Did she ever get the recognition in Hollywood she deserved? Was she underrated? Cary Grant said, “Irene Dunne's timing was marvelous. She was so good that she made comedy look easy. If she'd made it look as difficult as it really is, she would have won her Oscar.” I think the last time I saw her was in one of Roddy McDowall's home movies.
I enjoyed her performance in The Awful Truth, and I think she was also a fine singer.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 13, 2024 1:11 AM |
I always think of George Stevens as directing big pictures like Giant but he did Penny Serenade with Dunne Grant, and I Remember Mama, which were smaller, more intimate ensemble pics. She gave such totally different characterizations for those parts. She was a classy dame from Old Hollywood.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 13, 2024 1:41 AM |
For her type, I am more of a Jean Arthur stan.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | May 13, 2024 1:46 AM |
Love her. She was great in LOVE AFFAIR, too.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 13, 2024 1:49 AM |
So five nominations and no wins. Damn. So that's what Cary Grant meant. They were great together.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | May 13, 2024 2:41 AM |
I cried laughing the first time I saw her in The Awful Truth.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | May 13, 2024 2:45 AM |
She was born in 1898 and worked until 1987 when she was 89. That's an amazing career and a long life. She died at 91. She was married to the same man from 1927 until he died in 1965. I liked everything I saw her in. She was delightful.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 13, 2024 2:49 AM |
Love that R7!!!
by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 13, 2024 3:03 AM |
She was no Bette Davis
by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 13, 2024 3:12 AM |
Loretta Young's daughter Judy Lewis said Dunne was a cold and serious person without much warmth or maternal instincts. She said Dunne was in real life nothing like you'd guess from her film persona.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 13, 2024 4:46 AM |
I loved anything Irene Dunne was in... she was extremely talented at both comedy and drama.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 13, 2024 4:54 AM |
I loved her as Granny in the Beverly Hillbillies. I think I’ll go take sone of my “elixir” now.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | May 13, 2024 4:59 AM |
Are you just trying to be cute, r14? Irene RYAN played Granny, not Irene Dunne. Irene Dunne wouldn’t have done a role like Granny, especially not when was was in her early 60s.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 13, 2024 5:15 AM |
I once read an interview with her that made me a little sad--it was in a book on screwball comedy films (maybe "Romantic Comedy in Hollywood" by James Harvey). In it, the interviewer gives her a ton of appreciation for being one of the very best performers in screwball comedy,a nd though she's grateful for and gracious about the praise, she says what she really wanted most was to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress rather than as a comedy actress or as a musical actress, and she rarely got the chance. She states she wanted to have had the same kind of career as Katharine Hepburn, but didn't get it.
It does make me sad, because I do think Dunne is quite good in her dramatic role in "Penny Serenade." And she repeatedly got to show her comic chops were better than or as good as any other woman's in Hollywood. She's hilarious in "Theodora Goes Wild" and "The Awful Truth" and "My Favorite Husband."
by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 13, 2024 5:34 AM |