RIP

We lost two actresses that I have always loved. The movies that they made, gave a lot of people happiness through tough times. One being War..... 

Joan Fontaine 

Born: October 22, 1917 - Died: December 15, 2013 (96 years old)

Shirley Temple 

Born: April 23, 1928 - Died: February 10, 2014 (85 years old)

You Gotta Stay Happy

You Gotta Stay Happy
Released Date: October 28, 1948
Director: H.C. Potter
Actors: James Stewart, Joan Fontaine, Eddie Albert, Roland Young, Willard Parker, Percy Kilbride, and Porter Hall

     This movie makes you... Well, happy! James Stewart shines in all his movies, even in this not so very well known film. You can see him wearing a leather jacket during You Gotta Stay Happy, and it happens to be the same jacket he wore during all of his missions in WWII. You may notice that Joan Fontaine wears a jacket throughout this movie as well, she was pregnant and couldn't show her full belly! I also enjoyed Eddie Albert as well, and he definitely stole the show while on screen.

     Dee Dee Dillwood (Joan Fontaine) is a rich brat who cannot seem to figure her life out. She is to be married, and does not want to be. Because her uncle and shrink tell her to go ahead with the marriage, she does. Completely out of love, Dee Dee and her new husband go to stay at a hotel. They have a few arguments in the lobby, and pilot Marvin Payne (James Stewart) always seems to be right in the middle of it. Marvin's copilot, Bullets Baker (Eddie Albert) is off having a drink or two, while Marvin goes to the hotel to get a good nights sleep. As Marvin is trying to get some shut eye, Dee Dee and her new husband get into another fight. This time Dee Dee wants to leave and ends up in Marvin's room for the night. Now I know this sounds dirty, but believe me when I say, this is your average black and white movie. No funny business. Dee Dee can't seem to fall asleep, so she ends up taking a sleeping pill from the pilot's luggage - which doesn't help. So then they call to the front desk so that they can send up a sleeping pill. What happens? She gets knocked out cold. In this funny sequence, you can't help but to laugh out loud. Dee Dee decides to follow Marvin and Bullets across country to get away from her husband. While James Stewart always turns on the charm, does Marvin? Will Dee Dee get out of her marriage? And if so, will Marvin be the one? 

Born To Be Bad

Born To Be Bad
Released Date: August 27, 1950
Director: Nicholas Ray
Actors: Mel Ferrer, Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott, Joan Leslie, Harold Vermilyea, Virginia Farmer

     Joan Fontaine almost always plays the good girl. So here is your chance to see a whole other side of her and one that you will not approve of.

     Donna Foster (Joan Leslie) and Curtis Carey (Zachary Scott) are madly in love and will marry soon. Donna works for a man who needs her to take care of his niece. Christabel Caine (Joan Fontaine) is the niece and is very much a problem from the word go. You can tell by her charm that she is indeed into two guys. Nick Bradly (Robert Ryan) who is a writer, but at this moment, is not financially stable. But she is also into Curtis, who is not available at all. In fact, he only shares care for her as a friend. Curtis however is rich, and then becomes unsure that his fiance is marrying him for him or for his money. Christabel makes sure that he does not marry the girl of his dreams, to be with her. She does not realize how much Nick meant to her, until she looses him. By the end, does Christabel get her ending she deserves, or does Nick fall in love with her lies once more? Mel Ferrer plays a very talented painter, Gabriel "Gobby" Broome. He is a very talented actor and very easy on the eyes. :)

Rebecca

Rebecca 
Released Date: April 12, 1940
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, and Nigel Bruce

     This was the first movie that Alfred Hitchcock made in Hollywood. It is also said that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this movie way before he did, but due to the price of the rights, he could not afford to do the picture. This film did get him a Best Picture Oscar that year, which is rather exciting. Due to the fact that in my honest opinion, Hitchcock is the best director ever, and he deserved many more awards than that. But for Rebecca, that is rather exciting. You will also notice, which bothered me for a really long time, the main woman in this film has no first name. Laurence Olivier wanted his wife, Vivien Leigh to play the main woman in the movie, but Joan Fontaine ended up winning the title role, and Laurence was said to have been rather rude to Miss Fontaine because of that. but even Anne Baxter was tested for the role as the title woman too. But Alfred Hitchcock ended up using her later in a movie called I Confess. 


     This movie is based, at first in Monte Carlo. Where a woman is another woman's companion. The companion is young and rather naive, which you catch on rather early in the picture. The companion meets a wealthy man, who she later finds out is a widower. And ends up having a fling. The companion ends up telling the woman she works for, that she is engaged. The employer is outraged, but gives her, her good lucks and then goodbyes. The companion, after marrying becomes, Mrs. De Winter. She moves in with him, into his very rich/wealthy mansion, Manderly. When Mrs. De Winter becomes scared that her husband is still attached to his first wife (Rebecca), she becomes desperate to be more beautiful. The entire film she is plain, and ordinary, and not at all what his servants were expecting when they first arrived. When a party they throw becomes into play, the dress Mrs. De Winter wears makes her husband angry, and after a whirlwind of facts come to light, they are forced to find out even more than, not even Rebecca's best friend knew.