Charles Busch says, “Bette Davis was the Queen of the Warner Brothers lot in the late thirties and forties, and in her golden period she starred in a number of my favorite “women’s films.” My favorite is Now, Voyager. So much happens to her in barely two hours. She plays Charlotte Vale, the neurotic spinster daughter of a Boston matriarch (wonderfully played by the always brilliant Gladys Cooper). She recovers at a sanitarium from a nervous breakdown and undergoes a fabulous transformation into the epitome of forties chic and becomes the most popular woman on a cruise to South America. In fact, I always use as shorthand the phrase, “It’s Charlotte Vale after the cruise,” whether discussing a casting director’s weight loss or my sister’s cat turning surprisingly social. Charlotte engages in a clandestine romance with a married architect (Paul Henreid) and finds herself mentoring his deeply troubled teenage daughter.
Davis, with her no-nonsense New England manner, dares you not to find every step of her progress plausible. Both the most theatrical of the great pantheon of classic Hollywood actresses, she is also, in my opinion, the most profoundly insightful. My favorite part of her performance is the section of the film where she has been made stylish and glamorous, but inside is still the bitter, unloved, damaged daughter. She dares to be unlikable, as people can be when they are desperately unhappy. There are scenes towards the end of the movie that could leave the most hard-hearted reaching for a Kleenex.” If you don't have access to this film, it's available to rent on Redbox and Amazon. CLICK HERE TO WATCH NOW, VOYAGER.
CARL ANDRESS directed The Confession of Lily Dare. He is an American theater director whose credits include the world premieres of Charles Busch’s critically acclaimed plays, such as The Divine Sister, The Tribute Artist, The Third Story, Judith of Bethulia, Cleopatra, Bunnicula, Queen Amarantha, and Shanghai Moon, as well as the New York production of Die! Mommie Die and the annual Times Square Angel at Theater for the New City. Other credits include the world premiere of Who’s Holiday! at the Westside Theater, Carmen Pelaez’s Rum & Coke, Douglas Carter Beane’s The Cartells, Joe Godfrey’s Romance Language, and regional productions of Paul Rudnick’s I Hate Hamlet, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, My Fair Lady, and Crush the Infamous Thing – The Adventures of the Hollywood Four. Mr. Andress staged the New York concert premieres of The Visit, A Wonderful Life, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, and Valley of the Dolls, all to benefit The Actors Fund. He has also directed such productions as Tenderloin, Harold & Maude, I Love My Wife,and The Mad Show for the York Theatre’s “Musicals in Mufti” series, as well as Here’s to the Girls! and Being Comden & Green for the 92Y’s “Lyrics and Lyricists” series. He has also produced and directed many industry and developmental readings, plus events and galas for such organizations as The Vineyard Theater, Primary Stages, The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, Literacy Partners, the NFFR, and Broadway on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, among others. Upcoming projects include the world premiere of Carmen Pelaez’s FAKE at Miami New Drama and the New York premiere of Still at Risk by Tim Pinckney at Theater for the New City. Carlandress.com
Charles Busch says, “If you have never seen a Greta Garbo film and want to know what all the hubbub is about, check out this sumptuous adaptation of the classic Dumas tale about a tragic 19th century courtesan and her self-sacrifice. Directed impeccably by George Cukor, it’s 1930s MGM at it’s most opulent and fatalistically sentimental or sentimentally fatalistic. Garbo, who can at times be frustratingly sonombulistic and mannered is in this film energized and remarkably contemporary. She has a lightness and wit and imbues a sense of irony in every scene. Everything that Garbo is noted for—her androgynous nature, her erotic dominance over her male co-star (in this case, an impossibly beautiful young Robert Taylor), her enigmatic glamour—is all expressed here.
I’ll go as far as to say that it’s one of the greatest film performances in classic Hollywood cinema. Garbo was nominated for a Oscar for her role as Marguerite Gautier and really should have won. The film succeeds on so many levels but as a tragic love story it’s incredibly moving. If you’ve never seen Garbo in Camille, you have a real treat in store.” If you don't have access to this film, it's available to rent on YouTube and Amazon. CLICK HERE TO WATCH CAMILLE.
HOWARD McGILLIN played Blackie Lambert in The Confession of Lily Dare. He played a record-setting title role in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Other Broadways performances include Gigi, The Kiss Of The Spider Woman, She Loves Me, The Secret Garden, Anything Goes (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony, Drama Desk nominations, Theatre World Award), and Sunday in the Park with George. London: Mack and Mabel, Anything Goes. Bounce (Sondheim/Weidman/Prince), Goodman Theatre and Kennedy Center (Helen Hayes nomination). Drama Desk nomination: NY Shakespeare Festival's La Bohème.
Charles Busch says, “Ronald Colman and Greer Garson had two of the most beautiful speaking voices in the movies. I have a great fondness for both of them. I suppose Greer Garson is something of an acquired taste. She has a marvelous, expansive womanliness that is redolent of the great actresses of the early Twentieth Century. I’ve always imagined her playing Shaw’s "Candida."
This movie is based on a novel by James Hilton and the plot just keeps going. It’s a wonderful story. Colman is a British aristocrat who suffers from amnesia after being wounded in WWI. He escapes from an insane asylum and begins a new life with a lovely music hall performer played by Greer Garson. On his first trip away from her, he’s hit by a taxi and suddenly has total recall of his previous life… but no longer remembers Greer! I don’t want to give away any more, but it’s so romantic and heartbreaking. But with a rare happy ending!
There’s an achingly sensitive performance by a young actress, Susan Peters, who was nominated for an Oscar for this movie. Shortly afterwards, she was in a hunting accident and became paralyzed below the waist. She died a few years later. Her presence haunts the film.
Part of my fondness for this movie is that I remember watching it as a child with my father, who loved romantic tearjerkers. He was one of those resolutely heterosexual men who had somewhat recherché tastes. There was a period after my mother died when we had a live-in housekeeper. I had to give up my bedroom, and since my father was at work all day and out all night (he cut quite a swath through "Parents Without Partners"), twin beds were moved into my parent's room and that’s where I slept. My father would come home from boffing a stewardess or a brittle divorcee and would turn on the Late Show and I’d be wide awake. Who could sleep through Random Harvest? He was a completely permissive parent, and this was a golden time for me to spend with a charismatic father who seemed more like a fun and affectionate visiting celebrity. Random Harvest was his favorite movie.” If you don't have access to this film, it's available to rent on YouTube and Amazon. CLICK HERE TO WATCH RANDOM HARVEST.
CHARLES BUSCH is the playwright of and played Lily Dare in The Confessions of Lily Dare. He is the author and star of such plays as The Divine Sister, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset, The Tribute Artist, and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest running plays in the history of Off-Broadway. His play The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife ran for 777 performances on Broadway, won the Outer Critics Circle's John L. Gassner Award for playwriting, received a Tony nomination for Best Play, and is the longest running Broadway comedy of the past twenty-five years. He wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays Psycho Beach Party and Die! Mommie Die!, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. For two seasons, he appeared as Nat Ginzburg on the HBO series "OZ" and is the author of the auto-biographical novel Whores of Lost Atlantis. He has directed two films; the Showtime short subject Personal Assistant and a feature, A Very Serious Person, which won an honorable mention at the Tribeca Film Festival. Due to his love and knowledge of film and theatre history, he has appeared as a guest programmer and in numerous documentaries for Turner Classic Movies, and has lectured and conducted master classes at many colleges and universities including NYU, Harvard, UCLA, and Amherst College. In 2003, Mr. Busch received a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright, and was given a star on the Playwrights Walk outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre. He is also the subject of the acclaimed documentary film The Lady in Question is Charles Busch. He is a two-time MAC award winner and has performed his cabaret act in many cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Barcelona, and in New York at Feinstein’s 54 Below. In winter of 2016, his show The Lady at the Mic premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. His first CD, Charles Busch Live at Feinstein’s 54 Below, has just been released by Broadwayrecords. Charlesbusch.com