Norma?
Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 7:52AM 
So should we wish Norma Shearer a happy 114th in heaven or not?
As I was prepping an "on this day..." post I discovered that the internet does not agree on the birth date of The First Lady of MGM, Norma Shearer. TCM and IMDb say August 10th while Biography and Wikipedia say August 11th. Biography goes one further and even says there's disagreement on the year with 1900, 1902, and 1904 all cited which is perhaps why the Encyclopeida Brittanica doesn't give her a birthdate, just a month. Didn't Canada keep records at the turn of the century?
Nobody agrees on anything about Norma, including her Best Actress win for The Divorcée (1930) which I was alarmed to realize some time ago is not always held in high regard despite her being utterly fabulous in the movie. Gotta love those Pre-Code movies. We should probably do a mini-series on them at some point.
Whatever her actual birthday, TFE often feels festive about her. Three cheers to Norma this morning (your Old Hollywood fix since Judy by the Numbers, our beloved Wednesday morning pick me up, is delayed for the time being).
Canada, Norma Shearer, Pre-Code
Reader Comments (22)
Pre-Code Hollywood films can be a lot of fun to watch and in the case of "Baby Face" (1933) starring Barbara Stanwyck still shocking. I prefer pre-code Norma
Norma is so great in The Divorcee. Less than great in "a Free soul".
I love pre-codes, as with all things some are better than others-the name checked Baby Face being one of the better ones along with the wild Three on a Match.
I've managed to see all of Norma's sound films and most of her important silents and I'm divided on her. Her very theatrical technique lent itself to silents, she fascinating in Lady of Chance, He Who Gets Slapped (a great film) and Lady of the Night, but once sound came in she's often too affected for me.
But she could be excellent at times, I'm not that big a fan of The Divorcee but there's a lesser known film that she did right after called Let Us Be Gay where she does some strong character work. I think she improved and became more relaxed as time went by and it's unfortunate that she chose to retire when she did.
My favorite of her films is one of her last, Escape with Robert Taylor and Nazimova. It's a taut war film. Bette Davis wanted her to co-star with her in Old Acquaintance which would have been a fascinating match up but Norma had had enough and she said turned it down and withdrew a very wealthy widow but remained a powerful social lioness.
Garbo shld've won for Anna Christie!
The 1911 Canadian census gives Norma's birth as August 1902. Québec's birth records are not yet online for that year. At least not for a "free" search.
I just can't with Shearer, have never had that audience-actress chemistry with her.
If you haven't already,
there would be a mother of a Beauty VS Beast: Mary Haines VS Crystal Allen AKA Norma Shearer VS Joan Crawford, which was pretty much the same thing ; )
Rae!
Norma never fails to both impress me and frustrate me in every performance. She has great moments of true connection with her character and shows greater range than you'd expect, such as her final scenes of Marie Antoinette where she (and Marie) are stripped of all glamour and her emotional connection to the character is remarkable.
Yet in every performance she manages to fall back into silent film acting at some point, with unnatural gestures and theatrical postures that are laughable and make her look like an amateur. I don't know if directors were reluctant to tell the boss' wife to tone it down and to push her for a consistently more naturalistic performance?
Canada Jones- I tend to agree with you. I just watched A Free Soul, and while she excels at playing the sexually liberated lady- C'mon! Put 'em around me!" I can't believe that line got in-- There are parts of the film where she is playing the back row of the balcony in a cavernous theater and not a film audience.
I have never seen a Norma movie... would someone tell me 2 of them that would be great to start with?
Rick-I'd recommend starting with Marie Antoinette, her florid style of acting works in her favor in the role and she really has some beautiful moments towards the end.
Otherwise The Women is a great film but really not representative of most of her screen work. Still worth checking out for Crawford, Russell, Goddard, Boland etc. I prefer films from later in her career so I'd suggest Escape or Idiot's Delight but many love her in The Divorcee.
If you like silents than give He Who Gets Slapped or Lady of the Night a try.
AVOID her version of Romeo & Juliet, 34 year old Norma and 43 year old Leslie Howard are ridiculously miscast as the teen lovers.
"The Women" is a must see
She definitely has face.
What is it about her you find more captivating than other more well known stars of the era.
I find her too hammy.
She said no to Mrs Miniver because she didn't wanted to play the
"mother of an adult" and the younger Greer Garson took it,
won an Oscar and married the actor who plays her son in the movie.
Norma is a charming actress, but the other factory workers -
Garbo, Harlow, Crawford, Loy, MacDonald, Dressler -
seem to be more interesting than her today.
She's wonderful in some movies - two of my heart:
Romeo and Juliet(incredible costumes and art direction)
and Marie Antoinette - she and the production is better than
Kirsten Dunst and the Coppola's movie.
@joel6
Thank you so much .. I will watch Marie Antoinette and The Women..
I have taught English Humanities classes, and I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine a 34 year old Juliet ... and 43 yo Romeo... LOL
Rick, those are two good choices. She seems to dial back her performance in The Women and is a lot more watchable than usual. I think she understood her job was to keep the film grounded while her co-stars got the more comical "big" moments. However, watch for her flailing hands in the final scene - her expected "I Was a Silent Movie Queen" moment.
Marie Antoniette is more of a mixed back. She flounces about as the teenage Marie in the first half and it couldn't seem more artificial if she tried. Actually, I wonder if the real Norma ever flounced at all?! Hard to imagine. But she gets stronger as the film progresses, and the final half an hour features the best acting I've ever seen from her on film.
A Free Soul is an interesting watch if you can find it. I like the Pre-Code elements. Just like a few years later in Gone With the Wind, Clark Gable blows Leslie Howard off the screen while Norma sexes it up, and good old Lionel Barrymore wins his Oscar for his stadium-sized performance as her drunken father. It's not dull!
TFE's random fixation on Norma Shearer is one of my favourite things about the world.
Though I must admit I don't have kind memories of her oscar-winning performance. The Women though? I could talk about it forever.
my favorite Norma's are not excitingly different choices - they're the standard bearers: the divorcee and the women.
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