Little Miss Temple

Sparkle, her mother would call out from the sidelines of a vast 20th Century Fox sound stage with hundreds of technicians quietly watching and Gertrude Temple's adorable little daughter would turn up the wattage.  Whether it was dialogue or crying, singing or dancing, that one word was all the direction the little girl with the 56 perfect corkscrew curls would require.  Mrs. Temple's daughter would become the most popular and famous child star in the history of motion pictures.

REVIEW: All the Money in the World

Directed by Ridley Scott
2017 Crime Drama
2 hours, 12 minutes
From Sony-TriStar Pictures

Starring
Michelle Williams
Christopher Plummer
Mark Wahlberg
Romaine Duris
Charlie Plummer
Timothy Hutton

Good 30s Films: Bringing Up Baby

1938 Screwball Comedy
From RKO
Directed by Howard Hawks

Starring
Katharine Hepburn
Cary Grant
Charles Ruggles
May Robson
Walter Catlett
Barry Fitzgerald
Fritz Feld

REVIEW: The Shape of Water

Directed by Guillermo del Toro
2017 Fantasy Romance Drama
2 hours, 3 minutes
From Fox Searchlight

Starring
Sally Hawkins
Michael Shannon
Richard Jenkins
Octavia Spencer
Michael Stuhlbarg
Doug Jones

REVIEW: The Greatest Showman

Directed by Michael Gracey
2017 Musical Biography
1 hour 45 minutes
From 20th Century Fox

Starring
Hugh Jackman
Michelle Williams
Zac Efron
Rebecca Ferguson
Zendaya
Keala Settle
Sam Humphrey
Fredric Lehne

Character Actors: Bickford & Mitchell

Here are two of the most accomplished characters actors of  all time.  Should you not know their names, perhaps you recognize their faces.  If not that either, I guarantee you have seen them in countless films if you're into old ones.  They were not leading actors nor were they very far down in the credits. They delighted audiences as the fixtures they were in films for decades.  One started in 1923 and his last film was in 1961.  The other began his career in 1929 and ended it in 1966.  

REVIEW: Wonder Wheel

Directed by Woody Allen
2017 Drama
1 hour, 41 mins
From Amazon Studios

Starring
Kate Winslet
Justin Timberlake
Juno Temple
Jim Belushi
Jack Gore

Diamond Lil Herself

Mae West deserves inclusion in our salute to the 1930's because she was a huge star then but as hard as I try, I cannot come up with a worse actress who had reached her lofty status.  I have only seen three of her films all the way through and turned off a few more, all of which were cringe-worthy.  All she ever seemed capable of was S&M and in this case I mean standing and modeling.  Everyone else in her films handled most of the dialogue and nearly all of the action and she just stood there, over-bustled, breasts heaving, hands on hips, throwing out one little double entendre after another.

Claudette Colbert

Gossip maven Hedda Hopper once said of Claudette Colbert that she was the smartest, canniest, smoothest 18-karat lady I've ever seen cross the Hollywood pike.  That doesn't completely cover it but it's a good place to start.  I, too, always thought she was quite the lady, on screen and off.  Let the others run amok, but not Colbert.  It's apparent she thought well of herself and was not about to become embroiled in tawdry newspaper coverage or cheesecake photos or allow her personal life to become fodder for her many fans. 

Alice Faye

There's a temptation to call her a reluctant movie star and yet that doesn't quite capture the facts.  The truth is more like movies weren't everything to her as they are for so many who make them.  Hollywood history is bulging with stories of men and women who would do anything to hit the big time and most everything else was a distant second.  She was never a part of that crowd.  Her personal life, especially family and spending time with them, was far more important to her and she tended to think of being a performer as just a job.  She said she could take the movies or leave them and one day she would prove it. 

Good 30s Films: Alexander's Ragtime Band

1938 Musical Drama
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Henry King

Starring
Tyrone Power
Alice Faye
Don Ameche
Ethel Merman
Jack Haley
Paul Hurst
John Carradine
Chick Chandler