Starlet Showcase: July 2008

7/30/08

7/29/08

Hold The Mayo! *

Virginia Mayo, that is.

Hey, what did we tell you about
heels in the gym?

(*Sorry. "Hold the Mayo!" was just too easy.)

7/27/08

She was born María Marguerita Guadalupe Teresa Estela Bolado in Mexico City, but she went by "Margo" during her movie career. She was a cute and fiery dancer in Val Lewton's The Leopard Man (1943). She was sad and warm in both the stage and screen versions of Maxwell Anderson's Winterset (1936). You can also catch her in Lost Horizon (1937) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955).

You can see the trailer for The Leopard Man HERE.
You can watch her whole performance in Winterset
at the Internet Archive.

She was married to actor Eddie Albert and
was the mother of actor Edward Albert, so
she was sometimes called Margo Albert.

Girl-Girl #10

7/26/08

Ann Dusenberry & Big 80s Hair

This is Ann Dusenberry in a dreadfully bad 1985
military sex comedy called Basic Training.
The production company was Playboy Entertainment
Group, if that gives you any idea. Anyway, this
Walk-to-Work scene is the only reason ever to
watch this movie. In Britain it was entitled
Up The Military, and the Not Safe For Work
trailer is on YouTube HERE.
A much better Ann Dusenberry experience is the
1981 movie Cutter's Way (aka Cutter and Bone).
The YouTube trailer is HERE, and it IS safe for work.
It was filmed in Santa Barbara, back when I lived
there. A friend of mine was in a crowd scene in the
beginning, but I think he ended upon the cutting
room floor.
So. . .
1.) Ann Dusenberry has a nice walk.
2.) Skip Basic Training.
3.) Watch Cutter's Way, which features Jeff
Bridges and John Heard.
4.) That is all. Carry on.

Gotta love that 80s hair.

Una Dos

Above is Kentucky-born Una Merkel, an unconventional face that brightened up such movies as 42nd Street (1933), Evelyn Prentiss (1934), and The Bank Dick (1940). A lot of times Una Merkel played the smart-a$$ girlfriend of the lead actress, much as Glenda Farrell did.
Below is Belfast, Ireland-born Una O'Connor, a marvelous character actress, who screamed and shrieked and howled her way through such movies as The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

Me, I like Una Merkel movies better. Una O'Connor's cackling voice in early talkie sound recordings is like fingernails on a chalkboard to my ears. But both Unas added a lot to our favorite films of the 1930s.