THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE: Katharine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall

It was Katharine Hepburn’s birthday yesterday but I was travelling all day, which means that for the first time ever, I didn’t post something on May 12th! Well, I’m about to rectify that now! Here we are.

May’s THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE goes to Katharine Hepburn, as planned. And who better to pair her with than another great baddass woman, whom she was very good friends with all her life?

The all-time record holder for the most Oscars for acting, it seems that Katharine Hepburn did it all. From her family-oriented upbringing in Connecticut, to her start on he legitimate stage, to her rocky first decade in Hollywood, during which she won her first Oscar for Morning Glory (1933), and was named ‘box-office poison’, to winning four Oscars, the last of which in 1981 for On Golden Pond. Talk about range. Her characters, it seemed, were often tailor-made for her, or at least inspired by her, in particular Tracy Lord from The Philadelphia Story (1940). Throughout her career, whenever she was on screen, you knew she was the boss. She played strong, complex women, who knew what they wanted and knew how to go after it, but who could also be vulnerable and sweet.

Who does that remind you of? Her lifelong friend Lauren Bacall also knew a thing or two about being and playing strong women. She started out as a model in her native New York, before enrolling in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She made her film debut in To Have and Have Not (1944), at the age of 19, which is mind-blowing to me. Right away, she brought that confidence and sense of self that she would come to be associated with. Her roles in The Big Sleep (1946), Young Man With A Horn (1950), How To Marry A Millionaire (1953), and many others often reflected that. She famously never won an Oscar, but she did win two Tony’s, for her performances in Applause (1970), based on All About Eve, in which she played Margo Channing, and Woman of the Year (1981), in which she played the role originally played by Katharine Hepburn in the film, Tess Harding. Isn’t that something!

They became friends when Hepburn and Bacall’s husband Humphrey Bogart were filming The African Queen (1951) and remained close until Hepburn’s death in 2003, eleven years before Bacall’s death in 2014. It’s kind of weird that they were never on screen together, because I think they would have been absolutely incredible. They probably would have played a couple of bickering siblings or best friends going on some crazy adventure or something like that. Can you imagine the zingers? Or maybe something off-beat like The Women (1939). Throw in Eve Arden, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland and you’ve got yourself a winner.

THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE: Brian Donlevy and Charles McGraw

The bad boys of film noir are here! And they never made a movie together. Let’s dive in!

Ohio-born Brian Donlevy started his career in New York, modelling for advertisements, before moving onto the theatre. Hollywood came calling in the 1920s and for the next three decades he was mainstay in film noir and dramas, in films such as Union Pacific (1939, dir. Cecil B. DeMille), Beau Geste (1939, dir. William A. Wellmann), for which he recieved an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor, The Glass Key (1942, dir. Stuart Heisler) and The Big Combo (1955, dir. Joseph H. Lewis). His piercing eyes and deadpan, cold delivery made him a reliable character actor who could play big tough guys better than almost anyone.

Anyone except Charles McGraw. Iowa-born McGraw was a film noir staple and a darned good one at that. I’ve often spoken about how he literally scares me half to death every time he’s on screen and if you’ve ever seen The Killers (1946, dir. Robert Siodmak), T-Men (1947, dir. Anthony Mann), and especially Border Incident (1949, dir. Mann), you’ll understand why. And though he did play leads occasionally, such as The Narrow Margin (1952, dir. Richard Fleischer) and Roadblock (1951, dir. Harold Daniels), he was one of the ultimate character actors of his generation. With his cold stare and menacing attitude, he particularly excelled at villainous roles.

I’d like to think that sometimes in the late 40s or early to mid-50s, when they were both at their peak, they would have made a noir together. McGraw would have probably played some outlaw of sorts, who runs around killing people, while Donlevy would have been a corrupt police officer or maybe even a former associate of McGraw’s character. Imagine the scenes between them! One of them would end up dead, for sure.

They seem like such an obvious pair, it’s kind of interesting that they never made a film together. Sadly, Donlevy died in 1972 from cancer at 71, and McGraw died in 1980 at the age of 66. He fell in his home and tragically bled to death.

Spring News – Medium, Substack and Short Film!

It’s April, spring has finally sprung and I’ve been having some lovely writing sessions in the sun! I’m nearly finished with the seventh draft of my TV pilot and my Medium and Substack accounts are more popular than ever.

My post about femme fatale Kathie Moffat from Out of the Past (1947) is the most read article ever on The Losers of Film Noir, by a long mile. I was extremey pleased with this, but I can’t say I’m super surprised. She continues to be one of the most popular, fascinating, enduring and enigmatic characters in film noir. Here’s the article.

My Medium account has also seen a fair amount of spikes in views. As you know, this is my one and only job at the moment, and I make money when someone reads any article for at least 30 seconds. This is fantastic and I would like to thank every single one of you who has subscribed to Medium account, and for those of you who wish to read/subscribe, here it is.

Finally, my short film has now been submitted to film festivals and we are waiting to hear back! Hopefully, we can share it with you very soon.

Carol x

MISMATCHED COUPLES BLOGATHON: Jean Arthur and Joel McRea in The More the Merrier (1943)

Image from filmcomment.com

The Mismatched Couples Blogathon is here! And you know I love a blogathon. Blogathons AND mismatched couples? Do you know what that does to a classic movie buff? My heart sings, I tell ya. Sooo, who to talk about?

There are plenty of mismatched couples to choose from and luckily a lot of them have been chosen already, which makes my job a lot easier (click on the link above and read all the entries!). So, what about that really mistmatched, not-quite-couple couple Jean Arthur and Joel McRea in one of the cutest romantic comedies ever, The More the Merrier (1943, dir. George Stevens)?

Judge for yourself: it’s the middle of the war and there’s a housing crisis in Washington DC. Connie Milligan (Arthur) and Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn in an Oscar-winning performance) have to share an apartment. Neither of them is particularly happy but they make it work, sort of, with compromise and an over-complicated morning routine. Then Dingle decides to get a roommate… to share his half of the house. Enter Joe Carter (McRea). Soon, he and Connie develop an attraction to each other…

Apart from the performances of three leads, The More the Merrier‘s comedy brilliance relies on its improbable situation. You have three people who would rather live by themselves than with each other, all three of whom could easily fit the bill for this blogathon. Literally. I could have chosen any pairing among the three: Connie and Dingle have a cute, unlikely friendship, with Dingle acting as a sort of father figure; Dingle and Joe also have an unusual relationship, relying mostly on circumstances, though they end up forming a bond. And Connie and Joe manage to find love among the chaos. With the help of cupid-in-residence Mr Dingle, of course. What starts off as an inconvenience ends up as one of the sweetest romances ever in a 1940s rom-com and there’s a lot of competition there! Problem is, Connie is engaged… You can tell it’s not super serious, mostly because he’s played by Mr Norton from Double Indemnity, Richard Gaines, a sort of Ralph Bellamny when Ralph Bellamy was out of town. But Connie and Joe… that’s a different story. They are tender, sweet, funny and when they finally give in, it is incredibly sensual. Arthur’s comedy skills are perfectly paired with McRea’s natural, straight-man acting style – something I’ve always loved about him. And that ending… oh that ending!

Despite The More the Merrier being surprisingly underrated, falling between the cracks among the likes of The Philadelphia Story and Ball of Fire, it holds up well in the inner circles of classic movie buffs. And it is down to Arthur, McRea and Coburn, under the direction of the equally underrated George Stevens. But they’d be nowhere without that script, byt Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster. It was even nominated for Best Screenplay but it lost to… Casablanca. Sometimes you just can’t win. Literally.

THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE: Steve McQueen and Kim Novak

She’s cool, icy and blonde. He’s cool, icy an- you guessed it. Seems obvious enough and yet, Kim Novak and Steve McQueen never made a movie together. How?

Steve ‘King of Cool’ McQueen was one of the biggest movie stars in the world during the 60s and 70s, with his impossibly chilled persona, striking looks and natural acting style. With films such as The Great Escape (1963), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Pappilon (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), he was a constant presence on our screens, and received his only Academy Award nomination for The Sand Pebbles (1966). By the mid-70s, he was the highest paid movie star in the world.

Kim Novak was one of the most sought-after Hollywood stars following her breakthrough roles in Pushover (1954) and Picnic (1955). Then came The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), Pal Joey (1957) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958). Her most iconic role came in 1958, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, in which she was at her most Kim Novak-y. Sexy, and with a bewildering screen presence, she was the coolest.

One of, anyway. The other being Steve McQueen. He sadly left us in 1980, but she is still with us at 91 years old. The two of them may have crossed paths at some point, but were never on screen together. And I think that’s outrageous. Can you imagine the two of them sharing a movie screen? With their combined icy-ness, and smouldering sexuality, something like a cross between The Thomas Crown Affair and Vertigo, sometime in the mid 60s, would have been perfect. Perhaps something along the lines of a love-hate relationship, full of twists and turns. Or a full-blown thriller. Or both! That would have been awesome.

International Women’s Day – 8 Classic Movies

It’s International Women’s Day! And like the Valentine’s Day article, I wanted to post a little something to celebrate. You know I like a date/holiday/celebration/anniversary, etc…

I thought of doing something about classic female directors, but apart from Ida Lupino and Lois Weber and a few select others, there aren’t that many, I’m sorry to say. We’ve come a long way indeed!

So I thougth about something else: films about female friendships. I’ve talked about a few of these in previous posts about friendships on film but I want to focus on the female-led ones for this post.

Here are just some of the greatest films of Hollywood’s Golden Age about or featuring female friendships and relationships, to varying degrees!

• Desk Set (1957)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
• The Women (1939)
• Ladies We Talk About (1933)
• Stage Door (1937)
• Shanghai Express (1932)
• 42nd street (1933)
• Meet Me in St Louis (1944)

Some of these feature friends (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Shanghai Express), others feature sisters (Meet Me In St Louis), while others are… interesting takes on female friendships (The Women). Stage Door, I think, is one of the greatest ever films about female friendship, with its realistic portrayal about women overcoming their differences and supporting each other. Ladies They Talk About is an interesting take, as it features a scenario in which women are tied together due to circumstances (prison). Desk Set has one of the my all-time favourite friendships, easy-going and hilarious, and 42nd Street is pretty much along the lines of Stage Door.

Any of these would be an awesome choice for today! Happy International Women’s Day, everyone!

THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE: Rock Hudson and Jeffrey Hunter

In our second installment of THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE, we are taking you through two of the 1950s’ finest. Two people who, by all accounts, mine mostly as that is the point of this series, would have been perfect together in a movie. It’s kind of unbelievable that that never happened. They are…

Rock Hudson and Jeffrey Hunter.

Illinois-born Rock Hudson was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1950s. With a string of box office hits such as Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956) and Giant (1956), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, he was bankable, hot and exciting. His quiet demeanour, charming personality and likeable characters won audiences over and his success carried over into the 60s and even 70s.

Hailing from New Orleans, Jeffrey Hunter began his career in the theatre and radio, before signing with 20th Century Fox. He made his movie debut in Fourteen Hours (1951). Through modest successes such as Lure of the Wilderness (1952) and Three Young Texans (1954), he became a star, and Westerns were his game. The Searchers (1956) is his biggest ever film and the one most people still associate with him. He held his own alongisde John Wayne and I’ve personally always loved his performance.

Hudson and Hunter were actually quite similar in many ways, as far as their Hollywood stories go. They were roughly the same age, with Hudson being a year older, they both had to change their names (Roy Sherer and Henry McKinnies don’t have quite the same ring to them, do they?), and they both died young and tragically – Rock Hudson died at 59 in 1985 from AIDS and Jeffrey Hunter died at 42 in 1969 from a hemorrhage. By all accounts, they were friends during their Hollywood days so it makes you wonder what kind of project they’d have been on board with, if such an opportunity were to arise.

A Western/family drama hybrid of sorts, in my opinion, is what Rock Hudson and Jeffrey Hunter should have done together. I would imagine some sort of sibling rivalry going on, or perhaps two best friends who grew apart over the years before something brought them together again. Hudson’s warmth versus Hunter’s intensity would have made a perfect combination. They would have been great.

So Bad It’s Good Blogathon – They Came to Cordura (1959)

Image from Trailers from Hell

The Sixth So Bad It’s Good Blogathon is here! My friend Rebecca over at Taking Up Room is once again hosting this marvellous blogathon where we all essentially gush over or bash films we consider to be bad… so bad they’re… good is a stretch, but let’s say, alright-ish. Check out all the entries here!

My entry is a Western that I’ve always thoguht was one of the weakest ones. I re-watched it again recently for this article and I still stand by it. I’m talking about They Came to Cordura (1959).

In They Came to Cordura (1959, dir, Robert Rossen), Major Thomas Thorn (Gary Cooper) is tasked with recommending soldiers for the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Mexican Border Incursion of 1916. He rounds up a group of men and they make their way to Cordura. Along the way, they meet Adelaide Geary (Rita Hayworth), the owner of a border town who’s accused of helping Mexico against the United States.

Written by Rossen and Ivan Moffat and based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout, They Came To Cordura features a dream supporting cast including Tab Hunter, Dick York, Van Heflin and Richard Conte, and right off the bat, it looks like it has all the right elements to make it good. On paper. On film, They Came to Cordura fails on so many levels. It sounds like a Western, it feels like a Western, but it essentially tries too hard to actually be a Western, with stuff that we’ve seen time and again, and not a whole lot of inventive or innovative moments or ideas. It is pretty much a run-of-the-mill Western where everything just looks slightly… fake.

The action scenes are overdone and come in way too early, the direction is patchy and the cinematography looks weird, with a blue-ish tone to it that doesn’t look quite right. And with a cast like that (Richard Conte in a Western? Yes please!), you’d think the performances would really stand out, but apart from Tab Hunter, no performance in the movie is really that believable and the always lovely Rita Hayworth is downright miscast.

I always thought They Came to Cordura didn’t know what it wanted to be, and just decided to take notes from other Westerns and run with it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it has its moments. The scenes between Hayworth and Cooper are really sweet, and the ending is especially lovely and it does convey a sort of message that seems to be the theme of the film. But overall, it is one of the weaker Westerns, though it’s to be expected, given the sheer amount of Westerns that were produced during that period. They can’t all be The Searchers (1956).

But on the other hand, I sort of named my Western screenplay after it, so… yay!

Galentine’s Day? Malentine’s Day? Sailentine’s Day? A film for each!

Image from Unsplash (Markus Spiske)

The London-based Instagram page AllOnTheBoard made a post today about the so-called Galentine’s Day, ahead of tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day. Galentine’s Day, for those of you who don’t know, refers to women who prefer to hang out with their friends. So what they’ve done is, they made a bunch of puns for other types of Valentine’s Day, so I thought I’d recommend a movie for each of them, in case you’re staying home tomorrow and/or spending it with whomever.

Here we go! Shout-out to AllOnTheBoard, give them a follow 🙂

Galentine’s Day (gals pals!) – Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Malentine’s Day (with the boys!)- Any of the Road To movies
Palentine’s Day (with friends) – Some Like it Hot (1959)
Salentine’s Day (shopping) – Easy Living (1937)
Sailentine’s Day (shipping) – Monkey Business (1931)
Railentine’s Day (on a train) – Strangers on the Train (1951)
Nailentine’s Day (doing DIY) – Summer Stock (1950) – bit of a stretch, I’ll admit
Wailentine’s Day (at the Karaoke) – West Side Story (1961)
Talentine’s Day (reading a book) – To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Tailentine’s Day (with pets) – The Birds (1963)
Jailentine’s Day (in jail) – Caged (1950)

Happy Whatever’s Day!

THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE: Gregory Peck and Barbara Stanwyck

2024 is here and so is my new series of posts. To tell you the truth, everytime I try to think of a new series of posts at the end of the year, I always think I’ve run out of ideas. I’ve talked about movies that should be watched one after the other, comedy scenes, people who never won an Oscar, among many other things… What’s there to talk about? Between the Garden, Losers of Film Noir and Medium, I’m talking about all sorts of things across three blogs, do I really have it in me to come up with a series of posts about movies?

Well… what if I don’t have to talk about a movie at all? What if I just wrote about the movies that never were? Specifically, the movie pairings that never were. Actors who never made a movie together?

Welcome to THE PAIRS THAT NEVER WERE. In this series, I shall be talking about two actors who were never in a movie together and why that should have happened at some point. Starting with…

Gregory Peck and Barbara Stanwyck.

That’s right. Incredible as that may be, Gregory Peck and Barbara Stanwyck neve made a movie together. You’d have thought they would have, but nope, these two icons never shared the screen with one another. Peck’s suave looks, rich voice and commanding screen presence would have been a perfect match for Stanwyck’s no-nonsense, strong-willed aura.

Peck got his big break in the mid-40s, and by thatpoint, Stanwyck had already made a name for herself in Hollywood. If they had made a movie together, the 1940s would have most likely been the ideal era for them. They were both young enough by Hollywood standards to play romantic leads, even though Stanwyck was 9 years older than Peck, and with Peck’s rise to stardom and Stanwyck’s incredible streak (Ball of Fire, Meet John Doe, Double Indemnity, etc), they would have been a sure bet and most certainly a box office hit. But what would that have been, exactly? I would imagine some sort of melodrama, a la Spellbound (1945), or maybe a comedy, like The Lady Eve (1941). Either way, it would have been great and it’s a shame they never made a film together.