Holy Hollywood

[Leslie Howard by Vandamm Studio, 1932]

By 1927 Leslie Howard had been working in New York on the Broadway stage for seven years. He had appeared in seventeen plays there and many others in his native England going back to the start of his professional career in 1916. Howard had even authored and directed some of his own productions. He was well-known in New York.

A Most Unappreciated Man

[Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, 1939]

Leslie Howard definitely did not want the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind (1939). Howard thought Ashley to be "a dreadful milk-sop, totally spineless and negative." He found the character "unsure and vacillating, uncertain as a moth fluttering between lamps—the done-to instead of the doing man, torn between the opposing polarities of two

William Gargan - This post is dedicated to Leslie Gargan

[Leslie Howard with good friend Bill Gargan, along
with Fred MacMurray, W. C. Fields and George Arliss]

In William Gargan's book, Why Me? An Autobiography, Gargan enjoys recounting his memories of times spent with his good friend, Leslie Howard. One of the traits Gargan found amusing about Howard was his "frugality." This trait in Howard was also noted by Howard's daughter, Leslie Ruth, in her book, A Quite Remarkable Father. Leslie Ruth tells a

Love Wins In The End

[Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer taking a stroll in between takes
on the MGM lot where they were filming Smilin' Through, 1932]

Smilin' Through is the story of Sir John Carteret (Leslie Howard), a man who suffers a life-long feeling of loss and loneliness after losing his bride, Moonyeen Clare (Norma Shearer), at the very moment they are to share their wedding vows. Their mutual friend, Jeremy Wayne (Fredric March), shows up at the church to kill Carteret out of jealousy because

Leslie Howard Begins His Love of Horses

[Leslie Howard]

Leslie Howard had a very active imagination and used it to begin writing plays and stories at a young age. He wrote his first play, in Latin, by the time he was 13 years old. Young Leslie's drama was presented at the Christmas pageant at his school. His mother encouraged her son, but his

Progamming Note

[Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and
Bette Davis in It's Love I'm After, 1937]

It's Love I'm After to air on TCM on Sunday, August 21, at 4:30 AM PST [Please check your local listings]

Produced by Warner Brothers and directed by Archie Mayo, It's Love I'm After is a comedy which brings together Leslie Howard and Bette Davis for the third time. They appeared together previously in Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Petrified Forest (1936).

The film is about a pair of egotistical actors (Howard and Davis) who are in love but who have delayed their marriage over and over again throughout the years, mainly due to their heated arguments off stage. But the two finally agree that tonight is the night, until a young heiress (Olivia de Havilland) shows up and becomes totally infatuated with Leslie Howard. (I know that feeling.) Her fiancé (Henry Grant) pleads with Howard to discourage de Havilland and the wedding is delayed once again as Howard barges in at de Havilland's country home to show her just how obnoxious he can be.

The movie received good reviews and classic movie reviewers have come to recognize the film as undervalued and neglected.