March Madness #18 FRED MacMURRAY

Welcome to Day 18 of MARCH MADNESS!
Every day in March, ALL GOOD THINGS will highlight a Classic film Super-star, you know, the type renowned for really, really B.A.D. to sweetest-dearest-most darling!

DAY #18 Results: GENE TIERNEY - no contest for Day 17, the crowds loves LUCY MUIR over that mean, ol LIONESS, Ellen Berent Harland, "Leave Her To Heaven".

TODAY the spotlight shines on FRED MacMURRAY. Dainty and beautiful, Gene was beloved by her fans for her genteel Lamb-y characters, and equally for her LIONESS roles!
Which do you prefer: LION: rough n' tuff! or LAMB: Sweet & soulful?

March Madness #17: GENE TIERNEY

Welcome to Day 17 of MARCH MADNESS!
Every day in March, ALL GOOD THINGS will highlight a Classic film Super-star, you know, the type renowned for really, really B.A.D. to sweetest-dearest-most darling!

DAY #16 Results: GLENN FORD - no contest for Day 17, the crowds love Beastly-beast JOHNNY FARRELL /"Gilda" 21 over 10 for Elliott Nash /"The Gazebo"

TODAY the spotlight shines on GENE TIERNEY. Dainty and beautiful, Gene was beloved by her fans for her genteel Lamb-y characters, and equally for her LIONESS roles!
Which do you prefer: LION: rough n' tuff! or LAMB: Sweet & soulful?

Sweet Sixteen (Round 4) matches are now underway

Things get really interesting now that the Sweet Sixteen Round in the 2015 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tourney is underway. Here are the two matches taking place right here on All Good Things.

 First up is the Song and Dance bracket winner Judy Garland

taking on European Lovelies winner Greer Garson

Then in the next match, the Femme Fatales bracket winner Gene Tierney

takes on the Box-Office Queen winner Rosalind Russell

These matches can be found on the sidebar to the right and will

run through Saturday afternoon.

Click on the link below to go vote on the other eras matches as well:

the 30's era

the 50's era

the 60's era

Week 2 Lombard Cup Matches

Team Carole takes a 4-1 point lead into week 2. And they will need it as the competition gets even tougher this second time around. Here are the matches scheduled to begin tomorrow...

MATCH 6

IRENE DUNNE (TEAM CAROLE)

VS

KATHARINE HEPBURN (TEAM VERONICA)

MATCH 7

ROMY SCHNEIDER (TEAM CAROLE)

VS

JANE RUSSELL (TEAM VERONICA)

MATCH 8

ELEANOR PARKER (TEAM CAROLE)

VS

GENE TIERNEY (TEAM VERONICA)

MATCH 9

DORIS DAY (TEAM CAROLE)

VS

MAUREEN O'HARA (TEAM VERONICA)

MATCH 10

JUDY GARLAND (TEAM CAROLE)

VS

MARGARET O'BRIEN (TEAM VERONICA)

Matches will run through Friday. The polls will be open tomorrow morning here on All Good Things. Good luck to both teams.

THE MONTIES: 1947 - A little bit of something for everyone as the Monties get spread around

Wow, it's been 10 months since I last did a Monties post. Sorry about that. Been busy with work and actually doing more on my FB page for All Good Things than on here. Plus it gave me time to see more movies made for the year of 1947. So let's get started with a year that saw my Monties get spread around all over the place.

BEST FILM:
Winner: The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
Nominees: The Farmer's Daughter, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Gentlemen's Agreement, Black Narcissus, The Bishop's Wife, Smash-Up: The Story Of A Woman, Miracle on 34th Street, Out Of The Past
Thoughts: One of the most diverse years ever with comedies, dramas, and film noir all mixing it up. Now while Gentlemen's Agreement, Black Narcissus and Smash-Up are definitely the type of films that get the Academy's attention I went with one of my favorite comedies of all time, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. Seeing veterans Cary Grant and Myrna Loy do their screwball thing brought back memories of the great comedies of the 30's. I have seen this film a gazillon times and it's still funny and fresh as seeing it for the first time.

Smile Cary..your film just won another Montie!

BEST DIRECTOR:
Winner: Jacques Tourneur (Out Of The Past)
Nominees: George Cukor (A Double Life); Michael Powell (Black Narcissus); Elia Kazan (Gentlemen's Agreement); Joseph L. Mankiewicz (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir)
Thoughts: Tourneur crafted one of the best film noirs in history with the excellent Out Of The Past. The other four nominees were no slouches but I felt Tourneur was the man to beat.

Jacques lining up a shot 

BEST WRITER:
Winner: Moss Hart (Gentleman's Agreement)
Nominees: Sidney Sheldon (The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer); Valentine Davis (Miracle on 34th Street); Dorothy Parker (Smash-Up); Eleazar Lipsky (Kiss Of Death)

A happy Moss Hart

BEST ACTOR:
Winner: Robert Mitchum (Out Of The Past)
Nominees: Rex Harrison (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir); Gregory Peck (Gentlemen's Agreement); Ronald Colman (A Double Life); Danny Kaye (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty); Cary Grant (The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer)
Thoughts: Bobby Mitchum was terrific as the private eye involved in double crosses and corruption. He denies Cary Grant for what would have been Grant's 4th Montie.

The man of the hour..Robert Mitchum

BEST ACTRESS:
Winner: Gene Tierney (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir)
Nominees: Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter); Susan Hayward (Smash-Up); Dorothy McGuire (Gentlemen's Agreement); Jane Greer (Out Of The Past); Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus)
Thoughts: Gene Tierney gets her first Montie after losing out two years ago for Leave Her To Heaven. Her performance as Lucy Muir in the Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a wonderful one, mixing romanticism, strong willingness, and determination. Kudos to Gene.

Gene Tierney wins her first Montie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 
Winner: Ava Gardner (The Hucksters)
Nominees: Jean Simmons (Black Narcissus); Celeste Holm (Gentleman's Agreement); Natalie Wood (Miracle on 34th Street); Shirley Temple (The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer)

Thoughts: Ava scores a Montie on her first nomination. She missed out last year being nominated as Kitty Collins in The Killers by a hair as that year was top heavy with lots of strong female performances but she would not be denied this year. I loved her performance here and she had wonderful chemistry with Clark Gable. They would re-team again for Mogambo.

As does Ava

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: 
Winner: Edmund Gwenn (Miracle on 34th Street)
Nominees: Kirk Douglas (Out Of The Past); David Niven (The Bishop's Wife); Richard Widmark (Kiss Of Death); John Garfield (Gentleman's Agreement)
Thoughts: As good as Richard Widmark as crazed killer Tommy Udo in Kiss Of Death was, Edmund Gwenn was just awesome as the man named Kris Kringle who claims to be Santa with a sentimental and wonderful performance.

The delightful Edmund

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Winner: BLACK NARCISSUS
Nominees: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir; Sinbad the Sailor; Lady In The Lake
Thoughts: One beautiful looking film..period.

The beautiful looking Black Narcissus

BEST FILM SCORE:
Winner: Max Steiner (Life With Father)
Nominees: Miklos Rozsa (A Double Life); Hugo Friedhofer (The Bishop's Wife)
Thoughts: This is actually Steiner's first Montie as I didn't start recognizing film scores until just recently. So it is a given he would have won for Gone With The Wind, Casablanca and a few more. But as he was still scoring films thru the 60's I wager he will pick up one or two more.

Life With Father

So the final tally is really spread out as Out Of The Past is the only film to pick up multiple Monties, with two (Best Director and Best Actor). The Bachelor and The Bobby-Soxer became the 6th Cary Grant film to win Best Film. Wow! Cary also still has the most Monties with three Best Actor trophies. I was glad to see Ava Gardner and Gene Tierney pick up statues for their work and I won't be surprised if Ava wins another Montie before I'm done. And speaking of which I hope to be back with the 1948 edition much sooner than 11 months. 

Summer Lovin' - GENE TIERNEY

Gene relaxing ever so much....

Tea Anyone: Gene Tierney

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

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.

Round Two (Part One) Final Results

There was a lot of scoring in the second round of the tourney. And a few upsets as well. Here are the final numbers for each era.


SILENT/30'S ERA

No you didn't just beat Marlene? Impressive my dear Joan...impressive -

Esther Williams congratulates Joan

GRETA GARBO 80 CLARA BOW 45
GLORIA SWANSON 82 MARY PICKFORD 38
BARBARA STANWYCK 77 CLAUDETTE COLBERT 52
JOAN CRAWFORD 73 MARLENE DIETRICH 60


Records were being set left and right in this era and tons of voters showed up to contribute on average 110 votes per match. Gloria Swanson flirted with most votes registered in a single match with 82, falling 1 vote shy of Irene Dunne's record of 83 votes from just last week. And Marlene Dietrich has the dubious distinction of having the most votes in a losing capacity. 


40'S ERA

Gene Tierney knocked off the legendary Vivien Leigh

GENE TIERNEY 51 VIVIEN LEIGH 44
LAUREN BACALL 54 INGRID BERGMAN 37
BETTE DAVIS 58 JOAN FONTAINE 39
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND 54 KATHARINE HEPBURN 44


Talk about upset city. This era produced 3 upsets out of the four matches. The biggest one has to be Vivien Leigh losing to Gene Tierney. Leigh becomes the first final four finalist from last year tourney to make an early exit. Quite a shock. 2nd seeds Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman also were sent home early. Kate lost to Olivia De Havilland while Bergman fell behind early to Lauren Bacall and could never recover. Only Bette Davis advanced as a top seed, crushing Joan Fontaine.


50'S ERA

Ava rolls over Susan Hayward

ELIZABETH TAYLOR 73 ANNE BAXTER 37
AVA GARDNER 67 SUSAN HAYWARD 42
GRACE KELLY 76 SOPHIA LOREN 34
AUDREY HEPBURN 73 DEBORAH KERR 45


No close matches here as the winners rolled on average to a 25 point margin victory. Last year final four finalist Grace Kelly doubled up on Sophia Loren. Elizabeth Taylor, who was sent packing in the second round last year wasn't about to let that happen again. She destroyed Anne Baxter. Ava Gardner whipped up on Susan Hayward. And the much anticipated match between Audrey Hepburn and Deborah Kerr ended up being not so competitive. Hepburn pulled away and never looked back.


60'S ERA

Susannah knocks off top seed Julie Christie

SUSANNAH YORK 41 JULIE CHRISTIE 38
CATHERINE DENEUVE 47 LEE REMICK 36
JEAN SIMMONS 59 CLAUDIA CARDINALE 23
ANNE BANCROFT 51 FAYE DUNAWAY 35


A top seed is going home early as Julie Christie falls to Susannah York in a very close match. The other top seed Jean Simmons had no such problem as she lit up Claudia Cardinale. Catherine Deneuve finally put away the tough Lee Remick. And 6th seed Anne Bancroft continues to work her magic with another upset of a higher seed. This time it's Faye Dunaway who falls victim to Anne.


Winners of this round will begin round 3 competition on Monday.

MARCH MADNESS is almost upon us...

March Madness is only a few days away and here is another banner for the tourney to decide favorite classic movie actress of 2012.

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.