MovieChat Forums > The Gilded Lily (1935) Discussion > Milland and MacMurray

Milland and MacMurray

posted 13 years ago by PlatinumScreen
5 replies | jump to latest

Ray Milland and Fred MacMurray are so gorgeous in this movie!!!!!!!!!!! I have never seen Milland so young and handsome, and I have always thought MacMurray's looks were underrated.

[–] yourauntgussie 13 years ago

Yeah -- good old Steve Douglas concealed quite a spiffy physique beneath those starched white shirts and conservative business suits!

A woman I used to work with was so ga-ga for the man, she plastered photos of him all over her cubicle. Management made her take 'em down, though. They particularly seemed to have an issue with the pix in which he has doffed his shirt, revealing those shoulders....

Whoa up a second, Gussie. Focus. We're telling a little anecdote here.

Anyway, I thought it was a scream -- beefcake shots of a guy who would become an icon of dad-ly wisdom; a veritable monument to Truth and Common Sense, offending the business sensibilities of hot-shot execs and sales people. The nudie-cutie and bathing beauty-type pictures "the guys" send each other, sometimes printing or displaying them on their computer screens, then doing a fakey "Oopsie!" if a woman came along? Oh, those are different. That's just a joke.

Dontcha love the corporate double-standard?

Anyway, back to the point, (I'd love to get back to The Point, but it's closed for the season....) yeah, he's a World War era hottie (hunk, bod, whatever the heck contemporary slang is for a guy with a form you just wanna put your hands on) without a doubt.

Sorry about the digressions. Too much coffee, I guess.

dolceri ac dolcere

[–] PlatinumScreen 13 years ago

gussie, i loved your post! so much fun to read and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the story about your co-worker! if i could plaster pictures up in my workspace it would be daniel craig all over. :)

you are so right. it is so ironic fred macmurray would be pretty much known for being a television dad when he was a really hot guy and had done all this great stuff before. double indemnity just one example.

you are super cool, gussie. :) thanks for replying!

[–] HarlowMGM 13 years ago

What makes this movie unique is for once the star lady has two great choices to pick from, usually the "other man" is something of a clod and no one really believes he will end up with the girl. Both of Claudette's suitors here are extremely handsome and appealing although I have to say Claudette seems far more suited to be Ray Milland's girl than MacMurray, whom she ultimately chooses. Claudette and Fred made a number of pictures together, they are well-matched but it's a kind of opposite attraction thing, she sophisticated, he uncomplicated, so when Claudette has someone like Ray Milland, very much her male equilvalent, in the running, it seems he is the better candidate although she went with Fred undoubtably to satisfy the general public audiences, who could far more identify with a everyday guy like Fred MacMurray than a smooth Ray Milland.

Re Fred MacMurray as a beefcake boy, check him out in TRUE CONFESSION in which he wears just swimming trunks for a long scene near the end.

[–] WhoDo-YouDo 12 years ago

Good points, everyone. Claudette and Fred would go on from this, their first picture together, to co-star in seven. Claudette and Ray would reunite several years later for "Arise, My Love" (1940), where Ray reportedly avoides Claudette on the set for the longest time.

Finally, Claudette decides to get to the bottom of things and approaches Ray Milland to inquire if she has done anything wrong to him because she is unaware of the cause of his behavior. Ray then confesses that he thought that he was so bad in "The Guilded Lily" that Claudette must be embarrassed to work with him again. What Ray doesn't know at the time is that Claudette recommended him for his leading man role in the picture.

Fred and Claudette do generate a great deal of fun-loving banter, but you're right. She's very elegant, intelligent, sophisticated, lovely and mature for her young age that MacMurray's cad character deserves her all the little.

But Fred does improve with age over the years, as is mentioned about Steven Douglas, while audiences may reflect upon the wonderful Miss Colbert in the distant past, and while Ray doesn't seem to escape the 1950's appearing very healthy and handsome even though he'll have years to look nice in the meantime.

[–] essex9999 9 years ago

Before Double Indemnity, MacMurray tended to play characters I don't find especially appealing. He's often a bit of a clod, as he is in Gilded Lily, but he is certainly tall, well-built and handsome. No Time for Love (also with Colbert) is another film with shirtless Fred. Let's just say he looks good. :-)

OTOH, in Milland's early roles, he usually plays charming characters, as well as being almost impossibly handsome. Google pictures of him from the early 1930s and ... wow. Just amazing. IMO more classically handsome than Tyrone Power or Robert Taylor, and that's saying something.

I enjoy watching anything with either man from 30s and 40s, but if I had to choose one, it would be Ray Milland.

As some others have commented, Colbert ending up with MacMurray was predictable, despite his being a bit of a jerk. Then again, Milland's character was not really serious about her, so it wouldn't have been satisfying for her to end up with him unless they had completely re-written the last 15 minutes. Still a fun movie, though.