Merry Christmas, Y'all

 December has become a rather "unlucky" month for my hubby and me, mostly significant health problems.  This year it is not a health issue (so far) that plagues us.  On Dec. 5th, water came gushing out of the kitchen ceiling and drenched everything, including a very surprised (and wet) Kathy.  It appears a copper water pipe had burst and an entire house repiping was needed.  Thirteen days later, and the last repairman has left the building.  Finally.  Back to normal.  Well, not quite.  All those numerous items that filled our kitchen, pantry, both bathrooms, one bedroom, the utility room and part of the garage are now stuffed in boxes and every space available.  Soooo much stuff.  So, this Christmas we'll still be cleaning and sorting through all that stuff to decide if they are keepers, trash and or giveaways.  A sad Christmas story isn't it.  The fun starts tomorrow.  And I'm guessing this will be the last posting until January 2nd, 2024.  So, while I enjoy pictures of my past Christmas decorations, Merry Christmas good people and do have a Happy New Year!

                                   Rabenau Christmas (2016)

 

Only Eleven Days To Go ... Eek!

 Rather hectic time of year isn't it!  We all need to take a break, sit down and watch a Montgomery movie.  Yeah, that sounds good.  TCM is offering three Bobs to watch:  Another Language (1933) with Helen Hayes beginning December 15th; Lady in the Lake (1946) on the 20th; and Night Must Fall (1937) the 28th.  Lady in the Lake for Christmas and Night Must Fall for New Years ... sounds great.  Which reminds me, need to add eggnog to the shopping list.  

A Feast for the Eyes, Twice!

 ROBERT MONTGOMERY, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, RM - 9.  My, but isn't he a handsome young man:  the wild & curly hair; the smirky smile; and those eyes ... rrrff!!

Then, I noticed a second copy of the portrait.  Now which one should I choose.  Oh, heck.  Why not use both?!  Good decision.  

Remembrance Day

 

 

Appropriately, TCM is showing They Were Expendable (1945) today, December 7th, Pearl Harbor or Remembrance Day.  The movie begins with the personnel of the navy base having a raucous time at a local bar, then switching over to the serious contemplation of what lies ahead of them when news of the attack on Pearl Harbor is announced.  A great scene. 

Show time is 9:00 a.m. PT.  Hopefully, it will be streamed afterwards.  It is shown a lot so it may have a limited showing.  

Politics Were Simpler in 1940

 "MRS. WILLKIE ESCORTED BY HOLLYWOOD ACTORS:  Attentively squired by two handsome movie actors, and apparently enjoying every minute of it, Mrs. Wendell L. Willkie is shown at the Hollywood Bowl September 19 when her husband, the Republican Presidential nominee, spoke briefly.  Robert Montgomery is at left and George Murphy at right."  

Clark, Leslie & Elizabeth (Jr.): One Odd Trio

 Bob talking rather emphatically about ... oh, maybe the war, or working on a John Ford set, or returning to the hassle of life at the studio, or ... 

Robert Montgomery visits Clark Gable in his dressing room.  Bob is wrapping up studio shots for his first film since returning from the war, They Were Expendable (1945), and Clark is at work on his first movie, Adventure (1945).  

Bob looks adoringly at daughter Elizabeth.  One of their more peaceful moments, I gather.  

Robert and Another Elizabeth!

Every star enjoys seeing themselves on the cover of a magazine.  This is the July 27th, 1934, edition of "Film Weekly" which features Bob and Elizabeth Allan in a scene from The Myster of Mr. X (1934).  

And then to look inside and find a positive review of both you and the movie ... life is good.

Finishing that off with a nicely done full-page ad for the movie ... it's all very good.  

Peace and Tranquility ...Yes, I Could Use Some

It's not even Thanksgiving and yet, I am already behind on Christmas plans.  I'm still recovering from my computer calamity ... at least, my Bob photographs have been saved!  Now, if I could just remember what day of the week it is ... I posted Tuesday's entry on Monday, and just now remembered I forgot completely about Thursday's!!  Aaarrggh!  I think I need a vacation.  How about you guys enjoy your Thanksgiving, and the blog will come back alive the first Tuesday after.  That's the 28th.  I do hope I remember.  

Now for an imaginary walk through woods resplendent in fall colors to find some peace and tranquility.  

What's Going On at Robert Montgomery Presents?

Barbara Bel Geddes and Peter Cookson join Bob for RMP's presentation of Rebecca, to be shown May 22, 1950. 

"Robert Montgomery confers with John O'Hara, author of "Appointment in Samara," the drama to be telecast on Robert Montgomery presents, Monday, November 24 (1952) over WNBQ-NBC."

"Constance Bennett will star in "Onions in the Stew", Betty MacDonald's best-selling novel, which will be the opening show of the new season for Robert Montgomery Presents to be aired Monday, September 17 (1956) on NBC-TV.  The noted film actress, currently appearing in plush supper clubs around the country, will also sing in the teleplay."  

Honoring All Who Served

 

Just Three Innocent Lambs ***

 The 1930s version of three stars out on the town:

                            Bob, Rudy Vallee and George Raft

And now the wire service photo capturing how they really were enjoying themselves:

*** This posting is a repeat of the November 1, 2013 post.  Have a rather horrific problem in the household:  We bought new computers and have this problem of getting data from our old computers to our new one.  Right now, I'm without all my photos since Jan., 2021, and ALL of my documents re Mr. Montgomery.  Theoretically everything is still on the old computers, we (my husband!) just need to figure out how to handle this.  Meanwhile, I'm resorting to re-using favorite posts.  Hopefully, they'll still be of interest.    

She Didn't Even Outlive Bob

 Dixie Wanda Hendrix was born November 3rd, 1928, in Jacksonville, FL.  Discovered by a Warner Bros. talent scout, she came to Hollywood at the age of 16.  By 19, she co-stars with Bob in Ride the Pink Horse (1947).  Two years later she makes the first big mistake in her life when she marries alcoholic and war-damaged Audi Murphy.  She left the very violent and philandering Murphy after seven months, to find her career damaged because of the bad press.  (Geesch!)  

Ms. Hendrix had three husbands, no children, and died at the much too young age of 52 of double pneumonia.  (And for the record, she had a 17-inch waist, the smallest in Hollywood!!  If you can believe a publicist...) 

She grew up to be a  rather nice-looking lady.

                           Wanda Hendrix in 1967, age 39

As long as he had time to take off his glasses...

 Times sure have changed.  A motion picture star walking on the streets of L.A. without an entourage, stopping to let a fan take his picture.  Amazing, really.  And a total lack of traffic, at any time, anywhere in L.A.  Mind-numbing.  

No information came with the photo, nothing written on the back.  So, I'm applying my usual mid-to-late 1940s quess.  Too blurry to enlarge it any.  Hey, I would have been shaking in the same situation.  

He Rides! He Flies! He Smokes!!!

 Realized my Milland folder was rather full of photographs I have not used on the blog, so decided to do this post.  Hey, as good a reason as any, right?!  

Ray was quite the horseman, did his own riding in his films.  Haven't any information re the movie being filmed below.  

Ray portrays a pilot in the movie Men With Wings (1938).  Why does he look so much better in a pilot's cap than does Mr. Montgomery?

And, when given the chance to be the bad guy, Ray did quite well.  He is a rogue and attempted blackmailer in the movie, So Evil My Love (1948), a movie with some great cinematography.  

I'll Guess Bette Takes a Swing at Bob ...

 Going from a posting on how nice the photos could be on small trade/cigarette cards, to photos clipped from newspapers/magazines that one can hardly make out.  For example, in the clipping below, the heading mentions Liz Harkness.  But I have to disagree ... it just isn't Buffy.  I've decided the info is associated with another photo on the page, that the lady is really Joan Harrison, Bob's producer for Ride the Pink Horse (1947) and Once More, My Darling (1949).  Bob liked Joan, so you can't go by the way he's looking at her, smile and all.  What d'ya think?  

And this is a scene from the May 9, 1955 production of "The Great Gatsby" on Robert Montgomery Presents.  I'm assuming that's our Bob portraying Gatsby on the far right.  That is Phyllis Kirk playing Daisy.  And one of the other gents is Lee Bowman, probably sitting next to Phyllis.  

And there is no questioning who the three people are below:  Bob (with a smirk), George Murphy (the cause of the smirk), and Bette Davis who is trying to decide which guy she'll slap.  What a trio.

Nice Things Can Come in Small Packaging ...

 Cigarette trading cards are great to collect.  The photos can be of such wonderful clarity, for such a small item (less than 2 inches, some variance in size).  Anything produced by the German company "Ross" is always excellent, their postcards are superb as well.  And, if you combine technical expertise with gorgeous subjects, well ... enough to make you start smoking!  

Are the Lads Just a Tad Bored? Could be.

Do you think they are waiting for Irene Dunne to finish her makeup?  Or are they waiting for Director La Cava and the writers to confer over some script changes?  All the possibilities ... Poor lads.

              Bob and Preston Foster in Unfinished Business (1941)

A Strange Silence about Bob Montgomery

 This article was published July 26, 1936.  I obtained it as a clipping, do not have the name of the magazine, but it appears to be British.  Bob had slowed down his film career in 1935-36, rather enjoyed his 3-month vacations.  And then there was his illness (?), the Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) hassle, the Thalberg-Mayer war and Thalberg's death, Bob's SAG involvement, etc., etc., etc.  A lot of stress for everybody!  

Smoking Break for the Good Ole Boys

 It seems like Frank Morgan was in more than four movies with Robert Montgomery.  Perhaps that is because three of them were bunched together:  Trouble for Two (1936); Piccadilly Jim (1936); and The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937).  In fact, Bob did not make any other movies during this time.  They, of course, worked well together.

Frank (b.1890) and Bob (b.1904) had old school ties, both having attended Pawling, a boys' prep school.  Frank attended one year when he was 17 which happened to be the year Pawling opened, 1907.  Bob was there a couple years, leaving when his father passed in 1923.  (Which makes Bob 19. Bob's early years are very fuzzy.  Like, even at 19, Bob had not completed enough coursework to graduate.  He was at Pawling, best guess, about two years.  Lot of missing years.  Yes, he may well have studied in Europe, but he wasn't spending much time there during WWI, particularly not France and Germany.  I can certainly understand Bob's keeping his Dad's suicide private, but the rest is a puzzlement.)  

           Robert Montgomery & Frank Morgan at the studio during a           break from the filming of The Last of Mrs. Cheney (1937).

The Young Squire with Pipe and Book

 Classy home for the young classy Gentleman.  A built-in bookcase with wood framing ... now that you just do not see these days.  And the real wood chair with the tapestry covering.  Really nice stuff.  (As is the center of attention, of course!)  

At least the books are overflowing the bookcase.  Normal people have that problem as well.  The middle shelf is full of knick knacks that even with an enlarged photo I could not determine just what they were.  There is a rather short candle and holder, for emergency lighting I'm assuming.  And some metal critter that may be an ashtray.  Ah, yes, back in the day when men smoked pipes and cigarettes and women stole puffs when no one was around.  

Three Tough Guys and One Tough Broad

Ward Bond and Barton MacLane ... studios did not have to waste screen time establishing who these gents were.  Primo tough guys.   Great duo in Maltese Falcon (1941).

                      Bond and Maclane in Prison Break (1938)

            Broderick Crawford in When the Daltons Rode (1940)

               Barbara Stanwyck in These Wilder Years (1956)

You Are Missed, Mr. Montgomery

 The portraits of Mr. Montgomery from the very early stage of his film career, primarily 1929 through 1930, were all amazingly different.  All great, mind you.  The camera loved him, mesmerized by those bright blue eyes.  Ruth Harriet Louise, lead photographer at MGM from 1925 to 1930, caught those eyes beautifully.  Good job, Ruth.  Thanks.  

Robert Montgomery, 5-21-1904 to 9-27-1981

 The following tribute to our Robert Montgomery was published in the October 16, 1981 issue of  'Jours de France.'  It is quite good, considering it was published in French and I had only google translate to assist in translating it.  The writer shows a great respect for Mr. Montgomery.  I hope that shows through my translation.  

Robert Montgomery:  In Hollywood he was among the greats.

He held the most beautiful women in his arms:  Ingrid Bergman, Carole Lombard, Joan Crawford, Susan Hayward and Great Garbo.  He embodied the charm and education as imagined in Hollywood in the thirties.  He was the one you fell in love with, because he was successful at everything, so well, so quickly.  He appeared in the same movies as Gable and Wayne; and was directed by the likes of John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock.  With the passing of Robert Montgomery, American cinema has just lost one of its greats.  

Born on May 21, 1904 in a rich family of Beacon, New York, a childhood of luxury and ease.  His father, vice-president of a company specializing in the treatment of rubber, sent him to Europe to learn foreign languages and everything that would help him to find his place in this cozy world.  But his father died when Bob was only 19 years old.  That was when the family discovered Mr. Montgomery senior had spent his fortune, leaving his wife and two sons to overcome this unexpected difficulty.

Robert loved literature passionately, and quite naturally turned towards writing to earn a living.  He first wrote poems, then plays.  Without any success.  He found a job in a theatrical company as an assistant manager.  Secretly, he hoped to have his own works performed.  But it would be acting that led him to success on the stage.  It was while playing "Possession" on Broadway when Hollywood noticed him.  This was at the very start of the spoken word on film.  The new art had struck down many silent stars, unable to pronounce a few sentences correctly, or simply cursed with atrocious voices.  Theater actors, like Montgomery, found their opportunity for long-awaited glory.

In addition to his physique, his tall height and regular features, Robert Montgomery had an irresistible asset:  he was funny naturally and did wonders in the fashionable American comedies of these years.  But he grew tired of these roles and tried to convince producers to use him in more dramatic roles.  Finally, in 1937, Richard Thorpe directed him in "Night Must Fall", in which Bob plays a murderous psychopath.  He received much critical acclaim for his performance, as he would in 1941 in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan".  But the war stopped this new career and Montgomery joined the navy, wherein he proved to be a brilliant and courageous officer.

In 1945, determined not to fall back into "Hollywood Sweets" ***, he performs in "They Were Expendable" under the direction of John Ford.  This film gives him a taste for directing and the next year he will direct his first film, "The Lady in the Lake", which is filmed using the principle of subjective camera.  He also appears in the main role:  that of Marlow, the famous private detective invented by Raymond Chandler.

From 1950 to 1957, he was a television producer.  His show, "Robert Montgomery Presents," was highly successful for all those years.  Also, during this time, President Eisenhower hired him as a radio/television advisor.  

Paradoxically, the man who was one of the greatest seducers on the screen, had a very serene private life.  His first wife was Elizabeth Bryan Allen, by whom he had two children, Elizabeth and Robert Junior.  Ten years ago he married another Elizabeth --- Elizabeth Harkness.

With the passing of Robert Montgomery, on September 27, in New York --- he was 77 years old --- it is once again --- after John Wayne --- a star of this enchanting Hollywood that was lost; one of those gods of cinema who marked an era, that of a sumptuous and cheerful America that no one so far has managed to resurrect on the screen.

*** Hollywood Sweets is the google translation of "sucreries Hollywoodiennes".  Haven't the foggiest idea what it means.  Any suggestions?  

Was Nurse Sandy Really Needed?

 Lt. John "Brick" Brickley admires his primary love, his ship --- or PT Boat No. 41.  

             Robert Montgomery in They Were Expendable (1945) 

Personally, I'm admiring the full shot of Mr. "Bob" Montgomery from behind.  

Rrrff!

What's Better than a Photo of Bob? Three Bobs!

 Bob was certainly right about choosing tough guy roles when he returned from the war.  He's only 43 when he makes Ride the Pink Horse (1947), but he has left his youthful personna far behind.  Four years in the military during war time can have that effect.  

Actually, I rather like middle-aged Bob.  More real.  Sexier.  

Three almost identical pictures ... same pose, the cigarette the only difference.  To me it looks like Bob is searching for his inner Lucky Gagin, and finds him in the last photo.  It's the eyes.