Me and Shirley Jones...another year, another birthday

I post about me and Shirley Jones sharing a birthday every year. I love Shirley as she is one of my favorite actresses. It's cool that we share the same birthday. Anyway, hope everyone has an awesome day as well!

Tea Anyone: Gene Tierney

Gene enjoying some tea in her lovely teapot in her lovely living room

The ELITE EIGHT

Barring some miraculous comebacks, looks like our elite eight matches are set to begin tonight.

Here are the eight women who made it to this elite round. Well in a few more hours they will be.
Because Carole is trouncing Joan Crawford by the score of 169-81 while Ginger Rogers is laying it on Greta Garbo 174-78 in the 30's era. In the 40's, Bette Davis is rolling over Lucille Ball 94-36 while Judy Garland is beating Gene Tierney 81-65. In the 50's era Grace Kelly is handling Debbie Reynolds 74-29 while Elizabeth Taylor has Janet Leigh in check at 74-31. And here on All Good Things, Natalie Wood is beating Catherine Deneuve 51-31 while Jean Simmons has a somewhat close match with Ann-Margret at 46-34.


30’S ERA MATCH:

CAROLE LOMBARD vs
GINGER ROGERS

Looks like fellow tennis lovers Carole and Ginger plan to settle their differences on the court....


40’S ERA MATCH:

BETTE DAVIS vs
JUDY GARLAND

Will Judy be able to bob and weave against Bette? We shall soon find out....


50’S ERA MATCH:

GRACE KELLY vs
ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Seems like Grace is taking the match a little more serious than Elizabeth..


60’S ERA MATCH:

NATALIE WOOD vs

JEAN SIMMONS

And Natalie is ready to dance all night long to go the distance against the relaxed Jean


Everyone knows my favorite is Carole Lombard. So my other three picks to make the Final four are Bette Davis (40’s era), Elizabeth Taylor (50’s) and Natalie Wood (60’s). Curious to know what everyone else’s final four looks like. Like I said the elite 8 matches will begin tonight and will run through Sunday night. The winner advances to the final four. And if there are no ties, the final four semi-final matches will begin Monday morning. The match featuring the 30’s and 50’s champions will be held over at Mythical Monkey while the 40’s and 60’s champions will meet over at Rosalind Russell. Then the championship match will take place right here on All Good Things. We will run the semi-final matches through Thursday night and begin the final match on Friday. A new champion will be crowned on Tuesday! Good luck to all those actresses involved and please be sure to vote when the matches begin.

The Morning Movie: THE ROMANTIC ENGLISHWOMAN (1975)

As I get ready for work, this is the movie that is being shown on a cable channel this morning. Glenda Jackson is one of my favorite modern actresses and The Romantic Englishwoman is one of hers I have never seen before. Co-starring Michael Caine and Helmut Berger, the opening scene on the train showing Jackson and Berger's characters is pretty interesting. So I will see how the rest of the movie goes. It is a gorgeous looking film I have to say. And Glenda is perfect as always. And lo and behold there's Michael Caine making his first appearance. OK, I'm good now.

The battle between Carole Lombard and Joan Crawford is underway

Some of the sweet 16 round matches have begun and the headliner for me is my girl Carole vs Joan Crawford. The epic battle is taking place over at my good friend John's blog, Mythical Monkey. Please go cast your vote as soon as possible. And looks like the stars are coming out to support their girls. Here's the link: mythicalmonkey

Carole is flanked by Marlene Dietrich, Lilli Damita and Errol Flynn who are in her corner

And good friend Barbara Stanwyck is there to support Joan,

which is tremendous considering the two just battled each other

in a tough match between friends.

Marquee Match Spotlight: Carole Lombard vs Joan Crawford

Well my favorite actress Carole Lombard has made it to the sweet 16 round and I am so excited. Her last two matches have been very tough. Her 2 point win over Jean Arthur was a nail biter while her match with Myrna Loy was very exciting but also stressful. She won't get a break either with her upcoming match with the ever resilient Joan Crawford, who has been knocking out some heavyweights of her own including Norma Shearer and Barbara Stanwyck. Don't know if any of you know about the shared history between Joan and Carole. Back in the day they used to compete in dance contests at the Cocoanut Grove. So this is sort of a rematch that should be fun to see unfold. The match begins tonight and will run through Thursday. Good luck to both women. Here's the link to the site over at Mythical Monkey, where this match is being held. mythicalmonkey

Sweet 16 Matches

Here are the match ups for round four or better known as Sweet Sixteen. Matches will begin tonight and run through Thursday night.

30'S ERA

1 GRETA GARBO vs 3 GINGER ROGERS
1 CAROLE LOMBARD vs 3 JOAN CRAWFORD

40'S ERA

1 JUDY GARLAND vs 5 GENE TIERNEY
1 BETTE DAVIS vs 2 LUCILLE BALL

50'S ERA

1 GRACE KELLY vs 2 DEBBIE REYNOLDS
1 ELIZABETH TAYLOR vs 5 JANET LEIGH

60'S ERA

1 JEAN SIMMONS vs 3 ANN-MARGRET
1 NATALIE WOOD vs 3 CATHERINE DENEUVE

As you can see there are still several top seeds left. And a couple of 5 seeds in Gene Tierney and Janet Leigh, who continue to surprise us all.

The Sweet Sixteen Round begins tonight

We have made it to the sweet sixteen round and here are the ladies who have made it and what they have accomplished.

GRETA GARBO - THEY HAD FACES (30'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
CAROLE LOMBARD - FUNNY LADIES (30'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
GINGER ROGERS - SINGERS/DANCERS (30'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
JOAN CRAWFORD - TOUGH BROADS AND PRE-CODE BABES (30'S ERA) WINNER

LUCILLE BALL - FUNNY LADIES (40'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
JUDY GARLAND - SINGERS/DANCERS (40'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
GENE TIERNEY - SOPHISTICATES (40'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
BETTE DAVIS - DRAMA QUEENS (40'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER

JANET LEIGH - FUNNY LADIES/GIRLS NEXT DOOR (50'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
DEBBIE REYNOLDS - SINGERS/DANCERS (50'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
GRACE KELLY - SOPHISTICATES (50'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
ELIZABETH TAYLOR - DRAMA QUEENS (50'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER

NATALIE WOOD - FUNNY  LADIES/GIRLS NEXT DOOR (60'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
ANN-MARGRET - SINGERS/DANCERS (60'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
JEAN SIMMONS - SOPHISTICATES (60'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER
CATHERINE DENEUVE - DRAMA QUEENS (60'S ERA) BRACKET WINNER

Matches will start tonight and I will post the matchups in a few hours.

Round Three Final Results: Defending champion Irene Dunne is sent home early

 SILENT/30'S ERA


GINGER ROGERS 264 IRENE DUNNE 214
CAROLE LOMBARD 187 MYRNA LOY 166

Ginger handled Irene with a stunning comeback victory

In a match marked with controversy, Ginger Rogers sent defending champion Irene Dunne home after a blistering 50 point victory to the tune of 264-214. Setting records for most votes in a single match. Possibility of poll tampering was the talk of the day as something similar happened last year with the Irene Dunne/Carole Lombard match. But it couldn't be proved so the final numbers will stand. And in the other match, my girl Carole bested Myrna Loy in a hard fought battle 187-166. Wow! Mythical Monkey has addressed this situation and we hope that there was no foul play involved and that the rest of the tourney will be clean.


40'S ERA


LUCILLE BALL 97 ROSALIND RUSSELL 91
JUDY GARLAND 94 RITA HAYWORTH 69

 Lucy explains to Maureen O'Hara how you defeat a top seed on their own court

In a grand battle Lucille Ball defeated Rosalind Russell on Roz's home court with a 6 point victory while Judy Garland steamrolled Rita Hayworth.


50'S ERA


DEBBIE REYNOLDS 71 DORIS DAY 69
JANET LEIGH 83 MARILYN MONROE 49

Janet is stunned herself after her victory over Marilyn Monroe...she is now headed to

the sweet sixteen round. Congrats Janet!

Top seed Doris Day made a late rally that fell 2 votes shy as she lost to the perky and scrappy Debbie Reynolds 71-69. Day, who was down by as many as 20 votes stormed back on Saturday to make this a match just ran out of time. In the other match Marilyn Monroe got shocked by Janet Leigh to the tune of 83-49. That was a thorough beating that I think no one saw coming.


60'S ERA


NATALIE WOOD 65 JANE FONDA 59
ANN-MARGRET 70 JULIE ANDREWS 56

Julie may have had the voice but Ann had some moves of her own...and they was enough

to take down Mary Poppins herself

One of last year's final four finalists, Natalie Wood had to make a charge on Saturday to overtake Jane Fonda and win 65-59. Believe it or not Wood was down at one point by 18 votes to Fonda. But showed her resilience and made a rally to win a much closer than expected match. And in the other match Ann-Margret danced her way around top seed Julie Andrews and won by 14 votes.

The Morning Movie: METEOR (1979)

 They are all thinking the same thing...what the hell am I doing in this movie?

As a kid I thought this was a pretty cool movie. Former James Bond (Sean Connery) tries to prevent a meteor from crashing into Earth. Thinking wow..this is awesome. Well I was around 10 or 11 so it didn't take much to wow me. Watching it the other morning I was like oh my god, this movie is awful. Bad special effects, uninteresting characters. And Natalie Wood has this deer in headlights look the whole time. Every time you look at her, she seems to be thinking "what the hell am I doing in this movie?". I second that Natalie, what are you doing in this piece of crap. It had the stellar cast in Connery, Wood, Henry Fonda, Karl Malden, and Brian Keith. But they can't save this one.

Round Three Day One Update

The excitement is not letting up as we move onto part 2 of round three of the favorite classic movie actress tourney. Here are the day one numbers so far...


SILENT/30'S ERA

"Another tough match? Go figure"....Carole says to herself

CAROLE LOMBARD 57 MYRNA LOY 57
IRENE DUNNE 70 GINGER ROGERS 59


My girl Carole is in another dogfight. This time with the equally popular Myrna Loy and they are dead even. But this match has been back and forth all day long. And we've got 2 more days to go. Don't know how much I can take. In the other match Ginger Rogers has fought her way back against defending champion Irene Dunne to make this a much closer match. Currently down by 11 votes, Ginger at one point was down by as many as 24.


40'S ERA

ROSALIND RUSSELL 40 LUCILLE BALL 32
JUDY GARLAND 44 RITA HAYWORTH 35


After a close start to both matches, a little separation is starting to take place. Top seed Russell has expanded her lead to 8 votes over Lucy while Judy Garland has increased her lead to 9 votes over Rita Hayworth.


50'S ERA

DEBBIE REYNOLDS 45 DORIS DAY 35
JANET LEIGH 52 MARILYN MONROE 29


Now this is the era where things are really, really interesting. Both top seeds are losing and losing big. Overall top seed Doris Day is down by 10 votes to the scrappy Debbie Reynolds. Which is only a mild shock considering the popularity of Reynolds. But 2nd seed Marilyn Monroe is getting hammered by Janet Leigh. What's funny is that right before my lunchtime today MM had a small 4 vote lead. Since then Leigh has rung up 30+ votes to open up a huge margin. Talk about a surprise!


60'S ERA

ANN-MARGRET 39 JULIE ANDREWS 29
JANE FONDA 40 NATALIE WOOD 30


And speaking of upsets, the same thing is happening here to the top 2 seeds. Julie Andrews is down by 10 votes to Ann-Margret and last year's final four finalist Natalie Wood is down by 10 votes as well to Jane Fonda. Actually Natalie was getting beat worse than that, down by as many as 14 votes before making a mini-run in the past 2 hours. Exciting, exciting, exciting. The matches continue on thru Saturday night.

Marquee Match Spotlight: Doris Day vs Debbie Reynolds

DORIS DAY

                                            DEBBIE REYNOLDS

A prime match to decide the winner of the singers/dancers bracket for the 50’s era will be decided between No. 1 Doris Day and No. 2 Debbie Reynolds. I for one can’t wait to see how this will one will play out as I love both actresses. And both are experienced tourney players. Doris came within one match last year of going to the final four before losing to Natalie Wood in the 60’s era championship Final match. And Debbie went all the way to the 50’s era final match, only to lose to Grace Kelly. So this sets up to be an exciting match. It started late last night and the score currently has Doris leading Debbie 24-23. Go here to cast your vote:
noir and chick flicks



ALL GOOD THINGS in April

The legendary Greta Garbo will be my classic movie goddess of the month. One of the greatest actresses of all time and I plan to post reviews, photos, and the usual assorted goodies. All month long. My guest for the month will be Marsha who does the wonderful Flick Chick facebook page and her blog, A Person In The Dark. She is one of my good blogger friends and I love both her fb page and blog. Spring is here and I would like to do something related to that. Thinking of a new photo series ala At The Beach and The Fall Series. Don't know yet. Oh and the favorite classic movie actress tourney will wrap up by the first week of April and we should have crowned a champion by then. So please come by and sit for a spell with me here at All Good Things.

Round Three Final Results

Round three produced a couple of upsets which proved to be quite exciting. Here are the final numbers.


SILENT/30'S ERA

Joan is all smiles after upsetting Barbara Stanwyck

GRETA GARBO def GLORIA SWANSON 75-57
JOAN CRAWFORD def BARBARA STANWYCK 81-74


Top seed Greta Garbo, who got knocked out in the second round last year continues to make up ground as she throttled Gloria Swanson. The surprise though came with Joan Crawford knocking off top seed Barbara Stanwyck. A surprise because last year Crawford couldn't even make it past the first round but stayed close the whole time with Babs and pulled ahead of her in the last few hours of the match. Wow! Another number one falls again.

40'S ERA

Gene does it again..another win against a higher ranked opponent

GENE TIERNEY def LAUREN BACALL 53-45
BETTE DAVIS def OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND 53-44

Gene Tierney continues her remarkable run with her latest victim in Lauren Bacall. Through three rounds Gene has knocked off a top seed in Vivien Leigh, the equally tough Greer Garson and now Bacall. An impressive list of victories to say the least. In the other match, Bette Davis had to struggle a bit but eventually beat Olivia de Havilland. 


50'S ERA

A youthful and happy Elizabeth Taylor after her recent victory

GRACE KELLY def AUDREY HEPBURN 58-54
ELIZABETH TAYLOR def AVA GARDER 55-48

In a case of deja vu, top seed Grace Kelly defeated 2nd seed Audrey Hepburn by 4 votes. This match was eerily remisncsent of last year as Grace also won by 4 votes. But this was a back and forth affair for the entire three days. At one point Grace was leading by as many as 11 votes before Audrey stormed back to take the lead by as many as 5 votes. But Grace would not go down without a fight as she made a late rally and pulled off the victory. Meanwhile in the other match, Elizabeth Taylor led the entire time over Ava Gardner to propel her to the 4th round. Ava did make a late charge, but it was too little, too late. Grace will face the winner of the Doris Day/Debbie Reynolds match which begins tomorrow while Elizabeth will face the winner of the Marilyn Monroe/Janet Leigh match.


60'S ERA

Catherine continues to silently go about her business and rack up another win

JEAN SIMMONS def ANNE BANCROFT 43-28
CATHERINE DENEUVE def SUSANNAH YORK 46-19

Both these matches were over after day one as top seeds Jean Simmons and Catherine Deneuve both rolled to lopsided victories. Jean will face the winner of the Julie Andrews/Ann-Margret match which begins tomorrow while Catherine will face the winner of the Natalie Wood/Jane Fonda match.