Happy Birthday, Mary Astor

It's Mary Astor's birthday. Like many people,
the first time I saw Mary Astor she was playing
Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon in
1941. And I really, really wondered what Sam
Spade (Humphrey Bogart) could possibly find
attractive about her. The second time I saw
her was in Dodsworth (1936), and I was quite
surprised how she looked with longer hair.
Then I saw her in the pre-Code Red Dust (1932)
where, in comparison, she makes Jean Harlow
look like a cow (you Harlow fans will just have
to face it). And Mary was really something in
the silent Don Juan (1926), although June
Marlowe was the TOTAL BABE in that one.
And then I saw her in The Bright Shawl (1923),
when she was only 17 years old, and I think
I fainted. Amazing! Whoever phuctup her hair
for The Maltese Falcon should have been shot.
Anyway, here she is in her loveliness.



Happy birthday, Mary.