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Thursday, March 6, 2014 at 10:00AM
James Stewart and Norma Shearer in 1937. Unspecified location, but I bet it isn't even a big deal event. Probs just wore tuxes and capes all the time. You know how they do.
Reader Comments (8)
Norma stole Miriam Aarons' (aka Goddard's) hairstyle. Not a good look for her. Did they ever make a movie together? The Oracle of Bacon says no.
The widow Thalberg was just starting to stretch her wings after Irving's passing the previous year and Jimmy was one of her first steady escorts. I actually do think they almost invariably went out fully decked out by studio expectations.
I heard a story relayed by Donna Reed's daughter that when Donna was just starting out at MGM she went out shopping in casual slacks and a blouse and someone from Metro saw her. She was called into the head office and read the riot act, that they were grooming her to be a star and expected her to ALWAYS look the part! Her daughter said she took it very much too heart and would never set foot outside the house without being totally pulled together from that moment on. If only stars today would do the same.
Ah Jimmy. Looking so casually classy there. I have to admit, I've never enjoyed Norma Shearer. Unlike Joan Crawford, I can't even really see her star appeal. The one movie Shearer stars in that I love, The Women, I love almost in spite of Shearer, rather than because of her.
Can anybody help me change my mind? Any movie suggestions?
I'm with you, Anne Marie. It's never made sense to me, and I've seen a few of her films.
anne marie & paul -- not even The Divorcée? I just love Norma. i dig her old school earnestness
Shearer is just lacking in glamour and oomph for me. It's like watching a bit player from a Marx Bros. movie or Our Gang short thrust into the foreground. But I've never seen any of her pre-talkie work. Maybe her magic is revealed on the silent screen?
I would have loved to see Crawford (Thalberg's original choice) in The Divorcee. Shearer has zero sex appeal.
Anne Marie-I'm not much of a Shearer fan either, she's often a pearl clutching mechanical actress but I did enjoy her in two of her final films. Marie Antionette where her grand style actually compliments the part. The other is Escape a tight little WWII thriller where Norma keeps the gestures under better control than usual although Robert Taylor chews the scenery a bit but overall it's a decent film.
Adding The Divorcee, Marie Antoinette, and Escape to my list! This is why I love TFE.