And so, farewell then Miss Ann Blyth, who has pouted her way off to Fabulon, at the ripe old age of 98. [To be honest, I didn't even realise she was still alive...]
Despite making dozens of films, starring alongside the likes of Robert Montgomery, Burt Lancaster, Claudette Colbert, Tyrone Power, Gregory Peck, and Mario Lanza (in The Great Caruso...
...there really was only one role for which she gained screen immortality, as the scheming-bitch-daughter-from-hell "Veda" in one of the campest films of the 1940s - Mildred Pierce!
Delicious!
RIP, Ann Blyth (born Anne Marie Blythe, 16th August 1927 – 24th June 2026)
FOOTNOTE: Anyone else reckon she's the spitting image of our very own not-yet-a-Dame Sophie Ellis-Bextor in that second photo? Spooky.
Yeah, know when to lie, Veda.
ReplyDeleteCrikey, Ann got to slap Joan Crawford!
Yesterday I was thinking about things that make me happy and I recalled all the old black and white films I used to watch when I was growing up - didn't there used to always be a matinee on at the weekend on BBC1 or 2? I decided that I would revisit some of these films - I will put Mildred Pierce on my list!
Sx
Apparently Miss Crawford and Miss Blyth were close friends in real life, but both such great actresses that the venom was palpable in this film. Joan won an Oscar for it, and Ann was nominated.
DeleteAh, yes the "Sunday ironing films". We used to call them that because my mother always did the ironing when they were on. More melodramas than you could shake a stick at! Apart from over the Xmas season, I'm not sure Aunty Beeb (or any terrestrial channel) shows them any more. [Not that "terrestrial TV" has much meaning these days as it's just about all digital - and we have just waved bye bye to Radio 4 Longwave, so that's another analogue transmitter shut down]. Jx
See my comment re: Mel Brooks on your other blog
ReplyDelete?? Jx
DeleteVeda has convinced me that alligators have the right idea: they eat their young."
ReplyDeleteone of my fave films of all time
It's is a fabulously outrageous melodrama - love it! Jx
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