Mildred: “I want you to have nice things. And you will have. Wait and see. I’ll get you everything. Anything you want. I promise.” Veda: “How?” Mildred: “I don’t know. But I will. I promise.” The title character of the 1945 classic Mildred Pierce, based on the 1941 novel by James M. Cain, is inarguably one of…
In 1912, infant Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) was orphaned when her parents drowned during the sinking of the Titanic. For years, her guardian, John Connors (Henry Stephenson), has shielded the young heiress from the glare of the media spotlight–few people even know what she looks like. After she finally comes of age, Dorothy travels to New…
Chapter Three of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon is titled, appropriately enough, “Three Women.” It opens with Sam Spade chastising his exhausted secretary, Effie Perine, for allowing Iva Archer, his dead partner’s widow, into the office. Spade is impatient with the woman–his secret lover–and extricates himself from her clutches as soon as possible. He later…
Of the six films in which Jean Harlow and Clark Gable appeared together, China Seas is one of the pair’s better outings. By this time in her life, at the tender age of 24, Harlow had come into her own as an actress, demonstrating the combination of sharp-edged femininity and self-assurance that marked the final roles…
Throughout her long and varied career, Bette Davis excelled at playing complicated women. From the slatternly waitress in Of Human Bondage (1934) to the spoiled Southern belle in 1938’s Jezebel to the grand dame of the theater, Margo Channing, in 1950’s All About Eve, Davis’ filmography is stacked with a series of unparalleled performances. Part of the…
This week’s Saturday Morning Cartoons post will be posted tomorrow instead. My apologies for the delay, but time seriously got away from me this week! Our post on The Maltese Falcon was reprinted this week over on the Movies Unlimited blog, MovieFanFare! We’ve updated the banner for Christmas (yeah, we’re a little early, but still…
It’s been a while since my last Feminist Fridays post, so I thought today I’d take a crack at one of my favorite minor Bette Davis dramas—1943’s Old Acquaintance, costarring Miriam Hopkins, Gig Young, John Loder, and Dolores Moran. Davis plays Kit Marlowe, a celebrated author who returns to her hometown to give a lecture.…
Welcome to the introductory post for our Feminist Fridays series! Keep in mind that many of the comments contained herein are tongue-in-cheek in nature and are not intended to offend or inflame those who may take them otherwise. Also, these posts are not intended to be scholarly or academic or otherwise “learned” reviews, but are…
True Classics 