Jennifer Jones

[charliechaplinfan]

The gone with or without fanfare thread just wasn't big enough for this lady. I'm undereducated in the Jennifer Jones department but plan to rent some of her movies and watch a couple that I haven't got around to yet. I thought this would be a nice place to discuss her life and films.

I've seen Duel in the Sun and Indiscretion of an American Wife, the second I loved, the first I didn't take to. So tonight I started the ball rolling by watching a beautiful Powell and Pressburger movie called Gone To Earth, set in Shropshire in England, Jennifer plays a young girl Hazel who loves her rescued fox so much that her emotions seem to be tied to the fox and a book of spells and dreams her mother left her. Hazel isn't allowed to be with her fox, she catches the eye of the minister and the local lord. The locations, photography, sets and costumes are all dazzling. Jennifer's hair must be one of the most lovely on film. She is made for playing the fey and wild Hazel. It's her film but great support is given in the form of Cyril Cusack and David Farrar (swoon)

[rudyfan]

One of the best tributes I've read came on the day of her passing from one of my favorite film blogs, The Self Styled Siren http://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.com/200 ... -2009.html. It's a lovely tribute. How I wish I could write nearly as well as the Siren. I love her blog.

My favorite film must be Portrait of Jennie, it still evokes a mystical magic to me, ethereal and lovely, her performance is transluscent and transcendent. I have a great fondness for the much maligned and, yes, overblown Duel in the Sun. Sometimes you really love good cheese and, I confess, I still tear up when Lionel cries out "LauraBelle."

Cluny Brown is a wonderful and delicious film, it's Lubistch, how can it not be?

The Song of Bernadette is also a remarkable film, along with portrait of Jennie, she makes the child Bernadette believable. It's a moving performance and as Henry King said when he was testing actresses (and I paraphrase) he related of holding up a stick and saying, look at this, it's the virgin appearing to you and Jones was the only one who actually looked as if she was seeing a divine being. She got the part, obviously.

I need to see the original Gone to Earth, I've only seen the hacked up version, same for Terminal Station (aka Indiscretion of an American Wife). Also need to see Madame Bovary, the clips look beautiful. I seem to have somehow always missed it.

In watching recently the AFI tribute to Lillian Gish, one of the stars who came to pay tribute was Jennifer Jones, looking as radiant and lovely and like a million dollars (which she probably was wearing).

In retrospect, my goodness, she left a lot of good stuff.

[feaito]

She is also one of my favorite stars and she starred in my (top 1) favorite all-time film: the haunting, bewitching, magical "Portrait of Jennie" (1948). She was a hard-worker and achieved very fine moments on screen and many of her films are part of my imagery: the awesome dance sequence of "Madame Bovary" (1949); the unforgettable death scene in "Duel in the Sun" (1946); the equally climatic scene in "Ruby Gentry" (1952); the spinterish teacher recalling her life in "Good Morning Miss Dove" (1955); the young amnesiac woman who tries to remember in "Love Letters" (1945); the woman desperately in love in an adulterous liaison in the unjutsly underrated "Stazione Termini" (1954) and many more.

I have yet to see such goodies "Cluny Brown" (1946) and "We Were Strangers" (1949), but I've been lucky enough to having had the chance of watching many of the films of this lovely lady.

And I also watched very recently Lillian Gish's AFI Tribute and she looked radiant indeed.

Alison, thanks for sharing with us your opinion of "Gone to Earth". It sounds like a grand film!

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Beat the Devil this afternoon, primarily to watch Jennifer Jones, I think she stole the screen from Bogart, not in every scene, something that I've only ever seen Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman do. I was interested to see her chemistry with bogart, they're not a couple I'd have thought of as being good together but the chemistry is there. There's 20 years age gap, I thought Jennifer was made up to look a little older, so as not to look too young for Bogart. I was also amazed at the exercises she does whilst talking to Gina Lollabrigida by the pool.

[Birdy]

I watched Indiscretions of An American Wife which I thought was interesting but I eventually thought I was going to scream 'MAKE UP YOUR MIND!' I was somewhat sympathetic in her dilemma, but got tired of it. I found her character a bit off-putting with that cold 50's look, super short hairsprayed doo, severe makeup and strict suit. I wonder what that scene on the train would have looked like either pre-code or currently because not that much appeared to be happening. I didn't think it was nearly as steamy as it could have been. Any thoughts?

I got off on the internet, then got sidetracked by a whole Montgomery Clift/ Libby Holman. Do you think it's interesting that there's no picture of Holman on IMDB but there's one on Wickipedia? If anyone wants to discuss her, I might move to the pre-code thread as that is when she made films and I hope to see them.
B

[charliechaplinfan]

king rat said - I'm with you, charliechaplinfan. Jennifer Jones steals BEAT THE DEVIL from a remarkable cast, and Robert Morley does some impressive scene stealing of his own

Yes, I thought so too. Bogart's character was a lot more relaxed than his usual portrayals.

Birdy said - I got off on the internet, then got sidetracked by a whole Montgomery Clift/ Libby Holman. Do you think it's interesting that there's no picture of Holman on IMDB but there's one on Wickipedia? If anyone wants to discuss her, I might move to the pre-code thread as that is when she made films and I hope to see them.

I never knew Libby made movies, if you want to start a thread I'll chip in. I've started a few threads on Montgomery Clift's movies from time to time, he's an actor I like enormously but I can't recall him having his own thread.

Indiscretion of an American Wife is Monty's film in my mind, it's his passion i'm caught up in not her's, he's like an unexploded bomb, with so much passion raging below the surface. I wish there was more to their love scene in the train but what there is pretty hot for the time it was made, maybe Statione Termini the uncut De Sica version has more footage.

I don't like Jennifer's image in Indiscretion, it does nothing for her, I can only think it was to help the portrayal of the middle class American wife with only one child who was bored with her marriage but still had a facade of staid elegance.

[CineMaven]

Aaaah Jennifer!! Check out this clip from YouTube. Love her or hate her...her beauty can't be denied:

[charliechaplinfan]

I didn't take to her look in Duel In The Sun, I thought the colouring looked all wrong, I know it was necessary to use makeup to portray her as Pearl, I personally thought the tone was wrong. It's a minor gripe, she was very beautiful, there is something about her that reminds me of Vivien Leigh and Vivien to me was the most elegant woman in movies.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm rereading (with a gap of 20 years) David Thomson's book on David O'Selznick. With regards to Jennifer my memory hasn't served me well. I thought that DOS broke up his marriage to Irene Mayer so that he could pursue Jennifer. The truth is much less distinct and selfish. David wanted to have his cake and eat it, Jennifer was not the only actress he'd had a fling with, Joan Fontaine was another. He'd had a his fair share of conquests which Irene must have known about, if not the amount she knew he wasn't faithful to her. She was tolerated his behaviour for many years, his unfaithfulness and his gambling but when Jennifer came on to the scene, Irene knowing David would never break with her, she broke with him and gaive him an ultimatum, Jennifer or gambling but not both. She then left him giving him 6 months to make up his mind. David wanted Irene but found that he mad made Jennifer completely dependant on him and he didn't have the strength to shake free of her. So he stayed with Jennifer. She's seems more of a creation in his mind that a person to love and share his life with.

Jennifer comes off so well in this biography, admittedly I'm only up to Duel in the Sun but she's shy, lacks confidence in her looks or ability, cannot handle publicity and is the mother of two young boys. What might have started as a usual run of the mill work romance for David took on bigger meaning in Jennifer's mind. David paid her poorly and she never complained, he loaned her out for vast profits and she never thought to ask for more money. I'm hoping that he falls madly for Jennifer and treats her well and I stop feeling like she was his product.

After GWTW David made the bulk of his money loaning out his finds, Ingrid Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, etc making two thirds of what they were getting. He'd also package scripts and actors and get a big mark up on the package. I'm not liking David O Selznick, he was a marred genius.

Jennifer continues to grow on me.

[feaito]

I've only read the Bob Thomas Bio on Selznick, but I don't recall anything at all. I read Thomas' bio on Thalberg as well. It seems to me that both books were more oriented to their respective careers than their personal lives. Not sure though.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm not going to have much time this weekend to read further. According to David Thomson, he used Jennifer and she was so nice and unsure of herself. I did read Thomson's view of Portrait of Jennie last night, as with everything DOS did the budget vastly overran and only achieved modest returns. I don't think the author or creator of A Portrait of Jennie appreciated like we do.

[feaito]

Yesterday I finally watched "Tender is the Night" (1962) an interesting if not altogether successful film with Jennifer as the mentally unbalanced -then cured by her doctor husband- Nicole Warren (from the Chicago Warrens, as someone points out at the beginning of the film). Although she was only 43, I feel she looks a little bit older for her role. She has her moments in this movie, but I feel that the either there are problems with the story itself or the script. **Mild spoilers ahead** Jason Robards plays the psychiatrist who falls in love with his patient (Jones) and loses his self-respect in the process. The problem is that Jone's idealizes and depends on husband Robards completely, but after Jones' doesnt depend upon him anymore, he realizes he's the one who's lost his direction in life and depends on her wife's money. Joan Fontaine plays Jones' shallow and selfish older sister, twice divorced and a snob, who uses people for her own purposes. Tom Ewell is a drunken has-been composer, Jill St. John is a very appealing Hollywood starlet and Paul Lukas plays a German doctor who's Robards' mentor. Apparently it was filmed on location in France (Cote D'Azur).

Interesting and definitely worth a watch. Scott Fitzgerald wanted to film this one in the '30s with Shearer in the role of Nicole. The Thalbergs' said no. (That's the version at us.imdb.com)

[charliechaplinfan]

I'd heard something similar about Tender is the Night. Fitzgerald must have had a fixation with the Thalbergs, The Last Tycoon is said to be based on Irving Thalberg. If I remember rightly Tender is the Night is the most autobiographical of Fitzgerald's novels, a tribute to his wife Zelda who was the model for Nicole.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've watched Terminal Statione, Since You Went Away, The Song of Bernadette and Love is a Many Splendored Thing. The first one is a great movie for me. The second and third really showcase Jennifer's talent, I completely believed her Bernadette and her Jane in Since You Went Away is one of the best adolescent performances on screen. She deserved better dialogue than what Love is a Many Splendored Thing had to offer but she managed to rise above the script and make the film watchable.