Where is Norma Shearer?! (1 Viewer)

[Kate*H]

I can't believe with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Greta Garbo all getting box set releases this year, the only major release of Norma Shearer's is The Women! I think it's a shame.
If I had my way, all of her movies would be released on dvd, but since I know I can't, I'd settle for two box sets, one of her pre-code movies, and another of her later movies, such as Marie Antionette and Smilin' Through.
The Queen of the MGM lot should be treated better than this.

 

[Amy Mormino]

The Pre-Code box set, which was announced by Warners in the chat, could have some of her early movies. This would be especially true if they use Mick LaSalle as an expert. He wrote two books on Pre-Code Hollywood that are very good. He loves Norma, especally in her Pre-Code films.

A Shearer box set about her later films would also be quite welcome. Perhaps with Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette movie, we can get Shearer's version.

 

[Charles Ellis]

I hope so- Marie Antionette is probably the most lavish (and epic) B/W film from the Golden Age. What a cast: Robert Morley in his film debut as Louis XVI, John Barrymore as Louis XV, Gladys George as Mme. DuBarry, and Tyrone Power as Count Axel Fersen, the Swedish diplomat said to be Marie Antionette's great love.

Tyrone's presence in the film is quite something as it was the only time 20th Cenury-Fox loaned him out to another studio.

The problem with Norma Shearer, like Constance Bennett and Kay Francis, is that she peaked in the early 30s and isn't that well-remembered as say, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Katahrine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Olivia deHavilland- actresses who careers lated for decades and whose films endure with succeeding generations. Norma retired in '42, and she became something of a recluse. Interestingly enough, Greta Garbo left the scene at the same time and yet her name was in the papers and still on peoples' lips for decades to come.

Norma is in need of a major rediscovery, like Anna May Wong had last year with a new bio and the rerelease of some of her films. Remember the 11th-hour rediscovery of Louise Brooks late in her life?

I think Turner Classic Movies should do a documentary that will do justice to her as they did for Marion Davies a few years back. After all, if they could do one on Irving Thalberg, why not one one his equally famous wife?

For a DVD box set:

The Divorcee
Escape
A Free Soul
Marie Antionette
The Barretts Of Wimpole Street
The Women

 

[Garysb]

I would add Idiot's Delight to the box set

 

[RafaelPires]

I would also include Romeo and Juliet.