PHOTOS OF THE DAY: A NEW YEAR WITH CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Hard to believe it is another year! It does not seem right that it is 2016! One thing that does not change with each year is our love of classic movies. Here are some pictures of the classic stars celebrating the New Year...

Dorothy Lamour

Bette Davis

Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, and Jimmy Stewart

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

Betty Hutton

Shirley Temple

BORN ON THIS DAY: VAN HEFLIN

One of the most durable actors from Hollywood's classic era was the great Van Heflin. I think he hardly turned in a bad role. Van Heflin would be 103 years young today! Heflin was born Emmett Evan Heflin, Jr. in Walters, Oklahoma on December 13, 1910, the son of Fanny Bleecker (née Shippey) and Dr. Emmett Evan Heflin, a dentist. Heflin attended Classen High School in Oklahoma City and the University of Oklahoma, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Heflin began his acting career on Broadway in the early 1930s before being signed to a contract by RKO Radio Pictures.

He made his film debut in A Woman Rebels (1936), opposite Katharine Hepburn. He was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was initially cast in supporting roles in films such as Santa Fe Trail (1940), and Johnny Eager (1942), winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter performance. MGM began to groom him as a leading man in B movies, and provided him with supporting roles in more prestigious productions. Heflin continued to hone his acting skills throughout the early 1940s. He provided a compelling characterization of the embattled President Andrew Johnson in Tennessee Johnson (1942), playing opposite (and at odds with) Lionel Barrymore who, in the role of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, failed to have Johnson convicted in an impeachment trial by the slimmest of margins.

Heflin served during World War II as a combat cameraman in the Ninth Air Force in Europe and with the First Motion Picture Unit. Heflin also performed on stage throughout his acting career. His greatest roles on Broadway were playing Macaulay Connor opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Booth in The Philadelphia Story, which ran for 417 performances from 1939-1940, and the Arthur Miller plays A Memory of Two Mondays (as Larry) and A View From the Bridge (as Eddie). His best-known film became the 1953 classic western Shane, in which he co-starred with Alan Ladd. Among his other notable film credits are Presenting Lily Mars (1943), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Possessed (1947), Green Dolphin Street (1947), Act of Violence (1948), The Three Musketeers (1948), The Prowler (1951) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957).

Heflin appeared in a short but dramatic role as an eyewitness of Jesus' raising of Lazarus from death in the 1965 Bible movie, The Greatest Story Ever Told. After seeing the miracle he ran from Bethany to the walls of Jerusalem and proclaimed to the guards at the top of the wall that Jesus was the Messiah. Heflin's last major role was in Airport (1970). He played "D. O. Guerrero", a failure who schemes to blow himself up on an airliner so that his wife (played by Maureen Stapleton) can collect on a life insurance policy. Heflin has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his contributions to motion pictures at 6309 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard.

On July 6, 1971, Heflin had a heart attack while swimming in his pool. He reached the ladder where he managed to hang on unconscious for hours until he was found. He then lay unconscious for days, apparently never regaining consciousness. Van Heflin died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital on July 23, 1971, aged 60. He had left instructions forbidding a public funeral. Instead, his cremated remains were scattered in the ocean...

MOVIE REVIEW: POSSESSED

To the average movie watcher today, Joan Crawford is simply the subject of a campy movie about an abusive mother. To see the real Crawford acting is much different that seeing the Faye Dunaway version of Joan Crawford. Crawford was an excellent actress who is often overlooked by Hollywood. The years have not been kind to her memory. A good example of great Joan Crawford acting is the movie Possessed.

Possessed is a 1947 Warner Bros. film starring Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, and Raymond Massey in a tale about an unstable woman's obsession with her ex-lover. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Silvia Richards was based upon a story by Rita Weiman. The film was directed by Curtis Bernhardt and produced by Jerry Wald. Joan Crawford was nominated of an Oscar for her superb acting in the film.

Louise Howell (Crawford) is an emotionally unstable woman working as a nurse to the invalid wife of Dean Graham (played by Raymond Massey) in the Graham home. Louise is in love with neighbor David Sutton (played by the underrated Van Heflin), an engineer, who loathes her smothering obsession with him; he ends the relationship and leaves the area to Louise's great hurt. Shortly after, Graham's wife drowns. Louise remains in the home to care for the two Graham children: young Wynn and college-age Carol.



Time passes and David re-enters the scene, having taken an engineering job with Graham. He is surprised to find Louise with the family. Louise — still obsessed with David — makes a pass and is rebuffed. Moments later, Graham proposes to Louise and she accepts to salvage her pride.

Carol takes a fancy to David, much to the consternation of Louise, who tries to dissuade Carol from establishing a relationship with him. Louise's mind begins to decline with her obsession over David; she hears voices, has hallucinations, and believes her husband's first wife is still alive.

When David and Carol consider marriage, Louise tries to end their relationship. Graham is concerned about Louise's mental state and tries to persuade her to see a doctor. Believing her husband, David, and Carol are all against her and trying to put her away, Louise bursts into David's apartment and kills him in a schizophrenic episode.



The psychiatrist to whom Louise has recounted her story pronounces her insane and not responsible for her actions. He laments that he had not seen her sooner, as he is sure that if he had, the tragedy could have been avoided. He tells Graham that he intends to help Louise back to sanity, though the process will be long and arduous, with much pain and suffering in store for her. Graham pledges his full support and vows that he always be there for her, no matter how difficult it becomes.

Crawford spent time visiting mental wards and talking to psychiatrists to prepare for her role, and said the part was the most difficult but most rewarding she ever played.

During production director Curtis Bernhardt accidentally kept referring to Crawford as "Bette" as he had just finished filming A Stolen Life with Bette Davis. Crawford tried unsuccessfully to convince Warner Bros. to change the film's title to The Secret since she had already starred in a film by the same name earlier in her career. Even though Joan Crawford is not my favorite actress, this movie showed she had range and was not just some tabloid Mommie Dearest...

MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

MOVIE TRAILER: POSSESSED

Easily one of Joan Crawford's best performances, POSSESSED(1947), was a great tale of insanity and murder. Also in the cast was Van Helflin and Raymond Massey. I highly recommend this film, and I am not a huge Crawford fan either...