Monday, September 30, 2013

Over The Edge


"I'm a song and dance girl. I can act enough to get by. But that's the limit of my talents." -- Betty Grable, turning down the meaty role of the doomed, drunken Sophie in The Razor's Edge (1946), for which Anne Baxter eventually won an Oscar

Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge (20th Century Fox, 1946)
"I'm an actress, not a personality. It's more successful to be a personality." -- Anne Baxter

Anne Baxter in Carnival Story (RKO, 1954)

"Are you kidding? Fans would expect me to rise up out of the water with lily pads in my hair, singing 'Hooray for Hollywood.'" -- Betty Grable, referring to Sophie's dipsomaniacal demise at the bottom of the Seine in The Razor's Edge


Betty Grable in Three for the Show (Columbia, 1955)

4 comments:

  1. It is puzzling what Zanuck was thinking trying to get Betty into Razor's Edge. Much as I love her heavy dramatics were never her forte, thanks goodness she was more realistic of her strengths. Originally it was to be Susan Hayward as Sophie, I'm sure she would have torn it up, but she discovered she was pregnant with twins and had to bow out giving Anne the chance to flash her brilliance.

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    1. It IS puzzling, and apparently, Zanuck was very gung-ho about trying to get Betty to do more dramatic films, which she always resisted. The irony, of course, is that once Monroe was the top blonde at Fox, she wanted heavy drama, but Zanuck was resistant to breaking her out of the bubbly blonde mold! Hollyweird...

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    2. It reminds me of how William Randolph Hearst pushed Marion Davies into all those costume dramas because they were more prestigious than the comedies for which she had a natural talent for. She ended up with this reputation as a not very good actress, when she could have been known as a top comedienne.

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