Speaking of Rage ...

I wrote a post some years back about George Sanders towering over Bob in a scene from Rage in Heaven (1941).  George Sanders was a very large guy, particularly for 1941.  According to celebheights.com, he was 6' 2-1/2".  In the first photo below, he is towering over Bob, along with having a much larger head and body.  Big guy.  

Bob always claimed to be 6' 1".  Now I'm not saying he wasn't in his youth, but it is not unusual to lose height as we age.  Lets be generous and agree that he is 6' 0" at this time.  So, is George even taller or Bob shorter than 6' according to the photo?

And then study the photo below.  Same movie, same set.  What happened?  Is George standing on the other side of the room?  I mean, even his head has gotten smaller!  Just wondering.  By the way, Ingrid was 5' 9".  Wore a lot of flat shoes for sure.  

Bob Being Bob ... What Could be Better?

 It's Bob and Ingrid Bergman sitting in the doorway of Bob's portable dressing room on the set of Rage in Heaven (1941).  Wonder what they are both looking at so intently.  Is it the first time they've met 6'3" George Sanders?  I can just read Bob's mind ... "I'll have to share scenes with that giant?!"

I haven't seen Bob so wide-eyed before.  Nor so youthful at 36.  Perhaps it's the camera capturing momentary innocent thoughts of surprise or inquisitiveness emanating from Bob's bright mind.   No, I'm not saying Bob was an innocent soul, but a man of many facets including a youthful interest in the world around him.  And it does not appear to be a posed look which would be common for on-the-set publicity photos.   Yup, it's just Bob being Bob.  Nifty. 

G'Lord, George. How Tall ARE You?

       George Sanders, Bob and Ingrid Bergman (b. August 29, 1915)

                                Happy Birthday, Ingrid!

Ah, Brian, What Happened to that Gorgeous Hair?! (Hmm...kinda like Bob's.)

Brian Aherne was handsome, debonair and instantly likeable on the screen.  A successful actor in both movies and the theater, Aherne was a longtime friend of depressive George Sanders (no mean accomplishment) about whom he wrote the excellent biography, "A Dreadful Man: A Personal Intimate Book About George Sanders." 
 

                          What Every Woman Knows (1934)

                      

 Aherne was also a pilot and owned his own plane.  A multi-talented gent was he.  And, following a Bette Davis theme for the week, was quoted as saying, "Surely nobody but a mother could have loved Bette Davis at the height of her career."  

Egads! Could It Be So?!

Check out the photo.  Bob claimed to be 6' 1", some sources have him at 6' 0.5".  George Sanders is listed at 6' 3".  Hmm. 

What d'ya think?  Is Bob as advertised, or could the studios have possibly exaggerated his height just a tad?  Egads, tell me it isn't so! 

In the movie The Big House (1930), the scene wherein Bob is checking into prison and his vital statistics are being gathered, his height is read off as being 5' 11".  Could it be so?  Hmm.

                 Bob and George Sanders in Rage in Heaven (1941)

The studios tended to add an inch or two to all their male stars, particularly if it got their height over 6'.  That was a very tall man in the 1930s.  Gable's height was listed the same as Bob's.  They are very close to the same height, depending upon the angle, in Forsaking All Others (1934).  And since I've thought for ages that Gable was more like 5' 10" to 5' 11",  I guess I'll have to go with Bob's height as being under 6' as well.  I think Bob may have been a tad taller than Gable, winning by a neck!!  (Sorry, I just couldn't resist it.)

It's really not that all this matters a whole heck of a lot.  It doesn't lessen Bob's stature a bit, and that's what really counts. 

From Mad to Cad

     Bob, as mad Philip, and Ingrid Bergman in Rage in Heaven (1941)

       

                                  Ingrid with George Sanders

Both male leads in Rage in Heaven were cast against type.  Bob is the psychotic villain while Sanders plays the noble, nice guy Ward who wins Ingrid in the end.  George does a nice job, but he played the cad/purring villain with such absolute perfection that the movie is a true waste of his particular talent.  (In case you haven't read it already, do try Brian's Aherne book on Sanders, titled "A Dreadful Man.")