Written on 1/30/2008 12:00:00 PM by Jay Hemvech
Charlotte Chandler became one of my favorite writer & Biographer these days . "A girl who walk home alone" was he best Bette Davis Biography I 'd read yet. I recently just pick up a copy of " Ingrid" last week . But the book that I 'm waiting to be release is "Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography"( release on February 5th) .
After Christina Crawford publish a bestselling memoir, Mommie Dearest,Crawford was portrayed as an abusive mother who had no understanding of, nor feeling for, her children. it became a movie, the book permanently destroy crawford reputation . But Chandler finds another truth in conversations with Cathy Crawford, who told her, “Our Mommie was the best mother anyone ever had.”
“In her biographies, Charlotte Chandler brings warm objectivity to a field dominated by cold subjectivity.” -- Michelangelo Antonioni
“Charlotte Chandler’s Not the Girl Next Door illuminates what it meant to be a movie star in the golden age of stardom. This is a story of the Hollywood that was, and is no more.” -- David Brown
“The former Lucille LaSueur’s story may never have been better told.” -- Booklist
“Charlotte Chandler shares the life of her subject, and then she shares it with the reader.” -- Sidney Sheldon
“After reading Charlotte Chandler’s book, I found myself wishing Joan Crawford had lived next door to me.” -- Arthur Hiller
Pick up NOT THE GIRL NEXT DOOR at your nearest book store or buy it at
amazonCHARLOTTE CHANDLER is the author of several biographies of actors and directors, among them Groucho Marx, Ingrid Bergman, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and Bette Davis. She is a member of the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Chandler is active in film preservation and lives in New York City
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Joan crawfora
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Written on 1/19/2008 01:49:00 PM by Jay Hemvech
Auberge "La Lucarne aux Chouettes" - Leslie's Caron delicious place in Burgundy... call it a hotel, a restaurant, a bed and breakfast, an inn... it is The Owl's nest... your favorite place in France!... Renowned for great food and wine in the wine country par excellence. Your lunch and dinner under the trees and flowers lining the terrace, right on the river and sweet sleep follows under the canopy of antique beds, collected by Leslie herself with a passion for antiques.
http://www.lesliecaron-auberge.com/
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Written on 1/08/2008 11:57:00 AM by Jay Hemvech
“It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco.”
Oscar Wilde,
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Written on 1/08/2008 10:38:00 AM by Jay Hemvech
- Burt Lancaster was nervous when he started the film. Most of his previous pictures had been fairly lightweight productions, and this was his first "serious" role. He was especially intimidated by Montgomery Clift's skill and intensity.
- The scene in which Maggio meets Prew and Lorene in the bar after he walks off guard duty, was actually Frank Sinatra's screen test for the part of Maggio. To impress director Fred Zinnemann, he did an ad-lib using olives as dice and pretending to shoot craps. The entire sequence was kept as is and used in the picture.
- In the scene where Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift play drunk sitting on the street, Clift actually was drunk, but Lancaster was not..
- Joan Fontaine was offered the role of Karen Holmes but had to decline due to family problems. She now regrets it and blames the failure of her late career to turning down the offer.
- The now classic scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the rushing water on the beach was not written to take place there. The idea to film with the waves hitting them was a last minute inspiration from the director.
- Harry Cohn was so convinced that Deborah Kerr could not be "sexy" enough to play the lead in this film that he almost did not cast her.
- Shot in a mere 41 days and for only $1 million.
- Frank Sinatra had to campaign especially hard to get this part as his career had hit a low point by this time
- Shelley Winters turned down the role of Alma, as she had just given birth to her daughter Vittoria.
- If Columbia head Harry Cohn had gotten his way, the film would have starred Aldo Ray as Prewitt, Edmond O'Brien as Warden, Joan Crawford as Karen, Julie Harris as Lorene and Eli Wallach as Maggio.
- An urban myth regarding the casting of Frank Sinatra was that the Mafia made Columbia Pictures an offer they couldn't refuse. This of course was fictionalized in Mario Puzo's novel "The Godfather" and its subsequent film adaptation. The real reason for Sinatra's casting was mainly his then-wife Ava Gardner, who was shooting a film for Columbia head Harry Cohn and suggested to him that he use Sinatra. Although initially reluctant, Cohn eventually saw this as being a good idea, as Sinatra's stock was so low at the time that he would sign for a very low salary. Sinatra had been lobbying hard for the role,even suggesting he would do it for nothing, but he was eventually hired for the token amount of $8,000.
- Harry Cohn resisted the idea of casting Montgomery Clift as Prewitt as "he was no soldier, no boxer and probably a homosexual". Fred Zinnemann refused to make the film without him.
- The film went on to gross $18 million, the tenth highest grossing film of the 1950s.
- Fred Zinnemann insisted on filming in black and white, as he felt that "color would have made it look trivial". He also eschewed the use of any of the popular new widescreen ratios.
- Montgomery Clift threw himself into the character of Prewitt, learning to play the bugle (even though he knew he'd be dubbed) and taking boxing lessons. Fred Zinnemann said, "Clift forced the other actors to be much better than they really were. That's the only way I can put it. He got performances from the other actors, he got reactions from the other actors that were totally genuine."
- Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and author James Jones were very close during the filming, frequently embarking on monumental drinking binges. Clift coached Sinatra on how to play Maggio during their more sober moments, for which Sinatra was eternally grateful.
- As scripted, Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster's classic clinch on the beach was to be filmed standing up. It was Lancaster's idea to do it horizontally in the surf. The scene was filmed at Halona Cove on the eastern side of Oahu, near Koko Head Crater and Sandy Beach, and the location became a major tourist attraction for years after.
- The MPAA banned photos of the famous Burt Lancaster-Deborah Kerr passionate kiss on the beach for being too erotic. Many prints had shortened versions of the scene because projectionists would cut out frames to keep as souvenirs.
- The censors demanded that Deborah Kerr's swimsuit should feature a skirt in its design so as to not be too sexually provocative.
- The film helped to popularize Aloha shirts.
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Did you Know??
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Written on 1/07/2008 06:53:00 PM by Jay Hemvech
"We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007's outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television,"
Jorge Camara, President of The Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
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oscar
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Written on 1/07/2008 01:01:00 PM by Jay Hemvech
" I wasn't working that day so I came to the studio very well dress ( I thought) in slack with my hair back and a scarf around it. LB look at me turn absolutely red , and told me to go back home and dress the way a star should be seen in public, and never appear looking the way just ' any woman" would. So I numbly let his driver take me home and come back an hour later looking absolutely elegant . I never again appear in public , at least consciously looking like " just any woman" . To this day some little or big voice inside of me says " Joan Go out there looking like a star " and I'm damn uncomfortable when i don't"
"In my Metro Years I think more money was spent on my wardrobe ,per movie, than on the script. Watch the credit of the older movies and see how prominently name like Irene , jean louis , Edith Head and above all Adrien , appear . But , obviously , it was something public wanted. "
"The Crawford wardrobes had some practical application because they could be copies so easily , all the way down to Mainboocher to sears. So variety reason I became conscious of the way i dressed, even in private.
But doesn't every woman love well designed clothes, and to know that she can afford them? The feel good fabrics , the confidence that comes with knowing you're wearing a Jean Louis or an Adrian rather than a May company off the rack?? and Furs ? And Jewels??"
"God dammit , if people want to see Joan crawford the star they were going to see Joan crawford the star ,not character actress in blue jeans . They paid their money and they were going to get their money 's 
worth. If all sound like snobbery or affection -it isn't . In my day a star owed the public a continuation of the image that made her a star in the first place"
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joan crawford
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