Girl Friday - November 6, 2009 - Ingrid Bergman

This week's Girl Friday is Ingrid Bergman:

I was watching TCM the other night, and saw Gaslight for the first time. It's a 1944 movie staring Ingrid Bergman as a woman whose husband is trying to convince her she is crazy, in order to have her committed. I won't give away any of the plot beyond that, but Ingrid won an Academy Award for her performance.

You'll really hate Charles Boyer, by the end of the movie. The Bastard. You'll also enjoy seeing a VERY young Angela Lansbury as the naughty maid, in one of her first on screen appearances.

A couple of nights later, I caught another movie I had not seen before. Halloween night TCM played Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde circa 1941. It was the version with Spencer Tracey in the lead role and an even younger Ingrid Bergman as the barmaid Mr. Hyde chooses to canoodle with... against her will, of course.

A very young Lana Turner was also in this movie. Ms. Turner is destined to be a Girl Friday very soon, so I won't dwell on her now, but I was struck by the differences between her and Ingrid Bergman. Both are beautiful women, but Ingrid is much more of an "earthy" type. Despite her obviously-not-english accent in the movie, you believe she would be at home dodging the advances of drunk bar patrons in Londons less affluent neighborhoods at the turn of the century.

She's the hot girl that isn't afraid to get her hands dirty..

Ingrid Bergman spoke 5 languages. Her native Swedish, English, French, German, and Italian. As someone who has difficulty just being understood in ONE language, that amazes me.

And, lest we forget, Ingrid Bergman may be most famous for her role in Casablanca, along side Humphrey Bogart.

Here's a couple of Youtube clips of Ingrid, as she appeared in Gaslight and in Dr. Jekyll.