Sexiest Women of the Monochromatic Era

If you have been reading this blog, it is no surprise to you that I am a fan of films.  You also remember that I am especially fond of the Golden Age of Hollywood, that period from 1930 to 1959.  Among the elements that make the movies of this era special were the actors and actresses that played the characters we now consider icons.

Movie making was a much different industry than what we have become comfortable with in the present era.  We can define today’s practices in one word, independent.  Today, movies are controlled by the production companies, which are in reality capital management firms pursuing money to finance film projects.  You may have noticed that before the credits introduce the technical and artistic talent, the viewer is entertained by slick, digitally-animated company logos.  You will recognize names like Weinstein, DreamWorks, Working Title, Lion’s Gate, and Dimension.  There are myriad others and for big projects, they will often team up.  They are the money finders.  Their positioning in the opening credits should convince you of their importance.  They own the story and the distribution rights; and the profits.  Everything else is rented or contracted from other entrepreneurial enterprises.

This is a significant departure from the Golden Age, or Studio Era, when the studio owned and controlled all aspects of movie making; including the human talent.  The studios would enter into contracts with directors, writers and actors that gave them total control.  The names are familiar; Warner Bros., Twentieth-Century Fox, Columbia, MGM.  The industry was a group of vertical monopolies, owning even the movie houses in which their movies were screened.  These companies still exist (in name) but have morphed into the aforementioned production/distribution enterprises.

The consequence of the Golden Age system was consistency.  When they found a successful formula, they would make their best attempt to replicate it.  So the movie patron would see Cary Grant play handsome sophisticate over and over.  Jimmy Stewart was always cast as the stammering do-gooder dealing with some crises lately shattering his naiveté.  Humphrey Bogart toughed his way through, well, whatever needed to be toughed through.

But the formula worked.  It created stars that were iconic.  The ticket purchasing audience was comfortable with familiarity; John Wayne was never the bad guy, Clark Gable was never a wimp.

However, this is all prelude to the point of my missive.  Today, I want to present my nominees for the sexiest women of the monochromatic period.   “Was that when the dinosaurs walked the earth, Dale?”  No, Tinker Belle, it was the days of the black and white movie and represents roughly 1930 to 1945.   While the first colored movies were produced during this period, most were shot in black and white.  For the true film aficionado, there is a certain mystique associated with the art of black and white film making.  All mood must be set by light and shadow.  The director can’t cheat by using a yellow dress to draw attention to the leading lady.  She had to draw that attention with her style, persona.  And these women had style.  Now you will probably note there are some remarkably talented actresses not included in this list.  That is because I am rating sex appeal and not acting talent or popularity.  I know, this is as subjective as you can get.  If you don’t like it, set up your own blog site and make your own list.

Katherine Hepburn – There are some women born to the lens.  They make their celebrity purely on physical attractiveness.  Katherine Hepburn is not one of those women.  Her sex appeal flows from her personality.  She possessed the rare ability to present a character as both strong willed and confident while being vulnerable to the whimsy of romance  Her four Oscar wins make her the most honored actress in American film.  In her sixty-six year career she appeared in forty-four feature films plus television and stage roles.  I am particularly fond of her early work (her career extended well into the 1980s.  My favorite Hepburn performance is Bringing Up Baby (1938 – RKO Studios).  If you are wondering how Katherine Hepburn makes a list of sexiest women, watch this movie and pay particular attention to the scene at the country club restaurant.

Myrna Loy – If you are familiar with Loy’s early films, in which she was often cast as an oriental, it might be hard to believe she was the product of a Montana ranching family.  Her exotic looks are cause enough for her appearance on this list.  But I find her penchant for turning the tables on male leads by carving holes in their incontrovertible logic her sexiest trait.  No matter her co-star, a simple question shaking the foundation of masculine reasoning would leave the male stammering in retreat.  While she played opposite many of the leading men of the day, her tour-de-force performances were with William Powell.  That partnership began with The Thin Man (1934 – MGM) and was repeated in fourteen films.  In all, she is credited in 138 movies from 1925 to 1982.

Merle Oberon – While Myrna Loy’s early career consisted of Asian characterizations, Merle Oberon was that person.  Born in Bombay, British India (1911) of mixed race, she lived an impoverished life until she moved to France in 1929.  That is where her professional acting career began.  Her real-life story reads something like a Dickens novel but would take too much space to include here.  Her earliest appearances were uncredited and began in 1929.  She continued acting until 1973.  Her most famous roll is opposite Lawrence Olivier as Cathy in Wuthering Heights (1939 – Samuel Goldwyn Co.).  What woman wouldn’t be sexy uttering the name, “Heathcliffe”?

Irene Dunn – Her early career was dedicated to musical theater.  That is where she was discovered in 1929 while starring with the road company of Show Boat and signed with RKO Studios.  She was the prototype female lead in everything from screwball comedies to tear-jerking family dramas.  If you watch her performances, then watch other female comedic actors of the period, you will see mannerisms that originate with Dunne; the squinting smile, the playful shoulder shrug, the feigned wide-eyed innocence.  As with several other women on my list, Dunne was adept at deflating the male ego while maintaining femininity and grace.  Her career included 50 credits spanning 1930 to 1962.  My favorite performances are opposite Cary Grant (three films), most notably The Awful Truth (1937 – Columbia Pictures).

Hedy Lamarr – This is a woman born to the lens; beauty suffices, no brains needed.  Ironically, she was a genius; more about that later.  She was born in Vienna in 1914.  Her early film career included a starring role in Gustav Machaty’s film Ecstacy, which included full frontal nudity and a realistically performed orgasm scene.  This was a rare occurrence in 1933.  She made the move to Hollywood from Europe and was starring opposite the era’s biggest male leads including; Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and John Garfield.  During WWII, she collaborated with composer George Antheil (California neighbor) on the invention, frequency-hopping spread spectrum.  Now I have no idea what that means, but has something to do with limiting an enemy’s ability to jam a radio control signal by unpredictably changing radio frequencies.  While the original application was intended for controlling musical instruments, it was applied to protecting ship-to-torpedo control signals from interference.  If you are a histo-techno-geek, you can look it up yourself.  Her typical role was the glamorous seductress, and her exotic looks and European accent made her a shoe-in for war film parts.  One of the best examples is Comrade X (1940 – MGM) opposite Clark Gable.

Marlene Dietrich – Her sex appeal stemmed from her rolls as an aggressive suitor.  After a middling early career in her native Germany, she enjoyed a breakthrough in the German film Der blaue Engel (“The Blue Angel”) cast as… a femme fatale nightclub singer whose attentions create havoc for an elderly professor.  Do you think the mold was cast?  She moved to America and enjoyed success for some time but then fell out of favor.  In 1939, the Nazi’s courted her, offering state sponsored fame in Germany.  She responded by denouncing the Reich and becoming an American citizen.  From that time on, she was as famous for her entertainment of American servicemen as she was for her movie rolls.  She enjoyed a comeback in one of my favorite films, Destry Rides Again (1939 – Universal Pictures) with James Stewart.  As you watch this film, you will realize it is the inspiration for many of the Western genre clichés, leading to Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (1974 – Warner Bros.).

Ann Sheridan – Hers was the clichéd story of the big break.  Originally from Denton, TX, her sister sent Ann’s photograph to Paramount Pictures (Ann was attending the University of North Texas at the time) which led to entry in a beauty contest which, in turn, led to a bit part in a Paramount film.  After two years during which Paramount did little to promote the starlet, she left them for Warner Bros. in 1936.  She was tagged the “Oomph Girl” and became a popular pin-up.  Between 1934 and 1967 she accumulated ninety-six acting credits while playing opposite many of the golden age’s most famous male leads.  She was equally adept at drama and comedy.  Two of her best films demonstrate this range: Angels With Dirty Faces (1938 – Warner Bros.); and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942 – Warner Bros).

Jean Arthur – Sorry Lucy, this is the queen of the screwball comedy.  Beginning her career as a silent screen actress in the 1920s, she acted in many low-budget western films.  Arthur struggled to make the transition to talkies, finally breaking through when she discovered her trademark throaty voice.  It was still some time, although she continued to chalk up acting credits, before critics assessed her talents in a positive light.  She starred in three Frank Capra films, the best of which is probably Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936 – Columbia Pictures) with Gary Cooper.  Between 1923 and 1953 she amassed over ninety acting credits.  Her final film, quite opposite to type, was Shane (1953 – Paramount Pictures) with Alan Ladd.  Just as the critics had difficulty in accepting her talent, it took me a while to recognize how many of the films I enjoy featured Arthur in the lead female role.  Unlike many of the women on my list, Jean Arthur was not glamorous.  Her sex appeal is flows from her image as a real woman.

Jean Harlow – The phrase “blonde bombshell” was coined to describe Jean Harlow.  Her early film career was underwritten by Howard Hughes.  While popular with audiences, she was panned by the critics.  She became romantically involved with MGM producer/director Paul Bern who urged Louis B. Mayer to buy-out her contract with Hughes and sign her at MGM.  Mayer declined on the basis that MGM leading ladies were elegant, while Harlow’s persona was that of a floozy which was abhorrent to Mayer.  And that sums up the roles plaid by Harlow.  She was very sexual on screen.  She gave us the dumb blonde stereotype.  The rolls she played contained no slow-burn, below the surface boiling passion.  She was the champagne cork launched across the room.  Unfortunately, she died from renal failure at the age of twenty-six.  Her last film, Saratoga (1937 – MGM) was opposite Clark Gable, with whom she had paired for six films in total.

Maureen O’Sullivan – Although she had almost 100 acting credits over a career of sixty years, she makes the list for one performance; Jane Parker in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932 – MGM) opposite Johnny Weissmuller.  If you have seen the unedited, non-television version of this movie and remember her swimming in the lake with Weissmuller, you know why she qualifies. Hubba, hubba!

There a more than a few iconic leading ladies that are not on this list:

Betty Davis: Talented actress, but would you pick her out in a bar?

Joan Crawford: Important, but scary as hell!

Vivien Leigh: Beautiful… but whine, whine, whine.

Elizabeth Taylor: Way too young for this list, wait for the post-war period.