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Throughout this month, I've decided to do a series of Oscar-related articles in anticipation to tonight's 89th Academy Awards ceremony, which I am going to see live on television. Yesterday, I presented you my top 15 favourite Best Actor-winning performances , so today I thought I would do the same, but for Best Actress winners instead. As I have said before, please bear in mind that this is my own personal opinion, which of course is limited to the films I have seen so far.     15. Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945)   Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford): I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I'd been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married.     14. Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941) Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth (Joan Fontaine): I must go now or I'll be late to luncheon. Anyway, if my father saw me come in both late and beautiful, he might have a stroke.   13. Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of...

Because of the Kirk Douglas blogathon, I was not able to write my «Film Friday» article on time. So, this week's «Film Friday» comes on a Sunday instead. I am honoring Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s 107th birthday, which was also on Friday, by telling you about one of the first films I ever saw with him. Directed by George Stevens, Gunga Din (1939) begins in an encampment of Her Majesty's Lancers in Colonial India, where the commanding officer, Colonel Weed (Montagu Love), learns that the telegraph wires to one of their outposts have been cut. To investigate the matter, he dispatches a detachment of 25 troops, led by his three most dependable sergeants: the calculating Archibald Cutter (Cary Grant), ever dreaming of discovering a hidden treasure; the grizzled veteran «Mac» MacChesney (Victor McLaglen); and the gentlemanly Thomas «Tommy» Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), whose sole focus is his imminent discharge and marriage to his fiancé, Emaline «Emmy» Stebbins (Joan Fontain...

One of Olivia de Havilland 's last screen appearances as an actress was in the television film The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982), in which she played Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. But did you know that Olivia and, consequently, her younger sister Joan Fontaine were actually distantly related to the Queen Mother, Prince Charles and even Princess Diana? More interestingly, did you know that Olivia and Joan — through their father's side of the family — were direct descendants of King Edward I and, therefore, of his 2nd great-grandfather, William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England? In fact, their ancestry can be traced back to even before William the Conqueror. For instance, Richard II, Duke of Normandy, William's grandfather, was Joan and Olivia's 28th great-grandfather. In turn, Richard was the great-grandson of Rollo, an early Viking settler who became the first ruler of Normandy in 911. History and genealogy are of two of the subjects tha...

In honor of Joan Fontaine's 99th birthday, which is tomorrow, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you what she described as her favourite of all of her films.   Directed by Edmund Goulding, The Constant Nymph (1943) begins when composer Lewis Dodd (Charles Boyer) travels to Switzerland after his latest symphony is badly received in London. He stays at the home of his old friend and fellow musician Albert Sanger (Montagu Love), causing great excitement among his four daughters: Kate (Jean Muir), Toni (Brenda Marshall), Tessa (Joan Fontaine) and Paula (Joyce Reynolds). Despite the fact that she is only a teenager, Tessa is in love with Lewis and dreams of helping him reach his full promise as a composer. Worrying about his sheltered daughters' future, the ailing Sanger instructs Lewis to contact his wealthy brother-in-law, Charles Creighton (Charles Coburn), when he dies. Charles Boyer, Alexis Smith, Peter Lorre and Joan Fontaine in The Constant Nymph . Upon Sanger's dea...

Original release poster Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Suspicion (1941) begins when dowdy Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) meets and falls in love with a suave enigmatic stranger named Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant). Despite the strong disapproval of her wealthy father, General McLaidlaw (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), Lina elopes with Johnnie following a whirlwind courtship. Upon returning from their European honeymoon, the newlyweds take up residence in a luxurious country house, where Lina soon discovers that Johnnie is a penniless gambler and had intended to live on her income. She persudes him into getting a job, after which Johnnie accept an offer of work from his cousin, estate agent Captain Melbeck (Leo G. Carroll).   When she learns that Johnnie has been fired for embezzling from Melbeck, Lina contemplates leaving him, but changes her mind after receiving the news of her father's sudden death. Meanwhile, Johnnie convinces his old friend Beaky Twaithe (Nigel Bruce) to finance...