Jennifer Jones

David O. Selznick Pitches a Movie in Israel

October 24, 2018 by Robert J. Avrech 1 Comment

In 1958, producer David O. Selznick had an idea for a Biblical epic.

He explained to screenwriter Edward Anhalt, “I want to combine Mary the sister of Lazarus, the adulteress Jesus saved from the stoning, the whore who washed His feet, and the Mary Magdalene who was the first to see Him resurrected, into one character and tell the gospel story through her. And I want to tell it as purely a Jewish story.”

Anhalt liked the idea and set to work writing the Mary Magdalene script. When Anhalt finished he handed the screenplay to Selznick and the two men sat down to to discuss it.

Hidden Hollywood: David O. Selznick and the Goy

September 5, 2018 by Robert J. Avrech 3 Comments

The most commonly used Hebrew or Yiddish word for a non-Jew is goy. The word “goy” means nation, and refers to the fact that goyim are members of other nations, that is, nations other than the Children of Israel. There is nothing inherently insulting about the word “goy”. In fact, the Bible occasionally refers to the Jewish people using the term “goy”. Most notably, in Exodus 19,6, God says that the Children of Israel will be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, that is, a goy kadosh. Because Jews have had so many bad experiences with anti-Semitic non-Jews over the centuries, the term “goy” has taken on some negative connotations, but in general the term is no more insulting than the word “Gentile”.

Source

In 1958 David O. Selznick (1902-1965) producer of Gone With the Wind, was desperately seeking a starring role for actress Jennifer Jones (1919-2009), to whom he was was married after divorcing Irene Mayer Selznick.

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

January 20, 2017 by Robert J. Avrech 8 Comments

Jennifer Jones with her third husband, Norton Simon
“I met Jennifer Jones when I was twenty-six or twenty-seven I traveled everywhere with her. I spent more time with her than anyone, even Norton … It would take four hours to do her hair and makeup. And it was all for Norton: hair, makeup, beautiful dresses. The point was not to go out and show other people. Everything was for Norton. ‘Norton deserves for me to be beautiful.’ And he was paying. I did her hair and makeup every day, an incredible cost. For the cost of a whole year, you could buy a house in the Valley.
And I did it for more than thirty years, every day, sometimes morning and night. And she didn’t take off her makeup at night. She’d leave it on until I arrived. When she went to bed, she was all made up. Do you know why? This was not for Norton, this was for herself. She said it was ‘in case I get sick at night and have to go to the hospital. Somebody’s going to take a picture of me, and I don’t want to be without makeup.’ She did this every night.”
—Tomoyuki “Yuki” Takei, West of Eden: An American Place by Jean Stein

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

January 13, 2017 by Robert J. Avrech 11 Comments

Letter from Jennifer Jones to husband David Selznick, March 1959
Dearest:
Hope you are well and the deal goes but most of all that you miss me a little. Betty Bogart [Lauren Bacall] came through from Klosters on her way to London with her two children in hand and she told me I was pushing my luck. That you are a very attractive guy and in her words there are plenty of dames in wait for an attractive guy. I said I was less concerned since she had left California but I realized the danger, only I had to continue this work [psychoanalysis] with Dr. Meier. Her reply was, if you can take it, exactly as follows. “F— the Doctor, go home and get yourself l— and you won’t need doctors or diets. Greatest thing in the world for the complexion.”

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The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s: ’44-’46

December 8, 2011 by Robert J. Avrech 9 Comments

We continue our series of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade. Last week we listed the first Ten Greatest Movies of the 1940’s. Our list continues with the next five great movies.

11. Double Indemnity, 1944. Once again, a Barbara Stanwyck performance that is nothing less than perfection. This time Stanwyck plays bad blond Phyllis Dietrichson, a hard-boiled tramp—her gold anklet speaks volumes—who wants her husband dead. Fred MacMurray is the cynical insurance salesman who steps libido-first into Dietrichson’s web of deceit. This is the movie that sets the standard for Film Noir, that most influential genre.