« Patsy Ruth Miller and F. Scott Fitzgerald: Politically Incorrect in Hollywood | Main | KSM Trial Intel Gift to al Qaeda »
November 12, 2009
Lost Joan Crawford Not So Lost
Robert Montgomery and Joan Crawford in the long unseen MGM film “Letty Lynton,” 1932. The white cotton organdy gown with deliriously ruffled shoulders by Adrian, real name Adrian Adolph Greenberg, is one of his most famous and influential designs. A copy of the dress was mass produced to help promote the film and over half-a-million were sold at Macy's. I can just imagine a depression era housewife assuring her husband that the dress is an investment, or just perfect for a quick run to the grocery store. Photos via: The Best of Everything: The Joan Crawford Encyclopedia.
Quick, while it's still up, you can screen the famously unavailable 1932, Pre-Code Joan Crawford vehicle Letty Lynton, directed by the great Clarence Brown.
The entire film is posted in nine segments, but because of a tangled legal history I'm not embedding the video.
It's easy to find on You Tube.
But move fast before it's removed.
Letty Lynton allows us to view Joan Crawford in all her glory. Never has she looked more beautiful or elegant. Her character suffers, oh how she suffers: desire, guilt, betrayal, fear, passion, hatred, and oh yes, did I mention desire.
Built around an unusual narrative structure Lette Lynton pounds away at a single story line with unblinking focus. Most movies juggle three narratives, the A story, from which the central plot emerges, and then two more narratives that branch out from the A story. All are resolved, ideally in an organic manner, in the third and final act.
But Letty Lynton hangs its sole narrative line on a packet of love letters—intimate, racy—that threaten Letty's love for Boston blue blood Robert Montgomery, letters so scandalous that, if made public, will forever mark her as a fallen woman.
It's hard for post-modern audiences to relate to such a high moral tone. We live in an age where raw sex tapes catapult people—and I'm using that term loosely—to instant celebrity, frequently rewarded with their own reality shows.
Nevertheless, Letty Lynton possesses a singular power that hypnotized this viewer, yes, even as a nine-part You Tube experience.
Screenwriters John Meehan and Wanda Tuchock's dialogue is spare and powerful. Joan spits her lines, poisoned darts designed to wound, yet words that reek with subtext and feel more like self-inflicted blows. It's a fine script aided by director Clarence Brown's signature precision camera placement—the murder scene is a nail biter, I'll bet anything Hitchcock studied it carefully. And Brown's ability to step back for the extended medium shot is a model of a master director allowing his stars the space in which to work their magic.
Crawford's wardrobe—she plays one of Hollywood's beloved and ubiquitous “socialites”—is jaw dropping. There's the white organza gown, and a fur coat with a massive collar that winds around Joan's body like a cuddly python—it will cause PETA'S collective heads to explode. There's also a silver lame gown that makes Joan look like a silver bullet.
This is classic Hollywood, the Golden Age that can never be replicated.
Via: Self Styled Siren, via Lou Lumenick.
Nils Asther, Joan Crawford, and the Adrian designed fur coat in Letty Lynton, 1932.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and spiritually meaningful Shabbat.
Not to be missed, Charles Krauthammer explains Explaining Away Mass Murder.
And my good friend Shrink Wrapped, a practicing psychiatrist, demolishes the argument that Hasan is psychotic.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at November 12, 2009 03:35 PM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Friday Femme-Fatale-Wear? ;-)
I'm still trying to deal with Mr. O's assertion that no faith can justify murder, and the fact that the media kept replaying that sound bite. But that's a completely different discussion.
Have a great Shabbos!
Posted by: alterbentzion at November 13, 2009 10:48 AM
Have an unrelated comment also.
Is there a place to ask questions about Jewish culture ?
I am curious if you & Karen know what tribe of Israel you descend from ? And what tribe your children are included in. Are they included in the father's tribe ?
Posted by: Jackie W. at November 14, 2009 09:30 AM
Adrian was the master.
Had to do a very simple (30 seconds on-stage) re-work of his Flying Monkey costume for our local production of "A Christmas Story". Studying the photos on the Net just confirms his genius. I mean, it's a monkey, but that costume is as well-designed as everything else in the film.
"Sweethearts" is not his best-known, but my personal favorite.
Posted by: Sal at November 15, 2009 04:52 AM
Alter:
Friday Femme Fatale, hmm, very good idea.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 15, 2009 07:59 AM
Jackie:
Briefly: The only Jews who know from which tribe they descend are the Levites, and the Kohanim, the priestly descendants of Aaron and Moses. This knowledge has been transmitted orally since Mt. Sinai and is borne out by DNA tests which indicate priestly markers not present in other Jews.
The rest of us almost certainly, descend from either Judah or Benjamin, the Northern Kingdom. The 10 tribes self-destructed socially, and intermarried with the pagan tribes of the area. Not really lost tribes—as in where did they go?—but lost to Judaism.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 15, 2009 08:06 AM
Sal:
Adrian was probably the best, most consistent designer in Hollywood's Golden Age. Amazing work considering the vast number of productions MGM rolled out.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 15, 2009 08:08 AM
Robert, may I take slight issue on the question of which tribe we are from? The Talmud relates that at some point after the exile of the Ten Tribes, but before that of Judah and Benjamin, the prophet Jermemiah brought back many of the exiled Ten, who became intermixed with Judah and Benjamin. So while it's certainly true that the majority of us (or at least a plurality) are from those two, there are still many from the other ten, although we usually don't know who is from where.
Posted by: kishke at November 15, 2009 08:20 PM
Interesting legal history - you'd think after 1936 people would forget about it but I guess not where money is concerned!
Posted by: Bill Brandtwb at November 16, 2009 06:07 AM
Kishke:
Thanks so much for the added information. I'm ashamed to admit that I forgot that particular g'mara. Gotta get back to Daf Yomi.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 16, 2009 09:37 AM
It's in Megillah 14b.
Posted by: kishke at November 16, 2009 10:54 AM