Happy Birthday Deborah Kerr- Page 2

[Glebb]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 9:14am

Marquise, did I every tell you how much I love your generosity?
Great lobby card!

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 9:23am

Wonderful, thank you so much for those!

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 9:37am

I think a viewing of Black Narcissus is in order...

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 9:49am

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 9:56am

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 10:16am

Happy Birthday!

"The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp," 1943

One of her early films (predates "Black Narcissus" by 4 years) made by the great film-makers Powell and Pressburger. Here you'll find Deborah playing the 3 females in the forty years of Colonoel Bimp's life. A wonderful film.

From the International Movie DataBase...

"Plot Outline: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's first Technicolor masterpiece, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), transcends its narrow wartime propaganda to portray in warm-hearted detail the life and loves of one extraordinary man. The film's clever narrative structure first presents us with the imposingly rotund General Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey in his greatest screen performance), a blustering old duffer who seems the epitome of stuffy, outmoded values. But traveling backwards 40 years we see a different man altogether: the young and dashing officer "Sugar" Candy. Through a series of affecting relationships with three women (all played to perfection by Deborah Kerr) and his touching lifelong friendship with a German officer (Anton Wallbrook), we see Candy's life unfold and come to understand how difficult it is for him to adapt his sense of military honor to modern notions of "total war." Notoriously, this is the film that Winston Churchill tried to have banned, and indeed its sympathetic portrayal of a German officer was contentious in 1943, though one suspects that Churchill's own blimpishness was a factor too."

[Roger Livesey, who stars as Colonel Blimp, also starred opposite the great Wendy Hiller in "I Know Where I'm Going (another fab film), and as fans of Masterpiece Theatre's "The Pallisers" know, Mr. Livesy is be seen throughout the series, first aired in 1974, portraying the Duke of St. Bungay, opposite the equally fantastic Susan Hampshire.]

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 10:37am

Some of my fave Deborah movies: Tea and Sympathy, The Grass is Greener, The Sundowners, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, The Innocents, Night of the Iguana, Eye of the Devil, Separate Tables, Bonjour Tristesse, Quo Vadis, From Here to Eternity, The King and I, King Solomon's Mines, Black Narcissus, The Hucksters

I think Nicole Kidman would be a good choice if there was a movie made about her.

Updated On: 10/1/05 at 10:37 AM

[suddenlyseymour]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 10:48am

love the pics guys! i can't believe she's 84 wow but anyway cheers to Deborah Kerr! she was so stunning in the King and I, also LOVED her in an affair to remember =)

[cserannie]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 11:11am

Well I think my favorite movie will remain "Quo Vadis". I cry everytime when I see it...she is so beautiful in it.

[eyeonbroadway]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 11:17am

Glebb! You're my hero! I always loved The Chalk Garden (John and Hayley Mills were great in it, too) and I've NEVER run into anyone else who even remembers it!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 11:30am

"The Chalk Garden" was the first film I ever saw at Radio City Music Hall.

I remember it well.

It was summer 1964.

[eyeonbroadway]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 11:43am

"The Chalk Garden" was probably my first exposure to British drama and the intensity of Deborah's performance made a lasting impression on me.

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 11:50am

I LOVE "The Chalk Garden"!!! Three wonderful actors at their best. I also love "Quo Vadis" and she is indeed gorgeous in it.

I've loved her in every single performance I've seen and as I mentioned, I've seen 40..so I won't name them all (though I love, love love every single one of MrMidwest's choices! ).

One movie I love that hasn't been mentioned here is "Beloved Infidel", where she starred opposite Gregory Peck. Not only was their chemistry palpable, she looked absolutely beautiful throughout the entire movie....Breathtaking, really.

Oh, and has anyone seen "The Sundowners"? I think that's one of her best performances EVER. She had such good chemistry with Robert Mitchum, as well - they were also wonderful in "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison".

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 11:55am

The Sundowners - with a mean Aussie accent!

Updated On: 10/1/05 at 11:55 AM

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 11:56am

Heaven Knows, Mr Allison - this time, and Irish accent

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 12:02pm

I forgot to put The Chalk Garden on my list but I do like that one also. They used to show it now and again on The Disney Channel before it went crap.

As lovely as Deborah is in The King and I, I do wonder what it would have been like had they let Maureen do it.

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 12:07pm

OMG MrMidwest you officially just became my favorite person on this board.
You know about Maureen O'Hara's history with that role??? Wow.

Yes, I, too have wondered. I have Maureen's cd and the OBCR of "Christine" - I'm sure she would have been terrific. Even though I'm not by any means complaining about Deborah.

Updated On: 10/1/05 at 12:07 PM

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 12:24pm

I heard Maureen talking about it on Larry King. Infact, I found a transcript of that part of the discussion:


O'HARA: Harry Cohen was going to buy "My Fair Lady" for me, and...

KING: No kidding?

O'HARA: Yes, and a big company started bidding against him.

KING: Oh.

O'HARA: And he sent for me one day and he said, Maureen...

KING: Cohen was Columbia, right.

O'HARA: Right. Wonderful man.

KING: You were the one that liked him.

O'HARA: I loved him.

KING: Why did he tell jokes about people hating him?

O'HARA: He liked probably to cover up his soft heart.

(CROSSTALK)

O'HARA: I'll tell you -- if you have time I'll tell you a fabulous story about Harry Cohen.

KING: We've got a couple of minutes.

O'HARA: And they have never, ever printed it or done anything about it. I was under part contract with Columbia and I got on very well with Harry Cohen and he used to say she's the only dame that has the guts to come in and sit down and look at me and talk to me. But anyway, I did, because I liked him and I got a call one day from a secretary that I was to come in and see him that afternoon and I thought, oh, my God. What have I done now? I'm going get hell for something.

So I went in and he always gave me a kiss on both cheeks and he did and he said sit down, I wanted you to stay with me this afternoon and I thought stay with him, what for? And he said, Maureen you're the only person I know who understands Judaism and Catholicism and he said I know your whole background.

I've learned everything about you. I know your that your family was in the clothing business. You were Christians in the clothing business. I know your mother was a singer and he went through, my father was a sportsman, soccer, and he said, my boys and my wife are becoming Catholics this afternoon. Would you stay with me?

Well, every minute he was looking at the watch, looking at the watch and then the tears started to roll down his cheeks, this tough old boy, softy.

KING: What a story. They converted?

O'HARA: They converted and then suddenly he looked at his watch and said, all right. You can go now. And I got up and he gave me a big hug and a kiss on each cheek and he said thank you. Good-bye.

KING: When 3200 people came to his funeral and somebody asked George Gessel (ph) if he wasn't well-liked why did so many people come, and he said give the public what it wants and they'll show up.

O'HARA: He was a wonderful, kind man but he was a tough, tough businessman. But that's what he was supposed to be.

KING: So had bought "My Fair Lady" -- had he won the bidding you'd have been Eliza Dolittle?

O'HARA: And the other terrible disappointment in my life was Darryl Zanuck cast me in "Anna and the King of Siam" because I sing -- or I did sing and Lou Shriber was second-in-command at 20th Century Fox and Lou called me and said, Maureen I'm going into New York with your recordings to tie up the deal. Wish me luck because I have to see Rogers and Hammerstein. He went into New York. He saw Rogers and Hammerstein and he said Darryl Zanuck wants her to play Anna and they said, what, a pirate queen play our Anna? Never. And I didn't get to do it.

KING: "The King and I."

O'HARA: "The King and I," but years later I told them how I would have played it and they asked me, would I do it on Broadway in a revival and I said, you turned me down once. You don't get a second chance.

KING: You're tough.

O'HARA: That's me. No. I've got integrity.

KING: Why didn't you sing more in movies. You never got musicals, right?

O'HARA: No.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0010/28/lklw.00.html

Updated On: 10/1/05 at 12:24 PM

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 1:45pm

I actually saw this interview - what a story, huh? Thanks for the transcript. I have to say, and this is quite OT for this thread, that it's too bad Maureen never got the A-List status Deborah Kerr got. Then again, DK always had better material...I must say, if forced to choose between them, I would have to go with Deborah as the better actress - she's amazing.

[cserannie]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 2:46pm

I can't choose between them. I love them both...and Ingrid Bergman.
I love Deborah in the King and I but Maureen was gorgeous in the Quiet man with Duke.

[BwayLover]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 3:35pm

Oh don't get me wrong...I love them both too. I said if *forced* to choose..... and that is only because of the material Deborah got . Really, I do love them both very much (and Ingrid Bergman, too!) - with Maureen it's even deeper, because I have loved her since I was 5 years old! I even got to talk to her on the phone when I was 20 and that was one of the happiest days of my life.

Oh and "The Quiet Man" changed my life. Literally.

[cserannie]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 4:13pm

Wow. You were talking to Maureen! You are so lucky.

Oh, and I just watched you avatar: I love "Tea and sympathy".