Photo of the Day

A lovely pic of the beautiful Jeanne Crain...

Review: Pinky (1949)

I had never seen this film before TCM aired it the other night and was completely blown away by it. The story follows a young light skinned black woman who passes for white, leaves her home in Mississippi and goes north to attend nursing school. Pinky as she is called and played by Jeanne Crain, returns home after graduation to see her grandmother (Ethel Waters). Once there Pinky finds out that Granny has been caring for the ailing Ms. Em (Ethel Barrymore) and doesn't like it too much. Granny's little shack house sits on Ms. Em very large plantation estate. Pink recalls how she was treated badly by Ms. Em when Pinky was a child and has issues with her when Granny asks her to take care of Ms. Em as her nurse. At first Pinky wants no part of it but changes her mind once Granny tells her of how Ms. Em cared for her when she was sick. So their first meeting is tense as expected but over the next few days Pinky and Ms. Em come to understand each other. The rest of the film deals with Pinky dating a white doctor who finds out later on about Pinky's heritage and a legal battle over Ms. Em's estate between Pinky and Ms. Em's sister. This is a strong and emotional film, expertly directed by Elia Kazan, who gets three remarkable performances from his three women. Ethel Waters is just effortless in her part as Granny, that you don't even view her acting, but as a person trying to deal with a headstrong granddaughter and race relations. The great Ethel Barrymore is superb as usual and gets the most of her performance via scenes with Ms. Crain. Her character may have been a fixture of the old South and their traditions and views, but she is willing to accept the new way of thinking by her interaction with Pinky. And finally Jeanne Crain who gives probably the best performance of her career. She plays Pinky perfectly which is amazing, because this type of role could have easily been either over the top or not strong enough. She is white but has to play a black woman and she pulls it off with grace and class. I was genuinely moved by her performance that had several scenes where she said that she should be treated as a person and not judged by the color of  her skin. She should have won the Academy Award that year but alas did not. But regardless, Pinky is a great film that needs to be seen by everyone. It ranks right up there with To Kill A Mockingbird in my opinion.
B+

Great Film Perfomances: Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

For this month's great film performance I chose Elizabeth Taylor's searing portrayal of middle age wife Martha in Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf? Liz happens to be my classic movie goddess for the month of February on my own blog and she is celebrating her 78th birthday on the 27th of February. Liz deservedly won her second Best Actress Oscar for her performance here as the harridan wife who constantly verbally abuses her husband George (real life on-again, off-again husband Richard Burton). This is the kind of role actors and actresses would kill to have and Liz takes full advantage of the terrific script as written by Ernest Lehman based on the stage play by Edward Albee. Liz gives a clinic on acting 101 and it's a treat to watch. The banter between her and Burton comes alive in every single scene they have together. She transforms herself into this frumpy, middle aged bitter wife by wearing little or no makeup and putting on a few pounds. And says what is on her mind to anyone without hesitation. Liz is very convincing in this role as she was only 33 when this film was made. She gives a truly remarkable performance that truly earned her a Academy Award. Liz won an Oscar years earlier for Butterfield 8, but felt that was a gesture of sympathy from the Academy voters due to her illness at the time. Well, there is no doubt about her win for Virginia Woolf, she is truly magnificent in this film. Her performance as Martha at first may have you hating this woman, but by the end of the film, you will understand and even sympathize with her. It's to Taylor's credit and ability that you can feel anything for this woman at all, but you do. She gets to strut her acting ability to the fullest in one of the best screen performances of all time. And let me just add, though while Liz downplayed her beauty here, she was still quite attractive. Only Liz Taylor could pull something like that off. Here is a sampling of some of the sensational dialogue delivered in this great film:
Martha: I looked at you tonight and you weren't there... And I'm gonna howl it out, and I'm not gonna give a damn what I do and I'm gonna make the biggest god-damn explosion you've ever heard.
George: Try and I'll beat you at your own game.
Martha: Is that a threat George, huh?
George: It's a threat, Martha.
Martha: You're gonna get it, baby.
George: Be careful Martha. I'll rip you to pieces.
Martha: You're not man enough. You haven't the guts.
George: Total war.
Martha: Total.
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Martha: I swear, if you existed, I'd divorce you.
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Martha: I disgust me. You know, there's only been one man in my whole life who's ever made me happy. Do you know that?
[pause]
Martha: George, my husband... George, who is out somewhere there in the dark, who is good to me - whom I revile, who can keep learning the games we play as quickly as I can change them. Who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy. Yes, I do wish to be happy. George and Martha: Sad, sad, sad. Whom I will not forgive for having come to rest; for having seen me and having said: yes, this will do.

Kitty (1945) on TCM Thursday, Feb 4th at 10pm EST

Another classic film that I have never seen but will be watching is the 1945 comedy Kitty with Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland. Directed by Mitchell Leisen. Paulette is a 18th century wench who gets involved with nobility. I can't wait to see this film. I love Paulette. She is a natural comedienne and was extremely talented.

Review: Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf? (1966)

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In honor of Liz Taylor being the classic movie goddess of the month, I'm going to post personal reviews of her best films. I'll start with the highly dramatic but effective 1966 drama Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?. It pairs her with on-again, off-again husband Richard Burton as aging bitter couple Martha and George who become friends with a young couple named Nick and Honey (played by George Segal and Sandy Dennis). Having the young couple over for drinks turns into verbal sparring between Martha and George that turns very ugly very quickly. The young couple are pretty much terrified at the display they are witnessing but are scared to leave. This small B&W film with mainly the four actors on constant display is an actors dream to play in. The performances are all exceptionally good. Taylor is terrific as Martha who has several scenes where she just goes off on poor George. And kudos to Liz for deglamourizing herself  and putting on a few extra pounds to convincely  play this harridan. Liz was only 33 when she made this movie, but comes across believably as this middle aged shrew. Burton is good too as George, who takes the verbal abuse only for so long until he fires back. The banter between the two is well written and excellently performed. I mean if any two people knew more about each other than anyone else it's Liz and Richard. George Segal and Sandy Dennis are also good as the young couple who get in on the verbal sparring eventually. Director Mike Nichols of Silkwood, Working Girl and other later films makes his solid debut with this well made film that is really an actors showcase. One of Liz's best performances ever. I give it a solid rating of B+

Pinky on TCM tonight at 8pm EST

Never seen this film before and it sounds interesting. I'm a fan of Jeanne Crain so I think I'm gonna check it out tonight. It also stars Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters. Directed by the great Elia Kazan. The story is about a light skinned black woman (Crain) who returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school. Of course complications arise when she comes home. I'm really interested in seeing this film and glad TCM is showing it tonight.

Classic Movie Goddess Of The Month - Elizabeth Taylor Part 2

Here are some facts and trivia about the fabulous Liz:

Height: 5'2"
Nicknames: Liz, Kitten

She was bridesmaid for Jane Powell for her first marriage. Powell was bridesmaid for Taylor at her first marriage.

Has three children and nine grandchildren.

Liz was a close friend of Montgomery Clift until his death in 1966. They met for the first time when Paramount decided that she had to accompany him to the premiere of The Heiress (1949) because they were both to star in the upcoming A Place in the Sun (1951). They liked each other right away. Clift used to call her "Bessie Mae". When he had a car accident a few years later that disfigured him, he had just left a party at Liz's house. It was she who found him first, got into the wreck and removed some teeth from his throat that threatened to choke him.


At one point during her life-threatening illness while filming Butterfield 8 (1960), she was actually pronounced dead.

First actress to earn $1,000,000 for a movie role (in Cleopatra (1963)).

Along with Julie Andrews, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II on New Year's Eve, 1999.

The stories of her Oscar win for BUtterfield 8 (1960) have grown legendary. It is generally accepted as truth that she won Oscar voters by a vote of sympathy, because of the recent death of her husband, Michael Todd, and her near-fatal illness and emergency tracheotomy to save her life (her scar was very visible on Oscar night). Wisecracker and Rat Pack member Shirley MacLaine, who was favored to win for her role in The Apartment (1960), said afterwards that "I lost out to a tracheotomy."

She was voted the 11th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Ranked #7 in the American Film Insitutes list of the 50 'Greatest American Screen Legends', the top 25 male and top 25 female.

Although born in England, her parents were actually Americans who were just working in England. Her mother was of German descent and her dad was of Scots-Irish descent.

She and Richard Burton starred together in 11 movies: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The V.I.P.s (1963), Under Milk Wood (1972), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), The Sandpiper (1965), Hammersmith Is Out (1972), Doctor Faustus (1967), Divorce His - Divorce Hers (1973) (TV), The Comedians (1967), Cleopatra (1963) and Boom (1968). She had an uncredited cameo in Burton's film Anne of the Thousand Days (1969).

Spouses:

Larry Fortensky	(6 October 1991 - 31 October 1996) (divorced)
John Warner	(4 December 1976 - 7 November 1982) (divorced)
Richard Burton	(10 October 1975 - 1 August 1976) (remarried) (divorced)
Richard Burton	(15 March 1964 - 26 June 1974) (divorced) 1 child
Eddie Fisher	(12 May 1959 - 6 March 1964) (divorced)
Michael Todd	(2 February 1957 - 22 March 1958) (his death) 1 child
Michael Wilding	(21 February 1952 - 30 January 1957) (divorced) 2 children
Conrad Hilton Jr.	(6 May 1950 - 1 February 1951) (divorced)

My List of TCM's Top Academy Award Films

Classic Movie Goddess Of The Month - Elizabeth Taylor Part 1

A short bio of the legendary Liz Taylor, one of my favorite actresses of all time. Liz was born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor on February 27th, 1932 in Hampstead, London, England. Although she was born an English subject, her parents were Americans, art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri (her father had gone to London to set up a gallery). Her mother had been an actress on the stage, but gave up that vocation when she married. Elizabeth lived in London until the age of seven, when the family left for the US when the clouds of war began brewing in Europe in 1939. They sailed without her father, who stayed behind to wrap up the loose ends of the art business.

The family relocated to Los Angeles, where Mrs. Taylor's own family had moved. Mr. Taylor followed not long afterward. A family friend noticed the strikingly beautiful little Elizabeth and suggested that she be taken for a screen test. Her test impressed executives at Universal Pictures enough to sign her to a contract. Her first foray onto the screen was in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), released when she was ten. Universal dropped her contract after that one film, but Elizabeth was soon picked up by MGM.

The first production she made with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), and on the strength of that one film, MGM signed her for a full year. She had minuscule parts in her next two films, The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) and Jane Eyre (1944) (the former made while she was on loan to 20th Century-Fox). Then came the picture that made Elizabeth a star: MGM's National Velvet (1944). She played Velvet Brown opposite Mickey Rooney. The film was a smash hit, grossing over $4 million. Elizabeth now had a long-term contract with MGM and was its top child star. She made no films in 1945, but returned in 1946 in Courage of Lassie (1946). In 1947, when she was 15, she starred in Life with Father (1947) with such heavyweights as William Powell, Irene Dunne and Zasu Pitts.

Throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the early 1950s Elizabeth appeared in film after film with mostly good results. Her busiest year was 1954, with roles in Rhapsody (1954), Beau Brummell (1954), The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and Elephant Walk (1954). She was 22 now, and even at that young age was considered one of the world's great beauties. In 1955 she appeared in the hit Giant (1956) with James Dean.

Sadly, Dean never saw the release of the film, as he died in a car accident in 1955. The next year saw Elizabeth star in Raintree County (1957), an overblown epic made, partially, in Kentucky. Critics called it dry as dust. Despite the film's shortcomings, Elizabeth was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Southern belle Susanna Drake. However, on Oscar night the honor went to Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve (1957). In 1958 Elizabeth starred as Maggie Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

The film received rave reviews from the critics and Elizabeth was nominated again for an Academy Award for best actress, but this time she lost to Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! (1958). She was still a hot commodity in the film world, though. In 1959 she appeared in another mega-hit and received yet another Oscar nomination for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Once again, however, she lost out, this time to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1959). Her Oscar drought ended in 1960 when she brought home the coveted statue for her flawless performance in BUtterfield 8 (1960) as Gloria Wandrous, a call girl who is involved with a married man. Some critics blasted the movie but they couldn't ignore her performance. There were no more films for Elizabeth for three years. She left MGM after her contract ran out, but would do projects for the studio later down the road. In 1963 she starred in Cleopatra (1963), which was one of the most expensive productions up to that time--as was her salary, a whopping $1,000,000.

This was the film where she met her future and fifth husband, Richard Burton (the previous four were Conrad Hilton, Michael Wilding, Michael Todd--who died in a plane crash--and Eddie Fisher). Her next handful of films were lackluster at best, especially 1963's The V.I.P.s (1963), which was shredded by most critics. Elizabeth was to return to fine form, however, with the role of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Her performance as the loudmouthed, shrewish, unkempt Martha was easily her finest to date.

For this she would win her second Oscar and one that was more than well-deserved, but her films afterward didn't approach the intensity of that one. Since then she has appeared in several movies, both theatrical and made-for-television, and a number of TV programs. In February 1997 Elizabeth entered the hospital for the removal of a brain tumor. The operation was successful. As for her private life, she divorced Burton in 1974, only to remarry him in 1975 and divorce him, permanently, in 1976. She has had two husbands since, Senator John Warner and Larry Fortensky.

Classic Movie Goddess Of The Month - Elizabeth Taylor

For the month of February I've chosen Liz Taylor as the Classic Movie Goddess. I will be posting pics, facts, my rankings of her films, and all other kinda goodies. She is one of my favorite actresses of all time.