WEIRDLAND

Monday, December 26, 2011

Happy Anniversary, Humphrey Bogart! Tough guy with a sensitive side

Happy Anniversary, Humphrey Bogart (25 December 1899, New York City - 14 January 1957, Los Angeles) Birth Name: Humphrey DeForest Bogart

Bogart, the sensitive tough guy, was hounded by insecurity and a host of other personal demons, his upperclass background lending an innate dignity. “Look, I’m hardly pretty, he seems to say. I sound like gravel; I look rough and tough; and, honest, I don’t give you the soft, foolish answers the pretty boys will give you. You may not like what I say, but you better believe it.” -"Humphrey Bogart (Great Stars)" by David Thomson


A video featuring some stills of male actors who were considered as tough guys but could also show a romantic, sensitive side (especially with their female co-stars): Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, John Garfield, Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford, Dana Andrews, Tom Neal, Alan Ladd, Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Clark Gable, Robert Ryan, Spencer Tracy, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Richard Widmark, etc. Also other actors not really the tough type (more on the sensitive side) as James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Dick Powell, Van Heflin, James Dean, William Holden, etc. Entwined some modern actors as Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Stephen Dorff, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, Clive Owen, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlie Sheen, etc.

Songs "You don't need to be more than yourself" by Elliott Murphy and "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Dick Powell in "Christmas in July" (1940) by Preston Sturges

Ellen Drew as Betty Casey and Dick Powell as Jimmy MacDonald in "Christmas in July" (1940), directed by Preston Sturges.


A scene from "Christmas in July" (1940) directed by Preston Sturges, starring Dick Powell and Ellen Drew. Jimmy MacDonald believes he has won the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest and brings his fiancée Betty to Shindel to buy her an engagement ring.

"Preston Sturges's second feature as writer-director (1940) is in many ways the most underrated of his movies —a riotous comedy-satire about capitalism that bites so deep it hurts. An ambitious but impoverished office clerk (Dick Powell) is determined to strike it rich in a contest with a stupid slogan (“If you can't sleep at night, it isn't the coffee, it's the bunk”). He's tricked by a few of his coworkers into believing that he's actually won, promptly gets promoted, and proceeds to go on a shopping spree for his neighbors and relatives.

Like much of Sturges's finest work, this captures the mood of the Depression more completely than most 30's pictures, and the brilliantly polyphonic script repeats the hero's dim-witted slogan so many times that it eventually becomes a kind of crazed tribal incantation. As usual, Sturges's supporting cast (including Ellen Drew, William Demarest, and Raymond Walburn) is luminous, and he uses it like instruments in a madcap concerto". Source: www.jonathanrosenbaum.com


Neighbourhood scene from "Christmas in July" (1940) directed by Preston Sturges, starring Dick Powell and Ellen Drew.

"Exhaustion has begun to creep on Powell’s perennial go-getter, and his manager’s (Harry Hayden) little monologue on embracing mediocrity is starting to sound reasonable. Co-workers prank him with a phony telegram: Maxford House Coffee has just picked his slogan and awarded him $25,000. The hoax snowballs - Powell’s dissonant jingle ("If you can’t sleep at night, it isn’t the coffee, it’s the bunk") suddenly becomes gold-plated, and, elated with this "commercial insurance," the company president (Ernest Truex) promptly kicks the clerk upstairs to the adverting department.

Prize money fills the streets with gifts, capitalism giveth and capitalism taketh away. "I’m not a failure, I’m a success," people tell themselves, and Sturges is there with his severe long takes, peeling back the comedy. A very barbed account of the American Dream as something between a shopping-spree bacchanalia and an uprising of tossed fruit, seemingly as cozy as The Gift of the Magi yet in reality more stinging than Revolutionary Road. King Vidor’s dehumanizing office passes by on its way to The Apartment, a black cat crosses the squashed dreamer’s path. Is it good or bad luck? "Well, that all depends on what happens afterwards." William Demarest delivers the punchline miracle. "Unhappy the land that needs miracles". Source: www.cinepassion.org


"Сhrіѕtmаs іn Julу" (Preston Ѕturgеѕ, 1940) - Full Movie.

Friday, December 23, 2011

(Christmas comes only once a year), Vincent Sherman on John Garfield.

John Garfield and Lana Turner as Frank and Cora in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) directed by Tay Garnett

Frank: Maybe it's none of my business, but, uh, what's Nick sore about?

Cora: He's so crazy about the sign, he's afraid you'll claim it's your idea instead of his.

Frank: Yeah. (He winks at her) Watch.

Jake Gyllenhaal winking right eye

John Garfield winking right eye

Anne Shirley and John Garfield in "Saturday's Children" (1940) directed by Vincent Sherman

"I was able to capitalize on qualities I knew he had, naïvete, sweetness, charm, vulnerability. It was a big artistic success. He was a trained actor with many sides to his talent". -Vincent Sherman on John Garfield

Kaaren Verne and Humphrey Bogart in "All Through The Night" (1942) directed by Vincent Sherman

Vincent Sherman was well-known in Hollywood for "women's pictures" and went on to direct such fine films as "All through the night" starring Humphrey Bogart and "The Hard Way" (both in 1942). Like Patri and Odets before him, Sherman ended up playing surrogate father to John Garfield. Acting fired interest in cultural and national events. "He was so eager to find out everything there is to know about life", Sherman recalled. "He wanted to know about art, painting and music. I've never seen such eagerness to learn in all my life. I'd buy a New Republic and The Nation and let him read them, and he'd just devour them".

Sherman and Garfield would stay up through the wee hours of the night talking about theater and life. "We lived in New York at that time," Sherman recalled. Garfield wanted more "Four Daughters" type films rather than another "Blackwell's Island", and to that end he made it a habit to hang out with the studio's screenwriters at their lunch table in the commissary.

Garfield continued to socialize with the Epstein Brothers and Ring Lardner Jr., as well as Howard Koch, John Huston and others, figuring he'd have a chance to get in on the ground floor of the next good picture. He accepted the fact that these writers would make him the brunt of their jokes. "What do you hear from the fates, John?" they would yell to him across the commissary, which led everyone to laugh.

"His desire was to be with the writers, and I understood that and appreciated that. I didn't think it was anything to laugh about, but sometimes the writers would make fun of him and laugh about it", Sherman recalled. Garfield needed to be liked; he still had that insecurity that stemmed from his lack of family. "Everybody he spoke to, he used charm with", secretary Helen Levitt recalled. "He needed everyone to like him. He really worked at it." Elia Kazan agreed: "He wanted to be liked, to be valued, to be esteemed."

Priscilla Lane and John Garfield in "Four Daughters" (1939) directed by Michael Curtiz

"I wanna have it all through the night
Christmas comes only once a year
why can't anybody shed just one tear
for things that don't happen all through the night
Oh, mama, all through the night
oh, baby, do it to me all through the night
Easy, easy, baby, why don't you give it to me
all through the night"
-"All Through The Night" song by Lou Reed ("The Bells" album, 1979)

At age 24, Garfield was a success. He was a movie star, the embodiment of the American Dream. He truly believed that he would be given the type of roles that made the careers of great actors like Olivier. But Garfield was in for a shock. There would be few films of the quality of "Four Daughters" at Warner Bros. "He became like a star overnight. He wasn't prepared to that kind of success so quickly, almost meteoric" -recalled Vincent Sherman.

George Brent and Bette Davis in "Dark Victory" (1939) directed by Vincent Sherman

John Garfield and Bette Davis, co-founders of The Hollywood Canteen

In "Saturday's Children" Garfield won an on-going battle with Warner Bros. to let him play something other than a thug or a criminal; unfortunately the film was a box-office flop, although critics praised Garfield's performance. Garfield plays Rims Rosson, a shy, naive young inventor who has dreams of adventure but who in reality is just another office clerk who's always strapped for money.

Christmas Eve at home with Joan Crawford and her children & stills of "Humoresque"

Stills of Joan Crawford and John Garfield in "Humoresque" (1946) directed by Jean Negulesco


1949 radio show "Christmas Eve at home with Joan Crawford and her children"

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Ida Lupino ("Dearly Beloved") video


Ida Lupino video featuring stills and scenes from "High Sierra" with Humphrey Bogart; "On Dangerous Ground" and "Beware, My Lovely" with Robert Ryan; "Out of the Fog" and "The Sea Wolf" with John Garfield.

Still of Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart in "They Drive By Night" (1940) directed by Raoul Walsh

Songs "Dearly Beloved" by Glenn Miller Orchestra and "You don't need to be more than yourself" by Elliott Murphy

Jake Gyllenhaal will be member of jury for Berlin Film Festival

Jake Gyllenhaal attending 'The Good Girl' at Sundance Film Festival

Jake Gyllenhaal will serve as a member of the jury for this year’s Berlin Film Festival!

The 31-year-old actor will join director Anton Corbijn, Iranian writer/director Asghar Farhadi, French-Brit actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, French director Francois Ozon, and more, Deadline reports. Director Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Another Year) will serve as president of the jury. The Berlin Film Festival will take place from February 9-19. Source: www.deadline.com

"Jake Gyllenhaal celebrated his 31st birthday with a SoulCycle spin class in Union Square on Monday morning and dinner with friends at Peter Luger in Brooklyn. The “Source Code” star and his actress sister, Maggie, “Love and Other Drugs” co-star Oliver Platt and a handful of close friends shared a low-key meal at the steakhouse. A spy said a “lumberjack chic” Gyllenhaal hung out at the bar and then enjoyed a cake that his mother, Naomi Foner, brought to the restaurant". Source: www.nypost.com


"JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and KANYE WEST have been named among the Most Stylish Men of 2011 in a new InStyle magazine poll. Editors have compiled a group of the 20 best-dressed guys and singer/actor Timberlake and rapper West, who recently launched his own fashion line, have made the cut.
Also, recognized: Zac Efron, Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson, soccer ace David Beckham, Jennifer Aniston's boyfriend Justin Theroux and actor Jake Gyllenhaal". Source: www.abc2news.com

Happy Christmas Holidays 2011!

Bérénice Bejo as Peppy Miller in "The Artist" (2011) directed by Michel Hazanavicius

Anita Page holding her Christmas wreath

Helen Mack hanging the wreath in Christmas

Joan Crawford on the chimney as Santa in 1925

Irene Dunne in front of a Christmas tree

Virginia Grey on a chimney in 1940's

Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth in "Christmas in Connecticut" (1945)

A very handsome Robert Ryan, circa 1948

Suzy Parker wearing Tiger Lil Christmas lingerie on the cover of LIFE, on 3rd December 1951, photo by Sharland for Life Magazine

Debbie Reynolds posing inside a Christmas present

Julie Christie besides a Christmas tree in 1965


Robert Pattinson, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Styled by Jessica Diehl, from Vanity Fair’s Year 2011

Emmy Rossum as Laura Chapman and Jake Gyllenhaal as Sam Hall in "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004)

Jake Gyllenhaal (when he smiles he can melt a whole winter season, and he always warms my heart!)

Emmy Rossum in Zooey magazine - January 2012

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Happy 93rd Birthday, Audrey Totter!

Happy 93rd Birthday Audrey Totter, born on 20th December 1918.

Among the certified classics she participated in were "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) in which she had a small role as John Garfield's blonde floozie pick-up.

Things brightened up considerably with "The Lady in the Lake" (1947) co-starring Robert Montgomery as detective Philip Marlowe. The film was not well received and is now better remembered for its interesting subjective camera technique. Audrey's first hit as a femme fatale co-star came on loanout to Warner Bros. In "The Unsuspected" (1947), she cemented her dubious reputation in "B" noir as a trampy, gold-digging niece married to alcoholic Hurd Hatfield.

She then went on a truly enviable roll with "High Wall" (1947), as a psychiatrist to patient Robert Taylor, "The Saxon Charm" (1948) with Montgomery (again) and Susan Hayward, "Alias Nick Beal" (1949) as a loosely-moraled "Girl Friday" to Ray Milland, in the boxing film "The Set-Up" (1949) as the beleaguered wife of washed-up boxer Robert Ryan, "Any Number Can Play" (1949) with Clark Gable and as a two-timing spouse in "Tension" (1949) with Richard Basehart.

Audrey Totter and Robert Ryan in "The Set-Up" (1949) directed by Robert Wise

Richard Basehart and Audrey Totter in "Tension" (1949) directed by John Berry

-James Bowden: Some people assumed you'd marry Clark Gable because the two of you used to go out together.

-Audrey Totter: I never did. I knew him since "Adventure." Then we made "Any Number Can Play" (1949). Yes, we dated. He was a tremendous guy, very witty, with a huge romantic aura. But all the girls he dated looked a little like his late wife Carole Lombard. He was still in love with her. So we settled for being great friends.

Although the studio groomed Audrey to become a top star, it was not to be. Perhaps because she was too good at being bad. The 1950s film scene softened considerably and MGM began focusing on family-styled comedy and drama. Audrey's tough-talking dames were no longer a commodity and MGM soon dropped her in 1951. She signed for a time with Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox as well but her era had come and gone. Film offers began to evaporate. At around this time she married Leo Fred, a doctor, and instead began focusing on marriage and family. TV gave her career a slight boost in the 1960s and 1970s, including regular roles in "Cimarron City" (1958) and "Our Man Higgins" (1962) as a suburban mom opposite Stanley Holloway's British butler.