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<blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 230869" data-attributes="member: 7">I&#039;d adjust my list a little differently than yours. Of the three MGM actresses you mentioned, Elizabeth Taylor would be first for me, then Lana Turner, and finally Ava Gardner. I&#039;ve only seen the latter in two pictures ─ Mogambo and The Barefoot Contessa ─ and I love both those movies, but I haven&#039;t seen enough of her work to rank her any higher. I think Lana improved as an actress, or at least she learned how to act like she was acting, as she aged. She was very amateurish at the beginning of her career, but most actresses were at the time. She was basically the run-of-the-mill glamour puss throughout WWII, even though she was earning MGM some mega-bucks because her pictures were so popular. I&#039;d say she finally matured when she did The Postman Always Rings Twice, which she generally regarded as the first film that required her to act. She said she got the role after turning down several &quot;pretty&quot; pictures. Apparently, she wasn&#039;t keen on the casting of John Garfield, and famously asked, &quot;Goodness, couldn&#039;t they at least hire someone attractive?&quot; Her work in the film is good, and I recall reading somewhere that some critics were baffled that her performance here didn&#039;t get more accolades than it did at the time. She had a lot of slow spots in her career, however. MGM ushered into those musicals at the start of the fifties trying to rebrand her, but it didn&#039;t really work. She made a good number of stinkers, but so did the likes of Davis and Crawford. She was always interesting in her roles, and she did take some chances. She went back brunette in the mid-fifties, which was considerably shaking for her fan-base, who were use to seeing her in a certain image. I honestly really like Peyton Place and Imitation of Life because of their campy soap opera vibe. This is Soap Chat, right? Yeah, I love soap operas, so I like old-fashioned movies like that, too. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.movieforums.com%2Fcommunity%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D60035&amp;psig=AOvVaw3-6xJHS9Nv_S8K6bayu74J&amp;ust=1596214948666000&amp;source=images&amp;cd=vfe&amp;ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjBwZ669eoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.lana-turner.com/wp-content/gallery/30-april-1959-imitation-of-life/Lana-Turner-Imitation-Of-Life-1959-10.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></blockquote>

[QUOTE="ClassyCo, post: 230869, member: 7"] I'd adjust my list a little differently than yours. Of the three MGM actresses you mentioned, Elizabeth Taylor would be first for me, then Lana Turner, and finally Ava Gardner. I've only seen the latter in two pictures ─[I] Mogambo[/I] and[I] The Barefoot Contessa[/I] ─ and I love both those movies, but I haven't seen enough of her work to rank her any higher. I think Lana improved as an actress, or at least she learned how to act like she was acting, as she aged. She was very amateurish at the beginning of her career, but most actresses were at the time. She was basically the run-of-the-mill glamour puss throughout WWII, even though she was earning MGM some mega-bucks because her pictures were so popular. I'd say she finally matured when she did[I] The Postman Always Rings Twice[/I], which she generally regarded as the first film that required her to act. She said she got the role after turning down several "pretty" pictures. Apparently, she wasn't keen on the casting of John Garfield, and famously asked, "Goodness, couldn't they at least hire someone attractive?" Her work in the film is good, and I recall reading somewhere that some critics were baffled that her performance here didn't get more accolades than it did at the time. She had a lot of slow spots in her career, however. MGM ushered into those musicals at the start of the fifties trying to rebrand her, but it didn't really work. She made a good number of stinkers, but so did the likes of Davis and Crawford. She was always interesting in her roles, and she did take some chances. She went back brunette in the mid-fifties, which was considerably shaking for her fan-base, who were use to seeing her in a certain[I] image[/I]. I honestly really like[I] Peyton Place[/I] and[I] Imitation of Life[/I] because of their campy soap opera vibe. This is Soap Chat, right? Yeah, I love soap operas, so I like old-fashioned movies like that, too. [CENTER][URL='https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.movieforums.com%2Fcommunity%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D60035&psig=AOvVaw3-6xJHS9Nv_S8K6bayu74J&ust=1596214948666000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjBwZ669eoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ'][IMG]https://www.lana-turner.com/wp-content/gallery/30-april-1959-imitation-of-life/Lana-Turner-Imitation-Of-Life-1959-10.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER] [/QUOTE]

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