Photobucket - Video and Image HostingPhotobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

They Had Faces #1

Joan Blondell by Elmer Fryer, Luise Rainer and Ann Harding by Hurrell. eBay seller chrstlee

9 Comments:

Blogger M said...

Oh look, so many cool vintage photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/normavalentine/sets/

8:35 PM  
Blogger jtk said...

Great find!! What an outstanding collection. The color deco and the deco pattern folders are especially neat.

11:38 AM  
Blogger michaelE said...

Particularly drawn to the Luise Rainer. Interesting actress. When she came out of retirement for 1997's "The Gambler", she shows up long enough to lose her fortune at the roulette table.

1:51 PM  
Blogger jtk said...

That's a great photo of her. She was excellent in the three films I've seen her in, two which she co-starred with William Powell. I've been desperately searching for Escapade, which I heard is a stinker. I've also heard a story that Luise has the only copy Escapade, but I think it's just a rumor.

5:10 PM  
Blogger michaelE said...

I guess Anna May Wong was a little pissed off when Luise beat her out for "The Good Earth".

11:04 AM  
Blogger jtk said...

I didnt know about that, where can I read about it? Is it in the Anna May Wong bio by Russell and Hodges?

4:56 PM  
Blogger michaelE said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5:54 PM  
Blogger michaelE said...

After testing for the role of O-Lan, Paul Muni's wife in the film "The Good Earth" (1937), and then being considered for the smaller role of Lotus, his concubine in the film, Anna May lost out to Luise Rainer and Tilly Losch respectively.
Irving Thalberg's assistant, Albert Lewin, was put in charge of casting the film version of Pearl S. Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. After testing Anna May and other Chinese actors, he argued that despite their ethnicity they did not fit his conception of what Chinese people looked like.
Seems she was "too Asian".

http://vietq.wordpress.com/2006/03/15/the-conflicted-career-of-actress-anna-may-wong/

6:10 PM  
Blogger jtk said...

That's fascinating, thanks for the link and info.

9:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home