Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Veiled Divas - 1 of 2

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies:

Veiled Divas

1 of 2

For the next two weeks, Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies will be taking a look at motion pictures which deal with the fictional divas of stage and screen!

Yes, it's the biz - show biz! All the glitz, all the glamour, all the glory.

It's all about getting your mug up there on the silver screen or getting that standing ovation. On the flip side - you're a never was, a could've been, a has-been, or a legend.

This week we take a look at veiled divas - the used-to-be stars who had their day in the sun and are now experiencing the downside of fame in a variety of ways.

There's quite a bit to unpack with these particular films, which I relish. It's all delish, so let's take a look and dish on all that glitters, but doesn't necessarily lead to gold!

And where else would we begin, but...

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Sunset Boulevard

(1950)

In the early 1950's, a relatively-unknown Hollywood screenplay-writer can't get a script sold to the studios to save his soul. He's drowning in debt and is thinking of giving up tinsel town for the opportunity to work in an office back in his old hometown. He gets a flat tire while trying to ditch one of his creditors and ends up stowing his car inside the gate of a decaying mansion on Sunset Boulevard belonging to a former silent-film star. Initially, the movie icon hires the writer to work on a screenplay she fervently believes will relaunch her film career, but she soon takes him for her lover, much to the chagrin of her former husband, now-butler. Things grow complicated when the writer falls for a young woman who is an aspiring writer. Learning of the affair, the deluded screen diva's jealousy pushes her over the edge, leading to madness and tragedy.

This black comedy/film noir was directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, produced and co-written by Charles Brackett, and stars Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, and Nancy Olson.  

Billy Wilder went into production with only 61 pages of script finished, so he had to shoot more or less in chronological order. This was a first for Gloria Swanson, but proved a big boon in helping her develop her character's descent into madness.

This would be Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's 17th and final screenplay collaboration. After the completion of his film, Wilder shocked his longtime collaborator by announcing that he wished to dissolve their partnership; this was the result of a fierce quarrel. They had almost came to blows over the montage depicting Norma's preparations for her comeback. Brackett thought the sequence was cruel in its emphasis on what age had done to the one-time beauty, but Wilder insisted it was essential to show how driven she was in her pursuit of youth. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett. He stayed true to his word. The two men never worked together again. 

In an interview Wilder gave in 1996, he claimed that the film was originally conceived as a comedy starring Mae West and Marlon Brando.

Once it became more of a black comedy/film noir, he wanted silent star, Pola Negri as Norma Desmond. However, after talking to her on the phone, Wilder found Negri's Polish accent, which had killed her career, was still too thick for such a dialog-heavy film.

Then  Wilder and his co-writer, Charles Brackett, met with Greta Garbo and tried to convince her to make a comeback. She declined the offer as she had no desire to return to the industry and found the subject of the film distasteful. 

He then reached out to Clara Bow, the famed "IT Girl" of the 1920's, but she declined also citing she had no interest in returning to the film industry due to all the difficulties experienced during her transition from silent to sound films. She said she preferred to remain in seclusion with her husband and sons, leaving her previous life behind.

Other actresses considered for Norma Desmond were Mae West (who wanted to rewrite the dialogue), Norma Shearer, Mae Murray, and Mary Pickford.  Wilder and Brackett went to Pickfair to pitch the story to Pickford, but her horrified reaction as the story progressed made them stop halfway through and apologize - clearly not something suitable for America's sweetheart. West rejected the role because she felt she was too young to play a silent-film star.  Shearer turned down the role as she didn't want to come out of retirement and also found the part to be highly distasteful. Murray thought the whole film in bad taste.

Montgomery Clift was originally cast in the role eventually given to William Holden. However, Clift quit the production two weeks before filming began because he'd just played the kept man of a wealthy older woman in 1949's The Heiress, and felt he hadn't done a convincing job of it. The actor was also wary because he, like the character, was having an affair with a wealthy older former actress, Libby Holman. Holman worried the film would parody their relationship and had told Clift she would commit suicide if he played the role.

Wilder immediately offered the role to Fred MacMurray, who turned it down because he didn't want to play a gigolo. Brando was considered, but the producers thought he was too much of an unknown as a film actor. Gene Kelly was then approached, but MGM refused to loan him out. Reluctantly, Wilder met with William Holden, who'd made a big splash in Rouben Mamoulian's 1939 film, Golden Boy.  However, Holden's films since then had not impressed Wilder. It was mostly Holden's own fault, due to his problems with alcohol which resulted in a string of lackluster performances throughout the 1940's. On the basis of this film and largely due to his continuing association with Wilder, Holden would reach the zenith of his career from 1950-57.

Wilder wanted a fresh face for the part of Betty Schaefer. The part was only Nancy Olson's third film appearance.

William Haines, along with fellow silent screen veterans Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson, was approached to play one of Gloria Swanson's bridge partners. Swanson herself reportedly asked him to do it. Haines declined and fellow screen veteran H.B. Warner took the part. Haines, whose career had ended because of his homosexual off-screen life, was too happy in his new profession as an interior decorator and didn't wish to call attention to his past as an actor. However, he did attend the Hollywood premiere with Joan Crawford on his arm.

Darryl F. Zanuck, Olivia de Havilland, Tyrone Power and Samuel Goldwyn all refused to allow their names to be used in the film, but Wilder decided to use Zanuck's and Power's names anyway. Oddly enough, the reclusive Garbo granted permission to use her name, though when she saw the film itself she was sorry she had done so. She felt that Wilder had used her name in a past-tense context and took offence.

After a private screening for Hollywood dignitaries, Barbara Stanwyck knelt in front of Gloria Swanson and kissed the hem of her skirt. Swanson particularly wanted to know what Mary Pickford thought of the film and was disappointed that she'd left. Swanson was told "She can't show herself, Gloria, she's too overcome. We all are." However, not everyone felt the same way: Mae Murray found the film offensive and Louis B. Mayer's reaction is well documented. Mayer yelled at Wilder in front of the gathered guests, "You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood." To which Wilder replied, "I am Mr. Wilder, and go fuck yourself." In addition, Mayer, who is also Jewish, told Wilder that he should have been left in Germany - a bit insensitive, considering WWII was but a few years past and Wilder had lost family during the war. 

In one of the biggest upsets at the Academy Awards in history, Judy Holliday won the Best Actress Oscar in 1951 for 1950's Born Yesterday, beating  out Gloria Swanson, and Bette Davis, who'd been nominated for her work in 1950's All About Eve. It was widely believed that the two titans canceled each other out, leaving the field clear for Holliday. In later interviews, Davis admitted she thought Swanson's work in Sunset Boulevard was absolutely outstanding.

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Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone

(1961)

As she approaches the age of 50, an actress learns that critics and the public feel she is too old for her role in a play she is about to open on Broadway. Her businessman husband, 20 years her senior and the sole backer of the play, gives her a means out: The two fly off to Rome on a holiday for his health. He suffers a fatal heart attack on the plane and the actress decides to remain in Rome, leasing a magnificent apartment with a magnificent view from the terrace of the seven hills. When a contessa  comes calling, the actress is introduced to a young man with tragic results.

 

Based on the novel by Tennessee Williams, this British romantic drama was made by Warner Bros. and is the only film directed by José Quintero. It stars Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Lotte Lenya and Jill St. John.

According to Penny Stalling, author of 1978's Flesh and Fantasy: "Tennessee Williams wanted the lead in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone to go to Katherine Hepburn, after seeing her performance as the scheming mother in Suddenly Last Summer. But Hepburn, who resented the way her advancing years had been treated in that film, had no intention of inviting comparison between herself and the lonely middle-aged actress who buys the attentions of a male hustler. Although the public was intrigued by rumors of an off-screen liaison between the film’s subsequent stars, Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty, Spring was a disappointment at the box office. It seems that audiences were uncomfortable with the film’s depressing theme, and with the painful similarities between the lives of Vivien Leigh and the mentally unstable Mrs. Stone."

John Cassavetes, Anthony Newley, Jeffrey Hunter, Ben Gazzara, James Darren, John Saxon, George Hamilton, Fabian, and Frankie Avalon were all under consideration for the role which eventually went to Warren Beatty.

 Lotte Lenya earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work as the contessa in this film.

Leigh  had worked previously with the actor who portrays the mysterious young man, frequently called 'the angel of death', who follows Mrs. Stone throughout the film. Jeremy Spenser and Leigh had starred together in 1948's Anna Karenina with Leigh playing the titular character and the then eleven-year-old Spenser portraying Guiseppe.

According to blog extraordinaire, Bitterness Personified, this was Williams' personal favorite film adaptation of any of his works. He rated it highly, saying, "I think that film is a poem" in his 1972 memoirs. But then some doubt may be cast upon William's ability to assess his own work - he also loved the catastrophic 1968 Liz Taylor-Richard Burton mega bomb Boom!. 

The gowns, suits and dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the film were designed by famous French couturier Pierre Balmain, who counted the Duchess of Windsor, Katharine Hepburn, and Marlene Dietrich among his clients.

Vivien Leigh

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Sweet Bird Of Youth

(1962)

A handsome drifter returns to his hometown after many years of trying to make it in the movies. He's accompanied by a fading movie star he picked up along the way. While courting the star in order to secure himself a screen test, he also finds time rekindle an old romance with the daughter of a local politician - the man who forced the drifter to leave town many years ago and told the young man never to come back or there would be consequences!

Based on the 1959 play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, this small town drama was adapted and directed by Richard Brooks and stars Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Madeleine Sherwood, Ed Begley, Rip Torn and Mildred Dunnock.

Geraldine Page was nominated for the 1960 Tony Award for best actress in a drama and re-created her role in this movie. In a magazine interview shortly before her death, Page said the make-up artists and hairdressers spent hours on her face and hair to obtain the look of a beautiful, albeit, aging movie star. The actress felt this glamorized version of the character wasn't right for the part, since the movie screen queen was an alcoholic and drug user, but Page admitted she felt it was the best she ever looked in her entire life.

Ed Begley won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, while Page was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Shirley Knight for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The film  was altered from the play, with Paul Newman's character being portrayed as a drifter rather than a gigolo for hire. The ending was also heavily changed, excising the explicit sexual mutilation scene depicted in the conclusion of the original stage version.

The adaptation of the original play by Tennessee Williams went through several drafts, with director/adaptor Brooks unsure how to film the play's controversial ending in which the drifter is castrated by the politician's hoods. The castration was cut from the film and replaced by the politician's son clubbing the drifter in the face with a cane, followed by the drifter and the politician's daughter running away together.

The film was a hit, making almost $8,000,000 on a $2,000,000 budget.

Because of its then-shocking subject matter, this film was given a pre-MPAA-rating advisory by the MPAA, which prohibited anyone under the age of 18 from attending. This was the equivalent of an X (later NC-17) rating.

Geraldine Page

Stars Geraldine Page and Rip Torn were married in 1963, one year after this film was released. They had performed together in the Broadway version of Sweet Bird of Youth. Sweetly, they remained married until her death in 1987.

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Savage Intruder

(1970)

AKA: Hollywood Horror House

An fading, aging actress secluded in her Hollywood mansion with a retinue of elderly servants employs a new, mentally disturbed, personal assistant who seduces the actress while scheming to take over her large estate.

This psychological horror film was directed by Donald Wolfe and stars Miriam Hopkins, John David Garfield and Gale Sondergaard.

The original title while filming was The Comeback. It also had a limited release as Hollywood Horror House.

Miriam Hopkins plays a former film star who lives in a decaying mansion. The mansion in which the film was shot actually belonged at one time to former silent-film star Norma Talmadge. Talmadge's first name was borrowed for the character of Norma Desmond in 1950's Sunset Boulevard.

This would be Miriam Hopkins' final film. Both Hopkins and Gale Sondergaard - both veteran Hollywood stars - actively campaigned to get this film a theatrical release. Completed in 1970, as of 2020, the film has not yet been included in the American Film Institute on-line catalog of feature films. It bears a 1973 copyright statement on the end titles, but was not formally released until 1974-1975, when Avco Embassy picked it up and re-titled it Hollywood Horror House.

There is currently a version of the film on YouTube you can watch for free! I watched it... it is a much better movie than expected and I truly enjoyed it. Check it out!

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Heat

(1972)

An unemployed former child star supports himself as a hustler in Los Angeles uses sex to get his landlady to reduce his rent. He then seduces a former Hollywood starlet who tries to help Joey revive his acting career but, in reality, her status as a mediocre ex-actress proves quite useless. Further complicating matters, the former actress' psychotic daughter falls for the emotionally numb hustler. 

This comedy/drama was written and directed by Paul Morrissey, produced by Andy Warhol, and stars Joe Dallesandro, Sylvia Miles, Pat Ast, and Andrea Feldman. The film was conceived by Warhol as a parody of the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. It is the final installment of the Paul Morrissey Trilogy produced by Warhol, following 1968's Flesh and 1970's Trash.

This Warhol art film was shown at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival and was also screened at the New York Film Festival on October 5, 1972, before opening the following day at New York's Festival Theatre and then expanding to the Waverly Theatre in Greenwich Village and the Rialto Theatre in Times Square on October 11. 

The film was well received at Cannes and the New York Film Festival screening was standing-room only and was received by a generally enthusiastic crowd however three people walked out, with one lady claiming "It's the most disgusting thing I have ever seen" and referring to the films of the era "Make them, make them, just don't show them to anybody."

At a panel discussion following the New York Film Festival screening, Otto Preminger called it "depressingly entertaining". After previously ignoring most Warhol films, the New York Daily News reviewed the film, with Kathleen Carroll awarding it three stars.

 The advert for the film was censored in the Daily News with a t-shirt painted on Dallesandro and a bra strap on Miles.

Warhol Superstar Andrea Feldman, who was infamous for jumping up and dancing on the tables of Max's Kansas City - a Warhol hangout - had a much larger role than in previous Warhol films. Her performance garnered positive reviews, with Judith Crist, writing in New York magazine, "The most striking performance, in large part non-performance, comes from the late Andrea Feldman, as the flat-voiced, freaked-out daughter, a mass of psychotic confusion, infantile and heart-breaking." 

Shortly before the film was released, Feldman jumped up on the main table at Max's and announced that she was going to finally be a real star. The next morning she killed herself by jumping out of her parent's 14th floor apartment.  

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And that's all for now.

Next week, more divas; all shrouded in mystery.

Until then.

Thanks for reading!

Heat - Trailer

(1972)