Ava Gardner #1

[nmyngan]

snap

 

[scriptgirl]

N, thank you! I think I am better at finding rarer ava pics this time around!

fanpix

 

[nmyngan]

that's a good news for this thread's audiences and i adore your rare pics so much, like the pic above, the first time i saw it here, and you are the one who posted it, i think it's so rare pic, and this second time i see it, i still think it's a rare pic

priceminister

 

[nmyngan]

zuma

 

[nmyngan]

gettyimages

 

[scriptgirl]

N, thank you so much! Your kind words mean a lot!

ebay

 

[scriptgirl]

ebay

 

[scriptgirl]

ebay

 

[scriptgirl]

Love Goddess Info

The orthodox assessment of Ava Gardner is that she was an undistinguished actress who happened to be a great beauty. This does not do justice to her acting. It does not do justice to her beauty either!
Ava was never given the type of roles that bestow respectability upon an actress; nor did she appear in films that win awards and critical admiration. Ava worked in the salt mines of the movie industry; in melodramas, historical romances and safari movies, in crime films and westerns: movies that film critics affect to despise. However, although film critics were reluctant to show enthusiasm for Ava or her movies, cinema-goers had no such inhibitions.
She was born Ava Lavinia Gardner in Grabtown, North Carolina in 1922 into a large family of very modest circumstances, and grew up happily, without ambitions or pretensions, in a very straight-laced environment.
An older sister had married a New York photographer who took some pictures of Ava when she visited them in 1941. He deposited the photos with the New York office of MGM who were so impressed that they invited Ava to make a screen test. MGM were delighted with the results of Ava's test but alarmed by her North Carolina accent, and sent a silent print to Hollywood. MGM Hollywood took one look at the test and instructed their East Coast office to send Ava out to California.
Ava had not struggled to gate-crash the movies, but she did struggle to make progress. To MGM, she was just another good-looking starlet, suitable for pin-up photographs, walk-on parts and little else. In her first few years in Hollywood, Ava posed for hundreds of pin-up photographs which concentrated on her body and legs, and not her face. In her autobiography "My Story" Ava refers to these pictures as "leg art", and there is little in them to distinguish her from other young actresses posing for similar photographs. What seems remarkable today is that MGM did not notice that it was Ava's face which set her apart from other Hollywood hopefuls, not her legs and body.

 

[scriptgirl]

Love Goddess Info

MGM may have been oblivious to Ava's very individual beauty, but others were not. Twice Ava married famous men for brief periods, first Micky Rooney and later Artie Shaw, and it seems both men behaved as they did in some of their other unsuccessful marriages.
Ava's beauty had been noted professionally too. In 1946, five years after she arrived in Hollywood, she was loaned out to United Artists for "Whistle Stop", a cheap programmer starring George Raft which gave Ava her first leading role. That same year, Universal also requested her services for "The Killers", a stylish thriller which holds up well today despite being adapted from an absurdly implausible short story. (Two professional killers arrive in a small town to murder some-one. They draw attention to themselves, even announce their intentions, and make sure that everyone has a chance to memorise their faces!) Ava played the duplicitous Kitty Collins, and was given a now forgotten song to sing, "The More I Know Of Love". In contrast to what came later in her career, Ava's own singing voice was used. Ava was very persuasive in her role and received good notices. Now MGM woke up, and the dye was cast. Ava Gardner would no longer be given walk-on parts.
Clearly impressed by Ava's work in "The Killers", MGM cast her again as a singer, opposite Clark Gable in "The Hucksters". This time, however, Ava's own singing voice was not used. Eileen Wilson dubbed for her.
Ava's publicity photographs changed to reflect her roles in both "The Killers" and "The Hucksters". Previously she had usually been pictured in swim-suits in broad daylight, but now she was photographed in darkened interiors wearing tight-fitting cocktail dresses. Her pin-up pictures also moved indoors. Frequently she was photographed in black underwear instead of swim suits, normally leaning decorously against a pillar, a looking glass or a cocktail bar. Ava's publicity pictures were to evolve still further after her next movie.

 

[scriptgirl]

Love Goddess Info

Universal borrowed her again for the leading role in "One Touch Of Venus", an uninspired screen version of a hit Broadway musical. Ava conveyed perfectly the liveliness of the liberated Venus, a statue that comes to life when kissed by an inebriated shop-worker (Robert Walker). Franz Planer, one of only two cinematographers sanctioned by Audrey Hepburn - the other was Charles Lang - brought out for the first time the majestic nature of Ava's beauty. In previous movies Ava had been presented as a slinky glamour girl, but Planer revealed that her beauty was of a higher order.
Planer's work had great influence on how Ava would be perceived. From now on Ava's publicity pictures concentrated on her face, and care was taken to light it expressively. Famous photographers throughout the world, including many who did not usually work with movie stars, were now eager to photograph her, and quickly Ava achieved international recognition as a great beauty.
MGM however still did not regard Ava as anything special. Instead of creating roles which would show Ava to advantage, they continued to give her routine parts in movies that are rarely screened today and have yet to be issued on DVD.
(Ava was not the only actress to suffer in this way. The careers of MGM colleagues like Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh, Grace Kelly and Cyd Charisse indicate that by the late 1940s, MGM had forgotten that box-office dividends could be gained by creating for actresses roles that would capitalise on their strengths and highlight their individuality. In the 1930s MGM had been aware of this, and had created roles specifically for female stars as diverse as Myrna Loy, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow and Norma Shearer. Significantly, Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Ava herself made their most successful and memorable films away from MGM.)

 

[scriptgirl]

Love Goddess Info

In 1948 Ava began a stormy and very public relationship with a married man. Already a controversial figure and an incorrigible philanderer, he was egocentric, volatile and undisciplined. He was also extremely talented. His name was Frank Sinatra.
At the beginning of his relationship with Ava, Sinatra's career had dipped for a variety of reasons, but the press was still following him closely. By now Sinatra had proved conclusively that he was nothing like his public image of a shy, romantic dreamer leading a quiet family life, and the press knew that spreading gossip about him would sell newspapers and magazines. As Ava was never one to hide her light under a bushel, there was little chance their relationship would proceed discreetly. The press was not alone in taking an interest. The Catholic Church decided this was a matter for them, and denounced both parties. (Sinatra and his wife were Catholics.) Some members of the church instructed their flock to boycott Sinatra's records and Ava's movies. Sinatra was vulnerable and his record sales plummeted, but Ava's career was blossoming and she suffered little damage. At first, however, there was concern in Hollywood about the impact on her career, and this too was exploited by the media. "Can Ava survive the Sinatra scandal?" asked "Screen Stars" on its front cover.
She could indeed, and this was demonstrated by other studios continuing to request her services. RKO borrowed her for "My Forbidden Past" opposite two of Hollywood's finest: Melvyn Douglas and Robert Mitchum. Ava held her own in such elevated company, playing the mischievous and amoral Barbara, who inherits a fortune and uses it to try to break up the marriage of the man she loves. Director Robert Stevenson and cinematographer Harry Wild - Jane Russell's favourite - subjected Ava to an onslaught of searching close-ups, and she did not falter in any of them. In each the audience knows what Barbara is thinking, in each the audience notices that Ava is exceptionally beautiful. It may not have been acting with a capital A, and it was not the kind of acting that wins awards, but it was more than good enough to make the movie work.
Ava's unforced style of acting was not appreciated by critics who, throughout the '40s and '50s acknowledged acting talent in good-looking actresses only if they were lady-like or child-like. (Deborah Kerr and Grace Kelly in one camp and Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn in the other were never slighted by critics in the way Ava, Linda Darnell and Elizabeth Taylor were.) In addition the Sinatra publicity and Ava's still growing beauty distracted attention away from her work while nevertheless strengthening her box-office potency and making her more attractive to producers.
Ava was now frequently cast in roles where outstanding beauty was required. For example, in "Pandora And The Flying Dutchman" she played a woman with whom various men fall in love and who sacrifices herself for a sailor who is three hundred years old and cannot die! (Ava's co-star James Mason, in a sober autobiography containing neither malice nor generosity, allowed himself the book's one passage of fulsome praise: "Jack Cardiff was the cameraman and he did a great job. He gave us Ava Gardner on the crest of her great beauty. For some spectators no doubt the slow pace of the sequences in which she appeared was not unwelcome.")
In that same year, 1951, Ava and Sinatra were married, but as Ava admits in "My Story", this did not bring trust or tranquility to their relationship. However, the tide was turning for Ava's career, and she was at last given substantial parts in major productions, both at MGM and on loan-out. In the early 1950s Ava made five films which stand the test of time, and which show that Ava was not only a magnificent screen presence but also a capable actress.
In "Showboat" Ava very persuasively played the tragic half-caste Julie, and once again MGM refused to use her singing voice. However Ava's own voice had to be used on the soundtrack album, and this revealed that MGM's judgement was severely faulty. (On the Rhino CD of "Showboat", listeners can hear both versions of "Bill" and "Can't Help Loving That Man", and for many Ava's performances are not only acceptable, but are actually superior.)
20th Century Fox borrowed Ava for "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro", her second Hemingway movie. Ava was excellent as a self-assured and liberated woman, and fully conveyed the personality of the character. Back at MGM Ava played a different kind of independent woman in "Mogambo", a film that was dismissed by critics, despite being hugely entertaining. The contrast between Ava's freewheeling showgirl and Grace Kelly's sexual hypocrite is particularly enjoyable, partly, it must be said, because Grace Kelly was superb.
United Artists borrowed Ava for "The Barefoot Contessa", which was ahead of its time in making the heroine's sex drive the pivot of the plot. Writer/director Joseph Mankiewicz created a story of a Spanish slum girl who is taken to Hollywood, becomes a movie star, yet remains unimpressed by success and stardom. While indulging her sexual appetite secretly, she spurns the offers of jet set wolves, sensing that romantic fulfillment lies elsewhere. Eventually she meets her Prince Charming and marries him, but fate has a cruel joke in store. Again photographed lustrously by Jack Cardiff, Ava gave an excellent performance, radiating vibrancy and beauty while fully bringing out the conflicts felt by Maria. It is difficult to imagine any other actress embodying the role so convincingly. (When, in August 1982, Joseph Mankiewicz discussed his career at London's National Film Theatre, he was defensive about "The Barefoot Contessa", and emphasised that censorship had forced him to be circumspect in his delineation of Maria's sex drive. He seemed to feel the film did not work properly, and insisted that if he had made the movie twenty-five years later, a better film would have resulted. In fact, Mankiewicz was right when he made the film and wrong when he reminisced. The discreet approach works perfectly, and most members of the audience grasp what is involved. Today's blatancy would not serve the subject well.)
MGM then gave Ava the role of Victoria Jones, another half-caste, in "Bhowani Junction", set in India during the last days of the British Empire. Once again, Ava's unshowy brand of acting revealed to the audience her character's inner turmoil.
By now Ava was established as big star who appeared in large-budget, Cinemascope, colour productions shot on location with top directors like John Ford, George Cukor and Henry King. Cinema-goers responded by acknowledging that Ava was a more than adequate actress as well as being awesomely beautiful, and Ava became in the mid-1950s a major box-office attraction. However she did not achieve recognition from the critical establishment which continued for the rest of Ava's career to insist that she was merely a glamorous screen presence. They were supported in this by scandal and gossip magazines which delighted in printing stories that Ava was unhappy and was desperately searching for elusive fulfillment. Ignoring the fact that Ava had dumped Sinatra, they wrote routinely that she was pining for him. There were constant references to excessive drinking, although there was no deterioration in her looks to give credibility to such stories. On the contrary, in the mid and late 1950s, Ava became a byword in beauty, a yardstick by which other actresses were judged.

 

[scriptgirl]

Love Goddess Info

Ava's contract with MGM expired in 1957, and Ava decided to leave Hollywood and live in Spain. For gossip columnists this was evidence that something must be wrong, and for the next ten years or so, their standard line was to suggest that whatever Ava did, be it a new romance, foreign travel or a film, was merely to blot out inner torment.
Ava had always insisted that she made films only for money ("for the loot, honey, for the loot"), and for the rest of her career she made movies only intermittently, sometimes in big budget movies like "On The Beach" and sometimes in third rate productions with fifth rate directors. When she worked with a capable director she gave excellent performances, as in "The Sun Also Rises", her third Hemingway movie.
As middle-age caught up with Ava, she moved from Spain and settled in London where she lived in Ennismore Gardens, a very prestigious address, until her death in January 1990, shortly after her sixty-eighth birthday.
It is regrettable that the consensus view of Ava Gardner still ignores the evidence of her movies, and is based on an unquestioning acceptance of inaccurate media clichés. Fortunately DVDs last longer than newspapers, and with the passage of time new generations will grow up unaware of media orthodoxy. Then at last there will be a re-assessment of Ava Gardner and her work.

 

[scriptgirl]

Ebay

 

[scriptgirl]

magnum

 

[nmyngan]

^ lovely smile

everett

 

[scriptgirl]

picture desk

 

[nmyngan]

ebay

 

[scriptgirl]

Lovely! Have you seen "The Killers" N? If not, please do. It is one of Ava's best.

ebay

 

[nmyngan]

thank for your recommendation, i will try to search for it online. There's no appearance of Ava's movie in my area
It's damn hard to me to find new Ava's pic now.

ebay