Tweet Gallery of Mastheads

The Strawberry Blonde with Olivia deHavilland and Rita Hayworth (and Jack Carson and Alan Hale and George Tobias, and a small bit of George Reeves tossed in to boot)

One of my favorite, unsung Warner pics.

...and a small bit of George Reeves tossed in to boot)

what bitt?

[Mike Gebert]

You are correct, Strawberry Blonde. Yes, the original play and the 1933 movie are quite noirish-- the setup is that the Cagney character (Gary Cooper in the original) is a dentist contemplating murdering his romantic rival by dialing up his anesthesia, and recalling his past history with the gal who got away as he decides whether or not to do it! Somehow without actually removing that aspect of the plot, Raoul Walsh and company make it a much more cheerful piece about a lovable lunkhead who thinks he wishes he married Rita Hayworth but actually is much better off with Olivia deHavilland. (Him and Ashley Wilkes both.) It's one of Cagney's best performances and I think that whole run of late 30s/early 40s Walsh pictures at Warners is a string of unsung gems-- Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, They Drive By Night, Gentleman Jim, Manpower....

...and a small bit of George Reeves tossed in to boot)

what bitt?

Not the "bits" - he has a toothy grin and an obnoxious manner (much like how Ben Affleck portrayed him in Hollywoodland).

Much as I have very fond memories of Mr. Reeves from my youth -- and, yes, I had a Superman suit -- he was not an actor possessed of an enormous range.

Certainly, Raoul Walsh is a director who seems to have fallen out of favor, despite the many fine movies he made. The recent Fox Precode series at the Film Forum had quite a few films by him, revealing that in the early 1930s he, like John Ford, had a crew of regular cast members and produced many a movie that moved surefootedly from comedy to drama and back again.

Bob

This is a great comedy that I have seen in Argentina, where I'm going tomorrow for vacation after five years away.

Walsh was a terrific director throughout the entire span of his career whether he had to helm semi programmers like MANPOWER to important films like OBJECTIVE BURMA!

Yesterday, I was watching THE WORLD IN HIS ARMS which is still a terrific film.

I have to change this one a couple of days early to make sure it's up for the fella who was (in one role, anyway) born on the fourth of July... though this isn't from that film but from another delightful, but neglected, slice of Americana (can you name that film and co-stars?) If someone wants to start a Cagney thread, I'll link to it later.

Aw man, you picked a Cagney masthead just because I dissed him in a recent posting, didn't you?

I'm going to have to post a dissing of Clara Bow in that case...

Jim

[Mike Gebert]

No offense to the admirable Mr. Cagney or his female companions, but the ongoing discussion of Metropolis's running speed put an amusing idea in my head, and the joke will be rather cold if I wait till the next month, so it's going up for now. Back to our regularly scheduled mastheads shortly....



UPDATE 7/19: Jimmy and gals are back up now.

No offense to the admirable Mr. Cagney or his female companions, but the ongoing discussion of Metropolis's running speed put an amusing idea in my head, and the joke will be rather cold if I wait till the next month, so it's going up for now. Back to our regularly scheduled mastheads shortly....

I love it, are you goinging to send it to Tranist Films? Maybe they'll hear our pleas.

[quote="Mike Gebert

I love it, are you goinging to send it to Tranist Films? Maybe they'll hear our pleas.[/quote]

So long as they don't misread it as a plea to crank it up to 26 3/4 fps....

I wonder what, if any, relationship -- including psychological effect -- this image bears to Harold Lloyd dangling from a clock?

Bob

Well... when I went to the exhibition of most of the recovered scenes of this Fritz Lang film, Paula Félix-Didier explained that the images that we were watching were projected at 24 fps.

Nobody reported that, in any wire (including those posted here). What I can add is that everything look fine and the movements were quite normal for my eyes.

[Mike Gebert]

I wasn't planning to use up all the famous comedians the first year, but when I went looking for a Houdini image to go with the box set Kino recently released, well, look at the other box set veteran I found clowning around with him:



Anyway, so that's one of my goals for the month of August: finally dive into the Houdini set. And if I watch some Roscoe Arbuckle along the way, that'll be fine too.

[Mike Gebert]

I actually had another star planned for this month and then I thought, the much-maligned Miss Crawford has already popped up in a number of threads, by sheer force of personality like everything she did in life, and if she doesn't deserve one right away, who would? This is her being made up by what I assume must be George Westmore, founder of the famous makeup clan, who did her makeup in her late silent/early sound MGM days, and the picture comes from this post at the always-interesting, highly and frequently recommended Greenbriar Picture Shows.



Crawford threads:
Mommie Dearest, Sudden Fear, and Susan and God
Daisy Kenyon
"Women's Weepies"

Westmore, is it? Does anyone besides me think he looks like Ronald Colman? When this month's image showed up I tried to think of what movie Colman and Crawford had appeared in together, to no success.

Bob

Westmore, is it? Does anyone besides me think he looks like Ronald Colman? When this month's image showed up I tried to think of what movie Colman and Crawford had appeared in together, to no success.

Bob

I thought he looked like Henry Fonda, and was puzzled at first by the picture because he looked like Fonda in the 40s which didn't quite go with Crawford in the 20s.

greta

I thought he looked like Henry Fonda, and was puzzled at first by the picture because he looked like Fonda in the 40s which didn't quite go with Crawford in the 20s.

greta

Snap !!

[Mike Gebert]

I haven't been able to find an identified picture of George Westmore to confirm it, but if you look at his sons in this picture, there's a definite family look, especially the nose, and Joan seems to be the right age (George died in 1931, and that looks like late silent/very early sound Joan).

Westmore, is it? Does anyone besides me think he looks like Ronald Colman? When this month's image showed up I tried to think of what movie Colman and Crawford had appeared in together, to no success.

Bob

I thought he looked like Henry Fonda, and was puzzled at first by the picture because he looked like Fonda in the 40s which didn't quite go with Crawford in the 20s.

greta

He sure does look like Henry!

And this picture is wonderful support for my claim that Joan was a great, unique beauty in her silent days, virtually a different person than in her talkie days. The girl in the pic looks absolutely nothing like the woman in DAISY KENYON (see other thread for reference).

Jim

I actually had another star planned for this month and then I thought, the much-maligned Miss Crawford has already popped up in a number of threads, by sheer force of personality like everything she did in life, and if she doesn't deserve one right away, who would? This is her being made up by what I assume must be George Westmore, founder of the famous makeup clan, who did her makeup in her late silent/early sound MGM days, and the picture comes from this post at the always-interesting, highly and frequently recommended Greenbriar Picture Shows.



Crawford threads:
Mommie Dearest, Sudden Fear, and Susan and God
Daisy Kenyon
"Women's Weepies"

Might you have a good shot of Crawford and Anita Page? That might be a more fitting masthead for the month.

[Mike Gebert]

To answer the above question, haven't found a great Anita Page shot, but certainly would consider one...

In the meantime, for the month of Halloween, you know who'll get you if you don't watch out. This was taken from a Spanish poster site which unfortunately seems to be down at the moment; if it comes back up, it'll be here.

[Mike Gebert]

Okay, we had a request for an Anita Page shot, and one for a Baby Peggy tribute, so I thought... let's salute two of the last survivors of the silent era, one who recently passed and one who's still going. Thus, a dual salute to both the late Ms. Page and the soon-to-be-90 Ms. Cary... as well as our commemoration of Extravagant Hat Month, evidently. (Or maybe every month is Extravagant Hat Month at NitrateVille.)

Nice choices. Is the Baby Peggy pic from Carmen Junior??

[Mike Gebert]

It would seem likely, though all I know is it's from the birthday party at Niles.

Okay, we had a request for an Anita Page shot, and one for a Baby Peggy tribute, so I thought... let's salute two of the last survivors of the silent era, one who recently passed and one who's still going. Thus, a dual salute to both the late Ms. Page and the soon-to-be-90 Ms. Cary... as well as our commemoration of Extravagant Hat Month, evidently. (Or maybe every month is Extravagant Hat Month at NitrateVille.)

Yeah! Two of my favorite silent ladies together again for the first time.

Thanks!

Give us a photo of George O'brien in some state of undress and my year will be complete!

(Or maybe every month is Extravagant Hat Month at NitrateVille.)

It is in my household.

Fred

[Mike Gebert]

Probably not a big surprise that December should honor the impending release of what will certainly be the biggest, and in many ways the most improbable, silent/early sound release of the year. Certainly seeing the words "Murnau-Borzage" at my local Costco will be a trip...



This was some sort of publicity photo with Charles Farrell, Frank Borzage and Janet Gaynor play-acting for the camera, though I have this suspicion that it accurately reflects the reality of their working relationships. Anyway, I'm sure there will be plenty about this set to come, so I started it with a post about the three silents this trio is best known for.

Probably not a big surprise that December should honor the impending release of what will certainly be the biggest, and in many ways the most improbable, silent/early sound release of the year.

Well, you could have used Doug, since his delayed DVD collection of shorts is due out tomorrow.

Jim

[Mike Gebert]

I have yet to find a picture of Doug (or Doug and Mary) that I really like and that we haven't all seen a bunch of times. If anyone has one that isn't overfamiliar, I'm happy to receive candidates.

I have yet to find a picture of Doug (or Doug and Mary) that I really like and that we haven't all seen a bunch of times. If anyone has one that isn't overfamiliar, I'm happy to receive candidates.

Hey! Happy Anniversary to us!

Fred