Dirk Bogarde comes across as such a bitchy, superior old queen in this interview.

He was basically retired by 1981 and living in France with his long term partner Tony Forwood.

If Tony hadn't got cancer in 1983 and died in 1988 I think he may have even come out (not that he really needed to).

His family contributed to a very frank and honest documentary about him (and Tony) in 2001 - The Private Dirk Bogarde

That's such a good documentary, R1. Thanks for the link.

Never heard of him. Must be an eldergay thing.

Wasn't he supposed to be a heartthrob that all the gals swooned for back in the day? Hard to see it.

I read one of the volumes of his memoirs long time ago. I liked his writing style, it was so elegant. My memory is of this glamorous yet down-to-earth chap that took the business of acting seriously and seemed comfortable in his own skin especially with his sexuality.

Well if you think his old world elegance, style and honesty are bitchy and superior what can one say except that people who know you have the misfortune of dealing with your bitchiness and superiority.

When I first saw him in "The Damned" on cable when I was 12, I swear I thought it was Desi Arnaz.

R6 is an attractive man. Well loved.

One of his best performances that I've seen is as the ne'er-do-well father in "Our Mother's House". Very different from the usual roles he was cast (or typecast) in, and a pretty good movie.

If you are a true card carrying gay you need to know about Dirk Bogarde. A fearless actor who took many chances which ultimately hurt his career. The very definition of suave. See the Servant or read his autobiographies. He was a Rupert Everett kind of Englishman,.. 60's vintage.

The Servant

Our Mother's House was a Brit spin off of Eight Is Enough

If his preferred version of England was disappeared by the relatively sane year of 1981 I cant imagine what he’d think of the place if he saw it now.

He does come across as insufferable in that clip, particularly starting around 8:55, and not the brightest bulb.

Love him. He was gorgeous in the 40s and 50s

Wow - this thread is so dull ...

[quote]If his preferred version of England was disappeared by the relatively sane year of 1981 I cant imagine what he’d think of the place if he saw it now.

Yes! OMG!

in that documentary linked ealrier- you can see his nephew hated him and his sister was like "major eye-roll".

He was a chav at heart. And I hear he loved Muhammudans, they say.

[quote]you can see his nephew hated him and his sister was like "major eye-roll".

He had another nephew who was VERY handsome whom he adored and left most of his money to.

He wrote several autobiographies, which many middle class fraus adored. I found them very depressing. Why write them if you're essentially in hiding?

I see absolutely nothing super bitchy or superior about his demeanor in that video. He was cordial, dignified, elegant, and basically himself. Why should a person who was either born with or taught to act with class and dignity act any lesser at any point in time?

[quote]Muhammudans

What are you, like some incel retard?

R12 It's true. Yootha Joyce played the Betty Buckley/Abby figure, struggling to replace the dead mom in everyone's hearts.

OP, he was not a bitchy queen. You’re totally incorrect, and your opinion is absurd. Dirk Bogarde was from an era when actors were expected to be eloquent, well versed, gentleman. Perez Hilton and Andy Cohen are bitchy queens, not Dirk Bogarde.

He was a supremely talent actor. He was a classic movie star with charm and grace; a true gentleman. The interview was excellent and entertaining.

He refused to discuss his private life, but that was his choice. He seemed very honest and genuine overall.

I remember seeing a few of his films on tv when growing up and thinking he was handsome.

And know he was one of the few british actors to break out of their hunk/hearthrob status in the 1950s to become a very well respected actor. He turned into a bitter queen when he was old right enough. But I read an interview where they alluded to a very dark sadistic streak.

He told a woman friend (maybe she was a reporter) about something he had done to a cat in an alleyway once . She was deeply disturbed and never went into details or they didn't print it but I've never forgotten that.

Here's an interview where he's still nice looking and some of his charm comes through.

When they go in for a close up of him from the 04:30 mark , he's kind of adorable and I can see why he became a pin up for the girls and a sure;y few of the boys in the 1950s

I loved him in the movie The Password is Courage also starring openly hot gay actor Alfred Lynch.

R7, Oh wow. I totally see the resemblance to Desi Arnaz now that you mentioned it.

Anyone who doesn't recognise Bogarde was a miserable artificial closet queen is simply not familiar enough with him

That said he was a fine actor and he awakened something in me as a young boy that I now realize was my gay attraction to him. He was dark and handsome, his diction was delicious and clothes hung on him magnificently. He was a star

[quote]OP, he was not a bitchy queen. You’re totally incorrect, and your opinion is absurd. Dirk Bogarde was from an era when actors were expected to be eloquent, well versed, gentleman. Perez Hilton and Andy Cohen are bitchy queens, not Dirk Bogarde.

You clearly didn't bother to watch the interview or you did and you're very thick.

Actually, you're clearly very thick, so don't bother.

What was he miserable about? He had a life of which millions of gay men could only dream.

You can see from his home videos how much more elegant was the life of a top actor in the 50s and 60s - especially one who loved to travel.

He was miserably closeted. He submitted himself to electric shock therapy in an attempt to fry away the gay.

He was miserably fearful of being outed. It was a difficult time in the UK when being gay was illegal and police worked to entrap gays.

He lied about his relationship with Tony which was a bit laughable because everybody knew they were together.

In the video @ R1 - he says he was in love with Capucine (& that he asked her to marry him and she turned him down) and his sister was like "Yeah, right".

Yes, the sister was hilarious.

Didn't he leave her no money at all and she had to go to court. Something like that.

He lied a lot.

He lived with Forwood for decades while being miserably closeted? Even while in France for 11 years as in the video (pre Forwood's cancer)?

I love the way actors posed with cigarettes in those days.

Tony was married to Glynis Johns before he hooked up with Dirk!

Great sunglasses in the video @ R33!

Didn't he star in Victim? That was ballsy of him.

Attention closet cases: If you act like your life is something to be ashamed of straight people will assume you are correct. But you are not fooling anyone but yourself.

"I loved him in the movie The Password is Courage also starring openly hot gay actor Alfred Lynch."

I've seen Alfred Lynch in a couple of things and didn't realize he was gay. Good actor.

Was it John Frasier who wrote that DB didn't realize how fey he was?

OP is a very old very ugly bitter queen.

My intro to him was the 1977 iteration of "Providence" directed by Alain Resnais with an amazing cast: Gielgud, Bogarde, Ellen Burstyn, Elaine Stritch et al. Sondheim was to have written the score but backed out.

Bogarde seemed tortured. Art imitating life, I guess. Gielgud said it was one of the two film performances (the other being Brideshead Revisited) he was proud of...

^ I wonder what those two queens were talking about behind the scenes?

[quote] Dirk Bogarde comes across as such a bitchy, superior old queen

Making him really no different than 99.9% of gay men.

R9, Ian McEwan wholesale ripped off Our Mother’s House, book and film, in writing his novel The Cement Garden.

R50 = homophobe.

OK DL sleuths; name one actor who came out as gay before AIDS? Oh, and if there is one did they continue to have a career? 2018 does not apply to 1966, He was brave in his choice of roles, playing a coded gay man/relationship, especially in the Servant

William Haines and no his career was finished.

R53 You couldn't come out more spectacularly than [BOLD] Sir John Gielgud [/BOLD] did in 1953 ( not exactly voluntarily admittedly) and he had a pretty good career afterwards. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His film work further earned him a Golden Globe Award and two BAFTAs.

He even has a Theatre named after him.

[QUOTE] on the evening of 20 October 1953, Gielgud, usually highly discreet about casual sex, was arrested in Chelsea for cruising in a public lavatory. Until the 1960s sexual activity of any kind between men was illegal in Britain. The Home Secretary of the day, David Maxwell Fyfe, was fervently homophobic, urging the police to arrest anyone who contravened the Victorian laws against homosexuality. Gielgud was fined; when the press reported the story, he thought his disgrace would end his career. When the news broke he was in Liverpool on the pre-London tour of a new play, A Day by the Sea. According to the biographer Richard Huggett, Gielgud was so paralysed by nerves that the prospect of going onstage as usual seemed impossible, but his fellow players, led by Sybil Thorndike, encouraged him:

^ That anecdote makes me love Sybil Thorndyke

R23 bingo! You go it

Was Tony the top, or was Dirk?

[quote]Boy Barrett

lol

But neither was Gielgud playing roles in major motion pictures that could be in any way construed as romantic. Also the world as a whole wasn't so salacious that they were eagerly wondering what went on in men's rooms in England.

Gielgud wasn't playing romantic roles before he was outed in 1953 either.

His arrest was pretty much front page news, It left absolutely no doubt (think George Michael)

I thought the question was [BOLD] "OK DL sleuths; name one actor who came out as gay before AIDS? Oh, and if there is one did they continue to have a career? " [/BOLD]

Gielgud fits the bill, you can't change the question after it has been answered.

Well you did! Gielgud did not 'come out.'

But to be fair you did note you were not answering the question correctly.

He did star in “Victim” one of the first matter of fact gay movies from the UK. Ironically about homosexual blackmail.

You old fat cow stop with the self pity.

R62 Nor did George Michael or Neil Patrick Harris for that matter - they were also 'outed', splitting hairs a bit there.

Didn't effect either of their careers though.

I suppose Harvey Fierstein doesn't qualify either, even though he's had a pretty successful movie career despite never being in the closet.

Gielgud never officially came out

R64 that was my favorite line from the movie...

Uttered by an actess, not necessarily a frau though

His books are interesting glimpses into life in a world that no longer exists. His WW2 memoir is quite different than the one depicting his very bucolic childhood (obviously), but they’re both well written and enjoyed them very much - simply because I like history. I did listen to the audiobook versions, but read a few of his later books and liked them as well. Don’t really care for him as an actor though.

[quote]I love the way actors posed with cigarettes in those days.

Dirk was often photographed with a fag.

R68. But his books are full of lies. True, he was a fine author, but, oh dear, she did fabricate.

if you watch the excellent documentary @ R1- you'll all be way better informed on the man.

R70 that's the down side of memoirs and autobiographies — the authors tend to embellish the truth ans say a few porkies

Isn't that true of all autobiographies? Lots of Lies and fabrications?

Especially anybody who worked in the entertainment industry. The people you had to sleep with, whoring yourself out, cheating on a spouse, the people you stepped on...

Not that any of this bothers me personally(well I don't like the stepping on people part) but for some reason a lot of readers would have problems dealing with these things.

Bogarde went too far with his war stories. He was no where near freeing prisoners of the death camps. MARY!

I can't believe people here actually criticise him about being closeted. I mean, sodomy was a crime in Britain in his days. His role in Victim was revolutionary because after it homosexuality was decriminalized. He never married, he lived with his partner for decades.

As you pointed out he was living with Tony for decades, during and after decriminalization I believe it was John Frasier who said it was a pity they didn't come out because they were the finest couple he'd ever met. Utterly devoted

All the Capucine business in his memoirs is embarrassing

[quote]I can't believe people here actually criticise him about being closeted. I mean, sodomy was a crime in Britain in his days. His role in Victim was revolutionary because after it homosexuality was decriminalized. He never married, he lived with his partner for decades.

Gurl, the interview took place in 1981 and he was still making porkies to that woman about not wanting anyone in his life.

[quote]Bogarde went too far with his war stories. He was no where near freeing prisoners of the death camps. MARY!

Like many creepy people - he had a weird obsession with "The Jews".

R78 That sounds like a Twitter comment; but is it in any relevant to the subject of his thread?

[quote]but is it in any relevant to the subject of his thread?

"any relevant"? Bizarre English.

I am 100% gay and I would have had a long term relationship with Capucine. The whole bit; traveling, holding hands, fabulous dinners and sleeping with her.

R, 81 - sure, Jan!!!!

R77

So? He grew up in different time. Why do you judge him by today's standards? I mean, in our days of legal gay marriage, we still have closeted celebrities who get married, have children, lie endlessly, despise everything homoerotic. And you shit on Dirk Bogarde? Who lived with his male partner, who was brave enough to star in Victim, The Servant, Death in Venice, who never got married? Wtf?

In 1965 when he co-starred with Laurence Harvey in "Darling," columnist Dorothy Killgallen asked "which one has the title role?"

I love Darling - but all the men are incredibly swish.

LOL, R84!

The only gay character in Darling was Malcolm and he was in the closet in real life for years. Even his daughter said "I think we already knew".

[quote]In 1965 when he co-starred with Laurence Harvey in "Darling," columnist Dorothy Killgallen asked "which one has the title role?"

Dorothy Kilgallen could be a bitch!

Who is the actor in the photo at r87?

[quote]Dorothy Kilgallen could be a bitch!

She died of an overdose just a few weeks after it was released.

The guy in the pic at R87 is Roland Currum. He's still alive aged 86.

I wonder if Schlesinger had Roland?

In the biog of Schlesinger I read, it said he had Dirk.

When Dirk moved back to London he was invited to dinner at "World's End" in Chelsea.

He then wrote an article in The Independent, entitled "Half A Life At World's End" - apparently they forgave him.

R88 Dirk looks quite cute in that picture.

He was gorgeous and as dewy-eyed as a doe in the late 40s.

But then he became a star in the 50s and he wore those awful hard greasy pompadours which were in fashion at the time but looked so unflattering on him.

His character became equally hard because he claims he was being abused by John Davis and Betty Box. And so he responded by being petulant and sulky. He was so upset that Brando didn't want appear with him in the Spanish western called 'The singer not the song' in '61 that Bogarde sabotaged the production by wearing leather and acting as camp as Danny La Rue.

He started to behave again when he got Ito European films in the 60s but he aged quickly after that and did a Garbo so people couldn't examine the crows feet on his former beauty.

he half sang/spoke a song for Darling. It's hilarious.

I love the film Darling. It's one of my all-time faves. People knock it now. But it's still great.

His "singing" was LUDICROUS!!!!!

So embarrassing!

lol

His favourite nephew, and heir, Brock was gorgeous but he lost his looks relatively early. Does anyone know if he's gay? He displayed some promising mannerisms when he was young.

go to 12:00 and he talks about Tony Forward. Very snippy he gets.

Dirk seethed with resentment to the UK. Only the continentals could appreciate his specialness.

(I'd love to see videos of the dinner parties with Visconti)

[quote]Dirk seethed with resentment to the UK

I think you mean England.

Bloody England!

R101 Looks like Dirk's heir Brock Van den Bogaerde had a son called Sholto Van den Bogaerde , can't find anything else about him.

His son has a profile on Couchsurfing.com.

By the time he did Daddy Nostalgia he was a doddering old queen yet had some of his charm. He had chemistry with Jane Birkin(his daughter in the film) even though he cane across as a gay single man who was never a father.

R104 Are you being merely pedantic or are you alluding in particular to something about Mr Bogarde?

I think R103 was probably correct in saying UK over England. The provinces plus Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland were equally as homophobic.

"In the biog of Schlesinger I read, it said he had Dirk."

Details, please!

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

One of Noel's best.

^ Noel may have been. port in a storm during a particular crisis in Michael and Dirk's tempestuous lives but I refuse to believe it was anything more than a sleepover and a few drinks.

Noel claimed that he had the bed partner that topped, so to speak, them all.

If true he certainly did.

James Cagney.

R113, The story, according to Sheridan Morley, goes: he was crossing Leicester Square with Noël Coward when they came upon a billboard outside the Odeon that read, "Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde in 'THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM,'" prompting Noël to quip, "I fail to see why not. Everybody else has."

R114 - what's this about Cagney?!

Dirk Bogarde had the same problem about coming out as Rock Hudson -- he became famous as a heartthrob and matinee idol for legions of women fans. That made it all especially awkward for both of them.

R4 What do you mean your ‘age starts with a ’t’? Does that mean you’re aged between 20 and 39?

R5 The problem with his 5 or 6 volumes of memoirs is that they cover the same incidents in the same years so they seem messy and repetitious.

R13 I’m sure Dirk would shrivel up and die like a petal if he returned to see the once-Great Britain as a Welfare State toilet filled with apathy, self-hatred, beggars and goat-people blocking the footpaths.

R24 Yootha Joyce specialised in playing ugly women. Her greatest scene was an overwhelming 5 minute Harold Pinter monologue as a crazy woman verbally-assaulting Anne Bancroft at the hairdressers in the 1964 ‘The Pumpkin Easter’. A terrifying character but a great scene for young actors to do at auditions.

R28 You sound like an Alfred Lynch afficionado. He had so few parts that I can hardly remember him. What do you recommend?

R51 Do you recommend Ian McEwan? His prose is so dense I can’t work my way into it.

R55 I wouldn’t say Gielgud ‘came out… spectacularly’. The British were very good at turning a blind eye to the unpleasant things of life especially when the newspapers also ignored this minor police incident.

The version I heard was Ralph Richardson covered for Gielgud rather than Thorndike. In those days the audience applauded when the star actor first appeared on stage (it was accepted behaviour then even though it broke the rhythm of the play). Gielgud feared the audience would refuse to applaud on his entrance so Richardson arranged to appear at the very same moment.

R118, R4 is twelve or thirteen.

Gay British actor John Fraser who was a good friend of Bogarde. In 2004, he published his autobiography, Close Up, in which he wrote frankly about his gay life and friendships.[7] In the book, Fraser wrote that actor Laurence Harvey was gay and that his long-term lover was his manager James Woolf.[8] Of Dirk Bogarde, Fraser wrote, "Dirk's life with [Anthony] Forwood had been so respectable, their love for each other so profound and so enduring, it would have been a glorious day for the pursuit of understanding and the promotion of tolerance if he had screwed up the courage ... to make one dignified allusion to his true nature. Self-love is no substitute for self-respect."

R120 John had the perfect lily-faced appearance to play the Lord Alfred Douglas. But it seems he's now hiding that face from the public.

R4 = 39 year old

[quote][R4] What do you mean your ‘age starts with a ’t’? Does that mean you’re aged between 20 and 39?

He could be two, three, ten, twelve, or thirteen.

Dirk was beautiful in those black and white films.

DIRK BOGARDE was amazing and very attractive in "Night Porter" with Charlotte Rampling (a movie made in the 70s). I admire him because he never used a "beard", no famous women were beards for him, at that time it was very brave and courageous, so to me D.BOGARDE was a REAL MAN.

[quote][R28] You sound like an Alfred Lynch afficionado.

why, because he mentioned him once?

[quote] He had so few parts that I can hardly remember him. What do you recommend?

I think his only starring role was in "West 11" which you can now get on DVD and worth tracking down if you like British films of the early 60s

A close friend of Judy's

Alfred Lynch was pretty cute. Lived openly with is BF long before other actor's did.

The BF, James Culliford, was also an actor.

Yes, he was the ultimate exemplar of a superior, bitchy queen!

Good thing he isn't alive to see the UK now. I think Joan Collins is only just about hanging on.

[quote]other actor's did.

Oh, God - what did I do!

He was very attractive in Night Porter, like r125 said and also in Accident (Joseph Losey,1967). He was almost 50 in 1967, but still hot. He had great chemistry with women (Jacqueline Sassard etc.). Maybe because he was such a talented actor.

[quote]I admire him because he never used a "beard", no famous women were beards for him, at that time it was very brave and courageous, so to me D.BOGARDE was a REAL MAN.

What about his "romance" with Capucine? The one he had asked to marry.

R133

I read that was invention of hollywood producers who insisted it was crucial if he wanted career in USA. He was so disgusted that he basically said Fuck Hollywood. But he also was good friends with Capucine. From what i remember, she was very troubled soul.

"I’m sure Dirk would shrivel up and die like a petal if he returned to see the once-Great Britain as a Welfare State toilet filled with apathy, self-hatred, beggars and goat-people blocking the footpaths."

I bet a lot of smart Britons shrivel at the thought of right-wingers like you.

[quote]I bet a lot of smart Britons shrivel at the thought of right-wingers like you.

I bet R135 is a Labour voter.

I bet r136 thinks homosexuality can be cured through prayer

If true, asking Capucine to marry him wouldn't have been odd. She was a lesbuan, he was gay. It would have been an ideal Lavender Marriage like many of the period.

I want to read that John Fraser book.

I think prayer can be cured through homosexuality.

R137 Sucker bet. And as a Labour supporter, no surprise.

Capucine?? Dyke, ya know!

[quote]If true, asking Capucine to marry him wouldn't have been odd. She was a lesbuan, he was gay. It would have been an ideal Lavender Marriage like many of the period.

He did ask her, she said "Gurl, NO!"

They were in love, dammit!

It always surprised me that Capucine wasn't more famous. She was such a beauty. A bit like Ann Firbank, who only ever did bit roles in British films, here in Darling - she had one line.

She played a lesbian with a jealous lover in The Servant - she had two lines.

and Accident - she seemed to follow Dirk around.

I've often wondered if Capucine would've had a bigger career if she'd had two names.....or at least one name that everyone could pronounce.

Capucine sounds like a French toothpaste.

Yes, it's a terrible name. To me, it sounds like an instant coffee.

R126 'West Eleven' sounds like a shocker wth 3 camp men in the cast. And so bizarre that Notting Hill was a slum with race riots then but the race riots have since moved tother suburbs.

I guessed Harold Lang was Eric Portman's bum-boy. They made 3 films together and Harold came to a bad end in Cairo.

R134 Dirk's failure to get into Hollywood can't simply be explained as American homophobia.

Dirk was owned by the J.Arthur Rank Company. He hated Rank because they refused to let him play in Vincente Minelli's 'Gigi' in which he would have been quite good (he looked and sang better than Louis Jourdan).

But he did star in Hollywood films filmed outside of Hollywood ('that Franz Liszt bio with Capucine and 'The Angel Wore Red' in Spain with Ava Gardner). And he made English films with Hollywood ladies (Garland and De Havilland).

And R135. Are you a shrivelling 'smart Briton'?

Ann Firbank is here in her hospital bed, in this scene from Behind The Mask - which was Vanessa Redgrave's first ever film. I love the gentle saccharine music playing.

R145-R152 So is this Ann Firbank woman related to the appalling Ronald?

CAP-you-seen?

CAP-ooh-sheen?

CAP-you-sheen?

CAP-ooh-seen?

R141 must be retarded to be attacking liberal viewpoints on a gay board. Gay conservatives are so moronic and deluded.

Germaine Lefebvre marketed herself as " Capucine".

Hollywood brought her because Audrey Hepburn was pricing herself out of all those roles which required a flat-chested, small-voiced, fey, passive European female to drape themselves over an American he-man.

Her face was slightly more angular than Hepburn's but she was a limp as a rag, inaudible and she soon developed bags under her eyes

R148 It seems the French have a tradition of single names; Arletty, Bouvril, Anouk, Fernandel, Miou-Miou, Dalio, Moustache, Kerima, Cantinflas, Topol. I think it originated with the Comedie-Francaise.

R55 Johnnie's predicament was put on stage—

I thought Capucine was in love with Bill Holden who like S Tracy killed himself with drink.

Well dyke Kate was in love with Tracy. Talk about fluidity in an age when there was no name for it.

He helped liberate Belsen. He was superior.

Um, Cantinflas and Topol, the famous Frenchmen?

Yes, Dalio is Marcel Dalio is Israel Blauschild.

He was such a hammy actor. I watched Our Mother's House recently - it was such an amazing film until he showed up halfway through the film. Things only went downhill from there.

R154, R161 'CAP-ooh-sheen' was good match for the fey, hammy Dirk.

Google tells me Capusheen was bought, imported, groomed, educated, trained, renamed, traded out, swapped, sold, and marketed by the ghastly Charles K Feldman.

[quote]He was such a hammy actor. I watched Our Mother's House recently - it was such an amazing film until he showed up halfway through the film. Things only went downhill from there.

Yes - he was a bad actor who was in some very good films.

Capucine - cap-oo-seen (or with a French 'u' for authenticity) is the French word for 'nasturtium.'

I guess nobody has seen Death in Venice.

He's not hammy in that.

And Jourdan was perfect in Gigi. You read some nutty stuff on DL that you will not have read anywhere else and never will.

R165 Dirk would made a prettier, more eloquent Gaston.

Jourdan's accent struggles to get much nuance or meaning into the lyrics of this long and rather repetitious soliloquy.

It's well documented that VICTIM actually had a direct and significant impact on the decriminalization of sexual acts between men. Bogarde never came out of the closet, but he took that role when he was at the height of his popularity and success in the UK (he was the number one matinee idol at the time). The courage and sheer bloody-mindedness it must have taken is almost unthinkable, but he did it. He played gay characters in a number of films after that, and consciously veered off into much more interesting territory and for much more distinguished directors. In hindsight it was a genius move, but it could have easily ended his career.

[quote]I guess nobody has seen Death in Venice. He's not hammy in that.

Maybe because he hardly says anything.

Capucine

R166 I don't agree but I almost must say I've read a ton of stuff on Minnelli, the Freed unit and Gigi and I've never seen that there were any other considerations for Gaston(there might have been but I've never seen Bogarde's name associated with it) and never seen before here any criticism of Jourdan in the role.

They made a huge mistake taking Jourdan out of Clear Day no matter what problems there were with the voice. He had a star power and charm to play beautifully off of Harris. And he would have been a draw as well.

As good as Cullum could be he just doesn't have that stage magic that I sometimes want to see in a role. He will always be Sir Dinadan next to people like Burton, Andrews and Goulet.

Bogarde was not a bad actor at all. I thought he was great in Victim.

OT: Has anyone else's mod buttons disappeared?

That soliloquy that Louis Jourdan attempts in R166 was designed to echo the soliloquy that Higgins makes in "My Fair Lady" where he examines and realises his true his feelings.

Dirk Bogarde, Rex Harrison and even Stewie would have done a better job than Louis Jourdan in conveying the nuances of the song.

OK R173 I get it.

Still you're the only one I have ever come across who has ever criticized Jourdan. The film has been around for exactly 60 years and a lot of ink has been spilled about it both positive and negative.

But nobody except you has ever had a problem with any of the casting. Even people who find it distasteful find it impeccably produced.

Yes, the film is gorgeous to look at but I agree the story about prostitutes and gloating old men is distasteful.

Bogarde's memoirs discuss his Rank contact owners forbidding him to play Gaston.

Bogarde and Caron did appear together in a small movie 'The Doctor's Dilemma' in England the same year as 'Gigi. And Bogarde and Minnelli were involved in 3 TV shows.

But wasn't Louis Jourdan under a long-term contract to MGM in the 1950s? Did that not help in his casting? Anyway, I can't imagine a more perfect Gaston.

I think Dirk would have looked too old and epicene opposite Leslie Caron as the teenaged Gigi. Jourdan managed to look world-weary and still maintain a certain innocence.

I always thought Jourdan left On a Clear Day because he realized he was being entirely upstaged by Barbara Harris' brilliance. I don't think he was fired.

Louis Jourdan was one of the few French actors who stayed on Hollywood. Even after he was no longer working up until his death. He was known to be a very stable lovely gentleman.

By all accounts a miserable cunt.

Really? That's the first I've heard. I read he was fired because Lane didn't want him attempting painfully to sing his demanding score.

He wanted a singer in the role which is how Cullum got it. He got a singer but not a star who could match Harris on the playing field.

They both had great hair!

Jourdan was able to play world weary and bored convincingly yet not look tired or a poser. And beautifully handsome without being gay(not that that's a bad thing you just have to have people believe you're hot for women.)

I imagine Bogarde would have been too Noel Coward or Clifton Webb queeny.

I absolutely loved him in DARLING with Miss Julie Christie...they had great chemistry onscreen.

[quote]I absolutely loved him in DARLING with Miss Julie Christie...they had great chemistry onscreen.

"Your idea of fidelity is not having more than one man in bed at the same time".

I don’t take whores in taxis...

The awards came thick and fast.

"the idea of breaking up a marriage was utterly repellent to me"

A pound’s not enough!

Two GORGEOUS negroes just went upstairs!

Alone?

Who, him or me?

Do you think I care who YOU were with?

Because I’ve stuck it out for as long as I can!!

Yes, and about as often as you can!

A man of few words....all of them long.

It’s been said that the only men who weren’t her lovers were the ones who had reason to believe that they were her father!

How savage we are tonight. Somebody's husband has gone back to his wife.

If he had, you'd have been there to greet him.

I just wash and comb it.

She has a wonderfully shaped head.

Monica. Dirk. Julie.

Like you black boys, Miles...mind if I take one home?

My impotence, my darling, makes a pair with your virginity.

You say she has a wonderfully shaped head, R196.

I think her lower lip pouts out one millimetre too far. It is impertinent.

It obviously means she's a slut.

What are you ashamed of in Britain today?

Um, talking as a Londoner.. how rife homosexuality has become, in London, itself. I would say again, in retrospect, that a few years back, that, again, two or three years ago, you were very blatantly approached by different people in different places .

[quote]You say she has a wonderfully shaped head, [R196].

It's a line from the movie.

Normally, I never did charity work. It's usually terribly draggy.

How do you feel?

Empty.

Who is the guy at the far right in r197's photo?

We're not complicating our holiday with any of your DISGUSTING sexcapades!

Brother and sister til death us do part!

The guy at the far right in R197's photo is the chauffeur.

I'm going to take a job at an American University.

You'll HATE it!

I shall write.

What will you write about?

YOU!

I sucked so many cocks to get where I am now.

(Thankfully, Dirk didn't molest me)

He is not hammy at all, are you kidding me. He is very restrained actor.

Btw, his old Doctor movies that made him famous in UK are hilarious.

I adored him in film but I'm quite pleased I never met him. Such a bitch and I would have towered over his small narrow frame.

Well, where did all the young flowers go? Proceed, AMUSE ME!!

The bitchy queeniness comes through quite strong in all his roles.

R156 Another single-named star was the Italian, Valli—

R217 Why is Valli's name written in different font than the rest of the names are? Unfortunately even the special font didn't help her to become big in the US. There was no place for dark mysterious Euro femme fatales in post-war Hollywood.

R218, that's how she was billed in her Hollywood films, Valli in cursive. It was her wordmark. But she actually hated the one word stage name David O. Selznick bestowed upon her. Her real name is a long one, Baroness Alida Maria Laura Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg.

Another Valli film:

'Valli" was in cursive to show she was unique. She was wild, she was a temptress!

That's funny--I never knew she was called just "Valli." I recognize the name Alida Valli much more readily.

"Valli" was owned by David O. Selznick.

She did whatever he told her to do.

What was the name of the foreign Lesbian who used one name?

R224 Capucine

Charo?

Valli as Alida Valli went onto make one of the all time great Italian films Visconti's Senso. As she's acting in her own language she's able to immerse herself entirely into the role and give a wonderful performance. But she is very good in The Third Man.

I saw it presented at MOMA by Farley Granger Valli's costar in the film and it was shortly after La Fenice was destroyed by arson. The very important opening takes place there during a performance of Trovatore. He mentioned that Visconti needed to move around fixtures in the theater to get the effect he wanted and only someone of his stature, family nobility and connections could have ever done such a thing.

R227 Totally agree with you on that one - I consider Valli in Senso and Anna Magnani in Mamma Roma to be the two greatest female performance of all times. There's something about Italian way of acting that is so arresting and seems almost primal. And that dubbing they always did (which is often totally out of sync with mouth movement) adds slightly surreal component to their movies.

And yes, Italian actresses in English-language films always sucked. For a long time I was familiar only with Sophia Loren's Hollywood films and I had no idea why she is considered to be such a legend, because she was horrible in all of them. But then I started to watch her Italian films too and I realized that she really was a movie goddess.

Have you seen De Sica's Gold of Napoli? Wow!

Have you seen Bogarde being uber-camp in 'Modesty Blasie'? Wow!

Bogarde was so effete that Daphne du Maurier protested to dopey Attenborough when he cast the effeminate Bogarde playing du Maurier's late husband Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Browning in Attenborough's overlong, episodic "A Bridge Too Far'.

I can’t see the video in which he says he is love with Capucine and his sister rolls her eyes.

Bump