Cheer up sleepy jean arthur biography
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Posted by Tim Brayton Posted on Feb - 22 - 20102 Comments
Alternate reality history
And who among us doesn't love squirrelly old romantic melodramas altogether? he asked tentatively, well knowing that in fact many people do not love them, that many people find this kind of overdetermined, overworked combination of unlikely stories and garish emotional displays to be exactly the proof that old movies from 70 years ago are quite tawdry and disposable, thank you very much, and we'll stick to our contemporary movies with some grounding in the way real people actually act, thank you very much (meanwhile, Avatar sets financial records every single time a human being pays money to see it).
I shall point all of you, whether a lover of that particularly pre-war breed of romantic weeper or its enemy, to History Is Made at Night, a 1937 film directed by the excellent and still underexposed and under-appreciated Frank Borzage, a film that will either confirm or confound your existing i
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When it comes to the romantic comedy, classic Hollywood has everybody beat. If you haven't seen a rom-com from the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s, you're denying yourself one of life's greatest joys. There are many inom could recommend, but for my money, the gold standard may just be George Stevens's The More the Merrier (1943). The film is unique in that its premise should render it completely outdated — it takes place during the Washington, D.C. housing shortage in WWII — yet it feels fresh, vibrant, and exciting.
When Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) decides to rent out half of her apartment, she winds up with eccentric Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) as her roommate. Having taken a liking to Connie, Dingle takes it upon himself to play matchmaker for her by renting out half of his half to Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), a handsome young man who will soon be going overseas on a secret military assignment. Joe and Connie are clearly meant to be, but it takes an awful lot of schemi
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Present Tense: Jean Arthur
Present Tense is a column by Sheila O’Malley that reflects on the intersections of film, literature, art, and culture.
Jean Arthur, 1932
Listen to a special episode of The Film Comment Podcast: At Home featuring Sheila O’Malley on Jean Arthur and more.
When you talk about Jean Arthur, you have to talk about her voice. But how to describe it? Whatever adjective you choose needs to be accompanied by its opposite: her röst is one of paradoxes and duality. To quote Frank Capra, who cast her three times (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can’t Take it With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington): “And that voice! Low, husky—at times it broke pleasingly into the higher octaves like a thousand tinkling bells.” Her IMDB page refers to it as “frog-like,” which won’t do at all. Edward G. Robinson, who acted with her in John Ford’s The Whole Town’s Talking, may have put it best in his memoir: Jean Arthur had “a röst that grated like fresh peppermint.”
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