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if you haven't noticed yer, all the Star of the Week and Movie Review are one day off. Everything will be back to normal next Monday!

Star of the Week: Rosalind Russell

Last week's star was Clark Gable. This weeks is one of the most underrated actresses of the Golden Age Rosalind Russell.

Real Name: Rosalind Russell
Born: June 4, 1907 in
    Waterbury, Connecticut
Died: November 28, 1976 (age 69)
Height: 5-8
Academy Award Nominations:
My Sister Eileen (1942)
Sister Kenny (1946)
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
Auntie Mame (1958)
Trademark: Wealthy, dignified ladylike roles

Rosalind Russell was a classy, talented actress who never got the recognition she deserved. She is best known for her role as Hildy Johnson in "His Girl Friday" and Mame Dennis in "Auntie Mame" though she starred in other roles. My favorite is His Girl Friday, where she and Cary Grant talked so fast they should have gotten tickets for speeding (haha ok stupid joke). Rosalind Russell died of breast cancer at age 69. RIP Roz.

Rosalind Russell is a treasure that should never be forgotten!

Notable Films: His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame, The Women, Gypsy

Movie Review #8 - The Lady Eve

                         The Lady Eve (1941)
Director: Preston Sturges
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette
Running Time: 94 minutes
Production Co.: Paramount Pictures
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Writing

Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) meets con-artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) on a ship. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding causes them to split on bad terms. To get back at him, Jean disguises herself as an English lady, and comes back to tease and torment him. Her father (Charles Coburn) is also a con-artist. Jean decides to keep away but she can't.

This is the screwball comedy. Barbara Stanwyck is absolutely amazing (and quite sexy) and Henry Fonda is good as the dimwitted scientist. Directed by the great Preston Sturges who has really grown on me. Barbara Stanwyck portayal of "Eve" as a temptress is spot on. She is very seductive. This has got lots of laughs and slapstick, which Fonda performs perfectly. I give a thumbs up and recommend it fully! Other Preston Sturges films i recommend include Sullivan's Travels and The Palm Beach Story!!

Top 6 - Leo McCarey

                     Top 5 - Leo McCarey 1. An Affair To Remember: My favorite tearjerker! Words can't describe how great it is!
2. The Awful Truth: Hilarious screwball comedy with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
3. Duck Soup: The best Marx Brothers film bar none! and so funny...
4. Going My Way
5. The Bells of St. Mary: Bergman is great in this.
I can't think of a sixth movie...

Movie Review #7 - It Happened One Night

                     It Happened One Night (1934)

Director: Frank Capra

Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert,

Running Time: 105 minutes

Production Co.: Columbia Pictures

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture      WON

Best Director     WON

Best Actor - Clark Gable       WON
Best Actress - Claudette Colbert     WON
Best Writing     WON

Spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Colbert) disobeys her fathers orders by jumping ship. She must find her way back to her husband. She accepts help from Peter Warne (Gable)...reluctantly. Either she sticks with him or he blows the whole scoop to the nation. He gets what he wants...a juicy story for the papers. But he gets something else. Features the famous scene where Claudette Colbert stops a car by lifting up her skirt and showing her leg.

                                                                  The first movie to win all five "major" Academy Awards. Considered to be the first great screwball comedy, this one is on my top 5 of screwball comedies. A funny story involves Gable, who was being punished for refusing parts. He was sent to Columbia, the lower studio as punishment. He would win the oscar for It Happened One Night. Clark Gable shines as the tough-on-the-outside guy with the soft interior.  This was the film that made me a fan of Claudette Colbert. Directed by Frank Capra who is one of my favorite directors. This movie has laughs (loads of them). My favorite scene is where Gable yells at Colbert as part of a disguise. It a hilarious scene that will make your sides hurt. Also an interesting note: this movie featured Clark Gable, not wearing a shirt. The next day shirt sales plummeted.

I definately, highly, and definately recommend this!

Movie Review - The Awful Truth

During the month of November, Movie Review's will feature Screwball comedies.

                The Awful Truth (1937)

Director: Leo McCarey

Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy

Running Time: 91 minutes

Production Co.: Columbia Pictures Corporation

Academy Award nominations:

Best Picture

Best Actress - Irene Dunne

Best Supporting Actor - Ralph Bellamy

Best Film Editing

Best Writing

Best Directing    WON

Before their divorce becomes final, Jerry (Cary Grant) and Lucy Warriner (Irene Dunne) both do their best to ruin each other's plans for remarriage, Jerry to haughty socialite Molly Lamont, she to oil-rich bumpkin Daniel Leeson (Ralph Bellamy). Funny strategies are used by Jerry and Lucy to "mess up" the others plan. But they realize that they can't live without each other.

This is a fun screwball comedy that solidified the Cary Grant persona. While Cary Grant is really good (as usual), Irene Dunne steals the show. She is excellent and funny as heck. Ralph Bellamy is superb as the stiff oilman from Oklahoma. Features Asta the dog, from The Thin Man series. A must see for screwball comedies. Leo McCarey won Best Director, and deservedly. A funny note: there was no script for this movie. Everything was improvised which made it all the better. Cary Grant's comedic timing was impecable. The next year he would star in my favorite comedy, Bringing Up Baby. The Awful Truth was good practice. I rate it 5/5 stars.

Star of the Week - Clark Gable

Last week's star was Deborah Kerr. This week's star is none other than the "King" of Hollywood: Clark Gable

Real Name: William Clark Gable

Born: February 1, 1901 in

              Cadiz, Ohio

Died: November 16, 1960 (age 59)

Height: 6-1

Academy Award Nominations:

It Happened One Night (1934)  WON
Mutiny on The Bounty (1935)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Trademark: Often played a virile, lovable rogue whose gruff facade only thinly masked a natural charm and goodness.

 - Small pencil thin mustache

Known as "The King of Hollywood", Clark Gable was a force in Hollywood. Although he is known for his role as Rhett Butler in "Gone With The Wind", Gable was excellent in other roles. My favorite of his is It Happened One Night. Gable was paired alongside Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer, and Lana Turner. It was with his wife Carole Lombard that he is most famous. It's very sad that she died in a tragic plane crash. Years of drinking and smoking and his ballooning weight affected his health in his later years. Clark Gable died of a heart attack in 1960. In 1999 the American Film Institute listed Clark Gable as the 7th greatest male star of all time (behind Bogart, Grant, Stewart, Brando, Astaire (?), and Fonda).

Clark Gable is one of my favorite actors (only behind Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Humphrey Bogart). I used to be not like him very much but he's really grown on me. Only through watching his films did i come to realize that Clark Gable was so great. He definately embodied the word "man". and not bad looking either.

Notable Films: Gone With The Wind, It Happened One Night, Mutiny on The Bounty, The Misfits

Joan Crawford said of Gable "he was a king wherever he went. He walked like one, he behaved like one, and he was the most masculine man that I have ever met in my life."

Life Magazine called Gable: "All man... and then some."