Loretta or Cary: Who Is more Beautiful?

Loretta Young: a photographer's dream

The Faces of Beauty
Both Loretta Young and Cary Grant were known as much for their classic movie star looks as their acting abilities. Young, a star since the days of silent films, is considered one of the screen’s great beauties. Her big expressive eyes and lovely cheekbones made her a photographer’s dream. Grant’s was the face that the top female stars of the 1930s wanted next to theirs on the big screen.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...
When Young and Grant costarred together in The Bishop’s Wife (1947), audiences were faced with two of the most beautiful and most photographed faces in the movies. With those two great faces on the screen side by side, the question comes up; who is the most beautiful of all?

Publicity photograph of Cary Grant

Dressed to Impress
In the film, Grant plays a very dashing angel named Dudley. Dressed by five-time Oscar-winner Irene Sharaff, Grant looked as if he just walked off the set of Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946). He’s as dapper as, well, Cary Grant. Young on the other hand, plays Julia Brougham, the wife of a Bishop (David Niven). Throughout the movie, Young is dressed modestly, but beautifully. Likewise, her hairstyle is pulled back, simply styled, but framing that beautiful, luminous face.

Vanity, Vanity
Like the public that adored them, Young and Grant were aware of their respective good looks and did all they could to present themselves on screen in the best way possible. The story goes that when director Henry Koster blocked out a two-shot between Young and Grant, both protested that the blocking did not exploit the best sides of their faces. To appease the two stars, Koster had them look out a window in the same direction. This shot satisfied Young and Grant because their best sides (the left sides of their faces) were photographed.

I'm not Paying for Half a Face

 Tyrone Power and Young

When producer Samuel Goldwyn saw the dailies (film shot that day), he was critical of Koster’s decision to shoot the scene in such a manner. When Koster asked Young and Grant to explain why the shot was set up and filmed this way, Goldywn let go with one of his famous “Goldwynisms.” He said to both stars “Look, if I'm only getting half a face, you're only getting half a salary!” Young and Grant, both being freelance movie stars and not contracted to a major movie studio were also conscious of workplace politics.

After that confrontation with the boss, the subject of what side of their faces looked better on film never came up again.

"The Bishop's Wife" December "Meet Me at the Movies"

The Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) invites you to "Meet Me at the Movies," Thursday December 9, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at Sherwood Community Music School, Columbia College recital hall, 1312 S. Michigan Ave.

Losing His Religion and His Wife
Bishop Henry Brougham is consumed with the construction of a new cathedral. His wife, Julia, feels she is losing her husband’s affection as he attempts to raise the funds to build it by flattering a rich, old widow. Has he forgotten the reason he became a clergyman in the first place?

Enter an angel named Dudley. On a mission from on high, Dudley attempts to show the bishop that the things that really matter aren’t made of bricks and mortar.

Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven

A popular holiday classic, The Bishop’s Wife stars screen favorites Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven.

Friday quotes - Katharine Hepburn

"If you obey all the rules you
miss all the fun"
Katharine Hepburn(1907-2003)
I've always adored Katharine Hepburn, she's strong, intelligent, witty and beautiful.  What more could you want in a woman?  Oh, and I love her wardrobe.  Here are some of my favourite quotes from the wonderful Ms Hepburn.

"When I started out I didn't have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act.  I just

"Houseboat" sets sail this Thursday night!

The Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) invites you to "Meet Me at the Movies," Thursday June 24, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at Sherwood Community Music School, Columbia College recital hall, 1312 S. Michigan Ave.

This month’s movie is Houseboat starring Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. The Technicolor classic also stars Martha Hyer and Harry Guardino. This will be the only MMATM event held on a Thursday evening.

Admission to the movie is $5 and dinner at Opera afterward (optional) is $15.

Related "Meet Me at the Movies" News: Audrey Rules!

Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn was voted favorite "Meet Me at the Movies" movie. Breakfast at Tiffany's walked away with 50% of the vote. Casablanca and Miracle on 34th Street tied for second with 33%. To Catch a Thief and Some Like it Hot tied for third with 16% of the vote.

Wrap Party for January 29 "Meet Me at the Movies" at Kroll's South Loop

The Wrap Party for the January 29 "Meet Me at the Movies" will be at Kroll's South Loop.  Kroll's is located at 1736 S. Michigan Ave.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 classic To Catch a Thief will be the featured movie that evening. The film will be screened at Sherwood Community Music School at Columbia College recital hall, 1312 S. Michigan Ave. The movie starting time is 6:30 p.m. The total price for the event will be $20 per person.

Academy Award Winner

Filled with all the things you've come to expect from Hitchcock--elegant surroundings, witty, sophisticated dialogue, and glamorous costumes--To Catch a Thief doesn't disappoint. Nominated for three Academy Awards (winning for Best Color Cinematography), this 1955 suspense classic is one fun ride.

For more information including how to RSVP,  please visit The Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) Web site.

Carole Lombard: The Divine Screwball

A genre and a star is born
With the exception of perhaps Cary Grant, no movie star has been more identified with screwball comedy than Carole Lombard. In fact, if it weren’t for Lombard, the genre might not have received its name. “Miss Lombard has played screwball dames before…she needs only a resin bag to be a female Rube Waddell.” So said Variety in 1936, comparing Lombard’s performance, as Irene Bullock in My Man Godfrey, to the nineteenth-century baseball legend known for his screwball pitches.
 
Risk taker
From her breakthrough role in Twentieth Century (1934) opposite John Barrymore, it was apparent that a comic genius was born. Lombard could have become a typical Hollywood leading lady on her movie star looks alone, but instead she jumped head-first into screwball comedies, taking on roles that often downplayed her natural beauty. She took comedic risks that few women in Hollywood were willing to take and it paid off big time. The public loved Lombard, and they loved her screwball heroines.

At the top of her game
By the mid-1930s, Lombard was one of the top box office draws, besting Janet Gaynor, Bette Davis, Jean Harlow, and Katherine Hepburn. She was also on a winning streak with films like Hands Across the Table, Love Before Breakfast, The Princess Comes Across, My Man Godfrey, and Nothing Sacred.

Enduring popularity
Lombard tried her hand at drama with some success, but the public loved her screwball persona best and it’s the comedies that have endured. Even by today’s standards, Lombard’s performances seem strikingly fresh and contemporary.  If it wasn't for her untimely death in 1942, who knows what heights she could have reached. Even so, few have risen so high.

"To Catch a Thief" is the next "Meet Me at the Movies" event

The Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) invites you to "Meet Me at the Movies," Friday January 29, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at Sherwood Community Music School at Columbia College recital hall, 1312 S. Michigan Ave.

Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and Grace Kelly too!
To Catch a Thief  filmed on location on the French Riviera, is a picture-postcard treat of a movie. The Alfred Hitchcock classic pairs Cary Grant as a reformed jewel thief, John "The Cat" Robie and Grace Kelly as Francie Stevens, a vacationing American heiress.

When a series of jewel robberies occur, all similar in style to the methods of the so-called reformed Mr. Robie, the Riviera is abuzz with detectives, insurance investigators, and the international press. All of this intrigue and excitement is fascinating to Francie who thinks Robie is up to his old tricks again. Rather than finding his behavior repulsive, Francie instead is attracted to the enigmatic and sophisticated Mr. Robie.

Academy Award Winner

Filled with all the things you've come to expect from Hitchcock--elegant surroundings, witty, sophisticated dialogue, and glamorous costumes--To Catch a Thief doesn't disappoint. Nominated for three Academy Awards (winning for Best Color Cinematography), this 1955 suspense classic is one fun ride.

A reluctant leading man
After completing the film Dream Wife, costarring Deborah Kerr, in 1953, Grant announced his retirement from films. The story goes that Grant thought that he was getting too old to play romantic leads. Additionally, he found himself competing with method actors like Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift; Grant thought his style of acting was on its way out. Fortunately, Hitchcock convinced Grant that To Catch a Thief was the perfect role for a "comeback," plus there was the added bonus of costarring with Grace Kelly, a young actress Grant liked and admired.

Woman chases man
Even though Grant continued starring in films until 1966, his screen persona changed slightly. Instead of being the aggressive leading man, pursuing beautiful women, beginning with To Catch a Thief, it was younger women who were constantly chasing the older Grant, a plot device he found much more believable.

Well Dunne: From "Queen of the Weepies" to the Queen of Comedy

Few movie actresses had the critical and box office successes that Irene Dunne had in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939),  My Favorite Wife (1940), and Penny Serenade (1941) were all big hits when released and undisputed classics today.

Dunne started her film career in 1930 with the lead role in a film called Leathernecking. The very next year, she had a breakout performance in Cimarron starring opposite the more established Richard Dix. So impressive was Dunne's performance that she received the first of her five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.

The films that followed, cast Dunne in a series of popular melodramas including Back Street, Thirteen Women, The Secret of Madame Blanche, and Ann Vickers. When she costarred again with Dix in the 1934  production Stingaree, she was the bigger star and received top billing.

During the early to mid-1930s, Dunne was known in the trade as the "queen of the weepies."  This reputation made Dunne apprehensive when offered the role of Theodora Lynn in the screwball comedy Theodora Goes Wild. As the small town girl who writes a scandalous novel, Dunne's comic timing and expressive emotions were a instant hit with critics and the public.

The two comedies she made with Cary Grant: The Awful Truth and My Favorite Wife helped establish Dunne as one of the grand dames of movie comedy. On her films with Grant, Dunne remarked, "I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen ... I will always remember two compliments he made me. He said I had perfect timing in comedy and that I was the sweetest-smelling actress he ever worked with."

Howard Hawks and "His Girl Friday"

Howard Hawks is one of the greatest American movie directors of all time. Adept at all film genres, Hawks excelled at fast-paced screwball comedies like Twentieth Century, Bringing up Baby, and His Girl Friday.

His Girl Friday was a reworking of the Ben Hecht Charles MacArthur classic The Front Page. By making Hildy Johnson a woman and the ex-wife of editor Walter Burns, Hawks thought the dialogue was funnier and added a dimension that The Front Page lacked. This was a pretty risky decision at the time, since The Front Page was considered a classic not to be messed with.

Hawks's risk paid off and the casting of Cary Grant as Walter Burns and Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson was inspired. In Grant's capable hands, Walter Burns is a more complex character than he was in the original. In The Front Page, Burns is a total cad. He wants to lure Hildy back to the newspaper business for completely selfish motives. In His Girl Friday, Walter wants Hildy back at the paper because she's a great reporter, but also because he's still in love with her. Russell's Hildy is the perfect Hawksian heroine: self-assured, smart, and independent. It's hard to believe that Russell was the eighth choice to play Hildy Johnson. Jean Arthur, Katherine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Irene Dunne, Margaret Sullivan, and Ginger Rogers all turned the role down. Hawks wanted Carole Lombard, who he directed to stardom in Twentieth Century, but she was too expensive, working as an independent actress. Joan Crawford was even considered for the role.

Russell was so put off by being eighth on the list (ninth if you count Crawford) that the first time she met Hawks, she showed up with wet hair. She soon discovered that Hawks wanted her to succeed in the role and after a few rough patches early in the shooting, she quickly gained confidence, going toe-to-toe with the more experienced Grant (His Girl Friday was his third film with Hawks).

As the story goes, Hildy quits the paper to marry dependable, but dull, insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Tired of being a "newspaperman," Hildy says she wants a normal life of domesticity, but Walter suspects she's fooling herself, so he plots to lure her back to the paper and into his arms.

Hawks was never one for depicting domestic married life on the screen, preferring to portray the chase and the buildup to marriage, and no one  showcased the chase better than Hawks. Since Hawks admired smart, funny women, his heroines are never given short shrift on film. From camera angles to screen time, Grant and Russell are treated equally. One of the reasons Hawks's films still seem so fresh and contemporary is due to his strong female characterizations.

Howard Hawks directed some of the greatest films of all time and His Girl Friday is one of his best.

His Girl Friday opened at Radio City Music Hall on January 11, 1940.