The Blue Gardenia

The Blue Gardenia
Released Date: March 23, 1953
Director: Fritz Lang
Actors: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr, Jeff Donnell, Richard Erdman, George Reeves, Ray Walker, Ruth Storey, and Nat 'King' Cole

     I love watching TCM, and my favorite thing about TCM.. Turning it on and starting a random movie. Or even going on Demand and seeing the movies they have for you to watch for a whole month. That is how I stumbled upon The Blue Gardenia. I saw that Anne Baxter was in it and also Raymond Burr. That had my attention from the start. Then reading the summary, that got me to hit play. I love the sound of Nat 'King' Cole, and his beautiful voice starts the movie off right. I love seeing Anne Baxter as the good girl, when I was younger I was convinced she really was evil like Eve, and I didn't like her at all. But then seeing her in I Confess by Alfred Hitchcock and then this, I can see how wonderful of an actor she really is. And how many roles she could accomplish.

     Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) works as a telephone operator with her two roommates, Crystal Carpenter (Ann Sothern) and Rose Miller (Ruth Storey). They too are telephone operators. You can see from the beginning that Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr) is up to no good, and gets the girls telephone number. Flirting with the operators and then closing his office door to talk to another woman on the phone, who seems to be a little more than a coworker or even friend. Norah has a boyfriend anyway, well she did. He's away in the military and she is having her relationship through letters. Till one day, on her birthday, she gets the dear john letter, wait is that what they are called? He has found another girl in Japan and he is going to marry her. Harry Prebble calls the house and expects to get one of the single girls. Instead, Norah answers, but just having her heart broken, she accepts his date offer of Chinese food and drinks. And boy does she drink. She gets drunk even, and ends up at his apartment. With the song "Blue Gardenia" playing the whole time, either in your head because it played at dinner, or they really do play it a few times. But its nice anyway. Harry tries to kiss Norah, and realizing what she's done, she hits him over the head. The next day, Harry is found murdered. Was it Norah? Was it when she hit him upside the head? Find out by watching this fun movie.

I Confess

I Confess
Released Date: March 22, 1953
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, O.E. Hasse, Roger Dann, Dolly Haas, and Charles Andre

     Alfred Hitchcock grew up as a Catholic. This movie is based on a priest and shows a very difficult situation that he cannot control due to the priest law. Montgomery Clift, being a huge star at this point, and also a stud muffin did a great job playing a priest. He even studied how priests walk and copied to perfection. This was a great trait Clift had, and is why a lot of directors loved working with him. However, he did experience a lot of health issues during his adult hood. Was in a huge car crash that changed his face, and was diagnosed with stomach issues most of his adult life. He died at very young age even, and Marilyn Monroe, who was noted as having a lot of problems even quoted, "he's the only man I know with more problems than I have." He did have a drinking issue during this movie, and during a ferry scene in this picture. Alfred Hitchcock hated confrontation and had his assistant director and actor Karl Malden, talk to him about his drinking habits while working.

     In the beginning of this movie, you can spot Alfred Hitchcock walking the top of a staircase during the opening sequence. Father Michael Logan (Montgomery Clift) is the priest at this Catholic church in Quebec, Canada. With Otto Keller (O.E. Hasse) and his wife Alma (Dolly Haas, also the name of Alfred Hitchcock's wife) working as the housekeeper in the said church, Otto is also rather close with Father Logan. He gave the Keller's a place to stay and trusted them as well when nobody else would. Ruth Grandfort (Anne Baxter) use to be the love interest of Logan and because of the war she ended up getting married. So when Logan came home, once he found out of her marriage and also having a change of heart, became a priest. Ruth and Logan had an appointment with a man that happened to be murdered the day before the appointment. Inspector Larrue (Karl Malden) suspected Father Logan. Nobody else suspected the kind man, but due to information, Logan is the only suspect. But due to a confession of the actual murderer himself, Logan is unable to reveal the truth. Will the truth ever surface? Will Father Logan survive the accusations? Find out by watching this amazing film directed by the amazing director himself. 

All About Eve

All about Eve
Released Date: January 15, 1951
Directed by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Actors: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter and Marilyn Monroe

My grandma's favorite actress, she always said, was Bette Davis. And so I decided that the next movie I would write about is the one movie that by far has the greatest acting I have ever seen--All About Eve. It was made perfectly.

I think all the actors in this are absolutely perfect and Bette Davis still stole the show. Bette Davis had such confidence, she makes the rest of the women in the world look like insecure freaks. But the fact is, she was confident because she probably knew how truly wonderful she was at acting. She didn't just read the script but she became the script. Her most memorable line in this movie, and one of the best lines ever, was "fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."  The movie is worth watching just to hear her deliver it!

Another person I enjoy in this movie is Thelma Ritter. She was funny and very on key. Her and Bette Davis became great friends. Thelma Ritter was a big star back in the day. Although she was not the main character in anything she played, she acted in a lot of movies.

This was Marilyn Monroe's first big movie and because of her insecurities, legend has it that Bette Davis made her cry on the set one day. Bette Davis and Gary Merrill had enjoyed their roles so much and thought so much of the couple they played that they both decided that they would make a great couple in real life. It ended in divorce as Gary ended up being abusive and Bette Davis knew better than to stay.

The movie is about a woman who becomes completely infatuated with an actress. She wants to become her, she wants to be the same actress, have the same clothes, same friends, same boyfriend, same everything. She ends up meeting her favorite actress and completely takes over as her maid. Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, who is the star and is also the stalked. The stalker is Anne Baxter. Anne Baxter played the part so well that I truly thought she was evil. I used to call her Anne Back Stabber. I also refused to watch The Ten Commandments because she was in it and I did not like her.

Parts of it may ring painfully true to every actor today because so many in show business have a stalker. If I could, Jake Gyllenhaal would be stalked by muah. I'm just kitten, I know Jake Gyllenhaal is reading this and probably follows me. Right????

Well I hope you end up watching this movie and I hope you like it. It is not only a classic, but one for the ages.