Mae West on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

When she's good, she's very good. When she's bad, she's better. 

Mae West was one of the great stars of the Pre-Code era, though her reign as one of Hollywood's most popular queens was short-lived and curtailed by the advent of the Hays Code. Like Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz after her, West was a target of William Randolph Hearst's ire. According to legend, the millionaire wanted revenge on West after she had made insulting remarks concerning the acting abilities of Marion Davies, his mistress. Such conspiracies are fun and it's easy to paint Hearst as Old Hollywood's perennial villain, but they're rarely 100% true. Mae West's fall from grace is more complicated than a vendetta from a mogul and a bunch of outraged Catholics. She was one of a kind, a symbol of licentiousness and indecency, a provocateur whose triumph was as amazing as it was temporary... 

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Showbiz History: Mohican's Opening, Cary's Outing, Audrey's Marriage

7 random things that happened on this day, September 25th, in showbiz history...

1936 Another reminder that inappropriate racial casting has been with us always and not just for the common and commonly excoriated practices of yellowface or blackface. Ramona opened on this day in movie theaters, a romantic drama starring Loretta Young as a girl who doesn't know she's bi-racial and Don Ameche as the Native American hired hand that she falls for. 

1953 The Actress, a movie about future Oscar winner Ruth Gordon (Rosemary's Baby) WRITTEN BY Ruth Gordon (with Jean Simmons playing her) opens in movie theaters. Spencer Tracy will win the Golden Globe for his performance as her father.

Audrey Hepburn, Last of the Mohicans, Chevy Chase vs Cary Grant and more after the jump...

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Over & Overs: Bringing Up Baby (1938)

by Cláudio Alves

Part of loving cinema is wanting to share its wonder with others. That's why the communal experience of watching a movie with an audience can be so rewarding, for it makes one feel as if they're not alone in their relationship with a work of art and entertainment. Perhaps because of that, I often feel compelled to watch my most beloved movies with the most beloved people in my life, sharing with them this wonderful thing that has brought me such happiness. Not every cinematic passion is easy to share with others, obviously, and more avant-garde possibilities tend to be less well-received. The same can happen with older pictures, though I've found that there are some classics whose appeal can usually transcend whatever taste barriers there are between a casual movie-goer and the cinema of the past.

In other words, I love showing people Bringing Up Baby and watching them delight in a movie that, when times are hard, always manages to cheer me up…

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1938: Doris Nolan in "Holiday"

Before each Smackdown, Nick Taylor highlights alternates to the Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress... 

I’ve written about a lot of movies for this series that have meant a great deal to me, both because I love them and because they are very, very good. With only three events left in this current Smackdown season, I think I can safely guess that I will not be writing about a film that has touched me quite as dearly as Holiday has. Along with being an indisputable peak in classical Hollywood filmmaking, in the romantic comedy genre, in the careers of its directors and its leading couple, the film is also a deceptively sharp ensemble feature. To say any performer matches the heights Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant reach would be hard to argue, but to call Doris Nolan's savvy, multifaceted supporting turn as the character who kicks the whole plot into motion a sterling achievement all its own is a claim I'd be very happy to make...

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1957: Cathleen Nesbitt in "An Affair to Remember"

Before each Smackdown, we look at alternate possibilities to the actual Oscar ballot...

by Nick Taylor

Camila Henriques wrote a great article last week on Deborah Kerr’s performance in An Affair to Remember, a film whose cultural resonance feels like a tribute to the star power of its lead couple. A remake of the romantic drama Love Affair (1939) from its original director Leo McCarey, the film follows wealthy socialites Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) and Nick Ferrante (Cary Grant), who fall in love over the course of an eight-day transatlantic cruise to New York despite being engaged to other people. The relaxed pacing, resplendent colors, high production values, picturesque photography, and appealing slow-burn chemistry between Kerr and Grant reads like an open invitation from McCarey to luxuriate in the sheer handsomeness of what he’s put together. The economy of Love Affair is missed, though for my money the film’s besottedness with itself keeps An Affair to Remember from fully matching the emotional complexity of its predecessor. Especially in the early going, McCarey seems content to let his leads luxuriate in their own charisma without asking them to do all that much. But nonetheless the film is able to evince real moments of depth that linger long after the credits have rolled. And wouldn’t you know that the first such moment arrives when Terry and Nick make a surprise visit to his Grandmother Janou, played in this iteration by Cathleen Nesbitt. 

In both films, Terry and Nick’s time with Janou is the catalyzing event that leads them to acknowledge their love for each other...

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