Saturday Matinee in honor of Elizabeth Taylor: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

photo from IMDb

In honor of Ms. Taylor AND Tennesee Williams because I LOVE LOVE LOVE him, too....oh and Paul Newman isn't so bad, either. "Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son." From IMDb

This is another of my favorites.  I know I say that alot but I do love this era of films, costumes, etc.  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof does not disappoint in either.  I am also a HUGE fan of Tennessee Williams.  His work was almost an obsession of mine during college when I studied Theatre.  I was in A Streetcar Named Desire
, more on that when I do a review. I designed costumes for A Streetcar Named Desire
, as well.  I did many scene studies of his work and set design of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
.

Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman do an amazing portrayal of Maggie and Brick.  Burl Ives plays Big Daddy wonderfully while Judith Anderson plays Big Momma in an extremely annoying way, but I think that is the character, not the actress.  "Although the film did not win any Academy Awards, it received several nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor (Newman), Best Actress (Taylor), and Best Director (Brooks). The film also received nominations for Best Cinematography, Color (William Daniels), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium" from Wikipedia.  This makes me wonder WHAT won that year....so of course I looked it up on Wikipedia.  Well "Gigi" won best picture and a host of other awards, breaking "Gone With the Wind's" record, but only for one year because a year late Ben Hur winds even more.  Best Actress that year went to Susan Hayward in "I Want to Live", which is a movie I LOVE and have since I was a little girl (why my mom let me watch it at a young age, I do not know...). Anyway....it did not WIN any awards but that does not mean it is not a good movie....

Paul Newman is a hottie....

 There is usually a scene where the female lead wears a slip in Williams plays and Elizabeth Taylor does it very well...

Burl Ives as Big Daddy Pollitt

Even in Black and White here eyes are mesmerising

 If you are a fan of Taylor, Newman, Ives, or Tennessee William's plays....or maybe you just like good mid century movies with stylish costumes...this is a must see movie.

Tiffany

Photos from Yahoo! images.  Video clip from Youtube.

Butterfield 8

One of my most favorite Elizabeth Taylor movies in Butterfield 8.  She plays a disturbed woman who is employed as a model so the costumes are amazing.  Lots of pretty dresses she must wear around town to be photographed in.  Even her "down time" outfits are amazing....and of course she appears in that gorgeous slip and mink coat.  I enjoy the story very much, too, but I do not know what makes me watch this more, the costumes or the story....or Elizabeth Taylor.  Laurence Harvey stars in Butterfield 8, as well, and even though he is very handsome and I enjoy looking at him, his caracter really gets on my ever last nerve.

BUtterfield 8 was named for a list of old Manhattan telephone prefixes that was used to place calls in NYC up until the 1960’s.  Gloria Wonderous, Taylor's character, gave Mr. Ligget a gift of a lighter with BU 8 in-graved into the side so he would always have her number. Gloria would call in to get her messages.  It seems to be like an answering service, as well.  Since I was not alive during the time such prefixes were used, I have no experience with them except for hearing them in movies and older television programs.

The film was based on a 1935 novel, BUtterfield 8 , written by John O’Hara, however there was,  little resemblance of the book in the film.  I read the book after I saw the movie, years later, in fact, and can honestly say that there was not much similarity, although I enjoyed both.

"Gloria Wandrous (Elizabeth Taylor) wakes up in wealthy executive Weston Liggett's (Laurence Harvey) apartment and finds Liggett has left her $250. Insulted, Gloria, whose dress is torn, takes Liggett's wife Emily's mink coat to cover herself and scrawls "No Sale" in lipstick on the mirror. But she orders her telephone exchange, BUtterfield 8, to put Liggett through if he should call.
Gloria visits a childhood friend, pianist Steve Carpenter (Eddie Fisher), in his Greenwich Village apartment. He chastises Gloria for wasting her life on one-night stands, but agrees to ask his girlfriend Norma (Susan Oliver) to lend her a dress. Gloria leaves, whereupon Norma jealously gives Steve an ultimatum: He must choose between her and Gloria.
Liggett takes a train to the countryside where his wife Emily (Dina Merrill) is caring for her mother. A friend, Bingham Smith (Jeffrey Lynn), advises him to end his adulterous relationships and return to Bing's law firm instead of working for the chemical business of Emily's father.
Gloria lies to her doting mother Annie (Mildred Dunnock), claiming to have spent the night at Norma's. A neighbor, Fanny Thurber (Betty Field), insinuates that Gloria spends many nights in less than virtuous circumstances.
Liggett returns home. Finding the lipstick and money, he phones Gloria to explain the money was meant for her dress, which he had torn." from Wikipedia.  This explanation softens Ms. Wonderous, a bit, and she says she MIGHT be in the area where Ligget will be later that night. As usual, I will not spoil the movie and let you watch to see what happens....trust me in saying this is not a movie to be missed if you enjoy mid century fashions or seeing Elizabeth Taylor in prime form.

She throws this beautiful coat back in the closet and takes the mink instead.

from IMDb

One thing the movie sorta, kinda glosses over is the fact that Gloria was part call girl.  "John O'Hara's 1935 novel BUtterfield 8 was based on the life and death of a real-life call girl named Starr Faithfull." From Turner Classic Movies .  Sure, Ligget leaves her money and Gloria is offended, he later offers her an apartment and allowances to live to be his mistress, she stabs his foot with her stiletto....but in the movie she is just a slut, nympho, and alcoholic.  This was much more proper for the Production Code of 1959 /1960.  The same thing was done with Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Holly Golightly was a high priced (for the time) call girl in the book while in the movie she was a model who met up with men in night clubs.  The men gave her money for the powder room, usually 50 dollars (!!!!), I assume to tip the matron (?) and she pocketed the change.  Maybe I have a weird opinion of this subject but I do not see why being a nympho, slut, loose woman, and alcoholic is so much better than earning a living with what these ladies where going to do anyway?  I could write and write on this subject (and have in other venues) but this blog is not the place for my soap box on this subject.

She brushes her teeth with the scotch in her glass.

 Reminds me of the Kesha song, Tik Tok

Butterfield 8 is highly recommended by me and I will watch it again and again.  To tie this into the Oscars here are the awards it won and was nominated for...
"It won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Elizabeth Taylor) and was nominated for Best Cinematography, Color for 1960. It was also nominated for the Best Actress - Drama Golden Globe Award for the same year's releases." from Wikipedia

from Apartment Therapy (huh? odd where one might find photos)

 Tiffany

Happy Birthday Dear Elizabeth....And Get Well Soon!!!!

photo from ET Online

Elizabeth Taylor, as I am sure you know, has been hospitalised "for treatment of congestive heart failure, a condition she disclosed she had back in November 2004...She was admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center more than a week ago and will remain in the hospital under observation "for the time being," declared Taylor's publicist, Jamie Cadwell, this past Friday, Feb. 18, 2011.
According to her spokeswoman, Sally Morrison, Taylor, "has continued to show great improvement, and her family and friends are very pleased with her progress" from CBS News.  I wish her a speedy recovery and would like to honor her upcoming birthday (February 27th) with a blog post dedicated to her as part of my celebration of the Oscars.

photo from Yahoo! Images

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of North West London, on February 27, 1932.  Shortly before WWII, her family decided to move to California to avoid war hostilities in Europe.  The Taylors were shortly introduced to " Andrea Berens, a wealthy English socialite and also fiancée of Cheever Cowden, chairman and major stockholder of Universal Pictures in Hollywood. Berens insisted that Sara bring Elizabeth to see Cowden who, she was adamant, would be dazzled by Elizabeth's breathtaking dark beauty; she was born with a mutation that caused double rows of eyelashes, which enhanced her appearance on camera. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon took interest in the British youngster as well but she failed to secure a contract with them after an informal audition with producer John Considine had shown that she couldn't sing. However, on 18 September 1941, Universal Pictures signed Elizabeth to a six-month renewable contract at $100 a week" from Wikepedia.

Her first motion picture, at the age of nine, was There's One Born Every Minute. And although she was released from her contract with Universal because some thought "She can't sing, she can't dance, she can't perform. What's more, her mother has to be one of the most unbearable women it has been my displeasure to meet" Liz:An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor, by C. David Heymann. This did not slow her career down as her agent,  Myron Selznick (brother of David), quickly secured a contract for her at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a three month contract to appear as "Priscilla" in the film Lassie Come Home. Elizabeth  was in many films durring her childhood but it was her film National Velvet that launched Taylor to stardom at the tender age of 12.

After the success of National Velvet and a few more films Elizabeth was able to demand a contract earning her $750 per week, her mother $250, as well as a $1,500 bonus.  Through the years, her salary and contract grew with her film success and she went on to star in many many box office hits.  So many in fact that if I highlighted every one of them....this blog would only be about Elizabeth Taylor and could become a FULL TIME hobby.  She also married a few men during her career.  Both of these, I will leave you to explore on your own with a quick Google or Yahoo! search.  Instead I am going to do a few blog posts in the next few days about MY favorite Elizabeth Taylor movies.  I hope you stay tuned and help honor her Birthday with me by reading about these films and hopefully I can inspire you to watch or re-watch a few. 

So in honor of the great Dame Elizabeth Taylor ( DBE ) and to wish her a speedy recovery, very happy birthday and to just show everyone how beautiful and wonderful she is...I leave you with a few of my favorite Liz images...

Still beautiful in her golden years.

Tiffany

Oscar Party Games

The Oscars are a big event in our home.  I try to see all the movies nominated for, at least, the big awards.  I love the glamour, the celebration, and the spectacle of it all. From the red carpet arrival to the announcement of the Best Motion Picture award, I am glued to my TV.There are, however, some awards that I am not all that into...so I might try some of these games during the "down time"...

Mock Oscars Awards

Stage your own awards ceremony and give out replica Oscar statues.
Suggested Award Categories:

• Best dressed
• Most red-carpet ready
• Prediction Winner (person who correctly guessed the winners in each category)
• The guest who can give the best impromptu, improvised acceptance speech
• Best host jab at an award nominee
• Best karaoke performance

Oscars Drinking Game

There's nothing like having a good 'ol drinking game to spice up the always-incredibly long Oscars ceremony.
You can make up your own Oscar-specific rules on this special night or try one of our ideas.

• Every time a TV hosts asks a female celebrity 'Who made your dress?' during red-carpet arrivals, take a drink.

• Every time someone tearfully thanks his or her agent, take a drink.

• Every time a speech-giving winner gets cut off by the orchestra, take a drink.

• Each time a celeb tells their kids to go to bed, take a drink

• Whenever the camera pans over to Jack Nicholson, take a drink.

Oscars Pool

For a fun betting game on who will win at the Oscars:
1. Have your guests arrive an hour early for the Oscars broadcast to fill out ballots. (This is a great opportunity to serve up some delicious cocktails and apps, too!)
2. Download and print a pre-made ballot from the official Academy Awards website.
3. Gather around for the show, watch, enjoy and prepare to collect (or shell out!) some cash.

All photos from Google Images
Party Ideas from Celebrations

Tiffany

Saturday Matinee: Anne of a Thousand Days

Turner Classic Movies is doing a 31 Days of Oscar theme this month in honor of the Academy Awards.  If you have not checked in on thier schedule of film showing, please do so...you will be sure to catch some real gems.

This week TCM had quiet a few movies dealing with the Tudor Dynasty and one I enjoyed was Anne of a Thousand Days.  I am sure part of my enjoyment came from the fact that I enjoy most things dealing with Anne Boleyn.

Most of us know the story from history class or from watching Showtimes "The Tutors" so I will just give a quick plot summery....

"Henry VIII of England discards one wife Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of a young and beautiful woman, Anne Boleyn, whose one-thousand-day reign as Queen of England ends with the loss of her head on the block. Henry weds Ann and soon she gives him a child. The girl, Elizabeth, is a bitter disappointment to Henry, who desperately wants an heir. Anne promises Henry a son "next time," but Henry is doubtful. Shortly thereafter, rumors begin that the King's eye has already wandered. One Jane Seymour is at court for a moment. The Queen has her sent away, but, if Anne will bring Jane back to court, the King promises to sign the Act of Succession to insure that Elizabeth will be Queen." from the Internet Movie Database

I enjoyed this movie.  I especially enjoyed Geneviève Bujold's performance of Anne Boleyn.  She portrayed Anne as a spirited, seductive, manipulitive, and beautiful Queen.  This is how I think of Anne Boleyn and enjoyed watching Geneviève Bujold on screen.

One of her last scenes, in the tower, was very dramatic.  She informed King Henry that her blood would rule one day...and she was right as their daughter Elizabeth became Queen of England.

"But Elizabeth is yours. Watch her as she grows; she's yours. She's a Tudor! Get yourself a son off of that sweet, pale girl if you can - and hope that he will live! But Elizabeth shall reign after you! Yes, Elizabeth - child of Anne the Whore and Henry the Blood-Stained Lecher - shall be Queen! And remember this: Elizabeth shall be a greater queen than any king of yours! She shall rule a greater England than you could ever have built! Yes - MY Elizabeth SHALL BE QUEEN! And my blood will have been well spent" from the film Anne of a Thousand Days

Geneviève Bujold is an absolutely beautiful lady.  She was nominated for Best Actress for this film, however she did not win. She did win the Golden Globe that year (which I much prefer watching over the Oscars, even thought I never miss either ceremony) To read more about this lovely actress, please visit Internet Movie Database or Wikipedia.

Of course King Henry was as ruthless and as bullish as he always.  Richard Burton played King Henry and did it well.  He too was nominated for the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actor, but he was passed over that year for both.  The film had a total of 16 award nominations and took home 5 statues between the Academy Awards and Golden Globe, doing better with the Globes.  The Oscar win was for Best Costume which I always enjoy seeing.  The Golden Globe wins were for Best Actress - Drama, Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Screen Play.  If you are able to catch this on TCM or able to rent it, I highly recommend.

Before I leave you, I want to include some photos from my other favorite Anne Boleyn, Natalie Dormer.

Tiffany

Date Night / Dinner and a Movie: True Grit and The Purple Cow

The film is narrated by the adult Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who explains that her father was murdered by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), when she was 14 (Hailee Steinfeld); Chaney made off with her father's horses and two of his California gold pieces. While collecting her father's body, Mattie inquires about hiring a Deputy U.S. Marshal to track down Chaney. She is given three recommendations, but chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), because he is described as the most merciless. He repeatedly rebuffs her attempts to hire him.
Meanwhile, at the boarding house where she is staying, Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) arrives on the trail of Chaney. LaBoeuf has been pursuing him for several months over a murder in Texas. He proposes to Mattie that they should team up with Cogburn, since the Marshal knows the Choctaw terrain where Chaney is hiding, while LaBoeuf knows how the man is most likely to behave. Mattie rejects LaBoeuf's offer, partially because he would take Chaney back to Texas to be hanged for the prior murder, instead of her father's. After finally securing Cogburn's services, Mattie is instructed to meet him the following morning to begin the search for Chaney. Though instead of meeting Mattie, Cogburn leaves a note telling her to go home while he goes to apprehend Chaney.
After she is refused passage on the river ferry that conveyed Cogburn and LaBoeuf, Mattie demonstrates her own "true grit" by riding into the water and being pulled across by her swimming horse. (photo and synopsis from Wikipedia) I am not one to be a plot spoiler so if you want to know more please go see the movie ;)  It is WELL worth your time.

I enjoyed this movie so much.  I already like Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, but now I am a HUGE fan of the young lady who played 14 year old Mattie Ross, Hailee Steinfeld.  She is nominated for best SUPPORTING actress (???) for the role, which I just do not understand.  How is she a SUPPORTING actress when she was the star of this movie?  She was in EVERY scene.  As you can see from the movie poster above, she is not even listed.  I understand marketing, in regards to the poster, I guess...I mean if I saw her name on the poster, I would not know who she is....but I would soon understand her billing after seeing the movie.  Was there truely no more room on this poster for ONE more name?  If not, take Josh Brolin off, I mean really?  He was barely in the film and not all that memorable except he plays the man they are seaching for...

Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges were good, too, but that is a given....we all know they are good actors and I would expect nothing less.

I have not seen all the other nominated movies or performances, yet, but so far my pick for best supporting actress is Hailee Steinfeld.  I do not like changing my choice from Amy Adams, as her performance in The Fighter was very good, as well, but I was very impressed with Hailee Steinfeld, I hope she continues with her talent (we know so many young ones do not).

After the movie we went out to The Purple Cow for dinner.  This has been one of my favorite places since I took the Assisted Living residents there for lunch outing while working as a Social Director of a retirement community.  The Purple Cow is supposed to me fashioned after an old fashioned diner.  Their food is ok, depending on what you order.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE their Chicken Caesar Salad, they have this amazing olive mix in it and OMGoodness it is good.  David orders something different every time we go and he has seemed to like it all.  They also have Adult Shakes, which are different shakes with liquor added.  Although I have never had one, one of the residents where I worked has and he LOVED them.  I have had, however, plenty of their purple ice cream and it is very yummy.

While we waited for our dinner to be served, we played Trivia Pursuit.  As odd as that may sound, they had the cards from Trivia Pursuit on the table.  Well it sure beats coloring the children's menu.

We had a great time on our date night.

Tiffany

Saturday Matinee: Room at the Top (1959)

With lips still warm from another woman's flesh...I thee wed...

"In late 1940s Yorkshire, England, ambitious young man Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey), who has just moved from the dreary factory town of Dufton, arrives in Warnley, to assume a secure, but poorly-paid, post in the Borough Treasurer's Department. Determined to succeed, and ignoring the warnings of a colleague, Soames (Donald Houston), he is drawn to Susan Brown (Heather Sears), daughter of the local industrial magnate, Mr. Brown (Donald Wolfit). He deals with Joe’s social climbing by sending Susan abroad; Joe turns for solace to Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret), an unhappily married older woman who falls in love with him.
When Susan returns from her holiday, shortly after the lovers have quarrelled, Joe seduces her, and then returns to Alice. Discovering that Susan is pregnant...."from the internet movie database  (I left some of the plot synopsis out to keep from spoiling the movie for others.  I do not know why IMDb has to tell so much....)

This film is loaded with Oscar Nominations.  The Best Actress Nom (and win) was well deserved by the beautiful Simone Signoret.  She plays a lonely wealthy housewife, Alice Aisgill, often left alone by her traveling husband.   



Nominated for Best Supporting Actress was Hermione Baddeley as Elspeth , who only had  "2 minutes and 20 seconds of screen time", the shortest ever for a nomination.  Wikipedia   She did not win but did go on for a long career as an actress.  You might better remember her for her roles on Little House on the Prairie or as the "hard drinking housekeeper" on Maude, but I remember her as Samantha Stevens childhood Nanny in her recurring role on Bewitched.  She is one, when you see other roles she played, you might say "oh, yea...that WAS her".  To see these roles, go over to her Wikipedia page.

For the first half of the film, I just could not place who was playing "Joe Lampton".  It was driving me nuts who this handsome and debonair man might be.  I knew I have seen him in many classics, but just could not place him.  AHA!!!!!  He played Westin Ligget, Gloria Wonderous's married lover!!!! (I love LOVE L O V E Butterfield 8, by the way...more to come on this, I am sure, in a future post...).  For now, he is playing Joe Lampton and doing a very good job at it.  He was nominated for this role for a Best Actor Oscar, but, like Ms. Baddeley, was passed over (I must look up who did win this year and watch their performance because for him to win over Laurence Harvey, he must have been day'um good).  Oh, didn't I tell you who I was talking about? Laurence Harvey, my new crush.  He is yummy.

Of course, Mr. Harvey was in many many more films, which you can read all about at the Internet Movie Database.

Even though Saturday Matinees SHOULD be comedies, in my opinion, I really enjoyed this movie.  It was dark, sexy, and sad.  Perfect for this dreary Texas afternoon ~sarcastic smile~.  The film told of the constant battle between classes with Joe wishing to climb the social ladder and Mr.  Brown keeping him down.  The characters included the usual old snob haggy woman (Mrs.Brown) thinking she is better than everyone else and others trying to keep Joe down.  Joe was not a good man, said he loved Susan while sleeping with Alice, but Laurence Harvey played him well.  The atmosphere of the industrial town added to the darkness of the film, as well.

A bit of trivia, for ya, (found at the IMDb), initially no British cinema chains wanted to touch the film as the British Board of Film Classification had given it an X certificate, then usually synonymous with exploitation fare. Eventually the ABC chain took a chance and picked it up for distribution, scoring a huge critical and commercial hit in the process. Many changes had to be made before the film was released, "

Before passing the film with an 'X' certificate the BBFC required some dialogue changes. The word "bitch' was changed to 'witch', and 'Don't waste your lust on her' was changed to the tamer 'Don't lust after her'."  There were also other edits but talking about these would give away too much of the movie...and I do not wish to be a "Spoiler", but you can see them at the IMDb website.

Another interesting fact, "the story takes place in 1947, but all the women's fashions and hairstyles are strictly in the contemporary 1958 mode, when the film went before the cameras" from IMDb  To be very honest, I did not realise the movie was supposed to be set in the late '40s, just after WWII.  I thought it odd that they kept referring to the war so long after it was over and that the "Sargent" (what a man teased Joe as being" was so young looking. (BLONDE moment, I guess)

If you have not seen Room at the Top, I recommend it. 

Tiffany