Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: Where That Girl From? - Part XI

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's Go To The Movies:

Where That Girl From?

Part XI

Everybody's from somewhere. In theory. Even in the abstract.

Today's cinema excursion dares to ask the poignant question: Where That Girl From?

And who has the answer? 

Hollywood, of course. For Tinseltown has the 411 on anything or anyone who has ever graced the silver screen.

So, off we go... seeking answers, which these vintage films offer up in spades.

Yes, never fear. When it comes to the movies?

You are never truly lost.

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The Girl From Montmartre

(1926)

On the Spanish island of Majorca lives the Faneaux family, product of a degenerate English father of good family and a Spanish woman, whom he had not married. Following the father's death, poverty has driven the daughter, Emilia, into shady living and the brother, Rodney, into disreputable adventures. Rodney, tortured by the realization that his life is doomed to be wasted in poverty, urges his sister to marry Ewing, a crooked but immensely wealthy film actor. However, Emilia rebels and soon afterwards falls in love with Jerome Hautrive, an aristocratic English writer. Love, obsession, and kidnapping - the ingredients of a happy ending. 

This American silent romantic drama was directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Barbara La Marr in her final film role. It also stars Lewis Stone and Robert Ellis.

It was distributed through First National the day after La Marr died.

In late 1925 during filming La Marr collapsed on the film set due her health issue and later lapsed into a coma. The studio completed the film without her - a girl named Lolita Lee completed Barbara La Marr's remaining scenes. It was released the next year on January 31, 1926, which was one day after she died. Two weeks later, First National decided to remove her name from the title card of the film and its advertising, so that the film was promoted as "First National presents The Girl from Montmartre with Lewis Stone."

Barbara La Marr was an American film actress and screenwriter who appeared in twenty-seven films during her career between 1920 and 1926. La Marr was dubbed by the media as the "Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", after Adela Rogers St. Johns, a Hearst newspaper feature writer, reported witnessing a judge sending her home after a police bust in Los Angeles because she was "too beautiful and young to be on her own in the big city." The resulting publicity made her a star.  Her tumultuous personal life also resulted in a great deal of media scrutiny and coverage. 

La Marr became known as the pre-eminent vamp of the 1920s, with the drama of her on-screen roles keeping pace with her private life. She partied and drank heavily, once remarking to the press that she only slept two hours a night. In 1924, La Marr's health began to falter after a series of crash diets, ultimately leading to her death from pulmonary tuberculosis and nephritis at age 29.

Lost Film Files has mistakenly list The Girl from Montmartre as a lost film. However, the online Library of Congress/FIAF database lists a print of the film located in the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection and an excerpt consisting of one reel at UCLA Film and Television Archive. La Marr was a successful film writer before being 'discovered' by Douglas Fairbanks, who gave her a prominent role in his film The Nut. Her third and fourth films found her starring opposite Ramon Novarro, with her star on the rise. 

Barbara La Marr

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The Girl From Maxims

(1933)

AKA: La dame de chez Maxim's, Die Dame vom Maxim

Circumstances force a doctor to pass a singer off as his wife in Paris in 1904. But then his fiancée shows up. And after that? His wife. This is what happens when one drinks too much champagne at The Moulin Rouge.

An adaptation of the 1899 play La Dame de chez Maxim by Georges Feydeau, this British musical comedy was directed by Alexander Korda and stars Frances Day, Leslie Henson, Lady Tree and Stanley Holloway.

A French-language version was filmed at the same time with a different cast under the title La dame de chez Maxim's.

Francis Day

Frances Day was an American actress and singer who achieved great popularity in the UK in the 1930s. Her career began as a nightclub cabaret singer in New York City and London. She married Beaumont Alexander, an Australian agent and publicist in London, in 1927. He masterminded her early career as a dancer in West End nightclubs, where she created favorable notoriety by performing in a G-string with only an ostrich fan for cover. They divorced in 1938 and she never remarried. She acted regularly in films until 1941, and appeared on the London stage in musical revues like Cole Porter's Black Vanities. 

Francis Day

In the 1950's, she made only four films, but appeared as a regular panelist on What's My Line?, which ran until 1963. Rumored to be bisexual, Day was a close "theatrical" friend of the Mayfair heiress Dorothy Hartman, owner of Lendrum & Hartman Limited, the major distributor of Buick and Cadillac cars in London. Day was a regular guest at Hartman's country home, Stumblehole Farm. After retreating into reclusion in Maidenhead, she died of leukemia at the age of 76, leaving all she had to her young solicitor with the following caveat: "There be no notice or information of any kind of my death, except for and if a death certificate is obligatory. Any persons, private or press, you shall simply say that I am no longer at this address. 'Gone away. Destination unknown.', and that is the truth."

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The Girl From Mandalay

(1936)

John Foster and Kenneth Grainger are a couple of Englishmen stationed at a teak wood post. When Foster's fiancée, Mary Trevor, writes him that their engagement is off, he goes to Mandalay. There, while on his drunken holiday, meets and marries a nightclub singer. Jeanie Barton. When he returns to the post in the jungle he becomes ashamed of his bride, and she has to prove she has the right stuff, which includes spurning Grainger's amorous advances.

Based on the 1931 novel Tiger Valley by Reginald Campbell, this American romantic action/drama was directed by Howard Bretherton stars Conrad Nagel, Kay Linaker, Donald Cook, Esther Ralston, Harry Stubbs and Reginald Barlow.

Kay Linaker was an American actress and screenwriter who appeared in many B movies during the 1930s and 1940s, most notably Kitty Foyle (1940). She wrote screenplays under her married name, Kate Phillips, among them? The Blob (1958).

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

Conrad Nagel and Kay Linaker

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The Girl From Monterrey

(1943)

Mexican club singer Lita Valdez is amazed to find that her younger brother Alberto is a talented boxer and is even more thrilled with his consistent success in the ring. That is - until he is forced to fight Jerry O'Leary, the man she loves. Caught between her devotion to both men, Lita does her best to have the match canceled, but there is much more to the boxing racket than she had ever imagined!

This American romantic sports drama was directed by Wallace Fox and stars Armida Vendrell, Edgar Kennedy, Jack LaRue and Veda Ann Borg.

Armida Vendrell was PRC's (Producers Releasing Company) answer to RKO's Mexican Spitfire, Lupe Vélez.

In this film Vendrell performs three songs written by Lou Herscher and Harold Raymond: Jive, Brother, Jive, Last Night's All Over, and The Girl from Monterrey.

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

Armida Vendrell

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The Girl From Maxims

(1950)

AKA: La dame de chez Maxim's

Complications abound when a respectable citizen, a doctor, becomes mixed up with a Moulin Rouge dancer after drinking too much champagne at Maxim's restaurant.

An adaptation of the 1899 play La Dame de chez Maxim by Georges Feydeau, this French comedy was directed by Marcel Aboulker and stars Arlette Poirier, Saturnin Fabre and Marcelle Monthil.

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The Girl From Mani

(1986)

An American teacher falls for a Greek musical prodigy while exploring one of the oldest and most mysterious regions of Greece, the Mani.

This Greek/British romantic drama was directed by Paul Annett and stars Antzela Gerekou and Alex Hyde-White.

Paul Annett directed many television programs, including the ever-popular East Enders (1998–2002 and 2005–2009).

Antzela Gerekou

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

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And that's all for now, folks!

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel.

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'La môme Crevette' - Arlette Poirier

from the 1950 motion picture La Dame de chez Maxim  

Tuesday Titillation: Celebrate The Glory Of The Hole

Tuesday Titillation:

Celebrate The Glory Of The Hole

No doubt, now that winter is upon us, you're seeking an indoor activity to occupy your free time.

Why not celebrate the glory of the hole, by visiting your local glory hole.

If you are fortunate enough to have an established cruising place which has such a feature, good for you!

And if not, all you need do is take a look at Sniffies and you're certain to find a makeshift one in someone's basement, spare bedroom, or heated garage. 

Yes, it is definitely an acquired taste fraught with risk on both sides of that mysterious chasm.

But for those brave enough, the reward is pretty much a guaranteed thing with as little contact as possible.

Need more convincing?

Well, just take a gander at the men below and see if they don't inspire you to do a bit of exploring on your own.

A bit of advice? Bring wet wipes (both sides of the equation) and antiseptic mouth wash (for those on the one side of that equation). 

It's fun to play, but smart to 'come' prepared!

P.S. Careful not to overbook!

Always be cautious...

Especially when entering a stranger's residence.

There are those who prey on those who play.

- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque

The Hole In The Wall - Mel Waiters

 

Hole In The Wall - Billy Idol