Showing posts with label goldie hawn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goldie hawn. Show all posts

13 Aug 2021

In Memory of Una Stubbs


 Una Stubbs (1937-2021)
Dancer, actress, TV personality, and real cool cat
 
 
I didn't know Una Stubbs personally. 
 
And, to be honest, I don't really know a great deal about her, apart from the fact that she was one of those women who always made me happy whenever I saw her on screen; not just as Aunt Sally, in Worzel Gummidge, or clowing about with Lionel Blair on Give Us a Clue (before being replaced by Liza Goddard as a team captain), but even as far back as those black and white days of childhood when she played the lovely Rita Rawlings, in Till Death Us Do Part.  
 
The fact that Una was also the face of Dairy Box in 1958-59 and often referred to herself even in later life as the Rowntree's Chocolate Girl, only makes me love her more ... 
 
Originally launched in 1936, Rowntree's was looking to re-market Dairy Box in a manner that might appeal to the hip young things of the new jazz and pop age of the late 1950s, which was then thriving in the bars, clubs, and coffee shops of Soho. 
 
And who better to front such a campaign than 21-year-old dancer Una Stubbs, fresh from appearing on the TV show Cool for Cats. As the kids groove to the latest sounds of skiffle, Una delights in the soft centres: click here
 
It's a charming ad and makes one think that Una could possibly have been our Goldie Hawn, if only a film producer had recognised her zany comic potential and exploited it in full.          
 
 

29 Aug 2020

Why I Love Goldie Hawn



Goldie Hawn as Gloria, Judy, Helen and Gwen


There are some movie stars who seem to have been around for ever and who have irritated me all my life; actors who have been in the business for fifty years plus and just will not quit and will not die. On the other hand, there are some actors who have had equally long careers, but who have always made happy and for whom one feels a special affection having, as it were, grown up with them. And Goldie Hawn belongs in this latter category ...

Maybe because I have a thing for beautiful Jewish women - particularly beautiful Jewish women who are also very funny - I'm always pleased to see Miss Hawn on screen and there are at least four of her films that I will watch whenever they are shown on TV:

Foul Play (dir. Colin Higgins, 1978); a romantic comedy thriller that pays homage to Hitchcock, starring Goldie as Gloria Mundy, a sexy-but-shy recently divorced librarian unwittingly caught up in a plot to assassinate the pope. It's not a great film: but it has some great scenes involving an albino, a dwarf, and a python. Podophiles might also like to note that Miss Hawn removes her shoes whilst climbing on to a fire escape in the rain. Click here to watch the official trailer.

Private Benjamin (dir. Howard Zieff, 1980); a rather sweet and old-fashioned comedy starring Goldie as Judy Benjamin, a 28-year-old Jewish American Princess* who decides - following the death of her husband on their wedding night - to join the US Army. Again, it's not a great film, but has some great scenes and is an excellent showcase for Hawn's comic persona and acting skills (as it is for co-star Eileen Brennan, as Capt. Doreen Lewis). Click here to watch the official trailer. 

Death Becomes Her (dir. Robert Zemeckis, 1992); a black comedy starring Goldie as Helen Sharp alongside Meryl Streep as her friend and rival Madeline Ashton; the pair drink an elixir of life - provided by Isabella Rossellini as Lisle Von Rhuman - that promises eternal youth, but which invariably leads to their downfall and destruction. Although it received mixed reviews from the critics, the film was a commercial success and has since becomes a favourite amongst the LGBT community who know a camp classic when they see one. Click here to watch the official trailer.

Housesitter (dir. Frank Oz, 1992); a screwball comedy starring Goldie as Gwen (actually, it's Jessica), an enchanting fantasist, and Steve Martin as the struggling (slightly reserved) architect Newton Davis whose life she turns upside down (in a nice way) by claiming to be his wife. Personally, I can't find anything not to love about this film (again, the critics can go fuck themselves) and whilst I'm sure Meg Ryan would've done a first rate job had she accepted the role of Gwen that she was initially offered, I'm pleased it went to Miss Hawn. Click here to watch the official trailer.


* Note: I'm aware, of course, of the pejorative and, indeed, dangerous aspect of stereotypes - not least racial and sexual stereotypes such as this one, which portrays young Jewish women from a privileged background as shallow, selfish, and slightly neurotic. Although partly constructed and popularised as a post-War stereotype by Jewish writers and comedians, it's hard to disagree with those who point out elements of both sexism and anti-Semitism. Whether Private Benjamin reinforces or satirises the stereotype is something viewers will have to decide, but it's interesting that in recent years some Jewish women have attempted to re-appropriate the term JAP and affirm it as part of their cultural identity.