Pola's Back and You're Gonna Be In Trouble
80 years ago, in 1931, Pola Negri returned from Europe aboard the S.S. Paris to start her talking picture career in Hollywood after bad times in marriage and movies, with her most recent one, The Way of Lost Souls, her final silent film, not doing well at all. After coming to Hollywood to act in sound pictures, and leaving again, her career went all over the map, including a period working for Universum Film AG (UFA) in France, then under the control of Joseph Goebbels, until she fled to America after the Nazis invaded.
Her career in Hollywood during the forties didn't go very far and within a few years, she retired. Later, Billy Wilder would use her as the basis of the titular character Fedora in an old-fashioned mystery (Fedora, 1979) that I saw years ago and have been curious to see again for years but, sadly, it's unavailable. Is it any good? I have no idea. I last saw it in 1979 but I'd love to see it again.
9 comments:
http://youtu.be/GA332HYmBQA
Pola goes Disney..
Love the cheetah.
Five years after Valentino died...she's dressed in black, but glowing with panache. Pola!
Fedora is available on an out of print Spanish DVD. The good news is that it is Region 0 so you can watch it on any DVD device. The bad news is that Amazon.uk lists the price as 65 British Pounds.
Margaret, she was ready to take the sound movie world by storm. Sadly, it didn't work out that way.
Peter, I saw that on Amazon. I'll wait. Eventually, it'll come out on DVD. I don't imagine I'll find it much better than I did when I saw it in 1979 but it's been so long and I'm so damned curious.
Everybody knows that Billy Wilder was at his best in the 1970s.
Yes, I'm being pointlessly snarky and taking a cheap shot at Billy Wilder. What're you gonna do about it???
Nothing.
Yeah, that's right!
I'm sorry. I'll stop. I like Billy Wilder, really.
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