Taking Up Room's first blogathon of 2021... Carmen Miranda's star rose very quickly in the United States, and it didn't take long for Twentieth Century Fox to play that up in a big way. The most overt example of was 1943's The Gang's All Here. The film appears to be an homage to the Good Neighbor … Continue reading The Lady In the Tutti-Frutti Hat
That Lubitsch Touch
Ernst Lubitsch was born in Berlin in 1892 and had a long career in Germany as a comic actor, writer, and director. Britannica says Lubitsch directed over forty films before coming to America in 1923. After seeing a Lubitsch film, people often ask, "What made Ernst Lubistch different?" Especially directors and writers, because they all … Continue reading That Lubitsch Touch
The Show Must Go On
Some crazy, crazy stuff hit theaters during the Second World War. Audiences were receptive to it, as they were looking for an escape from worry or bad news. One of the craziest was 1943's Thank Your Lucky Stars. Warner Bros. not only crammed in every star it could, but many of them act delightfully out of character. … Continue reading The Show Must Go On
So Long, Champ
Hello, Mr. Rains... Claude Rains could play anyone...well, almost anyone. He never was a song-and-dance man. He was known for his elegant gentility, whether he played a villain, a hero, or someone in between. In 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Rains plays what appears to be his usual type, only he holds an extra set of … Continue reading So Long, Champ
Three Ziegfeld Girls
While The Great Ziegfeld is a terrific movie, only a small percentage of it focused on the actual making of the Follies. We barely even got to see those famed stairs. Like Broadway, the Follies are a big subject, and in 1941, MGM revisited them in Ziegfeld Girl. Starring James Stewart, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and Hedy Lamarr, … Continue reading Three Ziegfeld Girls
Stage To Screen: Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic play and film, a slightly macabre mix of black humor and irony. Written by Joseph Kesselring, its original run on Broadway was 1,444 performances, and it still holds up today. The story initially seems very simple, but it likes to grab the viewer with lots of gotchas, done so … Continue reading Stage To Screen: Arsenic and Old Lace
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