actors and actresses again ...

Perhaps only another list obsessive would get my compulsion for compiling lists, particularly of favourite actresses and stars - the kind of thing one does in the middle of the night when trying t get back to sleep ... here are my top 30 actresses, and maybe 100 in all, and a lesser amount of actors, but I am not listing everybody - there are some major omissions!

Sophia Loren / Monica Vitti / Lee Remick / Romy Schneider / Marilyn Monroe / Katharine Hepburn / Bette Davis / Judy Garland / Garbo / Dietrich / Ingrid Bergman / Susan Hayward / Audrey Hepburn / Anouk Aimee / Julie Christie / Faye Dunaway / Deborah Kerr / Jean Simmons / Elizabeth Taylor / Ava Gardner / Janet Leigh / Kim Novak / Anne Baxter / Ruth Roman / Joan Fontaine / Olivia De Havilland / Catharine Deneuve / Francoise Dorleac / Kay Kendall / Maggie Smith.

I could do A LOT more …

Barbara Stanwyck / Julie Harris / Wendy Hiller / Cate Blanchett / Tilda Swinton / Sarah Miles / Lauren Bacall / Ida Lupino / Mary Astor / Kathleen Turner / Genevieve Bujold /  Jeanne Moreau / Simone Signoret / Maureen O’Hara / Lilli Palmer / Joan Greenwood / Jane Fonda / Vivien Leigh / Uma Thurman / Julianne Moore / Annette Bening / Capucine / Cyd Charisse / Linda Darnell / Gene Tierney / Loretta Young / Irene Dunne / Margaret Sullavan / Gladys Cooper / Celia Johnson / Edith Evans / Flora Robson / Peggy Ashcroft / Angela Lansbury / Natalie Wood / Doris Day / Debbie Reynolds / Ingrid Thulin / Stephane Audran / Marie Laforet / Claudia Cardinale / Silvana Mangano / Gina Lollobrigida / Brigitte Bardot / Isabelle Adjani / Elsa Martinelli / Lana Turner / Vera Miles / Jan Sterling / Jo Van Fleet / Patricia Neal / Anne Bancroft / Dorothy Malone / Shirley Knight / Kay Walsh / Pamela Brown / Glynis Johns / Susannah York / Billie Whitelaw / Vanessa Redgrave /  Lynn Redgrave / Claire Bloom / Ann Todd / Rosamund John / Dinah Sheridan / Virginia McKenna / Anna Magnani  / Fanny Ardant / Isabelle Huppert / Delphine Seyrig / Alida Valli / Gena Rowlands / Genevieve Page / Geraldine Page / Jessica Tandy / Shelley Winters / Gloria Graham / Eleanor Parker / Ann-Margret / Glenda Jackson / Jean Seberg / Thelma Ritter/ Eve Arden / Agnes Moorehead / Belinda Lee / Rosanna Podesta / Paula Prentiss / Melina Mercouri / Suzanne Pleshette / Tippi Hedren / Eva Marie Saint / Lauren Hutton / Margaret Leighton / Charlotte Rampling / Jane Asher / Jane Merrow / Eileen Atkins / Vivien Pickles / Ruth Gordon.

Better stop there ….

Omissions? Where are Meryl, Glenn, Shirley, Joan, Joanne, Judi, Nicole, Julia, Diane, Kate, Barbra, Liza, Julie etc? Don't look for Leo, Al, Jack, Dustin, Daniel, or any of the current popular names either ...

Actors:

My Top 10:  Dirk Bogarde / James Mason / James Stewart / Cary Grant / Gary Cooper / Humphrey Bogart / Montgomery Clift / Robert De Niro / Ralph Fiennes / Peter Finch.

The heavyweights:  Olivier / Alec Guinness / Marlon Brando / Rod Steiger / Burt Lancaster / Gregory Peck / Robert Mitchum / Heath Ledger / Mark Ruffalo / Charlton Heston / Robert Redford / Warren Beatty / Donald Sutherland / George Segal / Farley Granger / Robert Walker / James Garner / Rod Taylor / Colin Farrell / Lee Marvin / Charles Laughton / George Sanders / Claude Rains / Clifton Webb / Vincent Price / Charles Bickford / Jack Carson / and Jack Lemmon for SOME LIKE IT HOT.

The Europeans:  Alain Delon / Jean-Paul Belmondo / Jean-Claude Brialy / Jean-Louis Trintignant / Maurice Ronet / Jacques Perrin / Robert Hossein / Buno Ganz / Raf Vallone / Renato Salvatori / Marcello Mastroianni / Gerard Blain / Gerard Philipe / Jean Gabin / Max Von Sydow.

The British:  Albert Finney / Peter O’Toole / Alan Bates / Tom Courtenay / Ralph Richardson / John Gielgud / Trevor Howard / Harry Andrews / David Hemmings / David Warner / John Hurt / Michael York / Terence Stamp / Michael Craig / Stanley Baker / Stephen Boyd / Jack Hawkins / Nigel Patrick / James Fox / Peter McEnery / Tom Hardy / Tom Hollander / Alfred Molina / Ben Whishaw / Andrew Scott / Alan Cumming / Stewart Granger.

The lookers:  Jeffrey Hunter / Tab Hunter / Guy Madison / Fabian / Jean Sorel / Henri Vidal / Richard (AMERICAN GIGOLO) Gere /  Keanu (SPEED) Reeves / John Gavin / Channing Tatum.

Lists: 50 great female performances ....

Here's those favourite great female performances we can return to any time:  (in no particular order, two maximum for each, not necessarily leading roles, all covered at labels for each. No Meryl or ... Cate Blanchett may be the most recent, )

• Jane Fonda – KLUTE / THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’THEY?
• Bette Davis – ALL ABOUT EVE  / THE LETTER
  
• Katharine Hepburn – THE LION IN WINTER / SUMMERTIME
• Vivien Leigh – A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
• Judy Garland – A STAR IS BORN     
• Joan Fontaine – REBECCA
• Olivia De Havilland – THE HEIRESS
• Lee Remick – DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES / WILD RIVER
• Julie Harris – EAST OF EDEN
• Susan Hayward – I WANT TO LIVE! / WITH A SONG IN MY HEART
• Kay Kendall – LES GIRLS / THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE
  
• Faye Dunaway – CHINATOWN (Its as much her film as Jack’s ....)
• Janet Leigh – PSYCHO 
• Joan Crawford – JOHNNY GUITAR / MILDRED PIERCE
• Barbara Stanwyck – DOUBLE INDEMNITY
• Geraldine Page - SUMMER AND SMOKE / SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH
• Genevieve Bujold - OBSESSION
• Garbo – MATA HARI / QUEEN CHRISTINA
• Dietrich – THE SCARLET EMPRESS / THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN
• Marilyn Monroe – THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL / THE MISFITS
• Elizabeth Taylor – CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
• Sophia Loren – WOMAN OF THE RIVER / MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE
• Monica Vitti – L'AVVENTURA / L'ECLISSE
• Jeanne Moreau – BAY OF ANGELS / LA NOTTE
  
• Anna Magnani – BELLISSIMA / WILD IS THE WIND (I hate THE ROSE TATTOO)
• Ingrid Bergman & Liv Ullmann – AUTUMN SONATA
• Deborah Kerr & Ava Gardner – NIGHT OF THE IGUANA
• Romy Schneider – DEATHWATCH / LUDWIG (right)
• Isabelle Adjani – HISTORY OF ADELE H.
• Catherine Deneuve - POTICHE (Great Catherine is an endless delight in Ozon's charmer).
• Cate Blanchett - CAROL / THE AVIATOR (Cate does Kate perfectly).
• Kate Winslet - TITANIC
• Gloria Swanson - SUNSET BOULEVARD
  
• Rosalind Russell - THE WOMEN / GYPSY
• Maureen O'Hara - THE QUIET MAN (Mary Kate Danagher rules)
• Kim Novak – VERTIGO / BELL BOOK & CANDLE
• Natalie Wood - THE SEARCHERS / THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED
• Mary Astor - THE GREAT LIE 
• Barbra Streisand – FUNNY GIRL / THE OWL & THE PUSSYCAT
• Liza Minnelli - NEW YORK NEW YORK / CABARET
• Julie Christie - DARLING / AWAY FROM HER
• Tilda Swinton - I AM LOVE / A BIGGER SPLASH
• Claire Bloom - THE CHAPMAN REPORT
• Wendy Hiller & Pamela Brown & Nancy Price – I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING
• Ingrid Thulin – THE SILENCE
• Patricia Neal – HUD
• Glenda Jackson – STEVIE
• Sarah Miles – THE SERVANT /  I WAS HAPPY HERE
• Rita Tushingham & Lynn Redgrave – GIRL WITH GREEN EYES / SMASHING TIME
• Stephane Audran – LA FEMME INFIDELE
• Audrey Hepburn – SABRINA / THE NUN'S STORY
• Maggie Smith & Celia Johnson – THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE
• Judi Dench - NOTES ON A SCANDAL / PHILOMENA
• Tippi Hedren & Suzanne Pleshette & Jessica Tandy – THE BIRDS
• Deborah Kerr & Kathleen Byron - BLACK NARCISSUS.

One could go on and on: 

• Ida Lupino - ROADHOUSE
• Kathleen Turner - BODY HEAT
• Lauren Bacall - DESIGNING WOMAN
• Jean Simmons - THE BIG COUNTRY / HILDA CRANE
• Ava Gardner - THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA / BHOWANI JUNCTION
• Alida Valli - SENSO
• Anne Baxter - THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
• Linda Darnell - A LETTER TO THREE WIVES
• Vanessa Redgrave - THE BOSTONIANS / ISADORA
• Gladys Cooper - NOW VOYAGER / SEPARATE TABLES
• Flora Robson - TWO THOUSAND WOMEN / HOLIDAY CAMP
• Edith Evans & Joan Greenwood - THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST / TOM JONES
• Celia Johnson & Kay Walsh - THIS HAPPY BREED
• Geraldine McEwan & Prunella Scales - MAPP AND LUCIA
• Sian Phillips - I, CLAUDIUS
• Eileen Atkins, Francesca Annis, Julia McKenzie, Imelda Staunton - CRANFORD
• Peggy Ashcroft & Judy Parfitt - THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN
• Beryl Reid & Susannah York & Coral Brown - THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE
• Paula Prentiss - MAN'S FAVOURITE SPORT / THE STEPFORD WIVES
• Capucine - NORTH TO ALASKA / WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT?

Effi Briest, 1974

I had been meaning to catch Fassbinder's 1974 drama EFFI BRIEST - but pal Martin has been raving about it, part of the Fassbinder season on MUBI - Martin is a devotee of this site, so I just had to get the bluray of this stunning and engrossing drama.     .

We like Rainer Werner Fassbinder's early Seventies films here, they were must-sees in arty London circles then, along with the New German Cinema of Wim Wenders and Herzog. I liked Fassinder best: THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT, FEAR EATS THE SOUL and the very downer but essential gay classic FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (see Fassbinder label), and the later more bizarrely explicit QUERELLE, his last film, and the mess the out of control director made of DESPAIR with Dirk Bogarde, in 1978. 

In the nineteenth century, seventeen year old Effi Briest is married to the older Baron von Instetten and moves into a house in a small isolated Baltic town. She soon bears a daughter,  Effi is lonely when her husband is away on business, so she spends time riding and walking along the shore with Major Crampas. Instetten is promoted to Ministerial Councillor and the family moves to Berlin, where Effi enjoys the social life. Six years later, the Baron is given letters from Crampas to Effi that convince him that they had an affair. He feels obliged to challenge Crampas to a duel and banish Effi from the house.

Like HEDDA GABLER or A DOLL'S HOUSE or ANNA KARENINA or MADME BOVARY this is a searing indictment of women's lives and powerlessness once married to possessive husbands in the restrictive 19th Century. The lesser-known novel by Fontane was a favourite of Fassbinder's and he does it justice with stunning black and white photography and those white fade-outs. Hanna Schygulla is of course tremendous as Effi, and the cast also features Karlheinz Boehm, who also crops up in FOX AND HIS FRIENDS, 

I like EFFIE BRIEST a lot, it should be a better known Fassbinder, and is essential "Women's Cinema" for everyone. It is a film of marvellously controlled images, and vivid imagination, with all those mirror shots. Its a great costume movie too, and I like its leisured, stately pace, almost like a 1950s Ingmar Bergman film. Perhaps that's what Fassbinder intended ... it has a melancholy ending, with a perfect long last shot. 

We will now have to check out his other films. several with Schygulla: THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, LOLA, LILI MARLEEN, VERONIKA VOSS ...  Schygulla of course was also in PETRA VON KANT, and I remember her in a very vivid 1989 Mexican film by gay Jaime Humberto Hermosillo: MISS FORBES.  She has clocked up 98 credits and is still working now - one of those essential European actresses like Liv Ullmann, Thulin or Moreau, Deneuve, Huppert .... 

People we like: some current British actresses ....

We ran a post the other week on some current British actors we like (see below), so here are some of the current British actresses wowing us …

Olivia Colman of course is approaching National Treasure status, with her great work in the BROADCHURCH series, as well as being Mrs REV., and also compelling in THE NIGHT MANAGER, among others.

Ditto Sarah Lancashire, who has come along way from being Raquel in CORONATION STREET. She is electrifying in the HAPPY VALLEY series (where Siobhan Finneran - no longer O'Brien in DOWNTON ABBEY or living it up in BENIDORM - was also stupendous as her sister), and also in LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX, which also features Nicola Walker.

Does anyone do grim and glum like Nicola Walker?  She first drew our attention in SPOOKS some years ago,  was stunning in SCOTT & BAILEY, and shared honours in LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX with Sarah Lancashire. Also on stage recently in the revival of Arthur Miller’s A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE with Mark Strong.

We also like Elizabeth Berrington, equally at home in comedy and drama, and in everything from WATERLOO ROAD to STELLA via THE TRACY ULLMAN SHOW and CAMPING.

Thandie Newton has re-invented herself in LINE OF DUTY which has another great role for Vicky McClure, who has sort of crept up on me, not having noticed her much before, though she was impressive in THE SECRET AGENT last year.

Of the newer girls Keeley Hawes continues to impress, 
I missed her though in the previous series of LINE OF DUTY, but she is fun in THE DURRELLS. 

Then there is Gemma Atherton, currently getting better and better and more noticed.

These and more are all evidence that British drama is thriving, good to see roles too for older actresses like Anne Reid. That SCOTT & BAILEY duo, Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp, are also at the top of their game …

Some more interesting careers ?

Another selection of thumbnail career portraits, in the style of one of our Sixties favourite magazines "Who's Who in Hollywood". 

Don Murray. In his late 80s now (born 1929), Murray started out in 1950, and got his big break co-starring with Marilyn Monroe in Logan’s BUS STOP in 1956 – he may have been fine, but it’s the character of the cowboy who is so annoying. He met his first wife Hope Lange here. He followed this with two I have not seen: BACHELOR PARTY and A HATFUL OF RAIN, and then two westerns which I liked as a kid: the engaging FROM HELL TO TEXAS in ’58, and the more sprawling THESE THOUSAND HILLS in 1959, with young Lee Remick, and that other 20^th Century Fox boy, Stuart Whitman. 
Gritty realism followed with THE HOODLUM PRIEST and the very Irish saga SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL in 1959. Maybe his last interesting role was as senator Brig Anderson in Otto’s ADVISE AND CONSENT in 1962, who commits suicide when his wartime gay affair is about to be exposed – and we get that first look at a gay bar in American film, as Brig reels back in horror, leaving his wartime buddy lying in the gutter. (review at Murray label).

He was back with Lee Remick in BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL in 1965, but now Steve McQueen was the lead, and it was the era of the new boys like Beatty and Redford. He did a rubbish British film in 1967: THE VIKING QUEEN – we avoided it at the time, but I have now ordered a copy as it seems delirious fun, a certified Trash Classic. Murray continued in a long career, in lesser films and lots of television (like KNOTS LANDING), but like many others had a good late Fifties era.

Richard Beymer, now in his late Seventies (born 1938) was a child actor – he was Jennifer Jones’ son in De Sica’s INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE in 1954, and then after a lot of television, came his run of 20^th Century Fox movies in the late Fifties and early Sixties: George Stevens’ THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK in 1959, WEST SIDE STORY, Fox comedies HIGH TIME and BACHELOR FLAT (which we liked at the time), THE STRIPPER with Joanne Woodward and Carol Lynley in 1963 (review at Woodward label) and the lead in HEMINGWAY’S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN in 1962, as per recent review, below), plus FIVE FINGER EXERCISE and THE LONGEST DAY in 1962. Perhaps Beymer wasn’t distinctive enough, and Fox already had the likes of Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter under contract …. He continued keeping busy, returning to the limelight in David Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS in 1990, and it was interesting seeing him ageing well in items like MURDER SHE WROTE.

Dean Stockwell. Another child actor, born 1936, has clocked up over 200 credits according to IMDB. He was in ANCHORS AWEIGH with Gene Kelly in 1945, Losey’s THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR in 1948, KIM with Errol Flynn, then came those “sensitive” roles in COMPULSION in 1959, SONS AND LOVERS in 1960, LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT in 1962, RAPTURE in 1965, as well as TV roles in the likes of WAGON TRAIN, DR KILDARE. Later films include that terrific thriller AIR FORCE ONE, PARIS TEXAS, DUNE, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., BLUE VELVET, THE PLAYER and more.

Brandon De Wilde (1942-1972). Another child actor, but less fortunate, in that he was killed in a traffic accident when aged 30, after being a child actor on Broadway when aged 9 in THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, which role he repeated in the 1953 film.. We have already covered his career in detail, at label, and those films we like, such as ALL FALL DOWN and HUD, and those westerns like SHANE and NIGHT PASSAGE where he has some nice scenes with James Stewart.

Pamela Tiffin. Pamela, born 1942, was the delightfully daffy and attractive alternative to those blondes like Sandra Dee or Carol Lynley, and had some good years in the early Sixties. She started as a model and came to attention in SUMMER AND SMOKE in 1961, when we loved her in Billy Wilder’s ONE TWO THREE. Some zany comedy roles followed in COME FLY WITH ME, THE PLEASURE SEEKERS, STATE FAIR, THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL and HARPER in 1966. She the decamped to European comedies in Italy, co-starring with the likes of Marcello Mastroianni, before giving up acting to concentrate on family life.

Carol Lynley. Another young model, also born 1942, had a longer career, starting with Walt Disney in THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST in 1958, and then at Fox in that favourite, HOUND DOG MAN with Fabian and Stuart Whitman, THE STRIPPER, HOLIDAY FOR LOVERS, BLUE DENIM with Brandon De Wilde, RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE, THE LAST SUNSET. I did not want to see UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE where she co-stars with Jack Lemmon, and she was also in Otto’s THE CARDINAL in 1963, and the lead in his BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING in 1965, with Olivier (right) and Keir Dullea (also featured here, see label). She was later in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE in 1972 in hotpants, and was a long time companion of David Frost’s. She kept busy in lesser films (THE SHUTTERED ROOM wasn’t too bad), but then there was that 1965 cheapo version of HARLOW … reviews of some of these at Lynley label.

Vera Miles. Now in her late 80s and retired for years, Vera Miles is probably the biggest name featured here – it was a long if fairly ordinary career but her two each for John Ford and Hitchcock will ensure she is long remembered, as THE SEARCHERS, THE WRONG MAN, PSYCHO and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALLANCE will always be screened somewhere. She began in 1950 and early roles included some routine westerns, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS television shows (he had her under personal contract – like he had Tippi Hedren – and was building VERTIGO for Miles, but she had got pregnant by husband Gordon Scott – she had done one of his TARZAN pictures. She wears that unflattering wig in PSYCHO as she had done a downbeat war movie FIVE BRANDED WOMEN for Martin Ritt in Italy and had her head shaved for it. She is glamorous though in A TOUCH OF LARCENCY in 1960, and suitably nasty in AUTUMN LEAVES with Crawford in 1956, and BACK STREET in ‘61. Other leads included 23 PACES TO BAKER STREET, HELLFIGHTERS with Wayne in 1968, and lots more television.  

Next lot to include Tuesday Weld, Carolyn Jones, Paula Prentiss, Barry Coe, Farley Granger, Earl Holliman,  and some Europeans and British ....

Jane

In the pantheon of 1960s British actresses (led by Julie Christie, Susannah York, Sarah Miles, Rita Tushingham etc), Jane Asher was the posh one, with that standout long red hair. A child actress, she was Susannah York’s young sister in THE GREENGAGE SUMMER in 1961, and we liked her in Roger Corman’s 1964 THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH –she was interesting on radio recently saying she enjoyed working on it and with Vincent Price. 

She was also one of ALFIE’s girls in 1966, and went on to a lot of interesting items like Skolimowski’s DEEP END in 1970 – now on Bluray with lots of extra interviews, where she is the perfect 1960s dolly bird with those white boots and yellow PVC mac setting off the hair. She also did a lot of television and stage (I saw her with Laurence Harvey in Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S TALE in 1967), and she is currently part of the hit musical AN AMERICAN IN PARIS ensemble., 
and I am watching a boxset of the 1980s war drama WISH ME LUCK, which we enjoyed at the time, where she is ideal as Faith Ashley, organiser of the secret agents operating in France during World War II. She was also in BRIDESHEAD REVISTED among others, and er, the short-lived rebooted CROSSROADS.

She was of course famous in the 1960s as also being Paul McCartney’s girlfriend – he lived for a time with her parents at their Wimpole Street address. Her brother Peter was part of  Peter & Gordon and later record producer for the likes of James Taylor. She has though never capitalised on her Beatles connections, and was also later famous for her cakes and baking, Perhaps she should take over THE GREAT BRITSH BAKE-OFF ? She is married to cartoonist Gerard Scarfe and it is always a pleasure to see her. She even tackled Lady Bracknell a few years ago. We should have seen that. 

More on Jane and DEEP END at label ...

Joan

Joan Greenwood: Perhaps my favourite Joan - how we like her. It was a treat seeing the 1952 THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST on TV again (though as my dear friend Martin says, I have the dvd/bluray so can watch it anytime...). Joan as Gwendolyn ....

Joan as Sybilla in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, 1949, and as Peggy Macroon in that year's WHISKEY GALORE! and of course there's her "notorious" Lady Bellaston in TOM JONES in '63, and in films like MOONFLEET and THE MOONSPINNERS, and with Gerard Philipe in KNAVE OF HEARTS in 1954.

I have done several posts on Joan (1921-1987), one of the first "People We Like" on here - as per label - and was lucky to catch her on stage with the equally marvellous Gladys Cooper in a revival of THE CHALK GARDEN in 1971 - I really should have met her then ... her voice of course was unique too. 

Joan with Stewart Granger and George Sanders in one of my favourite Fifties movies, which I loved a a kid: Fritz Lang's MOONFLEET, 1955 She and Granger were also the doomed lovers in that great Ealing film, SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS, in 1948.

Postcards from the edge

Another visit to La La Land with a return to 1990's POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, Mike Nichol's satisfying comedy drama from Carrie Fisher's book, all the more poignant now after her recent passing and that of her mother Debbie Reynolds. Shirley McLaine - never a favourite of ours - does maybe her best work here, outside of THE APARTMENT, as Suzanne Vale's movie star mother, who drinks a lot and can't help upstaging her daughter.

Substance-addicted Hollywood actress Suzanne Vale is on the skids. After a spell at a detox centre her film company insists as a condition of continuing to employ her that she live with her mother Doris Mann, herself once a star and now a champion drinker. Such a set-up is bad news for Suzanne who has struggled for years to get out of her mother's shadow, and who finds her mother still treats her like a child. Despite these problems - and further ones to do with the men in in her life - Suzanne can begin to see the funny side of her situation, and it also starts to occur to her that not only do daughters have mothers, mothers do too.

Meryl Streep has one of her best early roles here as the drug-addled actress Suzanne tries to get her life back on track, and Mike Nichols fills the film with a great cast: not only Dennis Quaid, but Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, Annette Bening and even the great Mary Wickes (from 40s and 50s classics like NOW VOYAGER and WHITE CHRISTMAS, she also went on to SISTER ACT). 

But the film boils down to those encounters between Meryl and Shirley, and both shine, Shirley in her hospital scene getting ready to face her public - the gays love her - and belting out a version of Sondheim's "I'm Still Here". Meryl too sings up a storm in that final country music scene. 

It all certainly works now and is a film to savour for many fine moments.
Maybe its time for another look at Carrie's THESE OLD BROADS telemovie with not only Debbie and Shirley but Dames Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Collins - which we covered before. see Debbie label.

Some '70s gals ...

Some of our favourite 1970s actresses who provided lots of amusing goofy moments - so no Jane, Faye, Julie, Diane or Jill, instead its Madeline, Terri, Barbara, Karen and Sandy !

The late great Madeline Kahn: Eunice in WHATS UP DOC?, Trixie Delight in PAPER MOON, Lili Von Shtupp in BLAZING SADDLES, Kitty O'Kelly in Bogdanovich's bomb AT LONG LAST LOVE, the monster's bride in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

Terri Garr: TOOTSIE, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS ...,  her great line in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN: "He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker" ... (There's also of course Cloris Leachman's immortal Frau Blucher ...).

Barbara Harris, so deliously amusing in PLAZA SUITE, touching in NASHVILLE, perfect in Hitch's last FAMILY PLOT.

Karen Black, if only for her air hostess flying the plane in AIRPORT '75, her country queen in NASHVILLE, also in FAMILY PLOT, and another Altman: 1982's COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, which also featured:

Sandy Dennis (1937-1992) who of course started in the Sixties with WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE, A TOUCH OF LOVE, THE FOX etc and delighted us in the Seventies with THE OUT OF TOWNERS and her ditzy turn in NASTY HABITS. 

Plus we have to mention Melinda Dillon, so wonderful in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS... and Eileen Brennan, particularly in THE CHEAP DETECTIVE,

Soon, maybe, the '70s guys: Caan, Dern, Devane, Burt Reynolds, Segal, Gould, Sutherland, and the big hitters Nicholson, Redford, Newman, Hackman, De Niro, Pacino and more  ... or maybe not,

Some interesting careers ....

Hope Lange / Tom Tryon / Keir Dullea / Lola Albright. 

We are fascinated here at The Projector as to how some acting careers pan out, who gets the breaks and who keeps working into old age.  Here are some interesting ones .... maybe more later. 

If you were asked who co-starred with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Montgomery Clift, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, would you come up with the answer? And if told it was Hope Lange would you be any the wiser?

Hope Lange (1933-2003) was one of 20^th Century Fox’s players who came to prominence in the mid-50s and had a good career into the 1960s, maybe not individual enough to be a top line star, but a pleasing presence (rather like Vera Miles) in several hits of the time. She studied dance with Martha Graham, and was the young ingénue in BUS STOP in 1956, having scenes with Monroe, and then was Selina Cross in the Fox hit PEYTON PLACE in 1957, when she was also in the western THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES, with Robert Wagner and Jeff Hunter,  and in IN LOVE AND WAR, and then Montgomery Clift’s love interest in THE YOUNG LIONS in 1958. She was the lead and top-billed in a favourite of ours, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING in 1959, teamed with Stephen Boyd, with Joan Crawford in the supporting cameo role as her boss. 

She was the main lead opposite Elvis in the Fox meller WILD IN THE COUNTRY. Her scenes were cut out though from HOW THE WEST WAS WON in '62. Then Bette Davis had a supporting role in the 1961 A POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES  where Lange starred with her then amour Glenn Ford, after her marriage to BUS STOP star Don Murray. She then married directed Alan J. Pakula, and had a successful TV series from the film of THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR, among other television roles. Later films included the 1974 DEATH WISH and BLUE VELVET.

Keir Dullea, born in 1936, now 80, was a very individual young actor with those striking looks and eyes, and in interesting films like DAVID AND LISA in 1962 (for which he won the Golden Globe as “Most Promising Male Newcomer”), THE HOODLUM PRIEST, the comedy western WEST OF MONTANA and the lead in Preminger’s BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING in 1965 (where co-star Noel Coward famously said "Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow"), plus the Lana Turner classic MADAME X in 1966, and THE FOX in 1967. He is immortalised for posterity as Dave Bowman, the surviving astronaut in Kubrick’s 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY (and certainly looks better now than his co-star Gary Lockwood – see below). 

The 1969 DE SADE (see review – Dullea label) is a hoot now,

Dullea also did several stage roles and we saw him on stage in London in 1976, as that annoying cowboy in a revival of BUS STOP, with Lee Remick as a world-weary Cherie. - right.

He has kept busy with 84 credits and is still working now. Like Michael York, Terence Stamp and others he shows how actors can keep working as they get older, and the next crop of actors take over.

Tom Tryon (1926-1991) aged 65, clocked up 39 acting credits before becoming a best-selling author. The tall dark and handsome actor was very individual in early roles like I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE in 1958, and in THE UNHOLY WIFE, THREE VIOLENT PEOPLE, THE STORY OF RUTH (see below), MARINES LETS GO, THE LONGEST DAY. 
He was the lead as THE CARDINAL for Otto Preminger in 1963, and also in Otto’s IN HARM’S WAY in 1965. There were lesser roles after that for the gay actor, who had been a marine in the South Pacific during the war, but his novels which were filmed including THE OTHER, HARVEST HOME,  CROWNED HEADS – a great read, which included the short story FEDORA (which became Billy Wilder’s last interesting film) brought him a lot more success and money than acting! He would have been the sailor marooned on a desert island with Marilyn Monroe in SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE, in 1962 – if the film had been completed.

Lola Albright, born 1925, now in her early 90s – Considered one of the most stylish, sultriest and beautiful actresses in Hollywood, with one of the throatiest, smokiest and most distinctive voices in the business, she starred with Kirk Douglas in the 1949 hit CHAMPION, after uncredited appearances in THE PIRATE and EASTER PARADE, and a bit part in THE TENDER TRAP in ‘55. From 1958 to 1961 she played nightclub singer Edie Hart in the popular TV series PETER GUNN. She also made TV guest appearances on ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS (1955) – he should have made her a Hitchcock blonde. She played Constance McKenzie in the TV series PEYTON PLACE (1964) after Dorothy Malone became ill. Lola received critical acclaim for her performances in A COLD WIND IN AUGUST in 1961, and was in Rene Clements’ LES FELINS with Alain Delon in 1964, and was terrific as Tuesday Weld’s mother in the hilarious LORD LOVE A DUCK in 1966. A great example of a stylish actress under-used by Hollywood, but who kept busy with lots of television work.

Next:  Richard Beymer? Don Murray ? Tuesday Weld? Carol Lynley? Pamela Tiffin ? Vera Miles ?