1944. Ella Raines on set with Robert Siodmak.After a false start, Ella Raines' career took off like a rocket. Over the course of eight years, from 1943 to 1950, she starred in 22 films and appeared twice on the cover of Life magazine.Ella combined looks, talent and guts. Here's an insight into her character from an interview in 1946.I think really the toughest thing about this business is making your own decisions, and that you have to do. Lots of people will advise you, or try to, and you’ll hear so many different opinions that you finally realize nobody can advise you—that you have to learn to make your own decisions, and learn fast.She’s best known for her role as Carol “Kansas” Richman in Phantom Lady (1944) which, as she herself pointed out, was really four roles in one film: the prim, efficient secretary; the woman in love; the pretend femme fatale in a provocatively tight black dress, fishnet stockings and heavy makeup; and the intelligent and … [Read more...]
Ella Raines – gal with a glint
1933. Ella Raines (right) with high-school friend, Shirley Brendan. Read more.Miriam Alberta Ghidalia interviewed Ella Raines for the December 1945 issue of Screenland.Of all the articles I found at the Media History Digital Library, it's the most engagingly written. Here's a transcript, illustrated with different photos from my collection…Gal With A GlintIt all happened very quickly. Yards of swift, strong ice ‘flying under her skates and then suddenly, a gaping mass of swirling grey water looming up at her. “Oh Lord,” she thought, “oh Lord, I’m going too fast, I can’t stop, I can’t stop!” when magically, there was a hand grabbing her arm and swinging her over to solid land, and she was crouching on the old log, hugging herself close and sobbing.“How was I to know the ice wasn’t solid at Mulvaney’s?”“You’d think that after anybody’d lived at Snoqualmie Falls for all of their fourteen years, they’d know by now that the north … [Read more...]
