June 4, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, June 3 — Paulette Goddard, in the past, has been a girl to keep her emotions to herself. I suppose I have written a dozen or so interviews with her and always she has obviously talked for the public and never has anyone see the real Paulette. But not today. She is so happy over her marriage to Capt. Burgess Meredith that all her reserve is gone and she answers all questions without a moment’s hesitation.
In case you just tuned in, I’m using Louella Parsons’ May 15, 1944, item on Rouben Mamoulian being replaced as director of “Laura” to do a bit of digging into the production of this film noir classic – however one happens to define film noir.
I’m going to be taking a look at the genesis of Caspary’s novel, which was the basis for the film, but first it may be worthwhile to examine her writing career over the roughly 20 years from the time she ghostwrote “The Fox Plan of Photoplay Writing” in 1922 to “Laura,” which began as an unsatisfying draft of a play.
June 3, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, June 2 — Red haired Arleen Whelan, who found movie acting hard going and went to New York and made a smash hit in “Doughgirls,” may have one of the plum roles of the year. According to information from New York, Sam Goldwyn is negotiating with her for “Those Endearing Young Charms” and the only thing that stands between Arleen and the job is the money question. She’s asking a fortune, and that’s understandable as she comes back to Hollywood in a blaze of glory.
This is a frame grab from a video I shot years ago showing one of the strangest tombstones I have ever seen. The shot that killed Dr. Horace Potter, Surgeon, on June 2, 1864, near Kingston, Ga. 150 years later, not forgotten.
This is “Princesse Tam Tam” with Josephine Baker. You can also find it online, although there are no subtitles. And thanks to glcrumpacker for the suggestion.
If you would like to request a mystery movie, drop me a line.
“Princesse Tam Tam” Part 1
”Princesse Tam Tam” Part 2
”Princesse Tam Tam” Part 3
Documentary on Josephine Baker
The interior of Crossroads of the World, courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Long before the Grove or Americana on Brand, the Crossroads of the World existed as a retail center replicating simpler times and more glamorous surroundings. It sprang from tragedy to become an architectural and cultural highlight for more than 77 years. Intended to be an exotic shopping destination, it instead functions as eclectic office suites for independent businesses.
In the early 1930s, 6665 Sunset Blvd. was the location of Charles H. Crawford’s business office. Crawford, a former saloonkeeper and political boss, called the “Underworld Czar” and “Wolf of Spring Street” in a 1986 Los Angeles Times article, possessed gangland connections. On May 20, 1931, he and former police reporter and editor Herbert Spencer were shot and killed in his office by former Deputy Dist. Atty. David Clark, who claimed self-defense.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
KNBC-TV Channel 4 has finally updated its story on Buster the Wonder Dog finding … something … at the purported Murder HQ of Dr. George Hodel.
Let’s review the timeline:
On Nov. 9, 2012, the makers of the TV show “Ghost Hunters” taped a segment in which retired LAPD Detective Steve Hodel and retired Sgt. Paul Dostie, formerly of the Mammoth Police Department, and Dostie’s three-legged cadaver dog, Buster, searched the vicinity of the Sowden House on Franklin Avenue for evidence of human remains. Hodel’s father, Dr. George Hodel, lived in the house in the 1940s and it is Steve Hodel’s contention that his father killed lots of people there — including Elizabeth Short — although there’s not a bit of proof that he ever killed anyone there or anywhere else.
The segment wasn’t included in the TV show, but the outtakes aired on KNBC-TV on Feb. 1, 2013.
In a Feb. 3, 2013, post in the Daily Beast, Christine Pelisek said results were due “next week.”
And then we waited.
And waited.
His Excellency wants to know if you have a request for an upcoming mystery movie. The Daily Mirror archives are spotty, so I can’t guarantee that I’ll have a copy, but if you have a request, drop me an email.
May 31, 1944: “The First Nighter” with a show titled “Give Up the Ship.” Courtesy of otronmp3.com.
In case you just tuned in, I’m using the May 15 post by Louella Parsons on Rouben Mamoulian being replaced by Otto Preminger as director of “Laura” to spend some time examining the production of the film noir classic.
A previous post took a brief look at the life of author Vera Caspary, whose novel was the basis for the film. In her autobiography, “The Secrets of Grown-Ups,” she says that early in her career, she was the ghostwriter for a correspondence course on the art of the photoplay.
I didn’t expect much from a 92-year-old book on writing for the movies by someone who had never done it and the first chapter is not promising. It’s loaded with irrelevant material to pad out the lesson. And yet I was curious enough to keep reading on the chance that there might be glimmers of the future author in what promised to be a dreadful book. Can one learn anything about a 1940s film from a somewhat iffy text written 22 years earlier?
May 30, 1944
Dear younger readers,
Memorial Day (created as Decoration Day, a time to place flowers on the graves of Civil War veterans) used to be May 30, until Congress decided in 1968 that a three-day weekend was more important, moving the date to the last Monday in May, effective in 1971.
Today we have cartoonist Edmund Waller “Ted” Gale’s drawing from the Los Angeles Examiner, published in the Milwaukee Sentinel. Also notice the Bible passage, which was typical for newspapers in this era.
HOLLYWOOD, May 29 – They do a lot of talking about Jacques Tourneur on the RKO lot, where he is an important director. When Gregory Peck heard Tourneur was to direct “Experiment Perilous,” he was interested at once. Tourneur had directed Peck in “Days of Glory” and Peck was eager to make another picture for him.
Some lineup Charlie Koerner has for “Experiment Perilous” — Hedy Lamarr as the feminine star and Paul Lukas, Academy Award winner, in the other top role. Bob Fellows will produce the picture.
I cut the cord to TCM a few months ago, partly to economize and partly because it repeats a lot of movies for having such a large archive. (What? “Torchy Runs for Mayor” Again??) I haven’t been paying much attention to its schedule, but I noticed that “Laura” is airing June 1 and thought that because I’m focusing on the making of the film, readers who haven’t seen it in a long time (or have never seen it) might want to take a look.
In case you just tuned in, I’m using the May 15 post by Louella Parsons on Rouben Mamoulian being replaced as director of “Laura” to spend some time examining the production of the film noir classic.
The previous post was a brief look at the life of author Vera Caspary, whose novel was the basis for the film. In her autobiography, “The Secrets of Grown-Ups,” we learned that early in her career, she was the ghostwriter for a correspondence course on writing photoplays.
I was mildly curious as to whether Caspary’s screenwriting course had any hidden nuggets. A cursory glance is not encouraging.
May 29, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, May 28 — JACK WARNER has had his checkbook out all the time he’s been in New York, buying plays like mad. He paid a quarter of a million dollars for “Chicken Every Sunday,” the Phil and Julius Epstein play. He saw it and decided it would be a good vehicle for Jack Benny. With “Junior Miss” at $425,000, “The Wallflower” at $200,000 and “Chicken Every Sunday” all in one week, that isn’t bad!
May 29, 1944
Life’s cover story features Lt. Gen Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, commander of the American air forces preparing for the invasion of Europe.
Gjon Mili photographs Gene Kelly dancing.
The movie of the week is “Once Upon a Time,” starring Cary Grant.
In case you just tuned in, prompted by Louella Parsons’ May 15 post that Rouben Mamoulian had asked to be released as director of “Laura” (later accounts will say that he was fired), I’m looking at the making of the movie, one of the classics of film noir, no matter how you define this nebulous but popular genre.
The behind-the-scenes intrigue at 20th Century-Fox involving in “Laura” is familiar to anyone who has read much about the film. The books about studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck, producer/director Otto Preminger and ousted director Rouben Mamoulian tend to repeat the same stories. I think it’s more valuable to begin by examining the creative process behind “Laura,” starting with what occurred before the camera rolled or the scripts were written.
And for that, we must turn to the novel’s author, Vera Caspary.
May 28, 1944
Gypsy Rose Lee says: “There are three types of strip teasers. The loud and brazen girl, who comes out on the stage and shrieks; then there is the demure kind, who acts scared to death, and finally the voluptuous gal, who acts that way to cover her embarrassment. I satirized all three and never expected to make my reputation in that way. Few of these girls have any real talent, and it’s surprising how much money they make without knowing anything about acting.”
Craby Joe’s may be gone, but it lives on in what rock video? (And no, this isn’t “Barfly.”)
Answer: The video is … “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top (1983). Craby Joe’s appears at about the 2:15 mark.
This is “Holy Matrimony,” a rather silly movie with one of those preposterous plots in which logic is thrown out the window, but watchable because of the performances, especially if you only know Monty Woolley from “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” Eric Blore is wonderful as always, although he gets killed off early in the film. I was surprised that nobody pegged Gracie Fields. And look how young Whit Bissell was. This is his second film.
The May 15, 1944, post by Louella Parsons about Rouben Mamoulian asking to be released as the director of “Laura” made me think that it would be worth taking a closer look at the production of the 20th Century-Fox film, based on the 1943 novel by Vera Caspary. What is now considered a classic film noir had a difficult birth. There were a number of cast changes and script revisions, and Mamoulian was replaced by Otto Preminger over what was described at the time as a difference of artistic vision. According to the DVD commentary by Rudy Behlmer, Mamoulian refused to even discuss the movie with him.
In her autobiography, “Secrets of Grown-Ups,” Caspary tells of her disinterest in writing a detective story.
“Mysteries had never been my favorite reading,” she says. The murderer, the most interesting character, has always to be on the periphery of action lest he give away the secret that can be revealed only in the final pages. If mystery writers were to expose character in all of its complexity, they could never produce the solution in which the killer turns out to be the butler, the sweet old aunt or a birdwatcher who ruthlessly kills half a dozen people in order to get hold of the cigarette case with a false bottom that conceals a hundred-thousand-dollar postage stamp.”
ladailymirror.com 