Semi OT - The Bennetts

[Patti Feinberg]

I don't believe I'd ever heard of Constance Bennett before these boards. (Perhaps I did, but never connected w/Joan.)

Did C.B have a usual 'genre' of films she appeared in?

Could some people name, what in their opinion, what 3-4 are CB's best pictures?

I don't suppose Constance & Joan were ever in the same film....?

Also.....do I remember someone mentioning a brother within the industry?

Thanks,

Patti

[Gerard]

Patti, check your library to see if there's a book that came out in the seventies named The Bennett Playbill.  It's a biography of the Bennett family; a fascinating read.  I actually checked it out back then and read it because of DS.  Lots and lots of great info!  Of course, Joan's starring role in DS is covered.

Gerard

[Gothick]

Constance was sheer delight in human form.  I love her in OUR BETTERS. I do not know if it is available or not on DVD.  One of her best known roles was in the original film of TOPPER.  And I think she had the lead in WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD ('33), a great performance from her.

G.

[Uncle Roger]

Constance Bennett was a very sophisticated, versatile performer. She managed to steal Two Faced Woman from Greta Garbo, which was no small achievement. She returned to films after a long absence to play Lana Turner's mother in law in a remake of Madame X.
No brother but Joan and Constance did have a sister named Barbara, who was briefly an actress. Barbara's son was Morton Downey, Jr., who was kind of the Jerry Springer of the time.

[Patti Feinberg]

OMG, Joan Bennett was Morton Downey's Aunt???!!! Wooooo?(^%%

Also, you mentioned Lana Turner's 'remake' of Madame X. (Who was the original?) I've seen Madame X a couple/few times, don't really remember the mother character.

And....taking a roll from Greta Garbo! Whoa Nelly!

Thanks for the info!!

Patti

[Patti Feinberg]

Constance was sheer delight in human form.  I love her in OUR BETTERS. I do not know if it is available or not on DVD.

Go for it.....put Our Betters in Amazon.....lots of A. Lincoln stuff (and, it doesn't say angels of our better nature), which, BTW, I'd never heard of before MsCrysed; also, alot on the war of northern aggression (for those not from the south, aka Civil War), better sex. No Our Betters. I see it on IMDb, but not Amazon.

Patti

[Midnite]

No Our Betters. I see it on IMDb, but not Amazon.

Two of Amazon's search suggestions when you enter the title are "Our Betters 1933" and "Our Betters 1933 DVD".  Either brings up the movie on DVD, but it's Region 2-- not a US version.

[Gothick]

Just FYI, OUR BETTERS has nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln.  That's rather amusing.  It's a sophisticated early 1930s society comedy in which Constance plays a sexually vivacious older woman dealing with a daughter whose concept of morality is of the "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" variety.  Grayson was actually in a revival of the play at the Yale Drama School theatre in the early 1950s--that was how she met Sam.  He was a student there.

OUR BETTERS is mainly remembered now for the final sequence in which a flamboyantly queenly male tango authority shows up at the manor and frivolity erupts.  Vito Russo used to show this in his lectures that led to the CELLULOID CLOSET.

The original film of MADAME X was also early 1930s... maybe with Helen Hayes?  Can't recall.

G.

[dom]

Ruth Chatterton 1927, Gladys George 1937 (am I dating myself? Lol)

[Uncle Roger]

There are several silent versions as well as 1980's Movie of the Week with Tuesday Weld, who is quite good as Madame X.

Gothick, Helen Hayes did an early talkie in 1931 called The Sin of Madelon Claudet, that is very similar in content. It has Robert Young as the male ingenue and Neil Hamilton as a romantic lead. Yes, Commissioner Gordon. Holy offbeat casting!