Mervyn LeRoy Articles

Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Three on a Match Ann Dvorak on TCM Part I: SCARFACE, I WAS AN AMERICAN SPY Another cool Ann Dvorak performance is her drug addict in Mervyn LeRoy’s Three on a Match (1932), which features a great cast that includes Warren William, Joan Blondell, and a pre-stardom Bette Davis. Never, ever light three cigarettes using the same match, or [...]

Greer Garson (top); Garson and Teresa Wright in William Wyler’s Mrs. Miniver (bottom) Greer Garson received no less than six Best Actress Academy Award nominations during a seven-year span (1939-1945). The Oscar record of MGM’s First Lady of the 1940s is only matched by that of Warner Bros.’ First Lady of the 1940s (and of the late 1930s), Bette Davis, who also earned six Best [...]

Spencer Tracy, Jeanette MacDonald, San Francisco Spencer Tracy is the star of the evening on Turner Classic Movies. My two major recommendations are W. S. Van Dyke’s San Francisco (1936), corny to the bone but enjoyable all the same, and Up the River (1930), one of Tracy’s earliest efforts, directed by John Ford and also featuring a young Humphrey Bogart. Tracy, as a tough-talking priest, [...]

Greer Garson, Ronald Colman in Mervyn LeRoy’s Random Harvest Greer Garson, one of the most underrated actresses of the studio era, will have her day — and I mean "day" as in morning and afternoon — on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, Sept. 29. Garson would have turned 106 years old on that date. Now, when I say "underrated" I mean Garson is underappreciated today. [...]