I saw this movie last night for the first time. The GREAT Claire Trevor looked gorgeous and gave her usual terrific performance. But it was Sally Forrest who blew me away. She gave a terrific performance and was a very beautiful girl. In looking up her career on IMDB, she only made a few more movies. Does anyone know why she did not make more movies?? With her looks and talent, she should have had a long and prolific career in the movies.
shareI was thinking the same thing, she had it all. I suspected her bio would say "Married so and so director and retired from films" but it wasn't there.... Unsure why the rating for this film is so low, I thought it was great.
Somehow I seem to have missed all but bits a pieces of Claire Trevor's films, will have to catch up her.
"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five."
Sally Forrest really surprised me! She seemed so goody-goody and sickeningly sweet in the front half of the story that, when her mother scotched her marriage and railroaded her into going on that European tour and she figured out what her mother had been doing, her change to hellacious b*tch on wheels, bossing her mother around, running her own show like a tough as nails jaded businessman, was amazing!
She also looked terrific. Yes, I wonder why she didn't have a greater career. She did work, well up through the 60s, maybe that was enough for her? Maybe she didn't need to work and didn't particularly like the parts that were coming her way? Anyway, from the looks of her credits, I'd say she was under-utilized.
Claire Trevor is great and this was an interesting turn for her. It was something to see her get outsmarted by her daughter. A different kind of role for her.
xylonian, you're catching up on Claire Trevor, I'm not an expert on her, but a couple of her performances that have stuck out in my mind would be:
Stagecoach (1939) - in which she was good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031971/
Murder My Sweet (1944) - in which she was incredible.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037101/
Key Largo (1948) - supporting role in which she was very good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040506/
Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) - kind of earlier in her career - before she was fully-formed and before she had fully realized her power as an actress.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029864/
It's easy looking at Claire Trevor to be distracted from what a low-life character she plays. The actress is beautiful on the outside while she plays the mother as a heartless, frigid, user of everyone around her. She locked on to her husband and rode him as far as she could go. Then, after the birth of her daughter she moves herself and her husband into twin beds, arranged head-to-head, no less, not even side-by-side.
When the daughter shows promise as an amateur tennis player with a potential for professional stardom, she is off to the races riding the daughter's back. It is a shame to see the daughter change her personality this way, but I can think of no more deserving target than her mother.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
To add my two cents' worth to jackboot's recommendations: Stagecoach is one of my favorite films. Claire's chemistry with The Duke is fabulous! She absolutely steals your heart, especially in the scene where Wayne walks her "home."
Likewise, her big acapella singing scene in Key Largo is a showstopper. The way she grovels and Edward Robinson degrades her all for a drink of whiskey is so full of pathos! Trevor looks great, although she is on the brink of losing her looks to the bottle. She is a floosie that still manages to tug at your heart strings.
Both are all-time great performances!
John 3:16
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