Let's Talk about Joan Bennett

Her co-stars adored her and none ever said she played a star trip. Didn't her grandson used to post here?

The co-stars of DS loved her, saying she was always willing to run lines with people and do whatever was needed to get the job done.

She made some good films. Just watched There's Always Tomorrow last night on TMC. There is a noir one set outside of L.A.; the lady who played Lucy's mother has a bit part in it.

A beautiful woman and a good actress. I read she was amazed at the speed they did DS, not doing retakes or getting right, just moving quickly. But it is a cool show, and I wish they would put it on ME TV or one of those.

I think she had a small vocal range. Kind of a pinched nasally voice. I just watched her in The Reckless Moment.

She was already playing mothers (Father of the Bride and Father's Little Dividend) when Walter Wanger shot Jennings Lang. She was 41. So it's hard to say how her film career was affected. She had been something of a siren once she'd changed her look (Cole Porter wrote, in the 40's, "Let's talk of Lamarr, that Hedy so fair -- why does she let Joan Bennett wear all her old hair?"). Sirens don't often transition well.

Interesting that she and Wanger didn't divorce until 1965, although it seems pretty clear that she had indeed been having an affair with Lang. Wanger was 57, Bennett was 41 and Lang was 36.

See her transitional film, "Trade Winds." She goes from blond to brunette and changed her career forever. And it's a good picture.

She was no Constance Bennett.

r1 is right. Her grandson has posted here in the past.

I hear her on various stories on Old Time Radio on NPR.

She was a star, but never a superstar.

Joan's older sister, Constance, was one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1930s, so demure blonde ingenue, Joan, was forever in Connie's shadow. When she went brunette in "Trade Winds" (1938), she suddenly became an in-demand sultry noir siren and box office star.

Of Connie's constant quibbling with her age, Joan once observed, "With all of Constance's juggling of dates over the years, I started out as the youngest, then became her twin and finally wound up as the oldest sister."

I was surprised when I found out she was a natural blonde who had dyed her her hair brown in order to advance her career. Usually it's the other way round.

It must have been a hoot to hang out with her and Louis Edmonds. I read that they would more or less raid the liquor cabinet whenever they rehearsed together at her place.

Besides Constance (who's buried in Arlington) there was an older sister named Barbara. Barbara married Morton Downey the singer so that obnoxious shit who was on tv in the 80s was her nephew. He said that he had no use for his aunts. I'm sure the feeling was mutual.

She SHOULD be a great. So awesome in "The Reckless Moment" and "Scarlet Street."

Amy in 1933's Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo, directed by George Cukor.

Was she the poor man's Gene Tierney? A lovely actress, and wonderful in many of her films. She added a spark of class, and THAT was difficult considering, to DS.

Was she a freelancer? That might be why she's somewhat neglected.

She's always struggling to remember her lines on DS.

Hedda Hopper wrote about Joan in her autobiography.

Before becoming a gossip columnist, Hedda was a struggling aging character actress in 1930s Hollywood and had played Joan's mother in some forgotten film. Hedda complained that because of her lesser stature she had always had to wait until the end of the day before they'd gotten around to filming her closeups.

When, years later Joan was shooting Father of the Bride, Hedda pointedly teased her in her column, asking her how it felt to play her first mother role.

In retaliation, Joan sent Hedda a live skunk. No slacker at one-upmanship, Hedda named the skunk Joan.

Let's talk of Lamarr, that Hedy so fair

Why does she let Joan Bennett wear all her old hair?

Didn't her grandson post here?

We've never heard from Hedy Lamarr's grandson.

Joan Bennett was never a major star but had a good run in the 30's and 40's. In the mid-40's she hit her stride with two Fritz Lang films - WOMAN IN THE WINDOW and especially SCARLET STREET, and then a few years later with THE RECKLESS MOMENT.

But after that she played her first mother role in FATHER OF THE BRIDE (where I don't think she really had that much to do - the film is focused on Tracey and Taylor mostly) and it was mostly TV from the 50's on.

Sister Barbara wound up killing herself at 51.

Joan Bennet has been a SKELETON in her coffin for YEARS now.

She had a try for "Gone With the Wind" but lost out.

She made a bunch of movies with the help of her husband a producer in the 1940s.

Never won an Oscar.

Grew old and took a lower job in a silly daytime soap about vampires and werewolves for cash.

After that she grew more old and died.

End of story.

[quote] Joan Bennet has been a SKELETON in her coffin for YEARS now.

[quote] She had a try for "Gone With the Wind" but lost out.

[quote] She made a bunch of movies with the help of her husband a producer in the 1940s.

[quote] Never won an Oscar.

[quote] Grew old and took a lower job in a silly daytime soap about vampires and werewolves for cash.

[quote] After that she grew more old and died.

[quote] End of story.

Might you be joining her soon?

Joan Bennett was signed to 20th Century Fox in the early part of her career, but she left in 1933, and signed with independent producer Walter Wanger the following year. Marrying in 1940, Bennett and Wanger partnered with director Fritz Lang to form their own production company, churning out noir films throughout the '40s that were hit and miss.

By the 1950s, Bennett was in her 40s and deemed too old for leading lady parts, so she reinvented herself in wholesome supporting mother roles. But the ensuing Jennings Lang shooting scandal killed what was left of her career. She would work sporadically over the years, but studios of the time were hesitant to hire an alledged adultress. Desperate for work, she took a lowly job on a daytime gothic soap opera(!), "Dark Shadows," which ended up briefly reigniting her career.

Did Joan remain with Wanger after the shooting?

Was Wanger jailed or was it considered justifiable homicide?

Dark Shadows is a LOT LESS SILLY than the shit you freepy Bravo lovers watch!

For it's time, it was totally different and had fun, fantastic storylines. When it first started, there were no vampires or werewolves, just a Gothic atmosphere, so Joan DID NOT go to work on a vampire show.

Nothing quite like it had ever been seen on TV before.

Many kids from the mid sixties who are now boomers remember it fondly, and have passed on their fondness for the series to younger people.

PBS NYC ran DS for years, and it brought loads of cash for their telethons.

It also ran in SF for years at 11 PM and out-rated all the 11 o'clock news shows.

Fan festivals have been held annually and sometimes semi-annually since the 80s--with sold out hotels every time.

Three motion pictures. A mini series and a revival series pilot.

35 paperback tie in novels published roughly 1966--1976.

3 more tie in novels by star Lara Parker more recently.

Dozens of non-fiction books about the show and it's stars.

So what you think is silly may not be silly to everyone.

At least DS was original and imaginative, fun, and safe for all ages. Were the production values great? No, but it was very much like live theatre.

Am I the only one who thought OP was talking about that missing little girl from the the 90s, even while reading the post lol.

Read all about the Bennett - Walter Wanger - Jennings Lang scandal at link. After the shooting, Wanger went to prison for 4 months but returned to produce Invasion of the Body Snatchers and other films; Lang recovered from his wounds and eventually became head of Universal Pictures. Joan's career never really recovered in Hollywood. Double standard?

But Joan and Wanger didn't divorce for another 15 years after the shooting, even though they never lived together after the day of the shooting and Wanger's arrest.

She is terrific in those Fritz Lang movies. A femme fatale who was smart AND to die for. Plus, she was in Suspiria. I actually think that film is pretty overblown and not scary, but she's still cool.

She was a very smart and sophisticated woman who was typed as a mindless ingénue in her early career.

But once she dyed her hair brunette and left her studio contract, the complexity of her persona was freed and she gave some brilliant performances.

She was apparently very well-respected by all of her peers.

I read this as "Let's Talk about JonBenet."

So did I, R33.

She would have had a great career, if only Mrs. Patsy Ramsey, formerly of Boulder, CO hadn't gotten her hands on her . . .

Let’s talk of Lamarr, that Hedy so fair Why does she let Joan Bennett wear all her old hair? If you know Garbo, then tell me the news, Is it a fact the navy's launched all her old shoes.

[....]

Let's talk about drugs Let's talk about dope. Let's try to picture Paramount minus Bob Hope.

Thanks for taking the rap Mommy.

Such pretty blonde hair, that little girl.

Joan's father, Richard Bennett, was a famous stage and silent film actor. I believe that she had serious vision problems as she got older which impacted her ability to work.

R30, R36, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm R4.

I loved her on Dark Shadows, especially when she would forget her lines. It is tough for movie actors to get daytime because of the speed at which it happens. The actress who played Victoria Winters looked so much like, I always wondered if the writers planned to reveal that Victoria and Elizabeth were mother and daughter.

They rushed through Dark Shadows, rehearsing late morning early afternoon and taping late afternoon.

She wasn't the only one with difficulty at doing lines.

But somehow they made it worked and we overlooked the many errors and mistakes, just enjoying the different type of show it was, setting our imaginations free to wonder about the Collins family, their mansion and its' grounds, Collinsport; perhaps the best storyline was the 1897 sequence--the series kind of faltered after they returned to the present post 1897.

I used to love Grayson Hall's over the top performance, and also beautiful Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott, and Alexandra Moltke. Donald Briscoe was so handsome on that show. Ditto Joel Crothers.

An era of no Kardashians, no Mu sli m terrorists, no reality TV, the world was less crazy then. Still had problems I know but less of an insane asylum.

[quote]An era of no Kardashians, no Mu sli m terrorists, no reality TV, the world was less crazy then

No offense or anything, but the 60s was one of the most turbulent eras in our history as a country.

Joan as Alice (as in wonderland)

Was Fritz Lang worth all that bother? Was he some kind of a hunk?

R45, he was an amazing director. Incredible film noir.

R41 you can find online an original storyline/show Bible where at one point they had planned to reveal that Joan was Alexandra's biological mother.

Very observant of you.

Lots of DS stuff online, I forget exactly where I saw this.

[quote]Joan's career never really recovered in Hollywood. Double standard ?

Joan Bennett was 41 at the time of the shooting. At 41 most film actresses are on the way down, particularly back then. She still managed to make a half dozen films in the 50s, more than her (more) successful sister Constance who at one point in the 1930s was 'the highest paid actress' in the country.

But Connie was always reluctant to play second leads and mothers, unlike Joan.

R45, it wasn't Fritz Lang that the fuss was about. It was Jennings Lang.

Well, then.....was Jennings Lang some kind of a hunk? Was he worth all that trouble?

L to R: Walter Wanger, Joan Bennett, Monica Lewis (Mrs. Jennings Lang), and Jennings Lang.

According to this newsclip, Bennett and Lang were trysting in Marlon Brando's apartment:

Let's not. Some near-homophones are best not spoken of in polite company.

Art Wallace, the co-creator and original scripter of DS has stated Vicki was to be the daughter of Paul Stoddard and Liz's unknown to her half sister (Betty Hanscombe) - that way the resemblance to Bennett would make sense. Liz was not to be Vicki's mother, but her aunt. They dropped the plot line when Barnabas come on strong. There was final scene where a sneering Jason McGuire tauned Vicki with 'who she really is' at the Blue Whale, then Jason was killed and Vicki never worried about it again.

Back to Joan - her last hubby was a cross dresser and she knew about it and accepted it gleefully.

I don't understand that thing with Jennings Lang. Wouldn't a woman in her 40s be too old to be having sex?

Joan Bennett loved doing Dark Shadows. It was the fourth act in her career, after playing the ingenue, the femme fatale, and the devoted mother.

Now she got to head the cast of the first truly gothic soap.

I am sure that she knew what she was doing in the more preposterous scenes, such as the one linked here, but there was never any winking at the audience, meaning that she and Jonathan Frid have gifted us with a wonderful example of true camp in its highest form.

[quote]Besides Constance (who's buried in Arlington) there was an older sister named Barbara

Barbara's greatest fame came from writing for Redbook.

I used to wish the women in my family were classy like Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.

Dark Shadows is on Hulu and Amazon now. Amazon has all the seasons, but there's a seasons-long gap on Hulu. Not sure why.

I've been watching it on and off, and also enjoying the linked blog, which is funny. I'm on episode 327, and apparently in for a lot of craziness if I stick with it.

Stick with it. Truly it is like live theatre. So many beautiful women on this show and several handsome men. Grayson Hall deserved an Emmy for her high camp. Much later, you will scream wiyh delight at her Ma g da. Damn auto correct. David Henesey is a great child actor. A fun romp...it will suck you in, nothing else like it.