Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Lucky Seven!


My number sevens have also appeared in a film together, and it was his first!
Fred Astaire should teach every man how to romance a woman. He is the greatest dancer in film history, and introduced to us some of the greatest standards of the American Songbook.
Favorite Roles: Lucky in Swing Time, Huck in Roberta.
This song means so much more with the intro. For some reason, very few people do it.

Joan Crawford was an enigmatic actress whose mystery made her attractive to everyone. Her career went through several evolutions, beginning as a silent siren and ending in B-movies. Although I have never seen any of her silent films, the stills I have seen are stunning. What I like most about Joan Crawford may be surprising to you: I think she looks terribly sweet. Yes, I know about Mommie Dearest, and I don't think it's true (why else would Christina wait to publish the book until after she died?). At least Bette Davis' daughter BD released her knock-off book while Bette was still alive to refute it. Actors are notoriously controlling, but I highly doubt that it was anywhere near as bad as Christina made it out to be. Even if she was a little crazy off screen, her films are fantastic and arouse great sympathy, especially in her mid-40s women's films. Oh yes, and she liked to slap people.
Favorite Roles: Mildred in Mildred Pierce, Blanche in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Unfortunately, embedding for these videos is not available, so you will have to open these links in a new tab.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sopYeFeWhhg&feature=related

You should also go back and look at the video I posted for Jack Carson. She's the real star of that video, taking a cameo in a late 40s musical to make fun of her persona. Hilarious.

1 comment:

  1. Favorite Roles: Lucky in Swing Time, Huck in Roberta.

    Same favourites and in the same order.

    ReplyDelete