MY FAVORITE BLONDES:
1. DORIS DAY
Bubbly, sunny, fresh-scrubbed sexy. Will make you smile if you're open to it. She can sing & dance, and do drama, comedy or musicals. Very well.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "SEND ME NO FLOWERS"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME"
2. LIZABETH SCOTT
Pouty, victim, can betray if Noir asks her to. Great voice. Great hair. I'll take her either way.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "TOO LATE FOR TEARS"
3. GLORIA GRAHAME
Sexy vixen. Very feline. Oftentimes victimized. Love her cocky confidence.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "IN A LONELY PLACE"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "CROSSFIRE"
4. KIM NOVAK
She's a blonde from another world...that's why she speaks as though she were out of breath. Earthy. Enigmatic. Even as a housewife. She's different.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "VERTIGO"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "VERTIGO"
5. JEAN HARLOW
THE FIRST...THE PROTOTYPE. THE PLATINUM BLONDE. No one more vivacious than Harlow. She can be a pal too. But what guy would want her for a pal? This gal's got a great sense of humor about herself. Gone too soon.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "LIBELED LADY" / "BOMBSHELL"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "BOMBSHELL"
6. DOROTHY MALONE
She's no kewpie doll or coquette. A real woman. If she wants you, you'll know it. If she doesn't
...you'll know it. A good solid actress. Jumped for joy by her cameo in "Basic Instinct" just to see her again. Used to watch her as a kid on "Peyton Place" and then discovered, 'she used to make movies?!'
MY FAVORITE FILM: "WRITTEN ON THE WIND" / "WARLOCK"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "THE TARNISHED ANGELS"
(Well, I'm not all the way being truthful...she was great in that over-the-top way in "...Wind").
7. MARILYN MONROE
Have no fear at my placing Marilyn 7th on my list of faves. I know she's the Queen. It's just that she's not an easy watch. I must be ready for her pathos and sensitivity or I'll be an emotional wreck. ("Bus Stop" and nice job in "Don't Bother to Knock"). Probably will never be given true credit for her talent. Could do comedy very well. To be MARILYN in the 1950’s...goodness. She owned the world. Who could handle that? Saw a photo exhibit of her at Brooklyn Museum a few years ago. Walls and walls and walls of Marilyn. Overwhelming.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "NIAGARA"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "THE MISFITS"
8. HELEN WALKER
No, she's not one of those top-tiered blondes. Career cut short. But in one role, she made me a devotee. She always seems a smart cookie to me. A little imperious. Oh she was cute and silly in "Cluny Brown." But give me Walker straight up, and ice-cold. Yeeeup.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "NIGHTMARE ALLEY" / "IMPACT"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "NIGHTMARE ALLEY"
9. ANNE FRANCIS
"Go West, young man. Gohhhhhhh 'Honey West' the ad said. Sigh! It left young girls of 13 out of the loop for adventure. But I still liked her and admired her for being in control of things. Feline, smart, confident. A little haughty. She had an air about her I've always liked.
MY FAVORITE FILM / HER BEST PERFORMANCE: ANYTHING.
MY FRIEND MARVIN'S FAVORITE FILM: "FORBIDDEN PLANET" Uhmmmm...he said he liked the special effects, too.
10. CATHERINE DENEUVE
Sophistication, class, beauty, sensuous. She's all that and a bag of chips and really has become quite the character actress.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "THE HUNGER"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: To be honest, je ne sais pas. I guess I'll just have to struggle along, watching her work to discover that. Tough job...but some buff's gotta do it.
11. GINGER ROGERS
She looks like she's fun. And her dancing with Fred Astaire is sublime. She's got snap and pizzazz. Ginger has great comic timing. And not afraid to change her hair color either.
MY FAVORITE FILM/HER BEST PERFORMANCE: It's all a mish-mash for me what with "Swing Time" and "Stage Door" and "The Major and the Minor." ( I accept the premise ). And though I didn't care for the movie, the way she slapped that girl around in "Vivacious Lady" showed spunk.
12. CAROLE LOMBARD
Queen of screwball comedy. Would take a dramatic turn every once in a while, but her forte was clearly comedy. Swore like a sailor I heard. Down to earth. That's her +real +appeal for me. Beautiful. Also known as Mrs. Clark Gable. < (
Sigh! ) > That...and a career too. Some girls have all the luck.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "TWENTIETH CENTURY"
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: "TWENTIETH CENTURY"
*Not a big fan of screwball but its manic heights wins me over.
13. GRACE KELLY
Poised, pretty, elegant. What a string of hits and leading men she had. Then what does she do? She up and marries and leaves her career behind. What an exit. I’ve liked her in the majority of films she did. What a class act.
MY FAVORITE FILM: ”REAR WINDOW”
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: ”THE COUNTRY GIRL”
14. EVA MARIE SAINT
I think she is a character actor wrapped up in a blonde. She’s another one I just want to see what she does.
MY FAVORITE FILM / HER BEST PERFORMANCE: Nothing in particular. Just like the cut of her jib.
15. JOAN BLONDELL
WOW!!! What energy. You’re going to have a raucous good time with Joanie. Can’t you tell? You can't out-talk her. You just can't. She propped up every leading man her 1930’s contract threw at her. The 1930’s...that was HER TIME. Oh Joanie... what big eyes you have. The better for us to see you with.
MY FAVORITE FILM: “CRY ‘HAVOC’” / “STAND-IN”
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: ”NIGHTMARE ALLEY”
16. LANA TURNER
Probably THE blonde of the 1940’s. (Started off as a redhead, I think). Yes there was Betty Grable, but really...think about it. Seeeee? Lana was white hot. Kind of M-G-M pouty actressy... but that’s okay. She was a party girl, sexy...had some great leading men. Gable for one...and two and three. Lana was damned good at what she did. Her looks matured and morphed. She was still a star in the 1950’s. Lana. Even her name sounds glamorous.
MY FAVORITE FILM: ”THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE”
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: ”MADAME X”
17. CLAIRE TREVOR
If you were standing in a pea-soup thick fog...blindfolded, Trevor's voice is quite distinctive. I admit I haven’t seen alot of her work...but I’m willing to. I like what I have seen. (”Stagecoach” “Born to Kill” “Dead End” etc.) Western...noir... urban landscape. She’s a chameleon. A character actor.
MY FAVORITE FILM: ”MURDER, MY SWEET”
HER BEST PERFORMANCE: ”KEY LARGO”
18. PRISCILLA LANE
Awwwww, I think she’s sweet. A good foil for Garfield. Girl next door. Voice like maple syrup. And she was one of Hitchcock’s blondes. I think she carried it off pretty good. (Okay...okay, so
don’t look at Robert Cummings).
MY FAVORITE FILM: ”FOUR DAUGHTERS”
19. ALICE FAYE
Never liked the sopranos as much as the contraltos. Her musical “The Gang’s All Here” lifted me out of my doldrums once. Ever sensible...I thought she had a lot of weight as an actress that she was beginning to explore in drama when she walked out of Twentieth Century Fox and didn’t look back for twenty years. She makes me smile.
MY FAVORITE FILM: "FALLEN ANGEL"
20. JULIE CHRISTIE*
I’ve liked her since I was a kid. Cool. Mod. Never disappoints. Saw her recently in “Away From Her” and forty odd years later, she STILL does not disappoint. I’ve enjoyed her in “Heaven Can Wait” “Shampoo” “Don’t Look Now” “Far From the Madding Crowd.” Even the execrable but fun “Demon Seed” could tarnish her. I like her in just about everything I’ve seen her in. (...But will avoid “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”).