Mildred Pierce (1945) on TCM!

It's that time again -- Mildred Pierce (1945) on Turner Classic Movies today at 4 p.m. ET. Have a look here at my post on the Oscar award Joan Crawford won for this role on my Another Old Movie Blog here, and for more on Ann's experience in this movie, see my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.

Ann Blyth Borrows Joan Crawford's Oscar

Ann Blyth once confiscated Joan Crawford's Oscar award for a scavenger hunt.

Above, we have a photo of Ann congratulating Joan for her Best Actress win when director Michael Curtiz, Ann, other movie friends and a lot of press brought the statue to Joan's sickbed (as she claimed to have missed the ceremony due to illness) to celebrate.

With the Academy Awards fast approaching, let's take a moment for a footnote in the glamourous careers of Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth -- for a nutty and classy episode of their friendship.  As reported in Photoplay magazine in April 1949, Ann recalled for friends who hoped she would win an Oscar one day that she already had one, for an evening, at least.

"Her task in a Scavenger Hunt had been to bring back Joan Crawford's Oscar won for 'Mildred Pierce.'  And since Ann had played Joan's daughter in that film, the star handed over the Oscar, assuring Ann that no one else in the world could pry it away from her.

'And I was so afraid something would happen to it, I kept it beside me on the pillow all night."

Candlelight and love songs - Ann Blyth and Robert Mitchum

Today we celebrate Valentine's Day with a lovely scene between Ann Blyth and Robert Mitchum singing love songs to each other in One Minute to Zero (1952).

From my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:

Their most intriguing scene together, however, is playing sitting opposite each other at a kitchen table after she has made supper for him at her apartment in Japan, their first date.  The candles burn down, and both, slightly slumped over the table, he with his chin on his hand, give the impression of being all talked out.  A soothing, lazy tune, in a delicately Asian style, penetrates their silence, coming, we are told in a quick camera shot from a record on a portable record player.  Suddenly, Robert Mitchum begins to sing along to the tune, in Japanese.  Catch Ann’s expression of surprised delight.  She is glued to his face, watching him sing, fascinated by him.  It opens the door to their romance.  She sees there is more to him than just a blustering alpha male dismissive of her opinions on the war...

As Robert Mitchum lazily smokes a cigarette (his trademark sleepy performance punctuates pretty nearly everything he does in this movie), he coaxes Ann, who confesses she knows only the English words to that tune, to sing.  So now it’s her turn at bat, and Ann sings an English verse of “Golden Moon.”  It is low, quiet, and lovely, and the really tender aspect about this scene is that they both appear to be singing “live.”  It does not appear they’re lip-syncing to a pre-recorded track.  It’s easier to keep the flow of singing and dialogue in this quiet, moody setting by having them do it live.  What we get is a very casual, natural, and intimate moment.

Here is that moment, from a clip on YouTube.  Happy Valentine's Day...

The Great Caruso on TCM!

Ann Blyth plays the wife and number one fan of The Great Caruso (1951), which you can see tomorrow, Thursday the 8th, on Turner Classic Movies at 3:45 p.m. ET.  This lavish musical also stars Mario Lanza as Caruso, and features the wonderful Dorothy Kirsten and beautiful selections from several operas.  For more on The Great Caruso, see this blog post at my Another Old Movie Blog, or my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.