The Great Katharine Hepburn

Don't mess with a Congressman's daughter.

"Say anything about me, darling, as long as it isn't boring."

"My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine."

Tallulah Bankhead, who passed away in 1968 at the age of 66, would have turned 111 years old last Thursday. In her lifetime she only made 15 movies and only performed in 23 Broadway stage productions. Her only claim to literary fame was an autobiography entitled "My Autobiography." And she was only 5'3".

So why should we remember Tallulah Bankhead?

Because she was a nut. A character. A bonne vivante. A persona(to use the magic word). In short, Tallulah Bankhead was a very interesting person.

Politics and Family (one and the same thing for the Bankheads)

Tallu was named after her grandmother, who practically raised Bankhead and her sister while the men in the family were in Washington running the country. The Brockman/Bankheads were Alabama Southern Democrats. Tallulah's father was Speaker of the House from 1936-1940, and her uncle and grandfather were both Senators (John H. Bankhead I and II).

Tallulah Bankhead on "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" (1957)

Education

"I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That's what I call a liberal education."

Sports

Bankhead was an avid supported of the New York Giants.

"There have been only two geniuses in the world: Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare. But darling, I think you'd better put Shakespeare on first."

New York City

At the age of 15, Bankhead moved to New York city to pursue her acting career. A shameless party girl, Tallulah made no bones about experimenting with every new experience she came upon, from cocaine to marijuana, alcohol, and sex. She became chummy with Dorothy Parker's group of friends, eventually becoming a periphery member of the Algonquin Round Table. After becoming successful on Broadway, Bankhead moved to London for several years to work in the West End before relocating to Hollywood to make movies.

"Cocaine isn't habit-forming and I know because I've been taking it for years."

Tallulah and Katharine: Besties or Freinemies?

Tallulah Bankhead's first film in Hollywood was directed by none other than our friend George Cukor, long-time chum of Katharine Hepburn. Cukor was famous for his lavish parties (the only parties Hepburn ever attended out in Tinsel Town), and that's how the two women met. Although the two didn't hit it off at first, they came to respect each other in the end.

"'Of all the dreary, opinionated college girls I ever hoped to meet!' Bankhead exclaimed to Cukor after her first encounter with Kate, insisting that Kate reminded her of nothing so much as 'a New England spinster.'
And Kate complained: 'I must say your friend Miss Bankhead uses all sorts of words. I don’t think it’s very amusing.'
Before Tallulah left for New York, Cukor arranged to show her a rough cut of Kate’s work-in-progress. After the screening, she rushed to the set of Little Women. Tears pouring down her cheeks, and clutching three wet handkerchiefs, Bankhead fell on her knees before Kate.
'Tallulah!' Cukor turned a cool eye on her. 'You’re weeping for your lost innocence.'
Bankhead provided the first hint that Little Women would be Kate’s biggest box-office hit to date." (Leaming 284)

Tallulah Bankhead, President Herbert Hoover, Helen Hayes, and Katharine Hepburn

Miss Hepburn was touched by Bankhead's enthusiasm for her work, but the two did not socialize as much as the press believed. In 1990, Hepburn tried to set the record straight on their friendship in the public eye:

“I know practically nothing about Tallulah. She always assumed we were much greater friends than we actually were. I thought she was a damned good actress when she cared to be. And a very entertaining personality. But I honestly don’t know any more than this.” (Tallulah: A Bio-Biography)

While Hepburn denies any deep and lasting sort of friendship, it is clear that she respcted Miss Bankhead's talents. She certainly harboured no ill-feeling toward her. In fact, when Miss Bankhead was one of the few to send Miss Hepburn a wire of condolence after Spencer Tracy's death, she replied with a very heartfelt letter.

In her autobiography (the one brilliantly titled "My Autobiography"), Miss Bankhead describes her admiration for Katharine Hepburn:

“Katharine Hepburn is one of the most stimulating women I know. She’s unfeminine in that she scorns gossip, backbiting, and logrolling. She has an intelligent curiosity about everything. She spits out her opinions no matter how unpopular they may be. She makes no professional or social concessions. She’s a gal I’d like to have on my side in a jam.”

The Very Best of Tallulah Bankhead

I would have loved to see Miss Bankhead in the Broadway performances that were later made into films starring Bette Davis: DARK VICTORY (1939) and THE LITTLE FOXES (1941). Everyone says that Davis's portrayal of Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) was based on Tallulah Bankhead. Bankhead herself liked to refer to the movie as "All About Me" on her radio show.

Bankhead's "The Big Show" radio broadcast is still an absolute delight, especially if you love classic film. Every week she hosted a 90-minute program with the best star line up Hollywood and New York could offer. It was a variety show that featured the best in comedy, musical, and dramatic talent. Full episodes are available online, and I strongly suggest that you check it out. Here's a clip from a segment Tallu did with the fabulous Marlene Dietrich.

Bankhead proved what a great actress she could be in Alfred Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT (1944). Bankhead plays a glamorous journalist who rules the roost, or rather the lifeboat, lost at sea after their ship is sunk by a German sub. When the lifeboat picks up the U-boat captain, the American survivors must decide what to do with him, and they certainly don't all agree. But through fair weather and foul, Tallulah never stops being fabulous.

I will leave you with this clip from LIFEBOAT. I hope you'll enjoy it and join me in wishing Tallulah Bankhead a very Happy Belated Birthday! We still love you, Tallu!

Friends often ask me which Katharine Hepburn film is my all-time favorite. I usually hem and haw and feed them a line about how there is a Hepburn film for every occasion. Sometimes I say that the one I saw last is my favorite. Other times I'll list a top five and watch as their eyes glaze over. Basically, when people ask me about my favorite Katharine Hepburn film, I lie.

Because I do in fact have an ultimate favorite Katharine Hepburn film. My favorite Katharine Hepburn film of all time and in all universes is... Howard Hawks's BRINGING UP BABY (1938). Please, don't judge me.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of BRINGING UP BABY. It's a movie I can watch a million times and still pee myself laughing. I could recite every single line in every scene, but I still demand absolute silence, waiting with baited breath for each familiar punch line. This is the film I force on all my newby-classic-movie-fan-friends. All right, to be perfectly honest, I did force this movie on practically everybody in my college dorm. If I missed you, you're gonna have to come over this weekend so we can remedy that.

One of my roommates had to leave half-way through the movie because Susan (Hepburn) was stressing her out too much. Another kept asking me to pause the DVD and explain what had just happened, who had said what, and why. However, there were the other friends (the ones who remained my friends) who enjoyed a good skip through the halls singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" at the top of our voices. With these friends I often had to pause the show so that we could take bathroom breaks because they had been laughing as hard as me (the copious amount of tea that usually accompany any viewing experience with me probably didn't help)!

Whatever the case, BRINGING UP BABY is a great movie to watch with friends. Whether the memories be good or bad, there's no doubt that we all bonded over this screwball comedy.

I won't give you an in-depth synopsis of the film because A.) you need to see it for yourself, B.) there are plenty of other sites where you can find a perfectly decent summary of the plot, and C.) you need to see it for yourself. 'Nuff said.

However, I can fill you in on some pretty sweet trivia that only a life obsessed with Katharine Hepburn can teach you. You are welcome!

Katharine Hepburn became an immediate hit in Hollywood when she first went out there in the early 1930s, winning her first Oscar for her third film: MORNING GLORY (1933). Unfortunately, a string of mediocre films in the mid-30s resulted in her being label "box office poison" and Hollywood's "ice queen."

In order to remedy her soured reputation, the studio signed her up to make a screwball comedy (in contrast to the stuffy period dramas she had been bombing in). BRINGING UP BABY was originally published as a short story in Collier's magazine. Although the film has become a part of the Hepburn canon, it completely flopped at the time losing the studio a lot of money: "$365,000, give-or-take tens of thousands" (Katharine Hepburn). This was due to both the waning popularity of screwball as a genre and Katharine Hepburn as an actress. Hepburn made one more film in the 1930s (George Cukor's HOLIDAY (1938) also starring Cary Grant) before returning to the east coast to regroup.

"Baby" the Leopard

The leopard whom Susan Vance (Hepburn) and David Huxley (Grant) chase all through BRINGING UP BABY was an eight-year-old female named Nissa. The trainer Olga Celeste had perfume rubbed onto Miss Hepburn's leg that would make Baby more playful. They also put resin on the bottom of Hepburn's shoes so that she wouldn't slip and startle the leopard. Katharine Hepburn enjoyed working with the big cat, at first...

Trainer Olga Celeste said of Katharine Hepburn: "If Miss Hepburn should ever decide to leave the screen she could make a very good animal trainer. She has control of her nerves and, best of all, no fear of animals." (Edwards 162)

Co-star Cay Grant said: "Now, Kate was never worried by Baby. She liked to pull her tail, fearless girl that she was, and Baby seemed to enjoy it. Kate didn't pull very hard." (Chandler 116)

Because of Hepburn's comfort level with the leopard, she shot a few of the scenes in the cage with the cat. The camera and sound equipment were poked through holes in the cage. Hepburn remembers when things went south with her relationship with Baby:

"I must add that I didn't have brains enough to be scared, so I did a lot of scenes with the leopard just roaming around... But - a large but - one quick swirl and that leopard made a swing for my back, and Olga brought that whip down right on [her] head. That was the end of my freedom with the leopard." (Hepburn 240)

Poor Cary Grant was never comfortable on set with he wild cat. From day one he kept his distance.

"I make an effort to get along with all of my co-stars, the director, everyone on the set, but I did not wish to establish a relationship with baby." (Chandler 116)

Katharine Hepburn enjoyed tormenting Grant: "Cary had always refused to work with the leopard. Didn't care for it at all. Once, to torture him, we dropped a stuffed leopard through the vent at the top of his dressing room. Wow! He was out of there like lightning." (Hepburn 238)

Stunts and Scene-Stealing

BRINGING UP BABY is not unlike most screwball comedies in that its scenes are full of a lot of dashing around, running into things, and falling down. In all her films, Hepburn always insisted on doing her own stunts, claiming (and rightly so) that it was much more realistic. Hepburn was an athletic person all her life, and films like BRINGING UP BABY gave her the arena, and the audience, to show off her skill. Hepburn also enjoyed ad-libbing when things didn't go according to plan. When the heel of her shoe came off during a pratfall, she turned it into one of the most famous lines of the film: "I was born on the side of a hill!"

Director Howard Hawks admired Hepburn's coordination and balance in making the film: "She has an amazing body – like a boxer. It's hard for her to make a wrong turn. She's always in perfect balance. She has that beautiful coordination that allows you to stop and make a turn and never fall off balance. This gives her an amazing sense of timing. I've never seen a girl that had that odd rhythm and control." (Edwards 163)

Cary Grant had trained as a circus performer before he entered the movie business. In SYLVIA SCARLETT (1935) he and Hepburn perform as a part of a travelling troup. In HOLIDAY (1938) they exhibit a few tumbling feats. In the final scene of BRINGING UP BABY, Grant rescues Hepburn from atop a crumbling brontosaurus skeleton. They shot it all in one take. Many years later, Grant remembered his misgivings about the scene:

"Both Kate and I wanted to do the scene, but I voted for not doing it. I had experience in that kind of thing, but Kate had none, as far as I knew. She said, 'I could do that kind of thing when I was a child. My father strung up a trapeze for us, and I was really good.' 'Yes, but that was when you were a child.' 'You'll see,' she said, but I was still worried... I pulled her up, and it was delightfully easy. She was really light... I asked her if she'd been at all afraid. 'Oh no,' she said. She looked innocently into my eyes. 'I trusted perfectly.' She said she knew I knew what I was doing. But the thing was, she was the one who had to do it just right. She really was a remarkable athlete, just as she has said. But you know, just the memory of that scene makes me shiver. If Kate had fallen, I'd never have forgiven myself. We were both crazy. BRINGING UP BABY has always been called a 'screwball comedy.' Well, we were the two screwballs." (Chandler 118-119)

Quips, Quotes, and Comebacks

The best thing about BRINGING UP BABY is he script. Every time I watch the movie I hear something new. The multiple layers of humour in each scene certainly keep viewers on their toes. I'll leave you with some of my favorite lines. Thank you very much for reading this post. I look forward to hearing your own reminiscences about BRINGING UP BABY in the comments below!

Susan to David: "You know why you're following me? You're a fixation" ... "The love impulse in man frequently reveals itself in terms of conflict."

Susan to David: "If you had an aunt who was going to give you a million dollars if she liked you, and you knew she wouldn't like you if she found a leopard in your apartment, what would you do?"

David: "Susan, you have to get out of this apartment." Susan: "I can't, I have a lease."

Susan reading letter from her brother: "'He's three years old, gentle as a kitten, and likes dogs.' I wonder whether Mark means he eats dogs or is fond of them? Mark is so vague at times."

Susan: "You've just had a bad day, that's all." David: "That's a masterpiece of understatement."

David: "Susan, when a man is wresting a leopard in the middle of a pond, he's in no position to run!"

David: "Now don't lose your head, Susan." Susan: "I've got my head - I've lost my leopard!"

David: "I bet Miss Swallow knows poison ivy when she sees it." Susan: "Yes, I bet poison ivy runs when it sees her."

David: "Now, it isn't that I don't like you, Susan. Because, after all, in moments of quiet I'm strangely drawn toward you. But, well, there haven't been any quiet moments."

"At Home With Kate: Growing Up in Katharine Hepburn's Household: An Intimate Portrait" is a bit of a highfalutin title for this humble volume. The book is written by the daughter of Katharine Hepburn's cook/housekeeper at the NYC residence, so the author did not actually "grow up" in Katharine Hepburn's household. That's not to say she didn't accumulate a number of interesting anecdotes about the star, but let's just try and keep things in perspective.

In the early 1930s, after Hepburn had made her initial splash out in Hollywood, she and her husband Luddy moved into 244 East 49th Street, a brownstone in the Turtle Bay area of New York City. They rented the house furnished for $100 a month, and in 1937 Hepburn purchased the house for $27,500. 244 would be Hepburn's New York headquarters for the rest of the 20th century.

"It's handy and comfortable - faces south and used to be full of sunshine. Now the skyscrapers on the street behind me cut out a lot of the sun - too bad - but it's quiet and convenient and it's mine and I like it." (Me 152)

Katharine Hepburn hired Nora Considine as her cook/housekeeper in 1972. "She was the only applicant who stood up when I entered the room. Now tell me, how could I let her go?" Nora was in her thirties Irish, Catholic, and a mother of five children (the author of this book was her younger daughter). Nora was a fair cook, she was selfless, hard working, practical, warm-hearted, jovial, and she was usually discreet - all qualities Hepburn admired and demanded of her domestic help. She often solicited the help of her children when Miss Hepburn as entertaining, so they too were given a rare glimpse into the life of their mother's employer.
244 map

Unfortunately, the anecdotes Eileen Considine-Meara provides in this book are in no way profound. Because of her tangential relationship to Katharine Hepburn, the isn't much "intimacy" about her portrait of the star. Most of the stories come across like bad jokes that wouldn't seem significant unless you were actually there at the time. However, I will say that although these titbits don't offer any original insight into Hepburn's later years, they do serve to confirm what the more extensive biographies have said.

While the anecdotes themselves aren't much to write home about, the book does include some features that cannot be found elsewhere. For example, once you get past the publicity portraits we've seen a million times over, there are in fact some photos of the inside of 244 that I had never seen before. Considine-Meara also includes a layout for each of the floors in the house.
recipe

The book is peppered with a number of Katharine Hepburn's favorite recipes, prepared just the way she liked them: Flamande salad, chicken loaf, Dick's chicken salad, creamed chip beef on toast, rum cake, Laura's lemon gelatin dessert, Fenwick meat loaf, Irish soda bread, THE BROWNIES, Sondheim's gezpacho, Hilly's chicken piccata, lace cookies, beef stew, beet soup, hot toddy, etc.

Glancing at the table of contents, you will also notice a number of very big names. It is true that Miss Hepburn socialized with plenty of famous people while in New York, and stories about many of them can be found here: Irene Selznick, Stephen Sondheim, Jane Fonda, Barbara Walters, Michael Jackson, Robert Wagner, Sidney Poitier, Liz Smith, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Quinn, Warren Beatty, and Bob Dylan.
Nora and KH

You can also learn more about the members of Hepburn's intimate circle of friends and family: husband Luddy, brother Dick, friend Laura Harding, Spencer Tracy's daughter Susie, Cynthia McFadden, driver Hilly, and sidekick Phyllis Wilbourn.

All in all, I am glad that I finally let myself read "At Home With Kate." I had expected it to be a vulgar tell-all about her personal life, but Considine-Meara's distance from the star actually helped this book avoid the mire of a gossipy betrayal. You won't find any dirt here. In fact, the book tells us more about what it was like to work for Katharine Hepburn than it does about the lady herself. So maybe it can't be used for academic research - it's a quick read, it's a cute read, so I have no qualms about recommending it as a bedside book.

Further reading:

The Private World of Katharine Hepburn by John Bryson

Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg

Knowing Hepburn and Other Curious Experiences by James Prideaux

Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn

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"Mother with her real savvy of life. She adored [father]. She adored us. She was deep. She was witty. Some say I am like her. I hope so, I'd be so proud." (Hepburn 27)

On the 106th anniversary of Katharine Hepburn's birth (May 12, 1907), is only seems fitting to pay a Mother's Day tribute to Mrs. Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn. As much as I admire Katharine Hepburn the film actress, the real heroine of that family was her mother Kit.

Mrs. Hepburn was involved in most major causes of the Progressive Reform Era, including woman suffrage, social hygiene, and birth control. She worked tirelessly for women's rights in a way that both enabled and encouraged her oldest daughter to live a life of independence many women of the time could only dream of.

Katharine Martha Houghton was born in Corning, NY in February, 1878. Her father Alfred Houghton was the younger brother of the head of the famous Corning Glass Company, Amory Houghton. Kathy had one older half-sister, Mary, and two younger sisters, Edith and Marion. Unfortunately, a combination of weak nerves, pressure at work, and an overbearing bully of an older brother drove Alfred to suicide in 1892, leaving his wife Carrie Garlinghouse to raise their three girls alone.

"My mother talked a lot about her [Carrie Garlinghouse]: her beauty, her strength of character - her determination that her daughters get an education and live lives independent of the very dominating Amory Houghton Corning Glass group. Her credo: Go to college! Get an education!" (Hepburn 13)

Carrie Houghton often attended lectures on women's rights at the Women's Union Coterie in Buffalo with friends, and she believed "no topic was too controversial or advanced for the girls" (Leaming 27). Although Carrie had desperately wanted to attend college as a young women, her father had disapproved of education for girls. As a mother, she threw herself into preparing her daughters for Bryn Mawr College, one of the "Seven Sisters" women's colleges on the east coast. About a year before Kathy was to start college, Carrie contracted stomach cancer and tragically passed away at the age of 34, but not without communicating the importance of college to her eldest daughter:

"Carrie's message to Kathy was to allow nothing to distract the girls from the goal their mother had set. No matter what the executors might say, it was up to her to keep her sisters together and get them to Bryn Mawr. Kathy ... remembered her mother's words a 'a divine command.'" (Leaming 38)

The sixteen-year-old Katharine had to fight her relatives tooth and nail for several years, but she and Edith both managed to attend and graduate from the Bryn Mawr College of legendary president M. Carey Thomas. Both sisters continued to Johns Hopkins around the turn of the century, where they would meet their future husbands. Since the classes were seated alphabetically, Edith Houghton sat with Thomas Hepburn and Don Hooker. She took Hooker for herself and let sister Kathy have Hepburn.

A few years later, Kit Houghton Hepburn found herself married to a successful doctor, whom she loved, and a couple adorable children. Yet she still felt dissatisfied with her life. "But me, what of me, what of me? Is this all that I am here for? There must be something. I have a Bachelor's degree, I have a Master's degree." She didn't like the idea of simply playing nursemaid to the next generation. Then her husband suggested they attend a feminist lecture given by British suffrage leader Emmeline Pankhurst. The rest is history:

"Women. Their problems. The vote. Prostitution. The white-slave traffic. Teenage pregnancy. Venereal disease. Huge public meetings. They discovered many of the problems on Hartford's conscience." (Hepburn 18)

Kit Hepburn was President of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association until she resigned in 1917 to join Alice Paul's more aggressive National Women's Party. After winning the vote in 1920, Mrs. Hepburn turned her attentions to birth control, becoming a good friend a co-worker of Margaret Sanger. When Katharine Hepburn's films started to become popular in the 1930s, Mrs. Hepburn worried that her controversial political activities would have a negative impact on her daughter's movie work. However, Miss Hepburn encouraged her mother to carry on, stating "I detest the newspaper's reference to her as Katharine Hepburn's mother. My mother is important. I am not" (Leaming 292).

Baby Katharine grew up marching in suffrage parades, blowing up "Votes for Women" balloons, participating in any number of athletic activities, and simply living the tomboy childhood her mother encouraged. Kit Hepburn had six children in fifteen years, three boys and three girls. With all her social and political activities, she still managed to make it home for tea time with her family. Bedtime was also her special time with her children, when she enjoyed hearing about their day, reading them bedtime stories, and singing them to sleep. And all six of her adoring children were proud of the work their mother was doing to make the world a better place.

"Don't give in. Fight for your future. Independence is the only solution. Women are as good as men. Onward! You don't have too much money, but you do have independent spirits. Knowledge! Education! Don't give in! Make your own trail. Don't moan. Don't complain. Think positively." (Hepburn 14)

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“I believe, I hope, audiences have forgotten I ever made that film. I try not to say bad things about pictures I chose to make and took money for making them, but this one doesn't count.” (Katharine Hepburn, Chandler 216)

When THE IRON PETTICOAT was released in the middle of America's McCarthy Era of the 1950s, it failed as a political statement, as a comedy, and as a romance. It failed financially. Scholars have more or less dismissed it as an epic fail in every regard, labelling it one of Hepburn's major flops. However, the film contains an intriguing feminist angle that is not ridiculed and tamed, though the structure of the story is presumed to be headed in that general direction.

If you haven't seen this rare gem on Turner Classic Movies, you may not have seen it at all (someone has posted it here on YouTube, but goodness knows how long it will be up). Since it was unable to earn anything at the box office it quickly disappeared, only recently resurfacing on DVD. The basic premise is this: female communist Captain Vinka Kovelenko has defected from the Soviet Union, not because she harbours any capitalist sympathies, but because she is fed up with the sexist attitudes of the Soviet air force. Major John Lockwood (Bob Hope) is hauled in to spend time with Vinka in Paris in order to "convert" Captain Kovolenko to capitalism.

Vinka: "I have lost my temper." Colonel: "At the Comunists?" Vinka: "No! At the male sex!"

It would appear that the story arch is feministically debilitating, that Hepburn's character's feminist inclinations are ridiculed and tamed. Hepburn/Vinka's overt feminist tendencies are posed as equivalent to her communist beliefs, and both must be corrected and reversed.

"Russians and feminists must be punished, first of all for not wanting what they ought to want, and then, since they really want it after all, punished further by being unable to have it." (Britton 219)

"Just as feminists are really love-starved old maids, so Russian commissars are really desperate for the joys of capitalism." (Britton 218)

The question is whether or not the film succeeds in converting the feminist communist into a feminine capitalist. One of the epic fails of the film is that it is unable to complete the task it presents itself. While this turns the film into a success for feminist Hepburners like me, it makes the film as a whole a bit superfluous because its conclusion does not match its thesis. If the film is going to argue that feminist communists should become feminine capitalists, the film's conclusion should not be that masculine capitalists should fall in love with feminist communists.

Major Lockwood: "I'm a Red, 100%, and she did it!"

One of the biggest problems with THE IRON PETTICOAT was the incongruous pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope. The two were not exactly simpatico, so whoever thought their screen romance would come across must have been smoking something.

“My character was supposed to change because of love, my falling in love with Bob Hope. I wasn't that good an actress, and he was supposed to be a man women fell in love with, and of all these women, he chooses me. Oh, come on now. No one could have been that good an actor.” (Chandler 216)

Hepburn and Hope tried to make the most of the situation, and while neither ever really warmed to the other, they tried to get along as professionals. Though Hope accused Hepburn of having "zilch sense of humor" (Chandler 216) and Hepburn called Hope "the biggest egomaniac with whom I have worked in my entire life" (Berg 232), they both got through the picture without killing each other. In after years, Hope even remembered Hepburn fondly as "the Jewish mother on the set, fussing over everyone who happened to sneeze" (Bob Hope: A Life in Comedy 256).

In his Bob Hope biography (Bob Hope: The Road Well-Travelled), Lawrence Quirk is one of the few to give the Hepburn/Hope pairing the benefit of the doubt. He allows that the two did not get along, but that they were both committed to the project and maintained a polite, if wary, working relationship during filming.

Writer Ben Hecht, on the other hand, was so furious with what his film had become that he attempted having his name removed from the project. He wrote this open letter in The Hollywood Reporter:

“My dear partner Bob Hope,

This is to notify you that I have removed my name as author from our mutilated venture The Iron Petticoat. Unfortunately, your other partner, Katharine Hepburn, can't shy out of the fractured picture with me. Although her magnificent comic performance has been blow-torched out of the film, there is enough left of the Hepburn footage to identify her for the sharpshooters. I am assured by my hopeful predators The Iron Petticoat will go over big with people “who can't get enough of Bob Hope.” Let us hope this swooning contingent is not confined to yourself and your euphoric agent, Louis Shurr.”

Despite its shortcomings, I can't help but enjoy THE IRON PETTICOAT. Hepburn's Captain Vinka Kovolenko is a pretty kick-butt woman. She presents a pretty viable view of womanhood, its possibilities rather than its limitations. She also has some pretty funny scenes. In one scene (0:54:45) she is dancing with a man who is trying to kidnap her by forcing her into a closet (unbeknownst to her). When she sees Major Lockwood go by, she tells her partner to stop dancing. When he doesn't, she tosses him into the closet and shouts, "Next time stop when I say stop!" I laughed my head off at that part!

So maybe it's not the best movie Hepburn ever made. I still laughed my head off. Sometimes I laughed because it was so awful, but sometimes I laughed because it was really funny. Maybe you will too. If you've seen THE IRON PETTICOAT, I'd love to hear your thoughts below, so do leave a comment!

This post was written in conjunction with the Funny Lady Blogathon, hosted by Fritzi Kramer at Movies Silently. This article and many more film/feminist-related articles by may be found at margaretperry.org.

“You've heard it before: Women aren't funny. The opinion has been appearing and reappearing in various guises for decades... But few assertions are easier to prove than this one. It's as simple as saying that women make us laugh.” (We Killed 3)

“Women have always been funny. It's just that every success is called an exception and every failure an example of the rule. (We Killed 5)

Women have been active participants in history since the dawn of time (Who Cooked the Last Supper?), and the world of comedy is no exception. When looking back over the history of entertainment, who is the earliest comedienne you can think of? Fanny Brice immediately comes to mind. I am also reminded of Charlie Chaplin's leading lady Edna Purviance. No doubt there are many examples of funny ladies from Hollywood's Golden Age - let's not forget our very own Katharine Hepburn in such films as BRINGING UP BABY (1938) and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940).

But what of television's golden age? Were women funny in an era when the happy housewife was the glorified ideal of American femininity? You bet your bloomers they were!

“The women featured here headlined their own sitcoms and were the top-billed stars of those shows. These actresses and their characters were the primary laugh-getters on some of the most highly rated sitcoms of the 1950s, shows that were noteworthy not only for their popularity, but for their innovation and creativity in the then-young medium of television.” (The Women Who Made Television Funny)

Many of television's first sitcoms were holdovers from radio. Husband and wife comedies like Ozzie and Harriet, Fibber McGee and Molly, and George Burns and Gracie Allen all enjoyed profound success on the airwaves before appearing on the small screen. Despite Beatrice Arthur's later comment that the women of these shows were "just a bubblehead out to get laughs," each earned professional respect as a comedienne in her own right.

This was certainly true of what I like to call "The Big Three" of early television comedy: Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and Betty White. The popularity of these comediennes, obtained independent of their male co-stars, has endured to today.

Lucille Ball

Although Lucille Ball enjoyed B-list success in Hollywood, her real claim to fame would be as television's favorite zany housewife. This fiery red-head has been the undisputed queen of comedy since My Favorite Husband aired on radio in 1948 co-starring Richard Denning. When the show went to television in 1951, Ball insisted on playing opposite her husband Desi Arnaz, and I Love Lucy was born. The show ran until 1957, then it was followed by The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960). Ball went on to have her name featured in the title of two more television sitcoms, The Lucy Show (1962-68) and Here's Lucy (1968-74). In 1964, Ball bought Arnaz's share of Desilu Studios, which the couple had formed in 1950, to become the sole owner of one of the most successful television production companies in Hollywood.

Sometimes I Love Lucy is criticized for its traditional representation of the 1950s housewife, who is only funny because she doesn't have a brain in her head. While it is certainly true that Lucy represents women of a different time, when gender roles were understood in a decidedly different way, we can still glean inspiration from her Ball's comedic performance. It is important to note that the action of the show revolves around Lucy, not her husband - he reacts to her behaviour, not the other way round. The show also features a strong and healthy female friendship, not a common trope in television situation comedies. Also, although the understanding of women's roles in society has shifted, it is surprising how much of a pioneer Lucille Ball was in her own time. In an age where few women were involved in the production side of the television business, a woman owning and operating her own studio is a glorious exception.

Betty White

When it comes to the Betty White craze of the past few years, I can proudly don my hipster glasses and assert that I loved Betty White before it was cool because I've always been a fan of her 1950s sitcom Life With Elizabeth (1952-54). You might remember her best as Sue Anne Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973-77), as Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls (1985-1992), or perhaps from the latest TVLand show Hot in Cleveland (2010-). The woman has written almost as many books as Bob Hope and her work on behalf animal rights has reached sainthood status. White earned a Primetime Emmy for her 2010 appearance on Saturday Night Live after caving to public pressure when the Facebook group calling for her to host the show reached 500,000 members. Indeed, at 88 years old, White is the oldest person ever to host SNL, and she is one of the oldest performers in Hollywood never to retire (Mickey Rooney is the oldest at 92).

Eve Arden

Arden is perhaps the least well-known of these three comediennes, but her portrayal of the spinster schoolteacher Connie Brooks in Our Miss Brooks (1952-56) broke away from the stereotype of the "ministering angel" wife/mother role. Like Lucille Ball, she owned her own production company, Westhaven Enterprises, which produced The Eve Arden Show in which she played Liza Hammond, based on the autobiography of Bryn Mawr graduate Emily Kimbrough: author, travelling lecturer, widow, and mother of twins (Frances Bavier, aka Aunt Bee, played the housekeeper). You might remember Eve Arden best as Principal McGee in GREASE (1978), while I will always love her as the wisecracking cat-lover in STAGE DOOR (1937), in which she co-starred with Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, and Ginger Rogers.

Betty White once commented on the popularity of Arden as Our Miss Brooks when she spoke of her role in Ellery Queen in which she murdered the Eve Arden character:

“Even now I am often asked if I wouldn't like to play more dramatic roles, and I confess that killing Eve is about as dramatic as I want to get. To do in Our Miss Brooks is enough to get drummed out of the industry!” (Here We Go Again 186)

Then and Now

The Women's Liberation Movement of the late 1960s and 70s led to a broader spectrum of sitcoms and variety shows that revolved around the female leads: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77), The Carol Burnett Show (1967-78), and Maude (1972-78) not least among them. Phyllis Diller and Joan Collins made waves in the arena of stand-up comedy, a notoriously male-dominated field of entertainment. Despite the fact that queens of 1950s television represented a different standard of womanhood, their comedic genius, professionalism, and popularity are worth the praise of the most ardent feminists. If we are to encourage the broadening concept of women as active agent's in history, we must see their participation for what it was at the time, whether they reflected or resisted the gender paradigm as it existed then.

Vanity Fair, April 2008: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Tina Fey

In 1993 Betty White attended a seminar hosted by the Chicago Museum of Broadcasting entitled "From My Little Margie to Murphy Brown":

“It was fascinating how many interviewers overlaid the early shows with today's interpretation... I tried to make the point that all of these shows were about women, with women in the starring roles. Nor were they all husband-and-wife sitcoms – some were about unmarried working women... I'll grant you there have been inequities, but let's not paint everything – then and now – with the same brush... After hearing so many questions regarding 'contending' with men, I had to say that, in our day, The Battle of the Sexes was a tongue-in-cheek name for a game show, not the all-out war it has become.” (Here We Go Again 275-76)

Unfortunately, is has become an all-out war, a war not necessarily against men, but against the sexist attitudes that continue to pervade our culture. Although comediennes still keep their audiences in stitches, it is clear that we have a long way to go before we can say the battle for gender equality has been won:

“Funny women continue to face challenges in the comedy arena. Out of one hundred and forty-five writers working across late-night shows, sixteen writers are women (five of them from Chelsea Lately); out of twenty-four writers on Saturday Night Live, six are women; and out of fourteen performers, four are female. Female stand-ups continue to be left out of major stand-up lineups; and Comedy Central, which has a woman as a president, targets male audiences eighteen to thirty-four years old.” (We Killed 4)

As long as we keep laughing at lines women have written and the jokes women are telling, we will be able to even out these numbers so that the next generation of comediennes will have an even wider array of role choices. And let's be honest, not matter how progressive we get, we will always laugh when Lucy screws stuffs her face with chocolate and wrestles an Italian in a vat of grapes. Comedy is funny whether its a 1950s housewife making you laugh or a grasping B-lister (ahem - Kathy Griffin). Just keep laughing!

Further Reading

"We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy, a very oral history" by Yael Kohen (2012)

"The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms" by David Tucker (2007)

"Here We Go Again: My Life in Television, 1949-1995" by Betty White (1995)

"Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present" by Alex McNeil (1996)

This article and many more film/feminist-related articles may be found at margaretperry.org.

My first contribution to the 2013 Summer Reading Classic Film Book Challenge (Out of the Past) will be about my least favorite Katharine Hepburn biography. Actually, "Knowing Hepburn and Other Curious Experiences" by James Prideaux is less a Hepburn biography and more a Prideaux autobiography.

The height of James Prideaux's writing career was writing three made-for-TV movies featuring Katharine Hepburn. The self-obsession he displays in his memoirs does not seem to have accurately manifest itself in any real sort of professional success. He can only boast nine writing credits for television screenplays between 1954 and 1992. Yet he exudes a curious mix of enormous self-confidence and tricky personal insecurity throughout "Knowing Hepburn."

To be fair, I do like two of the three films he made with Miss Hepburn. MRS. DELAFIELD WANTS TO MARRY (1986) is about a wealthy widow who comes across opposition from her family and friends when she falls in love and wants to marry the Jewish doctor her saved her life. Harold Gould is the perfect love interest for the almost-80 Hepburn and the two are absolutely adorable.

LAURA LANSING SLEPT HERE (1988) has Hepburn playing a successful author who must live with a family in Yonkers so that she can get back in touch with real people. Part of the movie's charm is getting to see Hepburn play Hepburn - to the max. The film also features her grandniece, Schyler Grant, who also played Diana in the Anne of Green Gables series. The third and last movie Prideaux and Hepburn teamed up on was THE MAN UPSTAIRS (1992), a mediocre story about an old woman who finds and bonds with the escaped convict hiding in her attic.

Although the book is peppered with anecdotes about Prideaux's professional relationship with Miss Hepburn, his stories do nothing more than confirm what other biographers have written about her habits, attitude, and general disposition. In this way it is similar to "At Home with Kate," though it doesn't even have the added attraction of Hepburn's favorite recipes.

Prideaux might like to think that he shared a close personal freindship with Hepburn, it is clear that she did not consider him as close a friend as A. Scott Berg. Berg's biography/memoir "Remembering Kate" is flawed as a historical account because of his personal relationship with his subject, but the stories he records of his relationship with the star are much more personal and tender than those found in Prideaux's book.

Prideaux comes across as little more than a wannabe Hollywood name-dropper. His observations of Miss Hepburn are not always shed in the most positive light, either. His vanity often gets in the way of his writing respectfully about the star he is clearly obsessed with impressing. I don't wonder that she kept him just a little outside her inner circle of confidantes.

James Prideaux's "Knowing Hepburn and Other Curious Experiences" it worth a miss unless you are really so desperate to spend just that much more time hearing people talk about her (as I was when I first read the book, admittedly). It really has nothing to offer that you could find in other more amusing, more personal, more accurate records of her life.

This post is written in conjunction with the Dynamic Duos in Classic Film blogathon hosted by Once Upon a Screen and the Classic Movie Hub. This article and many like it can be found on margaretperry.org.

HOLIDAY (1938)

Katharine Hepburn had the privilege of playing with some of the best leading men of her day, from Humphrey Bogart to John Wayne. She is perhaps best known for the nine films she made between 1942 and 1967 with her long-term lover Spencer Tracy. Hepburn also worked with director and friend George Cukor on a remarkable ten movies, starting with her Hollywood début picture, A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT (1932), until THE CORN IS GREEN (1979) just a couple years before his death.

These two Hepburn teamings may be the most well-known, but we must not forget that Hepburn made four films with sex-pot Cary Grant before she ever met Tracy, and three of these four movies were directed by Cukor.

BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

"[Grant] was fatter, and it this point his boiling energy was at its peak. We would laugh from morning to night." (Hepburn, Me)

"[Grant] is personality functioning." (Hepburn)

"[Hepburn] was this slip of a woman and I never liked skinny women. But she had this thing, this air you might call it, the most totally magnetic women I'd ever seen, and probably ever seen since. You had to look at her, you had to listen to her, there was no escaping her." (Cary Grant)

Of the four movies Hepburn and Grant made together, two have become timeless classics: BRINGING UP BABY (1938) and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940). The first film they made together was SYLVIA SCARLETT (1935). Although the picture failed at the time, it has become something of a cult classic, especially among the homosexual community, due to its edgy/comedic subject matter. HOLIDAY (1938) is generally acknowledged as one of Katharine Hepburn most underrated masterpieces. Like BRINGING UP BABY and PHILADELPHIA STORY, it has a brilliantly funny script, with more depth than the two more popular pictures.

SYLVIA SCARLETT (1935)

SYLVIA SCARLETT (1935) [comedy, drama, romance, cult classic]
Directed by: George Cukor
Starring: Cary Grant, Brian Aherne, Edmund Gwenn
Writers: Compton MacKenzie (novel), Gladys Unger, John Collier, Mortimer Offner
Plot: When her father runs into some trouble with the law, Sylvia dresses like a boy so she can accompany him out of the country. They team up with a couple other misfits and travel as a small acting troupe. Confusion ensues when Sylvia falls in love with a young man who still thinks she's a boy. The movie was supposed to be a comedy, but nobody laughed so it completely tanked at the box office. It's a silly movie that doesn't really make much sense, but it has it's humorous bits. Hearing Cary Grant use his natural-born cockney accent makes the whole movie worth renting at least once! (Read my post about SYLVIA SCARLETT to learn more)
Margaret’s rating: 6/10

BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

BRINGING UP BABY (1938) [screwball comedy, romance]
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles
Writers: Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde
Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
Plot: Professor David Huxley wants to solicit one million dollars for his work at the museum, but when he meets zany socialite Susan Vance, his plans get turned upside down. She's fallen head over heals in love with him and will do anything to stay with him, even if that includes chasing her aunt's pet leopard all over the Connecticut countryside. I could watch this movie ten million times (and I probably have) and still laugh just as hard as I did the first time. (Read more)
Margaret’s rating: 10/10 (personal favorite)

HOLIDAY (1938)

HOLIDAY (1938) [comedy, romance]
Directed by: George Cukor
Starring: Cary Grant, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton, Jean Dixon
Writers: Philip Barry (play), Donald Ogden Stewart, Sidney Buchman
Studio: Columbia
Plot: Julia and Johnny met each other two weeks ago on vacation, fell in love and are now engaged to be married. But when he goes to meet her family, he learns a couple of things: 1.) she's very rich - yay! 2.) she might not appreciate his dreams as much as he does - boo! 3.) she has a great sister who might just be a kindred spirit - yay? This screenplay deals with some heavy topics, like social class and economic status, while still being entertaining, witty, and lots of fun. It's a thoughtful play with both humor and heart. One of my favorites. (Read more)
Margaret's rating: 9/10
*nominated for Academy Award for best art direction

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) [comedy, romance]
Directed by: George Cukor
Starring: Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Ruth Hussey, Roland Young, Virginia Weidler
Writers: Philip Barry (play), Donald Ogden Stewart
Studio: MGM
Plot: Tracy is about to marry her salt-of-the-earth fiance, but her ex-husband (Grant) shows up unexpectedly with a couple reporters (Jimmy Stewart and Ruth Hussey) and things start to shake up. This witty Phillip Barry was written for Hepburn and has been a smash since it first appeared on Broadway in 1939. It has become part of the canon of must-see classic films. I have never shown this to a group of friends with a unanimous approval. (Read more)
Margaret’s rating: 10/10
*won Academy Award for best actor (Jimmy Stewart), best screenplay; nominated for best leading actress, best supporting actress (Ruth Hussey), best director, best picture

Final Analysis

The four films Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn made together are among my very favorite classic movies. The two actors had an obvious chemistry that came across in all their movies. They seem to have had such a casual comfort level with each other that benefited their work and their friendship. It would have been nice to see more movies co-starring this dynamic duo. Thank you for reading my post. Make sure you check out the other entries for the Dynamic Duo Blogathon on Once Upon a Screen and the Classic Movie Hub!

(above) Hepburn and Grant clown around during a radio broadcast of THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)

The month of November promises to be a good one for the classic film blogging community. As usual, The Great Katharine Hepburn will be right in the thick of it. Here are some things to look forward to this month and next.

Katharine Hepburn movies this month on TCM are:

ADAM'S RIB (1949) - 2 Nov., 10:00 pm EST
STAGE DOOR (1937) - 4 Nov., 10:00 am
ALICE ADAMS (1935) - 6 Nov., 6:45 am
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967) - 10 Nov., 2:00 am (11 Nov.)
LITTLE WOMEN (1933) - 14 Nov., 6:00 am
THE IRON PETTICOAT (1956) - 29 Nov., 8:00 pm

Turner Classic Movie's star of the month this November is Constance Bennett, sister of Joan Bennett, and member of the famous New York theatrical family. I will be writing a post about my favorite Constance Bennett film, TOPPER (1937), also starring Cary Grant, Roland Young, and Billie Burke. TCM will be airing TOPPER and one of its sequels, TOPPER TAKES A TRIP (1939), on 20 November.

This month TCM is also celebrating "Great Adaptations," novels that have been adapted into feature-length films. They started off on the 5th with a day of great American Classics, including Katharine Hepburn's personal favorite film, ALICE ADAMS (1935).

On the 7th they showed a dozen classic adventure stories.

This Monday, the 12th, will feature National Book Award Winners and Finalists.

Your favorite mystery and suspense novels/films will be shown this Thursday, 14 November, including classics like THE MALTESE FALCON (1941), THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946), and Alfred Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951).

Keep your eye out for the incomparable DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) on the 19th when TCM will be showing classic Russian and French literature. On that day you will also find ANNA KARENINA (1948), THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939), Lerner and Loewe musical GIGI (1958), and Lon Chaney's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925).

Great adaptations of Southern literature will be featured on November 21, including Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962) and Margaret Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). Also on the 21st, TCM will begin showing children's classics, which will continue into the 22nd with family comedies like CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN (1950).

November 22 will be dedicated to classic British literature. I would recommend setting aside the whole day to sit down and soak in the refined culture of Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Dickens, Kipling, and their compatriots.

The final day of "Great Adaptations" is the 28 November and will feature a combination of science fiction novels and classic Westerns.

Also in November, the classic film blog L.A. La Land: Fame, Fortune, and Forensics has chosen Clara Bow as their star of the month. I hope to write a post about the quintessential Bow movie, IT (1927).

Andy Watches Movies and Cinema Schminema are co-hosting the Nostalgiathon Blogathon, in which participants "relive things from your childhood through the eyes of an adult." Not quite sure if or what I will contribute to the blogathon, but I am in love with the concept.

Lara over at Backlots has embarked upon the Carol Lombard Filmography Project (CLFP). She has set herself the monumental task of viewing and analysing her complete filmography. I might chip in to give her a hand with an article of my own about the immortal Lombard.

There are a couple of blogathons to look forward to for next month. Furious Cinema, Criminal Movies, and Masala Corner are co-hosting the Scenes of the Crime Blogathon, which will run from December 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013. I look forward to contributing a post about my two favorite crime films, BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) and BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969). I may also write about the twisted Katharine Hepburn crime movie, THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION OF GRACE QUIGLEY (1984).

The second annual Duelling Divas Blogathon has been announced by Backlots and will run December 20-23. Joan and Bette have their claws out once again and are at each others throats. I intend to write about the tragic feud between sisters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine.

Keep your eyes on this space for regular posts about all these events. Let me know what you think about the movies you are watching as well as any special features you would like to see added to this blog. I am always open to new suggestions and I love your feedback!

Just this past December, I profiled TCM's then star of the month, Barbara Stanwyck, or "Babs from Brooklyn." The sassy broad is back again for the Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon, hosted by The Girl with the White Parasol.

Barbara Stanwyck played her share of angelic mothers and the like (SO BIG (1932), THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS (1947), STELLA DALLAS (1937)), but my favorite Stanwyck roles are when she played a smart-talking chiseller Often, Stanwyck was even able to bring a certain degree of empathy to the dastardly of characters (excepting Phyllis Dietrichson, of course). Many of her swindling characters weren't really bad women, they were just involved in some pretty seedy dealings. Here is my list of Stanwyck anti-heroines. Whichever way you take your Stanwyck, these movies are definitely classic cinema gold.

THE LADY EVE (1941) comedy, romance
Director: Preston Sturges
Co-starring: Henry Fonda and Charles Coburn
Synopsis: After spending a year studying snakes in the Amazon, wealthy beer heir Charles Pike inintentionally falls head-over-heels in love with a card shark's daughter.
Stanwyck anti-heroine: Jean Harrington (Stanwyck) pulls some fast ones on Pike, before they fall in love, that is. Unfortunately, Pike discovers who she is before she can come straight with him. This leads her to continue to deceive until she can earn back his love, while teaching him a few lessons in the process!

"You see, Hopsi, you don't know very much about girls. The best ones aren't as good as you probably think they are, and the bad ones aren't as bad. Not nearly as bad."

MEET JOHN DOE (1941) comedy, drama, romance
Director: Frank Capra
Co-starring: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan Spring Byington, James Gleason, Gene Lockhart
Synopsis: After she is fired from the paper, reporter Ann Mitchell (Stanwyck) writes a fictional letter from a fictional John Doe who threatens to commit suicide in protest of social ills. The paper rehires her and employs a man to play out the John Doe character for the public, starting a radical political movement.
Stanwyck anti-heroine: Ann Mitchell intended to stir things up for her own benefit, to let off steam and to harm the institution that had just put her out of the job. Little did she know that her selfish angst would spark a national movement.

BALL OF FIRE (1941) comedy, romance
Director: Howard Hawks
Co-starring: Gary Cooper, Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers, S.Z. Sakall, Dana Andrews, Gene Krupa and his Orchestra
Synopsis: A nightclub singer moves in with seven professors working on an encyclopaedia while she hides out from the cops. What she doesn't wager on is falling in love with the youngest brain, who employs her assistance for his article about American slang. (Here's a great article about Stanwyck's costume)
Stanwyck anti-heroine: At the start of the film, Sugarpuss (Stanwyck) is in with a bad crowd. When her boyfriend gets in trouble with the cops, she does her best to help him stay out of trouble, believing he actually intends to marry her. But when she starts associating with the gentle professors, she learns that other people, people she has come to love, are effected by her choices. This causes her to rethink what she really wants out of life.

"Yes, I love him. I love those hick shirts he wears with the boiled cuffs and the way he always has his vest buttoned wrong. Looks like a giraffe, and I love him. I love him because he's the kind of a guy that gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk, and I love the way he blushes right up over his ears. Love him because he doesn't know how to kiss, the jerk!"

LADY OF BURLESQUE (1943) comedy, musical, mystery, romance

Director: William A. Wellman
Based on a novel by Gypsy Rose Lee
Synopsis: When a burlesque performer's rivals are murdered, she hunts down their killer so as to prevent herself, the prime suspect, from being arrested for a crime she didn't commit.
Stanwyck anti-heroine: Although Stanwyck plays a stripper, and though she is surrounded by other catty stripper, this film is actually one of the best examples of communities of professional women that I have seen. The camaraderie and friendship exhibited by the showgirls as they work through this case is pretty stellar. The dialogue is also fast-paced, witty, and freaking hilarious!

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) comedy, romance, CHRISTMAS!!!!
Director: Peter Godfrey
Co-starring: Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z. Sakall, Una O'Connor, Dennis Morgan
Synopsis: Although single New York "Smart Housekeeping" journalist Elizabeth Lane doesn't even know how to boil an egg, when her editor invites a heroic sailor to spend Christmas at her "farm," she must recreate the fiction she has established in her column - that she is an excellent cook, wife, mother, and housekeeper.
Stanwyck anti-heroine: As in MEET JOHN DOE, this female journalists fictitious writing is mistaken for real life and lands her in a whole heap of trouble. Elizabeth (Stanwyck) has to jump through hoops of lies in order to save her job and, eventually, her relationship.

"Where am I gonna get a farm? I don't even have a window box!"

"The things a girl will do for a mink coat."

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) crime, film noir, thriller

Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: James M. Cain (novel), Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler (screenplay)
Co-staring: Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson
Synopsis: An insurance salesman falls in love with the wife of one of his clients and they have an affair. The couple then plots the murder of her husband so they can collect his life insurance and begin a new life together.
Stanwyck anti-heroine: I saved this one for last because it is most definitely Stanwyck's cruellest character. Indeed, Phyllis Dietrichson might just be the most evil woman in the whole of movies. Her cold-blooded plotting, dieciet, and murder is just bone-chilling. This is not a Stanwyck that will reform. She does not have a warm heart under all that sinisterness. Just turn around and run a way now.

"I was thinking about that dame upstairs, and the way she had looked at me, and I wanted to see her again, close, without that silly staircase between us."

"It's just like the first time I came here, isn't it? We were talking about automobile insurance, only you were thinking about murder. And I was thinking about that anklet."

"How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?"

FINAL ANALYSIS

Barbara Stanwyck was nothing if not a versatile actress. And what talent! I honestly hadn't realized how many of her films I had seen, and there are still plenty more on my list. If you are a Stanwyck fan, or thinking of becoming one, do check out my profile on "Babs from Brooklyn," as well as the other contributions to the Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon from The Girl with the White Parasol. Thanks for reading!

This post was written in conjunction with the 2013 Summer Reading Classic Film Book Challenge hosted by Out of the Past. This is my second summer book review. This post is also available on margaretperry.org.

A few months ago, "Movies and the Battle of the Sexes" showed up in my mailbox - a fellow-classic movie lover requested that I review her self-published book, especially the chapter about Katharine Hepburn, as its subject was my special field.
Now, here we have a dilemma. Exhibit A: a free book about gender in the movies - score! Exhibit B: a brutally honest, opinionated, self-published-book-hater (me). What to do? Alas. The code my profession as a film/book critic requires that I be open and honest, even if it means insulting the undoubtedly very kind, sweet, sensitive author of this cute little paperback.

That being said, this book does have some value (and not only to prop up wobbly Starbucks tables). "Movies and the Battle of the Sexes" is a collection of lists, broken down into various sub-categories, of films about gender issues.

"These are the kind of movies where men and women always get into some nice, juicy little scrap somewhere along the way. Sometimes it's just a difference of opinion before falling into each other's arms, and sometimes it's a fight to the death; but, by gum, it's a stronger brew than the usual swill."

The chapters are peppered with quotes from the films or from the actresses themselves. Several cocktails from various films are also features alongside the lists. The lists are comprised of titles, dates, and stars of the movies, followed by a brief synopsis. A few selected films are given a lengthier summary and are accompanied by "Buzz" trivia and "Viz" visual and musical facts. The chapter titles/movie lists are broken down into the following categories:

It's a Man's World
Sex, Drugs &Red Hot Jazz
The Kate Hepburn Model
Love is a Battlefield
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
The Great Conquering Hero
Sexual Warfare in the 21st Century

Unfortunately, beyond the summaries, we are not told why or how any of the films qualify for each subcategory, or for the overarching theme of gender conflict. The short paragraph quoted above is the only indication of criteria provided for the reader. This lack of analysis is what prevents this book from being a truly valuable resource for anybody seriously interested in examining the complex factors of the "battle of the sexes" theme.

On the plus side, knowing what I do about the movies listed here, they have been fairly accurately distributed among the subcategories. Having seen most of these films myself, I can vouch for their positions in this book. But the book doesn't actually say anything to me about these movies, beyond "this is a movie about a guy and a girl who come to blows on the bases of gender differences."

The overall tone of the book is conversational rather than academic. The writing is solid, if not stellar. It's the sort of writing I do here on the blog - friendly, sometimes comical, somewhat informative. The selected quotations are interesting, though their relevance to the material is sometimes questionable. Ditto the cocktails, but then I'm not a heavy drinker really.

The Chapter entitled "The Kate Hepburn Model" is introduced with a fairly controversial statement Hepburn made during her 1973 interview with Dick Cavett:

"Women and men, unfortunately, are just not the same. They're not the same."

A quote like this, coming from who it did, required a great deal of contextual analysis, none of which is provided in this book. We're just left hanging. However, the films listed in this chapter are the very best examples of Katharine Hepburn's feminist performances, including a lengthy description of ADAM'S RIB (1949), one of the most obviously feminist films from movie history.

(P.S. My biggest pet peeve ever in the whole entire wide world is people referring to Miss Hepburn as "Kate." Unless they knew her personally, nobody should be writing about a famous person with the informal nickname. Or if they do, they had better have a damn good literary reason for doing so. It just makes me cringe.)

Final Analysis

Despite it's flaws, this book has value as a compilation of movies based on a central theme. I might not purchase this book off the shelf, but I would consider downloading these lists digitally. The book is of a higher calibre of content than you would find online, but it falls short of a legitimate source of knowledge on this subject. "Movies and the Battle of the Sexes" begins a conversation that it does not finish. This paperback would be ideal for movie clubs getting together to compare, discuss, and analyse movies about gender. I would be very interested in seeing this book revised to include more in-depth analysis. The book needs a thesis and a purpose, then it could contribute an argument on the subject.

ZetMec, I am sorry if I was not able to deliver the review of the book you would have liked. I honestly think your work is valuable. I would be interested in working with you at some point on a project based on this theme. I have thoroughly enjoyed going through the lists and having a good chuckle at the quotes. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to review your book!

Every year in August Turner Classic Movies hosts "Summer Under the Stars" (SUTS), a month-long movie marathon celebrating the biggest names in acting history. Each day features the films of one notable actor or actress.

A complete listing of the SUTS schedule can be downloaded from the TCM website HERE. Join the Twitter conversation with #TCMSummer or #[actors last name]TCM. The official Facebook page for the blogathon can be found HERE.

This is the second year of the SUTS Blogathon hosted by classic-film-bloggers-extraordinary Jill Blake from Sittin' on a Backyard Fence and Michael Nazarewycz from Scribe Hard on Film, so check out their blogs for more information about the blogathon. Participants may chose as many or as few stars to write about as they wish. Some hard-core bloggers will write a post a day, one for each of the 31 stars. For each post you write, your name will be entered into the raffle for the three DVD prizes - the more you write, the better your chances of winning. Anyone who participates at least once is entered for the grand prize - just once - for a $50 gift certificate to the TCM store. Pretty sweet, n'est pas?

Last year I contributed eight articles (Lillian Gish, Jeanette MacDonald, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Sidney Poitier, Myrna Loy, and Katharine Hepburn). This year I will be selecting my favorite featured stars (alas, Miss Hepburn is not in the running this year). In the hope to be able to include more of my favorites, the posts will be on the lighter side, rather than the lengthy in-depth essays I wrote last year. They will probably include anecdotes about and quotes by the actor, a few images, and my recommendation for at least one must-watch film made by that star.

My goal with this project is to introduce my readers to some of my favorite personalities from classic Hollywood without overwhelming them with too much heavy biography and theory. If one of the stars catches your interest, I suggest checking out the posts of the other SUTS participants to learn more about the performer.

Thank you so much for dropping by. I would absolutely love it if you would share any questions or observations in the comment box below each post. I love hearing from my readers!

This post is written in conjunction with the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon hosted by Sittin' on a Backyard Fence and Scribe Hard on Film. Full listings for SUTS programming on Turner Classic Movies can be found HERE. This post can also be found on my website margaretperry.org.

"What an odd fellow. Very generous and thoughtful. Sweet to me. And I found myself being very proud of him... What an odd man. So - how shall I put it - so pure. Like a little kid. Dear Bogie. I'll never forget that close-up of him after he kisses Rosie, then goes back around in back of the tank and considers what has happened. His expression - the wonder of it all - life." (Katharine Hepburn, The Making of the African Queen)

"I don't approve of the John Waynes and the Gary Coopers saying 'Shucks, I ain't no actor -- I'm just a bridge builder or a gas station attendant.' If they aren't actors, what the hell are they getting paid for? I have respect for my profession. I worked hard at it." (Bogart)

"They'll nail anyone who ever scratched his ass during the National Anthem." (Bogart commenting on the House Un-American Activities Committee)

"She talks at you as though you were a microphone. She lectured the hell out of me on temperance and the evils of drink. She doesn't give a damn how she looks. I don't think she tries to be a character. I think she is one." (Bogart on Katharine Hepburn)

"You could argue with her, but she was tough. When Jack [cinematographer Jack Cardiff] saw her striding into the jungle alone one morning, he thought, 'God help the jungle.'" (Bogart on working with Hepburn on THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951))

"The only honest way to find the best actor would be to let everybody play Hamlet and let the best man win. Of course, you'd get some pretty funny Hamlets that way." (Bogart)

"That's baseball, and it's my game. Y' know, you take your worries to the game, and you leave 'em there. You yell like crazy for your guys. It's good for your lungs, gives you a lift, and nobody calls the cops. Pretty girls, lots of 'em." (Bogart on his favorite sport)

Humphrey Bogart Must-See Movie: THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)

When her brother's mission is burned down by the Germans, Rosie (Katharine Hepburn) must depend on the gin-swilling captain of the African Queen (Humphrey Bogart) to get out of danger and to use homemade torpedoes to sink a German boat.

"Well I ain't sorry for you no more, ya crazy, psalm-singing, skinny old maid!"

"What a time we had Rosie, what a time we had."

Humphrey Bogart Might-See Movie: CASABLANCA (1942)

Rick (Bogart) runs a popular bar and gambling joint in Casablanca, a hub for American ex-pats and European refugees trying to escape war-torn Europe. When the love of his life (Ingrid Bergman) walks in with her hero husband, Rick must determine where his loyalties lie.

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

"Here's looking at you, kid."

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

I'll be perfectly honest - Doris Day is not my favorite. I always end up rolling my eyes and shouting "C'mon now people!" at the television set (which, I've heard, is frowned upon in civilized societies). She's too perky and too sissy and she smiles too much. Blech! I thought I would like CALAMITY JANE (1953) but it was all about how that awesome woman, who rode with the best out west, really just wanted to wear a gingham dress and bring her man his slippers and pipe every night. Blech! That said, I am sure Doris Day was probably a very nice person.

"Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty."

"I like joy; I want to be joyous; I want to have fun on the set; I want to wear beautiful clothes and look pretty. I want to smile and I want to make people laugh. And that's all I want. I like it. I like being happy. I want to make others happy."

“Any girl can look glamorous .... just stand there and look stupid.”

"I liked being married instead of the girl who's looking for a guy."

"I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source."

Doris Day Must-See Movie: PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES (1960)

A drama critic (David Niven) and his wife (Day) move to the country with their four sons in order to avoid the mad hustle and bustle of their tiny New York City apartment. As Kay tries to build a new home for her family, she begins to suspect her husband of philandering as he continues to work in the big city.

Doris Day Might-See Movie: (Calamity Jane (1953))

"This town ain't big enough! Not for me and that frilled-up, flirtin', man-rustlin' petticoat, it ain't!"

"That's better. Next time I tell a story, keep your hands in your *pockets* you toothless old buffalo!"

English actor Alec Guinness has been one of my all-time favorite performers since I was a kid. I was introduced Guinness in the original STAR WARS movies, which my family used to watch every time we ordered pizza. Of course, Guinness hated working on the series and was partially responsible for having Obi-Wan written out so early in the story. Sadness. On the other hand, my mother also had a VHS collection of a few of his movies, like KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949), THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951), and THE LADYKILLERS (1955), all of which I can highly recommend, and all of which I loved to watch on days I skipped school. Good times!

"Personally, I have only one great regret - that I never dared enough. If at all."

"Essentially I'm a small part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life."

"Olivier made me laugh more as an actor more than anyone else. In my case, I love him in comedy and am not always sure about him in tragedy."

"An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerise a group of innocents."

"An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgement - his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego."

Alec Guinness Must-See Movie: STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE (1977)

"Mos Eisley spaceport: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

"These aren't the droids you're looking for."

"Who's the more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?"

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

"That's no moon - it's a space station."

"The Force will be with you, always."

Alec Guinness Must-See Movie Number II: KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949)

Guinness plays all eight members of the titled English family whom the unrecognised heir to the d'Ascogne dukedom, the protagonist Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price), plots to overthrow in honour of his impoverished mother's dying wish. Funniest, most Britishest move I ever saw ever. Guinness didn't have many spoken lines, so I've selected some of the best from the main character so you can get a taste for the humour of the film.

"While I never admired Edith as much as when I was with Sibella, I never longed for Sibella as much as when I was with Edith."

"I was sorry about the girl, but found some relief in the reflection that she had presumably during the weekend already undergone a fate worse than death."

"The Reverend Lord Henry was not one of those new-fangled parsons who carry the principles of their vocation uncomfortably into private life."

"The next morning I went out shooting with Ethelred - or rather, to watch Ethelred shooting; for my principles will not allow me to take a direct part in blood sports."

"It is so difficult to make a neat job of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms."

"I must admit he exhibits the most extraordinary capacity for middle age that I've ever encountered in a young man of twenty-four."

"I had not forgotten or forgiven the boredom of the sermon of young Henry's funeral, and I decided to promote the Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne to next place on the list."

Alec Guinness Must-See Number III: THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)

A brilliant David Lean production about a British colonel (Lean) who is responsible for building a bridge for the Japanese at a WWII POW camp, oblivious that the men under his command are plotting to destroy the bridge upon its completion. You have probably heard the whistled theme tune for this movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83bmsluWHZc

This post was written in conjunction with the 2013 Summer Reading Classic Film Book Challenge hosted by Out of the Past. This is my third summer book review.

This time last year I was catching some rays at Raging Rivers Water Park and listening to Jennifer Garlen and her daughter Cate talk about their favorite classic films on The Cinamentals podcast. Alas, The Cinementals is no more, but Jennifer carries on writing about film. She is the national Classic Movies Examiner on Examiner.com and also writes for her own blog Virtual Virago. She teaches college courses in literature, pop culture, and film in Huntsville, AL. She's also crazy into legos.

Jennifer published "Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Films Worth Watching" in 2012. Like "Movies and the Battle of the Sexes," "Beyond Casablanca" is a list book, compiling titles and summaries for a series of films. Unlike ZetMec's book, Garlen provides longer, more analytical articles about each of the hundred films featured. She gives only one-line summaries, assuming you could find more detailed synopses elsewhere or by actually watching the film, followed by 2- or 3-page articles about the themes and characterisations.
At the start of "Beyond Casablanca," Garlen provides a list of the top ten essential classic films, starting, ironically, with CASABLANCA (1941). You cannot officially call yourself a card-carrying classic movie buff unless you have seen these films. The rest of the book is devoted to the master list of 100 classic movies worth watching, in alphabetical order. There are three indexes in the back, the films chronologically, by director, and by notable cast. This makes the volume very easy to navigate if you are searching for something in particular and don't intend to read the book cover to cover. Here's an example of the beginning of a film synopsis:

"Beyond Casablanca" would be a great gift for someone who is just getting started at becoming a classic film fan. Old movie veterans might find it an interesting project, to watch/rewatch all the films in a certain order. It could also be the foundation for a fantastic blogathon (nudge nudge, wink wink, Jennifer!) - the blogger to watch and review the most number of films in a set period of time wins. OR It could be posed at a challenge to see who could watch and review every film on the list, in alphabetical order, in one year. The possibilities are endless!

Jennifer Garlen

If I would change anything about this book, I would have the films subdivided by genre. This would make it easier to sit and read, chapter by chapter. I can highly recommend this book. It is written well, but in a tone that younger audiences can also enjoy. It's almost as if Jennifer Garlen actually knows what she's talking about! Amazing! "Beyond Casablanca" is available on Amazon HERE in both paperback and Kindle edition. Go buy a copy, okay?

Will McKinley has written a great (I'll be the first to admit, better) review of "Beyond Casablanca" on his website. He's much more specific in his analysis and offers some direct quotes and examples from the book, including a great bit about THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951). Will has taught me a lot of about classic film blogging, so I definitely recommend checking out his stuff.

Did you know...?

Lana Turner was known as "The Sweater Girl"

She was married 8 times, twice to the same man.

Turner's father eloped with her 15-year-old mother - her grandparents objected until they learned she was pregnant with Lana, who would be their only child.

Her father was murdered in 1930 after a crap game.

Quotes

"My life has been a series of emergencies."

"A gentleman is simply a patient wolf."

"I would rather lose a good earring than be caught without makeup."

"I planned on having one husband and seven children, but it turned out the other way around."

"It's said in Hollywood you should always forgive your enemies - because you'll never know when you have to work with them."

Lana Turner Must-See Movie: THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)

The unsatisfied wife of a gas station/restaurant owner falls in love with the itinerant handyman (John Garfield) hired to do odd jobs around the place. The pair plot to murder her husband and must live with the consequences of their crime.

"So, you've given it a great deal of thought, your mind's made up? Without even talking it over with me, your mind's made up. Well, mine isn't!"

"It's my wedding present to him, but the way he wears it, you'd think it was a noose around his neck."

Frank (Garfield): "You know, there's something about this that's like, well it's like you're expecting a letter that you're just crazy to get, and you're hanging around the front door for fear you might not hear him ring. You never realize that he always rings twice."

Lana Turner Might-See Movie: IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)

Though I personally prefer the 1934 Claudette Colbert/Louise Beavers IMITATION OF LIFE, the Lana Turner version is as well-respected as its predecessor. A struggling white actress (Turner) living with her daughter (Sandra Dee) employs a homeless black housekeeper (Juanita Moore) who comes to live with them with her own light-skinned daughter (Susan Kohner). The two girls become friends, though racial tensions arise as they grow into adulthood.

"Well, I'm going up and up and up - and nobody's going to pull me down!"

To Sarah Jane: "You weren't being colored, you were just being childish."

Did you know...?

Henry Fonda knew Marlon Brando's family from Omaha - he had studied acting with Brando's mother.

Fonda and James Stewart had been roommates in the early 1930s when they were first starting out in acting. The two remained pals for the rest of their lives and enjoyed building model airplanes together.

Fonda was an amateur bee-keeper.

Along with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and other Hollywood liberals, Fonda vocally opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee. He took a six-year hiatus from film making in the 1950s to distance himself from the hostile political climate in California at the time.

He was a huge fan of "All in the Family."

Quotes

"I hope you won't be disappointed. You see I am not a very interesting person. I haven't ever done anything except be other people. I ain't really Henry Fonda! Nobody could be. Nobody could have that much integrity."

"I'm not that pristine pure, I guess I've broken as many rules as the next feller. But I reckon my face looks honest enough and if people buy it, Hallelujah."

"I've been close to Bette Davis for thirty-eight years - and I have the cigarette burns to prove it."

On Religion

cross and crown

"My whole damn family was nice. I don't think I've imagined it. It's true. Maybe it has to do with being brought up as Christian Scientists. Half of my relatives were Readers or Practitioners in the church."
(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryfonda314165.html)

"I found myself facing a Christian Science Reading Room. My God! It had been eight years. There had never been any renunciation of religion on my part, but like so many people, it was a gradual fading away."
(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryfonda314172.html)

Katharine Hepburn on Fonda

"He was an oddie. I never felt that I knew him at all. He wasn't given to talking and neither was I." From Me:Stories of My Life:

Henry Fonda Must-See: ON GOLDEN POND (1981)

Fonda and Katharine Hepburn play Norman and Ethel Thayer enjoying a summer at their cabin on Golden Pond. When their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) skips off to Europe with her boyfriend, she leaves her 13-year-old step-son with her parents. This film touches on themes of old-age, marriage, and father-daughter relationships.

"'Ethel Thayer.' It sounds like I'm lisping, doesn't it?"

"Wanna dance or would you rather just suck face?"

"That son of a bitch happens to be my husband." (Hepburn)

"You know, Norman, you really are the sweetest man in the world, but I'm the only one who knows it." (Hepburn)

Norman: You want to know why I came back so fast? I got to the end of our lane. I couldn't remember where the old town road was. I went a little ways in the woods. There was nothing familar. Not one damn tree. Scared me half to death. That's why I came running back here to you. So I could see your pretty face and I could feel safe and that I was still me.

Ethel: You're safe, you old poop and you're definitely still you picking on poor old Charlie. After lunch, after we've gobbled up all those silly strawberries we'll take ourselves to the old town road. We've been there a thousand times. A thousand. And you'll remember it all. Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armour. Don't you forget it. You're gonna get back up on that horse and I'm gonna be right behind you holding on tight and away we're gonna go, go, go.

Norman: I don't like horses. You are a pretty old dame aren't you? What are you doing with a dotty old son of a bitch like me?

Ethel: Well, I haven't the vaguest idea.

As far as I am concerned, he who is tired of Rooney is tired of life. I don't know that I would personally enjoy the company of the boyishly energetic actor, but there is nothing in this world better at getting a person out of a bad funk than a good, healthy dose of an old-fashioned Mickey Rooney flick. Toss in a Judy Garland song and dance number and you can't help but be grinning from ear to ear.

At 93 years of age, Mickey Rooney has been in the movie business for longer than any other actor, living or dead. He has co-starred with the most women, sung the most songs, danced the most dances. Although I am always pleased to see his face in more recent movies, like THE MUPPETS (2011) and NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (2006), I will always love his old movies best.

"I was a 13-year-old boy for 30 years."

"I'm the only man in the world with a marriage license made out 'To Whom It May Concern.'"

"I'm 74 but I feel like I'm 35. And it isn't work. You know what it is? It's fun, absolute fun. I don't know many people who are fortunate enough to be in a business like that." (http://www.mickeyrooney.com/quotes.html)

"You always pass failure on the way to success."

"Had I been brighter, the ladies been gentler, the liquor weaker, the gods kinder, the dice hotter - it might have all ended up in a one-sentence story." (Life is Too Short)

"The audience and I are friends. They allowed me to grow up with them. I've let them down several times. They've let me down several times. But we're all family."

Mickey Rooney Must-See: BOYS TOWN (1938)

Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) establishes a town for delinquent and homeless boys. The boys govern the town themselves. Whitey Marsh rejects all that Boys Town can offer him, but he keeps coming back, first because he's hungry, then when his young friend is hurt in an accident. Marsh comes to learn the meaning of brotherhood when he and all the boys of the town are caught up in his criminal older brother's troubles.

"There is no such thing as a bad boy." (Father Flanagan)

"I know that a mother can take a whip to the toughest boy in the world, and he forgets it because he knows that she loves him." (Father Flanagan)

Tony Ponessa: If you're a Catholic or a Protestant, you can go right on being one.
Whitey Marsh: Well, I'm nothin'.
Tony Ponessa: Then, you can go right on being nothin', and nobody cares.

Mickey Rooney Might-See: BABES IN ARMS (1939)

My all-time favorite Rooney/Garland musical, directed by Busby Berkeley. When their show business parents go on the road without them, a group of young performers led by Mickey Moran (Rooney) and Patsy Barton (Judy Garland) decide to put together a show of their own.

"We belong in show business. We gotta start young so we can get some steel in our backbone. Well, gee, we're developing. You couldn't teach us a trade: we've GOT one. And you couldn't do without it... Oh, we're only kids now, but someday we're gonna be the guys that make ya laugh and cry and think that there's a little stardust left on life's dirty old pan."

This post is written in conjunction with the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon hosted by Sittin’ on a Backyard Fence and Scribe Hard on Film. Full listings for SUTS programming on Turner Classic Movies can be found HERE.

I love this dame and could talk abut the whys and wherefores of my respect for her, but I'd rather she speak for herself.

"Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should ALL be bigger than life."

"I'm the nicest goddamn dame that ever lived."

"Gay Liberation? I ain't against it, it's just that there's nothing in it for me."

"Success only breeds a new goal."

"What a fool I was to come to Hollywood where they only understand platinum blondes and where legs are more important than talent."

"There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen."

"To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy."

"There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne."

"It's better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you're not. It's a sign of your worth sometimes, if you're hated by the right people."

"I sent my flowers across the hall to Mrs. Nixon but her husband remembered what a Democrat I am and sent them back."

"You should know me well enough by now to know I don't ask for things I don't think I can get."

"You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation."

"I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life."

"I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year."
"The male ego, with few exceptions, is elephantine to start with."
"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch."

"I was thought to be 'stuck up.' I wasn't. I was just sure of myself. This is and always has been an unforgivable quality to the unsure."

"I never wished I’d been a man. I always felt like a woman and wanted to be a woman. I wanted to be fulfilled professionally and personally, as a woman. There are some who might say I had penis envy, but I only had penis admiration."

On her feud with Joan Crawford

"I wouldn't piss on Joan Crawford if she were on fire."

"She has slept with every MGM star except Lassie."

"Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why [Crawford] always plays ladies."

"You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good."

"She and I have never been warm friends. We are not simpatico. I admire her, and yet I feel uncomfortable with her. To me, she is the personification of the Movie Star. I have always felt her greatest performance is Crawford being Crawford."

"We were polite to each other - all the social amenities, 'Good morning, Joan' and 'Good Morning, Bette' crap - and thank God we weren't playing roles where we had to like each other. But people forget that our big scenes were alone - just the camera was on me or her. No actresses on earth are as different as we are, all the way down the line. Yet what we do works. It's so strange, this acting business. It comes from inside. She was always so damn proper. She sent thank you notes for thank you notes. I screamed when I found out she signed autographs: 'Bless you, Joan Crawford.'"

"Joan always cries a lot. Her tear ducts must be very close to her bladder."

"I was not Miss Crawford's biggest fan, but, wisecracks to the contrary, I did and still do respect her talent. What she did not deserve was that detestable book written by her daughter. I've forgotten her name. Horrible. I looked at that book, but I did not need to read it. I wouldn't read trash like that, and I think it was a terrible, terrible thing for a daughter to do. An abomination!"

There really are too many must-see Bette Davis movies to pick just a couple for this post, so I'll pick my favorites from those TCM is showing for BD-day on Summer Under the Stars.

DARK VICTORY (1939)

A carefree society girl sees life and love in new ways when she learns that she has a brain tumor that will likely result in her premature death.

"Nothing can hurt us now. What we have can't be destroyed. That's our victory - our victory over the dark. It is a victory because we're not afraid."

NOW, VOYAGER (1942)

A dowdy spinster's life is turned around by the attentions, both professional and personal, of a dashing psychiatrist (Paul Henreid).

"Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."

THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936)

The frustrated, unsatisfied daughter of a gas station/restaurant in the middle of the desert dreams of a better life with an English passerby (Leslie Howard). The two fall in love while the cantina is held up by an escaped convict (Humphrey Bogart).

Gabrielle (Davis): Petrified forest is a lot of dead trees in the desert that have turned to stone. Here's a good specimen.
Alan (Howard): So that was once a tree? Hmmm. Petrified forest, eh? Suitable haven for me. Well, perhaps that's what I'm destined to become, an interesting fossil for future study.

JEZEBEL (1938)

I don't like this movie so I'm not going to tell you about it except that it's part of Bette Davis's canon, apparently.

Bette Davis's Dick Cevett interview (1971)

In this show, Dick Cavett asks Bette Davis if her mother told her about the "birds and the bees". Davis responds: "No, there was no sort of real education. If you want to come to my home in Connecticut, some night in front of the fireplace, I'd tell you about my wedding night. You'd be on the floor for three hours". The audience howls with laughter. Davis then realizes why the audience is laughing, and quickly says: "No, I did not mean THAT! I meant LAUGHING on the floor!"

Happy Belated Birthday, Miss Bankhead, Dahling!

BRINGING UP BABY (1938) or "Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant Go Leopard-Hunting in Connecticut"

Book Review: "At Home With Kate"

Kit Houghton Hepburn, Her Mother's Daughter

Epic Fail: Operation IRON PETTICOAT (1956)

When Comedy Was Queen: The Women of the 1950s Sitcom

"Knowing Hepburn and Other Curious Experiences" by James Prideaux

Dynamic Duos in Classic Film: Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant

Upcoming Events and Blogathons

Barbara Stanwyck: A Lady or a Liar?

"Movies and the Battle of the Sexes" by ZetMec

The Summer Under the Stars Blogathon 2013 is Finally Here!

Humphrey Bogart (1 August SUTS)

Doris Day (2 August SUTS)

Alec Guinness (3 August SUTS)

Book Review: "Beyond Casablanca" by Jennifer Garlen

Lana Turner (10 August SUTS)

Henry Fonda (11 August SUTS)

Mickey Rooney (13 August SUTS)

Bette Davis (14 August SUTS)