Happy Holidays: The Classic Movie Style!!!!
(Part 8)
Here
is part eight of our holiday season's best in pictures, music and all things
Classic Movies!! Hope you enjoy these installments as much as I do with putting
them together. It is a lot of fun to see our favorite screen celebrities and
lovely tunes to enjoy, what true gifts in my book! I will be posting a few of
these to keep us all posted as to what our ladies and gentlemen of the silver
screen are up to and singing for this holdiay season, so let's get a good egg
nog and put the lights down for some fun yule tides!!!! Happy watching. : )
In Pictures: Anita PageHere is our third installment of this new feature to "Love Those Classic Movies!!!" where we simply enjoy via beautiful pictures some of our favorite golden age classic stars. Not a lot of writing at all or tid bits or extras just simply as it is stated, "in pictures!" Hope you all enjoy Anita Page in pictures, cheers!!!!
Anita Page was a very classic star of the silent film era and very much a siren of the time.
Had the nickname, "The Girl With the Most Beautiful Face in Hollywood" whom was born in August of 1910 in New York. Anita's career spanned over 80 yrs until her death in 2008 of natural causes at the age of 98 yrs young. What a long career being the last survivor of attending the very first Academy Awards!
Anita Page's first film was in 1925's, "A Kiss for Cinderella" which was a very samll and uncredited role. MGM took notice of this blonde beauty and signed her up to a long term contract along with moving out to Hollywood to start making silent films in the big time!!! Her next films were with MGM were now starring leads in major motion pictures along with co-starring roles. Some very notewrothy of her silen films are, "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928), "While The City Sleeps" (1928), "The Flying Fleet," (1929), "Our Modern Maidens" (1929), "Sppedway" (1929) and then entered the talkies for Anita starting in 1929 starting with "The Broadway Meloday" (1929) and "Navy Blues" (1929). Anita has starred with many of the film greats of the time such as Joan Crawford ("Our Dancing Daughteres", "Our Modern Maidens,""Great Day, & "Our Blushing Brides") in films such as "Our Dancing Daughters" there are many times that Anita steals the scenes from the other cast members and can truly hold her own against the likes of Joan Crawford. Another is Lon Cheney whom she starred with in "While The City Sleeps" and was a very nice equal to him. Williams Haines in films such as "Speedway" and "Navy Blues" was a very nice love match for her on screen.
Interesting Facts:
In 1929 Anita received over 10,000 fan letters a week, second only to Greta Garbo. Over one hundred of these were from an ardent Italian admirer, who wrote obsessively about her every move and asked for her hand in marriage several times - Benito Mussolini!
Received a standing ovation before a full house while attending a screening of 1929 Best Picture Winner "The Broadway Meolody" (1929) in 2002 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 75th anniversary
Even at the age of 98 prior to her passing, Anita still would wear the dresses she wore in the 1920's, what a lady!
She acted with Calrk Gable as his first on-screen love interest in "The Easiest Way" (1931)
Anita Page & Clark Gable in "The Easiest Way" (1931)
Post Silent Films:
Anita Page faired well in the post silent film era where it might have been feared it might have been over. Anita starred in films such as "The Easiest Way" (1931) with Clark Gable, "Free and Easy" (1930) starring with Buster Keaton, Robert Montgomery, & Lionel Barrymore. "Free and Easy" (1930) ill fated never completed film, "Our Blushing Brides" (1930), "Little Accident" with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., "War Nurse" (1930), "Skycrapper Souls" (1932) co-starring with Maureen O'Sullivan including others. As of 1933, Anita Page made 34 films and her contract with MGM Studios was up. Anita decided to walk away from Hollywood and retire from being an actress on the silver screen doing one more film in 1936. All of a suuden Anita filmed a role in a film in 1961 out of nowhere called, ""The Runaway" as a nun then came back to the screen in the mid 1990's and has a film released this year called, "Frankenstein Rising" (2010) being relased after her passing. What a career this lady has had!
To explain her retirement:
In an interview conducted in 2004, Anita Page revealed that her early retirement had been due to her refusal to give in to Irving Thalberg's and/or Louis B. Mayer's (head of MGM) sexual advances.
"NOW! The man of 1,000 faces in a picture with 1,000 THRILLS! "
Plot:
This silent classic centers on the detectives who tirelessly walk the streets and work hard in the police station looking for the criminals in New York City during the 1920's. Back then NYC was still a perfect back-drop for this drama. Detective Dan Callahan (Cheney) is looking to put away the man whom murdered a fellow policeman which is the notorious gangster Skeeter (Oakman). Callahan has patrolled the streets as a detective and is now feeling very warn out and at time discouraged that he is still unable to arrest Skeeter for the crime due to insufficient evidence.
Then a murder occurs of a jeweler where Callahan is the detective and finds that Skeeter is at the scene of the crime and of course says he just "happened" to be there. Skeeter now owns and operates a legal funeral home in the city which is his home office for his criminal activities and Callahan knows this. Callahan needs to get the hard evidence to pin point that Skeeter now murdered the jewelwe and is doing illegal activites at the funeral home.
Meanwhile, Skeeter has his eye on this young lady named Myrtle (Page) whom happens to be a long time family friend of Skeeter's. Prior to his advances towards Myrtle he had a long affair with Bessie (Busch) whom he used and treated very poorly. Bessie finally decided to speak-up to Callahan about the murder that Skeeter committed against the jeweler so finally he had the evidence required. Then Bessie was found murdered outside in her car prior to her date in court against Skeeter. Skeeter's father whom has since passed was a good friend with Callahan and of course he sees the advances being made towards Myrtle and is doing everything in his power to keep her from harms way. Myrtle is a young and lovely lady whom is up with the latest trends in fashion and has affections for a young man named Marty (Nye). Marty is working for Skeeter doing his dirty work and is offered a fur coat for Myrtle. The deal is that Marty can get the coat if he steals a load of furs from a warehouse. All this is then heard by Callahan while hiding in a coffin in the funeral home, very sneaky of him!
Callahan decides when capturing the Marty during the act of stealing that he is let go but has to leave and not see Myrtle again so he decides to do so. A love triangle ensues when later on Marty has now cleaned-up his life and has a job in New Jersey looks for Myrtle who is now to be wedded to Callahan. The real love birds whom are Myrtle and Marty end up being together at the end and go to get married with Callahan's blessing. This is a very good Lon Cheney drama where he is not typically is costume with a mask and it is well worth to see the depth that he can play in other roles that we overlook often.
Silent Film Classic: "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928) is a true testament to classic silent film era films.
MGM Studios / Directed By: Harry Beaumont
Starring: Joan Crawford, Anita Page, Johnny Mack Brown, Nils Ashter, & Dorothy Sebastian
Nominated in 1930 for two Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography & Writing.
This film is also known to have made Joan Crawford a "star"
Plot:
"Our Dancing Daughters" is a love letter to the jazz age in classic films. This takes place in the roaring twenties where three young ladies are loving life and being flappers dancing and parting all night long with meeting all the dashing gentlemen that come along with it. Diana Medford (Crawford) is the socialite of the three ladies whom is famous for her dance routines at all the parties but other than that is down to earth. Another of the three friends is Ann (Page) whom is Diana's best friend. Ann is the gold digger of the three girls whom wants to lay her hands on a wealthy man. Ann is the sweet girl in acting while down deep is really a cold hearted person whom is truly out for herself. Beatrice (Sebastian) is the third of the three friends whom is a kind girl currently with a checkered past. The film starts with all three ladies getting ready to go to a big party where Diana does a rousing rendition of the "Charleston"...what a way to start the film!!!
During this big party Diana meets a dashing gentleman from the south named Ben Blaine (Mack Brown). Ben is a very wealthy man whom is smitten with Diana which is vice versa. Ann then finds out that Ben is wealthy and wants to marry him so pretends to be pure and innocent just what he wants out of a girl. Ann tells him that she wants to marry and have children just like what he wants for his life as well. Diana decides to step aside for Ann and Ben to start a relationship even though it is under false pretences that she is unaware of.
During this time Beatrice is getting married to man named Norman (Ashter). Norman is very disapproving of Beatrice's friends and when they come and visit them in there lovely home will always walk out and have nothing to do with them. This a truly lovely film to watch with the gowns designed by the famed Adrian (my all time favorite film costume designer) and the visually stunning Art-Deco sets.
Quote from film: "Come on, Miss Diane, strut your stuff!"
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