BOOKMAN'S MOVIE SCREENSHOT GAME—DAY 4 (17 June 2021)

 

Hello again, movie fans.  It's Thursday.  Just another run-of-the-mill dreaded Thursday at Bookman's Movie Screenshot Game.  Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

Here are the titles for yesterday's lineup:

1.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

2.

Dial M for Murder (1954)

3.

Laura (1944)

4.

Nosferatu (1922)

5.

Out of Africa (1985)

6.

The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)

7.

Ace in the Hole (1951)

8.

Enchanted (2007)

9.

Pumping Iron (1977)

10.

Gaslight (1944)

Congratulations to catbert for getting all 10 movies correct.  Honorable mention to Paul for coming so close.

On This Day in Movie History …

Clark Gable, Jack Holt, Spencer Tracy, and Jeanette MacDonald in San Francisco (1936)

Jeanette MacDonald in Naughty Marietta (1935)

… Jeanette MacDonald was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1903. Today a fading memory, her fame in the 1930s and 1940s rested mostly on her beauty and her singing ability in musical-romance-comedies.

Her appearances in her early Paramount films with Maurice Chevalier made her a bona fide star.  When she moved to MGM and was teamed with Nelson Eddy, she became a box-office powerhouse.  Though she hadn't trained in opera (as Eddy had), her coloratura voice was a soothing counterpoint to Eddy's piercing tenor.  The songs she sang in films became hits on the radio.

I think her most impressive performance occurred both behind the scenes of, and in front of the cameras for, the 1936 film, San Francisco.  She spearheaded MGM's making of the movie.  She brought Anita Loos's screenplay to MGM production chief Irving Thalberg.  She personally chose Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy for their roles.  She gave, for her, a nuanced performance, which was quite a feat considering she and Gable disdained each other and didn't hesitate to show it when the cameras weren't rolling.  Her singing in this movie was largely responsible for Douglas Shearer's second consecutive Oscar for sound recording, having won the previous year for another MacDonald movie, Naughty Marietta.  San Francisco was nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture and, for Spencer Tracy, Best Actor, the first of his nine Oscar nominations.

By the mid-1940s, on the down slope of her film career, she went to Europe and formally trained for the opera.  She performed as Juliette in Canadian and American opera houses in Roméo et Juliette, and as Helen in American opera houses in Faust.  Her performances were universally praised.  "[I]f Faust must sell his soul to the devil, at least this time he got his money's worth," according to the music critic at the Chicago Tribune.

MacDonald retired from performing in 1959 and died in 1965.

Here is today's buffer zone:

All right, are you ready to play?  Then, let's play!  Good luck, and have fun!

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