tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post4898357652389680365..comments2023-04-11T10:26:47.795-05:00Comments on A Follow Spot: Grab a Seat for DINNER AT EIGHT Tonight on TCMJulieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-21880341947714428622012-11-11T07:24:43.511-06:002012-11-11T07:24:43.511-06:00Isn't that true of so many of the actresses in...Isn't that true of so many of the actresses in 1930s and 40s movies, though? They made their debuts around age 20 and were definitely adults. (The cliché now is that adolescence lasts till 30, and then it was the opposite -- adulthood started in your teens. Was it having to grow up and make a living right away, with none of this college nonsense? I don't know.) Anyway: Barbara Stanwyck was a Ziegfeld girl at 16 and playing leads in movies by 23. Bette Davis was getting non-ingenue roles at 24. But the two classic examples, I guess, are Lauren Bacall (20 at most in "To Have and Have Not") and Angela Lansbury (not a romantic role, but still who'd believe she was in her teens for her debut in "Gaslight"?).<br /><br />I share your pleasure at John Barrymore in this. I'll dare to attribute some of that to the Cukor good judgment too: part of the point about Larry is that he does put up a good front and make a good impression. (I now want to check out the updated remake to see how they justified young Harry Hamlin as a suicidal has-been. Maybe they didn't, and it was one of many misjudgments in that ill-fated effort.)<br /><br />On my way home yesterday, I stopped off to check out the book of Gavin Lambert interviewing George Cukor, and was stunned to find they didn't have it. I've been used to finding anything I can think of there. I have distant memories (decades ago at IU) of reading that though he had high regard for Marie Dressler, she wasn't his idea for this part.JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-15252932415883024122012-11-10T21:51:12.915-06:002012-11-10T21:51:12.915-06:00Oh, and John Barrymore looked lovely to me. Not as...Oh, and John Barrymore looked lovely to me. Not as much of an alcoholic has-been as I remembered, and much better than Twentieth Century, which was only a year later. When he put on his tux and top hat, it was like, wow, elegant! <br /><br />The other weird thing is that Jean Harlow was only 20-21 when it was filmed. The hair and makeup (as well as her manner) make her look much older than that.JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-65110559199624446852012-11-10T21:46:39.651-06:002012-11-10T21:46:39.651-06:00I find her convincing as a former stage star, just...I find her convincing as a former stage star, just not as a former siren with admirers and Stagedoor Johnnies for miles. I'm not sure about the eye makeup because she always looked like that as far as I know. Maybe she just came with unusually dark circles around her eyes. <br /><br />I don't know any way to explain her except to say that she came from vaudeville at a time when women of some, er, girth were popular. Mae West, Lillian Russell... So I guess she fit in. She certainly had her tics and a broad performance style, but there is something very winning about her, and she really was a huge star. Hitchcock would've loved her as one of "grotesques" if she had been around by the time he got there. JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-52307987639051598592012-11-10T21:31:03.819-06:002012-11-10T21:31:03.819-06:00Well. So now I can check off DINNER AT EIGHT, a cl...Well. So now I can check off DINNER AT EIGHT, a classic now seen.<br /><br />Marie Dressler, there's a phenomenon. However over-the-top she (aided by her lines) goes, she's always believable and warm (funny is a given) and I definitely see why she was a big deal in her day, and even why she was chosen for the part. But what's up with the makeup, especially the raccoon eyes? From this one role, I would say that, though not conventionally pretty or anything, she could be made to look striking, and convincing as a former stage star, if made up accordingly, and I don't see why they'd want to sabotage that. It's not "period" -- nobody else comes off grotesque. Actually I'm surprised how realistic and restrained a lot of the acting is; some early talkies seen to belong to another century in that respect, but not this one.JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-73248707606410636022012-11-10T20:19:17.986-06:002012-11-10T20:19:17.986-06:00Would this be an updated setting, like the TNT tel...Would this be an updated setting, like the TNT telefilm? (And if so, can we have a half-undressed workout for Howard, like Harry Hamlin had?)JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-85586158067986695852012-11-10T15:29:49.807-06:002012-11-10T15:29:49.807-06:00No, wait! Howard McGillin as Larry Renault!No, wait! Howard McGillin as Larry Renault!JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-35254991299371358202012-11-10T15:29:09.208-06:002012-11-10T15:29:09.208-06:00So, let's see, if we cast a new movie version,...So, let's see, if we cast a new movie version, seeing as how it fits our economic times, it's a given that John Goodman will play the Wallace Beery role. (Note that a functional equivalent to Wallace Beery was easy to come by.) I think I might go with someone other than Tom Hanks, even though I don't know who. Scarlett Johansson will be first in line for the Harlow role, and they'd probably go with Cloris Leachman if they want a sexually-voracious-gorgon type for Carlotta, or Roseanne Barr if they're insane. If not, then I'd like Kathy Bates, who can actually act, and has the right dry wit and presence to put down a Scar-Jo. But I think Soignee and Still Gorgeous Even Though Over 40 would be higher on the priority list. So, you know, Susan Sullivan or higher wattae, like Glenn Close, Helen Mirren...<br /><br />I am depressing myself as I imagine a fake movie that isn't going to happen. <br /><br />On the other hand, there's room for a musical stage version a la Grand Hotel, with Brian d'Arcy James and Sutton Foster as the Jordans, Megan Hilty as Kitty, Danny Burstein as Dan Packard, Kevin Kline as Larry Renault, Harriet Harris as Carlotta...JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-48984355189073872502012-11-10T14:43:29.594-06:002012-11-10T14:43:29.594-06:00Hah. It turns out LCT had planned (it looks to me)...Hah. It turns out LCT had planned (it looks to me) something closer to a Marie Dressler type: Dorothy Loudon. She took ill after one preview and Marian Seldes came in to replace her (after the understudy doing some performances).<br /><br />Also, it may be ungallant, but I was wondering how Emily Skinner, post-weight-gain (I mean, you saw her in MERRILY the year before), fared with critics in a Jean Harlow role. But apparently they were content to call her voluptuous, and the occasional negative remarks were about overacting. So, I'm a superficial jerk. Also, the part seems somewhat differently conceived in the play.<br /><br />At least one review of that revival remarks that the classic exchange you quoted isn't in the stage play. Score one for Hollywood adapters, I guess.JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-27700636060265900992012-11-10T14:01:40.815-06:002012-11-10T14:01:40.815-06:00I was wondering when I wrote this if this was one ...I was wondering when I wrote this if this was one of the classics you'd missed. You need to see it for Marie Dressler, who died not long afterwards. She's a real original and someone who is so much a figure of her time as this big, clunky, not-at-all pretty woman who somebody still thought could carry a picture and be believable as the woman men had swooned for. I mean, Lionel Barrymore (54 at the time of the movie) is married to Billie Burke (49), but Marie Dressler (64) is the love of his past? Today, they'd cast Tom Hanks (56) as Oliver, Marion Cotillard (37) as his lovely wife, and Julia Roberts (45) as the aging stage star from his past. I don't know if there is a functional equivalent of Marie Dressler but whoever she is, she would never get cast in that role. Lauren Bacall and Marian Seldes are quite different types, you know?JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-38346341055259660172012-11-10T13:32:12.509-06:002012-11-10T13:32:12.509-06:00You know, this is another of those classics that I...You know, this is another of those classics that I've never seen. I've read about it in the book that consists of interviews with George Cukor about ll his movies (it's one of the earliest, of course, and gets rather brief treatment). <br /><br />I think I saw bits of the cable remake with John Mahoney and Marsha Mason as the Jordans, Lauren Bacall as Carlotta, Ellen Greene as Kitty, plus Charles Durning, Julia Sweeney, and Harry Hamlin. And then there was the Lincoln Center Theatre revival in 2002, with Christine Ebersole and James Rebhorn as the Jordans, Marian Seldes as Carlotta, Emily Skinner as Kitty, and a cast otherwise including John Dossett, Ann McDonough, Kevin Conway, and Joe Grifasi. That one completed its subscription run and stopped. I guess I should catch the movie on TCM, huh?JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.com