Vanity Fair's New Hollywood Issue 2010

WOW. The light coming from this very WHITE cover is making my eyes burn.

"Dear World, I am leaving because I'm Bored..."

These were the last words written by the late, great George Sanders, before he committed suicide in his hotel room in Barcelona. For a long period, my all-time favorite actor was James Stewart (along with the marvellous Cary Grant), and even if he will always have a special place in my heart, George Sanders kind of slowly became my hero. My, oh my...what a man! I'm not sure he ever played someone other than himself, but the way he struts his boredom on the screen makes my knees go weak. And THAT voice! Round, hollow, haughty, sooo British...he was the voice of Shere Khan, the tiger in Disney's "Jungle Book", but his attitude and physical appearance were even more reminiscent of Bagheera, the black panther. He played in several masterpieces, "Moonfleet", "Rebecca", "All about Eve", to name a few, and he was a terrifying nazi in one of my favorite movies, Fritz Lang's "Man Hunt". I saw "Inglorious Basterds" a few days ago, and Christoph Waltz's character, Hans Landa, could be Quive-Smith's distant cousin. They are equally demonic, and share the same polite, elegant, and yet chilling manners. His memoirs, properly entitled "Memoirs of a cad", are filled with cynical and hilarious observations on Hollywood's Golden Era. He may have been bored all his life, but he really did it with spirit and class.
"The important thing for a star in to have an interesting face. He doesn't have to move it very much. Editing and camerawork can always produce the desired illusion that a performance is being given". George Sanders.

The lovely and underrated Paulette Goddard

Paulette Goddard has never reached super stardom. She is particularly remembered as the adorable Gamine in Chaplin's "Modern Times", as well as the beautiful and brave Hannah in "The Great Dictator". She was also Charlie Chaplin's third wife, and the girl who almost got THAT part in "Gone with the Wind" (Scarlett O'Hara, which went to the indisputably great Vivien Leigh). Cinephiles may also remember her as Miriam Aarons in The Women, one of the most impressive all-women cast on screen. For my very first post, I would like to pay tribute to this lovely, whimsical, and talented actress. I have certain shots from "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator" in my mind: close-ups on her face, her heartbreaking smile, her wonderfully expressive eyes filled with tears... Maybe she never got the kind of roles that would have turned her into something better than "Mrs Charlie Chaplin", but certain actresses have this je-ne-sais-quoi, this little something that just makes them unforgettable for a handful of movie lovers. Paulette Goddard undoubtedly had it.