Joan Fontaine
Nascimento : 1917-10-22, Tokyo, Japan
Morte : 2013-12-15
História
Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement. Her father was a British patent attorney with a lucrative practice in Japan, but due to Joan and older sister Olivia de Havilland's recurring ailments the family moved to California in the hopes of improving their health. Mrs. de Havilland and the two girls settled in Saratoga while their father went back to his practice in Japan. Joan's parents did not get along well and divorced soon afterward. Mrs. de Havilland had a desire to be an actress but her dreams were curtailed when she married, but now she hoped to pass on her dream to Olivia and Joan.
While Olivia pursued a stage career, Joan went back to Tokyo, where she attended the American School. In 1934 she came back to California, where her sister was already making a name for herself on the stage. Joan likewise joined a theater group in San Jose and then Los Angeles to try her luck there. After moving to L.A., Joan adopted the name of Joan Burfield because she didn't want to infringe upon Olivia, who was using the family surname. She tested at MGM and gained a small role in No More Ladies (1935), but she was scarcely noticed and Joan was idle for a year and a half. During this time she roomed with Olivia, who was having much more success in films.
In 1937, this time calling herself Joan Fontaine, she landed a better role as Trudy Olson in You Can't Beat Love (1937) and then an uncredited part in Quality Street (1937). Although the next two years saw her in better roles, she still yearned for something better. In 1940 she garnered her first Academy Award nomination for Rebecca (1940). Although she thought she should have won, (she lost out to Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle (1940)), she was now an established member of the Hollywood set. She would again be Oscar-nominated for her role as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in Suspicion (1941), and this time she won.
Joan was making one film a year but choosing her roles well. In 1942 she starred in the well-received This Above All (1942). The following year she appeared in The Constant Nymph (1943). Once again she was nominated for the Oscar, she lost out to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943). By now it was safe to say she was more famous than her older sister and more fine films followed. In 1948, she accepted second billing to Bing Crosby in The Emperor Waltz (1948).
Joan took the year of 1949 off before coming back in 1950 with September Affair (1950) and Born to Be Bad (1950). In 1951 she starred in Paramount's Darling, How Could You! (1951), which turned out badly for both her and the studio and more weak productions followed. Absent from the big screen for a while, she took parts in television and dinner theaters. She also starred in many well-produced Broadway plays such as Forty Carats and The Lion in Winter. Her last appearance on the big screen was The Witches (1966) and her final appearance before the cameras was Good King Wenceslas (1994). She is, without a doubt, a lasting movie icon.
Self (archive footage)
Pela primeira vez, uma das maiores estrelas de Hollywood conta sua própria história, em suas próprias palavras. De uma infância de pobreza à fama global, Cary Grant, a estrela que se fez por si mesmo, explora sua própria imagem na tela.
Self (archive footage)
A documentary on Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 film, "Suspicion".
Self (archive footage)
A reclusive millionaire who owed his fortune to his father, Howard Hughes staked his fame on many things, including his credits as a producer, director and aviator. But he is perhaps best known for his skills as a Casanova, reportedly romancing Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Bette Davis. Actor Billy Zane narrates this documentary, which offers a glimpse of the man behind the glamour.
(archive footage)
Paying homage to two of Hollywood's central icons, the film creates an unparalleled portrait of two very different personalities amidst the demise of the studio system.
Queen Ludmilla
Based upon the true story that inpired the Christmas carol about a young king's care for his people.
Margaret Drake
A woman hired to write the history of a wealthy family stays at the family's estate in Oregon. She discovers that she strongly resembles a long-dead ancestor in the family, and finds things happening to her that happened to--and led to the death of--that woman.
Biography of the legendary filmmaker directed by his son.
Self
Documentary profile of singer-actress Eartha Kitt.
Grace St. George
A beautiful girl from a small town with dreams of making it in Hollywood marries an actor whose career is fading, then schemes to get him back into the big time - and her with him.
Gwen Mayfield
Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.
Self
A collection of behind the scenes and home movies from the golden age of Hollywood.
Baby Warren
Against the counsel of his friends, psychiatrist Dick Diver marries Nicole Warren, a beautiful but unstable young woman from a moneyed family. Thoroughly enraptured, he forsakes his career in medicine for life as a playboy, until one day Dick is charmed by Rosemary Hoyt, an American traveling abroad. The thought of Dick possibly being attracted to someone else sends Nicole on an emotional downward spiral that threatens to consume them both.
Self (uncredited)
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.
Dr. Susan Hiller
Uma expedição científica de rotina ao Pólo Norte transforma-se em uma corrida para salvar a vida na Terra, quando um cinturão de radiação no espaço se inflama e começa a aquecer o planeta de maneira incontrolável. O Almirante Nelson e a tripulação do submarino atômico Seaview enfrentam sabotadores, criaturas marinhas gigantescas e ataques de outros submarinos durante sua corrida para evitar a catástrofe global.
Françoise Ferrand
A pretty Parisian law student falls in love with her boyfriend's uncle.
Anne Leslie
Four sisters in New Zealand fall for four U.S. soldiers en route to the Pacific theater in WWII.
Mavis Norman
On a Caribbean island, a rich landowner's son, Maxwell Fleury, is fighting for political office against black labor leader David Boyeur. As if the contentious election weren't enough, there are plenty of scandals to go around: Boyeur has a secret white lover and Fleury's wife, Sylvia, is also having an affair. And then, of course, there's the small matter of a recently murdered aristocrat.
Susan Spencer
Um repórter/escritor, auxiliado por seu futuro sogro, conspira para conduzir o assassinato de uma dançarina burlesca com provas forjadas como parte de um esforço para banir a pena de morte. O repórter investigativo Tom Garrett, licenciado de seu trabalho no jornal, trabalha em seu segundo romance. Como está tendo problemas para escrever o segundo, seu chefe e futuro sogro, o editor de jornais Austin Spencer, sugere que ele escreva um livro de não-ficção sobre a pena capital. Eles acreditam que o promotor público do estado, Roy Thompson, sempre manipula os júris para garantir vereditos, levando pessoas inocentes para o corredor da morte. O plano é plantar provas que condenem uma pessoa inocente num caso de assassinato, Tom será a pessoa inocente. Vão documentar todas as evidências plantadas, tornando-as públicas após a apresentação do veredicto para reverter e, esperamos, levar à discussão dos méritos da abolição da pena de morte.
Kendall Hale
Um jovem trabalhador do campo sonha ser cantor de ópera. Ao cantar em um restaurante, ele é descoberto por uma socialite por quem se apaixona e que lança sua carreira. Ao ser abandonado por ela, ele vai para o México e se apaixona por outra mulher.
Francesca Bruni
Italy 1757, Pippo Popolino, a lowly tailor, disguises himself as the great Casanova in order to romance the attractive widow Francesca. He little suspects what awaits him... Locked into the incongruous role by the desperation of the real Casanova's creditors, Pippo must journey to Venice on a delicate mission far beyond his capabilities.
Eve Graham
San Francisco businessman Harry Graham and his wife and business partner, Eve, are in the process of adopting a child. When private investigator Mr. Jordan uncovers the fact that Graham has another wife, Phyllis, and a small child in Los Angeles, he confesses everything.
Susan Lane
At the Tangier airport, a group of people await the arrival of a mysterious plane from behind the Iron Curtain. The reception committee includes Susan, an American; Gil Walker, a free-booting pilot; Danzer, a black market operator; and Danzer's girlfriend, Nicki. The plane crashes and burns. No survivors are found, nor are any corpses. Soon the search begins for a missing courier worth $3 million.
Fiametta / Bartolomea / Ginevra / Isabella
Italian poet Boccaccio (Louis Jourdan) hides in the court of Fiammetta (Joan Fontaine) and tells three tales of love and lust.
Rowena
O leal cavaleiro britânico Wilfred de Ivanhoe sai em uma missão para libertar o rei sequestrado da Inglaterra, Ricardo Coração de Leão, nesta aventura empolgante. O bravo Ivanhoe deve, eventualmente, enfrentar o perverso príncipe John e o feroz guerreiro normando Brian de Bois-Guilbert, além das afeições das lindas donzelas Rowena e Rebecca.
Jenny Carey
Aging advertising executive Alan Miller is a recovered alcoholic who now does interventions on behalf of Alcoholics Anonymous, is called by the elevator operator of a residential hotel to come and intervene in the case of one of the guests, struggling Broadway actress Jenny Carey. The two find they have even more in common than their taste for drink. But Jenny wants to put an end to their romance because Alan is a married man, who moreover is the father of two children. How will Jenny and Alan resolve their feelings without destroying Alan's marriage?
Page
A tragédia envolvendo fúria, ciúme e assassinato em torno de Othello, Iago e Desdemona. Esta estranha e magnífica visão de Welles para o clássico de Shakespeare, já era a 12ª versão levada para as telas. Filmada na Itália e Marrocos, teve sérios problemas de produção, levando mais de dois anos para finalizar. Mesmo assim, Welles teve controle absoluto sob a obra, dos diálogos à montagem final. Com todas estas dificuldades para a realização de Othello e vendo o impressionante resultado final, o filme ganhou status de CultMovie. (e Livre - Estimado Livre)
Alice Grey
Two absentee American parents get to know their three children again after spending five years in Panama.
Manina Stuart
An industrialist and a pianist meet on a trip and fall in love. Through a quirk of fate, they are reported dead in a crash though they weren't on the plane. This gives them the opportunity to live together free from their previous lives. Unfortunately, this artificial arrangement leads to greater and greater stress. Eventually the situation collapses when they come to pursue their original, individual interests without choosing a common path.
Christabel Caine Carey
Christabel Caine has the face of angel and the heart of a swamp rat. She'll step on anyone to get what she wants, including her own family. A master of manipulation, she covertly breaks off the engagement of her trusting cousin, Donna, to her fabulously wealthy beau, Curtis Carey. Once married to Curtis herself, Christabel continues her affair with novelist Nick Bradley, who knows she's evil, but loves her anyway.
A film's art director is in charge of the set, from conception to construction to furnishing. This short film walks the viewer through art directors' responsibilities and the demands on their talents. They read a script carefully and design a set to capture the time and place, the social strata, and the mood. They must be scholars of the history of architecture, furnishings, and fashion. They choose the colors on a set in anticipation of the lighting and the mood. Their work also sets styles, from Art Deco in the 20's to 30s modernism. Then it's on to the next project.
Jane Wharton
Bill Saunders, a former prisoner of war living in England, whose experiences have left him unstable and violent, gets into a bar fight in which he in kills a man and then flees. He hides out with the assistance of a nurse, Jane Wharton, who believes his story that the killing was an accident.
Dee Dee Dillwood
Indecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to face the wedding night, she flees into the adjacent hotel room of commercial pilot Marvin Payne, who just wants to sleep. She then persuades him to take her to California.
Johanna Augusta Franziska
At the turn of the 20th century, travelling salesman Virgil Smith journeys to Vienna in the hope he can sell a gramophone to Emperor Franz Joseph, whose purchase of the recent American invention could spur its popularity in Austria.
Lisa Berndle
Na Viena do século 19, a jovem e tímida Lisa se apaixona por Stefan, pianista famoso e mulherengo. Anos depois, já adulta, ela se entrega a ele. Logo em seguida, o músico parte em turnê sem saber que havia engravidado Lisa.
Ivy
When Ivy, an Edwardian belle, begins to like Miles, a wealthy gentleman, she is unsure of what to do with her husband, Jervis, and her lover, Dr. Roger. She then hatches a plan to get rid of them both.
Susan
A young American soldier, with an honorable discharge, returns home from World War II to his bride, whom he married after a short courtship and has not seen for several years. The two come together with many trials and tribulations in trying to preserve their marriage in the post-war years.
Susan Darell
Susan is about to be married, but the wedding may get called off after her fiancé summons three former beaus. Each reveals a different portrait of Susan: one describes her as a naive country girl who reluctantly becomes an actress, another paints a picture of a gay party girl and and the third describes a serious intellectual.
Dona St. Columb
An English lady falls in love with a French pirate after he kidnaps her from her ancestral home on the coast of Cornwall and sweeps her off her feet into a world of adventure.
Jane Eyre
After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house to care for his young daughter.
Tessa Sanger
The daughter of a musical mentor adores a promising composer, who is quite fond of the adolescent. When her father dies, an uncle arrives with his own grown daughter, who begins a romance with the composer which culminates in marriage but creates an emotional rivalry that affects the three.
Prudence Cathaway
In 1940 England, aristocratic Prudence Cathaway alarms her snobbish parents by joining the WAF service branch. She soon meets and falls in love with the brooding Clive Briggs, despite his prejudice against the upper classes, and agrees to spend a week with him at a Dover hotel. When Clive's soldier friend, Monty, arrives to retrieve him, Prudence learns that Clive went AWOL after Dunkirk, and urges him to recall why England must fight the war.
Self
This is a collection of bloopers and film manipulation by The Warner Studio Club for an annual dinner for the staff at Warner Brothers.
Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth
Rapaz leva vida de playboy tomando dinheiro emprestado dos amigos. Um dia conhece uma tímida garota, com quem acaba se casando. Mas a jovem com o tempo passa a desconfiar que ele é na verdade um assassino e ela correr o risco de ser a próxima vítima.
Mrs. de Winter
Uma jovem de origem humilde (Joan Fontaine) se casa com um riquíssimo nobre inglês (Laurence Olivier), que ainda vive atormentado por lembranças de sua falecida esposa. Após o casamento e já morando na mansão do marido, ela vai gradativamente descobrindo surpreendentes segredos sobre o passado dele.
Peggy Day
Esta adaptação para a tela, roteirizada por Anita Loos e Jane Murfin e dirigida por George Cukor, foi um tremendo sucesso no seu lançamento. Estrelada por Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford e Rosalind Russell. O filme deu continuidade à tradição das peças só com personagens de mulheres tagarelas. Dos glamorosos apartamentos da alta sociedade de Manhattan, até Reno onde todos se divorciam, o filme mostra um enfoque ácido de suas vidas e dos esforços dos maridos para fazerem suas esposas ricas e poderosas. Durante toda o filme não aparece um único homem se quer, embora sejam muito citados, e o tema central seja os relacionamentos das mulheres com eles.
Eliza Allen
The story of Sam Houston, hero of the Texas revolution, statesman, and first president of the Republic of Texas.
Emmaline "Emmy" Stebbins
As aventuras vividas por três sargentos ingleses na luta contra os nativos hindus. Ajudados pelo jovem Gunga Din, eles penetram no templo de onde parte a revolta, são presos pelo malévolo Guru, mas salvos pelo amigo nativo. Inspirado em poema de Rudyard Kipling. Refilmado em 1962 por John Sturges com o título "Os 3 Sargentos".
Ann Porter
A cocky new West Point cadet from Cambridge is given the cold shoulder by his classmates because of his rule-breaking antics.
Meg Lawrence
Given the job of training young pilots for important post-war cargo flights, hard-boiled Col. Stockton forces ex-officer Stag Cahill back into the military to be his aide at the academy. Complications arise when Stockton's son Kenneth arrives for training and Stockton, believing his son to be a slackard, looks for an excuse to drop him from the program. Rivalry develops between Stag and Ken as well, as they fall for the same girl.
Julie Evans
Socially prominent Michael Ashburn, chief assistant for a London loan broker makes a large loan during a closing time to a man for a pair of earrings. He is unaware that the collateral can not be removed from the ears in which they reside, so then Julie becomes part of the collateral.
Sheila Harrison
A millionaire's son works as a milkman for a month to win a bet with his father. While delivering milk he falls in love with a young debutante whom he mistakes for a maid.
Alyce Marshmorton
Jerry Halliday, compositor norte-americano de comédias musicais luta contra as convenções da alta sociedade londrina para conquistar o coração de Lady Alyce Marshmorton. Ao contrário do que Jerry pensa, ela ama outra pessoa, mas com a ajuda de seus amigos George e Gracie, ele acredita que sua vitória está garantida.
Jean Clemens
An Italian immigrant singer, Nino, hoping to succeed in Hollywood, falls in with a gang of crooks who use his talent to distract everyone at a party while they steal the jewels.
Trudy Olson
The film begins with a knuckle-head playboy (Preston Foster) working on a road crew dressed in a tux in order to win a bet. Apparently, this guy will take on any bet or act on a whim. This becomes very apparent when he disrupts a food giveaway hosted by the mayor's daughter and as a result of this, he announces he's running for mayor--though he seems very much apolitical and has no interest in the job. Later, when he once again meets up with the mayor's daughter (Joan Fontaine) they supposedly fall in love--although there seemed to be little chemistry between them and it made very little sense for Fontaine to suddenly love a guy she so quickly hated at the beginning of the film. Plus, she really had plenty of reason to dislike the guy.
Doris King
Young Jim Stanton is a conscientious surgeon, but spends too many off-duty hours pursuing his passion for aviation to suit his stuffy father. When it is discovered that a passenger killed in a plane that Jim crashes was a married woman, the resulting scandal prompts the hospital to put Jim on probation. His pride wounded, Jim takes to the open road and enjoys the simpler life of a vagabond. In Los Angeles--where he is arrested for vagrancy and put to work on a road crew--Jim runs into old pal Dick Miller, who gets him a job as a mechanic for Roberts Aviation. But maintaining his anonymity becomes more difficult, particularly when a pretty nurse, Doris King, decides to make Jim's redemption her personal crusade.
Charlotte Parratt
In the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson.
Joan Stevens
The son of a disgraced Olympic decathlete prepares to become a star in his own right. His quest is complicated by a beautiful girl and a bitter rival.
Caroline Rumsey
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.
