10 laps / 10 hours to go
Another entry — just under the wire — from Stacia at She Blogged By Night — former Bathing Beauty Marie Prevost’s last film, covered in fascinating, compassionate detail.
Another entry — just under the wire — from Stacia at She Blogged By Night — former Bathing Beauty Marie Prevost’s last film, covered in fascinating, compassionate detail.
December 7, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Norma Desmond mentions Marie Prevost when reminiscing about her career. I wonder if that was scripted by Brackett and Wilder, or whether Swanson “made it up” as she “went along.” At any rate, Kenneth Anger immortalized her, but not in a good way…
Stacia must have spent more time writing her entry than they did actually making that movie.
December 7, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Marie Prevost is also mentioned in “The Hate Song” by Dion MacGregor
December 7, 2012 at 7:55 pm
I’m enjoying the entries so far, though I have more reading ahead of me! In any case, here’s a very late-breaking entry for the cause:
http://garethsmovies.blogspot.com/2012/12/ne-nous-quitte-pas-jacques-brel-in.html
December 7, 2012 at 8:09 pm
NOBODY “makes things up” on a Wilder picture! I’m sure they carefully chose her as someone who was not quite, but almost forgotten at the time.
Gareth, thanks, I’ll link to it in a post shortly.
December 7, 2012 at 9:56 pm
If Prevost had hung on another 15 years or so, she could have shown up in SB’s ghoulish bridge party.
December 7, 2012 at 10:03 pm
For sure! Reminds me, I have some HB Warner gossip to share soon!
December 8, 2012 at 2:06 pm
If she could have hung on for just another year, she might have gotten into B-movie Westerns like everyone else in 10 Laps and at least made a living.
I’d have to watch SB again, but doesn’t Norma pronounce her name “Prah-VOH?” I have a couple of movie magazines that say it is “PRE-voh” and “pre-VOST”. It’s Zasu Pitts all over again!
December 8, 2012 at 2:11 pm
If we’re going for authentic French pronunciation, “Pray-voh” would make sense. I once worked with an imitation Steenbeck 16mm editing suite called a Prevost. We just called it a pre-vost, when we weren’t swearing at it for chewing up the film.
December 11, 2012 at 9:38 am
I assume she did use the French pronunciation, given the predilection for French names in silent American actresses. If I could dig out the magazines, I’d be able to confirm my hunch that pre-vost was in an early 30s magazine when she was trying (unsuccessfully) to shake off the image of being just an old-fashioned silent star.