Favorite Linda Darnell Performance
Encouraged by her mother from an early age, actress Linda Darnell was discovered at 15 as part of a nationwide fresh faces tour. Too young for Hollywood she lied about her age and moved to Tinsel Town and she was sent home with promise of a future screen test. Upon her return she was signed and promoted by legendary producer Daryl Zanuck becoming an overnight sensation and instant A-Lister. Her life story was even the basis of a biopic titled Star Dust (1940). Her troubled life was unfortunately cut short at age 41 in 1965 from a house fire.
In honor of what would have been her 100th birthday (October 16, 2023), what is your favorite Linda Darnell performance?
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In honor of what would have been her 100th birthday (October 16, 2023), what is your favorite Linda Darnell performance?
Discuss here
Vote here
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- DirectorWalter LangStarsLinda DarnellJohn PayneRoland YoungCarolyn Sayres, rejected by talent scout Brooke, falls in love with Bud Borden, helping her become a star. Wharton parodies Zanuck's early Hollywood experiences.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaLinda DarnellVictor MatureAfter their cattle are stolen and their brother murdered, the Earp brothers have a score to settle with the Clanton family.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsRichard WidmarkLinda DarnellStephen McNallyTwo hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
- DirectorGregory RatoffStarsTyrone PowerLinda DarnellWarren WilliamAfter a young wife discovers her husband of two years is involved with his beautiful secretary, she applies for a job as secretary to a business rival.
- DirectorOtto PremingerJohn M. StahlStarsLinda DarnellCornel WildeRichard GreeneIn seventeenth-century England, Amber St. Clair aims to raise herself from country girl to nobility, and succeeds, but loses her true love in the process.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsBenny GoodmanBenny Goodman and His OrchestraLinda DarnellAfter their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to move on to their next engagement at a military camp, when a kid, Tony Birch, steals Goodman's clarinet. Goodman and Popsie pursue him to a tenement flat where he has led them to hear his brother, Johnny Birch, play the trombone. Goodman offers him a job, over Popsie's protest, with the band. Aboard the train, Johnny accidentally enters the compartment of the band's singer, Pat Sterling, and gets his face slapped. At the military camp, which turns out to be a boy's military academy (which accounts for juvenile players such as Dickie Moore and Harry McKin running around with such titles as General and Major), Goodman finds a real audience in the jive-mad, jitterbug kids. Masquerading as a sweet, 16-year-old girl friend of one of the cadets who is, in reality, her nephew, Trudy Wilson meets her old friend Goodman who introduces her to Johnny, whose music she admired. However, Johnny brushes her off, thinking she is just a kid. Months later, while practicing for their opening at the exclusive Leopard Room in NYC, Johnny runs into Trudy, and is furious that she has followed him to New York. Pat tells Johnny that Trudy is the débutante daughter of Norman Wilson, who runs the symphony association. Johnny decides she is out of his league but they fall for each other when he invites her to a jam session. At a swank party at Trudy's house, where Goodman plays the Mozart Quintet, one of the snobbish guests makes a remark when Johnny's brother Tony, sister Helen and his mother suddenly appear. A brawl ensues and Johnny, feeling he has disgraced himself in front of Trudy, flings his resignation at Goodman and stalks out. Pat's manager gets her to break with Goodman, sets up Johnny as a name band, and hires the Goodman band to join.
- DirectorGregory RatoffStarsAnn SothernLinda DarnellJames EllisonA girl from Syracuse goes to New York to see her boyfriend, an architect who no longer cares for her. Fellow residents at a women's hotel encourage her to become a top model. When the boyfriend tries to come back to her, he has rivals.
- DirectorAndré De TothStarsRichard WidmarkLinda DarnellVeronica LakeA former WW2 naval pilot employed by a Miami civilian company reminisces about his past and present sins while flying a plane into an incoming hurricane.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsTyrone PowerLinda DarnellBasil RathboneA young Spanish aristocrat must masquerade as a fop in order to maintain his secret identity of Zorro as he restores justice to early California.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsJeanne CrainLinda DarnellAnn SothernA letter is addressed to three wives from their "best friend" Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands - but she does not say which one.
- DirectorSidney SalkowStarsLinda DarnellEdgar BuchananMichael DuaneA young woman's husband has been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. In order to be near him to try to help him get his sentence overturned, she moves into a boardinghouse near the prison whose residents are the wives of inmates.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsJoel McCreaMaureen O'HaraLinda DarnellThe story of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, legendary westerner, from his days as an army scout to his later activities as owner of a Wild West show.
- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsLinda DarnellTab HunterDonald GrayIn 1943, an Allied hospital ship is sunk by the Japanese in the South Pacific where a nurse and a Marine become marooned on an island abandoned by natives.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsLinda DarnellGeorge SandersAnna LeeAn alluring peasant woman lures a cynical aristocrat away from his milquetoast fiancée, with tragic consequences.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsRobert NewtonLinda DarnellWilliam BendixHonest Edward Maynard finds himself serving as ship's surgeon under the infamous pirate Blackbeard.
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsLaird CregarLinda DarnellGeorge SandersA promising classical musician finds his life poisoned by a music hall dancer -- and by the strange gaps in his memory.
- DirectorLewis R. FosterStarsLinda DarnellDale RobertsonJohn LundIndians attack a stagecoach, and a disparate group of passengers must band together to fight them off.
- DirectorHall BartlettStarsDana AndrewsLinda DarnellSterling HaydenIn 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsIrene DunneRex HarrisonLinda DarnellIn 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.
- DirectorR.G. SpringsteenStarsRory CalhounLinda DarnellTerry MooreA man becomes a bounty hunter to earn enough to marry the woman he loves, but when he returns to their Kansas town, she has married the sheriff instead which prompts him to scheme revenge by ruining the town's reputation.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsJeanne CrainCornel WildeLinda DarnellIn 1876 Philadelphia, two sisters vie for the affections of a Frenchman who's come to town to prepare the French pavilion for the Centennial exposition.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsAlice FayeDana AndrewsLinda DarnellA slick con man arrives in a small town looking to make some money, but soon gets more than he bargained for.
- DirectorJohn M. StahlStarsCornel WildeLinda DarnellAnne BaxterAfter County Attorney Dave Connors helps Julia Norman with her shiftless father, Jefferson Norman, she leaves Jericho, Kansas for college to study for a law degree. A few years later, Algeria Wedge, the new bride of Dave's best friend Tucker Wedge, makes overtures and plays for Dave, much to the displeasure of Dave's hard-drinking wife Belle. Angered by Dave's rebuffs, Algeria induces the state political boss to back Tucker for a Congress race against Dave. Meanwhile, Julia has returned to Jericho with her law degree and she and Dave fall in love. But after Dave announces he won't run for Congress, she feels she is the reason and she takes a job in Kansas City. Tucker wins the election and he and Algeria go to Washington. Later, Tucker announces his run for the Senate and Dave decides to run against him. After Marjorie Ransome kills a drunk in self-defense, Julia returns to Jericho to work with Dave, now in private practice, on Marjorie's defense. The still-resentful Algeria moves to kill Dave's senate bid when Tucker's newspaper announces that Dave is being sued for divorce, with Julia named as correspondent.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsRex HarrisonLinda DarnellRudy ValleeA man dreams of revenge when he suspects his wife is unfaithful.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsPaul DouglasLinda DarnellCeleste HolmLeonard Borland loves his monied wife, but with his wrecking business looking shaky he treasures her all the more. So when she decides to try again to become an opera singer he indulges her. While organising a concert for her he meets glamorous Cecil Carver. She in turn discovers Leonard has a splendid voice, and encourages him to use it for reasons very much her own.