Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: She's A Lady! - Part IV

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies:

She's A Lady!

Part IV

Sometimes? It takes a lady. (And sometimes a garden hose!)

Or so these films would have us believe.

They promise lots of drama, the occasional comedy or musical, and a little bit of dirt!

Let's take a walk down Hollywood Blvd. and shine a light on these magnificent classic films.

This way, if you please. But remember...

Ladies first!

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The Divine Lady

(1928)

This partially fictionalized account of the lives of a pair of historical figures begins with the arrival of slatternly Emma Hart, a cook's daughter, at the home of Charles Greville. Greville wastes no time and takes her as his lover, grooming her until such time as their relationship becomes an inconvenience. Greville then tricks Emma into traveling to Naples to live with his uncle, Lord Hamilton, ambassador to the court at Naples. Upon realizing that Greville has abandoned her, Emma agrees to marry Lord Hamilton. Soon, however, she meets Admiral Horatio Nelson of the British Navy. Emma plays a crucial role in convincing Naples to open its ports to Nelson during his campaign against Napoleon's French fleet. Soon, Emma and the married Nelson become romantically involved -- a relationship which will have consequences for them both.

This American pre-Code Vitaphone sound film - with a synchronized musical score, sound effects, and some synchronized singing, but no spoken dialogue - was directed by Frank Lloyd and stars Corinne Griffith, Victor Varconi, H.B. Warner and Ian Keith.

The story is based on the lives of Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) and Lady Emma Hamilton (1765-1815). Their love affair, while both were married to others, shocked English society at the time. After Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar, Lady Hamilton faded into obscurity and died in poverty. The fact that the couple had a daughter named Horatia is not mentioned in the film. The couple's love story inspired many other films, including Making of a Lady (1968), The Nelson Affair (1973), That Hamilton Woman (1941), and Lady Hamilton (1921).

With this film, Frank Lloyd became one of only two directors to win the Best Director Oscar without their movie also being nominated for best picture. The only other film to win a directing Oscar without a best picture nomination was Two Arabian Knights (1927), which won the only Oscar ever given for Comedy Direction to Lewis Milestone. Both Lloyd and Milestone won additional best director Oscars for directing best picture winners, Lloyd for Cavalcade (1933) and Milestone for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

Corrine Griffith received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress. The film also received a nod for Best Cinematography.

This film was a joint preservation project of the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Film Archive. It was restored in conjunction with the project American Moviemakers: The Dawn of Sound.

This was the very first sound film ever exhibited in Argentina. Max Glücksmann presented this film, which was distributed by Warner Bros., with its original Vitaphone soundtrack in the Grand Splendid Movie Theater.

Corrine Griffith

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The Mysterious Lady

(1928)

Austrian Captain Karl von Raden attends the opera one evening, and meets Tania. After the performance, he takes her home, and the two of them spend the next day on a romantic outing. That evening, Karl must deliver some important plans to Berlin. Just before boarding his train, he learns that Tania is really a Russian spy. She comes to see him aboard the train, and admits that she set things up on purpose in order to meet him, but she also insists that she truly has fallen in love with him. When Karl rebuffs her coldly, she steals the plans, which leads to him being court-martialed and imprisoned. Fortunately, Karl's influential uncle is able to provide him with one last chance to clear his name.

Based on the novel War in the Dark by Ludwig Wolff, this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer silent romantic/drama was directed by Fred Niblo and stars Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, and Gustav von Seyffertitz.

The film grossed $543,000 in the US and $541,000 elsewhere, grossing $1,084,000 worldwide, its profit was $369,000.

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The Fast Lady

(1962)

Murdoch Troon, an enthusiastic member of the local cycling club, gets involved with Charles Chingford, a local businessman, when the two of them become involved in an accident. Then Troon meets Chingford's daughter Claire, who persuades him to give up the bicycle, buy a sports car, and learn to drive. At first he is horrified, but with the hope of dating the lovely, attractive Claire, he relents and takes his first driving lesson.

This British comedy was directed by Ken Annakin and stars James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, Kathleen Harrison, and Julie Christie. The screenplay, by Henry Blyth and Jack Davies, was based on the 1925 novel of the same name by Keble Howard. 

It was the third in a trilogy of comedies written by Jack Davies that Annakin made for Independent Artists.

A scene involving a strip tease by Julie Christie was heavily censored.

It was one of the 12 most popular films at the British box office in 1963.

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The Golden Lady

(1979)

A wealthy industrialist hires Julia Hemingway and her elite team of three female mercenaries to sabotage a deal between his competitor and an oil sheik. They spy, seduce, steal and, when their employer tries to double-cross them, they kill!

This British thriller was directed by José Ramón Larraz and stars Christina World, June Chadwick, Suzanne Danielle and Desmond Llewelyn. Filmed in 1978, it was released in 1979.

Director Jose Larraz hated this movie, claiming that screenwriter Joshua Sinclair "couldn't write a letter home to his mother let alone a script".

Christina World receives an 'introducing' credit, even though under the name Ina Skriver she had appeared in several prior films.

Variety reviewed the film unfavorably: "Hard to see much appeal in this cheapie, which features Danish newcomer Christina World as a distaff James Bond, but which will leave audiences neither shaken nor stirred. Action is underpowered, while sex, ever-expected, is underexploited. Script by Joshua Sinclair gets enmeshed in a pretentious plot."

The music for the film was composed by Georges Garvarentz. The theme song to the film, The Golden Lady, was performed by The Three Degrees, and was co-written by Garvarentz with lead vocalist Sheila Ferguson. It was released as a single and peaked at #56 on the UK Singles Chart in June of 1979.

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The Lonely Lady

(1983)

Jerilee Randall, a simple schoolgirl living in the San Fernando Valley, dreams of becoming a famous screenwriter. She meets the son of a famous screenwriter at a party and accepts his invitation to come to his house. They drive away with some other people, and that night one of his friends assaults her with a garden hose! The attack is interrupted - just in time - by screenwriter Walter Thornton. Jerilee and Walter become friends, then fall in love and marry. Their marriage falls apart when Jerilee's script rewrites actually improve one of Walter's screenplays and he feels one-upped. Jerilee then tries to write her own screenplay and have it produced, which ends up involving her in endless sordid affairs.

Adapted from Harold Robbins' 1976 novel of the same name, this American drama was directed by Peter Sasdy and stars Pia Zadora, Lloyd Bochner, Bibi Besch, Jared Martin and Ray Liotta. The original music score was composed by Charlie Calello.

Universal Pictures purchased the film rights for The Lonely Lady in 1975, one year before the novel was published, hoping to release an adaptation in 1976. Susan Blakely, who had signed a three-picture pay-or-play contract with Universal, accepted the role of Jerilee, with the conditional approval of the screenplay and director. Despite multiple drafts by Robert Merrill and Dean Riesner, Blakely was never satisfied with the script and eventually opted out of the project.

Pia Zadora was  reportedly cast in the lead role of Jerilee Randall after source novelist Harold Robbins saw her in Butterfly (1981). However, Robbins ended up despising the film. After seeing a rough cut, he declared it "crap" and never actually saw the finished product. Robbins reportedly based the character Jerilee Randall on his memories of Jacqueline Susann.

Matt Cimber, who had directed 1981's Butterfly was the movie's original director, but dropped out early in production and was replaced by Peter Sasdy. Pia Zadora hated working with Sasdy and initially accused him of ruining the movie, though in later years admitted that the project was doomed from the start, no matter who sat in the director's chair.

Meshulam Riklis, Pia Zadora's billionaire husband at the time, reputedly spent $5 million to make this film, then paid Universal Pictures several more million to give it a theatrical release in the United States.

Just so you have an idea of what we're dealing with here... in the novel on which this movie is based, the scene where Pia Zadora's character accepts the Best Screenplay award was set at the Academy Awards and featured Jerilee Randall dropping her dress to appear totally nude with an Oscar statuette tattooed across her torso, the head of which was buried in her crotch.

Pia Zadora attended an opening night showing of this movie in West Los Angeles, where half of the audience were voting members of the Razzie Awards. The movie was greeted with hoots and howls of derisive laughter throughout the showing.. Afterwards, much to her credit, Zadora gamely stood in the lobby and signed autographs for anyone in attendance who wanted one.

When a rough cut of this movie was sneak previewed in Long Beach, California, it was greeted with raucous laughter throughout. When the editorial staff of Universal Pictures tried to excise the scenes which had been laughed at, they ended up with less than 45 minutes of material left, and were forced to restore much of the risible material before releasing the film.

This movie's entire American marketing campaign - theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio ads - was written by Razzie Awards founder John Wilson, who argued with its producer to restore several especially funny scenes because he wanted to use them as clips in his Razzie Awards for Worst Achievements in Film. The scenes eventually did appear in the released movie, and at the fourth Annual Razzie Awards ceremonies. Wilson cited creating the marketing campaign for The Lonely Lady as the most enjoyable job he ever had.

To promote this movie, Pia Zadora did a semi-nude photo shoot for Oui magazine, published to coincide with its release.

Pia Zadora was the first actress to win back-to-back consecutive Razzie Awards winning first for Worst Actress for Butterfly (1981) then won the same award for this movie the next year. When questioned about the awards, Zadora stated, "I would have hated to be nominated and not won."

This was Ray Liotta's first cinematic appearance. Note: Don't ask about what the garden hose is for.

Roger Ebert opened his review saying that "If The Lonely Lady had even a shred of style and humor, it could qualify as the worst movie of the year. Unfortunately, it's not that good."

Zadora herself said that The Lonely Lady was "a real turkey, done very badly" and that she "knew it was bad all along". Despite being taken seriously by its director, it became a "camp classic, one of those movies that's so bad it's funny". She even attempted to prevent its release: "I wanted my husband to buy it, to buy the whole thing and hide it somewhere. That movie certainly didn't help my credibility problem." Pia Zadora said in an interview "when they show that film on TV, I'm leaving the country".

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel.

The Golden Lady - The Three Degrees