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).

Appropriate Conveyance

…and if you’re looking for a decent way to get to shoot birds with that Holland shotgun at Lord Herbert Hardly-Breething’s estate, what better way to get there than in this magnificent creature:

 

7.4 liters of rumbling reliability, after one hundred years of service… and yeah, I know there are no seatbelts.  It was a better time, when cars looked wonderful and men died like men.

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.