Monkey Around with Dietrich and Grant

 Monkey Around with Dietrich and Grant:
Are you going ape?

Blonde Venus is a 1932 pre-code drama which starred Marlene Dietrich and Herbert Marshall. It was one of the first big roles for the young Cary Grant. At one point we see her on stage in a gorilla suit. She peels off the gorilla hands, mask and the rest of the furry costume and adds a flamboyant wig before singing Hot Voodoo. Cary Grant is part of her audience. A striptease that starts off with a gorilla suit. Where else do you see that?

Dietrich in Blonde Venus
Hot Voodoo



Marlene Dietrich alternative simian dance costume tutorial



Marlene Dietrich began making silent films in 1919. Another famous film was The Blue Angel, 1930 as Lola Lola, with Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron.

One of her last films was Judgment at Nuremberg a 1961 Stanley Kramer film. Costars were Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Judy Garland.

There was a cameo in Paris When It Sizzles, 1964 with Audrey Hepburn and William Holden. Then Just a Gigolo 1979 with David Bowie, Kim Novak and Sydne Rome.

Her manner, the critic Kenneth Tynan wrote, was that of "a serpentine lasso whereby her voice casually winds itself around our most vulnerable fantasies."
"She has sex but no positive gender," Tynan wrote. "Her masculinity appeals to women and her sexuality to men." .... "Glamour," she observed, "is assurance. It is a kind of knowing that you are all right in every way, mentally and physically and in appearance, and that, whatever the occasion or the situation, you are equal to it."

In clothes, she was a trend setter. Both on screen and off, she often wore trousers and mannish costumes. By proving that a woman could still look feminine in such clothes, she established "the Dietrich silhouette," emphasizing trimness and inconspicuous hips and bust. from her New York Times obituary. Ms. Dietrich lived December 1901 - May 1992.

Marlene Dietrich The Glamour Collection 5 Movies:
Blonde Venus/ Morocco/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings


Phil Collins - Gorilla Drummer - Cadbury Advert (Dairy Milk)

"I Feel like a Hairy Ape"
Cary Grant to Gail Patrick
My Favorite Wife 1940 

Cary Grant calls Joan Fontaine Monkey Face in Suspicion

Tips to Choose, Customize Your Costume for your Event, Gorilla Run Charity Races, Fun Runs

When will you wear it? Weather, Heat: Think about how hot it will be in your suit. Some runs appear to stay out of the summer months. Weather can be hot, humid, windy and rainy anywhere. What costume will you wear in the mud run?!

Costumes, including wigs & hats are usually hotter to run in than a track suit, but folks who make it to the finish line are excited that they made it. Consider a cooling vest to wear under the gorilla suit? 

Is it for something special like a proposal or a similar surprise? The groom-to-be fights off the gorilla before the proposal. Add a top hat. Any day that includes a sudden, unexpected gorilla is usually remembered.

If you're hosting a Planet of the Apes watch-a-thon at your house would you give prizes for those who come in costume? 

For Business? Are you going into a Gorillagram business? Can you sing while wearing it? Maybe it will be just one costume of several that you have. People want experiences these days. It's not enough to send flowers or candy to the office on her birthday. Make it an event. Do you want a realistic gorilla costume or something more cartoonish, maybe something along the lines of King Kong, comic book?

Choose separate parts, a snout, hat, makeup, etc? Your kids can create parts

Little Boys' Gorilla Costume

DIY with crayons, construction paper and glue sticks at a birthday party or on a rainy day.

It's your gorilla suit! Jazz it up! Add your business logo? A sash or tiara? (Tack it down!) 

Add a zipper? Make it easier to use the portable toilets if necessary? I've read about people's getting costumes early and altering them if need be with zippers for quicker pit-stops! Always on the lookout for animal costumes and the like that have zippers. A very clever friend with a sewing machine and/or needle and thread may be able to make it a two-piece.

Try it out, Make it work: Try out the costume before the race. Do a practice run in it and see how it goes. What does it need? Add a zipper? Have a backpack, pocket, pouch? Remove something? Make it just right for you. This is what will make it really fun and functional. If you're trying to get attention for yourself, your cause, your business, determine how you might add to the costume in ways that won't impede your ability to run.

Are you on a team? Easier to find one another if you add something lightweight and colorful, visible like a hat (pinned on!) or tank top? A logo or great team name emblazoned on it makes it all the better. Come up with the best team chant to outdo that group next to you.... If you want a couples costume, I guess she could be Fay Wray, fun idea.

Order early and Do a fur test & mask eye test: Many of the costumes I saw across the merchants had reviews saying that they shed their fur to some extent. Also people had to make the eye holes on masks work for them. Give a good shake out when testing them. Read the directions and instructions. Decide for yourself. Lots of clever and industrious ideas made the costumes, masks work perfectly. How will you wear your hair?


Just love the Adidas Jeremy Scott designer sneakers whether it's the gorilla, the

Aadidas Originals by Jeremy Scott

bear, poodle... You'll probably have more luck running in way better than running in gorilla feet. Go psychedelic if that's more to your personality.

Fun Run? If you're going for a mud run, a gorilla suit or anything with fur may not be what you want. Mud will add weight to the costume. Will the elements damage the costume? This includes your wig, hat, etc. A popular mud run is the Devil Dash, where people dress as angels and devils. That leaves interpretation of the costumes wide open.

Pink Gorilla Costumes

Show your true colors: Be a Snow Beast in white.  Practice that Rawr. Color up for an Awareness Event or wild pre-wedding video, Rage on as a Red Gorilla? Swap with a pal and put your pink gorilla head on his black gorilla suit body and vice versa.... It's all up to you. We found different shades of pink gorilla suits. Which one suits you best?

Don't forget other times to wear the Gorilla Costume. When you've run out of uses for the costume and it's still in good shape, pass it along. 

Donate the suit to someone or a cause who'd like to have it. Be green and try a costume swap locally, with friends and family.

"Would you ask your wife to hook up with that ape?!" Jean Harlow. 

“Uh, The Ape objects,”
William Powell 

Libeled Lady 1936

Groucho Marx talks about monkey suits on the Dick Cavett Show (about 5:35) [Groucho talks about the gorilla suit & the orangutan suit that were used in At the Circus]

"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"
Charlton Heston

Planet of the Apes 1968

Wonder Woman, yes, Wonder Woman wrestled with a gorilla in the 1970s.  Those were the days.
Curious? Check it out below...

 

Related Articles of Interest:

1930s films Dressing Gable, Rathbone, Dietrich

Dietrich was on that 1938 list with Katharine Hepburn as being Box Office Poison

Throw a Hollywood Fancy Dress Party: 10 Tips for your costume party success
Marlene Dietrich wore a swan costume to the party in 1935, while an actress friend beside her was dressed as Marlene Dietrich.

Have a Mermaid Movie Party 

"Fling him to the ape!
Let him be torn to pieces!"
Brandon Hurst/The Caliph
Thief of Bagdad 1924

 

Celebrate the holidays classic movie clips

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
with Classic Movies

Georges Méliès: The Christmas Angel (1904)


Santa shows up early with My Favorite Wife, Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Gail Patrick; Celebrate nontraditional Christmas movies

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Desk Set

Shower in your clothes 1960s

Take a bath in your best clothes
Swinging '60s

In 1963 Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn starred in the film Charade, directed by Stanley Donen. Grant was apparently ahead of his time beginning the trend of showering with your clothes on. Once it was trending, he probably gave up the habit?

  

Let him (or you) choose a gift: From a selection of Bath Kits for Men

In I Was a Male War Bride his character got into a bathtub without any water at all. You never know what he's apt to do. Cary Grant is the TCM Star of the month for December 2014.

Bath In Your Best Clothes! This couple wasn't interested in taking a shower with their clothes on. British Pathe is one source of some of the best old films on YouTube. Here from 1966, we see a demonstration of a new fabric treatment. "This stay in stay shape process gives a permanent shape to clothes."




If you asked who Bert and Ernie were you were apt to have someone respond, "Characters in It's a Wonderful Life." Nowadays, they're more apt to say "Characters on Sesame Street."




Perhaps one of his funniest shaving scenes is actually in a Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest when he has to use a tiny razor? But don't forget that he feels "like a hairy ape" before his shave in My Favorite Wife. What's your favorite Cary Grant movie? He made over seventy pictures.

Related Pages of Interest:

Shop and Wrap Gifts with old Hollywood stars 1920s, 1930s : William Powell bought a wide array of things including bath items

Men in the Bath, Have a personal film festival with the likes of Clifton Webb, John Lennon, Tony Curtis, Edward G. Robinson, Clint Eastwood and David Bowie

Have a Charade Watching Party, Being Cary Grant or Audrey Hepburn

Dinner & A Movie: Eat along with your favorite movie or What to serve at your next Movie Party

Plum Pudding for Cary Grant, Virginia Cherrill, Clive Brook and You

Bring Me Some Figgy Pudding

Lillian Harvey 1934
Phillips Cigarette Card

 Bring it right here. Sentiments from the traditional Christmas carol, We wish you a Merry Christmas.

Cary Grant, Lillian Harvey, Miriam Jordan, Clive Brook, Ronald Colman and many others said this about their beloved Christmas pudding.

Annually in newspapers and magazines Hollywood celebrities talked about their Christmas plans. This often included what they intended to prepare for dinner. The British ex-patriots interviewed wanted to bring some home to their California dinner tables.  Old fashioned slow food or new and light, it's yummy.

Chief item necessary at Christmastime: Plum Pudding. Here are some recipes from old Hollywood celebrities and some video recipes from more current chefs. Busy this holiday season? You can always order your very own Plum Pudding and see what you think that way.

Recipes for Plum Pudding and Hard Sauce from actresses Leatrice Joy and Lilian Harvey. Leatrice Joy was born in New Orleans, but when asked for what she liked to serve at Christmastime, she jumped in with her recipe for plum pudding.

Plum Pudding Recipe
Leatrice Joy, 1921

Actress Lillian Harvey was born in London. When interviewed in 1933 about her

1920: Leatrice Joy says
'This is not my apron'

ideal holiday meal, she said it would include plum pudding with hard sauce. 

Leatrice Joy Plum Pudding Recipe

5 oz flour
5 oz stale bread crumbs
3/4 lb raisins seeded
1/2 lb suet, chopped fine
1/2 lb sugar
1 Cup molasses
3 oz candied orange peel, cut fine
1 T grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon mace
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 eggs, well beaten
Unbleached cotton cloth & something to tie this off with

Mix ingredients, pour into thickly floured bowl unbleached cotton cloth
Tie, leaving space for swelling
Drop into kettle of boiling water
Cook this way for five hours
Serve with hard sauce (Ms. Joy didn't offer a recipe for hard sauce.)
 

Hard Sauce recipe, Lilian Harvey 1933

Lilian Harvey's Hard Sauce (aka wine sauce) Recipe
1/4 Cup Butter
1 Cup powdered sugar
2 T brandy
2 eggs [Separate the yolks from the whites]
1/2 Cup heavy cream
Cream the butter
Add sugar gradually, then brandy, very slowly
Then the well-beaten yolks and the cream
Cook over hot water till thick
Next beat in the whites

Older recipes may need some updating. Ingredients, particularly outside of the UK, may need to be substituted.


 
We wish you a merry Christmas, John Denver and the Muppets A Christmas Together, 1978.
"Figgy Pudding?!"

Virginia and Carry plan their Christmas 1934 dinner.
Looks like their silver pitcher may have a CG on it? :)

"When a girl from Carthage, IL and a boy from Bristol, England get together to discuss Christmas dinner you would expect some differences of opinion but when we heard Cary Grant and Virginia Cherrill discussing their ideas of the big feast there was almost perfect accord.  

Cherrill with Chaplin
City Lights

"Like most important Hollywood residents they much prefer a dinner at the home of intimate friends and the dinner menu drawn up by the English cook calls for no over-elaborate dishes."

Below is their Christmas 1934 compromise. "In seven courses is precisely the sort of Christmas dinner Mr. Grant would have had back in old England. 

"Christmas wouldn't be Christmas to an Englishman without roast goose and plum pudding. But Christmas wouldn't be Christmas to Miss Cherrill without mince pie so while Cary insists on pudding Virginia insists on good old American mince pie."

Maybe you can be the talk of your family with an "unusual" Christmas dessert this year? Show them what a chef you are with a plum pudding set aflame! This is yet another time to be extremely careful and make sure you know what you're doing, of course. Do you have a fire extinguisher at your house?

The menu for Cary Grant and his wife, Virginia Cherrill:
Oyster cocktail
Consomme
Breadsticks, celery, olives, salted pecans
Roast Goose, potato stuffing, apple sauce, duchess potatoes
Creamed Lima beans
Chicken croquettes with green peas
English plum pudding, brandy sauce
Frozen pudding, assorted cakes
Mincemeat pie
Bon bons
Crackers, cheese
Cafe Noir


Are You Being Served Christmas Special. They enjoy a traditional English holiday feast.

In 1931, Mr. and Mrs. Clive Brook divulged that their Christmas dinner will include:

Blue points on the half shell
Clear green turtle soup, Melba toast
Roast turkey with chestnut dressing
Pea timbales, cranberry sauce
Fruit and ginger-ale salad
English plum pudding, Demi tasse

Like Lillian Harvey, Brook is having a more American holiday turkey instead of Christmas goose.



 

Steve's Kitchen

Ingredients you will need:
140g / 5oz Raisins
140g / 5oz Sultanas
140g / 5oz Dates, chopped
140g / 5oz Currants
50g / 2oz Glace Cherries, halved
50g / 2oz Candied Peel
1 Lemon Zest, grated
1 Orange Zest, grated
1 cup of Dark Ale or Stout
2 Tablespoons of Molasses or Black Treacle
A good slug of Brandy
100g / 3.5 oz Soft Dark Brown Sugar
100g / 3.5 oz Breadcrumbs
100g / 3.5 oz Suet
60g / 2oz of All purpose Flour
1 teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg
1 teaspoon of Ground Ginger
1 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
1/2 a teaspoon of Ground Cloves
2 Tablespoons of Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder
1 Granny Smith or Bramley Apple, grated
2 Eggs

Excerpt from We Wish You a Merry Christmas:

"Now bring us some figgy pudding
Now bring us some figgy pudding
Now bring us some figgy pudding
And a cup of good cheer

"We won't go until we get some
We won't go until we get some
We won't go until we get some
So bring it right here



But what about Figgy Pudding vs. Plum Pudding?? Ok, so you want to make your pudding with figs? Here you go. Gather your dried figs while you may and follow the recipe above.

Matthew Walker Christmas Puddings Get one for yourself and your family. 

As with the other Matthew Walker cookies and cakes, their Plum puddings get high marks from customers. They come in different varieties and sizes and, as expected, sell out as you get closer to Christmas.




The Dead Celebrity Cookbook Presents Christmas in Tinseltown: Celebrity Recipes and Hollywood Memories from Six Feet Under the Mistletoe The popular Christmas edition. Paper or digital Kindle versions. A popular sequel to Frank DeCaro's popular book of celebrity recipes, The Dead Celebrity Cookbook: A Resurrection of Recipes by More Than 145 Stars of Stage and Screen.

Tip: If giving a Kindle (or Nook, etc) and gift card for ebooks for Christmas, it's can be a good idea to let the person open the gift on Christmas eve. Christmas day, December 25, tends to have a few technical issues due to the number of downloads. Amazon Gift Card - Email  Amazon Kindle, set your amount

Wham Ham t-shirt Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House
Buy or Create custom gifts, t-shirts at zazzle

Clive Brook Chicken Pie recipe Greeting Cards by Jakestuff

"Greenwich. Some pudding! Lady Stonehaven, Father Christmas and Father Neptune mix all-Empire Dreadnought pudding for inmates of Greenwich Seamens' Hospital." 1931


Related Pages of Interest:

A Christmas Wish, John Denver and Kermit the Frog

Santa Claus shows up early in My Favorite Wife with Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott

Alfred Hitchcock's Blue Food Christmas Dinner Party 1964: Guests included Cary Grant and wife-to-be Dyan Cannon... The soup, peaches and vegetables were blue. "Even when you broke your roll. It looked like a brown roll but when you broke it open it was blue..."  If Hitch served blue plum pudding, I'm glad we haven't heard about it.

Kids' Play Kitchens, Healthy eating, learning toys
 
Gordon Ramsay and his Mom make a lighter version of Christmas Pudding







Sources
Screenland December 1921
New Movie Magazine December 1934
Visit the Steve's Kitchen channel for other recipes

Movie censorship around the world 1910s-1950s

Film Censorship Japan, France, Britain, more

What did countries such as Japan and France think of American movies? How did they censor their own films and imports? When did the British Board of Film Censors appear? And much later, in 1979 did the members of Monty Python have to deal with audience uproar and what did Cary Grant say about his experiences?

Jack Pickford becomes a motion picture censor
for the US government

Jack Pickford, Movie Censor: In 1918, Mr. Pickford was given advance screenings of all pictures scheduled to appear on Universal's Screen Magazine and Universal's Current Events. Whatever scenes showing war-like preparations were eliminated from prints to be exported. 

"He said this had nothing to do with prints to be used domestically. 

"Pickford recently enlisted in the navy and owing to his knowledge of motion pictures was immediately assigned to the Intelligence Department."

Pictured above: Olive Thomas (his wife), Jack, Mrs. Charlotte Pickford, Mary Pickford with her niece, Mary Jr. and Lottie Pickford. Jack Pickford is leaving for New York.  

By at least 1910 Canadians worried about pictures' not being up to their moral standard. The government would have to censor all films.

Film Censorship in Japan 1920s

"The fans of staid Pennsylvania are well off compared to those in Japan. Kissing scenes have long been taboo. 

"Hold-ups and ardent love scenes very often do not get by the censors who consider such acts injurious to public peace and morality. Views of revolutions, especially those of the overthrow of a crowned ruler are frowned upon by police. Yet with all these limitations and obstacles in its path the popularity of the movies grows rather than declines. ...

"Every motion picture house is divided into three sections -- one for men and

Kayoko Saijo "a popular Japanese actress in
American and Japanese dress"

boys, another for women and girls and the third for married couples. Police officers are assigned to each theater to see that regulations are observed. 

"Regardless of how crowded the men's section may be and how vacant the women's is, no male is permitted to sit in the enclosure reserved for ladies.  

"This was done some years ago to safeguard morals when it was discovered that love scenes on the screen caused the more emotional among the audience to behave improperly." Komako Sunada and Aiko Takashima were other favorite Japanese actresses mentioned.

"Recently the censors lifted the ban on kissing so far as American and European actors and actresses, and were concerned to see the effect this move toward Westernization would have on public morals."

"While on stage, the majority of feminine roles are played by men, women have from the very beginning established themselves firmly in motion pictures. At the Kabuki-za, the largest theater in Tokyo, no actresses are employed. On the other hand while there are only a handful of male film stars all studios are crowded with actresses." 

The total footage of film shown one that year was 4,135,801. But the proprietors of the movie theaters bought much than that. A substantial amount, 121,000 feet of film had been cut by censors, "for the public morals and protection of children" it was said. Those who made the pictures said that the highlights of the movies and scenes integral to plot were cut. ...

The Katsuben or Benshi: 
Subtitle Readers-Translators
From one publication; "Subtitle readers are hired by the dozen by each theater to translate the titles as they appear and to shout their translations to the audience. There are more than eight thousand regularly paid subtitle readers in the country and a skillful interpreter increases the value of a picture to a great extent. Imagination is employed by some of the men who succeed frequently in altering a weak story."

The 1921 dressing room of these benshi is even fitted with electric lights

From a different publication (a few years earlier); "The Japanese censor does not stop with the surgical operations of films. He gets at the public through katsuben, also. The katsuben or benshi as he or she is sometimes called is a sort of animated caption. They are of both sexes for girls are quite as active in the profession as men. He explains the picture, he makes the silent drama vocal."

The censors recruited, hired and carefully trained those who would act as benshi. It was said that moviegoers in big and small towns in Japan wrote letters to newspapers complaining that the censorship of movies was too harsh.



"The moral influences of these explainers of pictures over the audience is

Sessue Hayakawa 1918

thought to be great. At least that is the opinion of the Japanese censor. Therefore next to the editing of the films, he turns his best attentions to the expurgation of the benshi. The benshi is not permitted to earn his bread by the sear of his artistic sense unless he is armed with a declaration from the censor, on the impeccability of his ethical character."
-- From articles dated 1921-1926

One article claimed that Sessue Hayakawa, a popular Japanese actor living and working in the US, "is extremely unpopular in his native country because of the parts he plays in motion pictures."

There were, of course artists, writers, technicians, etc. who came to work in the US movie business from all different parts of the world. I found The Japanese American Film Company and The Mandarin Film Company both independent studios in California in the 1910s begun by actors and other creative people from Japan and China.  


England 1913 Clean & Wholesome...

British Board of Film Censors certificate 1913

"No film subject will be passed that is not clean and wholesome and absolutely above suspicion but those passed for universal exhibition are especially recommended for children's matinees." 

In 1913 The British Board of Film Censors showed off examples of their two certificates. They were to be used for every film examined and passed, be they for universal or public exhibition. There were two certificates for every film examined and passed, for universal or public exhibition. Copies of the certificates would be printed on films immediately following the main title. The board will appreciate a report as to any objectionable film that may be shown in your district, they said.

Certificate granted any to any Hall showing motion pictures

Also the Board issues a certificate, on vellum, for each hall becoming a party to the agreement. (above) The certificate remains property of the Board and is subject to be revoked at any time.



Friday Night, Saturday Morning The Life of Brian aka Monty Python's Life of Brian brought a lot of controversy in the UK, the US and elsewhere. It was said that in the US a senator who'd not even seen the film worked to have it banned. 

The film features Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Films, art, Free Speech, 1979 debate.

John Cleese would say that in this interview was one of the few times he ever saw Michael Palin angry.

1918 little rhyme about censors

The French & The Americans 1953

The Stowaway, Martine Carol
She is Colette, a night club singer who winds up in Tahiti

In 1953, Screenland magazine offered a discussion on movie censorship which featured quotes from French actors and directors such as Danielle Darrieux, Giselle Pascal and especially, Martine Carol and Christian-Jaque (Christian-Jacque in article). 

The focus was a comparison of censorship in France and America and consequently what they thought of the tastes in each country.

"Dozens of French films are turned out every year. Many are in very bad taste,

pictures about women of the streets, about menage a trois, you know a three-handed game of love, as well as many horrible crime pictures. They're dreadful, far worse than many of Hollywood's I assure you," said Martine Carol.

They shook their heads over The Moon Is Blue which received flack from censors. The movie was directed Otto Preminger and starred David Niven, William Holden, Maggie McNamara.


The Moon is Blue movie trailer

Giselle Pascal (Gisèle Pascal): "Films as an art for the masses need some kind of censorship. A man or woman who buys a book general has a good idea of what is being paid for. But movies are different. Much of your audience is totally unaware of the content of the product they are buying. I think it important for the heads of the French film industry to guard carefully against excesses of

Martine Carol

nudity and immorality and excesses, in my opinion, there have been." 

The trouble, if you can call it that, with the idea of censorship is that it's so subjective. Is it really in the eye of the beholder and as DW Griffith said, should be left up to parents, Mother and Father in the case of children and then up to each adult?

The article said that the singer and actress was working on a film, Horizons Without End. Either it was renamed or translated, Endless Horizons. Miss Pascal was also in the news thanks to rumors of a romance with American actor Gary Cooper.

The point was made that while intimacy and nudity were more acceptable in French cinema, "many American made scenes of violence mayhem murder and what some French critics call rank sadism are given the green light by our censors without the flicker of an eyelash while at the same time they are severely scissored and sometimes completely vetoed by French censors." 

Foreign Censors Cuts from American Films:
This included gangster pictures but also Westerns and other movies. They cut a scene from Calamity Jane with Doris Day and Howard Keel. Fernando Lamas' slap at Liz Taylor was too realistic in The Girl Who Had Everything. (right)

A scene in Cry of the Hunted a 1953 film noir with Vittorio Gassman, Polly Bergen and Barry Sullivan wasn't approved.

Foreign censors get their best licks in on the fight scenes. Violent romance in Wings of the Hawk with Van Heflin and Julie Adams was toned down.

Bob Mitchum and Jack Palance were too rough for the censors in a film they made with Linda Darnell, Second Chance. A deleted shot from The Golden Blade with Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie.

One of Martine Carol's films, Caprice of Caroline Cherie, got past censors but had trouble with segments of the audiences themselves in portions of France.

"Once they approve pictures for release, no individual or group in any part of France has the right to make additional cuts or to ban a showing. There is one exception however. Under the law, if a film is so controversial that it inflames the public and incites them to riot it can be what you call, yanked on the spot."

1953 More cuts even after approval by Breen office:
The reporter explained to Martine and Christian how the American censorship set-up differs from that in France. In the US, local, city and state censor boards could make cuts alterations, including banning films even though they had already received the seal of approval from the Breen office. In 1934 Joseph Breen had been appointed head of the new PCA, Production Code Administration.

They were somewhat surprised at this situation in the USA. Martine Carol said, "In general we have a sensible attitude. The board looks for things like extreme immorality, unusually brutal violence and  the re-enactment of crimes recently committed - cases where the individuals or families involved are still alive. They also have an eye open for unattractive portrayals of French nationals. And that's about it. 

"To show a tender and realistic bedroom scene or an intimate but humorous love scene is not considered immoral. It is assumed to be an accurate portrait of life.  I will never understand why in the United States certain cuts were ordered in the beautiful and sensitive The Devil in the Flesh."  .... 

"'On the other hand, chimed in Christian-Jaque, 'I can't understand why such a witty, amusing picture as La Ronde has been banned in New York. It's all tongue in cheek and certainly less harmful to the public than any dozen or more American gangster pictures I could name for you. It couldn't possibly offend anyone over sixteen.'"

Martine, the writer of the article notes she is 'blessed with a heavenly body,' said she feels much the same as Christian does. 

"We just don't consider that the sight of of a beautiful nude body is lewd. However we think it is vulgar to show complete nudity or to display extremely revealing clothes on cheap and unattractive women."

Christian-Jaque, it was reported would become Miss Carol's husband as soon as her divorce is final from Stephen Crane, Lana Turner's ex-spouse.

Martine Carol and Stephen Crane were married 1948-1953. You may recall that in April 1958, when she was 14 years old, Cheryl Crane, the daughter of Lana Turner and Stephen Crane killed Turner's boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato. The stabbing was ruled self defense. Cheryl Crane wrote a book, Detour: a Hollywood Tragedy - My Life With Lana Turner, My Mother. This happened during the time that Martine Carol was married to Christian-Jaque.


Martine Carol was a big star in France, often called the French Marilyn Monroe. Christian-Jaque directed some of her films.  Martine Carol films DVD, streaming.

By the late 1950s, newcomer Brigitte Bardot came on the scene. Martine Carol was married to American Actor Stephen Crane, ex-husband of Lana Turner, 1948-1953. She was married to director Christian-Jaque 1954-1959.

While Man in the Dark and Detective Story were enjoyed by the public, the films had some difficulty with Gallic censors. Also according to the 1953 article, "In Switzerland youngsters under eighteen cannot even attend movies. In Spain kissing scenes are cut from films."

Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman
B&W Notorious 24X36 Poster

During the era of the Production Code, there was a three second time limit on screen kisses. Alfred Hitchcock was a director who was, uh, notorious for thinking of ways around such restrictions. He was one of the directors who used a train to say what he couldn't say any other way.

In his 1946 movie Notorious, where he worked around the rule of three-second-kissing only by having Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant break off every three seconds. The sequence lasts for two and a half minutes.

How do you think the work of this generation of actors and other artists in the industry may have been different without censorship?

In North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock deftly used the symbolism of a train speeding into a tunnel at the end of his film to represent what Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint could not show on screen in the 1960s.

In The Awful Truth "Leo McCarey cuts to the cuckoo clock chiming midnight. The male figurine turns on his heels and hungrily pursues the female through her doorway. The Breen office was amused and satisfied. 

"Breen had warned during the script review phase, 'Great care will be needed in shooting it to avoid the sex suggestiveness that might lead to censor deletions which could ruin the end of your picture.'  They warned 'The bedroom scene in the cabin could be possibly suggestive [but] only if it were not played in fine taste for delicate comedy.'" -- Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration

Cary Grant gave a newspaper interview in early 1986. He talked about restrictions he faced while making movies in the 1930s through the 1960s. He was in his eighties and people still begged him to act again or perhaps produce films. He continued to decline their offers. 

"The actors today are so much better than the ones in our day. I'm amazed at what Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson can do. 

"In my day, our work was incredibly confined because we were so hurt by censorship. We weren't allowed to show any passion. Whether or not the freedom is used wisely is another matter." 




A kiss to end this one.

More to come...

• What if they censored Shakespeare's plays?!
• What did Ed Sullivan say?
• What were the stars' own taboos, No-Nos that were written into their contracts, self-censorship?

Related Pages, Books of Interest:

When is a train more than just a mode of transportation? Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint or William Powell and Myrna Loy could tell you...

Scenes removed by censors, intertitles, subtitles ordered changed

Dirty Business Film Censorship in the Early Days 1900s, 1910s, 1920s

Academy Award winning short films, foreign films

Laurel & Hardy Putting Pants on Philip

Join Amazon Prime (Free Month) Streaming Movies & TV Shipping Discounts and more - Watch Over 40,000 Movies, HBO shows & specials... Wide selection of new/old movies, foreign films and documentaries compared to other streaming video sites and the yearly price is about the same. It's our preference, many old and new TV shows and films are free with membership.

The Dragon Painter DVD 1919 English language silent film stars Sessue Hayakawa and Tsuru Aoki


Sources not cited elsewhere
Cinema News and Property Gazette 1913
Dallas Morning News March 20, 1986
Motion Picture 1921
Motion Picture Classic 1926
Moving Picture World 1918 

Theres a Skeleton in My Love Story

Love Your Local Paleontologist 
 

Madge Kennedy 1920
Between Scenes
The Truth

If you set a love story in an unusual place it will add to the fun. A seemingly mismatched couple heightens the audience's interest. Will they get together or are they just too different? Clips from the 1923 Adam's Rib and the famous 1938 Bringing Up Baby are below.

There were a couple of movies in the early 1920s, Adam's Rib and The Truth, that at least had scenes that took place in natural history museums. 

If you're looking for dinosaur movies, these might not come to mind at first. Have a movie night after a field trip to the museum. When were the remains of a stegosaurus first found? What cool dinosaur facts could you write up to go along with the movies?

The Truth (1920) starred Madge Kennedy, Thomas Carrigan and Frank Doane. It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn. 

Kennedy plays Becky Warder who, like her daddy, tends to tell little white lies. Her fibbing has caught up with her. Her husband has had enough. The movie deals with how she changes her habits and wins back her husband's affections.

In 1923, Cecil B. De Mille released Adam's Rib. One or two DVD sets including this movie may still be available.

This silent movie does not feature Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Their version came out in 1949. 

The 1923 film stars include the young Pauline Garon as Mathilda who is smitten with Elliott Dexter as Nathan Reade, paleontology professor. The plot-line zigs and zags as Mathilda tries to win the love of Dr. Reade but also to help her mother. 

Cecil B. De Mille with Pauline Garon
Between scenes
Adam's Rib 1923

Hansa T-Rex : An awesome learning toy, maybe this is a better option for your family to start with than what Mr. De Mille has above? This company makes some amazing large plush animals.

Mathilda's mom's lost the love of Mathilda's father and falls in love with a king. Will Mathilda find the happiness she desires with Nathan?? Will she or her mother become Queen of Morania or will Mom go back to Dad?

Significant stars of the era are also in the movie. Milton Sills plays Mathilda's father and Anna Q. Nilsson plays her mother. Theodore Kosloff is Monsieur Jaromir, King of Morania. He's said to be the deposed king actually, so I guess no one's becoming queen in that case truth be told.

A short scene from the film has been uploaded onto YouTube. What do you think those dinosaurs are made out of?



I See Bones, Allan Sherman excerpt:
From My Son, The NutI see bones
I see gizzards and bones
And a few kidney stones
Among the lovely bones

I see hips
And fourteen paper clips
Three asparagus tips
Among the lovely bones
I see things in your peritoneum
That belong in the British Museum

I see your spine
And your spine looks divine
It's exactly like mine
Now doesn't that seem strange ....

If you're a fan of the 1938 screwball comedy classic Bringing Up Baby starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, you should also enjoy the silent movie, Adam's Rib.

Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant
in Bringing Up Baby 1938

I love the assortment of Bringing Up Baby posters that are available, especially those from different parts of the world. It doesn't matter that he's already engaged to Miss Swallow. That kind of thing happens a lot in romantic comedies. The question is, how will we free him of the stuffy Miss Swallow so he can hook up with the feisty and fun Miss Susan? He's also on a search for his intercostal clavicle. Things just might turn out okay in the end.




Halloween Maternity shirts, Movie Vampires. They come in all different styles and colors.

October 15th is I Love Lucy Day! The show premiered on October 15, 1951. Lucille Ball was an amazing physical comedienne.

Lucy is also the nickname given to the female Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered in 1974.  They suppose that she walked upright on two legs and estimate that she lived 3.2 million years ago. Her skeletal make-up looks to be somewhere between that of an ape and a human being. Celebrate Lucy today, one or more.

funny MATERNITY, sonogram,x-ray image Maternity Shirt
Browse other Halloween Maternity Shirts
SF Giants fan? Orange and black is available
 

Vamp Wall Hangers, Halloween, Christmas Ornaments
Give as a Prize, giveaway, use as a table setting
Theda Bara was one of the first Film Vampires

Links to Related Pages:

Ricky Ricardo, Famous TV Dads Costume Ideas

Bringing up Cary Grant and The Oscars

10 Great Stunt Women in the 1910s: Read something about Olga Celeste, the animal trainer who worked behind the scenes in the making of Bringing Up Baby

Sources of images
Picture Play Magazine August 1920, January 1923
Publicity Still Bringing Up Baby