Ava Gardner Movies: 55 Days to Peking

Have you ever seen that movie, Under the Tuscan Sun where Diane Lane goes dancing around in water fountains?

I have always fantasized about being that kinda girl.

I am in the middle of reading classic actress Ava Gardner’s biography, Love is Nothing, which I highly recommend. Out of all the screen sirens, none seem like real-life tigers the way that Ava did. Indeed her real-life seems to outdo her screen life, which is saying something!

My favorite scene in I Love Lucy is when they are at the Brown Derby and "She may be people but she isn't like you and me!"

Classic Actress Ava Gardner, the Toreador?

Classic movie actor Charlton Heston wrote in his biography that during the filming of 55 Days to Peking, Ava was a bit of a tyrant. By the time filming was completed, everyone was ready to say fond farewells to this hurricane of a woman. But at a dinner several months later, with the strains of working together shed, he said it was the worst behavior he had ever seen by a professional colleague. 

But my favorite part is his farewell image of Ava. 

"Exiting the party just behind her, he caught a last, exemplary glimpse of his costar in the Madrid street, beautiful and alone standing in traffic, looking for a taxi, she had taken up the pose of a matador and was making vernica passes with her red evening cape as the cars rushed by. 'It was unforgettable, wrote Heston. 'My most vivid memory of that extraordinary lady.'"

A dark-haired siren waving her cape around like the toreadors she so loved and dated in Spain. Now that is a beautiful image, and something we should all channel. 

more golden era of hollywood inspiration -- right this way!