The Broadway mirage was gone. I woke up to the truth, and decided to try to be a Hollywood star. You have such advantages. But she was back at her "bad girl" best in Born to Kill , her fifth film noir entry, delivering a hardbitten performance of a depraved woman driven by passions that she is powerless to withstand.
Claire Trevor (1910-2000)
Described as a "homicidal drama strictly for the adult trade" and a "sexy, suggestive yarn of crime with punishment," Born to Kill tells the doomed story of Helen Trent and Sam Wild Lawrence Tierney , who meet on a train platform on their way to San Francisco. I particularly appreciated her patience and understanding in working with Lawrence Tierney, who tended to be a bit unstable at times.
Claire and I always hoped to work together again but the right project never came along. Hailed by one critic as a "well-performed and exceptionally well photographed rough and tumble melodrama," Raw Deal met with favorable notices upon its release and Trevor earned praise in Variety for her "first-rate interpretation of a gangster moll, maintaining a steady sense of strain without going to pieces.
I mean, they shared the sea, the kids, parties, travel.
On their last boat they must have traveled 50, miles. Milton used to say that Claire was the most intellectual person he ever met. In her last film noir, Key Largo , she played the alcoholic former moll, ex-nightclub singer Gaye Dawn, of a vicious hoodlum, Johnny Rocco Edward G. One of the dramatically strongest scenes in Key Largo occurs when Gaye is forced by Rocco to sing a song a capella before he will allow her to have a drink. Trevor was nervous about the scene. She was given her starting note from a piano, and, in front of the rest of the cast and the crew, sang the song.
It was this raw take that was used in the film. In Trevor played yet another hard-boiled saloon keeper with a heart of gold in Man Without a Star , followed by the wise-cracking pal of the title character in Lucy Gallant. But in her sole film of , Trevor appeared in a real clunker, The Mountain , which starred Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner as two brothers feuding over the loot contained in a downed airplane.
Years later, Trevor would leave no doubts as to her impressions of this film, describing it as "a horrible picture. Oh, God, that was a terrible picture! Robert Wagner … looked like he was 12 years old and Spence had already gotten heavy and old-looking. The latter film would be her last appearance on the big screen for nearly 20 years. Instead, she was seen in numerous roles on television, including appearances on Ford Theatre, G. The critics killed the picture. Why did they take the axes and slaughter it?
Total Pageviews
I thought it was a darling picture. You need imagination for both. Painting is a lot cheaper than going to a psychiatrist. Trevor died as a result of respiratory failure on April 8, , a month after her 90th birthday.
Why would Amazon say it has pages, when it is actually a very small book. I'm keeping it but, somehow, I feel cheated. Get to Know Us. Delivery and Returns see our delivery rates and policies thinking of returning an item? See our Returns Policy. Visit our Help Pages.
Audible Download Audio Books. Bathroom Readers' Hysterical Society. I Loved Her in the Movies. Can I Go Now? Fasten Your Seat Belts. The Frank Sinatra Quiz Book. The Devil's Guide to Hollywood. Into the Dark Turner Classic Movies.
Join Kobo & start eReading today
Dames, Dolls and Delinquents. The Golden Age of Hollywood Movies Vol V, Humphrey Bogart. A City Comes Out. At Last, A Memoir. The Very Witching Time of Night.
cineCollage :: Claire Trevor
Hollywood at Your Feet. Unsung Hollywood Musicals of the Golden Era. Conversations with Classic Film Stars. Incorrect Entertainment or Trash from the Past. The Films of Randolph Scott.
James Cagney Films of the s.