Monthly archives for August, 2011

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MORE CHILD STARS

Aug31
2011 2 Comments Written by Joe Morella and Frank Segers

If one is good, then three are better. Hello everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers back with more info on the MGM child stars of the 1930s.

Every studio back in the Golden Era had a child star or two under contract.  And at MGM, which boasted as being the biggest and the best, ( “More stars than there are in the heavens.”) they naturally had the most.

FOX may have had Shirley Temple in the 1930s, but Metro had Jackie Cooper, Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney. (That’s them above.) Not to mention Judy Garland!

Then there were the lesser lights, Ann Rutherford, Tom Brown, Cora Sue Collins, Robert Sinclair.

And the one that got away, Deanna Durbin.

The teenager, once under contract to MGM (she and Garland had made a short film together, Durbin singing “sweet,” Judy singing “hot”) did not have her option renewed and was dropped by the studio.

Universal snapped her up and Durbin became a top star there. Some contend she actually “saved” that studio in the middle of the Great Depression with her handful of family oriented film musicals.

And who can readily forget Margaret O’Brien, who followed Temple as perhaps Hollywood’s biggest child star of the Forties at MGM.

 

 

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Our Cocktail Party

Aug30
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to throw a party today and invite some of our favorite people.

Hello everybody, Mr. Joe Morella and Mr. Frank Segers here again with Mrs. Norman Maine and Mr. Jordan.

We’ve invited a diverse bunch to our little soiree today.  A few of our writer friends, Addison DeWitt and Waldo Lydecker, a few of our Southern friends, Blanche DuBois and Ashley Wilkes, a couple of high brows, Charles Foster Kane and Fanny Skeffington, and even a couple of low brows, Walter Neff and Joel Cairo.

There are a few silent types, Norma Desmond, Lina Lamont and Don Lockwood, and a couple of actresses, Margo Channing and Eve Harrington.  To round out the guest list we included a few internationals, Victor Lazlo and Ilsa Lund.

It should be a fun party if Stella, Laura, Gilda and Marnie come too.

The point is, you know all these people and you know exactly where they come from. What Classic movie they live in.

There’s a lot of discussion about what makes a film a classic.  Does it have to be old? Should you be able to watch it over and over again and always find something new in it? Does it have to have a cult following?

Well, one of the criteria for making a film a classic, in our opinion, is that it should have characters who become as famous as the film itself.  This is an idea spawned by our friend, the late Johnny Madden. John was a critic and reporter at Variety, and a film buff of the first order.

Madden was notorious among his friends for his postcards. Whenever he traveled (usually with Morella) he’d send dozens of cards to friends and relatives signing each with the name of a famous character from a famous movie.

So if the card was signed by one George Amberson, you knew that John was full of himself and having a good time.

 

 

 

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Can We Stump You? Our Twitter Tweethearts.

Aug29
2011 2 Comments Written by classicmovieguys

Here’s another movie star from the 1940′s.  Who is she?

Well, perhaps she wasn’t a full fledged star, but she was in dozens of films, some very famous ones such as director Nicholas Ray’s 1950 movie,“In a Lonely Place,” which many consider one of Humphrey Bogart’s best late-career outings (he died seven years after the picture was made).

Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back again with another photo taken from The Donald Gordon Collection.

Donald is the guy on the left, hands intertwined with our mystery star.  Seems he never let a chance slip by to become chummy with an an attractive actress.

Today we also want to salute and warmly welcome those of you who follow us on Twitter (and those we follow). You’ve got some great comments.

Bobby Rivers, for example, notes that although Rita Moreno has won all those acting awards she has never been interviewed on “Inside the Actor’s Studio” while Jennifer Aniston HAS. Is there no justice in the world?

Others have made suggestions about who of their favorite stars they’d like to see profiled on our blog.  We’ll do our our very best to accomodate all requests.

And, please remember — our twitter moniker is MOVIE CHAT GUYS.  Come on and chat with us.

But for now back to our mystery gal pictured above.

Although she worked at all the major studios, she was under contract at Columbia where she met and started a warm friendship with our man Donald.  He has many shots of her in his collection.

Can you identify her?

OK, since we’re such nice guys, we’ll provide a few hints:

– Although usually cast as the wholesome looking supporting actresses, our mystery gal had a complicated personal life.  (She married and divorced four husbands.)

– Although born as Jean Marie, our mystery gal was professionally billed with a male first name.

– Seven years after making “In A Lonely Place,” our mystery star had a small but meaty part in one of the most memorably hard boiled urban dramas ever filmed.

– On tv in the Sixties, she was mostly maternal to someone by the name of Gidget.

– Also on tv, she worked with an assortment of big names including Jimmy Stewart and Bob Newhart, and appeared in a mid-to-late Fifties series starring George Gobel, a comedian more or less forgotten today.

Now can you name our mystery gal?

 

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ACTOR WHO WON THE FIRST TRIPLE CROWN

Aug26
2011 5 Comments Written by Joe Morella and Frank Segers

   

A few weeks ago we began to talk of actors who’d won the triple crown — an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. The first person accomplish that feat was Thomas Mitchell.

Mitchell, one of the best character actors of all time, is also famous for appearing in more classic films than another other performer.  Film historians often cite 1939 as a banner year for Hollywood.  Of the dozens of successful films from that year Mitchell costarred in five.

FIVE memorable films in one year.

What are the titles, you ask?  Well, there was director William Dieterle’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” plus Howard Hawks’ “Only Angels Have Wings” with Cary Grant.  Then there was John Ford’s “Stagecoach,” was that western throwaway with John Wayne. And don’t forget Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.”

And, oh yeah (we almost forgot), there was that little picture called “Gone With The Wind.” 

It was in “Gone With the Wind,” portraying Scarlett O’Hara’s father, that Mitchell has the classic lines about Tara and “Land is the Only Thing That Matters.” And Mitchell won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the alcoholic “Doc”in “Stagecoach.”

His career flourished throughout the 40s and 50s.  He scored in hits such as “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “High Noon.”  When he turned his talents to TV he was equally successful.  He won an Emmy in 1952.

Then in 1953, he became the First Triple Crown Winner of Actors when he won a Tony for his performance in “Hazel Flagg,” the 1953 stage musical version of the classic 1937 film “Nothing Sacred.”

No surprise that when Mitchell came to Hollywood in 1935, at the relatively late age of 46, he had already established a solid foundation as a theater director and actor.  Studio bosses had a way of acknowledging talent when they saw it, and cast him almost immediately in substantial parts in good pictrures.

Our triple crown winner — one of the great character actors in Hollywood history.

 

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That’s Him All Right, THE REAL ‘RED’ BARRY

Aug25
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Joe Morella and Frank Segers

EUREKA! 

We flipped through our files, and finally found a picture of the real Don ‘Red’ Barry (above left) posing with Donald Gordon.

That dapper gent to the right is THE Donald of THE DONALD GORDON COLLECTION, the marvelously informal stash of Hollywood photos from the early Forties that ClassicMovieChat is delighted to share with you.

Hello, everybody, your Classic Movie guys – Joe Morella and Frank Segers — here again to say that we’re absolutely certain this time that the guy we have pictured above is the real ‘Red’ Barry.

Why the frantic photo search? Well, in our Susan Hayward blog of July 15, we ran a picture of a fellow we thought was Barry,  the actor who shared a scandalous, headline-making love affair with the actress in the mid-Fifties.

But, we goofed.  One of our alert readers shot us an e-mail declaring that it wasn’t Barry but someone else in the photo we ran. Our alert reader was right.

And, to add mystery to mischief, we are still in the dark as to the identity of the man in the photo that we DID run. 

We reran a picture of our mystery man in Monday’s blog (Aug. 22), so take a look and e-mail us immediately if you have a clue to the guy’s identity.  We confess, we’re stumped.

If the name of ‘Red’ Barry doesn’t immediately ring a bell, don’t be too hard on yourself. You have lots of company.

Born in Houston in 1912 as Donald Barry de Acosta, the actor was never a notable star and certainly not a household name. Although pint-sized (slightly less than 5-feet-5), he was a college football star before turning to stage roles and then to movies.

After playing a series villains, Barry found his cinematic niche making westerns at Republic Pictures, the B studio run by one Herbert J. Yates — who had plans to capitalize on Barry’s more-than-passing resemblance to James Cagney.

What developed, among other movies, was the 1940 western serial “Adventures of Red Ryder” with Barry in the eponymous leading role (thus his nickname).

By the Fifties, Barry’s movie career sputtered big time. He was a half-way decent actor but his large ego and combative temperament often turned off directors and fellow cast members.

So, beginning in the late Fifties he embarked on a long television career lasting until his death in 1980 at the age of 68. (By the way, we figure Barry to be about 30 when he caught up with our man Donald in the photo above.)

Barry is remembered today more for his off-screen romances.  He gained in his day a reputation as a Lothario of the first order even by Hollywood standards. (He once escorted Joan Crawford about town; enough said.)

One of Barry’s former mistresses put it this way. “I can’t define what Don Barry has but whatever it is, he should bottle it.”

A supporting role in MGM’s 1955 weeper “I’ll Cry Tomorrow,” starring Susan Hayward, set the stage for Barry’s fling with the actress.  Headlines were made when Hayward walked in on the actor with another woman, and slugged — not him — but the other woman.

Although the affair ended, it made a lasting impression on Barry.  Hayward biographer Beverly Linet writes that “before the (68-year-old) ex-loverboy blew his brains out following a fight with his estranged wife in July 1980,” he confessed to writing a poem about the actress. “Every man alive should experience one Susan Hayward in his lifetime.”

 

 

 

 

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George Sanders Greets Rubi’s Penis!

Aug24
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

“You’re maudlin and full of self pity… You’re magnificent.”

This, one of our all time favorite movie lines, was superbly delivered by George Sanders in 1950′s “All About Eve.” It is directed at Bette Davis as stage diva Margo Channing in the throes of an temperamental explosion encapsulized by the familiar line: “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

For our money, Sanders’ delivery of his line (as dyspeptic and ultra-cynical drama critic Addison de Witt) was more than sufficient to earn him 1950′s best supporting actor Oscar. This is a notable time when the Academy got it exactly right.

Sanders’ line also sounds like something that the actor himself might have written, although he didn’t (director Joseph J. Mankiewicz wrote the “All About Eve” script.) The Russian-born Brit was not only a facile and entertaining actor — not great but very good — but also a gifted writer.

Hello everybody, classic movie guys Joe Morella and Frank Segers with the first of several blogs to come on Classic Movie Chat about George Sanders both as actor and as writer.

The Sanders material that we have unearthed is not just a pleasure to read but also provides humorously incisive behind-the-scenes looks at Hollywood’s social mores over two decades beginning in the late 1930′s.

After appearing in several British movies in 1936, he decided that his fortunes lie in America. He was right. His Hollywood career lasted more than three decades, covering well more than 100 movies, many dogs but several gems including “Eve.”

Sanders himself was married four times, most famously to Zsa Zsa Gabor from 1949 to 1954. (The actor later was married for a year beginning in 1970 to Zsa Zsa’s sister, Magda.)

It is the end of the Zsa Zsa marriage that we discuss in today’s Sanders anecdote, quoting from a letter scriptwriter-director Nunnally Johnson wrote to a Hollywood pal in early 1954. (Later blogs will come directly from Sanders writings.)

Seems that Zsa Zsa was prickly about reaching a final property agreement as part of the couple’s divorce settlement. She kept upping the ante at the last minute, demanding more and then still more, which irritated Sanders. “But he figured it wouldn’t be difficult to get something on her,” wrote Johnson.

At the time Gabor had taken up with Dominican playboy-diplomat Porfirio Rubirosa — a notorious womanizer said to have been exceptionally well endowed. Sanders came up with the idea of catching Zsa Zsa in flagrante delicto with Rubirosa (known as simply “Rubi”) at the Bel Air residence they shared.

Wrote Johnson: “So on Christmas Eve, that holy day, (Sanders) prepared to raid her home to catch Rubirosa in the hay with her.” Somehow George managed with the help of four private detectives to hoist a ladder to a second-floor balcony outside Gabor’s bedroom, and to actually climb up and into her boudoir.

Johnson recounts what happened: “(There) he saw two naked forms break the record for the dash to the bathroom, where the light was on… Rubi and Zsa Zsa had slammed the door shut but in their excitement they forgot it could also be locked.

“The door opened inward and then it became a head-on push between George and Rubi, Rubi trying to hold the door shut, George trying to bull it open.

“Now, according to George, he was hitting low, just like Knute Rockne always said, and with a powerful lunge he managed to get the door open about a foot, which to his astonishment brought him face to face with Rubirosa’s organ, whereupon, in a moment of whimsy, he shook it heartily and called Merry Christmas to them both.

“‘Now, George, really!,’” exclaimed Zsa Zsa. “‘Please be seated and I’ll be out in just a moment.’

“She emerged in a diaphanous negligee, leaving the shy Mr. Rubirosa skulking in the can.” Johnson’s letter goes on to note that Zsa Zsa employed her charm to calm the situation, even showing Sanders and his gumshoes the living room Christmas tree and inquiring of Sanders if he had received her gift.

Sanders and entourage exited through the front door, handshakes and exchanges of “God bless you’s” all around.

Stay tuned for more about George Sanders, whose life was often far more interesting than the roles he played onscreen.

 

 

 

 

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Ethel and the Count (Basie)

Aug23
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

 

Rummaging through Joe’s extensive photo library one afternoon, Frank – a devout jazz fan since adolescence — was pleasantly taken aback at the discovery of a marvelous still from the 1943 musical comedy romance distributed by United Artists, “Stage Door Canteen.”  We just had to share it with you (see above).

There they are — a svelte, smiling Ethel Waters standing at the microphone in front of the full Count Basie Orchestra of the period. (That’s Basie to the left at the piano.)

The audience in the photo was comprised of a raptly attentive ensemble of soldier and sailors plus girlfriends.

It was all a movie, of course, set in New York but, according to some sources, actually filmed at a military installation near Los Angeles.

Producer Sol Lesser pulled off an amazing feat of show biz organization, putting together a cast including scores of stage and movie personalities ranging from theater stalwarts Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Tallulah Bankhead, Katherine Cornell and Helen Hayes to less lofty types such as George Raft, Georgie Jessel, Gracie Fields, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Gyspsy Rose Lee.

Hi everybody, your classic movie guys Mr. Joe Morella and Mr. Frank Segers here again and focusing today on Count Basie and Ethel Waters, two influential figures in the history of black entertainment in America. Mrs. Norman Maine is out doing what she does best, singing at an impromtu jam session.

Basie was unquestionably a giant in his field; Waters logged at least one of the most captivating screen portrayals ever put to film by an Afro-American actress in director Vincente Minnelli’s “Cabin In The Sky” (also made in 1943).

Movies were not especially Basie’s element (he was more frequently seen over the years on tv) unlike Duke Ellington, who both individually and as a bandleader appeared in about a dozen pictures including speaking parts. As “Pie Eye” he shared a scene with Jimmy Stewart in director Otto Preminger’s 1959 drama, “Anatomy of a Murder.”  And, of course, Ellington and his orchestra played prominently in “Cabin in the Sky.”

But Basie’s personal style was nowhere near as expansive as Ellington’s, and he is less frequently seen on film in front of his big band. That’s why this picture from “Stage Door Canteen” is so intriguing, at least to Frank.  It provides a rare, up close look key instrumental players in what jazz historians refer to as Basie’s “Old Testament” orchestra in its post-Lester Young period.

There’s fabled Basie rhythm section  – Joe Jones on drums, Walter Page on bass and guitarist Freddie Green (upper right) — as well as the front line reed section, which, at this time in the band’s history probably comprised (left to right) Buddy Tate, Tab Smith, Earle Warren, Jack Washington and Don Byas. The trumpet and trombone players (mostly obscured in the upper left of the photo) probably included Buck Clayton, Harry Edison, Al Killian, Ed Lewis, Dickie Wells, Robert Scott and Eli Robinson.

Basie folded this band in the late Forties for economic reasons only to regroup stronger than ever in 1952, with a powerhouse “New Testament” orchestra.  This hard-charging unit played all over the world with Basie at the helm for more than three decades until the bandleader’s death at 79 in 1984. (When we see Basie in the photo still above, he was just 39.)

It’s wonderful that we have movies such as “Stage Door Canteen” to record on film musicians and performers so that for future generations can appreciate them just as they were back then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We Admit It. We Goofed. So, Who’s IS Our Mystery Man?

Aug22
2011 Leave a Comment Written by JoeMorella

 

Hey, you guys are one tough crowd.  And we love you for it.

Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys, back again — today a tad redfaced.

In our “Susan Hayward Cancer Victim” blog, published on July 15, we ran the picture above, and identified the man as the actress’ lover back then, Don “Red” Barry.

Well, it ain’t him.

An astute reader, Seymour Kneitel, recently informed us of our error.   You’re right Mr. Kneitel. After some research and looking at dozens of photos of Mr. Barry we concluded that the man pictured here IS someone else.

But Who?

We found the above photo in the Donald Gordon Collection mismarked as Red Barry. (Cut our Donald some slack.  He really did get around quite a bit in his day, and perhaps didn’t have the time to carefully identify each of his many snapshots.)

Anyway, perhaps another astute reader can help us come up with the name of the man pictured above and preserved for posterity in in Donald’s marvelous photo collection. So, if you have a clue, let us know pronto. Thanks.

Another of our astute readers, Mike, commented on Theresa Harris, the black actress we mentioned in our “A Black Actress Ups The Ante” blog published on Aug. 16. Mike asked whether Harris costarred with Barbara Stanwyck in “Baby Face.”

Thanks for your query Mike since we regard Harris as one of the great unsung black actresses in movie history.

She was indeed Barbara Stanwyck’s (virtual if not in actual billing) costar in “Baby Face,” made by Warner Bros. in 1933.  And, we agree with Mike: she looks great in the picture.

As you undoubtedly know, “Baby Face” was one of those scandalous pre-Production Code movies in which Stanwyck’s character, as a teenager, is pimped out to bar customers by her own father.

Even today, that’s a remarkable plot premise.  Naturally enough, Baby Face sleeps her way to the top of a big corporation.

Harris’ character, Chico, is Stanwyck’s maid.  But a genuine friendship develops between the two elevating the maid’s part considerably.  Harris is allowed in the picture to be glamorous and sexy, a rare opportunity given black actresses at the time.

Harris — pictured below in what appears to be a still from producer Val Lewton’s 1943 classic, “I Walked With A Zombie”  – had a long and productive career, was highly regarded by her peers, married well and saved her money and lived to nearly 80. I know you’ll join us in saluting her.

Finally, reader Chris writes: “Hey, what a great blog you have.  Simply great.”

Thanks, Chris.  We feel a lot better.

 

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Longest Kiss On Screen?

Aug19
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone who’s familiar with Alfred Hitchcock knows that one of his favorite stories was about how he got around the censors in 1946 to film what he described as the longest screen kiss.

Hello everybody. Mr. Joe Morella and Mr. Frank Segers here to talk about Mr. Cary Grant and Ms. Ingrid Bergman and that famous kissing scene in “Notorious.”

Hitch always maintained that it was the longest kiss on screen because they had gotten around the production code of the day by having Grant and Bergman, kiss, move from lips to neck , snuggle, kiss again, nestle, kiss — well you get the point.

It is a very sensual scene, no doubt about it. They’re standing on the terrace, overlooking Rio and continually kissing while planning their evening– dinner and?–

But Hitchcock wasn’t the first to get around the code of the day.  In the 1936 comedy with music, “Walking on Air,” director Joseph Stanley found a unique way to handle the situation.

Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond are also kissing on a terrace, but seated.

As they kiss a young bellboy, who has a message for Sothern, sees them and looks on coyly. The camera cuts back to the kiss, then to the boy, now intrigued by the length of their kiss, then back to the couple, back to the boy, who, tired of standing, lies on a nearby chaise.

The camera cuts back to the kiss, continuing now for well over the maximum time allowed by the code. But then back to the onlooker. When the bellboy falls off his couch with a thud, the couple is finally stunned out of their clinch.

The director followed the rules.  The screen showed them kissing for only 10 or 15 seconds — but by cutting back and forth between the couple and their voyeur, the director was able to establish that Sothern and Raymond were partaking of a long, deep, sensual kiss.  And this was 1936!

Those are two or our favorite– LONG– screen kisses.  What’s your favorite?

By the way, Sothern and Raymond made a series of light romantic comedies with music for RKO in the mid 30′s.  Check them out. They’re fun. Lush, as only Depression Era Hollywood could be.

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ESTHER Slaps Powell — Right In The Kisser!

Aug18
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Joe Morella and Frank Segers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite her relentlessly cheerful on-screen demeanor, “America’s Mermaid” — one of MGM’s biggest stars of the Forties and Fifties –was no simpering pollyanna.

Judging by Esther Williams‘ outspoken comments about her famous fellow workers, she subscribed to Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s naughty dictum.

Said Teddy’s daughter, “If you have nothing nice to say about anybody, sit next to me.”

Hi everybody, we’re back again with another sampling of cheerful Esther’s acerbic (and honest!) appraisals of her famous costars as excerpted from her excellent tell-all book about herself, “The Million Dollar Mermaid” co-authored with Digby Diehl.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR:  Esther was hardly alone in being dumbstruck at Taylor’s physical precocity. “Barely a teenager, (she at 14)) was already more beautiful and voluptuous than Miss America.”  Esther admits that Taylor filled out a swim suit better than she did. “With that superstructure of hers, she floated just fine (in a Beverly Hills pool). What she couldn’t do was sink.”

VAN JOHNSON (Esther’s costar in five movies):  ”Through the years, I swam with Van, married him, fought with him and made to love with him — all on camera.” Esther and Van shared knowledge of their private secrets, which in Johnson’s case there were quite a few. Together they were “a sweetheart couple who had that MGM look that was so ‘American,’ with no ethnic traces whatsoever.”

JOHNNY JOHNSTON (A former night club and radio crooner who was Esther’s costar in 1947′s “This Time For Keeps”):  Johnston isn’t widely know today but he had his moments of costardom at MGM. He was carrying on a torrid affair with actress-singer Kathryn Grayson (they married in 1947) while he and Esther were making their movie on location in upper Michigan. To amuse his “dewy-eyed groupies” on location, Johnnie would read aloud Kathryn’s intimate letters “including the all-too-graphic details concerning what she liked about his love-making. I was appalled.” (So, apparently was Grayson; she was one of Johnston’s half dozen wives.)

GENE KELLY (Esther’s costar in 1949′s “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”)  Esther disliked Kelly, “one of the most the most winning and likable men on-screen, (who) was nothing less than a tyrant behind the camera — at least with me.” He resented Esther’s height (5-feet-8-1/2 inches). “There was no hiding that I was half a head taller than he was.”

FRANK SINATRA (Esther’s other costar in “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.”) Williams liked Sinatra” “I not only adored the way he sang, but admired his underrated natural approach to acting….He told me that both of us approached acting the same way, speaking like you talk to a friend, as if the camera wasn’t there.” Esther also noted that Sinatra loved to party. “As soon as the day’s filming was done, he went rushing off to one bash or another.” As a result, he sometimes showed up on the set “fighting a hangover.” The picture’s unit manager reported this to studio higher-ups. “When Frank told me that he had heard the rumor that he was getting bounced off the picture, I tried to reassure him.” (As it turned out, Sinatra had nothing to be concerned about.  He’s pretty good in ‘Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”)

WILLIAM POWELL (who costarred with a 27-year-old Esther in 1946′s “The Hoodlum Saint.”) In one of the picture’s first scenes, Williams was required to slap Powell, not gently but, as director Norman Taurog ordered, to “really connect with Bill’s face in order to make that distinctive hollow thwack of palm against cheek.”  So a young, athletic Esther did as instructed, hauling off and really smacking the 54-year-old Powell in the cheek. “Then I watched in horror as one side of his face collapsed.” As an apologetic Esther approached hysteria, a team of make-up specialist rushed onto the set to reconstruct the elder actor’s face. “When the makeup men were finished, it looked as if somebody had pulled all of his face up towards the top of his head,” recalled Williams.  ”It was an instant face-lift, which is what they did for older actors instead of plastic surgery back then.”


 

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