07/07/2026
Dress of the Day.
Norma shearer Queen of Hollywood as well as fashion never made a false move on the carpet of any movie premiere. She had two films released almost back to back in 1932, playing three roles in two highly different films showcasing her versatility. In Eugene oneills complex strange interlude if lurid lengthy soapera strange interlude, she covered every imaginable human female emotion as Nina Leeds, a decidedly difficult woman. And in smilin through she played the distantly related Kathleen and moonyeen clare, both chaste ingenues - one Victorian the other Edwardian caught up in romantic turmoil with Leslie Howard and Fredric March also in dual roles
Despite the sexiness of strange interlude, it was the sweet unabashed sentiment of the second film that really caught depression audiences more than willing to escape into a past world of elegance and pictorial charm. A smash international hit which would later be referenced in The happy ending as a romantic touchstone which ruined Jean Simmons for marriage to ever wooden John Forsythe , it was Oscar nominated as best picture of that banner year 1932 I much prefer to 1939. Precode rules, baby !
For the interlude premiere, shearer made the delectable choice of one of her Adrian designed costumes , an ultra demure rendition of the letty Lynton look he’d given Joan Crawford earlier that year. It promoted a lovely, dignified and very chaste personal image at severe odds with her onscreen character who, driven mad by the virginity which prevented her from achieving shared ecstasy with a boy who died in wwl, seduces wardfuls of wounded soldiers she is supposed to be nursing back to health in more orthodox ways, then she seduces Clark gable into fathering her child she then passes of as belong to her husband Alexander Kirkland who has madness running in his genes, keeps both gable and Ralph Morgan as her prissy male amanuensis unmarried and at her lifelong beck and call, and finally tries to possessively ruin the engagement of her grown son Robert young to Maureen O’Sullivan
