Category Archives: The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood

Tweet Ava Gardner in The Killers, 1946, her first starring role. “After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: “She can’t talk! She can’t act! She’s sensational!” —Ava Gardner Here’s a clip from The Killers. At about the three minute mark, Ava sinks her hooks into Burt Lancaster. And at the [...]

Tweet Phyllis Haver After graduating high school in Los Angeles, Phyllis Haver (January 6, 1899 – November 19, 1960) born Phyllis O’Haver, earned a living as a silent movie theater pianist. On a whim, Haver auditoned at the Mack Sennet studios and was cast as one of the original bathing beauties. During the early 20′s, [...]

Tweet Ava Gardner in The Killers, 1946. This might be my favorite quote from a Hollywood star: “Deep down, I’m pretty superficial.” Born to a poor cotton and tobacco farmer in North Carolina, Ava Gardner (1922-1990) was the youngest of seven children. She didn’t wear shoes until she was about 13 years-old. She regularly attended [...]

Tweet Movies are just like real life—except the boring parts are deleted. So too with dialogue. The best movie dialogue is spare, laced with subtext, and comes at an unusual angle that rolls over the audience like a smooth wave. Jean Harlow in Beast of the City, 1932. In Beast of the City, 1932, Jean [...]

Tweet Anne Baxter, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe and George Sanders in All About Eve. One of the most well observed and cynical movies about actors and acting is Joseph Mankiewicz’s All About Eve, 1950. Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, an aging Broadway star whose personal life and career are jeopardized by the treacherous Eve Harrington, [...]

Tweet Who says tinsel town is a sinkhole of shallow narcissists? In our never ending attempt to paint an accurate portrait of this thing called Hollywood, Seraphic Secret unveils The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood, a new feature. “When two people love each other, they don’t look at each other, they look in the same [...]