Tag Archives: They Had Faces Then

They Had Faces Then #7

“I think every intelligent woman should have a career.” – Bonita Granville in Nancy Drew Detective (1938)

I’m often surprised by my PhD. Last week I sat down to rewrite the introduction to my third chapter (on daughters and domestic space, Penny Serenade and Mr. Blandings) and I ended up singing the praises of Nancy Drew. I’ve only seen the first Bonita Granville movie so far, which is a lot of fun, largely thanks to Frankie Thomas ‘ long suffering turn as Ted Nickerson. That’s Frankie in the picture above with Bonita. He stoically goes along with Nancy’s plans, even when they involve him dressing up as a nurse. And as you’d hope, he gets chatted up by a gangster.

It seems that Nancy continues to be a role model to adventurous girls, at least in books. Did anyone go to see the recent movie? The trailer looks like a fairly lame attempt to appropriate the panache of Clueless, but I’d be willing to give it a shot if anyone wanted to recommend it!

Nancy Drew 2007:

Nancy Drew 1938:

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They Had Faces Then #5

Irene Dunne

DeWitt Bodeen: “Although Irene Dunne once said that she felt her best performance came on about the third take, every take was consistent in timing and action. If she paused slightly to pick up an object, she always paused at the same place, picking it up in the same way with the same hand. Her precision was remarkable.”

Leo McCarey: “You can really call Irene Dunne the first lady of Hollywood, because she’s the first real lady Hollywood has ever seen.”

Quotes from Danny Peary (ed.), Close-Ups: The Movie Star Book.

 

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They Had Faces Then #4

Yvette has reminded me that Clark Gable was born on 1st February in 1901.

I don’t know how I’ve managed to miss it but I’ve never seen his most famous picture, Gone with the Wind. However, I do cherish his performance as Peter Warne in It Happened One Night. To me, it’s one of the great comic performances of the 1930s, in one of that era’s most delightful films. Just thinking about his rules of hitch-hiking makes me smile!

Myrna Loy, who acted with Gable several times (and rejected his advances a number of times too!), recalled, “He loved poetry, and read beautifully, with great sensitivity, but he wouldn’t dare let anybody else know it.”

Loy and Gable made a great screen pairing, especially in Manhattan Melodrama, Test Pilot and Wife vs. Secretary (how I relish the name of that movie!).

Loy, Gable and Jean Harlow in Wife vs. Secretary (Clarence Brown, 1936)

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They Had Faces Then #1

New Year, new feature! Since I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time googling for images of old Hollywood film stars, I’ve decided to create an ongoing gallery of the best that I find. I expect this’ll mainly be photographs, but I thought I’d start with a cigarette card depicting the lovely Myrna Loy, which is currently tacked to the corner of my monitor.

FILM STARS, A Series of 50, Described by FLORENCE DESMOND.

No.2 Myrna Loy (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Myrna Loy spent the first years of her career trying to convince the studios that there were other parts she could play besides Oriental vamps, for which she was continually being cast. Perhaps her most successful part was opposite William Powell in “The Thin Man.” When I met her in Hollywood, I hardly recognised her, she is so entirely different off the screen. She is freckled, has auburn curly hair and uses no make-up at all. She is very quiet, reads a good deal and studies music, but never goes to parties.

CARRERAS LTD (Estd. 1788) Arcadia Works, London, England.

KEEP THIS ATTRACTIVE SERIES OF ART PICTURES IN THE CARRERAS SLIP-IN ALBUM OBTAINABLE FROM ALL TOBACCONISTS (PRICE ONE PENNY)

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