DVD?
Does anyone know if this movie will be produced on DVD?
share[deleted]
Rumor -- and that's all it is, at this stage -- has it that 20th is considering a Clifton Webb box set, which frankly surprises me a little as he is not today remembered on a par with the usual box-set stars of the past (e.g., Bogart, Flynn, Cagney, etc.).
Anyway, this rumor started with the supposed inclusion of STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER, Webb's 1952 turn as John Phillip Sousa, in said set. IF such a set ever does appear, WOMAN'S WORLD would be a logical disc for inclusion -- in fact, for the reasons shearerchic notes below, it was a big enough film to stand alone. Fox has been pretty good about releasing its library, so there's a good chance that, one way or another, WW will make it to DVD. Perhaps other titles for such a box set might include DREAMBOAT, BOY ON A DOLPHIN and ELOPEMENT (?). When you consider that Fox released Webb's last and probably lousiest film, SATAN NEVER SLEEPS (1962), on DVD, it's a mystery why better ones such as WOMAN'S WORLD remain unavailable. And where are his trio of "Mr. Belvedere" films, starting with his Oscar-nominated performance in the first, SITTING PRETTY? Now there's a set.
It's a shame that back in VHS days Fox never released its CinemaScope films in widescreen editions (except toward the end of VHS, and then only a handful of epics). For the studio which initiated the widescreen revolution in Hollywood, its adamant refusal to do so (including WOMAN'S WORLD) was infuriating. Fortunately, all their DVD releases of widescreen films are letterboxed (except for the 1930 [!] John Wayne epic flop, THE BIG TRAIL, which was shot in an early widescreen process called Grandeur; the film is run on the Fox Movie Channel letterboxed, but for some reason the DVD is standard only).
Two notes about Clifton Webb: all his sound films (all made from 1944-1962) were done for 20th Century Fox; he never made a film outside this, his home studio. Also, Webb was originally supposed to star in JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959), but his doctors ordered him to rest due to exhaustion -- he had just completed two lesser films released that year, THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER and HOLIDAY FOR LOVERS, and his health, at 68, was a bit fragile. James Mason got the role instead -- and was, quite honestly, better suited to the part than Webb. But it would have given Webb his one big hit in this, the final phase of his career.
[deleted]
FilmSon, my friend, I can always rely on you for many kind and thoughtful words -- they are much appreicated.
Actually, per a Webb box set, a lot of his stuff is already out on DVD, so I'd hope that such a set would include only titles thus far not released. As I'm sure you know, among his available titles are LAURA, THE DARK CORNER (a very nifty and underrated film, from Fox's film noir series), THE RAZOR'S EDGE (probably C.W.'s best performance), CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, TITANIC, THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS and SATAN NEVER SLEEPS (the New York Times's mini-review of that film was, "He will, if he ever sees this."!). This list is all from memory, so I may have skipped something.
Besides his best actor AA nom for SITTING PRETTY, he had two supporting nom's, for LAURA and THE RAZOR'S EDGE. I always thought he should have won for LAURA, but the Academy settled on the gloppy-gooey GOING MY WAY to shower its biggest awards on that year (1944) -- shutting out the pic that should have won, Zanuck's own obsessive favorite of any film he ever made, before or after: WILSON, his massive, $4 million epic on the life of the 28th president -- the second most expensive picture ever made up to that time, after, of course, GONE WITH THE WIND. But Barry Fitzgerald won for his pixie-priest role in GMW. (Alexander Knox should have won for best actor, and Henry King for director, all for WILSON, too.)
Oridnarily Clifton should have, and I think would have, won for RAZOR'S EDGE, which as I say is probably his best performance. But that year, '46, the Oscar went to Harold Russell, the former sergeant who'd lost his hands in a grenade explosion in training, for playing the handless sailor in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. He was actually very good, and no one in Hollywood begrudged him the Oscar, including his competitors. (Off-subject again: Harold Russell was an instructor at an army base in North Carolina when he had his accident -- and the date was June 6, 1944 -- D-Day, 3000 miles away. So sadly ironic.)
Agree with you about the Belvedere films. Most reviewers liked 'Rings the Bell' a little better than 'Goes to College' but I too disagree. But there's a curious thing at the end of 'Rings the Bell' (and by the way, Clifton at 60 supposed to be 45? -- sorry!), and next time you see it see what you think. When Belvedere's leaving the retirement home, and saying good-bye to all the inmates, he pats the face of one very eldery lady, who we haven't seen before and who has no lines, and tells her, in an especially loving way, "Be a good girl." I've always wondered whether that might not have been Clifton's mother, who lived with him in Hollywood and, in her first years there, attended all the parties with her (gay) son? Apparently they were a much in-demand "couple" on the film colony party circuit, as Mrs. Hollenbeck (Webb's real last name) was quite acerbic and fun to be around, I understand. Maybe I'll check out the IMDb site for 'Rings' and see if they say anything. There was supposed to have been a fourth Belvedere movie, with Belvedere the lone hold-out on a jury, centering on its deliberations and Belvedere's unmasking the real criminal. But for whatever reason the studio shelved the story and it never got made. A real shame -- it sounds miles ahead of 'College' or 'Rings' -- 12 Angry Cliftons, ahead of its time!
One of my favorite Webb films was THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS. I showed that at my summer film forum two years ago and everybody loved it (despite a God-awful performance by Gloria Grahame). Have you seen that (as if I had to ask!)? I used that occasion to tell a story I'd found in Noel Coward's published diaries, which I perused in a book store one day in the early 80s. I checked the index and when I saw Webb's name read that passage. Apparently the two men were friends, and over Christmas 1961 Webb was visiting Coward at the latter's home in Jamaica. According to Coward's diary entry from later that night, one evening Webb broke down blubbering and crying, carrying on about the fact that he'd turned 70 the month before, and begging Coward to tell him he didn't look it. As Coward wrote in his diary a few hours later, "Of course, the poor dear looks 90, but naturally one had to say that one couldn't believe it." (Quotation approximate, from reading it back in 1981!) Anyway, that story brought down the house! I also used it to settle the ongoing dispute, which I brought up that night, about Webb Parmallee Hollenbeck's actual birth date: November 19, 18-what? Four years have been variously listed: 1896, 1893, 1891, 1889. IMDb says 1889, but that seems too early, and they're wrong sometimes. 1896 was plainly studio folderol. That leaves '91 or '93. Since Clifton himself blabbed that he'd turned 70 in Nov. 1961, that's good enough for me: 1891 it is.
I learned that business about JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH reading an even-then old (1959) Newsweek in Georgetown U.'s library stacks when I was a student there -- they didn't even mention the title, calling it only "a science fiction movie starring Pat Boone" -- which pretty much narrows it down!
I sign off soliciting your opinons on two subjects, both about WOMAN'S WORLD (appropriately!). How did you like June Allyson's character? I'll tell you straight off she was the worst, most off-putting part of the movie, for me -- just too overdone -- not all her fault, it was the script, but even so. She was better in the same year's other, and much better, business drama, EXECUTIVE SUITE (which is coming out on DVD 10/30). And how about that theme song? I like many of the songs from old movies but this one is, shall we say, icky.
Oh, and here's a general Webb trivia question: in which of his films was his character called (obviously quite intentionally), "Mr. Parmallee"? No fair looking up each film on IMDb!
I did like the new Gifford cars in WOMAN'S WORLD, however...especially the cars of the future. Whatever happened to that future, anyway?
Check out the trivia section on this site, about the portrait in Webb's trophy room -- immodestly, I put it there, and think you might find it amusing.
Sorry to go on forever, FilmSon -- you bring out the trivia-junkie in me. But thanks for reading, and again, for your kind words. You're no slouch yourself!
[deleted]
I'm very glad you knew all about the relationship between Coward and Webb -- I'd heard of, but completely forgotten, Noel's line about "being orphaned at 70!" Catty, yes, but all in all, rather sad.
Oh, I checked out the MR. BELVEDERE RINGS THE BELL site after posting yesterday, but no dice -- no mention of Maybelle. But no indication as to who the lady may have been. I'm probably wrong, but the whole passage was just so odd.
On WW...You make an excellent point about having Gifford Motors located in NYC -- that always struck me as very strange since of course Detroit would have been the obvious locale, and NY is not noted for auto manufacturing. But I can't see the prospect of moving to Detroit, even in the pre-riot '50s, an occasion for stepping up in class -- even if you came from Dallas or Kansas City! Actually, there was a GM plant in the NYC suburbs until a few years ago, so I guess the possibility of the guys touring the plant is a reasonable one. Also, of course, "Gifford" is a variation of "Ford", so it was easy to pretend the Fords seen in the film (and provided, as the end note in the film states, courtesy of the Ford Motor Corp.) were "Gif-Fords". I wonder if Mr. Gifford had an illegitiamte son named Edsel?
I also liked that model of a car that literally parallel parked itself -- extending its axle and wheels over to the curb, then sliding the car into the spot. Seems cumbersome, but apparently it must've been a real concept Ford was toying with in '54.
Also, Arlene Dahl was the wrong partner in that marriage to try to seduce Clifton, but then he was provided with that portrait wall....
If you ever see the '59 Fox film THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, they reuse some of the shots from WW (of Fred & Lauren's car driving in from Philly) during that film's opening credits; and those WW and other shots from BEST OF were reused yet again for the opening credits in a b&w '62 Fox film called MADISON AVENUE, with Dana Andrews. Stock footage is a wonderful time-saver.
I'm hoping Fox, which as I've said is pretty good about releasing its library, will put out not only WW before too long, but WILSON as well. I thought 2008 would be a good year to release the latter since it's a presidential election year. You should definitely try to find WILSON sometime. It was on VHS and might still be found in that format for rent, but considering its importance as the "prestige picture" of 1944 -- as it was acknowledged even at the time -- I think 20th should take advantage of the opportuniy and put it out on DVD. You have to be a political aficionado (as I am) to really appreciate WILSON (or maybe just tolerate it!), but it is a superb film, and no question as to where all the money went. Zanuck and his friend Wendell Willkie had both been great admirers of Wilson and thought it imperative that America not repeat the mistakes it made after WWI, retreating back into isolationism after WWII, and partly at Willkie's suggestion Zanuck made WILSON as both a tribute to the man and a caution to the country for the looming postwar period. The film skips over the less flattering parts of Wilson's character, which were generally not known at the time anyway, such as his marital infidelity during his first marriage and his extreme racism: you'll recall Wilson's famous remark after screening THE BIRTH OF A NATION at what he no doubt considered the aptly-named White House in 1915: "It's like history written with lightning...and the sad part is that it's all so terribly, terribly true!" Wilson was not inimical to the Klan. Still, the film is pretty true to the record and is certainly an enormous accomplishment. I've always liked it since I was a kid, and I actually think it gets better with repeated viewings. A lot to sit through for some, at 154 minutes, but well worth it -- especially for a film buff and someone so well-informed and with such varied interests as you, my friend!
When I showed THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS at my film forum in 2005, I singled out Stephen Boyd for praise, as this was his first breakthrough role (BEN-HUR was his biggest boost, of course), and arguably his finest performance. He was a good example of someone whose career goes along nicely until he suddenly falls through one of those trap doors lurking in Hollywood; in Mr. Boyd's case, after about 1966 his roles plummeted in quality, though he stayed active on TV; but most of his movies from the late 60s were cheapies made in Europe (my favorite title of these: KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!; known in the US under the comparatively restrained title, KILL! Bloodthirsty Europeans!). He was big on physical fitness but a smoker and as you know collapsed and died on the golf course in Palm Springs in June 1977 at 48 (he would have turned 49 on the Fourth of July). Too bad. Did you know that Boyd was one of the leading candidates for the role of James Bond in 1961, before Connery was picked? He would have been an okay choice, but I fear far too conventional a star to be as interesting or successful as Sean C.; I doubt the series would have lasted as long or as well, being seen as just another standard film project, using such an established actor in the part. It needed a "new" face.
Harold Russell got two Oscars for BEST YEARS: he was awarded a special one "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans" for his role, an award that was voted because no one thought he'd actually win the competitive Oscar for BSA. It was the former Oscar he sold in the mid-90s to pay for his wife's operation; he kept the supporting actor award. I understand he got $60,000 for it, and I believe it was Steven Spielberg who bought it, then donated it to the Academy. Under rules adopted by the Academy in 1950, a winner may not sell his Oscar without giving the Academy the right of first refusal to buy the statuette for $1 (very !#@&%#! generous of them). But this stricture doesn't apply to pre-1950 winners, so Russell was free to do as he pleased with it. Do you know, after all Russell had sacrificed for his country, the Academy fought him tooth and nail on selling the thing -- though they had no legal standing to stop him -- and Academy president Karl Malden made the insulting offer that, if Russell didn't sell the Oscar, or gave it to the Academy, they'd consider making him a low-interest loan of up to $20,000 for his wife's medical care. Just amazingly rotten and insensitive, besides being a slap in the face! I'm glad it worked out as it did, all around. Russell died in late January, 2002, two weeks after his 88th birthday -- after having spent nearly 2/3 of his life without hands. He was a good and brave man and certainly deserved better from the Academy.
Okay..."Mr. Parmallee" was the name of Webb's character in BOY ON A DOLPHIN (1957), notable mainly for being Sophia Loren's American film debut (she was third-billed after Alan Ladd and Webb). He played a millionaire art collector after the titular statue, and Ladd an honest antiquities presevationist trying to rescue it for the Greek government, and win the equally titular Sophia, as a Greek fishing girl. Only a so-so movie, with the embarrassment of several scenes -- one at a cafe in particular -- where Ladd is shown (from the neck up) towering over Sophia, who was 5'8" vs. Alan's 5'5" (tops); he always stood on boxes, or others (as Sophia in this case) in ditches, to make him look taller. It must have been very humiliating for him.
Meantime, I'm eagerly awaiting next week's release of EXECUTIVE SUITE, one of my faves. Hope WW joins it on the shelves before too long!
Once more, thank you for reading and contributing so many interesting facts and topics, all over the boards. Back to you soon, I hope -- and stay clear from those CA fires.
[deleted]
I'm so out of it that I'd forgotten (and failed to notice on these message boards) that, besides posting that bit about the Gene Tierney portrait in the trivia section, I'd also posted it as a thread on this site! I remember doing both becuase I wondered whether anyone would ever look at the trivia section, where mine was the first, and so far only, entry for this film.
I did read your thread about Margalo Gilmore, and funny, it was just a day or so after I'd seen ELOPEMENT on the Fox Movie Channel (which, as I recall from one of our exchanges a few months back, you don't receive). Frankly a rather weak movie, a bit cutesy, and an odd sort of comedy in that it's basically just one long car chase. I thought Charles Bickford was utterly wasted in that one, and way too old to be convincing as Tommy Rettig's father! Miss Gilmore's other notable movie role was as Grace Kelly's mother in HIGH SOCIETY (1956). If I recall she was born in 1896 and died in 1986, a good long life.
Speaking of comparative longevity, until June Allyson's death in 2006 all the leading ladies in WOMAN'S WORLD were still alive, while all the men had long since passed away (I exclude Miss Gilmore, and Elliot Reid, who is still around at 87, as they weren't "leads"). There was a prominent producer, I believe at MGM, but for the life of me who it was escapes me now, who, when he published his memoirs in the late 80s (I think), said that the only actress he'd ever been tempted to have an affair with in all his years in the business was Arlene Dahl, whom he called the most ravishingly beautiful woman he'd ever seen. However, he said he always remained faithful to his wife. She probably made him say that! But it's so frustrating not remembering who this was -- and it's someone fairly prominent, too. I'd like to say the late Pandro S. Berman, but I'm probably wrong. Do you know?
I never much liked THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, though it has a few neat shots of NYC at the end of the 50s, and since I was born here (though I haven't lived in the city for decades) I find these cool. Hope L. was gorgeous and I remember how shocked I was when she died in 2003 at just 70 -- another talented actress whose career never quite developed as successfully as it should have, especially after her Oscar nomination for PEYTON PLACE. She was married to Don Murray from about 1957-1962 or so, when they divorced in part because she was having an affair with Glenn Ford, of all people. (It was Glenn's insistence on casting her in Frank Capra's last film, POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES, in 1961, and other attendant interference and arguments between the two men -- Ford co-produced the film, which was not very good either -- that caused the high-strung Capra to quit the business for good, though he made a couple of tentative efforts at a comeback that never materialized, for similar reasons. He was supposed to direct MAROONED, of all improbable things, in the late 60s, for example.) Anyway, back to Hope...about ten years after their divorce, she and Murray took over the roles in the Broadway play "Same Time, Next Year", in which they had to spend much of the play in bed together (no on-stage sex, just talk, but still...), and they both in interviews joked about how odd it was for them to be doing this when they had been a real-life couple years before.
Agree with you about Ladd, he did look bad in those last few years, very jowly, with that odd-looking neck of his. He always had such a slight build, apart from being short, that his head seemed outsized for his body, and I think the contrast got worse as the years went by. Interesting you mentioned ONE FOOT IN HELL because I've also watched that recently (Encore Western Channel and Fox too!), and besides his head problems something else I found odd. Did you notice how in most scenes he kept this fixed, rather odd grin on his face throughout? I don't think it was because of his role so much as I recall seeing him with a similarly frozen grin in some other films of the period. It looked a little disconcerting, I must say. I liked ONE FOOT pretty well, and felt if they'd taken just a bit more care with it they'd have had a winner -- it just misses the mark of being outstanding, IMO. But good, and Ladd is unaccustomedly and unredeemably vicious, so an interesting role for him. And speaking of Don Murray...! (I also liked his leading lady, Dolores Michaels, who frankly I've never heard of -- I thought she was good and quite sexy!)
But on Ladd, check out a thread on SHANE that I and others wrote on a few months ago, about his not being nominated for an Oscar for this, his best performance; you might find it interesting. And speaking of WW's June Allyson, did you know that she and Ladd had a torrid affair in 1955 while they were co-starring in THE MCCONNELL STORY at Warner? Apparently the two just hit it off something fierce, to the point where they were each prepared to divorce their spouses to marry (Dick Powell, Allyson's posthumous attempts to redeem him notwithstanding -- including insisting that he be referred to as "Richard", which nobody ever did in real life -- was apparently an emotionally abusive husband). But finally they decided that it would be just too devastating to too many people, so called it off, but they remained the great love of one another's lives.
And I do think that Fox will eventually release WILSON onto DVD. I was quite surprised when they put it out on VHS, so it would seem a logical candidate for disc...especially when you consider all the junk they HAVE put out on DVD! (And for that matter, where's ONE FOOT IN HELL? No one's even run that on TV in widescreen yet -- normal for Encore, but Fox usualy does, but hasn't.)
Thanks for more interesting and fact-filled posts, FilmSon. You're one of the best posters I've encountered on IMDb (and not because you're also so generous with your compliments!).
[deleted]
I almost mentioned Anne Francis, my friend -- but leave it to you to express it so aptly! She was indeed this terrific beauty, and a bit tough too, and one of the great, and underrated, sex symbols of the 50s and 60s. Of course, the part everyone most remembers her for is her role in FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) -- surely the oddest Shakespearean adaptation ever! -- but she had a pretty good run for well over 30 years, and beyond, although the last part of her career was almost exclusively on TV. Her time at Fox in the early fifties was I gather a rather trying time for her, not getting roles she really liked, and she did much better after transferring to MGM by '54.
You surely remember a much better Fox comedy she starred in a year after ELOPEMENT, called DREAMBOAT? This was a pretty funny comedy about a silent film star, now happily ensconced as an English teacher at a university, whose bygone career, which he'd hoped he'd put behind him, as a silent film "dreamboat" catches up with him when his old films are broadcast on that new infernal medium, television. Anne plays the intellectual, ice-princess daughter of the hero, played by -- Clifton Webb! What was it about Webb that they thought he looked a natural fit for playing Anne Francis's father?! Ginger Rogers was Webb's co-star, his ex-leading lady from the 20s now embarked on her own career. Of course, this didn't add up either, as Ginger (born 1911) was too young to have starred in silents, and she certainly looked glamorous here, in 1952 (when in real life she was 41) -- vs. Clifton's obviously aged counterpart -- at best, a guy in his 50s.
Still, the film worked, and of course the reserved Miss F. finds love and romance and a life outside academia, courtesy young Jeffrey Hunter, who romances her for his advertising agency bosses as a ploy to derail Webb's efforts to keep his old films off the air, but finally finds her scintillating and sexy and marries her for real. And there's a much better payoff than in ELOPEMENT, even though the ending plays on similar themes. Remember how, in ELOPEMENT, Webb in the final scene is sitting back (or should I say, sitting pretty?) in a big reclining chair, explaining to Bickford that his daughter knows all about science (the repressed intellectual again), can cook "infrared eggs" (shades of microwaving -- in 1951!), and "as for children - her favorite film is 'Cheaper by the Dozen!'" -- a thoroughly unsubtle reference to CW's hit of the year before? Well, in DREAMBOAT, Clifton wins his case to keep his old films off the air, but his university fires him for the notoriety he brought upon the hallowed halls of academe, and in desperation he signs a contract to go back into films -- which he rubs in Ginger's nose, as her effort to capitalize on their old films is now in ruins. Jump ahead several months, and they're all attending the premiere of the Webb character's "new" film -- SITTING PRETTY! In DREAMBOAT, it's a hit, of course, and at the fade-out Webb, gloating over Ginger, learns that she has bought out his contract and now owns him! A funny payoff, and altogether a far superior film to ELOPEMENT. (But I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know! This is for everybody else.)
As for the divine Miss Francis, here's one: when she landed a supporting part in 1968's FUNNY GIRL, playing one of Ziegfeld's showgirls, she was often dressed in a tight, very revealing costume that she wore very well for her 38 years. According to A.F. herself, and apparently it is true, Barbra Streisand insisted that most of Anne's scenes be cut from the final film because she looked too gorgeous and sexy and attracted attention away from The Star. Indeed, her role does seem a bit choppy and disjointed in the release version, and needless to say she does look extremely beautiful and alluring. This sounds like Barbra, unfortunately, and was a bad sign for Anne's career, as her film roles mostly evaporated within two years. Such is power.
It is odd, isn't it, that Frank Capra was set to direct MAROONED. Although, if you think about it, it does have a touch of that never-say-die optimism he so often used in his own work (in this case, "never-say-die", literally!). But his son, Frank C. Jr., was the associate producer, I believe, in the film -- he's prominent in the credits. There was another film around this time that Capra was supposed to direct, but once again, memory fails...I'll have to see if I can come up with it! If I may, one minor correction to your post -- MEET JOHN DOE was not one of Capra's films for Columbia -- it was the first film he made after leaving that studio, and filmed it as an independent for Warner Bros. Leaving Columbia was a big mistake for Capra, who always acted on his emotions, and mostly to his detriment. He lost the copyright on IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE in 1974 because he was feuding with another son about some matter; when the son reminded him that he had to renew (after 28 years) the copyright, Capra was so angry with him over this other, unrelated, matter, that he wouldn't listen to anything the kid told him; and so he let it lapse into public domain (where it languished until Republic bought up the copyright in the mid-90s, thereby ending the multiple TV showings at Christmastime as well as all the inferior bootleg copies on the market -- thank God!). Not really a very admirable fellow, save for his talent.
But the films he did for the War Dept. during the war are among the greatest propaganda classics to come out of any war or event -- it was the WHY WE FIGHT series, seven episodes in all, examining the nature and history of our enemies, and our purposes in fighting the war, narrated by Walter Huston. The series was intended for troops abroad only but it was so good it was soon released to homefront theaters as well. Allowing for the propaganda aspects, it's a terrific set of films, and one I'm not sure is available on DVD (it should be, if it isn't). Really some remarkable work, and an invaluable time capsule, now.
Our girlfriend Hope Lange, late in her career, was also in CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, one of the "Jack Ryan" films starring Harrison Ford, where she had a small role as a US Senator.
I suspect "Richard" Powell was an emotionally abusive hubby to Joan Blondell as well as June Allyson -- it's not a trait you'd demonstrate in one marriage, then ditch in another, particularly turning into one the second time out! Louis B. Mayer fiercely opposed June's marriage to DP -- maybe the old bastard knew something! But he tried to make the best of a bad situation when she went ahead, and showed up, clearly unhappy from the photos, at the wedding.
Of course, had he been invited to a (hypothetical) wedding for Clifton Webb, he'd probably have suffered a heart attack!
Can we come up with as much gossip for Olivia Pascal (VANESSA -- saw your post)? Now there's a gorgeous woman. Definitely no June Allyson! That's for damn sure!
Back with you soon, I hope, my good friend.
[deleted]
Well, amigo, you may not have seen DREAMBOAT in 40 years but you remember all the scenes you mentioned perfectly! So obviously it must have made a good impression. It's never been out on homevid, but as discussed somewhere earlier there may yet be DVD hope, someday. Definitely a worthwhile picture.
I share your carefully expressed (!) sentiments re Ginger R. precisely. A good enough actress and better dancer, but a real self-righteous pain in the [your anatomical choice here], and how they ever awarded her the Oscar for Best Actress for KITTY FOYLE in 1940 is beyond me. (Fred Astaire, who I surmise wasn't overly fond of Ginger, sent her the following one-word telegram after her victory: "Ouch!".) She was chosen to do a TV interview with Richard Nixon just before the 1960 election, talking about how tough it was to make ends meet or something. Not very effective, I guess.
Capra founded Liberty films (right again) at the end of the war with Robert Briskin, a Columbia executive Capra knew from his days at the studio, then got William Wyler and George Stevens to join in with them. Each put up $150,000 to start up the company, although despite this each one owned a slightly different percentage of the company. Briskin was to manage the company while the three directors, each meanwhile being paid $3000 a week, were to be free to shoot whatever projects the company had optioned. However, Liberty made only one film, Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, which went a million over budget and then flopped at the box office (a fact which never ceases to amaze people today who, properly, regard it as a classic). With so much money draining out of Liberty, Capra recommended that they sell the company's assets before losing any more. Wyler hesitated, but Stevens saw similar ventures folding quickly all over Hollywood, and all four partners soon accepted an offer from Paramount (passing over a less lucrative one from MGM), which bought out the company's properties, covered its losses, and gave each partner $750,000 in Paramount stock. The three directors each agreed to make five pictures for the studio, while Briskin became a Paramount executive. As it turned out, despite assurances of independence, the three men had trouble with front office decisions, and only Wyler finally made five pictures for the studio; Capra and Stevens made I believe only three apiece before leaving. A lot of Liberty's properties were rejected by Paramount and ended up being successes elsewhere -- for instance, Capra's NO WAY OUT, ultimately made at Fox in 1950 by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and featuring Sidney Poitier's film debut; TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, which Wyler wanted to make, also ended up at Fox, directed by Henry King; FRIENDLY PERSUASION, which Wyler finally did make for Allied Artists, of all places, in 1956. Capra retained the copyright on IAWL until blowing the rights in 1974. (His next film, STATE OF THE UNION, was to have been a Liberty film but got distributed by MGM, which misspelled Katharine Hepburn's name ["Katherine"]!)
Capra loved the sight of mulitple ringing bells, which you'll recall he inserted in several of his films, including LOST HORIZON and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. They seemed to symbolize liberty and freedom and a joyous celebration of those to him.
A lot of stars, beginning especially after WWII, formed their own production companies as you know, but they didn't make the mistake of trying to form their own studio. Burt Lancaster was one of the very first, and he was pretty clever in choosing not only his projects but the timing of them, whether he produced them or not. If you look over his filmography, he carefully laid out the types of films he'd make, alternating a drama with serious overtones (ALL MY SONS, COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, etc.) with less-serious adventures and similar "light" films (THE FLAME AND THE ARROW, THE CRIMSON PIRATE, HIS MAJESTY O'KEEFE, GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL, etc.), so he'd be able to stretch his talent and appeal as broadly as possible. Other stars did similar things, like the bunch you mentioned from the late 60s. Of course, they met with varying degrees of success, but as the studios' control eroded it became a logical means of shaping and ensuring one's career. But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know -- and I also agree with you, tracing the development of the studios from their inceptions, studying the kinds of films they made, the audiences they targeted, their corporate structures, is all fascinating. And anybody who can fathom the most complex studio history of all (in terms of corporate infrastructure and changes) -- poor old RKO -- deserves an MBA!
Agree with you about Diane Baker -- very pretty and quietly good-looking, and never quite got the roles she merited, like Hope Lange. Hard to believe she's closing in on 70, next year! Hard to say what her best role was, but I remember her best from one of her somewhat throw-away parts, in the almost-Clifton JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. (I had to get old Clifton in here somewhere!)
You should definitely see at least the two Jack Ryan films that starred Harrison Ford. THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER isn't bad but the casting and direction were a bit off to me. Ford's turns, PATRIOT GAMES and CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, are much better.
As always, a pleasure to exchange views & info with such a kind and knowledgeable person as you. Let's see what else we can stir up!
Take care, buddy!
[deleted]
Hello again, my good friend, and while we seem to have this mutual-admiration society going, I must say that your compliments in your last post were above and beyond the call (really!) -- but very much appreciated!
You, too, of course -- just great stuff, films and otherwise.
Here's a bit more fodder....
Ginger Rogers was such a self-centered b---- that when her husband Lew Ayres declared himself a conscientious objector in WWII (in itself an extraordinary act of bravery back then), Ginger promptly divorced him, even as MGM tore up his contract. Of course, Lew, a lifelong devotee of peace and religious fulfillment, later volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver and was decorated for bravery in the face of enemy fire. So he certainly wasn't a coward, only a man of great principle...both qualities he no doubt required in abundance, married to the less-than-divine Miss R.!
Completely agree with you re H'wood celebrities and their political wanderings. Another prime example is James Cagney, who was about half a step away from being what they used once to call a fellow traveler in the 30s, with very radical political views. But sometime after the war Jimmy somehow migrated far to the other side of the political spectrum, and soon became an ardent champion of the right. Charlton Heston was another, although I remember an interview a few years ago with a doctor who, with his wife, remains one of the Hestons' oldest friends -- yet even he said he didn't understand his friend's shift from liberal to far-right conservatism, views with which he did not agree; yet, in a tribute to both of them, they remained friends (a la Heston and Greg Peck, or James Stewart and Henry Fonda). Nice to know people can still bridge the ideological gap and be friends while disagreeing on politics. But between us (!), I think FDR was the greatest president in our history -- even more so than Lincoln, though Abe was probably the "greater" man. But even he didn't quite face the same monumental, life- and nation-threatening challenges FDR did, and of course on nowhere near the scale of Roosevelt's, as grave as the crisis of the civil war was. Especially when you look at all the other available candidates of that era, no one - Republican or Democrat -- could have measured up to FDR's vision and abilities, and many of them (mostly Republicans) would have been an absolute disaster had they been in the White House before and during the war -- isolationists who would have had this country defenseless and at our enemies' mercies. Sometimes I really do believe God watches out for the United States (albeit after allowing us to go to the brink under the guidance of certain presidents...no incumbent names mentioned, of course!).
Hollywood is of course generally peopled by liberal Democrats today...though, as a Democrat, I sometimes shudder at the stupidity of a few of them! Intellectual depth is, alas, not a hallmark of the industry today. At least in the "golden age", while a lot of the actors had had little formal education (not unusual in the early-mid 20th century), they were aware of their limitations and tried to read books and engage on other quaint pursuits. Too many of them are too shallow these days (including a lot of the Republican crowd too). I disagree, for example, with a man like Charlton Heston (and feel sorry for his terrible affliction), but admire him for a least having been a well-read, literate, scholarly kind of guy. Well, you can't choose your family, or your political kin. The conservatives who so damn Hollywood's predominant liberalism today certainly didn't have any qualms back when, when large numbers of actors and directors were intensely conservative and discriminated against those of liberal slant on many occasions...and that's not even mentioning the blacklist (which, according to Ronald Reagan, didn't exist -- in interviews on the subject 30 years ago, he really seemed to have deluded himself into believing that it was a mass uprising of The Little People across this great land, who decreed they'd no longer go to see films made by leftists and so forced such people out of the industry: file this under the category "Yeah, right" -- I'm sure people all over the country went, "Oh, Herbert, there's an Alvah Bessie film down at the Roxy -- I won't go anywhere near such Communist tripe!").
Howard Hughes was of course an unmitigated disaster for RKO, destroying most of its creative base within months of his take-over (I think about 1/3 of its entire roster of writers, directors, producers, actors, etc., either quit or were fired for mostly political reasons by Hughes, within less than a year). At one point in late 1952 he briefly sold the studio to a Chicago-based syndicate, an apt word as there were some mob connections to some of the new owners, and that during a five-month period from fall '52 - winter '53, only ONE film was under production in the whole studio (SPLIT SECOND, a good and unusual thriller directed by Dick Powell). After this group's financing collapsed Hughes took back RKO and resumed running it into the ground. When stockholders brought a lawsuit seeking damages from Hughes on grounds that he had mismanaged the company and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy, Hughes responded by buying out all the shareholders' stock at twice its market price -- then, with complete ownership, turned around and sold it to Desilu at a $10 million profit! So old HH still had some knack left -- just not for movies.
Yes indeed, what a note of satisfaction for Lucy & Desi to buy the place where once they'd toiled (though Desi was mostly over at MGM, as was Lucy eventually). But it was the end of a movie-making era, which is too bad. (I love the fact that, in the TV series "The Simpsons", Krusty the Clown's production company is called "Krusty-lu"!)
I always wondered what Clifton Webb's politics were (and those of many other, low-key stars who kept such things under wraps). I'll bet he was a Republican. A closeted one, of course. I mean, he did have those Gene Tierney portraits in not one but two films. His mother must have disapproved.
Back to you, my good pal!
Hello again, Hob! Just want to mention that a read of Heston's "The Actor's Life" journal which I mentioned in the "55 Days At Peking" board, will also give you an insight into his politics shifting as well. By the late 60s, his entries on Vietnam reveal someone getting annoyed with the tone of the Democratic party, and by 1972 he is a full-fledged "Democrat for Nixon" and even writes an entry describing how Nixon is the first Republican he's ever voted for President, and it's rather clear that Heston was a classic "neo-con" in the sense of a traditional FDR liberal, whose shift began entirely over Cold War issues. He wrote that in rejecting McGovern, he was disagreeing with the notion that America is spelled with a K and also had harsh words for Ramsey Clark, who had come back insisting American POWs in Hanoi were well-treated when they were not.
Even with all that, Heston was still campaiging for Democrat members of Congress he liked such as California Senator John Tunney. Like other early neo-cons, his party shift wasn't complete until 1980 and the Reagan campaign when other neo-con ex-Democrats like Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Norman Podhoretz etc. also cut their final ties to the party they'd grown up with.
Hiya, Eric! Interesting, because in Heston's other book (umm...title?...but we've spoken of it on the 55 board), he claims he became a Republican (in fact if not quite yet as a technical matter) when he was in Arizona in 1964 filming his part as John the Baptist in THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. Chuck claims in that book that he was being driven past a Goldwater billboard sporting the immortal slogan "In Your Heart, You Know He's Right!", and then and there had his epiphany, realized he (CH) was in his gut a Republican, and voted for Barry. That's at odds not only with the version you cite but my own recollection of his having backed Humphrey in '68. In my youth, I remember being surprised seeing him as a Nixon backer in '72, based on his previous activity.
Obviously, he had problems with what he saw as the drift of the Democratic Party, but the onset of those feelings seems to have varied with memory. [Oh, more than a quibble: it's "Democratic" as an adjective, not the infantile "Democrat", a pejorative laid on the party by frustrated Republicans in the 50s: from the same people who thought they were creating something profound, to say nothing of witty, by coming up with the clever "freedom fries" and "freedom toast". Please. Let's be adult.]
As a Democrat (proper use), I have always held Geroge McGovern in the utmost contempt, for helping wreck my party. But the Republicans were never an alternative. Like Barry and his followers, I adhere to the core principles and choose to stay and fight to reclaim the heart of the party, which today is a much better place to be than with the party of DeLay, Bush, Cheney, etc. But in fairness to McG., he never spelled America with a K or had much truck with Ramsey, who I think could have been tried for treason for some of his activites. Just because one is a Democrat, doesn't mean one blindly follows every nut calling himself one (and I would hope the same applies to my Republican friends).
I never much quarelled with Democrats who voted for Nixon in '72 or Reagan in '80, as I understood their frustration with the Democrats those years. I myself saw my votes for Carter in '80, and especially for McGovern in '72, as protest votes -- thinning the GOP margin by a miniscule amount, with the luxury of knowing McGovern (or Mondale in '84) didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell; and then just hunker down to await better days, and candidates.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick was a professor of mine at Georgetown (the course was Personality and Politics, and she gave me an A, so no personal problems there!). That was in the mid-70s, and I understood her views and her later Republicanism, but when under Reagan she ended up advocating the US openly side with the Argentine junta (the folks busy throwing dissidents out of aircraft over the South Atlantic at 10,000 feet and so on) against our staunchest friend Britain in the Falklands War, she lost whatever respect I had for her. Her totalitarian/authoritarian thesis had some merit but when carried to the asinine extremes she did lost any semblance of common sense or decency. The trouble with too many policy makers is that they think in absolutist terms -- it's this way or that way, no third or fourth or other possibility; if you don't think one thing, then you must adopt the opposite position. This is a bit oversimplified, I agree, but it's at the core of the problem I have with most neo-coms -- Podhoretz, whom I consider to be nothing less than a lunatic, being the preeminent, albeit increasingly irrelevant, example today. That's part of my problem with Chuck -- there's no nuance to his conservatism; he simply abandoned one set of beliefs for the most extreme aspect of the "other" set (as if there were only one alternative), which to me is a betrayal of the intellect.
Still, I always liked Chuck. Like you, E -- we have our profound differences, but I like and respect you and think you posts are well-thought-out, nuanced and fascinating. Truly.
So, how did we get onto politics on a Clifton Webb thread for WOMAN'S WORLD?????! Talk about profound.
Hello again, Hob! I think Heston in his "In The Arena" autobio is pretty much just telescoping things, because someone in the late 60s disenchanted with Vietnam, but *not* inclined to think a suitable venue of protest would be to vote for McCarthy or RFK, would like Heston I think have a view of Goldwater by then as someone who "at least was an honest straight shooter" compared to what they felt they were getting from LBJ by that point. Another sign of how Heston is already divorced from the Democrats on other levels by early 68 is how his entry after RFK's murder is to dissent from the media's spin on the event as a sign of something sick in the American character (and indeed, when I look back on this coverage as well as that of JFK's murder, I think it shameful that the media spent so much time giving play to the idea this said something about the American character when in both instances it was *foreign* ideologies that drove both of the murderers, in LHO's case Marxism, and in Sirhan's case Arab fanaticism). To me, Heston's evolution in his views is perfectly normal in terms of figuring out the essence of how the FDR colation was shattered beyond repair in 1968 at the riots and how so many took the neo-conservative path to the GOP.
"to say nothing of witty, by coming up with the clever "freedom fries" and "freedom toast". Please. Let's be adult."
Hey, given the current President of France as a big improvement on the last one, I'm all for going back to the old descriptions. :)
McGovern is one person I tend not to see as all that different from Ramsey Clark except in terms of being a more personable individual and more softspoken. I'll only mention that in one of my vintage newscasts I have on file I have him the day after the massacre of the Israeli athletes at Munich actually comparing American bomber pilots in Vietnam to the Palestinian terrorists, and it was only because his campaign never had a chance that a lot of outrageous things he uttered in that campaign never got condemned loudly. It was because of those things he uttered in that campaign that I found it the height of hypocrisy for him to go on Nightline the day after he was tossed out of the Senate in 1980 and whine about the "meanness" of the campaign against him by conservative action committee.
We of course have to differ on the matter of whether neo-cons truly went from one extreme to the other, because the only issue I think you can say neo-cons ultimately had to alter in great detail from their earlier beliefs were matters of economics and the role of government in society, eventually becoming converts to the Reagan philosophy on less government, whereas on foreign policy and cultural issues I think the case can be made for their being more consistent over the long-term and just seeing the drift of the party become too much for them. Many neo-cons I think *did* want to see the Democratic Party get back to its older roots if the likes of Henry Jackson for instance had become the dominant face of the party but it was really Jimmy Carter's missteps in foreign policy that finally sent most of the neo-cons out of the Democratic party for good.
Okay, what can I say about Clifton Webb? Only that I once saw Bob Newhart in an interview recalling an occasion where *he* was the target of one of Webb's attempted pickups, and Bob of course had to get himself out of there in a hurry!
Hey, Eric! Well, considering the lunatics Ramsey Clark has defended (both actually, as their attorney, and by butting in in the public arena), even as much as I dislike McGovern he doesn't come close to Clark's radicalism (a word so often misused that it comes close to losing its meaning). Lots of pols whine about their losses, many, many conservative Republicans included -- I guess all attacks are unfair when you're on the receiving end. Look at how Daddy Bush whined and cried in the Florida legislature last year over all the "unfair" attacks against Little Jeb -- not to mention his most recent (of many) whines about attacks on Little W. As if he hadn't a clue about the "meanness" of politics -- as if he hadn't indulged in years of mud-slinging himself, his genteel Eastern preppy veneer notwithstanding? Give me a break!
I actually think George McG did have some reason to whine about his loss in '80, in that he was accused by The Moral [sic] Majority and their ilk of being "anti-family" because he didn't support an advanced ABM system and other such "family" measures, which is absurd crap. Not to mention the irony of his opponent, a worthless, dull-witted four-term Congressman, James Abdnor, accusing McGovern of being anti-family, when at least he had a wife and I think five children, while Abdnor was a bachelor. You may think a person wrongheaded about policies but to accuse them of being anti-family, as many reactionary candidates still do today, is a lie and a slur, straight from the God-is-a-Republican moronity. (That said, I think McGovern had his 61-39 defeat coming to him, and was not sad to see him go, especially as I assumed even in 1980 that Abdnor would prove so inept he'd be tossed in '86, as indeed he was -- even the GOP tried to dump him in their own primary, with Janklow.)
"The Reagan philosophy of less government"?? Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor, my good friend! Um, tell me again about how those record deficits were everybody else's fault?
I still think most of the neo-cons drifted farther to the right over time -- it wasn't simply a matter of their standing still while the world passed by ever leftward. It also stands to reason -- you don't associate yourself with one group or ideology for year after year and not have it affect your thinking in broader, deeper ways than merely the original views you came in with. Not that he qualifies exactly as a neo-con, but Heston is a good example of someone whose overall views have clearly grown more conservative and, certainly in terms of gun issues, more militant, than those he held 40 or 50 years ago.
Some Webb site! How do we get in these messes? But, I'll bite -- Webb came on to Bob Newhart? Wow. Must've been in the years his eyesight was failing.
Have you ever seen WOMAN'S WORLD? As a couple of us have noted elsewhere on this thread, the notion of Clifton being seduced by Arlene Dahl in that film is rather a matter of extreme fiction. Now, had it been her husband, Van Heflin, on the other hand...no Bob Newhart, to be sure, but hunkier, and -- this being the fifties -- just as button-downed.
[deleted]
Great information on WOMAN'S WORLD and WEBB. Now, I think that Marilyn Monroe would have been great in the Arlene Dahl role. She could do a southern accent very well as she did in BUS STOP. I hear she and Webb were friends as well. Regarding BEST OF EVERYTHING, I think Diane Varsi would have been great in the Hope Lange OR Diane Baker roles. What do you think. Too bad Varsi walked out on her Fox contract as she could have made several more films there and elsewhere. Now let Fox put on FROM HELL TO TEXAS (with Don Murray who was married to Hope Lange) and TEN NORTH FREDERICK which co-starred Suzie Parker who was in BEST OF EVERYTHING. Yes, it WAS a small world at Fox!!
shareI think you're right about Diane Varsi in THE BEST OF EVERYTHING -- she could have done either the Lange or Baker role. She was good but too flighty for stardom. She was perfect for PEYTON PLACE but less so (though not bad) in COMPULSION. But I don't think MM would have been at all suitable for WOMAN'S WORLD. The Dahl role required a sophisticated, elegant vixen type, which Arlene could do. Marilyn was too earthy, too vulgar (I don't mean that in the nasty sense), too brazen and overt in her sexuality, and didn't convey any of the elegance, urbanity and sultriness (as opposed to sluttiness) that a woman in that posiiton would be expected to carry. Plus she came across as air-headed and shallow, entirely wrong for the character, and all of which would have been death to Van Heflin's chances the moment they stepped off the train anyway!
Incidentally, Suzy Parker's older sister, the model Dorian Leigh -- who was much more beautiful than even Suzy, and considered the world's first "supermodel", a knockout cover girl of the 40s and 50s -- died July 7 at 91. Apparently she led quite a life, and was in a couple of minor movies in the 40s.