Heart of Arizona (1938)

I waited a long time for this movie, and finally I got a copy and it was better than I thought. Sadly the tape was used and had seen better days, but I recently saw that it’s available now on DVD, I may have to buy it. This was probably Natalie last leading part, and probably her first in a few years. I didn’t know what to expect, she always plays beautiful women with fancy clothes, very chic, but now she was going to play a cowgirl. She really pulled it off, she was a brunette at this point, I think that helped the look, the short blonde bob probably would have looked strange in that setting. First off this is a Hopalong Cassidy movie, so Natalie isn’t the star, but I would say she was probably third on the list, a leading character. She plays Belle Star, a woman with a troubled past, trying to go straight, and raise her daughter. Hopalong Cassidy and his partner are both in love with her, but of course trouble starts when another rancher tries to frame Belle with stolen cattle. Of course there is a shoot out in the end and sadly Belle gets shot trying to save Hoppy and gang, so much for the happy ending. This was a rare movie for Natalie as she doesn’t play the villain, she is actually Hoppy’s love interest, she did a good job with a western, to bad she didn’t make more, her career could have kept going, she looks great in the western clothes. It was really interesting seeing this woman who usually plays rich beautifully dress women riding a horse, it just seemed so strange, but Natalie could do it all, I hate to repeat myself but, why wasn’t she a star?

I Want a Divorce (1940)

I watched this movie the other day, not bad, I prefer my Joan Blondell and Dick Powell in comedies, but it was still pretty good. Why do I bring this up, well I’m working on a detailed filmography for Natalie Moorhead and I found out that this movie was one of her last. Funny I don’t remember seeing her in this, so I went back and skimmed through it, I still didn’t see her. IMDB lists her has Mrs. Tyrell, I don’t remember that name even coming up, and if her character is given a name then she must been seen or at least say something, if not she would just be woman at table or something like that. Now the copy I have looks like it was recorded from TV, it looks like they skipped commercials. Maybe her quick scene was cut out by mistake, or maybe the station cut some of it in order to fit a time slot, they used to do that for TV, thank god for TCM. I guess I’ll have to sit and watch it again sometime, I have a couple of ideas where she may be, but for now lets count this with “The Women” as one of the “Where’s Natalie?” movies.

Show Girl in Hollywood (1930)

I somehow missed this on TCM when I was putting together my recording schedule for this month, but I saw in just in time to record it and I’m glad I did. It was a fun little early talkie staring the always fun Alice White, but the good part came at the end. During the last few minutes, the characters are arriving at a movie premier, and when on of the characters gets out of the car, he has two woman with him, but wait a minute, that blonde looks familiar, could it be? The blonde then says a little line, and a few minutes later we see them again sitting in the theater, it sure looks like her. So I grabbed my filmography and sure enough, it was Natalie Moorhead, in one of her first movies, it wasn’t much but a very important part of her history, and now I have over half of her 64 movies, so close yet so far away.

New information found!!

I deleted my bio post because I have found a lot of new info that changes many things. I’ve updated the quick info post and I am currently revising the bio. Many thanks to a coworker of mine for finding a copy of the 1910 census, which answered a lot of questions and created many new ones. I’ve also found a copy of the 1880 census which gives me some info on Natalie’s parents, very interesting. The best thing is finally putting and end to the question of Natalie’s age, she was born in 1901, and her real name is Morehead, not Messner. I’m extremely happy to have this info, but I’m really more interested in the years after her retirement, 1941-1992, still too many questions that need answered, if I could only find someone alive who knew her.

Manslaughter (1930)

This movie stars the beautiful Claudette Colbert and Fredric March, Fredric wasn’t great, but he will be in future movies, but Claudette was great, she is easily one of the greatest actresses of all time, she’s great in comedies and drama’s, you can’t go wrong with Claudette. Natalie have very little to do in this movie, really not much to say, she had a small part as Claudette’s friend, said a few lines and that’s it.

Marjorie Gateson

Natalie Moorhead isn’t the only actor/actress I like, there are plenty of them, but a lot of them have biographies out there, plenty of info, and some I’m just not that interested in, I just like their movies. But for some reason Natalie fascinated me, there’s something about her I just love, the same goes with Marjorie Gateson. I was watching a movie the other day with her in a bigger role than usual, and it just hit me, she’s fantastic. Like Natalie, she did plenty of movies where she had small roles, sometimes just a very quick scene, but again like Natalie she was almost always the best, over shadowing the stars, another wasted talent in Hollywood. She had a unique look, I find her very beautiful, and very talented, from serious roles to ditsy woman, always perfect, very much like the great Alice Brady. I’m thinking of starting some research on Ms Gateson, sadly she passed away in 1977, and like Natalie she wasn’t a star so info may be hard to come by. She had a long career, her first movie was in 1931 and went into TV in the 50’s until retiring in 1958. She played along side some of the biggest names, Loretta Young, Ruth Chatterton, James Cagney, Marion Davies, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Harold Lloyd, William Powell, Jean Harlow, just to name a few. I’m not sure why, but I find her fascinating, stay tune, I may start another blog.

What’s in a name? is it Messner or Moorhead??

So what is Natalie’s real last name? Everything I’ve seen says her given name is Nathalia Messner, yet her death record claims her father’s name was Moorhead and her mothers maiden name is Messner. So does that would make her father James Vincent Moorhead, but everything I have read says Messner, I don’t get it. Since her father is said to have died when Natalie was around 10 years old, maybe Natalie and her Mother switched back to her maiden name. Then when Natalie got into acting and had to chose a stage name she took her father’s name, a lot of actors back then took names from relatives, so it’s very possible. Also one little story I have claims Natalie had a sister Regina, who is this woman, is she older, younger, did she have kids, grandkids, could a relative of Natalie still be alive? I wish I can find someone who knew Natalie who can answer these questions.