SassMouthDames

Judy Holliday's career was tragically short, but she left an indelible imprint on motion pictures. Bells are Ringing (1960) showcases her incredible gift for making every bit of business look spontaneous and of the moment, even though she had performed the part over 1000 times on stage. She teamed up with her old theatre kid partners, Betty Comden and Adolph Green to play the part of the Good Sama...

Our story concludes! Mae finds a way to fix Mrs Howard's wagon. Polly makes an important connection. Cora finds a way to live with what happened at the circus party. Ruby has a scene to prepare. June looks forward to greener pastures. Mimi gets a new role. Starring: Clara Higgins as Mae Devine Jennifer O'Meara as Polly Trainor Jeanne Sutton as Cora Smith Olympia Kiriakou as Ruby Dawn M. Shawn as J...

In episode two, Polly dates Bennett Cerf. Cora goes to a circus party. Mae receives a visit from Mrs Howard. June's 'rafter romance' takes a turn. And will Ruby have a shot at a screen test? Starring: Clara Higgins as Mae Devine Jennifer O'Meara as Polly Trainor Jeanne Sutton as Cora Smith Olympia Kiriakou as Ruby Dawn M. Shawn as June Winter Megan McGurk as Mrs Howard Salon Devine was written and...

Our story opens in September 1933 in Salon Devine, located at Broadway and 45th. Friday night in Salon Devine is electric with the energy of ambitious beauty operators and show girls. Cora wants a fur coat. Ladies in the salon discuss various ways of getting one. Meet the dames: Mae Devine is played by Clara Higggins Polly Trainor is played by Jennifer O'Meara Cora Smith is played by Jeanne Sutton...

In 1939, Joan Crawford attempted to rebound from personal and professional setbacks by taking a risk on a small part an ensemble picture where even the roles of maids were fought over. Studio boss Louis B Mayer didn't want Joan to take the part. She stuck to her guns and made Crystal Allen a standout. Joan uses four different New York accents to show that a social climber needs to not only look th...

Before the craze for mob syndicates became all the rage in Hollywood, Frank Capra's picture with Barbara Stanwyck and Marie Prevost argued that rich men were the real gangsters. Men in the society register could serve caviar in office orgies and maul gals on the night boat to Albany. Kay Arnold (Stanwyck) and Dot Lamarr (Prevost) are just two working girls trying to make a living on the edges of s...

Lana Turner received her only Oscar nomination for her performance as a single mom who runs a dress shop in a conservative small town. The picture showcases the acting techniques she developed over 18 years in MGM with drama coach Lillian Burns. The screen adaptation of the bestseller by Grace Metalious was one of the biggest hits of her career. Peyton Place also coincided with the biggest scandal...

Doris Day made a big splash in her screen debut. Armed with hipster sass, a great wardrobe, and songs that rocked the hit parade, she is every bit the star. Doris was so successful at the box office that the studio worked her like a dog until she had a nervous breakdown. Despite the pressure of being a star and the men who exploited her sunny persona, Doris Day was a survivor.

Esther Williams turns the life story of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman into a big Hollywood spectacle that also has something to say about a woman's right to work and define her own life. The backstage drama surpassed what occurs on the screen. Esther enjoyed a lusty affair with co-star Vic Mature and performed dangerous stunts throughout production. She was probably the only star in MGM the...

Elizabeth Taylor had nearly as many problems with her health during production of Cleopatra as she had costume changes. Although she negotiated a sweet deal to star as the legendary queen, the pressure from studio executives, investors, and insurance agents was ruinous. They made bad decisions that endangered her life. And then the affair with Burton nearly ended it--twice. Elizabeth Taylor rose a...

Muriel and Sydney Box's Oscar-winning script offers a potent fantasy for women. Byronic James Mason believes in Ann Todd's artistic gift for the piano. He devotes himself to her transformation into a world-class pianist. He waits for her to become great and he waits for her to realise she loves him. This is a heady combination that makes only one ending possible. Ann Todd admitted years later that...

In Hitchcock's narrative economy, men can't see past the nose on their face. Women, on the other hand, have keen powers of observation. If not for an older governess, a nun, and a society dame in a monogrammed scarf, all would be lost. Margaret Lockwood gets stuck into political intrigue in a picture that made her an international star. Like her character, Iris Henderson, Margaret knew her own min...

One night, Temple Drake loses the security and privilege she has always known when a date takes her to a bootlegger's den in the woods. After being penned like an animal and sexually assaulted, Temple summons the courage and fortitude to rise above the brutality she experienced. Instead of hiding behind tradition which would sacrifice a man's life to spare her honour, Temple has a moral awakening...

As the first queen of Twentieth Century Fox studio, Alice Faye shines in a frothy musical made up of glamour, lust, and mistaken identity. That Night in Rio (1941) fires on all cylinders from cast, costume, and story. Alice had worked her tail off from the age of 13 when she became a chorine in New York City and didn't stop until her dramatic exit from the studio in 1945. Alice Faye was the voice...

Angela Lansbury was typecast as an older woman when she was still a girl under contract in MGM. She was only 21 when Louis B Mayer insisted she play an unhappily married woman of 35. Lansbury had her own real-life romantic misadventure to draw on when she created the character. The seeds of later roles of villainous women Kay Thorndyke (State of the Union)and the 'Red Queen', Mrs Shaw-Iselin, are...

Before Grace Kelly grew tired of juggling wolves and left Hollywood, she made an indelible imprint playing Lisa Fremont as a woman of style and action. The silver fox photographer (Jimmy Stewart)has a negative view of glamour and thinks he sees everything, but Lisa Fremont shows him another angle of vision. Lisa's style extends to the way she moves about the world. In a dress and heels, she's more...

In her second starring role, Barbara Payton not only holds her own against a leading man with 20 years of experience, she also manages to steal scenes with James Cagney. Barbara's character Holiday might appear to submit to commands such as the blood curdling 'make me a sandwich' but she also throws everything at him except the kitchen table. Barbara Payton is more than the tabloid coverage which...

During the studio era, you can find sass mouth dames quietly stealing any picture, even one loaded to the teeth with armed men itching for oblivion. Virginia Mayo plays a fashion merchant who brings style to a frontier town. Ruth Roman plays Boston, a saloon gal with a cash register where her heart should be. Director Jacques Tourneur initially presents them as polar opposites. then makes the dist...

Jacqueline Susann's life was more dramatic than any of the novels she wrote. She made her Broadway debut in Clare Boothe Luce's landmark The Women, worked in theatre, as a showgirl, in radio and television for more than twenty years. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Jackie wrote for her life, and finally achieved wealth and fame. She wrote each day from 10 to 5 for 18 months. Jackie's m...

In Daisy Kenyon (1947), Joan Crawford lives a bachelor gal's dream as a commercial artist. Her favourite model tells Daisy 'you cook like you paint, honey--fast, colourful, and glib'. Living in a man's world, Joan has adopted a hardboiled exterior from her married lover, the ruthless tycoon played by Dana Andrews. Soon she's in a three-cornered love affair, with Andrews and a widowed veteran, play...

Geraldine Fitzgerald fought with studio boss Jack Warner for better parts. She refused to play by the rules of stardom and ultimately walked out of Hollywood in 1946. Although her career never matched the size of her talent on the big screen, Geraldine turned in outstanding performances in pictures such as The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) where she plays a venomous hot house flower. And wh...

For decades, Hedda Hopper argued that Hollywood was unfair to women. She campaigned for more women screenwriters, producers, and directors. She used her influence to boost the career of many women, including Joan Crawford, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Shelley Winters. She put the fear of god into Louis B Mayer when he tried to shove Ida Koverman into the Motion Picture Country Home. Glowing press features...

After Louella Parsons lost a monopoly over publicity department exclusives, she initially struggled as a result of competition from Hedda Hopper and other columnists. But Louella captured two of the biggest scoops of the post-war studio era when she reported a global exclusive on Rita Hayworth's marriage to Prince Aly Khan and then when she verified rumours about Ingrid Bergman's 'out of wedlock'...

A palm reader once told Hedda Hopper that she was in the wrong profession--she wasn't an actress--she was a writer. By the time she was 50, Hedda was considered a failure by Hollywood standards. She was a washed up actress when a newspaper publisher dropped a column in her lap. Hedda approached her work as a columnist like it was a dramatic performance, which she acted out while dictating copy to...

During the 1930s, Louella Parsons had the power to drag a mogul or producer out of bed in the middle of the night. If she rang a studio to talk to a star, they would stop production in the middle of a scene to answer Louella. Barbed attacks appeared in the press, mostly from men who could not swallow the fact that a middle-aged dame was at the top of their profession. By the end of the decade, Lou...