Fashion Spotlight: Jean Louis

Best known as the designer of the barely there sequined dress Marilyn Monroe wore when singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy and Rita Hayworth's black dress in "Gilda", Jean Louis has been in the film industry for three decades. In 1957,  Louis won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for The Solid Gold Cadillac. He married past-client and actress Loretta Young.

for Marilyn Monroe to wear
to JFK's Birthday
Gala, 1962

Gilda (1946)

Queen Bee (1955)

7 More of the Coolest Hollywood Friendships

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau

Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck

Henry Fonda and James Stewart

Irene Dunne and Loretta Young

Rosalind Russell and Frank Sinatra

Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles

Jane Wyman and Rosalind Russell

Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell

Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly

Friday Short: Colortone Musical: Over the Counter (1932)

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday Madeleine Carroll

• Highest paid actress of 1938, earning $250,000
• Postponed acting career after sister Marguerite was killed in the London Blitz to work as a Red Cross nurse at the American Army Air Force's 61st Station Hospital in Foggia, Italy
• Donated her Paris chateau to over 150 orphans and arranging an organization for American youth to knit clothing for them
• Produced documentaries on child survivors post-WW2 which funded for the manufacturing of artificial limbs for the wounded
• After the war, helped in the rehabilitation of concentration camp survivors
• Given the Legion d'Honneur and the American Medal of Freedom
• Studied at Birmingham University with a Bachelors Degree
• Formed a production country with then-husband Henri Lavorel, making documentaries to "promote better understanding among the peoples."
• After WW2, stayed in Europe to create a radio program that helped advance French-American friendship
• "I have a debt to pay Hitler and I'm going to pay it with every ounce of my strength. I can't be a soldier, but there are other ways I can pay Hitler back."

#ManCrushMonday 5 Times When Montgomery Clift Stunned

I Confess (1953)

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Easter Parade Double Feature

Holiday Inn (1942)

Easter Parade (1948)

Remake This, Not This!: Rope (1948)

Remake This...

"Alfred Hitchcock called Rope an "experiment that didn't work out," and he was happy to see it kept out of release for most of three decades." ("Rope Movie Review & Film Summary (1948) | Roger Ebert") The reception for the failed experiment wasn't all that glowing either. Variety hoped that "Hitchcock could have chosen a more entertaining subject with which to use the arresting camera and staging technique displayed..." ("Rope | Variety") "It is in such a delicate position that [Hitchcock's] neck now appears to be lodged in the consequence of his having stretched it in his new film..." although Bosley Crowther of The New York Times  admitted that "the emphasis on the macabre in this small story is frightfully intense." The homosexual subtext makes "Rope"  an even greater candidate to be remade in the context of the original vision of the 1929 play

Brandon Shaw: Freddie Highmore
Philip Morgan: Taron Egerton
Rupert Cadell: Ewan McGregor
Mrs: Wilson: Veronica Cartwright
Kenneth Lawrence: Michael Angarano
Janet: Juno Temple
David Kentley: Tom Holland
Mr. Kentley: Paul Bettany
Mrs. Atwater: Glenn Close

Not This...

The Mummy (2017)

Friday Short: A Color Rhapsody: HOLLYWOOD PICNIC (1937)

#WomanLoveWednesday 5 Times When Cyd Charisse Dazzled

#ManCrushMonday Joseph Cotten

Joseph Cotten was both strong and silent yet effortlessly emotional in the roles he played. Playing both romantic lead and killer, terrifying and cop, Cotten was a dream for the masters of tension, such as Alfred Hitchcock and friend Orson Welles.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

I'll Be Seeing You (1944)

Gaslight (1944)

Niagara (1953)