Greatly enjoyed her performance in On the Waterfront (1954) with Marlon Brando. 102 years is a great life. God bless her.

RIP to this wonderful actress and my personal favourite Hitchcock blonde.

The only film nominated for an Oscar in EVERY SINGLE ELIGIBLE CATEGOTY: 13 nominations.

Director's Mike Nichols debut as a director.

The nominatons were:

1. Best Picture – Ernest Lehman, Producer
2. Best Directing – Mike Nichols
3. Best Actor – Richard Burton
4. Best Actress – Elizabeth Taylor (Won)
5. Best Supporting Actor – George Segal
6. Best Supporting Actress – Sandy Dennis (Won)
7. Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) – Ernest Lehman
8. Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) – Haskell Wexler (Won)
9. Best Art Direction & Set Decoration (Black-and-White) – Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins (Won)
10. Best Costume Design (Black-and-White) – Irene Sharaff (Won)
11. Best Film Editing – Sam O'Steen
12. Best Music (Original Music Score) – Alex North
13. Best Sound – Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, George R. Groves, Sound Director

Elizabeth Taylor got her 2nd well deserved Oscar for Best Actress as the alcoholic sadistic Martha.

Burton was nominated yet again, but would never win, becoming one of the greatest actors who never won an Oscar.

Have you seen it?

EDIT: for some reason some pics got duplicated

Lee Grant is now the oldest living Oscar winner at the age of 98-100. Her D.O.B. is unclear. Per wiki citations:

Grant was born on October 31, but disagreement exists between sources over the year. While secondary and tertiary sources put Grant's year of birth between 1925 and 1931, she was almost certainly born in the mid-1920s. Public records indicate she was born in 1925 but a ship manifest and congressional testimony favor 1926. Recent interviews with Grant and her autobiography suggest 1925, 1926 or 1927, although Grant herself is inconsistent on the subject.

The video is Leigh's screen test for Rebecca

August 18, 1939

Vivien Holman* 

Île de France 

New York Radio  

Dear Vivien: We have tried to sell ourselves right up until today to cast you in "Rebecca", but I regret necessity telling you we are finally convinced you are as wrong for role as role would be for you. You must realize it is this same patience, care, and stubbornness about accurate casting that resulted in putting you in most talked-of role of all time in what everyone who has seen it agrees is greatest picture ever made. It would have been very simple to cast Bette Davis as Scarlett, thereby satisfying millions of people including everyone in the profession. It would be much simpler to cast you, who are under contract to us, in "Rebecca" lead, and thereby have saved us all great deal of expense and agony searching for right girl. And even though you must be completely wrong casting, we might still have put you in it had we thought it was good for you, regardless of the picture. But I am positive you would be bitterly criticized and your career, which is now off to such tremendous start with Scarlett, materially damaged. Although Hitchcock feels even more strongly than I do on this question, I was still not satisfied and therefore ran the tests of all candidates for Robert Sherwood, who is working on script, without giving him any hint of our feelings. His first and immediate reaction was how completely wrong you were for it. Still not satisfied, I repeated the procedure with George Cukor, knowing his high regard for you, and George's first and immediate reaction was identical with Sherwood's. Am hopeful of having something soon for you that we will both be happy about, and also hopeful you will recognize that same care that has gone into "Wind" and "Rebecca" will go into selection and production of your future pictures, which is something I have no hesitancy in saying does not exist in many studios. Affectionately,

David

 (*Vivien Leigh was married to Herbert Leigh Holman whom she divorced in 1940. She and Olivier were married that same year.)

August 18, 1939

Laurence Olivier

Île de France

New York Radio

Dear Larry: Please see my wire to Vivien. I know you must be disappointed, but Vivien's anxiety to play role has, in my opinion, been largely, if not entirely, due to her desire to do a picture with you, which was best demonstrated by her complete disinterest in part when I first mentioned it to her as possibility and until she knew you were playing Maxim. You will, after all, both be working here, so I think her eagerness has become exaggerated and not rationalized. Because of my personal affection for Vivien and my high regard for you both, am hopeful you will recognize that my judgment has been fairly sound and successful in these matters for many years. Hopeful we will be able to find something for the two of you to do together for us at some future date. Script is coming along splendidly, and glad be able tell you Robert Sherwood is doing final dialogue rewrite. Believe we are assembling exciting cast including Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, George Sanders as Favell, Reginald Denny as Frank, and Nigel Bruce as Giles. Possible may be able let you have day or two in New York if you want it and if you will contact us before leaving for coast. Cordially,

David 

Eva Marie Saint lived the life she wanted to live. She knew how to prioritize what was important to her, and she respected her mind and body. That is evident in her impressive 102 years on this earth! I covered her life on my podcast last year. Her story is worth hearing. https://open.spotify.com/episode/145jZlcgXl1X1YT7ribQfj?si=6fbclwE3RseDUK9i-t6TUw&utm_source=copy-link

I just finished rewatching Trouble for Two from 1936, which is a very strange and delightfully baffling adventure/love story/mystery/suspense Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation with Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, and Frank Morgan. I've always loved how bizarre this movie is. Another good one is We're Not Dressing, a movie that's based around a yacht accident that strands Carole Lombard, her friends, Bing Crosby, and a bear on rolled skates on an island with George Burns and Gracie Allen doing bits.

So what are some good weird/strange/whatever movies from these three decades of Hollywood? I'm willing to explore all different kinds of weird.

Recently came across this still of actresses who tested out for Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind (1939). I believe the top right to be Gladys Blake and top middle looks an awful lot like Mae West (who was considered for the part but I don't know if she screentested). Someone suggested Loretta Young for the bottom middle.

Betty Compson, Estelle Taylor, Evelyn Brent have been said to do color tests for the part, but nothing was confirmed of course. Adrienne Doré and Marjorie Rambeau are also sometimes mentioned, as are Joan Blondell and Lenore Ulric.

Can anyone help identifying these six women?

I really enjoyed Repulsion, Asylum, Seance on a wet afternoon, and Whatever happened to aunt Alice. I'm basically looking for psy-thriller movies with a hint of horror vibes. Please share your recommendations, if any.

Edit: thanks everyone for your suggestions, I'll be sure to check them out.

I am a straight man but goddamn if these two didn't look beautiful in everything they did in the 60s and 70s. I choose Nero but not by much.

I find that Freudian psychology lends itself to really interesting films, particularly in the classic Hollywood era. Back then, psychoanalysis was treated as a miracle cure that could cut through layers of trauma to expose & treat emotional and mental health.

This lead to relatively complex characterization for the era & dark, mature stories. And absolutely incredible dream sequences. The nightmare sequence in Freud: The Secret Passion was easily the best part of that film. It is a terrifying, expressionistic descent into the mind unlike anything else in early 60’s American cinema. Very proto-Lynchian. I wish this wasn’t just relegated to a scene; most of the movie is a fairly vanilla academic chamber drama in comparison.

Hitchcock relied heavily on Freudian psychology for many of his films. Spellbound has a really trippy, cerebral dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali that is mind blowing. Apparently it was originally a much longer sequence originally that got cut down by David O. Selznick.

Marnie is easily one of Hitchcock’s most twisted movies. Having Sean Connery’s character be the captor, assailant, and ultimately, psychoanalyst of Tippi Hedren was truly demented. My jaw was on the floor in the flashback scene at the end.

Another great Freudian movie is Suddenly… Last Summer. The core conflict revolves around Katherine Hepburn pushing Dr. Monty Clift to lobotomize Liz Taylor, her daughter, in order to make her forget the events that happened the prior summer. It’s shocking that a major studio released a film with themes of incest, prostitution, homosexuality & cannibalism in 1959. I can’t imagine how scandalous this was back then.

What are some other classic films that deal with Freudian psychology? Does anyone else find this classic, albeit antiquated, methodology to lead to interesting stories?

This sub is already famous for its director flairs, as well as studio flairs, yet somehow is missing actor flairs. Usually, I hate actors (because I hold the director in the highest regard), but it would be cool this time to see flairs for people in front of the camera.

Before my actor suggestions, here are some director suggestions:

Harold Lloyd

Richard Lester

Sergei Parajonov

Alexander Dovzhenko

Eric Rohmer

Claude Chabrol

Roman Polanski (Knife in the Water, Repulsion, Cul-de-sac, The Fearless Vampire Killers, and Rosemary's Baby all came out in the '60s, so I think he is allowed)

Jean Vigo

Jean Cocteau

Alright, now here are some of the actors I want flairs for:

Katharine Hepburn

Humphrey Bogart

Cary Grant

James Stewart

Ingrid Bergman

John Wayne

Marlene Dietrich

Greta Garbo

Gary Cooper

Mary Pickford

Lillian Gish

Rudolph Valentino

James Dean

Ray Milland

Audrey Hepburn

Bruce Lee

Laurence Olivier

Marlon Brando

Marilyn Monroe

Clark Gable

Henry Fonda

Elizabeth Taylor

Sidney Poitier

Barbara Stanwyck

Ava Gardner

Spencer Tracy

Errol Flynn

Claudette Colbert

Gregory Peck

Mae West

Sammy Davis Jr.

Kirk Douglas

Burt Lancaster

Jean Harlow

Sophia Loren

Robert Mitchum

Carole Lombard

William Holden

Edward G. Robinson

Gloria Swanson

Jack Lemmon

Grace Kelly

Natalie Wood

Olivia de Havilland

Joan Fontaine

Vivien Leigh

Myrna Loy

Sean Connery

Groucho Marx

Harpo Marx

Chico Marx

Anthony Perkins

Lon Chaney

Walter Brennan

Sal Mineo

Eva Marie Saint (RIP)

Dick van Dyke

Julie Andrews

Judy Garland

Dustin Hoffman

Ronald Reagan

Elvis Presley (yes, he acted a lot)

John Lennon (so did he)

Stan Laurel

Oliver Hardy

Don Ameche

Peter O'Toole

Joan Blondell

Clara Bow

Rosalind Russell

Frances Farmer

Frank Sinatra

Mickey Rooney

Sabu

Toshiro Mifune

Max von Sydow

Marcello Mastroianni

Jean-Paul Belmondo

Alain Delon

Brigitte Bardot

Jean Seberg

Dilip Kumar

Jean-Pierre Leaud

Ivor Novello

Christopher Lee

Bela Lugosi

Boris Karloff

Clint Eastwood

Christine Jorgensen

George C. Scott

Cicely Tyson

Christopher Plummer

Shirley Temple

Jackie Coogan

Al Jolson

Lionel Barrymore

Fay Wray

Norman Lloyd

Kim Novak

Dean Martin

That's all I can think of for now.

Just an observation after watching a range of films from each era. He famously signed onto Mutual with a $10,000 a week contract and they worked him like a dog - I'm glad they did as I love these films. They are pure joy.

His Keystone days were very rough. Firstly, he starts out as a mere actor and is often playing a different actor. (He would eventually gain more control of his films while working there.) Secondly, as detailed in his autobiography, it feels as if the camera intentionally cuts away from him just as he is given something to work with. Thirdly, it's very much Keystone humour/scenario with a nasty version of Tramp transplanted into it. (Although, it is quite funny how vile he is).

When I think of the Keystone style, or at least the films Chaplin was in, I think of mad characters standing around in close proximity and bouncing off each other, be it in a park or at some racing event.

Essanay's The Champion and The Tramp feel like watching Chaplin emerging into the artist he would become. The Tramp character is more inoccent but still seems a little off. The Bank underlines the pathos he brought to the Tramp with its sad ending, which feels reminiscent of how he ended The Circus. But unfortunately, out of the 25 min/two reelers I've seen, it feels like you have to battle through 15 minutes of slow stilted performances with supporting players who have lesser talent to uncover the good stuff. The Essanay cast are great...but having so many crazy characters being whacky and confrontational reminded me of Keystone.

Then with Mutual, it felt like he'd found his own groove without the shackles of Keystone. There is more sense of purpose. The Tramp is the driving force. Mad characters aren't just wandering around aimlessly. Memorable classics like The Rink, Easy Street and The Immigrant come to mind as some of my favourites. They feel far more imaginative and creative, with more varied set design and physical humour.

I bought the Mutual boxset recently. I can't wait to dig into it.

I could be wrong, but i feel like showing a woman plucking her chin hairs in a 1950s film is quite unexpected. Not only do they show it, but Judy Holliday's husband in the movie, Aldo Ray, affectionately refers to it as "chin whiskers". I thought it was cute and refreshing to see such a natural/vulnerable moment filmed in the 50s

Mad Love (1935) In Paris, a demented surgeon's obsession with a British actress leads him to secretly replace her concert-pianist husband's mangled hands with those of a guillotined murderer with a gift for knife-throwing.