Ronald Colman
- charliechaplinfan
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Welcome Daniela, it's always nice to talk to a fellow Ronald Colman fan.
What a great tribute Christine. I love all the screen shots, you've captured him perfectly. The interview is so nicely put together, it's good to read his own words.
Thank you
What a great tribute Christine. I love all the screen shots, you've captured him perfectly. The interview is so nicely put together, it's good to read his own words.
Thank you
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
- silentscreen
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- Ann Harding
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- charliechaplinfan
- Posts: 9040
- Joined: January 15th, 2008, 9:49 am
That was very sweet and clever Christine - loved it! Today is my Dad's birthday too and also the 45th anniversary of The Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. There's a lot of good things that happened on this day .
“I never really thought of myself as an actor. But I’d learned to ride on my dad’s ranch and I could do some roping stunts and working as an extra was better than starving as an artist nobody wanted on the West Coast.” - Gary Cooper
Re: Ronald Colman
For lovers of Ronald Colman, who are looking for a change of pace, I suggest the rarely shown comedy CHAMPAGENE FOR CAESAR (1950) also starring Vincent Price, Celeste Holm and Art LInkletter. Colman plays an unemployed genius who appears on a tv quiz show and desides to break the show's soap company sponsor. Vincent Price is delightful as the president of the company. Linkletter plays the show's host (what else?) and Celeste Holm is...sorry, I won't spoil it. I'll bet I haven't seen it on TV in 40 years, but it is out on DVD.
- Ann Harding
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- silentscreen
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- Joined: March 9th, 2008, 3:47 pm
Re: Ronald Colman
Hi Christine! I've a couple of friends who just went to the Kansas Silent film festival in Topeka where Her Sister From Paris was screened. He will do a longer review later, but this is what he wrote this morning.
" Her Sister From Paris was an absolute delight. Connie Talmadge played a dual role of a frumpy wife and her sexy sister. This one had so much innuendo in it that I'd classify it as a pre-code even though it was 1925."
He spoke with David Shepard, who was also at the festival, and the film is still under copyright by Douris ,so doubtful that it will have a DVD release. The copy they had came from the NY Public library.
" Her Sister From Paris was an absolute delight. Connie Talmadge played a dual role of a frumpy wife and her sexy sister. This one had so much innuendo in it that I'd classify it as a pre-code even though it was 1925."
He spoke with David Shepard, who was also at the festival, and the film is still under copyright by Douris ,so doubtful that it will have a DVD release. The copy they had came from the NY Public library.
"Humor is nothing less than a sense of the fitness of things." Carole Lombard
- Ann Harding
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Re: Ronald Colman
I am not surprised. Douris is actually a UK company under receivership at the moment. So the whole catalogue is leased once in a while to DVD companies who asked for some films. They are very unlikely to ask for this film, alas...
- silentscreen
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- Joined: March 9th, 2008, 3:47 pm
Re: Ronald Colman
I have these pipe dreams of all surviving Colman silents being released. I'm sure it will remain just a pipe dream. Apparently there was a Colman festival at The Stanford Theatre a few years ago, and quite a few of his titles were shown, including Her Night of Romance, surviving footage from Colman's English film The Toilers ,The White Sister from a 35mm negative, Stella Dallas, and The Night of Love.
"Humor is nothing less than a sense of the fitness of things." Carole Lombard
- movieman1957
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Re: Ronald Colman
Champagne For Caesar is one I saw years ago and enjoyed. Luckily it is out on DVD so Netflix is holding my copy for now.
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
Re: Ronald Colman
I've always enjoyed the breadth of Ronald's films. He's not really the source of humor in CHAMPAGNE, but he has some well-placed sarcasm and come-backs, plus a few false-step almost prat-falls, too. While I'd never have cast him in an AIRPLANE style comedy, I think he'd have done well in about any genre. Of course, so many actors of that generation could handle a broad variety.
Re: Ronald Colman
I've recently been reading Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary: Her Private Letters from Inside the Studios of the 1920s (edited by Cari Beauchamp), and I'm sure it would interest any fans of Ronald Colman, especially his silent period. The letters were written by a New York woman, Valeria Belletti, who moved out to Hollywood in the mid twenties and got a job as Sam Goldwyn's private secretary. Valeria works with Goldwyn during the discovery of Vilma Banky and Gary Cooper, and during the making of the Colman films, The Dark Angel, Stella Dallas and The Winning of Barbara Worth. All these are gone into at length, and there is a lot of backstage gossip. Valeria becomes good friends with Vilma B. (Goldwyn asks Valeria to help introduce his new star to America's unfamiliar customs) and also with Ronald C.
Colman comes out of it very well: he is kind and helpful to Valeria; and there is also a very funny bit where he is slightly drunk after a Christmas party at the studio, and he insists that Valeria help him act out a scene he has just been doing with Norma Talmadge in Kiki. Lots of other silent stars are mentioned, and Valeria doesn't like them all, so I'm sure her opinion of Colman is genuine.
Colman comes out of it very well: he is kind and helpful to Valeria; and there is also a very funny bit where he is slightly drunk after a Christmas party at the studio, and he insists that Valeria help him act out a scene he has just been doing with Norma Talmadge in Kiki. Lots of other silent stars are mentioned, and Valeria doesn't like them all, so I'm sure her opinion of Colman is genuine.