OVP: Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)

Film: Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)

Stars: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, Jimmy Durante

Director: Richard Thorpe

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Screenplay)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on June Allyson: click here to learn more about Ms. Allyson (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

June Allyson's career in Hollywood started rather conventionally.  She was originally a chorus girl on Broadway, getting a spot as an understudy to Betty Hutton in Panama Hattie, and after Hutton got the measles (and Allyson got to go on), she caught the eye of a Broadway director, who put her as the lead in his next show.  From there, she went to Hollywood, where an MGM screen test put her under contract immediately.  Her first real breakthrough role was in today's film, Two Girls and a Sailor, where she was paired off with Van Johnson.  Johnson was known as the "boy next door" at MGM, and got to play these parts regularly, and Allyson was soon after referred to as "the girl next door" on the lot.  The two would make six films together in all (this is the only one I am planning we'll get to this month as Allyson made a lot of movies), most of them quite successful, including today's film, which would make Allyson a leading lady for the next thirteen years.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about two sisters Patsy (Allyson) and Jean (DeHaven) who grew up in a show business family, sometimes performing as children opposite comedian Junior Kipp (Durante).  When they get older, they are a successful singing duo who want to open up a club, but they can't because they don't have the money.  What they do have is a crew of handsome soldiers & sailors following them around (great problem if you can get it), and one of them is John Dyckman Brown III (Johnson), an extremely wealthy man who is also in the Navy.  They don't know that John has been sending Jean flowers, and when they spend a night getting to know each other, he buys them their dream venue, not revealing that he's actually a wealthy heir to a $60 million fortune.  The problems arise when it's clear that Patsy and John are in love, but she thinks he loves her sister (and that he's penniless).  Before the film ends, Jean goes off with one of her other suitors, pushing Patsy & John (whom she now knows is rich) into each others arms.

The film's original screenplay nomination is kind of silly, even if it's a genuinely lovely little movie.  The plot makes no sense if you assume that, during the time that both sisters were smitten with Johnny, they never bothered to ask him his last name or anything about his family.  But this will be a problem for when I get to that chapter of the Oscar Viewing Project later, as otherwise Two Girls and a Sailor is lovely.  The music is really great.  This is one of many MGM musicals in the 1940's that would use big names of the era and singers under star contracts (such as Lena Horne) to add a touch of excitement & glamour to the film.  Horne is wonderful, as is Harry James (who does trumpet with Allyson to the tune "The Young Man with the Horn," which I believe is the first appearance of this song that would become a James staple), and Jimmy Durante.  The funniest number is a skit that Gracie Allen does where she just plays two notes as the star pianist to an otherwise very busy orchestra; though she'd continue to do radio & television with her husband George Burns for another two decades, this would be her final film appearance.

As for our star of the month, I'm instantly enamored.  I've seen a couple of June Allyson movies, but because she isn't an "Oscar-nominated actress" I honestly haven't seen a lot of her.  Watching her here, it's intoxicating to understand why this role, in particular, made her such a big name in Hollywood.  Every scene she owns, and she does it effortlessly, like the camera is drawn to her.  After watching the most recent Hunger Games picture, my friend Cody said of Rachel Zegler (and I agreed), "this (star power) is the kind of special effect that money can't buy"...that's what Allyson is doing here.  There's something in her singing, her husky voice, her warm expression...you want to see it again-and-again.  Allyson oftentimes disparaged her abilities (she once said of herself "My voice is funny, I don't sing like Judy Garland and I don't dance like Cyd Charisse"), but it's easy to see why America disagreed with her.

Words and Music (1948)

Picture: Words and Music (1948)

Stars: June Allyson, Perry Como, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sothern, Tom Drake, Cyd Charisse, Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh, Marshall Thompson, Mel Torme, Vera-Ellen

Director: Norman Taurog

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Ann Sothern: click here to learn more about Ms. Sothern (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

By the late 1940's, about the time that Ann Sothern would be soon entering her forties (she was born in 1909), her career had hit a decided slump.  The Maisie pictures ended in 1947, and while she had consistently made movies throughout the decade, other than Maisie the movies hadn't really caught on in the same way-she wasn't an established star like Judy Garland or Gene Tierney, not the kind who could demand respect & acclaim & Oscar nominations, and as a result her contract was in peril with MGM.  In 1948, she tried to jump-start her career with two musicals, April Showers, which was a poorly-reviewed musical for Warner Brothers, and then Words and Music. Words and Music was a weird film for Sothern because by most standards, it was a hit, wildly popular both domestically & abroad...but due to exorbitant costs (including giving Judy Garland a fortune for what amounts to little more than a cameo), the film couldn't break even, and as a result, Sothern's star continued to diminish.  Today we'll look at Words and Music which, despite an all-star lineup of MGM talent, is listless & forgettable.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is a semi-autobiographical look at the creative partnership between Richard Rodgers (Drake) and Lorenz Hart (Rooney), two of the bigger names of the early 20th Century for musical theater.  Most modern audiences know Rodgers for his partnership with Oscar Hammerstein, which produced classics like Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, and South Pacific, but his time with Hart was very successful.  American songbook classics like "The Lady is a Tramp," "Manhattan," and "Blue Moon" came out of their partnership.  Throughout the film, we see how Rodgers wooed his eventual wife (played by Janet Leigh here) while Hart's stature causes him to suffer with women, and tumble into a deep depression.  This is interspersed with "cameos" from much of the biggest names in the cast doing musical number versions of classic Rodgers & Hart numbers.

The film's biggest problem is that, even for an MGM musical, the plot is pretty thin.  Rodgers' life seems idyllic & pretty much an overnight success (in a fourth-wall break in the opening scenes of the movie, he basically admits as such), which might make for fine domesticity in real life, but isn't great for a movie.  Hart's life was much more complicated, but it was his homosexuality (and the homophobic culture of the 1940's) that caused his alcoholism, self-hatred, and eventual friction with Rodgers that led the partnership to break up.  No one in the film can pull off him simply being upset about being short work (since him being gay in an MGM movie would've been unthinkable), particularly Mickey Rooney.  Forget for a fact that Rooney is about as good of an example as you can come up with for a short guy whose success led to romantic touchdowns (the man married Ava Gardner, for crying out loud); Rooney is simply not a good enough actor to play a part this subtle, and his histrionics totally derail the movie.

The film's best part are the musical cameos, though our star Sothern hardly stands out in this regard.  Admittedly, Sothern is a fine singer but her skill-set is best used in comedy & dialogue.  When you put her next to Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, & June Allyson, all four troupers whose biggest talent was as musical-comedy stars...you just can't compete.  Garland had $100,000 worth of medical bills at the time & used her cameo here to get them all paid off, but honestly the real highlight of the movie is Lena Horne, singing the hell out of "The Lady is a Tramp" in what is the most-remembered sequence in Words and Music.  Alas, Horne was too much of a financial risk in Southern theaters at the time, and so we don't get enough of her...and the rest of the movie can't compare.

Panama Hattie (1942)

Film: Panama Hattie (1942)

Stars: Red Skelton, Ann Sothern, Rags Ragland, Ben Blue, Marsha Hunt, Virginia O'Brien, Dan Dailey, Lena Horne

Director: Norman Z. McLeod

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Ann Sothern: click here to learn more about Ms. Sothern (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

After Maisie, Ann Sothern's career definitely entered a strange era.  Similar to an actor today like Melissa McCarthy or Jon Hamm, who has a hit TV series and then tries to experiment with other options in their film career, seeing if lightning strikes to bring them to the next level she alternated between her moneymaking series & trying to find a less typecast niche.  For Sothern, Panama Hattie, which was made during the midway point of her Maisie-bolstered career (her last film for the series was in 1947), both was & wasn't that movie.  The film was a hit, a pretty big one by the standards of Sothern's career, but it was not a critical success.  Originally starring Ethel Mermen when the musical it was inspired from was playing on Broadway, the translation was lambasted by critics, and the production was troubled.  When it comes to Saturdays with the Stars, this kind of recipe (where critical & commercial success differ) is frequently my favorite combination-getting to go into a movie trying to understand if it was the critics or the public that got it wrong usually yields some of the most interesting movies.  Unfortunately, the critics were the correct ones in this scenario.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie focuses on Hattie (Sothern), a nightclub singer who is in love with a moneyed naval officer named Dick Bulliard (Dailey).  Dick's ex Leila Tree (Hunt) has designs on him, and she might have a shot at him as Hattie keeps screwing up her relationship with Dick's daughter, who has recently started staying with him.  What starts as a frosty relationship blossoms into a friendship, and soon his daughter Gerry is helping Hattie, along with three of her naval buddies, including one played by Red Skelton, who get into a series of shenanigans that eventually (inexplicably) involve a bed of hungry crocodiles.  The movie ends with Hattie & Dick together, though it actually concludes with a patriotic rendition of "The Son of a Gun Who Picks on Uncle Sam," to close things out.

The movie is strange for a variety of reasons, and perhaps one of the biggest, and why it failed in its translation, is that a lot of the musical numbers from the original production are not in the movie.  Only three songs made it to the film version, and while there are times that's okay (specifically the two Lena Horne numbers, which are the highlight of the movie), most of the time the additions are silly filler, and not successful.  The closing "Uncle Sam" number, in particular, feels like wartime propaganda that falls completely flat, and like it misread the movie entirely.

The cast doesn't help much.  Sothern works fine here (she's a pro for a rom-com), but she's saddled with playing a ridiculous woman, and that's hard if the script doesn't acknowledge it.  It's a key plot point that Hattie behaves like a child in front of Gerry rather than just brush off a little girl laughing at her outfit, and yet that takes up like a third of the movie, and we're meant to believe that a nightclub singer could be so ruffled by a little girl.  Sothern is better than most of her costars, though.  The entire subplot involving Skelton, Ragland, & Blue as interchangeable sailors feels like such a bizarrely-handled scenario (they read like a comedic Rosencrantz & Guildenstern) that you'll be forgiven for forgetting what their actual connection to Hattie is at all.  And Dan Dailey continues to be one of the dullest leading men in Classical Hollywood, his Dick about as charming as lead paint.  The only saving grace on the call sheet is Horne, in immaculate vocal range during her years at MGM where she was relegated to just doing musical numbers that could easily be lifted in Southern theaters.  Despite being a hit for Sothern at the time, this movie is a giant miss for me.

Saturdays with the Stars Season 2 Finale

Two of our legendary Stars of 2020,
Sophia Loren & Jayne Mansfield

Yesterday with The Three Musketeers we hit the finale of our second season of "Saturdays with the Stars," and before we start the new year (and a new season, devoted to Hitchcock's leading ladies), I wanted to take time to celebrate another season, and one I treat as a success.  We never missed a Saturday (there was one close call, but that was really it-being stuck at home made at least this part of 2020 easier), and I saw a lot of new movies & now have a better understanding of twelve stars, some of which I knew next to nothing about before this year.  And I hope you learned something as well!

It's always fascinating to me to focus on an actor's career, rather than as we typically do in film discussions on a director's.  Watching these women, particularly under the guise of "Sex Symbols" was intriguing to me because Hollywood had different attitudes toward these beautiful women as the public began to find their sexuality passé, or eventually, absent.  It is kind of heartbreaking to watch someone like a Jayne Mansfield or Raquel Welch, who clearly chose poorly at select moments of their careers & paid the price for it, and fascinating to watch a figure like Sophia Loren or Ann-Margret who was able to rise above their studio-forced persona and eventually gain mainstream critical recognition in their lifetimes.

Every film I watched this year was a movie I was seeing for the very first time, as well, so once again I was blown away by the expanses of Classic Hollywood, rich with westerns and noir and musicals that I'd never been exposed to.  Next year we'll do our third and final tour of Classic Hollywood actresses (after that, if we continue the series, we're going to either add men or a more modern element for a fourth season), so we'll continue to mine this well, but before we do that, let's hand out some superlatives for this year's leading ladies.

Favorite Performance from Each Star

January: Jean Harlow-Red Dust

February: Betty Grable-I Wake Up Screaming

March: Lena Horne-Cabin in the Sky

April: Rita Hayworth-Separate Tables

May: Lana Turner-The Postman Always Rings Twice

June: Marilyn Monroe-The Misfits

July: Jayne Mansfield-Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

August: Sophia Loren-Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

September: Gina Lollobrigida-Come September

October: Nancy Kwan-The World of Suzie Wong

November: Ann-Margret-Carnal Knowledge

December: Raquel Welch-The Three Musketeers

5 Favorite Actresses of the Year (Alphabetical)

Jean Harlow

Rita Hayworth

Sophia Loren

Marilyn Monroe

Lana Turner

5 Favorite Performances of the Year (Alphabetical)

Rita Hayworth, Separate Tables

Sophia Loren, Two Women

Sophia Loren, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Marilyn Monroe, The Misfits

Lana Turner, The Postman Always Rings Twice

10 Favorite Films of the Year (Alphabetical)

Cabin in the Sky

Cover Girl

I Wake Up Screaming

Imitation of Life

Libeled Lady

The Misfits

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Red Dust

Separate Tables

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Top 10 Performances of the Year (Not By Our Leading Ladies)

Clark Gable, The Misfits

David Niven, Separate Tables

Eli Wallach, The Misfits

Ethel Waters, Cabin in the Sky

Eve Arden, Cover Girl

Jennifer Jones, Beat the Devil

Juanita Moore, Imitation of Life

Laird Cregar, I Wake Up Screaming

Susan Kohner, Imitation of Life

Thelma Ritter, The Misfits

OVP: The Wiz (1978)

Film: The Wiz (1978)
Stars: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne
Director: Sidney Lumet
Oscar History: 4 nominations (Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography, Song Score)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Lena Horne-click here to learn more about Ms. Horne (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Lena Horne had a career, a truly steady, vibrant reliable career, for a longer stretch than virtually any other actor of Classical Hollywood.  Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Ava Gardner, Judy Garland-they had all long since passed away while Horne was still doing her act.  But her film career pretty much died when she lost both Pinky and Show Boat, and thus refused to consider another contract with MGM.  She spent the next few decades doing television, theater, and nightclub acts near constantly.  During that time, Horne was blacklisted (for her association with Paul Robeson), and became a pioneering voice in the Civil Rights movement, working with voices as diverse as John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Medger Evers.  But in terms of her time in the cinema, Horne appeared in just two narrative features after the 1950's-first, the Don Siegel-directed Death of a Gunfighter, and then today's entry in our series, The Wiz, directed by her (then) son-in-law Sidney Lumet.

(Spoilers Ahead) I know this is odd, but I'd never actually seen The Wiz and was not at all prepared for what was about to happen in this movie.  For those unfamiliar, the movie is a re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz story with Dorothy (Ross) now a New York teacher in her mid-twenties who lives with her aunt and uncle and never has gone below 125th Street (which is basically the southern border of Harlem, if you aren't familiar), and seems scared to start her own life.  A snowstorm transports her to the land of Oz, where she meets a Scarecrow (Jackson), Tin Man (Russell), and Cowardly Lion (Ross) who are in wont of a brain, heart, and courage, respectively.  Together with Dorothy, trying to find a way home, they go to find "the Wiz" (Pryor) a wizard who is supposedly so powerful that he'll be able to give them all that they desire.

This all sounds pretty close to the idea of the Wizard of Oz, right?  It's in the execution that the film becomes something resembling an acid trip (in a way not even the 1939 classic could do on its strangest day).  The Wiz, originally a Broadway production, combines blaxploitation-era touches with just some bizarre production design to create a truly distinct visual.  You'll see the people of the Emerald City disco dancing as the Wiz changes the color of all of their clothes, and a frightening Mabel King bellowing out as the Wicked Witch of the West.

The film is impossible to watch without a clear understanding of the original film or book, because it strays so vehemently from logic in hopes of getting to the next outlandish motif (seriously-the Oscar-nominated set design here approaches something like 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas in its abundance & garishness) or musical number.  It'd have the makings of a proper camp classic (which in a lot of ways it is), except it's pretty dull.  With the exception of "Get on Down the Road" and "Home" there are no truly memorable musical numbers, and no one is doing heavy-lifting in terms of acting.  Ross is dreadfully dull (and miscast) even if she's on-fire vocally, and Pryor, whom one would assume would be able to steal the film in a late third act appearance, is dull (something he's never been accused of before).  Jackson brings a naivete that would work for Scarecrow, but considering the troubling knowledge we'd learn about his private life in the coming decades, it's hard to watch this without it feeling unnerving.  About the only Oscar nomination I'll get behind is the costume design, which is unique & occasionally fascinating (the whole disco scene requires a very specific color scheme to work so well), but the rest feel like a way for AMPAS to get behind a flop that had cost a fortune.

Horne is only in one scene of the movie, delivering a musical interlude of "Believe in Yourself" and proving that she, unlike the Wiz, is powerful enough to get Dorothy home.  Sixty-years-old (but still impossibly beautiful) at the time, it's both a reminder of the sort of roles she had played before (just being trotted out to do a musical number that is inconsequential to the plot), and what might have been in a different era.  Diana Ross, her costar, was able to have a more balanced stardom, getting to star in a mainstream hit like Mahogany and even getting an Oscar nomination for Lady Sings the Blues.  Horne would never act in another movie, though she'd reach arguably the peak of her professional career three years later with her one-woman show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, winning a Tony & two Grammys for her work.  Though her time in the cinematic spotlight was brief, it was well-remembered.  Sixty years after she signed with MGM, one of the first people that Halle Berry thanked when she became the first black woman to win Best Actress at the Oscars was Lena.

Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

Film: Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
Stars: June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Van Heflin, Lena Horne, Dorothy Patrick, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Robert Walker, Cyd Charisse, Angela Lansbury
Director: Richard Whorf (Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley, Henry Koster, & George Sidney all also directed scenes in what sounds like a rough shoot, but none were credited)
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Lena Horne-click here to learn more about Ms. Horne (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

For the past two weeks we have focused on the two major highlights of Lena Horne's film career during Classical Hollywood.  Stormy Weather and Cabin in the Sky were big deals, major motion pictures that starred African-American casts and were distributed by major studios.  However, these were anomalies.  For much of Horne's career in the 1940's and 50's, her film career was that of mere cameos.  Frequently she'd appear in films like Thousands Cheer, Swing Fever, and Ziegfield Follies as nothing more than someone that could belt out a classic tune, and then move on with the plot, oftentimes playing herself or simply a "famous singer."  This was because, since Horne was not playing stereotypical roles like maids or servants, she couldn't be seen in movies of the era in the South, and the studio couldn't afford to put her in major productions for risk that the lack of a southern box office would mean they couldn't recoup some of their investment.  This becomes particularly bitter with a movie like Till the Clouds Roll By, a 1946 MGM extravaganza, but we'll get to why in a second.

(Spoilers Ahead) Till the Clouds Roll By is the first of a quartet of biopics produced by the studio during this era where it's loosely based on the life of a famed composer (in this case Jerome Kern, as played by Robert Walker), but mostly it's an excuse for the studio to put its biggest musical stars into the picture singing the greatest hits of those composers (worth noting that the second of these films, Words and Music, also starred Lena).  As a result, the plot here is a bit thin, even by the standards of a 1940's musical.  We have Kern, falling in love with his wife Eva (Patrick), being mentored by another composer James Hessler (Heflin), and eventually trying to find some sort of path for Hessler's daughter Sally (Bremer) when she turns out spoiled & eventually, a runaway.  All of this is told in flashback by Kern to his cab driver on the night of Show Boat's premiere, which would help him to reach a new echelon of success.

The film on its merits is, well, a mixed bag (charitably).  I actually knew very little about Kern's life, and it's worth noting that while there are countless standards here, you might not be as familiar with him as you'd think either.  With the exception of Show Boat, while his songs are still well-known from other shows, none of his musicals are really done anymore, and so he's not recalled in the same way that someone like Rodgers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Loewe might be today since their films/musicals are more frequently revived.  However, the acting in this portion is dreadful (even performers as gifted as Walker or Heflin can't sell this dreck), and you spend the entire movie wishing they'd get back to the singing.

That's because the musical numbers in Till the Clouds Roll By are sublime.  Angela Lansbury sings for the first time onscreen in the cheeky "How'd You Like to Spoon Me" and Judy Garland (very pregnant with Liza Minnelli during the shoot) is at her "awe shucks" best with "Look for the Silver Lining."  Some of the numbers are cut short (at 135 minutes, this is a particularly long film) to make way for the unnecessary plot, such as Dinah Shore's "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and, most regrettably, a ballet between Cyd Charisse & Gower Champion to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," but you'll leave being enchanted by these numbers.

And no songs are more enchanting than Lena Horne's two numbers, for my money the best in the production (and look at that cast list-this is hardly an ensemble filled with backbenchers).  Her "Why Was I Born?" is regal & glorious.  Horne once opined in an interview (with Judy Garland, oddly enough) that she always struggled to "sing pretty," but I don't know that anyone has ever looked so glamorous while singing in Classical Hollywood-if they have, I can't recall it.  Watching this scene, you'll either cry because you're moved, or because you are so angry that MGM couldn't have given Horne some proper classic musicals during this era.

Because, as the other song showed, Horne never really got a chance after Stormy Weather & Cabin in the Sky.  Here she sings "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from Show Boat, one of the biggest numbers for Julie Laverne.  Horne desperately wanted the part when MGM decided to make the actual film, and in fact her costar here Kathryn Grayson (who plays Magnolia Hawks in Clouds' production of Show Boat) ended up playing the part she plays in this 1946 film when the big-screen Show Boat was made in 1951.  However, thanks to the Hays Code banning interracial romance onscreen, Horne's part was given to her friend Ava Gardner, a white woman despite the part being written for a biracial woman.  As a result, a role that Horne was born to play (and does so beautifully here) went to a woman who didn't even end up singing onscreen.  Combined with her regret over not getting the title role in Pinky (which won Jeanne Crain, another white woman playing a biracial performer, an Oscar nomination), Horne essentially left Hollywood for Vegas and the nightclub circuit.  Next week we will conclude our look at Horne with one last film role, far removed from the oppression Classic Hollywood put on her acting career.

OVP: Cabin in the Sky (1943)

Film: Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Happiness is a Thing Called Joe")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Lena Horne-click here to learn more about Ms. Horne (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

It's not entirely clear if MGM, when it signed Lena Horne, had any intention of turning her into a proper movie star.  Though she was the first black performer signed to a legitimate star contract, the studio wasn't able to give her significant roles in major films due to laws in the South that forbade black performers from appearing in non-stereotypical parts (such as servants or slaves).  This meant that Horne only had one significant role in her time at MGM (last week's film, Stormy Weather, where she got the lead she was at Fox), as Georgia Brown in the all-black musical Cabin in the Sky, a very early film in the career of Vincente Minnelli.  We'll talk more about the rest of Horne's career at MGM next week, but as a film actress in Classical Hollywood, this was the biggest moment of her time at the studio that made it its business to ensure its contract players became stars.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is a musical-comedy, and a picture with something of a familiar premise, though an enjoyable one.  Here we have Little Joe (Anderson), a gambler who is married to a sainted woman named Petunia (Waters).  Little Joe is always on the wrong side of the law, gambling and finding himself in trouble, so when he dies, he is sentenced to go to hell.  However, Petunia begs the lord to spare him, and so Little Joe is given six months to change his ways, but there's a catch-he won't have any memory of the afterlife, and such must find his way by himself.  An angel (Kenneth Spencer) and a demon (Rex Ingram) guide him toward their own sides, with Petunia being a strong influence, but soon Joe is no match for the demon's whiles of money and a sexy new girlfriend, Georgia Brown (Horne).  The film ends with Little Joe realizing that he loves Petunia, but it's too late-he's going to hell while she's going to heaven.  A repentant Georgia Brown gets Little Joe into heaven, but it turns out it's all been a dream-Little Joe is back with Petunia, and vows to live a decent life from now on.

The film is brimming with cliche, but honestly, you will not care because Cabin in the Sky is amazing.  I loved it.  The performances are interesting, with snappy one-liners (the scene where Horne & Waters, now dressed like a showgirl, throw shade at each other is delicious), and the musical numbers are spectacular.  I don't know a lot about Ethel Waters as a performer-I've never seen her most famous role, as Dicey in Pinky (for which she was nominated for an Oscar), but she nails this part.  At times saintly, at other times sexy as hell (the high kicks!), she steals the entire damn movie and has both actorly and movie star charisma to match.  Real talk-I don't understand why we don't talk about Waters as a performer more often, because if she was capable of this, it's a great tragedy that she never was afforded more significant roles (and you can bet Pinky just got bumped up on my "to do" list).

Horne is a supporting part, despite third billing, but she's having a grand time here.  She gets to play a vixen (there's a famous deleted scene where she's singing in a bubble bath that was cut by the censors), and she is having a blast doing it.  Her musical number of "Honey in the Honeycomb" is flirty & fun, and she is great as the woman trying to sway Little Joe down the wrong path.  But the best musical number in the film belongs to Waters, singing "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe."  It says something about Waters that this tune has been covered by everyone from Peggy Lee to Judy Garland to Bette Midler (some of the great singers of the American songbook), but I've never heard it sung with as much meaning and passion as I did Waters.  The film lost to the equally classic "You'll Never Know" by the magnificent Alice Faye (we talked about this movie here, and man is this going to be a tough OVP), but honestly-it's just one of many magical moments in a film that is way better than its reputation.  Horne should have become a star off of this-next week we will explore what happened when that didn't occur.

Stormy Weather (1943)

Film: Stormy Weather (1943)
Stars: Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Dooley Wilson
Director: Andrew L. Stone
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Lena Horne-click here to learn more about Ms. Horne (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.


Looking at the career of Lena Horne presents a unique challenge that we haven't encountered in profiling any other star for this series to date.  While we have looked at actresses who were lesser-known (think Ruth Roman last year), they were still "leading ladies" long enough to come up with four films where they played a central role in the picture.  Otherwise, of course, they wouldn't generally be considered "stars."  This isn't really the case for Horne.  When she signed her contract with MGM in 1942, it was historic (the first African-American performer to sign a long-term star contract with a major studio), but MGM still had to deal with a South that wasn't willing to accept a black woman as a leading actress, and because there were few other black actors of her stature (and miscegenation laws precluded her from having an onscreen romance with a white man), she really only had small, cameo roles throughout her entire time at MGM...with two exceptions, only one of which was at her studio.  The first of those was Stormy Weather, a film made not for MGM but for Fox, which was one of the first major studio endeavors to feature a nearly all-black cast.


(Spoilers Ahead) The movie focuses on Bill Williamson (Robinson), a great dancer who is struggling to make a name for himself as a performer alongside his randy friend Gabe (Wilson).  They meet the beautiful Selina Rogers (Horne) on a night when she's singing (she's the sister of one of their fellow soldiers), and Bill is instantly smitten.  Selina takes a shine to him as well, though another headliner is staking his claim on her heart (here played by Babe Wallace).  The film shows how Bill continues to take a shine to Selina and welcomes stardom, but she chooses show business over him until the last act, while also indicating that Gabe's troublesome ways with women paid off as we see a flash forward to the future where he has multiple children.  The movie ends with Bill and Selina reunited on the stage again, perhaps willing to start their romantic relationship once more.

The plot of Stormy Weather is thin, even by 1940's musical standards, and I'll be real here-the movie isn't that good.  Putting aside the very, very big age gap between Horne and Robinson as paramours (at the time, Robinson was 65 and Horne was 26, and probably the only reason they were paired as they were two of the rare well-known black performers at the time), the movie goes on jaunts and tangents, and doesn't seem to have much interest in the two as a romantic couple.  It's hard to blame the movie too much for this (I would imagine considering its place in history that it's going to be a struggle to put anything but musical numbers into a movie like this, for risk of Fox making a political statement), but it has to be said that as a modern viewer, it's hard to appreciate this as a cohesive picture rather than just an almost variety act, even if I understand its historic significance.

That said, some of the musical numbers are fun.  Fats Waller (who died shortly after this movie was made) does a terrific version of "Ain't Misbehavin" and Ada Brown accompanies him in the saucy "That Ain't Right."  Robinson is still one of the great dancers, but it's hard not to think of how much better his jumping on drums would have been twenty years earlier when he was in his prime.  The best scene of all is Horne singing what would become her signature song, the titular "Stormy Weather."  There's an extended sequence of Katherine Dunham dancing during this number (I gasped initially when I thought some of the background dancers were topless, but instead it was just a visual trick as they wore sheer leotards), but it's Horne that brings it together.  Her powerful vocals and ability to put real emotion in them makes me excited as we continue to look at her this month, and also disappointed that she only got two chances to see her lead a picture-we'll get to the other movie she headlined next week.

Saturdays with the Stars: Lena Horne

Each month of 2020 we will be looking at the movies of some of Hollywood's most famous sex symbols, women whose intense beauty frequently overshadowed their filmic careers.  Last month, our focus was on Betty Grable, who became a pinup sensation during World War II while also maintaining a perch as the biggest star on the Fox lot.  This month, we will turn our attention to a pioneering actress, a civil rights icon, and yes, a sex symbol of her era, though unlike some of the women we're profiling this year, her career lasted decades after she first came onto the scene...just not at the cinema.  This month, our star is Lena Horne.

Lena Horne was born the daughter of a gambling kingpin and a noted theatre actress; she was the descendant of both slaves and (reportedly) John C. Calhoun, one of America's most pro-slavery politicians and a former vice president.  Her father left her when she was only three, so she was largely raised by her grandparents.  She became a chorus girl at the legendary Cotton Club at the age of only 16, and toured across the country for much of the 1930's until also taking a turn at a different iconic New York night club: Cafe Society.  By that time, though, Hollywood seemed to be in her sights as she'd already made a few bit parts in films before eventually relocating to California in the early 1940's.

Horne made history when she signed a long-term star contract with MGM in 1942.  At that point, no African-American had ever signed a star contract of that ilk, one that looked like some of her peers at MGM like Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, rather than a supporting part where she'd be forced to play a maid or servant.  At the time, however, most Southern movie theaters wouldn't allow films that featured African-American performers in non-stereotypical roles, and so Horne was rarely given an actual leading part in movies of the era, because she needed to be able to be edited out of the film for Southern audiences.  Her work in MGM pictures like Thousands Cheer, Swing Fever, and Two Girls and a Sailor frequently had her in small parts, with the leading roles going to white actresses like June Allyson & Kathryn Grayson.  During this era Horne would only receive major roles in one MGM picture, Cabin in the Sky, as well as Fox's Stormy Weather, where she'd get her signature song from the flick's title tune.

Horne's film career was brief, and likely wouldn't have been notable in hindsight were it not for her decades as a high-profile nightclub and cabaret performer, as well as a fixture on television variety shows.  She was turned down for the leads of Pinky and Show Boat, despite being a mixed race woman and the parts calling for mixed race women (both parts would go to white actresses), and almost never made movies past the 50's, save for 1978's The Wiz.  Still, her beauty & grace, as well as the trail she blazed for women of color was not forgotten-when Halle Berry name-checked three women who had made her victory as the first African-American woman to win Best Actress possible, she name-checked Horne alongside Diahann Carroll & Dorothy Dandridge.  Esteemed company, to be sure.  This month, we will take a look at this unique performer, and her brief career in film that was cut too short by racism & prejudice.

Top 200 Favorite Songs, Part 18

(If you're just tuning in, I'm doing a rundown of my Top 200 Favorite Songs-see the bottom of the page for previous entries and welcome!)

Art is an odd thing, in that it is finite.  You don't get to leave behind more than what you did before you died.  It's a sad tragedy of life that certain artists, by a trick-of-fate or by becoming overcome by their own genius or by placing drugs/alcohol in a place above their own well-being end up in a position that extinguishes them far too early.  This idea has become such a cliche that occasionally we assume every young artist who died long before their time was, in fact, dying of a drug overdose or a suicide, which I will admit was the case for me up until about five minutes ago with Jeff Buckley, the brilliant singer whose album Grace moved me to no end in college, and yet I always assumed, being that he died at thirty, that drugs were the cause, and not the truth (he died of an accidental drowning).  Buckley's genius, that beautiful, angelic, mystical singing voice combined with a face to match was something that attracted me fully when I was coming into my own as a person in my early twenties.  I think we all have that moment where we start projecting our celebrity crushes a little bit on the guys we date (it's only natural since the former taught us how to love and the latter gave us the real thing), and for me it was thinking that every guy might just be Jeff Buckley.  It's part of the reason we end up crushing on any guy who can play the guitar (hell, it's half the reason guys take up the guitar to begin with)-there's something sort of magical about that weird bridge that happens between the make-believe and the real.  Admittedly this eventually dissipates, but listening to Jeff Buckley's only album Grace, alone in the dark, I still can recapture some of those moments of lost youth long after they are gone.

30. "Respect," Aretha Franklin (1965)

Originally intended for Otis Redding (he actually wrote the song), Aretha Franklin's version became the quintessential rendition, an anthem demanding r-e-s-p-e-c-t for every woman who helped pay the bills and keep the house.  Initially meant as a bit of an anti-feminist style song, it became a feminist hit for the singer who wanted to feel like a natural woman.  Absolutely indispensable in my musical library.

29. "Neon Moon," Brooks & Dunn (1992)

One of the saddest songs ever written, I remember I used to roller-skate to this when I was a kid.  It was usually a couples skate song for whatever reason, and so it was the time I would go and get taffy or play some video games on the sides, which is about as perfect as you can get for a song that proclaims loneliness beneath the "light of a neon moon."  To this day this song feels both nostalgic and occasionally very appropriately mirroring my own life, and as a result just keeps trucking up this list.

28. "No Woman, No Cry," Bob Marley & the Wailers (1975)

Bob Marley's magnum opus, a beautifully-constructed song about a man begging his lover in the ghetto of Jamaica that things will be better, so she shouldn't cry.  This was the first song that managed to get me into the majesty of Reggae and of Marley himself-it's a wonderfully soft, tender lyric, particularly on the iconic live version.

27. "Think," Aretha Franklin (1968)

While "Respect" is almost everyone's knee-jerk answer to "favorite Aretha song," this will always be a couple of notches higher for me.  Aretha's other great feminist song starts out on high-octane and you just can't imagine how she'll stay there, but she not only does but increases that vocal prowess.  If you haven't stood in your room, tackling this song at the top of your lungs with a hairbrush, please double-check where your soul is.

26. "Stormy Weather," Lena Horne (1941/43)

Lena Horne wasn't the first person to sing "Stormy Weather," but she might as well have been the last as no one else could approach that wonderfully-exact voice of hers.  A woman who knew her fair share of stormy weather (she was blacklisted for her politics and frequently cut out of movies like Show Boat because she was African-American), her voice and this song is my go-to if I'm just walking around the house-I sing it without singing, which shows how many times I've listened to it.

25. "Yellow," Coldplay (2000)

I remember watching a Coldplay concert with my best friend at the time, and this was the song that ended the concert, which was appropriate as it's my favorite of all of their music.  The entire stadium flooded in yellow, and I had one of those moments where you aren't thinking about the past or the future, but living in the present, just sort of in awe.  It was one of those moments that in hindsight you know you'll think about all-the-time, but at the time you are just too aware of everything around you to realize it.

24. "With or Without You," U2 (1987)

Being someone who had their adolescence around the millennium, Ross-and-Rachel were pretty much the quintessential romantic idols you wanted to live up to, and as a result their song became part of my personal lore pretty quickly.  Even a decade after Friends, though, it's still a song that you can't help but feel something personal when it starts to play-the replaying of an old emotion as Bono's lyrics wash through you.

23. "Tired of Being Alone," Al Green (1971)

Apparently we're in the "John is having an emotional moment" section of the list (just wait until you hit the next song), as this is not only my favorite Al Green song, but one of his saddest.  I remember in college I used to play this song all-the-time when all of my friends were going out with their significant others and I was just home alone or being the tagalong third wheel.  As a result, its lyrics stick with me years later whenever I get into that funk.  And since it's his last song on the list, I will repeat-sexiest man to ever stand in front of a microphone.

22. "Nothing Compares 2 U," Sinead O'Connor (1990)

Sinead O'Connor may have become a bit of a source of controversy in the 25 years since she covered Prince's song (yes, this song was written by Prince), but her original claim-to-fame, this wonderful ode to a lover trying to get over being dumped is still a home run.  Plus, let's be honest-she was kind of ahead of her time in pointing out the child abuse scandals of the Catholic Church that would dominate the political conversation for years after her SNL performance.

21. "Hallelujah," Jeff Buckley (1994)

Leonard Cohen's classic has been covered by pretty much every singer with a pulse, but it's Buckley more so than even Cohen himself who finds the humanity in the lyrics, fighting to sing every single one of them as he feels the song as he goes through, creating great triumph and great sorrow all-at-once.  If you've never heard this version, you must click the above link immediately.

And there we are-twenty left to go, but before we get there have I hit any of your personal favorite jams this week?  What are your thoughts on Jeff Buckley?  And what singer did you crush on hard as you compared him to every boy you dated?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

If you've missed any of the past installments, go ahead and click: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

OVP: Meet Me in Las Vegas

Film: Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956)
Stars: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead, Lili Darvas, Jim Backus, Cara Williams, Paul Henreid, Lena Horne
Director: Roy Rowland
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Scoring of a Musical)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Celebrity is a funny thing, particularly when it's one that's rather fleeting.  That was one of the below-the-line aspects of this forgettable musical starring Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse, but it's the one that kept sticking out to me.  The film has a running gag of having nearly a dozen major stars of the era randomly show up in cameo appearances, some of whom are still recognizable (Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds) and some of whom you'd have to have a very keen knowledge of Hollywood to recognize (Pier Angeli, Vic Damone, Elaine Stewart).  All-in-all, it's still a fun game of "guess the star" (which is a game I enjoy in general when channel-surfing over to Turner Classic Movies), which distracts from a pretty mediocre plotline.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about Chuck (Dailey), a down-on-his-luck professional gambler and Maria (Charisse), a sheltered and prissy ballerina who by circumstance realize that when they hold hands, magical things start to happen.  Suddenly they find that they are insanely wealthy from gambling, and slowly they fall for each other after a night of carousing and gambling (which causes Maria's star to rise as a tabloid sensation).  As they fall in love, though, they start to realize that when you're lucky in love, you're unlucky at the card table, and in the end, after what appeared to be a fairly genuine breakup, they decide to give it a go, melding their two worlds into one.

I will say that there were portions of the film that I liked.  After an insane series of films from the 1950's and 60's where every single woman gives up a promising career for a man, it was refreshing to see that they weren't going to go that route here (half the year would be her career, half would be his), and I was desperately worried that she'd throw away her promising talent to please her man, so this was a most welcome development.  I also loved the dance numbers with Charisse-there's a reason this nabbed an Oscar nomination, as the ballet numbers are like something you can't imagine was caught onscreen; Charisse's impossibly long legs jet across the stage as if motorized.  Absolute precision, absolutely spell-binding, and the two guest numbers by Lena Horne and Frankie Laine (again, two of the many, many, many random celebrity cameos) were wonderful; Laine shows that gusto that would be his trademark and nobody can sing a torch song like Lena Horne.  It's kind of wonderful to see two major singing stars of the 50's unencumbered by screaming crowds or playing a part, just giving us a great musical performance.

The actual musical numbers integral to the plot in the film are much more miss than hit, though.  Dan Dailey's "Yellar Shoes" number is dreadful, and while his cute number with Mitsuko Sawamura is fun, it's more because Sawamura, who was enjoying an odd flash-in-the-pan fame at the time, is so enjoyable (if you'd like, you can see her sing during this same time period with Judy Garland right here).  Overall, though, I would say that it's more the dance direction that Oscar should have paid attention to rather than the scoring.  At least it wasn't a nomination other than the music, though, as the story and acting is just bad-Charisse plays Maria as too prim and Dailey's easy-going charm can't seem to find the cad he's supposed to be in the earlier scenes.

Those are my thoughts on this quiet little musical from the mid-50's-what are yours?  Has anyone seen it?  If not, what do you think of Dailey and Charisse, two major stars of this era?  And how do you think modern celebrity cameo bonanzas onscreen will fare in the future?  Share below!

AFI's 25 Greatest Actresses, Part 4

We have now counted through the women on the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Actresses list (click here and here and here and then return to us so that you're all caught up with the actress love-in that has sprung up this week in celebration of the life of Lauren Bacall).  You may be asking what's next?  What else could you possibly have to say about a 15-year-old list?  The answer is, well, plenty.

Since the internet was in its toddler stage fifteen years ago and because this blog didn't exist yet, I wasn't able to discuss that most critical of questions-who just missed the cut?  The requirements at the time were that it had to be a woman that had made her film debut in or before 1950, or had completed their body of work (had died).  With only 25 women listed, certainly a number of the overall nominated women (250 actresses were contenders, all listed here) just barely missed the cut, and Ava, Mary, and Carole probably had some stiff competition.

The question is-who was in 26th place just waiting to be given this honor (it's worth noting that every single one of these 25 women have the "greatest star" title listed on their Wikipedia page, so clearly some of these women probably would have wanted the citation, even posthumously).  Looking at the list, you find that the AFI isn't just weighing the 25 greatest actors of the era, but also those that had significant cultural impact and longevity within the public consciousness.  Someone like Grace Kelly, for example, didn't have a particularly robust filmography, but her position in Hollywood was astronomical.  Therefore, in choosing the ten women below, I didn't just go for strong actors, but also for people that have permeated modern movie consciousness and some who were more celebrities or stars than they were thespians.  I have listed the ten below in alphabetical order, as well as my postulation as to why they missed the cut.  In the comments, if you're feeling inclined, take a guess at which of these women were the closest to making the list and which one I'm insane for assuming could be so close to the AFI's greatest.

(Side note before we get in-I get a teensy bit negative in the "Why She Missed" sections, so keep in mind that this isn't my opinion that they should have missed (I'll save my favorite actresses of this era list for a different (very distant) day), but simply why I think they were skipped by the collective AFI voting committee; conversely, the "Why She Was Close to the List" section is arguing why they would have voted for these women, not whey they should have)

Jean Arthur (1900-1991)

Oscar Nominations: One nomination, for The More the Merrier (she lost to Jennifer Jones)

Why She Was Close to the List: Like Carole Lombard, she was one of the leading ladies of the 1930's in comedies, and in particular starred in three major motion pictures from Frank Capra: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It With You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  She was a major star of the screwball comedy and a significant box office draw in her day (she even starred late in her career in the classic western Shane).

Why She Missed: Arthur had a short reign in Hollywood, but unlike some of the other short reigns, hers was self-designed.  Arthur was an intensely private person and loathed interviews, and so as a result her public persona is almost entirely based on what she brought to the screen, unlike most of the other women that made the list.  I mean, she spent a good chunk of her late career as a teacher rather than a performer (she actually taught a young Meryl Streep at Vassar).

My Favorite Performance: Surely her bubble gum snap in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is the quintessential Jean Arthur performance (though Shane is by far my favorite of all of her films...and one of my favorite films, period).

Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Probably the George Stevens' classic The Talk of the Town with Ronald Colman and Cary Grant, which would go on to win a Best Picture nomination.

Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968)

Oscar Nominations: Ms. Bankhead never received an Oscar nomination or win.

Why She Was Close to the List: If you're going for iconic stars whose work still stands (Theda Bara isn't on this list because almost none of her films still exist to perpetuate her legend), you cannot get much better than deliciously scandalous Tallulah.  The daughter of Speaker of the House William Bankhead, she was a sensation both internationally and in the United States for her daring private life and fluid sexuality (almost every major star of the era has been rumored to an affair with her).  She also had an extremely iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.

Why She Missed: While Mae West was also more known for her bawdy behavior and celebrity, she did manage to make a film or two.  Bankhead was more noted for her stage work, and in particular for originating roles that would go on to be played onscreen by Bette Davis (Dark Victory and The Little Foxes).

My Favorite Performance: I mean, isn't everyone's favorite performance by Tallulah in Lifeboat?  You'd be hard-pressed to find a more significant film in her oeuvre.  

Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: It'd have to be Devil and the Deep, an early film in her career where she managed to get top billing over Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, and Charles Laughton (quite the combination).

Doris Day (1922-Present)

Oscar Nominations: Despite a dazzling career and being a major public draw for fifteen years, she only received one nomination in 1959 for Pillow Talk (she would lose to Simone Signoret).  Every year, though, like clockwork, the rumors spread that she'll win an Honorary Award.

Why She Was Close to the List: Probably the most surprising exclusion from the list, Day was at one point the most financially successful actress in Hollywood.  A Box Office superstar, she was all the public could demand from the mid-1950's to the mid-1960's and starred in a string of romantic comedy hits.  Even today her name is extremely well-known with audiences (even if her movies aren't necessarily) and everyone knows her as one of America's Sweethearts.

Why She Missed: It may be that her role and persona could be too dated?  Most of the other women toward the bottom of the initial list had either more artistic (such as Gardner or Lombard) or pioneering (Pickford) credit that Day, who was merely a titan of her industry.  Still, this is definitely the most surprising exclusion and was (my hunch) 26th place.

My Favorite Performance: I've seen many Doris Day films through the years (my mom was a big fan of hers), so I'm going to go with a childhood favorite right now in Calamity Jane.  It doesn't age particularly well (some of the songs are pretty sexist), but the music and sets and in particular Day are incredibly game and "Secret Love" is heavenly (and an oddly resonant coming out song for anyone who reads between the lines).

Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: There's a few options here, but since I've seen some of the biggest pictures of her career, I'm going to go with one that intrigues me most: Move Over, Darling, where Day is united with James Garner and Polly Bergen.  The film was a huge hit and kept the lights on at 20th Century FOX after Cleopatra (not to mention I want to see how Day does in a role that was originally intended for Marilyn Monroe).

Olivia de Havilland (1916-Present)

Oscar Nominations: De Havilland would receive five Oscar nominations during her career, winning twice in 1946 and 1949 for To Each His Own and The Heiress, respectively.

Why She Was Close to the List: Both Olivia and her sister Joan Fontaine could arguably have made this list without much fuss, but despite Joan being Hitchcock's great muse in Rebecca and winning the Oscar first, it was Olivia who enjoyed the more enduring star.  The second female lead in the great Gone with the Wind, she was a major movie star in the 1930's with her wildly successful string of eight pictures with Errol Flynn (the most critically-celebrated of these being The Adventures of Robin Hood) and had a long line of highly successful dramatic pictures in the 1940's and early 1950's.  Plus, considering that the AFI collected film scholars and actors, most of them would be aware of her landmark 1943 legal victory which gave greater control to performers in their contracts with studios.

Why She Missed: De Havilland was always seemingly sharing the spotlight with someone, and frequently another actress.  Whether it was playing second place to Vivien Leigh (it doesn't help that on a list of actresses where all 25 were leading ladies, de Havilland's most famous role was a supporting one) or her longtime feud with her sister, she never seemed to take the spotlight entirely onto herself.  Her name endures more today with casual film fans for Gone with the Wind and her longstanding rivalry with Joan rather than her initial celebrity.

My Favorite Performance: I'm going to go cliche with her bravura work as Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, though I've always had a soft spot for her work as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress.

Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I have never seen The Adventures of Robin Hood, which is one of the few classic films of that era that I haven't caught yet that I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing, and I believe that it's actually toward the top of my Netflix queue, so we'll be getting there pretty quickly.

Greer Garson (1904-1996)

Oscar Nominations: A staggering number of them in her career, she received seven nominations, including five of them consecutively, and won as the titular Mrs. Miniver in 1942's Best Picture.

Why She Was Close to the List: Seven Oscar nominations is a spectacular number for lead actress, and Garson was one of the most significant stars in the MGM lot throughout the 1940's when she was amassing that collection.  She starred in a number of iconic roles during this period, particularly Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (had she been Oscar-nominated for that role, which very well could have happened considering the critical acclaim, she would have been nominated seven years in a row).  The only other actress with a five-in-a-row streak was Bette Davis, and she landed in slot number two.

Why She Missed: For some reason there are actresses from every era that seem to slip into the background of history (think Garbo, Crawford, and then Norma Shearer), and Garson's luster never was quite as iconic as Davis's and Hepburn's following this time period.  It probably doesn't help that her frequent collaborator (all of the women of this era seemed to have one) was Walter Pidgeon, a name that is far less known than Garson's today (whereas Hepburn got someone like Spencer Tracy).  Garson also was almost exclusively a dramatic actress during her years at the top, and most of the women on this list either have a comic off-screen persona (Davis) or frequently starred in comedies onscreen (the Hepburns).

My Favorite Performance: Probably Mrs. Miniver, which was the exact right moment to give a major motion picture star her Oscar, as she totally nailed that role (and managed to carry it to a Best Picture win).

Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I have long thought that if I ever actually saw it Random Harvest would be the sort of Waterloo Bridge-style picture that I would latch onto pretty quickly, so I'll say that.

Lena Horne (1917-2010)

Oscar Nominations: Ms. Horne never won an Academy Award nomination or trophy during her long career, though one could have argued pretty validly that she deserved an Honorary Oscar toward the end there.

Why She Was Close to the List: I may get an eyebrow raise here as Lena Horne wasn't particularly well-known outside of the 1940's and even then had only a handful of film roles, but A) Grace Kelly had less roles in the movies and she made the list and B) as we've seen with a few women on the list, it's not just about the size of their filmography, but also their historical importance.  Horne was a pioneer during her era, the first African-American performer to sign a long-term contract with a Hollywood studio, and likely the most important black actress of her generation.  She starred in a couple of major MGM musicals, including Stormy Weather and The Cabin in the Sky.

Why She Missed: Her filmography, as I illustrated above, is pretty light when you throw out those two movies, and she didn't seem as smitten with Hollywood in the years after her heyday, instead preferring music and the stage.

My Favorite Performance: I'll admit right now, I have never seen a Lena Horne movie, though I've seen her perform many times in television specials and will sing her version of "Stormy Weather" in the shower at least once a week.

Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Either Stormy Weather or The Cabin in the Sky would seem appropriate, though considering that shower comment I'll probably select the former.

Deborah Kerr (1921-2007)

Oscar Nominations: Six nominations for Best Actress, never winning.  Only Thelma Ritter and Glenn Close have been nominated as an actress as many times and never won (and Kerr is the only person to have done so exclusively in the lead category).  She won an Honorary Academy Award in 1993 "in recognition for a full career's worth of elegant and beautifully crafted performances."
Why She Was Close to the List: Like Greer Garson, Kerr has a long history with the Academy Awards and is widely recognized as an actress of great talent and poise from this era.  Unlike Garson, though, Kerr has some films that have actually survived in the modern popular culture.  Films like The King and I, An Affair to Remember, and of course From Here to Eternity are frequently referenced today, and her wave-soaked make-out session with Burt Lancaster in the latter film in particular has been lampooned as frequently as Janet Leigh's shower and Darth Vader's paternal confession.  Kerr was also a frequent collaborator with Robert Mitchum, who did make the cut on the men's side (most of the famous cinematic "pairs" made it on both sides of this list-Kerr/Mitchum is one of the few that didn't).
Why She Missed: Like Garson, she isn't quite the iconic figure that some of these other women were, particularly offscreen where she had a relatively stable marriage for the latter half of her career to Peter Viertel (and she was never married to a movie star, which helps in boosting your legend).  It also has to be said that Kerr was always a bridesmaid with Oscar, and winning an Oscar does tend to help the immortal ones have an extra aura.
My Favorite Performance: I could and probably should go with Anna, but An Affair to Remember is one of my all-time guilty pleasure movies, and I love the way that only Kerr can sell some of the clunky and yet terribly romantic dialogue.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, much like Random Harvest, is one of those movies I'm near certain that I will love, and probably will as soon as I get to it, so I'll go with that.

Myrna Loy (1905-1993)

Oscar Nominations: Loy is one of the most famous cases of the Oscars completely missing a major star (she's frequently toward the top of the list of actors who were never nominated).  Loy never received a competitive Oscar nomination, but the Academy made up for it in 1991 when she received an Honorary Academy Award for career achievement.
Why She Was Close to the List: Wildly popular in her day, she is survived today by her indelible Nora Charles, the drunken half of one of the cinema's best-known detective teams.  Even if it weren't for The Thin Man, she would have a pretty solid filmography with The Best Years of Our Lives and Cheaper by the Dozen amongst them, and was one of the most significant leading ladies of the 1930's and 1940's.  She was also insanely well-liked in Hollywood (something not all actresses can claim), and was noted for her work with the United Nations.
Why She Missed: She never had that "star turn" moment that seems to transcend all decades.  While very beautiful, she wasn't a glamour doll like Marilyn and she lived a fairly conventional life, even if she went through husbands and lovers with Liz Taylor-like regularity.  I guess she's the sort of actress that everyone slaps their forehead and says "of course, include her on a greatest list," but not necessarily when they aren't prodded to do so.
My Favorite Performance: Of course it would be Nora Charles in The Thin Man, one of the funniest movies I've ever seen-her chemistry with William Powell in these films was electric.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I have seen Myrna Loy with Gable and Powell, but never with Cary Grant, so I'd be interested in seeing her in the classic comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, which was cited by AFI for the Best Comedies list the year after the stars list was made.

Maureen O'Hara (1920-Present)

Oscar Nominations: Despite starring in a host of Oscar-nominated films (including the lead in a Best Picture winner, making her the extremely rare actress to not get nominated despite leading a Best Picture winner), O'Hara herself has never won or been nominated for an Oscar.  Like Doris Day, every year cinephiles complain that she should get one, but unlike Day I think she'd actually show up to receive it so I don't know what the hold-up is here.
Why She Was Close to the List: Iconic for her red hair and fiery onscreen personality, O'Hara has starred in a number of classic films through the years.  How Green Was My Valley, Miracle on 34th Street, and The Quiet Man are toward the top of the list, but like several women on both the official list and this "runners-up" list, she's starred with almost every major leading man in Hollywood.  Also, like Bacall, Kate Hepburn, and Ginger Rogers, she had a frequent onscreen collaborator in John Wayne (who did make the male list), making her a likely candidate to make it (if Wayne made your ballot...).
Why She Missed: For some reason I've never been entirely certain of, O'Hara hasn't ever had the sort of respect with cinephiles or awards bodies that she seems to have deserved.  I don't know if it's because she gave up her career for stay-at-home-momdom (unlike someone like Bette Davis or Ingrid Bergman who kept working right up until the end) or if it simply was that her skills were too comedic, but she's never quite landed compared to some of her dramatic counterparts.
My Favorite Performance: Sure, everyone's going to pick The Quiet Man, which is a great movie, but I grew up watching McLintock! at every family get-together, so if I'm going to go with a personal film, it would have to be this one.
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: Most assuredly it would be The Hunchback of Notre Dame (seriously, another classic-get on this AMPAS!), uniting her with her pre-John Wayne frequent collaborator, Charles Laughton.

Natalie Wood (1938-1981)

Oscar Nominations: Wood received three Oscar nominations in her career, though she lost for all three.
Why She Was Close to the List: Iconic actress still referenced today.  Check.  Critically-acclaimed.  Check.  Incredible beauty.  Check.  Tragic demise.  Sad check.  Wood manages to hit all of the things that the AFI was going for, and was a star in three absolute classics of American cinema (Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel without a Cause, and West Side Story).
Why She Missed: Perhaps she was too young?  While she technically qualified under the rules, she'd have one of the smaller filmographies of any of the actors on the list and would be easily the youngest.  Plus, she had most of her impact in 1960's cinema, toward the end of Classical Hollywood, and Sophia Loren was really the only person on the list who could boast that.
My Favorite Performance: I mean, can you really top the sexual frustration of Splendor in the Grass?  Completely mesmerizing work, with Wood going through all of the stages of youth (and being driven insane by the prospect of losing a 1961-era Warren Beatty...which is surely understandable).
Glaring Miss in Her Filmography: I've honestly seen all of the major pieces of Wood's filmography, so I'm going to go with Gypsy, which she has a supporting part in if only for the curiosity of how Rosalind Russell handles one of the most iconic roles in the American theater.

And there you have it-my guesses as to the ten runners-up for the AFI list.  We've got one more quick addendum to this series, but before we go-which of these women do you think was the closest to AFI's list?  Which do you think I'm off my rocker for assuming was close?  And what other women do you think may have been in strong contention that I don't check-point?  Share in the comments!