Screen Sirens - The First Ladies of Film

Eight dramas starring Hollywood leading ladies. Joan Crawford stars in the classic Hollywood melodrama 'Rain' (1932). A ship's passengers are quarantined on Pago Pago Island, an American military base, and faced with an indefinite wait. Prostitute Sadie Thompson (Crawford) amuses herself with the soldiers who are stationed there, but soon falls foul of the base missionary, Reverend Alfred Davidson (Walter Huston). The only man on the base who genuinely loves Sadie is Sergeant O'Hara (William Gargan), although his offer of marriage to her is rejected. When Sadie is raped by Davidson, though, tortured by his own lust after he manages to soften her resolve, it looks as if O'Hara's offer of marriage could be the salvation that Sadie needs. While the credits of the melodrama 'A Star is Born' (1937) list eight writers including David Selznick and William Wellman, the acid-sharp dialogue is generally attributed to renowned writer and wit Dorothy Parker. The story concerns a fading star, Norman Maine (Fredric March), who was once a big box office draw, but is now fading fast and all but he can see it. At a Hollywood party he gets drunk, as usual, and picks up a waitress (Janet Gaynor), claiming he will make her into a star. Maine persuades his producer, Oliver Niles (Adolphe Manjou), to give her a screen test, which he reluctantly does. Niles ends up liking her and decides to make her a star. He starts by changing her name from Esther Blodgett to Vicki Lester and then proceeds to change her physically and painfully, moulding her image. Norman and Vicki get married and as her career takes off, his grinds to a halt and in desperation he turns again to drink, and despite Vicki's love and encouragement, finally takes his own life. 'The Outlaw' (1941) is Howard Hughes's version of the story of Billy the Kid, notorious in its day for being the film in which Jane Russell and her ample cleavage made their debut. Russell stars as the half-breed girl who comes between Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel), Doc Holliday (Huston)and Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) when the trio meet up at a way station. Judy Garland stars alongside Robert Walker in 'Till the Clouds Roll By' (1946), a biopic of 'Showboat' composer Jerome Kern. Starting out as a penniless composer, Kern (Walker) finds early success after moving to England. It is there that he meets his future wife, but his return to America is followed by a fallow period, which only ends when he begins a successful collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II (Paul Langton). Jane Wyman stars in the romantic comedy 'Three Guys Named Mike' (1951) as an air hostess who becomes romantically involved with an airline pilot, a college professor and a successful businessman. Jayne Mansfield makes one of her final on-screen appearances in 'The Fat Spy' (1966), a beach party comedy in which a group of teenagers run amok on a paradisical island off the coast of Florida, rumoured to boast a fountain of eternal youth. Bette Davis makes an early appearance in the Howard Higgin drama 'Hell's House' (1932), in which a young man (Junior Durkin) is sent to reform school after becoming caught up in the schemes of

bootlegger Matt (Pat O'Brien). Finally, Lana Turner stars in 'Mr Imperium' (1951) as an aspiring actress who secretly becomes romantically entangled with the eponymous playboy crown prince (Ezio Pinza).

Director: Lewis Milestone
Director: William Wellman
Director: Howard Hughes
Director: Richard Whorf
Director: Charles Waters
Director: Howard Higgin
Director: Don Hartman
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Producer: David O. Selznick
Producer: Howard Hughes
Producer: Arthur Freed
Writer: Maxwell Anderson
Writer: Dorothy Parker
Writer: Robert Carson
Writer: Jules Furthman
Writer: Myles Connolly
Writer: Jean Holloway
Music: Alfred Newman
Music: Victor Young
Music: Lennie Hayton
Music: Jerome Kern
Actor: Joan Crawford
Actor: Janet Gaynor
Actor: Jane Russell
Actor: Judy Garland
Actor: Jane Wyman
Actor: Bette Davis
Actor: Lana Turner
Actor: Walter Huston
Actor: Fred Howard
Actor: Fredric March
Actor: Jack Buetel
Actor: Ben Hendricks Jr.
Actor: Adolphe Menjou
Actor: Thomas Mitchell
Actor: Robert Walker
Actor: Van Johnson
Actor: William Gargan
Actor: Andy Devine
Actor: Mimi Aguglia
Actor: Pat O'Brien
Actor: Mary Shaw
Actor: Owen Moore
Actor: Ed Brady
Actor: June Allyson
Actor: Howard Keel
Actor: Ezio Pinza
Actor: Guy Kibbee
Actor: Frank Darien
Actor: Kathryn Grayson
Actor: Junior Durkin
Actor: Kendall Lee
Actor: Franklin Pangborn
Actor: Martin Garralaga
Actor: Lucille Bremer
Actor: Beulah Bondi
Actor: May Robson
Actor: Lionel Stander
Actor: Dickie Jones
Actor: Van Heflin
Actor: Debbie Reynolds
Actor: Matt Moore
Actor: Ethan Laidlaw
Actor: Lena Horne
Actor: Nena Quartaro
Actor: Julian Rivero
Actor: Tony Martin
Actor: Gene Rizzi
Actor: Dinah Shore
Actor: Joe Sawyer
Actor: Frank Sinatra
Actor: Carl Stockdale
Actor: Dorothy Patrick
Actor: Pat West
Actor: Cyd Charisse
Actor: Angela Lansbury
Actor: Virginia O'Brien
Actor: Joan Wells
Actor: Paul Langton
Actor: Mary Nash
Actor: Harry Hayden
Actor: Paul Maxey
Actor: Rex Evans
Actor: William Phillips