This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. We're still in February, which means another romance-themed edition of the blogathon. This week, that theme is Cinderella stories, defined as a poor(ish) girl getting selected by a rich guy. With that in mind, I went with three films that have that basic theme, although large parts of all three are darker than certainly the ending of Cinderella:
Possessed (1931). Joan Crawford plays a small-town girl who sees a bunch of rich folks partying on a train stopping in town, and decides she wants to be with the rich people. Eventually she does make it to New York, where she's introduced to wealthy lawyer Clark Gable. She becomes his mistress, although things get mighty complicated when a old boyfriend from her hometown (Wallace Ford) shows up and then when Gable decides to run for governor. This is not to be confused with the 1947 movie Possessed, also starring Crawford but having a totally different plot.
Hot Saturday (1932). Nancy Carroll plays a bank teller in a strait-laced small town where the big excitement for the twentysomethings is to go to the dance pavilion on the lake on weekend evenings. One night there, her boyfriend Edward Woods gets too handsy with her, so she escapes across the lake, winding up at the vacation house of wealthy playboy with an undeservedly bad reputation Cary Grant. He's a gentleman to her, but he's also seen dropping her back off at her house, so Woods decides to start some nasty gossip about her. A young Randolph Scott plays a geologist Carroll's family would like her to marry. This is an extremely pre-Code picture.
Forever Amber (1947). Linda Darnell plays Amber, an orphan in provincial England during the Cromwell era who, wanting better things, escapes to London just in time for the Restoration. There, she meets and falls in love with a privateer (Cornell Wilde) who unfortunately can't shake his love for the sea. She also becomes one of the mistresses of King Charles II (George Sanders), all while rising through London society until her dark past comes to light.
1 comment:
Love your picks and would love to see the 2nd pick.
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