Ava was a stunning beautiful woman,i think she looked the most beautiful in Showboat but there are so many other instances where she just stands out for her beauty. Interesting thing about Showboat was her singing voice was dubbed in the movie but her actual voice was used on the soundtrack album, her voice is good on the soundtrack so i cannot understand why she was dubbed in the movie.
Will have to watch Judge Roy Bean again, haven't seen it since the 70s.
A bit of a side note. I was reading something about "old" movie starlets the other day which led me down rabbit-hole over a few hours (pissing down rain all week in lockdown.... so good to while the time away).....
I looked up wikipedia pages of a load of these actresses from the 30's 40's, 50'.......
Ava Gardner
Lana Turner
Judy Garland
Jean Harlow
Vivien Leigh..
and a few others.
That said, what struck me is that most (pretty much all...) had enormous issues in their lives - be it booze, drugs, mental illness, "physical" illnesses, various tragedies (eg murders - Lana Turner's dad was murdered - unsolved - and her daughter stabbed an ex boyfriend/stalker who died right in front of her). Further to that - they all made millions for their studios but most had financial hardships, and died without much to their name.
Apart from Harlow (who died in her 20's), all of them had multiple husbands and relationships. Eg think Turner had 6 husbands... and many other relationships.. And - pretty much all of them were "forced" to change their names, using more suitable names in the eyes of the studios to best portray "glamour".
Struck me that their lives, while seemingly glamourous, were anything but. The movie "machine" squeezed every ounce out of them, but also didn't truly take care of them, while others took advantage of them (agents and the like), milking them for money. And while not in print that i read, I could only imagine the "casting couch" expectations on these women... and so many others who may never have "made it".
You guys might have known this already. I've never really watched much of "the golden years of hollywood" movies... But I'm intrigued by it all and keen to watch some of these movies now. And perhaps remember these big names for what they did best - on screen. Sadly though - what they did best was at an enormous price.