Forgotten Faces of Hollywood's Golden Era

[DallasFanForever]

some of these folks i think are still remembered but than there's no doubt some of them that aren't unless you are like me and a hard core movie geek

And that’s the real beauty of this thread. We get to learn about these stars all over again, or in some cases for the first time. It’s nice to see them finally getting their due.

 

[ClassyCo]

I think I've only seen Marie Windsor and Sylvia Sidney from their later work; Marie in SALEM'S LOT and Sylvia as the first Mrs. Carlson in WKRP, and in BEETLEJUICE.

I've seen enough of June Allyson's work to know I don't like it; I found her almost aggressively cheery and wholesome.

I know I've never seen anything with Sonja Henie; like Esther Williams, one of the great cinematic novelties!

That is ironic. I don't think I've seen Sylvia Sidney in anything other than WKRP and BEETLEJUICE.

I am not a June Allyson fan, either.

I've seen a few Sonja Henie movies. Esther Williams is better.

 

[Angela Channing]

I recently watched the film Joan of Arc (1948) and noticed that Gene Lockhart was in it. He was a well known supporting actor who appeared in many films and probably best known for playing the judge in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). A great character actor who could play both comedy and serious drama equally well. He even appeared in the musical Carousel (1956) starting the singing of the reprise of the song You'll Never Walk Alone.

 

[darkshadows38]

Gene Lockhart i have heard of that would be i think June's father i believe her mother was an actress as well i believe

 

[Crimson]

The Lockharts -- Gene, Kathleen and young June -- acted together in the 1938 version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. I think the movie is inferior in every way to the 1951 version with Alistair Sim, but I did rather like Gene's jovial Bob Cratchit.

(The 1938 Tiny Tim was better too.)

 

[ClassyCo]

Someone, somewhere, possibly in this thread, mentioned Lucille Bremer. I must confess that I had never heard of her before. I know she was featured in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944), which is generally regarded as an iconic musical, but I did not recollect that it was Bremer who played Judy Garland's sister in that film.

Bremer was noticed by producer Arthur Freed and brought to Hollywood in the early 1940s. Her screen test for Warner Brothers was apparently so bad that she later said "she knew why nothing happened" about she filmed it. She eventually caught the eye of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film mogul Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a contract. Bremer was also offered a contract with Goldwyn Studios, under the watchful supervision of Samuel Goldwyn, but she ultimately decided to go with MGM in hopes to showcase her dancing abilities. Her screen debut came in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, in which she played Rose, receiving excellent reviews. The film was one of the biggest successes of the year, and MGM heralded Bremer as a new find.

MGM then cast Bremer in YOLANDA AND THE THIEF, a musical fable co-starring Fred Astaire. The film was given a large, prestigious production, but it was eventually a box office failure when it opened in November 1945. The film's surrealist fantasy slant was not popular with war-weary audiences, and a fair about of the film's disappointing outcome was placed on Bremer. Her career never recovered. She was then showcased in two other films: ZIEGFELD FOLLIES (1946) and TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY (1946), two star-studded musicals that featured her in dance numbers. Her final film for MGM was DARK DELUSION (1947), a minor film noir that was the studio's brief attempt to broaden her audience appeal.

Deciding not continue to waste time and money on Bremer's films, MGM loaned her to Eagle-Lion, a British film studio, in 1948. She appeared in three films for the studio that year: ADVENTURES OF CASANOVA, RUTHLESS, and BEHIND LOCKED DOORS. After filming was completed on the latter, her MGM contract was terminated. Bremer thereafter retreated out of the limelight, apparently dissatisfied with her movie career.​

 

[ClassyCo]

Luise Rainer is another of those exotic leading ladies that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. This woman became the first movie star to win two back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actress in 1937 and 1938.

Rainer got her start on the German stage at the age sixteen when she began studying with Max Reinhardt, one of the foremost theatrical teachers. Her rave reviews on the stage got her a few minor roles in a handful of foreign films. Eventually, she was noticed by Louis B. Mayer, who brought her to America and signed her to an exclusive contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1935. Mayer had high hopes for Rainer; he envisioned that her German image could be effectively used as an alternative to Greta Garbo, the studio's temperamental Swedish sensation. Rainer later said that Mayer wanted to "build me up like Garbo" because he felt she had "similar possibilities" to Garbo, who was, by most accounts, the most popular woman in American cinema.

MGM quickly promoted Rainer as their brand new dramatic lead, and she was given a top role in ESCAPADE (1935), co-starring William Powell. Although Rainer personally disliked how she photographed on the screen, her performance received strong reviews and she was hailed as Hollywood's next big attraction. Even still, she found that she hated giving interviews to the press. She was then cast in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936), a lavish biopic about the life of Broadway showrunner Florenz Ziegfeld. It co-starred William Powell and Myrna Loy. Her performance as Ziegfeld's first wife, Anna Held, received critical and popular acclaim. In 1937, as if by Mayer's predictions, she was awarded her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. The following year, she played O-lan in the highly heralded film adaptation of THE GOOD EARTH (1937), co-starring Paul Muni, and won another Academy Award for Best Actress, this time even beating Garbo. Her performance was well-received, although some in the industry felt she had been miscast as a Chinese peasant.

The two Oscar wins marked the high point of Rainer's Hollywood career. Mayer's strategy to publicize Rainer had backfired; she had no tolerance for the Hollywood social scene, and she rebelled against MGM's control over her career. The night of the 1938 Academy Awards (which she eventually won for THE GOOD EARTH), she was had planned on spending a quiet evening at home. Once Mayer found out she was not in attendance, he sent for her and rushed her to the ceremony just before her name was announced as winner. At the same time, Rainer began refusing many roles being offered to her, either because she felt they were not suited for her or because she had no interest in playing them. What few roles she did accept we not always well-reviewed. She starred in THE EMPEROR'S CANDLESTICKS (1937), her last film with William Powell, in which she played a glamorous spy during pre-revolutionary Russia. For her work in BIG CITY (1937), for which she received top billing over Spencer Tracy, critics complained she had been miscast in a "modern role" and that she was "too glamorous" to be Tracy's wife. Most critics agreed that Rainer was at her "most appealing" in THE TOY WIFE (1938), a melodrama co-starring Melvyn Douglas and Robert Young. Her performance received mostly negative reviews, and the film was not a success. She then headlined DRAMATIC SCHOOL (1938), a film about a group of women training at a prestigious Paris acting school. It featured a cast consisting of Paulette Goddard, Lana Turner, Gale Sondergaard, Virginia Grey, and Ann Rutherford. The film received mixed reviews and was not the success MGM had hoped.

Rainer ultimately left MGM and Hollywood in 1939. She had gotten fed up with the lifestyle and she was unsatisfied with her film work. She had married playwright Clifford Odets in 1937, and she spent her time out of the Hollywood spotlight being his society wife and frequently performing in his stage productions. She briefly ventured back to films in the early 1940s, where she had planned to work with Paramount Pictures. She had been touted for the lead role in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943), but Ingrid Bergman was cast instead. Rainer did accept a starring role in HOSTAGES (1943), a low-budget Paramount war picture, that received little attention. Her final acting role was as the grandmother in THE GAMBLER (1997).

Luise Rainer died at the age of 104 on December 30, 2014.
​

 

[Crimson]

I have not seen any of Luise Rainer's film work, and there's not much in her filmography or that I've read about her that makes me inclined to seek out her movies. Despite the novelty of being a back-to-back Oscar winner, I have so little interest in her that I've never even watched that BKR video.

The only thing I've seen Rainer in was her guest shot on THE LOVE BOAT. When, how and why I saw that, I'm not sure; it's not a TV series I watched often. Maybe I stumbled across it on Youtube. Honestly I thought she was rather bad, even considering the low expectations of Aaron Spelling's cheesiest TV product. Maybe it's not fair to judge her work by one performance 45 years past her prime, but I wasn't impressed.

 

[ClassyCo]

I have not seen any of Luise Rainer's film work, and there's not much on her filmography or that I've read about her that makes me inclined to seek our her movies. Despite the novelty of being a back-to-back Oscar winner, I have so little interest in her that I've never even watched that BRK video.

The only thing I've seen Rainer in was her guest shot on THE LOVE BOAT. When, how and why I saw that, I'm not sure; it's not a TV series I watched often. Maybe I stumbled across it on Youtube. Honestly I thought she was rather bad, even considering the low expectations of Aaron Spelling's cheesiest TV product. Maybe it's not fair to judge her work by one performance 45 years past her prime, but I wasn't impressed.

View attachment 27408

I have seen little of Luise's work too. I've seen clips of THE GREAT ZIEGFELD and THE GOOD EARTH via YouTube, but never the complete films. I believe I caught a little bit of THE EMPEROR'S CANDLESTICKS when TCM aired it, but I didn't watch all of it (cannot remember why).

Even though I am intrigued by Rainer, even I must admit that she does seem overhyped. MGM pushed her popularity so hard, and it probably wasn't even warranted. Her role in THE GOOD EARTH she didn't even deserve. Almost everyone agrees that Anna May Wong should've gotten that role, but the Hays Code prevented her from having it. Mayer wanted so badly for Rainer to upstage Garbo, but that was complete wishful thinking. Garbo was the Queen of the Screen, and nobody touched that during her tenure. Even when Garbo bottomed out in TWO-FACED WOMAN, I imagine her audience was terribly sad to see her go. Rainer, on the other hand, just faded into oblivion and it seems as if no one cared.

And Rainer was not as beautiful as Garbo either.
​

 

[Crimson]

THE GREAT ZIEGFELD

This is the only one of her movies I would like to see, but it has nothing to do with her; I want to see Myrna Loy playing Billie Burke!

 

[darkshadows38]

one actress i love is Marie Ouspenskaya who was the Gpysy in The Wolf Man (1941) among many other films a wonderful actress i had to look up her spelling for her last name!

 

[ClassyCo]

Miriam Hopkins is an actress I've heard about often. In one of my books, the Leading Ladies one I think, the author says that she had a star personality but lacked any significant talent to go with it. I've not seen enough of Miriam's work to make a judgment on that statement, whether it be true or false. Knowing she was born in Savannah, Georgia, and being a native Georgian myself, I've often wanted to see more of her movies, but I've never gotten around to it.

At twenty she was a chorus girl in New York City before she moved on to have roles in Broadway productions, such as AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY. Hopkins was brought to Hollywood and signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930 when she was twenty-eight. The following year she starred in the pioneering horror film DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931), co-starring Fredric March. Her breakthrough role is generally credited to TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932), in which she played a beautiful and jealous pickpocket. Her film DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933) was one of the highest-grossing films of its year. Miriam's early films were considered sexually risqué, especially those released before the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934. Hopkins starred as the title character in BECKY SHARP (1935), the first mainstream release shot in "three-strip" Technicolor. She was immensely popular during this time period and she was considered one of screen's finest actresses. Her career continued into the 1970s, but she made less frequent appearances beginning in the 1940s.

There's two things I always think about when I hear about Miriam Hopkins. First, I think about how she was a major, top five contender for Scarlett O'Hara in the movie version of GONE WITH THE WIND in the late 1930s. Producer David O. Selznick ran a popularity contest and Hopkins was one of the five movie actresses considered as a possibility for Scarlett as chosen by the movie-going audiences. Miriam was allegedly author Margaret Mitchell's first choice to play Scarlett because of her Georgian heritage. As we all know, Vivien Leigh ended up with the coveted role and won an Oscar for her performance. The other thing I think about when thinking of Miriam Hopkins is her decades-long feud with Bette Davis. The animosity between the two women was initiated concerning the story of JEZEBEL. Hopkins had played the role on stage in 1933, and she bought a share of the film rights with the justification of being "the first actress considered" to play the role on screen. Warner Brothers caught her in a loophole, however, and after briefly "considering" Hopkins, they cast Bette Davis in JEZEBEL for the big screen in 1938. Hopkins was very upset at Davis winning the role. Hopkins and Davis feuded bitterly on the set of the two films they did together: THE OLD MAID (1939) and OLD ACQUAINTANCE (1943). Their dislike of one another was well-publicized during their lifetime.

I want to dive into Miriam Hopkins more. Any suggestions?​

​

 

[Crimson]

I want to dive into Miriam Hopkins more. Any suggestions?

I haven't seen much of Hopkins work but of the little I've seen, I've liked her. She was particularly good as the aunt in THE HEIRESS, which makes me think she was well suited to be a character actress (but seems to have drifted into semi-retirement). As much as Davis loathed her, I think they worked very well together in their two shared films.

 

[darkshadows38]

yes she was good in the Bette Davis films though they really did hate each other i forget how many films they did with each other but when they were playing enemies in the film it came very easily apparently for the both of them lol

 

[ClassyCo]

The definable "It Girl" of the silent screen, Clara Bow, burned out doing the Charleston and never made the splash in talkies like was anticipated. Nobody was more popular than she at the box office in the late 1920s. She was number one in popularity in 1930. She drifted into oblivion after her film career fizzled out.

 

[ClassyCo]

Margaret Sullavan was a big star in the 1930s. An audience poll voted her as one of the top six contenders for Scarlett O'Hara around 1936. She was beautiful and talented, but has a relatively short filmography.​

 

[ClassyCo]

Mother of FALCON CREST star Lorenzo Lamas, Arlene Dahl, was quite fashionable in the 1950s. She appeared in several successful movies in a career that spanned from 1944 to 2012. She is one of the final surviving movie stars of Classic Hollywood.​

 

[ClassyCo]

Mary Pickford was, by most accounts, the first cinematic film star. She starred in a host of films during the 1910s and 1920s, and was probably the most famous woman on the planet during the height of her popularity. Pickford set the standard for what it meant to be a Hollywood film star. She was most famous on-screen for her "little girl" roles in films like THE POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (1917), DADDY LONG LEGS (1919), and POLLYANNA (1920), the latter which grossed more than $1 million at the box office. In 1919, Pickford, along with Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, and D.W. Griffith formed United Artists, a film production company that gave them more creative control over their film projects. The following year, she married Douglas Fairbanks, and the pair became Hollywood's first "It Couple". Their home, affectionately called Pickfair, was a big attraction for the Hollywood elite.

Pickford had solidified her status as Hollywood royalty in the 1920s. She was the most famous woman in movies, and she held perhaps the most power a woman had ever held inside the industry during her heyday. Even so, she was horrified that movies were making a shift talkies in the late 1920s. In Mary's view, "adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo". Despite this, she hastily made the transition to talkies with COQUETTE (1929), in which she played a sophisticated Southerner, was a major hit at the box office. She ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the performance. Mary's decision to cut her long golden locks (which had been a trademark for her) for the role drew national headlines. Her hair had been a symbol of feminine virtue, and her decision to cut it into a 1920s bob was met with negative public reaction. Her next film, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1929), co-starring Fairbanks, was not a success.

The public did not accept Pickford in mature roles. Like other silent film stars, she saw her career enter a deep decline as sound movies became the rage. Mary was 38 in 1930, therefore unable to play the young women she had been so famous for in her prime. Likewise, she was not home in playing the glamorous and vampy heroines of early sound. She made her final film in 1933, thereafter retreating to her mansion where she eventually forgotten by her fans. She died in 1979 at age 87.
​

 

[ClassyCo]

Lillian Gish was the first actress of American cinema.

Theda Bara was the first filmdom sex symbol.

 

[Crimson]

My interest in Old Hollywood hits its limit with the advent of sound. I have seen only a handful of Silent films, and regard them as little more than curiosities.

I have seen only snippets of Gish, Bow, Pickford and Bara and can't say I found any of them particularly intriguing. Bara in particular is a curious reminder of how much beauty standards have changed in the past 100 years. Even without the vamp-y makeup, she's pretty, uhhh, average by contemporary standards.