you're really hot in bed," whereupon she stood up and walked to the door. But before she left, she reportedly said, "I don't believe Willie would have told you that, because he's a gentleman... but incidentally, I am!")



I am now taking a break for a week or so, as have family visitors staying so I expect to show them lots of London and various famous gardens! Back soon.

Mildred Pierce

The new MILDRED PIERCE is finally unspooling here in the UK. I missed the first episode but simply loved the second one. Of course being 5 hours, Todd Haynes has time to tell the story, from the James M Cain novel, and pile on the period detail with that California in the 30s look: the houses, decor, cars, costumes etc.

Veda is already shaping up nicely, and Kate Winslet again shows she is THE actress of her generation - no comedies about dogs for her! Guy Pearce is also an inspired bit of casting as Monty Beragon. Much as I like the Curtiz film with Joan Crawford and Anne Blyth, Eve Arden, Jack Carson, Zachery Scott and Butteryfly McQueen, it is a souped up version with the murder invented to fit in with the film noir background. This version really catches the desperation of that depression-era with all those women looking for work...



Here's to enjoying the rest of it - perhaps the best period drama since DOWNTON ABBEY?

Movies I love: Johnny Guitar / North to Alaska

A western double bill!







JOHNNY GUITAR was the very first film I saw, aged 8 - what a vivid introduction to cinema, I was mesmerised by the woman in white about to be hanged, and that other woman in black shooting down the lamps and setting the place on fire. Then of course later when I knew which film it was repeated viewings made it more delirious and desirable than ever. I just simply love it. Nice now to have good dvd showing that odd Republic Technicolor, with an introduction by Marty Scorsese, no less (as good as his one for EL CID).





Then there are those tales of the feud between Joan and Mercedes on set, it is all though oddly poetic as directed by Nick Ray. Joan is perfect as Vienna "sitting at her piano in her own home" waiting for the railroad to come so she can sell out. McCambridge is Emma Small the vicious town boss who is oddly drawn to the Dancing Kid, or perhaps it is Vienna she is drawn to and cannot act on it? The men - even Ward Bond - are just stooges here, as Emma and Vienna dominate. Events move at a pace as the two women face up to the climax. Sterling Hayden is sterling again as the quiet Johnny - his scenes with Vienna as they try to recapture their lost love are just so perfect. Then the lynch mob arrive ... For a child of 8 it was a marvellous experience and led to my being taken to other westerns that year: THE COMMAND, DRUM BEAT, SITTING BULL and other movies like A STAR IS BORN. Looking at it again now the architecture is fascinating: Vienna's large casino, the waterfall hiding the way to the mountain cabin - and what a perfect cabin it is... one almost wants to live there.



Moving on to 1960, that perennial comedy western NORTH TO ALASKA is thankfully a tv staple - one simply never tires of it. Henry Hathaway directs and 20th Century Fox producton values ensure it looks good - that early sequence with the tree loggers at their picnic is not really necessary at all but all part of the lazy rambling structure of the film. Wayne here, after those iconic roles in THE QUIET MAN, THE SEARCHERS and RIO BRAVO the previous year (and those perfect 50s programmers like THE SEA CHASE and LEGEND OF THE LOST), is having fun as is Stewart Granger - good to see them together, Fabian is the younger brother (he was cute then after HOUND DOG MAN in '59) and there is the running joke of him continually being manhandled by exasperated Wayne, especially when Capucine arrives as the replacement girlfriend. Cap is delightful here and holds her own well with Wayne and joins in the knockabout.







That muddly climax at the end has them all fighting in the mud - with Ernie Kovacs as the shady operator and lots of fun all round. It shows frontier life then almost as well as in McCABE & MRS MILLER! So, a fun film with people I like! Wayne and Granger are as adroit as ever at this late stage of their careers but they were not winding down yet - while Capucine and Fabian show comedy skills and provide the eye candy. What's not to like?

Edit: It won't let me reply to the Comment, so here is what I wanted to add:



Indeed - Johnny Guitar is so vivid it plays almost like a cartoon - very accessible for a child seeing his first movie!

Capucine is indeed a very independent woman in Alaska, holding her own with the men, even if she is playing a haughty "saloon girl" but she is not a pathetic one like Lee Remick was in the '59 western "These Thousand Hills".

The Best of Everything

Rona Jaffe's bestseller THE BEST OF EVERYTHING is back in the bookshops - due to the success of MAD MEN on tv, where Don Draper is seen reading it. Perhaps the movie will be back too? It is one of those perfect '50s confections, exploring the lives of loves of office girls in New York in the oh-so glamorous world of paperback publishing. It is a well-crafted story following Hope Lange as she emerges from the subway (with that nice touch of the breeze blowing up her bolero jacket showing us the lining material) wearing her white gloves and hat. Then we get to meet the other girls including Diane Baker (falls for a cad [Robert Evans no less] who wants her to have an abortion and then she meets a nice doctor!), fashion icon Suzy Parker who was in a few movies at this time as Gregg the actress who is just not good enough and cannot handle rejection by cad Louis Jourdan ... there is also Martha Hyer having an affair with an office colleague but that story is practically snipped out as the film focuses on the three main girls, with Hope getting involved with Stephen Boyd, and then her old flame Brett Halsey re-appears and he wants her to be his mistress.

There's a few old timers too - Brian Aherne as the lecherous boss and "as Amanda Farrow" Joan Crawford in full fighting mode as the office dragon making life hell for the girls in the typing pool. Amanda leaves to be with her long time married lover, so Hope gets promoted to her place, but it seems Amanda has left it too late..
It has those lush 20th Century Fox production values including that Johnny Mathis theme tune as the credits unfold over New York in the 50s - and is a sterling addition to those '3 girls sharing an apartment and looking for love' movies they did so well - usually directed by Jean Negulesco, who helms again here. The book was a bestseller at the time, along with those other torrid tales like PEYTON PLACE by Grace Metalious, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR (Natalie Wood in the '58 film) by Herman Wouk and A SUMMER PLACE by Sloan Wilson - all successful movies too, showing America in the late '50s before all that liberation stuff began! Then came the early '60s and titles like THE CHAPMAN REPORT (I have already reviewed this delirious Cukor classic) and Mary McCarty's THE GROUP [filmed by Lumet in 66] before we got to John Updike and RABBIT RUN! We move on to A SUMMER PLACE shortly ...

"Bette and Joan" in London

We are back in 1962 on the set of Robert Aldrich's new film WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? where Bette Davis and Joan Crawford sink their differences and work on this low-budget movie which they hope will get them back on top .... Their legendary feud is now the subject of a new play just opening in London, titled - yes - BETTE AND JOAN, we will have to see if it is worth checking out. It's presumably based on that deliciously trashy read "Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud" ... it must be daunting stepping into such well known shoes!

Greta Scacchi and Anita Dobson (Angie from hit tv show EASTENDERS) play the ageing stars and should at least have the look right. They were on television yesterday discussing it and seem to be having a lot of fun with it. Below: Greta lets rip as Bette as Baby Jane - and the real thing!

1934 cigarette cards - a selection .....

Double click images to enlarge...

Showpeople (9): annual movie trade fair time again

Oscar fever weekend arrives as the latest award ceremony gets underway. I do not anticipate too many, if any, surprises - Jeff Bridges will hardly win 2 years in a row (that hasn't happened since Tracy or Hanks) and after losing to Bridges last year it is certainly Firth's turn this time. A piece on morning television this a.m. was all gush about the glitz and glamour - it was a fashion showbiz event to them, they had no interest in the movies - but then that was hardly aimed at the movie buff crowd!

But when did it all become about the red carpet and the dresses and the jewels and the parties and the exposure - probably since it started really but only now with all the television rolling exposure and our new celebrity culture it is a whole new ballgame. Back in the '50s though we only had reports and photos of the (much smaller) ceremony in the fan magazines and annuals as a record of the event. Here are a few:Top: Dana Wynter, Angela Lansbury and Joan Collins performing a skit "We're glad we are not nominated" at the 1958 shindig. The '58 winners: GIGI producer Arthur Freed, Burl Ives, Susan Hayward, David Niven, Ingrid Bergman (presenting) and Maurice Chevalier (besg supporting actress Wendy Hiller presumably didn't attend); on to the 1962 awards and a glamorous Joan Crawford graciously shares the limelight with winner Gregory Peck and presenters Sophia Loren and Max Schell (1961's winners). Joan accepted the award for the absent Anne Bancroft, thus putting Bette Davis's nose out of joint! and a page of pictures from the 1957 show [click picture twice to enlarge]. Nowdays though one is hard pushed to remember who won a year or two ago!