They were, for a time, the screen’s most exciting and alluring couple. And they weren’t dog people.

Hello, everybody. MR. Joe Morella and MR. Frank Segers, back with one more look at stars and their pets. MRS. Norman Maine is out walking the great Dane.

Olivier and Leigh.  Let’s face it — their personalities fit much closer to the feline than to any other animal.

He, Sir Laurence Olivier, was the most respected actor of his era. She, Vivien Leigh, the most beautiful star of her time. Wuthering Heights and Rebecca made him America’s heartthrob. Scarlett O’Hara gave her the role of a lifetime.

And they made films together as well. Fire Over England before and That Hamilton Woman after their great successes.

She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress. For her roles in Gone With The Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. He won only one Oscar (Hamlet, 1948) although he was nominated 10 times. And nominated as a director once.

There was Liz and Dick in the 1960s and 70s, of course, but Olivier and Leigh did it with a certain class.

Last week we ran a few photos of some very famous Hollywoodites. It was easy to identify them after you studied the photos for a few seconds. But can you honestly say you knew them at first glance?

Hello Everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers here again trying to keep you on your toes.

Yes, that was a much younger Dame Maggie Smith, when she was just starting out.  And, of course, that was a young Leslie Caron.  Did you instantly know that with her was another French beauty, Brigitte Bardot?

And Yul Bynner with hair certainly does look different, doesn’t he?

So who is our mystery guest pictured at the top of our blog this week?  And who’s the woman pictured below?  Both became really BIG stars.

Writing about stars in Hollywood’s Golden Age who were brothers (eg. Dana Andrews and Steve Forrest, Lawrence Tierney and Scott Brady, James Arness and Peter Graves) started us thinking about stars who were sisters.

Olivia deHavilland and Joan Fontaine (both Oscar winners — twice for Olivia) are the obvious choices as the most famous Sisters on the Silver Screen back in its heyday. For more on this tempestuous duo, check out our June 1, 2012 blog, Olivia and Joan — Hollywood’s Most Enduring Sibling Rivalry.

But what about other sister acts?

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys searching for the answers to a movie trivia fans’ (which we are, we admit) pressing questions.

Of course the silent screen had The Talmadge Sisters, Norma and Constance. And The Gish Sisters, Lillian and Dorothy. The last two made it in talkies as well.

The Young sisters too started in silents and went on to careers in sound pictures. Loretta became the most successful, but Polly Ann Young and Betty Jane (known as Sally Blane) worked sporadically through the 30s.

Then there were The Bennetts, Constance and Joan, and The Lane sisters, Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola, who worked in films together and separately.

That’s Rosemary, Gale Page (the non sister in all those Four Daughters movies) Lola and Priscilla playing cards between takes.

Sometimes the public was unaware that stars they knew and related to on the screen were, in fact, related. Jeannette MacDonald was a big name on the MGM lot in the 1930s and her sister, Marie Blake, was under contract there too.  You might remember her as the switchboard operator at the hospital where Dr. Kildare worked.

Did you recognize the stars posted today?  Did you have to look twice?  We confess, we did.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, here to announce that today we’re starting a new feature.

We’re going to post three photos at a time and ask you, faithful readers, to identify them. As the French say, bonne chance.

Who are these people? We’re sure if you look intently you’ll figure out who we’re highlighting. So, please get back to us pronto with your answers.

You may not always remember their names, but you sure can’t forget their performances.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers here at the old stand.  Today Joe was wracking his brian for over 20 minutes trying to think of the name of the man who’s pictured above. (Devilish Frank instantly put the name to the face but wouldn’t say.)

Our man was in comedies, dramas, musicals, even a Hitchcock film.  Finally Joe had to look up a film in which he knew this guy had a pretty important supporting role. The film was That Hamilton Woman, starring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, or was it Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh?  Anyway, this guy played Lord Hamilton, Leigh’s husband.

Then, of course, as soon as he saw the name, Alan Mowbray, it all came back.

The man made over 140 films and ran the gamut.  He was in a Charlie Chan film, one of the Basil Rathbone- Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes films, a Jeannette MacDonald musical.

He was the butler in two of the Topper movies. He appeared in noir films too — I Wake Up Screaming and Lured -– see them both. Betty Grable and Lucille Ball in roles which will surprise you.

One of his biggest hits was as the butler in the 1938 comedy Merrily We Live. Patsy Kelly (with whom he’s pictured below) played the cook.  The leads were Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne, with Billie Burke playing Bennett’s scatterbrained mother.

Mowbray often played butlers, but was versatile enough to portray all types. He acted in westerns, costume dramas, period pieces. He made an Abbott and Costello film. A Ma and Pa Kettle movie.  The man worked constantly. And then he went into TV.

Mowbray was also a founding member of the Screen Actor’s Guild.

Not all his film are classics, of course, but he’s always worth watching. And in his early days the man even played dashing love-interest leading men.

In the past few weeks we’ve been discussing films which have been celebrating their 50th and 60th birthdays. (Jeez, how time flies.) But what about those classics which are 70 this year?

70! Imagine it.  Can you think of a film released this year which even has a chance to be remembered 70 years from now? Just asking.

Your classic movie guys, Joe Morella and Frank Segers saying Hello, Everybody, and please dazzle us with your predictions of which film in this year’s crop you think has a shot of being a classic which people will still be watching and talking about 70 years from now.

We can’t think of one.

Seventy years is a very long time. Cultures change, fashions change.  But universal human conditions and emotions are for better or worse lasting.

We’ve thought of four films which were released in 1943, are celebrating their 70th birthday this year, and can still hold an audience in thrall. One is about love. One is about faith. One is about war. The last is about man’s inhumanity to man.

Casablanca is on almost every list of the best films ever made.  Books can (and have) be written about this movie.  It was magic in the making, and remains a favorite of millions. It showed everyone that even the toughest of tough guys could be romantic.

For much more on Casablanca check out our quiz on the film (Casablanca Quiz, April 11, 2012 for questions; April 17, 2012 for answers) and our discussion of a humorous incident that occurred on the production set (Peter Lorre: The Prankster of ‘Casablanca’, April 17, 2012).

The Song of Bernadette is a brilliantly crafted story of a innocent girl whose devotion thrusts her into the limelight. Jennifer Jones (pictured at the top of today’s blog) won the Oscar but its the band of character actors led by Gladys George, Anne Bevere, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb and Charles Dingle who steal the show.

Five Graves to Cairo is a taut tale of men during wartime. It is not about battles and blood but about personalities. Erich Von Strohiem is perfect as Field Marshall Rommel.

And The Ox Bow Incident, is a powerful story of mob psychology and violence, set in the American west of the 1880s. Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews star.

All four films are brilliantly written, acted and directed.

Oh, since we mentioned the hit songs from the movies of the day 50 and 60 years ago, let’s not forget the songs generated by films 70 years ago.  Remember “That Old Black Magic?”  How about “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To?”

Can it be?  That they don’t make ‘em like they used to?

The Andrews Sisters were famous in the 1940s and 50s, but did you know about the Andrews Brothers?

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys,  back with answers to those fraternal questions we posed last Friday.

Carver Dana Andrews and William Forrest Andrews were both film stars in Hollywood’s Golden era.

Dana (named after two of his father’s favorite professors , was the third of 9 children (some sources say 13!) of a Baptist minister and his wife in the rural south.  He was born on New Year’s Day, 1909.  When he was finishing high school, in 1924, one of his 6 brothers, William, was born.

Stories vary on how Dana got from Texas to Hollywood.  One version says he hitchhiked seeking his fortune in films.  Another version says the entire family moved to Southern California in the early 30s when Rev. Andrews took a job there.  However the Reverend and his family soon returned to Texas and Dana, over 21, decided to stay.

In any event Dana Andrews was in Hollywood, trying for a singing career and taking classes at the Pasadena Playhouse.  After years of struggling he was finally signed to a film contract by Samuel Goldwyn.

The producer had no immediate work for him so sold half Andrews contract to Twentieth Century Fox.  There he made a few B films to gain experience. Then Goldwyn used him in a supporting role in The Westerner. Actually Goldwyn only used Andrews to good advantage twice. As Barbara Stanwyck’s gangster boyfriend in the comedy Ball of Fire and as one of the 3 returning servicemen profiled in The Best Years of Our Lives.

For most of his career he toiled at Fox. After a great role in The Ox Bow Incident he hit his stride with Laura, (opposite Gene Tierney — we ran a shot of them together last Friday),  A Walk in the Sun and another, less commercially successful film at the time, but nonetheless a fascinating picture, Fallen Angel.

In conjunction with the publication of a new biography of him, we’ve written about Dana in two previous blogs: Dana Andrews ‘ Battle With The Bottle, (Dec. 27, 2012);  and Was Dana Andrews Ever Better? (Dec. 26, 2012), which drew the following response from regular reader Rockfish:

Dana Andrews is due for a re-examination by classic film fans, as his work has a timelessness about it. I have the book (the recently published Carl Rollyson biography, “Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews”) and look forward to reading about him. So many of his films have an underlying potency, due to DA’s talents. Thanks for sharing.

Dana’s younger brother came to Hollywood in the early 40s and was a bit player under his own name, William Forrest Andrews. He appears in a small part in 1943′s Crash Dive, a war film which starred Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter and Dana.

William served in World War II, and on his return changed his name to Steve Forrest and tried his luck in Hollywood again.

He didn’t hit his stride until the 50s when he scored in So Big, opposite Jane Wyman, and Bedeviled, (pictured Friday) opposite Anne Baxter.

Dana Andrews battled alcoholism, finally conquering it, and serving as president of the The Screen Actor’s Guild for two years. He even did public service announcements about beating alcohol addiction.  He died a few weeks shy of his 84th birthday in December 1992.

Steve Forrest is 88. His last film appearance was a cameo as a truck driver in Columbia’s 2003′s S.W.A.T. a crime thriller based on the TV series. That film grossed over $207 million worldwide.  Nice to end on a high.

Do you know these two?  And did you know they were brothers?

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back with another fraternal duo.

You probably recognize the star on the left.  He had a long and successful career. His most famous film is probably Laura, in which he co-starred with Gene Tierney (they made 5  films together).

But his much younger brother, the guy on the right, had a less successful, though respectable and very long, career. He’s still with us.  At 88. His famous movies include Mommy Dearest and The Longest Day.

Above are photos of the brothers with some of their leading ladies.  Name them (the brothers, that is).  We’ll have the answers next Monday.

Last week to mark our second anniversary we mentioned some films (and one song) which were celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back again and thinking about classic films which are celebrating their 60th Anniversary this year.

Yes, 60 years later and these films are still riveting and entertaining. That, of course, is our time honored measure a classic movie — films that stand up decades after their creation.

Sixty years ago Americans were introduced to a bright new star, Audrey Hepburn, in Roman Holiday. Gregory Peck was supposed to have solo top billing, but after he saw the final film he suggested Hepburn share co-star billing.  He knew she was destined to be a star.

The film remains charming and a perfect travelogue of Rome of that time.

Also released in 1953, one of the greatest Westerns ever filmed, George Stevens production of Shane. Although he was a mite too old for the part, Alan Ladd gave a good performance. Even better performances were given by Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, (then child star) Brandon deWilde and Jack Palance as the title character’s gunslinger nemesis.

Two other favorites of ours which have stood the test of time are the dark drama Pickup on South Street and the light  romantic musical Lili.

Richard Widmark, Jean Peters (above) and Thelma Ritter star in the first. Sam Fuller wrote and directed this film noir which is a must see.

Lili is a delight. And a perfect film if you’re looking for a family film.

Leslie Caron, as an innocent waif, joins a carnival troupe and learns about life and love. You might remember the song, Hi Lili, Hi Lili, Hi Low.  Of course the really famous song of the day from another 1953 film was Secret Love. Recall that one?

When George Sanders killed himself – by downing a fatal mixture of Nembutal and vodka in a seaside resort hotel suite some 10 miles south of Barcelona, Spain — the world concluded that the 65-year-old actor known for the silky cynicism of the characters he played onscreen for nearly four decades simply tired of life, and decided to pack it in.

This notion was confirmed by the suicide note police discovered at the scene: Dear World. I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool.  Good luck.

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, here today to take a closer look at the circumstances surrounding the death of one of our favorite actors.  George Sanders may have been bored, but other key factors figured into his decision to take his own life in the spring of 1972.

Homeless and without roots, overwhelmed by loss of loved ones, by financial disasters, by humiliating errors of judgment in his personal life…George recognized as inevitable the continuing and relentless attacks of illness and age that had ravaged his last years and that would ultimately present him with an intolerable loss of dignity and control against which the mask of disdain and indifference would prove hopelessly inadequate, writes the actor’s biographer Richard VanDerBeets.

He had not exhausted life; life was slowly exhausting him.

Healthy most of his life, the hulking six-foot-three Sanders had suffered strokes, vertigo, and other ailments that limited his physical mobility. He was drinking heavily. His  happiest marriage — to the third of four wives, former actress Benita Hume (Ronald Colman’s widow) – ended in 1967 when she lost a long battle with breast cancer.

In that same year, Sanders also lost his older brother, actor Tom Conway, who ended his life as a down-at-the-heels alcoholic. His beloved mother Margaret, rendered “a vegetable” by a series of strokes, also died in 1967.

Then there were financial reversals.  In an attempt to “get out of the ridiculous acting profession” and obtain respectability, Sanders sunk a small fortune into a venture that his friend Noel Coward called “a scheme for making sausages in Scotland.” The venture went belly up (pun intended), and from April 1961 through November 1964 it racked up losses of nearly $2 million with George on the hook for much of it.

On the advice of his lawyer he fled Europe for California and in October 1966 filed a petition for bankruptcy, listing assets of $57,657 and liabilities of almost $1 million, according to VanDerBeets, author of 1990′s George Sanders: An Exhausted Life.

Sanders was still getting work as an actor but most of the roles he landed proved totally uninteresting to him.  He rarely saw his own movies. Worst of all, he was enduring periods of depression gaining in both intensity and duration. His beloved house in Majorca had been sold at the urging of a passing mistress, a decision he deeply regretted.

During these declining years there was a less than one-year marriage to Magda Gabor, Zsa Zsa’s older sister. It was annulled in 1971.