My top 20 favorite actresses

It seems like some of my readers wanted more after my Top 20 Favorite Actors post - and what can I do but obey? As usual I had to leave out some favorites after all (why can't they all fit in??), like Grace Kelly and Mae West. Well well. Here they are: My top 20 favorite actresses (in alphabetical order, of course):

1. Lauren Bacall

Favorite role: Slim Browning in To Have and Have Not (1944)

2. Ingrid Bergman

Favorite role: Alicia Huberman in Notorious (1946)

3. Joan Blondell

Favorite role: B. Maloney in Night Nurse (1931)

4. Clara Bow

Favorite role: Betty Lou Spence in It (1927)

5. Louise Brooks

Favorite role: Lulu in Pandora's Box (1929)

6. Olivia de Havilland

Favorite role: Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (1949)

7. Marlene Dietrich

Favorite role: Shanghai Lily in Shanghai Express (1932)

8. Greta Garbo

Favorite role: Anna Christie in Anna Christie (1930)

9. Lillian Gish

Favorite role: Rachel Cooper in The Night of the Hunter (1955)

10. Audrey Hepburn

Favorite role: Nicole in How to Steal a Million (1966)

11. Katharine Hepburn

Favorite role: Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story (1940)

12. Vivien Leigh

Favorite role: Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Names Desire (1951)

13. Carole Lombard

Favorite role: Maria Tura in To Be or Not to Be (1942)

14. Myrna Loy

Favorite role: Milly Stephenson in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

15. Marilyn Monroe

Favorite role: Sugar Kane Kowalczyk in Some Like It Hot (1959)

16. Jeanne Moreau

Favorite role: Catherine in Jules and Jim (1962)

17. Mary Pickford

Favorite role: Mary Carlton / Mary Marlow in Secrets (1933)

18. Barbara Stanwyck

Favorite role: Lily Powers in Baby Face (1933)

19. Gloria Swanson

Favorite role: Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. (1950)

20. Natalie Wood

Favorite role: Angie Rossini in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)

Basil Rathbone and radio

"Radio is unquestionably a superior medium to television because it makes us use our imaginations. . . . In the days of radio, The Theatre Guild of the Air . . . was ever striving for quality, intelligence, and good taste. I have played many times for them and every time I was invited it was a worthwhile experience."

Basil Rathbone

Before I tell you anything in this subject - listen to this. I have listened to it so many times that I know it in and out by now.
Broadcasted in 1939, Vivien Leigh and Basil Rathbone read love poems to each others, here.

Listened? Okay. If you can be interested in anything else after that, you may go ahead:

Basil Rathbone worked a lot with radio broadcasts during his career. In those days it was common to do radio adaptions of popular films (often with the same actors as in the film), and so did Rathbone. For example he, Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland appeared in a radio play of Captain Blood (1935), broadcasted in February 22nd, 1937 (listen to it on YouTube here), and in May 1938 Rathbone narrated a radio adaption of The Adventures of Robin Hood, the same year the film was released.




During the same years the Sherlock Holmes films were made, 1939-1946, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce aired a lot of radio plays of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories about the famous detective (them being more true to the originals than the film adaption!).
I have included an example of a radio play below.

"I have been told by literally hundreds of people that when we were doing the Sherlock Holmes series they would turn out the lights or if they had a fire sit round it and let their imaginations go fancy free."

- Basil Rathbone

Radio broadcast from January 28th, 1946. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce play their usual roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in this radio play of "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber". (Does someone get the hickups during the ending?)

Since Rathbone by the time of the Second World War was too old for combat (47 years old), he contributed by making radio broadcasts, encouraging the people in war and making political statements.

Wartime radio broadcast by NBC with British stars Greer Garson, Leslie Howard, Vivien Leigh, Brian Aherne, Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone.

But the radio wasn't an entirely serious business. Basil Rathbone made comical guest appearances in, among others, The Bob Hope Show and The Jack Benny Show. I have a fine example of Basil Rathbone finding Jack Benny behind a bush in November, 1941, here. (The entire program is included below.)
In 1939 Rathbone was on the panel of an intellectual quiz program called "Information Please". Listen to him answering a series of Shakespeare questions correctly here. Quite amusing!

Here follows a Jack Benny Program from 1941 with Basil Rathbone as a guest star, very funny! (But quite silly, too!) Rathbone appears in part three, but I included the whole program (just because). Jack Benny harasses Rathbone at his house. But he conceals himself as Charles Boyer, so it's cool.

How did it all begin?

I stole this Q&A from Nicole at Classic Hollywood Nerd, and thought it would be fun to answer the questions too!



Who was the first actor/actress that you were first interested in?

Amazingly just the same as Nicole - James Dean. I quickly bought his three movies (on VHS! How long ago...), and watched them 'til the tapes were almost worn out. East of Eden (1955) was my favourite. James Dean was however quickly followed by Cary Grant.
My first actress idol was Vivien Leigh, I believe. Of course I'd had pictures of Marilyn Monroe all over my walls for some time then, but it took a few years before I saw a movie with her in it.
Shortly after James Dean and Cary Grant my obsession for the Marx Brothers began, when A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937) was shown on Swedish television.

My first movie icons - James Dean and Vivien Leigh.

How old were you when you really began watching old movies?

I began in the seventh grade, when I was 13. I borrowed Casablanca (1942) and Gone With the Wind (1939) on VHS from my grandfather. I saw them both with my mother, who thought I would love them. Thank you mother! She was so right.


What was the first old movie that caught your interest?

Casablanca! I fell in love with Humphrey Bogart immediately.


Who is currently your favourite actor?

A hard one. I'm currently more fascinated by the strong women of old Hollywood, but let me think... Oh yes. George Sanders as Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950)!


Who is currently your favourite actress?

That is even harder! I have to name three: Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis and Mary Pickford. (The strong women of old Hollywood, as I said!)

My current favourite Hollywood women - Swanson, Davies and Pickford.

What is your favourite old movie and why?

I can't possibly name one. It's like choosing your favourite parent or sibling. But I'll name some of my all time favourites:

• Duck Soup (1933) - because it's the most ultimate, sick, twisted, "Marxy" Marx Brothers film ever. It is perfect. And just a bit over an hour long - perfect length!
• All About Eve (1950) - because of the perfect script by Joseph L. Mankievicz, the double entendres, the perfect casting of every little supporting role and the intensity of the drama.
• Sunset Blvd (1950) - because it's one of the greatest film noirs in motion picture history, has an innovative plot and unexpected developments of the characters, roots in reality and, as in All About Eve, has perfect actors and cameos.
  
• Gone With the Wind (1939) - because the film keeps the viewer interested and absorbed by the story for almost four hours, great acting and drama, and the developement from a charming costume film to a war melodrama, and then over to final tragedy. Perfectly done.
  

How many old movies do you own?

Hrrrm. Like... eeeh... roughly about 200-250 DVD's. I'm a collector! And a very sick girl.


If you could go back in time and visit any actor/actress, who would it be?

Gloria Swanson! She could teach me everything about the life of a woman. I think she made all the mistakes she could, and then learned from all of them. She would be my mentor.
And if I wanted to go back in time to meet an actor, I would probably choose Paul Newman in the 1950's or 1960's. And do very filthy stuff to him.

Give me that blue-eyed thing!

Who is one actor/actress that you want to know more about?

If I get interested in a person I always read about him/her. I'm manic, I always take the time. But if I would try to think of someone I don't know so much about... Maybe Rudolph Valentino. I don't know enough about him. Wikipedia, here I come!


What film could you watch over and over again?

Every time I get a cold or a fever I watch Gone With the Wind and feel sorry for myself, with a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and a warm blanket. I have no idea how many times I've seen that movie. And now I finally have the glorious 4-disc DVD-box! I sent for it from the USA to get the English version and not the Swedish one. I'm a nerd, I know.
Also, today I saw All About Eve for the fourth time. The last three times were during a period of less than two weeks. And I would have no problem watching it again!


What is your favourite Hitchcock film?

I guess Psycho (1960) or Rear Window (1954). And yes, Shadow of a Doubt (1943)! Joseph Cotten is irreproachable.

James Stewart and Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954).