Biographical film: Night and Day(1946).

Night and Day(1946). Biographical film starring Cary Grant as American composer and songwriter Cole Porter. The movie was directed by Michael Curtiz. The music score by Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner was nominated for an Academy Award. The film features several of the best-known Porter songs, including the title song, "Night and Day", "Begin the Beguine" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy".

Alexis Smith plays Linda Lee Porter, Porter's wife of 35 years. Monty Woolley and Mary Martin appear as themselves, and the rest of the cast includes Jane Wyman, Eve Arden, Alan Hale, Dorothy Malone, Donald Woods, and Ginny Simms.

The film is the fictionalized story of Cole Porter's life, as a Yale University law student who is more interested in making a living in the theater than the law. During the Christmas holidays, Cole travels home to Indiana with his law professor, Monty Woolley, and his friend, Ward Blackburn. Also.. visiting the Porter home is Cole's cousin Nancy and her wealthy friend, Linda Lee. At home, Cole tells his grandfather Omer that he wants to be a songwriter.

After returning to the city, Cole and Monty put together a show called "See America First", starring Gracie Harris. Nancy, Ward and Linda are in the audience on opening night, but Cole's family refuses to come. The Lusitania, is sunk by the Germans the same night, and Cole's show closes after only one performance.

Cole then joins the French army and is injured. While recovering in a French hospital, he finds Linda, working as a nurse. To lift Cole spirits, Linda locates a piano and Cole writes the song, "Night and Day." Linda invites Cole to join her in a villa on the Riviera, but.. Cole does not want to take her money anymore and makes plans to return to America to get back to his work.

In New York, Cole finds a job playing the piano in a music store. Tired of  the same old songs, Cole's partner, singer Carole Hill, sings one of his songs, which gives, Cole and Monty, the idea to produce another show, The New Yorkers .

Things are going well and Cole, is offered the opportunity to write a show in England. There he finds Linda, they marry and return to New York, where Cole begins working on another show. Cole makes many promises to Linda about taking a trip together, but it is one show after another. Linda becomes tired of Cole's promises and leaves for Europe on her own. Cole's mother telephones and informs him that his grandfather is dying, Cole flies back to Indiana, to make up with Omer. Cole, stays in Indiana after the funeral and, during a storm, is badly injured when he is thrown by a horse, and he loses the use of his legs. Cole makes Monty, promise not to tell Linda about his injury. Will Cole and Linda become reunited?

This is a beautiful, entertaining film with a fun dialogue and a splash of drama. If you are a Cary Grant fan, you will love this film.

Selena Royle(November 6, 1904 — April 23, 1983), parents were playwright Edwin Milton Royle and actress Selena Fetter.  She turned to acting despite the objections of her parents. Her first professional role was as Guinevere in her father's play, Lancelot and Elaine. Eventually she landed a part on her own in the 1923 Theatre Guild production of Peer Gynt with Joseph Schildkraut and became a Broadway actress. She made one film in the 1930s, Misleading Lady, but otherwise worked on the stage and on radio, starring on the shows Hilda Hope, M.D. and Kate Hopkins.

In the 1940s, she returned to film playing maternal characters such as Ingrid Bergman's mother in, Joan of Arc (1948). She also made several appearances on early television. However, in 1951, when she refused to testify about her alleged Communist sympathies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, her acting career came to a sudden standstill. She appeared in only two more films afterwards, including the low-budget, Robot Monster.

Happy Birthday: Eve Arden!

Eve Arden (April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990). Her 60-year career she performed in many supporting and leading roles.

Personal Quote:

"I've worked with a lot of great glamorous girls in movies and the theater. And I'll admit, I've often thought it would be wonderful to be a femme fatale. But then I'd always come back to thinking that if they only had what I've had - a family, real love, an anchor - they would have been so much happier during all the hours when the marquees and the floodlights are dark."

Eternally Yours(1939)

Eternally Yours (1939). Director: Tay Garnett. Cast: Loretta Young, David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Billie Burke, Eve Arden, Hugh Herbert, C. Aubrey Smith, Virginia Field, Zasu Pitts, Raymond Walburn.

While Anita is making plans to marry Don, she meets Tony a magician and they fall in love and marry. Anita goes on the road with Tony’s act, even performing in his show with him. But his stunts become more and more dangerous and Anita can no longer take it. She divorces him, and to get over the heartache, she marries Don. But Anita can’t escape Tony for long, and not long after her wedding they’re stuck at the same party together.

The first half of the movie is very charming. Niven and Young have wonderful chemistry and the story of a magician who’s torn between his fans and his commitment to his wife makes for a very interesting love story.

Virginia Field (November 4, 1917 – January 2, 1992) was a British-born film actress who performed in over 40 films including: Ladies in Love (1936), Waterloo Bridge (1940), Repeat Performance (1947), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949) and Dial 1119 (1950).

She started her film career in England then was brought to the U.S. to perform in, Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936). In the late 1930s she performed in various parts in, Mr. Moto movie series.

Fields married three times, including a marriage to actor Paul Douglas and a marriage to actor Willard Parker.

Motherhood + Noir = Mildred Pierce (1948).

Mildred Pierce (1945). Cast: Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, and Eve Arden. Noir. Screenplay by Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner, and Catherine Turney was based upon the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. Director: Michael Curtiz and produced by Jerry Wald with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. Mildred Pierce was Crawford's first starring film for Warner Bros. after leaving MGM and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

The film, begins with Beragon being shot. He whispers "Mildred" as he dies. The police believe that the murderer is Mildred Pierce's husband. She then tells her life story in flashback.

We see a very unhappy Mildred married to a unemployed Bert Pierce. He was a partner of Wally Fay. Mildred's wants to spoil daughter Veda, who longs for possessions the family cannot afford. Mildred finds a job as a waitress. One day, Veda gives their maid Lottie Mildred's waitress uniform, which forces Mildred to admit that she is a waitress, embarrassing Veda. When, Mildred's younger daughter Kay dies of pneumonia, Mildred throws herself into her restaurant. With the help of Ida, Mildred's new restaurant is a success. And Mildred opens a chain of "Mildred's" throughout Southern California.

Mildred continues to try to please Veda, by going into a loveless marriage with Monty Beragon in order to improve her social standing. Beragon lives the wild life supported by Mildred. When Veda becomes romantically involved with Monty, things come to a head at the beach house where the film began.

Monty's Beach House, was owned by the film's director, Michael Curtiz. It was built in 1929 in Malibu. It collapsed into the ocean after a week of heavy storms in January 1983.


Set in Glendale, California in the 1930s, Mildred Pierce is the story of a middle-class housewife's who goes out on her own to support her two girls during the Great Depression.

Happy Birthday Eve Arden

1908-1990 Happy Birthday to the wisecracking and fun loving Eve Arden.

Eve Arden Photos

Eve was born just north of San Francisco in Mill Valley and was interested in show business from an early age. At 16, she made her stage debut after quitting school to joined a stock company. After appearing in minor roles in two films under her real name, Eunice Quedens, she found that the stage offered her the same minor roles. By the mid 30s, one of these minor roles would attract notice as a comedy sketch in the stage play "Ziegfeld Folies". By that time, she had changed her name to Eve Arden. In 1937, she attracted some attention with a small role in Oh, Doctor (1937) which led to her being cast in a minor role in the film Stage Door (1937). By the time the film was finished, her part had expanded into the wise-cracking, fast-talking friend to the lead. She would play virtually the character for most of her career. While her sophisticated wise-cracking would never make her the lead, she would be a busy actress in dozens of movies over the next dozen years. In At the Circus (1939), she was the acrobatic Peerless Pauline opposite Groucho Marx and the Russian sharp shooter in the comedy The Doughgirls (1944). For her role as Ida in Mildred Pierce (1945), she received an Academy Award nomination. Famous for her quick ripostes, this led to work in Radio during the 40s. In 1948, CBS Radio premiered "Our Miss Brooks", which would be the perfect show for her character. As her film career began to slow, CBS would take the popular radio show to television in 1952. The television series "Our Miss Brooks" (1952) would run through 1956 and led to he movie Our Miss Brooks (1956). When the show ended, she tried another television series, "The Eve Arden Show" (1957), but it was soon canceled. In the 60s, Eve raised a family and did a few guest roles, until her come-back television series "The Mothers-In-Law" (1967). This show, co-starring Kaye Ballard ran for two seasons. After that, she would make more unsold pilots, a couple of television movies and a few guest shots. She returned in occasional cameo appearances including the Principal McGee in Grease (1978), and Warden June in Pandemonium (1982), showing that she still had the wise-cracks and screen presence to bring back the fond memories of Miss Connie Brooks.

Manpower(1941)- Exciting setting and strong cast.

Manpower(1941). Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, and George Raft. The memorable posters for the movie stated, "Robinson - He's mad about Dietrich. Dietrich - She's mad about Raft. Raft - He's mad about the whole thing." The film was written by Richard Macauley and Jerry Wald. Director: Raoul Walsh.

Robinson and Raft got into a fistfight on the set that made the front pages of the nation's newspapers. Victor McLaglen was going to play Robinson's role, which would have made it a supporting part, and Raft did not want to share the leading man status on the film. As a result Robinson was cast instead.

Raft chose Manpower over the remake of the 1931 pre-Code version of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, and the role of "Sam Spade" went to Humphrey Bogart instead.

The script is one of many reworkings of the plot line for a 1932 Robinson movie called Tiger Shark, in which Robinson played the same part, only as a tuna fisherman instead of an electric power lineman. The supporting cast of Manpower includes Alan Hale, Sr., Frank McHugh, and Eve Arden.

The story begins, while lineman Hank McHenry, is working on a high power line during a rain storm, he falls ending up with a permanent leg injury. No longer able to work on the lines, he is made foreman.

A bad storm downs some lines, and one of his men is killed on the job. Hank, must tell his friends daughter Fay, who just got out of prison. Hank, hands her some money, claiming that it came from her fathers insurance. Fay, who works in a nightclub, isn't fooled by Hank's kind gesture, but takes the money anyway. Johnny's warns Hank not to see Fay. After a short time Hank asks Fay to marry him, although she is not in love with him, she agrees. Trying to protect his friend Hank, Johnny, offers to buy her off, but fails. Soon after, Johnny is seriously injured at work and Hank brings him home so they can help him with his recovery..

Fay falls in love with Johnny, but when she tells him about her feelings, he becomes angry with her. Hank's team travels to work at Boulder Dam, and Fay decides this would be the best time to leave Hank. Looking for work at the nightclub where she used to work, Fay is caught in a raid. Rivalry between the two friends Hank and Johnny get out of hand.. Who will come to Fay's rescue?

Manpower (1941) Movie Clip.

I thought it was a very entertaining movie. Also enjoyed Eve Arden, in her usual role as the wisecracking best friend of the leading lady..

Comrade X (1940)

Comrade X is a 1940 lighthearted spy movie, starring Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr and directed by King Vidor. Recommended by Paul.

Newspaper reporter McKinley B. Thompson, wants to hide his identity as Comrade X, the reporter who is writing stories about Russia for the big newspapers. Vanya, the valet in his Moscow hotel, has found out who he is and demands that the he take his daughter out of the country before she is shot as a Communist. Thompson agrees to meet Vanya's daughter, a streetcar conductor who uses the name Theodore. Thompson tries to convince the girl to go to America with him, but she wants to investigate him first.



Later, Theodore shows up on Thompson's doorstep and announces that they will be married because that is the only way they can leave the country. After returning from their wedding he is questioned about the camera of Comrade X that was found in Vanya's room. Sentenced to death, Thompson offers to expose the head of the counter-revolution in exchange for his life and those of Vanya and Theodore.

Taken to the commissar's office, Thompson is shocked to find not Vasiliev but Michael Bastakoff, the new commissar and the former leader. Tricking Bastakoff by offering to turn over his evidence, Thompson escapes with Vanya and Theodore. The threesome steal a Russian tank with the general inside and followed by the Soviet army. Will they cross over the Romanian border in time?

The second and final film Hedy Lamarr and Clark Gable made together. It's a fun comedy and Hedy Lamarr is just adorable in all her interesting outfits. Clark Gable's humor works perfectly in this movie.

Eve Arden (April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990). Her 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in the films Grease and Grease 2.

At age 16, she left Tamalpais High School and joined a stock theater company. She made her film debut, in the backstage musical, Song of Love (1929). She played a wisecracking showgirl who becomes a rival to the film's star, singer Belle Baker.

Her film career began in 1937, when she performed in the films: Oh Doctor and Stage Door. Her Stage Door performance as the witty supporting character, was to be a template for many of Arden's future roles.

Her many memorable screen roles include: Mildred Pierce (1945) for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, and James Stewart's wistful secretary in, Anatomy of a Murder (1959). (One of her co-stars in that film was husband Brooks West.) She also performed some acrobatics while trying to steal a wallet from Groucho Marx in the film, At the Circus (1939).

EVE ARDEN

Eunice Quedens, first performance was at age seven, when she won a WCTU medal for her recital of the poem "No Kicka My Dog." After graduating from high school, she became a actress on the California stock company circuit. She played a seductress in the Columbia talkie, Song of Love (1929) then joined a touring theater. After her performance in Dancing Lady(1933), she wanted to change her name for professional reasons. Supposedly she came up with the idea for her new name from a container of Elizabeth Arden cold cream. Several performances in Ziegfeld Follies followed, and in 1937 Arden returned to films as a character actress. From Stage Door(1937), she was typecast as the sarcastic "best friend" who seldom got the man but always had the best lines. A couple of her best known film roles was in Cover Girl (1944) and The Doughgirls (1944). She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Mildred Pierce (1945). In July of 1948, she performed the popular radio comedy Our Miss Brooks. Our Miss Brooks was transferred to television in 1952, running five seasons. Next was the less successful 1957 The Eve Arden Show. This failure was long forgotten by her stage performances as Auntie Mame and Hello, Dolly! and her well liked film performances in Anatomy of a Murder(1959) and Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960). In 1967, she returned to TV to co-star with Kaye Ballard on The Mothers-in-Law which lasted two years. And in 1978, she became known to a new generation with her performance as Principal McGee in the film version of Broadway's Grease. In 1985, Eve Arden came out with her autobiography, The Three Phases of Eve.

MY FAVORITE EVE ARDEN PERFORMANCES:

Stage Door (1937)
Eternally Yours (1939)
That Uncertain Feeling(1941)
Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Cover Girl (1944)
Mildred Pierce (1945) Click to view Movie Clip from MILDRED PIERCE.
My Dream Is Yours (1949)
Tea for Two(1950)
BUtterfield 8 (1960)

STAGE DOOR (1937)

Stage Door (1937). Adapted from the play by the same name. Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, Samuel S. Hinds, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and Ann Miller.

When Terry Randall, an aspiring actress arrives at the Footlights Club, she is greeted by a group of actresses and chorus girls. Terry's uppity manner immediately alienates her from her roommates who pride themselves on their down-to-earth style. Because of her relationship with producer Anthony Powell, known womanizer, Jean also dislikes another room mate, Linda Shaw. Loved by all is Kay Hamilton, a actress who had done well the previous year, has since been unable to find work. Jean is spotted during a dance rehearsal by Powell, who arranges an audition for her and her partner Annie at a nightclub. Later Kay faints in Powell's office when she learns that the producer has refused to see her. Angry, Terry bursts into Powell's office and gives him what for, for his callous behavior. Powell dismisses Terry, but when he is later approached by a potential backer who has made casting Terry a part of his offer, agrees to star her in his next play, Enchanted April. Powell then invites Jean to dine with him and to spite Linda, Jean accepts. Powell shows Jean pictures of his young son and estranged wife, and plays a "poor little me" routine to win her over. When Jean becomes drunk, Powell sends her home, where Terry helps her to bed. Later Powell tells Terry that he wants her to star in Enchanted April. Kay is stunned to learn that Terry has been cast in the role and blesses her room mate's good luck. In spite of Terry's bad performance during rehearsal, Powell keeps her in the show and prepares for bad reviews. What will it take to turn Terry's out look on life?

FUN FACTS:

Ann Miller was only 14 years old when she performed in this film. She had lied about her age and produced a fake birth certificate. Miller was tall and beautiful at age 14 that she pulled it off. It is quite impressive to see her holding her own while dancing with Ginger Rogers, by then the dance partner of Fred Astaire.