Classic Film TV Cafe hosts Five Stars Blogathon!
May 16th is a day to celebrate classic movies, and we’re inspired to pick our 5 favorite stars as if that would be easy!
BETTE DAVIS
Never settled for less than perfection in her work, though studio head Jack Warner did not consider her a beauty, Davis possessed one of the most striking, sensually expressive and memorable faces of all time. Not least are those mesmerizing eyes of hers, and that classy devil may care, cigarette in hand, she had a style she aged with forever gutsy and graceful.
She fought with integrity and grit against a studio system that held down strong women’s voices, but she persevered regardless. In her private life she remained an eternal romantic though she suffered many failed relationships, yet she forged an image of a strong, independent woman on and off screen– a heroine for the ages.
With performances that didn’t always paint her as ‘attractive’ –an ingenue, a seductress, nor a obviously sympathetic character -she had the bold courage to take on intricate roles that challenged her to prevail as one of the truly great actresses of all time.
An icon she will always remain… I will love her forever…
Though one of my favorite performances will always be for the beautiful and tragically stoic Charlotte Vale in Now, Voyager 1942 there is of course these Davis gems– Dark Victory 1939, Dangerous 1935, The Petrified Forest 1936, A Stolen Life 1946, Mr. Skeffington 1944, Beyond the Forest 1949, and especially her brilliant performances in– All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte and yes, for those of us that enjoy a good Grande Dame Guignol certainly her dual role as twins in Dead Ringer 1964…
The tragic Joyce Heath in Dangerous 1935, Gabrielle Maple in The Petrified Forest 1936, Valerie Purvis in Satan Met a Lady 1936, Julie Marsden in Jezebel 1938, Judith Traherne in Dark Victory 1939, Leslie Crosbie in The Letter 1940, Maggie Patterson in The Great Lie 1941, Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes 1941, the devious Stanley Timberlake in In This Our Life 1942, Charlotte Vale in Now, Voyager 1942, Kit Marlowe in Old Acquaintance 1943, Fanny Trellis Skeffington in Mr. Skeffington 1944, Kate and Patricia Bosworth in A Stolen Life 1946, the ruthless Rosa Moline in Beyond the Forest 1949, the wise and witty stage icon Margo Channing in All About Eve 1950, Joyce Ramsey in Payment on Demand 1951, Janet Frobisher in Another Man’s Poison 1951, Marie Hoke in Phone Call from a Stranger 1952, Aggie Hurley in The Catered Affair 1956, the ethical Alicia Hull in Storm Center 1956, sympathetically tragic anti-heroine Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? 1962, Margaret Delorca/Edith Phillips in Dead Ringer 1964, ravaged by time and renegade Charlotte Hollis in Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte 1964, the twisted Nanny in The Nanny 1965, Mrs. Taggart in The Anniversary 1968, The Widow Fortune in The Dark Secrets of Harvest Home 1978, Mrs. Aylwood in The Watcher in the Woods 1980, Libby Strong in The Whales of August 1987. I can’t think about her short role in Burnt Offerings 1976 ugh...
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
Elizabeth Rosamond Taylor is a woman possessed of layers upon layers of intricate emotional turmoil and passion. In her later years she had done some pretty challenging and offbeat roles but she always manages to evoke pathos and a strong inner manifesto of an ineffable deity about her. On and off screen. No matter who she is performing, Taylor is a wild fire that will burn up the screen. Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most evocative actresses, who can either bring me to raw agonizing tears or make me clench my body because she’s manages to trigger an emotion that just needed to get out!
One of my particular favorites is her portrayal of the misunderstood Gloria Wandrous in Butterfield 8 (1960) and Catherine Holly who is tormented by her horrid aunt Katherine Hepburn in Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly, Last Summer 1959.
I still believe Taylor is one of the most intensely beautiful women that has ever emerged in this lifetime, and there is a wild and untamed passion in Elizabeth Taylor that I find so compelling, it’s hard for me not to fall in love with her and those violet eyes. Whether she’s Maggie a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958, Leslie Benedict in Giant 1956, Angela Vickers in A Place in the Sun 1951, Susannah Drake Shawnessy in Raintree County 1957, or the emotionally tortured Catherine Holly in Suddenly, Last Summer 1959, as Laura Reynolds in The Sandpiper 1965, or Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? 1966, Helen in Doctor Faustus 1967, Leonora Penderton married to a closet homosexual (Marlon Brando) in Tennessee Williams’ Reflections in a Golden Eye 1967, as Flora ‘Sissy’ Goforth in Boom! 1968. She still showed her vast array of colors as Leonora a woman who embarks on a strange relationship with an even stranger young woman in Joseph Losey’s odd and disturbing Secret Ceremony 1968 co-starring Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum. And yes I admit it, I loved her as Zee Blakeley in X, Y and Zee 1972 and consider these others to be additional guilty pleasures, Night Watch and Ash Wednesday 1973
and The Driver’s Seat 1974.
ANNA MAGNANI
Referred to as Volcanic – Anna Magnani is a bold and beautiful woman who bares her soul on the screen. A fine Italian actress who could command the rain and thunder to appear with just one of her passionate pleas, she has that kind of ascendancy. Anna Magnani has a raw and natural sensual quality that allows her ability to tap into the primal dimensions of emotion. She is truly real when she is on the screen. It’s like the earth moves with her! Of course one of my favorite performances is from Tennessee William’s adaption of The Fugitive Kind 1960 where she plays the poignant Lady Torrance opposite Marlon Brando. I also adored her as Maddalena Cecconi in Bellissima 1951 and as the widow Rose in The Rose Tattoo 1955 with Burt Lancaster as well as her enigmatic role in ...and the Wild Wild Women 1959 and Mamma Roma 1962. She has appeared in the intensely evocative Roma, Open City 1945, as Sister Letizia in The Awakening 1957 Magnani has appeared as Maddalena Natoli in William Dieterle’s Volcano 1950, in George Cukor’s Wild is the Wind 1957, The Passionate Thief (Risate di Gioia) 1960, The Secret of Santa Vittoria 1969.
Anna Magnani in The Fugitive Kind
… and the Wild Wild Women 1959
Mamma Roma 1962
The Passionate Thief 1960
Rome, Open City 1945
The Fugitive Kind 1960
The Rose Tattoo 1955
The Secret of Santa Vittoria 1969
SHELLEY WINTERS
Was a thoughtful and evocative, sexy blonde bombshell who wore her heart on her sleeve. She had a unique zest for life that she exudes, from her earliest diverse supporting roles in romantic comedies, noir, melodramas and cult classics Winters wasn’t afraid to delve into the more aggressively quirky and profane performances even as a bloody mama, Ma Barker in Roger Corman’s Bloody Mama 1970, and a few flaming psychopaths scattered around! A sensuous screen actress who was also adorable, lovable, seriously talented and off screen in life was kind, courageously honest and loyal.
From her role as the sympathetic wife to two time loser Robert Ryan in Odds Against Tomorrow 1959, to the love deprive wife Charlotte Haze in Lolita and as the heartless Rose-Ann D’arcy in Guy Green’s A Patch of Blue 1965. To the doomed Alice Tripp in A Place in the Sun 1951 and equally imperiled Willa Harper in Night of the Hunter 1955.
Winters’ life was filled with a collection of interesting lovers & relationships with some of the most impressive men in Hollywood, and a dear friend to Marilyn Monroe. Though she freely spoke in her memoirs of the midnight dooms she would get, you can ultimately see that Shelley Winters was consuming life for all it’s treasures. She will always be a kind and ebullient goddess to me…
NO USA OR GERMANY
A Double Life 1947 with Ronald Coleman
With Dan Duryea in Johnny Stool Pigeon 1949
A Cry in the Night 1949 with Richard Conte
Winchester 73 (1950)
Shelley Winters as Eva Bademan and Paul Douglas as Josiah Walkter Dudley in Executive Suite 1954
With Frank Sinatra in Meet Danny Wilson 1951
With John Garfield in He Ran All the Way 1951
With Jack Palance in I Died a Thousand Times 1955
with Jack Palance in The Big Knife 1955
With Robert Ryan in Odds Against Tomorrow 1959
With James Mason in Lolita 1961
Bloody Mama 1970 here with Robert DeNiro
With Debbie Reynolds in What’s the Matter with Helen? 1971
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? 1972
Next Stop, Greenwich Village 1976
With Gene Hackman in The Poseidon Adventure 1972
Some of my favorite performances were for Brenda Martindale in Cry of the City 1949, as Faye Lapinski in Next Stop, Greenwich Village 1976 , as Alice Tripp in A Place in the Sun 1951, as Terry Stewart in Johnny Stool Pigeon 1949, as Lola Manners in Winchester ’73 (1950) as Joy Carroll in Meet Danny Wilson 1951, as Fran Davis in Playgirl 1954, as Eva Bardeman in Executive Suite 1954, as Marie Garson in I Died a Thousand Times 1955, Dixie Evans in The Big Knife 1955, as Peg Dobbs in He Ran all the Way 1951, Binky Gay in Phone Call From a Stranger 1952, as Lorry in Odds Against Tomorrow 1959, as Charlotte Haze in Lolita 1961, Rose-Ann D’arcy in A Patch of Blue 1965, Fay Esterbrook in Harper 1966, as the insane Helen Hill/Martin in What’s the Matter with Helen? 1971, as ‘Ma’ Kate Barker in Bloody Mama 1970, as the wonderful Belle Rosen who saves the day in The Poseidon Adventure 1972!
GENE TIERNEY
Gene Tierney whom I’ve always attributed such grace and gentility flips that persona and is masterful as the icy & enigmatic Ellen Berent in Leave Her to Heaven… And though she manages to create a perfect 1950s psychopathic villain — Tierney still brings me to tears with her portrayal of widow Lucy Muir in The Ghost & Mrs. Muir 1947.
There is an otherworldly quality to Tierney that makes her seem almost unreal, like there are treasures and journeys happening within those sparkling eyes of hers. Perhaps her eyes transport you to another world, because they are so beguiling and dreamy. Tierney has the ability to make you feel like you must hang onto the dulcet tones of her voice, yet she is also capable of thrusting you into turmoil when she demonstrates that she can invert that angelic face and become almost menacing. Well, only once but what a performance –it lasts a lifetime of re-watching Leave Her to Heaven! But I can’t forget all her other extraordinary performances as Ellie May in Tobacco Road 1941 and as Poppy, also that year in Belle Starr, in The Shanghai Gesture 1941, as Martha in Heaven Can Wait 1943, in Otto Preminger’s noir masterpiece Laura 1944, as Miranda Wells in Dragonwyck 1946, as Isabel Bradley in The Razor’s Edge 1946, Sara Farley in That Wonderful Urge 1948, in three noirs from 1950- Whirlpool, Where the Sidewalk Ends and as the sympathetic Mary Bristol in Night and the City. As Marcia Stoddard The Secret of Convict Lake 1951, as Midge Sheridan in Close to My Heart 1951, as Ann Scotti Scott in The Left Hand of God 1955, as Albertine Prine in Toys in the Attic 1963
With a special mention to!!!
Barbara Stanwyck
Ava Gardner
Carole Lombard
Joan Bennett
Simone Signoret
Olivia de Havilland
Gloria Grahame
Ruth Roman
Jeanne Moreau
Kim Hunter
Teresa Wright
Margaret Leighton
Gena Rowlands
Kim Stanley
Quite an extraordinary collection of stars, actresses and women. They are captured on the screen for us, but their energy leaps from from that screen to our hearts.
They absolutely remain as powerful as ever!!!! True stars -true icons!
Brilliant choices, Jo! Also, your photo collections are clever because they present a fairly comprehensive look at each actress. Nicely done!
Thanks Ruth!! I had to jump in an honor those brilliant stars… The only problem is the few others I wanted to talk about as well. Which leads me to think I’ll just do an additional tribute post to my favs…. Of course I was throwing all my love to the ladies this year. Next year I show equal love to those great guys.. like Bogie and Mitchum… Glad you liked the images. You know that visual contexts are really important to me… Cheers kiddoe!