Aerial Daredevils

Among the many novels of William Faulkner, Pylon is less well known today than some of the author’s more critically acclaimed works such as The Sound and the Fury, Intruder in the Dust and The Reivers (a 1962 Pulitzer Prize winner). Yet, the novel, dismissed by most critics of its era as a tawdry melodrama, is a deeply personal work, reflecting Faulkner’s keen interest in flying while including autobiographical details from his own life. The 1957 film adaptation of Pylon entitled The Tarnished Angels and directed by Douglas Sirk was also unfairly dismissed by critics at the time with one reviewer calling it “…cheaply written…abominably played…and absurd” while another panned it as “mostly colorless…and lacking in punch.” Most surprisingly, The Tarnished Angels reunited three of the main actors from Sirk’s Academy Award nominated Written on the Wind from the previous year – Rock Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone (who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) – but it was completely ignored by the Academy even though the movie is much more highly regarded now.

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Like Moths to a Flame

A publicity photo of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in the 1931 melodrama POSSESSED.

It was just the sort of rags-to-riches tale audiences craved during the Depression era. A working class woman with a shady past finds romance with a high society lawyer running for political office. There’s one major obstacle to their happiness though – he’s married. But Possessed (1931) is less about the road to a bright future for these star-crossed lovers than the on-screen sexual chemistry between the two stars – Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. It was their third film together but it was the first time the duo truly clicked with audiences as a screen couple.

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