Friday, November 27, 2009

Mr. Blandings; Connie Marshall

I've never understood why most serious film critics think that Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is lesser Cary Grant-Myrna Loy-Melvin Douglas. For those few of you who've never seen it, the story is about and ad man and his family who who build a new house in the country. Many many many things go wrong. Of course. My favorite scene is when Loy tells the builder what colors she wants in each room. She goes into great and foolish detail. "Yellow but not yellow yellow; butter yellow; perhaps you could send your painter to the store to look at butter before he starts painting." No matter how incomprehensible her demands are the stolid builder just keeps saying "Uh-huh." He must say this fifteen times, always in the same way. He is an Olympian of patience. Or seems to be anyway. If you've never seen it make a point of renting it and watch Melvyn Douglas, one of my all-times faves, steal the movie from both Grant and Loy.

Last night I talked about Connie Marshall, the young actress in Home Sweet Homicide. I mentioned that she disappeared after making several A movies and being a cover girl for major magazines. Today somebody sent me a link that explained her disappearance:

"Her last picture was "Rogue Cop" 1954 as Francis an uncredited part. Connie then went back to West Beverly High school in 1955 having been told she had polio thus ending her short career in the cinema. She met and married Frank Geldert and they had four children, three girls and a boy. Connie continued in her love of the art for the rest of her life, something which her children have kept. She passed away on the morning of 22nd May 2001 at 8am in her family home in Santa Rosa, California of cancer. This little girl will not be forgotten and was sadly over-looked in her time in the picture business.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Malcolm James / malcolmjames@london.com "

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Judy and I watched MR.BLANDINGS a couple of years ago and enjoyed every minute of it.

John McFetridge said...

MR. BLANDING is terrific. In the scene you mention the contractor then turns to his assistant and says, "Did you get all that?" And the guy says, "Yeah, yellow, blue and green."

That scene was used in a paint commercial a few years ago.

Al Leverone said...

I've never seen the film version of MR. BLANDINGS, but I have read the book several times. It remains one of my favorite non-mystery/horror novels ever and although the book must be at least a half-century old by now, anyone who has ever dealt with contractors would probably verify most of the stuff in the book is timeless...

Deb said...

Just watched this (was it yesterday or the day before?) on TCM. I'd seen it before, but love the interplay between the three leads. You're right about Melvin Douglas--he really does steal the show.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Adore both the movie and the book. It was playing in my father's assisted living facility when we went over there yesterday. I never saw so many rapt faces.

Rudy Carreon said...

Another site to learn more about Connie Marshall's Legacy is at www.conniemarshall.org/301.html . I have also incorporated short significant movie clips from most all her movies as well as a large amount of memorabilia and discoveries. The site is solely supported by my own personal Connie Marshall collection. Enjoy!