Posts tagged Elizabeth Taylor

Audrey Hepburn Quiz — The Questions.

Apr09
2013 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

It seems to us that if any Hollywood actresses have a claim on eternal public life, they would have to include (in no special order) Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn.

Monroe remains the subject of periodic fascination, often expressed in photographs, books and, perhaps, with a PHD thesis or two. Taylor’s estate still brings in a fortune from the proceeds of products the star launched in her lifetime.

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back with another star quiz. So sharpen those wits, and get ready.

Of the three luminaries mentioned above, Hepburn is now the closest to Hollywood sainthood. Her fashion model chic — termed her “iconic style” — has a posthumous appeal of its own, so it’s no surprise that her image currently adorns the May issue of Vanity Fair.

Although she’s been dead for 20 years now, her visual appeal remains refreshingly contemporary.  The Vanity Fair piece, adapted from the forthcoming coffee-table book, Audrey In Rome coauthored by her son Luca Dotti, is loaded with rarely seen period photos taken during the actress’ 17-year residence in Rome dating from 1969, after the bulk of her movie career was over.

Hepburn looks great and is — even while walking the dog — dressed in high-fashion impeccability. We were inspired by the article, and put together this Audrey Hepburn quiz to find out just how much you really know about this “iconic” personality. So here we go.

1) Question. Although she’s thought of as the product of an aristocratic European family, Hepburn experienced poverty as a young girl.  True or false?

2) Question. Can you identify the profession of her Italian second husband, Dr. Andrea Dotti? He was a) an actor with a PHD; b) a podiatrist; c) a proctologist; or d) a psychiatrist?

3) Question.  Which of these movies starring Audrey was NOT filmed in Rome? a) 1956′s War and Peace; b) 1953′s Roman Holiday; c) 1954′s Sabrina; or d) 1959′s The Nun’s Story.

4) Question. Which of these actor-costars was Hepburn’s first husband. a) Eddie Albert, b) Helmut Dantine; c) Mel Ferrer; or d) Jacques Marin?

5) Question. Which of Hepburn’s movie roles was her favorite? a) As the princess on the loose in Roman Holiday; b) as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s; c) as the upper class daughter of a prominent surgeon who decides to enter a convent in The Nun’s Story; or d) as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady?

6) Question. When she lived in Rome, Hepburn raged and fulminated at the pesky ”paparazzi,” the Italian photographers who dogged her every public step.  True or false?

7) Question. Not present during the Rome period was Hepburn’s final male companion, who, despite not being married to her, lived with the actress until she died.  Can you identify this man? a) Walter Matthau; b) Dino De Laurentiis; c) Robert Wolders; or d) Mickey Rooney?

8) Question. Although she loved living in the Eternal city, Hepburn did not die in Rome.  Where did she die and what killed her?

9) Question.  What accounted for Hepburn’s ramrod posture and her physical composure in almost all settings?  a) her early training in marital arts; b) a back deformity which was cured through long term exercise; c) ballet practice; or d) a stint in the military.

10) Question. Although immaculately turned out all her life, Hepburn had her share of fashion quirks. Which of the following did she adopt? a) not wearing undergarments; b) carrying a small basket to be used as a purse;  c) never wearing sunglasses; or d) wearing  pearls with everything?

Ok, there you have it.  No peeking at internet references.  Answers this week.

 

 

 

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Did Elizabeth Taylor Really Have An Affair With Monty Clift?

Mar14
2013 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

A Place In The Sun was re-released in London last month, shining attention in the British press on director George Steven’s 1951 study of love, sex and class as well as on the film’s timeless co-stars, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, here today to ponder the nature of that notoriously intense relationship between Taylor and Clift. Was it love or was it something else?

The Stevens’ film, based on Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy, showcases Montgomery as socially apirational working class stiff who falls for Taylor’s idle rich girl after he impregnates a none-too-bright assembly line worker (Shelley Winters). Rarely have class distinctions been as starkly etched in an American movie.

At the time she made A Place In The Sun, Taylor was winding up the first of her eight marriages (to Nicky Hilton) and was months away from her second to British-born actor Michael Wilding. She made no attempt to conceal her passion for the handsome Clift, and vice versa.

The problem:  although not generally known at the time, Clift was gay. In a penetrating anaylsis of the movie and of the Taylor-Clift tie, British trade magazine Sight & Sound’s Eric Hynes concludes that while “A Place In The Sun’s” outcome asserts that class boundaries are ultimately impossible to transgress, our eyes receive a different message: these two celestial bodies (Clift and Taylor) belong together.

But that imperative is ultimately thwarted, just as it was for Monty and Liz in real life. Though frequently romantically linked, and the dearest of friends until Clift’s death in 1966, their sexuality was incompatible.

According to a longtime male friend, Clift  once told Taylor that you are the only woman I will ever love. Taylor’s response? Baby, oh baby, over and over again.

Concludes Hynes: Perhaps even they assumed they belonged together — so hungry are their eye-locks in “A Place In The Sun” that one feels voyeuristic.  But it wasn’t to be.

There’s no question that the actress may have saved Clift’s life five years after A Place In The Sun.

Late on the night of May 12, 1956 — while he was costarring with Taylor in MGM’s Raintree County – Clift crashed his vehicle into a telephone pole after leaving a party Taylor and then husband Michael Wilding had thrown at their Benedict Canyon home in Los Angeles.

Taylor famously raced to the accident scene.  She manually pulled broken teeth out of the choking actor’s mouth.  He had sustained a broken jaw and nose along with multiple facial lacerations. Much of his face had to be surgically rebuilt.

He was badly scarred and many predicted his career was over.

MGM was forced to suspend production on Raintree County, a Civil War-era romance that the studio had hoped would be another Gone With The Wind. Undoubtedly, the studio brass gave considerable thought to replacing Clift as Taylor’s costar. Over her dead body!

After a two-month suspension, Raintree County resumed production. Clift predicted the movie would be a box office success because moviegoers would flock to see the difference in his looks in scenes filmed before and after the accident.

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WOW! Not One But TWO Dark Haired Beauties.

Dec06
2012 1 Comment Written by classicmovieguys

They portrayed mother and daughter in two of the most popular films of the early Fifties, and they shared a birthday.

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back with more interesting info about one of the most interesting, yet overlooked stars of the Golden Age – Joan Bennett.

Bennett’s last two hits starred her with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor in MGM’s Father of the Bride in 1950, and its sequel a year later, Father’s Little Dividend.  Both were directed by Vincente Minnelli and both were big hits for MGM.

Many top stars wouldn’t be caught dead playing mothers of grown children, and worse yet, grandmothers, at age 41. But Bennett, who’d been a femme fatale through the 1940s was secure in her beauty and her stardom. In fact in real life she actually had a daughter older than Taylor.

Joan had been born to a theatrical family, which dated its roots in show business back to the 18th century.  Her father Richard Bennett was a leading actor on the stage and in silent movies.  Her older sisters Constance and Barbara were successful in the profession. In the Thirties, Connie was the BIG star.  Barbara retired when she married bandleader Morton Downey, and began raising children.

Joan’s film career was sporadic at first, as was her personal life. She was married at 16, and was a mother before her 18th birthday.  She’d been in silents with her father and sisters at age six, made her stage debut with her father at 18, and by 19 was a star in talkies.

She was married a second time, to producer Gene Markey, and had a second daughter. And she starred opposite Spencer Tracy in a couple of films at Fox.

They were re-teamed 18 years later at MGM. She and Tracy actually looked like Taylor parents in the two hit films.  And Joan and Liz had a lot in common.  Both had been born on February 27.  Joan’s daughter Melinda Markey was born on February 27, and Liz’s second son with Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, would also be born on February 27.

Both Liz and Joan were dark haired beauties.  But Joan was probably the only star in Hollywood who’d started out a blonde (her natural color) and had become a brunette.

Director Tay Garnett and producer Walter Wanger were credited for convincing Joan to switch back in 1938 for a part in Trade Winds. The exotic new look pushed her career into high gear. She had divorced Markey in 1937, and she married Wanger in 1940.  They had two daughters together and yet she had time to make several hit films, the best of her career.

By age 39 she was a grandmother and a year later decided to play Ellie Banks, Taylor’s mother in Father of the Bride.  Elizabeth Taylor, too, became a grandmother at age 39, another thing they had in common.

(Above is Laurence Olivier visiting the set while they were filming.) The classic Father movies have both been remade.  SKIP the remakes.  See the originals.

And for film noir fans, don’t miss Joan’s superb turn in 1948′s Hollow Triumph, different, a dark film noir superbly photographed by John Alton about a criminal mastermind (Paul Henreid) who evades police capture by taking on the identity of a psychiatrist (also Henreid).

There’s a bungled gambling joint robbery, there’s violent retribution, murder, shootouts and late night car chases and – Joan Bennett.  She portrays the beautiful but doomed secretary to the psychiatrist, who becomes Henreid’s romantic plaything.

Her character’s motto: It’s a bitter little world full of sad surprises, and you don’t let anyone hurt you.  This just two years before she appeared with Taylor in Father of the Bride.

 

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WHY OLD MOVIE FASHIONS REALLY DO MATTER.

Dec02
2011 1 Comment Written by classicmovieguys

QUESTION: Did you happen to see the article in The New York Times style section about wedding gowns?

It was about the new film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn –Part I (No. 1 in world box office, by the way), and about how what everyone is REALLY waiting to see is the wedding gown that actress Kristen Stewart will be wearing in the movie. (Remember, her boyfriend is a vampire.)

Hello, Everybody.  MR. Joe Morella and MR. Frank Segers here again.  MRS. Norman Maine is out shopping for tinsel and rice.

The most interesting aspect of the article was about how movies determine fashion and fuel the economy by creating demand in the marketplace.  Obviously when prospective brides see wedding gowns in movies, they want to rush out and buy ones just like them.

Bringing all this back to our classic movie home, the article mentioned the Father of the Bride gown worn by Liz Taylor (there she is, all 18 years of her, with father Spencer Tracy in the above photo) and most interestingly the gown worn by Claudette Colbert in 1934′s It Happened One Night.

Colbert’s outfits in that marvelous screwball comedy were designed by Robert Kalloch. Taylor’s wedding gown in 1950′s Father of the Bride was the handiwork of longtime MGM costume designer, Helen Rose, who also put together onscreen marital outfits for other studio brides including Grace Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell.

There are several books dealing with studio movies’ influence on fashion, particularly on wedding outfits.  One, Hollywood Gets Married by Sandy Schreier, is interesting because it takes her subject — specifically in reference to Taylor — offscreen.

As you undoubtedly know, the actress is right up there among Hollywood’s most married stars.  She attended eight of her own weddings (two to Richard Burton) in various outfits, and Schreier tells us what she wore on each occasion.

In the same year she costarred in Vincente Minnelli’s  Father of the Bride, Taylor married for the first time to hotel heir Nicky Hilton. She sported wore a traditional wedding ensemble on steroids: white satin embroidered with pearls plus a tiara and a 10-yard-veil. (Rose also designed that outfit.)

For her wedding to No. 2 (Michael Wilding) Taylor wore a far more conservative outfit, a gray wool suit with a rolled collar and cuffs of white organdy.  A Rose design turns up once more at wedding No. 3 (Michael Todd), highlighting a blue cocktail dress.

For her No. 4 wedding (Eddie Fisher) at Las Vegas’ Temple Beth Shalom Temple, Taylor chose a Jean Louis green chiffon dress with a draped hood. Wedding No. 5 (the first to Burton) featured an Irene Sharaff adaptation of a yellow gown Taylor wore in Cleopatra (talk about bad omens). For No. 6 (second to Burton) she relaxed a bit in a long green robe embroidered with exotic birds.

No. 7 (Sen. John Warner of Virginia) featured lavender gray dress with suede boots and silver fox coat. No. 8 (Larry Fortensky), it was a lemon yellow outfit reportedly costing $25,000.

Seven husbands, eight wedding ensembles and much for an aspiring bride to consider.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check it out.

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3D Revived! Can ‘Smell-O-Vision’ Be Next?

Nov07
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

One of the most interesting developments of recent movie history is the commercial resurgence of 3D, that once quaint movie gimmick that first flourished for about a three or four-year period in the early 1950′s.

The big Hollywood studios back then were terrified of television, and any theatrical come-on was considered fair advantage by the movie moguls. Who can forget such titles as 1953′s “House of Wax” starring Vincent Price or the same year’s “It Came From Outer Space” or “Inferno” with Rhonda Fleming, among other early 3D titles. The movies by and large stunk, and the fad faded quickly.

However, with big technological improvements and the realization that movies shown in 3D could charge higher ticket prices, contemporary Hollywood vigorously re-embraced the technique. The ubiquitous 3D fashion of today may show a bit of wear right now in the U.S., but it remains gangbusters at the foreign box offices.

Hello, everybody, Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back again to ruminate on yet another quaint movie gimmick – Smell-O-Vision – that came and went in the early 1960′s and, so far, has never been heard from again.

We are joined today by our pal Hy Hollinger, who as a longtime Hollywood trade journalist, got a whiff of this olfactory exhibition approach when it was first introduced. Hy was there at the beginning, and will soon tell us about it.

First, we should mention that Smell-O-Vision was described upon its introduction in 1960 as “aromatic cinema” in which movie audiences were bombarded by various scents directed through a tubing system to each seat in the theater. According to Ephraim Katz’s “The Film Encyclopedia,” each scent was contained in a vial on a rotating drum, and was triggered by a signal from a “smell track” on the film.

The dubious device was being exploited at the time by producer Michael Todd, then Elizabeth Taylor‘s husband. And here is where Hy comes in, and he writes:

As a reporter, Mike Todd was on my beat.  Shortly after his marriage to Taylor, he waved me over at a premiere. “Do you know my wife, Elizabeth?,” was his introduction.

I was part of a junket that went to Chicago for the unveiling of Smell-O-Vision, developed by Todd and Michael Jr. and presented as part of a film titled “Scent of Mystery.”

(The 1960 film is a murder mystery set largely in Spain, featuring British actor Denholm Elliott, the great Peter Lorre, British sexpot Diana Dors, Paul Lucas, the forgotten Beverly Bentley and, in an uncredited bit part, Elizabeth Taylor.)

Continues Hy:  Many years later, the director, Jack Cardiff, was quoted as saying — “The machinery worked wonderfully. The only trouble was that the smells that were projected were like cheap eau-de-Cologne.” An odorless version of “Mystery” was later released under the title “Holiday in Spain.”

Thanks, Hy. We can only add that the holiday for Smell-O-Vision has yet to end. 

 

 

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They Won for THAT?

Sep21
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

They Got an Oscar for THAT?  Not really.

Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys, reflecting on the Academy’s quirk of casting, in what in effect are, sympathy votes. And, please, enjoy today’s great photos of two stars at their physical peaks. Ain’t they gorgeous?

In the history of Academy Awards there are several instances when the voting members of the Academy have obviously let their emotional feelings for a particular actor warp their judgement of a particular performance in a specific film.

In other words, some Oscar winners, though worthy of the award, were given it for the wrong reasons and the wrong picture.

This “consolation Oscar” trend all started back in 1935, when Bette Davis received her first win for the mediocre film “Dangerous.”  It was really just a programmer for her home studio, Warners. And it was, at best, a typical performance for the melodramatic actress.

BUT the previous year, 1934, on loan out over at RKO, Davis had given a superlative performance as the evil prostitute Mildred in the Somerset Maugham classic, “Of Human Bondage.”  AND she hadn’t even been nominated!

Studio politics undoubtedly played a big part in this. Studios tended to block vote for actors in their own studio films.

So the Academy members corrected their error by not only nominating her in 1935 but by giving her the Oscar she should have gotten the previous year.

Then in 1960, the Academy did it again. The gave Elizabeth Taylor the Best Actress Award for a mediocre performance in an embarrassing film, “Butterfield 8.”

Yet everyone knew it was an Award for Liz herself, and her perseverance at having come through a life threatening illness shortly after she’d lost her husband (Mike Todd) in a tragic accident. 

Besides she’d lost the Oscar in the two previous years for really good (nominated) performances in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” in 1958 and “Suddenly Last Summer,” in 1959.

When Paul Newman lost the Oscar in 1982 for his superb performance in “The Verdict,” it seemed the Academy was just never going to recognize his talent.  He’d already lost three times before.

But “Gandhi” was the darling film of 1982, and garnered many Oscars including one for Ben Kingsley in the Best Actor Category.

However, once again, Academy members made it right by nominating and voting for Newman for Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,”  in 1986. Even Newman knew it wasn’t his best work, although he and costar Tom Cruise give solid performances.

Poor Newman and Taylor.  Sad to win for a so-so performance when you’ve given so many really good ones.  Bette Davis, at least won a second Award and continued getting nominations for years after her “consolation Oscar.”

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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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NEVER PUBLISHED PHOTO OF BETTY GRABLE

Apr29
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys


Hello again.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers back to share another photo from the Donald Gordon Collection.

This illustrates that off screen, while just as beautiful as they were on film many stars were not THAT recognizable.  Without their makeup (and in the case of many male stars like Bing Crosby and Humphrey Bogart, their toupees) alot of stars could do their own grocery shopping without being spotted.

Have you, or your parents or grandparents, any candid photos of film stars?  We’d love to share them. Or hear any tales you might have to tell about stars or film companies visiting your home town.

The other day we pondered about stars of today who might rival stars of the 40′s or 60′s. The song lyric says “Keep Audrey Hepburn and keep Liz Taylor, Nancy’s the feature, they’re just the trailer.”  Set us to thinking about that term, “trailer”  It originated back in the silent days, when after the feature was shown there would be a short promoting the next film due at that theater.  It trailed the feature.  You can just hear people say, “Let’s wait and see the trailer.”  When the studios became more powerful and homogonized and controlled distribution they started using the term “Coming Attractions.” We’ll bet few people, if any,  ever said “Let’s go early and see the coming attractions.”

Here’s a thought for DVD producers.  Why have the previews before the main feature. Most people are anxious to see the film they’ve rented and skip them.  Why not show previews after the movie? And let the public call them “trailers.”

 

YESTERDAY’S PIC:

That was Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in “A Place in the Sun.” It was their first film together and they became great pals.  Their on screen chemistry has rarely been matched by other actors.

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THINKING ABOUT LIZ TAYLOR

Apr28
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

 

Hello everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers here.

That song lyric, about Audrey Hepburn and Liz Taylor set us to thinking.  And, since her death, awhile back, friends have been asking when we were going to devote a blog to Elizabeth Taylor.  While she wasn’t a favorite of Frank’s. Joe remembers her fondly for one of her earlier movies.

Of course she won two Academy Awards for Best Actress. One for “Butterfield 8,” which today seems a hopelessly dated film.  Almost everyone agrees that the award that year was really for her previous work in films such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Suddenly Last Summer.” when she’d been nominated and lost. Her second Oscar, for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe,” seemed more deserved. However Joe feels are best films were earlier ones.”Father of the Bride” and “Father’s Little Dividend,” where in effect she was a supporting actress to Spencer Tracy, come to mind.

Joe thinks her best work was in the true classic film “A Place in the Sun” opposite her pal, Montgomery Clift.  The two had incredible chemistry on screen.  There’s a story told by Geogre Stevens Jr. that when he and his famous father were driving home after the Oscar presentations where Stevens had won Best Director for the film, the young boy remarked on how the film was the best film he’d ever seen, and how his wise father said something to the effect: “let’s wait 20 years and see if you still think so.”  Well, the film has endured for over 60 years and indeed is a classic.  We relate the story only because it we agree wholeheartedly. Let’s wait 20 or 30 years before we declare a movie a classic. Only time will tell if a film becomes part of the history of the industry.

One thing is indisputable.  It was the film that catapulted Elizabeth Taylor to stardom.

But Joe’s favorite movie  in which Elizabeth Taylor appeared is not a true classic,  just a fun old film.  It’s  ”A Date With Judy.” which stars Jane Powell in the title role and Taylor in one of her first grown up, semi sexy parts, opposite Robert Stack.  The billed star of the film was Wallace Beery, believe it or not.  Jane was 19 at the time, but playing a wide-eyed high school girl. Taylor was only 16, but already playing a sophisticated beauty.  And, of course, it was a musical with other players  such as Xavier Cugat and the unique Carmen Miranda. Imagine! Carmen Miranda and Elizabeth Taylor in the same movie?  ( It reminds us of an old parlor game we used to play  –”Name a film with______ and_____ in the cast.”)

“A Date with Judy.”  Catch it.  It’s 40′s Technicolor Escapist fair at its best.  And it was the first film Morella saw at New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall. So his reminisce of Elizabeth Taylor radiates from  that MGM  feature.

What’s your favorite Liz Taylor film? and Why?

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