More Hot Stuff, Bob and Norma This Time

 A nice cover on the January, 1930 issue of Screen Romances,

And an even nicer photo inside the magazine from Their Own Desire (1929) with Bob and Norma.   Their first movie together, but their first kiss?  Hmmm ...  

War, Desire and Hell - Sounds Like a Good Movie to Watch!

 There are three Bob films available for streaming on TCM right now.  Hell Below (1933) can be seen until July 7th and both War Nurse (1930) and Their Own Desire (1929) until July 20th.  Watching them in chronological order would be a good way of watching young Mr. Montgomery master his craft.  He continues to improve his acting skills after Hell Below, but he is obviously better than in his early movies.  

I rather like this Hell Below herald.  It is not the original, but don't know when or by whom it was produced.  It looks like a German herald, but it is in English.  The captions even provide a good outline of the story.  And, of course, there are numerous pictures of a very handsome Robert Montgomery.  

Anger is not a complimentary look for the young Mr. Montgomery

PHOTO CAPTION:  Another famous ring of Hollywood.  The cruelest ring of all, as portrayed by Raquel Torres and Robert Montgomery, is the telephone ring at the wrong time.  It may be her husband.  Mr. Montgomery will be seen next in the leading male role of Norma Shearer's newest starring picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, "Their Own Desire" which was directed by E. Mason Hopper.  

Poor Bob, he really was overworked in his early career, all those movies and the extras the studio came up with for their actors to do.  I'm sure he loved this extra photo work for a fan magazine, but at least he had the company of the beautiful, young Ms. Torres.  

Bob doesn't really look himself.  The anger look is not favorable.  Yeah, the smiles are much better.  

What a Shame to Hide that Beautiful Curly Hair (Bob's, of course)

 A couple Bob and Norma movies today on TCM.  Their Own Desire (1929) is showing at 11:15 a.m. and Riptide (1934) at 2:00 p.m., both ET.  Hopefully they'll be included on the streaming service afterwards, as has No More Ladies (1935) after its one showing last Monday.  Lady in the Lake (1946) is also being shown.  Four Bob movies available to view, not bad for these days. 

                Bob and Norma Shearer, Their Own Desire (1929)
 

An Evening With Amanda and Elyot

It's Norma Shearer month on TCM ... all five of Bob and Norma's movies are being shown!  Yes! They're not all great, but they all have young, beautiful Bob to make them all a worthwhile watch.  My favorite is Private Lives (1931).  This is the fourth movie of the pairing, and their comfort level with each other is reflected in their performances.  And, of course, it is an excellent Noel Coward play, so the script is excellent.  I understand Irving Thalberg actually filmed the stage version for the cast to study, a first, I believe.  Additional time was given for studying the script and rehearsals, to assist Norma in developing her role.  A Noel Coward play was not Norma's cup of tea, but she apparently put a lot of effort into it, didn't exactly embarrass herself.  Bob, meanwhile, handled his role superbly.  If only he had gotten more good movies in which to show his stuff.

               Private Lives (1931) with Bob and Norma Shearer

  The movies will be shown on two nights and all times are EST.

          November 10th  -  Private Lives 8:00 p.m.
                                        Divorcee (1930) at 12:45 a.m.
                                        Their Own Desire (1929) at 2:15 am.

          November 17th  -  Strangers May Kiss (1931) at 8:00 p.m.
                                        Riptide (1934) at 3:15 a.m.

And a special bonus, Lady in the Lake (1947) will be shown on the 22nd at 8:00 a.m.  November is a good movie for Montgomery viewing.  More, more, more ...

Well...Almost Perfect!

I really cannot imagine how many photos of Bob were printed over his lifespan.  Just think of all the great portraits of young Bob that were taken and prints made that were distributed to magazines, newspapers, theaters and, of course, thousands of fans.  And 85 years later, how few remain.  Or should I say, how few remain for public consumption.  I am sure there are oodles of Bobs squirreled away in private collections that we will never see.  All boxed up and rarely, if ever, viewed and appreciated.  And, yes, I have a few I have not shared with you as yet.  But, you will see them over time.  Promise. 

I do not have many original young Bobs, darn it.  Most had already been snarfed up before I started collecting.  The portrait below is an example of what I have been able to obtain.  It is an original, no doubt about that, used in a publication.  If only the newspaper/magazine layout person had not outlined Bob with a grease pen.

The outline is not quite as noticeable once coloring has been removed.  Still...

But, hey, it is a great portrait.  Taken in 1929, it was used to promote Their Own Desire.  Bob is 25 at the time, just ever so gorgeous.  So, I just need to stop complaining and appreciate how fortunate I am to have it. 

"His Critics Will Gnash Their Teeth"

Poor Bob, one weak movie after another through most of his career.  Typecast, placed in so-so movies, an irritant to his bosses and still able to maintain a lengthy, successful career.  I guess that's what being a star is all about. 

 

                 

                       

Gotta Love Digital

Three cheers for getting copies of Photoplay and other fan magazines digitized on Archive.org.

I've started digging through some of the files already to find any Bob articles. If you do download/look at any of the issues, I've found the PDF files quite usable, especially when text searching.

and found a pair of shoes I'd love to get...

h/t: Trouble in Paradise

April Warner Archive Releases

Doing a small dance of joy here: the Warner Archive has just released No More Ladies and Their Own Desire to DVD.

Ladies has to be one of my all-time favorites. 1930's socialites, dressed to the nines, partying and drinking as they like. I feel guilty just watching it.

Water Boarding (Minus the CIA)

In the 2009 Bob calendar, July's photo has been somewhat of a mystery: who is the lady with Bob? Carrie Liz dropped me a note thinking it's Dorothy Jordan. I think she's right.

I did some digging - something about the background all of a sudden clicked when she said Dorothy. They're water boarding on Lake Norconian. I dug out my copy of The Norconian Resort by Arcadia Publishing and sure enough, there's a photo that has the same background angle and water board (p. 90). 1930s Love in the Rough starred the two and was filmed at The Norconian.

Heh, then again, I suppose it could be Norma Shearer since they also filmed Their Own Desire at that resort. But I can't picture Norma skimming along a lake . . .

Resort, Film Set, Prison, Naval Base: The Norconian Resort

Sixty-seven years ago this week, on December 8, 1941, The Norconian Resort in Norco, CA became a United States Naval Hospital. Before it's war service and sad decline, The Norconian was a destination for classic stars and home to a number of movies filmed on the resort grounds.

Born in 1929, and after on-again/off-again operation, the resort lived a short life and closed in 1940. In 1941, the Navy purchased the grounds, later opening it as a hospital the day after Pearl Harbor day. Since then, the grounds have been home to a prison and continue to have a naval presence to this day. And through all of this, original buildings and decor remain, in rough condition, behind a fence.



Laura from dropped me a note the other day about The Norconian's connection to some of Bob's early films, specifically Love in the Rough and Their Own Desire with Norma Shearer. We've talked about Love in the Rough's connection in a past post, but Their Own Desire was news to me. After some research (tough work!), Laura was able to confirm that the pool scenes in Desire match photos of The Norconian's pool, high dive, and bleachers. So much for Lake Michigan!

I am far from an expert on the topic, but these resources can fill you in more:

• Where is this place? Google Maps
  
• Lake Norconian Club Foundation (source of the post's photos)
  
• LA Times article
• The Norconian Resort - Arcadia Publishing

Their Own Desire (1929)

I've crossed off one more Robert Montgomery film from the "To See" list (down to three now), Their Own Desire.

It's an early talkie, and it shows (or would that be "hears"), but you get over it quickly. I'm never good at giving film overviews (just comments), so allow me to grab this from IMDB:

Lally is a rich girl whose Father who writes books and plays Polo. After 23 years of marriage, Father decides to divorce Harriet, his wife, and marry Mrs. Chevers who is also divorcing her husband. This sours Lally on all men, but on vacation she meets Jack, who succeeds in stealing her heart. The trouble begins when Lally discovers that Jack is the son of Beth Chevers, the woman who is to marry her father.

The first 15 minutes of the film - love it. Jack (Bob) & Lally (Norma Shearer) meet at an art deco pool, set on the shores of Lake Michigan. How Jack "picks up" Lally is priceless - she high-dives into the pool and gets a kiss from a total stranger underwater. That night, there's a party poolside where everyone is dressed to the nines. The filming of the scene is unique in how the camera makes its way through the dancers to Jack & Lally. It's the atmosphere...sigh.



From there, IMO, the film gets a bit melodramatic. The couple is just dying to be together (almost literally) and one late night, they sneak away to the lake. Spoiler Alert. While on an island, a storm approaches and Lally is desperate to get back to her mother (she is suicidal from the breakup). Frantically paddling back home, the storm tosses the boat and washes them up on a deserted island. Days pass and Lally gets a bit overprotective over Jack's limp body - is he dead? Following searches by air, Lally's father finds them and, well, everyone makes it out alive. The movie cuts off way too early with the two contemplating marriage, again. I couldn't help but think that Jacks' mother & Lally's father won't get married - they displayed some behavior that to me read that they weren't quite ready. Perhaps the love of their kids' relationship would trump their own.

One last observation, I had to check and see how many islands there are in Lake Michigan for Jack & Lally to get stranded on - I could only think of one. Wikipedia is listing five named islands. You learn something new every day...

Now jump on over to Laura's blog where she has some interesting info on location filming for Desire.