24 thoughts on “Veronica Lake Movies”

1. Veronica Lake was so tiny even Alan Ladd towered over her.

   I’ve only seen 5 of the 25 films listed – three of them starring Ladd – The Glass Dahlia, The Blue Key, This Gun for Hire, Sullivan’s Travels and my favorite of the bunch – I Married a Witch.

   There’s a bunch of films here I wouldn’t mind giving a look – Saigon, So Proudly We Hail, Hold Back the Dawn and I Wanted Wings.

   Thanks for the video share Bruce. Looking at my top 5 chart, we have the same no.1 (woohoo!) but I didn’t include your no.2 Hold Back the Dawn because she wasn’t credited for that one and was really playing herself in that scene. I’m surprised you found 25 films I couldn’t even make mine a top 20.

   Good work chief, Vote Up!

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   1. STEVE:

      Stop running down my idols as you must know that in this case I can’t retaliate as I too am a big Chuck fan – and besides he’s tall !

      Reply

      1. And you can’t even poke fan at Elvis, you’re a fanboy too. What a dilemma! 😉

         My dad was a big fan of Ladd too. I remember he used to tell me that Ladd never smiles in his films. I’m sure he does. It’s not a Joker grin maybe but it’s still a sort of smile. 🙂

         Here’s a poser – does Charles Bronson laugh in any of his films? I mean really laugh. I’m a huge Bronson fan but I don’t remember ever seeing him burst out laughing in any movie. He must do, surely.

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         1. Poke ‘fun’ at Elvis not ‘fan’. Sorry.

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2. I have seen only 4 Veronica Lake films:

   This Gun’s For Hire
   The Glass Key
   Sullivan’s Travels
   The Blue Dahlia

   I know it is a very low count. Many films are not available to me.

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   1. Hey Flora…..wow…I almost beat you with my 3 Lake movies watched. I have seen This Gun For Hire and Sullivan’s Travels…with my third one being So Proudly We Hail. I am right there with you….her movies are not easy to find.

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3. HI AGAIN BRUCE

   1 As I never knew about the Lake/Mumbles relationship I naturally had never heard that very interesting cheque story before. Now as you know I’m a great admirer of Mr M but the mercenary side of my nature would I am afraid have compelled me to cash the thing!

   2 I wonder what Joel would have done with a Brando cheque? Like Veronica kept it to show to all his friends whilst at the same time writing vitriolic reviews of Mr M’s career and films and complaining about the amount of money Ole Mumbles was making.?

   3 I’ve just been reading that Richard Burton could turn nasty especially when he had drink in him which most of the time and he once stormed out of a gathering of critics shouting at them “I loathe the lot of you!” I wonder what Richard would have said to Hirsch if the latter had criticised him in the way that Brando was crucified by Joel?

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   1. Hey Bob.
      1.. Glad you were able to learn something new about Mr. Brando….I am pleased with myself for finding that little nugget of trivia.
      2. A photocopy of the check would make a great keepsake…..lol.
      3. Joel actually did not like Burton much either…actually in his rating system…Richard and Marlon are down at the bottom.
      4. Makes you wonder if the late Joel and the late Brandon and Burton ever ran across each other in their days in Hollywood.
      Good feedback as always.

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      1. HI BRUCE

         1 Cashing a celebrity’s check but keeping a copy of it to show to your friends is certainly a cunning was of ‘having your cake and eating it’ and possibly Flora has one in her memorabilia.
         However there would be one snag with it in a Mumbles situation

         2 Paramount wanted MB to reprise Don Corelone in a cameo in Godfather Part 2 and the official story put out was that he had demanded too much money for a mere walk-on part.
         In essence that was true but was not the REAL story because according to one journalistic insider at the time he didn’t want to appear in Part 2 and had made Paramount “an offer that they HAD to refuse.” The journalist explained “He sees himself as a man who is available for ORIGINALS only!

         3 Therefore if that journalist’s take was correct ole Mumbles wouldn’t have been impressed by some guy dining out by showing off the his own friends a COPY of a cheque written by MR M.

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4. HI BRUCE
   1 At some stage a fresh-faced whiz kid must have been drafted onto the committee that wrote Hirsch’s book because some of the recent comments that you have attributed to your Master have actually made sense and the remarks about Lake hit the nail on the head in my opinion.

   2 You have done your usual detailed and comprehensive job of using stats to demonstrate the high and low points of Veronica’s career and although your table lists the many films she made without Laddie, when his or her name is mentioned most film buffs will tend to associate the pair with each other just as they do with the much more famous Fred and Ginger.

   3 Indeed another parallel between the two teams occurred to me when I watched a documentary about Fred last night and then caught your new Lake page this morning. Initially Ginger was the senior partner in the Astaire/Rogers team and in Flying Down to Rio she’s billed before him, but in subsequent movies Fred masterminded their partnership and always got top billing.

   4 In The Glass Key and This Gun for Hire the first two Ladd/Lake vehicles in the early 1940s she was the bigger star and was billed above Laddie but by the time The Blue Dahlia and Saigon, the remaining two of their four full-length films together, were released in 1946 and 1948 respectively Ladd had become the greater star and commanded top billing.

   5 As is reflected in your Lake/Ladd tables The Glass Key, This Gun for hire and Blue Dahlia were artistically and commercially successful whereas Saigon was seen by critics as the artistically weakest of the quartet, though it surprised me to see from your stats that the latter movie actually made more money than Glass Key or This Gun for Hire. Bill Bendix, Ladd’s pal and often called his “employee” was in three of the four Lad/Lake full length movies, After the 1948 Saigon Lake’s movie career declined although she went on sporadically making albeit minor movies until 1970 and did some TV work as well. Ladd though had still some career mileage in him after the 1940s especially with Shane.

   6 The list of Brando’s famous romantic attachments whilst possibly exaggerated has been long and well publicized allegedly including such legendary figures as far apart as Grace Kelly and the singer Edith Piaf [the “Little Sparrow”] He is even said to have flirted with my Deanna though if so I don’t know whether that evolved into a relationship. However Veronica Lake has never been mentioned before to my knowledge so wait until I tell my brothers about the latest addition to the lovers list And here is a further late-career Dan-like link between Veronica and her old beau – in 1969 Lake played Blanche in a stage production of Streetcar.

   7 Let’s end though as we began – with Joel – and It occurs to me that Joel’s committee must have been predominately male because if had included a fair proportion of gals ole Mumbles would surely have received kinder treatment in the book. Anyway this Lake page is another Cogerson success that has enabled me to join you in “wallowing in nostalgia” so to **** with Steve! PS Loved the animated miniature of Veronica from This Gun for Hire. Probably only Steve will be able to work out how you manage that.

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   1. Hey Bob
      1. Glad to hear you like the Joel thoughts…one day you will own that book….lol
      2. The Ladd/Lake team was pretty popular….but not in the same class as Fred and Ginger…..they were a perfect height for each other….as some places list Lake at 4 foot 11 inches.
      3. Saigon benefited from the box office explosion of the post war movie attendance hike…..it might have made more money…..but it is the least known of the Ladd/Lake movies.
      4. Glad to know you can share a Brando nugget found on this site…..mission accomplished…in some ways finding the interesting facts takes the longest amount of time…when it comes to writing these pages.
      5. Glad you like the 1 second clip from This Gun For Hire…Steve has always said I need to make these pages more interactive…lol.
      Good feedback as always.

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5. Veronica Lake became the prisoner of a gimmick – her long, blonde hair, combed over one eye. She had more talent than she was given credit for, but when she cut her hair, critics wrote her off and the good roles stopped coming.

   She teamed with Alan Ladd for two successful thrillers, This Gun For Hire and The Glass Key, and her provocative, independent-minded femme fatale image paved the way for Lauren Bacall, Lizabeth Scott and other self-possessed sirens.

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   1. Hey Joel…..looking at your book Rating the Movie Stars…these are the movies you said were her best performances.

      4 star performances
      1941’s Sullivan’s Travels
      1942’s This Gun For Hire
      1942’s The Glass Key
      1942’s I Married A Witch

      3 star performances
      1941’s I Wanted Wings
      1941’s Hold Back The Dawn
      1943’s So Proudly We Hail
      1946’s Miss Susis Slagle’s
      1946’s The Blue Dahila
      1948’s The Sainted Sisters
      1948’s Saigon

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