Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

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moira finnie
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Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by moira finnie »

Love her or hate her, this Monday you can see some of Jennifer Jones best movies on TCM this August 17th. Of course, the usual Jennifer Jones flicks are getting their bi-monthly airing on Monday, but there are some surprises. Now, if only they'd show Gone to Earth again! No Song of Bernadette (her breakthrough role) or Cluny Brown, (Jones' most charming and natural performance) but there are some new ones for TCM and some favorites. Hope you will all chime in with your opinions.

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Below are my musings on the films I'm looking forward to on Monday. The entire TCM schedule for Monday is listed just below this with all times shown as EDT.
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After recently reading Madame Bovary for the first time (I'm slow), and Emmanuel Levy's biography of Vincente Minnelli, I'm looking forward to seeing the visually imaginative Minnelli-Jones film again with fresh eyes. I've never seen We Were Strangers in its entirety either, though friends on this board have told me it was disappointing, I think that Garfield and Jones under Huston's direction might be fascinating to me.

One of the highlights of the day is a chance to see a sort of "Duel in the Sun" goes to the Bayou in Ruby Gentry, which is very rarely seen anymore. It also gives a glimpse of Chuck Heston before history, the bible, sci-fi, and the nra distracted from his job--uh, acting, well sort of. The late Karl Malden gets to play in this one too, and Jennifer sighs alot in her languid fashion.

After Feaito's recent paean to the Indiscretion of an American Wife on these boards, I'm going to have to check this one out again too. Fernando, it's the 63 minute version. Is that the one you liked so much?

By 6pm, I'll be turning off the phone and curling up with an iced tea to catch Love Letters with one of my all time favorite character actresses: Gladys Cooper, who plays a significant role in this rarely broadcast two hanky movie. I also like Singleton's dreamy personality, but then, that's also why the next film, Portrait of Jennie sucks me in every blessed time too!

I haven't seen Carrie, directed by William Wyler with Jones opposite Laurence Olivier in the Theodore Dreiser film in years, so I'll have to see if the movie (and Olivier, who was, as I recall, exceptional) is as good when seen through adult eyes.

I must admit I've never seen Beat the Devil in its entirety, but have heard it is fun, as long as you don't expect any plot development that is logical. If I don't, I would certainly like to see Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart together--even if, as I fear, Jones has blond hair in this movie!

Good Morning, Miss Dove, which is quite a lovely story about a teacher, (and, I believe, one of MrsL's faves) is also being shown on TCM (I think that this Fox film is a TCM premiere)!
_________________________________

Monday, August 17th
Summer Under the Stars
Jennifer Jones Lineup:


6:00 AM
Madame Bovary (1949)
A romantic country girl sacrifices her marriage when she thinks she's found true love. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Van Heflin, James Mason. Dir: Vincente Minnelli. BW-114 mins, TV-PG, CC

8:00 AM
We Were Strangers (1949)
A Cuban American returns to his homeland during the Revolution and becomes involved in an assassination attempt. Cast: Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz. Dir: John Huston. BW-106 mins, TV-PG, CC

10:00 AM
Ruby Gentry (1952)
A tempestuous girl from the swamps ignites passions when she moves into the business world. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston, Karl Malden. Dir: King Vidor. BW-82 mins, TV-14, CC

11:30 AM
Indiscretion Of An American Wife (1954)
An American woman tries to break it off with her Italian lover. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Richard Beymer. Dir: Vittorio De Sica. BW-63 mins, TV-PG

1:00 PM
Barretts Of Wimpole Street, The (1957)
Poet Elizabeth Barrett defies her tyrannical father for the love of Robert Browning. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Bill Travers, John Gielgud. Dir: Sidney Franklin. C-105 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

3:00 PM
Since You Went Away (1944)
A mother and wife struggle to cope while her husband is off serving in World War II. Cast: Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten. Dir: John Cromwell. BW-177 mins, TV-G, CC

6:00 PM
Love Letters (1945)
A soldier falls for the woman who may have killed his best friend. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gladys Cooper. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-101 mins, TV-14, CC

7:42 PM
Short Film: Letter From A Soldier, A (1951)
In this excerpt from the feature film "It's A Big Country" (1951), a U.S. GI back stateside from Korea delivers a letter to the mother of a dead fellow soldier. BW-9 mins,

8:00 PM
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
An artist discovers his gift when he falls for a beautiful ghost. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore. Dir: William Dieterle. BW-86 mins, TV-PG, CC

9:30 PM
Carrie (1952)
A married man's passion for a young woman leads to tragedy. Cast: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert. Dir: William Wyler. BW-122 mins, TV-PG, CC

11:45 PM
Beat The Devil (1954)
A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones. Dir: John Huston. BW-90 mins, TV-PG, CC

1:30 AM
Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955)
A devoted teacher sacrifices personal happiness to stay with her students. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Robert Stack, Marshall Thompson. Dir: Henry Koster. C-107 mins, , Letterbox Format

3:30 AM
Duel In The Sun (1946)
A fiery half-breed comes between a rancher's good and evil sons. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten. Dir: King Vidor. C-144 mins, TV-14, CC
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Beat the Devil (1954) is a great film, but there is only one DVD transfer that was watchable (it's now OOP). There are numerous public domain prints, but those are a waste of cash. The print TCM will show (if it's the same one) should look great and I'd advise anyone who is vaguely interested in this movie to record it. I doubt you'll find a better version of the film.
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by Professional Tourist »

Beat the Devil is available at the Internet Archive, to download or to view online. :)
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by mrsl »

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD !!!! 1:30 A.M. ??? We all dearly love Since You Went Away, and Love Letters, and even Portrait of Jennie, but couldn't the programmers put Good Morning Miss Dove on at a reasonable hour? Thinking about it, Moira, it may even be 2:30 a.m. depending on your time zone. As you said, I believe it is a TCM premier, so why would they do such a dumb thing? And I really mean dumb. Why not give everybody a chance? Yes, you're right it is one of my favorites - it's not all that great a movie, but a sweet, wholesome film for everyone to watch, so they bury it. They did the same thing with Brother John this morning but luckily I remembered to set the timer and taped it while I was sleeping. I said it about two years ago, and I repeat myself, those programmers are either smoking something funny, or they never speak to each other for advice or consultation.

Ladies especially, try to remember to set your timers if you've never seen Good Morning Miss Dove, you won't be sorry.

Anne
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by srowley75 »

If you believe that Carrie is worth watching at all, I suspect it will be because of the performance of Laurence Olivier than for Jones. Personally, I was unimpressed with the film as a whole and said so in another movie group, but several other members replied that they felt Olivier saved the picture. Maybe I missed something, or maybe it was because I'd read the book (Dreiser's Sister Carrie) and hadn't really cared for it, either.

And I'm another big fan of Cluny Brown, but then I also believe Ernst Lubitsch could do virtually no wrong. I would consider that film the highlight of the day.
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by feaito »

Jennifer is one of my favorite actresses and personalities, notwithstanding her acting flaws, and she starred in my favorite all-time movie "Portrait of Jennie". I've been lucky and I've had the opportunity of recording and buying most of the films listed. And yes, "Good Morning Miss Dove" (1955) is a very good film. Jones is great as the spinterish teacher. "Cluny Brown" is high on my list. I expect to see it some day. "We Were Strangers" (1949) is another film that I'd like to see.

"Love Letters" (1945) is a must see! Gladys Cooper is superb and Ann Richards is very good as Jennifer's friend. "Ruby Gentry" ignites the screen! Heston and Jones, Wow! "Carrie" is a somber, downbeat film, but nevertheless, quite engrossing IMO. "Duel in the Sun" (1946) is one of the most colorful, kitsch Westerns ever made. A treat for the eye! "Madame Bovary" (1949)....Jennifer never looked so beautiful and lovely.....and the ballroom sequence is one of the most perfect ever filmed. What a beauty! Minnelli was a master indeed. "Indiscretion of an American Wife" (1954) is in IMHO an unfairly underrated movie, even in its butchered version. Monty and Jennifer are great as illicit lovers. I'd like to see some day the longer European version "Stazione Termini". "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" (1957) is in some aspects superior than the 1934 original version. Gielgud is fantastic as the father. "Beat the Devil" (1954) is one of the oddest and more offbeat black comedies I've seen...it is sort of an acquired taste, because I enjoyed it much more the 2nd time around I saw it. Jennifer plays such a different part and she's blond here.

Recentely I recorded "Tender is the Night" (1962) with Jennifer, Joan Fontaine and Jason Robards Jr. I watched it many years ago, but I don't remember much.
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by moira finnie »

Welcome, kingrat! You've made me re-think my already favorable view of Jennifer Jones.
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With Louis Jourdan in Madame Bovary.
I agree completely about the quality of her beauty, but have rarely seen anyone mention how aptly black and white cinematography complemented her dark hair and eyes and high cheekbones. I also think that the suitability of the coloring and bone structure of the faces of Gene Tierney, Linda Darnell, and Ava Gardner contributed to their lasting impact in b & w film too. Jones was exceptionally attractive in color films too, especially in the limited color palette employed by cinematographer Christopher Challis for Powell & Pressburger in Gone to Earth). Still, black and white seemed to highlight her ethereal qualities and mercurial changes of mood, (which may reflect a lack of polished technique as much as her insight into her characters). There is something I find particularly appealing about the way that light and shadow plays across her face in Song of Bernadette, Madame Bovary, Portrait of Jennie, and Since You Went Away, as well as Love Letters. She is quite ravishing in each of these films, despite the fact that I can see the dramatic limitations of these movies. I might also take a second look at Indiscretion of an American Wife, which I haven't seen in some time.
kingrat wrote:Raymond Durgnat, a great admirer of Jones, suggested in his book FILMS AND FEELINGS that you could consider LOVE LETTERS, THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT, TENDER IS THE NIGHT, and RUBY GENTRY as offering four different fates for the same character, and that the films and Jones' performances are richer if you look for overtones of the other potential fates. Perhaps GOOD MORNING, MISS DOVE should be added as a fifth.
I'd never thought of those characters being so similar, and must look for Durgnat's book now. Thanks for the heads up. I've recorded Good Morning, Miss Dove, and plan on watching it very soon, though I think I saw this years ago.
kingrat wrote:Too bad she never played a femme fatale in film noir--this might not have worked, but I'd like to have seen it. Making such a splash by playing a Catholic saint and then becoming the wife of David O. Selznick, who wanted prestige productions for her, probably limited her opportunities for comedy and noir.
The closest she came to film noir, (which was usually regarded as a B movie during the genre's height, making it anathema to David O. "bigger is better and classier" Selznick, was probably Beat the Devil, (which seems pretty comic so far, though I've only gotten about 20 minutes into it just yet), We Were Strangers and the crossover Western, Duel in the Sun (which makes me laugh out loud), though I think you could make a pretty good case for Ruby Gentry as a noir Southern Gothic! Of course some people could make a case for Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939), featuring a certain "Phyllis Isley" in the cast as a proto-noir too.

Btw, there is a very well done biography of Selznick that made me appreciate Jones more by David Thomson called "Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick" I don't think Jennifer Jones could ever have understood what intensity she was unleashing in this single-minded man. (I suspect that she just wanted a job at first). A used copy of the book can be had on Amazon for less than the postage it would cost to get it by mail.

Some of her movies that I've watched twice but could never really believe or warm up to happen to be in color: Tender Is the Night (I'd read the Fitzgerald book before seeing this, and everyone seemed 15 years+ too old to play their part), A Farewell to Arms (ditto) and I have mixed feelings about Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.

Please kingrat, do yourself a giant favor.

Beg, borrow or steal a copy of Cluny Brown. The light-hearted way that this Ernst Lubitsch movie, based on the sublime Margery Sharp's book, pokes gentle fun at all our pretenses, plumbing and philosophies is a lasting joy. Seeing Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer at their best, as well as Helen Walker, Reginald Owen, and the rest of the cast keep this bubble afloat will lift your spirits and leave them elevated long after the movie ends. It's great fun and seems better every time I've watched it.
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Jones & Boyer window shopping: "Squirrels to the nuts!" (see the movie, you'll like the joke).

Thanks for responding to this thread. Hope to see more from you around the Oasis.
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by MissGoddess »

Let me add my welcome, kingrat, if I may. I've enjoyed reading your posts at TCM---if I don't
always reply there, it's due to other issues, not your words which have always been insightful.

I've always thought Jennifer had the career to die for in many respects. She played SO MANY deeply
coveted roles, the kind of roles any actress would give...well, let's say ALOT...to play. And yet she
never seems to me to be anything but uniquely herself...something other than just a movie star or
just an actress. Not too many actresses, especially then, give me such a strong sense of "differentness",
as if she felt apart and separated by some inner, invisible wall from all that is happening around her.
Instead of limiting her it infuses many of her best works with a tang, a pungent quality that is strictly
hers alone. She IS Emma Bovary yet she is Jennifer Jones Bovary, if you get what I mean. It may
not be Flaubert's Emma, but it is second to none in its complete realization.

It's this uniqueness, this "differentness" that I sense in Jennifer that makes me overlook her
mannered moments and actressy body language. It's still her own mannerisms and her own
body language presented, and they are like no one else's.

The only other actress who gives me this kind of impression of otherness is Greta Garbo.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by mrsl »

Jennifer carried her differentness or uniqueness forward into her last performance as the single lady who attracts Fred Astaire in The Towering Inferno. While willing to try anything to get out of danger, swinging on loose handrails, and jumping to small landings, etc without any complaints, she still exuded that illusion of being above the fray. She probably turned in the best performance of the whole ensemble movie.

Anne
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by srowley75 »

It's very interesting to read remarks by (I assume) Jennifer Jones fans. In other groups I've joined, the majority can't stand her, but I think it may have more to do with her personal life than her acting ability.

I do have to say that I don't find her as interesting as other classic film actresses, and I think that may be why I don't make it a point to see or revisit more of her films. (But then I don't find the majority of actresses who came into their own during the 1940s very interesting - maybe it's because so many seem to lack the tenacity and charisma of the gals who broke through during the 1930s.) The Song of Bernadette had to have been be one of the weirdest Oscar-winning performances I've ever seen (but then the role was at that time prime Oscar-bait). I'm not exactly sure what was to have been so outstanding about it other than the fact that she played such an impossible-to-dislike character.

I have Angel, Angel, Down We Go but I've yet to view it. However, I recently read an article by John Waters in which he mentioned having seen the movie and liked it, so I'll probably bump it up in my personal queue.

-S.
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by jdb1 »

I agree with you, S., she leaves me stone cold. I find her the same in everything she does, and whether that's because of the sameness of the characters, I can't say, but probably not, because I feel the same in her few departure roles. My primary impression of her is "simpering." Don't care much for her looks, either, although I don't find her unattractive -- just . . . . . unremarkable. I still maintain that she wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as far as she did if she weren't Mrs. Selznick.
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Re: Jennifer Jones Monday August 17th

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I watched The Indescretion of the American Wife, I was completely convinced in Montgomery Clift as a lover and I think credit to Jennifer Jones as well as Montgomery Clift for making me believe in the character. It might seem a strange thing to say but for me Montgomery Clift is well known outside his film roles for the life he led outside film that in lesser actors it might colour the performance. I still can't get a proper handle on Jennifer Jones, perhaps I haven't seen her in enough films, I like her voice and some of her mannerisms. I'd love to see Madame Bovary, it's one of my favorite books and I do like Louis Jourdan.
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