Heroes for Sale...

A 1933 Warner Bros film produced by Hal Wallis and Directed by the great William "Wild Bill" Wellman, "Heroes For Sale" is quintessential pre-code "depression era" drama! Starring the sadly underappreciated Richard Barthelmess, and co-starring Loretta Young, Aline MacMahon, Charlie Grapewin and the always excellent Robert Barrat. I had only seen this film once before about 15 years ago but watched it again tonight. I wouldn't dream of giving away plot details or anything else but suffice it to say that a LOT happens to the people in this film in a little over an hour's time! I LOVE these early 30's Warner Bros films! Their pacing, gritty production values and excellent array of stars and character actors always make for interesting viewing and Wellman made some of the best of that studio's output during that time. This film definitely ranks as one if his better efforts and gets my highest recommendation! It's on a double DVD with another great Wellman picture, "Wild Boys of the Road", so check 'em out if you can....at the very least you will NOT be bored!

Ooper-Dooper!

A few scans of Gary Cooper for J.B. because she asked so nicely.

Coop in "The Virginian", 1929.

With Marlene Dietrich in "Morocco", 1930.

Striking a manly pose in William Wellman's extremely manly 1939 production of "Beau Geste".

I thought Coop had some of the best cowboy duds ever in William Wyler's classic "The Westerner", 1940

Coop won his 2nd Oscar as best actor for his excellent performance in Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon". A well-made film on every level but story-wise, not very high in the believability factor....hmmmmmmmmmm..OK, stay and fight bad guys or go on honeymoon with Grace Kelly....ummmmm, well no offense but...See ya!!!!

Susan Hayward...

Since the first time I saw Susie in "The Hairy Ape" with William Bendix many years ago, I was totally taken by this sultry-voiced, red-haired beauty. Her b-day is coming up in a few days and so for the next week or so I'll be posting a tribute to her.

A great early photo of Susie taken in the early to mid 1940's. She was born Edythe Marrener of Brooklyn on June 30th, 1918. Young Edythe was run over by a car while running in the streets one day and her parents were told she had a fractured hip and would probably never walk again. This injury and the lack of treatment she received while healing caused her to have a bit of a 'slink" to her walk for the rest of her life, but she did indeed walk again!

In the mid 1930's Edythe took a drama course and tried making the rounds to the theatrical agencies with no luck, but her pretty face, shapely figure and blazing red hair got her plenty of modeling jobs at the Walter Thornton agency where she appeared in ads for everything from underwear to tooth brushes.

In mid 1937 she appeared in the Saturday Envening Post in an article about New York models. The article, titled "The Merchant of Venus", featured 8 color pictures of Edythe and caught the eye of George Cukor, who was then immersed in his search for an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind". She received a wire from Selznick studios offering her a test and a two-way ticket to California. Little Edythe was on her way to Hollywood!

Obviously, she did not get the role but she also did not use her return ticket, instead cashing it to in to buy some groceries! She hired an agent and he showed her test to Warner bros. and Edythe got a 6 month starlet contract. It was there at Warner's that she became "Susan Hayward" and started playing bit roles and finally a small speaking role in the b-quickie "Girls on Probation" starring Ronald Reagan. This is the only film I am aware of that Susie's Brooklyn accent is fully evident.

Warner's did not renew her contract so she tested for a western over at Republic where the director promptly said "She STINKS!" and was also told to get rid of her accent! She ended up at Paramount, sans accent, with a $200 a week contract instead. Her first film there was William Wellman's awesome "Beau Geste", with Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and a scene-stealing Brian Donlevy. During this time Walter Thornton agency was attempting to sue her for $100,000 for breach of contract. This was just one of the many battles Susie would be involved in throughout her stormy life!

to be continued........

Clara Bow!

Clara Bow, my fave silent film actress. Ok she made talkies but she HATED them so I choose to think of her as she seemed to think of herself, as a silent film actress. These stills just came into my posession last week.

Clara truly had a million dollar smile! She shaved her real eyebrows off so she could "Draw 'em anywhere I wanna!". Although she did make a handful of fine pictures, most of Clara's films are not that good. She is always worth seeing though and it's just a damn shame that Paramount didnt take more of a vested interest in their biggest star and be more choosey about the material they put her in. Their opinion was if the public was willing to pay to see her in cheap second-rate material why bother with the expense of the first-rate stuff. The problem was after a while the public got sick of paying to see Clara Bow in bad films!

Paramount first dubbed her "The Brooklyn Bonfire" but that never really took off. Later she skyrocketed to fame as the "It" girl and one of the stars of the first best picture Oscar-Winner, William Wellman's 1927 WWI masterpiece, "Wings". She isnt in it very much but she is dazzlingly gorgeous and brings a huge amount of sex-appeal and youthful energy to the film when she's onscreen!

At the height of her fame Clara was making $5,000 a week at Paramount and was a bigger box office draw than either Lilian Gish or Greta Garbo. She was about 22 years old then and her filming schedule was relentless. When the talkies rolled into town Clara hated making them! She had incredibly bad "Mike Fright" and was self-conscious about her Brooklyn accent. So the geniuses at Paramount gave her about 2 weeks to get ready for her first talking film whereas Garbo, at MGM, was given over a year!

In her book "LuLu in Hollywood" Louise Brooks described Clara as having "The softest hair and skin you could imagine, it was just like a baby's!". One can only conjecture as to how Brooksie came about this information! Clara's red hair was amazing, it seemed to have a life of its own sometimes! Sadly the only color film she ever made "Red Hair" is a lost film. How lame that Paramount didnt even see fit to preserve the films of a person who made so much money for them.

Clara could do "Bedroom Eyes" like nobody's business! She made her last film at Paramount in 1931 and then left Hollywood for a while, a frazzled, emotional mess, broke and washed-up at age 26! She was then offered a huge deal at Fox studios to make 2 films. Those were the last 2 films she ever appeared in and Clara permanently retired from Hollywood in 1933 at age 28!

Clara had a really unhappy childhood. Her mother was mentally unstable and her father was a boozing lowlife who at one point sexually abused her. She said when she needed to cry on camera all she had to do was think of back home. Bud Schulberg, son of Paramounts' B.P. Schulberg, recalled watching Clara when he was very young, filming a scene where she needed to cry. In the silent days they usually had a little orchestra on hand to play mood music for the actors and she always had them play "Rock-a-bye-baby" when she had to cry. Something in that song resonated deeply in her because he said anyone who saw her cry while that song played could never forget it.

They had faces then!