The Mystery of the Chameleon Scarf

06/30/201906/30/2019 cladriteLeave a comment

There’s a certain kind of movie buff who lives to discover minor continuity foul-ups in motion pictures. Is Carole Lombard‘s cigarette ash now a quarter-inch long when it was half an inch just a moment ago? Is William Powell‘s martini glass now full when it was nearly empty in the last shot?

Some film fans rush right to IMDb.com to register these flubs as soon as they spot them, but to be honest, we find this particular hobby of little interest and are happy to leave it to those who enjoy it.

But every now and then, even we spot an incongruity that warrants a raised eyebrow and presents a mystery to be solved. Watch the video below for just such a cinematic puzzle, this one discovered in the 1948 Bette Davis picture, W inter Meeting.

Happy 75th Anniversary, Casablanca!

11/26/201711/25/2017 cladriteLeave a comment

It’s a tough choice, but if asked to name our favorite motion picture of all time, we’d have to say it’s Casablanca, which premiered 75 years ago today in New York City. (You can still visit the theatre where it debuted, but you’ll have to watch the video to learn more about that.)

We rewatched the “La Marseillaise” scene recently, in which a passionate rendition of the French national anthem gives the patrons of Rick’s Cafe Americain a small but satisfying victory over Maj. Strasser and his Nazi henchmen, and though we’ve seen this wonderful movie easily a dozen times (probably closer to two dozen), that scene still gave us chills.

Here are 16 things you should know about Casablanca, the official movie of Cladrite Radio…

Happy 92nd Birthday, Jane Greer!

09/09/201609/08/2016 cladriteLeave a comment

Jane Greer was born Bettejane Greer 92 years ago today in Washington, D.C. If she had played no other role in a motion picture than Kathie Moffat, the femme fatale who bedeviled Robert Mitchum in the noir classic Out of the Past, she’d be remembered with great fondness in the Cladrite household.

Here are 10 JG Did-You-Knows:

As a child Greer suffered from a facial palsy that partially paralyzed her face. She credited the facial exercises she performed to overcome the condition helped her expressiveness as an actress.

After winning beauty contests and working as a model as a teen, Greer began her career as a performer singing (in phonetic Spanish) with the dance orchestra of Enrique Madriguera.

Howard Hughes spotted Greer in a 1942 modeling spread in Life magazine and brought her to Hollywood to work in pictures.

Greer married Rudy Vallée in 1943, in order, it was said in some circles, to escape the overly possessive and controlling Hughes. She was 19; he was 42. We’re big Rudy fans, but he was an oddball on his best day and this has to be as one of the unlikeliest pairings in Hollywood history. The couple separated after just three months of marriage and divorced five months later.

Greer had her name legally changed from Bettejane to Jane in December 1945. About her birth name, she said, “Mine is a sissy name. It’s too bo-peepish, ingenueish, for the type of role I’ve been playing. It’s like Mary Lou or Mary Ann.”

Greer was a descendant of the poet John Donne.

Greer had three sons with second husband Edward Lasker, an attorney and business, to whom she was married for 16 years. TWo of her sons, Alex and Lawrence, worked in Hollywood in the 1980s and ’90s as writers and producers.

Her longest romantic relationship was a 36-year domestic partnership with actor and dialogue coach Frank London that lasted until his death in 2001. She passed away six months later.

In addition to the 28 motion pictures she appeared in, Greer worked extensively on television, beginning in 1953 with an appearance on The Revlon Mirror Theater and ending in 1990 with a recurring role in the second season of Twin Peaks.

Greer had a twin brother named Don.

Happy birthday, Jane Greer, wherever you may be!