Halloween Treats

Joan Carroll and Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St. Louis

The origins of Halloween go back to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced sowˊ-in). Samhain began on the eve of October 31 and heralded the Celtic New Year on November 1. The Celts believed that during Samhain the divide between the living and the dead vanished, allowing spirits of the departed to briefly visit the world of the living. With the advent of Christianity, the Celtic New Year was
refashioned as All-Saints Day (November 1) and October 31, now known as All Hallows Eve, ushered in a festival called All Hallows.

Innocence

Today, October 31st is celebrated as Halloween, a night of costumed revelry and, if we're young or young at heart, "trick or treating." We classic film buffs usually include classic ghost or horror films as part of the holiday's festivities. This October, Turner Classic Movies has been offering "spooktacular" "fright films" with 'Classic Horror' every Wednesday though Halloween. Among the films featured so far was one of my own eerie favorites, Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961), based on a stage play of the same name that was an adaptation of the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw. Deborah Kerr starred and considered her performance as the distressed governess of two precocious children the best of her career.

...uninvited

TCM also aired the 1944 ghost classic The Uninvited as part of this month's "scarefest." Lighter but reminiscent in some ways of the Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), it stars Ray Milland, features the film debut of Gail Russell and introduced Victor Young's classic song "Stella by Starlight." I took a closer look at both The Uninvited and Rebecca last November with A Chill in the Air Part I and Part II.

...a witch

Also spotlighted on TCM this month, though as part of its political series rather than a lead-in to Halloween, was Rene Clair's I Married a Witch (1942), starring Veronica Lake as a 300 year old witch and Fredric March as a rising politician. Click here for Jacqueline T. Lynch's thoroughly entertaining review at Another Old Movie Blog.

Tonight, All Hallows Eve has finally arrived and Turner Classic Movies is featuring Universal horror classics: Frankenstein (1931), Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Wolf Man (1941), The Mummy (1932), The Mummy's Hand (1940) and Island of Lost Souls (1933).

And my costume choice this year: 

Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's

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You've Gotta Have Heart...Damn, Giants!

San Francisco's Coit Tower bathed in Giants orange on Sunday night  (photo by Luanne Dietz, SF Chronicle)

One of the best-known tunes from Damn Yankees (the 1955 Broadway hit and 1958 movie) is the catchy number "Heart," and it goes like this:

You've gotta have heart
All you really need is heart
When the odds are sayin' you'll never win
That's when the grin should start...

These lyrics aptly describe the situation the now World Champion San Francisco Giants found themselves in. Until they won the third game (in a row) of the World Series on Saturday night, the odds had been against them going into games one, two and three (not to mention the playoffs).

Unlike the hapless Washington Senators with not much more than heart in Damn Yankees, the San Francisco Giants team does have great sluggers, pitchers and is a great ball club. With this second World Series win in three years, no one can attribute the Giants' tremendous success to "luck" or a series of "flukes," it's a combination of talent and skill plus that key ingredient, heart.

Having descended from Dodgers fans (the Brooklyn Dodgers) and been raised in Southern California, I grew up a devoted fan of the LA Dodgers. Once I moved to the Bay Area, cheering for the Giants didn't come easily or quickly - the rivalry between SF and LA is serious and sometimes ugly. However, by the time the 1989 "Battle of the Bay" Series (the Giants vs. the Oakland A's) came along, I'd become a Giants fan. I'll never forget Game 2 of that series in Oakland; I was sitting high in the Oakland Coliseum and remarked to the group I was with, "I'd hate to be up here in an earthquake." Of course, Game 3 in San Francisco was disrupted by the monster Loma Prieta quake (which disabled the Bay Bridge, took down a few freeways as well as homes in San Francisco's Marina District). The A's swept that series once it resumed 10 days later. But that's all ancient history now...today, along with the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm basking in another Giants victory - in a four game sweep, at that. 

Last time the Giants brought the trophy home, in 2010, the welcome-home/victory parade through downtown San Francisco turned out to be the biggest event in San Francisco history (attracting an estimated crowd of one million+). This year the parade is set for October 31. Perfect. Giants black-and-orange on Halloween. It's going to be wild and woolly in downtown San Francisco this Wednesday.

Bravo, San Francisco Giants!

Buster Posey's home run

Closer Sergio Romo after the final pitch

The Giants win the 108th World Series in Detroit

And now, with Reel Life's classic movie theme as well as baseball in mind, a legendary Abbott and Costello routine - from The Naughty Nineties (1945):

  

(photos via SFGate)

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Prize Pack Giveaway this Weekend for Upcoming "To Kill a Mockingbird" Screening...Plus...

The Lady Eve's Reel Life is pleased to take part in a "prize pack" giveaway sponsored by Fathom Events and Harper Perennial books in celebration of the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, the 1962 film version of Harper Lee's acclaimed novel.

The prize pack consists of a pair of tickets to the special presentation on Thursday, November 15th, when movie theaters throughout the U.S. will screen the film - as well as a copy of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book.

Update: ClassicBecky's name was drawn, she's been contacted and will soon receive her prize, a pair of tickets as well as the novel, from Fathom Events/Harper Perennial.

To participate, first click here for a list of participating theaters to make sure there is a screening at a theater near you. Next, comment on this post (and feel free to share it on your own blog, Facebook and/or Twitter). Finally, I'll select a winner at random on Sunday, October 28. (For more information contact ladyevesidwich@gmail.com.)

Gregory Peck with Oscar and Sophia Loren

This special presentation is the fourth event of the TCM Event Series in conjunction with NCM Fathom and Universal pictures. The film has been newly restored by Universal in celebration of its 100th anniversary. The presentation will begin with an introduction by Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz, who will take viewers behind the scenes on the making of the timeless classic via interviews from the TCM Archives. To Kill a Mockingbird was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It garnered three - Best Actor for Gregory Peck, Best Sceenplay and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. Future Best Actor Oscar-winner Robert Duvall made his big screen debut in the film as the enigmatic 'Boo Radley.'

To Kill a Mockingbird is a film with both a message and a heart. The event and book make for a perfectly serendipitous lead-in to the Thanksgiving season.

  

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A Film to Watch for...on TCM Next Week

Actress Jeanne Eagels, one of the great legends of early 20th century American theater, became the toast of the New York stage by the time she was 30. She most famously originated the role of Sadie Thompson on Broadway in John Colton's Rain (based on a Somerset Maugham short story); the play ultimately ran for a record-setting 648 performances. Eagels appeared in only a handful films during her career, most of them silents. The two sound films she did make were both produced in 1929, and she received a Best Actress nod for her performance in the first, a film adaptation of Somerset Maugham's The Letter. But Eagels' contention for an Academy Award occurred posthumously, for she had passed away, at age 39, in October 1929.

The acclaimed Bette Davis/William Wyler re-make of The Letter (1940) has been seen far more widely than the earlier Eagels/Jean de Limur version, but on October 24, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1929 original. New York Times film critic Dave Kehr has described Eagels' acting style as "radically innovative," and next Wednesday morning TCM viewers will have a chance to find out why.

Jeanne Eagels and Herbert Marshall in The Letter (1929)

Jeanne Eagels was born Eugenia Eagles in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1890. She left school to go to work while still a child and joined the Dubinsky Brothers traveling theater company as a dancer sometime between the age of 12 and 15. There she would eventually take lead roles in popular dramas such as "Camille, " "Romeo and Juliet" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Eagels later joined another touring company and made her way to New York where she hoped to develop her career. Though she was, for a time, a 'Ziegfeld Girl,' her primary focus was to build a theatrical reputation on the 'legitimate stage.' She was cast in a variety of small roles and, at some point, apparently developed a distinctly British accent off-stage. It was while she was vacationing in Paris that American actor Julian Etinge noticed and admired her, though they did not meet at that time. As it turned out, Etinge and Eagels would soon co-star in "The Crinoline Girl" (1914).

Portrait of Jeanne Eagels, 1918

In early 1916, Eagels earned her first Broadway credit with a featured role in "The Great Pursuit," which ran for just 29 performances. It was in 1917 that her star truly began to rise over The Great White Way with co-starring roles in three plays opposite George Arliss: "The Professor's Love Story," "Disraeli," and "Hamilton."  She went on to appear opposite George Abbott in David Belasco's hit, "Daddies," from 1918 - 1919. Eagels was so popular in her 1920 starring role in "The Wonderful Thing" that her entrances were greeted with such enthusiastic applause she had to wait for the house to quiet before she could go on. She opened in "Rain" in 1922 and it ran on Broadway and on tour over the next four years. She turned down many roles following the play's enormous success (including the role of Roxie Hart in the 1926 production of "Chicago"), but returned to Broadway in 1926 for George Cukor's production of "Her Cardboard Lover" with Leslie Howard.

Before going on tour with "Her Cardboard Lover," Eagels took time out to star in MGM's silent production of the Monta Bell-directed "Man, Woman and Sin" (1927) opposite silent screen idol John Gilbert. Bell would produce and write the dialogue for her talking debut in The Letter two years later.

At the height of her stage career Eagels, who had health issues along with a fondness for alcohol, became notably unreliable. When, in 1928, she failed to appear for scheduled performances of "Her Cardboard Lover" in Milwaukee and St. Louis, the show's producers requested that Actor's Equity ban her from appearing on stage with other Equity members. An 18 month ban ensued. During that time she appeared on the vaudeville circuit performing scenes from "Rain."  She was also free to make films - for which stage actors with trained voices were now in great demand. Following her high-voltage performance in "The Letter," Eagels starred opposite Fredric March in Jealousy (1929). This film was also re-made much later with Bette Davis in the starring role - as Deception in 1946. Eagels' next film was to have been The Laughing Lady (1929), but she dropped out of the project and her role went to Ruth Chatterton. 

Jeanne Eagels, 1921

While in New York in September 1929, Jeanne Eagels underwent successful in-patient surgery for ulcers on her eyes.  A few weeks later, apparently fully recovered, she suddenly fell ill. She was taken to a private hospital where, as she waited to be seen by a doctor, she went into convulsions and died.  Three different coroner's reports followed and all agreed that her demise was caused by an overdose - but each named a different substance. One report pointed to alcohol, another blamed chloral hydrate and a third attributed her death to heroin.

Jeanne Eagels was admired as an actress by many in her day. Bette Davis was reportedly a fan and Louis B. Mayer, taken with Eagels' performance, purportedly deemed The Letter required viewing for actors under contract to MGM at the time. But Eagels' turbulent life off-screen also inspired. "The Shooting Star," a Broadway play of 1933 starring Francine Lattimore was based on her life. The storyline for Dangerous (1935), the film in which Bette Davis portrayed a declining Broadway star (and for which she won her first Oscar), reflected elements of Eagels' own decline. And, in 1957, Kim Novak starred in the biopic Jeanne Eagels, a film that played fast and loose with the facts of Eagels' life story.
 

~ 

The Letter (1929) starring Jeanne Eagels, Reginald Owen and Herbert Marshall airs on TCM Wednesday, October 24 at 8:45 am Eastern/4:45 am Pacific. A few hours later, at 11 am Eastern/8 am Pacific, TCM will air the Lewis Milestone-directed version of Rain (1932) starring Joan Crawford.

Jeanne Eagels as Leslie Crosbie in The Letter (1929)

Sources:
Internet Broadway DataBase
Jeanne Eagels website

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One of Ours...on Turner Classic Movies

Moira Neylon, aka/moirafinnie, blogger on TCM's Movie Morlocks site and member of the Classic Movie Blog Association, will be a guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies next month. Moira and three other Morlocks will be featured in segments with host Robert Osborne on Friday, November 30; each will discuss a film they've chosen to be screened that evening.


I was delighted to discover (thanks to the new issue of TCM's "Now Playing") that Moira selected the classic Jacques Becker crime drama, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (1954), starring the incomparable Jean Gabin in what has been called his "comeback" performance.  It is one of his best. The film also features a young Jeanne Moreau.

Keep an eye out for Moira on TCM in November and, if you haven't already, check out her work at Movie Morlocks and on her blog, The Skeins. On Twitter, she's @moirathefinn.  She's also active at The Silver Screen Oasis.

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Many Thanks

It was nearly a year ago that I began to think about hosting a blog event focused on Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. I had just read an English translation of the French noir novel the film was adapted from and wanted to blog about it. But to simply write a book-to-film piece didn't appeal. And a straight-ahead review struck me as not only daunting but - redundant - so much has been written on Vertigo by so many over the years, beginning with France's Cahiers du Cinema set 50+ years ago. So, I thought it might be interesting to try something different. What evolved was "A Month of Vertigo," a more-than-a-month-long meditation on the masterpiece from many angles by many bloggers. This turned out to be much more work than I ever anticipated - and much more rewarding than I ever imagined. The icing on the cake has been the honor of being voted a 2012 CiMBA for "Best Classic Movie Blog Event" by the Classic Movie Blog Association.

This award would never have come my way if not for the incredible contributions of the superb guest bloggers who joined me in celebrating Hitchcock's great masterwork (now, according to Sight and Sound, the best film ever). I owe a special debt of gratitude to Brandon Kyle Goco (of Brandon Kyle the Cinephile) who created this wonderful teaser/promo as the event prepared to launch:

I'd like to again thank each of the bloggers who participated - this award belongs to them as much as it does The Lady Eve:

• R.D. Finch of The Movie Projector, who kicked off "A Month of Vertigo" on January 1, 2012 with "Deadly Obsession: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo," a reflection on the film's structure and themes.

• Whistlingypsy of Distant Voices and Flickering Shadows who offered her contemplation of "Bernard Herrmann ~ Composer of Haunting Music and Treacherous Dreams."

• Blogger and author Christian Esquevin (Silver Screen Modiste is his blog,  Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label is his book) who explored "The Costumes of Vertigo."

• Brandie Ashe of True Classics, who assessed Kim Novak's greatest role and performance with "Kim Novak in Vertigo: A Hypnotic Presence."

• Michael Nazarewycz of Scribe Hard on Film, who considered the film's iconic setting with "More Than Just the Streets of San Francisco."

• Author Steven DeRosa (Writing with Hitchcock), expert on the Hitchcock screenwriters and screenplays, who explored the story behind Samuel Taylor's best known screenplay with "An Inconsequential Yarn."

• John Greco of Twenty Four Frames, who had recently interviewed award-winning biographer Patrick McGilligan about his new Nicholas Ray bio - and interviewed him again for our event on the subject Alfred Hitchcock, about whom McGilligan had written a 2004 biography, and Vertigo.

• Allen Hefner of Bit Part Actors, a man who knows his supporting players well, who took a closer look at some of the film's unsung character actors (and more) with Vertigo, The Bit Players.

• Brian/Classicfilmboy of Classicfilmboy's Movie Paradise, who examined one of James Stewart's greatest performances with "James Stewart: A Walk on the Dark Side."

• Brandon Kyle Goco who contributed not only the promo but also the vlog (video blog), "Vertigo: Alfred Hitchcock's Edifice to Obsession."

• Vertigo authority Dan Auiler, author of the definitive VERTIGO: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic, who wrote of the film's mesmerizing impact with "Vertigo for Life."

• Joel Gunz aka/the Alfred Hitchcock Geek, who meditated upon one moment of the film with "Hitchcock's Most Beautiful Shot Ever; Or, A Single Frame So Good, 2,000 Words Don't Do it Justice."

(My own contribution, "A Month of Vertigo, The Final Chapter," contemplated the transformation of a genre novel into a cinematic work of art.)

Thank you to the members of CMBA for honoring the blog event, the contributors and Vertigo with this deeply appreciated award.

  Click here for the complete list of 2012 CiMBA award winners.

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