Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney are trapped behind “The Iron Curtain”

The Iron Curtain (1948) is an American espionage thriller directed by William A. Wellman and starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. It is based on the memoirs of Igor Gouzenko, a Russian code deciphering expert working at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada, in 1943. The supporting cast includes June Havoc, Berry Kroeger, and Edna Best. This was the first about the Cold War.

Dana Andrews plays Igor Gouzenko, an expert at deciphering codes, who arrives at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa to help set up a base of operations to spy on the Canadian government. At first, Igor is loyal to the Russian cause, but once his pregnant wife, Anna (Tierney), arrives, he begins to have second thoughts.

Is capitalism as evil as he has been taught? Does Russia deserve his loyalty?

Once it is decided that Igor is to be sent back to Moscow, he faces a difficult decision.

 

Gene Tierney and Dana Adrews

William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) was an American film director. He started his directorial career in silent films. Wellman directed Wings (1927), which was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony. Wellman directed two classic films released in 1937: Nothing Sacred and A Star is Born. Other important films directed by Wellman include Beau Geste (1939), Roxie Hart (1942), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Yellow Sky (1948), Battleground (1949), and The High and the Mighty (1954).

Dana Andrews (1909 – 1992) was an American stage and film actor. During the 1940s, Andrews was a major star and leading man in Laura (1944), State Fair (1945), A Walk in the Sun (1945), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Canyon Passage (1946), Boomerang! (1947), and Daisy Kenyon (1947) co-starring Joan Crawford and Henry Fonda. During the 1950s, film roles were harder to come by, but he had success in Elephant Walk (1954) co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Finch, While the City Sleeps (1956), and Curse of the Demon (1957). In 1958, he replaced Henry Fonda on Broadway in Two for the Seesaw.

Gene Tierney (1920 – 1991) was an American actress. Tierney got her start on the stage where she played the ingenue lead in The Male Animal. Tierney made her movie debut in 1940 in The Return of Frank James starring Henry Fonda. She worked steadily in the early 1940s but established herself as a top box office star with Laura (1944). She starred in Leave Her to Heaven the next year, which was the biggest hit of the year and Fox’s biggest moneymaking success until The Robe (1953). Other successes for Tierney include Dragonwyck (1946), The Razor’s Edge (1946), and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947).

 

The Iron Curtain trivia

• The film was shot on location in Ottawa.
• Soviet sympathizers tried to disrupt location shooting, but were unsuccessful.
• The fourth of five movies Andrews and Tierney made together.
• The film was the number one movie in America during its first two weeks of release and was a commercial success.
• New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther said the film would negatively impact U.S. Soviet relations. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck responded to Crowther’s review in a much-publicized letter to the critic.
• Twentieth Century Fox considered The Iron Curtain to be one of their biggest films of the year; the film’s score was played with the studio logo instead of the Fox fanfare.

 

Click HERE to watch the movie on YouTube.

Click HERE to join the online discussion on June 2, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an email with an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. Considering this film was made at a time when the Cold War was just beginning, does it hold up as entertainment?
2. Did the film’s documentary-style narrative appeal to you?
3. Do you think the film was realistic in its portrayal of the Russian spies?
4. Did the on-location filming at to the film’s realism?
5. How do you think the film was received by audiences in 1948?
6. Did the film remind you of other movies you’ve seen?
7. Forgetting that the film is based on a true story, does it work as a political thriller?
8. The film was criticized for using music from Russian composers. What did you think of the film score? Does it work?

Henry Fonda is “Young Mr. Lincoln”

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) is an American biographical film directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. It was produced by 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck and Kenneth Macgowan. The film was photographed by long-time Ford cinematographer Bert Glennon. The supporting cast includes Alice Brady (My Man Godfrey), Marjorie Weaver, Donald Meek (Stagecoach), Ward Bond, and Milburn Stone (Gunsmoke). The screenplay was written by Lamar Totti; he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original screenplay.

Henry Fonda as Abraham Lincoln

The film takes place in 1832 and is a fictionalization of the early career of Abraham Lincoln during his days in New Salem, Illinois. During Independence Day festivities, a man named Skrub White (Fed Kohler Jr.) has a scuffle with two brothers, Matt and Adam Clay (Richard Cromwell and Eddie Quillan). When White pulls a gun on the brothers, he is stabbed and killed. Neither brother will accuse the other and both are put on trial for murder. Lincoln defends the brothers matching wits with the experienced prosecutor John Felder (Meek).

The case against the brothers rests with the eye-witness testimony of John Palmer Cass. Will Lincoln be able to challenge his testimony? Will the brothers be hanged for murder?

Young Mr. Lincoln trivia:

• Henry Fonda was reluctant to play Lincoln, equating playing the Great Emancipator to playing Jesus Christ.
• Fonda wore special boots to make him appear taller.
• Makeup for Fonda was based on photographs of Lincoln at about age 45.
• This was Alice Brady’s last film; she died of cancer several months after the film wrapped.
• Lincoln used an almanac to dispute eyewitness testimony in a real case.

To watch the movie on YouTube click the link below.

Why watch this film?

• This was the first collaboration between John Ford and Henry Fonda, a collaboration that produced six films including The Grapes of Wrath (1940).
• The myth surrounding Abraham Lincoln is partly due to this fictionalization of his life.
• Henry Fonda gives one of his greatest characterizations on film.
• The production including the cinematography is first-rate.

Questions for discussion:

1. What did you think of Henry Fonda as Lincoln? Was he believable in the role?
2. Were you bothered by the fact that some liberty was taken with the actual facts of Lincoln’s life?
3. The film featured a strong supporting cast including Ward Bond, a Ford Stock Company regular. Did any of the supporting cast stand out to you?
4. Did anything surprise you (not including the loose history) about the film?

To join on on Zoom for a discussion of this film on August 2, 2021, 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here.

Once you RSVP, you’ll receive an invitation and links to the discussion on Zoom.

Honest Abe or Henry Fonda?

Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara head the cast in “How Green Was My Valley”

How Green Was My Valley (1941) was an American drama film directed by John Ford and starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp, Anna Lee, and Roddy McDowall. It is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn. The novel was published in 1939 and 20th Century-Fox bought the film rights and had originally planned to film in color on location in Wales. Studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck had envisioned an epic like Gone with the Wind, but World War II made that impossible.

The film is told in flashback as Huw Morgan, the McDowall character, now a grown man is leaving the beloved valley home of his youth. He tells the story of a time before the coal dust from the mines hadn't blackened his village and the surrounding area and a time when his father and all his brothers worked in the coal mines. In the beginning, working in the mine was decent, honorable work that the men were proud of. Eventually, things changed and the men decide to unionize with the help and approval of the new minister Mr. Gruffydd (Pidgeon). This disturbs miner Gwilym Morgan (Crisp) and for a time alienates him from his five sons who championed the union. Angharad Morgan (O’Hara) longs for the love of Mr. Gruffydd but will his devotion to the church get in the way of their relationship?

John Ford (1894 - 1973) was an American film director who won a record four Academy Awards, more than any other director in history. He is perhaps best known for his western films, but ironically the Academy Awards he won weren’t for his classic westerns like Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956). Ford got his start in silent film, first as an actor, then as a writer-director. He directed many silent films including the epic The Iron Horse (1924). Once the sound era arrived, Ford was one of its first pioneers. He hit his stride in the 1930s with films like The Lost Patrol (1934), The Whole Town’s Talking (1935), and The Informer (1935), which brought Ford his first Academy Award for Best Director. Other popular Ford films include The Hurricane (1937), Wee Willie Winkie (1937), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) the last three all starring Henry Fonda. He also had a long collaborative relationship with John Wayne. Wayne starred in many classic Ford films including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

Maureen O’Hara and Walter Pidgeon

Walter Pidgeon (1897 - 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. During his long career, he was nominated for two Best Actor Academy Awards—Mrs. Miniver (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). Pidgeon worked on the stage before he entered films, making his Broadway debut in 1925. When he starting working in film, he starred in musicals. Once the interest in musicals declined, he began making a name for himself in dramas and comedies during the mid-1930s. His lead role in How Green Was My Valley restored his popularity. He was first paired with Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust (1941). They made a total of eight films together, making them one of the screen’s most popular acting teams. Some of their other films include Mrs. Miniver (1942), Mrs. Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), and That Forsyte Woman (1949). Pidgeon has success on his own in films like Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and the science fiction classic, Forbidden Planet (1956). One of Pidgeon’s last film roles was Funny Girl (1968) where he portrayed Florenz Ziegfeld.

Maureen O’Hara (1920 - 2015) was an Irish-American actress and singer. In her native Ireland, O’Hara trained with the Abbey Theatre at age 14. She screen-tested for the role of Mary Yellan in Jamaica Inn at age 19. Director Hitchcock wasn’t impressed with O’Hara’s test but Laughton persuaded him to cast her. After finishing the film, O’Hara moved to Hollywood where she was signed to contract at RKO. In 1941 she starred in How Green Was My Valley, her first collaboration with director John Ford. She starred alongside Tyrone Power in The Black Swan (1942), The Spanish Main (1945) with Paul Henreid, and Sinbad the Sailor (1947) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. That same year she starred in the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street with John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, and a young Natalie Wood. Other popular films include The Quiet Man (1952), The Parent Trap (1961), and McLintock! (1963). 

Donald Crisp (1882 - 1974) was an English actor, producer, director, and screenwriter whose career began in the silent era into the 1960s. He played Ulysses S. Grant in D. W. Griffith’s silent epic The Birth of a Nation (1915). Crisp worked as an assistant to Griffith where he acquired the desire to be a director himself. He directed The Navigator  (1924) starring Buster Keaton and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) starring Douglas Fairbanks. Once the talkies arrived, Crisp devoted himself to acting in supporting roles in films like Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Valley of Decision (1945), and National Velvet (1944). His last film role was in Spencer’s Mountain (1963) with former film costars Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara.

Roddy McDowall (1928 - 1998) was a British-born American actor. He started his career as a baby model and then began appearing in films as a young child in England. When he came to Hollywood, he became an in-demand child actor where he appeared in dozens of films including My Friend Flicka (1943), Lassie Come Home (1943), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), and Thunderhead, Son of Flicka (1945). McDowell was able to successfully transition from child actor to adult actor appearing in lead and supporting roles in films like Midnight Lace (1960), The Longest Day (1962), Cleopatra (1963), and That Darn Cat! (1965). He may be best known as Cornelius, one of the intelligent apes in The Planet of the Apes (1968), its sequels, and short-lived TV series. McDowall also served as a producer of Overboard (1987) as well as co-starring with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

How Green Was My Valley trivia

• John Ford won his third (out of a total of four) Best Director Academy Award.
• Wind machines were set up to get Maureen O’Hara’s bridal veil to blow in the wind exactly the way Ford wanted it to.
• Roddy McDowall was in the United States only two weeks before filming. He evacuated England with his mother and sister to avoid the Blitz.
• William Wyler was the original director when the film was set to film on location in Wales.
• The film beat out Citizen Kane for the Best Picture of 1941 and was nominated for a total of 10 Academy Awards; the most nominated film of the year.
• The Fox production crew turned an 80-acre plot in Brent’s Crags, CA, into a Welsh mining town when World War II prevented them from filming in Wales.

Why watch this film?

• It’s a Best Picture winner and one of John Ford’s most popular early successes in the sound era.
• The film marked Roddy McDowall’s introduction to American movie-goers.
• Marked the first Ford-directed film that Maureen O’Hara starred in.
• The film features several great character actors including Ana Lee, Sara Allgood, Patric Knowles, Barry Fitzgerald, John Loder, and Rhys Williams.
• The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture.

The Best Picture nominees for 1941

How Green Was My Valley-20the Century-Fox

Blossoms in the Dust-MGM

Citizen Kane-RKO

Here Comes Mr. Jordan-Columbia

Hold Back the Dawn-Paramount

The Little Foxes-RKO

The Maltese Falcon-Warner Bros.

One Foot in Heaven-Warner Bros.

Sergeant York-Warner Bros.

Suspicion-RKO

Interestingly, The New York Times declared Preston Sturges’s The Lady Eve the Best Picture of the Year; it wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture by the Motion Picture Academy.

To watch the film on YouTube, please click the link below.

To join the discussion on Zoom on June 14, 2021, at 6:30 p.m., click the link here. Once you RSVP, you’ll receive an invitation and links to join the discussion.

Discussion questions

1. Did you like the film narrative (flashback narration)?
2. Maureen O’Hara was only 21 when the film was released. What did you think of her performance as the only daughter of the Morgan family?
3. What did you think of the production? Was it convincing to you as a real mining town?
4. This film helped propel Walter Pidgeon to leading man status; what did you think of his performance?
5. Why do you think Huw chose to work in the mine rather than furthering in his education?

London’s post World War II underbelly is explored in “Night and the City”

Night and the City (1950) is a film noir directed by Jules Dassin, produced by Samuel G. Engel, and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, and Googie Withers. The film was shot on location in London and released by 20th Century-Fox.

Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney

The plot centers around Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark), an American con man working the angles in London. He is always coming up with a new scheme to make himself rich. These mad pursuits have put a strain on his relationship with Mary Bristol (Gene Tierney). Mary works as a singer at a nightclub owned by Phil Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan) and his wife Helen (Googie Withers).

Harry thinks he’s found the thing that’s going to change his luck. He’s working on bringing back the sport of Greco-Roman wrestling with the help of the legendary Gregorius. This flies in the face of Gregorius’s son Kristo who controls all the wrestling (not the Greco-Roman kind) in London. To get the funding for this venture, Harry joins forces with Helen, Phil’s estranged wife who has plans of opening a club of her own. Harry manages to get money from Helen to pursue his wrestling scheme if he helps her get a liquor license for her new club. When Harry changes his wrestling plans and he needs more funds, he steals from Mary, causing more strife in their relationship.

The wrestling scheme goes south in a most tragic way and there’s a price on Harry’s head. Will he be able to escape from trouble like he’s done a million times before or will this be the final reckoning for Harry Fabian?

Widmark, Tierney, and Hugh Marlowe on location in London

Not appreciated on its initial release, Night and the City is considered a high point in the film noir movement.

Jules Dassin (1911 – 2008) was an American film director. He got work as an assistant director at RKO and then moved to M-G-M where he directed short subjects. Dassin directed the film noir classics Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), and Thieves’ Highway (1949). He was blacklisted because of his once being a member of the Communist Party so he left the United States for Europe where remained for the rest of his life. He was married to Greek film actress Melina Mercouri.

Samuel G. Engel (1904 – 1984) was a screenwriter and producer who had a long association with 20th Century-Fox. He wrote and produced My Darling Clementine (1946), Sitting Pretty (1948), The Frogmen (1951), and Daddy Long Legs (1955).

Richard Widmark (1914- 2008) had a sensational movie debut playing the crazy villain Tommy Udo in director Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death (1947). His performance won him a Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year – Actor. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Udo. Widmark was under contract to Twentieth Century-Fox where he played mostly villains. Later in his career, he started playing more heroic roles in films like Slattery’s Hurricane and Down to the Sea in Ships (both 1949).

Gene Tierney (1920 – 1991) was an American actress. Tierney got her start on the stage where she played the ingenue lead in The Male Animal. She was spotted by 20th Century-Fox Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck and he offered her a movie contract. Zanuck said that Tierney was the most beautiful woman in the movies. Tierney proved that she could carry a film not completely based on her beauty in films like Laura (1944) and Leave Her To Heaven (1945) for which she was nominated for her first and only Best Actress Academy Award. In the late 1940s, she struggled with mental illness which negatively affected her career.

Googie Withers (1917 – 2011) was an English actress who appeared on the stage and in film. She starred in many popular films in the UK and was once voted the 8th most popular British star. She married actor John McCallum in 1948. Together they appeared in British films and stage plays. She moved to Australia, where McCallum was born, in 1959 and continued acting there and in the UK. She remained active in the theatre and film until 2002.

Other cast members you may recognize are Hugh Marlowe (1911 – 1982) who is probably most famous for portraying playwright Lloyd Richards in All About Eve (1950). Other famous roles include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). Mike Mazurki (1907 – 1990) was a former wrestler, like The Strangler in Night in the City, who became a character actor, often playing strong guys who weren’t too bright. If you watched Nightmare Alley (1947), you saw him play the strong man. He has supporting roles in Murder, My Sweet (1944), and Some Like It Hot (1959).

Below is the YouTube link to the movie. Please be sure to use this link; there are many versions of this film on YouTube that are of inferior quality.




Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "Night and the City"
Time: Jun 9, 2020, 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/72400741254?pwd=UEJOVnZ4N0V1Q0IvTG1sbzR2aUxxZz09

Meeting ID: 724 0074 1254
Password: 9MXHQv

Questions for discussion:
1. How was the city of London portrayed in the film? Did it seem like another character in the movie or was the setting inconsequential?
2. Richard Widmark had played quite a few bad guys by 1949 (the year the film was in production). Was this characterization different from the other bad guys he played? Was his character totally bad or irredeemable?
3. Gene Tierney’s role was rather small, consider her star stature. Do you think she was effective as Mary? What did you think of her scenes with Hugh Marlowe?
4. Did anything about the film surprise you? Do you think the director had a message or theme that he was trying to convey?
5. What about the ending? Inevitable? A surprise?

“Nightmare Alley”—a pet project becomes a film noir classic

Nightmare Alley (1947) is a film noir directed by Edmund Goulding, produced by George Jessel and starring Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, and Helen Walker.

The plot surrounds Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, a low-level carny who aspires to greater things. He manages to get by with his good looks, charm, and quick wit. On the surface, it appears that he cares about people, but he’s just using them on his way to the top. The film narrative is a dark one, one that 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck didn’t want to make.

Power was to 20th Century-Fox what Clark Gable was to M-G-M; he was the studio’s top box office draw. Power enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942. He was released from active duty in 1946. Zanuck was anxious to get Power back on the screen. Power wanted to make Nightmare Alley, but Zanuck thought it was inappropriate for the handsome leading man. Power struck a deal: he would star in the more commercial The Razor’s Edge if he could also star in Nightmare Alley.

Zanuck relented, but his heart wasn’t in it and when the film was released and wasn’t an instant hit, he discontinued promotion and pulled the film from distribution.

Edmund Goulding (1891 – 1955) was a screenwriter and director. His directing career started during the silent era, but he moved easily to talkies directing some of the best-remembered films from Hollywood’s Golden Age including Grand Hotel (1932), Dark Victory (1939), The Old Maid (1939), and The Razor’s Edge (1946).

George “Georgie” Jessell (1898 – 1981) was an actor, singer, songwriter, vaudeville star, and film producer. If you’re a Baby Boomer, you may know him as the “Toastmaster General of the United States,” due to his numerous gigs as master of ceremonies at political and entertainment events. Jessel originated the role of The Jazz Singer on the stage.

Tyrone Power (1914 – 1958) was a major movie star as well as a star on stage and radio. He was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1930s and 1940s. Power was under exclusive contract to 20th Century-Fox where his image and film choices were carefully selected by studio head Zanuck. After the war, Power wanted to stretch his acting past romantic comedies and swashbuckler roles. Nightmare Alley was Power’s personal favorite of all his films.

Joan Blondell (1906 – 1979) was an American actress who was a top movie star during the 1930s and early 1940s. Later in her career, she became a popular character actress. Some of Blondell’s early films include The Public Enemy (1931), Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames (1934), and Stand-In (1937).

Colleen Gray (1922 – 2015) was an American actress who was under contract to 20th Century-Fox in the 1940s. She was in another famous film noir, Kiss of Death (1947) with Victor Mature and Richard Widmark. She also had a role in Red River (1948) with John Wayne. In the 1950s she started working in television, guest-starring in many popular shows of that period.

Helen Walker (1920 – 1968) was a film actress during the 1940s and 1950s. After a quick start in Hollywood, working with stars like Alan Ladd and Fred MacMurray, a car accident resulting in the death of hitchhiker, stunted her career.

Below is a link to the film on YouTube. Be sure to follow this link because it’s the best print out there. There are many versions of Nightmare Alley on YouTube that are inferior and of poor quality. You want to view the best possible version of this film.



Join us for a discussion on May 26 at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Zoom meeting links below.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "Nightmare Alley"
Time: May 26, 2020, 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77499958394?pwd=MWo0ODc5YXM2L2ozYmQ3M05TY0NFZz09

Meeting ID: 774 9995 8394
Password: 4R5L4v

Questions for discussion:
1. What did you think of Tyrone Power’s relationships with women in the film?
2. Did you have any sympathy for “Stan,” Power’s character?
3. What did you think of the women in Stan’s life?
4. Were all the women victims of Stan’s schemes?
5. What did you think of the ending? Was it realistic? Did it surprise you?

Classic Films in Context: “Pinky” 1949

In 1947, producer Darryl F. Zanuck tackled the subject of anti-semitism with Gentlemen’s Agreement. The movie, directed by Elia Kazan, won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year. In 1949, Zanuck produced the first Hollywood film to address racial prejudice. The movie was Pinky. When viewed today, it seems dated and filled with stereotypes, but for its time, it was groundbreaking cinema.

Made when Jim Crow laws ruled the South, Pinky tells the tale of a young, light-skinned black women who passes for white. Patricia “Pinky” Johnson (Jeanne Crain) leaves her home in Mississippi to be educated as a nurse up North. On the train ride to college, the ticket-taker assumes she is white and she doesn’t correct him. So begins her deception. While in nursing school, she meets a young doctor (William Lundigan) who falls in love with her. Fearing her secret will be discovered, she returns home to the grandmother who raised her. Up North she was treated with dignity and respect. Down South, she’s treated with cruelty and suspicion. Dicey Johnson (Ethel Waters), Pinky’s illiterate grandmother, worked as a laundress to send Pinky to nursing school. She hoped her granddaughter would return home and help her own people. But Pinky wants no part of this. She’s had a taste of a better life.

Jeanne Crain and Ethel Waters

Reportedly Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge campaigned for the lead. It’s hard to know if Zanuck seriously considered either of these actresses (Linda Darnell also wanted the role). One can only imagine how the audience would have reacted to seeing a black actress holding hands with a white man, let alone kissing him. There is a telling scene towards the end of the film. Pinky is in the midst of a court battle. She’s trying to hold onto property willed to her by Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore), an elderly white woman who became fond of Pinky, while in her care. In the packed courtroom, Pinky’s white boyfriend touches her. As he does this, she stops in her tracks, a look of terror on her face. Viewers today might not understand that in the deep South of the 1940s, that slight physical contact was enough to get the two of them lynched.

Zanuck was criticized for casting Crain, a white actress as Pinky, but he was convinced that audiences would identify with Crain. Zanuck hypothesized that they would experience racial prejudice through Crain’s characterization. Apparently, Zanuck was correct. In Bosley Crowther’s September 30, 1949 review of the film in The New York Times, the sometimes-acerbic critic said, “By giving a winning personality to the much-abused girl Jeanne Crain successfully channels resentment against these bitter experiences to you.”

A pivotal scene between Crain and Ethel Barrymore

Besides the film’s focus on the evils of racism, it has a universal appeal. There is an underlying theme that you need to be true to yourself, something that Pinky’s character struggles with throughout the film. She could have had an easier life if she married her doctor boyfriend, moved up North, and never revealed her background (which was his plan for the two of them). When she finally embraces the fact that she is black, she is truly free. She establishes “Miss Em’s Clinic and Nursery School,” on the property the old woman left her, thus fulfilling the dreams of her grandmother.

Pinky was a huge box office success, one of the biggest of the year in fact. All three actresses received Academy Award nominations. Crain was nominated in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category, while Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters competed against each other in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category. All three were shutout. Crain lost to Olivia de Haviland (The Heiress), Ethels Barrymore and Waters lost to Mercedes McCambridge (All The King’s Men).

Pinky, not that well remembered, even by classic movie fans, proved that a movie tackling a subject like racism could be a commercial success. The 1950s would produce a flood of “message” pictures like No Way Out (1950) and The Defiant Ones (1958), but if it weren’t for Pinky, those films might never have been made.

Jeanne Crain: More Than Just a Pretty Face

A Fan's Perspective
I’m an unabashed fan of Jeanne Crain. Today is her birthday; if she were still with us, she’d be 86 years old. Crain was a beauty for sure, but she was also a talented movie actress who doesn’t get the credit she deserves. On screen she had a unique quality. Film fans loved her. During the war years, her fan mail was second only to Betty Grable's.

A studio photograph of Jeanne Crain

Home at Twentieth Century Fox
Signed to an exclusive contract with Twentieth Century Fox in 1943, Crain went through the star making machine. Cast in small roles at first alongside bigger stars, Crain made Home in Indiana and In the Meantime Darling in 1944. A hit with the public from the start, Crain received her best critical notices that same year in Winged Victory. But bigger roles and greater fame were on the horizon.

From Second Lead to Major Star
In 1945, Crain starred as Margy Frake in the hit musical, State Fair opposite Dana Andrews. That same year she played Gene Tierney’s stepsister in the box office blockbuster, Leave Her to Heaven. The film was a triumph for Tierney, earning her a best actress nod, but Crain had the film’s final closeup, beautifully photographed in Technicolor by none other than Academy Award winning cinematographer, Leon Shamroy. Next up for Crain was another musical, Centennial Summer (1946). Fox’s answer to M-G-M’s Meet Me in St. Louis, featured original music by Jerome Kern. But it would be her next film that would make her a household name and pop culture icon.

Crain made the cover of Life in 1946.

Historic Bubble Bath
With hers the only name above the title in Margie (1946), studio chief Darryl Zanuck propelled Crain to movie superstardom. As Margie MacDuff, a shy high school student during the roaring twenties, Crain was pitch-perfect. Noting Crain’s increasing popularity, Life magazine did a feature on the young actress, calling her “…one of Hollywood’s most talented young stars.” The feature goes on about the movie magic required to film a bubble bath scene that required “…a specially designed machine which could blow 250 [bubbles] per second out of a mixture of soap and glycerine…the small army of technicians present agreed that this was a scrubbing sensational enough to make Claudette Colbert’s historic 1932 milk bath in The Sign of the Cross look like Saturday night along Tobacco Road.” They don’t write publicity pieces like that anymore!

William Holden, Crain, and Edmund Gwen starred in the classic Apartment for Peggy.

Neglected Classic
In 1948, Crain starred in Apartment for Peggy with William Holden and recent Academy Award winner, Edmund Gwen. One of the neglected post-World War II films, Apartment for Peggy explores the housing shortage veterans encountered, among other issues, upon returning home. Directed by George Seaton (Miracle on 34th Street), Crain received some of her best reviews ever. The New York Times’s Bosley Crowther had this to say about the film: “It is the true demonstration of a GI student, which William Holden plays, and, especially, the vivid characterization, by Jeanne Crain, of his wife… Anyone who doesn't see it will be missing one of the best comedies of the year.”

Crain received her one and only Best Actress nomination for Pinky.

One Amazing Year!
On a winning streak and with world-wide popularity, Crain made three successful films released in 1949: A Letter to Three Wives, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, The Fan, directed by Otto Preminger, and Pinky, directed by Elia Kazan. The latter earned Crain her one and only Best Actress Academy Award nomination, playing a light-skinned black woman passing for white. The controversial movie was the top grossing film of the year. All this success brought Crain to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the honor of immortalizing her hands and footprints in cement.

Crain's hands and footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre

 

Pregnant Pauses
Other successes followed Crain into the 1950s, but the actress was growing tired of playing teenagers when she was in real life a wife and mother. Seemingly forever pregnant, Crain missed out on several top roles Zanuck had lined up for her. Supposedly, he “punished” Crain by casting her in some B-pictures that did nothing to move her career forward. Frustrated, Crain bought out her contract and left Fox where she had been a major star for 10 years. Unfortunately, Crain’s freelance work never equaled the success she attained at her former studio. The movie business was changing and the studios were dropping major stars and hiring new (and cheaper) talent.

One of Crain's last films for Fox

Enduring Popularity
Crain’s film career pretty much ended in the early-1960s, but her popularity with movie fans continued until her death in 2003. Liked and admired by her costars as well as the public, Crain left a tremendous body of film work that is a testament to both her talent and radiant beauty.

Maverick in the Making: Otto Preminger at Twentieth Century-Fox

Otto Preminger at work

Otto Preminger (1905-1986) was born and educated in Vienna, Austria. He earned a law degree, but only tried one case. Instead of pursuing a career in law, Preminger became the assistant to Max Reinhardt, the famous European stage producer/director. In the mid-thirties, Preminger made his way to Broadway where he caught the attention of movie executive Joseph M. Schenck. Schenck offered Preminger an unusual apprenticeship at the newly formed Twentieth Century-Fox film studio.

At Fox, Preminger directed a few B-films before a dispute with Darryl F. Zanuck found Preminger back on Broadway alternating between acting and directing. During this time, Preminger also established himself as a capable actor in films. With his severe looks and Viennese accent, Preminger made a successful career for himself on stage and in film playing Nazis. Preminger leveraged this success to get back into film directing.

Preminger's most famous film during his association with Fox

With Zanuck overseas during World War II, Preminger was asked to take over the producer-director roles for the film Laura since the original director, Rouben Mamoulian, had been fired. Preminger not only rescued the film from disaster, but turned it into one of the top films of the 1940s.

"Daisy Kenyon," considered a "woman's picture" dealt with racism and child abuse, among other things.

At Fox Preminger directed many film genres: light comedies, melodramas, musicals, and costume epics. Often neglected, Preminger’s work at Fox holds up remarkably well. The themes explored during his Fox tenure (adultery, child abuse, racism, police corruption) foreshadowed his later foray as an independent producer-director, often pushing the envelope and going against the oftentimes prudish conventions and film censorship of the day.

Like Alfred Hitchcock, Preminger was a celebrity, which sometimes worked against his considerable talent as an important director in the history of American film.

"Laura" Starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews

Laura (1944) is set among New York City’s upper crust, with Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigating the murder of beautiful advertising executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). The suspects are some of her closest friends and associates including fiancé (Vincent Price), aunt (Judith Anderson), and mentor (Clifton Webb).

When production on Laura  started, no one believed that the end product would be worth seeing. From the beginning the project was problematic. Arguments between studio boss Darryl Zanuck and the original director, Rouben Mamoulian ended in Mamoulian being fired. Zanuck then assigned Otto Preminger, already the film’s producer, to be its director too. The only problem: Preminger had limited experience as a movie director. 

Under Preminger’s supervision, what began as a fairly ordinary murder mystery, turned out to be a critical and box office success. Tierney in the title role became a superstar and was forever identified with the beautiful, enigmatic Laura Hunt. Andrews, as Detective Mark McPherson, established himself as a major star and popular leading man. Webb, who hadn’t made a movie since the early days of talking pictures, earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Waldo Lydecker. Thomas M. Pryor, in his October 12, 1944 New York Times review called Laura “a top-drawer mystery.”

With some of the sharpest and wittiest dialogue ever recorded on film, Laura set the standard for 1940s film noir. Andrews’s portrayal of McPherson became a prototype for what would become known as the hard-boiled detective, influencing a generation of movie actors. Pryor from the Times put it this way: “Mr. Andrews is fast proving himself to be a solidly persuasive performer, a sort of younger-edition Spencer Tracy.”

The musical score by David Raksin is one of the most hauntingly beautiful movie themes ever recorded and will forever be associated with the enigmatic Tierney.

Classic Film of the Week: : "Three Came Home"

In 1950, Claudette Colbert starred as Agnes Newton Keith, a prisoner of war in Borneo during World War II. Keith, an American author was married to a British administrator assigned to the island located north of Australia.

Forgotten classic
Little known today, Three Came Home was an important property that was supervised by the legendary Darryl F. Zanuck. The prestigious Twentieth Century Fox production filmed the establishing shots and other scenes for the film, where possible, at their original locations.

Best-selling memoir
Keith’s best-selling memoir focuses on her years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp with her three-year-old son. After the initial Japanese invasion of Borneo, husbands and wives were separated and sent to different camps on the island. The film chronicles the trials and tribulations of the women prisoners and how they coped with hard labor, little food, and poor living conditions.

Tea with the Colonel
The man in charge of the camps is one Colonel Suga, portrayed by Sessue Hayakawa, who develops an interesting and strange relationship with Keith. Keith, born in Oak Park, IL, and educated at Berkley, had written favorably of the Asian people, something that did not go unnoticed by Suga. It turns out that Suga was educated in Washington State and was familiar with American ways and culture. The relationship doesn’t necessarily win Keith any special favors, but it helps humanize Suga’s character, which for the time, was remarkable.

All about Claudette
Colbert, known for her glamorous roles and insistence that she not be photographed on the right side of her face, put vanity aside when she decided to play Keith. For most of the film she’s dirty and in ragged clothing, with no makeup (at least none that we can tell), and she even allows the right side of her face (sometimes called the dark side of the moon by critics) to be photographed! So determined was Colbert to be true to the character that she refused a stand-in for a very physical scene with a Japanese soldier. It was during this scene that she injured her back, forcing her to drop out of the production of All About Eve. Yes, Colbert was set to play Margo Channing; she was writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz’s first choice. Reflecting on this turn of events, Colbert was reported to have “cried for two years.”

Criterion treatment, please
It’s unfortunate that more people don’t know about this film today. It’s in the public domain, so there are many copies of it available on DVD. The film quality is decent and in some versions, above average, but it would really benefit from the “Criterion treatment.” It deserves a critical commentary and film restoration.

Having said all that, Three Came Home is still compelling viewing and a showcase for Colbert’s versatility as an actress of great range and depth.

Jeanne Crain's great year

During the mid-1940s, you couldn't be more famous or beloved than Jeanne Crain. Under exclusive contract to Twentieth Century Fox since 1943, Crain was a top box office star until the early 1950s. During the war years, Crain received more fan mail than anyone on the Fox lot except Betty Grable.

Forties trifecta

In the mid-40s, Crain had hits with State Fair (1945), Centennial Summer, and Margie (both 1946). But in 1949 she really hit her stride with three critical and financial successes: A Letter to Three Wives, The Fan, and Pinky. Not only that, but she worked with three uniquely talented directors in each of those films. For A Letter to Three Wives, Crain worked with Joseph Mankiewicz; for The Fan, Crain worked with Otto Preminger; and for Pinky, Crain worked with the legendary Elia Kazan.

Julia who?

During Crain's peak in popularity, her face was on the covers of dozens of magazines. In Crain's obituary, film historian and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) host, Robert Osborne, called her the "Julia Roberts of the day."

Pregnant pauses

Crain was so popular and such a favorite of Fox studio chief, Darryl Zanuck that he slated many of the plum female roles for her. One problem for Crain was that she was seemingly always pregnant, which frustrated Zanuck to no end and resulted in Crain losing out on some great parts.

One role that Crain may have missed, because she was pregnant, was Eve Harrington in Mankiewicz's All About Eve (1950). Mankiewicz didn't think Crain could be tough enough in the role, but it would have been a brilliant move to cast Crain against type. (I mean no disrespect to Anne Baxter, who was superb.) But imagine audiences discovering that sweet Jeanne Crain was a cold, calculating villain. From Zanuck's perspective, casting Crain in that role made sense because she would have been a huge box-office draw. Pinky was the biggest-grossing film of 1949, and Bette Davis's star power was greatly diminished. With all Eve's acclaim, it wasn't as big a box office success as another Crain film released that year, Cheaper By The Dozen. With Crain in the picture, it might have been a bigger box office hit.

With Pinky, the first film from a major studio to deal with racism, Crain was nominated for her only Best Actress Academy Award. She lost out to the eventual winner, Olivia deHaviland (The Heiress), but it was an acknowledgment that Crain was more than just a pretty face.

And a pretty face she was, indeed.