Grande Dame Guignol

[Willie Oleson]

What are Mary Astor's best movies?

 

[Crimson]

Her most famous film is undoubtedly THE MALTESE FALCON. I think her best film is THE GREAT LIE, plus the comedies MIDNIGHT and THE PALM BEACH STORY. She was very good at comedy.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Two of Astor's most important films from the '30s are RED DUST and THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, but I haven't seen them.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I think The Maltese Falcon is what she will always be remembered for most but my favorite role of hers was in Meet Me In St. Louis

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Stanwyck's last theatrical film, 1964... Hitchcock's favorite composer, Bernard Herrmann, thought Vic Mizzy's creepy score was one of the best things he'd ever heard. Too bad it was for a Castle film.

 

[Crimson]

Stanwyck's last theatrical film, 1964

I have it in my collection, but I've never bothered to watch it. Stanwyck made a career out of rising above (mostly) inferior material, but I don't see her being able to elevate William Castle. Not even Vincent Price could do that!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

"Making of" featurette for Bette's 1964 shocker DEAD RINGER:

Trailer:

 

[ClassyCo]

I watched LADY IN A CAGE several months ago when I had a Hulu account. I was thrilled to find such a Grande Dame Guignol piece of cinema on the service, that I watched it immediately. The movie stars two-time Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland as a physically impaired older woman who gets stuck in her home's private elevator. It co-stars the likable Ann Sothern and features a young James Caan as a hoodlum who breaks into her house.

The other night I looked up LADY IN A CAGE on Wikipedia. According to the website, the film was profitable for Paramount Pictures in 1964, but the reviews were harsh initially. TIME magazine said that the movie "adds Olivia de Havilland to the list of cinema actresses who would apparently rather be freaks than be forgotten." Most reviews centered on the vulgarity of the story and how shocked people were that a star of de Havilland's stature did such a film. Columnist Hedda Hopper said "The picture should be burned... Why did Olivia do it?" VARIETY said that there was not a "single redeeming character or characteristic" in what they called a "vulgar screenplay". Apparently some critics felt Olivia's performance was trying for "Oscar bait", and there was a fair amount of criticism for James Caan "copying" Marlon Brando. The film's reception has improved over time.

On the face of it, I can understand the bad reviews. I'm certainly not going to try and bolster LADY IN A CAGE as some outstanding achievement in cinema. But I can firmly say that I enjoyed it. I've never been a major Olivia de Havilland fan, so perhaps my enjoyment was drawn more from fascination with the hag horror subgenre than her performance itself. Even so, I can admit that her performance here was strong, and even if the screenplay got a little sloppy, I'd say LADY IN A CAGE was one of the more interesting of the Grande Dame Guignol films I've seen thus far.

The miniseries FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN would have us believe that Olivia was humiliated by her work in LADY IN A CAGE, and that is why she wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to replace Joan Crawford in HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE shortly thereafter. Of course, I can understand why a two-time Oscar winner like Olivia might've felt that making such "shockers" was a big stepdown from the heights her career had achieved. The studios weren't making the women's pictures she had been comfortable in for so long, but she didn't seem too worried about her career hitting the skids. Unlike Davis and Crawford, she didn't dive head first into making horror films in the 1960s. She only did two: LADY IN A CAGE and HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE.
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[ClassyCo]

On the set of HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE shortly after Olivia had been hired to replace Joan.

As if to say: "Bye, Bye, Sweet Crawford" and "Hello, Miss de Havilland" by eliminating Pepsi and bringing in Coke.​

Two of Astor's most important films from the '30s are RED DUST and THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, but I haven't seen them.

I watched RED DUST when TCM aired it once. I'm a pretty big Jean Harlow fan, and I wanted to see perhaps the most famous of the Harlow-Gable pairings. Mary Astor was good in her role, playing the 'good' to Harlow's 'bad' girl.
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THE NIGHT WALKER was originally to be a Joan Crawford vehicle, but she bowed out because she was committed to HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE at the time. She had already done STRAIT-JACKET for William Castle, and she ended up doing I SAW WHAT YOU DID for him as well.

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[DallasFanForever]

THE NIGHT WALKER was originally to be a Joan Crawford vehicle, but she bowed out because she was committed to HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE at the time. She had already done STRAIT-JACKET for William Castle, and she ended up doing I SAW WHAT YOU DID for him as well.

View attachment 27476​

Is Joan holding an axe there? Cause if she is then that just gave me a better perspective on the garden scene in Mommie Dearest!!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

THE NIGHT WALKER was originally to be a Joan Crawford vehicle, but she bowed out because she was committed to HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE at the time. She had already done STRAIT-JACKET for William Castle, and she ended up doing I SAW WHAT YOU DID for him as well.

View attachment 27476​

I SAW WHAT YOU DID is the much more polished picture as compared to STRAIT-JACKET. Oddly enough.

My Internet access was down from Saturday until today due to a wonderful old oak tree falling onto the power lines around the corner. As a result, I found myself inadvertently Donald Sutherlanding out, watching DIE! DIE! MY DARLING, ORDINARY PEOPLE and 'JFK' (I always want to see Sutherland's 20-minute JFK monologue delivered in his DIE! DIE! MY DARLING voice) and, speaking of Darlings, Season 1 of DIRTY SEXY MONEY.

 

[Crimson]

Is Joan holding an axe there? Cause if she is then that just gave me a better perspective on the garden scene in Mommie Dearest!!

Yes, but don't get your hopes up; that picture is more interesting than the entire movie.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

This would likely be my favorite genre if so many of them weren't so stinky. Stanwyck never made another theatrical picture after THE NIGHT WALKER, Olivia de Havilland had to be talked into doing HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE after her experience with LADY IN A CAGE, Bette Davis said after CHARLOTTE that the horror genre had been good for her "but I want out," while Crawford, who toiled in the grand dame guignol cinema sewer longer and deeper than anybody else (only BABY JANE was any good, although I SAW WHAT YOU DID was an acceptable B-movie, as those things go) got beaten up enough by the critics (and likely chided by Cukor) for her participation that she publicly lamented in the '70s that she had only done those '60s shockers "because I was bored or because I needed the money or both" and expressed her wish that they be removed from distribution and never see the light of day again.

So the trend exacted a pound of flesh, as it were, for most of those involved. Bette survived it more because hers were better, and because she could seem so effortlessly slattern that the genre seemed to fit her; she'd played terrifying bitches all her life.

"You mean all this time we could have been friends...?"

Yes, but don't get your hopes up; that picture is more interesting than the entire movie.

STRAIT-JACKET or MOMMIE DEAREST?

 

[Crimson]

This would likely be my favorite genre if so many of them weren't so stinky.

It is a pretty limited genre, in both scope and quality. (Even more so for me. I only regard those movies that are of the direct BABY JANE type to fall within the genre, whereas others seem to consider any horror movie starring a past-her-prime movie queen.) Taken as a whole I think horror movies are the laziest genre, and most are pretty shoddy. I think the ratio is even higher than the "90% of everything is crap" rule.

So the trend exacted a pound of flesh, as it were, for most of those involved.

Not that the ladies would have fared much better without those films; they would have just drifted into semi-obscurity. Without the luck of landing in a TV series (like Stanwyck), there wasn't much awaiting them. I think Myrna Loy and Claudette Colbert were quoted around the time that they'd rather be retired than play demented old bags and, well, they basically were.

STRAIT-JACKET or MOMMIE DEAREST?

Either/or. It is an awfully good pic though, so it's probably better than a ton of movies.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

It is an awfully good pic though, so it's probably better than a ton of movies.

What's awfully good?

 

[ClassyCo]

Would THE WITCHES (known as THE DEVIL'S OWN in the U.S.) be considered hagsploitation? It stars Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, the younger sister of Olivia de Havilland.

It was made by Hammer Films in 1966.

I've never seen it.


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[Crimson]

I've never seen THE WITCHES. I'm not wild about Joan Fontaine; or, Hammer films for that matter. From what I know of it, I wouldn't consider it the same genre; but, as noted, I have a narrower definition of films of this type than some others. Certainly though this doesn't seem to be of the BABY JANE ilk and Joan is hardly a "hag" in the film. As indifferent as I am to her, I've gotta give her credit: she aged well. She hardly looked different in 1966 than in 1946. I think Olivia was already stout and matronly by this point.

 

[ClassyCo]

I've never seen THE WITCHES. I'm not wild about Joan Fontaine; or, Hammer films for that matter. From what I know of it, I wouldn't consider it the same genre; but, as noted, I have a narrower definition of films of this type than some others. Certainly though this doesn't seem to be of the BABY JANE ilk and Joan is hardly a "hag" in the film. As indifferent as I am to her, I've gotta give her credit: she aged well. She hardly looked different in 1966 than in 1946. I think Olivia was already stout and matronly by this point.

I've never been a big Joan Fontaine fan. I like her even less than I like Olivia de Havilland. Olivia's got a few movies that I wouldn't mind seeing, but Joan doesn't appeal to me whatsoever. She just comes across too cold and stiff.​

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Who doesn't enjoy being mauled to death by a stuffed great dane (at around 01:05)??