Sunday, November 8, 2009

Eleanor Parker... Part III


More of the lovely and talented Miss Parker...

Another vintage postcard I have. In 1946 she was signed on to play the part of Mildred Rogers in Warner's remake of "Of Human Bondage" co-starring Paul Henried and Alexis Smith. Although the film as a whole can not compare to the Bette Davis version from 1934, Eleanor is quite good in the role. She even received a letter from Bette wishing her the same great success with the picture that she had in her version.

Yup, another postcard! Eleanor is sometimes called "The Woman of a Thousand Faces" because she rarely ever looked the same from picture to picture. She campaigned heavily for the role of Dominique Francon in the film version of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead", the role eventually going to Patricia Neal of course. Ironically Eleanor looks much more like a Rand heroine than Patricia Neal does but it all worked out well regardless. My "dream cast" for a film of Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" would have Eleanor playing the role of Dagny Taggart along with Kirk Douglas as Hank Reardon, Gilbert Roland as Francisco d'Anconia, Peter O'Toole as Ragnar Danneskjold and Michael Rennie as John Galt.

"Pile out you tramps!"
That's the opening line of the film that would contain Eleanor's most challenging role to date, that of women's prison inmate Marie Allen in Warner Bros harrowing 1950 production "Caged". Universally considered the women in prison film by which all others are to be measured, a reputation that is highly deserved! Under the expert direction of John Cromwell, Eleanor gives an astonishingly realistic performance as a timid young girl sent to prison for a crime commmited by her husband (who is killed commiting the crime). The subsequent change in her character as she spends more and more time among the inmates and corrupt prison matron (played to the hilt by Oscar nominee Hope Emerson) is unsettling to say the least but it's ultra-compelling. Eleanor received the first of her 3 oscar nominations for her work in Caged. I consider it absolutely essential viewing!

In the 1950's she decided not to renew her Warner's contract and instead went over to MGM and freelanced as well. She did quite well starring in some first-rate films like "Detective Story" with Kirk Douglas, "Above and Beyond" with Robert Taylor, "Escape From Fort Bravo" with William Holden and directed by the great John Sturges and "Interrupted Melody" with Glen Ford, for which she received her 3rd and final oscar nomination.

Another autographed vintage still I've had for many years.

More Eleanor coming soon...

6 comments:

J.B. said...

Artman, this is SO strange. From your very first post in this Eleanor Parker series I was thinking,"No WAY is that the same woman." With every single photo I thought this. In fact, as I perused this 3rd post, I was mentally constucting my comment to that effect when I came across your "Woman of a Thousand Faces" note. That was exactly what I was thinking. And, as you're well aware, I'm very rarely that insightful. ha ha ha!
Thank you once again for an interesting and informative post. Looking forward to the next in this E.P. series.

J.B. said...

p.s. It occurs to me that, with her ever changing face, it's no wonder Spencer Tracy didn't recognize her that time in the commissary. I wonder what the heck it is about her face that makes it so "shape-shifty" -- she's almost more amazing than Popochan the shape-shifting owl (google him).

Margaret Benbow said...

Thanks so much for this post. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Eleanor Parker.My sister and I first saw her when we were children, in the great old adventure movie The Naked Jungle, with Charlton Heston. She and Charlton fight murderous hordes of red ants and there was also some rather mild (but shocking, to us) bodice-ripper action between them. We were thrilled and appalled.

Artman2112 said...

glad you enjoyed the post margaret! my next EP installment will have some pics from Naked Jungle, i love that film! one of my fave of hers from the 50's.

Juliette. said...

I agree wholeheartedly with J.B.-- one of the reasons, I think, I can never conjure a full image of her in my mind. I know who she is, yet with each new picture I'm surprised. Too cool. Caged is fabulous, isn't it?

Artman2112 said...

omg! Juliette, you live, lol!!! so nice to see you here in blog land again! yes Caged is fantastic, i was just talking to someone the other night who said they had never seen it and i was like ohhhhhhhhh we gotta do something about that!!