Whose sexier Grace or Ava? - Mogambo (1953) Discussion

[–] LiteraryLegend 10 years ago

Easy choice. Ava. Ava was the epitome of a sex symbol. Kelly's cool, icy charm made her attractive in an entirely different way. Men play with women like Ava. They marry the ones like Kelly. Hence, Ava's three marriages all failed because her husbands wanted her to behave more like a lady and not like the good time girl she was. Kelly, despite her well hidden affairs that nearly outnumbered Ava's, married only once and remained his wife until her untimley death...oh and by the way...he was a prince.

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[–] Forlorn_Rage 9 years ago

Hence, Ava's three marriages all failed because her husbands wanted her to behave more like a lady and not like the good time girl she was. Kelly, despite her well hidden affairs that nearly outnumbered Ava's, married only once and remained his wife until her untimley death...oh and by the way...he was a prince.

You might want to read up more on Ava Gardner before dismissing her so simplistically in comparison to Kelly.

Not with Mickey Rooney. He had Ava when she was still a teenager and before she became a big star. If anything, he was the one that played around a lot while Ava was much more reserved and domestic in her early days, so the marriage didn't last long.

Arty Shaw tried to make Ava into a more bourgeois, dry intellectual type. She was very intelligent and witty, but not the bookworm type. Shaw's Pygmalion experiment failed and so did the marriage.

As for Sinatra... Who the bloody hell can have a happy marriage with him? Nancy was the good, domestic wife who bore Frank children, tolerated his affairs, and didn't question him. He still left her anyway. As crazy as Sinatra was about Ava, they clashed because they were too much alike in temperament, neither wanting to back down from the other. They couldn't live with each other or without each other, so the marriage burned out.

Even Mia Farrow tried to be a very good wife to him, while still trying to balance a career for herself. Sinatra walked out on her without a word, sending his lawyer with the divorce papers. That behaviour is horrid for any man, but a man in his 50's wanting to settle down, is downright laughable. He just never learned.

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[–] first-things-first 10 years ago

Ava Gardner. Grace was beautiful, talented, classy, and strong. Ava took you breath away, and men couldn't get enough if her. But rarely did they understand her. If she were born in this era, she might have faired better with the men she loved. Today's men don't need to dominate or protect as much.

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[–] King_Of_Fuh 10 years ago

Grace has a lovely face, but Ava is more my flava. She's from Grabtown, a few minutes down the road.

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[–] cellecoc 9 years ago

Ava, for sure!

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[–] kenny-164 9 years ago

Interesting to have two such beautiful women in the same film. Even the supposed predecessor to it, Red Dust, with Jean Harlow and a then still quite beautiful Mary Astor I think is not quite the equal in such regard. Not quite.

If anything Gardner and Kelly are two more divergent types than Harlow and Astor. I think both are quite attractive in the static sense, arguably Kelly more so.

But when you consider their characters, their demeanor, manners, behavior, Gardner's Eloise wins imo hands down. Not that Grace's performance as Mrs. Nordley is unattractive by any means. But in hindsight I found the film led me to consider the two from what I imagine was Marswell's perspective, and from that perspective Ava was the more attractive. More fun, more witty, she's the kind of woman you would never get bored with, I don't think. More in touch with her own feelings, too.

A word about the comment above as to which was more the kind men would marry, I would disagree that Mrs. Nordley is the clear answer there. Different men look for different things in women, and even when considering which is more suitable to marry (meaning for the long term, not the short). By that metric I do think Eloise was the more suitable, likely to hold up longer.

The funny thing here is htat on a superficial level I find the blonde ice queen type to be quite attractive, sort of a challenge. But as I said add in the whole character, and imo Ava wins hands down. It doesn't hurt in that regard that Gardner's performance is superior.

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[–] bgillen 9 years ago

Can I just vote "yes"?

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[–] JPLogan54 8 years ago

Grace Kelly. She is the most beautiful woman I have even laid eyes on.

I can't take anything away from Ava Gardner. I think she is smoking hot as well, but Grace exuded such elegance. When she walks on screen in Rear Window she puts me in a trance. When she speaks the sound of her voice is like a satin sheet. For me, Grace doesn't just beat out Ava, Grace beats out EVERYONE.

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[–] carrieandxtina 8 years ago

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[–] Eurasiana 8 years ago

Gardner was the earthy, erotic, exotic brunette bombshell; Kelly the ethereal, inaccessible, flaxen-haired WASP goddess...so it's really a matter a preference as they were both the best of their respective type.

I strongly favor dark hair and exotic looks so it's Gardner. Despite not looking amongst her most beautiful here to me (that would be in most of her 40's films and early 50's movies such as "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" and "Bhowani Junction"), she has as usual her amazing animal sensuality and charisma; Kelly generally wasn't very magnetic and rather a bore (exceptions mostly being her Hitchcock films; he made her sexy and compelling), and she was much more suited to a fashion spread than motion pictures.

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[–] liscarkat (16515) 5 years ago

AVA! But I find myself attracted to intelligence, personality, a sense of humor, and tits--attributes Kelly lacks when compared to Gardner.

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