Harrogate Film Society

HFS is proud to present the third Classic Cinema Season (CCS3).

Inspired by the lyrics to Madonna’s classic song Vogue, we decided to base CCS3 on the theme ‘Ladies With Attitude’ selecting four actors referenced in Vogue.
Greta Garbo and Monroe
Dietrich and DiMaggio
Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazine
Grace Kelly, Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen……
……Lauren, Katherine, Lana too
Bette Davis, we love you
Ladies with an attitude
Fellas that were in the mood
Don't just stand there, let's get to it
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it
Vogue!
Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis. These women all have style and attitude. We have chosen four films that showcase not only these Hollywood Icons’ style and grace but their considerable acting talents too.

Queen Christina | 1933 | U | Dir. Rouben Mamoulian | US | 105 mins | IMDb 7.5 | B&W

Our third film in this series is Queen Christina (1933), which is by far the oldest film to be screened in our three Classic Cinema Seasons to date, the whole ‘talking pictures’ revolution having only been in existence for six years by the time of its release.

Greta Garbo’s career had begun during the silent era in her native Sweden. Such was her early success she soon found herself in demand and quickly answered Hollywood’s call. She immediately took ‘Tinseltown’ by storm, becoming an international star in the process.

Her first ‘talkie’ – Anna Christie (1930) – was MGM’s highest-grossing film of the year and, although never in doubt, it announced unequivocally to the world that Garbo had successfully made the transition from silent to sound.

Mata Hari (1931), where she played the notorious exotic dancer and spy, and the Oscar winning Grand Hotel (1932) quickly followed, and were equally successful, both critically and financially.

Garbo had become vital to MGM’s success, and we have our third Lady with Attitude to thank for tonight’s film. After her contract with MGM had expired in 1932, she spent a year back home in Sweden. Such was her power and influence, even within the notorious studio system of the time, she was able to include a condition in her renewed contract that she should play her fellow countrywoman, Queen Christina, in a film MGM had hitherto been reluctant to make – that, and negotiating a staggering salary, for the time, of $300,000 per film.

Queen Christina is based on the titular Swedish monarch who reigned at the height of one of the bloodiest periods in Europe’s history: The Thirty Years War, which started in 1618. The film itself begins in 1632 as the five-year-old Christina is crowned ‘King’ of Sweden after her father, Gustavus Adolphus, was killed on the battlefield. Constantly away at war, he left instructions for his daughter to be brought up as a boy. The Russian born Director, Rouben Mamoulian has some fun with this when the grown-up Christina, out hunting with her ‘valet’, and dressed in manly garb, bumps into the Spanish envoy, Antonio, in a Country Inn. John Gilbert, who frequently co-starred with Garbo and had been her lover in real life, plays Antonio with relish.

We fast forward to 1644 and the end of the ‘Regency Period’, Queen Christina at 18 has now come of age to rule one of the most powerful nations in Europe - a Europe at war. No doubt the film takes liberties with the historical figure, but there are some fundamental truths the narrative holds by. For example, against the wishes of her court advisers, she refuses to marry, and she is far more interested in becoming a patron of the arts and supporting education than continuing to lead her nation in what is becoming a ruinous war.

Interestingly, there are parallels between Queen Christina and Greta Garbo’s lives, which may be why Garbo was so keen on the project. Both women never married and they each voluntarily gave up their thrones: Christina as Queen of Sweden and Garbo as Queen of Hollywood.

With Queen Christina you get so much for your money: period drama, biography and romance. There are wise words, some philosophising from Christina and not a little humour. In one scene The Queen quotes Moliere: “on marriage being an altogether shocking thing. How is it possible to endure the idea of sleeping with a man in the room” and the Spanish Envoy, Antonio in decrying the Swedish weather complains: “You can’t serenade a woman in a snowstorm!”

The whole film revolves around Garbo, who is mesmerizing throughout, gloriously photographed by her regular cinematographer, William Daniels. Like us, I’m sure you can’t wait to see some of the most iconic images of one of Cinema’s greatest ever Stars on the big screen.

HFS is proud to present the third Classic Cinema Season (CCS3).

Inspired by the lyrics to Madonna’s classic song Vogue, we decided to base CCS3 on the theme ‘Ladies With Attitude’ selecting four actors referenced in Vogue.
Greta Garbo and Monroe
Dietrich and DiMaggio
Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazine
Grace Kelly, Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen……
……Lauren, Katherine, Lana too
Bette Davis, we love you
Ladies with an attitude
Fellas that were in the mood
Don't just stand there, let's get to it
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it
Vogue!
Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis. These women all have style and attitude. We have chosen four films that showcase not only these Hollywood Icons’ style and grace but their considerable acting talents too.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes | 1953 | U | Dir. Howard Hawks | US | 91 mins | IMDb 7.1

The final film in our Classic Cinema Season is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), featuring the one and only Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe’s face is of arguably the most recognisable actress of all time. Her fame and global recognition is all the more remarkable considering her untimely death at just 36 years old.

The film is based on a 1949 Broadway musical of the same name, which itself was based on a 1925 comic novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady, by Anita Loos. The book was published the same year as The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald within a trend of books set in the Jazz Age of the 1920s and 30s.
This version of the story is filmed in glorious Technicolor and showcases the comedic and musical talents of both Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Entertainers Lorelei Lee (Monroe) and Dorothy Shaw (Russell) travel to Paris on a transatlantic cruise with a whole set of eligible men, including the US Olympic Team, plus a private investigator, Ernie Malone (Elliot Reid) on their tails. Lorelei and Dorothy’s very different attitudes to love and marriage are a delightful contrast, with the ladies leaving most of the menfolk in their wake in a series of hilarious comedic scenes. The supporting cast including Reid, Charles Coburn and Tommy Noonan are great foils for Monroe and Russell.

Directed by Howard Hawks, one of the greatest American filmmakers, who helmed such classic films as Scarface (1932), El Dorado (1966), Rio Bravo (1959), The Big Sleep (1946), and To Have and Have Not (1944). He is famous for portrayals of strong female characters, known as “Hawksian women”. Hawks never won an Oscar for his films, receiving an Honorary Academy Award in 1975.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes includes classic musical numbers “Two Little Girls from Little Rock”, “Ain’t There Anyone Here For Love?”and, of course, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”. Most of the songs were taken from the original stage musical, written by Jule Styne and Leo Robin, with new songs for the film by Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Adamson and others. The musical numbers are choreographed to wonderful effect by Jack Cole.

Monroe’s performance of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” in her iconic pink dress and adornments has inspired many a homage, including Madonna’s “Material Girl” video - another link to our Ladies with Attitude theme for CCS3.

The film gave Monroe and Russell top-billing, with no male actors headlining, and established Monroe as Hollywood’s biggest female star of the time. However, this is not just Monroe’s film, with Russell more than holding her own, and the two leads working in harmony. In fact, one of the highlights of the film is Russell’s impersonation of Monroe’s character in the French court scene.

So two Ladies with Attitude for the price of one in the final film of our Classic Cinema season!