Sorry! No time to write today! But I did manage to scribble a few words about one movie at the end of the day. Here’s what I watched:
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), dir. John M. Stahl & Ernst Lubitsch
A Lady of Chance (1928), dir. Robert Z. Leonard
(Norma Shearer looks INCREDIBLE in this film).
Let Us Be Gay (1930), dir. Robert Z. Leonard
(me @ the Polish government)
This is the kind of Norma Shearer you might have never seen, at least at the beginning. When the film starts and you see the female character on the screen, you might be wondering if it actually is Norma, this unglamorous, frumpy housewife. It is kind of odd to see her like that – but odd does not mean bad!
Personally, I do not like making a big deal of roles in which actresses do not wear make-up, God forbid – calling them ugly. But I guess there must be an element of worry for every beautiful actress who realizes she is constantly being judged for her looks to expose her bare face, or wear less-than-flattering costumes. And it was probably even scarier to do that in 1930. So I enjoyed seeing that side of Norma Shearer.
I am not sure if apart from the looks the character she plays here is very interesting, though. She starts off as this overly devoted wife, who wants nothing other than make her husband happy. With her jumping around the house to bring him every little thing he might want, she is a caricature. When you see a character like that, it’s pretty obvious that something big has to happen to bring chaos into their world – and the biggest thing here would be the husband cheating. And of course, he does. And of course, she undergoes a transformation into a new woman – basically, into Norma Shearer (so it is no longer something we have never seen from her before). But her new life is going to go upside down as well, because of one particular reunion…
Marie Dressler is in this film and she is always a joy to watch.
Swingin' at the Seance 