watchingwell: March 2020

Watchingwell

Curated classic films

Siblings Salad

Hey, people, how many of you had no idea of what to do with your lives, so you decided to do what your older sibling does? Hmm? Funny, but you find quite a few of these unimaginative types in Hollywood. In the classic movie world, there were some sister acts, and brothers, too, that I bet you didn’t know about.

OK, most of you know Frank Morgan from The Wizard of Oz (1939), but this well-liked actor made over 60 films, usually playing that genial, older guy, sort of like the wizard.

To name a few:

Lana Turner’s father in Honky Tonk (1941) with Clark Gable,

the misled Mr. Matuschek in
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with James Stewart,

and in Boom Town also from 1940, with Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamar and Claudette Colbert.

His older brother, Ralph, on the right, who looked very much like Frank, was in quite a few movies as well, but not as many “A” pictures. He was in The Kennel Murder Case, Star of Midnight, Song of the Thin Man and the Ex Mrs. Bradford, favorites of mine, all with William Powell.

For years, I refused to believe that Constance Bennett was Joan’s sister as they looked nothing alike (to me). Nevertheless, it’s true, and the Bennetts both enjoyed much success, especially after Joan changed from being a blonde like her sister and became a brunette.

Constance had a long career, silent, talkies, and television, but will best be remembered by her role as Marian Kirby opposite Cary Grant in Topper (1937) and in Topper Takes a Trip (1938) without Cary. Younger sister, Joan made many films as well. Most will remember her as the mother of the bride in Father of the Bride (1950), opposite Spencer Tracy, in Fritz Lang’s Man Hunt (1941), with Walter Pidgeon, and her role in one of my particular favorites, We’re No Angels (1955) with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Ustinov.

George Sanders had the most wonderful speaking voice, pleasant to just listen to, and, maybe it’s just me, but although brother, Tom Conway, had a similar voice, it’s just not as smooth.

George Sanders made a few movies as The Falcon, until the The Falcon’s Brother (1942), when his brother took over

the series. But Tom also appeared in cult favorites, Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), and The Seventh Victim (1943) and a major film appearance in Universal's One Touch of Venus (1948) with Ava Gardner. George’s best role was probably as Addison Dewitt in All About Eve (1950). I really liked him In Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca, both from 1940. But one of the most pleasurable treats for the ears is the comedy, A Touch of Larceny (1960), when the velvet voice of Sanders costars with the other wonderful voice of his age – that of James Mason.

The Lane sisters, Lola, Priscilla, Rosemary, and Leota, (a fifth sister, Martha, was not an actress) made films in the thirties and forties both together and separately.

Priscilla played the new bride of Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), and the spy hunter with Robert Cummings in Hitchcock’s Saboteur (1942).

Lola was in Murder on a Honeymoon (1935), of the Hildegarde Withers mystery series, and the noir, They Made Me a Killer (1946), while,

Rosemary appeared with Humphrey Bogart in The Return of Dr. X (1939) and The Boys from Syracuse (1941) the musical
loosely based on Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors.

These 3 Lanes appeared in Four Daughters (1938), Daughters Courageous (1939), Four Wives (1939), and Four Mothers (1941), following the lives of the sisters (plus Gale Page) with Claude Rains as their father, except in Daughters Courageous, where they made them in a different family.

The closest thing to American acting royalty, the

Barrymore family, produced 3 actors that worked during the classic film era: John, Ethel, and Lionel. John, although accomplished as a stage actor, revered as the definitive Hamlet, appeared in a romantic role opposite Garbo in Grand Hotel (1932) that also starred Lionel, Dinner at Eight (1933), also with Lionel and an all-star cast, and was hilarious in the comedy, Twentieth Century (1934) with Carole Lombard.

Lionel made well over 100 films, silent and talkies, -- he starred with James Stewart and Jean Arthur in You Can’t Take it with You (1938), Young Dr. Kildare (1938) and 9 of the Dr. Kildare series as Dr. Gillespie opposite Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare, and 6 more as Dr. Gillespie without Lew Ayres, but his most famous role is probably as the villainous Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Ethel made a name for herself on the stage before she joined her brothers in Hollywood, and except for her appearance in Rasputin and the Empress (1932) with both brothers, her film career restricted the middle-aged Ethel to playing mothers and forceful, older women, as in the Spiral Staircase (1946), The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), Portrait of Jennie (1948), and Pinky (1949).

One of my favorites, for his work in Laura (1944), and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Dana Andrews, who was also unforgettable in The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), and funny in Ball of Fire (1941), had a brother in the movie business. I learned only recently that Steve Forrest was the youngest of the family of 13 children that included older brother, Dana.

Sealed Cargo (1943) with Claude Rains was the only film in which the brothers appeared together. Other than So Big (1953) The Second Time Around (1961) with Debbie Reynolds, Flaming Star (1960) with Elvis Presley and Heller in Pink Tights (1960) with Sophia Loren, and a few other roles which were not particularly prominent, he spent most of the last fifty years of his full career in television.

Now, I will turn our attention to the most equally-famous sibling actors of the golden age of film. No, not James Cagney and his sister, Jean, because, they weren’t equally famous.

And, speaking of not-equally famous, it would remiss not to acknowledge the Young sisters. Loretta Young had the major career: The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940), a comedy with Ray Milland, a fine performance in The Stranger (1946) with Orson Welles and Edward G. Robinson, an Oscar for The Farmer’s Daughter, and in many people’s favorite holiday film, The Bishop’s Wife with David Niven and Cary Grant.

But sisters, Georgiana, Polly Ann, and Sally Blane acted, and all four of them appeared in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939).

Sally Blane, at left, appeared with Paul Muni in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), One Mile From Heaven (1937) with Claire Trevor, with Sidney Toler and Cesar Romero in Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939). She appeared with sister, Polly Ann Young, at right, in Stolen Sweets (1934). Polly Ann starred in The Border Patrolman (1936), The Last Alarm (1940), and The Invisible Ghost (1941) with Bela Lugosi. Georgiana, below, only made a few uncredited appearances after The Story of Alexander Graham Bell,

her principal claim to fame was being married to Ricardo Montalban for 63 years.

And not, James Arness and Peter Graves, because although they made films, they became stars in television.

Similarly, although Audrey Meadows made 2 films, That Touch of Mink (1962) with Doris Day and Cary Grant and Take Her She’s Mine (1963) with James Stewart, her fame came from television, notably as Jackie Gleason’s wife, Alice, in The Honeymooners. Sister, Jayne Meadows had a few nice roles in the forties, The Lady in the Lake (1946) with Robert Montgomery, Song of the Thin Man (1947), and Enchantment (1948), but in the fifties and beyond worked in television.

I am talking about Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland.

Olivia won 2 best actress Oscars for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949), but will always be remembered as Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind (1939). She also acted together with Errol Flynn in 8 films, including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). As of this writing, she is 103 and living in Paris.

The Heiress

Gone With the Wind

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Sister, Joan Fontaine, also won an Oscar for Suspicion (1941) with Cary Grant, after completing another Hitchcock film, as Mrs. DeWinter in Rebecca (1940), with Laurence Olivier.

Other notable roles were Jane Eyre (1943) and in Frenchman's Creek (1944), a gorgeous technicolor romance, with pirates and great sets and costumes, adapted from another du Maurier novel, in which her character is not meek, bland, and insipid, unlike in Rebecca -- and, for that matter, her characters in Suspicion and Jane Eyre.