#Doris Merrick

[gatutor]

Doris Merrick (Chicago, Illinois, 6/06/1919-Arizona, 30/11/2019).

[weirdlookindog]

The Neanderthal Man (1953)

[makeitquietly]

[joegeniusblog]

FOOD: Sweet n Low and other "artificial" sweeteners

Sweet!

My current employer has dropped Sweet n Low from its roster of artificial sweetness. To be sure Sweet n Low isn’t exactly “Sweet n Low” as generic Sweet Time offerings are employed in an effort to stem ever rising COGS. When a guest orders tea, and my employer sells precious little coffee, 4 packets of sugar, 4 packs of Sweet n Low, 4 packets of Equal, 4 packs of Splenda and 4 packs of Stevia…

[tokillamockingbird427]

Random idea before I go to bed

Post Beach Hesh who doesn't fall into a depressive slump or enduring rage like expected and more or less bounces back to his "old self" within a week or so.

It's weird, but it's not like the Ghosts want to talk about it to Hesh and go "Yeah we expect you to be fucking miserable, both in mood and to be around." So it goes on for a while, maybe too long, where they freeze because they're entirely unsure how to broach the topic of him being okay and terrified to hurt him after everything he's already been through.

I think eventually it'd be Merrick that pops the bubble. He has to be who Elias was, because he's the Captain. Not only does he have to lead them, but he has to be someone that the Ghosts can depend on. In and off field.

As it turns out, no! Hesh was not fucking okay! He is holding on by his teeth! He just pretended to be hunky dory because he literally didn't know what else he could do in that scenario. He doesn't feel a greater need for anything in life than to find Logan and Hesh figured if he did let them know he was going off the deep end then he'd be kept from doing that. So no, it wasn't an option for him to be anything other than Perfectly Fine.

Once this bubble does eventually "pop" I can only see it as being one massive mental breakdown which is only worsened by Hesh's terror that now that he is letting all of this be known that he's definitely going to be kept from the search.

I do think Merrick would be the one of the Ghosts most capable of handling it also. He's no therapist or psychologist but he's stalwart and I think Hesh would need something to anchor him. Who better than New Dad? Lol

[yestergaze]

In September of 1943, the Hollywood Bond Cavalcade arrived at the first destination of their cross-country bond selling trip. Pictured here on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. are Harpo Marx, Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Betty Hutton, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, James Cagney, Greer Garson, Kay Kyser, and Kathryn Grayson; plus starlets nicknamed "Bondbardears", Ruth Brady, Margaret Stewart, Doris Merrick, Rosemary Laplanche, Dorothy Merritt, and Muriel Goodspeed.

[fibula-rasa]

(Mostly) Lost, but Not Forgotten: A Thief in Paradise (1925)

Direction: George Fitzmaurice

Scenario: Frances Marion (learn more at the Women Film Pioneers Project)

Original Novel: Leonard Merrick’s “The Worldlings”

Camera: Arthur C. Miller

Set Design: Anton Grote

Studio: Goldwyn (production) & First National (distribution)

Performers: Doris Kenyon, Ronald Colman, Aileen Pringle, Claude Gillingwater, Alec B. Francis, John Patrick, Charles Youree, Etta Lee, Lon Poff

Polo Players: Nita Cavalier, Virginia Jolly, Martha Wing

Premiere: 25 January 1925 at the Strand, New York

Status: presumed lost, save for a trailer

Length: 7, 231-7,251 feet, or roughly 71 minutes. (8 reels)

Synopsis (synthesized from magazine summaries of the plot):

While pearl diving off the coast of a remote South Seas island, Philip Jardine (Youree) and Maurice Blake (Colman) have a vicious fight underwater over the possession of a valuable pearl. In the struggle, Jardine is cut and subsequently attacked by a shark and killed. Blake manages to escape to shore.

Aileen Pringle & Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Rosa Carmino (Pringle), Jardine’s common-law wife, reveals to Blake that Jardine came from a wealthy family back in the United States. A letter and money has arrived to carry Jardine back home to San Francisco to reunite with his long-estranged father (Gillingwater). Carmino convinces Blake to assume Jardine’s identity. Blake Has doubts, but the promise of a fresh start leads him to accept the proposition. Blake and Carmino travel together to California.

The deception is successful and Blake begins running in high society where he meets Helen Saville (Kenyon). Saville is the daughter of a Bishop (Francis), who happens to be the elder Jardine’s best friend. The old men are keen on the relationship, but Blake is held back by guilt over his deception. Additionally, as part of the identity theft scheme, Blake is bankrolling Carmino’s luxurious bohemian lifestyle.

Top: Bathing Beauties in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925 | Bottom: Bathing Beauties in A Thief in Paradise from Screenland, February 1925

On the grounds of the Jardine estate, a bevy of bathing beauties decide to put on a polo match—blondes vs. brunettes. Saville is also spending the day riding, and her horse gets startled and bolts headlong toward a cliff. Blake springs into action and manages to save Saville at the last moment. Overwhelmed by the situation, Blake confesses his love for Saville. The exchange is overheard by Jardine and the Bishop.

Alec Francis, Claude Gillingwater, Doris Kenyon, & Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Jardine throws an extravagant party where he announces the youngsters’ engagement. Unfortunately, Carmino is one of the entertainers hired for the party. Carmino performs a dramatic under-the-sea dance number that creatively retells the story of Blake and Jardine’s underwater battle. As it turns out, Carmino is in love with Blake and she is unpleasantly surprised with the engagement announcement. Carmino threatens to expose Blake. Blake attempts to pay her off.

Under-the-water dance sequence in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Blake and Saville are married and head off via airplane to Del Monte Beach for their honeymoon. Blake is overwhelmed with guilt and is working up the courage to make a full confession to Saville. Unbeknownst to Blake, Carmino has followed the couple. Carmino goes straight to Saville, but rather than revealing the deception, she claims that she is Blake’s mistress and that he has been keeping her. Carmino uses the pay-off check Blake gave her as evidence. Saville is heartbroken and immediately returns home.

Blake follows Saville back to San Francisco, where he confesses to both the elder Jardine and Saville. The old man’s heart is also broken as he has accepted Blake as his son and loved him as such. Blake is despondent and shoots himself.

Miraculously, Blake survives and Saville has chosen to stand by him and nurse him back to health. Jardine has accepted Blake as his true son, forgiving the deception. Carmino returns home.

Miscellaneous stills from A Thief in Paradise from Motion Picture News, 26 December 1925 [L to R: John Patrick, Aileen Pringle, Ronald Colman, Pringle, Pringle, Etta Lee, Colman, Doris Kenyon, Kenyon, Colman, Pringle]

Additional sequences featured in the film (but I’m not sure where they fit in the continuity):

Another dance sequence by Pringle as Carmino staged in her studio apartment

Aileen Pringle in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

The Bishop Saville and Jardine play chess and the Bishops cheats, is caught by Jardine

Claude Gillingwater & Alec Francis in A Thief in Paradise from Motion Picture Magazine, March 1925

Four old men are left to care for a baby and are at a loss

Four old men (Alec B. Francis & Claude Gillingwater to right) in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

A snafu regarding a taxicab losing its wheel, driver is upset

Taxicab snafu in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

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Points of Interest:

Contemporary blurb that describes the under-the-sea dance sequence in more detail:

“By a combination of photography and set design, gigantic fish swim about among the coral trees and huge sea shells. Even the human participants in the under-sea dance make their entrance as divers swimming down from the surface to the immense shell on the ocean’s floor which serves as the hiding place of the stellar feminine dancer who is clad in a symbolic costume of pearls.  “In order to enhance the brilliancy of the picture, the entire set, including coral, shells and floor of the sea, was finished in bright silver and the costumes of the dancers were made entirely of especially constructed luminous silver and gold cloth. Even the natural flicker of light and shadow which characterizes scenes actually filmed under water was reproduced by the technicians.  “The marine dance tableau constitutes a play within a play in “A Thief in Paradise.” It is the entertainment provided by the host at a lavish engagement party given in honor of two of the principals and also has an important dramatic value in developing one of the many dramatic moments of the story.” - Moving Picture World, 10 January 1925

Based on some of the stills, I think it’s possible that Aileen Pringle may have had a double for this dance sequence, but no other dancers are credited. There is also no credit I could find for a choreographer.

The amount of pure spectacle packed into a mere seventy-one minutes is astounding to me! Knowing how skilled Frances Marion was as a scenarist, I don’t doubt that A Thief in Paradise managed to deliver plot just as well as it (according to contemporary reviews) delivered the spectacle. Film historians have been working for years to restore Marion’s rightful place as a crucial figure in American film history, so examples of her work being lost sting just that much more. 

Despite the fact that A Thief in Paradise was a huge success and a top box-office draw of 1925, comparatively little digitized material exists online. Most notably absent are stills from the South Seas portion of the film.

This Ronald Colman fan website has some screenshots from the extant trailer as well as a digitized copy of a program from ATiP’s German release.

Hawaiian actress Etta Lee also appears in this film as Carmino’s maid. I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole reading about Lee and will probably end up doing a spin-off of this post about her career. You may recognize Lee from her roles in The Untameable (1923), The Toll of the Sea (1922), or The Thief of Baghdad (1924)

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Transcribed Sources & Annotations over on the WMM Blog!

[project1939]

100+ Films of 1952

Film number 132: Untamed Women 

Release date: September 12th, 1952 

Studio: Jewell Enterprises 

Genre: adventure/fantasy

Director: W. Merle Connell 

Producer: Richard Kay 

Actors: Mikel Conrad, Doris Merrick 

Plot Summary: During WWII, a bomber pilot and three crew members must ditch their plane into the ocean. After floating on a raft for eight days, they arrive on a mysterious island inhabited by primitive women and giant pre-historic creatures.  

My Rating (out of five stars): *½  

OK, here’s another massively low budget cringe-fest that does just about everything wrong. It’s ridiculous and ridiculously bad, but at least it’s fairly entertaining for the camp value. We get wooly mammoths (again)! Huge lizards that look suspiciously like pets! Giant armadillos! Spears! And scantily clad cave women with perfectly coiffed hair! (Some minor spoilers) 

The Good: 

It’s campy fun. It’s not a total laugh riot, but it’s definitely amusing. 

I thought it was hilarious and cute that Princess Sandra, the high priestess of the island, spoke King James English with a pronounced Chicago/Wisconsin accent.

The Bad: 

The acting. I don’t know if anyone was actually good! 

The special effects. This is one of the only reasons to watch the movie. 

The plot. It was preposterous and a bit too episodic. Especially in the beginning and ending wrap-around sequences. 

The music. I’m relatively confident it wasn’t scored for this movie. It was probably just slapped on from somewhere else. 

The way the pre-historic/Druid women speak- they use terribly stilted King James Bible talk. (Thine, thee, thou, hast, art, etc.) It makes no sense chronologically, but I suppose if they spoke authentically, no one would understand them. Even Chaucer was 1000 years after the Druids!  

I didn’t know that Druid women loved lipstick and curled brush outs! Everyone had 1940s hair and makeup, which was horrible cheesy goodness. (At least the hair looked more 40s than 50s? History!)

After they’d been at sea for days, the men had imitation stubble painted on their faces. It looked so obviously fake; I couldn’t get over it. The film was probably shot in just a few days, though. 

The comedy bits were so embarrassingly bad and out of place, I laughed at the stupidity of it more than the “jokes” themselves.  

What was the point of the movie? To be a cheap piece of sensationalism to make a buck off of, I suppose! 

[screamscenepodcast]

Half man... half beast... all b-movie! It's THE NEANDERTHAL MAN (1953) from director E.A. Dupont and producers Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen! There's a lot of yikes ahead, so prepare yourselves Creatures of the Night...

Starring Robert Shayne, Joyce Terry, Richard Crane, Doris Merrick and Beverly Garland, this independent sci-fi horror film gives your deadicated hosts much to discuss!

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 15:14; Discussion 46:36; Ranking 1:14:43

[fitesorko]

Doris Merrick

[silverscreenfurs]

[gatutor]

Arthur Space-Doris Merrick "El gran estruendo" (The big noise) 1944, de Malcolm St. Clair.

[scifipinups]

[makeitquietly]

Doris Merrick, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy

[joegeniusblog]

HAIKU 5*7*5* Spring's curtain is going up...

My eye focuses Spring’s curtain is going up Yellow crocuses

[aryburn-trains]

On September 15, 1943 the Third War Loan Drive came to Cincinnati. The drive started on September 8 and ended on October 2. On September 21, Kate Smith raised $39 Million through a broadcast on CBS. The 3rd War Loan totaled almost $19 Billion. The image above show the movie stars that were on this tour when it came to Cincinnati. Except for a couple of the stars on the right side, they are named going from left to right. James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Margie Stewart, Dorothy Merritt, Kay Kyser, Doris Merrick, Paul Henried, Greer Garson, Eddie Buzzell (show director), Betty Hutton, Kathryn Grayson, Jose Iturbi, Rosemary Laplanche, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Georgia Carroll, Harry Babbitt, Diane Pendleton, Ruth Brady, Muriel Goodspeed, and Dick Powell.