What film scene is in your head today?

The lady in ‘Holy Mountain’ with the double mastectomy where she’s standing on a staircase in an black evening gown… or was it next to a piano?

Aha I had that scene from Boogie Nights in my head earlier this morning. That scene randomly comes to my mind often!

Sometimes to get prepare myself for the day, I’ll bang out a little Night Ranger – Sister Christian before heading out.

Just thinkin about enjoyin’ a nice cold one…

Ok then, moving on to TV commercial stills? Oh wait, this looks like someone’s pic – check out the person at the table with the cell phone(?) camera…

A terrific scene from a terrific film.

Oooh… great scene and great film, Tannhowser!

I love Gene Tierney. She made this film right after Laura, one of my most favorite noirs, also with Vincent Price. Two years later she would make the delightful The Ghost and Mrs. Muir with a haunting score by Bernard Herrmann.

Both those are wonderful, I agree!

+ The Shanghai Gesture, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Whirlpool, Dragonwyck.

Beautiful Gene:

Odi, this book

is quite good. And, sadly, harrowing.

Oh, that excerpt was really sad…

But this is so true:

Tierney doubts she will ever conquer her illness but refuses to be defeated by it. “Depression is only a temporary thing,” she says now. "I’ve often thought that if people who committed suicide could wake up the next morning they’d ask themselves, ‘Now why in the world did I do that?’

Dazzling Gene, sparkling eyes to match the earrings

I know, those eyes…

Tierney’s impulse to jump off a building brought to mind this famous photograph from Life Magazine in the forties of a woman who leaped from the Empire State Building. The photo is strangely beautiful but of course ineffably sad.

She looks beautiful because she didn’t land face down.

What is it about accidents that people’s shoes and socks always come off?… (unless she jumped without them)…

does that book contain the story that agatha christie stole for ‘the mirror crack’d’? what a heartless bitch

Wait what’s this about, Ruby? You mean there was a story told about the woman who jumped that Agatha Christie stole, or that the woman who jumped was a heartless bitch?

’There can be little doubt that Christie used the real-life tragedy of American film and stage actress Gene Tierney as the basis of her plot. Tierney described the event in her autobiography (Self-Portrait, New York: Wyden, 1979), but it had been well publicized for years previously.

In June 1943, while pregnant with her first child, Tierney came down with German measles, contracted during her only appearance at the Hollywood Canteen. The baby, Daria, was born prematurely, weighing only 3 pounds, 2 ounces, and requiring a total blood transfusion. The infant was also deaf, partially blind with cataracts, and severely retarded and ultimately had to be institutionalized.

Some time later Tierney was approached by a female fan for an autograph at a garden party. The woman revealed that she had sneaked out of quarantine while sick with German measles in order to meet Tierney at her Hollywood Canteen appearance. This incident, as well as the circumstances under which the information was imparted to the actress, is repeated almost verbatim in the story.’ —wikipedia.

i wondered if gene had mentioned christie in the book. i doubt it tho. she had too much class. in answer to your question, agatha christie was a heartless bitch

Well, a person falling from a very tall building (e.g. the Empire State) would be falling at near terminal velocity (no pun intended) so the shoes would naturally come off. One of the poignant things about that particular photograph is that she had clearly dressed in her finery. It’s the gloves that always got to me. Please note, however, that I said I find the photo beautiful (the accidentally artful pose, as if she is just asleep); but I do not find suicide beautiful in any way. I am no Young Werther (Goethe). My father killed himself thirty years ago and I still grieve, especially around Father’s Day. And I must disagree with Tierney when she says that depression is only a temporary thing. I have suffered from depression my entire adult life. One simply finds ways to mitigate it…great art…a beautiful child…friends, etc. But it never goes away. Besides, there’s so damn much in life to be depressed about. The curse of awareness.

Oh yeah, I read that about the measles woman and her (Tierney’s) premature and sick child in the link that Tannhowser provided.

Well, I’m not sure what to think of Agatha Christie basing a story on a real life situation. Don’t lots of people do that? Except to less famous people, often?… I mean, it probably would have been nice if she donated to some sort of institution for the kids who ended up like Daria, but we don’t know that she didn’t make a gesture like this… do we?

i don’t think she ever acknowledged it. it would’ve meant a lawsuit of course

Wow, a lawsuit for basing a story on a real life incident? I didn’t know you could sue for that… Would that be a possibility for the average person? Isn’t there only a situation if it’s libel?

ok maybe i’m overreacting but it seemed pretty heartless to me considering everyone knew it landed her in a mental hospital. really soured me on miss marple :p

@Volupte — Do you think so? Didn’t people in that day and age wear gloves and hats as a normal outfit? I thought up until the 1950s it was everyday dress for women.

Wow about your dad, and everything. I know about depression too. I think she means temporary as in some days, you’re ok, not that you’re cured. It depends on the person. But sometimes it’s in and out. I can certainly relate to the idea that one day, you want to jump off a building, and the next day you wake up and you wonder what the hell that was all about. For sure, I’ve experienced this switch on and off situtation with emotions.