Happy Birthday, Vivien! [5 Things I Love]

Since my birthday posts tend to be a little aimless and rambling, I thought I would try what I used on Carole Lombard's birthday: listing my five favorite things about the person whose birthday is in question! This is going to be with a little less detail than Carole's post, because I made Vivien a video, too.

WARNING: Rianna somehow turns into a crazy cat lady (DESPITE THE FACT SHE HAS NEVER OWNED A CAT) in this post and brings up cats indubitably. Excessively. I mean it. So if you have a problem with cats, it's probably better to turn away...

Happy birthday, Vivien!

#5: Her cat smile.

I've mentioned this several times before ;-) but it's true that she does have a cat smile, doesn't she?? I'm currently reading her biography, and at one point someone recalls an incident in which Vivien was sitting and "smiling like a Cheshire Cat". :D I don't think she would mind her smile being called that, either - she once said, "I'm mad about cats!"

#4: Her eyes.

I don't want to be too repetitive and call her eyes "cat eyes", but they kind of are. I mention this because in my art class we're doing in a project to draw a single eye, and we can make it as abstract or as real as we want, etc., and I'm using Vivien's blue-green eye (complete with her famously arched eyebrow) as my model. 

#3: Her love of cats.

Okay, okay, I promise this will be my last mention of cats in this post!!! (No, I'm not even a crazy cat lady or anything - I don't even own a cat, really!). I'm making her seem.... very... catty, which she was, but not in the proper sense of the word. Anyhow. ;) She really did love cats, you know. I believe she had several Siamese ones, and she and Larry once took a stray tabby cat off the street to take care of it. In her biography, I read that when she was about six or seven her parents sent her away from her home (India) to England to study at the Sacred Heart Convent. Vivien brought with her a little, tiny kitten and even though pets weren't allowed they just had to make allowances for Vivien.

Isn't she adorable with that cat???

#2: Her marriage to Larry Olivier.

Well, yes! They were married 1940-1960, just like Lucy and Desi. And though, of course, the latter couple will always been my favorite Classic Hollywood couple, "Viv and Larry" are up there as well. I learned a lot more about them after watching "Larry and Vivien: The Oliviers in Love". Certainly gossipy but worth a watch. It's on Youtube, and you can click the picture below to go to the video page.

YES, I had to use the photo of them with a cat....

#1: Scarlett O'Hara.

Well, this in it itself is pretty obvious, isn't it??? "Gone With the Wind" being one of my favorite movies and Scarlett O'Hara one of my favorite characters - and for goodness sake, this blog is called Frankly, My Dear! Anyway, I think Vivien's performance as Scarlett is exceptional, and not only does she bring justice to the Margaret Mitchell character she makes is come alive on screen. She really seems to fit the bill, if you read the actual book and Margaret Mitchell's descriptions. This is stereotypical to say, but this must be one of my favorite performances ever. And I also love the fact that when she turned down the role of Isabelle in "Wuthering Heights" (she wanted the lead, of course), the producers went something along the lines of, "Now, you're real stupid - you won't get a better role than this for your American debut!" And she went and got Scarlett O'Hara, of course.

And here is my tribute video for the lovely lady. I was planning to use "Tara's Theme", but the more I looked at the clips of Vivien I had, the more I realized that the excitement of that theme was in a sharp contrast to the more somber clips of hers. So I went with the theme from "Now, Voyager" - I adore that theme, it's got to be one of my favorite movie themes, and it seemed to fit her.

***

That's it for today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VIVIEN, and have a happy Saturday, readers! I'll leave you with a photo of Greer and Vivien, as we all know I'm currently in Greer Garson obsessive mode. Oh, and Leslie Howard, too, but I'm not exactly a huge Leslie fan...

PS: Sorry I turned in a crazy cat lady, really! I guess it's catching, maybe from all the reading I've been doing about Vivien!
PSS: Also, birthday wishes to Roy Rogers and Joel McCrea! 

My Greer Garson Epiphany

This is something that I've been pretty excited about for the past week!

Remember back in September, on Greer's birthday, I said:

"You want to hear something shameful? I haven't even seen a Greer film in completion! Yes... not even "Mrs. Miniver". (I know, I hang my head in shame).... So something I promise to do in the next weeks or so is watch a Greer Garson movie."

 [September 29 from this post].

I actually did stick to that promise, though not exactly on purpose. Last week (before I had my epiphany) I wrote a post about what was in my Netflix queue and there were two Greer movies in it, but not exactly first on my list. (Though, technically, my queue isn't in order of what I want to see  first because there are so many movies I want to see and I'm too lazy to sort through it).

"The Epiphany" actually came exactly a week ago.

They showed "Adventure" (1945) on TCM last week. I was trying to do some homework for art class when the movie came on, and to tell you the truth it didn't actually capture my attention until Greer came on screen. (All the before stuff: Clark Gable on the ship, and some boy dying, and Thomas Mitchell losing his soul didn't captivate me, I guess).  I put away my work and I just had to watch her, watch the movie.


Actually, "Adventure" (1945) isn't all that great of a movie (I won't get into that much, as I may do a SMR for it), but Greer, and the way she played her character against Clark Gable's really entrapped me. I could finally see what was so 'special' about her, something I had been pretty much oblivious up until that point because I'd never completely sat down to watch one of her movies. I don't think that the still pictures do her justice.

I mean, she obviously looks lovely in them but I think you really need to see her on screen to love her. 


Because, I DO love her now! I'm sitting there watching her in this half bad movie, "Adventure" (though that tagline is BRILLIANT, "Gable's back and Garson's got him!"), and I went, "Oh, well, now I can tell what everyone loves about her!!!" You can't exactly explain it because you just have to watch her on screen, I suppose. But she's lovely. Seriously, it was like the lightbub moment for me. 


And oh my gosh! That VOICE. I WANT her voice. It's not the usual British accent (which, in itself, is awesome - I mean, I've got this thing for accents), it's that with these lilting tones. I can't quite explain it, it totally helps endear you to her.

Have a listen for yourself:

"Why do sailors drive so fast?"

And something I've heard other people say about her is, well, that she talked a lot. :) I'm not one of those people that mind "talkers" but I guess only if I can get a word in edge wise. I don't know. I mean, for Goodness sake, I obviously ramble on this blog a lot but in reality, I need to know a person quite well to talk to them (in that case, though, I can. Ramble. A lot. :D). THE POINT IS, even if I hated "talkers" - which Greer certainly was, a good proof of this is her five and a half minutes long Oscar speech, the longest to date - I would not mind listening to Greer ramble on. Because well, number one, of how pretty her voice sounds and obviously because she is a sweet person you'd want to listen to. So yes, one more thing that makes me love her.

Besides that, let me state the obvious: she is such a wonderful actress. I mean, like I said, "Adventure" was certainly not the greatest movie but when I watched it I was enjoying myself so much. She kept the character alive and with such warmth. Yes... she did play a likable character but all the while.

So since last week when I finally saw my first Greer movie I've watched three more of her films and listened to a OTR broadcast. [This one, and I recommend you listen to it because not only can you listen to her lovely voice, it's also a fun, albeit short, rendition of the classic "My Favorite Wife"]. I've seen "Scandal at Scourie" (1949), "Desire Me" (1947), "Mrs. Parkington" (1944) - and though they aren't Greer's most well known movies, or best, but currently I'm just having fun experimenting with her films, watching her on screen (which I enjoy very much), and just getting to know her as an actress. 

Oh, and I'm watching "Random Harvest" tonight and "When Ladies Meet" tomorrow. I'm excited to watch both; "Random Harvest" because you know, it's credited to be one of her best, and "When Ladies Meet" because (I think), it's also got Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor, which sounds like that should add up to a lot of fun.


I also really want to see "Julia Misbehaves" and obviously "Mrs. Miniver" - but whereas I can get the latter movie I have been unable to find "Julia Misbehaves"! I so want to see it. Elizabeth Taylor is in that, too. It just sounds like a lot of fun. I searched everywhere online for it and came up blank, so I guess I'll just have to wait until TCM shows it on TV next! :(


It's actually quite annoying because Netflix (like I said, my bread and butter, dahlings) has SUCH a small collection of her movies it's shameful. Only like five, I think, really. So I'm kind of trying to find her movies wherever I can now and watching them by all means. :)

[By the way, if you have an other Greer suggestions for me, by all means go ahead and pitch in. I got some in the birthday post I wrote for her - I'm open to more!]

(I was kind of annoyed at the lack of photos there are of her smiling, because she's got such a pretty smile. I wish she had been photographed more like that. Anyway, to show you her smile I decided to get a screencap from "Desire Me". The latter clip has some pretty good examples of her smile, too. :D)

Bottom line: She's totally one of my favorites now. <3 And I would basically call this whole experience an epiphany because it kind of hit me like a bolt of lightening, and I'm kind of embarrassed to have never realized this before! So perhaps a rambling sort of post, but Greer is a total favorite now, so, well, I thought I'd update you all. :)

Also, since I am watching so many of her movies you can expect a lot of SMRs with Greer's movies. But, don't worry, I am also watching other movies and we'll, you know, switch it up. :)

I guess I'll end this with this lovely Greer tribute I found on Youtube. I hope to make one myself in time!

***

Also, guess what?? I've decided to throw my hat in the ring for NaNoWriMo this year! For those of you that don't know what it is, NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month", which is exactly what November is. I LOVE to write stories in hopes of them being completed as a novel - that sometimes does happen, but nothing polished and complete yet for me to take seriously. (Though I've been doing this for quite a while, trust me). Since blogging I've slightly neglected my efforts, but only a bit and this ought to get me back on board. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month which I probably won't be able to complete. I mean, school keeps me incredibly busy. All my homework and I have important exams to study for at the end of this month. But I do have some down time - this weekend is a long one (no school tomorrow) and Thanksgiving as well, so I thought, "what the heck!". I've seen a lot of bloggers and vloggers that I read and watch trying this, so I wanted to join in. :) Anyone else doing this? Let me know! :)

Also: a quick reminder to please vote in the poll! If it applies to you, that is. The question is simple: "Rebel Without a Cause" vs. "West Side Story" for which film you think is better. There's about a week left and so far only TWO votes. So please, if you can, vote :) because it sucks to present my results with only a couple of votes. (The poll is on the very top of my sidebar, the first thing you'll see). 

PS: I'm currently watching Greer in this interview. She's so adorable! ;D

Happy Halloween! ♥

Hello readers,

I'm having a great day. I discovered that I got one of the leads in the school play, and it also happens to be Halloween, which is one of my favorite holidays! ♥


Though now I'd probably have to list Christmas as my favorite holiday, when I was a little kid Halloween was my favorite. Trick or treating always seemed so exciting - though, to be fair, it was never the candy I cared about. Yes, I love candy (I'm a confessed chocoholic), but for me it was more fun to dress up and just that I had the opportunity to run around the neighborhood at night, in the cool Autumn air, thrilled me.


I still love Halloween, only now that I'm older and not trick or treating, you kind of grow out of the fun of it. But I still love the spookiness, the crisp Autumn air (all the snow has melted, but it's still nice and chilly outside), snatching candy and seeing all of the neighborhood dressed up in costumes and decorations (though let's be fair: my neighborhood is a little on the dull side. A pumpkin and maybe a wreath of glittery leaves is enough to cause excitement).


Anyway, in honor of Halloween I did a review for one of those classic, cheesy, but still fun horror flicks for yesterday's SMR (you can read it here) and today here's my attempt at scrapping up some Halloween/classic movie related stuff.


A lot of these photos have been circulating around the blogosphere lately for Halloween; nothing really original but it's hard to find Halloween/classic movie stuff so I gave it my best! :) 

Lucy! <3

Joan Crawford

Judy Garland

Pier Angeli

Debbie Reynolds (sorry for the blurriness!)

Carole Lombard, Clark Gable and company [they're dressed up, so I guess it counts as a Halloween photo..]

Carole and Vivien with black (well, blackish for Vivien..) cats.

And, one of the most awesome Halloween stories ever about Lucy, told by her daughter, Lucie Arnaz --

HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! ♥

Sunday Movie Review: "House on Haunted Hill" (1959)

You might have noticed a few changes in my tab bars. I have made separate pages for my favorite actors and actresses, as well as expanded the lists of both quite a bit. You can now head on over to my favorite actresses page and read about My Fifteen Favorite Actresses (you'll notice some surprising additions - but we'll talk about that later this week :D), and over to the actors page to read about My Ten Favorite Actors (though this may become fifteen, we'll see.)

I watched a bunch of movies this weekend, making up for not getting to watch any last weekend. But, my dear followers, with tomorrow being Halloween I thought it only appropriate to watch an old horror film and review it for today, and therefore, that's what I have for you. On to the review!

***

The poster: Nothing amazing, but it looks like the cover of a children's mystery novel, which endears me to it :)

The plot:

Millionaire Frederick Loren offers five people $10,000 to stay a night in a remote haunted house, giving each of them a loaded gun as a "party favor." Throughout the night, they're terrorized by skeletons, disembodied heads and other grisly apparitions. Will any of the guests survive to win the prize? Or will the house scare them to death? The legendary Vincent Price stars in one of director William Castle's most famous chillers. [from Netflix]

The starring players:

[you probably wouldn't recognize most of them..]

• Vincent Price as Frederick Loren
• Carol Ohmart as Annabelle Loren
• Richard Long as Lance Schroeder (Barbara Stanwyck's son from The Big Valley)
• Carolyn Craig as Nora Manning
• Alan Marshal as Dr. David Trent
• Elisha Cook Jr. as Watson Pritchard 

The verdict:

2/5

**

So like I said up there, I didn't really recognize anyone but Vincent Price (my father informed me that "Lance" also played Stany's son on "The Big Valley"). Most of them are B movie actors or minor TV characters, not exactly a star studded ensemble cast.

Of course, going into this I didn't really expect it to be a good movie. These old horror films tend to be (by stereotype) bad, though there are definitely exceptions to the rule. But I am not a horror film junkie and so I wasn't really expecting to love this.

Well, yes... I didn't. There is certainly not much harem scaram here, though I actually believe the plot has potential (albeit plenty of cliches but still potential), it couldn't be excetued properly, not in this B film budget. I'm not going to be too harsh with this film because just going into it I was expecting the cheesy twists and tricks, the laughable "scary" effects and the holes of the plot.

That is exactly what I got. This film will ensure a lot of screaming from a particular female character, really awful rubber "scary" masks and plastic skeletons, and so many obvious holes in the plot. It was actually really funny and I was doubling over with laughter at points; this is a hyperbola of a dated old horror film.

Terrible pacing and the characters are not utilized to their best. There are five who have come to spend the night for the money - the "pretty young girl" is overused, the doctor gets his moment in the end, the old caretaker is a creepy enough to make his mark, Lance has a habit of getting locked in dark rooms, but then there's the last, older woman who is completely forgotten about (trust me, this annoyed me SO much) save for blood dripping from the ceiling onto her hands.

There isn't much more to say - the acting is stereotypical, falling to point, just pretty much everything you would really expect of this movie. Campy, funny, and far from scary but hey, it's only an hour fourteen minutes. If you like horror films or just want to give one a try, I would actually suggest this because it's certainly entertaining. Not exactly "so bad it's good", but "bad but it's not a total waste". Have fun picking out the holes in the plot (match them up with what IMdb found!) and laughing at the cheesy effects. I HATE to call old movies dated because you know, they are not, not always - but this one, well... even I must admit. . :)

In a strange way, there is something endearing about these movies (there are plenty of these short, campy fares with Vincent Price) - I can't exactly place my finger on it, but there is! Anyway, if you want to watch something exactly good avoid this and go watch "Sunset Boulevard" or "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" instead - yeah, not horror, but awesome and dark and suspenseful. :)

The bottom line:

Go into this knowing what you're going to get before hand: campy, cheesy, and not scary. If you still want to watch it, do so by all means because it's short enough (an hour fourteen minutes) to not be a waste of your time and you'll have fun laughing at the corniness. But like I said, if you want to watch something good pick something else. (Go watch "Rosemary's Baby"). 

Some photos:

Some trivia:

• This film actually attracted many audiences, and the large grosses caught the eye of Hitchcock. Hitch decided to make his own "low budget horror film": "Psycho".
• The Ennis Brown House in Los Angeles, built in 1924 by Frank Lloyd Wright, was used for the exterior shots.
• The director, William Castle, decided to pull this prank in movie theaters: there is a scene in the film where a (obviously) plastic skeleton rises from an acid pool. When this happened, a plastic skeleton would appear from a black box next to the screen. It would glide down a wire and sweep over the audience's heads in attempts to spook them. A lot of theaters had to stop using this effect though, because local teenage boys would bring slingshots to the cinema and fire stones, balls, and whatever they could find at the skeleton.

A movie tidbit:

[The whole movie is also available for watching here on Youtube if you'd care to watch]

***

That's it for this Sunday! I'll probably do a Halloween post tomorrow but all the while: Happy Halloween! (a little early).

"Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing" Book Review

Well... guess what?.... it's... SNOWING OUTSIDE! :) You can imagine my happiness from the insane amount of talking I do about the weather here on this blog ("I wore tights today, it's so cold!" "My fingers are freezing as I type!" "The leaves are turning orange and it smells like fall!") - but seriously. Where I live, we don't even get flurries until December (if we're lucky). And yes, though it isn't much more than a sprinkling of snow, snow is snow. <3 Snow before Halloween, where I live; with the trees not even bare yet - well, I could never dream... so... here's to hoping this will be a snowy winter for me. (If we're getting snow in OCTOBER, I'd like to presume...) So happy! :)

Okay, now today I've got a book review for you - "Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing," by Lee Server.

Let me start off by saying that this is a pretty decently sized book. The actual biography comes in at exactly 500 pages, and though it's not a monster, it's on the huge side for sure.

.

That was my one reservation about reading this book - not that I don't like thick reads, but I'm not Ava obsessed or anything and I was wondering if I was really willing to read that many pages about her. Okay, scratch that: it sounds mean, because I do really like Ava Gardner but this is versus, perhaps, five hundred pages about Lucy in which I wouldn't think twice about purchasing (if it's Lucy, the thicker the better).

ANYWAY, my thirst to know more about her and my love of Classic Hollywood won out - so I went ahead and decided to read it. 

My thoughts about this book are kind of all over place, but here's an attempt at trying to review it.

Okay, so for sure I did learn lots of details about Ava's life, personal and professional, through reading this book. Though a lot of it was clarification from what we already know about Ava's "Cinderella story" (if you called her life story that to her face, though, she'd probably throw a drink on you) - she had humble beginnings as a "barefoot farm girl" (and I'll give it to her, she was never ashamed of this, telling Bogie once she was a "little hillbilly girl" at heart or something), but went onto become one of the prettiest starlets in Hollywood who really enjoyed hard drinking and partying.

Ava's life is so tumultuous (especially during her Frank Sinatra period) that this is most certainly a page turner (a better title might have been "Ava Gardner: Never a Dull Moment"). And her story is an exciting one, almost written out like a novel. Reading about her childhood in "Grabtown", North Carolina was particularly interesting. I read that a young Ava hated to wear shoes (a symbol of her playful, footlose and fancy free kind of spirit that would last her through and through) and after school would stick her shoes in her mailbox and run around barefoot years before she even became the Barefoot Contessa.

The author really can write and if you gave him the most dull subject he can make it exciting. You can tell he really adores Ava, but does not put much effort into defending her at her most unlikable moments. He wants you to love Ava but is pretty blunt about the bad things, like Ava throwing tantrums with reporters, having an affair with Robert Taylor (when he was still married to Barbara Stanwyck), drinking too much, etc. His excuse is "she was so beautiful, no one cared."

By the time I reached the middle of the book I didn't hate Ava but I was coming to the conclusion she was some kind of a monster and I was confused. In her start, she seemed so humble and naive and within a couple turn of the pages she turns into this hard drinking party girl who hates Hollywood. I was wondering about the transition and though we know she throws drinks on reporters because she thinks her face is now too old to be taken photos of, how did she come to these stages? Though I don't always encourage biographers to turn into psychologists, sometimes digging deeper to come to conclusions about their subject's behavior (like Suzanne Finstad did for "Natasha", the biography of Natalie Wood) not only defends their subject and makes them more likable, gives closure to the reader.

Lee Server (also author of "Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care") definitely provides us with a lot of brutal facts that are interesting and gossipy, but verging on tabloid fodder at points because he cannot provide much reason for her behavior except that she was "beautiful." Just from reading the book one can make guesses, but Server should have had that in the actual book and since he does not, it lacks completion. Having studied and researched someone for so long, you would think that he would feel comfortable enough to jump in with his own theories at times. I wouldn't have minded; I think it would have connected a string of dots to make this book an excellent biography.

Because over all, it was good. A blunt portrait of Ava but I was expecting a lot it beforehand, just from what circulates about Ava through the grapevine. There are a lot of good things to be said about Ava, too, and things to sympathize with her over. By the end of the book I still managed to like her. The "old" Ava, once she got over her fear of aging, is lovable. The old Ava seems to return to her humbler roots... she enjoys cartoons and ironing and walking her Corgis around London. And there were remaining, redeeming factors about Ava strung throughout the book: she was far from racist, believed in everyone being equal. She was modest when it came to her acting (though not always about her beauty). She loved animals, especially dogs (Corgis in particular). 

Basically, in the end, Ava comes across as human. The book is thorough without exactly arriving to a point, but it comes out alright in the end because we see Ava as human. Not a monster and not an angel, but human which is the perfect medium and how someone should come across in a biography (unless we're talking about like, Adolf Hitler). There are definitely points through the middle of the book where she is not likable but by the time you're finished, you can sympathize with her and still like her. What I'm trying to say is: though you will have your doubtful moments, this won't tarnish your view of Ava completely.

What I mean is: this will not exactly shatter but at least make cracks in the Golden Hollywood Goddess that defines Ava's image. I cannot exactly imagine Ava being upset about it though. You can tell she was someone who didn't like Hollywood (the exact reasons why are never explained, to my annoyance) and probably didn't care what anyone else thought. She would probably encourage the honesty of this book. When I did my review for Lauren Bacall's autobiography, I said that by reading the book you will love Lauren and have immense respect for her. I don't think that exactly applies to this book, but Ava's memory is not shattered and hardcore fans won't be disturbed. I wasn't surprised, though. If you told me these things about, oh, Audrey Hepburn I might have been - but with all fairness, it was Ava, and I saw it coming. ;)

A lot of solid facts in this book and gossipy tidbits that delve into Old Hollywood for us classic Hollywood fans to enjoy. There's also bits about her relationships with other Classic figures, like Lana Turner, Howard Hawks, and John Houston. What this book lacks is a few paragraphs here and there that would have tried to explain and defend Ava's sometimes wild behavior. "Beauty" and "Hollywood" are not always good excuses. 

I would suggest this book in the end, because it had the potential to be a great biography, but there were things it simply lacked. I will give it a 4/5 - only with slight generosity, because the fact remains that I definitely know a lot more about Ava after reading this book. 

***

Before I leave: a new poll is up! You now have about twelve days to vote and tell me whether you like "Rebel Without a Cause" (1956) or "West Side Story" (1961) better.

That's it for today! Tomorrow I will hopefully have a movie review of a "scary" film for Halloween. :)

I'll leave you with a photo of Ava in a Halloween pinup:

And I'm off to enjoy the snow with a cup of hot chocolate! :)