Hedy + Garbo


I just saw both of their movies that were similar in content...spoofing communist Russia..."Ninotchka and Comrade X " and only a year apart when made. Their parts were almost alike with the same 'russian' voice and definitely both dressed down in deglamorizing them, if there is such a word. Of the two, the "plain Hedy" won in my book over the plain "Garbo". They were both very good in their roles, but for some reason I enjoyed Hedy's Theodore. She was fiesty, strong willed and funny..a part I never saw in her. Why MGM did not capitalize on her comedic side after this film, we will never know. I read where she did make one other comedy in later years with Paramount, "My Favorite Spy", where the previewers said she stole the movie from Bob Hope..so Paramount had to edit the movie before its release and cut out some of Hedy's good scenes to allow Bob remain the king of comedy on Paramount. I also remember reading a Garbo fans reaction to Hedy's performance in "C X'...he/she said that Hedy mimicked Garbo's russian Ninotchka voice. That being the case, then Cyd Charise, Katie Hepburn did the same thing by mimicking both Garbo and Hedy...in their roles of similar characters...Cyd in the musical version of "Ninotchka", "Silk Stockings" and Katie in " Iron Petticoat".

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How pathetic that Paramount had to cripple Hedy's talent -- I thought she was terrific in Comrade X -- to sustain Bob Hope at the top of the heap: no actor, and a self-styled comedian who was usually only marginally funny if that. This highlights the phoniness of Hollywood economics, Hope being top box-office for so many (unwarranted) years while Hedy never made the top 25 stars of Quigley's "Motion Picture Herald" annual box-office list though obviously a highly intelligent (see invention of sonar) and talented woman -- never mind renowned as the most beautiful woman in Hollywood through the late Thirties and Forties.

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As for being done out of a more deserving career by MGM, I would lay a better than even bet on the strong probability that Hedy wouldn't deliver casting couch services to all-powerful studio execs/producers, several of whom were known to be highly self-entitled and demanding.

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I recently saw her in something and was shocked by her beauty--be far the most flawless beauty of all the actresses back in the 1930s! WOW! I hadn't seen her older films before Bob Hope. She was striking. And I love Comrade X. I love Ninotchka more, ut that does not make me like this less. It's great. Fun. Before Hitler invaded everyone, they all had fun with their differences.

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That's Hedley!






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