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Post by timshelboy on Jun 29, 2024 17:46:17 GMT
Born in 1919 Tulsa She married Robert Walker and got leading lady assignments in a B Western and a serial in 1939 under the name Phyllis Isley. It took another 4 years for stardom to come as the wide eyed saint in SONG OF BERNADETTE. She got an Oscar for her efforts. The next year she was cast as the elder daughter in Selznick's SINCE YOU WENT AWAY ("the four most important words since GONE WITH THE WIND" went the publicity) Home front saga. Jones' on screen romance with Walker must have been a test - she was leaving him for Selznick. She got a "supporting" actress nomination. LOVE LETTERS was a fetching romance about amnesiac and her epistolatory lover. She was teamed with Joseph Cotten and got another Nomination for an Oscar DUEL IN THE SUN was Selznick's epic sex western with Jones as half breed Pearl Chavez caught between good and bad brothers Cotten and Gregory Peck. Love it or hate it, your cinema education is incomplete until you see it. She got another Nomination, making 4 consecutive years PORTRAIT OF JENNIE was not a great success at the time but many classic movie buffs like it. Jones was the ghost loved by Joseph Cotten. GONE TO EARTH was much edited on release but in its full form a beautiful evocation of the English Countryside. Jones played a Shropshire Pearl Chavez CARRIE sat on the shelf for 2 years, but is a top drawer adaptation of Dreiser. Olivier is wonderful as her married lover. RUBY GENTRY was a riproaring saga of busty swamp trash getting her revenge on the Town that spurned her. She had never been sexier and her swamp clinch scenes with Charlton Heston still sizzle. BEAT THE DEVIL saw her give a gorgeous performance as a (blonde) compulsive liar in this jolly Bogart spoof A much needed hit ws secured with LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDOURED THING, as noble Eurasian Doctor in love with married William Holden. It was a total smash and brought her another oscar nomination. She was too old for Nicole in TENDER IS THE NIGHT but her innate neurotic quality sat well with the part. Nice production values but Robards struggles unsuccessfully with Dick Diver. The IDOL(" a pedestrian little number" Sunday Times) saw her bedding her son's friend Michael Parks ANGEL ANGEL DOWN WE GO is something of a cult item, Jennifer the matriarch of a family seduced en masse by Morrison like Rock Star. Jennifer played a former porn star who utters the line "I was in thirty stag movies and I never once faked an orgasm". THe film was rereleased as CULT OF THE DAMNED to exploit the recent Manson/Tate murders. Olivia DeHavilland turned it down so Jennifer appeared in THE TOWERING INFERNO, her and Fred Astaire giving the disaster flic much needed heart. She at one point had the rights to TERMS OF ENDEARMENT but it never happened. Thanks for reading.
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Post by spiderwort on Jun 29, 2024 19:39:20 GMT
Thanks for the tribute to this beautiful actress. I especially love her in Portrait of Jennie, my favorite of her films.
My other favorites:
Song of Bernadette Since You Went Away Love Letters Love is a Many Splendored Thing Good Morning, Miss Dove
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Post by Carl LaFong on Jun 30, 2024 11:16:18 GMT
Should be spelled Jennie, of course!
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Post by politicidal1 on Jun 30, 2024 13:04:24 GMT
She’s quite funny in “Beat The Devil”.
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Post by timshelboy on Jun 30, 2024 13:10:09 GMT
She’s quite funny in “Beat The Devil”. Favourite Line: "They must be desperate men - not one of them looked at my legs..."
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Post by politicidal1 on Jun 30, 2024 13:18:11 GMT
She’s quite funny in “Beat The Devil”. Favourite Line: "They must be desperate men - not one of them looked at my legs..." She had nice gams.
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Post by timshelboy on Jun 30, 2024 13:21:16 GMT
Favourite Line: "They must be desperate men - not one of them looked at my legs..." She had nice gams. Check out the getaway pins on this:
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Post by timshelboy on Jun 30, 2024 13:53:26 GMT
A couple of good ones I forgot Lubitsch's classy comedy in which she plays a lady plumber Minnelli's MADAME BOVARY with Louis Jourdan STAZIONI TERMINI/INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE - one long goodbye clinch with Montgomery Clift
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Post by Teleadm on Jul 1, 2024 5:19:58 GMT
A few notes... The Song of Bernadette 1943 is probably my favorite movies of hers. It's an astonishing movie with lots of great details and it manages to keep up the interest during it's long running time. And I'm not even one of the believers. A Farewell to Arms 1957 is nearly the opposite since it feels enormously dragged out to fill out a long running time. It also feels like Selznick, who's last picture this was, was out of touch with what the movie audiences wanted. He kicked original director John Huston, and I can't help thinking that if there was one director who could have made this movie interesting, it would have been Huston. Vittorio de Sica who was only hired as an actor in this movie, and was Oscar Nominated for it, also could have made it more interesting if he had directed it. Gone to Earth aka The Wild Heart 1950. I watched a beautifully restored version of this one and it is very beautiful to watch. Storywise it is a bit thin, but having seen some movies by The Archers (Powell and Pressburger) I've learned that the story in itself is not always important, it's the moods and visuals it creates that is important, and it worked on me. Thanks for the profile timshelboy
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Post by Nalkarj on Jul 1, 2024 17:07:11 GMT
I haven’t seen many of her best-known films, but I fell in love with her for the utterly lovable Cluny Brown. Thanks for the tribute and recommendations!
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Post by spiderwort on Jul 1, 2024 17:18:41 GMT
I haven’t seen many of her best-known films, but I fell in love with her for the utterly lovable Cluny Brown. Thanks for the tribute and recommendations! I haven't seen Cluny Brown, Nalkarj; have no reason why, because I love Lubitsch. Will have to find and watch it.
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Post by timshelboy on Jul 1, 2024 20:58:31 GMT
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