Movies

By Joan M. Steele

Movies, more than any other technological breakthrough, made their mark on the world. Movies havent just contributed to our everyday, work-a-day world making it more convenient and efficient. They have touched our hearts, our minds, and our souls. Their influence pervades our livesour society. In Movies, author Joan M. Steele offers a glimpse into the movie world.

An avid movie-goer from the age of six and throughout her lifetime, she presents a celebration of the movie world, especially Hollywood at the end of the 1930s and into the 1950s. In Movies, she discusses Hollywood, how movies have colored our world, and the stars and the actors who have made an impact on the industry. The author shares a list of great movies, actors roles, and remarkable movie scenes. She examines with a low-key pervasive criticism.

Movies tell how the motion pictures have been a significant part of authors life; they intruded, taught, amused, and gave vicarious pleasure. They have offered escape and relaxation like no other.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468553369

Joan M. Steele

Joan M. Steele, born 1932, residing in her home state of Washington received her BA degree in Education in 1959, hold MA equivalent credits in English-Literature (1984). She taught grade school for sixteen years and has been employed as a Secondary Substitute Teacher for the last ten years. She has been writing Poetry and Short Stories since childhood and is a dedicated bookworm. Being a life member of Bookworms International, a Liberal Arts/English-Literature Major, living in five areas of the country-teaching in four of, allows this girl to stake her claim in the realm of pleasing the audience. Her dedication to writing began early. She just can't help putting words down on paper. Add to this her un-ending interests and her continued trust that readers will accept. Enjoy her offerings--what more do you require?

Book preview

Movies

Joan M. Steele

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© 2012 Joan M. Steele. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   12/03/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5335-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-5336-9 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Movies

Part 1   Hollywood

Part 2   Movies Colored Our Lives

Part 3   The Stars in Our Lives

Part 4   The Naturals

Part 5   Actors, More Than Image

Part 6   Versatile Actors

Part 7   How Did Some Become Stars?

Part 8   We Take Note

Part 9   Life, Love, Art, Drama and Humor

Part 10 Love

Part 11 Summing Up

Afterward

The Film Library

Roles I’ll Never Forget

Just a Few of the Scenes, I’ll Never Forget

Movies

THE ROAR, THE SNARL, THE head of the lion—the heavy mane thrust out at you—he’s alive! MGM! The dark Eagle of Republic and the beautiful gowned lady of Columbia, torch held high—all held power, influenced—became a necessity in our young lives and never quite let go. MGM and all her fellows caught humanity between the dream and the reality.

Movies more than any other technological break through made their mark on the world. Films touched everyone from the lowest to the highest. Actors, themselves, obviously have been greatly affected personally by some of their roles. Films more than Music, Literature, Art are the leveler of human kind. Movies haven’t just contributed to our everyday, work-a-day world making it more convenient and efficient. They have touched our hearts, our minds, our souls. Their influence pervades our lives—our society.

Why does, The Story, hold such a power, absorption, fascination? In the past, the Troubadour sang or told the ballad, the folktales, the fairy-tales. They all appealed: the true, the untrue, the imaginative, inventive, exaggerated, sad, happy, and human filled—all held sway—as they do today.

The Story is our opportunity to put down the ignomy of our tenuous human condition. We are not lost in one little pocket of time; we have it all - before and beyond. Children in a half-circle, Reader at center; Theater, Movie, Public gazing at the stage, screen, the Actors cupped in the Audience forms a reciprocity.

Do we like, love the story, because it is about people mostly? Do we hold it dear because we can reshape life and make it what we will—right the ills, stir the passions, make the shabby, everyday threads emboldened in a glory? I would say, especially, Yes! to the last one. We can thereby satisfy our creativity and offer hope to those who swing on a slender thread. At the least, movies make of reality a romantic holiday—an escape from the drab, the hum-drum and the ordinary. We become like children in their clutches—the day-dream, the night dream to sustain us. I believe the romantic glorification of life holds more appeal to audiences than realism. Even Non-Fiction, today emulates the story to gain the wider audience.

Give me The Stories! What would we be without them? Less happy, less envious of opulence, affluence, mentally, emotionally more stable, more true, more honest, more morally strong! Perhaps, but still, I cry, give me the story!

Since childhood, we have found our, Let’s Pretend material in the movies. Tarzan and Dorothy Lamour flicks were great for our play in the small woods near our home. I, my sister, my brother and neighborhood friends never tired of repeat performances. My brother and his best buddy enacted bits of WWII films—Das Blut and Bonsi spoke out for the particular film.

But, don’t go beyond Let’s Pretend, at any age. Picturing yourself in a movie role and acting upon it—you the actor in the star role can prove disastrous!

And throughout our lives we have reiterated and often repeated arresting or memorable bits of dialogue enjoying the movies again—the funny, the satirical, and just plain crazy—out-of-the-blue lines which caught our attention—we repeated to ourselves, friends and family with little or no reminders.

In the sixties, we made Judy Holiday’s bit from Born Yesterday our own like no other. Judy’s mentor, William Holden keeps telling her, Look-it-up!—meaning she should look up the word in the dictionary. Her harsh New Jersey accent comes through loud and clear as she repeats it numerous times to herself and others.

With Harvey we came home shouting our favorite one—liners. Entertainment they afforded in countless repeat performances. In an old Victorian house lived Mr. Dowd, Jimmy Stewart, his heavy-set sister and her daughter, Myrtle May a rather homely thirtiesh old maid. A large, tall, invisible rabbit, an imaginary Irish Puka becomes Mr. Dowd’s fast friend and inseparable drinking buddy. This movie you have to see to appreciate.

Mr. Dowd’s sister comes home terribly upset after narrowly escaping becoming an inmate in a mental rest home. Later, upon seeing the male nurse who bathed her, she screams, Don’t let that White Slaver get me! And recognizing The Puka in the picture where her grandfather normally resided, she screams out, That’s not my grandfather!

The male nurse, Mr. Wilson looking something up in the dictionary at their home, reads aloud, And how are you, Mr. Wilson?

Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch exclaims upon hearing her neighbor play Rachmaninoff on the piano, Oh, it’s that music without words.

In, Lonely Are The Brave, Matthow’s deputy repeats, Right before answering and or repeating the sheriff’s questions. This one, Right stuck with us for a while.

We made them our own, we did! And these are just a few of the ones I call to mind.

Hollywood

MOVIES WERE BORN IN HOLLYWOOD, California. Hollywood, USA, created a panacea and a monster from the Nickelodeon to Cinema scope and beyond. The movie moguls have celebrated human-kind and re-established hero worship, though now great legend actors are on their way out.

My dad remembered sneaking into the Nickelodeon with his older brother and friends—the organ music—the loud shouts of the kids at the matinee. When our family saw Claude Rains as The Phantom in, Phantom of The Opera, my dad said that Lon Chaney was