A Blog For Thelma Todd
Thelma Todd was a star of silent movies and later the talkies. She is remembered as much today for her mysterious death as she is for her films. In this blog, we take a look at Thelma Todd, her movies, and various commentaries.
Antonio Moreno was in Thelma Todd's last movie, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL. And years before, he was associated with William Desmond Taylor shortly before Taylor's death.
Antonio Moreno
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Antonio Moreno
Born
Antonio Garrido Monteagudo (1887-09-26)September 26, 1887 Madrid, Spain
Antonio "Tony" Moreno (September 26, 1887 – February 15, 1967) was a Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.
Biography
Born Antonio Garrido Monteagudo in Madrid, Spain, he emigrated to the United States at the age of fourteen and settled in Massachusetts, where he completed his education. After attending the Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, he became a stage actor in regional theater productions. In 1912, he moved to Hollywood, California and he was signed to Vitagraph Studios and began his career in bit parts and as a movie extra.
In 1914, Moreno began co-starring in a series of highly successful serials opposite the enormously publicly popular silent film actress Pearl White. These appearances helped to increase Moreno's popularity with the nation's nascent film-goers. By 1915, Antonio Moreno was a highly regarded matinee idol and appearing opposite such successful actors as Tyrone Power, Sr., Gloria Swanson, Blanche Sweet, Pola Negri and Dorothy Gish. Moreno was often typecast in his earliest films as the "Latin Lover", as were other actors of the era with Latin roots, such as Ramón Novarro and Rudolph Valentino.
By the early 1920s, Antonio Moreno joined film mogul Jesse Lasky's Famous Players and became one of the company's most highly paid performers. In 1926 Moreno starred opposite Swedish acting legend Greta Garbo in The Temptress and the following year followed up with a starring role in the enormous box-office hit Clara Bow vehicle It.
Moreno married American heiress Daisy Canfield Danziger, in 1923, and the couple moved to an estate known as Crestmount, now known as the Canfield-Moreno Estate. The union lasted ten years and ended shortly before Canfield Danziger was killed in an automobile accident on February 23, 1933.
With the advent of talkies in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Moreno's career began to falter, in part because of his heavy Spanish accent. While still acting in English language films, Moreno also began taking parts in Mexican films. During the early 1930s, Moreno directed several well-received Mexican films, among them is the 1932 drama Santa, which has been hailed by film critics as one of the best Mexican films of the era. By the mid-1930s, Antonio Moreno began rebuilding his faltering Hollywood career by taking notable roles as a character actor. By the mid-1940s and throughout the 1950s, Moreno appeared in a number of well received roles, most notably, his 1954 role in the classic horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon and his 1955 role as Emilio Figueroa in film director John Ford's influential western epic The Searchers opposite John Wayne and Natalie Wood.
Moreno retired from film in the late 1950s and died of heart failure in Beverly Hills, California, in 1967, and was laid to rest in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale, California. His film career spanned more than four decades.
In 1994, the Mexican magazine Somos published their list of "The 100 best movies of the cinema of Mexico" in its 100th edition and named the 1931 Moreno directed Santa its 67th choice.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Antonio Moreno was given a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6651 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, California, USA.
Of note is that Moreno was the half-brother of Alfred Moreno Monteagudo, who took over management of the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel in the 1940s. Antonio Moreno is the granduncle of horror/fantasy author Nicholas Grabowsky, to which a related biography is slated for late 2009/early 2010 in conjunction with the release of the Creature From the Black Lagoon remake by Universal Pictures.
References
"Antonio Moreno," The Clearfield Progress, August 26, 1920, page 15.
"Antonio Moreno, Silent-Film Star," The New York Times, February 16, 1967.
Bodeen, Dewitt. "Antonio Moreno," Films in Review, June–July, 1967.
Menefee, David W. The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era. Albany: Bear Manor Media, 2007.
"Public Pleased by Vitagraph’s Move to Return Antonio Moreno to Feature Films," The Moving Picture World. New York: Chalmers Publishing Company. December 25, 1920.
Virginia, Violet. "Antonio Moreno of the Vitagraph Players," Motion Picture Magazine, December 1914. Pages 103-105.
Famous director William Desmond Taylor was murdered on the first of September, 1922. Antonio Moreno called Taylor the night of the murder and was talking to him when Mabel Normand got there ( she was the last person to see him alive before he was murdered ). Moreno had been with Taylor several times during that week prior to his death.
Although Antonio cooperated with the investigation of Taylor's death and it was said that he provided them with much information, the investigators ultimately failed to solve the case. To this day it remains one of Hollywood's Unsolved Mysteries.
MY AMERICAN WIFE ( 1922 ) with Gloria Swanson
TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE ( 1923 ) with Mary Miles Mintner, who had also been involved with William Desmond Taylor.
Filming THE SPANISH DANCER ( 1923) with James Wong Howe
THE EXCITERS ( 1924 ) with Bebe Daniels
LOVE'S BLINDNESS ( 1926 ) with Pauline Stark
IT ( 1927 ) with Clara Bow
THE BOHEMIAN GIRL
Antonio Moreno's star had faded by the time this movie was made, something that was also true of fellow cast member Mae Busch, who had been a star in the silent era. It has also been said that Thelma Todd's career was not what it had been after the coming of sound, which is less obvious. Certainly her last feature film was a hit, even if little of her part remained when it was finally released.
Laurel and Hardy are a hen-pecked pair of Gypsies in 18th Century Austria. When Oliver is out pickpocketing, fortune-telling or attending his zither lessons, his wife (Mae Busch), has an affair with Devilshoof (Antonio Moreno). A cruel nobleman, Count Arnheim, persecutes the Gypsies, who are forced to flee, but Mrs. Hardy kidnaps his daughter, Arline (Darla Hood), leaves Hardy holding the baby, and elopes with Devilshoof.
12 years later, the Gypsies return to Arnheim's estate. When grown up Arline (Jacqueline Wells) trespasses in Arnheim's garden, she recognises the place, but is arrested by a constable (Jimmy Finlayson) and sentenced to a lashing. Stan and Oliver try to save her, but Stan is too drunk and both are arrested. Just as Arline is stripped in order to be lashed she is rescued in time by Arnheim, who recognises a medallion she wears and a family birthmark, and both try to rescue Stan and Oliver. It is too late though: Laurel and Hardy end up in the torture chamber, resulting in one of the team's best sight gags.
Todd died on 16 December 1935 at age 29. She had been found in the garage of her home, poisoned by the fumes of her own car. Stan Laurel received a Christmaspresent from her soon afterwards. The jury brought out a verdict of suicide, but this came under heavy suspicion.
Three films starring Todd were released after her death. In The Bohemian Girl, Todd had played the Gypsy Queen, a very substantial role. All of her scenes were re-shot and her character was renamed as the Gypsy Queen's Daughter, and Zeffie Tilbury playing the Queen, and with a vampish Mae Busch character replacing her in the narrative. One scene of Todd's was kept in as a tribute to her: a musical number where she sings "Heart of a Gypsy".
Quotes
Meta-reference: James Finlayson, well- known for his comical squinting, gets poked in the eye at one point and cries: "Oh! My good eye!"
Casting and production details
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wanted to cast a talented newcomer as Arline. Hal Roach cast Darla Hood, who had just begun appearing in Roach's Our Gang comedies, as young Arline and Julie Bishop as adult Arline.
After THE BOHEMIAN GIRL, Jacqueline Wells was considered for the feminine lead in WAY OUT WEST, but the part eventually went to Rosina Lawrence, who had dubbed in her singing voice in THE BOHEMIAN GIRL. Rosina Lawrence would also be included in the cast of the later films in what would have been the Thelma Todd series, with Lyda Roberti in place of Thelma Todd.
Stan Laurel feared that adverse publicity would hurt the picture and as a result Thelma Todd's scenes were all cut except for a brief scene early in the movie where she sings "The song of the gypsies". The rest of her scenes were all replaced.
During the investigation of the death of Thelma Todd, the grand jury at first looked into the possibilty of murder, but later the focus was more on the suicide theory. However, they were unable to reach a decision and the case ended with a hung jury. The story that they brought in a verdict of suicide is incorrect.
People would say that Hollywood's Unsolved Mysteries went unsolved for a reason, that the people who ran the movie business wanted it that way. They pointed to similarities in the way that the various investigations seemed to rack up failure after failure without really getting anywhere. But nobody ever seems to remark that one of the last people to associate with William Desmond Taylor was one of the last people to work with Thelma Todd in a feature film.
I'm sure that was probably a coincidence, but there it is nonetheless.
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Antonio Moreno
Behind the scenes photo of Stan Laurel, Mae Busch, Antonio Moreno
Stan’s father Arthur Jefferson and his wife, Venitia, visit the set of The Bohemian Girl.
Thelma Todd in a publicity photo that might not have been widely used after the decision to minimize her involvment in the movie.
Antonio Moreno as "Devilshoof"
Mae Busch used to know Mabel Normand when they both worked for Mack Sennett.
Darla Hood of "Our Gang" as the little girl in the story.
Jacqueline Wells, who played the same character as a big girl. She became a bigger star under the name of Julie Bishop.
Paulette Goddard's part in this movie is not well known, like her association with Thelma Todd. This was to be her last film at the Roach studio, but soon she would star with Chaplin in another feature film that would be considered a classic, MODERN TIMES.
This foreign poster appears to have a charicature of Thelma Todd as well as Laurel and Hardy. I doubt if they used any posters that showed Thelma Todd for the US release.
Watch Thelma Todd's remaining scene in THE BOHEMIAN GIRL:
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