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| [Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer in A Free Soul (1931)] |
A Free Soul to air on TCM Sunday, January 15, 2017, at 9:00 AM PST [Please check your local listings]
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BBC Report About Leslie Howard's Death
[BBC Report of Leslie Howard's Death] On Saturday, July 30, I posted on Facebook the 2014 BBC report on Leslie Howard's Death ...
Showing posts with label Clark Gable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clark Gable. Show all posts
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Programming Note
A Free Soul to air on TCM Sunday, January 15, 2017, at 9:00 AM PST [Please check your local listings]
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Programming Note
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| [Leslie Howard and Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind (1939)] |
Gone With The Wind to air on SundanceTV Thursday, November 24, at 10:00 AM PST [Please check your local listings]
Leslie Howard, Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable and Olivia de Havilland star in the top grossing movie of all time, Gone With The Wind. Produced by David O. Selznick, Directed by Victor Fleming and Screenplay by Sidney Howard, this film was delayed for two years while Selznick negotiated with MGM for Clark Gable and conducted an extensive "American Idol" type search for Scarlett O'Hara.
Top Awards:
Best Picture - Selznick International Pictures
Best Director - Victor Fleming
Best Actress - Vivien Leigh
Best Adapted Screenplay - Sidney Howard
Best Supporting Actress - Hattie McDaniel
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Saturday, June 18, 2016
Programming Note
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| [Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer on the set of Romeo and Juliet, 1936] |
Romeo and Juliet to air on TCM on Thursday, June 30, at 12:15 AM PST [Please check your local listings]
Adapted from the play by Shakespeare, Leslie Howard appears in this film from 1936 directed by George Cukor and co-starring Norma Shearer as Juliet. The screenplay is by Talbot Jennings. The supporting cast includes John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, Edna Mae Oliver and Andy Devine.
The New York Times selected the film as one of the "Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made."
On the night of the Los Angeles premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre Norma Shearer's husband and the producer of the film, Irving Thalberg, died at the age of 37. Of course, the show still went on.
The picture received four Academy Award nominations:
Best Picture - Irving Thalberg
Best Actress - Norma Shearer
Best Supporting Actor - Basil Rathbone
Best Art Direction - Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis
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| [Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, 1939] |
Gone With The Wind to air on TCM Friday, July 1, at 6:15 PM PST [Please check your local listings]
Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland star in the top grossing movie of all time, Gone With The Wind. Produced by David O. Selznick, Directed by Victor Fleming and Screenplay by Sidney Howard, this film was delayed for two years while Selznick negotiated with MGM for Clark Gable and conducted an extensive "American Idol" type search for Scarlett O'Hara.
Top Awards:
Best Picture - Selznick International Pictures
Best Director - Victor Fleming
Best Actress - Vivien Leigh
Best Adapted Screenplay - Sidney Howard
Best Supporting Actress - Hattie McDaniel
Friday, June 10, 2016
Acting vs. Horses
This week I have talked about Leslie Howard's dislike of acting vs. his love for horses. I am not one of those fortunate people who have spent my life around horses, but I know some who have. And those who have will tell you that people can learn a lot from horses. Horses challenge those who care for them to be better people. And horses are unpredictable. And, of course, horses are beautiful. All these qualities are opposite to Howard's feelings on acting.
Leslie Howard may not have liked acting, but just as he loved the beauty, challenge and unpredictability of horses, I love the beauty of his performances. I wish that Mr. Howard could have appreciated that his acting, for a great many people, was the same as his quiet talk to the horse that needed soothing.
Watching Leslie Howard on the screen is a beautiful thing. Just look at his eyes and you will see his despair after he kills Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable) to protect the woman he loves (Norma Shearer) in A Free Soul (1931). Or feel his resignation with every movement of his hands when he realizes his wife, Cee (Myrna Loy), is manipulating him with sex, not love, to get his money in The Animal Kingdom (1932). See the shock and hurt on his face when Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis) screams the words he feared but always expected to hear, "a cripple, A Cripple, A CRIPPLE," in Of Human Bondage (1934). And then, in just the turning of his head, see his surprise and then disappointment when he realizes that Scarlet (Vivien Leigh) would strip him of all his dignity without a second thought in Gone With The Wind (1939).
I wish that Leslie Howard could have enjoyed acting the way he enjoyed horses. I wish that he had found acting a challenge. I wish that acting for him had not been so predictable and boring. And I wish that Mr. Howard had realized the beauty in his performances and how much they meant to his fans then and how much they would still be enjoyed nearly 100 years later by people like me. I wish that Leslie Howard had realized that in his acting there was artistry.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
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Leslie Howard may not have liked acting, but just as he loved the beauty, challenge and unpredictability of horses, I love the beauty of his performances. I wish that Mr. Howard could have appreciated that his acting, for a great many people, was the same as his quiet talk to the horse that needed soothing.
Watching Leslie Howard on the screen is a beautiful thing. Just look at his eyes and you will see his despair after he kills Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable) to protect the woman he loves (Norma Shearer) in A Free Soul (1931). Or feel his resignation with every movement of his hands when he realizes his wife, Cee (Myrna Loy), is manipulating him with sex, not love, to get his money in The Animal Kingdom (1932). See the shock and hurt on his face when Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis) screams the words he feared but always expected to hear, "a cripple, A Cripple, A CRIPPLE," in Of Human Bondage (1934). And then, in just the turning of his head, see his surprise and then disappointment when he realizes that Scarlet (Vivien Leigh) would strip him of all his dignity without a second thought in Gone With The Wind (1939).
I wish that Leslie Howard could have enjoyed acting the way he enjoyed horses. I wish that he had found acting a challenge. I wish that acting for him had not been so predictable and boring. And I wish that Mr. Howard had realized the beauty in his performances and how much they meant to his fans then and how much they would still be enjoyed nearly 100 years later by people like me. I wish that Leslie Howard had realized that in his acting there was artistry.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
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| [Leslie Howard by Reginald G. Eves] |
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Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Out of the Picture
Today's photo is missing Leslie Howard. Why? Because he was behind the camera, a place he would much rather be. He was an avid photographer and his interests were really behind the camera, writing, producing and directing, rather than in front of it.
Here, he snaps a photo of his friends at Los Angeles station there to retrieve him and his wife, Ruth Martin (far right), upon their return to Hollywood after one of many trips east or abroad. How would you like to have this welcoming committee?
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Here, he snaps a photo of his friends at Los Angeles station there to retrieve him and his wife, Ruth Martin (far right), upon their return to Hollywood after one of many trips east or abroad. How would you like to have this welcoming committee?
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| [Leslie Howard and his wife, Ruth Martin (far right) being met at Los Angeles station by Mr. and Mrs. Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Claudette Colbert, Douglas Fairbanks and Joan Crawford] |
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Monday, May 9, 2016
Lots of Leslie Howards
Did you know that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are not the only couple to have named their child after Leslie Howard in gratitude for his help and friendship?
Howard first met Bill Gargan when Gargan read for the part "German Play Reader" in Leslie's new play, Out of a Blue Sky, which Howard wrote and directed. Howard had dismissed Clark Gable from the part during rehearsals. The comedy ran at the Booth Theatre in NYC for 17 performances in February, 1930.
A year or so later when Gargan heard that Leslie was returning to Broadway to perform as Tom Collier in The Animal Kingdom he didn't waste a minute asking Howard for the part of Richard "Red" Regan, Tom Collier's comic butler. Gargan met Howard at the pier as his boat pulled in from England. Initially, Howard thought Gargan too young for the part but brought him along to the theater to try out anyway. Gargan got the part and the two were on their way to becoming fast friends with Bill promising to name his next child, boy or girl, after Leslie. It was a boy and it was named Leslie Howard Gargan.
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Howard first met Bill Gargan when Gargan read for the part "German Play Reader" in Leslie's new play, Out of a Blue Sky, which Howard wrote and directed. Howard had dismissed Clark Gable from the part during rehearsals. The comedy ran at the Booth Theatre in NYC for 17 performances in February, 1930.
A year or so later when Gargan heard that Leslie was returning to Broadway to perform as Tom Collier in The Animal Kingdom he didn't waste a minute asking Howard for the part of Richard "Red" Regan, Tom Collier's comic butler. Gargan met Howard at the pier as his boat pulled in from England. Initially, Howard thought Gargan too young for the part but brought him along to the theater to try out anyway. Gargan got the part and the two were on their way to becoming fast friends with Bill promising to name his next child, boy or girl, after Leslie. It was a boy and it was named Leslie Howard Gargan.
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| [Leslie Howard with Leslie Howard Gargan] |
Thursday, April 28, 2016
A Free Soul
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| [Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer in A Free Soul, 1931] |
Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer in A Free Soul, Produced and Distributed by MGM, Precode 1931. Best Actor Nomination and Win: Lionel Barrymore. Best Actress Nomination: Norma Shearer. Best Directing Nomination: Clarence Brown.
A Free Soul went into the Guinness Book for the longest take in a movie at 14 minutes. Many believe it was this scene that was responsible for Lionel Barrymore's Best Actor win that year. The film also made Clark Gable a star. It seems the audience liked to see him push Norma Shearer around. The studio reportedly received thousands of letters asking to see more of "the guy who slapped Norma Shearer."
Marion Davies, Producer
Leslie Howard and Marion Davies in Five and Ten, Precode 1931.
Leslie Howard was just beginning his film career when Marion Davies saw him perform on stage in Berkeley Square, a role he reprised in a film of the same name the following year. Davies' company, Cosmopolitan Pictures, which operated out of MGM, was producing the film and Davies requested Howard for the part of Berry Rhodes. MGM Production Head, Irving G. Thalberg, had wanted another newcomer, Clark Gable, to play the part but Davies insisted on Howard stating that Clark Gable did not have the sophistication that the role required.
Rehearsals were held at Hearst Castle (Davies was Hearst's mistress) where Howard frequently went skinny dipping in the pool leading to rumors of a Howard/Davies romance.
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| [Leslie Howard and Marion Davies in Five and Ten, 1931] |
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Reticence
Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, 1939.
Leslie Howard said of his role, "I hate the damn part. I'm not nearly beautiful or young enough for Ashley, and it makes me sick being fixed up to look attractive." Howard did not attend the opening in Atlanta as he had hurried back to London to help in the war effort. By doing this, he forfeited all his royalties from the film. He was disgusted by the price being charged in England to see the film because England was already at war with Germany. His sister said later that the family never saw the movie because of Howard's strong feelings about it. It was his last Hollywood movie.
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Leslie Howard said of his role, "I hate the damn part. I'm not nearly beautiful or young enough for Ashley, and it makes me sick being fixed up to look attractive." Howard did not attend the opening in Atlanta as he had hurried back to London to help in the war effort. By doing this, he forfeited all his royalties from the film. He was disgusted by the price being charged in England to see the film because England was already at war with Germany. His sister said later that the family never saw the movie because of Howard's strong feelings about it. It was his last Hollywood movie.
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