From One Birthday Girl to Another

In a fate that even the MGM Publicity Department of yore would consider too uncanny to be real, April 1st marks the birthday of not one, but two of Tinseltown's brightest and most beloved stars: Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell. Party on the set, anyone?!

Jane was born Suzanne Lorraine Burce in Portland, Oregon, on this day in 1929. She's probably best known for her role as Milly in the blockbuster Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), but Jane enjoyed over a decade of box office success as filmmakers found myriad means of incorporating her skill as a coloratura soprano into musicals of the day. Retiring from film in 1957 (she was not yet 40), she segued into stage performing, penned an autobiography in 1988, and currently lives in Connecticut. Next month will mark her 20th year of marriage to author and child actor Dickie Moore.

El Paso-born Mary Frances Reynolds - she was later christened Debbie by a studio mogul, but remained steadfast about retaining her true last name - came into being in 1932, and made her foray into film just sixteen years later. Her premiere movie under MGM's contract was the 1952 breakaway hit Singin' in the Rain, considered by many to be the greatest movie musical ever made, and Debbie instantly earned the title of America's Sweetheart, a role which she relinquished only after nearly a decade of film successes, a recording career, and the scandal that ensued when her 1955 marriage to crooner Eddie Fisher ended in a very public divorce. Being buoyant as ever, though, Debbie focused on stagework as the face of filmmaking changed to exclude her style of artistry, and after varied film appearances, television roles, entrepreneurial endeavors and the publication of her 1988 autobiography, my favorite girl is still in the spotlight today, actively promoting The Thalians, working to preserve the history of cinema's golden age, and frequently touring her one-woman show.

Being young, immensely popular and employed by the same studio, Jane and Debbie were often featured in films that were quite similar in style, content, and cast, and the pretty pair even co-starred together in a number of movie musicals, including Athena and Hit the Deck. Their best film together? 1950's Two Weeks With Love, a quaint comedy set in a Victorian-era vacation resort that features one of Jane's spectacular arias, an uber-romantic Ricardo Montalban, fireworks larceny, and an overly amorous Debbie, gorging herself on watermelon while admiring the spindly legs of a half-dressed Carlton Carpenter. Yeah. It's that good.

Hillary's Classic Cinema wishes a very happy birthday to two of its favorite ladies!

Same Script Scrutiny: Debbie vs. Ginger

Oh, how Hillary's Classic Cinema loves to roll its antiquated eyes at the very idea of film re-makes: once a good, bankable movie has been released (or even a brilliant B movie, for that matter), truly, why does the passage of a few years necessitate the re-issuing of a perfectly good film with brand-new stars? Become entrenched in classic cinema and you, too, will begin to see familiar storylines unfold in obscure old movies: character names are recycled, an identical foil in the plot is doled out with measured exactness, even dialogue may match another film's verbatim.

Surprised to find out that films like A Star is Born, His Girl Friday and even The Wizard of Oz are remakes? Don't be - that seems standard fare for classic Hollywood, where the emergence of new technologies allowed for the employment of new approaches to old stories (can you imagine the yellow brick road in sepia tones? Yeccch). In the days of the studio era, film assignments were often handed out with the same discretion and speed as lunch trays in the MGM commissary, and the actors and actresses of cinema's golden age were frequently forced to star in flicks that their predecessors had made famous just years before (unless they, like blonde beauty Betty Grable, tore up their contracts and stormed out of offices to avoid such fates).

It is with much haste, then, that I introduce a new feature here: Same Script Scrutiny, pitting two sinfully similar films against one another for a battle to wit's end. Okay, not really, but maybe you'll discover a new film to love - and that's always my aim in writing about the classic movies I love!

This edition features 1939's Bachelor Mother, remade as its opponent, 1956's Bundle of Joy, with both films telling the story of working girl Polly Parrish. When Polly finds a rollicking infant on the steps of a foundling home, she scoops it up to save it from harm, only to find herself unwittingly thought to be the child's neglectful mother. Extricating herself from the responsibilities that ensue proves mildly delightful, while romantic entanglements and the exasperations of child-rearing wear poor Polly down, and an overzealous grandpa throws his sentiments into the turmoil.

1939 1956

Ginger Rogers played Polly to David Niven's Mr. Merlin in the 1939 version; sparkly Debbie Reynolds and then-real-life-husband Eddie Fisher, lamer than a damp rag, portrayed the pair in the 1956 remake. RKO capitalized on the Fishers' own expectant status when the movie premiered, as their daughter, Carrie Frances, was born just weeks prior to the film's release.

Same Script Scrutiny: Which is the better film? You decide.

Gone with the Bind

It seems I'm always reading. Celebrity autobiographies, vintage movie magazines, heavy, photo-laden coffee table books: I'll gladly pore over all of them, stumbling over decades-old love affairs, soaking up sartorial elegance splayed across yellowing pages, and discovering backstories of Tinseltown in its glory days, as told by those who lived it themselves (or by those who, like me, yearn to live it vicariously).

Some reads, like Lauren Bacall's By Myself and Katharine Hepburn's Me: Stories of My Life, have proven to be well-written self-portraits of fascinating personalities, penned with far more depth than is traditionally attributed to, or anticipated from, "celebrity autobiographies"; others, however, are in desperate want of the research and passion necessary to craft engaging stories as unforgettable and dynamic as their celebrity subjects (Lana Wood's trashy homage to her sister, Natalie, for example, should be considered an affront to both Nat and to literate persons everywhere).
In keeping with my tradition of sifting through the tripe and presenting you with the best of the best, then, I present to you three of the most recent pieces to take up residence on my film library bookshelf:


Rita Hayworth: A Photographic Retrospective by Caren Roberts-Frenzel
Let's face it: Love Goddess or not, Rita Hayworth and her iconic pin-up presence is inarguably one of the most beautiful ever to grace film. Sultry or demure, blond, brunette or devastatingly red-haired, she is sizzlingly iconic of the 1940's, but few know of her painful shyness and insecurities, of the dissolve of five marriages, or of the devastating toll that Alzheimer's disease began to take on the Spanish beauty as early as the 1950's (Hayworth died of the disease in 1987). Author Roberts-Frenzel displays a dizzying array of photographs of the star's life culled from her own collection, one of the world's largest - and as sweet and telling as the photos are, equally valuable are the detailed captions paired with each pic, unearthing a side of Rita that the camera never picked up.



Selected works by Truman Capote - Paring off the shell of adulation that encases most biographers' writings, Capote instead crafts his portraits with keen observations and recollections of his esoteric interactions, both formal and informal, with the erstwhile celebrities he focuses on. These particular portraits follow no particular format or length (many were serialized and published in popular publications of the day); some are, in fact, comprised largely of conversation between the author and subject, the dialogue interspersed with recollections of most unconventional meetings between the two: he chaperones Marilyn Monroe to a funeral, visits Elizabeth Taylor at the apartment she shares with then-hubby Eddie Fisher, and spends a late evening in Tokyo listening to Marlon Brando vocalize his life's philosophies. The element that Capote employs that authors of similar work, like Peter Bogdanovich, do not, is his uncanny ability to absorb these people in their most natural and unguarded states; he comes to them an extrinsic party and leaves brimming with anecdotes that he so vividly translates into these portraits.For stunningly candid insights into selected stars, detailed and written in Capote's dramatic style, seek out these unflinchingly honest literary snapshots that are, perhaps, as notable as the author's 1959 novella-cum-blockbuster "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

*I recommend Capote's "The Duke in his Domain" (1957) on Marlon Brando; "Elizabeth Taylor" (date unknown); and "Beautiful Child", a portrait of Marilyn Monroe.



Debbie: My Life by Debbie Reynolds and David Patrick Columbia - One would not be hard-pressed to dig up dozens of accolades for the divine Miss Debbie here at Hillary's Classic Cinema, such a favorite of mine is she - whether she's singing, dancing, or deftly deferring the advances of any of her amorous male leads on the silver screen, I just adore her. It is without bias, though, that I can unequivocally call Debbie: My Life a thorough and most captivating read for any fan of classic cinema.
My Life includes an impressive array of Hollywood characters as they came to intertwine with Debbie's on varying levels of professional and personal reasons, but set to the tone of Debbie's narration - candid, compassionate, naive - her story resists treading the touchy waters of a tell-all (Esther Williams' 2003 autobiography, in comparison, spares no details in dishing the dirt on anyone and everyone's personal goings-on). But the tale here is Debbie's very own, an engrossing portrait of the gifted comedienne who came from poor Texas family and entered movies with no serious intentions of ever becoming the legendary performer she is today.

Reynolds' trademark tenacity is intact from the very first page, evident as she survives a lonely childhood as a scrappy tomboy; struggles with being deserted by her first husband and the father of her two children, Eddie Fisher, for her former Hollywood classmate and box-office rival Elizabeth Taylor in 1958; through desperate financial situations, familial strains and the lifelong undercurrent of longing for unfulfilled normalcies of a non-celebrity life. Don't be mistaken, though - this ain't no sob story, it's an honest, humorous, often heartwrenching story of a young girl's rise to near-instant stardom and her tenuous, tenacious efforts to remain connected with the audience that keeps her buoyant in her fifth decade of fame. Now that's what I call unsinkable.

All of the above books are available at reasonable rates on Amazon.com, but for those with a stricter budget, I recommend browsing eBay, Half.com, or your local library for these titles. Betterworld.com, an online used-book seller, offers low prices, free shipping, and benefits charitable organizations at local and worldwide levels - I highly recommend it.

For more of my book recommendations, please click here.

The Birthday Girl

Joyeux Anniversaire, Debbie Reynolds! The divine Miss D turns 75 today. Here she celebrating in style, left, and in a still from one of my fave movies, The Mating Game, snuggling some sort of ewok-like dog, below.

Fast facts on Debbie:

- She was born Mary Frances Reynolds in El Paso, Texas, April 1, 1932.

- As the best pitcher on her neighborhood's sandlot baseball team, she intended to pursue a degree in education and work as a gym teacher.

- At 16, Debbie entered the Miss Burbank Contest near her California home - her family had relocated when she was just eight years old - simply to get the free silk scarf and blouse and the complimentary lunch offered with entrance. To her and everyone else's suprise, she took home the crown.

- It was talent executive William Orr who changed her moniker from Frannie to Debbie, coining it after the daughter of friends; studio head Jack Warner also challenged her to change her last name to Morgan, which Debbie steadfastly refused to do.

- Did only two films under her Warner Bros. contract between 1948 and 1950; MGM snatched her up and plopped her into 1950's Two Weeks With Love with Jane Powell and Ricardo Montalban. Still planning to go to college, Debbie thought of her movie career as a great means of income for her tuition expenses - until she made six films in three years at MGM, including 1952's blockbuster Singin' in the Rain.

- Sometimes sent as many as 300 letters per week to soldiers serving in war-torn Korea and other southeast countries she had visited during her USO tours in the early '50's.

- Seriously dated actor Robert Wagner, two years her senior, in the early 1950's before meeting future husband Eddie Fisher. In her book, Debbie: My Life, Reynolds expresses regret that her relationship with Wagner did not culminate in marriage.

- Survived three marriages, one to somewhat-celeb Eddie Fisher, with whom she had children Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher.

- Is an avid collector of film memorabilia, including costumes and posters, often asking celebrity friends and colleagues to autograph. A museum showcasing her collection is rumored to open in late 2006/07.

- Still tours the country as a singer and stage performer, most frequently appearing in the California/Nevada area.

- Debbie Reynolds is awesome.



"Singin' in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life." - DR


NOTE: This post was renewed from last year's birthday tribute to Debbie - it's been a hectic week, and I haven't had the time to create a new post that will do this great lady justice! In the twelve months since I've posted this, though, I've had the pleasure of meeting Debbie in person and attending two of her shows, so I hope to incorporate all of that awesomeness into an upcoming belated birthday tribute - stay tuned!

Photo of the Week

Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, circa 1953

Fine Flicks

As busy as I was this past week, I still carved out enough time to watch some good ol' sixties flicks and revel in the brilliant colors of Edith Head designs, lush theme-song orchestrations, and even those archaic views on courtship and the eternal 'battle of the sexes' that I still subscribe to - obviously, the result of years of watching Doris Day movies. Anway, here are some gems I uncovered starring three of my favorite actresses:


The Wheeler Dealers (1963) - Ahh, the film that made "widget" a household word. After years as TV's suave and studly Bret Maverick, James Garner brings his smooth, fast-talking highroller to the big screen - this time, as a wealthy Texas oil man who invents a grand stock market scheme on a trip to New York. Lee Remick is as charming and pretty as ever (despite her character's propensity for wearing large bows - I'll overlook it because she's darling) and stands her ground as the lone female analyst in her Wall Street investing firm, braving the onslaught of mindless tasks being dumped upon her. The supporting cast sparkles, too: Jim Backus as the bullheaded boss and John Astin as a manic investigator guarantee a good time.


Penelope (1966) - Edith Head, Natalie Wood and kleptomania - three elements of this film that excite and intrigue me far more than they should. But seriously, who could ask for more? Nat is endlessly elegant in a parade of Head-designed Givenchy and well-coiffed wigs as she holds up her husband's bank for $60,000, then nonchalantly shows up to her analyst's office to alert him of her doings. Numerous glitzy flashbacks chronicle her earliest larcenous larks and her early days of courting husband James (Ian Bannen), though none fully answer her question as to why she loves stealing so much. Peter Falk even joins the cast and waxes elements of his future Columbo persona as the police Lieutenant investigating the crime. Sure, it's no Splendor in the Grass, but for Natalie fans it's a decadent little confection of a flick.


Divorce, American Style (1967) You all know that Debbie Reynolds has always been, and will always be, my favorite movie star of the 1950's and '60's, so to see her in a film focused on her failing marriage to screen husband Dick Van Dyke is a tougher for me to take than, say, a lighthearted romance like Tammy and the Bachelor or The Mating Game. Nevertheless, the leads are quite compelling here, and while the plots gets mired down with some unnecessary complications that intend to satirize the state of a divorcee's lifestyle (note the looks pregnant fiancee Eileen Brennan's bulging belly gets), Dick & Deb manage to sparkle in the end. The cinematography is quite evocative and interesting and, paired with a lush score that completely paces the movie and the emotions it attempts to inspire, makes for a decent film.

Games That Lovers Play

Actress Debbie Reynolds and crooner Eddie Fisher were married in typical celebrity style in September of 1955; daughter Carrie Fisher - yep, Princess Leia - came along in late '56. What famous movie-related mogul did Eddie and Debbie name their newborn son for in 1958?

Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher, and then-wife Debbie Reynolds

Update: Todd Emmanuel Fisher was named for his father's best friend, innovator and producer Mike Todd. Todd is best-known for co-creating the revolutionary method of wide-angle cinematography which, too, was named for him, Todd-AO. Todd, married to superstar Elizabeth Taylor in February of 1957 (her third husband in less than seven years), was killed in a plane crash the following March - ironically, on this date, the 22nd - in a private plane called The Lucky Liz. Todd Fisher was less than a month old at the time of his namesake's death.

Eddie Fisher, meanwhile, was apparently a bit too good at consoling his late best friend's lovely widow - he filed for divorce from darling wife Debbie after the public got wind of the lurid affair he was having with Miss Taylor, and proceeded to marry the widowed Elizabeth in May of 1959; their marriage lasted less than five years. I'm not certain what Taylor or Fisher have to say, if anything, about their scandalous behavior, but then again, I'm not sure I care. Reynolds and Taylor have worked together since then, supposedly on friendly terms - but I recommend reading Debbie Reynolds' autobiography for the most heartbreaking aspect of the whole messy love affair.