Olivia and Joan: Sisters of the Silver Screen

Born to Be Bad (1950)

2012-01-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

Born to Be Bad, from 1950, is a fabulously entertaining melodrama starring Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, and Zachary Scott. Directed by Nicholas Ray, this film features Joan Leslie and Mel Ferrer in supporting roles. From the very beginning, the "bad" in this film is Joan Fontaine. In a dramatic turnabout from her vulnerable roles in Suspicion and Rebecca, in Born to Be Bad, she is a manipulating, riches-seeking, people-using schemer.

The niece of a publisher, orphaned Christabel Caine (Joan Fontaine) arrives in town and worms her way into the party (and the life) of Donna Foster (Joan Leslie). Donna is engaged to Curtis Carey (Zachary Scott), and Christabel very quickly seeks to undermine their relationship.

Though Christabel has caught the eye of novelist Nick Bradley (Robert Ryan), her eye is on the wealthy Mr. Carey. Oh, she'll carry on with Nick and even tease him into thinking she loves him in return...

...but her whole goal is to snag Curtis for herself. Lying, playing innocent, and hurting others matter little to Christabel. As long as she gets what she wants, she doesn't care who she steps on or pushes out of the way.

Born to Be Bad is a very interesting, entertaining film, and I must admit, I enjoyed seeing Joan Fontaine take on this kind of role. She was very good...not at all what I'm used to with her...but it was great to see just how capable an actress she was. I am a mega-huge Robert Ryan fan, and while I think he excelled at playing the unlikeable, villainous man, I appreciated seeing him in a more likeable role for a change. I don't believe the film is out on DVD, though it is on VHS, so if you have a working VHS player, you can catch it that way. Additionally, it is on TCM's January 30th schedule.

By the way, there is a 1934 film of the same name, which stars Loretta Young and Cary Grant. However, this 1950 film is not a remake of that. They are two completely different films.

My Cousin Rachel (1952)

2012-01-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

Admin note: Today's post is written by our newest team member Patti from They Don't Make 'em Like They Used To!

My Cousin Rachel, from 1952, is a suspenseful romantic drama starring Olivia deHavilland and Richard Burton. Based on the Daphne duMaurier novel of the same name, this story has elements in common with another of the author's works—Rebecca—namely, a large manor house, the English coast, and a mysterious death. This film, though, takes place during the early 1800's.

Phillip Ashley (Richard Burton), having lost his parents when he was but a few months old, has lived with his wealthy cousin/guardian, Ambrose, all his life. Though the two get along extremely well and are more like father and son than cousins, when Phillip reaches his twenties, Ambrose departs coastal England for the warmer temperatures of Italy. While there, he meets and marries his distant cousin Rachel (Olivia deHavilland), informing Phillip of the marriage through a letter.

Ambrose seems happy enough, but shortly after the first letter, another letter arrives, this one referring to Rachel as "his torment" and indicating that she is trying to kill him. Concerned, Phillip heads to Florence to see for himself what is going on. By the time he arrives, though, Ambrose has already died and been buried, and Rachel has left town. Although Phillip is informed that Ambrose had been suffering from a brain tumor which had resulted in delusional thoughts, he still believes Ambrose had, in fact, been in danger from his wife. After vowing to Ambrose's grave that he will repay his cousin Rachel, Phillip returns to England.

Not long afterwards, Rachel, who is younger and more beautiful than they expected her to be, makes a visit to the Ashley Estate. As Phillip and Rachel spend time together, Phillip comes to believe that there was absolutely no truth to Ambrose's letters...that they really were the result of a delusional mind...that Rachel had never done his cousin any harm. Completely in love with Rachel, Phillip refuses to believe stories which indicate she is not what she appears to be.

Since Ambrose's will made no allowance for a wife, but left everything to Phillip, could it be that Rachel is stringing him along? Perhaps she really did murder Ambrose and will, very soon, find a way to get her hands on the estate and murder Phillip as well. These are the questions that play out in this mildly suspenseful Gothic drama.

My Cousin Rachel is interesting and entertaining, and while not of the same caliber as Rebecca, it is, nevertheless, a very solid 3-star film. Olivia deHavilland gave a superb performance. She really had a broad range of ability, and I have enjoyed discovering that she was far more than simply sugary-sweet Melanie Hamilton. Richard Burton's performance was "so-so" to me. I never—not even for a moment—felt that his love for Rachel was real. He just seemed lukewarm to me, his passion forced; however, despite Burton's less-than-believable performance, I was interested enough in the outcome to keep on watching.

To my knowledge, this film is not out on DVD, but it is available in its entirety on YouTube (above).

Thank you card from Joan Fontaine

2011-12-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

On her birthday, I had sent Joan Fontaine a small card wishing her a happy birthday. On Friday, I received a thank you note:

Thanks, Joan!

"Jeopardy" contestant never heard of Joan Fontaine

2011-11-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Last week on the popular TV quiz show "Jeopardy", there was a question about Olivia and Joan, under the category "Hollywood History". I didn't watch the program, but apparently the question had something to do with naming the first sisters to be nominated for Oscars in the same year.

Contestant Kara Spak, a Chicago Sun Times writer with a history of embarrassing gaffes on the show, failed to answer the Olivia-Joan question correctly. According to her own admission, she never even heard of Joan Fontaine:

I knew it would take a minor miracle for me to advance into the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions two-day final. I thought that minor miracle might occur during Final Jeopardy, with the “Hollywood History” category.

It did not. I was within striking distance, but in the end, victory eluded me, along with the names of the first two sisters who had been nominated for Oscars in the same category, the Final Jeopardy question.

Joan Fontaine? I had never heard of her until Alex Trebek said her name. The sister of Olivia de Havilland? Also news to me.

Read the full text of Spak's humorous report here:
Final Final Jeopardy for Sun-Times reporter
(Chicago Sun-Times, Nov 10 2011)

At the 1941 Oscars, Joan Fontaine was nominated for Suspicion (and won), and Olivia de Havilland was nominated for Hold Back the Dawn.

This was the first time a pair of sisters were nominated in the same category. I think the last time was in 1966 when Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave were both nominated for Best Actress (and lost to Elizabeth Taylor)

A complete list of winners can be found here:

http://oliviajoan.blogspot.com/2011/02/oscar-montage-academy-award-winners-for.html

You Can't Beat Love (1937)

2011-11-12T10:32:00.001-08:00

From RKO Pictures, this is a funny political comedy that came out in the summer of 1937, one of Joan's five films from that year. At only 62 minutes long, it was was part of a triple bill in New York, according to the NY Times review of the film.

Preston Foster plays a wealthy single socialite named "Jimmy Hughes" (perhaps a distant relative of Howard Hughes?). When we first meet him, we learn that he loves to sleeps late, has a butler named Jasper (Herbert Mundin) and doesn't have a care in the world. The opening scenes with Jimmy and Jasper are really funny.

One day Jimmy finds himself in a rather unusual circumstance - digging ditches with other laborers. But he's only doing it for money - some newspaper reporters dared him to work outdoors in his tuxedo for $500. The other workers taunt him for wearing his fancy duds ("Can I have the next dance?" one jokes), and when Jimmy breaks for lunch, Jasper sets up a table with champaign and caviar sandwiches!

Suddenly, the Mayor's campaign bus pulls up, hoping to earn the votes of the workers. A group of campaigners (including Joan) set up a table with free cake. Joan's character makes a speech urging everyone to re-elect the Mayor.

Preston Foster's Jimmy calls the mayor a fraud and says no one has the guts to oppose him. An aggravated Joan asks, "well why don't you do it?" Preston: "I think I will!". The rest of the movie is just as silly, and involves political mudslinging, mistaken identity, and a romance between Preston and Joan, who plays the mayor's daughter!

In one of the funniest scenes, the crooked chief of police hires a Mae West-like temptress named Bubbbles (Barbara Pepper) to seduce Jimmy and scandalize his campaign (the plot backfires).

The supporting cast includes Paul Hurst,
Barbara Pepper, and Herbert Mundlin

I enjoyed this movie, especially the supporting cast including Paul Hurst as Jimmy's bodyguard. He steals every scene. But I think I liked the first half of the movie better than the last half/ending.

Not on DVD or VHS, the movie sometimes plays on Turner Classic Movies.

Happy Birthday Joan!

2011-10-22T08:19:00.001-07:00

Wishing Ms Fontaine a very happy birthday today

Birthday Wishes from
Backlots
Shadows and Satin

Olivia and Joan as Children

2011-10-14T17:58:00.001-07:00

The de Havilland family at home in Tokyo in 1917. Lilian was pregnant with Joan at the time of this photo.

Olivia and Joan, aged about 3 and 2, shortly after their arrival in San Francisco.

Aged about 4 and 3, with Lilian Fontaine in San Francisco.

Olivia (far left) and Joan (child second from right) with their mother (holding Joan's arm) and family friends in Saratoga, CA. It's hard for me to guess their ages here...6 and 5, maybe?

Aged about 10 and 9 at their home in Saratoga, CA.

Olivia (second from left in the second row from the bottom), age 12, in her 8th grade class photo.

Olivia, age 15, with other members of the student body at Los Gatos High School, 1932.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)

2011-09-23T05:27:00.001-07:00

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) is a film noir directed by Fritz Lang and written by Douglas Morrow. The film, considered film noir, was the last American film directed by Lang.

Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer), a newspaper publisher opposed to capital punishment, invites novelist Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews) to witness an execution. Later, Austin explains to Tom that he believes the District Attorney Roy Thompson (Philip Bourneuf) is using circumstantial evidence to win death sentences because he wants to be the next governor.

Austin wants to plant evidence that will point at a innocent man. Meanwhile, Tom proposes to Austin's daughter Susan (Joan Fontaine); she wants to announce the wedding date, but Tom's editor wants him finish his novel first.

Soon after, Austin reads in the newspaper that an exotic dancer, Patty Gray, has been strangled. Austin learns from a police detective that Patty's friends, Dolly Moore (Barbara Nichols) and Terry LaRue (Robin Raymond), saw her drive away with a man.

Tom meets Dolly after spilling a drink on her on purpose and offers to pay for cleaning her dress. Dolly is so thrilled to have a wealthy boyfriend that she does not notice when Tom takes her body makeup.

When Susan sees a picture of Tom and Dolly in the newspaper, she breaks off their engagement.

Tom and Austin go to the scene of the crime. Austin takes a picture of Tom leaving his cigarette case as a false clue. That night at the club, Terry worries that Tom may be Patty's killer, so she decides to call police lieutenant Kennedy to inform him about her upcoming date with Tom.

Austin, takes pictures of all his activities as proof of his innocence, Tom cleans his car of all fingerprints, applies body makeup to the car seats and leaves a stocking in his glove compartment. When Tom picks up Sally for their date, the police arrest him. The police interrogate Tom, who answers their questions truthfully. When he is indicted for murder, Susan wants Austin to intervene, and wonders why her father does not seem concerned.

Thompson is ready to try the case in court, but his assistant, Bob Hale (Arthur Franz), is in love with Susan and wants to help her prove Tom's innocence. At the trial, Thompson tells the court that Tom proposed to Susan just five days before Patty's murder, and killed the dancer to hide his affair with her.

As "evidence," he talks about a large cash withdrawal Tom made from his bank on the same day that Patty went to work with a lot of cash, as well as pipe ashes found in Tom's garbage, even though Tom does not smoke.

As the jury deliberates, Austin heads over to Thompson's to reveal their plot, but.. along the way is hit by a car and all the evidence is burned. After Austin's death, Tom tells the true story to his lawyer, Jonathan Wilson, who tells the judge, but the judge cannot stop the trial. Susan and Jonathan, search Austin's safe for the pictures, but find none. When the police go through the burned photographs, Susan is convinced of Tom's innocence, and tries to convince the newspaper editors to sway public opinion in Tom's favor.

No pardon is granted and the night before Tom's execution, Susan begs Bob to investigate further. He learns that Patty, stole money from her boyfriend who then threatened to kill her. Unfortunately, the boyfriend died years earlier. A lawyer arrives at Thompson's office, with a just-discovered note that Austin left in his safe-deposit vault, which clears him of all guilt. But.. is he really Innocent?

I thought this was a very interesting film that it gets you thinking about how someone really could be killed for something they didn't do. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt also has one of the best final twists which comes as a complete surprise.

The Heiress (1949)

2011-09-06T08:52:00.001-07:00

The Heiress (1949). Directed by William Wyler. Camera: Leo Tover. With Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Vanessa Brown, Betty Linley, Ray Collins, Mona Freeman, Selena Royle, Paul Lees, Harry Antrim, Russ Conway, David Thursby, Donald Kerr, Harry Pipe, Una Mortished, Ralph Sanford, Lester Dorr, Franklyn Farnum, Douglas Spencer, Jack Chefe.

A wealthy widowed physician Austin Sloper, does not understand why his socially awkward daughter Catherine, does not have all the wonderful qualities of her beautiful mother, even with all her schooling and training. Austin, asks his sister, Lavinia, to come stay with him to help teach his daughter social graces.

That night at a party, Austin's sister, Elizabeth and her husband Jefferson, announce the engagement of their daughter Marian to Arthur Townsend. Arthur's handsome cousin Morris, asks Catherine to dance. Although, she has two left feet, Morris does not seem to notice and asks if he could see her again. Morris, makes frequent visits to her home the following week, her father seems surprised that someone has taken any interest in his daughter.

One night, Lavinia pretends to have a headache and when she leaves Morris and Catherine alone together, he proposes. Catherine accepts, despite the fact Morris is unemployed, uneducated and squandered away his inheritance in Paris.

Catherine, who can not wait, announces her engagement to Austin, who then calls for Morris' sister, Mrs. Montgomery to come visit. She confirms Austin's suspicions, that Morris is after Catherine's substantial inheritance. Austin, convinces Catherine to travel with him to Europe for six months, and Morris promises to wait for her.

While Austin and Catherine are in Europe, Morris visits Lavinia and settles in to a luxurious life style. Austin, soon realizes that Catherine still still in love with Morris, and they return to New York. Where Austin, tells his daughter that because she is homely and dull, her only attraction is her money, and the only thing she does well is her neat embroidery work. Shocked by her father's feelings for her, Catherine plans to elope with Morris that night, and tells Morris her father's threat of disinheriting her. Catherine, is packed and ready and waiting, but, Morris never shows up. Lavinia, who agrees that Morris is a fortune-hunter, feels that he at least offered Catherine a small chance at happiness.

A week later, Austin becomes ill and Catherine learns that Morris has moved to California. Catherine, is heartbroken, and she refuses to see her father when as he lays dying.

Years later, Morris returns to see Catherine. Although she refuses to see him at first, she changes her mind when she hears his voice. Morris, then asks for her forgiveness and tells her the reason he left was so she would not loose her inheritance. Morris, proposes again, saying that he needs her love, and Catherine encourages him to elope that night. Will they now marry and live happily ever after?

Fun Fact:

Montgomery Clift learned to play the piano for the scene where he sings, "The Joys of Love" to Olivia de Havilland.

Olivia De Havilland's, performance from a naive girl to a bitter woman is perfectly believable. Montgomery Clift, performance was just right for his part as a fortune hunter. It is hard to know which side to root for.. You might agree with Dr. Sloper's thoughts about Morris and only wants to protect his daughter. Morris could be a fortune hunter, or he could be a man who could make her happy. A wonderfully told story.

My Olivia and Joan stories

2011-08-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Our newest team member of the blog is Lara from Backlots; she's a huge fan of our favorite Sisters of the Silver Screen, Olivia and Joan, and has some wonderful stories to share. Enjoy Laura's first post! Tom

I am so excited to be a guest blogger here at Olivia and Joan: Sisters of the Silver Screen! I am a huge fan of both ladies and have had the very good fortune to have come into contact with both Olivia and Joan. I met the very gracious and charming Olivia in Paris this past March, and after having written to Joan, I received an autograph within a week. I also have a coat of Joan's--given to me by a very generous costume collector friend in Norway who got it from Joan herself (and who also sends me updates from time to time about how Joan is doing!) I thought I would recount my experiences with the ladies here. I am also new at blogspot, so please forgive any formatting problems that may occur here. It's rather frustrating to work with a new blogging platform! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

JOAN

I have always thought Joan Fontaine to be one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the screen. To me she is a perfect beauty--with those expressive eyes and perfectly proportioned features, she seems to have been born for the screen. About a year ago I developed an interest in her life story, and made a trip to the library where I had found a copy of No Bed of Roses. The first few pages took me aback--not only is Joan a great beauty and a marvelous actress, but she is a magnificently elegant writer! I couldn't put the book down. It was just such an aesthetic pleasure to read her writing. As I couldn't check the book out (due to library fines...and I'm a starving student!), every day I made the trek to the library to read this incredible book. After I had finished it, I was so impressed with it that I thought I would write her and congratulate her on the book and on her stellar movie career. I had by this time begin collecting Joan memorabilia, and had a good collection of photos and posters that were prominently displayed in my room. Along with my letter I sent a lovely photo of her and Charles Boyer in The Constant Nymph, and a note asking if she would be willing to sign this photo for me. Within a week, I received an envelope from Carmel. I dashed up to my room and excitedly opened it--and there was my picture, autographed AND personalized! It seems that Joan very rarely personalizes pictures unless someone asks, so I wasn't expecting it to be personalized, but my guess is that she liked my letter. I was ecstatic for weeks--I STILL am, and I was sure to send her a thank you card to show my gratitude.

This past June, I was just finishing up a study abroad semester in Paris. My last hurrah in Europe was a trip to Ireland for the Maureen O'Hara Classic Film Festival in County Cork, where I shared a house with a number of friends from online as well as a good friend of theirs from Norway. This friend is a costume collector and a very avid Joan Fontaine fan. He is in close touch with Joan's secretary, and has acquired many costumes and wardrobe pieces from Joan herself. When he learned that I was a fellow Joan Fontaine fan, we became instant friends. We exchanged information, favorite photos, favorite movies, etc., and he told me that when he got back to Norway and I got back to the US, he would send me some of his Joan Fontaine memorabilia including a wardrobe piece. I couldn't believe my luck. Sure enough, when I got back to the US, he sent me a package filled with 14 DVDs, a postcard from Joan, two magazine articles, and a coat from her wardrobe. What a lucky girl I am. The coat is hanging in my closet so it doesn't get sun-damaged, but I often take it out to show people! I've also been getting frequent updates on how Joan is doing, and I'm happy to report that she seems to be doing very well! 93 years old and still going strong! I'm so glad to be able to get information about her and her well-being, because since she's sort of removed herself from public life it's hard to know.

OLIVIA

My experience with Olivia de Havilland is one of the highlights of my entire life thus far. I had the great fortune to be in the right place at the right time, and to have brought my copy of Every Frenchman Has One to Paris with me. I believe that it was fate that I should cross paths with this beautiful, elegant, sweet woman, she truly made an impact on me.

As I mentioned before, I was in Paris on a study abroad experience from February to June of this year. I was secretly hoping that there would be an opportunity for me to see Olivia in person, whether it be at an event or on the street, or anything, but I obviously wasn't putting too much thought into it because Paris is a huge city and Olivia was 94 at the time, so I thought she probably wouldn't be making appearances.

Shortly after I arrived in Paris, I got a message from another Olivia de Havilland aficionado who runs a group dedicated to her on facebook, and who knows all the inside scoop about film showings and the like. She told me that she had just heard that Olivia would be introducing the film she recently narrated, I Remember Better When I Paint, at the American Library in Paris on March 22. I was beside myself. What an opportunity! I excitedly told everyone that I would be going to see Olivia in person, and a number of my friends, also Olivia fans, flew in from all over Europe to be there for the event. The 4 of us stayed together at my little apartment, and when it came time for the event, we got dressed up in our best clothes and headed over to the American Library to see Olivia.

We had offered to help out at the event, so we were given some tasks to do like setting up chairs and tables, and organizing the snack area. As we were finishing the set-up, we noticed a shock of unmistakable white hair sticking up from the front row of the chairs we had set up. We nearly went into shock. Olivia was here! We had to continue with our work though, so we tried to concentrate as hard as we could before the event started at 7:30. Olivia got up to the podium and introduced the film in that elegant voice of hers that has deepened beautifully with age, but is still that rich, unique voice we knew so well. She speaks VERY slowly, making every single word count, and we were entranced with her. She looks radiant--one would never guess that she was 94 years old. She walks completely unassisted, and gets up from her chair faster than I can! I don't know what her secret is, but she seems to be doing everything right!

The film itself was very good, and it was fun to see Olivia react to it--she watched intently, and laughed at all the funny parts. It is fascinating to see someone you know from the screen just being a regular person. She is very human, and very normal--if you hadn't seen her acting with the likes of Bette Davis and Errol Flynn and known that she has won two Academy Awards, you would never know that she was a movie star.

After the film was over, the management sort of tried to steer Olivia away from the audience into a taxi that was waiting for her. My friends and I were just grateful to have seen Olivia in the flesh, and we began work on folding the chairs and putting away the tables. However, as we were on our way to the back room to put away some chairs, we saw that same shock of white hair sitting behind the library desk, talking to people! We became very excited and rushed to our bags to get our pieces of memorabilia that we had brought just in case. My friend Sara and I had both brought our copies of Every Frenchman Has One, and Illy had brought a beautiful late 1940's photo. When we approached her, there was no one else there--we got our own private moment with Olivia de Havilland. Sara gave her her book to sign first, and Olivia commented on the signature that was already on the front cover, saying "Oh, it looks like I've already signed this once!" Sara replied "I think it's a print, the people who sold it to me said it was a print." Olivia replied, in a way that only she could: "It's...the REAL...THING." We were all surprised and amazed, and she said "Let me do it again! Just to prove it! To dispel any doubts!" So she wrote a lovely dedication to Sara--"For Sara, With very, very good wishes, from the author of Every Frenchman Has One, Olivia de Havilland." I was next, and I handed her my copy of the book, saying "I have one, too!" She looked very surprised and started laughing! "Where did you GET this??" she asked, as I noticed that she had placed her hand gently on top of mine. I told her I got it online, and she asked me which site. 94-year-old Olivia de Havilland knew the different internet bookselling sites. I was very impressed. She signed my book "For Lara, All good wishes, from the author of Every Frenchman Has One, Olivia de Havilland."

She spent about 15 minutes talking with us, and when we told her that her book is very expensive online, she said "Oh! Well I'm sorry for you, but for me it's kind of flattering, isn't it??" She did not want to leave--the management kept trying to tell her that her cab was here, but Olivia didn't care, she just kept on talking to us and other people around, until finally it was clear that the management was getting antsy and she said "I think they're making me leave!" It was only then that she got into the cab and went home. She had come alone--no driver, no assistant, no anybody--it was just her. What a remarkable lady.

I still replay these experiences in my mind. I have been so amazingly lucky. As I said, I have had such good fortune that I have often just been in the right place at the right time, and this has given me some of the best moments of my life.

Thank you for reading!

All good wishes (to quote Olivia!),

Lara
Guest blogger from Backlots
http://backlots.wordpress.com/

Two Joan Fontaine Films Coming Soon to Stanford Theater (Palo Alto, CA)

2011-07-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

In September the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, California will be showing Rebecca and Suspicion.

From September 10-16

Rebecca will be showing at 7:30, plus 3:20 Sat/Sun

Suspicion will be showing at 5:40 and 9:50

Calendar of screenings at the Stanford here

The're a great lineup of other Hitchcock movies this summer at the Stanford including To Catch a Theif, Notorious, The 39 Steps, and this weekend, Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest.

If I lived within driving distance I would be there quite often this summer!

Darling, How Could You! (1951)

2011-07-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Set in the early 1900s, this is a comical film about two absentee parents (Joan Fontaine and John Lund) who return to their home in New York City to meet their young children for the first time in years. The reason for their absence is their job in the jungles of Panama where they were doctors, perhaps even missionaries. In the original 1905 play "Alice Sit By the Fire" by JM Barrie, the father is a Colonel in the British military.

The parents arrive at home expecting to be warmly welcomed; instead they find out that the nurse for their baby is overly protective. Their young son unloads his grievances on them, including his complaint that he doesn't like his birth name. And they find that their eldest daughter Amy (Mona Freeman) has matured into a young woman and doesn't know how to relate to her mother. It's funny when Joan Fontaine gasps,"she knows all about life...and the seamy side!"

The rest of the movie is all about the couple adjusting to life back at home and learning how to relate to their kids, and vice versa. I think the film would have worked in a modern-day setting, but it is a period film just like JM Barrie's play (though the film takes numerous liberties).

There is another subplot involving the kids' paranoia when they mistakenly think their mother is having an affair; the climax of the film ends with an explosion of hysteria, and funny comedic moments from all.

Another highlight of the film is when Joan Fontaine plays the piano at home, and later singing a lullaby to her baby.

Directed by the great Mitchell Leisen. Co-starring Willard Waterman (Radio's The Great Gildersleeve), Billie Bird (Police Academy 4) and Peter Hansen (TV's General Hospital)

Spoiler: No one in the film says "Darling, how could you!"

Olivia de Havilland - This Is Myself

2011-07-06T03:24:00.000-07:00

The following article appeared in the March 1944 issue of Movieland magazine (pages 35, 83-84). Olivia was on the cover.

This Is Myself

by Olivia de Havilland

My First Great Adventure...

Occurred when I was five. We lived opposite a school, an old wooden building that had been declared derelict. The children in the neighborhood plugged the plumbing and flooded the boys' half of the basement so that the water stood three feed deep.

We made rafts of boxes that were lying around, and had a glorious time poling around the basement on them.

I still feel the thrill of my tremendous amusement.

I Remember...

A little boy named Abner Read, in the third grade when I was in first grade. He wore an orange black sweater which he hung up in the cloak room. I used to come to school late so that I could kiss it surreptitiously as I passed.

I Forget...

When I ceased to care for Abner, but I was always in love. When I was six I admired another boy who threw a rock at me. Ten years later, when I was sixteen, he proposed.

I Used To....

- Want to be an author, and actress, an artist, and something else that began with "a" - I can't think what! I believed there was something special about all my ambitions beginning with "a". It seemed a significant coincidence.

- See myself as a heroine. I saw myself saving lives by the dozen. When the Los Gatos Creek flooded the prune trees, which it did regularly every year, I saw myself rescuing people with the Australian crawl...I still can't swim more than fifteen consecutive strokes!

- See myself in various roles and then act out the roles. I went to a convent where the slightest deviation from conventional behavior was punished. I was distinctly feminine, but I saw myself then as a tomboy and proceeded to behave like one. Very trying for my family but I suppose I enjoyed it at the time.

I'd Like To...

- Know how to build a fire with two sticks, boy scout fashion;

- Shine in emergencies;

-Catch up on all the good books I've missed;

-Write a book - but I know I never will.

Once I Thought...

It mattered what people say. I suffered dreadfully over what I thought was said about me. Now I know I am my own best judge, must make my own decisions, and "What-will-people-say" is no longer a bogie.

I Believe...

- In luck. I've been very lucky at times.

- In a sixth sense. I frequently know things without understanding how I know them. One Sunday as I drove with friends to an engagement, I suddenly said: "Please stop at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel. There will be a cable for me." I had no idea what made me say that. We stopped, found no cable, but an hour later the cable arrived.

I Like...

- To sleep soundly, because I love to get up refreshed and ready to go;

- Square plates, freesias, General Montgomery and his beret, or General Montgomery without his beret; little scampering mice, onions, and curious and interesting foods;

-The idea of promptness. I believe in it, but I never am.

I Dislike...

- Crowds;

- People who sniffle;

- Poke bonnets;

- Unexplained thumps in a house at night.

I'm Never Annoyed With...

People who want me to try their cold remedies. I usually have several to offer myself.

I Think It's Fun To...

- Plan parties, work out every detail of decoration, menu, and entertainment;

- Outwit the traffic cop when the signal turns red just as I reach it. ....My system is to go halfway through the intersection, start to back up, look helplessly around as if to say: "Oh dear, I'd better go on!" and then dart through.

I've Learned...

Practically everything by the trial-and-error method. I learn from my mistakes. I'm not sorry to make them - I'm glad I can learn that way - but I'm seriously annoyed with myself when I repeat a mistake.

When I Was At School...

I wanted to look like a Palm Olive advertisement I cut out of a magazine. The girl in the picture had very black hair, brown eyes and a sweet, sweet, sweet smile. When I came on the ad years later, was I glad all dreams don't come true!

I'll Never Forget...(part 1)

- A coat my mother gave me one Christmas. It was gray with a red tie and had a printed pattern in red and black and gray. When I returned to school wearing it, it struck the other children as very funny. They called it my "bathrobe," shrieked with mirth and made me actually miserable.

I'll Never Forget...(part 2)

- A meal at the Lakeside Golf Club. I gained twenty pounds and was warned not to take it off until I was quite recovered. I played in period pictures where weight was no problem, but along came a modern picture and I had to reduce - but fast. I went on the Harper's Bazaar diet, where you eat steaks, chops and tomato salad, no more. Today I'm probably the only creature in America who doesn't mind the meat shortage.

I craved all the foods I couldn't have and looked forward to Fridays because that was the day I was permitted one piece of French toast.

Our director used to take us to the Golf Club for lunch, and while I toyed with a slice of tomato the rest of the company devoured delectable dishes.

One day I came to the end of my self-control, ate every single item on the buffet.

Next day they couldn't shoot the picture - I was home in bed.

I'll Never Forget... (part 3)

- The beautiful thing a little girl did for me.

Her name was Helen Burns. She and I were six.

Our school house had a huge standpipe that filled up when it rained and overflowed like a geyser, dramatically.

The great sport at school was to stand under the geyser and enjoy the shock and excitement of water splashing down three stories upon you.

One day Helen and I, greatly daring, stood under the geyser. My mother saw me, yanked me home, gave me a good spanking and sent me back to school - not in a dress like all the other girls, but in the khaki blouse and pants I wore for the play.

I suffered horribly at having to appear different from all my schoolmates. It was simply excruciating.

Helen saw me, ran home and put on her khaki outfit, came back and sat beside me.

I thought her wonderful. I still do.

I'd Hate...

To live any day of my life over again. I liked some days very much indeed - some were unbelievably perfect - but I've had them.

The First Thing That Attracts Me...

- In a man is brains, humor, kindness, honesty and courage - yes, and vitality. Intelligence and humor are probably the first things I notice; the existence of the other qualities isn't so immediately apparent.

- In a woman is charm. Often very dumb women have it, but it attracts me. I like intelligent women, of course. It's nice to have women friends, but they are more difficult to acquire than men friends - at least for me.

I Enjoy....

- Almost any kind of music - melodies, tangos, rhumbas, songs from "Oklahoma," so-called classical music.
- Pictures - but I don't know a great deal about them. I spent a glorious afternoon this week looking at a collection belonging to a friend and I hope I'll never forget it. He had three Rousseaus, some Paul Klees, several Picassos; some lovely, lovely things!
-Books, but I'm usually from one to fifty years late in reading what everyone else reads. I've just caught up with "South Wind," "Moby Dick," Wells' "Outline of History," F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ibsen's plays.

I Adore...

-Storms,
-Torrential rains;
-Thunder and lightning. They make me feel safe, oddly enough.
-My first and only pet, my Airedale Shadrack, in spite of his arrogance, willfulness, unreasonable ideas about discipline.
-Older men.

I'm Guilty Of...

-Postponing decisions. But it's usually because something tells me to wait-and I wait.
-Spoiling people I love. But maybe it's just that I like to make them happy.
-Trying to hard for perfection. Or just trying too hard. Period.

Some Day I Would Like...

-To have a baby. I'd like two or three, but I do want to be sure of one.
-But ---

I'm Not Fond Of...

All babies and small children. I never know how to handle them.

I Want To...

Know the truth about people. Once you know their virtues and their faults, their ideas, hopes, and beliefs, you know what to do about them. It's not easy, but if you're fond of anyone it's your business to find out the whole truth.

I Believe In...

Destiny and free will. It seems to me that we each have a pattern we are to follow in life. But we also have a thread of free will that we can use as we please. It is up to us to weave the thread into the pattern.

Whatever we do with our lives, some of the praise and some of the blame is certainly all our own.

THE END

Happy Birthday: Olivia de Havilland!

2011-07-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

Fun Facts:

Ms. de Havilland lives a peaceful retirement at her home on Rue Benouville, in Paris. She spends time teaching Sunday School to children at a local church.

Is the 15th cousin twice removed of Errol Flynn, her co-star in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

She and Joan Fontaine are the first sisters to win Oscars and the first ones to be Oscar-nominated in the same year.

Please Click here to learn more Olivia de Havilland.

Password episode from 1967

2011-06-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun episode of TV's Password that aired in 1967, with guest stars Joan Fontaine and her Gunga Din co-star Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. When Joan is introduced by host Allen Ludden, I think she says, "How's Betty?" referring to Ludden's wife Betty White

In the beginning part of this clip, Joan mentions she will be performing in "Dial M For Murder" at the Ivanhoe Theater in Chicago (postcard of the theater building below)

The theater building still stands (It still looks like a castle) but it is now a Binny's liquor store.

Here are some pics of how it looks today:

The former Ivanhoe Theater

Chicago, IL

Four's A Crowd (1938)

2011-05-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

Four's a Crowd (1938), is a romantic comedy directed by Michael Curtiz and released by Warner Brothers. Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles, Walter Connolly, Hugh Herbert, Melville Cooper, Franklin Pangborn, Herman Bing, Margaret Hamilton, Joseph Crehan, Joe Cunningham, Gloria Blondell, Carole Landis and Lana Turner. The fourth of nine movies made by Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn.

The story begins when the newspaper might be shut down when owner, Pat Buckley, gets into a argument with the Editor-in-chief, Robert Lansford. Meanwhile, Lansford hopes to add John Dillingwell's business to his PR firm, and uses his position at Buckley's paper to write a good review for Dillingwell. He soon finds out that Dillingwell's daughter Lorri, is Buckley's fiancee. Lansford decides to try to charm Lorri while Christy makes a play for Buckley. In the end, you don't know who Lansford will end up with?

Errol Flynn gives a wonderful comic performance. One of my favorite scenes where he is chased by dogs snapping at his heels chasing him off his girlfriends property. Olivia de Havilland looks gorgeous as the daughter of millionaire Connolly. A fluffy romance, but... worth watching if you enjoy watching these stars.

Joan Shills for Bufferin

2011-04-07T22:58:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this fantastic commercial I posted on my own blog a couple of years ago:

Joan Fontaine is so elegant in this 1965 commercial for Bufferin. She makes pain relief sound fancy.

Jane Eyre (1944)

2011-03-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

l-r: Joan Fontaine (as Jane), Orson Welles (as Rochester), Margaret O'Brien (as Adele), Peggy Ann Garner (as Young Jane), and Elizabeth Taylor (as Helen)

England, 1829. As the film begins, young Jane (Peggy Ann Garner), an orphan, is living in a strict house of her wicked and cruel aunt (Agnes Moorhead). At the age of 10, she is sent to a prison-like boarding school, Lowood, where she's taunted, teased, called an "unregenerate child" and cruelly punished, all while getting "spiritual instruction". Her best friend Helen (Elizabeth Taylor) helps her keep her sanity.

Jane Eyre and her best friend Helen, played by Elizabeth Taylor

The story advances a few years and Joan Fontaine plays Jane at 18. She accepts a job at a country estate known as Thornfield Hall, where she works as a governess and caretaker of little Adele (played by Margaret O'Brien), who appears to be an orphan, like Jane. The master of the household is Mr. Rochester, played by Orson Welles, who is very domineering and intimidating. As time goes by, Jane learns to accept him and grows fond of him, becoming jealous when he courts another woman.

I was impressed with Joan and thought she was well cast opposite Welles.

Rochester also has feelings for her, but there is something he's not telling her.

I was not familiar with this story before seeing this movie, the first film version I had ever seen of this. So the last part of this movie really was exciting for me because I did not know what to expect. Why was the the door upstairs banging?, I asked. It is a thriller of a story. Joan Fontaine is excellent, and has the right personality and maturity to bring this character to life, even if she was a little older (27) than the character. Welles is also fantastic in this, very convincing as this character.

There have been a number of other movie versions of this classic novel over the years, but I haven't seen them and cannot compare them to this version. To me, this is the definitive version. Featuring a beautiful music score by Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane), intense black-and-white cinematography by George Barnes (Rebecca) and is well directed by Robert Stevenson. I really liked how at certain points actual pages from the novel were shown as Joan (as Jane) narrates.

The credited screenwriters are director Stevenson, Aldous Huxley, John Houseman, a good friend of Welles' from his early days in the theater. Stevenson went on to direct many classic Disney films of the 1960s. He does a good job directing all the child actors here, and gets a few comic moments out of little Margaret O'Brien.

This movie is 96 minutes long and you can watch it streaming on NetFlix or rent on DVD.

Cast:

Edward Rochester............Orson Welles

Jane Eyre.........................Joan Fontaine

Young Jane (age 10)........Peggy Ann Garner

Helen...............................Elizabeth Taylor

Dr. Rivers.........................John Sutton

Mrs. Reed........................Agnes Moorehead

Mrs. Fairfax....................Edith Barrett

Blanche.....................Hillary Brooke

The final title card encouraged the audience of 1944 to buy war bonds.

This version was recently featured on Ebert Presents; view the clip here on the official website

Santa Fe Trail (1940)

2011-03-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

Santa Fe Trail(1940). Western directed by Michael Curtiz. Cast: Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was the seventh of eight films that Flynn-de Havilland made together. The outdoor scenes were filmed at the Lasky Movie Ranch, on the Lasky Mesa area of the Simi Hills in the western San Fernando Valley.

The story begins when Cadet Carl Rader, is dishonorably discharged from West Point Academy for conspiracy. His friends Jeb Stuart and George Custer, graduate and are assigned to duty at the most dangerous post in the army. While traveling, Custer and Stuart meet Cyrus Halliday, the man responsible for building the railroad and his daughter, Kit Carson. After arriving at the fort, they find Brown's army, has been terrorizing the countryside with their raids.

During a raid on a wagon, Stuart and Custer capture Brown's injured son Jason and before dying, Jason tells them where his father's hideout is. In disguise, Stuart rides into the hide out and is recognized by Rader, who takes him at gunpoint to Brown. Stuart, finds himself trapped in a burning barn but is saved by Custer and his troops. Brown does not go down without a fight.

Olivia De Havilland, plays a Calamity Jane type character, who gave Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan as George A. Custer, a run for their money.

Errol Flynn(20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959), was best known for his romantic swashbuckler roles and his flamboyant lifestyle.

Flynn co-starred with Olivia de Havilland in eight films, Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Four's a Crowd (1938), Dodge City (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and They Died with Their Boots On (1941.

Vote for Olivia as your all-time favorite actress

2011-03-09T20:34:00.000-08:00

There is an exciting tournament going on right now at Monty's blog All Good Things. In the tournament, which takes place all this month, you are asked to vote between two classic film actresses, picking only one of the two as your favorite. The winner keeps advancing to further rounds of voting until there is a "final 4", then "final 2", then the ultimate winner - your favorite classic movie actress of all time.

Already several actress have been eliminated - sigh!

Good news, though - Olivia has advanced to the second round of 40's-era actresses. Can she make it to the next round? The final four? Favorite all-time classic movie actresses?

Your vote can help make that happen!

Vote for Olivia now at All Good Things

Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland on Wait Wait. . . Don’t Tell Me!

2011-03-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Olivia and Joan were featured in a question on the National Public Radio quiz show Wait Wait. . . Don’t Tell Me!

It was a part of the Not My Job segment, where a celebrity guest star answers questions on behalf of a listener. (If the guest answers two questions correctly, the listener wins a personalized answering machine message by the vocally-blessed Wait, Wait judge/scorekeeper and NPR newscaster Carl Kasell). This week’s guest was Lisa Kudrow and she’s a pretty smart cookie. She answered two out of three questions correctly, but did she get this one?

Here’s the question as asked by host Peter Sagal:

1930s movie stars Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine are sisters. They have had a legendary feud going back more than sixty years which began when what happened?

A. They both were nominated for the same Academy Award.

B. They had an argument over who got out first of the same limo.

C. A billboard with Joan’s face went up on Sunset Drive, blocking one of Olivia’s.

Lisa Kudrow guessed C. I’m guessing that many of the readers of this blog know the correct answer! Here’s a clip of the segment. The Olivia/Joan portion is about 7:25 in:

Yes—Peter Sagal called Olivia and Joan “1930s movie stars”—but we all know better, right?

Thanks to Tom for inviting me to contribute to the blog. I plan to do so more in the future!

[Oscar Montage] Academy Award Winners for Best Actress, 1927-present

2011-02-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

Best Actress Oscar Winners: 1927-2009

This is a pretty good montage of all the winners in chronological order. Of course you'll see Joan once for her win for Suspicion and Olivia twice in clips from The Heiress and To Each His Own

Music: Theme from Shakespeare in Love by Stephen Warbeck

Favored to win the Oscar for Best Actress of 2010 this Sunday is Natalie Portman for Black Swan.

Complete list of winners

1928 (1927-28) Janet Gaynor – Seventh Heaven/Street Angel/Sunrise
1929 (1928-29) Mary Pickford – Coquette
1930 (1929-30) Norma Shearer – The Divorcee
1931 (1930-31) Marie Dressler – Min and Bill
1932 (1931-32) Helen Hayes – The Sin of Madelon Claudet
1933 (1932-33) Katharine Hepburn – Morning Glory
1934 Claudette Colbert – It Happened One Night
1935 Bette Davis – Dangerous
1936 Luise Rainer – The Great Ziegfeld
1937 Luise Rainer – The Good Earth
1938 Bette Davis – Jezebel
1939 Vivien Leigh – Gone with the Wind
1940 Ginger Rogers – Kitty Foyle
1941 Joan Fontaine – Suspicion
1942 Greer Garson – Mrs. Miniver
1943 Jennifer Jones – The Song of Bernadette
1944 Ingrid Bergman – Gaslight
1945 Joan Crawford – Mildred Pierce
1946 Olivia de Havilland – To Each His Own
1947 Loretta Young – The Farmer's Daughter
1948 Jane Wyman – Johnny Belinda
1949 Olivia de Havilland – The Heiress
1950 Judy Holliday – Born Yesterday
1951 Vivien Leigh – A Streetcar Named Desire
1952 Shirley Booth – Come Back, Little Sheba
1953 Audrey Hepburn – Roman Holiday
1955 Anna Magnani – The Rose Tattoo
1956 Ingrid Bergman – Anastasia
1957 Joanne Woodward – The Three Faces of Eve
1958 Susan Hayward – I Want to Live!
1959 Simone Signoret – Room at the Top
1960 Elizabeth Taylor – BUtterfield 8
1961 Sophia Loren – Two Women
1962 Anne Bancroft – The Miracle Worker
1963 Patricia Neal – Hud
1964 Julie Andrews – Mary Poppins
1965 Julie Christie – Darling
1966 Elizabeth Taylor – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967 Katharine Hepburn – Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1968 Katharine Hepburn – The Lion in Winter (tie)
1968 Barbra Streisand – Funny Girl (tie)
1969 Maggie Smith – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1970 Glenda Jackson – Women in Love
1971 Jane Fonda – Klute
1972 Liza Minnelli – Cabaret
1973 Glenda Jackson – A Touch of Class
1974 Ellen Burstyn – Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1975 Louise Fletcher – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 Faye Dunaway – Network
1977 Diane Keaton – Annie Hall
1978 Jane Fonda – Coming Home
1979 Sally Field – Norma Rae
1980 Sissy Spacek – Coal Miner's Daughter
1981 Katharine Hepburn – On Golden Pond
1982 Meryl Streep – Sophie's Choice
1983 Shirley MacLaine – Terms of Endearment
1984 Sally Field – Places in the Heart
1985 Geraldine Page – The Trip to Bountiful
1986 Marlee Matlin – Children of a Lesser God
1987 Cher – Moonstruck
1988 Jodie Foster – The Accused
1989 Jessica Tandy – Driving Miss Daisy
1990 Kathy Bates – Misery
1991 Jodie Foster – The Silence of the Lambs
1992 Emma Thompson – Howards End
1993 Holly Hunter – The Piano
1994 Jessica Lange – Blue Sky
1995 Susan Sarandon – Dead Man Walking
1996 Frances McDormand – Fargo
1997 Helen Hunt – As Good as It Gets
1998 Gwyneth Paltrow – Shakespeare in Love
1999 Hilary Swank – Boys Don't Cry
2000 Julia Roberts – Erin Brockovich
2001 Halle Berry – Monster's Ball
2002 Nicole Kidman – The Hours
2003 Charlize Theron – Monster
2004 Hilary Swank – Million Dollar Baby
2005 Reese Witherspoon – Walk the Line
2006 Helen Mirren – The Queen
2007 Marion Cotillard – La Vie en Rose
2008 Kate Winslet – The Reader
2009 Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
2010 ?

Highlights from The Film Noir Blogathon 2011

2011-02-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well the 2nd annual Film Preservation Blogthon finished up yesterday and - according to co-host The Siren - over $5,000 was raised to benefit the Film Noir Foundation and the restoration of the 1950 film The Sound of Fury, starring Frank Lovejoy and Lloyd Bridges. You can still donate to the blogathon, even just a small amount.

There were so many great entries. At least three posts discussed films starring Olivia de Havilland, and at least one post discussed a noir starring Joan Fontaine.

A few highlights:

The Dark Mirror - Ivan has written an excellent analysis

More on The Dark Mirror in a post by Vince Keenan who attended the Noir City Film Festival last month in San Francisco.

The Snake Pit is among a number of films discussed in David Steece's post on Oscar-nominated cinematographer Leo Tover.

1948's Kiss The Blood Off My Hands starring Joan and Burt Lancaster. Here's a capsule review of the film.

Congratulations to all who put together the fundraiser.

Greg from Cinema Styles put together this great video for the blogathon:

Upcoming screenings of Olivia's films

2011-02-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Olivia de Havilland - Lady of the Classic Cinema for this updated list of screenings. I wish I lived closer to some of these venues in order to attend.

Ms. de Havilland is scheduled to make a personal appearance at the event in Paris on March 22, where she will be discussing the documentary on Alzheimer's disease that she narrated.

February 20-27, 2011
The Heiress (1949)
Sedona Film Festival - Sedona, AZ
Harkins Theatres
Contact: Film Festival Office - (928) 282-1177
Tickets: Please visit the website linked above for ticket information

Tuesday, February 22 @ 7:00pm
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Galaxy Theatre - Monroe, WA
Contact: (360) 863-0909
Tickets: $7.00
For more information click HERE

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 @ 7:00pm
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Visaila Fox Theater - Visalia, CA
Contact: (559) 625-1369
Tickets: $5.00
For more information click HERE

Thursday, March 3 @ 7:00pm
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Smith Center Movie Theatre - Southern Utah University
For more information click HERE

Thursday, March 10, 2011 @ 2:00pm
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Emmetsburg Public Library - Emmetsburg, IA
Contact: 712-852-4009
Tickets: FREE
For more information click HERE
This screening is presented as part of the Tea Time Cinema Series

Thursday, March 17 @ 7:30pm

Friday, March 18 @ 7:30pm

It's Love I'm After (1937)

The Stanford Theatre - Palo Alto, CA
Contact: (650) 324-3700
Tickets: $7.00 for adults,
$5 for Seniors (65 and over) and Youth (18 and under)
For more information click HERE

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 @ 7:30pm
*The American Library - Paris, France
I Remember Better When I Paint (Documentary, 2009)
Contact by Phone: 01 53 59 12 60
Contact by Email: alparis@americanlibraryinparis.org
*Personal Appearance by Ms. De Havilland!

*On Tuesday, March 22, 2011, at 7:30 pm, "I Remember Better When I Paint" will be shown at The American Library in Paris, 10 rue du General Camou in the 7th arrondisment near the Eiffel Tower. Berna Huebner, the film’s co-director, along with Olivia de Havilland, the film’s narrator, will introduce the film at the start of the evening. A short Q&A session will follow.

For more information click HERE or visit the film's blog HERE

Saturday, April 16, 2011
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Chapman Cultural Center - Spartanburg, SC
Contact: 864.542.2787 - To Purchase Tickets
Tickets: $6.00
For more information click HERE

Sunday, April 17, 2011
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Capitol Theatre - Cleveland, OH
Contact: Film Info: (440) 528-0355 or
Contact: Cleveland Cinemas at (440) 349-3306
Tickets: $10.00 - will go on sale on February 18th. Tickets can be purchased at the Capitol Theatre box office or online at www.clevelandcinemas.com
For more information click HERE
This screening is to commemorate the official 90th anniversary of The Capitol Theatre. The theater will show a special screening of Gone With the Wind that will include a champagne and pastries during the intermission.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 @ 7:00pm
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Cinema City Theater - Anaheim Hills, CA
Contact: (714) 970-6700
Tickets: $7.00
For more information or click HERE

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 @1:30pm & 7:30pm
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Carolina Theatre - Greensboro, NC
Tickets: $5.00 for general admission / $4.00 for students, seniors, military, and groups (10+)
Contact: (336) 333-2605
For more information and to purchase tickets click HERE

Friday, May 13 @ 8:00pm
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Historic State Theatre - Elizabethtown, KY
Contact: (270) 234-8258
For more information please click HERE

Saturday, August 20 @ 6:00pm
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Surratt House Museum - Clinton, MD
Contact: 301–868–1121
Tickets: FREE
For more information click HERE
Reservations encouraged. Space is limited

Kiss The Blood Off My Hands (1948)

2011-02-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

This post has been submitted as an entry in the For the Love of Film (Noir) blogathon, hosted by Marilyn Ferdinand and The Self-Styled Siren. Click here to donate.

The film's memorable title, which, like those of Kiss of Death, Kiss Me Deadly, and Murder My Sweet, provocatively blends sex and violence, certainly suggests that love can redeem someone

—The Encyclopedia of Film Noir¹

Based on a 1940 novel
by Gerald Butler

Set in London just after the second world war, Burt Lancaster plays a traumatized veteran who becomes a fugitive after he strikes a fatal blow to to a saloon owner at closing time. After a thrilling chase sequence through the dark foggy streets and alleys, Burt makes his way through the open window of Joan Fontaine's apartment - her bedroom window, that is.

Joan plays a lonely young nurse, who doesn't have any family or friends. The handsome stranger's break-in is almost a welcome burst of excitement for her, and she lets him hide out in her apartment for awhile. The next afternoon they go walking together in a city zoo. "Never been in a zoo?" Joan asks. "Been in one all my life," replies Burt's character, who then shares how he'd been in a POW camp for two years. We also learn that her lover was killed in the war. Burt's uncontrollable temper lands him into more trouble, and he's sent to prison. A harsh scene occurs when Burt is lashed with a cat-o-nine tails, punishment in Britain (at the time) for assaulting an officer.

Robert Newton's
American film debut

After his stint, he and Joan get back together. To paraphrase the trailer, only her arms can tame the fury of his fists. She even helps him to find a job as a truck driver delivering penicillin from her hospital. Robert Newton, playing a seedy con man, complicates their lives with blackmail and threats. There are a few twists at the end, and what you might expect to happen doesn't. Suspense 'til the very end.

In my opinion Burt and Joan make a pretty good onscreen couple. There's a fine train-car bonding scene which sort of reminded me of the one in Letter From An Unknown Woman. But instead of sitting across from each other, the lovers are sitting side by side.

Joan and Burt heat up the screen

Upon the film's initial release, the film critic from the New York Times wrote that Joan brings "restraint and intelligence" to her performance. ² Mark from the blog Where Danger Lives wrote, "No actor of the classic noir period could project a sense of impending doom like Burt Lancaster, and no actress wore empathy on her face like Joan Fontaine." ³

By the time this film came out, Burt had already done several noirs: The Killers, Brute Force, Desert Fury, I Walk Alone, and Sorry Wrong Number, which opened just a few weeks before Kiss the Blood in the fall of 1948. Incidentally, Burt's next film was also a noir, 1949's Criss Cross. The blogs Randomanic and Scenes from the Morgue have great posts on the latter film for the 2011 For The Love of Film blogathon.

Directed by Norman Foster, who directed Journey Into Fear and most of the Mr. Motto films (Read about them here at Classic Movie Ramblings) Effective musical score composed by Miklos Rosza. Stylish cinematography by Russell Metty (The Stranger). Screenplay by Leonardo Bercovici (Portrait of Jennie)

References:

1. The New York Times. Film review, "Lancaster Fights the World Again," October 30, 1948.
2. The Encyclopedia of Film Noir, 2007, G. Mayer, B. McDonnel, Page 251.

3. Where Danger Lives, "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands," published July 24, 2009.

Trivia:

Joan was pregnant with her daughter Debbie during filming.
The film was co-produced by Norma Productions, Burt Lancater's new production company.
Fontaine and Lancaster recreated their roles for the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on February 21, 1949 under the title The Unafraid.

Trailer:
Fast-forward to the 1:16 mark:

This post has been submitted as an entry in the For the Love of Film (Noir) blogathon, hosted by Marilyn Ferdinand and The Self-Styled Siren

A PayPal account has been set up for the Blogathon through which you can donate to the Film Noir Foundation, an organization which helps restore classic films: Click here to donate.

1979 Joan Fontaine Interview

2011-02-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

In this Canadian television interview from 1979, Joan talks about her relationship with her sister and their "differences of opinion".

She discloses that the last time she spoke with her was during a telephone call before their mother's funeral.

In this short clip, Joan talks about Suspicion and the film's two endings.

This television interview took place not long after the release of Joan's 1978 autobiography, No Bed of Roses. This may have been one of the last television interviews Joan ever gave. Thanks to the CBC YTube channel for the video clips.

Trailer for "Santa Fe Trail" (1940)

2011-02-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

"..and the match for them, all, the lovely Olivia de Havilland...in her most exciting role since Gone With the Wind!"

Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan

Monty has a great post today on the films of Olivia and Errol.
Mythical Monkey has a great post today on Ronald Reagan,
who was born on February 6, 1911 (100 year anniversary)

Joan and Cary - in color

2011-02-04T19:27:00.000-08:00

Joan and Cary Colorized by ~ajax1946 on deviant ART

A Certain Smile (1958)

2011-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Christine Carère

French actress Christine Carère (1930-2008) plays Dominique, a young college student in Paris with a weathly, go-getter boyfriend (Bradford Dillman, 1930- ). She meets some interesting people at the beginning of her new school term, including a "new" American singer named Johnny Mathis (1935-), who appears in a fun cameo. (Thankfully, he just sings, not acts) She also meets Dillman's uncle (Rossano Brazzi, 1916-1994) and Brazzi's wife (Joan Fontaine, 1917- ), who will impact her life forever.

Dominique is suspicious of rich Uncle Brazzi's charm; he's a bit too friendly with her when they first meet. As the film/story progresses, they become more attracted to each other, and they eventually fall in love. Or so she thinks... Poor Joan. As the stressed-out wife, she's only a supporting player in this, but she has some very good scenes, especially when she confronts Dominique about the affair, and teaches the young girl a thing or two, which is I think is the best scene in the film. Dillman also has a good scene when he finds out; it's a good drunk scene.

One thing I noticed is that in almost every scene she's in, Joan's character is chugging a cigarette. I highly doubt Ms Fontaine was a serious smoker offscreen, otherwise I don't think she would have lived as long as she has. Though she did appear in those Chesterfield ads.

Directed by Jean Negulesco. Some great scenery of Paris and the French Riviera, where Carère and Brazzi plan an escape getaway. I couldn't tell exactly where on the Riviera they were supposed to be, I think Antibes.

Ms. Carère's accent is a bit thick, and I had some trouble making out what she was saying much of the time. But she is very talented and I wish she would have made more films; she was only in a few American films before she retired from acting in the 1960s. Other than that, I don't know anything else about her. Unfortunately her name is not one that most other people will remember either. However, you might not be able to forget her once you see A Certain Smile.

The theme was a big hit song, made famous by Johnny Mathis. Have a listen:

The Man Who Found Himself (1937)

2010-11-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

Joan Fontaine (19 years old) in The Man Who Found Himself

John Beal

A young midwest doctor (John Beal) becomes so disillusioned with his life and career that he quits. Now, the title of the picture is essentially a spoiler, because Beal eventually does find himself. So what makes this film interesting? Well, it's obvious - Joan Fontaine, in her first film for RKO Pictures.

The film stars off with a surgery, a plane crash, a death, a scandal, and angst - enough to send Beal straight out of town. In one scene, a hitchhiking Beal accepts a ride from an experienced doctor, a character representing the kind of person we may meet just once in our lives.

After a long cross-country journey ending in California, Beal ends up becoming nothing but a vagabond, and says things like, "I wouldn't touch the medical profession with a banana stalk".

Enter Joan, who plays a lovely nurse who inspires him to think about embracing his true calling. Her character represents the people in our lives who believe in us, even when we don't.

It's fun to watch the chemistry and sparks between Joan and John Beal. There's a romantic scene that involves them getting soaked from a waterfall after a kiss.

Co-starring Phillip Huston who plays Beal's best friend (a pilot) who desperately wants to see him get a job.

Jane Walsh is Beal's girlfriend who wants to settle down and has little patience for his soul searching.

An exciting climatic sequence reminds us that things happen for a reason.

A great little movie (short too - only 67 minutes) that you can occasionally catch on the Turner Classic Movies channel. A special thanks to Kate from Silents and Talkies for providing a copy of this gem for me to see and review for the blog.

"Flight To Tangier" (1953)

2010-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

The melodrama begins in a Tangier, Morocco airport. Joan Fontaine and Jack Palance are awaiting a plane, but we don't know what for. Yet.

Then comes a plane crash scene, and it might have been a disappointment to the audience expecting a big "wow" 3-D effect (this movie was indeed intended to be a 3D experience). We don't even see the plane hit the ground, and there's only a couple of shots of smoke from a distance.

Anyway, we then discover that there were no passengers nor crew aboard. In the middle of the night, Joan and Palance search the plane. We don't know just yet what they are looking for. Then, they are caught trespassing and are questioned. The international police investigate.

Corrine: What kind of a woman are you?
Joan: As of now, your kind.

No one seems to know what happened to the pilot (engaged to the mild-mannered Fontaine character). More secrets are revealed as the scheming Robert Douglas and Corinne Calvet add more complexity to the story. We learn everyone has some sort of connection with the plane's missing cargo and its ties to the Iron Curtain.

The original movie posters highlight the film's "Dinoptic 3D" effects. Ms. Calvet wears a few tight tops in this movie; those views alone were perhaps the reason the film was selected for this process. (ha ha)

The film opened in New York the day before Thanksgiving in 1953. The reviewer in the New York Times called it a "stray turkey" and also wrote that the film "seems about as far removed from entertainment and reality as they come".

This movie is available to watch instantly via "Netflix" if you have a subscription.

Joan Fontaine and Mark Stevens in "From This Day Forward" (1946) [Radio Verison]

2010-10-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

RKO Pictures' From This Day Forward is a heartwarming romantic drama focusing on the challenges of a young married, childless couple Susan and Bill (Joan Fontaine and Mark Stevens) in post WW2 America. Bill is a returning vet struggling to find work. Most of the story is told in flashback and tells the story of Bill's loving relationship with Susan, played by Joan, who does a great job in this radio version. The film was released in the spring of 1946, the same year as another classic with similar themes, The Best Years of Our Lives.

The radio version--produced by the Lux Radio Theater ---was broadcast on the CBS radio network on October 28, 1946 - almost 64 years ago to the date. Both Joan and Mark Stevens reprise their original film roles. Also, you may notice in this version, any mention of "Lux" (the sponsor) was edited out for some reason. Perhaps this was done in rebroadcasts on another network and with another sponsor. The original commercials were also cut; I'm looking for an unedited version of this.

"From This Day Forward", aired on 10/28/46Listen to the radio program now: (Flash player required)
(Duration: 50 minutes)

Cast:

Mark Stevens....William "Bill" Cummings

Joan Fontaine....Susan Cummings
(I wish I knew who the other actors are)

Introduction by the producer of the Lux Radio Theater.

Act 1.

Bill Cummings starts his day by going to the unemployment office. Before he leaves the house, he and his lovely wife reminisce about the first time they kissed. In the office, as he's filling out forms, it starts to rain.

Flashback #1 - Bill thinks back 8 years earlier to 1938, when he and Suzie were first dating. Bill is an artist, and Suzie works in a bookstore and lives at the YWCA. It rains outside, and they make a dash for the home of Suzie's sister Martha. Martha is married with kids and has tons of housework. Hank, Martha's husband, is unemployed. The kids and the mother-in-law - who lives upstairs - add to the chaos around the place! "You should see them in the wintertime" Martha says to Bill in confidence. Later that night, they talk about marriage, and Bill wonders if they are ready for the life that Martha and Hank have. Martha reminds him that they are in love, just like they are. They get married that week.

Present day: Bill is still filling out forms.

Flashback #2 - Bill remembers their first apartment and they enjoy going over all their wonderful wedding gifts.

Present day: We're back in the unemployment office. He meets a fellow Army buddy and they talk about their work experience. Bill wishes he had a trade. But then thinks back to when he had a job in a machinery factory.

Flashback #3 - Bill remembers when he gets fired for the first time. Depressed, he stays out all night and comes home after 11 pm, drunk. He missed dinner with Suzie's family. He explains to Suzie that he got fired. Yet the young couple persevere.

End of Act 1.

Between Acts 1 and 2, there's a tribute to musician Sammy Fain. Instrumental piece: "I'll Be Seeing You"

Act 2.

Flashback #4 - Bill is still out of work. So is Hank. One night, Bill and Suzie agree to babysit the kids, and the young couple gets a taste of what it might be like to have kids. Young and naive Timmy desperately wants to help his uncle and thinks about stealing a soup bone for him to help him pay for food.

Present day: We're back at the employment office. He's stumped on one question asking him if he was ever arrested. He remembers the time he first got arrested.

Flashback #5 - Someone asks Bill to illustrate a book cover which would make him a few hundred dollars. Bill agrees to do it at Suzie's suggestion. Neither of them know that the author is a criminal. A policeman comes knocking on the door, he's arrested goes to jail, and it's a frustrating experience for the both of them.

Present day: Bill is back filling out form, and doesn't highlight his jail time before the war.

Flashback #6 - It's now 1939 or 1940. It's Bill and Suzie's anniversary. Bill, still out of work, decides to sell his father's toolbox to buy Suzie an anniversary present.

Act 3:

Present Day: Bill meets an interviewer. He tells him how he found work in a war plant in 1941 once the war started. He had to work the night shift, which he didn't like.

Flashback #7 - Bill works nights and hates not being able to see Suzie as much. He's overjoyed when he gets two weeks off after he breaks his finger. The couple talk about having a baby again. A few months later, Bill is drafted.

Present Day: Bill explains to the interviewer that they never had kids.

Flashback #8 - Suzie is worried about Bill before he goes to his basic training. Joan Fontaine is very good in this emotional scene.

Present Day: Bill explains to the interviewer that he has experience repairing tanks. And he lands a job! Meanwhile, Hank and Martha are busy moving. Suzie is helping them, and tells them the good news - that she is going to have a baby! Bill stops by, and there's some interesting banter - all talk over each other and no one hears what the other is saying!

The show ends with Bill and Suzie hopeful for the future, from this day forward.

Joan Fontaine takes a final bow.

I have not seen the movie version yet. It would be fun to compare how the full length movie version differs from this 1 hour version.

New Errol & Olivia book is out

2010-10-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

The new Errol & Olivia book is now available to purchase from Amazon [Order here]. Also, a few people have already shared some reviews of the book; you can read the reviews here and here.

The Lilian Fontaine Garden Theater in Sarasota, California

2010-09-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

As many fans know, Olivia and Joan's mother Lilian Fontaine (born Lillian Augusta Ruse) was a stage actress. Apart from raising her children she dedicated most of her time mentoring young theater actors.

She also helped in the founding of an outdoor park theater which now bears her name --- The Lilian Fontaine Garden Theater.

It's located in Saratoga, California, near where Lilian lived and where Olivia and Joan grew up. Saratoga is about 13 miles southwest of San Jose (and about 70 miles north of where Joan lives today in Carmel).

This summer (2010), the theater served as the venue for performers Dave Koz, Al Jarreau, Lily Tomlin, Joan Baez, and others.

The theater has an interesting history going back decades. It is on the grounds near a mansion formerly called the Villa Montalvo Estate, which was first owned by outgoing California businessman and politician James Phelan. He lived there and entertained many politicians and actors, including Lilian. Phelan died in 1930, and bequeathed the grounds (175 acres!) to the State, intending it to be a public park and cultural center. Today it is a private non-profit arts center, known as the Montalvo Arts Center. If you go there today you'll find the mansion (used for weddings), two theaters (one indoor and outdoor), an art gallery, hiking trails, and a gardens.

I've never been there, but it sounds like a beautiful place.

In 1978, the outdoor theater was named after Lilian Fontaine, who was not only a good personal friend of James Phelan's, but was also a longtime supporter of the theater until her passing in 1975 at the age of 89.

A few weeks ago KC shared a nice story about how Joan is now helping with the funding of the refurbishment of the theater. The article comes from the Mercury News, written by Richard Scheinin of Mercury News.

Susan Pfeiffer, an assistant to Ms. Fontaine, said that "Joan wanted to preserve her mother's love for theater by helping to maintain this wonderful place."

Also according to the article, Lilian is credited with having brought Shakespearean plays to Montalvo. Angela McConnell, director of the Montalvo Arts Center, said it is "a dream for us, to have Shakespeare in our theater again."

Also from the article:

Delmar McComb, Montalvo's garden curator, said he would like to plant a six- to eight-foot hedge behind and along the sides of the theater. This will "frame the amphitheater and unify it," he said, "creating more intimacy and a little more separation" from the surrounding landscape.

The effect would be "almost like that of a Shakespearean theater, with arches cut into the hedgerow. "

Some of those would be planted with "really bold architectural plants from the Canary Islands," he said, "kind of like a yucca, but softer and with flowers." He also envisions a trellised rose-strewn pathway leading into the theater from the south.

"I think it can be an experience in and of itself, just to go into that theater," he said.

The entire project sounds so wonderful. The director of the arts center hopes that Joan can visit the theater to see the progress, and also hopes Olivia can come as well.

New article about Ann Rutherford

2010-09-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

KC shared this great article on her blog Classic Movies. Ann Rutherford - who played Carreen in Gone with the Wind - recently visited the campus of Kent State University along with Robert Osborne. During the visit, Ann befriends a young fan and aspiring film historian.

Read the article and view photos here (Ohio.com):

Article: "A Lesson in Film History" by Rich Heldenfels
(Akron Beacon Journal popular culture writer)

Published on Sunday, Sep 26, 2010

Happy 90th Birthday, Mickey Rooney!

2010-09-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Legend Mickey Rooney celebrates his 90th birthday today! A performer all of his life (his parents were vaudeville performers and brought him on stage when he was a baby), he still finds time to perform, conduct interviews, and do personal appearances. His best known films are from the 1930s and 40s, including National Velvet, Boys Town, Babes in Arms, and the one film he did with Olivia, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)

Happy Birthday Mickey Rooney!

Monty posted a nice birthday salute on his blog Singing and Dancing Back in Time.

The sibling rivalry continues....

2010-09-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

I heard about a new Olivia-Joan article on Laura's blog today. (Thanks Laura for sharing this!)

The article was published last week on UK's Mail Online, just a few days after Olivia was given her award in France.

The author basically points out how Joan was not present at the ceremony, and recaps the decades old sibling rivalry, which many of us are already familiar with. Check it out here.

And the Oscar for sibling rivalry goes to... The nine-decade feud between Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine that is still raging

by Michael Thorton

I still have the feeling that Olivia's hopefully-upcoming (?) biography will have more to tell about how she feels about her sister.

France honors Olivia de Havilland

2010-09-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

Some wonderful news to share today! The blogs Anatomy of a Classic and Laura's Miscellaneous Musings reported that Olivia has been awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honor by French President Nicholas Sarkozy at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Paris.

The Order is the highest decoration in France.

According to the Associated Press, President Sarkozy told Olivia that "you honor France for having chosen us." To live, of course - Olivia has lived in Paris since the 1950s.

Laura shared a link to some wonderful pictures from the event, courtesy of NPR News. Read the AP story by Silvie Corbett as published on the Seattle Times Online.

Thanks to all for sharing this wonderful news. Congratulations Olivia!

Cammie King, Bonnie Butler in 'Gone With the Wind,' Dies at 76

2010-09-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Cammie King, the actress who played young Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone With the Wind has passed away. As Laura notes on her blog post, Ms Butler was one of the last remaining cast members of the 1939 classic. According to the website Legacy, Ms Butler "remained active in the Gone With the Wind community, attending conventions, parades and other events. Throughout her life she stayed in touch with many of the film’s cast and crew, and had spoken to Olivia de Havilland just days before her death."

CNN News report:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/02/obit.conlon/index.html

Here is a tribute from the Vivien Leigh blog.

Catherine (A poem by Shelbi)

2010-08-17T14:07:00.001-07:00

A poem inspired by the 1949 Olivia de Havilland classic, "The Heiress."

A single tear I shall not shed;
you warrant not my grief.
Though nightfall found my spirit numb,
the morning brought relief.

You dropped the world upon my heart
and crushed it 'neath the weight.
But when you gathered sense enough,
repentance came too late.

My soul does not still pine for you;
my being does not ache.
My conscience does not mourn for you.
Just wind blows in your wake.

No longer do I fall to you-
I, now, stand on my own.
I won't forsake my pride for you.
I'd rather be alone...

New book about Olivia and Errol set for October 2010

2010-07-12T20:04:00.001-07:00

A new book about Olivia and Errol, published by GoodKnight Books, will be released on October 1, 2010.

More information can be found at http://errolandolivia.com

The author is Robert Matzen, who specializes in Errol Flynn (he previously co-authored a book on Errol Flynn) and Carol Lombard (he worked on a bio and documentary of her).

According to their Facebook page, there will also be a promotional video to be released soon.

Analysis of "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948)

2010-07-11T03:39:00.000-07:00

Note: spoilers abound in this post.

Letter was the second film we watched in the Ophuls appreciation class. There were about 14 of us in the class, most of us - including myself - were watching this for the first time.

Before the film began, our instructor wanted us to pay attention to three things:

1) Music and how it's used - diagetic music (music played in the background that the characters can hear) vs. non diagetic music. (music the characters don't hear).

2) Camera work - the axial, tracking, and crane shots. Our instructor recommended the book: "Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios" by Lutz Bacher, where techniques are discussed. On the film, Ophuls worked with his cinematographer from Liebelei - Franz Planer - and was able to achieve the mobility he desired for this film. There will be several crane shots where the camera moves up and is pulled back, such as the steps of the opera scene, a fine example of this. And throughout the film, you'll notice many shots of characters ascending stairs - very symbolic.

3) Melodrama? - is this just an "awful tearjerker" as some have said, or is there more meaning in this? It's a romance, but is it over-the-top?

---ANALYSIS---

The opening credits play over the movie's theme by credited composer "Daniele Amfitheatrof". But who is he? Our instructor said that she thought it might be a pseudonym. With a last name meaning "Amphitheater", she doubted it would be anyone's real name. Perhaps Ophuls did the music himself? Neither I nor anyone else in the class knew at the time. But when I got home, I checked his credits on IMDB -- turns out that that Amfitheatrof is his real name, and among his credits include his Oscar nominated score of Song of the South, The Claudette Colbert vehicle Guest Wife (another Oscar nomination) and several other Joan Fontaine movies, including Ivy and You Gotta Stay Happy.

In the beginning of the film, we see a man getting out of a carriage in front of St. Steven's church in Vienna. He is to fight in a duel later that evening. The year was 1900, and duals still went on. We assume it's due to his hard living, hard drinking lifestyle; another character mentions he has a penchant for Cognac. As he walks into his home, it's raining, and the bells of the church sound - almost as to seal his fate.

His servant brings him the mail, which includes a multiple page letter from a mysterious woman. Who cold this woman be? The rest of the film tells the story...

Joan plays teenage Lisa, a young student who lives with her mother - presumably a widow - in an apartment building. Ophuls wants the audience to become the character of Lisa - we see what she sees, and hear what she hears.

Lisa starts to develop a serious crush on the next door neighbor, a concert pianist named Stefan Brand (a dashing Louis Jourdan), who is trying to make a name for himself. She loves listening to him practice Mozart and Liszt when he's home.

At first, I couldn't tell what age she was supposed to be, but later we find out she's about 17 years old. Youthful looking Fontaine, who was 30 at the time, is a convincing teenager here.

Lisa's infatuation with the musician inspires her to take dancing and music lessons.

One day she even sneaks into his apartment and looks around the flat. We see on the wall portraits of Gustav Mahler and Joseph Joachim, both well known Austrian composers of the time.

In these opening scenes, Lisa is shown hanging out with a friend her age, but this character soon disappears from the film. Perhaps this is intentionally to show that Lisa really didn't have any other friends beyond her fantasy of Stefan.

Meanwhile, Lisa's mother is being courted by a wealthy man. One day the mother sits down with Lisa to have a talk, and he announces that he will be getting married and that they will all be moving to Linz, a town in upper Austria. The look of fear on Joan's/Lisa's face upon hearing the news is priceless.

Despite Lisa not wanting to ever be far from Stefan and his music, they all pack and prepare for the move anyway.

In the train station, right before boarding, Lisa decides at the last minute to run all the way back home; she wants to see Stefan just one more time. She nervously waits in her empty apartment until he comes home. Looking around the empty rooms, she remembers: "These rooms I used to live in were once filled with your music....Would these rooms ever come to life again? Would I?"

She hears a noise coming from outside, and she dashes to look....On the staircase, she sees Stefan and one of his female companions enter his apartment. Ophuls films from above the staircase as we see Stefan and the woman climb the stairs. However, we don't know exactly how she feels - is her heart broken? Will she forget about him forever now? The next scenes answer these questions....

A few years have now passed...Lisa is now living in the little town of Linz. The entire Linz sequence was filmed on a backlot, and the public square was nicely recreated. Lisa dresses fancier now, and has a gentleman friend.

One day we see the two of them walking by a military band, badly performing Wagner's "Song of The Evening Star", which was popular during that time. Though such a mediocre rendition is not how you'd expect to hear such a beautiful piece of music, it does seem to work in this scene. Just as there isn't any romance in the rendition, there isn't any romance in the relationship between Lisa and her suitor. Why? Because she is still holding a torch for Stefan. Her suitor even proposes, but she refuses. With her mother and stepfather disappointed, she moves back to Vienna to get away from the pressure. So the diagetic music we hear from the band is symbolic is this scene - bad music during a painful experience in Lisa's life.

In a montage, we see her new life and career in Vienna. The clips show us that she now has become a successful fashion model with many new suitors, all of whom she refuses; she's still in love with Stefan, a man she has never met.

Then, one day, in the cold of winter, snow on the ground and all, the meeting finally occurs. She's waiting outside his apartment, just as she does every single night. Meanwhile, a street band plays a watered down piece by Strauss. "Do you like to listen to street singers?", he asks. She pauses. "Neither do I", says Stefan. This suggests they need more romantic music, perhaps a full orchestra even. (Later on, destiny has them both meeting up at an opera.)

They go on to have a wonderful, dreamlike evening filled with dinner, long talks, dancing - all the romantic elements of a "perfect date".

They take a long walk together through Prater Park, and as they walk we hear a famous waltz that is often associated with amusement parks or trapeze acts, "Over the Waves" by Juventino Rosas. Because the music is so familiar to us, we think of happy times in our own lives.

The next scene is my favorite in the film.

Ophuls directs a simply amazing sequence. Lisa and Stefan find themselves on the most interesting amusement ride -- a little train car with a window, and on the outside is a moving drape with scenery that simulates a moving ride. Scenes of Paris, Rome, and Switzerland generate romantic images.

One of the great scenes of all time, so brilliant because the ride is symbolic of their night together - temporary and phoney

It's kind of cute when Stefan continues to buy more time on the ride. And the conversation on the ride is a fascinating look into these characters. We learn more about Lisa; she traveled quite a bit with her father and mother when she was a child, she says. Stefan asks her more about her father, but she quickly changes the subject, for reasons that are left to us to interpret. Her father may have died when she was a very young girl.

In a music hall, they dance to "Viennese Gals" by Carl Michael Ziehrer (thanks Hal for the information), performed by an all-female band. And they dance all night, right up until closing time. One of the musicians delivers one of the best lines in the film - "I like to play for married people, they have homes".

When the band finishes and steps down, Stefan goes up to the piano and plays a Mozart piece (by either Liszt or Mozart, I couldn't tell) while Lisa watches in awe. Ophuls took great care to film the piano-playing convincingly; I'm not sure if Louis Jourdan played in real life, but he really gets the fingering accurate in this scene.

Another shot that really impressed me is when Ophuls captures Lisa looking up at him playing. This reminded me of Lulu at the end of Pandora's Box

The night of bliss culminates when they finally make love that night, which is implied. There's no need to be overtly graphic; we get the idea when they embrace and kiss in the shadows of his flat. In fact, some of the most emotional scenes in the film are dealt with rather quickly; there aren't any drawn out scenes that you might see in other films considered melodramas.

The next day, Stefan tells Lisa that he must leave for a short 2-week trip to Italy where he will perform with his orchestra.

But he doesn't come back after 2 weeks.

In a twisted turn of events, Stefan abandons her; he never comes back to her. We realize that he never thought of her but anything but just another one of his one-night-stand girlfriends.

While he's away, Lisa bears Stefan's child, a boy, and marries a wealthy man, Johann Stauffer (Marcel Journet). She names her son "Stefan"

The story fast-forwards about 10 years. We realize that Lisa has come along way from naive teenager when we first met her - now she's a mature adult, giving advice to her young son, a very intelligent boy. Joan manages this transition brilliantly.

In a later scene, Lisa has to put her son on a train for school. In a great example of Ophuls' repeating elements - the son assures Lisa that he will see her again in two weeks. This reminds us when Stefan promised her the same thing. Both of those scenes mark dramatic changes in her life.

One night, Lisa and her husband prepare for a night at the opera (Mozart's "The Magic Flute"). As the couple returns to their seats after intermission, Ophuls shows us a long take of the couple ascending the staircase of the lobby, a magnificent shot. Suddenly - she sees Stefan in the lobby. Stefan eyes her too, and Lisa is so filled with emotion that she needs to leave the opera house right when Act 2 begins.

"Suddenly, everything was in danger, everything I thought was safe"

She meets Stefan outside and they talk for several minutes. His mind clouded, he doesn't remember the night they had together, but he keeps asking her, "I've seen you somewhere before, haven't I"?

During our class discussion, one of the students thought that he had a mental illness. I thought he was drunk myself. He certainly became a dissolute by this point. In the theater, ordinary people gossip about him as being a has-been.

Scared, Lisa - along with Johann - leave the theater and return home. Having seen the two together outside, Johann is now suspicious, and wants to know what is going on. "We have a marriage" he reminds her. "You have a will - you can do what is right or throw your life away (by going back to him)".

But Lisa can't help it - she still loves Stefan, and thinks about him constantly. At one point, she concludes, "He needs me as much as I need him". The next night, Lisa returns to Stefan's apartment. Johann Stauffer follows her and notices that she goes in the apartment. Our instructor explained that Johann would be even more inflamed with him than he is with her, since he let her inside.

When she arrives, Stefan is excited at the chance to talk to this mysterious, familiar-looking woman again, and plans to celebrate the occasion with dinner and wine. He's still a bachelor, and still lives with his faithful servant, who remembers Lisa from over 10 years ago when she helped him carry up a carpet. Because the servant is mute, he cannot communicate this to Stefan.

Lisa is prepared to remind him about the night, and to tell him he has a son. "I have something to tell you", she says...but never finishes. Stefan keeps talking without letting her finish. For the most part, he talks about being washed up, and no longer does concerts like he used to.

Lisa wonders if he can still play the piano, but it's locked up, and is hardly ever used anymore, he tells her.

The music has been silenced, and this devastates her inside. Our instructor said that it is at this moment when she realizes she was never really in love with him, but the music all along.

She leaves. Ophuls gives us a nice shot of her walking down the stairs, a high angle shot. --- It's the same shot we saw early in the film, where she - as a young naive girl - noticed Stefan with the other woman (another example of repeating elements). Now, she's the woman she always wanted to be, but she's a different woman now.

Her life then takes a turn of events that changes her fate forever. She is infected with Typhus, which she caught from being on the train car with her son, who dies from the disease.

Knowing she will die, she writes a multi-page letter to Stefan...

The story resumes in the present, with Stefan continuing to read the letter to the very last page.

He finally sees photos of the son he never knew he had. "You would have been proud of him" she wrote in the letter.

Stephen then goes off to the duel - with Johann, we learn - and we don't know what happens after that. We hear the bells from the ironically named St. Steven's Cathedral - another exaple of Ophuls' repeated elements.

---POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION---

This is a fun movie to discuss. Everyone in the class was impressed with it. We talked about whether or not this is a melodrama (our instructor doesn't think so, and I tend to agree). Others in the class, including myself, agreed with our instructor that this is really about a romance between a woman and music, not necessarily a man and a woman.

Regarding the Stefan character, Ophuls perhaps saw himself in this character, and could relate to his womanizing (Ophuls was known to have a mistress). It's not until the very last scenes with Stefan do we as the audience really start to feel some kind of sympathy for this character. Fitting, because the film is mostly all from Lisa's point of view. Some have even called this a woman's picture.

We also talked more about Ophuls being the paradigm case of auterism, because he inpired the whole theory. Film critic David Thompson is a fan of Ophuls' films and has written many positive things about this film in particular.

Ophuls and screenwriter Howard Koch (Casablanca) stay true to the the original novel, according to our instructor.

It's certainly a film that would be enjoyed by any fan of classical music. Ms. Fontaine herself has always been a fan, and I could see her enjoying making this movie. But I'm surprised she did not write more about the making of this film in her 1978 autobiography, No Bed of Roses.

---FINAL THOUGHTS---

The performances of the two leads, director Max Ophuls' fluidity of the camera and the beautiful music throughout combine to form a beautiful piece of cinematic art.

Once you see it, you will never forget it.

Blooper reel with Olivia swearing

2010-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

The first minute and 30 seconds of this is really boring...fast forward to 1:30 minute into the video to hear Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield, Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper and other Warner stars swear like sailors.

Olivia comes in at 5 minutes, 01 seconds, and says, "Son of a B----" and GD. Oh, Olivia!

I don't know what all these other films are, but the film that Olivia was working on was "Devotion".

Gloria Stuart remembers Olivia and Joan

2010-07-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today, July 4th, is the birthday of Gloria Stuart (born 1910); she turns 100 years young today.

In her 1999 autobiography, I Just Kept Hoping, she recalls some of her early film roles after being named one of the 1932 WAMPAS Baby Stars (along with Ginger Rogers and Mary Carlisle). Most of her early films were comedies and what she called "dreadful musicals", and she compared her career with the success of her contemporaries when she wrote:

"Bette Davis, Loretta Young, and Olivia de Havilland were getting wonderful dramatic parts. Why not me? What had I ever done to deserve all this dreck?"

Arguably her best remembered film from this time period remains Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, starring Shirley Temple. Though she never achieved the success of the aforementioned stars, she did get her share of attention, from fans and from the gossip columns:

"Fan letters were a whole new world to me, and gifts arrived in the mail and at my door all the time. Garters were a favorite from men. Combs, barrettes, jewelry, bits and pieces, came from the ladies."

"Publicity could be fun - and confusing. Once a studio publicist made up a story about my nearly stepping on a rattlesnake in my garden. The gossip columns gobbled it up. A couple of years later, looking over Hedda Hopper's column, I read that Joan Fontaine had had a near-fatal encounter with a rattlesnake in her garden. My instant reaction was "Poor Joan!" before I caught myself, laughing."

Happy Birthday Olivia!

2010-07-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

To celebrate, Turner Classics is showing 4 of her films today:

DEVOTION (12 PM EST)

DODGE CITY (2 PM EST)

TO EACH HIS OWN (3:45 PM EST)

THE HEIRESS (6 PM EST)

Also, read Shelbi's tribute here: Olivia of the Golden Age

A Lighthouse On the Harbor

2010-06-30T22:37:00.001-07:00

A poem dedicated to Olivia

---

I went searching for a lighthouse
that could guide me to the shore.
There once had been a glimmer
but, alas, it was no more.

The sky was dark and moonless
with not a star in sight,
the wind was whipping harshly,
and the cold began to bite.

The waves were crashing loudly,
and the tide began to rise.
The undertow had pulled me
farther from the midnight skies.

I was drowning in my sorrows,
pulled under by despair.
I felt my body thrashing
but I could not meet the air.

I felt the end draw nearer
as each moment passed me by.
With no hope for sweet salvation,
I heaved one final sigh.

I let myself sink lower,
'til my feet did touch the floor.
I could feel the sand beneath me
as my soul shook to the core.

But something jerked me forward,
and I was raked across the tide
until my body broke the surface
and my hands did touch the sky.

I looked on the horizon,
and to my utmost glee,
I saw a lighthouse shining,
and an angel beckoned me.

I swam with vim and vigor,
eager to meet land,
and my heart swelled with great rapture
when my fingers touched the sand.

I stood up and I smiled
when the angel touched my face.
I was grateful for this second chance;
moreso for her grace.

I'd an angel's light to guide me
from a sea of wrath and fear
to a shore where hope runs rampant,
and reflections stare back clear.

I once was so transfixed
by all the reasons I stood out
that I never learned to love myself,
and was overcome with doubt.

I began to slowly purge myself
of gluttony and sin
until all the mirror showed me
was brittle bones and skin.

No soul behind my eyes,
and no heart within my chest,
I became a perfect robot,
but I was sicker than the rest.

For in my journey to conform,
I drifted out to sea.
My secret almost drowned me
and I nearly ceased to be.

But then an angel called me
and led me to a mirror
where, for the first time, I did see myself,
and the truth became much clearer.

I hated what I saw,
for that girl was not alive-
she had purged into oblivion,
her beauty was contrived.

Olivia, the angel,
had that for which I longed:
a beauty that came freely,
not by doing oneself wrong.

And so, her hand in mine,
I walked a winding road
towards health and love and freedom-
things Bulimia forbode.

The journey made was long,
and I took many a wrong turn,
but I made the greatest effort,
and I've so much left to learn.

For I'll never be so free
as to say I do not suffer,
but I'll stay so far away
as to say things could be tougher.

And I'll always have my angel,
with her halo and her wings,
to steer me down this narrow path
amd remind me of these things.

My angel is Olivia;
she's the reason I'm alive,
with her smile sweet as candy,
and beauty one could not contrive.

She saved from myself
in the very bleakest minute.
She showed me what I could be,
all my heart, and what's within it.

And you still hear it beating,
for I overcame great strife
with the help of sweet Olivia,
for she gave the gift of life.

Happy 94th birthday, Olivia!!!

A Tale of Two Sisters

2010-06-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is Part 3 in a three-part review of the book Sisters: The Story of Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine (1984) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Prior to purchasing "Sisters: The Story of Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine" by Charles Higham, the reviews I had read were almost wholly negative. While I anticipated the arrival of the book, I was hellbent on being pleasantly surprised with the material therein.

Alas, one cannot always get what they want.

The story itself is quite interesting, as the lives of these two sisters are both thrilling and tragic; full of success and defeat; and last, but certainly not least, legendary.

The savage sisterly feud of which Charles Higham writes stands as one of the most iconic and enduring celebrity catfights in Hollywood history. Both women have taken public, and private, shots at one another; and both sisters have been left deeply hurt.

The subject matter being this book's only real redeeming quality, I have very few positive things to say about it. The writing alone became very tedious rather quickly. Charles Higham's prose seems to carry a very slow pace. Because of this, I found myself often bored, flipping through the rest of the book to try and find the TRULY juicy details. There also seem to be a number of factual errors in Higham's story. It also became apparent to me that the storyline could get confusing, the way Higham jumps from one sister's life to another. That being said, one must still give him credit for his ability to intertwine the sister's lives in an accurate chronological fashion.

Poor editing aside, Higham seems to have dropped a few bombshells within his book; most of them, it seems, are directed at Olivia. The following things about which I was most shocked are:

1.) The abuse (mental, physical, and sexual) both young girls endured at the hands of their tyrannical stepfather, George Fontaine.

2.) The accusation that Errol Flynn once, in a drunken stupor, tried to break down the door to Olivia's dressing room and rape her.

3.) The inclusion of Olivia's court testimonies stating that first husband Marcus Goodrich began to abuse and terrify her shortly after their son's birth.

4.) Olivia's alleged extramarital affair with Luther Davis in the mid-1960's.

It was the shocking and scandalous passages that held my attention. Had Higham not spiced things up, it is sufficient to say I would have put this book down. It was my dedication to Olivia and Joan that inspired me to see this novel through.

All of this being said, I would only recommend this book to die hard fans of Olivia de Havilland and/or Joan Fontaine. Only they will have what it takes to finish this book.

"Letter From An Unknown Woman" (1948)

2010-06-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

"Letter From An Unknown Woman" was originally a 1922 novella by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942). Hollywood adapted the story in 1933 as Only Yesterday with Margaret Sullivan and John Boles, and directed by John M. Stahl (Leave Her to Heaven, Imitation of Life). Undoubtedly, fans of the original novel - including those in Hollywood - wanted to see a more accurately adapted film version, set in the turn of the century Vienna.

After Joan Fontaine's marriage with Brian Aherne ended in 1945, she dated respected producer John Houseman, and the two were engaged for a time (the engagement ended due to John's overbearing mother, per Joan's autobiography)

In 1948 Joan and her husband, producer William Dozier, formed a new production company called Rampart Productions, where they would serve as co-executive producers on film projects.

In the meantime, filmmaker Max Ophuls was looking for work since he moved to America. He became good friends with top talent such as Preston Sturges and Houseman (who eventually produced the film for Rampart). In 1946 Ophuls was fired from the first production he was associated with, possibly due to arguing with others in the studio system; he very much wanted to be in control of all aspects of the film, and especially wnated to be as mobile as possible with his camera as he shot the actors. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. gave him his first break with The Exile, a mild success with audiences (I haven't seen that film yet). For his second project, it's quite likely that Ophuls was familiar with the Zweig story enough to want to film it.

It's not hard to understand why Joan and Dozier would be attracted to the Letter project. For one, Joan was working on Billy Wilder's musical The Emperor Waltz for Paramount that same year, and like Letter, was also set in Austria. Wilder may have even talked her into the project, if not suggesting it personally. Secondly, music is a main theme of both Letter and Waltz, and Joan is a lifelong classical music fan (one of her favorite composers is Rachmaninoff).

Speaking of music, so many of Joan Fontaine's films are remembered for their musical scores or themes - Rebecca & Suspicion (score by Franz Waxman), September Affair (where Joan plays a pianist), Serenade (with Mario Lanza), and Tender is the Night (featuring its Oscar nominated title song).

Joan, in her autobiography, remembers working with Ophuls: "With [Ophuls], I communicated intuitively. After a take, Max would come over to me and start to speak in German, which I scarcely understood. I would nod before he had said six words and he would then resume his position behind the camera. After the next take was completed, he would rush over and say, "How you know egg-zactly vot I vont? Preent dat!"

Letter didn't do well at the box office when it was first released, and this may have contributed to the demise of Rampart Productions, which folded after just two productions: Letter and You Gotta Stay Happy (with Jimmy Stewart). Ironically, the inspiration for the name "Rampart" was to project feelings of sturdiness and longevity. Also sadly, Joan and Dozier were divorced in 1951.

I don't say this about too many films, but Letter is a masterpiece. One of Joan's best films, and, as many have said, one of Mr. Jourdan's best as well, next to Gigi. Many feel they both give the best performances of their careers in this movie.

Over the years, Letter has earned the respect of many film historians and buffs. This film was the #1 most requested film from fans of Turner Classic Movies for quite a long time before finally airing in April of 2010 as part of a Louis Jourdan marathon.

I will have a deeper analysis of this film in an upcoming post, for those who have already seen it.

Stay tuned!

Joan Fontaine for Chesterfield Cigarettes (print ad)

2010-06-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

from the January 3, 1949 edition of Life Magazine

Joan's encounter with Ginger Rogers' mother Lela

2010-06-26T20:18:00.001-07:00

Lela Rogers (1891-1977) was a Hollywood screenwriter, publicist, and from 1938-1945 worked as an executive assistant at RKO.

The following is an excerpt from Ginger Rogers' autobiography "Ginger: My Story" (1991). (My notes in blue)

While I was working, my mother [Lela Rogers] also found an outlet for her abundant energies and talent. Mother's long experience in Hollywood made her very knowledgeable about the business. For some time, she ran a workshop in East Hollywood called the Hollytown Theater, where aspiring actors had an opportunity to train and to appear in plays. The RKO front office decided that it would be good for the younger contract players on the lot to have someone to guide them. Lela was asked to come to RKO and shift her workshop activities to the Hollywood Playhouse. In no time she was casting and producing plays in the little theater on the RKO lot. The producers often dropped in to observe the new talent. After seeing a few of the plays she directed, I was very proud of her.

Mother contacted all the contract players to offer them acting lessons and asked J.R. McDonough, head of the stuido, to use his authority to get the young players to respond. Most of them, including Lucille Ball, Betty Grable, Joy Hodges, Leon Ames, Anne Shirley, Tyrone Power, [This is interesting because Ty's films were at Fox; perhaps Ginger was mistaken when she wrote this?] and Phyllis Fraser, did; only one person failed to answer, Joan Fontaine. [Most of Joan's early films were with RKO before her breakthrough role in Rebecca] Mother was sitting in her office with Al Nash, a writer, when she telephoned Joan to ask her why she had chosen to stay away.

"Lela Rogers," Joan said in a businesslike tone, "You can't teach me anything."

Mother gasped at this, hung up the phone, and repeated the conversation. Al said, "I guess you can't win 'em all."

Sometime later, Joan Fontaine called Mother's office and said, "Mrs. Rogers, if you have nothing better to do tonight, there's a preview over at the Fox Wilshire of my new movie. Maybe you'd like to see it." Mother said she'd be delighted. That evening she took Al Nash with her. The movie was Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. When Mother left the theater, she turned to Al and said "You know, that kid knew what she was talking about. What a talent. She certainly didn't need me. All she needed was Hitchcock!"

Max Ophuls (1902-1957)

2010-06-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

Last night I had my first class in a 6-week film appreciation series devoted to the films of Max Ophuls, who directed Joan Fontaine in Letter from an Unknown Woman and is regarded as one of the great auteur directors of cinema history.

The films in the summer series are:

June 16: Liebelei (1932)
June 23: Letter from An Unknown Woman (1948)
June 30: Caught (1949)
July 7: Le Plaisir (1952)
July 14: The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
July 21: Lola Montès (1955)

Our instructor is of the opinion that Ophuls fits the definition of "auteur" much more than the films of Jean-Luc Godard or François Truffaut, also regarded as auteurs.

His films are known for two distinctive styles: 1. Mobile framing / mobile cameras and dolly shots, and 2. Long takes, shots that endure for a long time.

He was born Maximillian Oppenheimer in 1902 in Germany on the border of France, and he grew up speaking both languages fluently. He pursued a career in acting at a relatively young age, and took the stage name of Max Ophuls once he started work in the theater. He either appeared in or directed hundreds of plays over time, and in the late 1920s even pursued films; he went to Berlin's UFA studio to work as assistant, and then made some attempts at his own films.

His first film attempt was a 40 minute comedy called "Dann schon lieber Lebertran" (1931) which translates in English as "I'd Rather Have Cod Liver Oil". Ophuls wasn't happy with the film, and never attempted such a comedy again.

He made Liebelei in 1932, which was based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler about relationships and affairs. Our instructor said that in English, the word "Liebelei" translates into "Games of Love". She said that the Viennese people are fascinated with issues of love and death, and that this would be something audiences would be able to relate to very well in this era of Freud. There's all sorts of situations the main characters find themselves in, love triangles and the like, and it's an impressive film from a new director. Even though Ophuls' background was in theater, this isn't a "theatrical looking" film. But the print we watched was very bad. It was also a poorly recorded VHS tape copy. The white subtitles were often cut off on the left side and very hard to read whenever there was something white in the foreground. I will have to watch the movie again another time, perhaps if its ever restored. Our instructor said this movie is the only German film that is avialable of his.

A Jew, Ophuls had to flee Germany not long after this was made. He moved to France, but he wasn't safe from the Nazis there either.

In the United States, he wanted to do more films, and befriended Preston Sturges, who helped him along the way. In 1946 he was slated to direct a film Vendetta, but was fired for reasons I don't know about exactly yet. He tried again and directed The Exile produced and starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. His next film was with Joan, Letter from An Unknown Woman, which is arguably his most famous work. He made 4 films in the US before moving back to France, where he directed some wonderful movies such as Le Plaisir, which I haven't seen yet but is part of the film series. Ophuls himself was the set designer on the picture, and he was nominated for an Oscar in the US. I can't wait to watch that film.

On the sets, he drank Schnopps with his lunches every day, he was that kind of guy. Peter Lorre was a good friend of his. People who worked with him loved working with him, including James Mason who even wrote a poem about him.

He died in 1957 of heart disease and was buried in Paris.

This is the official description of the film series from the website and print ads:

"The camera exists to create a new art and to show above all what cannot be seen elsewhere: neither in theater nor in life. Otherwise, I'd have no need of it; doing photography doesn't interest me. That, I leave to the photographer." (Max Ophüls)

Long praised as a consummate auteur, Max Ophüls commanded control over all aspects of his films, including cinematography and post-production work. His style, exhibiting a commitment to grace, beauty, and sensitivity, celebrates what the camera is able to create. Choreographing the extreme feelings involved in human relationships with an endlessly mobile camera and long takes, Ophüls explores dimensions of time, movement, and fate. The compositions in his films overflow into what film theorist Laura Mulvey calls "ecstatic and extended moments," into which he often incorporates strong visual irony. Ophüls, German-Jewish by birth, was truly an international director. At Ufa in Berlin, he made his first films, among them Liebelei (1932). In 1941, after failed attempts to stay in Europe during Hitler's regime, directing films in Holland, Italy, and France, Ophüls finally moved to the United States as one of the last exiled directors to arrive. Among his American films are Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), starring Louis Jourdan and Joan Fontaine, and Caught (1949), with Barbara Bel Geddes and James Mason. Upon returning to Europe and settling in Paris in 1950, Ophüls made the films that form the high point of his career, including his last, Lola Montüs (1955), his only film in color. In this class, we will experience the pleasure of being able to watch most of Ophüls' French films, which disappeared from public view, but recently have been re-released.

Therese Grisham has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle and was awarded a Fulbright lectureship to the University of Dresden, following which she won a teaching award in film studies. She now teaches film aesthetics and history at Columbia College Chicago and film analysis and media and culture at DePaul University. She has previously taught courses at the Facets Film School, including Watch the Skies! Science Fiction, The 1950's and Us, Through a Technicolor Mirror: The Films of Douglas Sirk and Julien Duvivier: Master of Versatility.

"The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938)

2010-06-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Every review I've read of the lackluster 2010 Russell Crowe version of "Robin Hood" made reference in one way or another to the classic 1938 Errol-Olivia version, a testament to it's endearing popularity.

For example, in his May 12, 2010 review, Roger Ebert wrote:

Little by little, title by title, innocence and joy is being drained out of the movies. What do you think of when you hear the name of Robin Hood? I think of Errol Flynn, Sean Connery and the Walt Disney character. I see Robin lurking in Sherwood Forest, in love with Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland or Audrey Hepburn), and roistering with Friar Tuck and the Merry Men. I see a dashing swashbuckler.

That Robin Hood is nowhere to be found in Ridley Scott's [2010] “Robin Hood”...

I recently purchased the 2-disc DVD of the blockbuster 1938 version, and it's loaded with incredible extras: great commentary by Rudy Behlmer (he talks about everything you ever wanted to know about the movie), several documentaries, outtakes, home movies, and the radio version. It's one of the most colorful films I've ever seen; every scene is a visual feast for the eyes.

The commentary on the DVD reminds us that for many years, the only way people were able to see this movie was in black-and-white on television.

The film (directed by Michael Curtiz and a number of other 2nd unit directors) won a well deserved Oscar for Best Art Direction for its impressive sets. The DVD commentary points out the particular shots that were combined with beautiful matte paintings (example below).

And if Best Costume Design was a category back then, I'm sure designer Milo Anderson would have won by a landslide. And needless to say, Olivia looks lovely in every scene. :)

The below review is from the May 23, 1938 of LIFE; in those days the mag always had a "Movie of the Week" feature, and Robin Hood was that week's feature. I like this piece because it makes reference to the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks version. Below is the write-up, with my notes in blue

From LIFE, May 23, 1938

The saga of Robin Hood is the kind of movie material that screenwriters dream of. It is almost pure action. Blackest villainy opposes purest virtue. And there are so many fables, so little fact, that each teller of the tale can shape it anew.

Somewhere far back in British history there must have been a Robin Hood, but who he was, when he lived, whether he was one man or many, no one knows. Some say he was a leader of the Saxons, who protected his people against the Norman conquerors. Some say he was a Norman knight. Certain it is that as early as the 14th Century Robin Hood figured in folk tales as the gay, fearless outlaw of Sherwood Forest who robbed the rich and gave to the poor, the nemesis of fat bishops and cruel nobles, the popular hero of yeomanry as King Arthur was the hero of knighthood.

Warner Bros.' lavish Robin Hood, made in Technicolor at a cost of $2,000,000, follows in famous footsteps, for millions of moviegoers remember the Robin Hood of Douglas Fairbanks in 1922. The Warner version has no Fairbanks but it has in Errol Flynn the only actor in Hollywood today who could fill Fairbanks' shoes or Robin Hood's. (James Cagney was originally slated to star)

The picture places Robin in the reign of Richard the Lion-Hearted (1189-1199) (played by Ian Hunter) . When Richard goes to the Crusades and Prince John (Claude Raines) imposes his cruel rule on England, Sir Robert of Locksley, a Saxon knight, takes to the forest with a band of followers and calls himself Robin Hood. In the end Richard returns to set things straight, make Robin an earl and bless his marriages to the fair Maid Marian (Olivia - this was her third movie with Errol).

Trivia:

Anita Louise was originally considered for the role of Marian.

The 1938 version was ranked among 100 films on AFI's 100 Years-100 Thrills list in 2001.

Spoiler alert: The shots you see below were cut from the ending of the movie; it was meant to be the final scene - Robin and Marian riding off into the sunset.

Oh I wish they could have kept this in the final cut!

If you are lucky enough to live near Austin, you can see the movie on the big screen (!) at the Paramount Theater on June 26 (2 PM) and 27 (7:10 PM). Apparently there will also be an indoor archery contest. Huzzah! More information can be found here.

The Little Sister Who Actually Happens to Have Talent (Take Note Ashlee Simpson)

2010-06-04T21:13:00.001-07:00

This is Part 2 in a three-part review of the book Sisters: The Story of Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine (1984) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

While Charles Higham's "Sisters" destroyed my illusions of Olivia, it failed to change my opinion of Joan Fontaine. Prior to reading her own autobiography, I had very little interest in her as anything other than an actress. But once I opened "No Bed of Roses," I was hooked. I found a woman with whom I could strongly identify. She was witty, strong, intelligent, and obviously very different from those around her.

Because of her honesty in her own book, there was very little that surprised me in "Sisters." One thing is for certain, though: While Higham was kind to neither sibling, his portrait of Joan was the more flattering. He portrayed Olivia as a psychopath; he gave the impression that Joan was a misunderstood wit with a terribly weak immune system.

Other than stating that Joan was a sickly child whom Olivia cast aside, especially within school halls, there is no reason to delve into her childhood for she shared one with Olivia; and I touched on their childhood in my review FOR her elder sister.

They shared the same incidents of child molestation, the same eccentric absentee father, and the same sordid childhood rife with Draconian discipline.

Joan managed to escape her parents' (mother and stepfather) house for a year, when she traveled to Japan to live with her father and stepmother. This arrangement ended when Walter de Havilland, the girls' estranged father, allegedly propositioned Joan.

Throughout adulthood, Joan beat Olivia to many monumental firsts: she was first to lose her virginity, get married, win an Oscar, and have a child. Certainly this poked holes in an already perforated bond.

Joan was also married twice as many times as Olivia. The first, to Brian Aherne; then William Dozier; followed by Collier Young, and then Alfred Wright, Jr.

Her only biological child is Deborah Leslie Dozier, born to Joan and Bill Dozier. She also informally adopted a poor Peruvian child by the name of Martita Valentina Pareja (how BEAUTIFUL is that name??!!!). Joan, unfortunately, suffered 2 miscarriages during 1965.

Her personal life has seen many ups and downs, but it has been full of laughter, glamour, and wonderful friends.

Professionally, though Olivia is regarded as the more successful and iconic of the two, Joan has surely made her mark on Hollywood. She is a true screen legend, and she will be remembered for quite some time.

Olivia, Interrupted

2010-06-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is Part 1 in a three-part review of the book Sisters: The Story of Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine (1984) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

I have been a great admirer of Ms. de Havilland since I was 15, when her example inspired me to cope with an illness I had been battling for quite some time. The impression her talent, beauty, and charisma left was one of great dignity and kindness. When I began reading "Sisters" by Charles Higham, I had every confidence that his research would support my image of Olivia.

I was sadly mistaken. Mr. Higham painted a rather ugly portrait of her; and though he was quite brutal in his presentation of both women, Olivia seems to have gotten the shorter end of the stick.

The woman I had thought to be sweet, delicate, and demure (and don't forget "innocent") was nothing of the sort. In all reality, at least the way Charles Higham writes it, Olivia Mary de Havilland is a hot-tempered, impatient, overly dramatic diva. In shorter words, she is a b----.

According to this book, she was frequently late to her sets, difficult to work with, and prone to throwing tantrums of epic proportions. While her talent makes up for her character (or, rather, lack thereof) on-screen, it does very little to help her off. In her personal life, she seems to have exhibited the same selfish patterns: from allegedly subjecting Joan to various tortures, including breaking her collar bone when the girls were in their late teens; to alienating family and friends; to getting her "slut" on with writer/producer Luther Davis in 1964, much to her second husband's chagrin; to ruling her household with an iron hand, subjecting her children to strict discipline remminiscent of her own childhood.

Still, Charles Higham shows a more tragic side of this fiery woman, especially in reference to her childhood.

Her biological parents parted ways while she and Joan were still toddlers, and from then on her father remained undoubtedly estranged; once the girls grew older, he began exhibiting increasingly peculiar behavior, even holding press conferences and writing to newspapers about Olivia's selfish behavior and unfair treatment of him.

The stepfather who joined their mother in raising them was no ray of sunshine either. He allegedly (and even according to Joan's own account) punished the girls by way of almost animalistic beatings, leaving welts and bruises on their bodies. And, probably the most harrowing of all, in 1924 he engaged in sexually abusive behavior, molesting both young girls (then 7 & 8) in the bathtub, as he washed their bodies. Though his outrageous, borderline abusive, discipline went on to bear fine results, it is clear, at least to me, that such events left deep psychological scars in the hearts and minds of both sisters.

Completing the cycle of tyrannical men in Olivia's life was Marcus Aurelius Goodrich. Her first husband, whose son she bore in 1949, treated her rather unkindly throughout their relatively short marriage. According to Olivia's court testimonies, he was not only incredibly tempermental (birds of a feather...), but physically abusive as well. Shortly after the birth of their son the couple engaged in a verbal disagreement that resulted in Goodrich smacking Olivia across the face. (It seems to me like it's basically old school protocol for a woman to take it in the face every once in a while. That's pretty f----- up.) On another occasion, he assaulted her to the point of quite serious bruising, threatening her life and scaring her to the point that she fled their vehicle and ran down the street to escape his rage. Though he chased her into the bushes, she managed to find refuge in a neighbor's house until she felt she was safe.

Clearly Olivia's life was never just rainbows and Butterfly McQueen. And everyone is human, we all have our faults- even those men and women we like to idealize. I was quite disappointed with who Olivia turned out to be, at least from Charles Higham's perspective. But when I ponder this I realize that if one were to write a book about me, there would be a lot of things that could make me look like a total psychopath, too.

What I know for sure when it comes to Olivia is this: She is one of the greatest actresses to grace the big screen, and one of the most beautiful to boot. Throughout her life she has exhibited great strength and resillience, as well as an indomitable determination to succeed. These qualities have allowed her to leave an astounding legacy, one that will be remembered for decades to come.

No matter her personal flaws, Olivia Mary de Havilland is a legend.

Olivia's films on the big screen: Summer 2010

2010-06-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Ms. de Havilland is not scheduled to make any personal appearances at any of these screenings.

Also, one of Joan's movies is scheduled for this summer:

Middletown Public Library - Middletown, NJ
Suspicion (1941)
Tuesday June 1, 2010 7:00PM
Free; for more information, click HERE

Orpheum Theatre - Memphis, TN
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Saturday, June 12, 2010 @ 7:15pm
Tickets: $7.00
Contact: (901) 525-3000 or click HERE

Cinema Arts Centre - Huntington, NY
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Sunday, June 13, 2010 @ 2:00pm
Tickets: Members $10 • Public $14 • (Lunch $10 extra)
Guest Speaker: Film critic & Author MOLLY HASKELL+ special intermission lunch in the Cinema's new patio garden
Contact: 631-423-FILM (3456) or click HERE

Historic Elsinore Theatre - Salem, OR
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 @ 7:00pm
Tickets: $5.00
Contact: (503) 375-3574 or click HERE

Paramount Theatre - Austin, TX
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Saturday, June 26, 2010 @ 2:00pm
Sunday, June 27, 2010 @ 7:00pm
Contact: 512-472-5470 or click HERE

Regency Theatre - South Coast Village, Costa Mesa, CA
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 @ 7:30pm
Contact: (714) 557-5701 or click HERE

Paramount Theatre - Austin, TX
Captain Blood (1935)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 @ 9:40pm
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 @ 7:00pm
Contact: 512-472-5470 or click HERE

Historic Elsinore Theatre - Salem, OR
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Wednesday, July 21 @7:00pm
Tickets: $5.00
Contact: (503) 375-3574 or click HERE

Historic Ritz Theatre - Brunswick, GA
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Sunday, August 1, 2010 @ 3:00pm
Fore more information click HERE

Alabama Theatre - Birmingham, AL
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Saturday, August 7 @ 7:00pm
Sunday, August 8 @ 2:00pm
Contact: 205-251-0418
205-252-2262 or click HERE

Saenger Theatre - Mobile, AL
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Sunday, August 8, 2010 @ 3:00pm
Contact: 251-208-5600 or click HERE

Tampa Theatre - Tampa, FL
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Saturday, August 21, 2010 @ 3:00pm
Sunday, August 22, 2010 @ 3:00pm
Contact: 813-274-8981
813-274-8286 or click HERE

The Michigan Theatre - Ann Arbor, MI
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Sunday, September 5, 2010 @ 1:30pm
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 @ 7:00pm
Contact: 734-668-8397
734-668-8463 or click HERE

Paramount Theatre - Austin, TX
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Saturday, September 11, 2010 @ 7:00pm
Sunday, September 12, 2010 @ 1:45pm & 7:00pm
Contact: 512-472- 5470 or click HERE

Thanks to Angela for posting these dates on Olivia de Havilland - Lady of the Classic Cinema.

Olivia and Jimmy Stewart: A Romance

2010-05-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

The following excerpt is from the biography of Jimmy Stewart, Pieces of Time: The Life of James Stewart, by James Fishgall.

My notes are in blue.

The setting: New York, December 19, 1939. The NY premiere of Gone With The Wind at the Astor Theater. Olivia was scheduled to attend.

Jimmy, eight years older than Olivia, was on the east coast for the holidays; his hometown was the small town of Indiana, Pennsylvania (his father owned a hardware store in town). Jimmy was visiting his sisters in New York around the time of the GWTW premiere.

While Stewart was in Manhattan, Lelan Hayward (Stewart's agent) asked if he would escort Olivia de Havilland to the New York premiere of her latest film, Gone With the Wind. The fix-up had been the brainstorm of Irene Mayer Selznick, wife of the film's producer, David O. Selznick. Stewart didn't know the actress, but he had read in a gossip column that she wanted to meet him, so he eagerly complied with his agent's request.

"Jimmy met me at La Guardia airport," de Havilland recalled, "even had the limousine drive out to the airfield - we were both quite shy and ventured one word at a time in our conversation." Still, a definite spark passed between them. Over the next few days, Stewart took her to the theater several times and to the "21" Club. She recalled that one of the plays they saw as Mornings at Seven, directed by Jim's old friend Josh Logan, whom she met for the first time backstage.

Jim and Olivia continued to see each other after they returned to Los Angeles. On one occasion, Stewart arrived at her Spanish-colonial house in the Hollywood hills driving his brand-new La Salle convertible. She was impressed until the automobile began making a weird groaning sound and they started rolling down the hill. The brakes had failed! Jim took off in pursuit, but the La Salle picked up speed down the incline, denting other cars and ruining curbside shrubbery along the way. Finally, it crashed into a telephone pole. Naturally, Stewart, who had been trying to impress his date, was terribly embarrassed, but she laughed and thanked him for the entertainment. They then continued their evening as planned - in her car.

Around the same time, actress Maureen O'Hara remembered having dinner one night at de Havilland's house. A fish that Stewart had caught was the main course. It was fine, but they decided to play a prank on him by telling him it had made them sick. "But he didn't pay the slightest bit of attention," O'Hara recalled, laughing. "He knew."

The 12th Academy Awards, honoring films in 1939, was held on February 29, 1940 at a banquet in the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Olivia and Jimmy were both nominated for Oscars. Jimmy was up for Best Actor for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (He lost to Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr. Chips) and Olivia was up for GWTW.

Below: footage from the Oscar ceremony that night. As you can see, they arrived separately that night at the dinner (I can't tell who their dates are).

The author goes on to describe Joan Fontaine's memories of Olivia and Jimmy, and quotes her autobiography, No Bed of Roses.

[Joan] remembered inviting her sister and Stewart to dinner to mark de Havilland's birthday. "Two hours after the time they were asked for," Fontaine wrote, "Olivia and Jimmy rang our bell. When I remonstrated that the dinner as hardly palatable any longer, Olivia answered, 'It's my birthday. I can arrive whenever I like!'" Ha! Ha!

De Havilland was in all probability the first woman that Stewart ever seriously considered marrying. After all, she was well-bred, college educated, and refined-all qualities that he desired in a wife. He did, in fact, propose, although de Havilland would later say, "I think his offer of marriage was just a frivolous thing on his part. Jimmy wasn't ready for a wife. I guess he still had a few more wild oats to sow." The exact nature of their relationship never became public, but the Hollywood press used plenty of ink speculating on what was transpiring between the two stars, including the possibility that they might elope in the spring of 1940. Columnist Gloria Hall also reported that Warner Bros., which ad de Havilland under contract, wanted to team the actress and her new boyfriend in a picture, but the stars refused. (The only films in which they both appeared in were 1977's Airport '77 and the TV Miniseries North and South, Book II in 1986) According to the reporter, they gave as their reason that "they would be embarrassed to make love - in public." Thus, de Havilland spent the spring of 1940 making My Love Came Back and Stewart did The Mortal Storm and No Time for Comedy.

Of course in 1940 Jimmy was also busy filming a third movie - The Philadelphia Story, which finished shooting in August of 1940. Once the film wrapped, Stewart helped to organize a benefit in Houston Texas to support Great Britain, then standing alone against the forces of Nazi Germany.

Jimmy was still seeing Olivia at this time.

The benefit took place in August 1940 at the Houston Coliseum. It featured Tyrone Power, Mischa Auer, and Henry Fonda, a longtime friend of Jimmy's. In the show, Fonda and Stewart did a magic trick act together. Stewart also played accordion and Fonda the cornet. Olivia also participated in the show.

Not long before that, Olivia returned to her Hollywood home after location filming on Santa Fe Trail. Away from home, she had been bored and lonely, and missed spending time with Jimmy. The excerpt continues:

According to biographer Charles Higham, "Her only consolation (during filming) was the chance of returning to Stewart on an occasional weekend for flying lessons and romance." (Jimmy was a pilot and loved taking her on trips over southern California and over the sea) Nevertheless, the relationship between the stars had cooled. De Havilland increasingly felt Stewart's marriage proposal was pro forma, that he didn't really want to settle down. Still they continued to date for nearly another year. Then Livvy fell in love with John Huston, the director of her then current film, In This Our Life, and the relationship with Stewart came to an end. By that point, Jim was in the service. (Stewart enlisted in the Army in March 1941)

Pabst Blue Ribbon ad featuring Joan

2010-05-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

Print ad from 1949:

"Served at the private pool of Miss Joan Fontaine. Brentwood, California. Your Taste will tell you why!"

From 1972: Episode of "This Is Your Life" with Bette Davis (and Olivia)

2010-05-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

From 1972: This is a fun episdode of "This is Your Life", with the spotlight on Bette Davis. The entire program is about 30 minutes long, and has been edited into three parts (below). Olivia, a good friend of Bette's, appears in Part 2.

Part 1 (below) features: Bette along with Robert Wagner and Edith Head discussing costumes for the 1972 telefilm, "Madame Sin". In storms Ralph Edwards and the TV crew, and the reunions begin...

Bette says to William Wyler, "Aren't you a doll for putting yourself through this!?" Wyler says, "She was difficult (as an actress) in the same way I am difficult" Bette's sister, and comedian Benny Baker also appear.

Part 2 (below)features the film editor who worked on Bette's first movie The Bad Sister. (Bette can be heard saying "that was a terrible picture!") Sally Sage, Bette's understudy, also comes to visit.

Then Olivia drops by, and they talk about the first three films they made together (Their last, Hush...Hush isn't mentioned) (3 minutes in). Then, Paul Henried drops by and he and Bette recreate the cigarette scene from Now Voyager. Victor Buono comes in and they talk about Baby Jane.

Part 3 (below) features a Bette impersonator, and then a touching reunion between Bette and her Virgin Queen co-star Jay Robinson, whose drug addiction landed him in jail in the late 1950s.

Photos from LIFE Magazine 1942

2010-05-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

Actress Joan Fontaine w. her actress sister Olivia De Havilland looking out of an open window at her home.
Photo by: Bob Landry, April 1942. LIFE Magazine

L-R: Brian Aherne and Joan Fontaine (with Olivia de Havilland) having tea on the patio of their Georgian home.
Photo by: Bob Landry, April 1942. LIFE Magazine

Write to Olivia and Joan

2010-04-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Olivia de Havilland lives in Paris. Joan Fontaine lives in California. Both of them read their fan mail and would enjoy hearing from you. I'm told that Joan receives so much fan mail that it is hard for her to keep up.

If you would like either of their addresses to write to them, please let me know or search the website Fanmail.bix

You can find nice 8x10s on ebay or Movie Star News

"I Remember Better When I Paint" (2009) to be screened in Chicago

2010-04-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

The Olivia-narrated documentary, "I Remember Better When I Paint" (2009) about Alzheimer’s disease is scheduled to screen in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Monday, May 3, 2010 at 6:00 PM (CT)

Program to be introduced by Tony Jones with panel to follow
Gene Siskel Film Center • 164 N. State St.
$10/General Admission, $7/Students (with I.D.), $5/Film Center Members
Discounted parking at the InterPark Self-Park at 20 E. Randolph St.
312-846-2600 •

For tickets and more information go to www.siskelfilmcenter.org

Visit the film's official website

Watch a clip of the documentary, and listen to Olivia narrate:

Vivien Leigh Screen Test for "Rebecca"

2010-04-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

Fascinating footage of Vivien Leigh in a screen test for the role that eventually went to Joan (32 seconds long)

This is a very short clip; more videos clips of Rebecca screen tests can be found on vivandlarry.com

RC Cola ad with Olivia

2010-04-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

LIFE Magazine, January 12, 1942, page 89

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935) with Olivia

2010-04-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare's classic comes to the screen, in a big-budget all star spectacular from MGM. Other film versions are good, this is a tried-and-true classic gem - great stars, fantastic scenery. If you can get past the fact that the movie is in black-and-white (this was 1935 after all) then you will love this movie if you happen to be a fan of Shakespeare. Also notable: it's one of the first films of both Olivia de Havilland (Hermia) and young Mickey Rooney, who was only 15 when he played Puck. The young whippersnapper is quite entertaining in the part, he really hams it up for the camera. Shows alot of potential! Ms deHavilland is wonderful, as is James Cagney, who plays Nick Bottom.
Also in the cast: Joe E. Brown: "Francis Flute". Dick Powell: "Lysander"
Two Academy Awards: "Best Cinematography", "Best Film Editing"

For more, read Kevin's review at his blog, Kevin's Movie Corner.

"This Above All" (1942) with Joan

2010-04-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

"This Above All", released during World War II, in 1942, stars Joan Fontaine and Tyrone Power.

Joan as Prudence.

Joan plays Prudence Cathaway, a rich woman from a distinguished British family who decides to join the United Kingdom's Women's Auxiliary Air Force. In the service, she meets Clive (Power) who is absent without leave from the British Army. They begin to fall in love, but as she gets to know him, learns of his anti-war views and distain for the rich. He decides to leave as she goes back into service. Prudence's story seems to dominate the first hour, as she joins the air force and then meets Tyrone's Clive. And Clive's story dominates much of the first part of the second hour, finding spiritual inspiration with the council of a clergyman (Alexander Knox, from "Wilson"). But they're love won't keep them apart for long. A real tearjearker ending. Co-starring Gladys Cooper and Thomas Mitchell. Won Oscar for Best Art Direction (B/W), beating out "Random Harvest"(!), "Pride of the Yankees"(!!), and "Magnificent Ambersons"(!!!) Joan is beautiful in this movie with or without a uniform. 25 years old at the time, she gives a wonderful, emotion-filled performance, worthy of an Oscar nomination.

From 20th Century Fox Pictures. Directed by Anatole Litvak ("All This And Heaven Too", "The Snake Pit", "Anastasia"). Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Robert Bassler.

At the dinner table, Prudence tells her family she's enlisted in the WAAF

Prudence and other women about to enter service.

Joan and Tyrone have a roll in the hay.

Joan looking beautiful as Prudence, dressed up during her 6-day leave.

Lovely Joan sings "Leave the Home Fires Burning" in an unforgettable scene.

Our stars in a lavish Oscar-winning set. Clive gets a telegram issuing him to come back.

Prudence pleas with reluctant Clive to fight the good fight for England.

Prudence visits Clive in the hospital as bombs go off outside.
"This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." - William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Also interesting, read the notes about the movie production from Turner Classic Movies.

"I Remember Better When I Paint" (2009), A documentary narrated by Olivia

2010-04-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

"I Remember Better When I Paint" is the first international documentary about the positive impact of art and other creative therapies on people with Alzheimer's and how these approaches can change the way we look at the disease.

Visit the documentary's official website

It is a film by Eric Ellena and Berna Huebner, presented by French Connection Films and the Hilgos Foundation, and narrated by Olivia de Havilland.

Watch a clip of the documentary, and listen to Olivia narrate:

Among those who are featured in the film are noted doctors and Yasmin Aga Khan, president of Alzheimer's Disease International and daughter of Rita Hayworth, who had Alzheimer's.

Photo: Joan Looking at the Oscar she won for "Suspicion"

2010-04-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

Photographer: Peter Stackpole of LIFE
Originally Published in LIFE Magazine
March 1, 1942

Is it just me, or does she look like Julia Roberts in this picture?

Joan's Guest Appearance on "The Love Boat" (1981)

2010-03-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

This episode originally aired November 7, 1981 (Season 5, Episode 6: Chef's Special/Kleinschmidt/New Beginnings) Joan's segment was entitled "New Beginnings".

Joan plays Jennifer Langley who reunites with an old flame Stan (played by Richard Basehart) on the ship. They met in London during the war, as Jenny explains to Captain Stubing (Gavin MacCloud). Stan, who is now paralyzed, is reluctant to rekindle old memories.

The 2 clips below run a total of 15 enjoyable minutes. Joan and Richard are just wonderful. This was the first time they acted together.

Thanks to: KC of Classic Movies for sharing this on her blog (March 2010) and to the Joan Fontaine fan who edited the scenes together into two wonderful clips.

Olivia and Joan at the 60th Annual Academy Awards

2010-02-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

The year was 1988. In honor of the milestone 60th anniversary ceremony, the Academy planned a huge "year by year" salute toward the end of the show, kind of like how they did it for the 70th and 75th Oscars where the stars on the stage would get a moment of screen time.

Among the legends invited to the LA Shrine Auditorium on that hot April day in 1988: Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, and Audrey Hepburn, just to name a few.

Also invited: Olivia deHavilland and Joan Fontaine.

They both showed up to the ceremony, yet they arrived separately.

According to the book, "Inside Oscar" by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona:

Rebecca's Joan Fontaine managed to arrive on time without the help of the Academy's escort-who never materialized-but her sister wasn't so lucky. Olivia had to hop out of her car and hike 10 blocks in order to be there to hand out an award. Robert Osborne recounted that "She and others were all dressed to the nines, hurrying off to a ga-ga glmaour event while rushing past taco stands, donut shops, and gawking onlookers, the latter munching on hot dogs and cradling babies, surprised at the unexpected passerby. Sigh!

Olivia was scheduled to present an award that night.

Joan wasn't asked to present (either that or she refused; it's uncertain), but her sister was invited to present the Oscar for Art Direction and she accepted. Olivia's appearance was within the first hour of the ceremony, right after Olympia Dukakis won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress Moonstruck.

Olivia walked onstage to "Tara's Theme". There was a standing ovation. The television cameras didn't get a shot of Joan; so viewers couldn't tell if she was standing or sitting during the ovation.

Olivia enthusiastically announcened the winners of the award (the team from "The Last Emperor").

The big moment of the evening was supposed to be at the end--shortly before the last Oscar (Best Picture) was handed out. It was to be a salute to all 60 of the past Oscar winning years. Supposedly, the Academy invited at least one cast member from an Oscar winning film from each year (1927-1987), and they would appear on stage and on camera for a brief moment as each year and film would be introduced one by one.

Olivia would be representing "Gone With the Wind". Joan would be representing "Rebecca".

But the "Year by Year" segment flopped.

Shortly before air time, legendary silent/20s/30s actress Anita Page (age 77) was so overcome with heat exhaustion that she collapsed as she approached the red carpet. She was rushed to a local hospital and treated.

Thankfully, Ms Page was OK after awhile, but her absence left a void in the "Year by Year" presentation. Apparently she was the only person there to represent the year 1928 (The Broadway Melody) So the producers of the show scrapped the segment at the last minute.

As a consolation, the director of the telecast made sure that cameras caught a few glimpses of some of the recognizable (or perhaps not so recognizable) film legends throughout the night, so viewers were able to at least see Mercedes McCambridge (All The King's Men, 1949), Karl Malden (On The Waterfront, 1954), Charles "Buddy" Rogers (Wings, 1927), Celeste Holm (All About Eve, 1950), Charlton Heston (Ben Hur, 1959), and Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, 1953), even for just a few seconds.

Other legends were there in the audience, such as Roddy McDowall (How Green Was My Valley, 1941) and Robert Stack (Written on the Wind, 1956), but sadly, they didn't get any screen time, not even a reaction shot. I'm sure there were more stars present, but I just don't know who.

There was only one shot of Ms. Fontaine during the entire ceremony; it was a reaction shot where the audience sees how she was clearly not amused with host Chevy Chase's unfunny monologue.

According to the aforementioned book Inside Oscar, Joan became a little impatient towards the end of the ceremony, and was wondering when it was time for her appearance onstage. Reportedly she was sitting very close to Roddy McDowell, and at one point turned to him as asked, "When do we go on?" "Later Later" he assured Rebecca's second Mrs. deWinter.

Apparently a number of the stars were never told that the segment was cancelled, nor that Anita Page was hospitalized.

It's too bad the "Oscar-Year-by-Year" segment flopped. It would have been a neat segment to watch. The Academy tried a similar stunt again for the the 70th (1998) and 75th (2003) ceremonies when they invited all of the Oscar recipients of acting awards (but in '98 and '03, it didn't matter what year the stars represented, since they were introduced alphabetically--the Academy learned from their embarrassing mistake)

____

That night in 1988, there was no "reunion" between Olivia de Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine, something many fans were hoping for. It's possible that it the last time the two sisters were in the same building together.

According to the book "Inside Oscar", Joan was upset about the segment being cancelled, and that she didn't receive any screen time other than one split-second reaction shot. She reportedly vowed to never return to another Oscars ceremony which explains her absence from the 70th and 75th anniversary tributes. (Olivia appeared at the 75th Oscar ceremony in 2003)

Spotlight on Music: "Tender Is The Night" (1962)

2009-12-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

The film version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, Tender Is the Night (1962), starred Jennifer Jones, Jason Robards, and Joan Fontaine. The film's theme song of the same name from was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song (Music: Sammy Fain, Lyrics: Paul Francis Webster.) It lost to "Days of Wine and Roses" from Days of Wine and Roses (Music: Henry Mancini, Lyrics: Johnny Mercer)

Here are two versions of the song for your enjoyment. One is by Tony Bennett, the other by Johnny Mathis.

Tony Bennett:

Johnny Mathis:

Tender is the night
So tender is the night
There's no one in the world
Except the two of us

Should tomorrow
Find us disenchanted
We have shared a love
That few have known

Summers by the sea
A sailboat in Capri
These memories shall be
Our very own

Even though our dreams may vanish
With the morning light
We loved once in splendour
How tender, how tender the night

(Orchestral Break)

Even though our dreams may vanish
With the morning light
We loved once in splendour
How tender, how tender the night

Joan Fontaine's Thanksgiving, 1951

2009-11-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

The setting: London, late November, 1951. Joan Fontaine and the rest of the Ivanhoe cast and crew were almost finished with filming in London's MGM stuido. It had been a 5-month long shoot. Joan couldn't make it back to the United States for Thanksgiving, so she celebrated in London, and invited some friends over, including actress Mary Martin who was appearing onstage in "South Pacific". Martin, 4 years older than Joan, seemed to dominate the evening.

Here's how it went, in Ms Fontaine's own words. (Excerpt from her 1978 autobiography, "No Bed of Roses")

As we were shooting Ivanhoe in late November, I could not get home for Thanksgiving with the children. Therefore I arranged with the service kitchen at Grosvenor Square to prepare a real American Thanksgiving for a few of my friends. Mary Martin and her husband, Dick Halliday, were staying at the Savoy Hotel during her highly successful run of "South Pacific", so I invited them, as well as the cast of Ivanhoe.

Although I had stressed that the gathering was to be very informal, and I was in slacks, Mary Martin arrived in a black-cut velvet Mainbocher. Mary took over. Standing in what is called in the theatre "fireplace center," she directed us all, the conversation, even tow here we should sit at table. As the Hallidays left that evening, Dick said his thanks with "We had a nice time. Not very nice, but nice."

--From the book "No Bed of Roses" (1978)

"The Devil's Own"/"The Witches" (1966) with Joan

2009-11-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

"The Devil's Own": Not to be confused with the 1997 Brad Pitt film of the same name (or a 1916 silent film with Harry Carey, unrelated to either picture) This one is from Britain's Hammer Film Productions, and is also known as "The Witches" according to advertisements outside the United States.

dfordoom of Cult Movie Reviews recently posted an excellent review of this film, which insipred me to look into it further.

The 1962 novel "The Devil's Own" was written by Norah Lofts, who wrote it under the name of Peter Curtis, for a reason I don't understand (witchcraft-related?) Joan plays a schoolteacher who is exposed to the craft while teaching as a missionary in Africa. She's so frightened that she has a nervous breakdown. After returning to her native England, she becomes the head teacher of a small school in a rural village (a "village without hope" according to the eerie trailer - watch below), where she investigates the strange behavior of the townsfolk (including her 14-year old student with ties to the craft) and other unexplained mysteries. Directed by Cyril Frankel ("School for Scoundrels")

When I first heard about this film, Ms. Fontaine's last theatrical performance, I thought she accepted the movie role because she needed the money. How embarrassed I was to learn that she was in fact a co-producer (!) and insisted on starring in it, having loved the orignal novel.

Initial release date: Nov 21, 1966

Read another review from Mondo Esoterica. Read the Tainted Archive's blog post on Hammer Films.

Olivia honored at the White House, November 2008

2008-11-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

In November of 2008, Olivia traveled to Washington DC to recieve the National Medal of Arts, for her lifetime achievements and contributions to American culture as an actress.

Photo by James Kegley for the National Endowment for the Arts
Watch the clip of Olivia getting her medal here:

Read the Press Release from the National Endowment for the Arts

The 2008 National Medal of Arts was awarded to Olivia de Havilland and presented by President Bush on November 17, 2008 in an East Room ceremony. de Havilland was honored "for her persuasive and compelling skill as an actress in roles from Shakespeare's Hermia to Margaret Mitchell's Melanie. Her independence, integrity, and grace won creative freedom for herself and her fellow film actors." The National Medal of Arts is a presidential initiative managed by the National Endowment for the Arts.

UPI Photos:

Above: President George Bush greets actress Olivia De Havilland prior to presenting her with the 2008 National Medals of Arts during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House on November 17, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch)

Below: Olivia with her medal

LIFE Photos (Mark Wilson, photographer):