New Mildred Pierce

Are we the last people in the country to hear about the new Mildred Pierce made-for-tv movie with Kate Winslet? We found out about it by accident: while researching something totally different, came across a picture of Miss Winslet in a cute, decidedly ‘30s frock (above) and did a double take! It’s still being filmed now, and slated to air on HBO later this year as a mini-series.

While it’s based on the same source material as the classic 1945 film starring Joan Crawford, it does not appear that the current project could accurately be described as a “remake” of that film. James M. Cain’s grim and rather sordid 1941 novel is set in the 1930s-early '40s and is as much a story of the Depression as anything else. Nothing really dramatic happens.

The film noir aspects of Mildred Pierce were added by Hollywood. This was Crawford’s first film for Warner’s, having been forced to leave Metro, and she won an Oscar If adhering more closely to the original book as they apparently are, the new tv-Mildred will probably remind us more of the 1934 film Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers than Mildred. We will have to wait and see. It looks like they’re doing a good job with the sets and clothing, anyway.

Hey, the front of that Model A looks very familiar...

More costumes from the film

James M. Cain's story spans a number of years, from pre-Repeal days into the late '30s-early '40s

Top: extras hamming it up on the set? Lower: Evan Rachel Wood, whom we admit we've never heard of before, plays Veda, the eldest Pierce daughter (fated to get slapped no matter which source material they're using).

One last note: In doing "research" for this post, we saw Joan Crawford being derided repeatedly for her supposed “middle aged” appearance in Mildred Pierce. We wish we could direct their attention to this still, from the beach house scene: underneath those shoulder pads, Joan retained an enviable trim dancer’s figure. Picture, and many more, from our favorite site for all things Joan, The Best of Everything: A Joan Crawford Encyclopedia.

Aviatrix Style in Life and Fiction

In the 1920s and ‘30s, women aviatrixes made headlines and were greatly admired – for their pioneering efforts in a field that was still new, even for men; for their bravery and dare-devilry; and for their dash and style. These ladies were so glamorous, there was not much even Hollywood could do to improve on them. We only mention a few; there were many others. A reading list follows.

Below: Amelia with her trademark pearls

Hillary Swank plays Miss Earhart in the 2009 movie Amelia.

Amy Johnson, above, flew solo from England to Austrailia in 1930. Her insouciance and remarks to the press about having to powder her nose mid-flight, and the fact that she always flew with a tennis racket and an evening gown, endeared her to the Mayfair smart set. She and her playboy husband, Jim Mollison, were known as “The Flying Sweathearts” (until they divorced). Her plane went down (over the Thames Estuary) in 1941, and her body was never found.

Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes, who grew up a privileged child in Pasadena, California, began training horses and flying stunt planes for Hollywood in the 1920s (she worked with Howard Hughes on Hell’s Angels). She operated a notorious nightclub in the Mojave Desert, The Happy Bottom Riding Club.

Pancho Barnes (left) and Amelia Earhart (center) along with other ladies of aviation. Image: U.S. Cenntennial of Flight Commmission.

Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman, from the segregated American south, had to overcome racial as well as gender barriers to become a flyer. Nicknamed “Queen Bess” and “Brave Bess,” she earned her pilot’s license in France in 1921, a time when it was still considered daring just to ride in a plane, much less fly one. She thrilled crowds when performing at “barnstormer” air show events. Tragically, she was killed preparing for one in 1926. Image below: L.A. Public Library Digital Photo Collection.

The Flying Ace (1926) features actress Kathryn Boyd as a "female daredevil" pilot. The character is based on Coleman. This rarity will be screened at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, July 17, 2010.

From Indiana University’s Black Film Center Archives:

"The Flying Ace, released in 1926, starred Lawrence Criner and Kathryn Boyd, two established Black actors. Criner played a World War I fighter pilot who returns home a hero. Peg Reynolds was Criner's side kick and together they rescue Boyd and her father from railroad thieves. The film played off the headlines of "colored aviators" including Bessie Coleman who wanted Norman to make a picture about her stunt flying exploits. Unfortunately she was killed in a plane crash before Norman released The Flying Ace. Ace boasted death defying feats in "the greatest airplane thriller ever filmed, but in reality, Norman shot all the airplane scenes with the plane on the ground. Even so, the film was a sensation and grossed close to $20,000 through Norman's distribution efforts."

Above and below: the beautiful Beryl Markham. Raised in East Africa, she became an bush pilot, and in September 1936 was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. In addition to her flying, she is famous for her affair with Denys Fitch Hatton.

Dust jacket art for Wings of Love, the Love Story of a Girl Aviator (1934).

Above: Myrna Loy as an aviatrix in Wings in the Dark (1935) with Cary Grant, now on DVD. Below, Myrna's pants from the movie, below were up for auction .


Will the real aviatrix please stand up? (or sit down?): Myrna, Cary, and Amelia Earhart, probably around the time of Wings in the Dark. Image from the Happy Thoughts Darling film blog.

Above: Breaking cultural and gender barriers was Katherine Sui Fun Cheung, the first Chinese-American woman to be a licenced pilot (1932), who was inevitably called "The Chinese Amelia Earhart."

Below, Lee Ya-Ching, "China's First Lady of the Air" in 1939, the year she played herself (more or less) in Frank Borzage's film Disputed Passage. The gorgeous aviatrix was a natural for Hollywood, having been a silent film star in China already, but she was actually in the U.S.A. on a mission of mercy - seeking assistance for Chinese refugees.

Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran, a contemporary of Amelia Earhart. The subtitle of her autobiography, Jackie Cochran: the Autobiography of the Greatest Woman Pilot in Aviation History gives you an idea of her ego (recent publications have shortened it to simply "An Autobiography'), but it is not without basis: she set women's speed records and established (and commanded) the Women's Airforce Service Pilots during World War II. She also created a cosmetics company with the motto "Wings to Beauty."


Kay Francis (above with Sheila Bromley) as an aviatrix competing in a women's air derby in Women in the Wind (1939), her last picture for Warner's. Image from the Kay Francis blog. Kay does a fine job with the material she's given. Cast member Eve Arden mentions this film in her autobiography, referring to a scene in which her plane nosedives and goes down in flames. When the camera cuts to a close up of Eve being carried off the field, her makeup is perfect, not a hair out of place. "The audience howled,' she remembers. The film was based on a book by Francis Walton. "Powder Puff Derbies" were very popular.

Real-life champion air racer Louise Thaden. From the website Breaking Through the Clouds - visit them to see more photos and information about the first women's national air race.

Above: Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Though overshadowed as Wife of Charles, Anne (born Anne Spencer Morrow) was an aviatrix in her own right, as well as the author of several non-fiction books and novels. Her North to the Orient, for example (1935) is an account of the couple's flight to the Orient in 1931, for which she served as co-pilot and navigtor.

If you can't do a floor show, do an air show! Ladies on the wing in Flying Down to Rio (1933).

Phryne Fisher, she of the Dutch-doll bob in Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mystery series (set in 1928), shows off her flying skills in the series' second installment, Flying Too High (2007 edition).

Katherine Hepburn plays a famous aviatrix in Christopher Strong (1933), based on the novel by Gilbert Frankau. The slender Hepburn looked great in her flying clothes, but her most memorable costume from this film (from any film) is the infamous silver moth get-up. In real life, Miss Hepburn learned how to fly from one of the best: her beau, aviator Howard Hughes.

Flora (Kate Beckinsale) gets set to go flying in Cold Comfort Farm (1995). Stella Gibbons’ 1932 novel is set in the “near future” when, apparently, planes would be as common as automobiles.

For Further Reading, a selected bibliography:

Amelia Earhart:

The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart by Mary S. Lovell.

The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation. By Amelia Earhart.

East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart by Susan Butler.


Amy Johnson:

Amy Johnson by Constance Babington Smith

Amy Johnson, Queen of the Air by Midge Gillies.

Sky Roads of the World: Amy Johnson’s Story About Her Adventurous Flying Career by Amy Johnson.


Anne Morrow Lindbergh:

Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life by Susan Hertog.


Beryl Markham:

West with the Night by Beryl Markham

Straight on Till Morning: A Biography of Beryl Markham by Mary S. Lovell.


Bessie Coleman:

Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator by Doris L. Rich.


Jacqueline Cochran:

Jackie Cochran: An Autobiography by Jacqueline Cochran, with Maryann Bucknum Brinley.

Jackie Cochran: Pilot in the Fast Lane by Doris L. Rich.

Jacqueline Cochran: First Lady of Flight by Marquita O. Fisher.


Lee Ya-Ching and Katherine Sui Fun Cheung:

Sisters of Heaven: China’s Barnstorming Aviatrixes: Modernity, Feminism and Popular Imagination in Asia and the West by Patti Gully.


Louise Thaden:

High, Wide and Frightened by Louise M. Thaden.


Pancho Barnes

The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes by Lauren Kessler.


General:

Power Puff Derby: Petticoat Pilots and Flying Flappers by Mike Walker.

The Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The True Story of the First Women’s Cross Country Air Race by Gene Nora Jesson.

Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation by Eileen F. Lebow.

Cold Comfort Farm

"When I am 53, I hope to write a novel as good as Persuasion, but in a modern setting."

-Flora Poste in Cold Comfort Farm

The 1995 movie with Kate Beckinsale is a favorite around here, as is the 1932 Stella Gibbons novel. We’ve read the book and watched this movie so many times it’s silly. As Flora Poste, Miss Beckinsale gets to wear some lovely period outfits – smart little dresses for Town, evening gowns for nightclubbing, and lots of sturdy woolens, tweed, and - sigh! - knitwear for Country.

These lovely screencaps are from a Kate Beckinsale fansite, http://kate-b.net/2010/02/07/cold-comfort-farm-screencaps. There are MANY more where these came from - if you’ve ever obsessed over one of Flora’s outfits, and want to see it from every possible angle (um… not that we know anyone who would do that…), they probably have what you're looking for.

**Spoiler warning though – if you haven’t seen the film, these pictures may give away some of the action.***

Arrival, in a cloche.

Tea with Mrs. Smiling, who, as played with her usual fabulousness by Joanna Lumley, is one of our role models.

Mrs Smiling: "Of course you may stay here as long as you like. But I expect you should want to find some work to earn enough for a flat of your own. "

Flora: "Work! What kind of work? "

Mrs. Smiling: "Oh, it's been ages since I've done any, but there must be something that would do... bookkeeping... beekeeping..."

Sophisticated nightclub style.


Flora's straight hair is finger waved for the evening. Some great hairstyles go dancing by in this scene - case in point: the woman in green between Flora and Charles.

"Well,' said Mrs Smiling, 'it sounds an appalling place, but in a different way from all the others. I mean, it does sound interesting and appalling, while the others just sound appalling."

-Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

Off to C.C.F. in a wonderful suit and a odd little knit cap.



The skirt from the suit worn with a vest and darling blouse.



Walking in the hills outfit.

Love this top. The gray skirt will be seen again soon.

Tea in the village. Linen duster over another cute little blouse.

This is adorable.

Mrs. Smiling's advice:

"It's bad to be dewy-eyed around smart people, but you can always secretly despise them."

"Amusing or diverting, my dear, not... *such fun*"

There's the gray skirt... with a knit top to die for.

This embroidered gardening apron is SO cute...

Chanel-esque dress with black touches.

Closer look at The Hat and crocheted gloves.

And, the suit again, perfect for travel.