The direction is pretty bad IMO which is ironic because it's the legendary multi-Oscar winning Leo McCarey!!

The scene where Gloria goes to the estate and makes a deliberate bad impression clearly inspired the famous scene along the same nature by Irene Dunne in McCarey's THE AWFUL TRUTH.

I love Carole - she was one of the very first classic stars I became interested in back in the late 1970's (there was quite a bit of attention on her back then with multiple bographies and the film GABLE AND LOMBARD). I do think Claudette Colbert was a shade better actress in romantic comedies but C...

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d199/photoplay2005/duncans06.jpg The legendary vaudeville stars The Duncan Sisters were mentioned on another thread and resulted in several comments about them so I thought they were due a thread of their own. Has anybody seen them? They starred in the silent TOPSY...

And what about Barbara La Marr? Said to be one of the most beautiful women ever, at least in stills she doesn't look that ravishing. Has anyone seen her on film? Billie Dove was another actress who looked very beautiful, especially in the late twenties and early thirties. I completely agree Ms. La ...

Excellent essay Molo!! I found it very enlightening and at the same time it reflects much of what I feel about a Norma, who's also intrigued me since I was very young. I became a fan of Ms. Shearer, without even having seen her on film. It's her persona that attracted me in the first place. I haven...

When I saw this thread I was moved to write a little essay on Norma Shearer. I hope you will indulge me. :) Norma Shearer has always fascinated me. I think it's because when I first discovered her as a kid in the mid-seventies she was a complete enigma. People like Pauline Kael and David Thomson di...

Where can I see the complete results for the Best Silent poll taken earlier this year? I can't find the rankings for all the top pictures.

Incidentally, had I been around at the time SUNRISE would have broken that tie and won outright.

Paramount owned most of the songs they used in their films so when one movie song was a hit it was not uncommon to hear it used in a later Paramount film (or two) as background music. Just recently watched I MET HIM IN PARIS (a wildly overlooked comedy starring Claudette Colbert) and she and Melvyn ...

Wanna feel old - Donna Douglas, the adorable ingenue Elly May on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES turned 75 this week (September 26th).

Well doggies indeed!!

I've always felt his pronouncations were due to some sort of a regional accent (ie: the way he says "trey-shures" for treasures).

CLAUDETTE COLBERT: SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY has just been published. I'm reading it now, it's ok but alas has way too much "filler" in it (ie overly detailed film storylines, etc.)

WOW - I thought I was the only person in the world who loved the Duncan Sisters!!! TCM showed their short SURPRISE earlier this year and it was wonderful even with the controversial blackface bit. Rosetta is such a great comedienne hopefully with today's anti-PC movement and the anything goes dark-c...

It's not a surprise to see Clara and Colleen at the top - everything I've seen indicates they were the two top women stars of the second half of the 1920's but I am surprised to see Bebe and Billie right behind them because I never knew they were box office stars at all though I knew they had follow...

Gosh, if Marie Dressler and Jean Harlow weren't the stars of DINNER AT EIGHT who was? One of my beefs with the Academy in the last decade is giving "supporting" Oscars and nominations to stars who are really playing starring roles if slightly secondary. Such nominations were extremely rare...

I would say Janet Gaynor, Greta Garbo, and Norma Shearer probably were the major silent actresses who best transitioned into sound films and not only kept their stardom but elevated it. Then there's also Joan Crawford, Dolores Del Rio, and Constance Bennett but I am not sure they would have been con...