An appreciation of Glenda Farrell’s 1930s Hollywood characterizations, especially Torchy Blane, combined with a complete biography of Farrell.
Popular Posts
Movie Star Biographies
Una Merkel – Biographical Notes and Quotes
A critique of the 2012 TCM Una Merkel birthday schedule along with highlights of her biography and several quotes attributed to her throughout her career.
Guy Kibbee Biography – Character Actor Played Sugar Daddies, Goofballs, and Patriarchs
Biography of 1930s and 1940s character actor Guy Kibbee, who starred in over one hundred Hollywood films. Lovable Kibbee could play lecherous sugar daddies and folksy patriarchs with equal skill.
Paul Muni’s 1932 – Multiple Projects Converge to Make Paul Muni a Huge Star
In 1932 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang followed Scarface at the Strand Theater in New York while Paul Muni was then starring live on Broadway in Counsellor-at-Law. A major star is realized out of a huge year of work.
Elissa Landi Star of Stage and Screen, Author, Royalty?
I worked from over two dozen sources in this biographical post about the interesting life and career of Classic Film Star Elissa Landi, star of The Sign of the Cross (1932). Also includes a look at her fascinating parents–her father tried to raise the Lusitania, her mother claimed to be the unrecognized daughter of Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria!
Claudette Colbert, Her Start, Broadway Success and Earliest Films
A biography of Claudette Colbert covering her earliest days as she came to the stage, found Broadway success and transitioned to film. Claudette Colbert from France to New York, up until It Happened One Night (1934).
Movie Reviews & Articles
The Story of Temple Drake (1933) – Paramount Adapts Faulkner’s Sanctuary
A review plus background information about Paramount pre-Code The Story of Temple Drake (1933), adapted from Sanctuary by William Faulkner. Book and adaptation are compared and contrasted. Casting and path to screen are covered, including George Raft’s refusal to appear in the film. Biographical information about stars Miriam Hopkins and Jack La Rue. Lengthy article, over 5,500 words, first appeared in Classic Movie Monthly #5.
Rebecca (1940) and My Du Maurier Kick
Returning to Academy Award winning Best Picture Rebecca (1940) about ten years after I first watched it and immediately after reading the novel by Daphne Du Maurier.
The Valley of Decision (1945) starring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck
A look at MGM’s The Valley of Decision (1945) a look at love and steel in Pittsburgh of the 1870’s starring Greer Garson and Gregory Peck with Donald Crisp.
Cary Grant in Night and Day (1946)
Cary Grant plays Cole Porter in Warner Brothers’ Night and Day (1946), a heavily fictionalized and still somewhat unrewarding tale filled with Porter standards.
Employees’ Entrance (1933) starring Warren William and the Franklin-Monroe Department Store
A detailed look at First National’s Employees’ Entrance, an early 1933 pre-code release starring Warren William with Loretta Young and Wallace Ford. A look inside the Franklin-Monroe Department Store at a time when Hoover was a lame duck and the Great Depression was crushing the economy.
Blood Money (1933) Starring George Bancroft, Frances Dee
One of three pre-Code titles directed by temperamental Rowland Brown, Blood Money (1933) stars George Bancroft as a bail bondsman to the underworld with Frances Dee as a young kleptomaniac with an “underworld mania” and a desire for a strong man to dominate her. Feature debut for Judith Anderson.