Saturdays with the Stars Season 3 Finale

Two of our stars, Shirley & Grace

With this past week's viewing of The Seduction fo Joe Tynan, we are officially done with our third season of "Saturdays with the Stars."  I really like to find a moment before I start the new season (which, unlike past seasons, I haven't told you the theme of & will be doing so in the coming days, as we will indeed do a fourth season starting on Saturday) to discuss the season, talking about what I learned, and also focusing on some of the best of the year's movies/performances.

When I decided to do this theme, I wanted to see how it would turn out picking twelve women who had really nothing in common other than Alfred Hitchcock.  You couldn't find stars as divergent in the way that cinematic history or even contemporary audiences treated them as, say, Maureen O'Hara & Barbara Harris or Shirley MacLaine & Margaret Lockwood.  Hitchcock wasn't always successful with his leading ladies, but it does show what a versatile director he was that he continually tried new things, occasionally making masterpieces but just as often strange curiosities.

It also showed, especially in our month devoted to Tippi Hedren, how Hitchcock's legacy is at once peerless in quality but blemished by the director himself.  Hitchcock was a complicated man, one who brought the downfall of a career or two (Hedren's career, as we discussed, never flourished the way it might have with a less authoritarian mentor), but who also clearly made some of the best films ever made.  What was great about this year was not just focusing on him, but getting to see unknown chapters in these twelve women's lives (I love that I stick to the rule of seeing only films I haven't seen before, because it means every week I get to see a new facet of an actor I thought I knew well, but frequently have my perceptions changed).  As I continue to watch deeper and deeper cuts from Old Hollywood (after three seasons devoted to it on the blog, it seems like watching fresh viewings demands getting into the rafters of these icons' IMDB pages), I am reminded once again how this period of Hollywood has countless movies & careers left to explore.  Thank you so much for playing along!

Favorite Performance from Each Star

January: Madeleine Carroll-The General Died at Dawn

February: Sylvia Sidney-Sabotage

March: Margaret Lockwood-Cast a Dark Shadow

April: Maureen O'Hara-Rio Grande

May: Carole Lombard-Twentieth Century

June: Anne Baxter-The Luck of the Irish

July: Ingrid Bergman-Autumn Sonata

August: Grace Kelly-Dial M for Murder

September: Shirley MacLaine-The Children's Hour

October: Julie Andrews-Thoroughly Modern Millie

November: Tippi Hedren-Marnie

December: Barbara Harris-Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

5 Favorite Actresses of the Year (Alphabetical, and based solely on the films we watched as a collective & not on the rest of their careers)

Ingrid Bergman

Barbara Harris

Margaret Lockwood

Carole Lombard

Shirley MacLaine

5 (err-6, I couldn't corner down) Favorite Performances of the Year (Alphabetical)

Ingrid Bergman, Autumn Sonata

Ingrid Bergman, Journey to Italy

Margaret Lockwood, Cast a Dark Shadow

Margaret Lockwood, The Wicked Lady

Carole Lombard-Twentieth Century

Shirley MacLaine, The Children's Hour

10 Favorite Films of the Year (Alphabetical)

Autumn Sonata

Cast a Dark Shadow

The Children's Hour

Dead End

Dial M for Murder

Journey to Italy

The Lady Vanishes

The Trouble with Harry

Twentieth Century

The Wicked Lady

Top 10 Performances of the Year (Not By Our Leading Ladies)

Diane Baker, Marnie

John Barrymore, Twentieth Century

Dirk Bogarde, Cast a Dark Shadow

Humphrey Bogart, Dead End

Sean Connery, Marnie

Audrey Hepburn, The Children's Hour

George Sanders, Journey to Italy

Claire Trevor, Dead End

Liv Ullmann, Autumn Sonata

John Williams, Dial M for Murder

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

Film: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

Stars: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Carole Lombard-click here to learn more about Ms. Lombard (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Last week we discussed Carole Lombard's sojourn into more dramatic pictures with Vigil in the Night, one of several attempts Lombard made from 1939-40 to win an Academy Award.  Lombard, though, didn't take that Oscar & the public didn't appreciate her in such a role, so she went back to making comedies.  This, weirdly enough, led her to Alfred Hitchcock.  Hitchcock had initially wanted to direct Lombard in a dramatic picture, something that would be inline with what she'd been attempting, but Lombard wanted a comedy.  The result is one of the Master of Suspense's most unusual films.  While Hitch oftentimes would put black humor into his films, this is a straight-up romantic comedy with very little hinting on either side of the conversation of something more macabre, and wasn't the film that Hitchcock wanted to make (he was dismissive of the picture in later years).  It is, however, a very good movie, and a solid showcase for Lombard & Robert Montgomery as the leads.

(Spoilers Ahead) This is not, for the record, a precursor to the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie film (which I like, btw-that's a guilty pleasure movie).  It is instead the story of Ann (Lombard) and David (Montgomery), a couple who have been married for a bit, and while they love each other, bicker constantly.  One morning, David tells Ann over breakfast rather nonchalantly that he wishes they'd never gotten married, because he misses his independence.  David gets his wish, finding out that due to a quirk in Idaho law (where they wed) they didn't actually legally get married.  Ann finds out about this as well, but realizes that David isn't going to tell her (and perhaps make her a "bad girl" by sleeping together while they aren't married), and kicks him out of their house.  Ann then decides to start dating other people, with David attempting to win her back by getting her fired from her new job (allowing for no financial independence) and trying to bust up her relationship with his former friend Jeff (Raymond).  Things come to a head when the three of them are trapped at a ski lodge together, and they realize that despite their constant bickering, they love each other, and the film ends happily.

The movie is charming, and winning mostly because of the two leads.  I give-or-take on Robert Montgomery for the most part, but apparently love him in 1941 between this and Here Comes Mr. Jordan (both of which I thoroughly enjoyed).  He definitely plays his part well here as a man who doesn't realize that he batted out-of-his-league on the first go, and thinks that the grass is greener (when it isn't).  This is shrewd direction from Hitch/Montgomery, capturing the essence of such a man who we can tell from the outside got a good deal, and it's wonderfully underlined by Lombard.  Our star plays this well, reminding not only David but also herself that she's worthy of love, and can get a life beyond herself if she wants...even if she really does just want David.  Filled with lovely comic set-pieces & fun back-and-forth, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a winner & makes you wonder what would've happened if Hitchcock had made more comedies in his later years.

The film, tragically, would be the last movie starring Lombard to be released in her lifetime.  She would make one more movie (the classic To Be or Not To Be), before her death.  On January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and press agent, were coming home from a war bonds fundraising event, when the plane crashed into the side of a mountain outside of Las Vegas, killing everyone on board.  Her husband Clark Gable was bereft when he realized his wife had died, and though he'd remarry twice after her, he would end up buried next to her when he died some two decades later.  Joan Crawford replaced Lombard in the last film she'd been scheduled to make, They All Kissed the Bride, and gave her entire salary to the Red Cross in honor of their work in the aftermath of Lombard's death, and her final movie To Be or Not To Be had to be edited (to great expense) to cut one line from the film where Jack Benny proclaims "What could happen on a plane?", an eerie query in conjunction with Lombard's tragic death.  Carole Lombard, a screen legend & one of the best of her era, was only 33 when she died.

Next month, we're going to jump a little bit out of chronology into the 1950's (we'll do one more of Hitch's 1940's leading ladies in July but because of the depth of her career I wanted a month with five Saturday's, which June doesn't have), so we'll instead move to an actress that jumped from genre-to-genre throughout the 1940's, but ended up finding her footing later in her career with two massive Best Picture nominees that would seal her stardom.  We'll find out who that is on Tuesday!

Vigil in the Night (1940)

Film: Vigil in the Night (1940)

Stars: Carole Lombard, Brian Aherne, Anne Shirley, Julian Mitchell, Robert Coote, Ethel Griffies

Director: George Stevens

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Carole Lombard-click here to learn more about Ms. Lombard (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

The years after Nothing Sacred, which we profiled last week, were busy ones for Carole Lombard.  She was a big enough star in 1938 that she did something relatively rare for actors of that era-she left Paramount, but didn't sign with another studio; this was unusual, and only a couple of major players of this era didn't have studio contracts & were still able to be major successes (the most notable being Barbara Stanwyck).  In her personal life, she was romancing actor Clark Gable, and in 1939, following Gable's divorce from Maria Langham, she married him.  Lombard at this point, according to her biographers, was desperate to win an Academy Award to match her husband's, but there was a problem with that-the public wanted Lombard in comedies, and while Gable had won his Oscar for a comedic performance, by-and-large comedies even in the 1930's simply didn't win Oscars.  So Lombard began to make a string of dramas, most of which flopped or were met with break-even success.  The best known of these, and the one that Lombard thought would win her an Oscar, was Vigil in the Night.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about a nurse named Anne Lee (Lombard), who at the beginning of the film takes the blame for her sister Lucy (Shirley), whose negligence as a nurse causes the death of a young boy; Anne has her certification while Lucy doesn't, and so she knows she can find work somewhere else.  She does go to a city where she gets a job in a much rougher environment, one that has a near constant string of patients (and is severely underfunded), and there she falls in love with a doctor, Robert Prescott (Aherne), but both of their work comes first (more so for Anne than Robert).  As the film continues, Anne becomes more emboldened to fight the smallpox epidemic, a fight that comes to a head when the hospital's stingy funder, who has spent most of the film fruitlessly hitting on Anne, needs the success of the hospital when his own son gets the disease.

This is not where the film ends, but Vigil in the Night is an unusual film for Classic Hollywood because it was distributed with two endings.  This isn't a case where there's a director's cut that was released/found later, but it was that based on the geographic location the film was released in, it got a different ending than other areas.  In the United States, the film gets a romantic ending, one where Robert & Anne end up together.  In the United Kingdom, though, considering when this was released, it ends with (the real) Neville Chamberlain's voice talking about how the country is now at war with Germany, making it a much more somber affair, as the staff understands their fight is just beginning now.  TCM aired both endings when I saw this film, and I will admit the UK ending is better if you have to pick which one to watch.

That being said, Vigil in the Night is a bit of a slog.  The film is too melodramatic, and the script is too repetitive-Anne has to have the same fights over-and-over, to the point where you kind of wonder if the characters aren't a bit too consistent.  Oftentimes with this style of melodrama, part of the problem is that it's taking itself too seriously, particularly if it's leading toward a happy ending...the movie feels too light on occasion, and to my chagrin, a bunch of that falls on Lombard.  We've established over the past few weeks that Lombard was a terrific actress, someone capable of greatness with comedy, but she plays Anne as too light, and while she's good in parts (the standing-up-to-the-man scenes are classic Lombard), overall this is the least successful of her performances, and with no one else bringing much energy to the movie, it falters.  I get why an actress would read a part like this & think they'd win an Oscar for it, but it's not just about the role-you need to find a part that would fit (this feels much more attuned to a Bette Davis-style actress than Lombard).  Of course, Carole Lombard would never win an Academy Award, and we'll talk about the tragic reason as to why next week as we conclude this month devoted to the star (and yes, we'll finally get to the one picture she made with our director this season, Alfred Hitchcock).

Nothing Sacred (1937)

Film: Nothing Sacred (1937)

Stars: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly

Director: William A. Wellman

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Carole Lombard-click here to learn more about Ms. Lombard (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

One of the rules of "Saturdays with the Stars" is that I never rewatch a movie for the series (I'm experiencing the star new along with you).  This oftentimes means that some of the bigger films in an actor's career (especially as we continue with this series) get left behind, and that's the case jumping from Twentieth Century to today's movie Nothing Sacred for Carole Lombard.  In 1936, Carole Lombard starred in My Man Godfrey, a movie that would earn her her only Oscar nomination & is generally considered to be her best film (it is one of my favorite screen comedies, and if you haven't seen it I order you to rectify that immediately).  Coming off of that, Lombard was a golden girl in Hollywood-a critical darling, and a name that basically was printing money.  Nothing Sacred was something of a disruption of that pattern.  Critically-acclaimed (both then and now) it was somehow a flop at the box office, and its enduring reputation has been largely due to its status as a genuinely good movie (albeit no Godfrey) and its place as the only Technicolor picture of Lombard's career.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie focuses on Wally Cook (March), a reporter who is coming off of a story where he was hoodwinked into covering a con job as legitimate (which involves Hattie McDaniel in a one-line part, two years before she'd win the Oscar).  He sees a feel-good story as a potential redemption by covering Hazel Flagg (Lombard), who is dying of radium poisoning, and decides to give her a send-off that involves a ticket-tape parade & toasts all over New York City.  The only problem is that Hazel isn't dying, but let's him believe it so she can get out of her small-town life in Vermont.  When she falls in love with him, she realizes she needs to either disappear or die in order to not humiliate Wally, but in the end she marries him, assuming a different name, and letting the "celebrity" Hazel Flagg slip into the night.

Nothing Sacred is the exact sort of movie from the 1930's that I always enjoy, frequently love, but isn't really something that exists today.  Screwball comedies are truly something audiences have grown out of, but it's also genuinely a movie without a lot of laughs.  Nothing Sacred is clever, but it's more of a "hmm, that's witty" sort of observation rather than something that will have you bowling over with laughter.  It doesn't help that the Technicolor is unnecessary (it's fun to see Lombard in her only color film, as she looks glorious, but it does nothing to add to the movie), and the plot is ridiculous (why is the entire city of New York randomly in love with this blonde girl who is dying?).

That said, Lombard continues to sparkle.  She is a truly gifted comedian, and someone who knows how to have chemistry with virtually everyone, even a miscast Fredric March (I adore March in most things, but there's something off here-he seems to be underselling the part, and doesn't really relate to the role as a journalist...there's not enough meat on this role).  Her speech about the logic of her committing suicide is a riot (it's funny in the context even if that sentence is obviously no laughing matter in reality) & her crying jags are spot-on...at this point I'm starting to believe there's nothing she can't do, though next week we're going to see her stretch her skills in a movie that put Lombard beyond what audiences expected from her.

Twentieth Century (1934)

Film: Twentieth Century (1934)

Stars: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns

Director: Howard Hawks

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Carole Lombard-click here to learn more about Ms. Lombard (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Last week we discussed the earliest stages of Carole Lombard's career, when she was being romanced on (but not yet off) screen by Clark Gable, and was still married to William Powell, which brought her an amount of celebrity that she wasn't really earning onscreen.  In 1934, though, she made what seemed immediately after as a mistake-she turned down the lead role in It Happened One Night, which would eventually go to Claudette Colbert, and win her an Oscar (to be fair to Lombard here, Loretta Young also turned down the part & Clark Gable wasn't thrilled about doing it either...no one knew they were headed to immortality on that film's set).  Instead, she made a couple of modest hits (Bolero, We're Not Dressing), and then was put in Twentieth Century.  This movie would not be a hit-it was a bit of a flop with audiences...but it would completely change the course of Carole Lombard's career.

(Spoilers Ahead) Twentieth Century is about a cruel, bombastic (but genius) director named Oscar Jaffe (Barrymore), who has been tasked with making a lingerie model named Mildred Plotka (renamed Lily Garland, and played by Lombard) into a stage star.  Though he basically tortures her (this movie rings a lot differently in the #MeToo era, though in the film his treatment of Lily is played for laughs), it works.  Lily is splendid in the show, with a knack for the stage, and they continue working together in a series of huge hits.  Lily, though, dumps Oscar once she's outgrown him personally & professionally, and moves to Hollywood achieving stardom.  Oscar, though, can't live without his muse, and produces a string of flops, and at one point to stave off his collectors, disguises himself aboard the Twentieth Century Limited, a train headed from Chicago to NYC (and back again).  Lily is on the train, and though she pities Oscar to a degree, she doesn't want to work with him again, and is going to make a play with his rival.  Oscar, though, tricks Lily in the closing scenes of the play into thinking he's dying, and making her sign a contract with him while she's overcome with emotion...and then he uncovers his charade, but she's already under contract.  The film ends with the two of them reunited, in their own version of tortured codependence.

Twentieth Century sounds meaner than it is (that description makes it sound like Lily is a constant victim, which while she is certainly the injured of the two, the movie doesn't really come across that way).  The film is such fun (though it's worth noting, it's not It Happened One Night).  Most of the joy from the film doesn't come from the script (which is wry, but not breaking a lot of ground), but from the two leads.  Barrymore, in particular, is sensational as Oscar Jaffe.  He plays him with comic genius, overacting (blissfully) and riding this character til dawn.  If you've read this blog for a while you know I have a fondness for John Barrymore (I also thought he was marvelous in Dinner at Eight), though Twentieth Century was the end-of-the-road for the troubled actor as a regular leading man.  Due to his alcoholism, he'd basically be unemployable soon, playing bit parts in film until his death from cirrhosis at the age of 60 in 1942 (despite his vast age difference & poor health even when they were filming he would outlive his Twentieth Century leading lady by a few months).  But more on that in a few weeks.

While Barrymore is the revelation in this cast, Lombard is nearly his equal.  To this point in her career she'd never shown the incredible knack for screwball comedy she displays here, not just eating into the one-liners, but also the physical comedy bits in the film as well.  While audiences didn't warm to this movie, critics did, and noted how Lombard seemed at-ease in a part like this, and was soon being cast in similar films.  Just two years later, she'd be an Oscar nominee & have graduated from leading lady to one of the most famous women in America...a status she almost certainly wouldn't have reached without this gem.

No Man of Her Own (1932)

Film: No Man of Her Own (1932)

Stars: Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Dorothy Mackaill, Grant Mitchell

Director: Wesley Ruggles

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2021 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different one Alfred Hitchcock's Leading Ladies.  This month, our focus is on Carole Lombard-click here to learn more about Ms. Lombard (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

We're going to start our month devoted to Carole Lombard with a film that should be a bigger deal than it is.  Lombard's career up until 1932 had been fine, but not particularly interesting.  She'd been signed to a star contract Paramount, and was regularly working (she made five films in 1931 alone), but wasn't really known as a headlining star.  In fact, it was more her marriage to actor William Powell (significantly more famous than she) who was giving her the bulk of her press, as people were clamoring for gossip about the newlyweds.  It was about this time that Clark Gable got the opportunity to be loaned out from MGM (a rarity for the actor) to Paramount (so that Marion Davies could get Bing Crosby as her leading man), and he selected a script called No Man of Her Own, where he was initially paired opposite Miriam Hopkins, but when she backed out, the studio picked Lombard to be his costar.  As we'll find out below, this was a weird stroke of fate...that ultimately would go nowhere for years.  But first, the movie.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is a low-key romantic comedy, where we have Babe Stewart (Gable), a gambler who hustles rich men out of their fortunes in rigged games of poker.  In the opening scenes he dumps the distraction in the card game, Kay (Mackaill), who is smitten & wants revenge on him.  With a jilted lover & the latest victim of his card game aware of what happened, Babe goes to Glendale, a small town where he meets a worldly (but still innocent) librarian named Connie (Lombard).  She falls for him, and eventually tricks him (through his gambling addiction) into marrying him.  Marital bliss doesn't work out for the two of them, though, as Babe refuses to make an honest man of himself, and hides his criminal past from Connie.  Things come to a head when Babe "goes to South America" (but really turns himself into the police so that he can "come clean") and while Connie knows that he is lying to her, she realizes he's doing it out of genuine love, and lets him continue lying about where he's been, knowing that what matters, their marriage, is built on reality and not falsehoods.

While the film was a hit, it wasn't particularly important in Lombard's (or Gable's, for that matter) career.  It would be two years before Lombard would have her first major film role, and graduate from leading lady into superstardom, and Gable had far bigger things going on in 1932 than this movie.  The film is also pleasantly-regarded but not well-remembered amongst film historians, and that's because it's not very good.  The chemistry between the two leads is there, but it's not outstanding, and the script meanders & loses focus, never quite knowing what to do with Connie (or Kay, for that matter).  It's forgettable, and qualitatively nothing more than a footnote in the careers of the two stars.

So why'd I pick it when there are dozens of options for Lombard to choose from?  Because No Man of Her Own is a bizarre curiosity that had to be witnessed due to what was happening off camera...which in 1932 was nothing.  Despite Gable's reputation as a ladies' man, he & Lombard didn't have an affair on the set of No Man of Her Own (she stayed faithful to William Powell, though they'd be getting a divorce soon).  Bizarrely, Lombard & Gable, a couple that would eventually marry and are now regarded as one of the most iconic Classic Hollywood couples, didn't feel any heat during the filming of their only movie, and would only become romantically-involved a few years later.  They are also part of one of my favorite Hollywood Love Squares (or at least a rhombus), as Powell, after he broke up with Lombard, would eventually romance Jean Harlow (before her untimely death), who (while not romantically involved) would be arguably Clark Gable's best & most frequent leading lady.  Despite Harlow & Powell and Gable & Lombard being the iconic pairings offscreen, both actresses would do their best work with the other guy onscreen-Harlow lighting the cinema on-fire with Gable in the sizzling Red Dust and Lombard scoring her sole Oscar nomination for My Man Godfrey a few years after their divorce.

Saturdays with the Stars: Carole Lombard

Each month of 2021 we will be taking a look at the leading ladies of some of Alfred Hitchcock's many celebrated classics; we'll be doing this series chronologically to when they first entered Hitchcock's filmography.  Last month we featured Maureen O'Hara, an actress who made one film with Hitch at the beginning of her career, but would be better known for her work in the decades to come with different directors.  This month, we're also going to feature an actress who made one film with Hitchcock, but whose career is rarely linked in conjunction with the great director the way that so many performers are.  However, this actress didn't make a film with Hitch early in her life, but at the tail end of her career before unspeakable tragedy cut her stardom short.  This month, our star is Carole Lombard.

Lombard grew up in comfortable surroundings, albeit from an early age without her father in her life (her mother moved she and her two brothers to Los Angeles when Carole was very young).  Carole got into show business by accident, after being seen playing baseball when she was 12, featured in a small role in the now lost film A Perfect Crime.  After the film, she signed a contract with Fox as a teenager, but this went nowhere until she started being featured as one of the beauties in Mack Sennett's comedy films, which led to her eventually getting wooed over to Paramount, where she enjoyed true success and entered into a well-publicized (but short-lived) marriage to William Powell.  In 1934, she starred in Twentieth Century opposite John Barrymore which showed Hollywood that she was brilliant in romantic/screwball comedies, and though the film wasn't successful financially, Lombard soon was cranking out hits in a similar format, becoming one of the decade's biggest stars (and due to her later marriage to Clark Gable, one of its more gargantuan celebrities).

Lombard's career has a lot of chapters for someone who died at the age of 33, most of which are really pleasant until the last one.  One of the stranger chapters, though, is how she ended up with Hitchcock, and it's perhaps weirder for Hitch because the film (a screwball comedy) was much, much more in Lombard's wheelhouse than Hitchcock's.  The movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, stands apart as the only true comedy that Hitchcock ever made in the United States, and I am really itching to see it as part of this month's filmography, as it was a big hit in its day, but is a movie that Hitchcock didn't like (though it appears he & Lombard got along quite well).  It's particularly fascinating because, as you can see from this photo, in still pictures Carole Lombard looked exactly like we'd expect from the many Hitchcock ladies that would come about in the 1950's & 60's (the icy, blue-eyed blonde) even if that doesn't match her onscreen persona at all.  We'll talk about their collaboration, as well as several other pictures in the extraordinary life of one of the only comediennes that got to be a Hitchcock lead all throughout May.

OVP: To Be or Not To Be (1942)

Film: To Be or Not To Be (1942)
Stars: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Sig Ruman
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Score)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I always marvel at the idea that I'm seeing a classic movie for the first time.  There's only so many such films that still exist in my world, and it's very rare that I get to do this activity anymore, particularly for a film that isn't a "modern classic" but in fact something from eons ago.  This is why I was so thrilled to get to investigate To Be or Not To Be, one of those great Lubitsch pictures and the final movie of Carole Lombard's career.  I thought in a way I might be tempting fate a bit watching this movie on a plane (considering Lombard's ultimate demise), but figured I'd go with it as it was the next movie in my Netflix DVD queue, and I wanted to give it a try.

(Spoilers Ahead) The strange thing about Hollywood in the 1940's is that they continually made movies about the Nazis and World War II as it was happening (Casablanca is the most famous example, but there are lots of them).  I don't know why, but that always shocks me.  I'm aware that we made movies about the Iraq War while it has still been being fought, but because it is so alien to the news (whereas World War II was constantly a part of the day-to-day life of every Americans what with the draft and rations, as well as attacks on actual American soil), it doesn't quite feel the same.

The movie unfolds during World War II, specifically looking at Maria (Lombard) and Joseph Tura (Benny), an acting couple who have lost some of the spark in their relationship, and are playing Hamlet in Poland just before the occupation.  Maria is being pursued by a handsome young pilot named Sobinski (Stack), who meets with Maria one night after excusing himself during the famed "To Be or Not To Be" speech of Shakespeare's play, much to the chagrin of the easily-annoyed Benny.  The film unfolds with Maria and Joseph both having regular run-ins with the Nazis, and Joseph having to deal with his wife conducting an emotional affair even if she didn't mean it as anything more than friendship, and the entire acting troupe trying to pull one over on Adolf Hitler & his Gestapo, particularly the bumbling Col. Erhardt (a precursor to Hogan's Heroes in a lot of ways, and the role that would win Charles Durning an Oscar nomination with the remake).  The movie ends, in typical comic fashion, with the good guys winning even though the war still rages on, and both Benny & Stack confused by a different handsome solider getting up during his "to be or not to be" speech.

The film is shocking in its attitude toward the war in a way I don't know that I've seen outside of a Mel Brooks comedy, and The Producers came out decades after the fighting had stopped.  Seeing Benny decked out in a Nazi uniform is startling, and the Nazi salute is so frequently and comically used I felt uncomfortable sitting next to the guy on the plane while I was watching it, eventually informing him when he inquired that I run a classic film blog which is why I was watching the picture.  The movie's cavalier attitude occasionally goes into the insensitive, particularly when it juxtaposes the absurd against Felix Bressart's impassioned speeches as Shylock.  Still, though, it's marvelously entertaining, particularly Lombard who has never looked so beautiful and is by far the film's biggest highlight.  Stack does little more than is required of him (to be handsome), but he succeeds on that front, and Benny, well, always played Jack Benny and if you like that sort of thing this will work well for you (I love Benny-I think he's marvelous in interviews, so I was frequently chuckling at his antics, even though his range as an actor is essentially one character-himself).

The movie received a sole nomination for Best Score, an odd citation as it wasn't memorable at all.  In fact, of all of the aspects of the movie (acting, writing, costumes), it's one of the areas that stand out the least, and seems like pretty standard-fare trumpets that you'd expect from the era.  Still, it's nice to know such a sharp and edgy film (for its day) got picked up by AMPAS in at least one category so we get to include it in the OVP.

The movie is definitely worth a see, and if you have, please share your favorite moments in the comments!  I was partial to Lombard's lusty comment about "five tons of dynamite," but there's many to sort through.  And for those who haven't seen it, share your favorite moments in the filmographies of Lombard, Benny, and Stack!  The comments await!

Flying Solo in Best Actress

Let's spread the wealth, shall we ladies?

My brother and I were talking the other day about the Best Actress field for 2015, as we are wont to do, and how strange the slate of women that will potentially be competing for the top prize is.  Amongst the leading contenders for the prize this year include Meryl Streep (Ricki and the Flash), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Cate Blanchett (Carol), and Julianne Moore (Freeheld).  You might recognize these names in particular because they also happen to be the last four women to win the Best Actress Oscar (Natalie Portman is hanging her chances on a Malick film and the ill-fated Jane Get Your Gun, so I doubt that they can go with a 5/5 situation).  My brother made a comment about how Best Actress may soon be as insular as Best Costume or Score, or at least that it will be again, which felt to me like an Oscar-trivia article.

The reality, is in fact, that Best Actress has long been one of the most insular categories at the Oscars, even in comparison with the very chummy Best Actor category.  If you only count people who would receive their sole Oscar nomination in that category, it's roughly 1 in 5 for both fields as an average in almost every decade.  The Best Actress race, however, has gone through weird spurts of repetitiveness, particularly in the 1940's, 80's and the current decade.  I figured it would be worth looking at every decade since the 1930's where a woman received only one nomination for Best Actress and was never heard from again.

Miriam Hopkins

1930's
Number of Solo Nominees: 12 (Nancy Carroll, Ann Harding, Lynn Fontanne, May Robson, Diana Wynward, Grace Moore, Elisabeth Bergner, Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Gladys George, Carole Lombard, and Margaret Sullavan)
Any Winners?: Not a one of them.  Luise Rainer, Marie Dressler, Viven Leigh, and Helen Hayes came the closest, each only receiving two Oscar nominations in their careers.
I'd Like An Explanation: One of the larger lists of actresses, this may be because only a couple of actresses really dominated the decade in terms of public consciousness, and one of those oddly didn't receive a nomination (Joan Crawford).  The early years of the cinema seemed to be kinder to emerging talents and in particular, crossover stars from the theater and opera like Fontanne and Moore.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: A few of them probably came close.  Hopkins received a Golden Globe nomination for her work in The Heiress, so I suspect she was in the running, Lombard was a major player who definitely wanted an Oscar (and may well have gotten one if she hadn't died tragically so early in her career), and Oberon certainly came close with her lead role in Best Picture nominee Wuthering Heights, though she had the misfortune of contending in 1939 against Oscar titans like Bette Davis and Greer Garson.
Most Likely to Get a Second: Elisabeth Bergner was the last living member of the dozen solo nominees listed above, dying in 1986, so no one will be getting a second citation.

Jeanne Crain

1940's
Number of Solo Nominees: 7 (Martha Scott, Ginger Rogers, Jean Arthur, Gene Tierney, Celia Johnson, Dorothy McGuire, and Jeanne Crain)
Any Winners?: Ginger Rogers is one of the only women to win a Best Actress Oscar on her only nomination.
I'd Like An Explanation: The 1940's were dominated by a select 6-7 actresses (Rosalind Russell, Bette Davis, Kate Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Olivia de Havilland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Greer Garson) resulting in very few openings for ambitious screen stars.  With the exception of perhaps Rogers (who was more noted for musical comedies) none of these are particularly stunning solo nominees, frequently getting upstaged even in their era by the more nominated women at the Box Office.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: My money is on Tierney, who was a major dramatic actress for 20th Century FOX (her nominated film, Leave Her to Heaven, was the most successful film for the studio during the 1940's), and starred in major motion pictures of the era like Laura, The Razor's Edge, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.  Behind her would be Jean Arthur, who starred in two major Oscar films (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Shane), but was famously press-shy which probably didn't help, even in a pre-Twitter era.
Most Likely to Get a Second: Both Martha Scott and Jeanne Crain died in 2003, the last living women on that list.

Lana Turner

1950's
Number of Solo Nominees: 10 (Judy Holliday, Shirley Booth, Julie Harris, Ava Gardner, Maggie McNamara, Dorothy Dandridge, Carroll Baker, Nancy Kelly, Lana Turner, and Doris Day)
Any Winners?: Judy Holliday and Shirley Booth both won on their only shots at the fair.
I'd Like An Explanation: We see a slight uptick in the 1950's, possibly because of the decline of the studio system, and possibly because certain women that normally wouldn't do well with the Oscars (glamour girls and romantic comedy leads) both saw a major increase in popularity.  Still, women such as Deborah Kerr, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Hepburns continued to prove that it's easy to repeat.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Ava Gardner was probably tops amongst the many legends on this list, with her performance in Night of the Iguana grabbing nominations at the Globes and BAFTA's but not the Oscars (Tennessee Williams-penned roles were a major Oscar draw for women of the era, with women ranging from Kate Hepburn toVivien Leigh to Anna Magnani to Geraldine Page all landing nominations for his plays).
Most Likely to Get a Second: Doris Day and Carroll Baker are still living, though both have been retired from acting for over a decade.  I suspect that if she actually was willing to show up and win it that an Honorary Oscar would be Day's for the taking, but she's very press shy and I doubt would attend.

Anouk Aimee

1960's
Number of Solo Nominees: 9 (Melina Mercouri, Lee Remick, Rachel Roberts, Debbie Reynolds, Samantha Eggar, Elizabeth Hartman, Anouk Aimee, Ida Kaminska, and Genevieve Bujold)
Any Winners?: Not a one.  Sophia Loren, Patricia Neal, and Barbra Streisand all only received two acting nominations in their careers, so that's the closest.
I'd Like An Explanation: The 1960's are a bit odd in that no woman received more than three nominations (that would be the ever dependable Kate Hepburn, as well as Mrs. Robinson-herself Anne Bancroft), but the decade is dominated by women who either were getting the final nominations of their oft-recognized careers (Bette Davis, Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr) or were starting a long affair with Oscar that would continue into the coming decades (Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie).  That leaves a hodgepodge of foreign-born actresses (very much the rage in the 1960's) and random younger stars who never seemed to pop to get the sole nominations.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: I would imagine it was Lee Remick, to be honest.  I know that Debbie Reynolds is the name everyone remembers from the above list, but Remick was nearly nominated in 1959 for Anatomy of a Murder where she played a rape victim and won a Globe nod.  It's worth noting that in a very odd year (1966) Elizabeth Hartman could have been cited for her bizarre turn in You're a Big Boy Now as pretty much anyone with a pulse was contending that year (she did get a Globe nod).
Most Likely to Get a Second: Four of these women are still living, and actually all of them have made films in the past five years: Debbie Reynolds, Anouk Aimee, Samantha Eggar, and Genevieve Bujold. Of the five, Reynolds would have the best luck both as the biggest movie star (in the US, at least) and as someone who picks the right material (she may well have been cited if Behind the Candelabra had played theatrically).  Either way, she should start campaigning for an Honorary Award as I think she'd be on the shortlist.

Diahann Carroll

1970's
Number of Solo Nominees: 11 (Ali MacGraw, Sarah Miles, Carrie Snodgress, Janet Suzman, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Valerie Perrine, Louise Fletcher, Carol Kane, and Marie Christine-Barrault)
Any Winners?: Louise Fletcher's nurse from Hell (which is pretty much a supporting turn, let's be honest) was the only victory for a sole nomination.
I'd Like An Explanation: This decade saw a number of women that could get nominated basically every time they opened a picture (Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Marsha Mason, Glenda Jackson), but like the years before we saw a combination of foreign actresses and movie star careers that didn't quite pan out.  It's also worth noting the unfortunate fate of black actresses in this category (only two of which have ever been nominated for a second trophy), which means that Ross, Tyson, and Carroll were all one-and-done nominees.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Sarah Miles headlined a Best Picture nominee in 1987 in Hope and Glory, which could well have been a contender in a less competitive year.  Diana Ross actually had buzz for Mahogany back in the day (1975 was a weird year), and there was some movement to make her the first black actress to win a Best Actress Oscar (that feat would happen 26 years later).  Otherwise none of these women came particularly close before or after.
Most Likely to Get to Second: Snodgress is the only woman on the above list to have passed away, but the only women who seem like they could someday score another nomination are Tyson and Kane, both of whom work extremely regularly, though more so on television than in the cinema.

Kathleen Turner

1980's
Number of Solo Nominees: 6 (Mary Tyler Moore, Marlee Matlin, Kathleen Turner, Sally Kirkland, Melanie Griffith, and Pauline Collins)
Any Winners?: Marlee Matlin became the youngest winner ever of the Best Actress award when she picked it up for Children of a Lesser God at the age of 21.
I'd Like An Explanation: No other decade will probably ever have a run quite like this.  Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, and Sissy Spacek dominated (there is no year of the decade where at least one isn't nominated) and routinely it was the bulk of them.  Most of the above women were either randomly-cited for tiny films (Matlin, Kirkland, Collins), matinee idols with quickly burnt-out movie stardoms (Turner, Griffith), or headlining a Best Picture winner (Moore).
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Most assuredly Kathleen Turner, who was a major matinee idol in the 1980's and won back-to-back Golden Globes for Romancing the Stone and Prizzi's Honor, both mammoth hits that for some reason Oscar didn't really want to put his stamp on (the 1980's were very fond of drama, more so than usual, but even then Prizzi's Honor was a major Oscar-player with eight nominations and 1984 had a weird glut of similarly-themed farm-movies, so this one is had to explain).  Either way, there's a decent chance she was in second place twice before finally getting cited for Peggy Sue Got Married (when she probably came in second to Matlin, give-or-take Sissy Spacek).
Most Likely to Get to Second: All of these women are still alive and working, though none of them seem particularly prone to a second nomination.  Turner gets the most attention currently, but that's almost entirely on-stage and she rarely makes movies.  Perhaps it would be Pauline Collins?  She's British, of-a-certain-age, and does bit roles frequently in BAIT-y looking projects (Albert Nobbs, Quartet).  Perhaps she'll pull a Janet McTeer and randomly get in once more?

Catherine Deneuve

1990's
Number of Solo Nominees: 8 (Catherine Deneuve, Angela Bassett, Stockard Channing, Elisabeth Shue, Sharon Stone, Kristin Scott Thomas, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Fernanda Montenegro)
Any Winners?: In one of the weirdest moments in on-paper Oscar history, Gwyneth Paltrow's career totally stalled with Oscar after Shakespeare in Love.  Perhaps the Cate Blanchett curse?
I'd Like An Explanation: We continued to see a few actresses that totally dominated (Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Emma Thompson), but by-and-large this list was actually considerably larger a few years ago.  Actresses like Janet McTeer, Helen Hunt, and Helena Bonham Carter have made good in supporting roles in recent years, winnowing down the list a bit, something I suspect will continue to happen.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: I mean, Gwyneth seems like the obvious choice, but she wasn't actually that close with Sylvia or Emma, so I'm going to go with Sharon Stone, who was such a big star in the 1990's and was very much in the HFPA's favor (scandalously so).  Basic Instinct or The Mighty might have been close possibilities.
Most Likely to Get a Second: We're now going from the possible to the plausible for "most likely to get a second."  All of these women are still living, and in the cases of Scott Thomas, Bassett, and Paltrow, so regularly make major films that it's difficult not to see at least one of them scoring again, if not all three.  Plus, I think Sharon Stone is going to be discovered by Quentin Tarantino any minute now and that could be not only a nod but a trophy.

Carey Mulligan

2000's
Number of Solo Nominees: 10 (Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, Diane Lane, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Imelda Staunton, Felicity Huffman, Ellen Page, Carey Mulligan, and Gabourey Sidibe)
Any Winners?: Halle Berry is the most recent woman to win an Oscar on her only nomination.
I'd Like An Explanation: Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Judi Dench, and Cate Blanchett may have been nominated in perpetuity, but the biggest explanation is that we're not far enough away for this list to be super small.  All of these women are still living and most of them are still very much in the hunt.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Carey Mulligan, probably, who somehow missed a lot of her buzz for Shame despite that seeming like a pretty plum part (then again, Fassbender missed there so the prudish Academy may just not have been feeling that sex addiction drama).
Most Likely to Get a Second: There are several women on this list that could not only make it again (anyone other than probably Castle-Hughes or Sandino Moreno have the star status still to pull this off), but could make it this year.  Carey Mulligan's Suffragette and Ellen Page's Freeheld both seem like prime contenders.  Imelda Staunton is entering her key "elderly British scene-stealer" years and both Diane Lane and Felicity Huffman are actors that consistently play supporting parts in big things-either one could luck into a Helen Hunt in The Sessions situation.

Emmanuelle Riva

2010's
Number of Solo Nominees (so far): 5 (Rooney Mara, Emmanuelle Riva, Quvenzhane Wallis, Felicity Jones, and Rosamund Pike)
Any Winners?: Not a one-Natalie Portman is the only winner with just two nominations.
I'd Like An Explanation: Too soon to tell, though the 2012 age record-breakers don't really seem as likely to make it again as the other three women.
Who Came Closest to Another Round?: Probably none of them.  Pike, Jones, and Mara have all had key roles in Oscar-nominated films in the past, but it's doubtful any of them made any sorts of waves prior to their nominations.
Most Likely to Get a Second: Hmm, it's obvious that this is a threeway race, but I'd argue that it's a two-way: Rosamund Pike doesn't give off the vibe of a repeat offender.  Jones and Mara, on the other hand, both seem like repeaters, particularly Mara who could be back again this year in Carol.

And there you have it-the few, the proud, the really-wishing-they'd-landed-one-more.  Who do you think is the most likely sole Best Actress nominee to repeat (I'm going with Ellen Page or Rooney Mara, but that's really playing the obvious)?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

AFI's 25 Greatest Actresses, Part 3

I'm on a roll here, so I'm just going to keep this countdown going (we'll possibly have a quick break in-between Parts 3 and 4, but we're only at the halfway point here so lots of great actressing to come).  If you missed Parts 1 or 2, please click here and here so you're all caught up.  And now, onto the last nine actresses from the AFI's 25 Greatest Actress countdown.

17. Lillian Gish (1893-1993)

Oscar Nominations: Gish would receive only one Oscar nomination in her career for the bawdy western Duel in the Sun.  The Academy wisely gave her an Honorary Oscar at the 43rd Academy Awards for an extraordinarily long (it would stretch 75 years) career.
Probably Best Known Today For: Her incredible longevity, and having a name that is synonymous with Silent Era cinema.  She doesn't have a specific film role that people know her from, but the name Lillian Gish conjures a bygone era of Hollywood.
My Favorite Performance: Her career stretched so many decades and so many periods it's difficult to pick a specific favorite, so I'm going with two and I don't care what you think.  If it's Silent Era Gish, it would have to be her mesmerizing work as Eternal Motherhood in Intolerance (a film that has to be seen to be believed), but if it's Sound Era Gish surely I would need to go with her work as Rachel Cooper (forever brandishing that gun) opposite Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: It would probably have to be one of the D.W. Griffith films (she starred in all five of his most acclaimed and successful pictures), and considering it contains one of the most iconic images of her, I'll go with Gish floating on ice in Way Down East.

18. Shirley Temple (1928-2014)

Oscar Nominations: Temple never received a competitive Oscar nomination or win, but she did pick up the first Juvenile Award at the Oscars in 1934.
Probably Best Known Today For: Being the quintessential child star.  Like Gish, very few people could name an actual Shirley Temple movie, but everyone knows who she is, thanks to those dimples and her curly hair.  Her moniker is also synonymous with a fruity non-alcoholic cocktail that every little kid has in hopes of emulating the fancy (not so angelic) drinks their parents are imbibing.
My Favorite Performance: All right, the third leg of this competition is when my shame grows exponentially.  I have never seen a single child performance of Shirley Temple's.  That said, I have seen some of her work as an adult, and though it has been many (MANY) years since I last saw it, I actually remember her fondly in John Ford's Fort Apache.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Clearly there's a few that I need to get caught up with, so I don't know if I should cite Temple on the staircase with Bill Robinson in The Little Colonel, her pining for "Animal Crackers in Her Soup" in Curly Top, her iconic work as Johanna Spyri's titular heroine in Heidi, or jumping aboard the good ship lollipop in Bright Eyes.  I probably need a marathon.

19. Rita Hayworth (1918-1987)

Oscar Nominations: Ms. Hayworth is our third performer to never win or be nominated for an Academy Award, proving that clearly the bombshells did not play well with classical AMPAS (the other two so far being Marilyn and Mae West).
Probably Best Known Today For: Her iconic looks and glamour.  Though not as central to pop culture as Marilyn, she was the 1940's equivalent of the actress, and her name conjures sophisticated beauty and a spectacular mane of red hair.  She also has a key role (as a poster) in The Shawshank Redemption, which many modern film stars will recognize her photo from.
My Favorite Performance: This is going to make me hang my head, but as much as I hate to admit it, I don't believe that I have ever seen a Rita Hayworth movie.  I was always entranced by her beauty as a cinema-adoring young man, but without AMPAS to guide me in her direction I never got into one of the movies.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Surely Gilda has to be at the top of the list (I have seen her "put the blame on Mame" in film clips, of course), what with her brilliant hair-tossing.  My adoration of Orson Welles also means that The Lady from Shanghai would also be high on my wish list.

20. Lauren Bacall (1924-2014)

Oscar Nominations: Bacall would receive an Oscar nomination very late in her career for The Mirror Has Two Faces (losing in a major upset to Juliette Binoche).  In 2009 she would receive an Honorary Academy Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures."
Probably Best Known Today For: Her short but memorable marriage to Humphrey Bogart.  Bogie and Baby are one of those couples like Liz and Dick and Paul and Joanne that continue to dominate the public's obsession with Hollywood romance to this day (Brangelina, anyone?).
My Favorite Performance: I mentioned this in my obituary to Bacall, but To Have and Have Not remains my favorite of her work.  I love the sheer confidence that she portrays, never really seeming the nineteen-years-old she is onscreen, and commanding that leading role in a way few other actors could in their debut performances.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I have seen half of the Bogie/Bacall filmography, and of the two I have remaining, I think The Big Sleep is probably the more pivotal movie to check out (rather than Dark Passage), though both flicks are in my Netflix queue.

21. Sophia Loren (1934-Present)

Oscar Nominations: Loren received two Oscar nominations in her career, winning for Two Women in 1961 (the first person to win for a foreign-language film).  She would go on to win an Honorary Oscar in 1991 for her body of work.
Probably Best Known Today For: For starters, thankfully being alive and still working (the only woman on this list still with us).  Loren recently starred in Rob Marshall's Nine, but is probably best known for her enduring beauty.  Consistently considered one of the most striking and attractive women in the history of cinema, she was a major star at the height of America's fascination with foreign language cinema. (Completely Random Aside-I once had a car that I named after Loren because the car was so pretty).
My Favorite Performance: I am pretty lax in my Loren film-watching, but I can claim that I have seen her Oscar-winning work in Two Women, and for lack of a better choice, I'm going to go with that for my favorite (still have a lot to see here).  I also remember really liking Houseboat as a kid.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I am going to go with Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, which unites Loren with one of her favorite directors (Vittorio de Sica) and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

22. Jean Harlow (1911-1937)

Oscar Nominations: Like our three other major sex symbols on this list, Harlow would never be nominated for or win an Academy Award.
Probably Best Known Today For: Being the original Marilyn.  Harlow was to the 1930's what Rita was to the 1940's and Marilyn was to the 1950's-a bombshell the public couldn't get enough of, and like Monroe, she is also remembered for her tragic early demise (from kidney disease in 1937 at only 26).
My Favorite Performance: I could totally cheat here and say City Lights, which is indeed one of my favorite silent films and a truly wonderful movie, but Harlow has only a bit part in it.  As a result, Harlow joins Rita Hayworth on the list of actors whom I have seen no major movies of their filmography.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: At this point, everything, clearly.  I'm most looking forward to Red Dust, where she is at her most glamorous, and the critically-acclaimed Dinner at Eight.  Honestly, though, you could easily add Hell's Angels, The Public Enemy, Platinum Blonde, or Libeled Lady to that list and I would have no qualms.

23. Carole Lombard (1908-1942)

Oscar Nominations: Lombard only received one Oscar nomination in her career, for her work in My Man Godfrey in 1936 (she lost to Luise Rainer).
Probably Best Known Today For: If Lombard is known for anything today, it is likely her tragic demise.  Lombard, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and at the peak of her career tragically died in a plane accident when her aircraft crashed into a mountain.  The death was felt all over Hollywood, and the press heavily covered her mourning husband, Clark Gable.
My Favorite Performance: It's hard to really top My Man Godfrey, one of a string of truly brilliant comedies of the 1930's (the dramatic films, in my opinion, didn't hold up to the screwball masterworks of this era), and Lombard had wildly good chemistry with William Powell in the picture (this despite them having been divorced several years earlier-can you even fathom that happening now with someone like Brad and Jen or Tom and Nicole?).
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Probably the Ernst Lubitsch classic To Be or Not To Be, which has been rescued by cinephiles after a tepid initial reception.

24. Mary Pickford (1892-1979)

Oscar Nominations: Pickford received one Oscar nomination in her career, and thanks to her insane celebrity at the time she won despite its questionable quality (for Coquette).  A more appropriate award came over 45 years later when she picked up an Honorary Academy Award for her body of work.
Probably Best Known Today For: Being the original America's Sweetheart.  Much like Lillian Gish, most people would have difficulty coming up with any of her films, but her name brings to mind the Silent Era and her role as one of the biggest stars of early cinema (likely the biggest female star of the era).
My Favorite Performance: I'm going to balk on this one, as the only Pickford performance that I have seen is Coquette, which is tragically bad (possibly the worst Oscar-winning performance I have ever seen).  I don't think it'd be appropriate to pin one of Hollywood's most significant founders with that as their best work.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Obviously most of her principle work in silent pictures.  I would probably start with Sparrows, which is considered one of her finest and most interesting pictures, and far more in her acting wheelhouse than Coquette.

25. Ava Gardner (1922-1990)

Oscar Nominations: Gardner would receive only one Oscar nomination in her career, for Mogambo in 1953 (she would lose that year to Audrey Hepburn).
Probably Best Known Today For: Her extremely high profile marriages to and relationships with some very famous men.  She was married three times, to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and most notably to Frank Sinatra in one of the most storied Hollywood marries of the 1950's.  She was also in a romantic relationship with Howard Hughes (chronicled in The Aviator, where she was played by Kate Beckinsale), and had a strong (possibly romantic) friendship with Ernest Hemingway.
My Favorite Performance: I haven't seen a lot of Gardner's work, but certainly my favorite of her performances was in Show Boat, partially because of Gardner but mostly because it's one of my mom's favorite films.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Probably the classic 1959 drama On the Beach, where she stars opposite Gregory Peck and Fred Astaire in a movie about the fallout of nuclear war.

And there you have it (fifteen years after the fact)-a look at the 25 greatest actresses from the American Film Institute.  We'll continue our five-part series tomorrow, but in the meantime head to the comments and discuss today's nine actresses-who is your favorite in the bunch?  What are your favorites of all of their films?  And what movies did you just write down as ones you still need to see?