Portrait of Jennie (1948).

Portrait of Jennie(1948). Romantic/Fantasy film based on the novel by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish  and Joseph Cotten.

The film begins, when not a very well known painter Eben Adams, is having a hard time selling his paintings. Although, things begin to look up for Adams after a chance meeting with a young girl named Jennie Appleton, while sitting on a bench in Central Park. He notices that Jennie's clothing seems dated.



He makes a sketch of Jennie from memory, which impresses art dealer Miss Spinney, who suggest he paint a "Portrait Of Jennie".

Each time they meet she is older and Adams becomes more confused by her comments and realizes that, if what she says about her past are true, she should be 20 years older.

As time passes Adams tries to find out the truth about Jennie's past and the last time Adams, sees Jennie, is on a rocky seashore during a violent storm, which is absolutely beautiful and tragic.

One of the greatest stories of true love ever filmed. The entire film is in black and white, the tidal wave sequence towards the end is shown in green tint, and the final shot of the completed portrait of Jennie is in color.

Florence Bates (April 15, 1888 – January 31, 1954). In 1939 she was introduced to Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first major screen role, Mrs. Van Hopper, in Rebecca.

Among her other credits: Kitty Foyle, The Moon and Sixpence, Mr. Lucky, Heaven Can Wait, Mister Big, Since You Went Away, Kismet, Saratoga Trunk, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Winter Meeting, I Remember Mama, Portrait of Jennie, A Letter to Three Wives, On the Town, and Les Misérables.

Bates had a regular role on The Hank McCune Show and made guest appearances on I Love Lucy, My Little Margie and Our Miss Brooks.

Happy Birthday: Jennifer Jones!

When Jennifer tried out for the lead role in Claudia, she was so sure that she gave a bad reading, she ran out. To her suprise, Selznick, was very impressed and had his secretary call her back and she was signed to a seven-year contract.

In 1944, on her 25th birthday, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as, Bernadette Soubirous. That year, Jones friend, Ingrid Bergman, was also a Best Actress nominee for her performance in, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jones apologized to Bergman, who replied, "No, Jennifer, your Bernadette was better than my Maria". Jones presented the Best Actress Oscar the following year to Bergman for the film, Gaslight.

Her beauty and sensitive nature stood out in one of my favorite, Jennifer films, Duel in the Sun (1946). A Western, directed by King Vidor, which tells the story of a girl named Mestiza, who goes to live with her Anglo relatives, becoming involved in prejudice and forbidden love.

Jennifer's other well know films: Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945), Cluny Brown (1946), Portrait of Jennie (1948), Madame Bovary (1949), We Were Strangers (1949), Gone to Earth (1950), Carrie (1952), Ruby Gentry (also 1952), Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953), Beat the Devil (1953), Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955), Good Morning Miss Dove (also 1955), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) starring opposite Gregory Peck and A Farewell to Arms (1957) opposite Rock Hudson.

Her last big-screen performance was in the disaster film, The Towering Inferno (1974), in which she danced with Fred Astaire right before the fire broke out. Her exit from the film earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Jennifer with her husband Robert Walker and thier two children. The couple were married in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 2, 1939.

Since You Went Away(1944).

Since You Went Away(1944). Directed by John Cromwell. Produced by David O. Selznick from the novel Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife by Margaret Buell Wilder. The music score was by Max Steiner and the cinematography by Stanley Cortez, Lee Garmes, George Barnes (uncredited) and Robert Bruce (uncredited). Cast: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple and Joseph Cotten with Monty Woolley, Robert Walker, Lionel Barrymore, Hattie McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead, Guy Madison, Craig Stevens, Janelle Johnson, Keenan Wynn, Florence Bates, and Alla Nazimova.

Fun Fact:
At the time, the longest and most expensive Hollywood film since David O. Selznick's, Gone with the Wind (1939).

The story begins on January 12, 1943, when Anne questions her husband's decision to leave his family and his well paying job to fight in the war. Anne has to let Fidelia, the family's housekeeper go, as she can no longer afford to pay her wages.

Because of the housing shortage they decide to take in a border by the name, Col. William G. Smollett, a retired army officer.

Soon after, Fidelia asks to move back into the house, offering her housekeeping services as rent. To complicate matters even more, is the romance between Anne's daughter Jane and the Colonel's grandson.

This film captures perfectly the worry of those who with loved ones fighting in the war. Watch for the unforgettable scene when Mr. Mahoney leaves the movie theater. Also, one of my favorite Jennifer Jones performances. You will need a box of Kleenex for this film.

Robert Walker(October 13, 1918 – August 28, 1951). While attending the AADA, Walker met aspiring actress Phylis Isley, who later became the film star, Jennifer Jones.

The couple were married in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 2, 1939 and moved to Hollywood to find work in films.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned and they moved to New York. Walker soon found work in radio while Phylis stayed home and gave birth to two sons, actor Robert Walker, Jr., born April 15, 1940, and Michael Walker, born March 13, 1941.

Soon after, Phylis was discovered in 1941 by producer David O. Selznick, who changed her name to Jennifer Jones.

She landed the role in the film, The Song of Bernadette (1943).

The couple returned to Hollywood, where Walker started work on the war drama, Bataan (1943). Walker's charming demeanor won him roles as the "boy-next-door in films: See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) and Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945).

He also appeared in the film, Since You Went Away (1944) in which he and his wife portrayed doomed young lovers. In real life, they divorced shortly after.

Also that year, Walker starred in the film, The Clock, opposite Judy Garland, in her first  dramatic film. Although Walker, continued to work steadily in Hollywood, he was distraught over the divorce and he suffered a nervous breakdown.

In 1946, Walker starred in, Till the Clouds Roll By, where he played the song writer Jerome Kern. He starred as composer Johannes Brahms in, Song of Love (1947), which co-starred Katharine Hepburn. Later, Walker starred with Ava Gardner in the film, One Touch of Venus(1948).

Soon after he was hired by director Alfred Hitchcock for one of his best performances, Strangers on a Train (1951).

DUEL IN THE SUN (1946)

Duel in the Sun (1946) Romance/western. Directed by King Vidor. Produced and written by David O. Selznick. Who wrote the Hollywood classics "Gone With the Wind", "Since You Went Away" and "Rebecca". Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore.

Before Scott Chavez is hanged for murdering his Indian wife and her lover, he makes arrangements for Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle. He makes his his daughter Pearl promise that she will grow up to be a lady.

Laura Belle welcomes Pearl into her home on Spanish Bit, the Texas cattle ranch where she lives with her husband,"Senator" McCanles, and their two grown sons, Jesse and Lewt. McCanles, confined to a wheelchair, is not happy that Pearl has come to live with them and calls her "a half-breed". Both Jesse and Lewt are attracted to her.



 Later that night, Lewt forces his way into her bedroom and kisses her. Pearl loves the kindhearted Jesse, but physically attracted to the wild womanizing Lewt and cannot resist him.

When a railroad company wins the legal right to build tracks through McCanles ranch, McCanles and his ranch hands try to defend their land. Jesse, a lawyer, takes the side of the railroad, his father bans him from the ranch.

When Lewt returns early from El Paso, he finds none of the men home and seduces Pearl. Jesse finds them together and tells her that he will never forget what he has seen. Pearl now wants Lewt to marry her, but when he makes it clear that he has no intention of marring her, she quickly becomes engaged to Sam Pierce. Lewt goes into a jealous rage and kills Sam. Will this broken family over come their prejudice and forbidden love of Pearl and Lewt?

My favorite scene of the film is: When McCanles tells Laura Belle that he has always blamed her for his injury. When he thought she was going away to be with Chavez. He now knows it was his own jealousy that caused the accident. He admits that he has always loved her.

Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine "Tilly" Losch, Countess of Carnarvon (15 November 1903 –24 December 1975) was an Austrian-born dancer, choreographer, actress and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom.

She performed in several screen productions including: Limelight (1936), The Garden of Allah (1936), The Good Earth (1937) and Duel in the Sun (1946). Her choreography was seen in, Song of Scheherazade (1947).

Dissatisfied with supporting film roles, she continued working as a dancer and choreographer and acted on Broadway.

Losch guested with the New York Ballet in a work by Antony Tudor and in London she had danced to Léonide Massine's choreography.

Her best known conception was "The Hand Dance" (a collaboration with her Viennese colleague, Hedy Pfundmayr) which featured in a short dance film by Norman Bel Geddes.

JENNIFER JONES (March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009).

Born Phylis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her parents Flora Mae and Phillip Ross Isley toured the Midwest in a traveling tent show . Jones went on to Monte Cassino Junior College in Tulsa and Northwestern University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority before moving on to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in (1938). She married Robert walker January 2, 1939. Isley performed in two small roles, first in a (1939) John Wayne's New Frontier, and a serial Dick Tracy's G-Men. In these two films, she was billed as 'Phyllis Isley'. She failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures and decided to change her name and return to New York City. Where she became a five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette (1943). Jennifer Jones, performed in 27 films, her career spanned over 35 years.

 List of my top 5 Jennifer Jones films:
A Farewell to Arms (1957)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
Madame Bovary (1949)
Duel in the Sun (1946)

BEAT THE DEVIL(1953)

Beat the Devil (1953) film directed by John Huston Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley and Peter Lorre. . It was co-authored by Huston and Truman Capote, loosely based on a novel of the same name by British journalist Claud Cockburn. This movie was supposed to be a spoof of The Maltese Falcon.

In a Italian port, four crooks, Petersen, Julius O'Hara, Maj. Jack Ross and Ravello, who Billy Dannreuther had been helping them to purchase uranium-rich land in British East Africa, are arrested by police.

Six months earlier, Billy, an American, his Italian wife Maria and his partners are traveling a steamer to Africa. The ship, develops engine trouble and their trip is delayed. Billy meets a wealthy English couple, Harry and Gwendolen Chelm, who are traveling on the same ship to take over a coffee plantation they have inherited.

Billy meets with Petersen, they start to wonder that Billy's friend may make another deal if they do not arrive on time. After accusing Ross of the murder of a British Colonial officer, Billy promises his friend will not turn on them.

After hearing Gwendolen tell Billy that the plantation Harry is inheriting is rich in uranium, O'Hara tells the others. O'Hara, is concerned that Billy will double cross them. Petersen thinks it is best that they both fly to Africa. Trying to change Peterson's mind about going, Billy says that their early arrival will be suspicious, Petersen does not agree and he and Billy leave for the nearest airport. On their way to the airport, the taxi breaks down, and they accidentally push it over a cliff into the sea. Thinking Billy and Petersen died in the accident, Harry breaks the news to Maria and Gwendolen. To every ones surprise, Billy and Petersen are alive. When the ship is ready to sail, Petersen receives a cable from London that claims that the Chelm's are not rich, as they claimed to be. While on the ship the engine breaks down and Harry, an ex-Royal Marines officer, tries to fix it but, after the engine explodes, the captain takes Harry prisoner. Billy, worries that the other men will kill Harry to keep him quiet.

Will this interesting group of character's escape with their lives?



What I enjoyed about this movie besides the wonderful cast of characters, is the several surprising twists and turns with a little comic suspense mixed in.

Fun Fact:

This was the fifth and last movie that Humphrey Bogart made with Peter Lorre. The other four were, The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), All through the Night (1942) and Passage to Marseille (1944).

In 1950 Howard Hughes invited Lollobrigida to make Hollywood films, but she refused, preferring to work in Europe. Despite this, her performance in Italian films: Bread, Love and Dreams and Woman of Rome, and in French films: Fanfan la Tulipe and Beauties of the Night, brought her to the attention of Hollywood. She made her first American film, Beat the Devil, in 1953 with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones.

Lollobrigida, performed in The World's Most Beautiful Woman(1955). She also performed in the circus drama, Trapeze(1956) with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Anthony Quinn. In 1959 she co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Never So Few and with Yul Brynner in Solomon and Sheba.

She performed in the romantic comedy Come September(1961), with Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. The same year she performed with Ernest Borgnine and Anthony Franciosa in the drama, Go Naked in the World. In 1964 she co-starred with Sean Connery in the thriller, Woman of Straw. She co-starred with Rock Hudson again in 1965's Strange Bedfellows and appeared alongside Alec Guinness in 1966's Hotel Paradiso. In 1968 she starred in Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell with Shelley Winters, Phil Silvers, and Telly Savalas. Lollobrigida co-starred with Bob Hope in the comedy The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell.