tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post7783111580929288870..comments2024-01-24T01:27:11.111-05:00Comments on Café Muscato: Portrait d'une Demi-StarMuscatohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04657061324487851341noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post-53120286443190621692013-11-20T20:48:57.424-05:002013-11-20T20:48:57.424-05:00She made a few comedies, sprinkled through her lon...She made a few comedies, sprinkled through her long career. There is, for example, <i>Dry Martini</i>, a 1928 semi-sound society rompt, and she's pretty terrific in <i>Palm Beach Story</i>, too. She's unlike Bainter or Cooper in that she was often a leading lady and even at times above the title. It would be fun to see what she was like in the notorious lost pre-Coder <i>Convention City</i>...Muscatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04657061324487851341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post-20867489936909997102013-11-20T20:40:33.469-05:002013-11-20T20:40:33.469-05:00Fab lyric! I don't know that show nearly as w...Fab lyric! I don't know that show nearly as well as I ought.<br /><br />As for the brooch, I attribute her balance to the counterweight of her backhair. Altogether it's a remarkable <i>toilette</i>, no?Muscatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04657061324487851341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post-65020875370638704852013-11-20T20:38:25.570-05:002013-11-20T20:38:25.570-05:00So great in the Maltese Falcon. Layers of vulnera...So great in the Maltese Falcon. Layers of vulnerability and deceit bubbling up through this "Who, me?" facade.mrpeeneehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13361948301941861890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post-18832574379803167522013-11-20T20:26:48.520-05:002013-11-20T20:26:48.520-05:00I love Mary Astor, I really do, but I think she...I love Mary Astor, I really do, but I think she's more akin to a Fay Bainter, Claire Trevor, or Gladys Cooper (for better or for worse): all excellent actresses who were primarily supporting players. Astor had a particularly humorless affect which she used to good effect in movies like "Midnight." Was she ever funny onscreen?Peter Lappinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109154527996679077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post-63451229687208440272013-11-20T17:53:28.147-05:002013-11-20T17:53:28.147-05:00Bracelets? Bitch is teaching a PhD level class in...Bracelets? Bitch is teaching a PhD level class in wearing a tie bar brooch. Lookit the size of that thing! I'm surprised she can sit up straight.<br /><br />I first became aware of Ms. Astor at the age of 11 or 12. I got hooked on the cast recording of Coleman & Leigh's "Little Me" and had to find out what Belle Poitrine was talking about in her first big number, <i>The Truth</i>, where she sings about writing her memoirs.<br /><br />The verse went:<br />With the areas I'll expose,<br /> I'll annihilate Gypsy Rose,<br /> As for practically Proustian prose,<br /> Mary Astor,<br /> Meet your master.<br /> Stack me up with all three Gabors,<br /> I'll reduce 'em to cut-rate stores,<br /> And Louella, dear, you'll get yours<br /> With the end-all,<br /> Casey Stendahl<br /> Truth!<br /><br /><br />Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01851297819829806798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post-76791812862056391912013-11-20T10:57:22.851-05:002013-11-20T10:57:22.851-05:00I think it was the mixture of Madonna and whore in...I think it was the mixture of Madonna and whore in her screen personality that enabled her to convincingly play the warm Anna Smith in St. Louis, that prize bitch Sandra Kovak in The Great Lie, the flighty Princess Centimillia in The Palm Beach Story, the murderous Brigid O'Shaughnessy in Falcon, the worn out b-girl Pat in Act of Violence and that tower of strength Marmee in Little Women sometimes one on top of the other. Someone who when her name pops up in the credits the movie instantly gets a little better.joel65913https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526657073681774683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218985326921858943.post-48374061325807179562013-11-20T07:55:37.145-05:002013-11-20T07:55:37.145-05:00I think of her when I think of female leads in dra...I think of her when I think of female leads in dramas. You know, that group of actresses that never did comedies. Some comedians never do dramas. I think the closet she came to a comedy was meet me in Saint Louis! which had funny moments, but was a musical, and her role, she was a straight arrow anchor type mother. The Cool Cookiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04162345087029159056noreply@blogger.com