Her Cardboard Lover
Posted: April 14th, 2010, 10:52 pm
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I love Norma Shearer and will adore her until the day I quit watching movies but. . . .
In his intro, RO said Norma at 40 did not want to play mothers yet. Coming just 3 years after playing the mother in The Women, maybe it was Virginia Weidler who made her decide that. I'm just kidding, but as much as I like Norma, she was definitely past the cute babe who could still wrap the guy around her finger, if he was not prone to do so. She was such a beautiful woman, if she had accepted her age, she could have continued acting for years to come. She had that queenly stature that raised her above the Bette Davis', and Joan Crawfords. I'm not saying she was more beautiful than them, but she carried herself like a monarch.
In this one she spends the whole two hours trying to get to see George Sanders, or get him to come to her, but she has made arrangements with Bob Taylor for him to stop her from either of those things, by using any methods he can think of. They go through several silly sessions and finally in the last five minutes of the movie (I'm not exaggerating), she decides Bob is the one she wants after all. It is a cute movie, but someone like Harlow or even Davis, playing it, not as slapstick but close to, would have made it much funnier. Norma just doesn't have that sparkelly spark to play this kind of comedy any longer. I know she didn't feel safe with her husband no longer the head of the studio, but if she had just held out, she may have gotten some of those super parts that came along during, and after the war ended, like Mrs. Miniver, or the mom in The Best Years of our Lives.
I would have loved to see her stretching herself a little.
.
I love Norma Shearer and will adore her until the day I quit watching movies but. . . .
In his intro, RO said Norma at 40 did not want to play mothers yet. Coming just 3 years after playing the mother in The Women, maybe it was Virginia Weidler who made her decide that. I'm just kidding, but as much as I like Norma, she was definitely past the cute babe who could still wrap the guy around her finger, if he was not prone to do so. She was such a beautiful woman, if she had accepted her age, she could have continued acting for years to come. She had that queenly stature that raised her above the Bette Davis', and Joan Crawfords. I'm not saying she was more beautiful than them, but she carried herself like a monarch.
In this one she spends the whole two hours trying to get to see George Sanders, or get him to come to her, but she has made arrangements with Bob Taylor for him to stop her from either of those things, by using any methods he can think of. They go through several silly sessions and finally in the last five minutes of the movie (I'm not exaggerating), she decides Bob is the one she wants after all. It is a cute movie, but someone like Harlow or even Davis, playing it, not as slapstick but close to, would have made it much funnier. Norma just doesn't have that sparkelly spark to play this kind of comedy any longer. I know she didn't feel safe with her husband no longer the head of the studio, but if she had just held out, she may have gotten some of those super parts that came along during, and after the war ended, like Mrs. Miniver, or the mom in The Best Years of our Lives.
I would have loved to see her stretching herself a little.
.