Occupational Therapy # 1

March Madness Continues: Round Two, Part Two

The rest of Round Two starts now. Vote below. Voting continues until Saturday morning.

Voting continues in the other brackets as well. To vote for actresses in the 1930s bracket, click here. To vote for actresses in the 1950s bracket, click here. To vote for actresses in the 1960s bracket, click here

2016 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament: Femme Fatales

The "Femme Fatales" division of the 1940s bracket. So help me, if you don't vote for Jane Greer, I'm hanging up my blogging spikes.

Voting begins on March 6.

The Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tournament Returns In March

Little Of Column A, Little Of Column B: The Prisoner Of Zenda

I don't about you, but sometimes I see a remake of a movie and end up wishing I could combine elements of both it and the original. The 1952 version of The Prisoner of Zenda, which TCM broadcast again last night, is just such a movie. I like it, and I like the original 1937 version, too (and I especially like the book they're both based on). But I like Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. from the '37 version better while I prefer Deborah Kerr and Jane Greer from the '52 version.

Mind you, there's nothing wrong with, respectively, Stewart Granger, James Mason, Madeleine Carroll and Mary Astor. They're great. I just think in these particular roles, the other pairings are better.

Now if only somebody could whip out their computer and cut and paste the two films together, we might really have something.

Ramon Novarro In A Nutshell

A few facts about silent film star Ramon Novarro:

● He was born José Ramón Gil Samaniego in Durango, Mexico, in 1899. At age fourteen, he moved with his family to Los Angeles to escape the Mexican Revolution.

● Novarro made his acting debut with an uncredited part as a starving peasant in Cecil B. DeMille's 1916 costume epic, Joan the Woman.

● After ten more small, usually uncredited bit roles between 1917 and 1921, Novarro scored his breakout role as Rupert of Hentzau in the 1922 version of The Prisoner of Zenda.

● Novarro's biggest role was the title character in Fred Niblo's silent classic, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Among his silent works, I can also highly recommend Scaramouche and Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg.

● As was the case with many actors of the time, his career suffered with the advent of the talkies. He made his talkie debut in 1929, and of these early efforts, I'd point you to 1931's Mati Hari in which he co-starred with an especially luminous Greta Garbo. MGM dropped his contract in 1935.

● Novarro was a devout Roman Catholic; he was also gay, and was tormented by the conflict between his sexuality and his religious beliefs. Nevertheless, he refused to enter into a sham marriage to satisfy the gossip columnists or his boss, Louis B. Mayer.

● Of his later movies, I am a big fan of his work in the 1949 comic noir The Big Steal, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. There he is a Mexican police inspector who plays cat-and-mouse with a thief and his pursuers. He also appeared in an episode of The Wild Wild West, a childhood favorite of mine.

● Novarro was brutally murdered in his home in 1968 by two male prostitutes who mistakenly believed Novarro had a large cache of money hidden in his home. They eventually made off with $20, were captured, convicted and served less than ten years each for their crimes.

● And while we're here, how about a few more photos of Ramon Novarro:

with Ernst Lubitsch:

with Joan Crawford:

with Norma Shearer:

"Dear Jane"

My contribution to the "Letter to the Stars" blogathon co-hosted by In The Mood, Frankly My Dear and Best of the Past. The rules are simple: "write a gushy fan letter to your favorite [Old Hollywood] star." I chose to write to Jane Greer, the star of the classic film noir thriller, Out of the Past. Nothing in the rules says she can't write back.

Dear Jane,
When I first saw you walking out of the sunlight into that sleepy little cafe, I could never have guessed that a humble sock monkey and an actress dead for eleven years could do so much more than take in an old movie together. I long for our next encounter.
xoxo
Mythical Monkey

My dearest Monkey,
I've known socks before—in fact I'm wearing two right now—but never did I know a sock could come stuffed with fluff—and with buttons for eyes! Sorry I let the dog chew on your ear—but then darning you afterwards was half the fun! A brand new ball of yarn awaits your return.
Smooches,
your Jane

Dearest Jane,
This last weekend was amazing. And no, I didn't mind you sewing a heart and your name on my biceps—your knitting needles pierce my soul. Also my head and much of my torso. Until next time.
Love and kisses,
your Monkey

My dear little fuzzy-wuzzy,
Except for the dinner party with the entomologist, last weekend was the best yet. Who would have guessed that moths and a wool monkey don't go together? Next week—just the two of us, I promise.
Snuggles,
Janey

Sweet, sweet Jane,
You're right, I probably should I have mentioned your gangster ex-boyfriend threatened to shoot me through the heart if I didn't tell him where to find you. But since technically-speaking I have no heart, I guess it slipped my mind. Meet on the beach again tonight?
Your loving
Monkey

My dearest Cuddlemonkey,
Thank you so much for not calling the police—those charges were trumped up, I swear. Can't wait to see you again and rip those little arms right off you all over again! I could just eat you up, my little woolly bully, or maybe wear you with a pair of sneakers. Rowr!
Naughtily yours,
Janey-waney

Dearest Janey,
Of course I don't mind about last weekend—how could you have known your parole officer would drop by unannounced? Actually, except for when he tried to wear me like a hat, I thought it went quite well. See you again Friday.
Love forever and always,
MM

My one true love,
You were so forgiving about the gunshot wound, I felt doubly bad about pulling the trigger four times. Okay, I admit I'm a bit of a homicidal maniac, but only before breakfast. Are afternoons good for you?
Love you bunches,
JG

Dear J
Again, I understand that you felt it necessary to murder my business partner and bury him in the backyard. Think nothing more of it. Oh, by the way, I had $40,000 in my bank account and now seem to have misplaced it. I didn't leave it at your house, did I? I can be so forgetful sometimes.
Forever yours,
MM

Dearest M,
Gosh, no, I have no idea why the FBI might have been looking for me—you just never know what Uncle Sam is going to get up to. LOL. By the way, I have to make a quick run for the border, but when I get back, we'll get reacquainted all over again—nice and slow.
Your loving
Jane
P.S. If anybody asks, you don't know where I am.

Dear Janey,
I don't know what that jury was thinking, but I'm sure you'll get the conviction overturned on appeal. Besides, what's twenty years between friends? And we are friends, aren't we. Remind me again about visiting hours?
Counting the minutes (days, years),
Your devoted
Monkey

Dear Monk,
This might be the last time you hear from me, at least for a long while. My escape is set for tonight. Thanks so much for the cake and file. I'll write as soon as I'm settled.
Love on the run,
Jane

Dear Jane,
I'm relieved to hear you washed up safely on that beach in South America. I just know you'll be happy now that you're out of the reach of U.S. extradition. Unfortunately, I can't join you there, as tempting as that thought sounds. Not only is the humidity bad for wool, but I've met a nice sweater to settle down with. But I will always remember you fondly.
Best wishes,
Mythical Monkey

The Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (1949)

Usually billed as a film noir, The Big Steal—the story of a guy chasing a guy chasing a girl chasing a guy who stole some money, with Jane Greer as the girl and Robert Mitchum as the man in the middle—is actually a screwball road picture, romantic comedy and wry commentary on the Ugly American (this time in Mexico), all rolled into 71 taut minutes.

Known at the time as the first film Mitchum made after his infamous marijuana bust (filming was interrupted for two months while he served his prison sentence), The Big Steal is really Jane Greer's picture. She's funny, she's smart, she's tender, she's tough, and she and Mitchum are very, very good together. Out of the Past made Greer a film noir legend, deservedly so, but The Big Steal is actually a better showcase for her talent.

That she also flew down to Mexico on forty-eight hours notice out of loyalty to Mitchum when no other actress would work with him only deepens my affection for this underrated actress.

She and Mitchum crack wise with each other throughout the film and the chemistry between them is palpable. Greer's best scene, though, is across from the foreman of a road repair crew (Pascual García Peña) as she tries to talk him into letting them pass. She tells him that she and Mitchum are eloping, and that her father, chasing them with a shotgun (really William Bendix, the first "guy" in the equation), wants her to marry a short, ugly man. She prefers the big, pretty one—"¿Verdad que es grande y hermoso, no?"

And the foreman looks at Mitchum, shrugs and says with a laugh, "Grande, sí. ¿Pero hermoso?"—which is to say, "Big, yes, but pretty?"

The film was directed by Don Siegel, who had cut his teeth putting together the Paris montage sequence in Casablanca, and who would later direct such classics as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Dirty Harry. His biggest achievement here, aside from some great car chases, was working around Mitchum's absence. Because co-star William Bendix had a prior commitment, he and Mitchum appear in only one scene together, the film's first. Thereafter, Siegel had to make due with stunt doubles, rear screen projection and careful editing.

That Bendix and Mitchum stage a convincing fist fight later in the movie without being in the same room together is a minor miracle.

Also look for Ramon Novarro as the Mexican police inspector. Fans of silent film may remember him as the title character in the 1925 verison of Ben-Hur. Like so many, his star fell when the talkies came in.

Despite the commercial and critical success of The Big Steal, there was no follow-up film for Greer. Indeed, it's a measure of the studio's desperation that she'd been cast at all. RKO owner Howard Hughes had vowed to wreck Greer's career after she refused to sleep with him, and wreck it he did. It took Greer three years to get out of her contract with the studio, by which time the public had largely forgotten her.

Finally free of RKO, she made a handful of films in the early 1950s, including Man of a Thousand Faces and a remake of The Prisoner of Zenda. After she nearly died from an infection suffered while filming Run for the Sun in the jungles of Mexico, Greer went into semi-retirement, playing occasional supporting roles, most memorably in Against All Odds, a loose remake of Out of the Past.

[SPOILERS]

The ending of The Big Steal underscores for me the degree to which we watch movies rather than listen to them. If you watch the last scene, letting it flow over you, and with the expectations of the genre firmly established in your mind, you assume that Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer are going to pair off permanently at the end, get married, have ten kids. Nice.

On the other hand, if you listen to the words they are speaking, it's clear he's leaving town in the morning and she's staying put. And that makes sense. He's a lieutenant in the army, she has an important job in Mexico. If you read the scene on the printed page, you'd see it as a lament for the life they aren't going to have together.

But if you put the images together with the words they are speaking, it becomes clear that they are negotiating a one-night stand. Which is exactly as it should be—they are attractive, single people who have just finished a life-and-death adventure together, but who, let's face it, have little else in common. Why not?

That director Don Siegel contrived to say this in a way that passed muster with the censors during the era of the Production Code is a tribute to his ingenuity and his craft. He let your eyes tell you one thing, your ears another, and if you're really paying attention, you can decode his intentions. It's subtle, something the censors never were. It's one of those times when the lament "they don't make 'em like they used to" is fully justified.

PICTURE (Drama)
winner: The Third Man (prod. Carol Reed)
nominees: All The King's Men (prod. Robert Rossen); Battleground (prod. Dore Schary); The Heiress (prod. William Wyler); A Letter to Three Wives (prod. Sol C. Siegel); The Set-Up (prod. Richard Goldstone); She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (prod. Merian C. Cooper and John Ford); They Live By Night (prod. John Houseman); Twelve O'Clock High (prod. Darryl F. Zanuck); White Heat (prod. Louis F. Edelman)

PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Kind Hearts and Coronets (prod. Michael Balcon)
nominees: Adam's Rib (prod. Lawrence Weingarten); I Was A Male War Bride (prod. Sol C. Siegel); On The Town (prod. Arthur Freed); Whisky Galore! (prod. Michael Balcon)

PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: Banshun (Late Spring) (prod. Shôchiku Film)
nominees: Jour de fête (prod. Fred Orain and André Paulvé); Nora inu (Stray Dog) (prod. Sôjirô Motoki); Riso amaro (Bitter Rice) (prod. Dino De Laurentiis)

ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Kirk Douglas (Champion)
nominees: James Cagney (White Heat); Joseph Cotten (The Third Man); Broderick Crawford (All The King's Men); Toshiro Mifune (Nora inu a.k.a. Stray Dog); Gregory Peck (Twelve O'Clock High); Robert Ryan (The Set-Up); Chishu Ryu (Banshun a.k.a. Late Spring); John Wayne (She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Sands Of Iwo Jima)

ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Gene Kelly (On The Town)
nominees: Cary Grant (I Was A Male War Bride); Danny Kaye (The Inspector General); Robert Mitchum (The Big Steal and Holiday Affair); Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets); Basil Radford (Whisky Galore!); Jacques Tati (Jour de fête); Spencer Tracy (Adam's Rib)

ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Olivia de Havilland (The Heiress)
nominees: Jeanne Crain (Pinky); Joan Crawford (Flamingo Road); Linda Darnell (A Letter To Three Wives); Setsuko Hara (Banshun a.k.a. Late Spring); Alida Valli (The Third Man)

ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Jane Greer (The Big Steal)
nominees: Joan Greenwood (Kind Hearts and Coronets and Whisky Galore!); Katharine Hepburn (Adam's Rib); Ann Sheridan (I Was A Male War Bride)

DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Carol Reed (The Third Man)
nominees: John Ford (She Wore A Yellow Ribbon); Akira Kurosawa (Nora inu a.k.a. Stray Dog); Yasujiro Ozu (Banshun a.k.a. Late Spring); Raoul Walsh (White Heat); William Wyler (The Heiress)

DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Robert Hamer (Kind Hearts and Coronets)
nominees: George Cukor (Adam's Rib); Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly (On The Town); Howard Hawks (I Was A Male War Bride); Alexander Mackendrick (Whisky Galore!)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Alec Guinness (Kind Hearts and Coronets)
nominees: Paul Douglas (A Letter to Three Wives); Juano Hernandez (Intruder in the Dust); Trevor Howard (The Third Man); Victor McLaglen (She Wore A Yellow Ribbon); Ramon Novarro (The Big Steal); Ralph Richardson (The Heiress); David Wayne (Adam's Rib); Orson Welles (The Third Man); James Whitmore (Battleground)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Mercedes McCambridge (All The King's Men)
nominees: Judy Holliday (Adam's Rib); Ann Miller (On the Town); Elizabeth Patterson (Intruder in the Dust); Margaret Wycherly (White Heat)

SCREENPLAY
winner: Graham Greene (The Third Man)
nominees: Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin (Adam's Rib); Robert Rossen, from the novel by Robert Penn Warren (All The King's Men); Robert Pirosh (Battleground); Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz, from their play suggested by the novel Washington Square by Henry James (The Heiress); Robert Hamer and John Dighton, from the novel by Roy Horniman (Kind Hearts and Coronets)

SPECIAL AWARDS
Ray Harryhausen, Linwood G. Dunn, Willis H. O'Brien, Harold E. Stein, Herb Willis and Bert Willis (Mighty Joe Young) (Special Effects); Anton Karas (The Third Man) (Score); Robert Krasker (The Third Man) (Cinematography)