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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 17, 2024 17:59:43 GMT
Please join us Sunday for our next movie written by W. Somerset Maugham.Of Human Bondage starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 17, 2024 18:16:32 GMT
This copy from YouTube is okay but there may be clearer ones out there:
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 17, 2024 18:25:51 GMT
There are three wonderful actresses in this one:
Frances Dee: Kay Johnson:
And Bette Davis in an early breakout role, making speeches that give me chills:
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Post by topbilled on Jan 17, 2024 21:19:36 GMT
I agree Andrea. We have three very different, but effective, actresses in this film.
I also enjoy Alan Hale's supporting role. It's kind of fun to see him pop up in things at other studios since most of us tend to associate him as a Warner Brothers contract player.
Anyway, looking forward to watching this picture again...
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 17, 2024 22:05:12 GMT
I could not agree more; this one is talent rich.
It's not easy viewing, but it is impressive. Part of my plan in life, from the first time I saw this movie, was to never be in a relationship with a woman like this.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 20, 2024 21:01:08 GMT
From TCM's article:
Of Human Bondage was an RKO production, and Bette Davis was under contract to Warner Brothers. Jack L. Warner hated loaning out his stars. For two years Davis had done parts in Warner Bros. movies she considered inconsequential, often glamorized (which she disliked). She did them with little complaining as a way of paying dues. Now she had a chance to play something meaty and begged Jack Warner to be loaned out. He refused, saying the unglamorous part would ruin her image. (RKO stars Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne and Ann Harding had already turned down the role for that reason.)
Still, Davis persisted: "I begged, implored, cajoled...I haunted Jack Warner's office. Every single day, I arrived at his door with the shoeshine boy. The part of Mildred was something I had to have. J.L. could not possibly understand any actress who would want to play such a part. I spent six months in supplication and drove Mr. Warner to the point of desperation; desperate enough to say 'yes' -- anything to get rid of me...If my memory is correct, he said, 'Go and hang yourself.'"
Davis's tenacity had a lot to do with Warner's relenting, but she was helped by the fact that Warner wanted RKO's Irene Dunne to star in his Jerome Kern musical Sweet Adeline (1934). When Of Human Bondage director John Cromwell heard of this, he urged RKO producer Pandro Berman to work out a trade of Dunne for Davis, and the deal was set.
Cromwell, a sensitive director of actors, had seen Davis's Warner Bros. films and noticed a raw energy he thought would be perfect for Mildred. Somerset Maugham approved of Davis as well, thanks in large part to the efforts of George Arliss. Arliss had worked with Davis twice before and arranged screenings of those films for Maugham in England. It was a significant endorsement, for Maugham poured much of himself into the story and held it very close to his heart.
Now that she had the role, Davis threw everything into preparing for it. "Mildred meant everything to me," Davis said. "I was to sink or swim with Mildred." To learn a cockney accent, Davis hired an English housekeeper who "had just the right amount of cockney in her speech for Mildred. I never told her she was teaching me cockney, for fear she would exaggerate her own accent." Davis practiced the accent constantly.
Even so, she had an uphill battle to climb with Leslie Howard. He was none too thrilled with having an American playing the role of a cockney girl, and when Davis shot her close-ups Howard would feed lines to her as he read a book off-camera, totally detached from the process. But when he realized she was giving a great performance and was on her way to stealing the picture, he shaped up and committed himself fully to working with her.
For the final scenes in which Mildred appears sickly and emaciated, Davis received permission from Cromwell to design her own makeup. Davis later said, "The last stages of consumption, poverty and neglect are not pretty and I intended to be convincing-looking. I made it clear Mildred wasn't going to die of a disease looking as if a deb had missed her noon nap."
Cromwell confirmed this account: "When it came to these final, crucial scenes, I let Bette have her head. I trusted her instincts. A director can guide, but the artist has to dredge up truth from within herself. And that is what Bette gave us in Of Human Bondage - the truth."
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 21, 2024 19:33:19 GMT
The Continuing Adventures of Fawn and Me Fawn: "I want to host a month of movies."
Me: "To do that, you know you're supposed to pick movies that will appeal to the entire group?"
Fawn: "What are you saying?"
Me: "Nothing, let's hear your list."
Fawn: "'Bambi' from 1942, then 'Bambi II' from 2006, followed by 'The Yearling' from 1946 and then we close with a big finish: 'The Yearling' from 1994."
Me: The group isn't going to want to watch four movies about a fawn in a row, with two of them being remakes."
Fawn: "That's fawnism."
Me: "There's no such thing."
Fawn: "That's a micro-aggression."
Me: "Then I'm not being forceful enough."
Fawn: [dispirited] "Oh."
Me: "Let's watch this week's movie and talk about this later."
Fawn: [dejected] "I know what that means."
Me: "Shh! The movie's starting."
[Fawn sits quietly whimpering]
Me: [feeling badly] "How about we think about doing a month of movies with an animal theme? We could pick them together and include one of the Bambi movies."
Fawn: [wiping the tears from his eyes with his hoof] "That could be fun."
Me: "We could include 'Born Free.' I know how much you love 'Born Free'."
Fawn: [spirits lifting] "I love 'Born Free'!"
Me: "Okay, we'll do that buddy. Now, let's settle in for today's movie."
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Jan 21, 2024 19:33:29 GMT
Last week no movie but internet, today movie but no internet. Hoping I can last in the eCinema before my glass slippers turn to dust.
Haven't read the novel. Haven't seen the other film versions. Hoping for input from those who have done so.
Movies like this confuse me no end even if for what I realize are highly illogical reasons. I've never met Santa or a serial killer but such films don't perplex. In cases such as this: I don't know these people. I have never met them. I don't understand them. But for some reason, like Cathy from Wuthering Heights, they haunt me no end.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 21, 2024 19:45:50 GMT
I am starting to wonder if Fawn has any friends besides Fading Fast.
LOL
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Jan 21, 2024 19:46:04 GMT
The Continuing Adventures of Fawn and Me Fawn: "I want to host a month of movies."
I like it.
Don't forget your big moment in The Queen. I'd say keep away from anything with Tudors having big feasts with venison.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 21, 2024 19:48:24 GMT
The Continuing Adventures of Fawn and Me Fawn: "I want to host a month of movies."
I like it.
Don't forget your big moment in The Queen. I'd say keep away from anything with Tudors having big feasts with venison. "I'd say keep away from anything with Tudors having big feasts with venison."
You're spot on. I always have to be careful as a scene like that can ruin the day for him.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 21, 2024 19:49:36 GMT
I am starting to wonder if Fawn has any friends besides Fading Fast.
LOL That's funny. I've been thinking about adding in a character, but like the dynamic these two have. We'll see what the future brings.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Jan 21, 2024 19:56:12 GMT
I've been thinking about adding in a character >You're spot on. I always have to be careful as a scene like that can ruin the day for him.Oh ho! Hilarity and intrigue. Sundays have never been so much fun.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 21, 2024 19:59:32 GMT
Where's Topbilled telling us he's about to push play?
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Post by topbilled on Jan 21, 2024 19:59:38 GMT
Pressing play...
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