Friday, January 10, 2014

Self-Deprecation, Hollywood Style

Linda Darnell, Blood and Sand (1941)


"I can understand his interest in you, especially now when I see how beautiful you are. Perhaps it's my fault. Perhaps if--if I were more beautiful. Better educated and of a better family."  

Jeanne Crain, Letter to Three Wives (1949)



"I'm no raving beauty, heaven knows, but I did want to look my miserable best tonight."

Elizabeth Taylor, Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)


"I want you to know that I can look attractive."

Joan Fontaine, Suspicion (1941)


"I must be quite a novelty in contrast with the women you're usually photographed with."

Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress (1949)


"He thinks I'm pretty! He wants me!"

Judy Garland, A Star is Born (1954)


"My nose is very bad...my eyes are all wrong and my ears are too big and I've got no chin!"

Katharine Hepburn, Holiday (1938) 


 "Looks like me." (Posing with a giraffe)

14 comments:

  1. I've probably heard most of these lines at some point, but hearing them together makes them new again. You never hear men say things like this in the movies. And these are beautiful women. Something is very wrong here!

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    1. I think for me, the tipping point of hilarity/insanity was listening to gorgeous Linda Darnell timidly wish she could be more beautiful for Tyrone Power's sake. Rita Hayworth in the same room or not, that's just crazy talk!

      You make a point about men but I was also pondering how it's so often the ingenues who read these lines. I don't usually see Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis apologizing for their looks. It also happens less in pre-Code films. Myrna Loy, Joan Blondell, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins--they all know they look good and don't apologize for it.

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    2. Yes, Linda Darnell's inferiority complex here verges on the (Hollywood) surreal—in a "good" way. As silly as these lines are, they reflect the dream-state of Hollywood pictures, at once corny and other-worldly in their ethics and standards for everything, including beauty.

      Full disclosure: My father says he fell in love at first sight with my mother because she reminded him of Darnell. I've seen photos of her circa 1950, and he was absolutely correct. So my opinion of her is biased in a (hopefully non-creepy) Oedipal way!

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    3. Congrats, Paul. That is one hell of a genetic jackpot. Linda Darnell is one of those stars whose beauty hits you like a thunderbolt, no question.

      "As silly as these lines are, they reflect the dream-state of Hollywood pictures." True. That's a very eloquent way to put it.

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  2. Hollywood's conception of ugliness is always beauty with a smudge mark!

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    1. Damn straight. And sometimes you can't even find the smudge mark.

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  3. Yikes. Another example that jumps to mind is gorgeous Coleen Gray telling Sterling Hayden, "I'm not pretty and I'm not very smart" in The Killing.

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    1. Oh, damn, I wish I'd remembered that one and put it in my list.You're right, that was completely ludicrous. Maybe if anyone else comes up with more, I'll make an amended list.

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  4. What a great post! I loved all of these -- esp. Taylor's. The one who gave me the willies, though is Garland. I wonder if she was voicing what she was told and perhaps privately believed, as she grew up being told she was no Lana Turner, and Mayer publicly called her, "My Little Hunchback."

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    1. Yeah, I'd been kind of thinking that Taylor would have immunity from such silly nonsense but no. The Garland stuff does feel like very pointed criticism of the way MGM treated anything outside their standard of beauty. Hell, they even give her a parody of the MGM makeover. However, I want to give credit where credit is due and in this case, it's quite obvious that the movie is making fun of narrow standards, not endorsing them.

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  5. A great list of beauties but what struck me was Crain. She really did have unique looks when so many during her time were going red or platinum blonde. Certainly not the prettiest profile on the list but she stands out for her me here. Innocent, girl next door qualities. : )
    I hope the New Year is treating your well so far.
    Page

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    1. Thank you for the kind words, Page. "A great list of beauties..." You caught me. I didn't have any great or high motives with this post, outside of filling my blog with pictures of pretty people and pointing out the silly things they were sometimes made to say. Yes, Crain was definitely striking.

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  6. I think you do sometimes get lines like these from men too - I've just seen 'Kings Go Forth', where Sinatra says "He was born rich and handsome, and I was born poor... and not handsome". And Gary Cooper really seems amazed in 'Ball of Fire' when Barbara Stanwyck tells him he is "tall and pretty". But maybe women were made to say these kinds of things more!

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    1. Good point. Yes, sometimes the men do get these lines. I just have more trouble thinking of those examples. I think the distinction comes down to the fact that good-looking male stars tend to ignore their looks (neither admiring or insulting themselves) and female stars more often apologize for their looks. But I'll admit this was a quick post, not an in-depth study ;).

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