Showing posts with label Bette Davis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bette Davis. Show all posts

Thursday, August 27, 2020

MARKED WOMAN






Lola Lane was in the cast of the first movie made about Luciano. Later she inherited the sidewalk café that some people had said he wanted.

Marked Woman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
        
Marked Woman
Marked woman movie poster.jpg
theatrical poster
Directed byLloyd Bacon
Michael Curtiz (uncredited)
Written byRobert Rossen
Abem Finkel
Seton I. Miller (uncredited)
StarringBette Davis
Humphrey Bogart
Music byScore:
Bernhard Kaun
Heinz Roemheld
David Raksin
(all uncredited)
Songs:
Harry Warren
Al Dubin
CinematographyGeorge Barnes
Editing byJack Killifer
StudioWarner Bros.
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date(s)
  • April 10, 1937 (1937-04-10)
Running time84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Marked Woman is a dramatic crime film released by Warner Bros. in 1937. It was directed by Lloyd Bacon, and stars Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, Eduardo Ciannelli and Allen Jenkins. Set in the underworld of Manhattan, Marked Woman tells the story of a woman who dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.
The film was a major success for Warner Brothers, and was one of Davis' most important early pictures. Davis had recently filed a lawsuit against Warners, with part of her protest being the inferior quality of scripts she was expected to play. Although she lost the lawsuit, she garnered considerable press coverage, and Marked Woman was the first script she filmed upon returning to Hollywood. She was reported to be very pleased with the script and the dramatic possibilities it afforded her. Jack Warner was said to be equally pleased by the huge public reaction in favour of Davis, which he rightly predicted would increase the appeal and profitability of her films.
Co-stars Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot met on the set of Marked Woman and were married in 1938.[1]

Background

Despite the disclaimer at the beginning of the film that asserts that the story is fictitious, Marked Woman is loosely based on the real-life crimefighting exploits of Thomas E. Dewey, a District Attorney for Manhattan who became a national celebrity in the 1930s, and two-time Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1940s, due to his fight against organized crime in New York City. Dewey indicted and convicted several prominent gangsters; his greatest achievement was the conviction of Lucky Luciano, the organized crime boss of the entire city. Dewey used the testimony of numerous call girls and madames to convict Luciano of being a pimp who ran one of the largest prostitution rings in American history. Dewey's dramatic achievements led Hollywood film studios to make several films about his exploits; Marked Woman was one of the most prominent. Humphrey Bogart's character, David Graham, is based on Dewey.
Warners purchased the rights to a Liberty series on Luciano, but was forced to make alterations in the story, such as changing the women's profession from prostitutes to "nightclub hostesses", because of censorship concerns.[1]

Plot

Mary Dwight Stauber (Bette Davis), a nightclub hostess who works for the notorious gangster Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli) briefly meets and befriends a young man (Damian O'Flynn) who confides in her that he does not have the money to repay the gambling debt he has accrued during the night. He feels that it's a game, but Mary warns him that he is in real danger. She is shocked, but not surprised to learn soon after that he has been murdered, by Vanning's henchman Charlie Delaney (Ben Welden).
Questioned by prosecutor David Graham (Humphrey Bogart), Mary and the other women refuse to implicate Vanning. They fear his retribution, and while privately detesting him are powerless to free themselves from his influence. Mary's younger sister Betty (Jane Bryan) comes to visit, and unaware of the dangerous situation she has entered, behaves recklessly against the advice of her older sister. When she is killed, Mary agrees to testify against the gangster. Beaten by his thugs, scarred and disfigured, she becomes the "marked woman" of the film's title, but rather than silencing her, it strengthens her resolve to testify. Aware that they can only be free of the gangster if they find the strength to stand against him, the other women agree to testify also.

Cast


Bette Davis as Mary.
Cast notes
  • Eduardo Ciannelli bears a physical resemblance to Lucky Luciano.[2]
  • Hymie Marks, who played the bit part of a gangster named "Joe" in the film, attracted the attention of executive producer Hal B. Wallis, who felt that he didn't look menacing enough – this despite the fact that Marks was a former gangster and henchman of Lucky Luciano, who had been specifically cast by director Lloyd Bacon because of that connection.[3][3]
  • Warners had originally cast Jane Wyman as "Florrie".[1]

Production

Marked Woman went into production on December 9, 1936[4] at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank[5] under the working title "The Men Behind".[1] Director Michael Curtiz stood in for Lloyd Bacon while Bacon was on his honeymoon.[1]
When Davis was made-up for the scene in the hospital room, she was unhappy with the minimal bandaging that had been used, so on her lunch break she drove to her personal doctor, described the injuries that the script called her character to have, and had him bandage her accordingly. When she returned to the studio, a guard at the gate saw her bandages and called executive producer Hal B. Wallis to tell him that Davis had been in an accident.[3]
Warners re-released Marked Woman in 1947.[1]

Awards and honors

Bette Davis won the Venice Film Festival's Volpi Cup for Best Actress in 1937. Director Lloyd Bacon was nominated for the 1937 Mussolini Cup.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f TCM Notes
  2. ^ Allmovie Overview
  3. ^ a b c Landazuri, Margarita "Marked Woman" (TCM article)
  4. ^ TCM Overview
  5. ^ IMDB Filming locations
  6. ^ IMDB Awards

External links





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MARKED WOMAN was based on the Lucky Luciano story and Lola Lane was in that movie. Some people said that Thelma Todd was killed because she opposed his plan to take over the sidewalk café, but that story would be considered hearsay, because there is no proof of it.  The prostitution case, on the other hand, was considered to have been proven by the authorities and Luciano was sent to prison in 1936 as a result.

Lola Lane later married Roland West and inherited the sidewalk café after his death in 1952.  In MARKED WOMAN, she played one of the "hostesses" whose operations were taken over by the Luciano character, played by Eduardo Ciannelli.

Mayo Methot played another. She had been in CORSAIR with Thelma Todd, a Roland West production which had been her first major speaking role in a motion picture, and in MARKED WOMAN she met Humphrey Bogart, who she would later marry.

Occasionally we come across references to Mussolini in connection with the movies of this period. Here we see that the director was nominated for the 1937 Mussolini Cup, an Italian award named after their leader. Mussolini had an interest in motion pictures and wanted Hal Roach to make movies in Italy. Lucky Luciano has also been mentioned in connection with Mussolini because Mussolini had cracked down on the mafia in Italy, with the result that Luciano was supposed to have contributed to the war effort to get even.



  .


Bette Davis, Jane Bryan, Isabel Jewell, Lola Lane, Rosalind Marquis, and Mayo Methot in Marked Woman (1937)




 Eduardo Ciannelli and Bette Davis




Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart




Bette Davis, Isabel Jewell, Lola Lane, Rosalind Marquis, and Mayo Methot






Lucky Luciano










Bette Davis
http://www.bettedavis.com/

CORSAIR:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/11/corsair.html

Hollywood And the Underworld:
https://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2018/09/hollywood-and-underworld_9.html

Hollywood And the Axis Powers:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/07/hollywood-and-axis-powers.html

Lola Lane
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0485439/

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/04/lola-lane-and-lois-lane.html


MARKED WOMAN
http://bogiefilmblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/marked-woman-1937/

Mayo Methot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayo_Methot

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0582551

Benito Mussolini:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini
/
Roland West:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/02/roland-west.html




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Friday, June 12, 2015

BORDERTOWN








The story in movie BORDERTOWN involved murder by carbon monoxide and had Margaret Lindsay in the cast. Thelma Todd died of carbon monoxide poisoning after this movie came out and Margaret Lindsay was also one of the last people to see her alive.


Bordertown (1935 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   
Bordertown
Bordertownmp.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byArchie Mayo
Produced byJack L. Warner
Hal B. Wallis
Written byLaird Doyle
Wallace Smith
StarringPaul Muni
Bette Davis
Music byBernhard Kaun
CinematographyTony Gaudio
Editing byThomas Richards
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
  • January 23, 1935 (1935-01-23)
Running time90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Bordertown is a 1935 American drama film directed by Archie Mayo. The screenplay by Laird Doyle and Wallace Smith is based on Robert Lord's adaptation of the 1934 novel Border Town by Carroll Graham. Although the films They Drive by Night from 1940, and Blowing Wild from 1953, are not specifically remakes of Bordertown, they include many of its plot elements and similar scenes.

Plot

After graduating from Pacific Night Law School in Los Angeles, feisty and ambitious Mexican American Johnny Ramirez loses his first court case because he is ill-prepared. His poor, Hispanic client's truck was destroyed by careless debutante Dale Elwell. Johnny is harassed by the opposing attorney, uppercrust Brook Manville, who is defending his lover, Elwell. Johnny reacts, losing his temper and the case. Disbarred for his actions, he journeys to a small town south of the border and finds work as a bouncer, in a seedy casino owned by Charlie Roark. Johnny helps transform the dive into a first-class nightclub called the Silver Slipper that attracts an upscale crowd, and Charlie makes him a partner to reward him for his efforts.
Charlie's lonely, unhappily married wife Marie makes a play for Johnny, who resists her advances. Certain Johnny has shunned her simply because she is married, she locks her inebriated husband in the garage and leaves the car running, asphyxiating him.
Dale Elwell and her society friends, including Brook Manville, visit the club and Johnny becomes infatuated with her. A jealous Marie accuses Johnny of murdering Charlie, but when called to testify at his trial, she collapses on the witness stand, having become insane. Johnny returns to Los Angeles and proposes to Dale, who contemptuously rejects him, citing the dramatic differences in their racial and economic backgrounds. Johnny decides to sell the Silver Slipper, donate the proceeds to a law school, and settle in Los Angeles among his own people.

Production

Bordertown was one of the first films to come under the close scrutiny of the Hays Office, which finally was enforcing the Motion Picture Production Code introduced in 1930. In the original script, Johnny Ramirez was disbarred for committing murder and had an affair with Marie Roark, two plot elements that had to be revised before the screenplay was approved.[1]
Leading man Paul Muni wanted either Carole Lombard or Lupe Vélez as his co-star, but after hearing the positive feedback his contract player Bette Davis was receiving for her performance in Of Human Bondage, which was in production at RKO, studio head Jack L. Warner decided to cast her in the role of Marie Roark.[1] "The part of Marie was an excellent acting part - a step in the direction of where I wanted my career to go", Davis later recalled. "I wanted to be known as an actress, not necessarily a star, although that would be the frosting on the cake if it should ever come about."[2]
After murdering her husband, Marie undergoes a gradual mental deterioration, culminating in a collapse in the courtroom. Director Archie Mayo expected Davis to deliver a histrionic performance, but the actress, whose own sister suffered from a mental disorder, insisted a subtle portrayal of the breakdown was more appropriate and accurate.[2][3] "When I firmly and sincerely believed I should play my role a certain way, I wasn't afraid to argue about it with my director", Davis remembered. "They wanted me to be a raving lunatic in the courtroom scene, pull my hair, and scream. That is the only way insanity had been played on the screen up to that time." After the film was completed, studio executives felt viewers would fail to realize Marie was insane and insisted Davis re-shoot the scene. She agreed she would do so only if preview audiences did not realize the character had descended into madness. "I was never asked to do a retake", Davis recalled.

Cast

Critical reception

Andre Sennwald of the New York Times called the film "a raw and biting melodrama dealing with the bitterly realistic emotions" that permits Paul Muni "to scrape the nerves in the kind of taut and snarling role at which he is so consummately satisfying" and to display "his great talent for conviction and theatrical honesty." He cited the "fine and uncommonly honest performance" of Bette Davis, who he found to be "effective and touching in pathological mazes which the cinema rarely dares to examine." While he thought Johnny's "feeble confessional at the conclusion of Bordertown is an unconvincing and inconsistent denouement for the career of such a vigorous rebel against the established order", he felt the film "otherwise manages to impale the spectator's attention before the picturesque and somewhat hysterical materials of the story."[4]

References

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Bordertown at Turner Classic Movies
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Stine, Whitney, and Davis, Bette, Mother Goddam: The Story of the Career of Bette Davis. New York: Hawthorn Books 1974. ISBN 0-8015-5184-6, pp. 55-57
  3. Jump up ^ Higham, Charles, The Life of Bette Davis. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company 1981. ISBN 0-02-551500-4, p. 69
  4. Jump up ^ New York Times review

External links





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Some people wondered if the death of Thelma Todd could have been a "copycat murder" inspired by this movie. By coincidence, Margaret Lindsay was also at the Trocadero on the night of Thelma's last party. Lindsay was going with Pat DiCicco, who was Thelma's ex-husband. DiCicco had asked for an invitation, and, while he came to the Trocadero, he remained away from table at which Thelma sat with the Lupinos.

Some elements from this story were later reused in the 1940 movie THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, which had Ida Lupino in place of Bette Davis. Ida Lupino was also one of the last people to see Thelma Todd alive, having been present at the party her father threw for Thelma Todd.


Paul Muni and Bette Davis in a scene from the movie.




Paul Muni, Margaret Lindsay, and Bette Davis on a lobby card for BORDERTOWN.



Paul Muni, Bette Davis and Margaret Lindsay on a lobby card for BORDERTOWN.

 
 
 
 
Paul Muni and Bette Davis on a poster.






The title sequence from BORDERTOWN:






Bette Davis:
http://www.bettedavis.com/


Margaret Lindsay:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Lindsay

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19351221&id=ZrUVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FA4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6573,4010765&hl=en


Ida Lupino:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/05/ida-lupino.html












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Thursday, June 11, 2015

Movie Star Lips




The lips of a number of stars of the thirties, including Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak, Wini Shaw, Glenda Farrell, Dolores Del Rio, Veree Teasdale, Marion Davies, Jean Muir, Josephine Hutchinson, Olivia DeHaviland, Anita Louise, Patricia Ellis, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Margaret Lindsay, and Kay Francis.









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Thursday, March 26, 2015

SILVER SCREEN October 1932






The October 1932 issue of SILVER SCREEN has Marlene Dietrich on the cover.

 
 
On the left are Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, and on the right is Thelma Todd.

Thelma Todd got a lot of publicity out of SPEAK EASILY.
 

Bette Davis was from Massachusetts like Thelma Todd; they also both seem to have been into numerology. A number of movie stars were said to have been involved in the occult.

 
Left, silent star Douglas Fairbanks in one of his talkies.  Right, Joan Bennett and Claudette Colbert early in their careers.

Jimmy Durante was also in the cast of THE PHANTOM PRESIDENT. 
 
 
The Our Gang kids ride a horse. Another time they built their own fire engine. 

On the lower left is an item about Harpo Marx that is related to HORSEFEATHERS.
 




                                                                That's all, folks!






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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Claudia Dell





Although Claudia Dell was said to have committed suicide because her movie career faltered, she did no such thing.

Claudia Dell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
        
Claudia Dell
Claudia Dell.jpg
BornClaudia Dell Smith
(1910-01-10)January 10, 1910
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
DiedSeptember 5, 1977(1977-09-05) (aged 67)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm, stage actress
Spouse(s)1st ?
Edward Silton (1934-1947) (divorced)
Daniel Emmett (1947-?)[1]
Claudia Dell (January 10, 1910 – September 5, 1977) was an American showgirl and actress of the stage and Hollywood motion pictures. Her birth name was Claudia Dell Smith. She was born in San Antonio, Texas, on January 10, 1910. She attended school in San Antonio and Mexico. Dell was blonde and blue-eyed, with a porcelain face. Her height was 5'5". She was said to have been the model for the Columbia Pictures logo.[2]

Early career

Dell's aunt Mary Dell was an actress in vaudeville. Her niece desired to go on the stage from an early age. Claudia's first experience as an entertainer was playing her violin for soldiers at Kelly Field during World War I. She visited New York with Mary at age 14 and yearned to remain there.
After completing her education at home, Dell returned to New York and became an understudy to Irene Delroy in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. She studied acting in New York City at the Academy and singing at the Juilliard School. Soon she was sent to London to play the lead in a musical comedy, Mary Mary. The play's run lasted one year. While in England, scouts from Warner Brothers noticed her and asked her to come to Hollywood. She returned to New York along with her aunt following a tour of southern Europe. Claudia became homesick, rejected leads offered her in two stage productions and moved to Los Angeles, California, where her family was living.

Hollywood

Dell made her screen debut following an interlude of three months after coming west. She was given a contract by Warner Bros. to star in a number of musical pictures. She played the title role in a lavish Technicolor musical film, Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930). Her next role was in another important musical, co-starring with Al Jolson in Big Boy (1930). Unfortunately, late in 1930, due to the beginning of the Great Depression, the public had grown weary of musicals. Warner Brothers, however, had already begun to film two other musicals (which would be released in 1931) in which Dell was given a leading role. The first of these was another lavish Technicolor production entitled Fifty Million Frenchmen. In the second film, Sit Tight (1931), she played the love interest of Paul Gregory, another musical star. Ironically, both pictures had their musical sequences cut before release. Warner Bros. dropped her option in 1931 (along with most of its other musical stars) and Claudia (having become associated with musicals) was relegated to Poverty Row productions.
On December 29, 1934, Dell married theatrical agent Edward Silton. She gave her age as 22. The couple honeymooned at the Palm Springs, California, desert resort and also in Europe. They were later divorced.

B-movies and radio

She bounced back at Universal Pictures in the first of four westerns, Destry Rides Again (1932), which starred cowboy actor Tom Mix. In 1935 she played the heroine in a very low-quality serial, The Lost City. Other 1930s films in which she appeared included Algiers (1938) and We're in the Legion Now! (1936). By the close of the 1930s she was reduced to playing minor roles, and the 1940s continued her career decline. She was cast in low-budget productions like Black Magic (1944), a Charlie Chan series movie. Also in 1944 she was in "Meeting At Midnight", another Charlie Chan series movie. She had a part in Call of the Jungle (1944), a jungle "adventure" from Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures that showcased stripper Ann Corio.
After her film career faltered, Dell was under contract for five years with RKO Howard Hughes organization and did many Lux Radio Theater programs for Cecil B. DeMille and Orson Welles. She had her own television show in New York, Leave It to the Girls.

Modeling instructor

She worked as a receptionist in a beauty shop in Hollywood and made appearances in early television dramas. In 1973 she became the student director of the John Robert Powers School of Charm and Modeling in Sherman Oaks, California, and Woodland Hills Promenade. Previously, she had worked 12 years as director of the John Robert Powers School in Beverly Hills, California. Claudia commented about her new position, "There is no better work than being able to be associated with a school which helps mold young people for the future and one that gives a whole new dimension to a woman's life."
In the early 1970s Dell had a syndicated radio program that aired in the Midwest called The Claudia Dell Show. She wrote a syndicated column for eight years and in 1973 completed a collaboration with English author Helga Moray. This was for a television script which was considered for the Theater of the Week program.
Claudia Dell died in Los Angeles in 1977.

References

  1. Jump up ^ http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/528/Claudia%2BDell/index.html
  2. Jump up ^ p.172 Maltin, Leonard & Bann, Richard W. Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals Crown Publishers, 1977
  • Port Arthur, Texas News, Texas Girl Is Latest Find, Sunday, September 21, 1930, Page Nine.
  • Port Arthur News, Claudia Dell Weds Theatrical Agent, Sunday, December 30, 1934, Page 2.
  • Van Nuys, California The News, Today's Personality Is...Claudia Dell, Thursday, November 15, 1973. Page 5-C.

External links


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Today, Claudia Dell is probably best remembered as the heroine of the 1935 serial THE LOST CITY.



She is also remembered as one of the girls who killed themselves when their movie careers fizzled, even though that story is false. Bette Davis seems to have been the source of that story.


Reblogged from http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/528/Claudia+Dell/index.html

10 November 63sues actress Bette Davis and unnamed persons for $1.5 million. She says she was falsely reported to have died by suicide in Miss Davis' recent autobiography The Lonely Life. She reports that contrary to the book, she is the lively director of a modeling school in Beverly Hills.
27 November 63Bette Davis insists she just made up the name Claudia Dell referred to in her book and never knew such a person existed. "My attorney later told me there is a real Claudia Dell, so heaven knows what will happen."
 

Bette Davis also seems to have been the source of the story that the Claudia Dell was the model for the Columbia logo ( a depiction of the statue of liberty ).




The logo for World-Wide pictures ( a woman standing behind two globes ) is Claudia Dell, although that studio went out of business during the thirties and is consequently less well known.





Claudia Dell as a Ziegfield girl.

 
 
Pirate girl. 

 
 
 
 
Halloween fun.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Claudia Dell card.

 
 
 
POSTERS









                                                                   COVER GIRL


 
 

 
 
 
Big Little Book version of THE LOST CITY
 
 
 
 
COMIC BOOK VERSION

 
 
The original serial cast was depicted in the 1942 comic book version, beginning in GREAT COMICS #3 and continued in CHOICE COMICS #3.

 

The comic book version was intended to be an ongoing series, but it came to an end after only two episodes.



Claudia Dell as the living trademark of World Wide Pictures.




Watch THE WOMAN CONDEMNED with Claudia Dell and Lola Lane




Watch THE LOST CITY with Kane Richmond and Claudia Dell




Columbia logo:
http://www.reelclassics.com/Studios/Columbia/columbia-article-logo.htm

Claudia Dell:
http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/528/Claudia+Dell/index.html

THE LOST CITY ( Comic book version ):
http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=30023


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