i luv cinema

Home Archives for Appreciation Post

By 1 Comment

A Tribute to Ruby Dee (1922-2014)

Ruby DeeEarlier this month, we lost a good actress and by all account a greater human being. Legendary actress of stage and screen (big and small), Ruby Dee passed away at the age of 91 on June 11th. At least for the bulk of my lifetime, I knew of her through her activism, partnership with husband Ossie Davis and the films she would grace with her presence in her later years.

I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of my favorite films that showcase Dee from earlier in her long and prolific career. While the roles were never “headliners” in the way we think of modern movie stardom, it is worthwhile to note the film projects she chose to affiliate herself with. There are quite a number from this period in her career to choose from, but I am just going to highlight a few.

No Way Out (1950): Featured alongside husband Davis (both uncredited), this Sidney Poitier/Richard Widmark drama handled its challenging subject matter rather well.

The Tall Target (1951): A political thriller set at the height of the Civil War, Dick Powell is the star, but Ruby Dee features heavily in her role as Rachel, a slave accompanying her mistress aboard a train with a mysterious passenger.

Edge of the City (1957): Another film from the era (also starring Sidney Poitier) that examines the friendship between longshoremen Poitier and John Cassavetes and how the tense racial environment around them affects that relationship; the film is directed by Martin Ritt.

St. Louis Blues (1958): A fictionalized account of the life of American musical pioneer WC Handy (Nat King Cole). In this film Dee stars as Elizabeth, Handy’s steadfast wife.

If you get the opportunity, please seek out these films and get a glimpse of quiet confidence with which Ruby Dee carried herself in these roles.

* I would have added her performance as Rachel Robinson in The Jackie Robinson Story, but I honestly do not remember if I have seen it.

Programming Notice: Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will be airing a 2-movie tribute to Ruby Dee on Saturday, June 28th, featuring the aforementioned Edge of the City and the screen adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun.

By 2 Comments

Joan Crawford Birthday Post

Any appreciation I have for Joan Crawford is interesting for me. I mean she is not an absolute favorite of mine (her acting never blew me away), I concede that the combination of her striking beauty and indomitable will produced the requisite star power for success in the studio system. This was on full display not only in her early silent performances but, with the advent of sound, during her halcyon days at the dream factory that was MGM.

joan crawfordIn honor of the anniversary of her birth, I decided to dedicate this post to highlighting some of my favorite Crawford films.

The Unknown (1927): of course centered the performance by Lon Chaney, this film is deliciously demented.

Our Dancing Daughters (1928): I think the TCM description says it best: “A flapper sets her hat for a man with a hard-drinking wife.” Yup, that.

Our Modern Maidens (1929): Crawford’s final silent film.

Rain (1932): Paging Sadie Thompson. Based on the Somerset Maugham story of a prostitute and missionary stuck on an island.

The Women (1939): Seriously how could this not be on my list? JUNGLE RED FORVEVER

Mildred Pierce (1945): sure she is a pushover for Vida, but she gets hers in the end. Not exactly what I would consider a noir, this performance gave Crawford her Academy Award for Best Actress.

Humoresque (1946): Crawford at her melodramatic finest.

Possessed (1947): Crawford played unstable so well. This was it for me. I love watching this movie.

Sudden Fear (1952): Crawford is a classic film-noir damsel in distress.

Johnny Guitar (1954): A recent add to my list as I have only recently seen it. A saucy Western where the protagonist/antagonist are female and the men feel a little like window dressing.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) : Time to play “opposite day” with previous entry; a film which posits aging females as macabre, grotesque figures that are either to be pitied or feared.

Over her the decades, she went from flapper (ingénue) to a matron, slowly growing off kilter to and finally descended into to the horror camp arena. While this is sadly the fate that many actresses of her time had to suffer (but has a lot changed), Crawford approached every role with equal parts aplomb and dedication to her craft.

What are some of your favorite Crawford pics?

By 4 Comments

The Girl With the “Laughing Gas”

Lost to time … my tale of pioneering African-American actress Bertha Regustus.

Several months ago, while watching the miniseries The Story of Film – An Odyssey, I was taken with a clip from the early silent Laughing Gas (1907, dir. by Edwin S Porter) and its lead, Bertha Regustus. Not only did she strike me with her beauty and affable appearance, what I found most appealing about her (and the film) was, despite being African-American, this was not a ‘race film’ (quite something for the time) and that her character’s, ethnicity played no factor in the narrative, also unique for its time. In the central role, Mandy (Regustus) visits the dentist’s office in excruciating pain. As part of her treatment, she is administered laughing gas and …

… on her way walking home, and in other situations, she can’t stop laughing, and everyone she meets “catches” the laughter from her, including a vendor and police officers.  (Source: Wikipedia)

Laughing Gas Bertha Regustus

I also found this wonderful scene-by-scene account of the film, which runs around eight and a half minutes in length. But you do not have to take this author’s word for it; go ahead and watch it below!

Nearly a year later another film with the same plot and title was produced. These pieces were produced presumably to demonstrate the power and contagious nature of laughter (Source: Kino Lorber).
porter-laughing-gas

Since that evening, the image of her face, frozen in rapturous laughter, has been indelibly marked on my brain. I resolved to make it a goal of mine to find out as much as I could about Regustus’ life and work.

Cue the montage of me spending what felt like a long time devoted to internet exploring; alas, the results proved scant. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), produced one very intriguing fact – that this was in fact her only film credit. Undaunted, I charged ahead with a similar measure of success. This deeper dive yielded little else, save for a brief mention in an article featured in a 2013 Highbrow Magazine.

At this point, I come to you, fellow lovers of film and film history – have YOU heard of this early African American artist, quite possibly cinema’s first major African-American film star? Please share in the Comments section below.

In closing, this remarkable mini-adventure of mine has shown me the beauty and ultimate tragedy of this medium we all love so much – while it captures fleeting moments of joy for our entertainment, its players are preserved for posterity, and/or in this case, lost to time.

totalfilm600movieblogs