Last night I dreamed she went to Manderley again...
And so it ends - one of the great Hollywood careers, another of the ever-fewer links to the great days, and, not least, one of the great feuds of the twentieth century. I wonder if Olivia knows or cares...
Good night, Mrs. de Winter, foolish Peggy Day, Jane Eyre. Adieu, Joan Fontaine.
And, once more, in the darkest recesses of her shadowy lair in Eaton Square, the elegant hand of Luise Rainer calmly draws another line through yet another name...
This week has been a hard one to wrap my head around. Eleanor Parker was bad enough but then they started to fall like dominos, Audrey Totter, Tom Laughlin, only earlier today Peter O'Toole and with no time to recover now Joan!! Where will it end!
ReplyDeleteEven though she was never a great favorite of mine, she was too frosty for my tastes except in Letter From an Unknown Woman, she was always a dignified presence in her films and a magnetic star.
I blame Carrie Underwood's Sound of Music for pushing Eleanor Parker over the edge.
DeleteI love your image of Miss Rainer sitting there like "The Keeper of the Secret Book", watching her younger associates fall...
ReplyDeleteRIP Miss Fontaine. We loved her.
Jx
If you have never read her auto biography you really should. I came away from it amazed at her inability to see herself.
ReplyDeleteI am placing (what I hope is) an early order for you to write my obit. Lean, magnificent and startling.
ReplyDelete"Lean, magnificent and startling."
DeleteI want THAT on my headstone.
She was real star and, at her best, a very fine actress. When it comes to Joan Fontaine, though, I have to admit I'm rather an Olivia de Havilland fan. Those I've known who knew her were pretty unanimous: vivid personality, but not, to be kind, unduly nice...
ReplyDelete