It’s Miriam Hopkins’ birthday today. A famous scene-stealer, her film career was relatively short, but she appeared in some drop-dead classics. There hasn’t been a lot of ink spilled on her, although her fan base is pretty solid. She appeared in one of the greatest films of all time (The Heiress, which she had also done in the theatre, albeit in the lead role), as well as the super-sexy Design for Living, a favorite, about a bohemian menage a trois between Hopkins, Gary Cooper and Fredric March. I mean, are you KIDDING me? Sign me up!
She’s a vision of luscious naked (literally) bed-rumpled availability in 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Her swinging leg gets its own closeup (and is also a Gif, all on its own). It was 1931. Pre-Code randiness, presented without euphemism.
She really GOES for it, one of her distinguishing characteristics as an actress. She did NOTHING halfway. Comedy, sex, tragedy – she THREW herself into whatever was necessary.
It was a great pleasure to write about Hopkins’ career for Film Comment, focusing on two of her lesser known films.
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It’s also your blogaversary, sweet Sheila! CONGRATULATIONS!! Your blog is also dressed in champagne satin! Love you! XOXO Stevie
LOVE YOU.
well after that description (and gif) of Design for Living I HAD to find it and holy MOLY. I need, like, medical attention, that was so sexy, I am not okay. Talk about chemistry and easy physicality! Everyone a delight. The way Cooper LEANED OVER Hopkins’s head to watch her kiss March! And I had to rewind three times to revel in the existential exhaustion with which Hopkins says “Is it animal, vegetable, or mineral?” Thank you for mentioning it, I can already tell it’ll become a long-term favourite.
Funnily enough I just finished P. Highsmith’s A Game for the Living, which has a slightly more fraught two-friends-and-the-woman-they-love scenario. Completely different story there but I spent the whole read wishing I had the book in which those three had found exactly what you imagine Hopkins, March, and Cooper find at the end of their taxi ride here. What a trio!
Jessie! Yay!! Isn’t it just something else??
// I need, like, medical attention, // hahaha
It’s to die for. They’re all just so ATTRACTIVE, and you get sucked into their good-natured camaraderie – until the normal world falls away like: why SHOULD they have to choose? Why CAN’T they keep on going in this way? It’s so subversive, I absolutely love it.
And huh – I have never read A Game for the Living – it sounds fascinating.
I didn’t love A Game for the Living, to be honest. It’s an interesting set-up, with the love triangle in which everyone loves everyone, but it’s poised awkwardly between mystery and character drama without committing to either, so it reads rather flat. I definitely prefer Design for Living. I am still recovering. They are so hot, and they are so clearly heading off into a life of polyamorous bliss. Wonderful.
// I am still recovering. They are so hot, and they are so clearly heading off into a life of polyamorous bliss. //
Ha!! I know! It’s really the best of all worlds. Hard to believe they even got away with it. It’d be hard to get away with it NOW.
I recently watched 1951’s “The Mating Season” (the things I do for Thelma Ritter…), a real snooze of a film — that is, until Hopkins shows up as the whirling dervish of a mother-in-law. Definitely a “who is THAT?” kind of moment, the way she just took over the picture.
Don’t think I’ve seen her in anything else yet, so I’ll have to look up some of the leading roles you mention!
// the things I do for Thelma Ritter //
Ha! A very worthy cause.
Miriam Hopkins definitely has a way of taking over! I’d suggest Design for Living, for sure – and one I didn’t mention but is a must see – Temple Drake – a WILD pre-Code – Criterion released it maybe 2 years ago? Also, The Heiress – she had played the lead role on Broadway, and then took the secondary role in the film – but she’s excellent.