Miriam Hopkins on TCM
An early photo of Miriam Hopkins. Photos in this article: courtesy of Allan Ellenberger
Miriam Hopkins, one of the most underrated performers of the studio era, will have her "Summer Under the Stars" day on Thursday, Aug. 20.
Turner Classic Movies will present fourteen Miriam Hopkins films, including one TCM premiere — the Samuel Goldwyn production of Barbary Coast — and three of Hopkins’ saucy pre-Code vehicles made at Paramount.
Although there are no Hopkins rarities in the program — TCM must lease the Universal library, which contains both the Universal and Paramount classics — it’s great to have a day dedicated to an actress who, no matter how good, has been usually dismissed because of her (alleged) off-screen behavior.
As I’ve [...]
by Andre Soares | August 15, 2009
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Tags: Allan Ellenberger, Bette Davis, Classic Movies, Design for Living, Edmund Goulding, Ernst Lubitsch, Miriam Hopkins, Summer Under the Stars, The Heiress, The Old Maid, The Smiling Lieutenant, These Three, Turner Classic Movies
Miriam Hopkins IV: Hollywood Blacklist, Bette Davis
Miriam Hopkins III: BECKY SHARP
Miriam Hopkins blacklisted during the post-war anti-Red hysteria? Why? And how come that fact — to the best of my knowledge — has never been discussed anywhere?
During the late ’30s and throughout the ’40s, Hopkins was involved with several political and social groups that were considered fronts for the Communist Party. These groups included the Motion Picture Democratic Committee (of which Hopkins was 2nd vice president) and the incendiary League of Women Shoppers.
In 1945, Louis Bundenz, a Communist Party functionary and the managing editor of the Daily Worker, renounced communism and in 1950 created a “List of 400 Concealed Communists” for the FBI. Miriam Hopkins was on that list. Of course she wasn’t [...]
by Andre Soares | January 9, 2009
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Tags: Allan Ellenberger, Bette Davis, Classic Movies, Design for Living, Hollywood Blacklist, Interviews, Miriam Hopkins, The Old Maid
Miriam Hopkins Biography in the Works
Though relatively forgotten and, when remembered, usually dismissed as a second-rate talent (quite possibly by those who have never seen her on film), Miriam Hopkins was actually a highly capable performer who worked with some of the most renowned directors in Hollywood history — Rouben Mamoulian, Ernst Lubitsch, and William Wyler, among them.
Hopkins was also a household name in the 1930s, a time when she co-reigned, at least for a brief while early in the decade, as one of the Queens of Paramount.
Apart from the fact that time tends to dim memories, that most early Paramount films are shamefully unavailable (thanks to thoughtless executives at Universal, the studio that now owns most of the Paramount classics), and that most U.S. [...]
by Andre Soares | December 3, 2006
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Tags: Allan Ellenberger, Anatole Litvak, Becky Sharp, Bette Davis, Books, Classic Movies, Design for Living, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Ernst Lubitsch, Miriam Hopkins, Old Acquaintance, The Story of Temple Drake
