Old Movie Madness - The Divorce of Lady X (and a bit of scene setting waffle)

So, I'm finally back with my film fashion stuff.  It's take a while but OMIGOD - dating really takes up a lot of time.  I used to blog, knit and watch old movies constantly but I rarely seem to get daytimes to myself these days.  Still, he's a keeper.  :-)

This weekend though I managed quite a bit of "me time" (what a terribly twee and yet accurate phrase that is).  On Saturday I met up with a dear chum and did some excellent charity shopping - see my haul below!  Yards and yards of chunky yarn in a delicious French navy, a dressing table set of hairbrush, clothes brush and mirror and some lovely bangles.

 I've probably got too much yarn and too many bangles as it is but - what the hey!  Look at Marlon photobombing the yarn pic.  Vain little fuzzbeast.

Sunday, the chap had to go and see his mother and so I got in some up close and personal time with my mending and sorting jobs.  I've now organised my mending pile and hope to tackle one thing a week.  I've also had a huge knitting clear out and am donating all my odds and sods of yarn to the above mentioned chum who is far more creative than I and who will, I'm sure, be able to make something from them.

I like company when I'm tidying, usually a radio play or a non taxing film on in the background to chivvy me along.  For this session I chose The Divorce of Lady X (1938) and little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).

I've been meaning to watch Lady X for some time, it was made in one of my favourite fashion years (I love 36-40 best of all I think) and it stars Larry Olivier.  Oh....Larry.  That voice!

The film opens in London in the middle of a real pea-souper of a foggy day.  The bright young things across town are trapped at their parties, Leslie Steele (Merle Oberon), being one of them.  She has been attending a costume party at a hotel and is forced to stay the night.  No rooms are available but Leslie uses her considerable wit and charm to convince the very dapper and gentlemanly divorce lawyer Everard Logan (Olivier) into giving her his bed, while he sleeps in the lounge.

Logan believes the young lady to be married and being a decent sort of chap makes no advances.  He is later horrified when Lord Mere asks him to represent him inn his divorce, after finding out Lady Mere had spent that evening in the same hotel with a man.  Surely the two women must be one and the same!

Ah, the fashions of 38.  Ah, Merle Oberon's tiny little cat face.  Here are some of my favourite outfits:

This off the face saucer hat with diamante clasps at the hairline is just a fabulous way to frame her beautiful face.  The hat is balanced by huge fur across the shoulders and an enormous muff (I can't type that without giggling - I'm such a child).  The column of black is relieved by that classic 30s touch of a large bow - here in a pale blue - a colour repeated throughout the film.

Again, more pale blue.  This hostess/dressing gown as worn by supporting actress Binnie Barnes, features the most beautiful scalloped detail down the front.  What you can't see well here is that it is worn with trousers.

Another dressing gown here, sadly I could not find a colour picture.  It is the most beautiful emerald green with bands of gold running down the arms.  I actually gasped seeing this.

Binnie again, in a simple an classically late 30s full length evening dress with an enormous corsage at the bust.

Another largely black outfit for Merle - with a sweet pointed hat.

Other treasures I have been unable to find pictures of were a leopard hat and gloves set (swoon), a full length short pile white fur coat and a two tone suit with a jaunty little peplum and a pale blue ankle length cape.

This is one of those movies that oozes fashion.  not as much as The Women - my all time favourite fashion film, but the clothes here certainly make a statement.

Costumes are by Rene Hubert, who had worked with Jean Patou.  Hubert also designed for Vivien Leigh in That Hamilton Woman and for the Four Feathers, among many other films.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, there was a great chemistry between the two leads and the bright Technicolour used worked especially well to contrast between foggy London and the gay abandon of the parties going on under it's roofs.  While the plot is somewhat predictable Oberon is so likeable you can forgive the weakness of the story line.

Definitely worth whiling away some time knitting along to.

Speaking of knitting, Larry doesn't look too impressed.

The film is available on YouTube.

Happy watching!

Old Movie Madness: Footlight Parade (1933)

Oh, I so wanted to enjoy this* - I've been saving it as I was so certain that I would but gawd, what a crock!  I can barely bring myself to write anything about it as nothing actually happens.  So here goes...sigh.

Now, I'm not a big musical fan anyway - this may have been my mistake - but I had heard so many good things about this movie that I was expecting something wonderful.  Sadly I was very much mistaken.

The film tells the story of Chester Kent, a director of Broadway musicals, whose career is being threatened by the introduction of talking pictures and so decides to branch out into prologues - short musical numbers to be performed before a film.  He has lots of ideas and a glamourous secretary, Nan Prescott (Joan Blondell). 

Of course (of course) Nan is desperately in love with him and he just doesn't see it.  This is the cliche the entire film is built around.  All that really happens is that he writes scenes, someone steals them and Nan moons about acting bitterly toward any other woman that goes near him.  Ugh.

Anyway, eventually he writes something half decent and gets a job and realises he loves Nan too, end of story.

Instead of having a real storyline the film is around 70% made up of overlong musical numbers.  these would have been fun had they not gone on for what seemed like hours.  I know a Busby Berkley film is going to be full of dance routines, but really, a 20-odd minute synchronised swimming scene, really? I had to fast forward through it.

I have nothing more to say - here are some pictures:

Yawn.  I'm bored again, off to have a bath and practise my synchronised drowning.

* This review may have been slightly affected by me having the flu, and thus the attention span of a goldfish.

Old Movie Madness: Bachelor Mother (1939)

OK - I have decided - 1938-1941 are the ultimate years for fashion in my eyes, and this film, made in 1939, may be the ultimate film for fashion too. 

Bachelor Mother stars an incredibly lovely Ginger Rogers as Polly Parrish, a salesgirl in the toy department of John B Merlin & Son, a large department store in New York City.  It is the end of the Christmas season and she finds that she is about to lose her job, so she pops out during her lunch break to sign up at an employment agency.  On her way back to the office she spots a woman leaving a baby on the doorstep of the foundling hospital.  Concerned for the child she approaches it and when the door of the hospital is opened the staff assume she is the mother, refusing to believe her when she says she is not.

The hospital follow up with her employer, speaking to the young David Merlin (David Niven looking delicious), and saddened by the tale of a young mother unable to support her child he gives her back her job and a raise.  Despite her continued protestation no one believes that she is not the mother and so when the baby is returned to her she decides to bring up the child.

David spends an increasing amount of time with Polly and the baby and once New Year's Eve comes around he invites her out for the evening, they have a wonderful time and a rather passionate kiss but David is still reluctant to take on a ready made family.

Eventually David's father J.B Merlin himself (played by the ever wonderful Charles Coburn) finds out about the child and assumes his son is the father.  J.B is thrilled, as he has long been waiting for his playboy son to settle down.  David realises he really does love Polly and the baby and asks her to marry him, letting everyone believe that the child is his son.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, Ginger, as usual, was a joy throughout and the building romance between herself and David Niven felt very believable.  This is a light comedy movie about a very serious subject and, interestingly for the time, little mention is made of the shame of single motherhood. There are some very funny set pieces including Polly pretending to be Swedish which did make me giggle.

It also looks beautiful, I want all of Polly's wardrobe, not surprisingly as the costumes were by Irene.  Here hair was also set in the most perfect pageboy...sigh.  Here are some of the best pictures I could find.

I strongly advise watching the film though, to see the costumes to full effect.

 

I love the cross detail here

 and I can always go for a little asymmetry

 A lovely jabot

 This dress is incredible, the waistband detail and the tiny buttons - swoon.

Here is the original movie trailer.  I would have added in a visually excellent fan trailer I found on YouTube but it shows all the best bits of the film and has annoying music so I resisted.  Go watch this movie, please.

Old movie Madness: Curse of the Cat People (1944)

I have finally gotten round to reviewing the “sequel” to my first Old Movie Madness post, the terrific “Cat People” starring Simone Simon.  I watched this some weeks ago but not wanting to swamp my blog with movies posts I put it to one side.  I’ve decided not to swamp you anyway.

This film shares many cast members, Simon herself as well as Kent Smith and Jane Randolph, playing her former husband (Oliver Reed) and his new wife Alice.

Since the last film the pair have moved away from the city and have a young daughter, Amy (the looks-spookily-like-me-as-a-child Ann Carter) who is having trouble at school due to her dreamy nature.

Oliver is determined that Amy will give up her dreamy ways, which remind him so of his former wife Irina, however the local children will not play with her and her only friend becomes the spirit of Irina who appears to her in their garden.  

Amy also makes friends with an elderly woman living down the road, the woman’s daughter lives with her but the parent claims she is not her daughter but an imposter.  This relationship mirrors Amy’s fears that her parents will not love her if she does not succeed in making friends.

The film, while very watchable, suffers terribly from the decision to market it as a sequel to “Cat People.”  Yes, it shares the same cast but the story has nothing to do with the previous film and could easily have been independent from the previous movie.  In fact this might have done it some favours at the box office as I’m sure I  would have felt somewhat tricked if I went to the cinema expecting feline women slinking around in dark suits and got a little girl in a frilly dress skipping around her garden.

The film was heavily edited to add in cat references to try and please the viewing public and it seems that as a result some key pieces of the storyline were removed – this would account for the disjointed quality of the film.

There is not much to comment on in terms of clothing in the movie, sadly enough.  Irina, when she does appear, seems to be wearing some kind of 40’s take on a Medieval gown and then the rest of the film mostly features children.  I’m not interested in children’s fashion, I hated being one and don’t want any of my own, so this aspect didn’t do a thing for me at all!

All in all I did enjoy it, the acting was just the right side of hammy and the child just creepy enough for me.  Truthfully, there is something very frightening about the way it looks into the darker side of childhood psychology, I could relate a lot to Amy and her problems making friends and I did find this aspect of the film genuinely moving.  It is a film that has stayed with me since I watched it some weeks ago.  Definitely worth a look.

Old Movie Madness: Stella Dallas (1937)

OK - it is official, I have fallen completely in love with Barbara Stanwyck.  What an incredible actress.  She was capable of great comic timing, quick fire dialogue and in this role, a delicate but strong pathos.

The film begins showing the young Stella (Stanwyck) trying to catch the eye of a ruined heir, who is now running the local factory.  She has ambitions above her station and wheedles her way into his affections, resulting in marriage.  Her brashness just isn't suited to the circles he mixes in however, and the pair run into trouble just days after the birth of their daughter Laurel (Anne Shirley) when Stella wants to go dancing and falls in with a party crowd.

The pair separate with Stephen (John Boles, looking very suave) going to work away and Stella and Laurel remaining at home.  Stella loves her daughter with a passion and bring her up to be a wonderful and kind young lady.

As Laurel grows she begins to mix more in her fathers circles and falls in love with a very well off young man.  Her father has fallen back in love with an old flame but, keen to see her daughter happy, Stella agrees to them going away to live near him and the object of Laurel's affections.

Unfortunately Stella's brash personality and dress sense soon cause a stir and, not wanting her mother to realise how she is viewed by the high end folk they are with, Laurel insists they return home.  Sadly, on the journey home, Stella overhears people talking about her and she realises that for her daughter to he happy she needs to let her go.

 Stella in a brash outfit

She forces her daughter away, marrying someone she doesn't love, and whom her daughter loathes,  to push her away and allow her to live the life she always dreamt for herself.

 Tears as she watches her daughter marry

This film is possibly one of the best I have ever seen, I even put my knitting down to pay attention and that is some feat.  Stanwyck puts in a marvellous and heart wrenching performance as the working class girl helping her daughter along.  It is also refreshing to see the working classes of the period not all depicted as drunks - Stella being a firm teetotaller throughout the movie.

It is also marvellously styled, Stella's outfits are outrageous - too many bracelets, too much lace - and they contrast well with the staid classiness of her husbands social set.  Yet despite her brashness she is a kind and loving woman.

An utterly wonderful film.

IMDB

Old Movie Madness: The Lady Eve (1941)

Phew - a better movie to remove the drear feeling left by "The Edge of Love."

This comedy stars Henry Fonda as Charles Pike, an heir to an ale company whose money has allowed him to travel to the Amazon hunting for rare snakes.  After a year exploring he takes his prize find "Emma" the snake back with him on a boat to the USA and on the journey is targeted by all the eligible and not so eligible ladies aboard who are all too keen to have a piece of a rich bachelor.  Annoyed by their attention he is finally disarmed by Jean, a professional card shark who after observing him realises a different approach is needed - she trips him up and then indignantly insists he take her to her cabin to help her find another pair of shoes as he has broken her pair by his clumsiness.  Once in her cabin she flirts heavily, making him sit at her feet and fasten her shoes for her, quite a kinky little scene for the time.

Jean and her father, Handsome Harry, proceed to fleece him of several thousand pounds throughout the journey but their plasn look to be scuppered when Jean falls in love with their mark who proposes on the prow of the ship.  Before she has a chance to confess all her secret is revealed to Charles and hurt he ends their engagement.

Jean vows revenge and later makes her way back into his life posing as the Lady Eve, a British aristocrat.  Being a bit of an idiot Charles doesn't realise this is the same woman and marries her.  She takes her revenge by telling him on her wedding night of her various conquest's before their marriage and he runs off in a huff. 

Following their divorce he again sees Jean on a cruise ship and they fall into one anothers arms.

The good bits:  

• Jean's hair - OK - it is the same all the way through (aside from her days as Eve) - little victory rolls, a mass of poodle curls and long at the back.  I'll be wearing this look tomorrow if tonight's set works out - I cut my fringe especially.

• The costumes by the great Edith Head - wonderful slacks and blouses, a black beaded two piece showing the midriff, gorgeous beaded dresses and a lovely plaid pleated skirt and weskit.  Oh and an amazing platter had and monochrome suit worn by Jean to the races.

• The opening credits - great animation of a snake.

The bad bits:

• A bizarre white and gold (I assume, it is a black and white movie) suit worn by Jean on the ship.
  
• The implausible storyline.

All in all though its a pleasing little movie. Take a look at the original trailer below.  The voice over is rather dated...in a bad way.  Ahhh, the casual racism of days gone by....

(Not so) Old Movie Madness - The Edge of Love (2008)

I'd been looking forward to this for a while, I'm now not sure why.  Set during WW2 the film centres around Dylan Thomas and the two women in his life, his wife Caitlin and his boyhood crush Vera and the tensions between them.

Dylan is shown as a pompous, egotist - pretty accurate in my experience of artists I must say - and comes across as thoroughly unpleasant.  The two female leads are also vile, both are entranced by the cliched doomed romance of penniless alcoholic poet almost to the point of their destruction.  Yawn.

Caitlin (played by an actually pretty good Sienna Miller) is an empty woman emotionally self-harming by welcoming her husbands former love into their lives in some bizarre menage-a-trois and then hating herself for it.  She sleeps around to try and make herself feel better but flies into jealous rages if Dylan even looks at another woman.

Vera (Keira Knightley in yet another period drama) is a frigid souled ice queen who marries a man she doesn't love and seems to be oblivious to the pain she is causing by interfering in her friends marriage.

And look at her weird mouth.

The whole thing comes to a head when Vera's husband (Cillian Murphy, all blue eyes and shell shock) comes home and the stress of living amongst these horrors sends him mad.  For some reason he has a grenade - sadly it didn't blow them all up. 

Dylan takes him to court and despite clearly being a tad off kilter they let him off, I can only imagine because they hope he has another grenade and will do it properly next time.  The couples part - staying with their respective spouses and destined I expect to torture each other for evermore.

The only, ONLY, good thing about this film was the clothing.  Some great coats at the court scenes and in general lots of lovely knitwear.   You can see this in the pictures below though, so please don't bother watching this unless you want to come out of it feeling cheated and depressed.

Old movie madness - Cat People

Another new thing I'm trying is movie reviews, however because my main reason for watching these old movies is aesthetics I'm afraid these will focus heavily on clothing and hairdos.  Hope thats OK!

Today I decided to watch Cat People (1942), a sort of horror-noir affair by Jacques Tourneur and starring the stunning Simone Simon.  Simon is the cat person in question, playing Irena Dubrowka (later Reed), a Serbian immigrant working as a fashion artist, who is strangely drawn to the big cats at the zoo.  There she meets Oliver Reed (the characters name - not the actor - far too early!), a geeky but warm hearted young artist who escorts her home to her lavish apartment.  There she charms im with her eccentric ways and dark tales of Serbian black magic and cat people, and they agree to meet the following day.  After a short and chaste courtship they wed, but still she will not share a bed with him for fear that she will transform into a cat and brutally kill the man she loves.

I won't ruin the film for you, but lets just say things don't bode well for the couple, with love triangles, hypnotherapy and a dead canary on the way...


The film is impeccably styled.  Simon is perfectly cast, her little cat face making her seem both exotically foreign and sexily feline.  Her outfits accentuate this look, all black astrakhan, velvet and satin with grand 40's shoulders and a tiny waist to show off her cat-like grace and echoing the pelt of the panther she so relates to.  Her movements are perfect to, from slinking elegance to kitten-like darting eyes.

Her hair is very cutesy with a large waved and rolled bang that I am dying to try and accessorised with a little scarf at all times.  There were many other great dos in the film.  I adore the big curly blonde do.

I also love Alice's swimming costume - so of its time.

And just look at the shoulders on this swing coat!

I thoroughly enjyed this movie - it was sad but a real romp at the same time.  I'm hoping to get hold of the sequel soon!