Top Ten Anniversary: Favorite Movie Moments

And so we now come to the tenth and final Top Ten Anniversary list in celebration of ten fabulous years of Poseidon's Underworld. It seems impossible that we started the little-blog-that-could a full decade ago. Begun on a lark because my workload was at an all-time low and I wanted to appear busy lest I wind up being laid-off during a serious recession, now I am so busy at work I have to scramble to find time to keep the damned thing going! Today's list is of those moments in the cinema that I could never ever tire of seeing. Ones that I know by heart and relive in my mind (or sometimes in my dreams) and that I have to drop everything and watch if they are about to occur on television. To be honest, this really could have been ten Joan Crawford moments (and almost is, in a way!) or ten natural disasters or even ten Faye Dunway moments, but I did make a feeble attempt to add other varying ingredients. No one who loves old movies the way I do could truly have only ten favorite moments, but these are the ones I picked for this list.

AUTUMN LEAVES (1956) - Joan Crawford's tongue-lashing of Vera Miles and Lorne Greene -- Autumn Leaves is a decent movie with a solid cast and utilizes a memorable song performed by Nat King Cole, but I really don't count it among my JC faves. I typically prefer antagonist Joan versus victim Joan. In it, she plays the put-upon lover of a notably younger man with severe mental anxiety issues. No small contributor to this condition is the fact that his wife slept with his father and he witnessed it in action! When these two greedy guts try to strong arm the man (Cliff Robertson) into doing their bidding, they come upon a righteous and appalled Crawford who gives them exactly "what for" in an unforgettable condemnation that is as striking as it is hilarious. I could listen to this scene again and again. (Oh, let's face it. I have!)

GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) - Olivia de Havilland recognizes Leslie Howard -- I mean, come on... the truly memorable moment in GWTW for many people is Scarlett's vow to never go hungry again, even if she has to lie, cheat or steal. Many a lady left in the lurch has drawn upon that for personal inspiration, thus I include it in the montage above. But even as much as I love that, my favorite moment is when the war has ravaged everything that was once beautiful and the ladies are bone weary from feeding and doing endless laundry for the misbegotten soldiers who've straggled back home after defeat. De Havilland spies another hapless, faraway figure loping down the path and resigns herself to the fact that yet another person in need of care is on his way there. Then she realizes that it is none other than her beloved husband and bolts across the yard and sprints down the drive with all her strength! It's corny and impossibly melodramatic and I couldn't care less! I remember my mother once telling me that she loved my father so much that she could spot him out of a crowd of hundreds in an instant. You memorize the facets and composition of the one you adore. I love this sequence, and Miss de Havilland, so much, and this was the tear-jerking moment that I opted to leave out of my prior list.

LOVE HAS MANY FACES (1965) - Hugh O'Brian makes his presence known -- I don't recall the exact date, but one time in the mid-1990s, my life changed forever. I found a $3.00 VHS of an old movie called Love Has Many Faces at a grocery/department store called Bigg's and because it had Lana Turner in it, I thought I'd chance the purchase. Little did I know that inside that tape was one of the most glorious exhibitions of hirsute, sun-kissed, sizzlelean manliness that I could ever hope to encounter! You simply don't expect a glossy, 1965 major studio romance to have one of its leading men all but naked, swarthily flexing his physique and languidly loitering around trying to land a rich client for his gigolo services!  O'Brian wears three of these teensy-weensy trunks; yellow, blue and red. When he puts them away for real clothes, it's a devastating blow, but this introductory sequence is unforgettable. I knew that day that I was truly born too late...

MILDRED PIERCE (1945) - Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth discuss the check -- I said earlier that I prefer JC as antagonist rather than victim and yet I'm already about to contradict myself. I think the difference is that she was younger here and maybe I expect that by the time of Autumn Leaves she ought to have been able to stick up for herself better. Mildred Pierce is an exceptionally good film. It's got a tragic tone, yet benefits from the zesty comedic presence of Eve Arden as Crawford's pal. When Crawford's spoiled and thoroughly ungrateful daughter Blyth (as Veda Pierce) manages to bilk a fat check out of a gullible, rich boyfriend, the ever-patient mother can stand no more.  She demands the check from her selfish bitch of a daughter and gets a real earful from the loathsome brat. When Crawford growls out, "VEDA!," it's one of the greatest guttural reactions I can ever think of. Then they have a confrontation on the stairs that is marked by the check being torn into bits and falling like confetti to the floor. Appropriate since this is a scene to celebrate!

MOMMIE DEAREST (1981) - Faye Dunaway takes on the Pepsi board of directors -- For decades, Mommie Dearest was a favorite movie of mine and I could nearly recite it by heart. (In fact, one time, a female friend and I watched it with the sound off and used closed captioning to recite all the dialogue between ourselves - a far more entertaining experience than you might believe!) However, in recent years, I've cooled a bit in my love of the character-assassinating film because I don't like the image it gave the world of its title subject. Nonetheless, it still contains a ferociously entertaining performance by Dunaway and my favorite is when she attends a Pepsi board meeting, still in widow black following the death of her husband, and is about to be set aside by its male members. Dunaway adroitly assesses them and points out the unmistakable contribution she's made to their soft drink's success and finally let's it rip with the infamous line, "Don't FUCK WITH ME fellas! This ain't my first time at the rodeo..." This hard-line approach works wonders for her and they soon "get back to work."

THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) - The S.S. Poseidon capsizes -- There's almost nothing I don't love about this favorite movie, and Shelley Winters' heroic swim near the end is one of my favorite sequences in movie history, but for sheer spectacle and stunt coordination wizardry, I have to choose this part of the film. A sub-sea earthquake (somehow!) creates a massive wave that overturns an aging, top-heavy cruise ship just moments after midnight on New Year's Eve, sending everything - party favors, people, pianos! - flying around the dining salon! When VCRs were introduced, I used to meticulously watch this scene in slo-mo and freeze-frame. Same when DVD came about. You're welcome to all your CGI effects. They hold no interest for me at all because I don't believe what I'm seeing. But my disbelief IS suspended when I see real people swaying, sliding, screaming and eventually falling from the heights of the mammoth room. The expressions of the stars, particularly the ladies, during this catastrophe have become iconic to me. Remember when TV promos for the movie would show brief shots of the cast as their names were announced in order to get to you watch? I live for things like that.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973) Faye Dunaway and Raquel Welch tussle over the Queen's diamonds -- Practically the entire movie hinges on a political move to humiliate the Queen of France by proving that she gave prized diamonds to her lover (and enemy of France), the Duke of Buckingham. At the climax, as musketeer Michael York has retrieved them and is trying to get them to her at an opulent costume ball, he hurls them into a window... but it's the wrong window! So ruthless Dunaway gets her hands on them and it's up to klutzy Welch to get them back. These two begin to wrestle for them, using anything they can from deadly hair accessories to food (!) in order to beat down the other. There had been screen cat fights before (notably in Destry Rides Again, 1939), but this was the first one I ever saw and it not only left me awestruck, but primed me for the days ahead when Dynasty would make a yearly event out of such shenanigans. Remarkably, these ladies did the entire sequence themselves without the aid of any stunt doubles (and Welch did in fact injure a wrist during one fall to the floor.) 

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) - The descent of the scenic elevator -- The frame shown in the above-left inset is my favorite shot in any movie. I just love the way the overhead light catches the bone structure of Faye Dunaway and gives an almost skull-like foreboding that this ride from the Promenade Room to the street is not going to be uneventful. Trapped at the top of the world's tallest building with almost no way out, architect Paul Newman rigs a glass-covered scenic elevator to slowly slide its way down with a dozen passengers on board. In a shamelessly romantic clinch, he embraces his girlfriend Dunaway and places her inside, hoping to see her safely out of danger. However, an explosion blows the thing off its track and it's left dangling thousands of feet above the ground! Even as a seven year-old, watching this in the theater, I recall thinking, "what a piece of shit!" as part of the railing and one panel of glass just fell apart! LOL But this whole sequence and the way it is dealt with was so unique. It gave me a life-long affinity for glass elevators and if you think I don't clasp my hands prayer-like and clench my jaw whenever I'm in one then you haven't been paying attention all these years! Ha ha!

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1967) - Patty Duke and Susan Hayward square off in the ladies room -- Everything about this movie is a camp riot, be it the beauty products commercial to the crazed vocal numbers to the parade of Travilla costumes, but the real treasure for me is the showdown between petulant Duke and fire-breathing Hayward on the night of an iffy Broadway preview. There isn't a syllable that comes out of either one's mouth that I don't know by heart and I never tire of watching and hearing it. Real life unease between the stars only adds to the seething hatred they have for one another on screen. Duke walks in the room like a gangster while human chimney Hayward is sucking down yet another smoke and within moments the insults begin to fly. Finally when they've hit their verbal stride, Duke tries to claw at Hayward's hair and comes away with more than she bargained for! It's all more than a bit ludicrous, but so is the whole movie. There's nothing like the luxurious lounge of a deluxe ladies room to make me long for a snarling
tête-à-tête between two enemies and this is one of the all-time greatest!

VERTIGO (1958) - Kim Novak's transformation at the hands of James Stewart -- Having lost the love of his life, a despondent Stewart runs across a girl who seems to bear a striking resemblance to his deceased paramour. Thing is, she doesn't QUITE fit the bill. So he methodically begins buying her the same clothes and encouraging her to look more and more like the woman he thought was gone forever, right down to not only her hair color, but the style as well. When she comes back to her apartment and he sees that she has opted for a different 'do than he requested (demanded!), he is dejected. Finally, as he waits in agony and the rapturous Bernard Hermann score is swelling, she emerges from the bathroom exactly as he had always dreamed she would. It's an extraordinary moment in a dreamlike, emotionally-charged film. And, as it does through most of the movie, colors (in this case green) play a part in the atmosphere.

BONUS PICS!

A happy reunion for Lorne Greene and Joan Crawford, years after she told him just where he could go and while he was starring as patriarch Ben Cartwright on the long-running Bonanza.

Crawford didn't always dislike her young female costars. She and Ann Blyth remained friendly for years after Pierce and would often visit one another's movie sets or catch up at industry functions. Ms. Blyth seems to have gotten some eyebrow tutoring here...!

In fact, the night of the Oscar ceremony Blyth came to Crawford's "sick bed" to help present Crawford's Oscar to her (with Pierce's director Michael Curtiz also on hand.) It was likely a bittersweet moment for her as she had just lost to Anne Revere for National Velvet in her own supporting category.

Crawford's slightly younger children always defended her against the allegations made by her first two, despite inheriting little money from her estate nor raking in any cash from inflammatory books about her.

The actors in Poseidon had to do a fair number of stunts during the filming, though there were doubles for the truly dangerous moments. Here, we find Jack Albertson, Shelley Winters and Red Buttons, holding on for dear life as a fork lift raises half the set they were standing on into the air.

Plucky Shelley also did her own dive into the water for her fabled rescue scene (earning a burst eardrum in the process.) She practiced and practiced her underwater swimming in the backyard pool of Kaye Ballard, but kept breaking all her flashlights by taking them into the water with her!

Though never close friends, Dunaway and Welch got along all right during Musketeers, even when Welch hurt her wrist during their cat fight and after Welch had gone and had all new costumes made to show off her ample bosom, at odds with the fashions of the time period. When they did get together later, it was often in the company of the world's most outre people, be it designer Thierry Mugler... Michael Jackson...

...or Prince Azim of Brunei. I guess money talks!

Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway enjoy a calm moment in between takes on The Towering Inferno. Having earlier balked at leaving San Francisco with him, she tells him in this scene that if he asked her "to go to the North Pole or to the cliffs of Mendocino," she'd go.

A distressed Jennifer Jones and artfully mussed Dunaway await the closing of the scenic elevator doors on them.

Dunaway's wind-beaten and cinder-speckled gown was up for auction some years ago and was purchased by a devotee where it now rests in a place of honor. Producer Irwin Allen's widow Sheila, who played the mayor's wife in the same elevator scene, recalls the gals constantly having to slap little bits of burning ember on their gowns as they were filming the moments where the elevator is hanging helplessly next to a conflagration of flames.

Publicity men for Vertigo enjoyed trying to throw viewers off by presenting both sides of Kim Novak at once in promotional stills.

I've never been to Mount Rushmore, but I'm good. I have Love Has Many Faces (featuring Hugh O'Brian's) on DVD!

Draped in a skimpy towel for this scene, the word HOTEL is stitched onto the back. Thing is, the way it's staged, all we can see it "HOT" across his ass... Don't tell me producer Ross Hunter wasn't having a ball here.

In this shot, the gigolos lie on the beach and fondle their bottles...!

Like I said, my life changed this day...! O'Brian did all his own physical fitness tricks for the movie, including repeated takes on this pole (!) and water skiing on a single ski that he was able to disengage from and trot up to the shoreline...

This scene - not to be found in the movie - has O'Brian coming in on a ski and running up to meet an enthusiastic gaggle of friends. One of them, a male, makes a point of not only clasping him on the ass but placing a finger or two in the crack!! In the finished film, there are no friends awaiting him and he is in his blue suit. This was found in a German release trailer for the film which also includes a wardrobe shot of Lana Turner that isn't in the movie (she's lying on a couch in a cover-up instead of on the bed.) And with that, I give you The End!

Top Ten Anniversary: Favorite Tear-jerkers

We didn't intend to break up the procession of Top Ten lists, but the untimely demise of Miss Carol Lynley called for it. So were back now with list #9. (Can you guess how many there will be in the series?  Ha ha!) Today we're going to wallow in shameless emotion because we're breaking out the tearjerkers. Now... My own most significant tear-jerker is, amazingly enough, The Poseidon Adventure (1972), which reduced me to a mess as a child, but I am not including it in this list for reasons which will become clear later. Another one is also being omitted for reasons which will be made known in the not-too-distant future. However, the others below represent films that are practically guaranteed to set off my waterworks. There are many more (I'm Irish and well up at everything from Hallmark commercials to big game show wins...!), but these are MY favorites, in alphabetical order. Grab a hankie!

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) -- The original version of this film (by the same director!), Love Affair (1939), is great, but I like this one a skosh better because of its color and production values and the fact that I really like Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant as a couple. The better part of the movie is a "cutesy" shipboard romance between two people involved with others on shore, but once a story point hits just as the stars are about to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building, things turn melodramatic quickly. Things I love about it: the self-sacrifice that Kerr is willing to make in order to not burden the love of her life, the tragedy of such hopeful anticipation spoiled by a lightning fast event and, most of all, the tete-a-tete between Kerr and Grant at the finale as they toy with one another and delay our gratification. Probably the part that gets me more than any is when Grant starts to dart around Kerr's apartment in search of something and his expression when he finds it. This film's ending is so tear-jerky to me that I started crying during Sleepless in Seattle (1993) when Rita Wilson was merely describing it! I cannot, however, stomach the dreary, passionless later remake Love Affair (1994), which I awaited with bated breath, by Warren Beatty. Bonus points for the gorgeous opening song crooned by velvety Vic Damone. It was Oscar nominated, but lost to "All the Way," another beautiful song, from The Joker Is Wild.

GLORY (1989) -- This is one of the rare movies in this category that I have only seen one time. Sometimes you see a movie and you cannot wait to relive it over and over. Sometimes you see a movie and you absorb it so much that once can be enough. (The Pianist, 2002, springs to mind. I ADORED it and have it on DVD, but have never watched it again...) I can never forget sitting in the theater and watching as Denzel Washington, about to be unfairly punished by whip for breaking the Union army rules, is stripped of his jacket, revealing a litany of scars from countless prior assaults on his person. As the punishment proceeded, he began to release a tear (*the story of which is interesting in itself) and that was it for me. I don't think I stopped weeping until the movie was over... Like many movies in this post, the music means so much and, amazingly, it was not nominated for an Oscar despite being so unusual and wonderful. (The composer James Horner was nominated, however, for Field of Dreams that year.) *Washington was being flogged with a special whip that didn't cut, but did leave a sting. On the take that made it into the final print of the film, the director hesitated in calling "Cut!" and it resulted in a real tear from the actor as he was being struck. Agonizing, yes, but he took home an Oscar for his pains!

MADAME X (1966) -- We keep mentioning this film, but I swear it is just so memorable to me! Cynics and eye-rollers may be immune to it, but those who fall for a good "mother love" yarn and who like being emotionally manipulated in exchange for a good cry will feel differently. At the climactic murder trial, pretty Keir Dullea does all he can to help his downtrodden client Lana Turner without her even lifting a finger to help herself and finally she acquiesces. As she relates her own story, and we begin to see the mournful expressions on a now (finally!) aged Constance Bennett, and hear the pleading closing statement from Dullea, the flood begins. One of my quirky tear-jerking triggers is when someone who has behaved horribly eventually comes around and is remorseful for what they've done. In countless movies and TV shows I've become moved by this for some reason I haven't completely explored in my own psyche. Maybe it's because I sometimes say or do things I wish I wouldn't have and would like to be able to make it right. Not sure. As is so often the case with this list, Frank Skinner's music is delirious throughout. (There's a staircase climb near the start of the film as Miss Lana races to the top in heels and a snug skirt that I especially treasure!)

PENNY SERENADE (1941) -- This is the third film that Irene Dunne and Cary Grant made together (following The Awful Truth, 1937, and My Favorite Wife, 1940) and so by now their already wonderful chemistry was off-the-charts. The first two films were highly comedic and this one has its moments as well, though typically more gentle than the other ones. Here, Dunne plays a series of records on a phonograph as she recounts her life with Grant and is preparing to leave him. Their up and down relationship is revealed in a sequence of episodes that are amusing, touching, always-charming and in some cases heart-wrenching. The affable Grant, star of so many screwball comedies and light romances, has a scene before a judge that is positively gut-wrenching. He received one of his only two Oscar nominations for this tenderly sentimental film (losing to Gary Cooper for Sergeant York.) And Dunne, who could really do just about anything, is his perfect counterpoint with her extraordinary immediacy and realistic reactions as a cinema actress. Expert support, and I do mean expert, is offered up by Beulah Bondi as an adoption agent and Edgar Buchanan as an endearing character called "Applejack" who witnesses most of the couples trials and triumphs. The little girl who plays their daughter Trina is simply precious. Trivia tidbit: Dunne starred in Love Affair (with Charles Boyer) while Grant starred in the aforementioned remake An Affair to Remember.

SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980) -- Of all the movies I have paid tribute to here, this is the one I keep meaning to write about and yet never do...  Strangely unsuccessful in theaters, perhaps due to its unabashed romanticism and the fact that newly-famous Christopher Reeve wasn't in his red and blue Superman (1978) uniform (along with the fact that an actor's strike prevented promotion for the film from them), this soon developed a cult following. It stands as a Valentine to beautiful Mackinac Island (and, in fact, now to its picture perfect stars.) Reeve is a playwright who becomes obsessed with the enigmatic portrait of an actress from decades ago and eventually finds a way to go back in time to meet her. Stunning Jane Seymour in her most beautiful period plays the graceful, elegant actress. Appearing in support are Christopher Plummer and Teresa Wright. While Rachmaninoff is heavily utilized in the film to punctuate the couple's lush romance, John Barry also provided some incredible music to accent the story, including an airy yet rich love theme. It's especially wonderful leading up to the moment when Reeve and Seymour finally meet up for the first time. That's one point where I nearly always tear up. The music was ignored at Oscar time, though the costumes were nominated (losing to Tess.)

STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989) -- This is the play-turned-movie that gave us the line "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion!" and that happens to resonate with me, but let's face it, among a certain crowd this whole damned movie is quotable. It's also got several moments that open up the floodgates. Needless to say, Sally Field's big meltdown in the cemetery is a whopper, and Julia Roberts' line about rather having "thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothin' special" is touching, but as I've noted elsewhere there are strange things that tend to set me off. One is when Roberts' brothers come to visit her in the hospital. This is a teensy moment, but since they've been rowdy roughhousers all along, it's touching to see them actually show a little respect. The other one for me is when Dolly Parton and Sam Shepard share a moment that was not in the (all-female) play.  Parton's character has spent her whole life trying to make herself and others as beautiful as she can and her husband has barely taken an interest in any of it. He tugs at some soft wax on a stick and says, "What is this stuff?" and she replies, "It's supposed to make you pretty," with tears in her eyes. All the wax in the world can't help you save a life, though. Roberts was nominated for an Oscar (losing to Brenda Fricker of My Left Foot) and that was the film's sole nomination. Most staggering of all is that the superlative score by Georges Delerue was not nominated. The delicate, yet rich, music is unforgettable.

THE CHAMP (1979) -- I guess I oughtta quit bellyaching all the time about remakes when this is the third remake to appear in this list alone! The famous original was in 1931, starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper. This time out, we have Jon Voight as a down-on-his-luck boxer trying to raise the young son (Ricky Schroder) left behind when mother Faye Dunaway felt the need to seek greener pastures and a more cultivated existence. While the movie was mocked for some of its more unusual elements (Dunaway's ethereal character is often awash in gauzy, enveloping clothing and her interest in Schroder sometimes seems a little icky!) and for it's heart-on-its-sleeve emotionalism, it still works thanks to Voight's devoted performance and the wellspring of tears that pour out of the little towhead. The poor little tyke just has problem after problem and he convincingly takes each one on like a trooper. He and Voight share a clear connection thanks to director Franco Zeffirelli, all underscored tastefully by Oscar-nominated Dave Grusin (who lost to Georges Delerue, winning that time for A Little Romance.)  This tear-jerker even has a tendency to crack tough "he-men" although there have been a few who could withstand the test.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) -- When a movie means as much to a person as this one means to me, there is going to be emotion. There are scenes meant to bring about tears and some not that still do anyway. One that was intended to hit the mark and does for me is when stern Christopher Plummer (looking devastatingly handsome throughout!) surprises his children by joining in with them as they serenade his lady love Eleanor Parker. The iceberg has begun to thaw. If you're like me and have "daddy issues" this scene is particularly touching. I actually got to live this whole thing out when I played the Captain on stage in 1995. Different parts at different stages of my life "get me." For instance, I was all choked up not even watching the movie one time. Just the Diane Sawyer anniversary special that was on a couple of years ago had me welling up with each new featured piece on the damn thing...! And, yes, the music is everything in practically every scene.

THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) -- In a similar vein, I get really gooey, really easily when it comes to this film. It's "There's no place like home" message resonates with everyone and it does to me as well, though I really was never happy at home and can't imagine it being better than the freedom I eventually found! What really gets me is a) the fact that Judy Garland is so caring and innocent and giving, which, in light of the way her life wound up makes viewing more poignant, and b) dog lover that I am, anything to do with Toto. In the sepia-toned early section, when Toto joins Dorothy for "Over the Rainbow" and puts out a little paw, I'm just gone... G'night, folks! Later, when Toto makes a brave escape from the Wicked Witch of the West (played by the divine Margaret Hamilton), it's equally touching to me. The whole movie is such a perfect candy box and it's needless to mention how, again, music plays a substantial part in it.

TOMORROW IS FOREVER (1946) -- This lesser-known film has a wealth of talent on hand from the renowned (if, let's be honest, sometimes hammy) Orson Welles to the always rock-solid Claudette Colbert and even veteran leading man George Brent. It also introduced us to young Richard Long, who had a great career going until his untimely death from a heart attack at forty-seven. But the really big draw for me is the debut acting performance of one Natalie Wood. Yes, she'd been an extra once, but this was her first real role at age eight and she's astonishing in it. Uncharacteristically blonde and playing a German, she is nonetheless so naturally adorable, articulate, delicate and utterly charming. Like Judy Garland, the fact that she perished so young (at forty-three) adds a whole new layer of sentiment to what was already a very heartfelt performance. Her character is the adopted daughter of sickly Welles. She cares for him capably and demonstrably in spite of having been in a concentration camp herself and exposed to untold horrors.

I tend to fall for it every time. Thus, movies like Blossoms in the Dust (1941), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) and I Remember Mama (1948), and countless others could have made it onto this list as well. I love to be moved by a motion picture. And, as I say, different things move me at different times. The first time I saw Titanic (1996), I was moved by Leo and Kate's story, but the second time, I found myself reacting more to Gloria Stuart and what she was doing.

BONUS PICS!

She doesn't appear like this for long, but this is the look Deborah Kerr sports as a nightclub singer in An Affair to Remember.

And here is a wardrobe test photo of Cary Grant from the brief shipboard swimming scene in the film. Grant was clearly still in admirable shape, though had recently quit a 2-pack a day smoking habit and began to eat a lot more than usual. Still, he always maintained a decent physique during his acting career.

On the subject of swimming, here is Mr. Ricardo Montalban between takes on the set of Madame X (1966.) He plays Lana Turner's suave lover who doesn't like it when she attempts to break off their affair once her husband returns. Montalban was another man who kept up a good figure throughout his acting career.

Between Captains and the Kings (1976), in which she was paired with Perry King in a look much like this, and Somewhere in Time (1980), I thought that Jane Seymour was the last word in Gibson-style beauty. She and Christopher Reeve made a beautiful couple.

The setting, the costumes, the music and the performances all join together to create a really beautiful viewing experience.

Yours truly as a pup in 1995 during an outdoor production of The Sound of Music. The day we were going to open, it occurred to me that the children had been (mis)directed to sing to me when they meet The Baroness. They'd been coming on with her after my fight with Maria over the clothes and then singing to me. However, I took them all aside and said to them, "You were taught this song to sing to the Baroness... so do that. Do not look at me! When you suddenly hear me singing after all these years of never doing it, then you look at me." Well... cut to the moment in the show that night when I began chiming in, "...I go to the hills..." and all of a sudden seven little shocked, touching moppet faces turned and looked at me in unison and I swear to God I almost lost it! It was a struggle to get through the song (and the brief duet with Maria after that, which is cut from the movie.) Some of these kids have their own kids now and a couple of them still perform, even professionally, which is gratifying.

I do not ask it. I demand that you click on this photo and take in the blue-eyed glory of Mr. Christopher Plummer. My God, no wonder the Baroness didn't want to give up without some sort of college try!

I've seen this picture cropped to just chests many times or in black and white, but not too often in color, so I share it here... the fabulous foursome on the set of the Wizard of Oz.

Garland and Terry (the canine heart-breaker who played Toto) had a wonderful relationship on and off screen. Terry even stayed with Garland prior to filming so that they would be better acquainted during the shoot. Terry later lent Susan Hayward this pose for "I'll Plant My Own Tree" when she took over Judy's role in Valley of the Dolls (1967.) Okay... I made that up...

One of several posters that were developed for the release of The Champ.

But looky here... a piece of photo art that was used in creating the poster. Note how the real poster extends both Voight's and Dunaway's necks unnaturally! That gave me an idea for a party game and since "laughter through tears is my favorite emotion," I will show you how to do it. You print off the above photo with a copy for each person there and then let them fill it in the way they wish. Then everyone votes for the winner... Example below! LOL

Now don't get your titty in a twist. I'm just having some fun at the end of this post. Till next time, I'm yours truly... Poseidon!

Top Ten Anniversary: Favorite Movie Bitches

Let's face it... This post could have been simply ten Joan Crawford or Faye Dunaway roles (or split down the middle!) I reined it in so that some other gals could have a turn in the spotlight. Amazing as it may sound, I don't have Stella Stevens' Linda Rogo of The Poseidon Adventure (1972) on here even though I worship and adore her. Despite her (very!) rough edges, I don't really think of her as a bitch, at least not the way Stevens inhabited her. (The Linda in the book surely was an unmitigated one!) I also don't have Eleanor Parker's Baroness Schraeder of The Sound of Music (1965) on the list because I also don't consider her one either, even with some of her sarcasm and manipulations firmly in place. She knows when she's licked and responds gracefully. Carving the list down to ten was, as usual, difficult. But here we are in alphabetical order of their character's names.

AMANDA FARROW of The Best of Everything (1959) -- Rona Jaffe's novel of young career women facing the perils of office employment (and the wolves lying in wait to steal their virtue) was made into a plush romantic melodrama and on hand to show the kids how it's done was a recently widowed Joan Crawford as the tough-as-nails female exec. She orders Suzy Parker around like a slave, bites off Diane Baker's head ("Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!") and squares off against ambitious newbie Hope Lange. When Lange gingerly asks Crawford if she wants some comments "typed," she replies, "No... Beat it out on a native drum." Hardened from years of enduring her own boardroom battles, she finds solace in a married lover once a week, but when that begins to sour she hysterically tells him off over the phone, ending with the immortal line, "Now you and your rabbit-faced wife can both go to hell!" There isn't a wasted line, glance or gesture in the film from Miss C., who turned a barely-there character from the novel into an unforgettably steely and formidable antagonist for the film, yet she still has a certain amount of humanity and dignity in the end. And, like a couple of the ladies here, one can't help wondering if she isn't right more often than not.

CORA HALLETT of The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) -- With this film and the hooty Jacqueline Susann's Once is Not Enough (1978), Alexis Smith turned me into a life-long fan. Jodie Foster is almost the whole show (along with a slimy Martin Sheen) in this creepy thriller, but for the brief moments that Smith is on-screen as an imperious landlady, the screen crackles with tension and animosity. Again, there is not a single frame of Smith's performance that isn't completely on board with what she's there to do and she creates some really fun antagonistic fireworks with her fourteen year-old adversary.  Haughty, imperious and harboring certain secrets and fears, she's an uppity, busy-body bitch, but she has her reasons to be wary.

ESTELLE ANDERSON of Madame X (1966) -- The key word that comes to mind is brittle for this dragon-lady mother-in-law. Constance Bennett's voice is brittle, her reed-thin body seems brittle and oh, that hair! As the iron-willed matriarch of a powerful family with political aspirations (methinks at least part of this role was inspired by Rose Kennedy!), Bennett came out of a twelve-year retirement to make Lana Turner's life hell. Friendly for maybe a hot second, she soon betrays her instant loathing of the new wife her son John Forsythe has brought to the family mansion. My great love of grande dame, above-it-all, highly manipulative characters of this ilk probably stemmed from watching Bennett drive the unwanted pest out of her life with vigor and venom. Even with all this, she brings conviction to a moment near the finale where the regret for what she's done shows through. It's a wondrous performance from someone who was once the highest-paid actress in Hollywood and a major star thirty-years prior, yet who in fact was brittle enough that she never even lived long enough to see the film released!

HELEN JORGENSON of A Summer Place (1959) -- "I've read about how the Swedes bathe together and... and have trial marriages and free love. I've read all about that. Anything goes." Thus saith the sexually frigid and repressed mother to Sandra Dee as played by the estimable Constance Ford. This hilariously simmering Bitter Betty has all sorts of great moments as she frets over clean toilet seats and sneers at frowsy alleged "harlot" Dorothy McGuire. Then there's the "merry" Christmas during which she slaps Dee into their pitiful plastic tree, something only a real ogre could do. The sequence in which she insists that her poor daughter be inspected by a doctor for proof of her virginity is probably a teen girl version of Dustin Hoffman going to the dentist in The Marathon Man (1976!) My own favorite moment is when impudent Troy Donahue tells her that if she hurts Dee again, he'll kill her! I think it would take more than Troy to take down this brawny battle axe.

HELEN LAWSON of Valley of the Dolls (1967) -- The rock-hard Broadway musical veteran was intended to be played by Judy Garland, but when the wheels came off of that troubled situation, Miss Susan Hayward was immediately called in and somehow managed to embody the fire-breathing gorgon as if she'd been studying the part for months. Like Joan Crawford before her, Hayward showed the three young ladies who were starring in the film what it meant to be a powerful presence on-screen. Virtually every line that growlingly slips out of her smoky mouth is a quotable hoot. "The only hit that comes out of a Helen Lawson show is Helen Lawson, and that's ME, baby, remember?," "Neely hasn't got that hard core like me. She never learned to roll with the punches," "You oughtta know... you just got out of the nuthouse" and, of course, "Broadway doesn't go for booze and dope!" The whack-a-doodle lip-sync to (Margaret Whiting's rendition of) "I'll Plant My Own Tree" is splendiferously awful, but only adds to the fun.

KAREN WALLACE of Airport '77 (1977) -- In this movie, Lee Grant is probably the most selfish character imaginable. She's also one of the most audacious and hilarious to behold. When the luxury plane she's on with her agricultural scientist husband (Christopher Lee) crashes below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, she looks at him and says, "What's going to happen to me?" Uh... ME, not US! Ha ha! She does care for him in a possessive, grasping fashion, but isn't above dallying with his hunky associate Gil Gerard. When she's not insulting Lee's endowment by comparing it to toy-size liquor bottles, she's telling dewy Kathleen Quinlan to "move your ass, dear." After trying to extort sex out of Gerard lest she tell her husband about them, he accuses her of blackmailing him. Her response? "Well... Who else have I got to blackmail? I don't get to fool around that much," as if she is required to blackmail someone and he's all there is handy! One of the highlights is when she, in a state of abject shock, decides to put her purse on her arm and open the watertight door to the plane! Brenda Vaccaro attempts to stop her and starts getting pounded by a deranged Grant until finally in retaliation and defense she socks her in the jaw and drops her to the floor!

LIZ SAXON of Back Street (1961) --Although Lee Grant was a good primer, I think it was Vera Miles in this film who truly taught me what a shrew was! She's just positively awful to her gorgeous husband John Gavin, though it's likely that she has somehow sensed all along that his heart never fully belonged to her, but to a wartime lover (Susan Hayward) he lost due to a misunderstanding. Once he's rekindled his affection for Hayward, all bets are off where the already venomous (and drunken) Miles is concerned. She thinks it's fine to carry on with a ski instructor, but God forbid he pay any attention to another woman. She pulls out every stop from threatening suicide to using the children to outright going off the deep end near the climax. But her finest hour is when she realizes that the woman her husband is devoted to is the very fashion designer whose show is happening right in her social circle. She bleats out of the winning bid on Hayward's showpiece wedding dress and then publicly announces that it be sent to woman her husband "keeps on some back street!" It's a sterling piece of melodramatic cinema that I could watch endlessly. Fun fact: one year prior, Miles and Gavin played devoted cohorts in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), but here are at each other's throats most of the time.

MILADY DeWINTER of The Three/Four Musketeers (1973/1974) -- Faye Dunaway was the first movie star I ever recognized as such. As a dunderheaded seven year-old, I figured that every movie had its own unique cast and that was it, but after seeing The Three Musketeers and obtaining the paperback tie-in novel, I knew her name. When that name showed up in 1974's The Towering Inferno, my love of seeing stars paired up in all sorts of ways was born. But my love of deep-seeded villainy came with the truly deplorable Milady DeWinter, who let nothing lie in the way of what she wanted (or secrets she wanted to protect.) Dazzling to look at in a series of stunning Yvonne Blake finery, she was one dangerous cookie to try to crumble. At the end of the first film, she tells Charlton Heston's Cardinal Richelieu, "Your Eminence is a great player - great enough to lose. I do not like to lose," thus setting up the second part of the story, which was her revenge on the musketeers for thwarting her plans to disgrace Queen Anne. Having returned to France from arranging an assassination, she tells her lover, "I reek of England and Calvinism" and turns her attention to "the slut Bonancieux," played by Raquel Welch. I've yet to see any actress come close to the level that Dunaway achieved in this famous and much-filmed role.

REMY GRAFF of Earthquake (1974) -- "God-DAMMIT!" says Miss Ava Gardner at the opening of this film (oh, excuse me, this "Event" as the ads said!) and she never looks back from there. She pleads and grasps and commands and claws her way through the whole catastrophe as her screen time continues to sadly diminish. Her opening sequence (sadly trimmed for the final cut) is a symphony of bitchy antagonism towards her hubby Charlton Heston. "Don't you dare lower your voice to me!" Though he bears the brunt of her disdain, few people are safe from it. She grabs a dazed secretary after the big one hits and screams, "Laura, what about my fathah? LAURA! My FATHAH?!?" (her father being played by the less than eight years older Lorne Greene!) Later, she's all over physician Lloyd Nolan, too with, "Doctah, why aren't you with my fathah?!" There is no line of dialogue she delivers that I do not know by heart and try to use in real life whenever possible. Ha ha!

ROBERTA CARTER of Return to Peyton Place (1961) -- The day I saw this movie, my life changed forever. I bought it because I wanted to see Eleanor Parker in Lana Turner's old part and to check out Carol Lynley as the lead, but I was scarcely prepared for the sure-handed bitchery of one Mary Astor as the conservative town's most steely, domineering citizen. That Astor, who was made love to as a teen by John Barrymore and - trapped in a loveless marriage to a stodgy doctor - carried on a torrid affair with George S. Kaufman, should play this judgemental, smothering, controlling monster was a stroke of casting genius. It's not as if she chews scenery or gnashes her teeth at anyone. No, she's a cool customer who knows precisely how to delicately lob a death blow at her enemies, sometimes with a smile. This highly-troubled production (which suffered considerable editing prior to release) was not a great success, and Astor's role was interfered with in post-production, but it matters not. Her presence in the film is towering and unforgettable and caused me to utterly adore her where before I merely appreciated her.

BONUS PICS!

Who can turn the world on with her bile? The stone-hearted Estelle Anderson as played by the zesty Constance Bennett (with Mary Tyler Moore-ish wig in place!)

This is a full version of the picture used in the above post. After Bennett decided to come out of a dozen years' retirement, she had her face done, leading some folks to remark that she looked younger and better than star Lana Turner. As a diehard Lana fan, I can't go that far, but she did look pretty good (and was certainly slim!) She died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage not long after Madame X was in the can at only age sixty.

This is a three-page spread from a 1975 British television channel guide that was published not long before Susan Hayward's death and is heavily centered on Valley of the Dolls.

VOD was playing on the telly that week and so the issue had info on not only Hayward, but also Charles Drake, with Barbara Parkins gracing the cover. Here, Hayward shows off her spangled Travilla muu muu.

In case anyone wanted to read the accompanying text, which tells some of her up & down real life story while strenuously trying to associate it with VOD...

Our gal Lee Grant, showing off her Burton Miller get-up. Somehow all these years later (I first saw Airport '77 in a theater forty-two years ago - can it be possible?!) I had no idea that she was in platform shoes in the movie?! Or were these replaced at some point with other black heels...? I always adored this pantsuit, which starts off with a coordinating jacket over it (and another brooch!)

Don't let the soft frills fool you. Liz Saxon is a dangerous and retaliatory adversary. Vera Miles had shaved her head for Five Branded Women (1960), which led to her wearing a wig for Psycho (1960.) Now, one year later, she had much of her coiffure back, though it was still short and needed some assistance towards the back at times.

No one whams a purse down onto a bed like Mary Astor. Her character was intended to be so aghast at her unsuitable daughter-in-law that she burns the house down with her in it (!), but this story point was eliminated in the final cut. I would love, love, LOVE to see any of the deleted footage of Astor's performance even though I consider what's there to be perfection.

Ava Gardner sports what was then a hot trend: The Drowned Rat Look! Actually, the plucky Miss Gardner (then fifty-two) refused the aid of a stunt double for much of the climactic flood of Earthquake and earned a round of applause from the crew after one particularly grueling take.

Lastly, I've posted this hooty pic before, but not with the caption provided by Universal Studio's publicity department. "Sheer terror!" LOL  This outfit is only seen momentarily in the film because the scene it was featured in was cut. In it, we were asked to believe that Charlton Heston wanted more-than-half-a-century-old Gardner to have children and was furious because she'd recently had a secret abortion...!