Oh, wow! The questions and answers here have provided such interesting reading during your visit. I particularly enjoyed your insights into the research process for your biographies, Scott. Even though I pick on George Brent's performances when given the opportunity, I have become quite fond of "the human tranquilizer" over time, intrigued by the reports of his appeal off-screen and delightfully surprised by some of his less well known performances. Can't wait for his bio next!
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I was so interested in your description of
Dodsworth and Ruth's diamond-hard, insightful approach to the role that while reading that portion of your book, it occurred to me that her lack of sentimentality in her characterizations, particularly as Fran Dodsworth, helps to make many of them seem fresh even today. Still, do you think that at the time, it might have contributed to the failure of AMPAS to honor her portrayal of such a repellent if disturbingly familiar human character?
Also, Ruth Chatterton always seems to have been a forward-looking person. Did she ever express any regrets about her choices or nostalgia?
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Also, I would like to ask a little about the ethereal-looking yet quite strong figure of the beautiful and talented
Virginia Bruce, whose life was the subject of your last book,
Virginia Bruce - Under My Skin. Bruce appears to have been an actress whose career was one of those "might have beens" if only she had a studio more interested in developing her--especially when she worked at MGM. Do you think that she lacked the drive needed to rise in that era?
Is it possible that inadvertently on her part, her timing was a little off in terms of public taste? The golden hair and distant look in her eyes seemed so evocative of a dream-like silent star, yet her clear intelligence and sensuality, especially effective in
Winner Take All (1932) and
The Murder Man (1935), sometimes seem to have been at odds with what the films of the period demanded. Was she frustrated by the lack of good scripts?
In your book, you quote her early remark in the press that "My chief purpose in life is to fall in love. I don't know why I want to, but I do." In some ways this seems to have been a fatal longing. Her sometimes tumultuous private life appears to have been preoccupied with her marital adventures as the young bride of John Gilbert, being happily married to director J. Walter Ruben, a life that was cut short by his early death, and her painfully loyal bond and marriages to the Turkish-born Ali Ipar, a man who comes across in your book as a suave fortune hunter. How do you think she felt about this aspect of her private life?
Also, why do you think that Bruce's children seemed to drift away from their mother? And did her grandchildren seem to know much about Virginia Bruce's career? Was Ms. Bruce's family surprised by the depth of information that you uncovered in your book?
Thanks in advance for your answers--and thank you so much for visiting with us this week. It has been a pleasure, once again!
Please come back anytime--especially when your new book is published.