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Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter Vol.4 #3
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Cliff Aliperti
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Mar 16, 2006 00:42 PST
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Movie Profiles & Premiums Volume 4, Number 3. March 15, 2006
Brought to you by http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com
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This is the plain text version of the newsletter. Read this online in
html format and loaded with pictures of movie collectibles at:
http://things-and-other-stuff.com/issues/movie-newsletter-04-03.htm
#
Have Movie Profiles & Premiums dropped into your E-mail inbox--just send
a blank e-mail to:
things-and-other-@topica.com
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Hi all, welcome back. It's been a busy month of work for me on
things-and-other-stuff.com as I have finally finished placing matching
headers on all of the profiles page -- each profile now links directly
to the star's page on the IMDb, Amazon DVD titles available featuring
the star, and any eBay listings I may have featuring that star. In
addition to that small addition to each page I've also scanned through
each of the profiles and linked to the profile pages of any stars
mentioned on the page. Also, you will notice that some of the
collectible images on the Profile pages are now highlighted in blue --
I've linked all collectible images to the appropriate Photo ID Guide
(when there is one) on the site.
These changes, and some similar ones coming soon, were made because it
occurred to me that the site was beginning to stray from it's original
intention -- this site is for vintage movie collectibles, especially the
oddball stuff, and the profile pages were meant from the start to be
material that delivered you to the collectibles. I got the feeling that
the stars, collectibles, and even the films that I'm writing up myself
in my Classic DVD section were becoming three separate areas of the
site. I want to change that -- there are plenty of sites about classic
movie stars, plenty of sites about classic movies, and a few about the
classic collectibles, though I like to think I touch upon some different
items. The plan is to make these three separate portions of the site
come together.
Of course this will all take awhile, but on the bright side, the Profile
pages are all done, the DVD review pages are all done (since most of
those pages are still to come anyway!) and now I have to start working
on the collectibles. I did complete a couple of pages of collectibles,
so if you're curious:
1936 R95 8x10 Linen Premium Photos
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/ephemera/1936-R95-linen.htm
and
Page 1 of the 5x7 Fan Photos
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/ephemera/fan-photos-1.htm
Visiting those pages you'll see that any highlighted name will deliver
you to that star's profile page. Once on the profile page you can jump
to another profile page if there's a star's name hyperlinked on that
page, or to a DVD review page if it's a film title. You'll also see
select collectibles highlighted by blue boxes, that will bring you to a
Photo ID Guide.
While doing this I'll be able to fix a lot of old faulty sales links as
well, I know those must be a pain!
Tammy Stone returns this issue and places Gloria Swanson into her Silent
Collection. There is no accompanying slide show for Swanson, as my
images are limited to those appearing on the profile page on the site.
I had a lot more images at one time, but when I left my old image host
last summer I deleted an awful lot of good stuff. Oh well, there are
still some interesting images on the page.
In lieu of the slide show I have written up a little review of Sunset
Boulevard as part of Cliff's Classic DVD List. After Tammy submitted
her piece I figured, what the heck, I was due to watch Sunset again
anyway, may as well do it right and get it on the site. Hope you enjoy
it.
That list has been an ongoing project of mine for a few months now and
if you follow it you'll know I changed format a few times. Some of my
mini-reviews were getting too long to be displayed the way I had
originally presented this section, so I decided to give each film it's
own page. A lot of them were too short for their own page, or I hadn't
watched the movie in awhile, so I ended up deleting a lot of what I had
originally written. Now some of the entries that I carried over from
the original list seem to be lacking, but each one that I've written
seems to get longer and longer with Sunset Boulevard setting the new
record. Other recent additions have been Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(1941), Shane (1953), and Captains Courageous (1937):
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/dvd-list/dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde-1941.htm
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/dvd-list/shane.htm
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/dvd-list/captains-courageous.htm
If you're still buying VHS yourself I've put another big lot of movies
from my personal collection up at auction on eBay. I have a broken VCR
hooked up to my TV, because I'm scared to play with the connection and
screw up what works, so I haven't watched any VHS in quite awhile now.
I'm still clinging to a few of my tougher titles, but this lot includes
about a dozen that I've picked up on DVD since the last time I auctioned
videos (including a lot of Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart), plus some
rarer titles that I've decided I won't be watching again until they're
out on DVD anyway, such as Malaya and So Proudly We Hail. $9.99 minimum
bid with no reserve. If you're interested in bidding, the auction ends
next Sunday afternoon and can be found here on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-34-Classic-VHS-Tapes-from-PersonalCollection-NR_W0QQitemZ9113961128QQcategoryZ46767QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Some other quick notes before we get to the profile:
I put up a new page that's meant as a companion to my Classic DVD Page,
for lack of a better title it's called, Cliff's Movie Book List. I
haven't had a chance to cover them yet, basically it's a page of links
to Amazon for movie related books that are up on my shelf and in plain
sight right now. You may have most of them, or possibly all of them,
but I always like coming upon these types of lists myself to find items
that I don't have or haven't heard of. In the future I'll try to write
a little something about each title on this list.
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/cliffs-movie-books.htm
Gina LoBiondo, who has contributed her excellent Janet Gaynor piece to
this site, has updated her Janet Gaynor memoir to 28-pages and adjust
the price to $25. More information is available on the Janet Gaynor
page of things-and-other-stuff.com.
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/janet-gaynor.htm
I added a link that I really liked and you may like too: Jolly Roger
Pirate Journal - Home of Redbeard Bob.
http://jolly-roger-pirate-journal.info/
If you are interested in Pirate movies (or pirates in general) this is
the place to go, here's what I wrote on my links page:
Okay, this one is not really a movie-star related site, it's a Pirate
site (!), but it fits in this link category best. When you get to
Redbeard Bob's home page, scroll down and click on the "Libertine
Pirate" to reach his main index. Then take a look at the menu on the
left side of that page and scroll down until you reach "Hollywood
Pirates" and then under that click on "Redbeard" Bob's Pirate Filmology.
It's billed as the largest index of pirate films on the net, and it's
certainly pretty long and very interesting. You can also purchase
Redbeard Bob L'Aloge's book, "Matinee at the Bijou" as advertised on his
home page (one of several titles he has authored).
It's a fun site in general, enjoy! When you come back feel free to once
again explore some of the swashbuckler profiles on
things-and-other-stuff.com, such as Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone:
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/errol-flynn.htm
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/basil-rathbone.htm
Of course don't forget to visit my eBay Auctions and the blog.
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsascsZ1QQsassZthingsQ2dandQ2dotherQ2dstuff
http://blog.things-and-other-stuff.com/
And now, here is our main feature:
###
Gloria Swanson in The Silent Collection by Tammy Stone
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/movies/profiles/gloria-swanson.htm
As we saw with the recent 2006 Academy Awards®, sometimes it’s not so
interesting to be … uninteresting. They took the spice out of the
outfits, the speeches, the monologues, and ended up with a tasteful
affair that wasn’t nearly as much fun to watch. Why? Because stars are
supposed to be divas, they’re supposed to flaunt their vices and their
antics, and we love them for it. Divas go back nearly as far as cinema
itself, and the height of the silent era saw enough of them to fill the
very first movie magazines … the faces that launched thousands of more
stars and the most successful mode of entertainment in history. All this
to say that we love our divas, and Gloria Swanson very well might have
been the most diva-esque diva there ever was.
Gloria was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois on
March 27, 1897, not long after the first images were beginning to be
canned and seen. WhileAd for Gloria Swanson in "What a Widow!" many of
her peers, having been born into showbiz families, were “destined” to
enter the movies by way of vaudeville, Gloria had no such fate or
aspiration, though she was about to become one of the most storied stars
of her time.
Her childhood was typical, though she did move around quite a bit; she
attended elementary and then high school in Chicago and and elsewhere –
Key West, Florida included – and upon completing her education, she
went to work as a clerk in a department store – stranger things have
happened. She was still young – 18, to be exact – in 1915, when she went
along with her aunt to a movie studio to see what the pictures were all
about. Those were the days, of course, that the emerging industry was
going strong on the East Coast and Hollywoodland was not even a speck of
dust on the imagination of the future image-makers of America. 1929
Gloria Swanson Movie Land Keeno Game Card
This is where fate kicks in. While at the studio, she was singled out
for her ravishing, exotic looks, and was immediately asked to be an
extra on the film they were currently working on. This was to be the
beginning of a fascinating career, and it all started with a bit role in
The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915). (Caveat:
sources, as always, are mixed about her first film; also cited previous
to The Fable are The Song of Soul (1914). Both these films were made
with the General Film Company and the Essanay Film Manufacturing
Company).
From here it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, but she was off to a
consistent start. She 1919 Gloria Swanson Kinema Theatre Cardappeared in
a few more uncredited roles – in films like At the End of a Perfect Day
(1915), and then got a larger part in Sweedie Goes to College that same
year. Overall she made seven films that year, before her career really
began to take off, along with her off-screen persona and personal life.
She made one film – The Nick of Time Baby – before appearing in a film
with the man who would soon become her husband: Wallace Beery. That
fateful film was A Dash of Courage. The two were soon married, and
decided to leave Chicago for warmer climes. As we know in hindsight,
they made the perfect choice and would have undoubtedly ended up in
Hollywood anyway.
Gloria couldn’t be slowed down. She chose or was chosen for all the
right films and her star continued to skyrocket. Some highlights from
this era include Baseball Madness and A Pullman Bride (both 1917); Wife
or Country or Shifting Sands (both 1918); and For Better, For Worse and
Don’t Change Your Husband (both 1919). In fact, she only made three
films in 1918, a paltry number for a starlet in those heady 1923 Gloria
Swanson Picturegoer Star At Homeyears. She was going through the first
of much personal turmoil; by 1919, she had divorced Beery and was
already remarried, to her second of seven husbands. Quite a grand total
– it’s easy to see why she became as much a media as a public darling.
All this drama aside, her notoriety as an outstanding actress was
growing. Within the next few years, she became the highest grossing
actor in Hollywood, despite the fact that she didn’t appear in nearly as
many films as some of her peers – rumour has it that she went through
(as it earned and blew away) over $8 million during the roaring
twenties. Imagine how much that would be today. Fans were on the edges
of their seats watching her star in film after film, and going through
husband after husband, and her studio – Famous Players-Lasky Corporation
in conjunction with Paramount Pictures – was beside itself with joy. It
almost didn’t matter what kind of role she played and what kind of film
she appeared in; people were going to the pictures to see Gloria Swanson
in such movies as: Don’t Tell Everything (1921), Her Gilded Cage (1922),
Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1923), A Society Scandal (1924), Stage Struck
(1925), The Untamed Lady (1926), The Love of Sunya (her only film in
1927), Sadie Thompson (1928), Queen Kelly (1929, in which she had the
eponymous role) and her last film of the silent era, The Trespasser
(also 1929).
1923 Gloria Swanson Neilson's Chocolates CardAs you’ve noticed, she was
going strong as a silent film star well into the beginning stages of the
sound era. By 1929 it was inevitable that the “sound experiment” was
working, and that all studios – following Warner, who did it first – had
to convert to sound. Gloria was already 30 when the sound era hit, which
didn’t put her in a prime position to carry her fame over into this new
phase of the movie industry. Would she be able to pull it off? She
hadn’t won an Oscar, thought she’d been nominated for 1928’s Sadie
Thompson (she lost to Mary Pickford for her role in Coquette). A year
later she was nominated for The Trespasser and lost to Norma Shearer
(The Divorcee). In other words, she was adored and respected, but hadn’t
quite reached the summit of achievement and everything was about to
change as the audiences began to hear.
Gloria, still living the lavish life, made only four films in the 1930s,
and all of them were made before 1934, when she took a hiatus. But she
was not down for the count. She returned in 1941 in Father Takes a Wife
(in which Desi Arnaz appeared), and then took another hiatus until her
magical return in Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic, Sunset Blvd. This was
truly a plumb role: she played her contemporary from the1924 Gloria
Swanson BAT Tobacco Card silent period, Norma Desmond, as a has-been
former silent film star so desperate to make a comeback that she’ll do
literally anything to achieve this – but her insanity gets in the way.
Dark, moody and with a luminous Swanson playing, in over-the-top
fashion, the over-the-top personality of a faded star, this film has
more layers to it than an onion. Swanson-as-Desmond was ravishing, and
the box-office concurred: she was nominated for yet another Oscar that
year, but lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday. No matter. Sunset
Blvd. remains one of the best films ever made, and Swanson was
immortalized for the second time (the first time being the entire decade
of the twenties) for being an integral part of it.
Gloria made a few more films in the fifties – including a few in Europe
– and largely stuck to a few television roles in the sixties. She’d had
her day, and what a long, glorious day it was. She made one more
mini-comeback – more an homage to her former legend – in the 1975 film
Airport, in which she played herself. What else do we want or need her
to be.
Gloria passed away on April 4, 1983 in New York City. She was 84. A star
has come, played, and gone.
#
Tammy Stone is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto. Watch
for her regular column on the greats of the Silent Screen in each issue
of The Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter. Tammy invites you to write
her at tammyst-@yahoo.ca with any questions or comments on her
column.
###
Sunset Boulevard from Cliff's Classic DVD List
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/dvd-list/sunset-boulevard.htm
Paramount Collection, Special Collector's Edition. William Holden,
Gloria Swanson, Erich Von Stroheim, Nancy Olson in a Billy Wilder film.
I had previously owned this on VHS and just watched the DVD again in
order to time this entry with the Gloria Swanson entry in Tammy Stone's
The Silent Collection. I tread carefully on this one, because it's
obviously one of the greatest pictures of all-time and when it comes to
those types of pictures everyone tends to have an opinion and everyone
is easily prone to argument at the first sign of dissent. So to begin
with, I also love this movie and consider it one of the all-time greats.
If you've never seen it before, well I don't know how you pulled that
one off. First, it's a must for fans of both silent and classic Golden
Age cinema. Second, it's a must if even you're sixteen years old and
being exposed to an "old" black and white film for the first time. Why?
This movie, now 56 years old is reality TV before that concept was even
a notion. Let's take the cameras and examine the life of one of the
biggest stars in film, twenty years after they were big. This is it,
Norma Desmond exposed to the bone for you to laugh at and hopefully feel
for as well. On the commentary track Ed Sikov, author of "On Sunset
Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder", even invokes the names
of O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake when discussing the famed final scene
of this film. Now, if you're still reading this and have never seen
Sunset Boulevard before, well first I don't know why you've read this
far, but if you're that interested it's time to leave the site, buy or
rent the movie and come back afterwards.
Sikov explains to us that while Swanson is not playing herself here that
there are quite a few similarities between her and Norma Desmond. But
there's definitely enough distance between the two for this to be
considered a masterful performance. I'm going to go out of my way here
not to quote any of the famous quotes from this film: they are many and
they are oft repeated. That's just a testament to this near-perfect
script. I'd just like to mention a few of the less talked about items
that I noticed during my most recent screening and comment on some of
the excellent extras provided on this disc.
Those extras are a good place to start. We have the usual Photo
Galleries and Theatrical Trailer here, but to my surprise this disc
actually offered some of the stuff that I like too! Most prominently is
the 25+ minute feature "The Making of Sunset Boulevard" which features
mostly Ed Sikov and Nancy Olson, who played William Holden's
love-interest in the picture, Betty Schaefer. Each of them made
comments which I felt summed up this classic as succinctly as possible
on two different levels. Sikov refers to the film as "poignant, yet
funny" further clarifying that what makes Sunset Boulevard so wonderful
to still watch today is that you are both laughing at Swanson as Norma
Desmond and hopefully feeling empathy for her at the same time.
"Poignant, yet funny" sums up my feelings for what I just watched again
a lot quicker than any long paragraph that I could have, and apparently
have anyway, written. Olson adds to this by referring to the overall
theme of Sunset Boulevard as being one of "opportunism and
consequences." Yes. Every character has an agenda and we get to see
how it plays out for them.
As if these 25 minutes of entertainment weren't enough we also have
interesting additional mini-features of 13-14 minutes each, one on
designer Edith Head and another on composer Franz Waxman.
I had watched this movie maybe two or possibly three times in the past,
enjoyed it tremendously, but not taken my viewing any further by looking
into outside sources or for other opinions. So, in a way, I still came
in pretty fresh this time around. For instance, I was not aware of the
alternate opening sequence. I won't get into the details of the scene
here, but will say that the first few pages of the first two copies of
the script which contained the scene are reproduced and there is even
appropriately silent accompanying footage which was shot, and actually
used in the failed test screening which ultimately led to the familiar
replacement opening.
A few of the scenes brought up some thoughts of my own that I jotted
down along the way. After I finished watching the film and the extras
mentioned above I decided to give a few scenes a try with the commentary
on to see if Ed Sikov, who I enjoyed quite a bit on the special feature,
may have expanded on some of my own thoughts.
In my opinion this film has two major faults, however as big as I think
these flaws are when I'm away from the picture, I really didn't find
them to detract whatsoever from my enjoyment when actually watching it.
First, it's kind of cheating for a writer to have his protagonist be
dead from the start. While Norma Desmond is the star of Sunset
Boulevard, William Holden as Joe Gillis is our top-billed lead. And we
know he's dead right from the start. We also know he's the one telling
us this story right from the start. Sikov did not discuss this on the
parts of the commentary track that I watched, but interestingly enough
it was the first topic of debate that I found when I went to view the
message board on the IMBd...and the person mentioning this problem had
the same problem that I did...and he was crushed by other posters for
it! Responses to this comment began to get out of hand with talk about
religion and belief and disbelief in an afterlife, which as far as I can
tell doesn't have anything to do with this question at all. It's a
question of storytelling in my mind, and quite honestly if you employ
this technique in a lesser film it's going to be considered hack work.
But oftentimes the thing which will push very good writing over the top
to greatness is that same willingness to break the rules. Sunset
Boulevard does it right, and so it is forgivable, and at least in my
case still believable.
My other problem, and this is my biggest problem with our current "Best
Picture" Crash, is that it relies on quite a bit of coincidence to get
characters together. To me this is more damning than the first offense,
however unlike Crash, which only made me wonder if all of Los Angeles
was inhabited by just 13 citizens and 3 or 4 policemen whose lives
constantly intersect, Sunset Boulevard only really does this with two of
its characters: Holden's Joe Gillis and Betty Schaefer, played by Nancy
Olson. What am I talking about? Okay, they meet when Gillis is
pitching his script at the studio because Betty is a reader there. The
next time they meet is when Gillis escapes Norma Desmond's mansion on
New Year's and ends up at his friend Artie Green's party -- Betty just
happens to be Artie's girlfriend. Okay, Joe Gillis is a writer, Betty
is a reader and I believe Artie is an assistant director. Hollywood is
a small, almost incestuous place, okay, got it, in fact that may even be
the point being put across at this time. But then, and this is the
meeting that loses me, Joe runs into Artie and Betty at the drug store
when stopping in to pick up cigarettes for Norma. I'm not buying that
coincidence. Finally Joe runs into Betty yet again at the studio when
Norma goes to meet up with Cecil B. DeMille. I can accept this
encounter based on the small world theory again, but these chance
encounters are adding up, aren't they? At this point Joe agrees to work
on the script with Betty and none of the further meetings are left up to
chance. Of course I'm nitpicking here, but it is an imperfection,
still, an imperfection that I'm willing to chalk up to destiny, which by
that reasoning makes the love story even more solid.
An element to this film especially dear to me in relation to this site
is the absolute slew of fan photos, publicity shots, and other images of
silent age Gloria Swanson, er Norma Desmond, cluttered throughout the
mansion. I'd love to find one of those old fan photos signed "Norma
Desmond" to see what it fetches on eBay! Most of the items probably
came right out of the Paramount publicity archives, but a few of the
rarer and more glamorous pieces I would imagine must have come from
Swanson herself.
For silent film fans besides mentions of Wallace Reid, Mabel Normand,
John Gilbert, Vilma Banky, Rod La Rocque and Marie Prevost, we have
actual camera time for performers of the past such as Anna Q. Nilsson,
H.B. Warner and Buster Keaton, who form a group Joe Gillis refers to as
the1925 Gloria Swanson Rothman's Cinema Stars Tobacco Card "wax works"
when they're playing bridge with Norma. Hedda Hopper also shows up in
the final scene playing herself in her more famed later profession of
gossip columnist. And obviously we also have Erich von Stroheim, who
had really directed Swanson in "Queen Kelly" in their earlier days,
looming throughout the entire film as Desmond's butler, caretaker, etc.
etc, plus her first, well a couple of firsts, you know what I mean.
We also have Norma Desmond putting on a skillful performance as
Chaplin's Little Tramp -- one comment that I had expected Ed Sikov to
make was in relation to Norma's change in demeanor after she received
some news that she didn't want to hear mid-performance. Norma flips out
and is at this point just as skillfully impersonating Adolf Hitler.
What better way to show Norma Desmond's mental collapse than have her
range from the innocence of early Chaplin skits to the insanity of
Hitler? That's how I took it at least.
I do take issue with Sikov's comments regarding the scene where Norma
meets with Cecil B. DeMille. Sikov mentions how the real DeMille was
not a pleasant guy, which may be true but comes off as practically
character assassination here by going further and mentioning how DeMille
had the spotlight turned off of Norma before shooing away her last
remaining true fans. Finally he says DeMille "doesn't even have the
guts to tell Norma the truth". and he says it with quite a bit of
disgust. I didn't see it this way at all. Sikov doesn't comment on
DeMille's last line where he tells his flunky to put in the word to not
bother Norma about her car (the real reason Paramount had contacted her
was an interest in her "old" car for use in a period piece) and that
he'd buy however many old cars were needed. That line shows that
DeMille feels for Norma and doesn't want Paramount's, and ultimately his
own, involvement with her to lead to a shattering of her beliefs and
further breakdown. DeMille doesn't do right by Norma, no, but I didn't
see his treatment as mean-spiritedned at all, but instead Mr. DeMille is
just another enabler in a similar way that von Stroheim's Max lovingly
fosters Norma's delusions throughout the movie.
And after that I'll close this with mention of something Ed Sikov said
that didn't occur to me at all, but that I thought was really on target.
He refers to the three main characters all getting what they wanted in
the end, that is, Joe Gillis gets his pool, Norma Desmond gets her big
scene, and even Max gets to direct again.
Perfect, almost, but sure close-enough for me to think that the IMDb
rating of 8.6/10 at this time of writing is probably a little low.
###
And that's it this time around. The next issue of The Movie Profiles
and Premiums Newsletter is scheduled for April 15 -- note that date and
then note that the next issue may be either a couple of days late or a
couple of days early...I'll be spending my time crunching numbers for
the tax man. Thanks, and have a great month!
#
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