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Showing posts from July, 2015

Film Friday: "The Wild Party" (1929)

In honor of Clara Bow's 110th birthday, this week on "Film Friday" I bring you the only film I've seen with her so far, which also happens to be the first sound picture she made. Theatrical release poster Directed by Dorothy Arzner, The Wild Party (1929) rev olves around Winston College, an all-female school where the students seem to be more interested in having fun and partying than studying. When the young and attractive professor James "Gil" Gilmore (Fredric March) starts teaching Anthropology there, all the girls immediately feel attracted to him, especially Stella Ames (Clara Bow), the wildest and most popular student in the school. She recognizes Gil as the man with whom she once accidentally shared a berth on a train, thereby risking her reputation, but he does give any indication that he remembers Stella . After being thrown out of the school's traditional costume party for wearing revealing outfits, Stella and her friends go t

Happy Birthday, William Powell & Clara Bow!

WILLIAM POWELL  (July 29, 1892 — March 5, 1984) I don't believe there is anything more worthwhile in life than friendship. Friendship is a far better thing than love, as it is commonly accepted. C LARA BOW (July 29, 1905 — September 17, 1965) People used to say that I had a feeling of closeness, a great warmth of loving everybody, that they could tell me their troubles.

Quote of the Week

+++ ********* The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby. (Natalie Wood) *********

Film Friday: "Splendor in the Grass" (1961)

To celebrate Natalie Wood's birthday, this week on "Film Friday" I'm bringing you one of my favorite films of hers, which also happens to be the first film I ever saw with her. Original release poster by Bill Gold Directed by Elia Kazan, Splendor in the Grass (1961) tells the story of Wilma "Deanie" Loomis (Natalie Wood) and Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty), two young lovers living in a small Kansas town in the late 1920s. Deanie's mother (Audrey Christie) is a domineering woman who boasts of her aversion to men and warns her daughter that nice girls do not have sexual feelings. Bud's father, Ace (Pat Hingle), an arrogant self-made millionaire, has "all his hopes pinned" on his son and tells him to forget marriage until he graduates from Yale. Unable to consummate their love, the confused and frustrated youngsters end their relationship. After Bud becomes sexually involved with Juanita Howard (Jan Norris), the most permissive girl in