Joan Crawford in the 40's
11/21/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Marjorie Rambeau has been signed by Warners for one of the most unusual character roles of her career. She is to play the one-armed mother of Richard Barthelmess in A Modern Hero, based on the Louis Bromfield novel. Those who have read the novel know that it begin with a circus background. Miss Rambeau, cast as a former animal trainer, sacrifices her arm to her profession. And you can guess in advance that her characterization will require elaborate body make-up. In addition to Miss Rambeau and Barthelmess, there are to be three leading women in the picture, Jean Muir, Margaret Lindsay and Claire Dodd. Heretofore Miss Rambeau has made her greatest hits in rugged comedy roles. But her part in A Modern Hero suggests a somber characterization.
This picture will be the first Hollywood directorial effort of G.W. Pabst, the noted German director recently signed by Warners. His pictures, such as Kameradschaft, White Hell of Pitz Palu and Beggars' Opera, have won him an enviable reputation as a European director. Although he is not a Jew, his pacifist theme in Kameradschaft is said to have incurred the ire of the Hitler regime and prevented his return to Germany.
....
Quite a while ago Radio Pictures bought the screen rights to the Ernest Hemingway novel, The Sun Also Rises. Later the studio sold these screen rights to director D.W. Griffith, who was most anxious to have the picture produced in his own way. Now Griffith has engaged Horace Jackson to work on the screen treatment, and Radio Pictures is about ready to close a deal for Griffith to sell his story and treatment back to the studio and to direct the picture. The combination of Griffith and Jackson is an old and successful one. It further leads to the possibility of having Ann Harding as the star, since Jackson wrote for and Griffith directed this star in a number of pictures. The three were together on Animal Kingdom and a number of previous Pathe Pictures.
....
MGM's Viva Villa company has virtually been routed from Mexico City and from all reports is returning discouraged and minus the film footage sought there. Lee Tracy, according to news flashes, has been arrested, and some street brawls have been added to the excitement. Now MGM had hoped that friendly relations were definitely established with Mexico before the film troupe was sent down. The studio engaged Wallace Smith to work on the script, and it was he who got the script okehed by the Mexican government. Smith knows Mexico intimately and has many powerful contacts down there. But when Smith completed the scenario, MGM dispensed with his services. Had he been sent down to Mexico with the film troupe, all this trouble might have been avoided.
....
The other day Walter Winchell's column printed an item that Al Jolson would co-star with his wife, Ruby Keeler, after the completion of Wonder Bar. The announcement had the effect of waving a red flag in the face of Jolson. So just to prove that Winchell was wrong, Jolson up and announced that he was going to retire from the screen forever after he finished Wonder Bar. He explained that he lost money making pictures, anyway, as he could earn so much more on the radio. But Jack Warner read the reports and informed Jolson that he holds an option on the mammy singer's services for three more pictures. So now Jolson admits that he won't retire as soon as he first planned. But he still has a chance to prove that Winchell was wrong by not co-starring with his wife.
....
Nearly everybody on the MGM lot is being rumored for the leading role in The Show-off, stage play by George Kelly. Ted Healy has been announced for the part. Lee Tracy was announced before him. And today the rumor hounds say that Otto Kruger probably will be cast in the film. The studio, however denies that any decision has been reached on the cast, so one person's guess is as good as another's.
....
However, a newer and more recently acquired stage play at MGM is Men In White, and the cast for this film seems more definite. It was written by Sidney Kingsley and concerns the medical profession. Clark Gable seems to have first preference for the lead. Do you remember way back in his career when Warners borrowed him for a medical picture? Myrna Loy seems to stand a good chance for the feminine lead with Gable in this film.
....
Jesse Lasky will look at home, as well as elsewhere, to find the debutantes for his picture, Coming Out Party. Catherine Toberman, debutante daughter of C.E. Toberman, Hollywood real estate magnate, has been selected for one of the debutante roles.
....
Charlie Chaplin is having sound equipment installed in his studio at Sunset Blvd. And LaBrea Ave. This does not mean that the famous pantomimist is going to relent and talk on the screen. But it does indicate that he plans to produce some talking pictures. And I suspect that Paulette Goddard is the motivating idea in back of his plans.
Joan Crawford In the 40's
ABBREVIATIONS
DN — Los Angeles Daily News
EHE — Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
FD — Film Daily
HCN — Hollywood Citizen News
LAX — Los Angeles Examiner
MPH — Motion Picture Herald
SFC — San Francisco Chronicle 1/18/1940 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Joan Crawford's tests for Susan and God are so good that the big boys on the MGM lot were doing nip-ups. Her comedy took them all by pleasant surprise.
1/21/1940 LAX Movie-Go-Round
By Louella O. Parsons
Rudy Vallee, who has always admired Joan Crawford so much, is huddling with her about a show he wants to do with her.
1/22/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Judging by the experiences of Joan Crawford in New York, a Hollywood glamour girl must consider her clothes public property.
On her recent trip east, the star braved the mobs without damage to her wardrobe, but she wasn't so lucky with her laundry. Several garments, sent out through a Gotham hotel, failed to come back. Apparently, laundry workers kept them as souvenirs.
Joan made a routine report of the loss.
Yesterday, she received a check from the laundry and a note explaining that the employees club had voted to pay for the missing garments. Ordinarily, the star was told, any person keeping a customer's clothes would be instantly dismissed. But, in this case, it was felt, there might be extenuating circumstances.
Joan is returning the check with a suggestion that the money be applied to the Christmas fund.
1/24/1940 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Joan Crawford convalescing after an attack of the flu.
1/27/1940 EHE Sally Moore
Also anticipated by Hollywood society is next Wednesday's press preview of 20th Century-Fox's new production of Little Old New York. Among those attending the preview, many entertaining later at after-theater suppers, will be Alice Faye, Richard Greene and Fred MacMurray, stars of the film, the Andy Devines, Theodore von Eltz, Ward Bonds, Henry Stephensons, Norma Shearer, Deanna Durbin, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, James Stewart, the Walter Wangers (Joan Bennett), Don Ameches and many more.
2/15/1940 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
One of the film colony's favorite charities is the Tailwagger Guide Dog Institute, which trains canine eyes for the blind and has Hugh Herbert as its new president and James G. Lindsay as its secretary.
So it is always with quick compassion that our film notables respond to its requests for their participation in its fundraising events. And when it stages its next–a fashion show luncheon at Ciro's next Tuesday–you will see such charmers as Alice Faye, Linda Hayes, Brenda Joyce, Nancy Kelly, Rosemary Lane, Ann Rutherford, Elaine Shepherd, Penny Singleton, Louise Stanley, Marjorie Weaver and Arleen Whalen, all glorifying Gladys Parker's most exquisite creations.
As a special guest of honor, Hedy Lamarr will grace the party with her exotic presence. And Harry Crocker will officiate as master of ceremonies.
Dixie (Mrs. Bing) Crosby and Bobbe Fidler made the first reservations, and other early reservations include those for Oddette Myrtil, Joan Crawford, Dolores (Mrs. Bob) Hope, Jeffrie Gill and Diane Manners, Mrs. Jimmy Ritz, Mrs. Frank Parker (Edna Johnson), Arthur Lubin, Anthony Quinn and Katherine DeMille, Mrs. Harry Brand, the Victor E. Daltons, Renie Riano, John Beverly, Mrs. John F. Burke, Dr. and Mrs. Sayles Taylor, Mrs. Nan Norris Flint and Catherine Sabichi and Mary Casiday.
Other devotees and charter members of the Institute include Gracie Allen and George Burns, Bette Davis, Marion Davies, Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone, Edgar Bergen, George Brent, Bob Cobb and Gail Patrick, Walter Connolly, George Converse, Anita Stewart, Samuel Goldwyn, Jean Hersholt, Jeanette MacDonald, Mary Pickford, Darryl and Virginia Zanuck, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Ellison, Howard Hughes, Joseph Schenck, Rudy Vallee, C. Aubrey Smith, Jerome Kern and Henry Stephenson.
3/2/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
Several years ago Nancy Kelly was swept to Hollywood on the strength of her performance as the ugly duckling daughter of Gertrude Lawrence in "Susan and God."
The movie version of the comedy goes before the cameras at MGM this week with Joan Crawford in the Gertrude Lawrence role and with 16-year-old Rita Quigley, sister of child star Juanita Quigley, replacing Nancy Kelly.
KEY SCENE
It is Rita's first film role. It makes her Hollywood's newest Cinderella.
We watch her do a scene with Fredric March.
They are father and daughter in the picture, but they don't know each other very well. Both are embarrassed. To make it worse for the ugly duckling, the brace on her teeth slips off while they are talking.
It's a key scene to establish the relationship of father and daughter. Director George Cukor, a careful workman, shoots it time and again. Finally, he okays the take.
CONFIDENCE
A school teacher is waiting for Rita, but we talk with her a moment. After watching her, awkward and ill at ease in the scene, it is a surprise to find that she has unusual poise and self-confidence for a girl of 16.
Meeting us, she extends her left hand, "I'll give you the hand nearest my heart," she says.
We ask her how she happened to be tested for the role.
"Just pure luck," she exclaims. "I went with Juanita to deliver a Christmas present to Mr. Hunt Stromberg's house. He saw me and asked me if I had ever done anything for the films. I said no and the next thing I knew I was asked to make a test for this part."
The test, incidentally, was the very scene we have just watched. Only then, director Cukor played March's part of the father.
3/2/1940 HCN Radio
By Zuma Palmer
Joan Crawford in an Arch Oboler play, "Baby," KFI at 9.
3/14/1940 EHE Strange Cargo
An MGM picture, opened March 13, 1940, at Loew's State and Grauman's Chinese. Directed by Frank Borzage. Screenplay by Lawrence Hazard from a book by Richard Sale. Photographed by Robert Planck.
CAST: Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, J. Edward Bromberg, John Arledge and Eduardo Ciannelli.
By Harrison Carroll
As violent a melodrama as they come is Strange Cargo, but the new picture at the Grauman's Chinese and Loew's State theaters also has a strong religious motif.
It is the story of a band of convicts led out of a tropical prison hell by a mysterious, Christlike character, who brings about the regeneration of all but one of his sordid flock before the end of the journey.
A daring and absorbing film is this MGM version of Richard Sale's novel, "Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep."
It has been sensitively directed by Frank Borzage and persuasively acted by a cast that includes Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas and a comparative newcomer to Hollywood, Albert Dekker, who will be in great demand after this picture as a portrayer of rugged men.
DISCARDS MASK
You will have heard by now that Joan Crawford discards her mask-like makeup in Strange Cargo to portray an unglamorized tart who is thrust among these desperate men on their jungle flight toward freedom.
The experiment is an unqualified success, revealing in the star a new honesty and vitality. Joan Crawford should never go back to the artificialities that have handicapped her all these years.
Though Gable is the other co-star of the film and though he is splendid as the thief whose spirit the prison discipline could not break, it is Ian Hunter among the men who really dominates the picture.
He plays the mysterious Cambreau, who is possessed of powers and compassion above those of ordinary men. Cambreau leads the fleeing convicts surely through the jungle, he finds food when they need it, he even predicts events before they happen.
It is the key part in the story and could so easily have been overplayed. But Hunter brings the tact and delicacy to the assignment. He makes the symbolism oddly credible.
CARVES NICHE
Dekker, as the murderous convict whose one soft spot is his love for the weakling (John Arledge), carves himself a permanent niche in Hollywood with his rugged characterization.
Most of the others are fine; Paul Lukas, as the soulless wife poisoner; J. Edward Bromberg as the wretched Flaubert, with his persecution mania; Eduardo Ciannelli, as the religious fanatic who believes that his crucifix will bring him safely through the perils of the journey, but who practices none of the things that it stands for; John Arledge, as the boy who isn't equipped to battle life.
Peter Lorre, as the slimy informer, M'sieu Pig, is the most theatrical of the lot and, to my mind, the least effective.
They are a weird crew, all of them, and have a peculiar fascination.
Strange Cargo definitely rates as an unusual and an interesting film.
The supporting feature at the two houses snaps you back into the everyday world. It is Young As You Feel, and is another adventure of the Jones family.
6/3/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Susan and God is a real puzzler. There's no doubt but what Joan Crawford does brilliant work as the dizzy, selfish heroine. But, as I see it, the fundamental problem with Crawford is to get her away from artificiality. Here, she simply welters in it. Bad psychology, I'm afraid.
6/3/1940 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
Susan and God and a stellar aggregation of notable previewers made the Westwood Village Theater a brilliant spot. And those who arrived wondering what Joan Crawford and Freddie March were going to do with the screen version of the hit stage play went home thoroughly convinced that they did all right for themselves as well as Susan and God.
Following the preview, director George Cukor, Judith Anderson and Orry-Kelly, Eric Charrell and Fannie Brice went on to Fannie's home for a sip and a bite. Unstinted was their praise, and it was amusing to hear Fannie opine that it was so good to be able to voice one's honest raves before the director without trying to cover up one's true opinions with wisecracks.
"It's the best thing Joan has ever done," was the universal comment, and it's too bad that she missed it all. But the legal matters anent the adoption of her little Christina had detained her in New York.
Having made a tremendous hit in her very first role on either stage or screen, it was a large night for young Rita Quigley. Her cavalier was Mickey Rooney, and was he astrut with pride and reflected glory! With them were Jean Cagney and Sidney Miller.
Bruce Cabot should also be very pleased with himself. His preview companions were Simone Simon, Jayne Larkin and Fred Brisson. Another party included Irene Dunne and Dr. Francis Griffin, Margaret and Hal Roach and Verbena Hebbard.
May Robson was happily effusive about her trip to New York, where she will visit her great grandchild. With "Mussy" was Lillian Harmer. Janet Gaynor and Adrian made a sidedoor entrance, and others were Rex Ferris and Wally Twinking, Evelyn and Dr. Bertrand Frohman, Sonja Henie and Dan Topping, Rita Hayworth and Eddie Judson, Ruth Hussey and Violet Denoyer, Lee Bowman and Helene Del Valle, Jeanette MacDonald with the Hunt Strombergs, Claudette Colbert and her mother, Mrs. Jeanne Colbert; Deanna Durbin and Vaughn Paul, Ann Sothern and Roger Pryor, Binnie Barnes, Jack Cummings, Sydney Guilaroff and Laraine Day, Marlene Dietrich, Louis B. Mayer, Ann Rutherford and Mrs. Lucille Rutherford, Margaret Sullavan and Leland Hayward, Betty Jaynes and Doug McPhail, the Les Petersons, the Dan Dailey Jrs., Howard Strickling, Ralph Wheelwright, the Larry Weingartens, Anne and Artie Stebbins and Lynn Carver and Nicky Nayfack.
6/4/1940 FD Susan and God
Metro 115 Mins.
(Hollywood Preview)
Quality entertainment in ever respect should click strongly at box offices.
Rachel Crother's famous Broadway play has been effectively picturized, with the production being marked by quality in ever department. George Cukor has given expert directorial guidance, gaining splendid performances from his cast. Hunt Stromberg, who has a record for transforming more plays to the screen than any other Hollywood producer, has done nobly by his latest effort.
Joan Crawford makes her first appearance as a comedienne and gives probably the best performance of her career. Fredric March returns to the screen with a moving portrayal. Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita Hayworth, Nigel Bruce and Bruce Cabot, feature principals, furnish splendid support, while Rita Quigley, who makes her screen debut, is likeable and convincing as the lonely daughter of March and Joan Crawford, Rose Hobart, Constance Collier, Marjorie Main, Norma Mitchell, Gloria DeHaven, Alfred Bowker and Richard O. Crane are others in the cast worthy of mention. Anita Loos has fashioned an entertaining screenplay, replete with clever lines and interesting situations. Robert Planck's photography is high-class.
Joan, who is separated from March, returns home bubbling over with enthusiasm for a movement dealing with truth and God. She sets out to work on her friends, neglecting to give any love and affection to daughter, Rita. March, anxious to make a home for daughter, makes Joan agree that the three should spend the summer together, he, to give Joan a divorce if he goes on a spree again. Constance Collier, Joan's mentor in the movement, arrives and Joan agrees to speak in Newport on the day of Rita's birthday, although Rita had planned a party for her young friends. Enraged at Joan's selfishness, March goes on a drunken auto ride with Ruth Hussey who tries to sober him up. He proposes marriage to Ruth, but when Ruth learns from Joan, who gives up the Newport trip, that she is still in love with March, she leaves the two together.
CAST: Joan Crawford, Fredric March, Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita Hayworth, Nigel Bruce, Bruce Cabot, Rose Hobart, Constance Collier, Rita Quigley, Gloria DeHaven, Richard O' Creane, Norma Mitchell, Marjorie Main, Aldrich Bowker.
CREDITS: Producer, Hunt Stromberg; Director, George Cukor; Based on the play by Rachel Crothers and produced by John Golden; Screenplay, Anita Loos; Musical Score by Herbert Stothart; Cameraman, Robert Planck, ASC; Art Director, Cedric Gibbons; Associate, Randall Duell; Editor, William H. Terhune.
Direction, Expert. Photography, Fine.
6/6/1940 EHE Susan and God
Opened at Loew's State and Grauman's Chinese June 5, 1940. Play by Rachel Crothers, scenario by Anita Loos. Directed by George Cukor. Photographed by Robert Planck, ASC. CAST: Joan Crawford, Fredric March, Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita Hayworth, Nigel Bruce, Bruce Cabot, Rita Quigley, Rose Hobart, Constance Collier, Gloria DeHaven, Richard O. Crane, Norma Mitchell, Marjorie Main and Aldrich Bowker.
Florian on the same bill.
By Harrison Carroll
Nothing if not courageous, Joan Crawford tackles a brittle and largely unsympathetic comedy role in Susan and God, movie version of Rachel Crothers'‘ satire in which Gertrude Lawrence starred on Broadway.
In so far as her ability to play comedy is concerned, the star proves her point, often brilliantly, in the picture now showing at the Loew's State and Grauman's Chinese theaters.
It seems to me, though, that she and MGM would have used better judgment if they had picked a comedy role that was more on the human side. The chief complaint against Joan in some quarters has been her artificiality. Susan Drexel, heroine of this story, is about as artificial a person as could be imagined.
She is so flighty, selfish and meddling that you are hard put to it to wish her well, even when she undergoes a last minute change of heart.
However, Susan, to do her justice, is quite a character. She comes back from Europe fired with the desire to convert her play-loving set to a new kind of religion–a state of everybody loving everybody and of publicly exposing all secret feelings.
In her own case, Susan's idea of confessing is to reveal that she tints her hair.
But, with her friends, she gets right down to business. She brings a hidden affair into the open, she blasts the cynical marriage of an actress to a rich and pompous old bore.
The irony of it is that Susan has her own family problem which is urgently in need of attention. She has a husband who is an alcoholic, but who still loves her and who wants to try again for happiness. She has a daughter who has been shunted away to boarding schools and to summer camps.
George Cukor, director of The Women, does a good job of developing these not too pleasant people.
The actors cooperate with sharply drawn portrayals. Joan Crawford's transformation is remarkable, even if you don't care for it. Fredric March, as the alcoholic husband, achieves one of the most authentic characterizations in his career. Little Rita Quigley, as the kicked-around daughter, imparts rare sympathy to the role. Her first picture, too.
Then there are the intriguing Rita Hayworth, as the actress; Nigel Bruce, as her jealous husband; John Carroll, as the actor who completes the triangle.
Rose Hobart, too long absent from the screen, and Bruce Cabot are the couple who are carrying on an illicit affair.
Ruth Hussey is the other woman who loves Susan's husband and who gets my vote as the one he should have picked. Incidentally, it wouldn't surprise me if this picture does more for Ruth Hussey than it does for Joan Crawford. She puts fine sincerity into her role.
Marjorie Main contributes another of her amusing portrayals of a servant. There are nice bits by Constance Collier and by two young newcomers, Gloria DeHaven and Richard O. Crane.
Anita Loos did the screenplay of Susan and God, which was a ticklish job, dealing as it did with an unsympathetic heroine and with the touchy subject of religion.
You can be sure of one thing. You won't see a run-of-the-mill movie in Susan and God. It's daringly different.
The companion picture at the Loew's State and Chinese is Florian, strictly old-fashioned in its plot of a commoner falling in love with an aristocrat, but offering some magnificent shots of the famous Lipizan horses that used to be the pride of Austria's imperial stables, MGM sent a camera crew to Europe to photograph these scenes.
Florian is the picture in which the ballet star, Irina Baronova, makes her debut. Her dancing is wonderful, but she is not impressive as an actress or as a screen personality.
7/3/1940 DN Harry Mines
From New York Joan Crawford wires that she won't return to California until September 1. War work and the search for a Broadway play keep the star in Manhattan. MGM has no immediate vehicle lined up for her, although the schedule lists Night In Bombay and A Woman's Face for the near future.
Susan and God has brought new importance to the Crawford career. She is jubilant over the good notices given her work by press and public. That desire to make a footlight debut this winter continues uppermost in the star's thoughts and she holds daily conferences with leading producers regarding the idea.
Incidentally this holiday is the longest Miss Crawford has enjoyed in 10 years. Usually she gets a month off between pictures.
8/6/1940 HCN Sidney Skolsky
HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS
Hollywood is a fabulous place, and from the mass of information supplied about it every day there has come to be a number of legends. It is believed:
THAT Mickey Rooney takes out every girl in pictures, with the exception of Hattie McDaniel.....
Ann Sheridan doesn't really know what "Ooomph" is, but every night before going to bed she thanks Will Hays that she has it.....
Joan Crawford is the celluloid edition of Gertrude Lawrence.....
8/19/1940 HCN
Joan Crawford has won over the film critics. Her work in Susan and God excited the admiration even of some of the hardest boiled of the New York scribes. Critical reports of her performance from elsewhere in the country, as the Metro film continues its showings, are even more enthusiastic.
8/20/1940 HCN EDWARD ARNOLD NAMED TO HEAD SCREEN ACTORS GUILD
Edward Arnold today was the choice of the Screen Actors Guild nominating committee for the presidency of the Guild to succeed Ralph Morgan, who declined to run for a third term.
The star was named last night by the committee which also nominated George Murphy as first vice president; Paul Harvey as second vice president; Walter Abel as third vice president; Lucile Gleason, record secretary, and Porter Hall, treasurer.
James Cagney is the incumbent first vice president; Joan Crawford, the second vice president; and Arnold, the third vice president. Harvey is recording secretary and Hall treasurer.
The election will be Sept. 15.
Nominated for the board of directors are Morgan, Mrs. Gleason, Russell Hicks, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Robert Strange, Roy Gordon, Tom Holt, Louis Jean Heydt, Heather Angel and Lydia Westman.
8/23/1940 HCN
Joan Crawford's brother, Hal LeSueur (that's Joan's real name), has been assigned to do a part with Robert Taylor in Flight Command.
9/26/1940 EHE Jimmy Starr
Marlene "Legs" Dietrich probably doesn't care one iota, but the title to Hollywood's most glamorous legs has, without her consent or knowledge, been transferred from her lovely, shapely stems to the underpinnings of blonde and luscious Betty Grable!
At least, that's the opinion of the 350 members of the Screen Dancers Guild. They voted Betty the title of "Glamor Legs No 1" in a meeting yesterday.
Betty, who is under contract to 20th Century-Fox, landed 112 votes and the others were scattered among the remaining contenders. They included Alice Faye, Zorina, Eleanor Powell, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Ann Sheridan, Lana Turner, Sonja Henie and Brenda Joyce.
Dietrich wasn't even considered. Optometrists attention, there's a chance for a lot of business with the Screen Dancers Guild.
10/1/1940 EHE Jimmy Starr
Joan Crawford doing countless Red Cross benefits in New York.
10/3/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Joan Crawford read 125 plays in New York but didn't find what she was looking for. She insists she just wants a good part, not a star role.
10/7/1940 HCN
.The screenplay of A Woman's Face has been completed by Lesser Samuels. Metro plans it for Joan Crawford.
10/25/1940 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
Launching the social events that invariably accompany the local opera season, the luncheon at the Assistance League Tea Room honored feminine officials of the Los Angeles Opera Association.
Mario Chamlee presided, and in the absence of Joan Fontaine, who is chairman of the association's cinema group, Rosemary Lick officiated as her stand-in. And other Hollywoodites present were Fay Wray, Mary Martin, Blanche Yurka, John Garrick and Carlotta King Russell.
As a premiere offering, the San Francisco Opera Company will present "The Masked Ball" at the Shrine Auditorium on November 4. And "Lucia di Lammermoor,' with such favorites as Lily Pons, Richard Bonelli and Tito Schipa, will undoubtedly make the night of November 7 a memorable one.
Among the filmlanders who have made reservations for the season are Lee Russell and Herbert Marshall, Olivia de Havilland, Irene Dunne, Helen Gahagan, Myrna Loy, the Paul Munis, Ouida and Basil Rathbone, the Frank Capras, the Ronnie Colmans, Miliza Korjus and Barbara Stanwyck.
Others on Joan's cinema committee are Brian Aherne, Barbara Allen, Vicki Baum, Janet Beecher, Constance Bennett, Joan Bennett, Leo Carrillo, Frank Chapman, Charles Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, Dolores Del Rio, Cecil B. DeMille, Walt Disney, Deanna Durbin, the Nelson Eddys, Amelita Galli-Curci, Florence George, Paulette Goddard, Samuel Goldwyn, Raymond Griffith, Richard Hageman, Louis Hayward, Arthur Hornblow Jr., Irene Hervey, Doris Kenyon, Ida Koverman, the Otto Krugers, Dorothy Lamour, William LeBaron, Bob Leonard, Anita Louise, Ernst Lubitsch, and so on and on.
10/28/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Joan Crawford bought 17 outfits from New York designer Joe Copeland.
10/26/1940 EHE Sally Moore
It's opera time again, and Hollywood society has drawn a large red circle around the date of Thursday, Nov. 7, on which evening filmdom's own Lily Pons will star in "Lucia de Lammermoor at the Shrine Auditorium with the famed San Francisco Opera Company. The opera season opens on Monday evening Nov. 4, and closes on Nov. 9. Hollywood society leaders–the Ronald Colmans, Basil Rathbones, Robert Taylors (Barbara Stanwyck), Herbert Marshalls, Myrna Loy, Millja Korjus, Irene Dunne and many more–have already made season reservations.
While serving on the Hollywood committee sponsoring the opera season are Joan Fontaine, chairman, and Brian Aherne, Barbara Allen, Vicki Baum, Janet Beecher, Constance Bennett, Joan Bennett, Leo Carrillo, Frank Chapman, Charles Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, Dolores Del Rio, Cecil B. DeMille, Walt Disney, Melvyn Douglas, Deanna Durbin, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Eddy, Amelita Galli-Curci, Florence George, Paulette Goddard, Samuel Goldwyn, Raymond Griffith, Richard Hageman, Louis Hayward, Arthur Hornblow Jr., Irene Hervey, Doris Kenyon, Ida Koverman, Mr. and Mr. Otto Kruger, Dorothy Lamour, William LeBaron, Robert Z. Leonard, Ernst Lubitsch, Grant Mitchell and others.
11/8/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Far from being overrun by glamorous feminine stars, Hollywood faces an actual shortage in this department.
So complained today director Edmund Goulding, who says he combed the town for an alluring beauty to play in Far Horizon and was making no headway at all until somebody got the bright idea of signing Mary Astor.
Miss Astor, a star since silent days, portrays a role of almost equal importance to that of Bette Davis in the new Warner Brothers film.
"For years," exclaimed Goulding, "the comics and the sirens kept this business going. But where have they all disappeared to? The only comedian left today is Charlie Chaplin. And about the only siren (I'm not counting the younger girls) is Marlene Dietrich.
"What we need is a new crop of Gloria Swansons, Nita Naldis, Pola Negris and Barbara La Marrs!"
Around the lot, it is said that Warners made a huge offer to get Joan Crawford for the Davis film, but that the star and MGM turned it down.
12/5/1940 HCN
REFLECTED GLORY DEAL
MGM reports that there is a deal on in New York for the purchase of George Kelly's plan, Reflected Glory.
This is the play which starred Tallulah Bankhead several seasons ago.
Metro says if the play is acquired, that doesn't necessarily mean it is intended for Joan Crawford. Although that's a possibility.
In the meantime Miss Crawford is preparing for her role in A Woman's Face. After that, she is in line for The Gilded Lady.
12/11/1940 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Wonder why Joan Crawford is so secretive about the date of her arrival in town. Talked with her in New York, and she had expected to come home sooner.
1/8/1941 HCN
Marjorie Main's enactment of the huffy servant in Susan and God assured her the role of another huffy servant in A Woman's Face, the Joan Crawford starring vehicle about ready to start at MGM.
Melvyn Douglas is Miss Crawford's co-star, and Conrad Veidt, Donald Meek, and Miss Main will lead off the supporting cast.
Marjorie Rambeau has been signed by Warners for one of the most unusual character roles of her career. She is to play the one-armed mother of Richard Barthelmess in A Modern Hero, based on the Louis Bromfield novel. Those who have read the novel know that it begin with a circus background. Miss Rambeau, cast as a former animal trainer, sacrifices her arm to her profession. And you can guess in advance that her characterization will require elaborate body make-up. In addition to Miss Rambeau and Barthelmess, there are to be three leading women in the picture, Jean Muir, Margaret Lindsay and Claire Dodd. Heretofore Miss Rambeau has made her greatest hits in rugged comedy roles. But her part in A Modern Hero suggests a somber characterization.
This picture will be the first Hollywood directorial effort of G.W. Pabst, the noted German director recently signed by Warners. His pictures, such as Kameradschaft, White Hell of Pitz Palu and Beggars' Opera, have won him an enviable reputation as a European director. Although he is not a Jew, his pacifist theme in Kameradschaft is said to have incurred the ire of the Hitler regime and prevented his return to Germany.
....
Quite a while ago Radio Pictures bought the screen rights to the Ernest Hemingway novel, The Sun Also Rises. Later the studio sold these screen rights to director D.W. Griffith, who was most anxious to have the picture produced in his own way. Now Griffith has engaged Horace Jackson to work on the screen treatment, and Radio Pictures is about ready to close a deal for Griffith to sell his story and treatment back to the studio and to direct the picture. The combination of Griffith and Jackson is an old and successful one. It further leads to the possibility of having Ann Harding as the star, since Jackson wrote for and Griffith directed this star in a number of pictures. The three were together on Animal Kingdom and a number of previous Pathe Pictures.
....
MGM's Viva Villa company has virtually been routed from Mexico City and from all reports is returning discouraged and minus the film footage sought there. Lee Tracy, according to news flashes, has been arrested, and some street brawls have been added to the excitement. Now MGM had hoped that friendly relations were definitely established with Mexico before the film troupe was sent down. The studio engaged Wallace Smith to work on the script, and it was he who got the script okehed by the Mexican government. Smith knows Mexico intimately and has many powerful contacts down there. But when Smith completed the scenario, MGM dispensed with his services. Had he been sent down to Mexico with the film troupe, all this trouble might have been avoided.
....
The other day Walter Winchell's column printed an item that Al Jolson would co-star with his wife, Ruby Keeler, after the completion of Wonder Bar. The announcement had the effect of waving a red flag in the face of Jolson. So just to prove that Winchell was wrong, Jolson up and announced that he was going to retire from the screen forever after he finished Wonder Bar. He explained that he lost money making pictures, anyway, as he could earn so much more on the radio. But Jack Warner read the reports and informed Jolson that he holds an option on the mammy singer's services for three more pictures. So now Jolson admits that he won't retire as soon as he first planned. But he still has a chance to prove that Winchell was wrong by not co-starring with his wife.
....
Nearly everybody on the MGM lot is being rumored for the leading role in The Show-off, stage play by George Kelly. Ted Healy has been announced for the part. Lee Tracy was announced before him. And today the rumor hounds say that Otto Kruger probably will be cast in the film. The studio, however denies that any decision has been reached on the cast, so one person's guess is as good as another's.
....
However, a newer and more recently acquired stage play at MGM is Men In White, and the cast for this film seems more definite. It was written by Sidney Kingsley and concerns the medical profession. Clark Gable seems to have first preference for the lead. Do you remember way back in his career when Warners borrowed him for a medical picture? Myrna Loy seems to stand a good chance for the feminine lead with Gable in this film.
....
Jesse Lasky will look at home, as well as elsewhere, to find the debutantes for his picture, Coming Out Party. Catherine Toberman, debutante daughter of C.E. Toberman, Hollywood real estate magnate, has been selected for one of the debutante roles.
....
Charlie Chaplin is having sound equipment installed in his studio at Sunset Blvd. And LaBrea Ave. This does not mean that the famous pantomimist is going to relent and talk on the screen. But it does indicate that he plans to produce some talking pictures. And I suspect that Paulette Goddard is the motivating idea in back of his plans.
Joan Crawford In the 40's
ABBREVIATIONS
DN — Los Angeles Daily News
EHE — Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
FD — Film Daily
HCN — Hollywood Citizen News
LAX — Los Angeles Examiner
MPH — Motion Picture Herald
SFC — San Francisco Chronicle 1/18/1940 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Joan Crawford's tests for Susan and God are so good that the big boys on the MGM lot were doing nip-ups. Her comedy took them all by pleasant surprise.
1/21/1940 LAX Movie-Go-Round
By Louella O. Parsons
Rudy Vallee, who has always admired Joan Crawford so much, is huddling with her about a show he wants to do with her.
1/22/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Judging by the experiences of Joan Crawford in New York, a Hollywood glamour girl must consider her clothes public property.
On her recent trip east, the star braved the mobs without damage to her wardrobe, but she wasn't so lucky with her laundry. Several garments, sent out through a Gotham hotel, failed to come back. Apparently, laundry workers kept them as souvenirs.
Joan made a routine report of the loss.
Yesterday, she received a check from the laundry and a note explaining that the employees club had voted to pay for the missing garments. Ordinarily, the star was told, any person keeping a customer's clothes would be instantly dismissed. But, in this case, it was felt, there might be extenuating circumstances.
Joan is returning the check with a suggestion that the money be applied to the Christmas fund.
1/24/1940 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Joan Crawford convalescing after an attack of the flu.
1/27/1940 EHE Sally Moore
Also anticipated by Hollywood society is next Wednesday's press preview of 20th Century-Fox's new production of Little Old New York. Among those attending the preview, many entertaining later at after-theater suppers, will be Alice Faye, Richard Greene and Fred MacMurray, stars of the film, the Andy Devines, Theodore von Eltz, Ward Bonds, Henry Stephensons, Norma Shearer, Deanna Durbin, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, James Stewart, the Walter Wangers (Joan Bennett), Don Ameches and many more.
2/15/1940 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
One of the film colony's favorite charities is the Tailwagger Guide Dog Institute, which trains canine eyes for the blind and has Hugh Herbert as its new president and James G. Lindsay as its secretary.
So it is always with quick compassion that our film notables respond to its requests for their participation in its fundraising events. And when it stages its next–a fashion show luncheon at Ciro's next Tuesday–you will see such charmers as Alice Faye, Linda Hayes, Brenda Joyce, Nancy Kelly, Rosemary Lane, Ann Rutherford, Elaine Shepherd, Penny Singleton, Louise Stanley, Marjorie Weaver and Arleen Whalen, all glorifying Gladys Parker's most exquisite creations.
As a special guest of honor, Hedy Lamarr will grace the party with her exotic presence. And Harry Crocker will officiate as master of ceremonies.
Dixie (Mrs. Bing) Crosby and Bobbe Fidler made the first reservations, and other early reservations include those for Oddette Myrtil, Joan Crawford, Dolores (Mrs. Bob) Hope, Jeffrie Gill and Diane Manners, Mrs. Jimmy Ritz, Mrs. Frank Parker (Edna Johnson), Arthur Lubin, Anthony Quinn and Katherine DeMille, Mrs. Harry Brand, the Victor E. Daltons, Renie Riano, John Beverly, Mrs. John F. Burke, Dr. and Mrs. Sayles Taylor, Mrs. Nan Norris Flint and Catherine Sabichi and Mary Casiday.
Other devotees and charter members of the Institute include Gracie Allen and George Burns, Bette Davis, Marion Davies, Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone, Edgar Bergen, George Brent, Bob Cobb and Gail Patrick, Walter Connolly, George Converse, Anita Stewart, Samuel Goldwyn, Jean Hersholt, Jeanette MacDonald, Mary Pickford, Darryl and Virginia Zanuck, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Ellison, Howard Hughes, Joseph Schenck, Rudy Vallee, C. Aubrey Smith, Jerome Kern and Henry Stephenson.
3/2/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
Several years ago Nancy Kelly was swept to Hollywood on the strength of her performance as the ugly duckling daughter of Gertrude Lawrence in "Susan and God."
The movie version of the comedy goes before the cameras at MGM this week with Joan Crawford in the Gertrude Lawrence role and with 16-year-old Rita Quigley, sister of child star Juanita Quigley, replacing Nancy Kelly.
KEY SCENE
It is Rita's first film role. It makes her Hollywood's newest Cinderella.
We watch her do a scene with Fredric March.
They are father and daughter in the picture, but they don't know each other very well. Both are embarrassed. To make it worse for the ugly duckling, the brace on her teeth slips off while they are talking.
It's a key scene to establish the relationship of father and daughter. Director George Cukor, a careful workman, shoots it time and again. Finally, he okays the take.
CONFIDENCE
A school teacher is waiting for Rita, but we talk with her a moment. After watching her, awkward and ill at ease in the scene, it is a surprise to find that she has unusual poise and self-confidence for a girl of 16.
Meeting us, she extends her left hand, "I'll give you the hand nearest my heart," she says.
We ask her how she happened to be tested for the role.
"Just pure luck," she exclaims. "I went with Juanita to deliver a Christmas present to Mr. Hunt Stromberg's house. He saw me and asked me if I had ever done anything for the films. I said no and the next thing I knew I was asked to make a test for this part."
The test, incidentally, was the very scene we have just watched. Only then, director Cukor played March's part of the father.
3/2/1940 HCN Radio
By Zuma Palmer
Joan Crawford in an Arch Oboler play, "Baby," KFI at 9.
3/14/1940 EHE Strange Cargo
An MGM picture, opened March 13, 1940, at Loew's State and Grauman's Chinese. Directed by Frank Borzage. Screenplay by Lawrence Hazard from a book by Richard Sale. Photographed by Robert Planck.
CAST: Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, J. Edward Bromberg, John Arledge and Eduardo Ciannelli.
By Harrison Carroll
As violent a melodrama as they come is Strange Cargo, but the new picture at the Grauman's Chinese and Loew's State theaters also has a strong religious motif.
It is the story of a band of convicts led out of a tropical prison hell by a mysterious, Christlike character, who brings about the regeneration of all but one of his sordid flock before the end of the journey.
A daring and absorbing film is this MGM version of Richard Sale's novel, "Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep."
It has been sensitively directed by Frank Borzage and persuasively acted by a cast that includes Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas and a comparative newcomer to Hollywood, Albert Dekker, who will be in great demand after this picture as a portrayer of rugged men.
DISCARDS MASK
You will have heard by now that Joan Crawford discards her mask-like makeup in Strange Cargo to portray an unglamorized tart who is thrust among these desperate men on their jungle flight toward freedom.
The experiment is an unqualified success, revealing in the star a new honesty and vitality. Joan Crawford should never go back to the artificialities that have handicapped her all these years.
Though Gable is the other co-star of the film and though he is splendid as the thief whose spirit the prison discipline could not break, it is Ian Hunter among the men who really dominates the picture.
He plays the mysterious Cambreau, who is possessed of powers and compassion above those of ordinary men. Cambreau leads the fleeing convicts surely through the jungle, he finds food when they need it, he even predicts events before they happen.
It is the key part in the story and could so easily have been overplayed. But Hunter brings the tact and delicacy to the assignment. He makes the symbolism oddly credible.
CARVES NICHE
Dekker, as the murderous convict whose one soft spot is his love for the weakling (John Arledge), carves himself a permanent niche in Hollywood with his rugged characterization.
Most of the others are fine; Paul Lukas, as the soulless wife poisoner; J. Edward Bromberg as the wretched Flaubert, with his persecution mania; Eduardo Ciannelli, as the religious fanatic who believes that his crucifix will bring him safely through the perils of the journey, but who practices none of the things that it stands for; John Arledge, as the boy who isn't equipped to battle life.
Peter Lorre, as the slimy informer, M'sieu Pig, is the most theatrical of the lot and, to my mind, the least effective.
They are a weird crew, all of them, and have a peculiar fascination.
Strange Cargo definitely rates as an unusual and an interesting film.
The supporting feature at the two houses snaps you back into the everyday world. It is Young As You Feel, and is another adventure of the Jones family.
6/3/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Susan and God is a real puzzler. There's no doubt but what Joan Crawford does brilliant work as the dizzy, selfish heroine. But, as I see it, the fundamental problem with Crawford is to get her away from artificiality. Here, she simply welters in it. Bad psychology, I'm afraid.
6/3/1940 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
Susan and God and a stellar aggregation of notable previewers made the Westwood Village Theater a brilliant spot. And those who arrived wondering what Joan Crawford and Freddie March were going to do with the screen version of the hit stage play went home thoroughly convinced that they did all right for themselves as well as Susan and God.
Following the preview, director George Cukor, Judith Anderson and Orry-Kelly, Eric Charrell and Fannie Brice went on to Fannie's home for a sip and a bite. Unstinted was their praise, and it was amusing to hear Fannie opine that it was so good to be able to voice one's honest raves before the director without trying to cover up one's true opinions with wisecracks.
"It's the best thing Joan has ever done," was the universal comment, and it's too bad that she missed it all. But the legal matters anent the adoption of her little Christina had detained her in New York.
Having made a tremendous hit in her very first role on either stage or screen, it was a large night for young Rita Quigley. Her cavalier was Mickey Rooney, and was he astrut with pride and reflected glory! With them were Jean Cagney and Sidney Miller.
Bruce Cabot should also be very pleased with himself. His preview companions were Simone Simon, Jayne Larkin and Fred Brisson. Another party included Irene Dunne and Dr. Francis Griffin, Margaret and Hal Roach and Verbena Hebbard.
May Robson was happily effusive about her trip to New York, where she will visit her great grandchild. With "Mussy" was Lillian Harmer. Janet Gaynor and Adrian made a sidedoor entrance, and others were Rex Ferris and Wally Twinking, Evelyn and Dr. Bertrand Frohman, Sonja Henie and Dan Topping, Rita Hayworth and Eddie Judson, Ruth Hussey and Violet Denoyer, Lee Bowman and Helene Del Valle, Jeanette MacDonald with the Hunt Strombergs, Claudette Colbert and her mother, Mrs. Jeanne Colbert; Deanna Durbin and Vaughn Paul, Ann Sothern and Roger Pryor, Binnie Barnes, Jack Cummings, Sydney Guilaroff and Laraine Day, Marlene Dietrich, Louis B. Mayer, Ann Rutherford and Mrs. Lucille Rutherford, Margaret Sullavan and Leland Hayward, Betty Jaynes and Doug McPhail, the Les Petersons, the Dan Dailey Jrs., Howard Strickling, Ralph Wheelwright, the Larry Weingartens, Anne and Artie Stebbins and Lynn Carver and Nicky Nayfack.
6/4/1940 FD Susan and God
Metro 115 Mins.
(Hollywood Preview)
Quality entertainment in ever respect should click strongly at box offices.
Rachel Crother's famous Broadway play has been effectively picturized, with the production being marked by quality in ever department. George Cukor has given expert directorial guidance, gaining splendid performances from his cast. Hunt Stromberg, who has a record for transforming more plays to the screen than any other Hollywood producer, has done nobly by his latest effort.
Joan Crawford makes her first appearance as a comedienne and gives probably the best performance of her career. Fredric March returns to the screen with a moving portrayal. Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita Hayworth, Nigel Bruce and Bruce Cabot, feature principals, furnish splendid support, while Rita Quigley, who makes her screen debut, is likeable and convincing as the lonely daughter of March and Joan Crawford, Rose Hobart, Constance Collier, Marjorie Main, Norma Mitchell, Gloria DeHaven, Alfred Bowker and Richard O. Crane are others in the cast worthy of mention. Anita Loos has fashioned an entertaining screenplay, replete with clever lines and interesting situations. Robert Planck's photography is high-class.
Joan, who is separated from March, returns home bubbling over with enthusiasm for a movement dealing with truth and God. She sets out to work on her friends, neglecting to give any love and affection to daughter, Rita. March, anxious to make a home for daughter, makes Joan agree that the three should spend the summer together, he, to give Joan a divorce if he goes on a spree again. Constance Collier, Joan's mentor in the movement, arrives and Joan agrees to speak in Newport on the day of Rita's birthday, although Rita had planned a party for her young friends. Enraged at Joan's selfishness, March goes on a drunken auto ride with Ruth Hussey who tries to sober him up. He proposes marriage to Ruth, but when Ruth learns from Joan, who gives up the Newport trip, that she is still in love with March, she leaves the two together.
CAST: Joan Crawford, Fredric March, Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita Hayworth, Nigel Bruce, Bruce Cabot, Rose Hobart, Constance Collier, Rita Quigley, Gloria DeHaven, Richard O' Creane, Norma Mitchell, Marjorie Main, Aldrich Bowker.
CREDITS: Producer, Hunt Stromberg; Director, George Cukor; Based on the play by Rachel Crothers and produced by John Golden; Screenplay, Anita Loos; Musical Score by Herbert Stothart; Cameraman, Robert Planck, ASC; Art Director, Cedric Gibbons; Associate, Randall Duell; Editor, William H. Terhune.
Direction, Expert. Photography, Fine.
6/6/1940 EHE Susan and God
Opened at Loew's State and Grauman's Chinese June 5, 1940. Play by Rachel Crothers, scenario by Anita Loos. Directed by George Cukor. Photographed by Robert Planck, ASC. CAST: Joan Crawford, Fredric March, Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita Hayworth, Nigel Bruce, Bruce Cabot, Rita Quigley, Rose Hobart, Constance Collier, Gloria DeHaven, Richard O. Crane, Norma Mitchell, Marjorie Main and Aldrich Bowker.
Florian on the same bill.
By Harrison Carroll
Nothing if not courageous, Joan Crawford tackles a brittle and largely unsympathetic comedy role in Susan and God, movie version of Rachel Crothers'‘ satire in which Gertrude Lawrence starred on Broadway.
In so far as her ability to play comedy is concerned, the star proves her point, often brilliantly, in the picture now showing at the Loew's State and Grauman's Chinese theaters.
It seems to me, though, that she and MGM would have used better judgment if they had picked a comedy role that was more on the human side. The chief complaint against Joan in some quarters has been her artificiality. Susan Drexel, heroine of this story, is about as artificial a person as could be imagined.
She is so flighty, selfish and meddling that you are hard put to it to wish her well, even when she undergoes a last minute change of heart.
However, Susan, to do her justice, is quite a character. She comes back from Europe fired with the desire to convert her play-loving set to a new kind of religion–a state of everybody loving everybody and of publicly exposing all secret feelings.
In her own case, Susan's idea of confessing is to reveal that she tints her hair.
But, with her friends, she gets right down to business. She brings a hidden affair into the open, she blasts the cynical marriage of an actress to a rich and pompous old bore.
The irony of it is that Susan has her own family problem which is urgently in need of attention. She has a husband who is an alcoholic, but who still loves her and who wants to try again for happiness. She has a daughter who has been shunted away to boarding schools and to summer camps.
George Cukor, director of The Women, does a good job of developing these not too pleasant people.
The actors cooperate with sharply drawn portrayals. Joan Crawford's transformation is remarkable, even if you don't care for it. Fredric March, as the alcoholic husband, achieves one of the most authentic characterizations in his career. Little Rita Quigley, as the kicked-around daughter, imparts rare sympathy to the role. Her first picture, too.
Then there are the intriguing Rita Hayworth, as the actress; Nigel Bruce, as her jealous husband; John Carroll, as the actor who completes the triangle.
Rose Hobart, too long absent from the screen, and Bruce Cabot are the couple who are carrying on an illicit affair.
Ruth Hussey is the other woman who loves Susan's husband and who gets my vote as the one he should have picked. Incidentally, it wouldn't surprise me if this picture does more for Ruth Hussey than it does for Joan Crawford. She puts fine sincerity into her role.
Marjorie Main contributes another of her amusing portrayals of a servant. There are nice bits by Constance Collier and by two young newcomers, Gloria DeHaven and Richard O. Crane.
Anita Loos did the screenplay of Susan and God, which was a ticklish job, dealing as it did with an unsympathetic heroine and with the touchy subject of religion.
You can be sure of one thing. You won't see a run-of-the-mill movie in Susan and God. It's daringly different.
The companion picture at the Loew's State and Chinese is Florian, strictly old-fashioned in its plot of a commoner falling in love with an aristocrat, but offering some magnificent shots of the famous Lipizan horses that used to be the pride of Austria's imperial stables, MGM sent a camera crew to Europe to photograph these scenes.
Florian is the picture in which the ballet star, Irina Baronova, makes her debut. Her dancing is wonderful, but she is not impressive as an actress or as a screen personality.
7/3/1940 DN Harry Mines
From New York Joan Crawford wires that she won't return to California until September 1. War work and the search for a Broadway play keep the star in Manhattan. MGM has no immediate vehicle lined up for her, although the schedule lists Night In Bombay and A Woman's Face for the near future.
Susan and God has brought new importance to the Crawford career. She is jubilant over the good notices given her work by press and public. That desire to make a footlight debut this winter continues uppermost in the star's thoughts and she holds daily conferences with leading producers regarding the idea.
Incidentally this holiday is the longest Miss Crawford has enjoyed in 10 years. Usually she gets a month off between pictures.
8/6/1940 HCN Sidney Skolsky
HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS
Hollywood is a fabulous place, and from the mass of information supplied about it every day there has come to be a number of legends. It is believed:
THAT Mickey Rooney takes out every girl in pictures, with the exception of Hattie McDaniel.....
Ann Sheridan doesn't really know what "Ooomph" is, but every night before going to bed she thanks Will Hays that she has it.....
Joan Crawford is the celluloid edition of Gertrude Lawrence.....
8/19/1940 HCN
Joan Crawford has won over the film critics. Her work in Susan and God excited the admiration even of some of the hardest boiled of the New York scribes. Critical reports of her performance from elsewhere in the country, as the Metro film continues its showings, are even more enthusiastic.
8/20/1940 HCN EDWARD ARNOLD NAMED TO HEAD SCREEN ACTORS GUILD
Edward Arnold today was the choice of the Screen Actors Guild nominating committee for the presidency of the Guild to succeed Ralph Morgan, who declined to run for a third term.
The star was named last night by the committee which also nominated George Murphy as first vice president; Paul Harvey as second vice president; Walter Abel as third vice president; Lucile Gleason, record secretary, and Porter Hall, treasurer.
James Cagney is the incumbent first vice president; Joan Crawford, the second vice president; and Arnold, the third vice president. Harvey is recording secretary and Hall treasurer.
The election will be Sept. 15.
Nominated for the board of directors are Morgan, Mrs. Gleason, Russell Hicks, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Robert Strange, Roy Gordon, Tom Holt, Louis Jean Heydt, Heather Angel and Lydia Westman.
8/23/1940 HCN
Joan Crawford's brother, Hal LeSueur (that's Joan's real name), has been assigned to do a part with Robert Taylor in Flight Command.
9/26/1940 EHE Jimmy Starr
Marlene "Legs" Dietrich probably doesn't care one iota, but the title to Hollywood's most glamorous legs has, without her consent or knowledge, been transferred from her lovely, shapely stems to the underpinnings of blonde and luscious Betty Grable!
At least, that's the opinion of the 350 members of the Screen Dancers Guild. They voted Betty the title of "Glamor Legs No 1" in a meeting yesterday.
Betty, who is under contract to 20th Century-Fox, landed 112 votes and the others were scattered among the remaining contenders. They included Alice Faye, Zorina, Eleanor Powell, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Ann Sheridan, Lana Turner, Sonja Henie and Brenda Joyce.
Dietrich wasn't even considered. Optometrists attention, there's a chance for a lot of business with the Screen Dancers Guild.
10/1/1940 EHE Jimmy Starr
Joan Crawford doing countless Red Cross benefits in New York.
10/3/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Joan Crawford read 125 plays in New York but didn't find what she was looking for. She insists she just wants a good part, not a star role.
10/7/1940 HCN
.The screenplay of A Woman's Face has been completed by Lesser Samuels. Metro plans it for Joan Crawford.
10/25/1940 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
Launching the social events that invariably accompany the local opera season, the luncheon at the Assistance League Tea Room honored feminine officials of the Los Angeles Opera Association.
Mario Chamlee presided, and in the absence of Joan Fontaine, who is chairman of the association's cinema group, Rosemary Lick officiated as her stand-in. And other Hollywoodites present were Fay Wray, Mary Martin, Blanche Yurka, John Garrick and Carlotta King Russell.
As a premiere offering, the San Francisco Opera Company will present "The Masked Ball" at the Shrine Auditorium on November 4. And "Lucia di Lammermoor,' with such favorites as Lily Pons, Richard Bonelli and Tito Schipa, will undoubtedly make the night of November 7 a memorable one.
Among the filmlanders who have made reservations for the season are Lee Russell and Herbert Marshall, Olivia de Havilland, Irene Dunne, Helen Gahagan, Myrna Loy, the Paul Munis, Ouida and Basil Rathbone, the Frank Capras, the Ronnie Colmans, Miliza Korjus and Barbara Stanwyck.
Others on Joan's cinema committee are Brian Aherne, Barbara Allen, Vicki Baum, Janet Beecher, Constance Bennett, Joan Bennett, Leo Carrillo, Frank Chapman, Charles Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, Dolores Del Rio, Cecil B. DeMille, Walt Disney, Deanna Durbin, the Nelson Eddys, Amelita Galli-Curci, Florence George, Paulette Goddard, Samuel Goldwyn, Raymond Griffith, Richard Hageman, Louis Hayward, Arthur Hornblow Jr., Irene Hervey, Doris Kenyon, Ida Koverman, the Otto Krugers, Dorothy Lamour, William LeBaron, Bob Leonard, Anita Louise, Ernst Lubitsch, and so on and on.
10/28/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Joan Crawford bought 17 outfits from New York designer Joe Copeland.
10/26/1940 EHE Sally Moore
It's opera time again, and Hollywood society has drawn a large red circle around the date of Thursday, Nov. 7, on which evening filmdom's own Lily Pons will star in "Lucia de Lammermoor at the Shrine Auditorium with the famed San Francisco Opera Company. The opera season opens on Monday evening Nov. 4, and closes on Nov. 9. Hollywood society leaders–the Ronald Colmans, Basil Rathbones, Robert Taylors (Barbara Stanwyck), Herbert Marshalls, Myrna Loy, Millja Korjus, Irene Dunne and many more–have already made season reservations.
While serving on the Hollywood committee sponsoring the opera season are Joan Fontaine, chairman, and Brian Aherne, Barbara Allen, Vicki Baum, Janet Beecher, Constance Bennett, Joan Bennett, Leo Carrillo, Frank Chapman, Charles Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, Dolores Del Rio, Cecil B. DeMille, Walt Disney, Melvyn Douglas, Deanna Durbin, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Eddy, Amelita Galli-Curci, Florence George, Paulette Goddard, Samuel Goldwyn, Raymond Griffith, Richard Hageman, Louis Hayward, Arthur Hornblow Jr., Irene Hervey, Doris Kenyon, Ida Koverman, Mr. and Mr. Otto Kruger, Dorothy Lamour, William LeBaron, Robert Z. Leonard, Ernst Lubitsch, Grant Mitchell and others.
11/8/1940 EHE Harrison Carroll
Far from being overrun by glamorous feminine stars, Hollywood faces an actual shortage in this department.
So complained today director Edmund Goulding, who says he combed the town for an alluring beauty to play in Far Horizon and was making no headway at all until somebody got the bright idea of signing Mary Astor.
Miss Astor, a star since silent days, portrays a role of almost equal importance to that of Bette Davis in the new Warner Brothers film.
"For years," exclaimed Goulding, "the comics and the sirens kept this business going. But where have they all disappeared to? The only comedian left today is Charlie Chaplin. And about the only siren (I'm not counting the younger girls) is Marlene Dietrich.
"What we need is a new crop of Gloria Swansons, Nita Naldis, Pola Negris and Barbara La Marrs!"
Around the lot, it is said that Warners made a huge offer to get Joan Crawford for the Davis film, but that the star and MGM turned it down.
12/5/1940 HCN
REFLECTED GLORY DEAL
MGM reports that there is a deal on in New York for the purchase of George Kelly's plan, Reflected Glory.
This is the play which starred Tallulah Bankhead several seasons ago.
Metro says if the play is acquired, that doesn't necessarily mean it is intended for Joan Crawford. Although that's a possibility.
In the meantime Miss Crawford is preparing for her role in A Woman's Face. After that, she is in line for The Gilded Lady.
12/11/1940 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Wonder why Joan Crawford is so secretive about the date of her arrival in town. Talked with her in New York, and she had expected to come home sooner.
1/8/1941 HCN
Marjorie Main's enactment of the huffy servant in Susan and God assured her the role of another huffy servant in A Woman's Face, the Joan Crawford starring vehicle about ready to start at MGM.
Melvyn Douglas is Miss Crawford's co-star, and Conrad Veidt, Donald Meek, and Miss Main will lead off the supporting cast.
Labels: Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Marjorie Rambeau, Ruby Keeler
posted by GDH at 8:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home