My Gosh, Virginia Mayo was so beautiful in "The Best Years of Our Lives"! I'm glad to hear that working on that film was a positive experience for her.
I recently watched The Best Years of Our Lives and thought Virgnia Mayo was the true standout in this movie. Her hard work paid off as there was not a false note in that performance!
I watched this movie, for the first time, only a couple of months ago. What a wonderful script, brilliant performances from the entire cast and a very modern “feel” about the issues faced by returning servicemen. Virginia Mayo was superb in a very unsympathetic role. Her character in this movie was not at all likeable & she carried it off with aplomb. A true classic
Lovely woman. Her performance in the film was spot on. Here she is years later reflecting, nothing at all like the cold, shallow floozy she portrayed in that classic picture.
When I was a kid movies from the “golden era” would come on tv regularly. “The Best Years of Our Lives” was one of them. I cried then and each time it comes on I still cry. It deserved all the awards it received. And then some. ❤
Wasn't she such a lovely young woman & a great actress. Any movie she was in, she gave a good performance. She was eye candy as they say. Anyways TBYOOL remains one of the best movies ever produced by Hollywood. The theme is as relavent today as it was 76 years ago. There is not much to critique about the movie, superb in all categories.
Mayo was spot on in this classic. Wyler never commented when the role was done right. Davis once commented to Wyler about his lack of approval. Wyler started expressing marvelous, wonderful, etc. Davis finely had enough and asked him to please stop and go back to your usual self. I forgot which film, probably her first with the director, which won her the Oscar for, Jezebel. Anyhow, I'll have to say I liked Mayo in anything.
Ms Mayo was absolutely flawless in Best Years. She truly had some of the best (even comic) scenes...when she takes off her fake eyelashes in dismay after her husband insisted on staying home and nit going nightclubbing. When she asked him about his 'friend' Peggy. ..." she's just a girl " her retort, " I didn't think she was a kangaroo " .
First. This lady projected sex. Dangerous sex. Second. Perfect casting. Third. A modern woman. She had to take care of herself and business and she did. Fourth. Great exchange between Fred and Marie about what they were up to during the war. I'd imagine many married couples had that same conversation. The great unspoken topic. Certainly there was more than Rosie the Riveter at home and Mom, flag and apple pie overseas. Great movie.
She certainly wasn't like the character she played in the movie, a hot but shallow young woman who was only interested in her husband because he was an aviator. But when the going got tough, she got going.
Loved Virginia in White Heat, that was the first noir movie I saw as a teen in the 80s, she was too much in that, gorgeous and dangerous and perfect as the scheming Moll, her and Big Ed and his big plans lol. I've seen the Best Years as well a long time ago and have the dvd kicking around somewhere I'll have to rewatch, the missing arm guy won an Oscar if I remember correctly, he was a real veteran I believe, and didn't realize Theresa Wright and Cathy O'Donnell from They Live At Night and Side Street were in this, just got introduced to O'Donnell this yr and she was gorgeous as a young lady as well, starring as Keechie with Farley Grangers Bowie in T.W.A.T. Don't think she made many movies though.
Cathy O'Donnell had a good part in Ben Hur. Also, a good role with Jimmy Stewart in Man from Laramie. Two recalled outside of noirs and BYs. Unfortunately, she passed away at an early age. She was married to W. Wyler's brother after BYs.
Too brief. After all, we're talking about the greatest picture ever made. I liked her better when she talked about working with Jimmy C. "He was so dynamic, he should have won five Academy Awards."
During the war my uncle worked in a weapons factory as a supervisor and a single man. By wars end he beded 27 married women and fathered 15 children then moved out of state. What's the point? It's a known fact people seek love or sex frequently during war.
Ha! Of course he liked her a lot or he would have stopped her. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. He knew he was watching two actors doing top notch work. Her character is so likable and we think that marriage is on solid ground until the cracks start showing in how different they are. Painful to watch because it was so authentic. Beautifully written and acted. Amazing movie. OMG what a film. Wyler was brilliant.
