Tennis, Anyone?....Donna Reed is looking for a partner

Anyone care to join Donna for a game of tennis...Robin I know you would. Be a dear and let Donna know you're coming by.

THE MONTIES: A slight delay, but they are coming back soon....

Hi everyone. I know it's been about a month since I did my last Monties. And it's going to be another week or two before I have completed watching films from the year of 1945. One of the main things going on that year was the unbelievable amount of great work by women. Right now I have nine performances in the Best Actress category that are all excellent work. This will be the toughest year yet for me to decide on. That's why I'm re-watching several films to look at those amazing performances again. So if you guys can just bear with me a little while longer, I should have a new edition of the Monties before the month is out. But I will at least list the nine nominees for Best Actress so you guys will have an idea what's going on.

DONNA REED (THEY WERE EXPENDABLE)

MARGARET LOCKWOOD (THE WICKED LADY)

                                    

 

BARBARA STANWYCK (CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT)

                          


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JOAN BENNETT (SCARLET STREET)

                                               

 

GENE TIERNEY (LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN)

                                       
                                        

 

JOAN CRAWFORD (MILDRED PIERCE)

                                            



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JANE WYMAN (THE LOST WEEKEND)

                                               

   ANN SAVAGE (DETOUR)                                      

VIRGINIA MAYO (WONDER MAN)

What an impressive list of nominees. It will make for a most difficult decision when it comes time to decides who will get a Montie for Best Actress of 1945. I will have the answer to that and to all the other categories in a few short weeks.

HOLIDAY CHEER - James Stewart and Donna Reed

Jimmy and Donna

HOLIDAY CHEER - IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

The sentimental favorite....It's A Wonderful Life

THE FALL SERIES: James Stewart and Donna Reed

Ahhh...two people in love

THE FALL SERIES: Donna Reed

Donna matching well with the foliage, wouldn't you agree?

Pawsome Pet Pictures: Donna Reed and a cute twosome

 

Donna and her very cute twosome

Birthday Roll Call

Here are some of today's birthdays:

DONNA REED (1921-1986)

BRIDGET FONDA (1964-present)

JAMES CROMWELL (1940-present)

INGRID THULIN (1926-2004)

Wonderful Photos from It's A Wonderful Life

Here are some great photos from that perennial holiday classic, It's A Wonderful Life.

Iconic Film Images #6 - (It's A Wonderful Life)

From Here To Eternity (1953)

Top notch film with a super cast. It takes place at Pearl Harbor, a few weeks before the attack by the Japanese. Montgomery Clift who plays Private Prewitt, arrives at the base and immediately draws the ire of the commander, who wants him to be on the boxing team. Clift refuses and his life at the barracks becomes a living hell. A truly emotional and epic film with a cast that features Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, and Frank Sinatra. All give Oscar caliber performances especially Reed as a floozie who Clift falls for. And Sinatra is perfect as Private Maggio. A must see.

Karen: "If you're looking for the captain...he ain't here"
Sgt. Warden: "And if I ain't looking for the captain?"
Karen: "Then he still ain't here"

Donna Reed Poll Results

It's official, the Donna Reed poll for June is closed and I have the results. I asked what fans thought was Donna's best role and it was no surprise that her character Mary Bailey from It's A Wonderful Life was the winner by a landslide. That role netted 64% of all those who voted with 11 votes going to that wonderful character. A distant second was a tie between her Donna Stone role from her hit TV show and Lt. Sandy Davyss from They Were Expendable with 2 votes apiece. Thanks to everyone who voted and I will have a new poll up shortly focusing on Debbie Reynolds.

Donna Reed: Classic Movie Goddess Part 4

Here are what I feel are the must see films and TV work of Donna that have to be seen. Her essentials.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) Of course the holiday classic film that paired her with James Stewart. Her character Mary Bailey is one of cinema's best character as she is able to lend solid support to her fractured husband George. Not your typical fun and uplifting Christmas movie, but still a must see. Though I imagine everyone in the world has seen it at least once.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) Donna's potrayal of call girl Alma shattered her good girl image and showed she had some range in her acting ability. She deservedly won the Oscar that year for Best Supporting Actress. And showed she could play with the big boys who were in this star studded cast: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945) Some might say Donna is not that effective in her role as Gladys Hallward and she is just there to provide decoration. But as one of her mainstream films she is actually quite good. More attention might have been paid to Angela Lansbury, who got an Oscar nomination and George Sanders, but the film itself is a solid piece of work and adds nicely to Reed's resume.

THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (1945) As Lt. Sandy Davyss, Reed has a small part in this solid military movie about American PT boats defending the Philippines during WW2. With her not being involved directly in the action per se, her character is still very effective in a few quiet and emotional scenes. Co-starring the Duke himself, John Wayne.

GREEN DOLPHIN STREET (1947) Pairing up with Lana Turner to portray two sisters in love with the same man in Victorian era New Zealand. While Turner may have been top billed, Reed more than holds her own. Who can forget her scene when the climbs the cliff. Awesome.

THE DONNA REED SHOW (1958-1966) Donna firmly established herself as one of the queens of TV with her classic self titled long running series. One of the best sitcoms in TV history.

Donna Reed: Classic Movie Goddess Part 3

Here are some interesting facts about Donna Reed:

Birth name: Donna Belle Mullenger
Height: 5'7"
27 January 1921 - 14 January 1986 (pancreatic cancer)

Despite her association with the squeaky-clean and conservative 1950s, Reed became an anti-nuclear activist and anti-Vietnam protester. She also founded the group Another Mother for Peace.

Her last husband Grover Asmus started a program called the Donna Reed Foundation that led to the Donna Reed festival held yearly in Denison, IA. It's a celebration of Donna, and includes classes, performances. Many stars attend such as Shelley Fabares, Debbie Reynolds, and Loren Janes.

In the scene from It's a Wonderful Life (1946) where she and James Stewart throw rocks at the old Granville house, director Frank Capra had originally planned to use a double in Donna's place to throw the rock. Miss Reed, however, was an accomplished baseball player in high school and threw very well, as evidenced by her toss in the movie.

Four children by husband/producer Tony Owen : Penny, Tony, Timothy and Mary. Two were adopted. Mary, their last child, was born to them in 1957, a year before the start of Donna's classic TV show, which Tony executive produced.

Learned of her firing from "Dallas" (1978) from a reporter while on a vacation to Paris. She was in the process of suing the show's producers before her death in January, 1986.

The woman on the cover of Rush's Permanent Waves album is modeled after her.

In Italy, a great deal of her films were dubbed by Renata Marini and Dhia Cristiani (most notably From Here to Eternity (1953)). Occasionally she was also dubbed by Miranda Bonansea (in Green Dolphin Street (1947)), Rosetta Calavetta and Micaela Giustiniani. The great Lidia Simoneschi also lent her voice to Reed in Frank Capra's much celebrated It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

Although she her image was generally associated that of the the squeaky-clean, conservative 1950s housewife and mother, she won her Oscar for From Here to Eternity (1953) for playing a prostitute.

Had a close relationship with her TV daughter, Shelley Fabares. Was considered by Fabares as her second mother until Reed's death in 1986.

Donna Reed - Classic Movie Goddess Part 2

When Nick at Nite started showing classic series during the 80's, The Donna Reed Show was one of my favorites. My whole family would sit down and watch this show, and we all had a really good time. The premise was simple enough: lovely homemaker Donna Stone, her pediatrician husband Alex (Carl Betz), and their children Mary (Shelley Fabares) and Jeff (Paul Petersen) engage in typical family situations that yielded loads of laughs and also a positive message. Without a doubt Donna Reed was the star, hence the title of the show. But she brought her positively serene presence to the surroundings. Reed had a strong movie career prior to making the jump to TV. Remember she co-starred with Jimmy Stewart in the classic holiday favorite It's A Wonderful Life and won an Oscar for her role as Alma in From Here To Eternity. So we knew Donna could act, but we didn't know how good she would be in a weekly situation comedy. Well her easy going charm and lovely looks made her show one of the most watched in TV history. And it produced a staggering 275 episodes in a short 8 year span. It was wholesome entertainment at it's best. And Donna received great support from her TV family. Carl Betz who played her husband Alex, may have played second fiddle to her in the billing, but he still managed to carve out a notable role himself as the always stand up husband and father. Paul Petersen as Jeff, their youngest provided most of the laughs, as he was constantly in trouble, or trying to get out of said trouble. And then there was Shelley Fabares as Mary, who I must admit I had a major crush on back then, was awesome in her first major role as an actress. Mary usually dealt with the regular teen-age girl issues like boys and clothing. Her banter with her brother Jeff were usually the highlights of the show. But in the end, the show usually came back to Donna Reed, who would sum up the episode with a pearl of wisdom or a sly joke. So The Donna Reed show was very good in that in showed a family that was pretty much normal. No eccentric characters here or any outlandish situations. Just good old family values that everyone could relate too. Donna was co-producer on this show or should I say she was married to the producer at the time. But you could tell she had a lot of say in how her character and the show would be displayed. Donna wasn't your everyday 1950's housewife. She spoke her mind and didn't take a backseat to anyone. But she also let her husband shine too. They were equal partners and had a loving family to show for it. Catch up on this very underrated classic show from a past time, but still enjoyable to this day.

New Poll Started

In honor of this month's Classic Movie Goddess, Donna Reed, I have started a new poll. It asks the question what is your favorite Donna Reed role. The choices are Mary Bailey (It's A Wonderful Life); Donna Stone (The Donna Reed Show); Alma Burke (From Here To Eternity); Gladys Hallward (The Picture of Dorian Gray) and Lt. Sandy Davyss (They Were Expendable). The poll will be open all month long. Enjoy.

Donna Reed - Classic Movie Goddess Part 1

The month of June matches perfectly with the girl from next door and eventually the perfect TV mom and housewife, Donna Reed. I will post her bio, facts, photos and of course her essential roles in film and TV. She is ranked number 7 on my favorite actresses of all time, so you can see where I stand with her. Anyway, here is a quick little bio on the wonderful Donna.

Donna Reed was born in the midwestern town of Denison, Iowa, on January 27, 1921, as Donna Belle Mullenger. A small town - a population of less than 3,000 people - Denison was located by the Boyer River, and was the county seat of Crawford County. Donna grew up as a farm girl, much like many young girls in western Iowa, except for one thing - Donna was very beautiful. That wasn't to say that others weren't as pretty, it's just that Donna's beauty stood out from all the other local girls, so much so that she won a beauty contest in Denison. Upon graduation from high school Donna left for college in Los Angeles, in the hopes of eventually entering movies. While at Los Angeles City College, she pursued her dream by participating in several college stage productions. In addition to the plays, she also won the title of Campus Queen. At one of those stage plays Donna was spotted by an MGM talent scout and was signed to a contract. Her first film was a minor role in MGM's The Get-Away (1941). That was followed by a small part in Babes on Broadway (1941), with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland as a secretary. Afterwards, MGM began giving her better parts, in films such as The Bugle Sounds (1942), The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942) and The Man from Down Under (1943). In 1944 she received second billing playing Carol Halliday in See Here, Private Hargrove (1944), a comedy about a reporter drafted into the army who eventually meets up with Donna's character as a worker in the canteen. The following year Donna starred in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), her best role to date. It was a love story set in London in 1890. It got mixed critical reviews but did well at the box-office. Donna was now one of the leading ladies of Hollywood. In 1946 she starred in what is probably her best-known role, as the wife of James Stewart in the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946). This timeless story is a holiday staple to this day. The film also starred Lionel Barrymore and Thomas Mitchell. The next year Donna starred as Ann Daniels in Paramount's Beyond Glory (1948) with Alan Ladd, which did well at the box-office. Her next role was the strongest she had had yet--Chicago Deadline (1949), again with Ladd. It was one of the best mystery dramas to come out of Hollywood in a long time, and did very well at the box office. As the 1940s faded out and the 1950s stormed in, Donna's roles got bigger but were mainly of the wholesome, girl-next-door type. In 1953, however, she starred as the prostitute Alma in the widely acclaimed From Here to Eternity (1953). She was so good in that film she was nominated for and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, beating out such veterans as Thelma Ritter and Marjorie Rambeau. The film itself won for Best Picture and remains a classic to this day. Later that year Donna starred in The Caddy (1953), a comedy with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Three years later she landed the role of Sacajawea in The Far Horizons (1955), the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, starring Charlton Heston and Fred MacMurray. After finishing The Whole Truth (1958), Donna began her own TV series (produced by her husband), "The Donna Reed Show" (1958), a hit that ran for eight years. She was so effective in the show that she was nominated for TV's prestigious Emmy Award as Best Actress every year from 1959-1962. She was far more popular in TV than on the screen. After the run of the program, Donna took some time away from show business before coming back in a couple of made-for-TV movies (in 1974, she had made a feature called Yellow-Headed Summer (1974), but it was never released). She did get the role of Ellie Ewing Farlow in the hit TV series "Dallas" (1978) during the 1984-85 season. It was to be her final public performance. On January 14, 1986, less than two weeks before her 65th birthday, she died of pancreatic cancer in Beverly Hills, California. Grover Asmus, her husband, created the Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts in her hometown of Denison. The foundation helps others who desire a career in the arts. Donna never forgot her roots. She was still a farm girl at heart.

All Good Things in June

The month when summer kicks into high gear, kids are on school break, and it's just a great time to enjoy some classic movies. The classic movie goddess will be Donna Reed, a very talented woman who was a success on both the small and big screens. I first came across her while as a kid watching reruns of The Donna Reed Show. Then later on saw her in classic films like It's A Wonderful Life and From Here To Eternity. So she will be spotlighted all month long here on my blog. And my guest blogger for the month will be my good friend Dawn of Noir & Chick Flicks. Me and Dawn actually collaborate on several blogs including Saddles & Spurs, Doris Day, Esther Williams, Betty Grable, and Chick Flick Musicals. Can't wait to have her here next month so we can discuss movies, TV, and whatever else catch our fancy. See ya next month.

Good Morning from Donna Reed

Top of the morning to everyone from Donna Reed