Ann Sheridan

[JackFavell]

Oh my, I LOVE those glasses! Only Ann Sheridan could wear those well.

Just a day on the job raising poodles:

[ken123]

When MsSheridan was a semi regular panelist on the daytime version of To Tell the Truth she wore glasses vey often.

[Mr. Arkadin]

I remember a pic of Ann and Bogie standing beside a tombstone representing B films as a joke, indicating that they no longer had to work in low budget pictures. Any chance someone could post that one?

Sheridan films I'm still searching for would include:

The Footloose Heiress (1937)
She Loved a Fireman (1937)
the Patient in Room 18 (1938)
Mystery House (1938)
Letter of Introduction (1938)
Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938)
Broadway Musketeers (1938)
Winter Carnival (1939)
Stella (1950)
Steel Town (1950)
Just Across the Street (1952)
Take Me to Town (1953)
Come Next Spring (1956)
Woman and the Hunter (1957)

Some of these I've seen, but I don't have prints of any of them.

[JackFavell]

I don't have the Bogie/Sheridan pic, sorry!

[stuart.uk]

I realy rate Anne Sheridan, who made many great movies and died to young.

Though it was little more than a cameo, her singing of Marching Through Georgia and starting a riot in Dodge City was fantastic. She was also great in Angels With Dirty Faces with Cagney, Edge Of Darkness, an underrated war film with Errol Flynn and of course Kings Row with Ronald Reagen. Another underrated performance came in Silver River with Flynn, where she starts of as a gun wearing tomboy, who ends up a society hostess.

However, I think her finest hour was in I Was A Male War Bride with Cary Grant

[JackFavell]

Ann impresses me so much in her support roles with Cagney, Bogie, and Raft. What she can do with these little whispy roles is amazing. Yes, she may have the wisecracks on her side, but she always seemed warm and human and sensitive underneath it all. There was always a moment of seriousness there that made her more than a pal, but also more than the girl next door. She was classy and much more memorable than most actresses given these kinds of roles. Probably the best of these roles was in King's Row, when she spends much of the picture keeping Ronald Reagan from losing it, but has that great scene where she lets everything out. It's not more than a few seconds long, but to me it's the highlight of the film.

[JackFavell]

[CineMaven]

ann sheridan.

Ooops, let me shout it out:

A N N S H E R I D A N! !!!

There. I feel a lot better.I am wooed out of my self-appointed seclusion. And I'm in the company of fans who adore her. Just off the top of my head I'd have to say I love her in "KINGS ROW" and "NORA PRENTISS." Oh, and how can I leave out "THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT." Yes, she might've played the supporting role next to some big ol' leading man but he couldn't be more ably supported. Why, being opposite her gave many men the "oomph" they lacked. Cagney for one...maybe Bogie, for another(???)

The photos posted in this thread are fantastic of Sheridan (and I'm sure Mongo has some stunners in his bag o' tricks) but my two favorites come at opposite ends of the oomph spectrum. I like the one with her and Vincent Sherman...does he almost almost look shy? (Isn't there a Sherman bio out there?) I love her man-tailored look with her accoutrements of femininity of lipstick and manicure; I love her sunglasses and all her hair tumbling down. But my favorite shot I guess'd be Sheridan on top of the stuffed animal. That poor beast will never know how lucky he really was... < sigh! >

I liked Sheridan in the 30's but I guess my favorite look of hers was classic 1940's with none of her Texas baby fat on her. Gaunt & styled to the Hilt, I thought Ann Sheridan had one of the great voices. Kind of on the alto side, I've likened it before to gloriously melted copper pennies. Think of it...can you hear her? She worked opposite some of the best leading men of the day...Cooper, Cagney, Bogart, Raft, the beautiful Errol Flynn. But I can't help but wish...well, I'd love to have seen her work opposite the King. But alas & alack, with him being with more stars than there are in the heavens and Annie here on Earth at the brothers Warner's stable...that was not to be. Close your eyes...can't you picture her with Gable in some brusque brisk bitey comedy? Can't you see her being a pal reporter scooping him story after story. Can't you see her making him breakfast and sending him off to work (like Jack Benny)? Can't you see Gable wooing her? She'd give it to him in a similar but different way than Harlow would have. She was sexy, and brassy, with looks that won't quit (evidenced in all of your fotos) and with an under-rated talent that would give her equal screentime with any A-lister opposite her.

Is it wild...weird to pick out one of my favorite leetle teensy weensy Annie moments? Well, I'm among friends, right? My moment I wait for come in "KINGS ROW" when Drake (played wonderfully by Ronald Reagan) takes her out on a buggy ride after Parris goes to Europe. He asks her for a kiss. Her reaction...it was nothing and everything all wrapped up in her.

I'll have to do myself a favor and check out Ann Sheridan in the 50's. I've never really wanted to. I'm a sucker for he glamor and quips of her past two decades. But as often is the case with me, reading the great writing from many of you here and over at the other site, causes me to change my mind. (How the heck did I wind up in florist shops getting the brutal third degree with John Payne recently). Ann Sheridan could turn it on full blast ( "THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER" doing a fantastic turn as Movie Star Lorraine ) or tone it down like she does in "THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT."

Whichever team you're on, ANN SHERIDAN is the STAR player.

[JackFavell]

That was beautiful, Maven!

A voice like melted down copper pennies - yup. I can hear her.

My favorite look for Ann:

[Mr. Arkadin]

Edge of Darkness (1943) is probably my favorite Sheridan flick. A dark resistance film made during WWII, Ann provides no wisecracks or humor, but instead steps outside her character to become a symbol, faintly reminiscent of Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), or Bergman in Rossellini's Europa 51 (1952). While Edge of Darkness is a product of the Hollywood studio system and propagandistic to some extent, Sheridan's performance holds much of the same flavor of these better known (and critiqued) dishes, even if the underpinning is slightly different.

[Lzcutter]

Given Vincent Sherman's self-proclaimed proclivity for coming on to the actresses (and having affairs with them if they responded), I like to think that Ann Sheridan punched the guy where it counts when he got out of line.

She is great in Nora Prentiss and her wardrobe is dynamite considering the times. Travilla worked overtime to show off all her assets and all within the code.

The number she is wearing when we first hear her sing at Dinardo's. Amazing considering the times.

And for the record, the Cliff House, a San Francisco landmark, is nowhere near Carmel. But, it still stands on the shore in SF in a new incarnation (it has had more fires than anyone can keep track of).

[CineMaven]

Lynn...her outfits in "NORA PRENTISS" were great. There was a jacket she wore in the cabin by the fireplace...I loved it.

Jackaaaaaaay...I love that last photo you posted. I'd say it's quintessential Annie. There's a flash of something in her eyes...something...that I just can't articulate. But that's just why a pix is worth a thousand words.

Arkadin...I really must give "Edge of Darkness" a chance. Ha! Give myself a chance to see these Warners stalwarts do something different. I've never seen it. The shot of Ann aiming a rifle (that last color shot) gave me a great casting idea and you can tell me what you think: I can totally see Ann Sheridan playing rough and tumble Calamity Jane...and then melting Wild Bill's heart. Ann in buckskin...come on! Am I right or am I right?

[Mr. Arkadin]

Arkadin...I really must give "Edge of Darkness" a chance. Ha! Give myself a chance to see these Warners stalwarts do something different. I've never seen it.

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[moira finnie]

Well knock me down and call me shorty! I was researching something unrelated to Ann Sheridan when I came across a comment from director Vincent Sherman about Mr. Skeffington--you know, the agony fest when Bette Davis marries Claude Rains and punishes him for the next 25 years for a.) not being a Gentile and b.) not being an empty suit like her brother, the bad seed. Then Bette slaps on the latex, greasepaint and fright wig for her later scenes (a touch of diphtheria, don't cha know) when she really chews the scenery.

Long story short, according to Director Sherman, Mr. Skeffington "could have been greater with Ann Sheridan in the lead. That’s who I wanted. The part of the most beautiful woman of her day would have suited Ann but Bette (Davis) heard of it and demanded it and she was box office at the time. The sets were up but had been designed for Technicolor. Because of wartime restrictions, we had to shoot in black and white and that changed things. I warned Bette that the title was "Mr. Skeffington." Her part was longer than Claude Rains’ but she had to defer to him."

Well, if you've seen the movie, (my condolences) you know Claude and the little girl who plays his daughter (Marjorie Riordan) shared the best scene in the movie, which you can see here.

When asked what Ann Sheridan was like, Sherman said:
"Completely different from her femme fatale image. She was bright, lively, opinionated, sheer joy, had terrible trouble with the men in her life. She wound up with George Brent at one point! Blah! She had this wicked humor the screen couldn’t capture. Oh, (maybe it did) later in that movie with Cary Grant ("I Was A Male War Bride"). (Studio Head) Jack (Warner) said she was the studio vixen and that was that. In "Nora Prentiss" (1947) Kent Smith had the good part. Ann was just there radiating glamour. I’ve never heard from anybody who ever liked it and I was stuck with Robert Alda in the second lead. He was all wrong and later became a big Broadway star. Oh, there’s photography by Jimmy Wong Howe that makes the film almost watchable."

I can't say that I agree with Sherman about Nora Prentiss. Sheridan is fine in all her scenes, when I could see her. I do think that James Wong Howe could have used a bit of restraint with the lighting effects in certain sequences--though most scenes were beautifully filmed. And you probably don't want to hear how I like Kent Smith for some reason....James Wong Howe, btw, once said that Sheridan had one of the few truly symmetrically beautiful faces in movies. He thought that she could be filmed from any angle and look lovely.

More Ann Sheridan references:

I was reading a book by writer Stuart Jerome called "Those Crazy, Wonderful Years When We Ran Warner Bros" (Lyle Stuart, 1983) about his time as a mail room messenger boy in the late '30s and early '40s at the studio.Among the mailroom boys, Ann Sheridan was just about everyone's favorite person. Not because she drank milk and scotch in the afternoon with her cohorts on and off the set, but because she was so down to earth, kind, and funny. One example from the book (which is fairly naughty, giving a teenage boy's worm's eye view of the world of Warner Brothers), of Ann Sheridan's honesty and humor:

A messenger boy delivered some script changes to her bungalow on the lot around five in the afternoon after filming had finished for the day. The adolescent wasn't particularly shocked by the sight of Annie with her feet up, reading the paper and sipping an adult beverage. He was startled by the unsettling sight of a foam outline of Miss Sheridan's artificially generous and very bosomy torso stuffed into a wastebasket. Ann had never pretended to be zaftig. She vocally and repeatedly told others that she loathed the fact that she--the alleged "oomph" girl--wore this annoying apparatus at the behest of Warner Brothers since they deemed nature inadequate. Noting the youth's acute embarrassment, Sheridan simply raised an eyebrow, and said, "Well, I've got to put it somewhere and it won't fit in the toilet."

[JackFavell]

Ha! great stories, Moira! I would love to read that book by Stuart Jerome.

And by the way, Kent Smith is growing on me.