Films

Actors who've caught my eye:

Sarah Gadon

Born: April 4, 1987 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Birth Name: Sarah Gadon

Height: 5' 3" (1.6 m)

Mini Bio

Sarah Gadon was born in a quiet residential area in Toronto, Ontario, to a teacher mother and a psychologist father. She grew up with the support and encouragement of her parents and older brother, James, and with this was inspired to go headlong into acting and dance alike. Sarah spent much of her adolescence training as a performer as a Junior Associate at the National Ballet School of Canada and as a student at the Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts. She also studied cinema at the prestigious University of Toronto. She is known for her roles in the films A Dangerous Method (2011), Antiviral (2012), Enemy (2013), and Indignation (2016), and the mini-series 11.22.63 (2016).

I've been watching some old movies lately on YouTube, some of them surprisingly good. Here is the list thus far:

  • Eyes in the Night (1942): A blind detective and his seeing-eye dog investigate a murder and discover a Nazi plot. Directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, a very young Donna Reed and Mantan Moreland.

  • Golden Salamander (1950): Crime thriller starring Trevor Howard and Anouk Aimée. A man is torn between tackling a sinister crime syndicate or turning a blind eye to the suffering it creates.

  • Tiger Bay (1959): A young Polish seaman walks eagerly through Tiger Bay to visit Anya, the woman he wishes to marry. Rough-and-tumble street urchin Gillie (Hayley Mills) witnesses the brutal killing of a young woman at the hands of visiting Polish sailor Korchinsky (Horst Buchholz). Instead of reporting the crime to the authorities, Gillie merely pockets a prize for herself -- Korchinsky's shiny black revolver -- and flees the scene. When Welsh Detective Graham (John Mills) discovers that Gillie has the murder weapon, the fiery young girl weaves a web of lies to throw him off course.

  • Across the Bridge (1957): Rod Steiger stars as a wealthy businessman who attempts to run to Mexico to escape capture for embezzlement. On the way, he switches identities for a visa but that only complicates matters. Will he manage to cross the bridge and avoid capture?

  • The October Man (1947): Jim Ackland (John Mills), who suffers from a head injury sustained in a bus crash, is the chief suspect in a murder hunt, when a girl that he has just met is found dead on the local common, and he has no alibi for the time she was killed. Joan Greenwood plays his girlfriend (not the one that was found dead).

  • Cold Sweat (1970): An American expatriate's (Charles Bronson) wife (Liv Ullmann) and daughter are kidnapped in France by a drug smuggler (James Mason) from his past. Directed by Terence Young and based on "Ride the Nightmare" by Richard Matheson. Jill Ireland, Bronson's wife, also stars in this movie. I didn't think much of this movie: the plot is somewhat preposterous and Mason's phoney American accent is especially grating.

  • No Love For Johnnie (1961): Johnnie Byrne (Peter Finch) is a member of the British Parliament. In his 40s, he's feeling frustrated with his life and his personal as well as professional problems assail him.

  • Death Drums Across the River (1963): "A British colonial policeman in Africa investigates a murder in a hospital up river and ends up uncovering a plot involving diamond smuggling and the local indigenous tribe. It starts Richard Todd and Marianne Koch.

  • D.O.A. a.k.a. Dead on Arrival (1947): Frank Bigelow (Edmund O'Brien), told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why. Franks's love interest is Pamela Britton. Here's an excerpt from Pamela's IMDB biography:

    "Britton co-starred in D.O.A. (1949) opposite Edmond O'Brien and Beverly Garland, and played Blondie Bumstead in the TV show based on the comic strip. But it's as ditzy landlady Lorelei Brown on the 1963 TV series My Favorite Martian (1963) that most people remember her. The show also brought her back to MGM, her original Hollywood studio. She made two forgettable films after the series, then returned to her real love, the musical stage. She also loved gardening and played the piano beautifully.

It was while performing on tour with Don Knotts in The Mind with The Dirty Man in Arlington Heights, Illinois that she began to have headaches. She went to a doctor and two weeks later, died suddenly from a brain tumor on June 17, 1974, leaving her mother Ethel Owen (who lived to be 103), her husband Art Steel and her daughter Kathy Steel Ferber. She had four grandsons. She is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Burbank, California."

  • Impact (1949): A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding, and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy. The movie stars Brian Donlevy, Helen Walker, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn and Anna May Wong. The story of Helen Walker is especially sad as the following extract from IMDB shows:

Helen Walker was a beautiful and bright actress whose career never reached its full potential, in spite of her evident talent. She was a successful actress on Broadway, and in 1942 her performance in the play "Jason" was so impressive that she was signed up to act in films. She immediately earned good notice and received star billing in her film debut, Lucky Jordan (1942), starring Alan Ladd. During the mid-1940s she had continued success with strong performances in offbeat but entertaining and successful films like The Man in Half Moon Street (1945), the satirical Brewster's Millions (1945), and the murder spoof Murder, He Says (1945), which starred Fred MacMurray. Achieving both artistic and box office success, she was clearly on the brink of major stardom. She won the starring role in the prestigious film Heaven Only Knows (1947). But all that changed on New Year's Eve of 1946 when she picked up three hitchhiking World War II veterans while driving to Los Angeles from Palm Springs, where she had been vacationing. She had a terrible accident, hitting a divider and wrecking the car, which flipped several times. One of the soldiers died and the other two were severely injured. Walker herself was seriously injured, including a broken pelvis. But her career suffered even greater and longer-lasting damage. The survivors of the accident accused her of driving drunk and speeding, and she was brought to trial. She suffered bad press and faced a public that was grateful to World War II veterans for having won the war, and was replaced in Heaven Only Knows (1947). Although she was acquitted of criminal charges, many fans turned against her and major studios were hesitant to hire her. She tried to adapt by portraying ruthless and manipulative women in dark murder mysteries, in which she again showed great talent. She performed with great aplomb in Nightmare Alley (1947), the gritty urban police drama Call Northside 777 (1948), and Impact (1949), an unconventional murder drama that featured a fatal automobile accident her character helped cause. But she could not overcome the stigma of the veteran's death. By the 1950s, she was reduced to low-budget films that received little notice. After winning a minor role in the Cornel Wilde police drama The Big Combo (1955), her film career ended and she only appeared in a few television shows. In 1960, she made her last television appearance, and that same year her house burned down. Some remaining friends from show business helped her, with some fellow actresses staging a benefit for her, which touched her deeply. She faded from the public view and during the 1960s she experienced health problems. In 1968, she died of cancer. She was 47 years old.

She was indeed quite beautiful:

The actor Brian Donlevy is very famous:

In all, from 1926 to 1969 Donlevy starred in at least 89 films, reprising one of his Broadway roles as a prizefighter in The Milky Way (1940), and had his own television series (which he also produced), Dangerous Assignment (1950). In 1939 he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the sadistic Sgt. Markoff in Paramount's Beau Geste (1939), its remake of an earlier silent hit. The Great McGinty (1940), a Preston Sturges comedy about a poor homeless slob who makes it to the governorship of a state with the mob's help, is a brilliant character study of a man and the changes he goes through to please himself, those around him and, eventually, the woman he loves. A line in the film, spoken by Mrs. McGinty, seems a fitting description of the majority of roles Brian Donlevy would play throughout his career: "You're a tough guy, McGinty, not a wrong guy." Donlevy's ability to make the roughest edge of any character have a soft side was his calling card. He perfected it and no one has quite mastered it since.

  • Scarlet Street (1945): When a man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, her venal fiancé persuades her to con him out of the fortune they mistakenly assume he possesses. This movie is directed by Fritz Lang and stars Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea. Here are some interesting details about Joan Bennett:

Eighteen-year-old Joan Bennett had intended to avoid the Bennett tradition of acting but, divorced and with a child to support, had little choice; she accepted a role in her father's play "Jarnegan", then her first leading film role in Bulldog Drummond (1929). Her popularity growing, she made 14 films under a Fox contract, mostly as vapid blonde ingénues; the best of these, Me and My Gal (1932), as a wisecracking waitress. Leaving Fox to appear in Little Women (1933), she then signed a personal contract with independent producer Walter Wanger, who managed her career from then on. When Wanger and director Tay Garnett made her a brunette for Trade Winds (1938), the seemingly trivial change drastically altered her screen image from insipid ingénue to smoldering temptress. Dark-haired for the rest of her career, she made her finest films in the 1940s with director Fritz Lang: Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945), becoming the queen of film-noir femme fatales. In December 1951, Wanger (by then her husband of 11 years) shot her agent in a jealous rage; the resulting scandal virtually ended Joan's film career. Aside from TV-movies, she made six more theatrical films. From 1950 through the1970s she worked steadily in theatre and TV, starring for five years in Dark Shadows (1966). A 1967 interviewer found her happy and contented. She last appeared in a 1986 TV documentary on Spencer Tracy.

For some reason, I'd always thought Ida Lupino played the part of Madame Blanc in 1977's Suspiria and was surprised to discover that Joan Bennett in fact was the actress who played this part. She was 67 at the time, being born in 1910 and passing away in 1990.

  • The Red House (1947): An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods. As well as starring Edward G. Robinson and Rory Calhoun, Julie London - the famous singer (she recorded 32 albums during her career) - has a substantial role. At 5'2'', she appears quite diminutive against the 6'4'' Rory Calhoun. Last but not least, the film starred the Australian Judith Anderson:

Dame Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She began her acting career in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. There she established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses and was a major star on Broadway throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Her notable stage works included the role of Lady Macbeth, which she played first in the 1920s, and gave an Emmy Award-winning television performance in Macbeth (1960). Anderson's long association with Euripides' "Medea" began with her acclaimed Tony Award-winning 1948 stage performance in the title role. She appeared in the television version of Medea (1983) in the supporting character of the Nurse.

Anderson made her Hollywood film debut under director Rowland Brown in a supporting role in Blood Money (1933). Her striking, not conventionally attractive features were complemented with her powerful presence, mastery of timing and an effortless style. Anderson made a film career as a supporting character actress in several significant films including Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), for which she was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She worked with director Otto Preminger in Laura (1944), then with René Clair in And Then There Were None (1945). Her remarkable performance in a supporting role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) fit in a stellar acting ensemble under director Richard Brooks.

Anderson was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's New Year's Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Living in Santa Barbara in her later years, she also had a successful stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara (1984) and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1984. In the same year, at age 87, she appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) as the High Priestess, and was nominated for a Saturn Award for that role. She was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Anderson died at age 94 of pneumonia on January 3, 1992 in Santa Barbara, California.

  • Strangers When We Meet (1960): A suburban architect (Kirk Douglas) loves his wife (Barbara Rush) but is bored with his marriage and with his work, so he takes up with the neglected, married beauty (Kim Novak) who lives down the street. Both Barbara Rush and Kim Novak are still alive while Kirk Douglas died in February of 2020 at the ripe old age of 103.

  • The Killers (1946): based on a story by Ernest Hemingway, this movie stars Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. This is the movie that propelled the latter into the limelight.

  • Vengeance Valley (1951): starring Burt Lancaster in an American western film directed by Richard Thorpe, with a supporting cast featuring Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John Ireland and Ray Collins. It is based on the novel by Luke Short. In 1979, the film entered the public domain in the United States because Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.

  • Santee (1973): A bounty hunter takes in the son of a man he killed. It stars Glenn Ford as Santee, Michael Burns as Jody, Dana Wynter as Valerie and Jay Silverheels as John Crow.

  • Gilda (1946): starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth. This is the movie that propelled the latter to super-stardom. It's set in Buenos Aires but I found the plot rather contrived.

  • The Thing From Another World (1951): starring Margaret Sheridan and Kenneth Tobey, with James Arness being cast as The Thing.

  • Million Dollar Weekend (1948): two people - a young stockbroker and a young wife are passengers on the same flight from Los Angeles. For different reasons, they've both fled the city with secrets. Stars Gene Raymond, Osa Massen and Francis Lederer.

As for Gene Raymond, his story is a most interesting one:

Born August 13, 1908 in New York City, New York, USA

Died May 3, 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)

Birth Name Raymond Guion

Height 5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Gene Raymond was born on August 13, 1908, in New York City as Raymond Guion. He was a child performer and a Broadway veteran by the age of 12. Blond, husky, and handsome, he enjoyed his greatest popularity in the 1930s and early 1940s. His big break came in Personal Maid (1931). He was soon cast in classics such as Red Dust (1932) (opposite Jean Harlow and Clark Gable) and in Ex-Lady (1933) (as the husband of Bette Davis 's character). His career continued to grow with a starring role in Sadie McKee (1934) (opposite Joan Crawford).

Soon after, he met and fell in love with one of MGM's stars, actress/singer Jeanette MacDonald. They married in 1937. In 1941, he and Jeanette were cast opposite one another in Smilin' Through (1941), their only picture together. In 1948, Raymond tried his hand at directing and producing with Million Dollar Weekend (1948), but it was not a very successful venture. In 1949, he and MacDonald decided to slow down their careers: she left the movies, and he became very selective on the ones he did. They spent the next 14 years traveling and staying active in Hollywood society.

In 1963, MacDonald, who suffered from heart disease, had an arterial transplant, and Raymond tried to nurse her back to health. In 1965, she had a heart attack and died with her husband by her side. This brought an end to their 28-year marriage, one of Hollywood's longest-lasting, although the union was childless. Every year after her death, he attended the Jeanette MacDonald International Fan Club convention in Los Angeles. He shared stories with her fans and friends, a thing he once said he would do "till Jeanette and I are together again".

However, there is more to the story:

Raymond and Jeanette MacDonald were married on June 16, 1937. Nine days later, Mary Pickford and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers were wed. That night, both couples left aboard the liner SS Lurline to honeymoon in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their respective cabins were adjacent, and Raymond and Rogers seem to have already been quite well-acquainted. There is an unfounded rumour that the two women found their grooms commencing a honeymoon of their own. In Bernard F. Dick's biography of Loretta Young, titled "Hollywood Madonna" (August 1, 2011, University Press of Mississippi: ISBN13 978-1617030796), Raymond is described as bisexual. An excerpt of the biography states, "Raymond was probably one of the leading men Loretta developed a crush on, not knowing at the time that he was bisexual, more homosexually than heterosexually inclined.... Raymond's lover at the time was Mary Pickford's husband, Buddy Rogers....But at the time 'Zoo in Budapest' was filmed, Raymond had not met MacDonald, and only a few kindred spirits knew his sexual preferences".

  • San Francisco (1936): a classic, starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey and Jeanette MacDonald.

  • Dear Murderer (1947): When successful businessman Lee Warren suspects his wife is having an affair, he sets out to find her lover, kill him, and make it look like a suicide. Complications set in, when he finds out she has another lover as well, so Lee has to change his plans. The movie stars Eric Portman and Greta Gynt.

  • Jamaica Inn (1939): In Cornwall, 1819, a young woman discovers she's living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit. Stars Maureen O'Hara, Robert Newton and Charles Laughton. It was Laughton who discovered O'Hara at age 18 and was instrumental in kick starting her career. The movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

  • The Quiet Man (1952): A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he falls for a spirited redhead whose brother is contemptuous of their union. Stars Maureen O'Hara, John Wayne and Barry Fitzgerald. The movie was directed by John Ford.

  • The Deadly Companions (1961): An ex-army officer accidentally kills a woman's son and tries to make up for it by escorting the funeral procession through dangerous Indian territory. It was directed by Sam Peckinpah and stars Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith and Steve Cochran.

  • Yellow Sky (1948): Western starring Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, Anne Baxter and John Russell.

  • The Big Country (1958): classic Western starring Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, Chuck Connors and Burl Ives.