The George Cukor Thread

just checked: it's not. what movie am i thinking of?

...

it's the goddess: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051667/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_22

yes, The Actress was scripted from her own autobiographical play by Ruth Gordon. It's really solid; Tracy is near his best, supported by JS and Teresa Wright, looking plausibly older than 34 as Ruth's mother.

teresa wright moved frighteningly quickly from ingenue to playing matronly roles

teresa wright is the bomb btw

Brody on Cukor's themes of secrets and disclosure

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2013/12/the-celebrity-masks-of-george-cukor.html

The discreet charm of Cukor

David Phelps compares him to McCarey and LaCava as a "piano" director:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-second-hand-illusion-notes-on-cukor

Hepburn and Olivier really got a star vehicle worthy of them in Love Among the Ruins, which won a bunch of Emmys. It's maybe her flat-out funniest performance aside from Bringing Up Baby, and he does some really great Oliver Hardy takes reacting to her. (The tender stuff mostly works too.)

It's "unavailable" but seems to be on YouTube in its entirety -- shame about the quality, very nicely shot by Douglas Slocombe.

It Should Happen to You and Born Yesterday are two faves but I can't get anyone to watch them more than the first few minutes with me.

more Bogdo index cards -- nice Welles story at the very end.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/peterbogdanovich/00000143-5a25-d395-a377-7e6faa680000

http://blogs.indiewire.com/peterbogdanovich/the-cukor-file-part-5

holy shit alfred otm abt lew ayers in holiday. completely robbed the movie for me. his monologue to k-hep abt what it's like to get drunk just stopped it. the realest saddest thing. runners-up: "mother tried to be a seton a while, till she gave up and died" and his exit line: "and... to grandfather!"

Here's a list..

A Woman's Face is addled in the best way.

Rich and Famous comes to the Warner Archive: https://www.wbshop.com/products/rich-and-famous-1981-mod

Koresky on Sylvia Scarlett

https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/queer-now-then-1935-katherine-hepburn-cary-grant-george-cukor/

A marvelous read, and I've enjoyed his series.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/05f931fc02d365516a299774f13732fb/w0FMh8OYztwqUX6hYASaLhdr7lmeXL_small.jpg

Coming In January!

The 20% of Dinner at Eight that is pure soap opera I'm happy to ignore, given how dazzlingly crafted the rest of it is. Harlow, Dressler, Billie Burke, Lee Tracy (who has two great long scenes with John Barrymore) all near career heights. Wallace Beery and Harlow are doing an early (better) version of Born Yesterday.

And Lionel Barrymore is almost... restrained? How the hell did Cukor pull that off? (Maybe just by whispering "Dressler will eat you alive.")

also... Marie Dressler's Carlotta has a dog named Mussolini, but they redubbed it as "Tarzan" by release date.