Jean Arthur

No existing standalone thread that I could find. One of my favorite actresses, maybe my favorite for various reasons, although I still haven’t seen everything she did and in some films she is ill-used. Just found this interesting overview by Stanwyck not-quite-biographer-more-like-cataloguer Dan Callahan.

https://brightlightsfilm.com/uneasy-living-insecure-charm-jean-arthur/

Plus Robbie Fulks wrote this amazing song about her that really conveys her energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgV5Nk6bV10

To me her gold standard role is in THE MORE THE MERRIER. TALK OF THE TOWN by the same director, George Stevens, is almost as good but suffers because of Ronald Colman.

His SHANE is not so good, but some people defend her performance, her last on film, iirc.

Great song that is not about a Jean Arthur movie as far as I know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kdt1IARNkI

I don't mind her when she isn't squeezing the cutes in my face.

Oh, hi, Alfred. Was wondering when you would show up on this thread.

Callahan’s take on A Foreign Affair is pretty interesting. She was cast in an extremely unflattering light which apparently she complained about to Wilder, and was outfoxed by Marlene Dietrich (who wouldn’t be?) but he makes the case that she reclaims the role for herself in the second half. I may have to rewatch it sometime soon.

I read the 1997 bio he mentions, Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew and recently bought a digital copy. It’s very good but kind of wish there were a recent update, which Callahan states and hints at.

Think I may have to supplement by reading a Mary Martin bio.

Written in 2016, so maybe some new deets.

One thing I only learned about and retained recently was the affair with Selznick.

Forgot to mention the author of Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew, John Oller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU9bg4XEh-I

EASY LIVING is a new favorite, one that I somehow managed to miss until last month. Maybe because I had previously been drunk on the microbrewed Wilder & Sturges Kool-Aid of reputational schadenfreude waged against Mitchell Leisen.

TCM Star of the Month!

OP link still works

Still haven't seen The Whole Town's Talking and History Is Made at Night and would like to watch Easy Living again.

What the heck is The Ex-Mrs. Bradford?

My current screenname Star of the Month is in it at least.

The Whole Town's Talking was amazing on many levels. I was barely aware of its existence.

History Is Made at Night is slightly insane, don't miss that one

Yeah, meaning to watch that one next.

I also enjoyed The Whole Town's Talking and it got me to wondering. What is John Ford's funniest movie? Because it might be that. What else is there... Donovan's Reef? Usually his idea of humor is someone getting pushed into a pool of mud, or the like.

Oh, iMister Roberts I guess. Haven't seen that in a while.

Lol about the mud wrassling.

Edward G. Robinson:

They were handsome in their comments about me, but their raves were really for Jean Arthur-that curious, neurotic actress with so touching and appealing a nature that she really brought a new dimension to the screen. No curlylocks was Jean Arthur; hardly pretty by ancient Hollywood standards, with a voice that grated like fresh peppermint, she seemed to me to be living-off and on screen-in a dream world of her own devising. She was whimsical without being silly, unique without being nutty, a theatrical personality who was an untheatrical person. She was a delight to work with and know.

Last night's batch included lots of familiar favorites and one I'd never even heard of, The Impatient Years. Virginia Van Upp's name is prominent in the credits which, since she played a key part in some of Rita Hayworth's most iconic films, makes me hopeful that it's good or at least worth seeing.

Trying to watch If You Could Only Cook before it goes away from TCM. Had recalled reading something bad about it, but now it's clear that this was coming from some story Frank Capra concocted in his autobiography that has been since debunked.

In addition to everything else, he probably trashed this film to enhance the story of him discovering/creating Jean Arthur as we know and love her.

Garlic should never be used lavishly in this particular sauce.

You want only the ghost of a shadow of the flavor of garlic.

That was great, I don't care what Graham Greene said about it.

Okay apparently Frank Capra did not invent the story of Harry Cohn pretending If You Could Only Cook was a Capra film in England, but he distorted some of the details in his telling and left out the fact that it was only one of the grievances he was fighting with his boss about.

Just watched this: https://www.tcm.com/articles/150880/the-impatient-years

The male lead is indeed a dud– I just recently rewatched Cover Girl from the same year which he is also in and I retained no recollection of him– but Jean's performance is fine.