Incendiary Blonde

Betty Hutton was a native Michigander. You knew she had grown up in Detroit because she called her mother's 1920s illegal drinking establishment a "blind pig" instead of a "speakeasy."

I liked Betty Hutton before I even knew her as "Betty Hutton." I first saw her years ago in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and I liked her in it, but I didn't know she had made any other movies, let alone the fact that she was one of Paramount studio's biggest stars in the 1940s. I only knew that she was funny and the movie was funny, but then I pretty much put her out of my mind. Then a few months ago I happened to be flipping through the channels and stopped on TCM for a moment, and Annie Get Your Gun was playing. I hadn't planned on watching a movie that night, but it only took a few minutes of Hutton -- so manically exuberant, and yet so achingly vulnerable -- that I couldn't turn away.

Betty was the type of performer who gave a hundred and ten percent every time, and then added another twenty percent for good measure. Bob Hope called her a walking vitamin pill. In a lot of ways her energy and over-the-top style seemed driven by desperation, by a woman who so wanted to entertain and make people happy that she would do it at any and all costs. There's something endearing about that, though, about a woman so desperate to please that she lays everything on the line, she holds nothing back. I know she endeared herself to me.

Of course, Betty was more than just an irrepressible ball of energy who belted out novelty songs like "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief." Watch and listen to her perform a song like "They Say It's Wonderful" from Annie Get Your Gun and get a glimpse into the quieter Betty, the Betty of longing and fear and love and sadness.

I was shocked and saddened to read about her death, but I take heart that she had a conversion to Catholicism several years ago, and I pray for the repose of her soul. Rest in peace, Betty.

Gloria Grahame Week

I cain't seem to say "no" to a Gloria Grahame movie lately. Of course, I think it's because I just discovered who she was, so now I'm catching up with the thrill of movies like The Big Heat, In a Lonely Place, Sudden Fear, Crossfire, and The Bad and the Beautiful all for the first time. I've always known the girl who played Violet Bick, but I never knew she was an actual famous (Oscar-winning) movie star. How I've been so oblivious these many years I'm sure I don't know, but it started when I watched Crossfire and Oklahoma! about a month ago and I realized that the woman who played in both was the same trampy girl-next-door in Beford Falls that made Bert the policeman want to go see what the wife was doing.

I know many criticize Gloria's Oscar win for The Bad and the Beautiful, saying that Jean Hagen in Singing in the Rain should have won, but having now seen both performances (haven't seen Thelma Ritter's Oscar-nominated performance from that year), I think I can't argue with the Academy's choice. Jean Hagen would have definitely been deserving, and if she had won I wouldn't complain about Gloria's losing; I think it was a case of two nominees who were both equally deserving. When Grahame is on the screen in TBatB she is electrifying and when she's gone the movie kinda goes a little flat -- I sorta wished her character could come back and liven things up again. It's the sort of part that, because of its role in the storyline, stands out no matter who would've played it, but Gloria adds so much electricity to Rosemary Bartlow that even though she's only on screen for about ten minutes, she's unforgettable; and she adds so much ambiguity to the character that there's a depth and mystery there that isn't really in the part as it's written but is something Grahame adds by her performance. Of course, she should have been nominated and won for her role in The Big Heat as well, but hey, that's Oscar for you!

Happy Birthday Joan Leslie!

We don't usually do birthday shout-outs here, but Joan's a girl from D-Town, and we like to celebrate the hometown stars. Born January 26, 1925, in Detroit, Joan's celebrating her 82nd birthday. She worked opposite Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper when she was sixteen, James Cagney when she was seventeen, and Fred Astaire when she was eighteen -- not a bad resume for a teenager! This website devoted to her is a nice resource with some great pictures (including magazine covers from the 40s), as well as several interviews and news items.

Joan's mostly known for her ingenue roles at Warner Bros., but I rather liked her performance in Nicholas Ray's campy Born to Be Bad (RKO, 1950), a film that showed she could have been more than the pretty, spunky girl-next-door.

What's kinda crazy (to me at least) is that Joan Leslie and Paul Newman were born on the exact same day (Jan. 26, 1925), and yet they seem to be from two different movie eras entirely -- Joan, the essence of war-time studio system Hollywood, and Newman, the rebellious modern actor from the new Hollywood of the 50s and 60s. Happy birthday to both!