07 Tuesday May 2024
Posted in Film, Jeanne Eagels
≈ Comments Off on Rain in May: Joan in Bristol, and Jeanne in Oz
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Jeanne Eagels, Rain, Kim Novak, Joan Crawford, Jeanne Eagels (1957), Walter Huston, Jeffrey Kaufman, Bristol, Film Noir UK, Derek Winnert, James Harrison
A midday screening of Lewis Milestone’s Rain (1932) heads up a double bill at the Bristol Aquarium cinema this Saturday, May 11. The event boasts an introduction by programmer James Harrison of Film Noir UK, and is followed by another classic Joan Crawford vehicle, Sudden Fear (1952.) Continue reading
16 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Jeanne Eagels
≈ Comments Off on ‘The Best Way to Forget, Until You Find Something You Want to Remember’
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'The Best Way to Forget Until You Find Something You Want to Remember', Amy Winehouse, Bette Davis, Christine Keeler, Cob Gallery, If You Don't Want My Peaches (You Better Stop Shaking the Tree), Jean Harlow, Jeanne Eagels, Kim Novak, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Nina Mae Fowler, Rita Hayworth, The Letter
Nina Mae Fowler is a British artist who trained at the University of Brighton, and lives in Norfolk. Her latest solo exhibition, If You Don’t Want My Peaches (You’d Better Stop Shaking the Tree), on display at London’s Cob Gallery until September 28, borrows its title from an Irving Berlin song, and draws heavily on the iconography of Hollywood’s golden age. I was delighted to find Jeanne Eagels among the subjects, as she is often neglected. This portrait shows Jeanne in her penultimate movie (and only surviving talkie), The Letter (1929.) Continue reading
18 Friday Jan 2019
Posted in Film, Jeanne Eagels
≈ Comments Off on ‘Peak Strange’: The Jeanne Eagels Biopic
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Biopic, Farran Smith Nehme, Helen Morgan, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels (1957), Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Kim Novak, Sam H. Harris, Virginia Grey
Whenever I mention Jeanne Eagels, movie fans invariably ask if I’ve seen Kim Novak playing her onscreen. And my answer is usually this: “love Kim, hate the film.” Over at her Self-Styled Siren blog today, Farran Smith Nehme takes a closer look at the ‘Highly Fictionalised Biopics’ that were all the rage in 1957. (Jeanne’s friend, singer Helen Morgan, was another victim that year.) Continue reading
13 Saturday Feb 2016
Posted in Anniversaries, Film
≈ Comments Off on Born On This Day: Kim Novak
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Biopic, Dorothy Kilgallen, Eddie Doherty, George Sidney, Jean Louis, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels (1957), Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Jeff Chandler, Kim Novak, Louella Parsons, Rita Hayworth, The Jeanne Eagels Story, The Rain Girl
Marilyn Pauline Novak was born in Chicago on February 13, 1933. Her father was a history teacher who also worked as a railroad dispatcher, and her mother was employed in a factory. Both parents were of Czech descent, and had an elder daughter, Arlene. Continue reading
28 Sunday Jun 2015
Posted in Books, Film, History, Jeanne Eagels, Non-Fiction, Theatre
≈ Comments Off on More Birthday Tributes: ‘Jeanne Eagels Was Robbed!’
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Biopic, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels (1957), Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Journeys in Classic Film, Kim Novak, Laini Giles, Lars Nilsen, Rain, Sadie Thompson, Sepia Stories
Why did Jeanne Eagels – the original Sadie Thompson, and a Broadway legend – never bring Rain to the big screen? Author Laini Giles considers this lost opportunity, in a Classic Movie Blogathon post for Sepia Stories.
Meanwhile, Lars Nilsen has written a mini-biography of Jeanne for AFS Viewfinders, describing her as ‘an incandescent, proto-method actress.’ And over at Journeys in Classic Film, a perceptive review of Jeanne Eagels, the 1957 biopic starring Kim Novak, nails its many distortions.
Tara Hanks 
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