Daughters Courageous
Daughters Courageous is a 1939 American drama film starring John Garfield, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn and featuring the Lane Sisters: Lola Lane, Rosemary Lane and Priscilla Lane. Based on the play Fly Away Home by Dorothy Bennett and Irving White, the film was directed by Michael Curtiz, it was released by Warner Bros. on June 23, 1939. Freewheeling Jim Masters returns home after a 20-year absence, during which he was declared dead, to find that his wife, Nancy, is about to marry Sam Sloane, a stable local man in Carmel, California, she must now choose between her ex-husband and her new fiancé. The Masters daughters are upset that their irresponsible father has re-entered their lives after so long an absence. Meanwhile, the youngest daughter, Buff, is drawn to tough-guy Gabriel Lopez, a man that reminds Jim Masters of himself. John Garfield as Gabriel Lopez Claude Rains as Jim Masters Jeffrey Lynn as Johnny Heming Fay Bainter as Nancy Masters Donald Crisp as Sam Sloane May Robson as Penny Frank McHugh as George Dick Foran as Eddie Moore Priscilla Lane as Buff Masters Rosemary Lane as Tinka Masters Lola Lane as Linda Masters Gale Page as Cora Masters George Humbert as Manuel Lopez Berton Churchill as Judge Henry Hornsby Daughters Courageous follows 1938's Four Daughters, by the same stars and director, but is unrelated to the other three films in the Lane Sisters' series because it is about a different family.
However, the storyline of Four Daughters and the Lemp family is continued in the 1940 film, Four Wives, 1941's Four Mothers. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called the film " a pleasant entertainment—howbeit reminiscent—with a pleasant cast to grace it." Variety wrote: "Few of the situations can stand up under too close scrutiny, but the flavor of the film as a whole is entertaining and emotional." Harrison's Reports called it "Good entertainment... Although it is not as impressive as'Four Daughters,' it holds one's attention well, since one is in sympathy with all the characters." Film Daily called it "A production with a high voltage of sentimental of romantic appeal" with a "super-duper" cast. John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote that Garfield added "a touch of color or adventuresome liveliness" to help along the story, but found "a quantity of bungalow patter that wears one down at times" and "a slight dullness" to the picture. Warner Archive released the film on DVD in August 1, 2011.
The film was released by Warner Archive in the "Four Daughters Movie Series Collection". Daughters Courageous at the American Film Institute Catalog Daughters Courageous on IMDb Daughters Courageous at AllMovie
Jezebel (film)
Jezebel is a 1938 American romantic drama film released by Warner Bros. and directed by William Wyler. It stars Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, supported by George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Richard Cromwell, Fay Bainter; the film was adapted by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston, Robert Buckner, from the play by Owen Davis, Sr. The film tells the story of a headstrong young Southern woman during the antebellum period whose actions cost her the man she loves; the film is based on a 1933 stage play. Tallulah Bankhead was slated for the stage role, but fell ill during rehearsals and was replaced by Miriam Hopkins. In 1852 New Orleans, strong-willed belle Julie Marsden is engaged to banker Preston "Pres" Dillard. In retaliation for Pres refusing to drop his work and accompany her while she shops for a dress, she orders a brazen red one for the Olympus Ball, the most important ball of the year, though an unmarried woman is expected to wear a white dress. All of Julie's friends are shocked.
At the Olympus ball and Julie's entrance is met with shock and disdain by all present. She realizes the magnitude of her social blunder and begs Pres to take her away, but instead he forces her to dance with him. All of the other dancers leave the floor; when the orchestra stops playing at the instruction of one of the ball's sponsors, Pres orders the conductor to continue. Pres and Julie finish the dance. Afterwards, Pres takes his leave of Julie, implicitly breaking their engagement. In a final bit of spite, Julie slaps him in the face. Aunt Belle Massey urges her to go after Pres and beg his forgiveness, but she refuses, confident that he will return to her. Instead, he goes north on business. Julie refuses to see visitors. A year Pres returns, to help Dr. Livingstone try to convince the city authorities to take measures against an outbreak of yellow fever. At a homecoming party planned for Pres at Halcyon Plantation, the family's country estate, Julie wears a luminous white gown, before Pres can stop her, Julie humbles herself and begs for his forgiveness and a return of his love.
Pres introduces her to his wife, Northerner Amy. Dismayed, Julie eggs on her admirer, skilled duellist Buck Cantrell, to quarrel with Pres, but the scheme goes awry. Pres's inexperienced brother Ted is the one, goaded into challenging Buck to a duel. In an unexpected twist, Ted kills Buck. Something happens that overshadows everything else; as Dr. Livingstone had warned a deadly epidemic of yellow fever sweeps the city, as it had done numerous times before. Pres is stricken and, like all other victims, is to be quarantined on an island. Amy prepares to go along to care for him, risking her own life, but Julie tells her that she does not know how to deal with the slaves and Southerners on the island, she begs to go as an act of redemption. Amy agrees, but only; the Turner Classic Movies Database states that the film was offered as compensation for Bette Davis after she failed to win the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. Despite a radio poll showing Bette Davis the audience favorite for the role, Selznick never considered her for it.
This was her second Best. This win established her as a leading lady from this point on. Margaret Lindsay as Amy Bradford Dillard Richard Cromwell as Ted Dillard Henry O'Neill as General Theopholus Bogardus Spring Byington as Mrs. Kendrick John Litel as Jean La Cour Gordon Oliver as Dick Allen Janet Shaw as Molly Allen Theresa Harris as Zette Margaret Early as Stephanie Kendrick Irving Pichel as Huger Eddie Anderson as Gros Bat Matthew'Stymie' Beard as Ti Bat Lew Payton as Uncle Cato Ann Codee as Mme. PoullardStuart Holmes as Doctor at Duel Contemporary reviews were positive and praised Davis' performance in particular, although some found her character's redemption at the end of the film to be unconvincing. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote that the film "would have been more effective... if its heroine had remained unregenerate to the end. Miss Davis can be malignant when she chooses, it is a shame to temper that gift for feminine spite... It is still an interesting film, though, in spite of our sniffs at its climax."
Variety reported that the film was "not without its charm" and "even captivating" at times, but found it detracting that the main character "suddenly metamorphoses into a figure of noble sacrifice and complete contriteness," and described the ending as "rather suspended and confusing." Film Daily called it "a outstanding screen triumph for Bette Davis. She plays an emotional role that calls for running the gamut of emotions, she handles the part with consummate artistry." Harrison's Reports called it "Powerful dramatic entertainment... It is not what one would call cheerful entertainment, may not appeal to the rank and file, but it should please those who like good acting." John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote, "Something went wrong with'Jezebel,' nothing more than the plot, all its rich dressing-up can't make it alive... no scene quite comes off, at the end, when the she-devil turns into a saint and a martyr, one isn't interested. This Jezebel just seems daffy." The film has scored more positive reviews in years, has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In 2009, Jezebel was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally or aesthetically" significant, will
The Soldier and the Lady
The Soldier and the Lady is the 1937 American adventure film version of the oft-produced Jules Verne novel, Michel Strogoff. Produced by Pandro S. Berman, he hired as Joseph Ermolieff. Ermolieff had produced two earlier versions of the film, Michel Strogoff in France, The Czar's Courier in Germany, both released in 1936. Both the earlier films had starred the German actor Adolf Wohlbrück. Berman imported Wohlbrück, changing his name to Anton Walbrook to have him star in the American version. Other stars of the film were Elizabeth Allan, Margot Grahame, Akim Tamiroff, Fay Bainter and Eric Blore. RKO Radio Pictures had purchased the rights to the French version of the movie, used footage from that film in the American production; the film was released on April 9, 1937. The Tsar sends courier Michael Strogoff to deliver vital information to Grand Duke Vladimir far away in Siberia; the Tartars, aided by renegade Ogareff, have risen up against the Russian Empire. Anton Walbrook as Michael Strogoff Elizabeth Allan as Nadia Akim Tamiroff as Ogareff Margot Grahame as Zangarra Fay Bainter as Strogoff's Mother Eric Blore as Blount Edward Brophy as Packer Paul Guilfoyle as Vasiley William Stack as Grand Duke Paul Harvey as Tsar Michael Visaroff as Innkeeper The Soldier and the Lady on IMDb
Theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, song and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality and immediacy of the experience; the specific place of the performance is named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον, itself from θεάομαι. Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, many of its themes, stock characters, plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts and the arts in general.
Modern theatre includes performances of musical theatre. The art forms of ballet and opera are theatre and use many conventions such as acting and staging, they were influential to the development of musical theatre. The city-state of Athens is, it was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical Greece that included festivals, religious rituals, law and gymnastics, poetry, weddings and symposia. Participation in the city-state's many festivals—and mandatory attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member in particular—was an important part of citizenship. Civic participation involved the evaluation of the rhetoric of orators evidenced in performances in the law-court or political assembly, both of which were understood as analogous to the theatre and came to absorb its dramatic vocabulary; the Greeks developed the concepts of dramatic criticism and theatre architecture. Actors were either amateur or at best semi-professional; the theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy and the satyr play.
The origins of theatre in ancient Greece, according to Aristotle, the first theoretician of theatre, are to be found in the festivals that honoured Dionysus. The performances were given in semi-circular auditoria cut into hillsides, capable of seating 10,000–20,000 people; the stage consisted of a dancing floor, dressing scene-building area. Since the words were the most important part, good acoustics and clear delivery were paramount; the actors wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, each might play several parts. Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the theatrical culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE, continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period. No tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century BCE have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus and Euripides.
The origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institutionalised in competitions held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysus. As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays, which consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play; the performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE. Most Athenian tragedies dramatise events from Greek mythology, though The Persians—which stages the Persian response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE—is the notable exception in the surviving drama; when Aeschylus won first prize for it at the City Dionysia in 472 BCE, he had been writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of drama to survive. More than 130 years the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, "Old Comedy", "Middle Comedy", "New Comedy".
Old Comedy survives today in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is lost. New Comedy is known from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster. In addition to the categories of comedy and tragedy at the City Dionysia, the festival included the Satyr Play. Finding its origins in rural, agricultural rituals dedicated to Dionysus, the satyr play found its way to Athens in its most well-known form. Satyr's themselves were tied to the god Dionysus as his loyal woodland companions engaging in drunken revelry and mischief at his side; the satyr play itself was classified as tragicomedy, erring
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in Riverside County, United States, located in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. Riverside is the county seat of the eponymous county and named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the most populous city in the Inland Empire and in Riverside County, is located about 55 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Greater Los Angeles area. Riverside is the 59th most populous city in the United States and 12th most populous city in California; as of the 2010 Census, Riverside had a population of 303,871. Riverside was founded in the early 1870s, it is the birthplace of the California citrus industry and home of the Mission Inn, the largest Mission Revival Style building in the United States. It is home to the Riverside National Cemetery; the University of California, Riverside, is located in the northeastern part of the city. The university hosts the Riverside Sports Complex. Other attractions in Riverside include the Fox Performing Arts Center, Riverside Metropolitan Museum, which houses exhibits and artifacts of local history, the California Museum of Photography, the California Citrus State Historic Park, the Parent Washington Navel Orange Tree, the last of the two original navel orange trees in California.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s the area was inhabited by the Serrano people. Californios such as Bernardo Yorba and Juan Bandini established ranches during the first half of the 19th century. In the 1860s, Louis Prevost launched the California Silk Center Association, a short-lived experiment in sericulture. In the wake of its failure, John W. North purchased some of its land and formed the Southern California Colony Association to promote the area's development. In March 1870, North distributed posters announcing the formation of a colony in California. North, a staunch temperance-minded abolitionist from New York State, had founded Northfield, Minnesota. A few years some navel orange trees were planted and found to be such a success that full-scale planting began. Riverside was temperance minded, Republican. There were four saloons in Riverside; the license fees were raised. Investors from England and Canada transplanted traditions and activities adopted by prosperous citizens; as a result, the first golf course and polo field in southern California were built in Riverside.
The first orange trees were planted in 1871, with the citrus industry Riverside is famous for beginning three years when Eliza Tibbets received three Brazilian navel orange trees sent to her by a personal friend, William Saunders, a horticulturist at the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D. C; the trees came from Brazil. The Bahia orange did not thrive in Florida; the three trees were planted on the Tibbetts' property. One of them died. After the trampling, the two remaining trees were transplanted to property belonging to Sam McCoy to receive better care than L. C. Tibbetts, Eliza's husband, could provide; the trees were again transplanted, one at the Mission Inn property in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the other was placed at the intersection of Magnolia and Arlington Ave. Eliza Tibbets was honored with a stone marker placed with the tree; that tree still stands to this day inside a protective fence abutting what is now a major intersection. The trees thrived in the southern California climate and the navel orange industry grew rapidly.
Many growers purchased bud wood and grafted the cuttings to root stock. Within a few years, the successful cultivation of many thousands of the newly discovered Brazilian navel orange led to a California Gold Rush of a different kind: the establishment of the citrus industry, commemorated in the landscapes and exhibits of the California Citrus State Historic Park and the restored packing houses in the downtown's Marketplace district. By 1882, there were more than half a million citrus trees in California half of which were in Riverside; the development of refrigerated railroad cars and innovative irrigation systems established Riverside as the richest city in the United States by 1895. As the city grew, a small guest hotel designed in the popular Mission Revival style, known as the Glenwood Tavern grew to become the Mission Inn, favored by presidents and movie stars. Inside was housed a special chair made for the sizable President William Howard Taft; the hotel was modeled after the missions left along the California coast by Franciscan friars in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Postcards of lush orange groves, swimming pools and magnificent homes have attracted vacationers and entrepreneurs throughout the years. Many relocated to the dry climate for reasons of health and to escape Eastern winters. Victoria Avenue, with its scattering of elegant turn-of-the-century homes, citrus-lined paseo, serves as a reminder of European investors who settled here. Riverside is the 59th largest city in the United States, the 12th largest city in California, the largest city in California's Inland Empire metro area. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 81.4 square miles, of which 81.1 square miles is land and 0.3 square miles is water. The elevation of downtown Riverside is 860 feet. Hills within the city limits include Mount Rubidoux, a
Dorothy Burgess
Dorothy Burgess was an American stage and motion picture actress. Born in Los Angeles in 1907, Burgess was a niece of Fay Bainter. On her father's side she was related to David C. Montgomery of Montgomery and Stone, her grandfather was Sr.. He came to Los Angeles in 1893, his home was at 637 West 41st Place. He was born in England, her dad was H. A. Burgess, a pioneer air transport executive. For a decade he was an assistant to Harris M. Hanshue, who founded Western Air Express, was its first president. Burgess studied drawing and sculpture at Mrs. Dow's School in Briarcliff Manor, New York, her talent in the three artistic disciplines was evident in the creative objects which decorated her Hollywood apartment. Burgess and her mother, resided in a home in Malibu, California, in 1932. Burgess made her stage debut in a walk-on role in support of Bainter, she first came to light as a specialty dancer in The Music Box Revue. Burgess played a 17-year-old in the comedy, The Adorable Liar, staged at the 49th Street Theater in August 1926.
It was her first appearance in New York City. Her knowledge of the stage was proficient and she combined this with ample charm and attractiveness. Burgess was co-featured in a stock company managed by George Cukor and George Kondolf at the Lyceum Theatre in Rochester, New York, during the summer of 1928, her co-star was Henry Hull. The actors opened in Broadway on April 30, she learned about being a character actor in stock, along with adapting her voice and mannerisms to each new role. Burgess played the title role in Lulu Belle, in Los Angeles. Burgess was given star billing by David Belasco in Lulu Belle; the play was performed at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles in October 1929. Burgess depicted a Mexican girl in The Broken Wing, a Paul Dickerson romantic comedy, staged at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, in July 1931, she was typecast as a Spanish woman so much that one reviewer commented that there was a Spanish onion or a Mexican chili pepper in her family tree. However, offstage she was much more a typical American co-ed than the Carmanesque young ladies, who she played.
She made Hollywood her permanent home. Fox Film acquired her services and she debuted in In Old Arizona, the first of the outdoor talking films. Burgess portrayed the Mexican minx, desired by both Edmund Lowe and Warner Baxter. A reviewer noted; the first film made in the Movietone sound system, it was a romance of the old southwest. In May 1929 two large lamps mounted on a tripod toppled over on a sound stage where Burgess was working at the Fox Movietone Studio, she was cut over her left eye by one of the incandescent lamps. Burgess was rushed to a studio hospital. Burgess won the feminine lead in Beyond Victory; the Pathé Pictures release featured William Boyd as the leading man. In December 1931 Burgess signed with First National Pictures for a significant role in Play-Girl, which had a screen story by Maude Fulton; the movie was produced by First National. Burgess had a featured role as a romantic rival of Jean Harlow in Hold Your Man starring Clark Gable. Burgess appeared in Swing High, Taxi!, Ladies They Talk About, Strictly Personal, Headline Shooter, Night Flight, Black Moon, Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen.
Burgess acted with Lowe and Nancy Carroll in the Paramount Pictures release, I Love That Man, directed by Harry Joe Brown and produced by Charles R. Rogers. Burgess strained ligaments in her back and shoulders during filming at Universal Pictures studio in July 1933, she was performing fight scenes with Sally O'Neil. Burgess appeared with Richard Barthelmess and Jean Muir in A Modern Hero, which deals with a young circus rider. Gambling starred George M. Cohan, was produced by Harold B. Franklin at the Eastern Services Studios in Astoria, Queens. Burgess played the part of Dorothy Kane, her role as'Trixie' in The Lone Star Ranger represented a return to playing a dance hall girl, as she did in In Old Arizona. The film was produced by Twentieth Century-Fox. Burgess became engaged to movie director Clarence Brown in 1932, she was involved in a romance with wealthy New York jeweler Jules Galenzer in 1934. Burgess was charged with manslaughter following an auto accident. 17-year-old Louise Manfredi died in the wreck, in San Francisco, on the night of December 23, 1932.
Burgess, driving alone, collided with a car driven by 18-year-old, Andrew Salz, a student at the University of California-Berkeley. Burgess' hearing was postponed and her bail was fixed at $50, she was placed in a San Francisco sanitorium. Salz and Burgess each accused the other of responsibility for the accident. Burgess was sued by Italo Manfredi and his wife, Marie, in January 1933, they sought $25,000 in damages. A compromise payment of $6,150 was approved by the San Francisco Superior Court in August 1933. Earlier a compromise amounting to $6,000 was agreed upon for damages claimed by 18-year-old swimmer, Betty Lou Davis, injured in the same accident. In May 1961, Dorothy Burgess was brought to the hospital from her home in California, but just months on August 21, 1961, she died at the Riverside County General Hospital in Riverside, California. She was only 54, she is interred at the Olivewood Cemetery in California. Dorothy Burges
