Thrilled to get to see my grad school pal Christina Lane (@phantomlady15) at #TCMFF! She's the author of the multi-award winning #JoanHarrison bio PHANTOM LADY and will be introducing that film, produced by Harrison, on Sat., May 2, 11:15 am, Chinese Multiplex House 4. #TCMParty
In Dec. 1945, #SamuelGoldwyn scout Miriam Howell sent a memo from Cambridge to LA after her first meeting with #HaroldRussell for #TheBestYearsofOurLives: “He has a round, apple-cheeked, Irish pan and a wonderful smile… one of the most winning and likable people….” #TCMParty
Love this on-set photo of #MyrnaLoy, who followed #TheBestYearsofOurLives with THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY SOXER, shot in and around Los Angeles. #TCMParty
I have such a soft spot for #Piranha, on #TCM tonight! Not only was it filmed nearby in San Marcos (close to a campus where I taught), but its writer #JohnSayles graciously blurbed my book about #screenwriter Warren Skaaren. #TCMParty #Piranha #Monstermovie
#VirginiaMayo's dramatic turn in #TheBestYearsofOurLives helped her get cast beyond musical comedies in films like #WhiteHeat. Mayo's favorite scene? When inmate #JamesCagney learns his mother has died: "It is powerful, compelling, horrifying and all Cagney!" #TCMParty
#FrankCapra and #WilliamWyler began shooting #ItsaWonderfulLife and #TheBestYearsofOurLives #OTD in April 1946. "Last one in is a rotten egg," telegrammed Wyler to Capra, who ribbed, "My first day was easy but do you know they're using sound today." #TCMParty
Comedian @mulaney.bsky.social on why he's a fan of #TheBestYearsofOurLives: “This was the first time I thought about people coming back from the Second World War, and it not having been simply a heroic, great time.... I find it a pretty stark movie.” #TCMParty
In April 1947, PIC magazine reviewed #TheBestYearsofOurLives: "It's as wholesome as a filet mignon, as realistic as the next-door neighbors and as American as a hotdog stand." #TCMParty
The Wardrobe Plot Book for #TheBestYearsofOurLives is a thick stack of 3-hole scrapbook pages with b/w photos and lots of detail, like which actors wore their own jewelry (Wright) and who wore fingernail polish (Loy). Here, #TeresaWright wearing one of my fave dresses. #TCMParty
Enjoy whatever you choose 🎉
Excellent!
Excited to be attending my first #TCMFF to introduce #TheBestYearsofOurLives for its 80th anniversary 🎉 #TCMParty, set your alarms ⏰ Thank you @tcmtv.bsky.social for the invitation! #WilliamWyler #Veterans
"Dear George: I'm plumb crazy over today's rushes...Joan looks stunning (Allah and Guilaroff be praised) and the scene's a knockout in every respect." Prod. Hunt Stromberg to #GeorgeCukor about #JoanCrawford and this scene in #TheWomen, on #TCM overnight. #TCMParty #nextbook
ohn O'Donnell, theater critic for Iowa's Quad-City Times, encouraged his readers to see #TheBestYearsofOurLives in May 1947, hailing its realism: " #HaroldRussell DID lose his two hands while serving his country...he is the genuine post-war Harold Russell." #TCMParty #Veterans
On #Easter Sunday 1947, #TheBestYearsofOurLives was being celebrated in London as the "Picture of the Month": "Although ever-long....(it) won b/c of its first-class direction...tremendous star appeal and...its human approach to the American postwar problems." #TCMParty #Veterans
Thelma #ButterflyMcQueen in her first uncredited role as Lulu in #TheWomen, whom #JoanCrawford pays to cook dinner to impress her married boyfriend. “I didn’t mind being funny, but I didn’t like being stupid,” McQueen said of her roles, in 1990. #TCMParty #nextbook
Censor Joe Breen sent an 8-page memo in April ‘46 to #SamuelGoldwyn re: #TheBestYearsOfOurLives, warning to take “the greatest possible care in the shooting of all scenes of kissing. These should not be prolonged, or lustful...NO OPEN-MOUTHED KISSING.” #TCMParty #censorship
#OTD in '46 #BetteDavis wrote to ex #WilliamWyler declaring a truce after he sent flowers for the death of her beloved dog: "As I said the night of the Academy [awards], the war should be over between us--it is so long ago--and so much happened to both of us." #TCMParty #Jezebel
#MyrnaLoy in 1946 at the November 21 premiere of #TheBestYearsofOurLives in New York City at the Astor Theatre. #TCMParty
#TeresaWright, #MyrnaLoy, and #DanaAndrews relaxing between takes of the "night on the town" scene in #TheBestYearsofOurLives ca. May 1946. #TCMParty
Just as #TheBestYearsofOurLives was named the top picture of 1947 by Film Daily, #OliviadeHavilland reached out to #WilliamWyler about adapting the play “The Heiress,” which would eventually become Wyler’s next film project. #TCMParty #BehindTheScenes
In 1947 writer-director #RobertRossen, whose film BODY AND SOUL was about to be released, named #TheBestYearsofOurLives as the only American film he found realistic, but added that even it "had some phony moments." Rossen on-set with DP #JamesWongHowe and #HazelBrooks. #TCMParty
Poster for BOOMERANG, #DanaAndrews’ follow-up to #TheBestYearsofOurLives. Goldwyn warned him not to discuss the film while promoting BEST YEARS. Shot in CT, where the real murder happened. Produced by “March of Time’s” Louis de Rochemont in “newsreel style.” #TCMParty
FUNNY GIRL on #TCM this afternoon. Of working with #WilliamWyler in her film debut, #BarbraStreisand said, "I wanted to please him. I wanted him to like it. I wanted him to like me.” Wyler said, "This girl knows her stuff." #TCMParty #FunnyGirl
The snub heard round the world: Photo purportedly documenting #Oscar winner #OliviadeHavilland "snubbing" her younger sister #JoanFontaine backstage after de Havilland's Best Actress win at the '47 Academy Awards. Ryan Murphy, here's your next installment! #TCMParty #Feud
Costume designer #Adrian and #RosalindRussell heading to the MGM set of #TheWomen in the spring of 1939. Ten years earlier, Adrian told SCREENLAND magazine, "With the entrance of the human voice [in movies], actresses suddenly became human beings." #TCMParty #nextbook
In March ’46 #TheBestYearsofOurLives' art director #PerryFerguson submitted a set construction estimate that also included locations like the Long Beach Airport (opening scene), the Parrish house (1125 W. 20th St in L.A., below), and Marie's apartment (12th and Hoover). #TCMParty
In mid March '47, a story by #HaroldRussell's wife Rita runs in U.S. newspapers. She writes of seeing his mother passing her house with a suitcase in '44. "I rushed out...she told me of the explosion that had blown off both his hands." #TCMParty #TheBestYearsofOurLives #WWII
Despite--or perhaps because of--her thick Alabama accent, #SamuelGoldwyn christened Ann Steely #CathyODonnell after assessing her Irish-leaning good looks. Once she had done extensive training and stage work, he cast her in #TheBestYearsofOurLives. #TCMParty #StPatricksDay ☘️
Despite #TheBestYearsofOurLives' record-setting wins at the 1947 #Oscars, the ongoing feud between sisters #OliviadeHavilland and #JoanFontaine dominated press coverage in the days following the awards ceremony. #TCMParty