George Sanders - Dear Boy in Exile

[JackFavell]

Mr. Sanders sings, with a pleasant baritone:

[youtube][/youtube]

There are a few more selections from this 1958 record album at YouTube.

Wasn't Don Costa the music man behind many of Frank Sinatra's recordings?

[MissGoddess]

Wasn't Don Costa the music man behind many of Frank Sinatra's recordings?

Right you are. He arranged one of Frank's best albums for his Reprise label, SINATRA AND STRINGS.

(Looks like this is one of those instances where the absence of YouTube's "long" link is preventing us from using the YouTube function here.)

[youtube][/youtube]

[Editor's Note: The above was fixed. When this new "improved" way of presenting a link occurs on youtube, if you copy and paste the exact title of the video in the search box on youtube, press "search" and then click on the title when it appears, the video's root title will then appear in usable form in the address that appears in your browser. Sorry for the pain in the neck instrux, but this is one workaround. - moira]

[JackFavell]

Thanks, Goddess (and Moira). I thought it might be the same guy.

What a shame George never took that role in South Pacific. I always wonder was it fear of being stuck doing the same part on stage for years, or rather was it just plain fear?

[RedRiver]

There is always the feeling that he didn't take himself quite so seriously, and this is the delicious part to me of George as a hero.

He's delightful in this concept. Kind of, "OK. Got a job to do. A couple of obstacles. But let's not get too excited. It'll work out. Sherry, anyone?" This is an actor who could do just about anything.

[JackFavell]

Exactly, Red! Let's always put our creature comforts first.

[CineMaven]

You really bring George Sanders to life, Wendy. You've made me very curious about him.

[MissGoddess]

Charles Boyer says a marvelous line in Arch of Triumph to the effect that: in times of trouble, have an eye for comfort. George clearly understood that!

[JackFavell]

That's perfect, and it's nice to know that Boyer, another great favorite, said it.

[RedRiver]

Let's always put our creature comforts first.

May I offer you a black cherry soda?

[JackFavell]

Please do. Mustn't shock our systems with too much effort.

[JackFavell]

It should be Schlepper.

or (a word I won't type)

[youtube][/youtube]

[feaito]

I don't know if I have shared this with you before, but since I began loving Classic Cinema listening to my grandparents' and parents' experiences, I remember my paternal grandpapa (born in 1917) telling the story that when he was a young lad in school in Temuco (a city in the South of Chile) there was person drowning in a lake and George Sanders (who wasn't a well known actor then) stood by without doing anything. Apparently he was expected to do so because he was the oldest man present who knew how to swim. Afterwards the people of Temuco labeled him a coward. Years later he saw him on the big screen and he always loathed the man carrying forever in his mind the image of the man drowning.

I always wondered about this story and look what I found on the net!! (below I post the link) :

09 JUN 2011

George “taken in” At the age of nineteen George took himself off to Argentina to work as a manufacturer’s representative for the British and American Tobacco Company in South America. This was to be an interesting four years for him, perhaps the happiest, most carefree years in his life. George fell in love with the country, its music, its people and the language. He developed a fluency in Spanish and spoke it, as mentioned by several Latin American actors, without a trace of an accent.

While in Argentina, and later Chile, George, as he put it, “engaged in a lot of youthful high jinks”. On one occassion he swam across a lake while dressed in a tuxedo. Indeed, it was one of these “youthful high jinks” that forced him to leave the continent. To describe the incident I will quote from George’s account of it in his book Memoirs of a Professional Cad. He writes:

“I had decided to celebrate this happy turn of events [a succesful advertising idea] in the manner prescribed by mankind since the dawn of history–namely by imbibing an excessive amount of intoxicating liquor, or in other words getting swacked.

It was in a highly inebriated state and rather late at night that I decided to go home. I had been living for some time in a chalet on the outskirts of town [Temuco, Chile] as the house guest of a very charming widow, who was engaged to be married to a lawyer in Temuco.

I would have been very happy with this woman but for the nocturnal visits of her fiance, who would remonstrate with her by banging on the shutters of our bedroom window and shouting what I felt to be totally irrelevant accusations of infidelity. He took a thoroughly middle-class attitude toward the hospitality his fiancee was showing to me. I found it extremely irksome to be awakened in the middle of the night by loud bangings on the window shutters, but the villa was more comfortable than the hotel and so I put up with it.

On the night of my triumph, however, I did not feel disposed to pursue this craven attitude, and in response to our nocturnal visitor’s knocking I threw the window open wide and faced him in defiance, revolver in hand. He must have been at least as drunk, if not drunker, than I. He promptly challenged me to a duel, and I just as promptly accepted.

I climbed out of the window and dropped to the ground. I could not see him because it was pitch dark outside, but our bodies touched. We maneuvered ourselves into a back-to-back position. ‘Ten paces,’ he said. ‘All right,’ I answered, and we started to stagger away from one another. I had the advantage. I was barefoot. I could hear the crunch of his shoes on the gravel path. I turned and pressed my trigger in the direction of the last crunch. I stood my ground but there was no answering shot. I walked back in his direction and stumbled over him as he lay on the ground. I picked him up, fireman’s-lift style, and carried him into the house. He was all right. The bullet had entered his neck but he wasn’t bleeding much. Later they told me that if it had been a fraction of inch to the left he would have died. As it was he was perfectly all right four days later….

I have not owned a gun since then and never will….

Somebody in the house, in trying to get hold of a doctor, had described the situation too fully over the telephone and the operator had called the police. I was carted off to jail….

I did not remain in prison for more than a few hours …before my company sent a man down to do whatever was necessary to set me free. When I say they set me free–I mean they set me free. I was not only thrown out of the company, I was thrown out of South America.”

George was twenty-three at the time…

http://georgehenrysanders.com/2011/06/0 ... h-america/

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Wow, Fernando! What a story you've shared courtesy of your dear Grandpapa.

I had just finished listening to Sander's lovely singing voice, and stumbled over your story. Could it be that a cowardly incident like you have described might have led to Sanders' self-loathing and final descent into misery?

Thank you for sharing such a personal memory with us, Fernando.

And thank you, Professional Tourist, for the lovely photo and song clips. Sanders has a lovely voice, kind of like Perry Como in delivery, and it is a shame he didn't do more with his lovely singing ability.

Theresa, I also enjoy how you have expanded Movie Chat. Lovely!

Jackie, I am so glad you started this thread.

One of my favorite Sanders' cads appears in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and his portrayal made it so apparent that he was completely wrong for Mrs. Muir, and highlighted all the reasons that Captain Gregg was right for her. His smooth approach would unsettle just about any self-respecting woman who has not been acquainted with the seamier side of love, and the typical artist's approach to sealing a woman's undying devotion by painting her as only a man in love could render on canvas, camouflaged his seedier nature like so many tufts of billowing clouds on a sunshiny day in the arbor.

[charliechaplinfan]

I suppose shock does terrible things to people, the ones who are expected to act can't and the ones that you wouldn't expect too get reserves from somewhere. There's no reason to doubt your Grandpa, that's a big thing for a man to live with. I've read George's biography and that's how I remember him writing but I can't imagine anyone could be so blase and entertaining about things underneath. A multi layered human being to be sure.