In The Movies: Bette & Joan on the Big Screen

[Locutus]

Mildred Pierce is a wonderful film with a great supporting cast (Love Eve Arden), but when watching it, I can never get "Mildred Fierce" from The Carol Burnett Show out of my head.

All About Eve is delightful.

[Inquisitionist]

7 hours ago, Locutus said:

All About Eve is delightful.

TCM is running All About Eve this Wednesday afternoon.  It will repeat on a Saturday evening in July.  I haven't seen it for a while, so I've set my DVR and fastened my seatbelt.

[MonkeySee]

On 4/18/2017 at 4:00 PM, enoughcats said:

Directv sat there and looked at me as if it had never heard of Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.  Directv didn't limit its search to TCM

My bad, it was All About Eve....sorry

[psychoticstate]

16 hours ago, JasonCC said:

I think Crawford is GREAT as Crystal, but you're right she is not at her most beautiful in that film. I think the hairstyle is partially to blame---more conventional 1930s hairstyles have a cool vintage look now (AKA most of Joan's MGM films) but Crystal's haircut (daring at the time) just became an paint-by-numbers old lady perm a couple decades later.

Sydney Guilaroff was the hairstylist for The Women and he later said that in order to make things easier because the entire cast was female and because Norma Shearer's "simplicity do" took 3 hours, he put Rosalind Russell in a lot of insanely awesome hats and gave Joan a curly perm.  

I don't think she was at her prettiest there but she was still attractive and she brought the sex appeal, which is what the role required.

[Inquisitionist]

Interesting reference to Katharine Hepburn's career in the final episode, with Davis seeming a little jealous.  Kate had a little bit of a drought in this period: Suddenly, Last summer came out in 1959, Long Day's Journey Into Night in 1962, then a 5-year gap to 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.  IMDb suggests that last gap was partly voluntary to spend time with the ailing Spenser Tracy, but she did well after that with The Lion in Winter in 1968 (2nd Oscar-winning role in a row after GWCtD), The Madwoman of Chaillot in 1969, and The Trojan Women in 1971, followed by a number of prestigious TV movies in the 1970s.  I rather doubt Davis and Hepburn were up for the same parts very often.

[newyawk]

Weirdly, I just this minute found a stream of Joan's 1930 film, "Montana Moon" on an online channel. 

[ennui]

I found Possessed on Demand. For curiosity, I watched the first half hour, and I wanted to kick Van Heflin in the nuts, his character was such a jerk.  Anyway, in the beginning Joan isn't wear makeup, and I realized what a huge difference lipstick made for her. Then, considering the last episode of the series, I was distracted by looking at her teeth. 

[Mindthinkr]

Where did you find it on demand? TCM? 

[ennui]

11 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

Where did you find it on demand? TCM? 

I have Comcast, and I did a simple search for "Joan Crawford." Possessed was one of the free choices, and I clicked on it. 

[Mindthinkr]

Don't have Comcast but thanks for the info. When I have some time this weekend I'm going to try to find more of either of these ladies movies. Been seeing more of them come up on TCM and I'm happy to view them.

@ennui Just started watching The Opposite Sex on TCM. You would have loved the jewelry in the first minute. Actually they must have had a jeweler lend his pieces for this film as there's a lot of jewelry candy. 

[newyawk]

I remember watching Bette's "The Bride Came C.O.D" a long time ago and thinking it was very funny. I have to re-watch that one again soon.

[ennui]

Saw part of Johnny Guitar last night. Most of the cast were men, and it was easy to see how petite Joan was in contrast. Mercedes McCambridge was a tiny little thing, as well. 

I wish I had more time so I could actually watch an entire movie, start to finish. Ah, well.

[Mindthinkr]

Watching 'When Ladies Meet" with Joan Crawford on TCM. There's a part in it when she's singing piano side. The harsh demeanor (roles?) she usually has in her movies is absent in this one. I loved seeing her laughing, pensive and smiling. The Feud has made me so much more interested in her and Bette Davis now. When I see their movies I stop to watch for a few minutes. More if I have the time. 

[enoughcats]

Coming up May 10 is a marathon on Turner Classic Movies of Clark Gable AND Joan Crawford movies.  Early morning going into midmorning.  They did a lot of movies together in the 30s..

[lovesnark]

I just turned 60 and Bette Davis has been my favorite actress since I was a little kid. When one of her movies was going to be on TV, my granny would make a giant bowl of popcorn and we'd watch together with her telling me about going to the theater to see it when it was shown. I've been bingeing on some oldies the last couple weeks and had forgotten how much I loved Now Voyager! She was so beautiful in that movie and the way her character grew up and refused to cave to her mother's demands is just a joy to watch. My binge has so far included Baby Jane and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (I've owned both for ages), The Little Foxes, Jezebel, Dead Ringer, All About Eve and Now Voyager. I've ordered more from the library and will start a Joan Crawford binge when I'm done with Bette. 

Here's some funny trivia. In  the 60's, you could buy movie star eyebrow stencils. They were pink plastic and had the actress's name printed below the brow stencil. My mom used the Joan Crawford stencil for ages and I used to love to watch her draw them on, then fill them in. I wish I would have saved them!

[Phoebe70]

I watched Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte for the first time over the weekend.  What a snoozefest!  It was terrible.  I re-watched Whatever Happened To Baby Jane the week before, and those two movies aren't even comparable.  I fell asleep at least twice during Hush Hush.  I'm amazed that Psycho came out 4 years before Hush Hush.  Psycho was done so well.  I'm not sure what all the raves are about Hush Hush.  I wouldn't make my worst enemy sit through 2 hours of that mess. YMMV

[Mindthinkr]

1 hour ago, lovesnark said:

I just turned 60 and Bette Davis has been my favorite actress since I was a little kid. When one of her movies was going to be on TV, my granny would make a giant bowl of popcorn and we'd watch together with her telling me about going to the theater to see it when it was shown. I've been bingeing on some oldies the last couple weeks and had forgotten how much I loved Now Voyager! She was so beautiful in that movie and the way her character grew up and refused to cave to her mother's demands is just a joy to watch. My binge has so far included Baby Jane and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (I've owned both for ages), The Little Foxes, Jezebel, Dead Ringer, All About Eve and Now Voyager. I've ordered more from the library and will start a Joan Crawford binge when I'm done with Bette. 

Here's some funny trivia. In  the 60's, you could buy movie star eyebrow stencils. They were pink plastic and had the actress's name printed below the brow stencil. My mom used the Joan Crawford stencil for ages and I used to love to watch her draw them on, then fill them in. I wish I would have saved them!

What a great memory to have with your granny. Now you can play that one forward. Now Voyager is one of my favorite movies. 

Lol on the eyebrow stencils. I thought all these eyebrow kits were new-ish! I just remember the pencils from my childhood. As we are older we all kick ourselves for the things we didn't save. 

[lovesnark]

5 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

What a great memory to have with your granny. Now you can play that one forward. Now Voyager is one of my favorite movies. 

Lol on the eyebrow stencils. I thought all these eyebrow kits were new-ish! I just remember the pencils from my childhood. As we are older we all kick ourselves for the things we didn't save. 

Granny took me to see Dead Ringer.  IIRC, we got spiffed up and made a night of it. Went out to dinner and had Shirley Temples to drink......drove there in her 1950something Hudson!  I was 7 or 8 and the part where Peter Lawford gets offed by the great dane had me covering my eyes - LOL! My daughter is finally coming around to watching the classic oldies with me (she's 31) and commented that it's wonderful to watch people acting without the benefit of all the special effects used in movies today. While watching Dead Ringer yesterday, I realized how much more I enjoyed a movie without the graphic depiction of everything. When Bette shot her twin, you didn't need to see the whole thing in bloody detail to feel it. Her expression while she took the rings off her dead sister's fingers squicked me out just fine without there being blood all over everything.

[enoughcats]

3 hours ago, lovesnark said:

commented that it's wonderful to watch people acting without the benefit of all the special effects used in movies today

Exactly.

Congratulations to you and your daughter for breaking away from the CGI crowd.

[lovesnark]

8 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Exactly.

Congratulations to you and your daughter for breaking away from the CGI crowd.

It's funny. I tried for years to get her to watch old movies with me and she wasn't interested. She thought they were boring. It's great what some years and maturity will do, huh? She's never seen Baby Jane and we're going to get together and watch it soon. I think she'll love it! She wants to watch Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, too. She went to Louisiana with her husband and some friends last year and they went to Houmas House. 

[enoughcats]

7 hours ago, lovesnark said:

She went to Louisiana with her husband and some friends last year and they went to Houmas House. 

If she enjoys cooking, a Christmas present would be "The Plantation Cookbook" with real recipes.  The first half of the book is the plantations, the second half recipes that are excellent, detailed and worth the effort.  

My husband is slowly getting "into" silent movies after Feud got him to care about the depiction of both Davis and Crawford.  Now he's looking at their much earlier careers.  (And I found the John Wayne and Joan Crawford movie, which should make a complete circle on one of his heroes.)

[ennui]

On 4/30/2017 at 8:48 AM, enoughcats said:

Coming up May 10 is a marathon on Turner Classic Movies of Clark Gable AND Joan Crawford movies.  Early morning going into midmorning.  They did a lot of movies together in the 30s..

They had an affair, as well. ;)

This may be hard to read, but the last paragraph is interesting. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by ennui

[enoughcats]

Having gotten Whales of August from the library, I read its wiki first.  And I howled with laughter.  And I wish Joan Crawford were alive to read it.  

Quote

Gish and Davis did not get along during the filming — Davis demanded top billing on the picture — an act of commercial aggression Gish found appalling. Gish remarked of it, "Oh dear, I just can't deal with that sort of thing. I don't care what they do with my name. If they leave it off, so much the better. It's the work I love, not the glory."[1] Davis would get leftmost billing, which was considered optimal, with Gish's name slightly higher. Gish recalled that Davis rarely spoke to her or looked at her, except when the script required. Though Gish was hurt, she was sympathetic due to Davis's illness. "That face! Have you ever seen such a tragic face? Poor woman! How she must be suffering! I don't think it's right to judge a person like that. We must bear and forbear." For her part, Davis was frustrated with Gish missing her cues, “Miss Gish was stone deaf. She couldn’t have heard the cues if I’d shouted them through a bullhorn.”[2]However, Gish admitted she actually had little trouble hearing her cues, but invented a subtle version of the silent treatment due to Davis's mistreatment of her. When Bette spoke a line, Gish would often look puzzled and gently protest: "I just can't hear what she's saying." Whereupon, while Davis sat seething, Anderson would repeat Davis's line in a ringing voice, and Gish would instantly pick up her cue and continue the scene.

Brava!

[enoughcats]

In 1930, Joan Crawford starred in a western called Montana Moon.  She even sang two cowboy tunes.  Reading the reviews showed that at that early a date she had her fans, and her not-so fans. 

One of the fans was ................Louella Parsons.

https://www.joancrawfordbest.com/filmsmontana.htm

[Mindthinkr]

16 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Having gotten Whales of August from the library, I read its wiki first.  And I howled with laughter.  And I wish Joan Crawford were alive to read it.  

Brava!

You just made me love Miss Gish lol. Thanks for that blurb. 

[enoughcats]

There are a slug of Bette Davis movies coming up on Turner Classic Movies May 14-May 16.  I don't think I've heard of three of them:

A pocketful of miracles   nobody forgets Apple Annie and her daughter Anne Margaret.......(although, again Wiki is less than kind to Bette)

Quote

 Davis was undergoing financial difficulties, and the need for the $100,000 paycheck overshadowed her concern about making her Hollywood comeback (her last American film had been Storm Center in 1956) in the role of an elderly hag.[1][3] From the beginning, she clashed with co-star Glenn Ford, who had demanded Hope Lange, his girlfriend at the time, be given the dressing room adjacent to his, one that had been assigned to Davis. Davis graciously insisted any dressing room she was given would be adequate, noting "Dressing rooms have never been responsible for the success of a film." [2] Despite her effort to avoid an unpleasant situation, Davis was given the room Lange had wanted, and from then on Ford began treating her like a supporting player. In an interview, he suggested he was so grateful to Davis for the support she had given him during the filming of A Stolen Life in 1946, he had insisted she be cast as Apple Annie in order to revive her sagging career, a condescending remark Davis never forgot or forgave

 

but the rest.......

The Girl from 10th Avenue

The Golden Arrow

 

That Certain Woman

Edited May 7, 2017 by enoughcats

[HoboClayton]

Joan's looks are so confusing for me. I have such a difficult time placing young Joan and middle age Joan, and then older Joan. The transitions seem so severe to me, I never really understand who I am looking at. I know this probably doesn't make much sense, but, it seems everything I see her in, she looks completely different. I have been watching different things on You Tube and came across a quick little clip of Joan, and I thought she looked really cool . Especially as she is walking away. What's also funny about this clip is how robotic Doris Day's movements are after she comes back on screen. It's a short little clip from a movie called It's A Great Feeling. So many cool cameos. Would love to see the whole thing. Here is Joan's cameo. .  ETA--- Well, I guess I should have paid attention to the link in the video. You can watch the whole thing on the WB website. Just have to search for it. Cool! Going to now. 

Edited May 9, 2017 by HoboClayton

[movingtargetgal]

On 5/1/2017 at 10:30 AM, lovesnark said:

I just turned 60 and Bette Davis has been my favorite actress since I was a little kid. When one of her movies was going to be on TV, my granny would make a giant bowl of popcorn and we'd watch together with her telling me about going to the theater to see it when it was shown. I've been bingeing on some oldies the last couple weeks and had forgotten how much I loved Now Voyager!

My grandmother LOVED old movies.  Bette Davis was her favorite actress.  When I was a child I lived with Grandma and she would make me take naps in the afternoon and keep me up at night to watch her favorite movies on the Late Show.  She would also pick me up from school for "doctor appointments" so we could watch some of the better Morning Movies.  Dead Ringer was one of those movies.   

[MaryMitch]

For those of you who get MeTV: The "Perry Mason" episode with Bette Davis (filmed in 1962) is going to be aired Tuesday, May 23, at 11:30pm eastern time

[MonicaM]

As she aged, of course Joan Crawford looked older, but she was still a very attractive woman.  I think I remember reading that she did have a face lift, but her aging seems very natural, in stark contrast to the Hollywood people of today who often become almost grotesque caricatures of their younger selves.  

I can't remember what movie it was that I was watching, but the lighting was just perfect in some scenes for me to notice how sunken in her cheeks were.  Knowing that she'd had good healthy teeth extracted to achieve that look made me focus very intently on her hollowed out look.   

[One Imaginary Girl]

Strait-Jacket is on TCM tonight at 10:30 EDT (actually, it follows Baby Jane if you haven't already seen it) and the Movies! channel at  8 am on Thursday.

Edited May 23, 2017 by One Imaginary Girl
Wrong time

[movingtargetgal]

Mr. Moving and I watched Baby Jane and Strait-Jacket last night.  Because of Feud I kept noticing how "perky" JC's boobs were.  There she was lying on the beach dying and those suckers were firmly pointing at attention.  

[enoughcats]

3 hours ago, movingtargetgal said:

 Because of Feud I kept noticing how "perky" JC's boobs were.  There she was lying on the beach dying and those suckers were firmly pointing at attention.  

That year was 1964 and I was in High School.  At that time some girls wore bras that could fill a sweater without being worn by anybody.  I even remember one girl on our basketball team who wore a strapless, long line,  padded bra.  Her arms might rise to pass the ball, but her, er J.C. Penny's cones stayed in the same place.  

Never underestimate the ability of underwear makers to harness moving bouncers into immobile hills. 

[psychoticstate]

On 4/27/2017 at 4:55 PM, Mindthinkr said:

Don't have Comcast but thanks for the info. When I have some time this weekend I'm going to try to find more of either of these ladies movies. Been seeing more of them come up on TCM and I'm happy to view them.

@ennui Just started watching The Opposite Sex on TCM. You would have loved the jewelry in the first minute. Actually they must have had a jeweler lend his pieces for this film as there's a lot of jewelry candy. 

I find "The Opposite Sex" to be absolutely dreadful.  Utterly lacking in charm that "The Women" oozes and making it a musical does not help at all.  The addition of men to the cast also takes away from the novelty of the original.  Pass.

 

On 4/30/2017 at 6:16 AM, Mindthinkr said:

Watching 'When Ladies Meet" with Joan Crawford on TCM. There's a part in it when she's singing piano side. The harsh demeanor (roles?) she usually has in her movies is absent in this one. I loved seeing her laughing, pensive and smiling. The Feud has made me so much more interested in her and Bette Davis now. When I see their movies I stop to watch for a few minutes. More if I have the time. 

I own "When Ladies Meet" and I thoroughly enjoy it.  Joan looks absolutely lovely.  The storyline is a bit silly but she, Greer Garson and Robert Taylor sell it. 

Joan has often been misrepresented as a no talent hack who always had harsh looks.  Some of the styles of the Fifties didn't do her any favors (I'm looking at you, poodle cut) because they accentuated her already strong features but minus a few of those styles, she was always a fashionable, attractive woman.  I think even into her sixties, she had beautiful eyes and a gorgeous smile.  And always an enviable, trim figure! 

 

On 5/4/2017 at 0:02 PM, Mindthinkr said:

You just made me love Miss Gish lol. Thanks for that blurb. 

Miss Gish is most definitely a legend.  She could clearly play (and maybe beat) Bette at her own game. 

[Mindthinkr]

7 minutes ago, psychoticstate said:

I find "The Opposite Sex" to be absolutely dreadful.  Utterly lacking in charm that "The Women" oozes and making it a musical does not help at all.  The addition of men to the cast also takes away from the novelty of the original.  Pass.

Absolutely with you on that call. 

[Jan Spears]

1928 studio publicity photo from the set of Our Dancing Daughters, which was Joan's first really big smash as a top-billed performer:

http://www.joancrawfordbest.com/20sset17may1.htm

(Co-star Johnny Mack Brown, who was often paired with Crawford during this period, is to Crawford's left.)

Also from 1928, Joan's recipe for her "nourishing" French Banana Salad (first item):

http://www.joancrawfordbest.com/r.htm#French

And the enterprising team from Jezebel attempt to make Joan's French Banana Salad:

http://jezebel.com/we-made-joan-crawfords-nourishing-french-banana-salad-a-1789006250

Edited May 29, 2017 by Jan Spears

[enoughcats]

3 hours ago, Jan Spears said:

Also from 1928, Joan's recipe for her "nourishing" French Banana Salad (first item):

http://www.joancrawfordbest.com/r.htm#French

Makes the congealed salad  of the 50's look good, well, not good, but not so bad.  

Love the first photo and wish they'd done the Lemon Pie, they would have liked it. 

[enoughcats]

I finally got around to watching The Girl from 10th Avenue.  The only 'star' in it is Bette Davis, who is blond with fluffy hair, mostly flattened by hats. The movie posters did not do her justice, but made her look hard. 

She was lovely when she let her face be animated and smiling. Darned few pictures of that Bette in the google search, though.

A battle of the blonds from the 30s would have been a delight. 

[Jan Spears]

3 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Makes the congealed salad  of the 50's look good, well, not good, but not so bad.  

Love the first photo and wish they'd done the Lemon Pie, they would have liked it. 

The comments to the Jezebel cooking segment were interesting. It's very possible that bananas have changed to such an extent since 1928 that it's impossible lo these nearly 90 years later to recreate what Joan's "French Banana Salad" would have tasted like back then.

I've tried Joan's meatloaf recipe and it is great.

I love the photo as well, especially how the crew members are "dressed up" for a day's shoot at the studio.

[benteen]

I watched Straight-Jacket a few days ago.  After watching Feud, I laughed out loud when I saw the blatant Pepsi product placement.  But I enjoyed the movie.

[SmithW6079]

I had never seen "Baby Jane" before, so I caught it when TMC aired it recently. Color me unimpressed, but I must say that Bette Davis acted rings around Joan Crawford. 

I watched "Mildred Pierce" this past weekend, which I had also never seen. I thought Joan was quite good. (Then I watched Carol Burnett's "Mildred Fierce" for fun.)

[Jan Spears]

In the weekend Wall Street Journal, designer Zac Posen was asked the following:

The most stylish fictional character is:

Joan Crawford's in "Humoresque." That scene when she's on the beach. . . she's so elegant. I grew up watching the classics.

[SunnyBeBe]

I happened to see an old movie with Joan last night that I had not seen before.  I rather enjoyed it.  It stared Hope Lang and man, was she a standout.  Joan was hired 10 days before production of this film started and she was almost broke!

Here's a link about it.   One thing that noticed is that Joan looked so short and aged in this film.  And, the makeup people didn't do her any favors.  I've never seen her look so.....unattractive and I don't use that term loosely.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Everything_(film)