Weekend photo miscellany

Some of our favourites: Vitti, Stamp & Losey during MODESTY  BLAISE, Dirk and Ingrid when she was his house-guest in 1965 (Eve  Arnold photo), Marlon visits Marilyn at 20th Century Fox in 1954, he was playing Napoleon and she is in one of her THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS dresses, a nice shot of Alan Bates, and that duel between Florinda Bolkan (as Lola Montez) and marvellous Margaret Courtenay in Lester's under-rated ROYAL FLASH; and Barbra wants to be a cycle slut in THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT, 1970.

Odd man out?

Thanks once again to Colin for finding this rarity: Alain, Marianne and a rather put-out Mick Jagger, for once not the centre of attention  - presumably to launch GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE in 1968 - if only the film had been better .....

Genevieve

Yesterday was the 75th birthday of another of our great favourites - French/Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold .... the 70s was really her decade, we love her in De Palma's OBSESSION (see review, and a previous longer appreciation on her, at Bujold label) and Crichton's tense medical thriller COMA, and she is the best thing in the hilariously awful EARTHQUAKE. and we also love her in Lelouch's 1978 ANOTHER MAN, ANOTHER CHANCE, as per recent re-view. I never really liked ANNE OF A THOUSAND DAYS though. She later made interesting films like CHOOSE ME and still works now mainly in independent cinema. Viva Genevieve. 

People we like: Janet Leigh

When I was doing those "People We Like" profiles here a few years ago (see label), one I somehow omitted was Janet Leigh - one of our perennial favourites, and always a pleasure in any movie. Janet (1927-2004) was a blonde California girl who famously got discovered when Norma Shearer saw her photograph at the ski lodge where Leigh's parents worked and, as legend has it, she was soon signed to MGM being one of their ingenues in the late '40s, in a variety of films. She was one of the LITTLE WOMEN in 1949, when HOLIDAY AFFAIR with Mitchum is a delightful Christmas classic. WHEN WINTER COMES was interesting too. The '50s though was her main era.

She is gorgeous in some costumers: SCARAMOUCHE in 1952, and cardboard castle time in comic strips like PRINCE VALIANT and THE BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH, with her then husband Tony Curtis. She is a '20s flapper in PETE KELLY'S BLUES, and good in a tough cop drama ROGUE COP with Robert Taylor, both 1954. I somehow missed her and Curtis in HOUDINI. 
She also excels out west in Mann's THE NAKED SPUR in 1953. She was MY SISTER EILEEN in the delightful 1955 musical and gets to dance with Bob Fosse.  We like it a lot, as per review. 1956 saw her in Africa in a routine jungle saga SAFARI with Victor Mature. 1958 was maybe her peak year: with Heston in TOUCH OF EVIL, directed by Orson at his most flamboyant, a modern noir classic where she gets terrorised in a motel, hiding her broken arm most of the time; then the Boys-Own classic THE VIKINGS, filmed in Norway and looking great as photographed by Jack Cardiff, where we love her Princess Morgana, its a perennial that boys of all ages still tune into. There was also a comedy I like, THE PERFECT FURLOUGH (or STRICTLY FOR PLEASURE) in Paris, with Curtis, for Blake Edwards. The marriage to Curtis made them one of the star couples of the era. Then Alfred Hitchcock came calling .... 

I have written about PSYCHO a lot here. Janet may only have been in the first forty minutes, but her Marion Crane dominates the rest of the film, and it is surely a leading performance, and she looks great here. She will always be the girl in the shower at the Bates Motel ... Hitchcock told her he knew she could act and left the role up to her as long as he got what he needed for his camera setups. That long scene with Perkins at the motel is particularly effective.

Frankenheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE was another classic in 1962, though her part was not major in it and she continued throughout the early Sixties: another musical: BYE BYE BIRDIE in '63, a comedy WIVES AND LOVERS, Paul Newman's estranged wife in HARPER in 1966. There was a Jerry Lewis comedy I saw around that time too, purely because she was in it. 
Lesser roles followed but she had more or less retired after a long happy second marriage (she and Curtis divorced in '62). John Carpenter lured her back with a role in THE FOG in 1980, starring her daughter scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. She also did a good COLUMBO episode in 1975. Janet also wrote some novels and a charming autobiography and seems to have been well liked by everybody. 

Howard Hughes liked her a lot, with her perfect figure, she did his JET PILOT with John Wayne in 1951, directed by Von Sternberg, but it was 1957 by the time Hughes stopped tinkering with it and released it. She looks marvellous emerging from that flying suit in that white tee-shirt, but says in her book that she had to arrange to never be left alone with Hughes, till he eventually found more willing actresses .... 
She will always be one of the essential actresses of the 1950s, along with Kim, Doris, Debbie, Lee, Jean, Deborah, Susan, Ava, Natalie etc. and did sterling work with Hitchcock, Welles, Von Sternberg, Mann etc. (above: Janet in a 1969 "Sight & Sound" interview).

Julie, Julie

Julie (and the other one) in the Swinging Sixties... some rare shots we have not seen before,

That 1966 Royal Film Performance of BORN FREE, with Julie, Leslie Caron, Warren Beatty, Catherine Deneuve, Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee all lined-up. Perhaps the first time Warren met Julie .....

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 …

He is still Warren Beatty ...

Fascinating to see Warren Beatty a day or two ago on Graham Norton's sofa on Norton's UK chatshow here. After the debacle of that Best Picture wrong envelope at the Oscars, Warren was witty, amusing and erudite here. After 15 years or so since his last film and not a regular on the celebrity circuit, it was good to see him up close and well in his 80th year .... perhaps having Annette Bening at home and four children helps keep him young. Just saying ... Warren played along gamely with Norton  - well he did have a film to promote -  denying all those rumours about him and his legendary lifestyle ...

What a fascinating career its been, with just a few duds, the new film is RULES DON'T APPLY, in which he plays Howard Hughes - perfect casting! - and he also directs and co-wrote the screenplay. Great cast in it too, including Bening, Candice Bergen, Steve Coogan, Alec Baldwin, Hart Bochner and another new favourite Alden Ehrenreich (from HAIL CAESAR!). This may be one to match Scorsese's THE AVIATOR ?

Beatty was a star from the start, at the dawn of the 1960s, having impressed the likes of Tennessee Williams, William Inge and Kazan, in the bland era of Troy Donahue and the others, he stood out for his spectacular looks and quirky movie choices - it must be the longest star career of his generation. We like those early ones like THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, and our particular favourite then, Frankenheimer's ALL FALL DOWN (left). Followed by Rossen's interesting misfire LILITH in 1964, and Penn's oddball MICKEY ONE in 1965, Then came two forgettable comedies: PROMISE HER ANYTHING with Leslie Caron and KALEIDOSCOPE with Susannah York in Swinging London, 1966, followed by the game-changer BONNIE AND CLYDE in 1967, to be followed in 1969 by another dud, George Stevens' last film THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, perhaps he did it to work with Stevens and co-star Elizabeth Taylor - they both looked good, but she was really too old and chubby then to be a Las Vegas showgirl. 

The Seventies saw those classics like Altman's McCABE & MRS MILLER with Julie Christie, and Pakula's THE PARALLAX VIEW in 1974 - both still very powerful; and two more with Christie SHAMPOO in 1975 and HEAVEN CAN WAIT in 1978. REDS was another powerful one in 1981, gathering those Awards. Less successful - we did not want to see them - were ISHTAR and BUGSY. THE FORTUNE wasn't all that, LOVE AFFAIR seemed a vanity project, DICK TRACY amused for a while, and we did not want to see the later BULWORTH or TOWN & COUNTRY. It will be interesting to see how RULES DON'T APPLY fares. Not too many other actor-directors his age out there .... Only Beatty and Orson Welles (for CITIZEN KANE) have been nominated by the Academy as an actor, director, writer, and producer for the same film, and Beatty has done it twice,  Beatty reviews at label.

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 ...

People We Like - continued ... some British actors

Douglas Hodge, and as Grimes in the current DECLINE AND FALL. (He was a terrific Zaza in LE CAGE AUX FOLLES a few years back).

Rory Kinnear, and as the Frankenstein monster in PENNY DREADFUL.  (also recently in THE IMITATION GAME, SKYFALL, SPECTRE, and theatre including another HAMLET and THE THREEPENNY OPERA). 

Patrick Baladi may have started off playing Nancy in a school production of OLIVER! but is kept busy now, in the current LINE OF DUTY among others - we like him in  the STELLA series with Ruth Jones, where he looked good wearing leathers, and he marries a man in Tom Hollander's REV.

Hugh Bonneville, now that he has left the Earl of Grantham behind at DOWNTON ABBEY, seems to be having fun, amusingly dragging up in PADDINGTON (right), and being hilarious in DAVID WALLIAMS & FRIEND, as well as BBC series W1A, and that surprise turn in DA VINCI'S DEMONS. Looking forward to PADDINGTON 2. 

Daniel Boys, actor and singer, recently seen in the BOYS IN THE BAND revival.

Then of course there's Tom Hollander, and Aidan Turner (POLDARK and handsome! - see Poldark 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.

White Feather, 1955

WHITE FEATHER is a perfect mid-'50s western, which somehow I never saw at the time. I was 10 or so then and seeing all those early 50s westerns with my father: JOHNNY GUITAR (the first film I saw aged 8, what a vivid introduction to cinema), SHANE, THE COMMAND, DRUM BEAT, SITTING BULL, THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ, GARDEN OF EVIL, CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA, THE MAVERICK QUEEN, THE LAST WAGON, RIVER OF NO RETURN, BROKEN LANCE etc. We kids loved anything with covered wagons and Indian attacks on forts, and heroes like Dale Robertson, Clint Walker, Audie Murphy or Guy Madison, or as teamed several times, Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. 

My father also took me to all those John Wayne and James Stewart westerns, like NIGHT PASSAGE and Ford's THE SEARCHERS, where Hunter had his immortal moment as half-breed Martin Pawley (Wagner had tested for that for Ford would not cast him, it would have been Wagner's first teaming with Natalie Wood if he had).  

WHITE FEATHER: The story of the peace mission from the US cavalry to the Cheyenne Indians in Wyoming during the 1870s. The mission is threatened when a civilian surveyor befriends the chief's son and falls for the chief's daughter.

Wagner is the  lead here, and Jeff is Little Dog, the Indian brave, with Hugh O'Brien as his sidekick.  Debra Paget is the indian princess and stodgy John Lund also features. 

We have covered Jeff Hunter several times before - he is one of "People We Like" - he of course died aged 42 in 1969, Wagner is still here and writing entertaining books, at 86, while Hugh died last year aged 91. Wagner and Hunter appeared in at least 5 films together, as well as the all-star THE LONGEST DAY, while Hunter also did five with Debra Paget - we are very partial to their 1954 PRINCESS OF THE NILE where Deb does one of her torrid dances, and Jeff wears a turban and harem pants, in old Cairo, right. Debra was back out west with Elvis in his first film LOVE ME TENDER in 1956.

WHITE FEATHER though is well done, scripted by western maestro Delmar Daves, but directed by one Robert D. Webb.