Veronica Lake

Decay is an obvious reason why films are lost. Amnesia makes bigger damage. Yesterday's superstars are sometimes today's unknown.
In 1997 in Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential, Kim Basinger played the part of a prostitute made up to look like Veronica Lake to please her customers. An homage to the popularity of one of the most famous Paramount stars of the 40s who, comparatively, fell into oblivion today.

Veronica Lake was short (4' 11½), had a crooked smile betraying  her thoughts, but let's face it, like Jennifer Aniston when she first started, a big part of her fame is due to her hair.
Her "Peek-a-boo bang" which used to cover her right eye, so that publicists spread the rumor that she only had one, was her trademark.

Her first important role was in I Wanted Wings. Then she made one of Preston Surges' masterpieces Sullivan's Travels. And by 1942, she had top billing in This Gun For Hire, also starring the man she would be teaming up with in several movies, Alan Ladd.

During that year, she became one of the most famous stars in the world and made the cover of countless magazines. As expected, she launched a trend in hairdos. In the film The Major and the Minor starring Ginger Rogers, she does not appear in person but this short scene conveys the impression her hair had on women back then.

What works for the fans works just as well for the stars: some of them like Lizabeth Scott copied her style. Foreign stars like the French Madeleine Sologne also adopted her hairdo.
She came back with Alan Ladd in the remake The Glass Key. Then Veronica made one of her most famous films: I Married a Witch. This film capitalizes on the mysterious aura of the star, but it also presents an opportunity for her to show her talent as an actress, something she seldom could do. This story about a sexy blond witch falling in love with a mortal in spite of her father's commands is of course the main inspiration for famous TV series Bewitched.

Unfortunately the hair thing got so big that the defense department of war asked her if she would appear in a film saying that she would adopt her grand mother's hair style for the time of the war. Why? Because factory workers across the country were getting their long hair caught in machines, causing serious accidents. She eventually even cut her hair.

Some women sport it well. Veronica didn't.

The loss of her trademark, added to her financial and marital troubles, and her bad reputation on the set (apparently booze did not agree with her and her attitude could get pretty bad) made her loose both her popularity and her contract at Paramount.

She appears less and less frequently on the screen and by the 50s, she is all but gone. She's been resurfacing on video for a while now, but back in 1960, everyone had forgotten her and she ended up as a barmaid. Here she is in front of the gates of her old studio:

After a couple of low budget films brought on by the interest a little press coverage gave her, she died of hepatitis.

But her influence is still strong today and many models try and imitate her famous hair. Girls, if you wish to try, follow the advice of a professional.

I leave you with my favorite scene from This Gun For Hire where Veronica appears (literally) in an original concept: a singing magician. She is dubbed by talented Martha Mears. Maybe this is the part that got her the witch role. Anyway, Veronica Lake will always appear magical to me.

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That's all for today folks!

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Snow White (1916)

I was able to see this film by purchasing a DVD of documentary called Once Upon a Time Walt Disney, At the sources of the Art of the Disney Studios by Samuel Doux. This was available at the Grand Palais of Paris where a unique exhibit of Disney Art and European Art that inspired the Disney artists took place in 2006.
It is my pride to own some original artwork from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Disney produced this first animated color feature in part because the first feature film he saw as a child was precisely Snow White.

Until very recently, it was believed lost. Someone found it in a Dutch archive. It was later restored with the help of the play it originated from, translations of the Dutch intertitles, and was tinted. Apparently, according to a contemporary review, a sequence where a stork delivers Snow White to her mother is still missing. In the special features of the DVD I mentioned was included this silent 1916 feature starring Marguerite Clark and Dorothy Cumming. It's easy to see that Disney really drew inspiration from this film by just looking at these pictures:

Should you want to purchase it yourself, you'd have a better chance of finding the Treasures of American Film Archive DVD.
Find out more about Marguerite Clark and the film on the excellent Snow White blog : Filmic Light.

That's all for today folks!

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Stage Fright

Stage Fright is a grossly underrated film, disavowed by its very own maker Alfred Hitchcock. It seems that the main reason is an opening flashback which reveals the audience events that never happened, leaving the viewer allegedly betrayed about the plot. There is, of course, truth to this and it may be considered that the director did not play by the rules but I honestly feel that this one little fault cannot possibly erase all the other qualities of the film.

First of all, the cast. Although Hitchcock complained about Jane Wyman's attitude on the set, she seems very adequate. His main problem was that the actress couldn't cope with the difference of visual treatment between her and Dietrich's character that the script called for. So she tried to improve her appearance in every way she could. In any case, no offense to Miss Wyman, but she could sit on a throne in a gold lamé dress and she would still look as plain as can be next to Marlene Dietrich in drags! Pretty accurate casting so far, then...

Her beau must have a charm that is not readily apparent to me since Michael Wilding was Elizabeth Taylor's husband! Although I don't find him extraordinarily handsome, he's a very competent actor and you can see his talent in The Egyptian that I mentioned earlier and in another Hitchcock rarity: Under Capricorn.

Richard Todd, now you're talking! I can see why the lead is supposed to be initially more attracted to him! He also appeared in Disney's The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men as the man in tights and as the queen's alleged lover in Marie Antoinette, Shadow Of The Guillotine. But his looks and talent can't make up for the fact that he was written as a weak character. And Hitchcock films where the wrong man turns out guilty aren't among his best. Oops! Spoiler right there! Well, no matter.

There are a few delightful character actors among which Eve's father Alastair Sim (Scrooge) whose interaction with her mother is truly funny. And more importantly, Joyce Grenfell and her unforgettable face as a sweet lady selling guns at the fair to shoot the "lovely ducks!". Look out for Patricia Hitchcock, the director's daughter in a cameo as "Chubby"!

However, the film would be a shadow of itself if it weren't for the divine Marlene Dietrich. The film IS her. And this marks her only collaboration with the director.

Hitchcock is of the breed of people who cannot hide their feelings towards a person, not even on-screen. And Marlene Dietrich, although she has far less screen time than Jane Wyman obviously inspired the director on a level than Wyman cannot even touch. Her entrance alone is simply magnificent. Although we have seen her before in the famous flashback, we feel we discover her in her second scene, along with Jane Wyman who enters the room with an obvious expectation. The camera then shifts to her moving point of view as the music climbs an octave and moves slowly towards Marlene fully dressed in black, surrounded with servants, trying on mourning veils in front of a mirror. The image stays with you throughout the film. If this isn't Star quality, I don't know what is!

The music by Leighton Lucas is surprisingly good and has never been released on CD (albeit a re-orchestrated medley) and the soundtrack is probably lost although I found several interesting outtakes which may indicate it is still in a vault somewhere.
First of all, a complete version of Dietrich's song "Love Is Lyrical" is still extant. Since the song was composed and recorded especially for a small introduction sequence by Marlene's friend Mischa Spoliansky, it was very short to begin with, but this recording is longer and cleaner (without the sound effects and dialog) than in the film.

And of course, the full version of Cole Porter's song "The Laziest Gal In Town", which had been sung before (I'm surprised Laurent Bouzereau let Richard Franklin claim that it was an original in the DVD documentary) It is the highlight of the film though, and was likely cut by request of censor Joseph Breen because Marlene would throw her leg up in the air a little two suggestively. So an alternate long shot of her walking towards the left of the stage was inserted to cover up the cut.

The French apparently had to work with some sort of work print for the dubbed version at the time and among the differences is this sequence in its entirety (although other scenes are reduced for no reason like the scene where Eve dresses herself as a maid). Here is the full number:

I was very surprised this wasn't offered in the DVD edition but I suppose the quality available wasn't sufficient for the format.

Another outtake that I found in the French print is a longer dialog sequence in the bar between Nellie and the patrons while Eve and Smith eavesdrop. The maid shows off in front of the company. Of course the sequence is dubbed in French. I provided subtitles.

Last but not least, in the last minutes of the film, the music cues were apparently changed. The chase sequence was scored but ultimately played without music in the final print and the end credit music was drastically reduced. Here is the original sequence as it is presented in the French copy (major spoiler here!):

I do not know if these outtakes were included in any English-speaking country but it remains a possibility.

That's all for today folks!

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The Avengers

You think only silent movies from before the thirties were lost? Each new medium has to find its way and television wasn't always the HD 3D multichannel marvel that it is today. Once upon a time it was a one channel black and white blurry wonder.
As a matter of fact, no doubt viewers were more starry-eyed than we are today, no matter what the screen displayed. You may know that originally, programs were mostly broadcast live, with no way to tape them. What you may not know is that some of the shows you still know today and may have bought on DVD started in these conditions. Consequently, early episodes of well known series are lost.

After a while a primitive way to record these shows was designed : filming a video screen onto 16 mm film. This device called "kinescope" was mostly used to be able to air a New York show on the west coast. Except for this purpose, the potential of keeping a record of these shows was not readily apparent to contemporary producers, just like it had been at the time of early cinema.
Betty White tells in her autobiography that her husband Allen Ludden jokingly referred to her as a star of the silent days of television.

The three first seasons of The Avengers were shot on video and wiped. We are accustomed to see the reruns of season 4 to 7, which were shot on film. Season 2 to 3 were kept on 16 mm film with the kinescope process.

What about season 1? Well... Believe or not it is almost entirely lost. 2 episodes (Episode 6, Girl on Trapeze and episode 15 The Frighteners), the first of which doesn't even feature Patrick Macnee, were rescued from oblivion over time. The first episode was also partially recovered. 22 minutes survive.

If I asked you to whistle the theme song, you'd probably think of that one:

But the original theme song was that one:

For soundtrack enthusiasts, the good news is, after many CDs featuring the music of Laurie Johnson (which admittedly composed the music for the bulk of the episodes), the score for the few last season episodes composed by Howard Blake is finally available from Silva Screen. Until recently the master tapes were believed lost. Someone must have sent them a note: "We're needed".
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That's all for today folks!

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The White Shadow

My blood boiled when I read this newsflash:

Early Alfred Hitchcock effort discovered

Could it be that The Mountain Eagle was discovered after all these years? I had posted previously about this film. Well, no, but the discovery is still a fantastic one: in New Zealand, they found 3 reels (out of 6), from a 1923 film directed by Graham Cutts called The White Shadow. And this is one of the first films on which Alfred Hitchcock started to accumulate jobs before he went on to direct.

In fact, before he became the genius we all know, Hitchcock started designing intertitles (which were inserted in-between scenes to convey dialog or explain the action), then little by little, he started to take on more and more important jobs and almost became a one-man show, very often on films directed by Graham Cutts.

On this movie, he did the writing, the editing, the sets, and was the assistant director. No wonder he learned all the facets of cinema. No wonder either that, with such an over-efficient assistant, the official director grew annoyed at young Alfred.

Hitchcock was proposed a director's chair by his producer. The rest is History. As for his former jealous boss, he went on with his illustrious career (Graham who?).

That's all for today folks!

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