The Office Wife (1930)

This was a very good movie, with a fantastic cast, but like always Natalie had too little screen time, but believe me, she made the most of it. But what a cast, it stars the extremely beautiful Dorothy MacKaill, the always great Lewis Stone, Joan Blondell, and of course Natalie Moorhead. This story is about Lewis Stone who runs a business(I’m not sure what it was) who has a secretary who falls in love with him, as does he with her, but he is married, well I think you know how this goes, so no need to go into it any further. Dorothy plays the secretary, let me just say it’s hard not to keep your eyes on her and concentrate on the story, wow she was so beautiful and just a lot of fun, it’s a shame she didn’t have a longer career in the talkies, an absolute tragedy. Oh, no she didn’t die young, she passed away in 1990 at the young age of 87, if you ever get a chance to catch one of her movies do so, you won’t be disappointed. As for Natalie she played the unfaithful, yet understanding wife of Lewis Stone, she doesn’t love him anymore, neither did he love her, so they talked about it and they agree to get a divorce, no fighting, just perfect understanding, ha, only in Hollywood. Let me just state a fact, Natalie never looked better, she was stunning, just perfect, I don’t know about her acting here, I wasn’t paying attention. To be on the serious side, the scene with her and Lewis when they discuss the divorce was well done, kind of a sweet scene. I do have one complaint, what was with Natalie’s bathing suit in the one scene, what year is this, that was about the most unattractive outfit I have ever seen, it looked like something out of the 1910’s, very disappointing. Seriously though, this was a fun movie, very predictable, but fun, and that’s all I ask for.

The Runaway Bride (1930)

Disappointment, that’s it, just a big disappointment. When I saw that this movie stared Mary Astor, and that Natalie Moorhead had a bigger role, I thought this is going to be great, oh was I wrong. I love Mary Astor, one of my all time favorites, but this was bad just bad. First lets get the basic story over with, it was about Mary who went to elope with her fiancé, but before they get married they find out they don’t agree on a lot of things and maybe they shouldn’t get married. The guys leaves the apartment for a second and crook running from the cops jumps through the window and gets shot just as he shoots the cop. Mary freaks out and runs away, the police think she did it, she hides out a rich guys house, soon they fall in love , and well I think you get the idea. It’s a pretty lame story, but the acting was awful, the dialogue was rough and at times there were pauses between lines, like they had to think about it before they said it. They only real good acting was when Mary was kidnapped by the crooks, she did a great job of freaking out. As for Natalie Moorhead, she played one of the crooks who helps frame Mary. I’m not being bias, but I thought she did great, at first she was a maid in the apartment, being real dumb and slow, but that was all fake, then we see her for real as the moll, a real crooked woman, I thought she was the only shining part of this terrible movie.

I Take This Woman (1940)

I wanted to see this movie for Verree Teasdale, in my opinion she is probably the best actress to never become a star, heck, she rarely had a leading role, but she stole every movie she was in and this movie is a prime example. Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr are the stars here, yet I challenge anyone to argue that they were better than Verree. But what to my surprise, in the scene towards the beginning when Hedy goes back to her old modeling place to talk to Verree, is miss Natalie Moorhead, working in the store, and she even gets a few lines. Wow, I didn’t know she was in this movie when I saw it in September, I think this may have been the moment I decided to start my research. This is from the rare time when she became a brunette, blonde or brunette she is always gorgeous to me.

Letter of Introduction (1938)

Not much to say about this movie, I really enjoyed it, but Natalie had a very small role. The story is about a father and daughter who never met, the father is a Broadway star, and the daughter is hoping to get on Broadway. The father is planning to get married to his forth wife, when is long lost daughter shows up, they both try to hide from others who they are, and his wife to be thinks he’s cheating on her. Natalie small role is of a woman who sees the father and daughter having dinner together and she calls the wife to be to tell her what’s going on. Not much, only a few seconds, but it was worth it, Natalie was a brunette this time, not the platinum blonde she always was, kind of a shock, but she was still very beautiful, it’s a shame she couldn’t have more scenes, but this is towards to end of her career. The great Adophe Menjou plays the father, Eve Arden has a small role, and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy have a small role, other than that, the others in the picture are new to me.

Shadow of the Law (1930)

Finally I get another movie with Natalie Moorhead as a main character, and yet she is not in the movie enough, but like always she made the best of what she had. This movie’s only real star is the great William Powell, and you can’t go wrong with him. The basic plot is William Powell is an engineer whose apartment is invaded by a woman (Natalie Moorhead) from an upstairs apartment, who is running away from a drunken man and he tries to protect her and fights the man, who accidentally falls out the window to his death. The man was angry with Natalie because he saw her with William who as the movie starts must have been out together earlier that night. The woman disappears, and she is William’s only witness, and he is sent to jail. He escapes jail and soon becomes the manager of a textile mill. He has been trying to find Natalie so he can be cleared and be set free and not in hiding, and marry the mill owner’s daughter. When he finds Natalie she tries to blackmail him, but of course we get a happy ending. Natalie does a great job in the early scenes, and we are lead to believe she is innocent. But when she is first confronted about coming clean about the accident, you can tell she is lying, the whole thing as a set up. It’s hard to hate her, but she seems to always play a villain, how can you root against this beautiful woman.

Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931)

Oh this was great fun, just a typical crazy, funny Buster Keaton movie, with a fantastic cast. First of course is the always funny Buster Keaton, then you got Reginald Denny, he is always great, he’s been is some of my favorite movies like “Kiki” and “Madam Satan”. Then throw in the funny and beautiful Sally Eilers, Joan Peers, Dorothy Christy and of course Natalie Moorhead. Natalie has a small part, as one of the women supposedly in love with Buster Keaton. The basic plot is Reginald Denny and Sally Eilers want to get married but they can’t until Sally’s older sister(Dorothy Christy) gets married, Reginald finds this shy guy(Buster) and tries to make him out to be this great ladies man, and Dorothy quickly falls for him. Natalie comes into the picture after reading the lies in the papers saying her and Buster were seen together at a club, and to prove Buster is not the guy Dorothy thinks he is. All kinds of typical Buster Keaton stuff happens, a lot of fun slap stick stuff, just an all out riot. I love the scene in the hotel room where after Buster gets lessons on how to make love to a women, he tries it out on every woman who comes into the room, great stuff! Be sure to check this movie out, you won’t stop laughing for a minute.









The whole movie can be seen on the web at this link
http://www.archive.org/details/ParlorBedroomandBath

Natalie Moorhead cheesecake photo

Why do they call these old swimsuit photos cheesecake photos, I don’t get it? Where did that name come from? I purchased this really great book last year called “Hollywood Cheesecake” by Madison Lacy and Don Morgan, which has hundreds of great cheesecake photos from the 20’s to the 50’s, some really great shots of some of Hollywood’s most beautiful woman. It’s fun to see how the bathing suits changed from the 20’s to the bikinis of the 50’s to present day, what people used to think was revealing, women wear everyday now, oh how times change. But of course on page 119 there she is, Natalie Moorhead, sadly a small photo, I would love to see the real 8x10, what a beautiful woman, oh and she was a great actress too.