The Beautiful People, part 1b
Oct. 17th, 2008 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tilly_stratfordBut I, I never felt so much life
Than tonight, huddled in the trenches
Gazing on the battlefield
Our rifles blaze away
We blaze away
In a fit of procrastination I started and finished the second part of my ongoing picspam series today (the first part I think I spent three days putting together) so here you have it:
part 1b, ten gorgeous women who should inspire the development of time travelling technology. Meaning they are dead. And this time I stuck solely to classic (and even pre-classic) Hollywood.
10. Theda Bara
Ah, cinema's first sex symbol, I just couldn't make this list without including her. Her dangerous, provocative characters onscreen earned her the nickname "The Vampire", which was shortened to "the Vamp" - there, a little free history lesson. Also, her screen name, as was often pointed out, is an anagran of Arab Death. Oooh.
Assets: Dark eyes that can only bring madness to those that gaze into them.
You should watch: A tad bit hard since just about all her many, many movies were destroyed in a fire at Fox Studios. Her biggest success, Cleopatra from 1971, is lost. Please check your attics.
Sample scene: In the role of the unfaithful Mrs. Knollys in The unchastened woman from 1925.
Random fact: The studios went mad with publicizing her, nicknaming her "The Serpent of the Nile", pointing to how she was brought up in Egypt before she made her way to Paris to become a stage actress. And all of it a complete lie. She was actually a quiet girl from Ohio.
09. Marlene Dietrich
Yeah, I know you've seen the image a million times, that doesn't make Dietrich in pseudodrag any less cool. Pure German bisexual awesomeness, I tell you. Although I remember playing her rendition of Lili Marlene to a friend who told me that Dietrich might be an acquired taste, at least musically.
Assets: Long legs, bedroom eyes, entertaining accent.
You should watch: Though I haven't seen it myself, she costarred in Morocco with Gary Cooper in 1930, where she crossdressed and famously kissed another woman.
Sample scene: Singing her signature song, 'Falling in love again' in The blue angel (1930).
Random fact: Appearantly she was proficient at the musical saw. You totally thought I was going to say something about her sex life, right?
08. Ava Gardner
Beautiful lady, and Frank Sinatra thought so too. And Mickey Rooney. And Artie Shaw. And Ernest Hemingway. And - perhaps it'll be quicker to point out who wasn't crazy about her. She's the modern Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel (See? I SAID Tom Lehrer is educational).
Assets: LEGS. And when she wasn't playing the lurid seductress she was terribly pretty, beautiful features.
You should watch: Personally I'll always remember the first time I saw Gardner - in Show boat. In classic Hollywood fashion she was dubbed, though: The voice belonged to Annette Warren.
Sample clip: Being sweet and innocent for once in The killers (1946).
Random fact: There's an anecdote about her meeting J.R.R. Tolkien. Neither of them knew why the other one was famous.
07. Cyd Charisse
Continuing the general LEGS trend we've got Cyd Charisse, dancing partner of both Astaire and Kelly, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that I'm a fan. As I mentioned some time before, my great plans when I was twelve years old were roughly like this: 1) Become internationally celebrated author. 2) Become Cyd Charisse. So far none of these things have happened.
Assets: Just about the longest legs in the universe.
You should watch: For sexy Astaire-partnered dancing: The band wagon. For sexy Gene Kelly-partnered dancing: Singin' in the rain even if it's only in the ballet scene.
Sample clip: Seducing Gene Kelly in 'The Broadway ballet' with the world's longest, shapeliest legs.
Random fact: I suppose you get a different impression of Cyd Charisse, classically trained ballet dancer in the Russian tradition, than of Tula Ellice Finklea from Amarillo, Texas. I can see why she used a screen name.
06. Marilyn Monroe
Can't make one of these lists without including Norma Jean. Though I don't regard her as an astounding actress by any measure, I enjoy her movies and don't mind listening to her records. And she definitely had the looks, which these shallow lists are all about.
Assets: Beautiful blue eyes, sweet features and rocking the platinum look.
You should watch: If you haven't watched Some like it hot, GO DO IT NOW. THIS INSTANT. I have a lot of favourite movies, but few score as high on my "Great movie" list as Some like it hot. If you don't do it for Monroe, then you must do it for the comedy and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon gold. With added maraccas. And the best final scene in any movie ever.
Sample scene: Singing 'Through with love' in Some like it hot. I love this song. And yes, that's Tony Curtis in drag.
Random fact: Appearantly she never earned a dime on those Playboy nude shots.
05. Paulette Goddard
You know, I was this close to including Viola Dana on this list, she was a silent movie star who had a thing going on with Buster Keaton early in his career. I couldn't find any good pictures of her, but here we have Paulette Goddard, silent movie star (well, she did a few of them) who had a thing going on with Charlie Chaplin (yeah, a marriage - her third one, his second).
Assets: Just about the most honest, open face this side of Mary Pickford.
You should watch: Modern times, obviously. But don't miss her in the musical Second chorus.
Sample scene: As the gamin in Modern times, making a little home for herself and the Tramp.
Random fact: Before she began working with Chaplin she had already appeared in movies with both Fred Astaire and Bob Hope.
04. Ginger Rogers
From one dyed blonde to another. You've probably heard the witticism: If you think Astaire was a great dancer, you should keep in mind Ginger did it all backwards and in high heels. I find Rogers infinitely inspiring: She wasn't initially a dancer when picked up by Astaire, she was doing well as a comedienne, but she worked like hell to be a believable dancing partner to him. She was also a good singer, an accomplished businesswoman and a celebrated designer.
Assets: Talented, beautiful and with a great sense of humour.
You should watch: Looking at the Astaire-Ginger partnership, I can recommend Top hat or Shall we dance, the former is best overall, while the latter is funnier.
Sample clip: For singing, here she is doing a spirited version of 'Let yourself go' from Follow the fleet. As for dancing, well... the hypnotism number from Carefree (one of their later movies) is a great scene that shows what confidence Astaire eventually put in Roger's dancing, as she's the focus of the scene.
Random fact: Fred Astaire was rather long-suffering when it came to her dresses. The one used in the famous 'Cheek to cheek' number shed feathers like crazy and those feathers still attached kept blinding and choking him. And God knows I always look for the part in 'Let's face the music and dance' where she twirls and accidentally smacks him in the face with a heavily beaded sleeve. The look on his face is priceless for just about half a second.
03. Audrey Hepburn
Everybody saw this one coming. I've got a huge framed picture of Hepburn in my room, I based one of my design tests around her when I was doing Media and Communications and I'm just such a fan. There has never been and never will be anyone as beautiful as the divine Hepburn. "Then why is she number three?" you might ask. Because these last couple of entries are too different for me to choose between them.
Assets: COME ON. So pretty it was ridiculous.
You should watch: You think I'm going to say Breakfast at Tiffany's don't you? Don't you? Hah, try Roman holiday. Not that I've got anything against Breakfast, mind you.
Sample scene: Emotional slipper-throwing scene in My fair lady. While I think Pygmalion from 1931 is a better version of the story, I still think Hepburn performs this bit with much more raw emotion than Wendy Hiller.
Random fact: She was terribly self-concious about her shoulders and feet.
02. Mary Pickford
There really is an awful lot of silent movie stars on this list, isn't there? So of course I can't help but include the original American Sweetheart, Mary Pickford. She worked like crazy, too. By the time she was twenty years old she had appeared in 176 individual films, and later on she also began writing and producing them. She also somehow found time for three marriages, one with silent movie swashbuckler Douglas Fairbank.
Assets: So beautiful it hurts to look at her.
You should watch: Personally I've only seen some of her last movie, Secrets, though I heard about how she famously played both the title character and his mother in Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Sample clip: I'm going to recycle one of the clips I used on the male list, of Pickford starring with Leslie Howard in Secrets, because it's a fascinating mix of comedy and tragedy (not the bit posted though, that's just pure juvenile comedy).
Random fact: She was reportedly the first subject of the cinematic closeup back in 1912.
01. Grace Kelly
I remember when Mika first had that hit, and I'd hear people, some my age, wonder aloud who this Grace person was - and most of them deciding it was a made-up name. Oy. Anyway, Princess Grace of Monaco had to be on the list, and I found that she automatically leapt straight to the top of it.
Assets: I give up.
You should watch: I think Rear window is a really, really exciting movie. For added Gary Cooper manliness and a theme tune that's so catchy you'll spend the rest of your life cursing it, watch High noon.
Sample scene: The sort of wakeup-call I suppose every heterosexual man in the world wishes for, from Rear window.
Random fact: After she married the Prince she contemplated returning to the big screen with Hitchcock's Marnie but, quoth IMDB: "the people of Monaco didn't want their princess playing a thief and romancing Sean Connery". I love how "romancing Sean Connery" is up there on the scandalous scale as "playing a thief".
So that makes it, let's see... Two silent movie actresses (three if you count Goddard), at least six of them have been in musicals. The funny thing struck me that you can clearly see how I went from all-body portraits to just closeup images the higher I got on the list.
Final nationality score by birth: USA - 7 (no surprise there), Canada - 1, Germany - 1, Belgium - 1. A glaring lack of English people here, what's wrong with me?
That was the female list. Next up (by the time I've forgotten how many hours I actually spend on compiling these lists): Current guys who looked deceptively good-looking when they were younger.
And now I'm going to sleep like nobody's business.
Than tonight, huddled in the trenches
Gazing on the battlefield
Our rifles blaze away
We blaze away
In a fit of procrastination I started and finished the second part of my ongoing picspam series today (the first part I think I spent three days putting together) so here you have it:
part 1b, ten gorgeous women who should inspire the development of time travelling technology. Meaning they are dead. And this time I stuck solely to classic (and even pre-classic) Hollywood.
10. Theda Bara
Ah, cinema's first sex symbol, I just couldn't make this list without including her. Her dangerous, provocative characters onscreen earned her the nickname "The Vampire", which was shortened to "the Vamp" - there, a little free history lesson. Also, her screen name, as was often pointed out, is an anagran of Arab Death. Oooh.
Assets: Dark eyes that can only bring madness to those that gaze into them.
You should watch: A tad bit hard since just about all her many, many movies were destroyed in a fire at Fox Studios. Her biggest success, Cleopatra from 1971, is lost. Please check your attics.
Sample scene: In the role of the unfaithful Mrs. Knollys in The unchastened woman from 1925.
Random fact: The studios went mad with publicizing her, nicknaming her "The Serpent of the Nile", pointing to how she was brought up in Egypt before she made her way to Paris to become a stage actress. And all of it a complete lie. She was actually a quiet girl from Ohio.
09. Marlene Dietrich
Yeah, I know you've seen the image a million times, that doesn't make Dietrich in pseudodrag any less cool. Pure German bisexual awesomeness, I tell you. Although I remember playing her rendition of Lili Marlene to a friend who told me that Dietrich might be an acquired taste, at least musically.
Assets: Long legs, bedroom eyes, entertaining accent.
You should watch: Though I haven't seen it myself, she costarred in Morocco with Gary Cooper in 1930, where she crossdressed and famously kissed another woman.
Sample scene: Singing her signature song, 'Falling in love again' in The blue angel (1930).
Random fact: Appearantly she was proficient at the musical saw. You totally thought I was going to say something about her sex life, right?
08. Ava Gardner
Beautiful lady, and Frank Sinatra thought so too. And Mickey Rooney. And Artie Shaw. And Ernest Hemingway. And - perhaps it'll be quicker to point out who wasn't crazy about her. She's the modern Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel (See? I SAID Tom Lehrer is educational).
Assets: LEGS. And when she wasn't playing the lurid seductress she was terribly pretty, beautiful features.
You should watch: Personally I'll always remember the first time I saw Gardner - in Show boat. In classic Hollywood fashion she was dubbed, though: The voice belonged to Annette Warren.
Sample clip: Being sweet and innocent for once in The killers (1946).
Random fact: There's an anecdote about her meeting J.R.R. Tolkien. Neither of them knew why the other one was famous.
07. Cyd Charisse
Continuing the general LEGS trend we've got Cyd Charisse, dancing partner of both Astaire and Kelly, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that I'm a fan. As I mentioned some time before, my great plans when I was twelve years old were roughly like this: 1) Become internationally celebrated author. 2) Become Cyd Charisse. So far none of these things have happened.
Assets: Just about the longest legs in the universe.
You should watch: For sexy Astaire-partnered dancing: The band wagon. For sexy Gene Kelly-partnered dancing: Singin' in the rain even if it's only in the ballet scene.
Sample clip: Seducing Gene Kelly in 'The Broadway ballet' with the world's longest, shapeliest legs.
Random fact: I suppose you get a different impression of Cyd Charisse, classically trained ballet dancer in the Russian tradition, than of Tula Ellice Finklea from Amarillo, Texas. I can see why she used a screen name.
06. Marilyn Monroe
Can't make one of these lists without including Norma Jean. Though I don't regard her as an astounding actress by any measure, I enjoy her movies and don't mind listening to her records. And she definitely had the looks, which these shallow lists are all about.
Assets: Beautiful blue eyes, sweet features and rocking the platinum look.
You should watch: If you haven't watched Some like it hot, GO DO IT NOW. THIS INSTANT. I have a lot of favourite movies, but few score as high on my "Great movie" list as Some like it hot. If you don't do it for Monroe, then you must do it for the comedy and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon gold. With added maraccas. And the best final scene in any movie ever.
Sample scene: Singing 'Through with love' in Some like it hot. I love this song. And yes, that's Tony Curtis in drag.
Random fact: Appearantly she never earned a dime on those Playboy nude shots.
05. Paulette Goddard
You know, I was this close to including Viola Dana on this list, she was a silent movie star who had a thing going on with Buster Keaton early in his career. I couldn't find any good pictures of her, but here we have Paulette Goddard, silent movie star (well, she did a few of them) who had a thing going on with Charlie Chaplin (yeah, a marriage - her third one, his second).
Assets: Just about the most honest, open face this side of Mary Pickford.
You should watch: Modern times, obviously. But don't miss her in the musical Second chorus.
Sample scene: As the gamin in Modern times, making a little home for herself and the Tramp.
Random fact: Before she began working with Chaplin she had already appeared in movies with both Fred Astaire and Bob Hope.
04. Ginger Rogers
From one dyed blonde to another. You've probably heard the witticism: If you think Astaire was a great dancer, you should keep in mind Ginger did it all backwards and in high heels. I find Rogers infinitely inspiring: She wasn't initially a dancer when picked up by Astaire, she was doing well as a comedienne, but she worked like hell to be a believable dancing partner to him. She was also a good singer, an accomplished businesswoman and a celebrated designer.
Assets: Talented, beautiful and with a great sense of humour.
You should watch: Looking at the Astaire-Ginger partnership, I can recommend Top hat or Shall we dance, the former is best overall, while the latter is funnier.
Sample clip: For singing, here she is doing a spirited version of 'Let yourself go' from Follow the fleet. As for dancing, well... the hypnotism number from Carefree (one of their later movies) is a great scene that shows what confidence Astaire eventually put in Roger's dancing, as she's the focus of the scene.
Random fact: Fred Astaire was rather long-suffering when it came to her dresses. The one used in the famous 'Cheek to cheek' number shed feathers like crazy and those feathers still attached kept blinding and choking him. And God knows I always look for the part in 'Let's face the music and dance' where she twirls and accidentally smacks him in the face with a heavily beaded sleeve. The look on his face is priceless for just about half a second.
03. Audrey Hepburn
Everybody saw this one coming. I've got a huge framed picture of Hepburn in my room, I based one of my design tests around her when I was doing Media and Communications and I'm just such a fan. There has never been and never will be anyone as beautiful as the divine Hepburn. "Then why is she number three?" you might ask. Because these last couple of entries are too different for me to choose between them.
Assets: COME ON. So pretty it was ridiculous.
You should watch: You think I'm going to say Breakfast at Tiffany's don't you? Don't you? Hah, try Roman holiday. Not that I've got anything against Breakfast, mind you.
Sample scene: Emotional slipper-throwing scene in My fair lady. While I think Pygmalion from 1931 is a better version of the story, I still think Hepburn performs this bit with much more raw emotion than Wendy Hiller.
Random fact: She was terribly self-concious about her shoulders and feet.
02. Mary Pickford
There really is an awful lot of silent movie stars on this list, isn't there? So of course I can't help but include the original American Sweetheart, Mary Pickford. She worked like crazy, too. By the time she was twenty years old she had appeared in 176 individual films, and later on she also began writing and producing them. She also somehow found time for three marriages, one with silent movie swashbuckler Douglas Fairbank.
Assets: So beautiful it hurts to look at her.
You should watch: Personally I've only seen some of her last movie, Secrets, though I heard about how she famously played both the title character and his mother in Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Sample clip: I'm going to recycle one of the clips I used on the male list, of Pickford starring with Leslie Howard in Secrets, because it's a fascinating mix of comedy and tragedy (not the bit posted though, that's just pure juvenile comedy).
Random fact: She was reportedly the first subject of the cinematic closeup back in 1912.
01. Grace Kelly
I remember when Mika first had that hit, and I'd hear people, some my age, wonder aloud who this Grace person was - and most of them deciding it was a made-up name. Oy. Anyway, Princess Grace of Monaco had to be on the list, and I found that she automatically leapt straight to the top of it.
Assets: I give up.
You should watch: I think Rear window is a really, really exciting movie. For added Gary Cooper manliness and a theme tune that's so catchy you'll spend the rest of your life cursing it, watch High noon.
Sample scene: The sort of wakeup-call I suppose every heterosexual man in the world wishes for, from Rear window.
Random fact: After she married the Prince she contemplated returning to the big screen with Hitchcock's Marnie but, quoth IMDB: "the people of Monaco didn't want their princess playing a thief and romancing Sean Connery". I love how "romancing Sean Connery" is up there on the scandalous scale as "playing a thief".
So that makes it, let's see... Two silent movie actresses (three if you count Goddard), at least six of them have been in musicals. The funny thing struck me that you can clearly see how I went from all-body portraits to just closeup images the higher I got on the list.
Final nationality score by birth: USA - 7 (no surprise there), Canada - 1, Germany - 1, Belgium - 1. A glaring lack of English people here, what's wrong with me?
That was the female list. Next up (by the time I've forgotten how many hours I actually spend on compiling these lists): Current guys who looked deceptively good-looking when they were younger.
And now I'm going to sleep like nobody's business.
