Gilda

Posted on 29 January, 2014 by María López Linares

Year: 1946

Director: Charles Vidor.

Cast:

Rita Hayworth (Gilda Mundson Farrell)

Glenn Ford (Johnny Farrell)

George MacReady (Ballin Mundson)

“Gilda” is Rita Hayworth and Rita Hayworth is “Gilda”. Independently from the film’s plot, more or less attractively, Rita Hayworth completely absorbs and takes over the leading role. The entire film revolves around her, and her ability to captivate men in the film filters through the big screen and leaves all of us in love with her beauty, her sensuality and her character.

“Gilda” is a melodrama with a masterful structure. It contains some bitter, cynical, and wonderful dialogues which make it an essential work piece in black and white cinema.

This masterpiece hasn’t lost anything over the years. It speaks to us of solitude, friendship, greed, love and violence.

Glenn Ford, who had us accustomed to his roles as a good, trustworthy and honest man, becomes a wild animal absorbed by jealousy.

Without a doubt, the most famous scene in the film is the “strip-tease”. This “strip-tease” is the scene in which Hayworth takes off her glove whilst performing the unforgettable song “Put the Blame on me Mame” which, incidentally, was not sung by her. This scene reminds us once again how Hollywood knew exactly how to create eroticism and sex, simply by showing a naked arm.

Although perhaps it isn’t one of the best films in history, Gilda is, without a doubt, an indispensable film in cinema’s history, and within the film, Rita Hayworth depicts one of the most beautiful and seductive women of all time.

It was awarded by the National Film Preservation Board in 2013.

Curious Facts:

The truth is that when Rita Hayworth slapped Glenn Ford; she broke two of his teeth. Glenn Ford did not move until he finished the scene.

The photograph of Johnny Farrell as a child is, in reality, a photo of Glenn Ford’s son.

Rita Hayworth had to wear a corset during the filming “Put the blame on Mame”, as she had just given birth to her first daughter.

Rita Hayworth’s songs are dubbed. Unfortunately her voice seemed too weak, something that made the actress bitter for the rest of her life.

Rita Hayworth’s strapless dress, designed by Jean Louis, is based on a dress in the painting of “Madame X” (a famous Parisian character from the nineteenth century), painted in 1884 by John Singer Sargent. It cost 60,000 dollars, a barbaric amount of money for the time. In April 2009 it was put in auction, but it was withdrawn due to a lack of bids. It mysteriously appeared on eBay in September in the same year at a starting price of 30,000 dollars. However, I am unable to tell you what happened to the painting.

The famous glove scene from Gilda has been parodied in a number of films, highlighting above all the one of Jessica Rabbit in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.

The film participated in the first edition of the Cannes Film Festival together with “Notorious“, by Hitchcock which, curiously, has many similarities in the plot (South America, Nazis, a woman torn between two men).

GILDA, (THE ENTIRE FILM):

Memorable scenes:

Images:

Isabel MJ.Wordpress, Tiendas Fnac.es, Vipareaforcows.Blorgspot, Diario de una Cinefila. WordPress, Desvario Me Causa El Apetito.

Mildred Pierce

Posted on 22 January, 2014 by María López Linares

Year: 1945

Director: Michael Curtiz

Cast:

Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce)

Jack Carson (Wally Fay)

Zachary Scott (Monte Beragon)

Eve Arden (Ida Corwin)

Ann Blyth (Veda Pierce)

Awards:

Oscar in 1945 for the best actress (Joan Crawford). Nominated for the best film, best supporting actress (Ann Blyth and Eve Arden), best script and best photography.
Awarded by the National Board of Review in 1945 for the best actress. (Joan Crawford).
Second award for the best actress in 1946 to Joan Crawford by the National Film Critics Circle Awards.

Curious Facts:

However strange it may sound with the film career she already had, Joan Crawford had to make several screen tests in order to do the film.

Shirley Temple and Virginia Wedler were considered for the part of Vera Pierce.

The House of Monte was owned by Michael Curtiz.

Michael Curtiz did not want to work with Joan Crawford because of her reputation as a difficult actress. Due to the actress’s hard work and dedication, it did not take him long to realize his mistake.

Before she became an actress, Joan Crawford was a waitress and sales assistant.

Warner did not want to work with Ann Blyth, who had a contract with Universal. However, Joan Crawford insisted, and showed Ann in her previous screen tests so that they would contract her.

Joan Crawford, who won an Oscar for best actress, did not attend the ceremony because of a supposed case of pneumonia. Some people say this was not true as the actress just did not want to feel humiliated at not winning the award. When she found out, she jumped out of bed and got ready to receive the press.

I had not seen this film before. I think it’s one of the few titles from the list of 52 films I have prepared of which I had no reference whatsoever.

I have read in numerous specialized blogs that this is Joan Crawford’s best film, her best interpretation and the climax of her acting career, without belittling her other titles such as, A Woman’s Face or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. I think they have a point. It is certainly my favorite Joan Crawford performance until now. It is, therefore, with good reason that she was awarded the Oscar from the Hollywood Academy.

The film is a profound reflection of how bad family upbringing can affect a person’s formation, destroy them for life and make them a miserable human being. The interpretive duel between a mature Crawford and her perverse young daughter, played by Ann Blyth, is impressive. Theirs is a destructive relationship between a suffering mother and her devouring, selfish and blood-sucking young girl.

Ann Blyth gives life to a beautiful but hateful young girl, and her interpretation is so fabulous that on more than one occasion you feel like going through the screen and punching her, something which her mother fails to do.

The film tells us a tale of women, and of their lonely struggle to move forward after a divorce. It also shows their tireless fight alone, and their quest to push their children through any hardship whilst ensuring they have everything they need. The women forever think about their children both before and after they think about themselves.

This is a film, like no other, that represents the hard sacrifice forced upon the majority of American women in a time in which the war took, and in many cases never returned, their husbands, thus loading them with all the responsibilities of taking care of the whole family’s survival. A very well-deserved Oscar.

Mildred Pierce is a film which stops you and makes you think about how we are raising our children…

SCENES:

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/316587/Mildred-Pierce-Movie-Clip-Take-A-Swim.html

IMAGES:

True Classic, Cornel1801.com, Film Actually. com, Felicelog. Blogspot.com, Acertain Cinema.com

To be, or not to be

Posted on 15 January, 2014 by María López Linares

Year: 1942

Director: Ernst Lubitsch.

Cast:

Carole Lombard (Maria Tura).

Jack Benny (Joseph Tura).

Robert Stack (Teniente Sobinski).

Awards:

Nominated an Oscar for the best soundtrack (1942).

Curious Facts:

It was Carole Lombard’s last film. Due to the fact that she died in a plane crash, the phrase “what can happen on a plane?” was eliminated.
Miriam Hopkins was chosen for the role of Maria Tura, but she turned it down as she thought the part wasn’t funny.
Premiere magazine qualified it as one of the 50 best comedies of all time in 2006.
Clark Gable didn’t want his wife to play the part of Maria Tura. Carole Lombard said that she had never felt so happy in her life.

Together with Chaplin’s The Dictator, nobody had dared to parody the most ruthless dictator in the history of humanity. In this case, Lubitsch, with all his usual elegance, ridicules the man that did so much harm to mankind. He makes the theatre company venture into the lion’s den, collaborating with the resistance to help fight against the Nazis.

As always Carole Lombard plays a part that fits her like a glove. There are many extremely fun and enjoyable scenes, especially the one which is repeated at the beginning and end of the film when Robert Stack gets up from his seat and starts his Shakespeare monologue. It is a memorable scene which I hope to find for you on Youtube.

It is a very daring comedy for the period. It was released in February 1942 in the middle of the Second World War, and was instantly a huge success with both the critics and the public.

It was Carole Lombard’s last film as she died on the 16th January 1942 when she returned from Indiana, her home state, where she had gone to support the military actions against the Nazi army and sell warbonds. Carole lost her life together with her mother, her attorney and 20 others in a plane crash.

She was 33 years old and left behind a desolate and widowed Clark Gable, who would soon join the American troops deployed in Europe.

President Roosevelt stated that she was the first woman to fall in the Second World War, and they awarded her with the Medal of Freedom. This fact meant that some of the dialogues were changed, in post-production, when she asked: What can happen on a plane?

I can assure you that you will enjoy your time with her.

Memorable scenes from the film:

Images:

Bandeja de Plata, Josito Montez Blogspot , Es Globedia , Wikipedia

Casablanca

Posted on 8 January, 2014 by María López Linares

Year: 1942

Director: Michael Curtiz

Cast:

Humphrey Bogart: Rick Blane

Ingrid Bergman: Ilsa Lund

Paul Henreid: Victor Laszlo

Claude Rains: Captain Louis Renault

Conrad Veidt: Mayor Heinrish Strasser

Casablanca is considered by many to be one of the best films of all times, despite its slightly bland script, a plot hard to believe, the highly sentimental almost corny love story, and some very corrupted characters (the French captain who gambles despite it being illegal, the club owner who allows gambling and controls who wins, and the club’s atmosphere where everything is bought and sold to the highest bidder.

Casablanca is, without a doubt, a film with a twisting plot. The speed with which these twists occur have perhaps succeeded in making this film the classic that it is.

When it seems as though nothing else is going to happen, something unexpected occurs. Not in vain, the script used to change every day, it took an excessively long time and amount of money, which resulted in a never-ending film. The actors arrived and even they did not know what they were going to do on the day. Without a doubt, the cynical Humphrey Bogart becomes the absolute star of this film. Only he could have played Rick, and only he could have managed the situation, solved the problem and left the case blamelessly. Only Humphrey Bogart could leave a girl after her having previously left him tossed aside like a cigarette end, and still he comes across as an authentic gentleman.

It was very difficult for me to choose only one most memorable scene from the film. However, I finally decided upon the most exciting sequence, at least for me:

It is impossible not to become emotional when Gestapo sings the Nazi hymn in front of a group of officials in “Rick’s Cafe”, Laszlo and the rest of the French clients stand up and begin to sing “The Marseillaise” until they manage to reduce the German’s voices to a mere whisper. I never thought that hearing the French anthem would make me so emotional, but I can tell you that it gave me nots in my stomach along with the odd tear.

The movie contains a script that has the perfect mix of suspense, love and humour. The director, Michael Curtiz, doesn’t lose the rhythm for a single second in a story where the chemistry between the two protagonists does away with everything. In more than 100 years of cinema, one can say that no one has looked at someone with the same passion as Ingrid Bergman shows each time her eyes cross with the strong yet vulnerable Humphrey Bogart.

Bergman enters “Rick’s Cafe”, dressed in white with a beautiful rhinestone brooch with matching gleaming earrings that make her shine even more, if possible. She is like a shining star here, glamorous, elegant and simply perfect.

Claude Rains’ part as the ambiguous and cynical inspector of the policeman Louis Renault is also unforgettable.

A perfect film to share on a quiet Sunday afternoon, if in company – even better…

Awards:

Oscars (1942): Best director, best film, best script.

Nominations: Best actor (Bogart), best supporting actor (Claude Rains), best photography, best editing, best soundtrack.

Memorable scenes from the film:

Trailer Oficial:

Images:

Ciclos-decine Blogspost, Dr.Macro, Fila siete.com , Fan-Pop.com, Cineweekly.com

Ball of Fire

Posted on 1 January, 2014 by María López Linares

Year: 1941

Director: Howard Hawks

Cast:

Gary Cooper (Professor Bertram Potts)

Barbara Stanwyck (Sugarpuss O´Shea)

Oscar Homolka (Professor Gurkakoff)

Henry Travers (Professor Jerome)

S. Z. Sakall (Professor Magenbruch)

Tully Marshall (Professor Robinson)

Leonid Kinskey (Professor Quintana)

Richard Haydn (Professor Oddly)

Aubrey Mather (Professor Peagram)

Barbara Stanwyck, the best actress never to win an Oscar, as she alone defined herself. However, she did win an Honorary Award from the Academy in 1982.

With a chameleonic capacity, Stanwyck once more showed that she could play all sorts of parts, from the most dramatic, in this case, to the craziest comedies.

Gary Cooper, in his role as a good person which gave him so much success, shows once again that he will be sure to triumph in any film that crosses his path. Both actors are magnificent. Stanwyck in the uneducated, ordinary and sexually liberated role of a chorus girl, in the hands of a mafia man who believes her to be part of his property, and Cooper as the shy Professor Potts, totally absorbed by the vulgar charms of Sugarpuss, and ready to follow her to the end of the world.

It is a beautiful film, keeping in line with the master Hawks’ mad comedies. The “yum, yum” scene, in which Stanwyck has to climb upon a stool (Barbara Stanwyck measures 1m 65cm, whilst Cooper reaches 1m 90cm) is absolutely charming.

The entire team’s roles of obsolete and charming professors who accompany Gary Cooper in the making of the encyclopedia is masterly.

It is a perfect film to watch at home on a Sunday afternoon…

Awards:

Nominated in the 1942 Oscars for:

Best actress

Best original script.

Best sound.

Best soundtrack.

Curious Facts:

The punch that Barbara Stanwyck threw at Kathleen Howard was real. Barbara Stanwyck broke her jaw.

The script was written by Billy Wilder whilst he was in Germany. When he emigrated to the United States he sold it to Samuel Goldwyn, who promised him a $10,000 cheque if the film was successful. So it happened and Goldwyn refused to give him the said sum of money (“I never said such thing!”). Later on, he recognised his error and gave Wilder a cheque for… $5000.

Apart from Gary Cooper, the script for the seven professors was inspired by Walt Disney’s Seven Dwarfs.

Ginger Rogers and Carole Lombard turned down the role of Sugarpuss. Lucille Ball wanted to do it, however, Goldwyn preferred Barbara Stanwyck for the part.

Memorable scenes from the film:

Images:

Foto Blog de Cine

Asomateagranada.blogspot

Lo Que Yo te diga. net

Clementinelagranpantalla.blogspot

Filmaffinity.com

Now, Voyager

Posted on 25 December, 2013 by María López Linares

Year: 1942

Director: Irving Rapper.

Cast:

Bette Davis (Charlotte Vale)

Paul Henreid (Jerry Durrance)

Claude Rains (Dr. Jaquith)

Gladys Cooper (Mrs Henry Vale)

Bonita Granville (June Vale)

This was the biggest success of Bette Davis’ career; without being the most beautiful, without having the most enviable figure, and without being the most seductive of the Olympus Goddesses of Hollywood, through this film she showed the world what the meaning of a great actress was.

Davis goes from being an unfortunate, totally tormented, insecure young girl completely dominated by her insupportable selfish mother, who has the least seductive and most unattractive physique, to become, thanks to the love and understanding of a charming Paul Henreid, an independent, self-confident and brave woman.

This is a film of many details, moments of silence and gazes, and a film in which Bette Davis’ eyes and gestures continuously tell us her fears, wishes and worries. It is full of nuances and memorable scenes.

The scene in which Jerry lights two cigarettes at once so that he and Davis can smoke together, is anthological, not to say one of the most emblematic in the history of romantic cinema. It is a scene impressively loaded with emotions and sensuality. The complicity of their gazes in these moments unmistakably expresses the love that they profess, the necessity to exploit this shared moment, and the sheer impossibility of this love.

This film is beautiful. It is one of those that leaves you a lovely feeling upon finishing watching it. Moreover, as time has demonstrated, it is one that you can watch over and over again with growing pleasure.

The film reflects on the relationships within the family, and the negative consequences that a strict and excessive discipline can incur on the children’s characters. The film is a song for freedom and healthy responsibility of making your own decisions, even if they aren’t the right ones and you make mistakes. It surely made an impact on the strict American society of the Forties.

Although I’m not sure if it is more of a song of love and generosity, than of freedom; A profound and unconditional love song. A love full to the brim of generosity, in which a woman first considers the happiness of the person that she loves, before thinking of her own.

This is my most memorable quote:

“Don’t let’s ask for the moon, we have the stars”.

It is clear that i’m a confirmed romantic.

Awards:

An Oscar in 1942 for the Best Soundtrack (Max Steiner).

Nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

Awarded in 2007 by the National Film Registration Board.

Curious Facts:

The film was going to be directed by Edmund Goulding, with the idea of giving the starring role to Irene Dunne. However, she fell sick and the direction passed onto Michael Curtis who thought to choose Norma Shearer or Ginger Rogers. Meanwhile, Bette Davis fought to get the part, something that she managed so long as Curtiz wasn’t to direct her. It was decided at that moment that Irving Rapper should be the director.

It was the biggest box office success of Bette Davis’ career.

The scene in which Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes in order to give Bette Davis one, became so famous that when women saw Henreid they would give him two cigarettes from their own packets, so that he could also light theirs.

The film is based on a novel which makes up part of a series of four books. This is the third part.

Bette Davis did not like the fact that Max Steiner was awarded an Oscar, as she argued that the music interfered too much with her role.

The cigarette scenes are older. They had already been done in other films.

Claude Rains finished the last scene of this film and started filming Casablanca the morning after.

The taxi scene must be seen in original version, as it’s totally truthful. The taxi driver didn’t speak Portuguese or English, and nor Bette Davis nor Paul Henreid spoke Portuguese. The taxi driver makes a pastiche between Portuguese, Spanish and Sicilian Italian, due to which the scene is made all the more comic.

The soundtrack’s love theme was later used in a seductive scene in a film starring Joan Crawford in 1945 Mildred Pierce.

Memorable scenes from the film:

Images:

Wikipedia, Cine-fille.com, Reelclub.wordpress , Music Stack.com, Steven Benedict.ie

A Woman’s Face

Posted on 18 December, 2013 by María López Linares

Year: 1941

Director: George Cukor

Cast:

Joan Crawford (Anna Holm)

Melvyn Douglas (Doctor Gustaf Segert)

Conrad Veidt (Torsten Barring)

Ossa Massen (Vera Segert)

This film most probably relaunched Joan Crawford at a moment when her career was in decline. The youngsters were appearing on the scene (Lana Turner, Judy Garland, HedyLamarr…) and, although her rivals (Greta Garbo y Norma Shearer) wouldn’t make any more films, the roles didn’t stop coming.

In fact, they offered the part to Greta Garbo before her, but Garbo turned it down.

With the exception of Mildred Pierce, A Woman’s Face is, perhaps, Joan Crawford’s best performance. Not only due to her amazing acting skills, but also because, for the first time, the actress had to face the hard task of changing the character’s personality completely.

The dual confrontation between the good and the bad. Joan Crawford passes from the most absolute evil provoked by her appalling hideousness – “This is a result of what men have done to me”, as she says at one point -, to the most charming being on earth. All this happens without changing her simple and discreet style and wardrobe content. A simple pencil skirt, and a dark sweater are practically the only things that the star wears throughout the whole film. Nothing distracts one away from her impressive beauty.

If she already had an aura of a movie star, this film and (thanks to her), the ones that followed it, made her into the Olympus of the Goddesses of cinema. She became the “Queen of Drama” by her own right.

Curious Facts:

It is a version of a film already made in Sweden starring Ingrid Bergman. In fact, the action takes place in Sweden.

Cukor felt disappointed that the film should fall into conventionality, due to the pressures of the studio and of the time.

Conrad Veidt wrote in his memoirs that it was his favorite film.

Images:

Legendary Joan Crawford.

The Letter

Posted on 11 December, 2013 by María López Linares

Year: 1940

Director: William Wyler

Cast:

Bette Davis (Leslie Crosbie)

Herbert Marchall (Robert Crosbie)

James Stephenson (Howard Joyce)

Frieda Inescort (Dorothy Joyce)

What a role Davis played in this drama! I hadn’t seen this film before, nor did I know that I was going to see it, despite the fact that she is one of my favorite actresses, and I had been dying to see her play this evil role of which I had heard so much about.

It took me quite a while to track down the film. Finally, I managed to find a copy on Ebay. As I am buying myself all our Wednesday’s special movies, it makes me extra happy to know that I have the 52 tapes at home to watch again anytime I please. I have already found a special corner for them on my living room shelf.

For many, this is Bette Davis’ best performance, with which she molded her wickedly evil aura. Although Jezabel interprets the role of a young ill-educated, bourgeois, capable of hurting others out of pure spite, she finally shows that she has a good heart and is willing to atone her guilt. On the other hand, in The Letter she is shown in a pure evil state. Manipulative, cynic, false…she has it all…

This drama has some intense scenes. To start with, the first minutes of the film make a huge impact. The camera wanders around the outside of the plantation where the sleeping indigenous are shown between the bushes on a dark and gloomy night. Suddenly, she appears… undaunted, with a cold and piercing furore, she unloads the revolver with an overpowering security. After a few seconds, surprisingly, she turns into a sweet and grieving wife explaining the details that lead her to carry out the assassination.

Another scene that had a great impact on me was the prison scene. What an incredible manipulation strategy! She manages to twist the the attorney round her little finger in the most subtle way, as even he barely seems to notice. After, is the scene in which she faces her lover’s widow with those gloomy looks of hers covered by a beautiful white lace veil. Finally, we see how the two lovestruck women come face to face in a fight as they look intensely at each other, as if challenging one another.

The director ingeniously recreates the main character’s personal charms, not only her unique beauty but also the magnetism of her gaze, and her expressiveness that continually dominates the entire screen.

The film, which reflects passion, love, sincerity and fidelity, although hugely successful with the public at the time, it did not receive any of the six Oscars that it was nominated for.

Personally, it had rather an impact on me…

Have you seen it?

Please share what you thought of it

Awards:

Oscars (1941):

Nominated for: Best film, best actress, best actor, best director, best photography, best montage and best soundtrack.

Awarded by the New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Second award for best director and third award for best actor.

Curious Facts:

In the assassination scene, actor David Newell had to throw himself behind the stairs eight times, until the director was happy with the result.
The film is based on real facts.
It is the second version made of this film.
In the play, the main character emerged unscathed. The censorship did not allow this in the cinematographic version. (This fact gives it better quality in the fim).

The first scene of the film: (it already starts off with a strong impact).

Images:

cinefilobar.wordpress.com

manderly07.blogspot.com.es

ophelialago.blogspot.com.es

pablocine.blogia.com, guiacinefila.com

vertigoexistencial.wordpress.com

divxclasico.com

The Philadelphia Story

Posted on 4 December, 2013 by María López Linares

Year: 1940

Director: George Cukor

Cast:

Katharine Hepburn (Tracy Lord)

Cary Grant (C. K. Dexter Haven)

James Stewart (Macaulay Connor)

Ruth Hussey (Elizabeth Imbrie)

John Howard (George Kitredge)

I was dying to see this film again, I more or less remembered the plot, but my memory wasn’t capable of recalling many of the small details that amused me as I watched it anew.

In my humble opinion, I doubt that there will ever be another romantic comedy better made than this. When the war was on the brink of converting into a World War, when the Americans were living a surreal dream, when everything was going well whilst the world was collapsing, Cukor arrived. He arrived along with his elegant, exclusive and delicious way of making this comedy, and allowed us to follow them submerged in this “surreal reality” where everything is marvellous (despite the fact that the patriarchs are divorced), glamorous (despite the two journalist’s rough ways), elegant (despite Dinah’s impolite behavior) and politically correct (despite the drinking scene).

Katharine Hepburn is magnificent, with her natural elegance and an Oscar-worthy wardrobe that captures all her feminine charms. She is found surrounded by men hounding her, whilst a very intelligent Cary Grant patiently waits for the moment to pounce, in order to recover the woman he loves.

One day I would love to write about Adrian Adolph Greenburg, the creator of all Katherine’s costumes, and without whom the actress’s charms would not have been so clearly visible in every single scene. The costumes are exquisite.

I think that the great merit of this film’s script is that you don’t know what Katherine Hepburn is going to do until the end. Will she marry Kitredge? Will she run away with the journalist with whom she has a romance the night before the wedding? Or will she return to this snake charmer that is Cary Grant?

It isn’t a love triangle. It is a chant for adventure, love, and unruliness, but done with the elegance that Hollywood imprinted on its movies.

Hayes received thousands of criticisms for the code on the part of the Hollywood script writers, producers, directors and actors, however, they made the films intelligently in the end, getting their minds around it so that the spectators could actually understand what they were not able to visibly see. It was one way of making cinema that made apparent what the whole world knew and criticised under cover.

This films is one of ten comedies that you cannot miss if you, like me, love classic romantic cinema.

Which one of her suitors would you have chosen? I have never doubted it for a second…

Awards:

Oscars (1941):

James Stewart for Best Supporting Actor.

Best Adapted Script.

Nominated for Best Film, Best Actress and Best Director.

Awarded in 1995 by the National Film Preservation Board.

Katharine Hepburn was awarded in 1940 by the National Film Critics Circle Awards. Second place for Best Film.

Curious Facts:

James Stewart always thought that his acting wasn’t very good and that the Oscar should have been given to Henry Fonda.
The movie was filmed in only eight weeks and didn’t need retakes.
Katharine Hepburn possessed the rights to the film, of which she had already performed in the theatre. Howard Hughes had previously owned the rights and he had presented them to her as a gift.
Katharine Hepburn wanted Clark Gable to play Cary Grant’s role and Spencer Tracy to play James Stewart’s role (in this case he would have done a supreme job), however, they were tied up already with other projects.

The film’s script was written and thought up for Katharine Hepburn.
Cary Grant received a wage of 100,000 – an enormous sum at the time – he donated it all to the British War Aid Fund (we are in 1940 and Cary Grant was English).
Katherine Hepburn’s diving scene is real, no doubles were used.
Cary Grant was allowed to choose which of the two main parts he preferred to play. He chose the less ostentatious one (something rather logical given the actor’s quality. N.d.a).
James Stewart was so uncomfortable in the swimming pool scene that he was set on wearing a robe. According to him, if he would have gone out in his swimming trunks, it would have signalled the end of his career.
The necklace about which Dinah (the young girl) says “this stinks”, is a copy of the necklace used in the film Marie Antoinette starring Norma Shearer.
The film is in fifth place of the best romantic comedies of all time according to The American Film Institute.
Years later a musical was made based on the same film, High Society, in which Gracy Kelly plays Tracy, Frank Sinatra plays a journalist and Bing Crosby plays C. K. Dexter Haven. It was a real bungle in my opinion, despite all the actors and actresses in the cast (even Louis Armstrong appears).

I leave a few memorable scenes:

Images:

Carteles mix.com, es.gdefon, Serueda, 24 vecesxsegundo,y Cine en Concerva

“Mickey Mouse and Seamboat Willie”

Posted on 29 November, 2013 by María López Linares

Last 18th of November Mickey Mouse turned 85 years old since Mr. Walt Disney and his partner that time Ublweks created the most likeable cartoon celebrity. This iconic character played his first role in a Black and White short movie called “Seamboat Willie”, released that day back in 1928… From then onwards, Mickey Mouse would be one of the most well-known Disney’s characters.

He also is probably the cartoon carácter linked the most to the legendary animation films Director Walt Disney who even gave him his voice in the beginning. This short movie with sound was released firstly in the Universal’s Colony Theatre of New York. The famous auditorium had been open its doors and it was the first theatre in history to show a film with sound… With our little mouse as a main character!

It was such a success that Mickey will soon turn in the most famous Disney’s character, an animated icon that never will die. It was something worth to be remembered. And that’s what Disney Cooperative wants to do today: Commemorate the birth of their greatest creation.

What they’ve done to celebrate is first get Mickey’s appearance back to the beginnings with Ublwerksle’s drawings as references. Basically they’ve given Mickey a look much more vintage! With this restyled little and retro mouse, Disney has produced 19 short movies for Disney Channel and the Internet directed by Paul Rudish.

One out of them, Get Horse, is a loving memory of the very first Mickey’s appearance mixing the latest 3D techniques with the classic and retro look of the character. You’ll be amazingly suprised when realice the story is told by Walt Disney himself, thanks to a complicated sound editing.

I can’t really wait to see this re-make. I’m totally sure it will bring me back old memories from my childhood!