Turner Classic Movies, the best darn channel on American television, was showing a biography of Joan Crawford this morning. There was a clip of
Mildred Pierce (1945), and Ann Blyth was playing Joan Crawford's spoiled, unruly, snot-bag daughter, Veda. Her lips quivered. Her mouth pouted. Her chin jutted. I was reminded of a story about John Ford directing John Wayne in one of his early pictures. Ford stopped the take and yelled at John Wayne, saying, "You're acting with your
chin." Or words to that effect. What he wanted from Wayne was an expressive face, not just a twitching chin. Anyway, in
Mildred Pierce, young actress Ann Blyth was acting with her pouty lips. And that reminded me a lot of
Joey Heatherton, who very often acted with her pouty mouth and
sometimes her hips. So I ventured out on the World Wide Spider Web and found a pile of photos of Ann Blyth and Joey Heatherton and their funny, pouty mouths. And I glued some of them together, you know, for scientific comparison. And it turned out freaking spooky.
