Suave actor Adolphe Menjou was born 125 years ago today, on 18-February-1890 in the little French village of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After serving in World War One, he appeared in many silent movies. He had no trouble moving on to talkies. He was always known for his elegant dress. His politics were reactionary. He talked to the House Un-American Activities Committee about supposed Communist influence in Hollywood.
I don't know how many of his movies I have seen. I know I have seen him in Chaplin's
A Woman of Paris, Ernst Lubitsch's
The Marriage Circle, Lewis Milestone's The Front Page (one of my favorites), Frank Borzage's
A Farewell to Arms, Little Miss Marker, Busby Berkeley's
Gold Diggers of 1935, Leo McCarey and Harold Lloyd's
The Milky Way, Wild Bill Wellman's
A Star is Born and
Roxie Hart, Greg La Cava's
Stage Door, George Marshall's
The Goldwyn Follies, Rouben Mamoulian's
Golden Boy, William A Seiter's
You Were Never Lovelier, Frank Capra's
State of the Union, Edward Dmytryk's
The Sniper, and Stanley Kubrick's
Paths of Glory. I have probably left out as many movies as I have mentioned.
