Woman Empowerment Wednesday: Greta Garbo

• Worked for the Secret Intelligence Service during WW2
• Never gave interviews or attended premieres
• One half of the famous woman-on-woman kiss in "Queen Christina"
• Would threaten studio heads with the possibility of moving back to Sweden if something was not to her liking
• Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984, had a mastectomy and given the all clear three months later
• Demanded closed sets while doing her close ups. "When people are watching, I'm just a woman making faces for the camera. It destroys the illusion. If I am by myself, my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise."
• Remedied her personal depression with Eastern philosophy and healthy eating
• Through her work in the SIS, helped Danish physicist Niels Bohr and King Gustav V of Sweden meet up, resulting in the rescue of Danish Jews

#ManCrushMonday Robert Donat

Suave, handsome with startlingly beautiful brown eyes, Robert Donat is on my "Sexiest British Gentlemen of Classic Hollywood" list right next to Reginald Gardiner and Ronald Colman. Although I have only seen three of his films out of the short resume of his work, Donat leaves an impression and even looks quite dashing in a kilt!

with Jean Parker in "The Ghost Goes West" (1935)

"The 39 Steps," (1935)

with Marlene Dietrich in "A Knight Without Armour" (1937)

with Patricia Hillard in "The Ghost Goes West" (1935)

with Madeline Carroll in "The 39 Steps" (1937)

with Marlene Dietrich in "A Knight Without Armour" (1937)

Lady-Spiration: Ingrid Bergman

"Be yourself. The world worships the original."

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory"

"I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me 

that wouldn't shut up!"

"Time is shortening. But every day that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me."

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."

"I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say."

"You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide."

"I never sought success in order to get fame and money; it's the talent and the passion that count in success."

Top 10 Favorite Movie Couples

[Click Movie Title for Trailer/Movie]

Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck 

in "Spellbound" (1945)

Leslie Howard and Joan Blondell 

in "Stand-In" (1937)

Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant 

in "Indiscreet" (1958)

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall

Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas 

in "Ninotchka" (1939)

Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant 

in "Holiday" (1938)

Jean Parker and Robert Donat 

in "The Ghost Goes West" (1935)

Teresa Wright and Dana Andrews 

in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946)

Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison

 in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947)

Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones

 in "Portrait of Jennie" (1948)

Ava Gardner and James Mason 

in "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" (1951)

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday Lauren Bacall

• Campaigned for the Democrat Presidential Candidate Adlai Stevenson and Harry S. Truman
• Picked her own films 
• Campaigned for Robert Kennedy for the U.S. Senate in 1964
• Took care of the sick "The African Queen" cast and crew while on location in Uganda and the Congo
• One of the 80 signatures protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee
• Stopped Howard Hawks from making her into one of his "girls" and resisted his sexual intentions 
• A Part of the Committee of the First Amendment

#ManCrushMonday: Gregory Peck in "Spellbound"

While the movie did not make big numbers or fans, the chemistry of Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck was dynamic. As a man masquerading as Dr. Edwardes but who really has no idea who he is, "Edwardes" falls into a rabbit hole of psychoanalysis and a beautiful therapist. Although confused and terrified for most of the movie, Peck plays Edwardes at his most passionate with a beautiful and dark intensity and God damn it, it's sexy.

My Best Dressed Moments in Film, Vol. 3

Rita Hayworth in Jean Louis

 from "Lady of Shanghai" (1947)

Katharine Hepburn in Walter Plunkett

from "Little Women" (1933)

Greta Garbo in Adrian

 from "Camille" (1936)

Judy Garland in Helen Rose

from "Till the Clouds Go By" (1946)

Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy

from "Sabrina" (1954)

June Allyson in Helen Rose

from "Good News" (1947)

8 Times When Fred Astaire Stole My Heart

with Ginger Rogers in "The Barkleys of Broadway," (1949)

with Ginger Rogers in "Top Hat" (1935)

with Rita Hayworth in "You Never Were Lovelier" (1942)

with Rita Hayworth in "You'll Never Get Rich" (1941)

A Love Letter to... Judy Garland

There are no words to describe  

How much I adore you, Miss Garland

But that throaty vibrato

The way you light up the screen

Even when you were crying

Even in movies when you weren't even singing
You lit that whole set up

Despite this awful business was cruel

What you propelled from your soul

Onto the screen

Now that was something 

No words can remotely ATTEMPT to describe