Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Actress!

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies

Actress!

What's a film without a diva?

This week, we take a look at movies about actresses - why, it's right there in the title!

Turns out they have secrets, are ambitious, fall in love, and can be rather difficult. Who knew?

Let's take a look at these classic films, as it all gets a little meta, and learn a bit about the actresses playing an actress!

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The Actress

(1928)

(The leading lady of a theatrical troupe from the west end of London walks out mid-run and goes traipsing off to marry a rich young man from the other side of town. The troupe is up in arms, but their former diva is head over heels in love. Ah, the heart wants what it wants.)

(Based on the 1898 play Trelawny of the Wells by Arthur Wing Pinero, this silent drama film was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Sidney Franklin, and starred Norma Shearer, Ralph Forbes, and Gwen Moore.)

(First brought to the silver screen in 1916  as Trelawny of the Wells, a British made silent film.)

(The play on which this film is based upon first premiered on Broadway in 1898 starring Mary Mannering, was then revived by Ethel Barrymore in 1911, Laurette Taylor in 1925, and Helen Gahagan in 1927.)

Norma Shearer

(According to film historians, Shearer's pre-code films are her best work. Sadly, most, like this film, are considered lost to the ages. TMC recently devoted a whole week to the ones still available, which were numerous, for Shearer was an incredibly prolific and popular actress - something that comes naturally when you're married to the head of production at MGM. Learn more about Norma Shearer, here.)

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Loves Of An Actress

(1928)

 (Thanks to the patronage of three influential men: Baron Hartman, the wealthiest man in France; Count Vareski, a relative of Napoleon; and Paul Lukas, the leading newspaper publisher in Europe, a poor peasant girl  rises quickly through the ranks to becomes the lead actress at the renowned Comédie Française. It seems all three men are in love with her, but further complications arise when she falls in love with a dashing young man who is about to be appointed ambassador to Russia. When the newspaper publisher, in retaliation, threatens to print the girl's love letters to to the future ambassador in the paper, all is jeopardized. In order to to protect her true love's reputation, the actress pretends to have only been leading him on. Unaware of what's going on, the young ambassador believes the actress leaving for Russia as the girl, heartbroken and full of despair exhausted by life, dies peacefully.)

(This silent romance was directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Pola Negri, Raoul Duval, and Mary McAlister.)

 

(Produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky with the distribution through Paramount Pictures, rather than rely upon local talent to play the film score, the  film had a soundtrack of either Vitaphone or Movietone, featuring music and sound effects - so one step closer to talking pictures!)

(This is yet another lost silent film with no known copies in existence.)

Pola Negri

(Negri was an infamous film vamp during the silent age, and the last known lover of Rudolph Valentino. Her career took a nosedive after she tried to make Valentino's funeral all about herself by placing a wreath of white flowers which spelled out her name on his coffin, crying hysterically and fainting three times. The press reported it as a distasteful publicity stunt and her reputation never truly recovered.)

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Secrets Of An Actress

(1938)

(When a hopeful actress who wants to make it big on Broadway meets a disenchanted architect whose real dream is to produce a play, it seems a match made in twinkling lights. Sure enough, the actress becomes the toast of the Great White Way and the two develop feelings for one another, but things get complicated when the architect's former business partner - who has a very controlling wife - meets the girl and falls head over heels in love.)

(This romantic drama was directed by William Keighley, and stars Kay Francis, George Brent, and Ian Hunter.)

(At the time of the making of this film,  Kay Francis's legal battles with the Warner Bros. were front-page news. For years she had been one of  their brightest stars, but in recent years she'd been relegated to B films and Bette Davis's cast-offs. Davis was now their new queen and that did not sit well with Francis - this would prove to be her last film with the studio, and note how they demoted her to first billing beneath the title.) 

 

(During the opening credits we see a woman's hands opening a locked diary; which displays the credits as the pages are turned. This was a pointed reference to the infamous sex diary kept by Mary Astor which had scandalously been entered into evidence during the actress's recent divorce trial - it's the only explanation that makes any sense, since a diary plays no part in the movie's plot.)

Kay Francis

Kay Francis moved from Broadway to film in the late 1920's, and enjoyed her greatest success between 1930 and 1936., During that time, she was the #1 female star and highest-paid actress on the Warner Bros. lot. From 1930-37, Francis appeared on the covers of 38 film magazines, second only to child sensation Shirley Temple. Learn more about Kay Francis, here.

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актриса

(1943)

AKA: Actress / Aktrisa

(A famous operetta actress quits the theater and takes a position as a nanny in a military hospital where she meets a wounded major and falls in love.)

(This Russian drama was directed by Leonid Trauberg and stars Galina Sergeyeva, Boris Babochkin and Zinaida Morskaya.)

(This was Galina Sergeyeva final film.)

(Galina Sergeyeva was a Soviet and Russian actress. She was the second wife of the famous Soviet opera singer Ivan Kozlovsky. They had two daughters.)

Galina Sergeyeva

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The Actress

(1953)

(A retired seaman who now works at a lowly job in order to support his family. Their home life is thrown into turmoil when his daughter, who is being courted by a promising young local boy, announces that she must become an actress! Her ambition so disrupts their lives that her father loses his job. However, eventually and ultimately, he insists on supporting her dreams, giving  her his seaman's spyglass to sell in order to make it  to New York City.)

(Based on Ruth Gordon's autobiographical play Years Ago, this comedy-drama was directed by George Cukor and stars Jean Simmons, Spencer Tracy, Teresa Wright, Mary Wickes, Jackie Coogan, and Anthony Perkins. Gordon, herself, wrote the screenplay.)

(Debbie Reynolds was MGM's and George Cukor's first choice to play Ruth Gordon. However, he soon began to have doubts about her. He thought that, although she had the right qualities for the part, she was lacking in other areas, and especially didn't like that she wasn't familiar with Shakespeare. In the end, he didn't think her screen test was very good. Reynolds was greatly disappointed when MGM executive Dore Schary, who had the final word, decided not to cast her, with the role going to Jean Simmons instead.)

(This served as the film debut of Anthony Perkins. During an interview with Dick Cavett, Perkins revealed that, previous to filming, he had played this role in summer stock in Delaware. When he learned they were doing a film version, he got himself to Hollywood and tried to get a screen test for the role, but was rejected by the studio. But he hung around as other actors were tested, and when they needed someone to feed lines to an actress, they asked him to do it. Cukor, who was filming the tests, specifically asked Perkins, who was facing away from the camera, to move to the side, so the camera would have an unimpeded view of the actress being tested. Perkins pretended not to understand and swung his head around so the camera would capture his full face and when the producers were watched the test later, while they took a pass on the actress they gave Perkins the role he wanted.)

(Gordon did go on yo become an accomplished Academy Award-winning actress and a successful writer, however, the film ends without the audience seeing what becomes of the young actress once she reaches New York City.)

Teresa Wright

 (Teresa Wright, whose real first name is Muriel, was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - the first time, in 1941 for her debut work in The Little Foxes, opposite Bette Davis, and in 1942 for Mrs. Miniver, opposite Greer Garson. Second time was the charm - she won. That same year, she also received a nomination for Best Actress for her performance in The Pride of The Yankees, opposite Gary Cooper. In addition, she is remembered for her performances in Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 film, Shadow of a Doubt and William Wyler's 1946 film, The Best Years of Our Lives.)

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next time...

Same time, same channel.

Actress - Chrissy Metz