A reminder of pure glamour

Just a few reminders: Marlene and Marilyn, 2 from 1962 - that young couple from BOCCACCIO 70 (Marisa Solinas and Germano Gilioli) and Warren Beatty and Eva Marie Saint in ALL FALL DOWN; 3 heart-throbs: Guy Madison, Jean Sorel, Terence Stamp; Alain Delon and Romy Schneider making arriving by plane look glamorous; a Deneuve luggage advert, Trintignant and Anouk in UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME; Gina, Claudia and Sophia showing star-wattage; the gals in THE OPPOSITE SEX, 1956 and Kay Kendall, Rex Harrison and Angela Lansbury displaying star power in THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, 1958, and of course Monica. More on these and more at labels for each, and Glamour label!

Tom's Dolls

Those doll books by Tom Tierney are so amusing - various titles on costumes worn by stars like Joan Crawford for instance with a cardboard doll and all the dresses to cut out and dress her. There must have been quite a lot of them over the years. One I have got is "Great Costumes from Classic Movies" with very detailed dresses, like the few here: a Travis Banton outfit for Dietrich in THE SHANGHAI EXPRESS, Garbo in TWO FACED WOMAN, Joan Crawford ritzy number in THE WOMEN, and Jack Lemmon's ensemble as Daphne in SOME LIKE IT HOT! Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Rita Hayworth, Vivien Leigh and others also feature wearing iconic costumes.



Tom also did a doll book "Attitude" featuring a more up to date collection of paper dolls featuring a ritzy set in Manhattan: models, tricks, designers, grand dames, military generals insisting on discipline etc. It's enormous fun! (Click images to enlarge)

Star of the day: One more Dirk Bogarde item....

To round off my Dirk Bogarde day, another round of images ... those romantic poses from A TALE OF TWO CITIES, the notorious leather trousers in THE SINGER NOT THE SONG, in repose on I COULD GO ON SINGING, with Alan Bates in THE FIXER and Michael York in JUSTINE, and with Susannah York in OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR.

Showpeople (15): Bogarde and pals

I have done some 'Showpeople' posts on Dirk Bogarde previously, with the likes of pals Kay Kendall and Rex Harrison, meeting Rock Hudson - did the closeted British and American heart-throbs compare notes? - and with co-stars like Jean Simmons, Anouk Aimee (whom he knew since she was a teenager), Monica Vitti, Julie Christie, Lilli Palmer - did he and Lilli discuss the Rex and Kay story?, Lilli being the previous Mrs Harrison. (Left, another shot from that DARLING premiere with Christie and Vitti. Glamour!)

Below with Kay and Kenneth More in DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE, and with Muriel Pavlow, another Rank Organisation stalwart and co-star, and with Capucine. Dirk and Kay were also guests at Kenneth More's "This Is Your Life" tv show in 1959.









I suggest that Lauren Bacall and Dirk really are the people who knew everybody - and SHE visited HIM the day before he died in 1999, and I love the photo of her with Kay, Vivien Leigh and Coward back in 1959, and with Kay at the theatre that year! [Showpeople label]. He worked of course with all the English talent of the time including those newcomers Courtenay, Fox, Miles ("dainty Miles" as he referred to her at one of his NFT discussions), Christie, Stamp, York - Michael and Susannah, etc. Then of course he knew all the European ladies: the young Bardot in DOCTOR AT SEA, Thulin, Seyrig, Aimee, Vitti, Mangano, and became great friends with Charlotte Rampling and Jane Birkin, he was also pals with Simone Signoret and Yvonne Mitchell though did not work with them, and of course his later co-stars like Lee Remick and Glenda Jackson. [It is a shame that Romy Schneider did not get to play the Austrian princess in Losey's ACCIDENT in '67, as originally planned - she would have brought so much more to the role and made her a real tease, rather than Sassard's blankness]. Then of course there are the Garland, Capucine and Ava Gardner stories, as per his books ... here is a further selection then:

Awards time in 1965 with Lee Marvin, Julie C and Patricia Neal - later of course he and Glenda Jackson did THE PATRICIA NEAL STORY for television; and that silent scene with Delphine Seyrig in ACCIDENT and with Anouk in JUSTINE, and Bjorn from DEATH IN VENICE!

Dirk at war again ....

A perfect Bogarde pose!

This time as Major Patrick Leigh Fermor [see Books, Greece labels] in ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT in 1957, the last of his 50s wartime capers - THE WIND CANNOT READ being mainly a (doomed) love story set in India. We are in Crete this time, in this final collaboration between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger - who after those great '40s films I love like BLACK NARCISSUS, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, THE RED SHOES, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH etc hit a lean patch in the '50s: THE TALES OF HOFFMAN was not a success and neither was the rare OH ROSALINDA! (which I now have a copy of to watch, review soon). They then did THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE in '56 and ILL MET in 57.







Dirk plays Patrick Leigh Fermor, who died this year - I did a obit notice at the time - and it is based on the true story of how during the war he was living with the partisans in occupied Crete and how they kidnapped a German general and got him off the island and on a ship to Cairo. It is boys-own stuff really and for a war film there is a surprising lack of action. so it's another World War II mission story, and there have been dozens. It IS more civilised than most. Bogarde leads the cast with Marius Goring as the general who comes to respect his captors. The likes of Chrisopher Lee and Cyril Cusack are in the background.

The star on set - with the Rolls in the background ...

Movies I love: Dona Herlinda and her Son

This 1985 film from Mexico is as delightful now as it must have been then. Director Jaime Humberto Hermosillo presents a comedy of manners raising the lid on sexuality in Latin America, and how a family can resolve things so everyone gets what they want.



Rodolfo is the surgeon son of Dona Herlinda, a wealthy widow, expertly played by Guadalupe del Toro, Rodolfo is having a relationship with Ramon, a music student, but they can never find time to be alone at the cramped house where he lives. Dona Herlinda, who obviously must know what is really going on between her son and Ramon, invites the young man to move to her large house in Guadalajara, but Dona Herlinda also wants Rodolfo to marry and present her with a grand-child. The film is endearing, the characters very much alive, and the many twists and turns on the story make this movie funny and poignant at the same time. Arturo Meza (Ramon), Marco Antonio Trevino (Rodolfo) and Leticia Lupercio (Olga) suit their roles perfectly. Hermosillo seems the only openly gay Mexican director and he is still making movies. I shall have to investigate further ...



Rodolfo, who must cover his true nature, begins to see Olga, a young woman from his same circle. He proposes and marries her, breaking Ramon's heart in the process. Dona Herlinda, who is more intelligent than she is given credit for, pulls strings to keep Ramon at her home and decides to expand the house so that Rodolfo and Olga can move in with the grandson and live together happily ever after. Olga wants to study and travel so the arrangement suits her, and the boys can be together too.







Of course, the film is in simple terms a fun story, but deep inside it touches a lot of themes that have been taboo in so many societies. Usually mothers aren't as accepting as this Dona Herlinda, who acts as a procurer for the son she loves by inviting the young lover, Ramon, to come live with her. One deeply amusing scene has Dona Herlinda and Ramon together at a music event, while Rodolfo and Olga are away on honeymoon. Ramon is affected by the music and begins to cry, as Dona Herlinda without a word passes him a hankie. It ends with the expanded family all together as the son toasts his wonderful mother, who smiles serenely back at us.



Hermosillo seems a very interesting director, I should see other of his films, I caught one on television once, another gay related story, starring Fassbinder's muse Hanna Schygulla. His movie reminds me a lot of Almodovar of whom more later.

Movies I love: No Way To Treat A Lady

After looking at LOVING (review below) from 1970, here is a favourite George Segal film from 1968, the big attraction for me being a lovely performance by Lee Remick. NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY - Jack Smight's black comedy was a treat back then and is still so now, as serial killer Rod Steiger dons different disguises to con his way into the homes of lonely middle aged women ... it of course boils down to his mother complex! Rod runs a theatre so has access to lots of disguises as we see him in turn as an Irish priest, a Polish plumber, in drag as a woman scared to go leave a bar, and hilariously as a gay hairdresser!





George Segal is Mo Brummell, the harrassed Jewish detective on the case - plagued by his very Jewish mother Eileen Heckart who is great fun here. Lee Remick is the girl who may provide a clue and she is charming here making something special of the standard girl role. Just one quibble: wouldn't the mother fixated killer go after Segal's mother rather than his girlfriend? It's got that nice late '60s vibe .... below, right: Steiger in drag with another victim...