Linda Darnell's Best Performance

[ken123]

Among my favorites are A Letter to Three Wives, My Darling Clementine, The Mark of Zorro, No Way Out,Hangover Square and last but certainly not least Fallen Angel as Stella the waitress with the mostist.

[moira finnie]

I hear really good things about Darnell in the recently released Summer Storm (1944-Douglas Sirk), Ken. Have you seen that one, (I haven't). Other than that, I'd say that I enjoyed this actress best in A Letter to Three Wives (1949-Joseph Mankiewicz), and Unfaithfully Yours (1949-Preston Sturges).

I think that Paul Douglas (her partner in crime in almost stealing the movie) in "A Letter..." brought out something funny and sexy in her manner, a rare combination. I liked her best in two other Douglas-Darnell teamings, Everybody Does It (1949), a movie that allowed her to look and act the way that a real opera diva should. I also like the seemingly forgotten Mankiewicz movie, The Guy Who Came Back (1951), about a former pro football player (Douglas) trying to hang onto the glory a little too long. Linda plays a temptress who comforts him when he strays from Joan Bennett (in her good housewife mode), but Darnell gives her character an intelligent spin, sidestepping the total cliche aspects of the "bad girl".

Her effectiveness was probably enhanced by her off and on involvement with Mankiewicz over time too. Btw, since you liked her work in Fallen Angel, have you seen her other Otto Preminger-directed film, The 13th Letter? It's an interesting blackmail story based on Clouzot's Le Corbeau (1943) but Darnell's character is not what she appears to be.

[MissGoddess]

I'd love to see THE GUY WHO CAME BACK and THE 13TH LETTER, Moira.

My favorite Darnell is Lora Mae from A Letter to Three Wives. I am continually impressed by how she completely nails that character and never misses a single nuance or wastes a second on screen. You can see her thinking and her emotions register so spontaneously, so real. You don't catch her acting. And she's toe-to-toe with Paul Douglas in a way that you'd scarcely expect given their age difference and improbable pairing. They are simply heaven to watch (and listen to).

I love the way her eyes go from wide-open (feigned) innocence when sugaring up Paul Douglas, to that hooded expression which seems to contain all the knowlege of woman since Eve. Amazing.

[ken123]

I hear really good things about Darnell in the recently released Summer Storm (1944-Douglas Sirk), Ken. Have you seen that one, (I haven't). Other than that, I'd say that I enjoyed this actress best in A Letter to Three Wives (1949-Joseph Mankiewicz), and Unfaithfully Yours (1949-Preston Sturges).

Moira,
To the best I my recollection I have never seen Summer Storm.

[moira finnie]

To the best I my recollection I have never seen Summer Storm.

Ken, I think we both better save our pennies. As our pal, Arkadin alerted us we can now get it on dvd here for less than a double sawbuck (ooops, The Big Sleep is playing in the background as I type this, so some of that hard-boiled patois is sneaking in )

I love the way her eyes go from wide-open (feigned) innocence when sugaring up Paul Douglas, to that hooded expression which seems to contain all the knowledge of woman since Eve. Amazing.

Beautifully put, but then, I always believed that she learned quite a bit of what she knew about men from listening to the comments of these two around the house...

[MissGoddess]

I watched Summer Storm a couple of weeks ago. I was, again, super impressed by George Sanders in a role that really fit him perfectly (this Russian actor finally gets to play a Russian) and Linda was fantastic, too. I was not too sure how she'd fit in as Russian peasant girl, but she's both sympathetic and understandably ruthless in her drive to put grinding poverty behind her.

Be warned, however, this was one of the most depressing films I've seen a long, long time.

[moira finnie]

Be warned, however, this was one of the most depressing films I've seen a long, long time.

Chekov's The Shooting Party wasn't alot of laughs to read, either, if memory serves. But George and Linda as well as Sig Ruman in one movie sounds great.

[MissGoddess]

Anna Lee and Edward Everett Horton are very good in it, too.

Seeing Ed as a self-absorbed, White Russian in decline almost made me feel like this could have been
a Lubitsch production. I wonder how it might have fared in his hands?

Sirk does very well---he even manages the astonishing feat of a "rainbow" in a black-and-white movie:

(this screencap also gives you an idea of the quality of the DVD print, which is not so great)

[moira finnie]

Since I, like Ms. Darnell in Summer Storm, am just a peasant, I really don't mind slightly fuzzy prints of old films, as long as the story and the acting is good. The 13th Letter is a rather poor print too, though maybe a pristine master or copy lies mouldering in 20th Century Fox's vault.

[princessmoon]

A Letter To Three Wives is my favorite.

[mrsl]

.
I guess Lara Mae was my favorite part, but I liked her a lot and didn't care what she played. I had quite a shock though when I looked her up on imdB. I wanted to see what her name was in Everybody's Doing It, another film she made with Paul Douglas, but came back when I saw she was only 43 when she died. There wasn't anything about her in the bio part, so I'm going to google her.
.

[mongoII]

I agree ladies. She was outstanding in "A Letter To Three Wives".

[JackFavell]

My favorite Darnell is Lora Mae from A Letter to Three Wives. I am continually impressed by how she completely nails that character and never misses a single nuance or wastes a second on screen. You can see her thinking and her emotions register so spontaneously, so real. You don't catch her acting. And she's toe-to-toe with Paul Douglas in a way that you'd scarcely expect given their age difference and improbable pairing. They are simply heaven to watch (and listen to).

I love the way her eyes go from wide-open (feigned) innocence when sugaring up Paul Douglas, to that hooded expression which seems to contain all the knowledge of woman since Eve. Amazing.

A Letter to Three Wives, absolutely. I can only say "yeah, exactly" to what MissGoddess said..... because no one could have said it more perfectly.

Moira, I also agree with you about the other Paul Douglas combinations ... they worked so well together you'd think they were married to each other in real life.

My Darling Clementine and - I'll admit it - Forever Amber are my other two favorites.

[rerun]

I loved Linda in Letter to Three Wives. I think the best line I have ever heard delivered in films, or one of the best for sure, was when Linda was getting ready for the date with Paul Douglas and someone said (perhaps a one liner from Thelma Ritter) "you need some beads or somethin' " (to that effect). Linda replies, "what I got, don't need beads." I was there and you could have heard a pin drop on the set.

[Rita Hayworth]

A Letter To Three Wives is my favorite.

That's my favorite too ... princessmoon! ... and in the top 5 films in Linda Darnell's Career ... and welcome to our humble forum!