It's time to reassess the career of the wonderful JOAN FONTAINE

Should have won the Oscar for Rebecca, no question. We didn't need that homophobic non-actress Ginger with an Academy Award

True that r1. I love Fontaine. REBECCA was a great movie. KITTY FOYLE, not so much.

1933: May Robson for Lady For A Day

1935: Katherine Hepburn for Alice Adams

1936: Carol Lombard for My Man Godfrey

1937: Great Garbo for Camille

1940: Joan Fontaine for Rebecca

1941: Bette Davis for The Little Foxes

She was great as Vi in Grease.

What's with her twisted jawline? It became very obvious in the 60s.

Was she attempting a Mona Lisa Smile?

Or was she attempting a sophisticated sneering disdainful New York smile?

Watch thief!

I'm not sure about her first husband.

Was he a good investment? Was he pretty or dull?

Brian Aherne was one of Katharine Cornell’s favorite leading men.

Brian Aherne and Joan never appeared together. Were they owned by different studios?

Must we?

She was pretty but not beautiful. She was never interesting or complex. She had little talent. Her best role is really as Peggy in “ The Woman”. Burt she was never a good or great actress. Wooden, pretentious looks are not acting but posing. She was definitely a poser.

She was very subtle in ISLAND IN THE SUN, for instance. When she first hits on Harry Belafonte, she's drunk. Not overtly so. But you can tell it's a chronic habit. wonderfully done. and she holds the screen beautifully. Not everyone could have existed in front of young Elizabeth Taylor.

Interviewed by DD

oups try again

Brian was hot in Sylvia Scarlett

I was never a big fan as her performances in simpering roles - including REBECCA - grow tiresome after a while.

Playing a bitch in BORN TO BE BAD was a nice change, and while it's not a terribly good movie, she's good at being bad.

THE WITCHES is just awful except for Kay Walsh.

THE WITCHES is delicious and hilarious. She's extremely convincing as the schoolteacher, and her nervous breakdown during the interview with Alec McCowen is a masterclass

she was Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, daughter of Walter de Havilland, and Lilian Augusta Ruse de Havilland Fontaine , first cousin to Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, OM, CBE, AFC, RDI, FRAeS , and Hereward de Havillland , from Havilland Hall. hardly a poser

I loved her in THE CONSTANT NYMPH and LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN. She was quite believable as teenaged girls in both films. She was a better actor than people gave her credit for. But not as ambitious as big sister Olivia.

they're both extremely gifted thespians, but Olivia had a steely quallity simmering underneath the sweetness that gave her the edge. and she was, of course, the great beauty. But Joan is a slow burn. if you watch her lesser known movies, she's very surprising, and can really give layers to a trite role.

She was a better actress and also prettier than Olivia.

[quote]the wonderful JOAN FONTAINE

Who?

R15 I wonder if George made a pass at Brian on those sunny sets at Malibu?

[quote] It's time to reassess the career of the wonderful JOAN FONTAINE

Why is It time to reassess?

Will we say ANYTHING new?

Joan played opposite the ten most eligible men for a full decade!

So why did she appear in a supporting role in this English movie.

She got third billing underneath the superranuated Bob Taylor and the teenage sexpot Liz Taylor.

Joan was such a hoot!! She stated that she had to tell Cary Grant that SHE was the star of Suspicion, not him!

[quote] SHE was the star of Suspicion,

But she was so very, very limp.

I preferred spunky Isobel Jeans as the fast-driving, high kicking, racing-buddy Mrs Newsham

[quote] So why did she appear in a supporting role in this English movie.

joan was a very practical gal. She never touched the bulk of her money. She worked when she wanted to buy something. That enabled her to support Olie.

[quote] spunky Isobel Jeans

Isabel jeans did some good muff diving session with Vivien Leigh

She gave very good Kim Catrall in TENDER IS THE NIGHT. She served a terrific bitch

[quote] That enabled her to support Olie.

Are you talking about Collier Young? There's not much on him on Wiki except it implies this film was real depiction of his fast-talking duplicity and their menage-a-trois.

He left Ida's connubial bed and immediately got into Joan's.

[quote]I wonder if George made a pass at Brian

leading men in George movies let him take his pleasure and weren't in the least compromised

No R31, whenever Olivia was in dire straights she would turn to Joan for financial support. Joan always obliged, and Liv' never forgave her for it

if you see her back to back in A CERTAIN SMILE and TENDER IS THE NIGHT you'll be astonished by her range and ease

both sisters loved salami

wonder who he fucked first

[quote] TENDER IS THE NIGHT. She served a terrific bitch

But it was still a supporting role.

If I was Joan's agent I would have demanded Joan be credited with a separate screen title "And Miss Joan Fontaine as Mrs So-and-so".

And I'd demand that the credit music swell up at the appearance at her name.

Is Joan of the Fontaines of Trevi or Trivoli?

'Fontaine' is a very beautiful, evocative surname.

And so is 'de Havilland'.

R31 Her second husband may have good teeth but I wouldn't trust him.

He got rid of first wife, that working-class broad named Ida, and stepped up a notch and got the classy Joan.

After that he produced that TV show 'Wild, Wild West' which was nothing by flirty shots of Bob's groin and buttocks.

So did any of you Eldergays of New York see Joanie and Tony back in '63?

Did they whisper the word 'homo-sexual'?

I remember reading the book Before The Fact and it was SO different from the movie Suspicion. The heroine just let herself be poisoned.

She acquits herself with class and elegance in her foray into hagsploitation, 'The Witches' aka 'The Devil's Own'.

R43 Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant to poison Joan. The studio said No.

But Joan was so besotted that, even after guessing his intentions, she consents to drink the poisoned glass of milk he brings her. But, to protect society, she has first written a letter to her mother, incriminating Johnnie.

At the end of the film, Johnnie, whistling, would have been seen dropping the letter in a mail-box (which sounds very similar to the brilliant English film 'Kind Hearts and Coronets').

Suspicion is an underrated masterpiece.

I like it too, Beaky. I like the weird shadows on the stairway and the fact that Hitchcock placed an incandescent light globe inside the glass of milk.

But Joan is so very limp (just as limp as in her previous film) and she just wilts when cocksure Cary abuses her with verbal abuse calling her Monkey-Face!

R46, She wasn’t “limp”. She was in character.

Olivia is in here. She had posted twice. Why are no questions addressed to her?

Because, R48, Olivia already has 3 other Datalounge threads devoted to her and her issues.

The ageless Bradford Dillman was in, among others, Secret Smile and The Way We Were.

R50, And he was married to luscious Suzy Parker.

She was Brian De Palma's first choice for the role of Margaret White in Carrie.

Thank goodness she turned it down because nobody would have been better than Piper Laurie.

Ronald Reagan took my virginity.

Suspicion doesn'tmake sense with that lame ending. It looks like the end was changed after the previews, because of the reactions on the audience cards

I love the movie she did with Burt Lancaster, Kiss The Blood Off My Hands.

[quote] Kiss The Blood Off My Hands.

(as Mr Grindrguy often tells me after he's FFed me.) Thaks, I'll check it out

She and Deborah Kerr looked a lot alike, but imho Deborah was more beautiful and talented. They both did 'Tea and Sympathy' on the stage - DK did it first. Joan dated writer Peter Viertel in the late 1950s, and then he married Deborah in 1961.

I love Deborah, but Joan could act circles around her. They play the same kind of character in BOUJOUR TRISTESSE and A CERTAIN SMILE both adapted from the same french novelist, and even though Deborah was, indeed more classically beautiful, Joan is the finer actress IMO. Deb could be the third De Haviland sister

Fast forward through the parts where poor fat Mario Lanza is singing, and watch her destroy him in Anthony Mann's SERENADE (56). She also has the most fabulous wardrobe in this one, emphasizing her evident pride in her bare shoulders as she was turning 40.

Joan and Olivia were both so round shouldered, why did she like showing them off?

round shoulders were considered an asset back then. Certain body parts in a woman were markers of beauty. fine ankles, a thin waist, round shoulders, a beautiful back. Kim Novak was famous for her back, that's why Hitch filmed her in a backless black dress, in her first scene in Vertigo. When you see all the fat slobs in yoga pants of today, you wouldn't guess

I watched TENDER IS THE NIGHT yesterday. Jennifer Jones was surprisingly good as the schizo heiress, and Joan was fantastic. the movie is a stinking pile of shit, and Jason Robarts jr is AWFUL. It's the second time I see him in a movie, after HURRICANE, and he sucked ass, balls, and scrotum. So pompous and boring. Why was he so highly regarded ?

In the mid-50s, Joan prided herself on having fat-free shoulders and upper arms, and her designers prioritized it in their frocks for her.

R61, Bob Hope once quipped that one could easily play pinochle on Doris Day’s protruding ass.

I never cared for her, her phony voice, her smirky smile, or her hammy acting.

R64 David Letterman (and others) made similar comments about being able to play chess on J-Lo's ass.

[quote] her smirky smile

She calls it her Mona Lisa smiIe.

[quote Jason Robards Jr… Why was he so highly regarded ?

He may have been sleeping with someone important; our eldergays will tell us. Some thought he was a new version of the recently deceased Humphrey Bogart.

[quote] Jason Robards Jr… he sucked ass, balls, and scrotum. So pompous and boring.

Are you talking about the character and not the actor who was pretending to be the character?

[quote]He may have been sleeping with someone important; our eldergays will tell us. Some thought he was a new version of the recently deceased Humphrey Bogart.

Including Lauren Bacall, apparently. She up and married Robards.

One of her better performances was selling Bufferin.

[quote] When the daily pressures of being a woman bring on headache pain

! !

I watched Rebecca the other day and cackled to myself about how funny it would be if, when Mrs de Winter is shown the portrait from which Rebecca copied her party outfit, the face in the painting was a portrait of HER SISTER, OLIVIA!

The Bigamist is an underrated film. Love the low slung LA locations and smoking on the Tour of the Stars Homes bus! Joan lives in SF! Ida lives in LA. Santa Claus works for adoption services.

R68, I'm talking about the actor. Stiff as a board and not in the good way. And boy, does he love his own voice ! Pompous bore and pretense. no wonder he married Bacall. Mules disguised as horses both of them

R65 = Olivia

R70 thanks that was fabulous

[quote] The Bigamist is an underrated film

I'll watch that tonight, thanks. I had no udea her career was so rich. And she co-starred everybody, from ty Power, to Gary and Cary, all the hunks . Anyone read her memoirs ? is it juicy ?

about TENDER IS THE NIGHT. is Jill st John the worst actress who ever acted ? because she's even worse than in THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE, and I didn't think that was possible

One of the worst r77. Always a bottom feeder of a starlet, like her bff Stefanie Powers. Never particularly talented or even ambitious. A knack for sucking the right cocks. St. John’s biggest claim to fame is being a Bond girl, and she was barely adequate in that. Hollywood is full of undertalented folks like that.

How did she get cast in majors movies like that ? casting coach ok, but was she such a good lay that her blatant void of talent was overlooked ?? I hear that Vivien Leigh refused to speak to her during the entire shoot of TRSOMS

Jill St. John was the eternal starlet. That is her claim to fame, rather than any of her actual work. Not laughably bad but not very good either.

And Jill had one of those terrible nose jobs they were doing in the sixties…that ski nose tip.

[quote] Not laughably bad

did you see these movies ? she's ludicrously bad

I thought she was rather good in that laxative commercial where she talked about how hard it was for her to shit.

R81 Jill st John without her nose job would never have ben an actress. Ugly, Just ugly

[quote]Maxwell House commercial featuring Jason Robards Jr. and Lauren Bacall.

When too much tension fueled by caffeine showed on Bacall's face, Robards dumped her and she dumped Maxwell House in favor of High Point. She loved the flava!

R85 it's deKKKKKhafeinated, and the flavah is mOOOHvelous

I don't know her

Olivia married a novelist, Marcus Goodrich. Joan said "All I know about him that he's had four wives and written one book. Too bad it's not the other way around." She had a scathing wit. I thought she was marvelous. Her book "No Bed of Roses", was fascinating.

R88 does she spill th tea ? who did she fuck ? who was the best lay ?

[quote] the best lay

Well-bred ladies born a century ago don't discuss such things. Nor do they, I suspect, do such things.

[quote] Nor do they, I suspect, do such things

Stewart Granger said Deborah Kerr blew him at the back of his car. We've established that Joan was a lot like Deborah

[quote] Stewart Granger said

Stewart Granger lost his star status in the beginning of the 1960s. He was unemployed and forced to appear in a sit-down role in that Angela Lansbury TV show. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in the 70s after smoking 60 cigarettes a day for 40 years. He had tuberculosis.

He tried hard to promote his memoirs in 1981 but was obviously drunk when he lashed out at reporters, claiming they were ghouls wanting to find if he was dying or not.

So I wouldn't believe his undocumented gossip.

I enjoy Joan Fontaine but when RKO attempted to make her a dance partner for Fred Astaire as a break from the Fred and Ginger series, it didn't exactly work out.

R80, Jill made a bee line for Robert Wagner almost immediately after Natalie Wood’s death and they began dating.

Natalie’s 11 year old daughter called him out for hooking up so soon after her mother’s drowning.

R93 thank you for this little gem. She's not the best dancer, but she tries so hard. Incredible how many superstar leading men she had. I don't understand the de Haviland sisters story . did they just walk in and say, "we want to be movie stars " and the studios said "ok", and then they just collected starring roles and academy awards until old age ? WTF ? no scandal, nothing

The scandal was that they didn’t get along.

[quote] Kiss The Blood Off My Hands

A lurid title for a thoroughly implausible story.

A Canadian nutcase-punk lives on the edge of the law and (for some unknown reason) pursues the feeble Joan Fontaine who (for some unknown reason) allows herself to be ensnared in his downward path to degradation.

Joan gets top billing but doesn't do much except faff and flutter through lots of poorly-lit studio sets. Bob Newtown is the most interesting element as he menaces her as she wears her twin-set minus pearls.

I remember reading JF's autobiography, and learning that Conrad Nigel (big star at MGM in the early 30s) deflowered her in a most violent and ungentlemanly manner.

It is no LADY IN A CAGE. R97.

She read fir the part of Melanie in GWTW and arrived after attending a society luncheon dressed in silver sables, George Cukor admonished, “Much too chic for Melanie!” and Fontaine suggested her sister!

She was a surprise casting in Rebecca. Hollywood thought she was wooden and inexpressive but Hitchcock, I think, wanted her and Selznick signed her. There was a lot of competition for the role. Vivien Leigh tested for it and Margaret Sullivan. Anne Baxter had the best audition but she was too young at 16. Fontaine fought about money with Selznick that one Christmas he sent her a geranium! It’s all in David Thomson’s masterly Selznick biography, “Showman.”

[quote] Conrad Nigel

Hmmm?

^ Conrad was the Jude Law of his time

her test for Rebecca is sublime

I never much cared for her after Jane Eyre, but that performance plus the two Hitchcocks, she was amazing in. Then she got grand and I lost interest.

Her turn in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA is hilarious. I don't want to spoil it, just watch.

“Tender is the Night” was a longtime passion project for David Selznick and Jennifer Jones, but although he wasn’t the producer of the film, he still bombarded the studio with memos before, during and after production.

Selznick was not happy with the casting of Jason Robards, Jill St. John and Tom Ewell in the film. I can’t remember his choices for the men’s roles, but he wanted Jane Fonda for Rosemary instead of Jill St. John.

anyone would have been better than St John. She doesn't ruin the movie, because Robarts JR and Ewell do that already, But it's a shame. Jones is pretty good. joan has a smallish, but memorable part; Also why did Selznick okeyed the long shots with the modern buildings ??? that movie is a mess. sometimes they wear jazz era frocks, sometimes it's pure 60s, and the concrete towers in the backgroung won't do. Selznick was slipping

per wikipedia : (Jane Fonda had wanted to play Rosemary; William Holden, Henry Fonda and Christopher Plummer were considered for Dick)

Henry Fonda- too old. plummer - too fey. Maybe Holden would have been a good dick ( and I bet he was too)

[quote] she got grand and I lost interest.

I really love her in ISLAND IN THE SUN, THE WITCHES, A CERTAIN SMILE . love her 60's style

also are you the ghost of Olivia ???

She was too old for Belafomte.

She received death threats for her role in IITS.

She and Jones were both too old for their roles in TITN.

[quote] plummer - too fey

I will quote you.

[quote] She received death threats for her role in IITS.

not surprised, she was quite brave to take that part

R114 Fox forced her take that part— after they spent so much time grooming her to be virginal in the previous decade.

how good is the movie she made with bob hope ? is it fun ?

Joan's grandson in still in California.

He's changed his name, of course.

R117 what are you even talking about ?!?! proof ?

R118 He's changed his name, of course. So did his father.

It's common practice in the movie industry.

that's no proof. there is no way a De haviland, from Havilland Hall would do that kind of things. I'm clutching my pearls really hard here

Dear R120, clutch as all those pearls as you may, poor Joan was appearing in some rubbish in her latter years and even appearing TV commercials.

A girl (and her grandson) needs to eat.

I suspect his pseudonym "Ash" may be a hidden reference to one of Joan's roles. They were both ash blonds.

where in the world do you have any indication that this twat is Joan's grandson ? that's completely random.

Joan was one of the most talented actresses ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

R53 Sin never dies.

Even if it's a prank, the grandson thing is more fun than any of Joan's mannered performances.

R123, What pain, other than a custody battle over her daughter?

Pain? Joan knew pain. She said once that giving birth was like "shitting a bowling ball." God love her...

Joan’s mother sounded like a rotten cunt.

R123 is the "good heart troll".

They have repeated this fake good heart schtick at least four times.

I like Joan a lot but I tend to believe once they were adults, she was more the problem rather than Olivia. Joan was neglected and isolated as kid due to illness. That kind of situation often leads to narcissism. She was in her element performing for the public (watch all her interviews, she was a great guest) but was said to be a cold mother.

[quote] she … was said to be a cold mother.

By which husband?

Perhaps she was a 'cold mother' to the son who produced Ash Taylor.

Joan has no sons, only two daughters, one of whom is adopted.

R127: She also knew Bufferin for the pain of being a woman

A CERTAIN SMILE is available on YouTube…

Nice glossy melodrama…perfect for chilly Sundays like today…