A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)

A Shakespeare classic adapted for the screen......a big-budget all star spectacular from MGM featuring an all star cast and fantastic scenery in glorious black and white. It's one of the first films of both Olivia de Havilland (Hermia) and young Mickey Rooney, who was only 15 when he played Puck. The young whippersnapper is amusing in the part, he really hams it up for the camera. deHavilland is good in one of her first films, as is James Cagney, who plays "Nick Bottom".

Also in the cast:
Joe E. Brown: "Francis Flute".
Dick Powell: "Lysander"

Two Academy Awards: "Best Cinematography", "Best Film Editing"

Olivia de Havilland and Jimmy Stewart

The following excerpt is from the biography of Jimmy Stewart, Pieces of Time: The Life of James Stewart, by James Fishgall.

My notes are in blue.

The setting: New York, December 19, 1939. The NY premiere of Gone With The Wind at the Astor Theater. Olivia was scheduled to attend.

Jimmy, eight years older than Olivia, was on the east coast for the holidays; his hometown was the small town of Indiana, Pennsylvania (his father owned a hardware store in town). Jimmy was visiting his sisters in New York around the time of the GWTW premiere.
While Stewart was in Manhattan, Lelan Hayward (Stewart's agent) asked if he would escort Olivia de Havilland to the New York premiere of her latest film, Gone With the Wind. The fix-up had been the brainstorm of Irene Mayer Selznick, wife of the film's producer, David O. Selznick. Stewart didn't know the actress, but he had read in a gossip column that she wanted to meet him, so he eagerly complied with his agent's request.



"Jimmy met me at La Guardia airport," de Havilland recalled, "even had the limousine drive out to the airfield - we were both quite shy and ventured one word at a time in our conversation." Still, a definite spark passed between them. Over the next few days, Stewart took her to the theater several times and to the "21" Club. She recalled that one of the plays they saw as Mornings at Seven, directed by Jim's old friend Josh Logan, whom she met for the first time backstage.

Jim and Olivia continued to see each other after they returned to Los Angeles. On one occasion, Stewart arrived at her Spanish-colonial house in the Hollywood hills driving his brand-new La Salle convertible. She was impressed until the automobile began making a weird groaning sound and they started rolling down the hill. The brakes had failed! Jim took off in pursuit, but the La Salle picked up speed down the incline, denting other cars and ruining curbside shrubbery along the way. Finally, it crashed into a telephone pole. Naturally, Stewart, who had been trying to impress his date, was terribly embarrassed, but she laughed and thanked him for the entertainment. They then continued their evening as planned - in her car.

Around the same time, actress Maureen O'Hara remembered having dinner one night at de Havilland's house. A fish that Stewart had caught was the main course. It was fine, but they decided to play a prank on him by telling him it had made them sick. "But he didn't pay the slightest bit of attention," O'Hara recalled, laughing. "He knew."

The 12th Academy Awards, honoring films in 1939, was held on February 29, 1940 at a banquet in the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Olivia and Jimmy were both nominated for Oscars. Jimmy was up for Best Actor for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (He lost to Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr. Chips) and Olivia was up for GWTW.

Below: footage from the Oscar ceremony that night. As you can see, they arrived separately that night at the dinner (I can't tell who their dates are).




The author goes on to describe Joan Fontaine's memories of Olivia and Jimmy, and quotes her autobiography, No Bed of Roses.

[Joan] remembered inviting her sister and Stewart to dinner to mark de Havilland's birthday. "Two hours after the time they were asked for," Fontaine wrote, "Olivia and Jimmy rang our bell. When I remonstrated that the dinner as hardly palatable any longer, Olivia answered, 'It's my birthday. I can arrive whenever I like!'" Ha! Ha!

De Havilland was in all probability the first woman that Stewart ever seriously considered marrying. After all, she was well-bred, college educated, and refined-all qualities that he desired in a wife. He did, in fact, propose, although de Havilland would later say, "I think his offer of marriage was just a frivolous thing on his part. Jimmy wasn't ready for a wife. I guess he still had a few more wild oats to sow." The exact nature of their relationship never became public, but the Hollywood press used plenty of ink speculating on what was transpiring between the two stars, including the possibility that they might elope in the spring of 1940. Columnist Gloria Hall also reported that Warner Bros., which ad de Havilland under contract, wanted to team the actress and her new boyfriend in a picture, but the stars refused. (The only films in which they both appeared in were 1977's Airport '77 and the TV Miniseries North and South, Book II in 1986) According to the reporter, they gave as their reason that "they would be embarrassed to make love - in public." Thus, de Havilland spent the spring of 1940 making My Love Came Back and Stewart did The Mortal Storm and No Time for Comedy.

Of course in 1940 Jimmy was also busy filming a third movie - The Philadelphia Story, which finished shooting in August of 1940. Once the film wrapped, Stewart helped to organize a benefit in Houston Texas to support Great Britain, then standing alone against the forces of Nazi Germany.

Jimmy was still seeing Olivia at this time.

The benefit took place in August 1940 at the Houston Coliseum. It featured Tyrone Power, Mischa Auer, and Henry Fonda, a longtime friend of Jimmy's. In the show, Fonda and Stewart did a magic trick act together. Stewart also played accordion and Fonda the cornet. Olivia also participated in the show.

Not long before that, Olivia returned to her Hollywood home after location filming on Santa Fe Trail. Away from home, she had been bored and lonely, and missed spending time with Jimmy. The excerpt continues:

According to biographer Charles Higham, "Her only consolation (during filming) was the chance of returning to Stewart on an occasional weekend for flying lessons and romance." (Jimmy was a pilot and loved taking her on trips over southern California and over the sea) Nevertheless, the relationship between the stars had cooled. De Havilland increasingly felt Stewart's marriage proposal was pro forma, that he didn't really want to settle down. Still they continued to date for nearly another year. Then Livvy fell in love with John Huston, the director of her then current film, In This Our Life, and the relationship with Stewart came to an end. By that point, Jim was in the service. (Stewart enlisted in the Army in March 1941)

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This post has also been published on Olivia & Joan: Sisters of the Silver Screen.

Oscar Flashback: 60th Annual Awards Ceremony (1988) with Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine and more

It was a memorable Oscar show 22 years ago at the milestone 60th annual ceremony. The Academy invited lots of Hollywood royalty to the LA Shrine Auditorium that hot April day in 1988: Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, and Audrey Hepburn, just to name a few. There was supposed to be a huge "year by year" salute toward the end, kind of like how they did it for the 70th and 75th Oscars show, but the whole segment flopped, which I'll explain further in a minute.

Among the legends who were invited: Olivia deHavilland and Joan Fontaine. Yep. That's right: Joan and Olivia! Did the famously feuding sisters get along? Did they speak? Hmmm... What really happened that night?



Well, for one, they both arrived separately.

According to the book, "Inside Oscar" by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona:

Rebecca's Joan Fontaine managed to arrive on time without the help of the Academy's escort-who never materialized-but her sister wasn't so lucky. Olivia had to hop out of her car and hike 10 blocks in order to be there to hand out an award. Robert Osborne recounted that "She and others were all dressed to the nines, hurrying off to a ga-ga glmaour event while rushing past taco stands, donut shops, and gawking onlookers, the latter munching on hot dogs and cradling babies, surprised at the unexpected passerby. Sigh!

Recently, I acquired a copy of the entire taped broadcast, and was able to watch it again (I remember watching it live back in 1988, but I didn't know who all the celebrities were back then). Screenshots of the best moments from the show are below below.





Totally '80s moment: Patrick Swayze appeared with his Dirty Dancing co-star Jennifer Grey to present an award.











PS. I heard that the long anticipated Wall Street sequel is coming out soon.









Below: This was one of the most bizarre stunts of the evening. Some guy dressed as Robocop pretended to shoot another robot on stage who started to attack Pee Wee Herman. We then see Pee Wee jumping up 50 feet in the air (on wires) and "hanging" from the rafters, while Robo saves the day. Another totally 80s moment.



Below: Liza and Dudley present the Best Song nominees. Before each preformed song, they sang some old fashioned tunes devoted to the art and craft of-songwriting. These ditties (with Dudley on piano) just didn't seem to fit with the more modern, up-tempo rock songs that were preformed, but it was nice to see them back together again!



Below: Ahh, a time when hit songs that people actually liked and could hum along to were nominated for Best Song:




While I was doing research on the 60th ceremony, I found some photographs taken by photographer Alan Light, who, back in '88 was lucky enough to score a ticket from a friend to the event; he took awesome pictures on the red carpet and even got some photos with some of the stars (photos used with permission). Check them out:







According to the book "Inside Oscar" by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona:

The Academy, for the milestone "60th Anniversary" ceremony, was planning a grand segment meant to air toward the end of the program.

It was supposed to be a salute to all 60 of the past Oscar winning years. Supposedly, the Academy invited at least one cast member from an Oscar winning film from each year (1927-1987), and they would appear on stage and on camera for a brief moment as each year and film would be introduced one by one.

But the "Year by Year" segment flopped. Shortly before air time, legendary silent/20s/30s actress Anita Page (age 77) was so overcome with heat exhaustion that she collapsed as she approached the red carpet. She was rushed to a local hospital and treated.



Thankfully, Ms Page was OK after awhile, but her absence left a void in the "Year by Year" presentation. Apparently she was the only person there to represent the year 1928 (The Broadway Melody) So the producers of the show scrapped the segment at the last minute.

As a consolation, the director made sure the cameras picked up a few glimpses of some of the recognizable stars throughout the night, so viewers were able to at least see Mercedes McCambridge (All The King's Men, 1949), Celeste Holm (All About Eve, 1950), Charlton Heston (Ben Hur, 1959), and Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, 1953), even for just a few seconds.

Other legends were there in the audience, such as Roddy McDowall (How Green Was My Valley, 1941) and Robert Stack (Written on the Wind, 1956), but sadly, they didn't get any screen time, not even a reaction shot. I'm sure there were more stars present, but I just don't know who.

Below are some cool reaction shots that the director picked up on camera. Sadly, the ones who did make it on camera didn't get a credit, but I've provided the names myself!




Above: The leading man from the first Picture winner Wings (1927).









Above: Ms. Fontaine is not amused with Chevy Chase's unfunny monologue.

According to the aforementioned book Inside Oscar, Joan became a little impatient towards the end of the ceremony, and was wondering when it was time for her appearance onstage. Reportedly she was sitting very close to Roddy McDowell, and at one point turned to him as asked, "When do we go on?" "Later Later" he assured Rebecca's second Mrs. deWinter.

Apparently a number of the stars were never told that the segment was cancelled, nor that Anita Page was hospitalized.

Joan wasn't asked to present (either that or she refused), but her sister was invited to present the Oscar for Art Direction and she accepted. Olivia's appearance was within the first hour of the ceremony, right after Olympia Dukakis won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress Moonstruck.






Olivia walked onstage to "Tara's Theme". There was a standing ovation. The television cameras didn't get a shot of Joan; so viewers couldn't tell if she was standing or sitting during the ovation.






Olivia presented the award for Best Art Direction; the winners were the team from The Last Emperor.



Below: Towards the end of the evening, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck took to the stage to present the writing awards. There was another standing ovation for them.



Below: Paul Newman presented Cher with her Oscar for Moonstruck.



It's too bad the "Oscar-Year-by-Year" segment flopped. It might have been cool. The Academy tried again for the the 70th and 75th ceremonies, but they invited all Oscar recipients of acting awards, and it didn't matter what year they represented. They were introduced alphabetically.

Postscript:

No, there was no reunion between Olivia de Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine that night. It's possible that the last time the two sisters were in the same building together. According to the book "Inside Oscar", Joan was upset about the segment being cancelled, and that she didn't receive any screen time other than one split-second reaction shot. She reportedly vowed to never return to another Oscars ceremony which explains her absence from the 70th and 75th anniversary tributes.

However, at the end of the evening, all of the night's Oscar winners, presenters, performers, and legends were invited to come up to the stage to basically just stand there and wave while the credits rolled. With all the credits scrolling up, you could hardly make out who was on stage. Enjoy one more photo from Alan Light from inside the auditorium at the end of the show:

Joan Fontaine and Olivia deHavilland are sisters

For a long time, I did not know that the two actors were actually sisters in real life. Both of them won Oscars, too, and both had pretty distinguished film careers.


Actress Joan Fontaine w. her actress sister Olivia De Havilland looking out of an open window at her home. Photo by: Bob Landry, April 1942. LIFE Magazine


L-R: Brian Aherne and Joan Fontaine (with Olivia de Havilland) having tea on the patio of their Georgian home. Photo by: Bob Landry, April 1942. LIFE Magazine

Airport (1970) and its crappy sequels (though the original wasn't so great, either)

Airplane from 1970 the first in a line of popular "disaster films" from the 70s, but was not seen as such upon first release.

The movie was based on a novel, and was treated as a serious  drama-thriller at the time, with distinguished actors such as Helen Hayes and Maureen Stapleton as ill-fated passengers.

The film itself was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. (Ms Hayes won Best Supporting Actress as an elderly, clever stowaway). Dean Martin was miscast as the plane's pilot, but he's fairly tame in his performance, thankfully. (No drinking). The movie gets interesting when a lunatic (Van Heflin) threatens to blow up the plane with a bomb he brings aboard. This was parodied in the movie "Airplane 2: The Sequel" (1982). 

The movie is sappy and long, and is probably best watched having a certain context and frame of reference.



The next movie in the series was the less-than-creatively titled Airport 1975, featuring another all star fest, and trying to bank on the popularity of the recent disaster films "Earthquake" and "Towering Inferno".

This time Charlton Heston is the man to save the day. Helen Reddy plays a singing nun and Linda Blair is a child in need of an organ transplant. These characters were later lampooned in 1980's Airplane! Gloria Swanson also appears, in her last film.

The blog Cult Movie Reviews recently posted a synopsis of this terrible film. I'm so thankful another blogger watched the movie and has written about it...so I don't have to.





 
These next films are so awful, despite having some huge names in the cast. It's amazing to me why these films were made - were the filmmakers sadistic?  The first Airport movie was a success, followed by Airport 1975, but they probably should have stopped there.

In Airport '77 (funny how the "19" in "1977" was cut from the title), Jack Lemmon saves the day, and stopping by for cameos are Jimmy Stewart and Olivia DeHavilland.

Did they need the money?

Fortunately, Jimmy is only in one or two scenes. Probably the lowest point in his filmography.

Finally, we have The Concorde: Airport 79 a disaster (pun intended) starring Robert Wagner.