Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Monday, July 01, 2024

Stills That Speak #5


STS: Mr. and Mrs. Joan Crawford at Home, Nick Adams 's Godzilla, MGM Pulls Deluxe Trailers


PHILLIP TERRY’S THE “HEAD MAN” --- Never mind Crawford kids. What of hapless husbands? We might rate each according to respective images, being the relevant three were actors. Firstly Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., scion of more fame that Crawford could hope to achieve and so not ground to submission by her. She was besides a relative starter at the time and knew she had much to learn from him and elders, JC taught table manners from Mary amongst other proprieties. Call it a draw when she and Junior split. Then was Franchot Tone, cultivated and coming from class she lacked, knew acting besides from Group Theatre background, which she could not help respecting. Next and I’d say least potent of partners was Phillip Terry, who we imagine to be weak because he played weak parts in few important films he did, but wait, Terry was all-athletic at school, worked oil fields, seemingly no pushover. He and Joan adopted a boy they named Phillip Terry, Jr., the split leaving her with custody of this child whose name she’d change. Captions applied to fan gush here are smothered in present-day irony. “They’re a gloriously happy foursome with a normal family life,” says press of parents posed with Phillip Jr, soon Christopher, and some-said-bad-seed Christina whose crucifixion of Mom would wait thirty more years. Divorce came on heels of this sitting. Here’s my query: Did Phillip Terry, who lived till 1993, look back on his Crawford experience for publication? Any private comments that were eventually shared? I’d scour JC bios, but there are too many for my enfeebling mind to absorb. Imagine fun of watching a video cassette of Mommie Dearest in Terry’s den with him supplying live audio commentary. The movie actually takes place in large part during the Crawford-Terry marriage, though memory (mine) suggests he was nowhere depicted. I’d confirm but for blood oath never to sit through Mommie Dearest again.


GOJIRA FINDS A FRIEND IN NICK ADAMS --- Two for pop culture’s scrapheap? Snob industry figured Adams for slumming when he traveled (far) east to play opposite Japanese monsters, but Nick grooved with it and publicly said so. We admire him the more for helping Frankenstein conquer the world and harnessing astro-menaces. I’m mixed up as to Baragon’s placement among Nippon gargantuans, but Nick appears to have worked with him/it, maybe more than once. Might Nick Adams have become Toho’s first ongoing imported-from-America star? Data is out there no doubt, but I’m not conversant beyond seeing Frankenstein Conquers the World when new in 1966 and forgetting same utterly since. More than this one still has surfaced of Nick interacting with others of Toho employ. A somewhat portly Godzilla was between battling Mothra (aka “The Thing”) and next seen at loggerheads with Ghidrah, though as I complained before, there seemed no Ghidrah within sixty square miles of me, as though monsters from Japan were no longer welcome at N. Carolina theatres. A Godzilla plus others lull, washed up for keeps maybe? Thankfully no, Destroy All Monsters in eventual offing, my walking out on it in 1968 a guard against having my fourteen-year-old intelligence insulted (oh but to set that right at seventy). Godzilla is bigger than ever today based on all-time high receipts for a latest, critic/fandom gone through roofs of enthusiasm. Is Nick Adams examining here an actual model they used for filming Godzilla? Was there a split between guys wearing the rubber suit and miniatures to be used when the monster stomped on smaller structures? It occurs to me that Godzilla has been doing his thing for seventy years now, longer even than James Bond. Did Nick Adams divine a future the rest of us missed? I choose not to believe his death was deliberate. A mystery yes, but aspects suggest it was accidental, or darker, depending on one’s own interpretation of facts.



MGM MAKES TRAILERS SOMETHING SPECIAL --- Trailers as an art form all their own await recognition yet, but for how many were previews a highpoint of days at the show? They all seem identical nowadays … could that be for essentially same personnel assembling the lot? Greenbriar wrote of trailers in 2008 with emphasis on collecting them back before most that exist could be accessed online. Now we can call up most any title and find, somewhere, its original preview. “The Exhibitor” as bugler to the trade did March 12, 1952 coverage of MGM’s focus on two minute promos that in many a circumstance entertained as well as a lead feature. “Personalized” pitching often involved stars or support players brought on to share news of an upcoming attraction. These had been done from the thirties forward … Bela Lugosi for Mark of the Vampire, the four stars of Libeled Lady together in offscreen antics, lavish trailers a signal to exhibition that no stone would stay unturned where selling was the goal. Just as animation had its wing, so too did trailers. Sometimes the two would merge, as when cartoonists drew one minute’s length on behalf of Adam’s Rib, a sort of teaser to go out in addition to a longer lure for the 1949 comedy, latter featuring narration by “a Smith named Pete,” a man who habitually found himself funnier than others did, or is it just me? However way, Smith surely helped Adam’s Rib, his trailer a curiosity if not a joy listening to. This and a plethora of others stream at TCM address. One I could not locate however was It’s a Big Country, which has Gary Cooper riding out to his ranch mailbox where word awaits of the 1951 Metro omnibus. The preview was around on 16mm, but nowhere now it seems, unless under an Internet stone I have left unturned.



The Exhibitor says Leo specialty-sold mostly drama and comedy, “the big musicals can sell themselves most effectively by utilizing direct material,” by which they meant scenes, excerpts from songs, nothing specifically filmed for the trailer. An exception was On the Town, which had narration plus the opening James A. FitzPatrick title card to herald his participation. Question arises as to how many previews FitzPatrick participated in? Or Pete Smith? Or John Nesbitt of “Passing Parade” fame, who stepped up for The Man With a Cloak. I came across Lionel Barrymore narrating for The Happy Years, Clark Gable and Broderick Crawford on-camera for Lone Star, the pair riding up to camera front with assurance that we’ll enjoy their new western. Then there was Red Skelton doing what looks like a couple day’s work to promote Watch the Birdie, as though Red were giving us a comedy short to herald his comedy feature. Westward the Women offered a reel’s worth of behind-scenes and highlights that amounted to a docu-subject and invaluable record of the feature’s making. Lavishness of trailers tailed off after the early fifties unless Leo had something really special to sell, which for one was High Society in 1956, Bing Crosby greeting Ed Sullivan on a Metro soundstage having what sounds like unrehearsed conversation about High Society amidst generous clips. Trailers could run long, apply the hard sell by means that could and did amuse latter-day audiences. I ran one for Scaramouche for several weeks leading up to a university playdate, crowds seeing it often enough to chant “Scaramouche!” in unison with the narrator as he repeated the name throughout. Abiding mystery is for what movie did Debbie Reynolds and Fernando Lamas do a special MGM preview, as shown in the photo here. Not knowing points up the number, probably great number, of unique trailers I’ve yet to see.

10 Comments:

Blogger Ken said...

I'd guess that the Debbie Reynolds photo was shot on the set of MGM's 1951 clunker "Mr. Imperium"
The film starred Lana Turner and Ezio Pinza but Debbie and Marjorie Main were featured in some sort of ranch or farm setting. There are various shots online of Debbie from the film where she's wearing what appears to be the same outfit.
Are you sure that's Fernando Lamas with her? He's not in the film. But he was a new MGM contractee - also Lana Turner's main squeeze at the time. So who knows? He may have been hanging around the set and got drafted to take part in some promotional footage. It's not in the official "Mr. Imperium" trailer. But maybe it was meant to be some other kind of publicity piece, possibly spotlighting upcoming Metro players. Maybe in the end the bit never actually got released in any form.

7:59 AM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

The article mentioned Lamas as having participated in the trailer with Reynolds.

8:24 AM  
Blogger RichardSchilling said...

It is very true that at MGM, "the big musicals can sell themselves most effectively by utilizing direct material,” by which they meant scenes, excerpts from songs, nothing specifically filmed for the trailer."

Interestingly, just yesterday I found another exception. I took a look at the Three Little Words trailer on IMDB, since it was just announced as coming on WarnerArchive bluray in August. The first half of the trailer shows actual Oscar footage of Ginger Rogers presenting an honorary Oscar to Fred Astaire.....but handing it over George Murphy, since Fred was not able to attend the ceremony(!?). They then cut to a staged scene of George Murphy presenting the Oscar to Fred. Then the regular trailer starts.

Anyway, I hope it is on the bluray.

10:43 AM  
Blogger DBenson said...

MGM produced an animated promo for "Scaramouche" (link below). It looks like a TV commercial, but why color in 1952? The makers seem to have no data about the movie except the names of the four stars, the period setting, and a big sword fight. Was there insufficient footage ready from the movie, or some other reason for spending the money to animate such a generic pitch?

Also: While a humanized Leo mascot was familiar from print advertising (mostly trade press) and an on-camera intro for the first Willie Whopper cartoon back in the 30s, was he still in use by this time? Also, does the redesigned animated Leo turn up anywhere else?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhYwZ6PdvUQ

Another odd one: Universal's trailer for "Francis the Talking Mule", padded with animation of "Preview Pete" (another print ad mascot?) and frankly fake audience inverviews. An expression of studio confidence, or desperate lack of same?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhM14dAmvGc

4:56 PM  
Blogger Scott MacGillivray said...

"The Glamorous Robert Benchley" (it says so on the title card) offers his explanation of movie trailers here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHie7Cqtbko

Note that this special trailer uses the theme music from Benchley's one-reel M-G-M comedies.

2:52 PM  
Blogger William Ferry said...

"Preview Pete" also appeared in other U-I trailers (my memory is fuzzy, but it might have been one of the Kettle films). He seemed to me like a knockoff of Lou Costello!

3:09 PM  
Blogger Kevin K. said...

I bet the stars of Scaramouche just loved being promoted by a cartoon.

3:27 PM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Dan Mercer considers Joan Crawford and family's "glorious happiness."


I saw “Mommie Dearest” at a theater when it was released and have not seen it since. That of course means that many years have passed, but I have no desire to renew my acquaintance with it. I will only say that the theater missed an opportunity when it did not make coin operated lockers available for patrons to check their sense of psychological reality before going in.

It is possible, of course, that the “Joan Crawford” who did live and became a movie star was as divorced from any kind of reality as Faye Dunaway’s impersonation of her. The “glorious happiness” of her “family life” suggests as much, since it seemingly owes more to pictures in “Good Housekeeping” or a “LIFE Goes to a Party” feature than to the expression of an open and loving heart.
As for Philip Terry, the sex might have been great at the beginning, but anyone willing to adopt children just to give his wife a showy backdrop for her stardom might as well have had his testicles cut off.

I'm sure that she would have thought so, too, and treated him accordingly.

5:56 PM  
Blogger DBenson said...

Jackie Cooper. Somebody has to bring him up,

5:07 PM  
Blogger Mike Cline said...

DBenson - Joan brought him up. lol

6:17 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024
  • July 2024
  • August 2024
  • September 2024