Tyrone Power | Hollywood Yesterday

BOTD in 1892 in Johannesburg, South Africa: The Wonderful Basil Rathbone

June 13, 2021 By Joi Leave a Comment

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, The Woman in Green

The question “Who is your all-time favorite Sherlock Holmes” is a question that often comes up on “film Twitter.” This question is asked nearly as often as “Who is your favorite Bond?” While I struggle to answer only one Bond (I have three favorites), my favorite Sherlock is never in doubt… Basil Rathbone.

Sure, I love each actor who has stepped into the role (radio, tv, or film) BUT there’s something about Basil Rathbone’s performance that, to me, is simply perfect. It’s one of those actor/actress and character combinations that make you believe they were born to play the role.

You’ll never convince me otherwise!

Basil Rathbone, The Adventures of Robin Hood

Naturally, while this is one of his more famous roles, Basil Rathbone starred in quite a few extraordinary movies. In fact, he appeared in THREE films that were selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant:

All three are exceptional movies and he adds a GREAT deal to each. Each link above leads to that movie on Prime Video.

“Never regret anything you have done with a sincere affection; nothing is lost that is born of the heart.” ~ Basil Rathbone

Danny Kaye and Basil Rathbone

Linda Darnell and Tyrone Power, Blood and Sand

April 18, 2021 By Joi Leave a Comment

Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell

When I first saw Blood and Sand (1941) – many years ago – I did so as a huge fan Rita Hayworth and Tyrone Power. They were two of my favorites, so I was on an obsessive mission to see everything they’d made. When I saw they had a movie together, I couldn’t wait to find it and dive right in.

Funny thing happened, though… I spent the entire movie yelling at her and most of it rolling my eyes at him! I also came away with an actress who then joined Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth on my list of favorites, Linda Darnell. While I spent the movie hating on THEM, I spent it loving her. All I wanted was for her to slap the redhead and throw him and his wandering eye off a cliff!

If you’ve seen the movie, you know that it was the characters Tyrone and Rita played that brought about such a reaction… certainly not the stars, themselves.

It’s funny, how often does old Hollywood cast beautiful actresses in roles of an “unattractive” sister or plain Jane who can’t hold on to her guy… Olivia de Havilland, in The Strawberry Blonde, for example. She was as beautiful as anyone, yet we were supposed to believe she wouldn’t immediately catch James Cagney’s eye… as if!

Blood and Sand asks A LOT of its viewers when it asks us to accept Linda Darnell as a woman who couldn’t keep her guy from wandering. I mean… come on, look at her!

How did the casting department think, “We need a meek, mild… you know, plain… woman in this role as the one who is cast aside…. hmmm… I know! Linda Darnell!”

Seriously?!

Again. LOOK AT HER!

Linda Darnell, in my opinion (and, remember this is coming from as big a Rita Hayworth fan as you’ll ever find and a darn huge Tyrone Power fan) steals the movie. Her acting is perfection and she creates a character you feel deep empathy for. She’s stunning, in every way, in this film. She is, I’d go on to say, the number one reason to watch the movie. She isn’t on screen as much as the other two stars, but she steals not only their scenes but (as I said) the movie, itself.

You can find Blood and Sand on dvd (Amazon link). I’m kind of surprised it isn’t on Prime Video yet.

Beautiful Linda Darnell

Maureen O’Hara and Tyrone Power, The Black Swan (Stunning Publicity Photo)

January 30, 2021 By Joi Leave a Comment

Maureen O’Hara and Tyrone Power

The Black Swan (1942, directed by Henry King) is one of my favorite Swashbuckler movies. While it helps that it stars my beloved Maureen O’Hara, I also really love the story, the beautiful, lush technicolor, and the wonderful cast. Tyrone Power is Maureen’s wonderful leading man in this action adventure and their chemistry is perfection.

George Sanders, Anthony Quinn, Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell, and George Zucco round out the cast.

You can find The Black Swan on dvd (Amazon link) or watch it on Prime Video.

Maureen O’Hara, The Black Swan

The Black Swan, Starring Maureen O’Hara, Tyrone Power, and George Sanders

August 28, 2020 By Joi Leave a Comment

George Sanders, Maureen O’Hara, and Tyrone Power in The Black Swan

The Black Swan (19420 was directed by Henry King and starred Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, Laird Cregar, Anthony Quinn, and George Zucco.

What a cast!

Three of the cast-members in The Black Swan were Supporting Actor Oscar winners during their careers:

Thomas Mitchell, Stagecoach (1939)
George Sanders, All About Eve (1950)
Anthony Quinn, Viva Zapata! (1952) AND Lust for Life (1956)

In addition to these three well-deserved acknowledgments of greatness, I could personally list multiple films where the other cast members were deserving of nominations and wins. Suffice to say the cast was an embarrassment of riches!

The Black Swan Movie Poster

To help the WWII war effort, the actors tried hard to keep the number of takes as low as possible, to conserve film. Roughly 30 of the scenes were done in one take. That is pretty mind-boggling when you think about it -even with such an outstanding cast.

The Queen of Technicolor Looking as Beautiful as Ever

If you’ve never seen this wonderfully colorful and fun film, I hope you’ll check it out soon. Great distraction from the world around us which seems to have jumped the shark.

Watch The Black Swan on Amazon Prime…