Classic Beauty: Ann Dvorak

One of my favorite anecdotes about Ann Dvorak was a comment made by one of her male co-stars, who said:  “Whether on-camera or off-camera, she had a way of looking at you that was at once seductive and submissive.”  He went on to add that this made it almost impossible to concentrate when the camera started to roll.

I kinda see his point.

My favorite of her own quotes was explaining how to pronounce her last name:

“My fake name is properly pronounced ‘vor’shack’. The D remains silent.”

Here’s a bit of music from another Dvorak, this time Antonin Dvořák (his real name, but similarly pronounced).

Modern Classic Beauty: Winona Ryder

She’s been around for so long, and had such a memorable early career, that it came as quite a shock to me that Winona Ryder is now in her early 50s.  It’s also no surprise that she is almost always better than any of the movies she’s appeared in, with the possible exception of Beetlejuice and The End Of The Innocence.  (Small surprise that she got an Oscar nomination for the latter, too.)

Nevertheless, you will find Winona in the dictionary under two headings:  Gamine Beauty and Haunting Beauty, because she qualifies under both — just at different times in her life.

She is, I think, one of the most beautiful women ever filmed.

Burning Question

Okay, it’s probably just me, but…

Where the hell does Trump find all these beautiful and intelligent women to work for him?  (I know, the Left is all over this, whining that he only appoints these “bimbos” — their word, not mine — as though it’s utterly impossible to be clever and beautiful, the combination of which is conspicuous by its absence on their side of the aisle.)

I mean, probably the ugliest woman working in Trump’s administration is his AG, and Pam Bondi is not at all ugly — especially when compared to leftists like OMG Janet Reno, Rosa de Lauro and that screeching lesbianist on MSNBC/MS NOW(?) with the black glasses.

The latest one to catch my eye was when reading at American Thinker about Trump’s Deputy U.S. Envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, whose first name made me think it was a guy.  But nope, Morgan is absolutely no guy:

Now young Morgan is not just a pretty face.  Here’s what the boffins at AmThink have to say about her:

Hezbollah, rattled by her bluntness, staged demonstrations against her remarks in February, when she declared that the group had been defeated militarily and that its role in government was no longer tolerable. Many in Beirut concluded she had been sidelined, replaced by Tom Barrack’s more measured style. By June, her name was shorthand for a missed opportunity—the hawk who had pressed too hard, too fast.

Now, though, President Trump has issued a directive ordering her back, a powerful signal that Washington has not abandoned the line of pressure and accountability she embodied, but is rebalancing it, pairing Tom Barrack’s optimism with her credibility.

In the meetings with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and Speaker Berri, Ortagus sat quietly through most of the formal sessions, letting Barrack take the lead in public. Lebanon’s political class, however, understands that her silence was because she already knows the playbook. She has studied the system, understands the “political theatre” that governs decision-making in Beirut, and has seen how elites manipulate time and process to stall change.

That knowledge is why her return matters. Lebanese leaders thrive on ambiguity and exhausting new envoys with a maze of committees, statements, and staged “dialogue.” Ortagus, though, has already rattled the system once, and her reappearance signals she will do so again.

And I’ll bet her combination of brains and beauty confuses those Arab assholes beyond words, because they’re likely more accustomed to gargoyles like Obama’s one-time Secretary of State, who combined astounding ugliness and stupidity:

…quite the reverse of Mrs. Ortagus.

As I said, I don’t know where Trump is finding all these smart, attractive women to work for him, but let’s hope he keeps the trend going.

Oh, and by the way?  Morgan Ortagus has a twin sister named Megan.

Have mercy.

Classic Beauty: Stefania Sandrelli

Lessee… win a beauty competition at age 15, get your first starring movie role a year later  — playing the lover of Marcello Mastroianni. no less — and go on to become a legend in Italian comedy during the 1960s.

That’s Stefania Sandrelli for you.  And here she is, first in grainy black & white:

…and then in glorious Technicolor (or whatever they called it in Italy back then):

Have mercy.

Classic Beauty: Gianna Maria Canale

Another one of those raving Italian beauties from the 1940s and -50s, Gianna Maria Canale first came to prominence as runner-up to Miss Italy in 1947, at age 20.  Then she went into the movies, making mainly Italian classics (a.k.a. “swords ‘n sandals” in studio jargon) and horror flicks.

Then, in 50s-vintage color:

..and when color film improved:

She retired from moviemaking at age 37, when this pic was taken.


Now I mentioned above that Gianna Maria was the runner-up in the 1947 Miss Italy competition, leading of course to the question:  who was the winner, then?

Here’s Lucia Bosè:

Fair enough.  All I can say is that I’d hate to have been sitting on the Giuria  back then.  What a choice.