Saturdays with the Stars Season 2 Finale

Two of our legendary Stars of 2020,
Sophia Loren & Jayne Mansfield

Yesterday with The Three Musketeers we hit the finale of our second season of "Saturdays with the Stars," and before we start the new year (and a new season, devoted to Hitchcock's leading ladies), I wanted to take time to celebrate another season, and one I treat as a success.  We never missed a Saturday (there was one close call, but that was really it-being stuck at home made at least this part of 2020 easier), and I saw a lot of new movies & now have a better understanding of twelve stars, some of which I knew next to nothing about before this year.  And I hope you learned something as well!

It's always fascinating to me to focus on an actor's career, rather than as we typically do in film discussions on a director's.  Watching these women, particularly under the guise of "Sex Symbols" was intriguing to me because Hollywood had different attitudes toward these beautiful women as the public began to find their sexuality passé, or eventually, absent.  It is kind of heartbreaking to watch someone like a Jayne Mansfield or Raquel Welch, who clearly chose poorly at select moments of their careers & paid the price for it, and fascinating to watch a figure like Sophia Loren or Ann-Margret who was able to rise above their studio-forced persona and eventually gain mainstream critical recognition in their lifetimes.

Every film I watched this year was a movie I was seeing for the very first time, as well, so once again I was blown away by the expanses of Classic Hollywood, rich with westerns and noir and musicals that I'd never been exposed to.  Next year we'll do our third and final tour of Classic Hollywood actresses (after that, if we continue the series, we're going to either add men or a more modern element for a fourth season), so we'll continue to mine this well, but before we do that, let's hand out some superlatives for this year's leading ladies.

Favorite Performance from Each Star

January: Jean Harlow-Red Dust

February: Betty Grable-I Wake Up Screaming

March: Lena Horne-Cabin in the Sky

April: Rita Hayworth-Separate Tables

May: Lana Turner-The Postman Always Rings Twice

June: Marilyn Monroe-The Misfits

July: Jayne Mansfield-Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

August: Sophia Loren-Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

September: Gina Lollobrigida-Come September

October: Nancy Kwan-The World of Suzie Wong

November: Ann-Margret-Carnal Knowledge

December: Raquel Welch-The Three Musketeers

5 Favorite Actresses of the Year (Alphabetical)

Jean Harlow

Rita Hayworth

Sophia Loren

Marilyn Monroe

Lana Turner

5 Favorite Performances of the Year (Alphabetical)

Rita Hayworth, Separate Tables

Sophia Loren, Two Women

Sophia Loren, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Marilyn Monroe, The Misfits

Lana Turner, The Postman Always Rings Twice

10 Favorite Films of the Year (Alphabetical)

Cabin in the Sky

Cover Girl

I Wake Up Screaming

Imitation of Life

Libeled Lady

The Misfits

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Red Dust

Separate Tables

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

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

Clark Gable, The Misfits

David Niven, Separate Tables

Eli Wallach, The Misfits

Ethel Waters, Cabin in the Sky

Eve Arden, Cover Girl

Jennifer Jones, Beat the Devil

Juanita Moore, Imitation of Life

Laird Cregar, I Wake Up Screaming

Susan Kohner, Imitation of Life

Thelma Ritter, The Misfits

OVP: Libeled Lady (1936)

Film: Libeled Lady (1936)
Stars: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Walter Connolly
Director: Jack Conway
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Picture)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Jean Harlow-click here to learn more about Ms. Harlow (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

By the mid-1930's, Jean Harlow was one of the biggest stars in America.  On the MGM lot, she was worth more to the studio by the time that Libeled Lady came out than Joan Crawford or Norma Shearer, the two women who had basically bankrolled the company for years.  She had managed to float her way through two husbands since the last time we had discussed her in Red Dust, and was at the time madly in love with William Powell, who would be her costar in the film.  The movie would be a gargantuan hit for MGM, making nearly $3 million at the Box Office during the height of the Depression, and further cementing Harlow as the most valuable asset on the MGM lot.  As we're about to see, though, that distinction would be (to pardon the expression) short-lived.  But first, Libeled Lady.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is basically one of those madcap screwball comedies that went extinct the second Cary Grant met Alfred Hitchcock, but it's a pip.  Jean Harlow plays Gladys, a frequently jilted bride whose fiancé Warren (Tracy) is constantly putting his newspaper's needs ahead of hers.  In the opening scenes, we find out that his paper has printed a libelous lawsuit about Connie Allenbury (Loy), the daughter of his rival newspaper's chief James Allenbury (Connolly).  Connie sues Warren's paper for $5 million, but he can't afford to pay this kind of money, so he enlists the help of famed lothario Bill Chandler (Powell) to woo Connie after marrying Gladys in a sham marriage, so it looks like Connie has been romancing another woman's husband.  The problems ensue when both Connie AND Gladys fall for Bill's line, while Bill only loves Connie.  The film's final moments are a series of coincidences and one ups-manship, with ultimately Gladys ending up back with Warren and Connie & Bill reunited despite their differences.

Libeled Lady is marvelous.  It's hard to judge because when you put Powell & Loy together you expect The Thin Man (though they actually made 14 movies together in their time in the spotlight), and this isn't quite as sparkling as that, but it's hard to compare any movie to The Thin Man.  The film is hilarious, with some great physical comedy and some ace comedic work.  It's a testament to Harlow that put against an acting titan like Tracy, and two Grade-A comedians such as Loy & Powell that she pretty much steals the picture as the "dumb blonde who isn't so dumb."  As a result, I kind of loved Libeled Lady in a way I wasn't expecting-this is the sort of film I'd probably give a 4.5 star rating to (but we don't do halves here), but as there are parts where the one-liners could have popped a little bit more, I'm going to lean to four stars, though I reserve the right to change my mind about that in the future.

The movie would, sadly, be one of the last high-water marks of Harlow's career.  She would make just two more pictures, Personal Property and Saratoga, both big hits, before she died in 1937 from kidney failure at the age of only 26.  Because of her youth and beauty, and how we never got to see her grow old, urban legends still persist about Harlow (chiefly that she died as a result of the hair dye that created the platinum blonde look she'd make iconic, though this has been proven to be false).  As we've found this month, though, there was a really good comedienne and actress beyond those famous locks, and it's a pity for us all that we didn't get to see what her growing power at MGM might have meant for her future career-perhaps some of the star turns that still awaited her fellow MGM players Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo could have been hers?  We will never know.  Next month, we'll spring ahead into the 1940's to take a look at a different starlet, one who was just as blonde as Harlow, but it was two other assets that insured her immortal status in Classical Hollywood.

Red Dust (1932)

Film: Red Dust (1932)
Stars: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary Astor, Gene Raymond
Director: Victor Fleming
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Jean Harlow-click here to learn more about Ms. Harlow (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Three weeks into our series on Jean Harlow, we reach arguably the most important time in her career. While we've seen her through two classics of the early Sound Era (Hell's Angels and The Public Enemy), Harlow's public persona wasn't really defined, and she didn't have a consistent brand despite clear clamoring from the public for her to be in more pictures.  MGM, however, changed that.  Upon the insistence of her then-husband (who would die soon after from mysterious circumstances we discussed here), she was signed to the studio, and they started to give her "real" parts-not just girlfriends or floozies, but parts that would resemble those played by some of her contemporaries at the time.  One of the earliest, and most famous of these roles was Red Dust, which would team her for the second time with Clark Gable (though neither actor got particularly high billing in their first outing The Secret Six), and would cement them as one of MGM's most iconic pairs of the 1930's.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about a plantation owner named Dennis Carson (Gable) who works in Indochina in the 1930's.  He is boorish, rough, and kind of a sexist, and treats a prostitute who is living their named Vantine (Harlow) like garbage, even though he's pretty smitten with her.  When a new worker Gary (Raymond) comes with his classy wife Barbara (Astor), Dennis is torn, and dismisses Vantine for the chance to get with Barbara, which presents itself when Gary nearly dies of a fever.  Barbara is willing to run off with Dennis, despite their differences in station, but after Dennis realizes how much Gary is in love with his wife, he throws her out, saying she was nothing more than a fling (which she wasn't-he was very much in love with her), and she shoots him in a rage.  Dennis, though, wanting them both to leave, covers for her and ends up back with Vantine, whom he clearly was destined for the whole time.

The movie may sound familiar even if you haven't seen the film, and that's because it was remade in the 1950's with Ava Gardner taking on the Harlow role, Grace Kelly taking over for Astor, and Clark Gable weirdly playing the same part in Mogambo.  This was slightly more common in earlier Hollywood than you'd think (you may recall when we looked at Lillian Russell for this series last year that Edward Arnold did something similar with his character of Diamond Jim Brady) but was still noteworthy.  I haven't seen the later film, but I have to say I get the impulse to revisit, because Red Dust is pretty great.  Pre-Code Hollywood isn't my favorite era (in the way it is for virtually every other cinephile) as I find it hit-or-miss, but this is a sexy, fascinating little movie.  Gable is great as a scalawag, and the movie doesn't have to shy away from the clear sexual elements of the picture.  Astor, for example, probably would have had to die or had her marriage wrecked just a few years later for letting her virtue disappear.  But here, we get a happier ending without her having to feel too much shame for her marital indiscretions.

Best of the bunch, though, is Harlow, who brings it hardcore in this role.  The Pre-Code scenes allow for one of the more scandalous moments of the era, Harlow in a tub while basically throwing herself at Gable while a horrified Mary Astor watched.  The most famous pre-Code scene is probably Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross taking a milk bath-while this doesn't quite get there in terms of scandal (unlike Colbert, there is not a "blink and you miss it" scene with her nipples showing, which has basically made The Sign of the Cross one of the most notorious movies of the 1930's), but the clear desire between Harlow & Gable is palpable, and even if it weren't-Harlow's an ace comedian.  There's a great scene where she debates with herself about the merits of different types of cheeses while Gable looks on, flabbergasted at the absurdity of the conversation, and there is no pretense when faced with Astor over whom the audience should root for, even if Harlow's character is the "tramp" and Astor's the "good girl."  Weirdly, in real life, it would be the reverse, with Astor getting involved in one of the most famed sex scandals of Hollywood in the 1930's, before eventually in the 1940's seeing her career turn into a series of matronly roles in classics like Meet Me in St. Louis and Little Women.  By that point, of course, Harlow would have been dead for nearly a decade...but we'll get to that when we conclude our look at the actress next week.

OVP: The Public Enemy (1931)

Film: The Public Enemy (1931)
Stars: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell, Donald Cook
Director: William A. Wellman
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Story)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Jean Harlow-click here to learn more about Ms. Harlow (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

After the success of Hell's Angels, Jean Harlow would have been put in pretty much any high profile picture at another studio.  Warner, Fox, they would have quickly found roles for a woman that had been in such favor with the public.  Howard Hughes, though, was not a producer with a great sense for what to do with his contract players, and instead sent Harlow on publicity tours rather than capitalizing on her fame.  Thankfully for Harlow, in 1931 he began sending her out to other studios since he didn't have material for her, and one of the scripts that came across her desk was The Public Enemy.  The film would be a huge success, and would soon get Harlow into the sights of the most important star-making factory of the 1930's, MGM.  But we'll get to that next week-first, The Public Enemy.

(Spoilers Ahead) While Harlow secured top billing on the film, this is a James Cagney picture through-and-through.  The actor plays Tom Powers in the movie, a lowlife hood who is trying to make his way up the ladder in the Chicago crime world.  The film shows him in constant conflict with his brother Mike (Cook), an upstanding war veteran who is trying to find a way to provide for his mother reputably, even though his brother enjoys more success financially than Tom.  The film shows that Tom eventually becomes too big for his britches, and gets involved in a mob war that ends up taking his life.  Along the way, he meets a number of women, including Gwen (Harlow), a woman who "always falls for the bad guy," giving up more reputable options like Kitty (Mae Clarke).

The film is tough to judge in hindsight, because The Public Enemy is one of those movies that helped build a genre.  The gangster picture is in its shadow, and there are scenes of horror & violence that would become quintessential to the mobster pictures of everyone from Scorsese to Coppola in the decades that followed.  By far the most famous scene in the movie is when Tom & Kitty are having breakfast, and annoyed with a comment from her about him not having another woman who could take care of him, Tom shoves a grapefruit into Kitty's face.  Nearly 90 years later, it's still a shocking scene, considering Cagney's nasty twist of the grapefruit and the genuine look of surprise on Clarke's face.  Urban legend differs on whether that was genuine shock.  Clarke would claim in her memoir she knew it was coming, but reputable film figures still claim that it wasn't in the script.  Either way, it's an iconic moment in pre-Code cinema, and by-far what this film is most famous for.  The movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Story, and probably earned it, though there aren't as many inspired, memorable sequences like the grapefruit scene as the picture becomes somewhat repetitive in the back half.

Harlow gets a throwaway part as Gwen, basically just playing the "tart" to the other character's (like Kitty's) more reputable women for Tom to romance.  Unlike Hell's Angels, she doesn't make the most of some of the later, saucier scenes, instead playing them with dryness, as if she doesn't understand the character she's playing.  One wonders if the filmmakers, so obsessed with the impressive feat that Cagney was pulling off as Tom, simply didn't care to push Harlow in this role.  Her final two features for us, though, she's the main event in the movie, and are considered two of her best parts (one of which is in one of her best movies), so hopefully we'll get some of the promise we saw last week with a character that is worthy of her.

OVP: Hell's Angels (1930)

Film: Hell's Angels (1930)
Stars: Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Harlow, John Darrow
Director: Howard Hughes & James Whale
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Cinematography)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars (5/5 for the action sequences though)

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Jean Harlow-click here to learn more about Ms. Harlow (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.


While we are on a completely different theme than last year with our first official installment of "Saturday of the Stars" for 2020, I do like the strange bookend aspects of going from South Pacific to Hell's Angels as we bridge the seasons.  Both films wear the badge of "classic" while also not being a film you'd instantly name-check as a "classic," and both are about war, though as this film is lensed in 1930, you might have guessed we're taking a peak at World War I.  We're also taking our first peak at Jean Harlow, and really the nation's first look at the actress.  While Jean Harlow had been working in movies for a years when Hell's Angels came around (getting bit parts in movies starring Clara Bow and Laurel & Hardy), she wasn't getting the sorts of roles that would translate into bigger work onscreen.  She lucked out, though, when The Jazz Singer required Howard Hughes to re-lense much of Hell's Angels, and his then-leading woman (Greta Nissen), had too thick of a Norwegian accent to be able to plausibly play the role that would eventually go to Harlow.  Hell's Angels ended up being a landmark, the highest-grossing film of the year (though thanks to Hughes' famously casual attitude toward spending, it sill lost money), and got Harlow a leading role in a major motion picture...though consistent work in movies was still a year or two away.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is centered on a pair of brothers, Monte (Lyon) and Roy (Hall).  Roy is the upstanding brother & Monte the scalawag, frequently finding himself in the arms of another woman, to the point where early in the film Roy is shot impersonating Monte in a duel after Monte sleeps with another man's wife (and then runs away rather than facing him in said duel).  Roy is madly in love with Helen (Harlow), a beautiful young woman whom he views as chaste & his ideal mate.  We learn soon, however, that two things are about to change the brothers lives.  The first is that World War I is going to break out, thus ending their friendship with a German student named Karl (Darrow, in an under-explored role in the picture), and the second is that Helen is no angel.  At a dance, she makes a pass at Monte, and Monte, though initially reluctant, indulges and sleeps with his brother's girlfriend.  He doesn't figure this out, however, until much later in the film, and the focus becomes for most of the next hour on planes, as is Hughes' wont, as we see epic battle after epic battle in the sky.  We get brief interludes on the ground, one of which involves Helen with another man, drunk & promiscuous, shattering Roy's illusions about her.  A final one is when the brothers are captured by Germans, and Monte decides to betray British intelligence by telling of an upcoming attack rather than be killed.  Roy tricks him, and when he cannot convince him that he must do what is best for country first, he shoots him in the back and Monte dies, with Roy certain to be killed as a result.  The film ends with the British attack a success, thanks to the two brothers' deaths.

Hell's Angels, if it's remembered today, is remembered both for Harlow's breakthrough (neither of the two leading men would approach her fame in later years) and for the staggering aerial shots in the movie.  The effects in this film are kind of impossible to believe.  While Hughes didn't actually take down a full-sized zeppelin for the fight between the brothers and Karl midway through the picture, he still created a 60' replica of one and used it on a lot in Arcadia for the scenes, eventually literally burning the expensive model in one glorious take to simulate the kamikaze-style destruction of the blimp when a British soldier crashes into it when he runs out of bullets.  Combined with the final action sequence, where Hughes blows up what looks to be several farms and has aerial tricks that would make the Blue Angels nervous, Hell's Angels earns its spot in film history as the first great action movie of the Sound Era; that its sole Oscar nomination is for Cinematography makes sense considering the risks & techniques involved to make this, and I'm kind of baffled how it lost.  It also earns a place in infamy as one of the most violent offscreen movies ever made.  Four people died during the filming of the picture, including three pilots, and Hughes was seriously injured when he attempted a trick that all of the pilots refused to do since it seemed certain to end in death (it didn't-Hughes got the shot, but he also crashed and got a fractured skull to go with it).

Harlow is really only in three extended sequences of the movie despite her high-billing (though she's got a substantial supporting part).  She's fun-Hell's Angels doesn't care much for dialogue (though Helen gets the immortal line "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" in all of its racy pre-Code glory), but this film is celebrated for its action sequences, not its acting.  Still, there's something glorious about seeing Harlow in this movie.  Hughes paid to have the dance/seduction scene in Technicolor, making this the only movie Harlow would ever do in color (it's honestly the only time I've ever actually seen even a picture of her that's not in black-and-white), and it's jarring.  Frequently when you think of old-time actors, they age more in your head, but Jean Harlow was only 18 when this movie was made, and the youth in her skin and eyes is jaw-dropping in the sequence.  She's the best part of the acting in the movie (the brothers are playing one-dimensional versions of themselves), but she doesn't get the sparkling comedy that she'd be known for later in her career, and so we start out with a movie where she's largely upstaged by the explosions.

Saturdays with the Stars: Jean Harlow

As I mentioned a little over a week ago, I will be doing a new season in 2020 of "Saturdays with the Stars" where I will be profiling the careers of 12 famous actresses most commonly associated with the term "sex symbol," but we'll be looking at the body of work they left behind rather than just the superficial attributes that most discussions of their careers focus upon.  Unlike last season, we'll be approaching these twelve women somewhat chronologically, so as to look at the history of the "sex symbol" trope.  Sex symbols have been around as long as there have been movies, as "pretty girls" are perhaps the most common cinematic cliche.  I theoretically could have started this series with either Theda Bera or Clara Bow, both important sex symbols in their era, but if we want to go with the prototypical sex symbol, one that basically inspired every woman to carry the title after her on the big screen, we turn instead to the early days of sound features, and a gorgeous, fast-talking blonde that died tragically at an early age, but left an indelible mark on the movies that make her moniker shorthand for "gorgeous, young, and glamorous."  We will start our second season of "Saturdays with the Stars" with Jean Harlow.

Born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, Harlow was the daughter of a dentist and the granddaughter of a wealthy real estate broker.  A messy divorce early in her formative years resulted in her spending most of her childhood (and indeed, most of her life) with a protective, doting, but controlling stage mother, who put her daughter through acting lessons at a young age.  She was a reluctant star (despite her mother's insistence that she go into show business likely to live vicariously as "Mama Jean" had missed her window into the movies), but worked briefly with Hal Roach before her big break in 1929 in Howard Hughes magnum opus Hell's Angels.  The film was the biggest of 1929, and though Hughes (terrible at finding projects for the women he had under contract, as we'll see with one of our later stars this fall) didn't have any movies for the starlet, Harlow was able to get work by being loaned out to other studios, frequently for big hits such as The Public Enemy.  But it was after her work with Hughes that she achieved her true peak by going to the studio that finessed the concept of a movie star-MGM.

At MGM, Harlow would make some of the biggest and glossiest films of her career.  Pictures such as Red Dust and Dinner at Eight were made during this time period, and Harlow was one of the biggest box office draws of the Depression.  And yet, critics never gave her her due in her lifetime, frequently assuming her blonde hair & beauty implied that she couldn't have the serious acting ability of peers like Greta Garbo or Norma Shearer.  Harlow never got to prove them wrong while alive, as she died of a cerebral edema (due to kidney failure) at the age of only 26.  Despite critics having saved some of her best films in the years since, Harlow is still mostly associated with her looks, the bright-white hair & the sultry eyes, rather than her cinematic output.  Like we'll do every month in 2020, this month we're going to try approaching Harlow from a different lens, solely looking at her movies rather than the celebrity that they caused, and see what treasures she might have given audiences as an actress, not as a sex symbol.

Dinner at Eight (1933)

Film: Dinner at Eight (1933)
Stars: Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke, Madge Evans, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, John Barrymore
Director: George Cukor
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

In a quest to prepare for 31 Days of Oscar, I have been trying to quickly and efficiently view as many movies from my DVR as is physically possible (every year this is an uphill battle, every year one that I lose).  As a result, you'll be seeing a lot of obscure Oscar nominees on this blog in the coming weeks as I progress through the Oscar Viewing Project & 31 Days in a fight to see what day I actually run out of space.  Weirdly, though the first film that I decided to watch lounging on my DVR wasn't an Oscar nominee, but simply a movie that I have long wanted to see, and in a signficant moment for my cinematic viewing career, the first time I have ever seen a Jean Harlow picture.

(Spoilers Ahead) Dinner at Eight is the sort of movie that doesn't get made today, and quite frankly doesn't really have an obvious evolutionary successor in movies today either.  An all-star film, it is littered with fine theatrical performers (the Barrymores, Dressler, Burke), and is the sort of drama that plays largely like a comedy because everyone is so eloquent.  Centered around a dinner party that Millicent Jordan (Burke) is throwing for a noble couple that are visiting from England, we see all of her guests, as well as her ailing husband Oliver (Lionel Barrymore), encounter struggles during the height of the depression.  It's a very serious film when taken on the surface, but these actors are so eloquent and frequently witty (particularly Dressler & Harlow) that there's enough comic relief so you'll be forgiven into thinking that it's a dramedy of sorts.

Honestly-it's a very well-done movie, one that I'm surprised didn't get more Oscar love (in an era where supporting performances were crowned it's impossible to think that some of these people wouldn't have been nominees), particularly considering it's nearly the equal of Grand Hotel the previous year (it's been a few years, but I think I favor the Best Picture winner just slightly over this one).  The film is less a cohesive plot and more a series of acting duets between the principle players, as we learn more about them.  It's very well-written, and you leave without a proper villain (Wallace Beery comes the closest as a gruff businessman, but even he gives an understanding of wanting to stick it to people who simply didn't want his success because of where he grew up), but instead a sharp understanding of these characters.  It's surprisingly thorough-no one goes into cartoon-mode, and there's more than room for such a fare (I suspect on the stage that actors would lean a bit more heavily into their stereotypes).

Look at the way that Harlow finds a courage in her trophy wife as the film progresses, essentially blackmailing her husband into a better life for both of them.  Dressler, who can be truly hammy, shows her cards early and plays her Carlotta as a woman who is scared not only of being broke, but perhaps more so of being a joke, someone who was taken seriously and is now on the outskirts of her life.  Perhaps best of all is John Barrymore, who courageously plays an actor who is starting to be washed-up and perhaps being outdone by those around him who were more talented than handsome.  It's a small part (in one of several ironies in the film, he's an actor complaining about how small his part in a play is), and one that borrows quite a bit from reality (Barrymore's struggles with booze, age, and his then faltering matinee idol status feels a bit reality-inspiring-art), but it's terrific work.  His final scenes are harrowing, as we realize that he can't bounce back to who he once was, and to paraphrase The Hours, "he has to die so the others can appreciate life more."  The film itself is a jewel, and while it's hard to adjust to melodrama when you're not used to it, once you do you find that this film's "forgotten classic" status is more than earned.

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?