A commanding talent, to say the least. But half-way through, for the second chorus, she morphs into Betty Hutton, which is startling, but not without its wacky charm.
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COMING AND GOING, GOING AND COMING....AND ALWAYS TOO SOON
ALFREDO'S JUKEBOX
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MY BOOKS
- The History of Love, Bel Canto, 9 Stories by J.D. Salinger, Mr. Bedord and the Muses, Sister Carrie, Tick-Tock, The Season, The Hours, An American Tragedy, Living Well is the Best Revenge, Our Lady of the Lost and Found, 84 Charring Cross Road, Act One, Dancing with the Devil, Familiar Spirits, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Pursuit of Love, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Principles of Uncertainty, Cakes and Ale
MY MOVIES
- Babette's Feast, Sullivan's Travels, Dodsworth, All About my Mother, All About Eve, Ma Vie en Rose, A Star is Born (1954), 84 Charring Cross Road, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Brief Encounter, The Hours, Auntie Mame, Infamous, Hollywoodland, Fur, Vertigo, Rear Window, Portrait of Jennie, The Model and the Marriage Broker, Random, Harvest, The Mating Season, Radio Days, Another Woman, The Bycicle Thief, Umberto D, Blade Runner, The Devil Wears Prada, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, The Triplets of Belleville, Stevie, My Foolish Heart, The Tender Trap, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Awful Truth, Amarcord, I, Vitelloni, Variety Lights, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961), Dinner at Eight, Beyond the Forest, Mr. Skeffington, The Pirate, Turtle Diary
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- A commanding talent, to say the least. But half-wa...
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THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE STARS
- MARY ASTOR - Like so many women of that era (and the era really covered a lot of ground, from the 30s through the 60s) could and did play any part with forthright assurance, style and damned good acting. From the shrewish Brigid O'Shaugnassy in THE MALTESE FALCON to the wordly and serene Edith Cortrigh in DODSWORTH to the Auntie Mame-like society manhunter in THE PALM BEACH STORY to the stark and truly terrifying Roberta Carter in RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE (Oscar nomination,) Astor, like Irene Dunne (soon to appear in these pages) could do it all and, as with Dunn, no matter what the part, a shinning intelligence came through.
- VIVIEN LEIGH – A superb technician and a great beauty. The heartbreak in her eyes and her voice were there from the start and they only became more poignant as she aged. There may not be a more idiosyncratic match of star and role in anyone's career than Vivien Leigh's, who, deliberatly or not, became the spokeswoman for the fragile, shopworn angel, though still smoldering with longing and lust.
What a fun performance. Yes, it's quite jarring to go from overly dramatic to gangbusters...but it does have its charm as you say.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a fan of those "stairway to nowhere"-type sets.