Thanx for the review Alison ( ...and the confusion. WHO are we talking about? ) I'm glad you watched it. I wish you could have recorded it for your friends on the other side of the pond
( she writes selfishly. ) I saw Clara Bow on the big screen last year in "CALL ME SAVAGE." She was riveting.
From what you saw Alison, how much of it was that Clara couldn't get out of her own way? Were forces all against her, or was she in her own way?
Personally, wishing you, the kids and your little furry relatives a very healthy and happy New Year.
I think Clara rose above the circumstances of her birth and the madness in her family and she had such a naturalness on screen that few others had. Although she had some terrible experiences she carried on, although she was plagued with insomnia she was making up to 15 films a year, she had signed a contract aged 17 without really knowing what she was signing and thus was worked hard. She also had no control over her behaviour, she was Clara where ever she went and didn't ever modify her behaviour to fit with society's conventions, in a the hotch potch world of Hollywood Clara's upbringing and behaviour was shunned by all. She seldom had good material but whatever I've seen her in she transcends the plot and one watches just because she's on screen. If you liked her in Call Her Savage Theresa, see if you can get copies of The It Girl or Wings.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Thanks for weighing in on her Alison. And Wendy, you're so right. From the moment she starts wailing Gilbert Roland with that whip, you want to know alllllllllllllllllll about her.
Nobody has shone like that in a long while, yet it's not her figure which seems to be one of the biggest hangups today, her figure fluctuated, it wasn't the Travis Banton gowns either although they were fabulous, it was her naturalness, her beautiful expressive eyes and her mega watt smile.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
I wonder... I wonder what Clara Bow made of Jean Harlow. The 20's looking at the 30's. I wonder. . . I'm sure when Harlow was a young girl, she probably saw Clara Bow in the movies. I wonder. . .
I recall reading in Bow's Bio that when Harlow appeared in Bow's vehicle "The Saturday Night Kid" (1929), at first Bow did not warm up to her, but afterwards she befriended Harlow and was generous to her. Much later, when Harlow died, Bow was deeply shaken by that event.
feaito wrote:I recall reading in Bow's Bio that when Harlow appeared in Bow's vehicle "The Saturday Night Kid" (1929), at first Bow did not warm up to her, but afterwards she befriended Harlow and was generous to her. Much later, when Harlow died, Bow was deeply shaken by that event.
Welcome Kingme. Her Bio "Running Wild" is very good and well written. Her life is one of the saddest ever depicted on paper. I did not know to what level the film community ostracized Bow and Paramount studio and B.P. Schulberg took advantage of her. In a way I guess that the film "Bombshell" (1933) was much more about her than about Harlow's real life.
I told you it was a sad story, he ostracism was nothing other than snobbery, had someone taken her in hand and modified herbehaviour she'd have been loved but Shulberg was interested only in what he could make out of her.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
I watched Erotikon, not Stiller's Erotikon but a silent made my Czech director Machaty who would later bring Hedy Keisler to the screen in a film called Extasy. It's a very visual film, very similar to the later movie, lots of imagery, the opening sequence is captivating in itself. Much of the imagery comes from reaction shots on the faces of the actors. The plot is fairly simple, a traveller, a man of some means, he carries scotch in his brief case and perfume, has missed his train and is put up at the home of an old man and his young daughter. The old man goes out on his night shift leaving the youg couple alone together with a bottle of Erotikon perfume, the inevitable ensues but this is between a man of the world and a young inexperienced girl but she knows he will go in the morning and never come back which he does. Of course she gets pregnant and sets off to find him, she encounters many troubles along the way but finally finds a good man, then her lover comes back into her life. The story is told so much by the faces, simmering passions of the lovers, longing, despair, anticipation, it's very sexual for it's time and at 85 minutes it never flags.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Glad you enjoyed Erotikon, Alison. I felt the film looked ahead of its time with its hot seduction scene. And I also feel it's better than Ecstasy which looks more dated in structure and like a 'talking silent'.
) I'm glad you watched it. I wish you could have recorded it for your friends on the other side of the pond 
