The Silver Screen Oasis

Hey Marco,

I agree about Marjorie, Paulette and Virginia wholeheartedly!!

And, Paulette would have loved being compared to diamonds. She was known for her jewels, although she preferred rubies best.
And, she looked good in them. I remember her coming to our place for a party and getting down on the foyer floor with me and playing with my cars and trucks - in a silver lame gown and lots of rubies. Mesmerizing!!

There isn't a star like that today..... Unfortunately!!

Larry

I really enjoy The Opposite Sex as much as its predecessor. The music clips along (I love Buck's rockabilly debut medley) and the clothes, and the cast was a pretty swell bunch. I don't think I can recall seeing a prettier Agnes Moorehead in that periwinkle blue cocktail dress. Endora was never that effervescent!

Vecchiolarry wrote:Hey Marco,

I agree about Marjorie, Paulette and Virginia wholeheartedly!!

And, Paulette would have loved being compared to diamonds. She was known for her jewels, although she preferred rubies best.
And, she looked good in them. I remember her coming to our place for a party and getting down on the foyer floor with me and playing with my cars and trucks - in a silver lame gown and lots of rubies. Mesmerizing!!

There isn't a star like that today..... Unfortunately!!

Larry

You know, I forgot Paulette Goddard was in this movie. (Duh--who does Russell fight with in the end?)

I wonder if the stories about her diamonds (as realted by Marlene Dietrich via her daughter's bio) are true? Or just a piece Dietrich liked to do? Or both?

Tracey,

What did Marlene say about Paulette's jewels??

I know that Paulette stole one of Marlene's boyfriends and ended up marrying him - Erich Maria Remarque... So, Marlene probably was a bit b-i-t-c-h-y about that!!

Larry

tracey wrote:I wonder if the stories about her diamonds (as related by Marlene Dietrich via her daughter's bio) are true? Or just a piece Dietrich liked to do? Or both?

Do tell! What did La Dietrich say?

According to her daughter, Dietrich did hate Paulette Goddard, mostly over Remarque. Her bit on Goddard--It was one of those little "pieces" Dietrich used to do that Maria included in her book, like the "Dietrich funeral." She does them in her mother's words, and you can just picture Dietrich saying them. It's kind of long, but entertaining.

"It was one of those terrible trips on the train, on the way to Hollywood, before we took airplanes. Paulette Goddard was on the train--I think it was when she was married to Chaplin or maybe after. She came to my drawing room and we talked. Now you know me, I must have been very lonely to want to talk to Paulette Goddard! ...I think it was something that Papi had done...or maybe Aherne or Jean...and I told her how he treated me badly and she stood up and came shlepping back with a large jewelry case--a trunk!...and it was full! Nothing but diamonds! Like rocks! And she says to me, very serious, like a professor, "Marlene, you have to get diamonds. Colored stones are worth nothing. Only pure white stones have value. A man wants you? It's easy! You say no, right away. The next day, he sends you long-stemmed roses, you send them back. The next day, when the orchids arrive, you send them back. His little gifts, expensive perfume, handbags from Hermes, mink coats--things like that, you send them back. Rubies and diamond clips--back, even emeralds and diamond pins. When the first diamond bracelet arrives, it's usually small, so you send it back, but you call him and say thank you--sweetly. The next day, when the larger diamond bracelet arrives, you send that back, but allow him to take you out to lunch--nothing else! The first diamond ring is never big--give it back, but say yes to dinner...go dancing...remember never, ever sleep with a man until he gives you a pure white stone of at least 10 carats!"
My mother always intoned this credo in a stage whisper, full of breathless admiration, then paused, adding,
"It's ture! She really said that to me. It must work--she has all thjose enormous diamonds. Terrible woman! But isn't it amazing how those women do it? Get away with it like that?"

Maria wrote:"It was one of those terrible trips on the train, on the way to Hollywood, before we took airplanes. Paulette Goddard was on the train--I think it was when she was married to Chaplin or maybe after. She came to my drawing room and we talked. Now you know me, I must have been very lonely to want to talk to Paulette Goddard! ...I think it was something that Papi had done...or maybe Aherne or Jean...and I told her how he treated me badly and she stood up and came shlepping back with a large jewelry case--a trunk!...and it was full! Nothing but diamonds! Like rocks! And she says to me, very serious, like a professor, "Marlene, you have to get diamonds. Colored stones are worth nothing. Only pure white stones have value. A man wants you? It's easy! You say no, right away. The next day, he sends you long-stemmed roses, you send them back. The next day, when the orchids arrive, you send them back. His little gifts, expensive perfume, handbags from Hermes, mink coats--things like that, you send them back. Rubies and diamond clips--back, even emeralds and diamond pins. When the first diamond bracelet arrives, it's usually small, so you send it back, but you call him and say thank you--sweetly. The next day, when the larger diamond bracelet arrives, you send that back, but allow him to take you out to lunch--nothing else! The first diamond ring is never big--give it back, but say yes to dinner...go dancing...remember never, ever sleep with a man until he gives you a pure white stone of at least 10 carats!"
My mother always intoned this credo in a stage whisper, full of breathless admiration, then paused, adding,
"It's true! She really said that to me. It must work--she has all thjose enormous diamonds. Terrible woman! But isn't it amazing how those women do it? Get away with it like that?"

Thank you, Tracy! I love it. And I could hear Dietrich saying it too: "It was one of those tewible twips on the twain..." I must get that book...

Hi,

Hilarious story about Dietrich....

No doubt Paulette had many, many diamonds but she also had coloured stones too.
She gave me a ruby ring set in gold for my 18th birthday simply becaused she preferred rubies and said, "So you'll remember me, I'm giving you a nice ruby!!".....

I have heard a story about her on an airplane taking a fishing tackle box and putting her jewels in there. She apparently opened it and started cleaning her jewelry and aquired a sizable audience doing it.

She also had a rather sizable necklace that she claimed was made up of all her engagement rings!!
What a gal!!!!

Larry

The Riva biography is very interesting. The most entertaining parts are the ones where Maria recreates conversations her mother had or those little "pieces." Maria had very mixed feelings about her mother and this comes through. It's not a "Marlene Dearest" book by any means, but it must have been very very confusing growing up Dietrich's daughter, not only because of the strange domestic arrangements they had, but because she was never entirely sure where she stood in her mother's affections, because Dietrich either worshipped her and smothered her with affection or basically ignored her. And I don't think she ever really forgave Maria for getting married and moving out on her own.

Has anyone asked this question yet this weekend?

Did you see Crawford's Straight-Jacket last Friday?

If you did, do you remember the early scene where she peers into a window, sees her husband in bed with another woman, and then looks around the yard, seeing an ax stuck in a stump? And did you say to yourself: "Tina! Bring me the ax!"?

Just wondering.

jdb1 wrote:Did you see Crawford's Straight-Jacket last Friday? If you did, do you remember the early scene where she peers into a window, sees her husband in bed with another woman, and then looks around the yard, seeing an ax stuck in a stump? And did you say to yourself: "Tina! Bring me the ax!"?

I saw this movie when I was a kid, and I'm still scarred by it. That scene was so horrifying to me. I haven't seen it since, but it's branded into my grey cells. However, I had the opposite experience: when I went to opening night of Mommie Dearest at San Francisco's Regency Theatre and witnessed the destruction of the rose garden, capped by Faye Dunaway's cry -- "Tina! Bring me the ax!" -- I pictured Joan decapitating her husband and jangling her heavy bracelets.

Moraldo Rubini wrote:

jdb1 wrote:Did you see Crawford's Straight-Jacket last Friday? If you did, do you remember the early scene where she peers into a window, sees her husband in bed with another woman, and then looks around the yard, seeing an ax stuck in a stump? And did you say to yourself: "Tina! Bring me the ax!"?

I saw this movie when I was a kid, and I'm still scarred by it. That scene was so horrifying to me. I haven't seen it since, but it's branded into my grey cells. However, I had the opposite experience: when I went to opening night of Mommie Dearest at San Francisco's Regency Theatre and witnessed the destruction of the rose garden, capped by Faye Dunaway's cry -- "Tina! Bring me the ax!" -- I pictured Joan decapitating her husband and jangling her heavy bracelets.

Absolutely. Joan was far more terrifying in Straight-Jacket than anything Dunaway could muster later on. When Joan was head-chopping, I wondered what or who exactly she was really thinking about. The movie was pretty awful in and of itself, but Joan was well worth the price of admission. Interestingly, in the scenes where she was being flirty with her daughter's boyfriend, in her thick makeup and floozy-ish dress, she sort of conjured up a vision of Bette Davis for me. I wonder if she was deliberately making fun of Davis. As they say in Lost Skeleton of Cadavra: Hmmmm ..... I wonder.

There's just one problem for me: I wasn't able to see the end of the film, and I don't know if Joan was really nuts or if someone was trying to "Gaslight" her. If anyone knows how this film ended, maybe you might send me a PM, so as not to spoil the ending for others? Thanks. JDB

Judith wrote:There's just one problem for me: I wasn't able to see the end of the film, and I don't know if Joan was really nuts or if someone was trying to "Gaslight" her. If anyone knows how this film ended, maybe you might send me a PM, so as not to spoil the ending for others?

You've got mail! I think I was about 8 when I saw this movie, but I still remember the ending, Joan's mad scene, etc.

Moraldo Rubini wrote:

Judith wrote:There's just one problem for me: I wasn't able to see the end of the film, and I don't know if Joan was really nuts or if someone was trying to "Gaslight" her. If anyone knows how this film ended, maybe you might send me a PM, so as not to spoil the ending for others?

You've got mail! I think I was about 8 when I saw this movie, but I still remember the ending, Joan's mad scene, etc.

Got it, Marco. Thanks.