Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson was born in Bombay, India and was raised in poverty.
She did get a good education, nonetheless, and sought out theatre as her favorite activity.
She became enamored by film and ambition to make a better life. She but left to London at
age 17 to seek a career in movies. Shortly into her career, at the behest of Alexander Korda, her
future husband, she changed her name to Merle Oberon.
Merle's most beautiful role was early in her career in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) as Lady Blakeney
and her most famous role was opposite Lawrence Olivier in Wuthering Heights, one of the greatest
romance movies. A couple years before making that film, she was in a terrible automobile accident
which disfigured her face. But a special lighting was created (the "Obie") which kept the scars concealed
with a little make-up.
Lady Korda divorced from her husband in 1945 after which she made fewer films and moved to Hollywood.
The lighting and make-up to hide her scars, ironically was not her only secret. To her grave, she carried
her secret of her mixed ethnicity. Perhaps by childhood scars and fear of not being accepted, she
denied her background.
Today, in a different world, she would not have done the same. And perhaps she would have kept the
name Queenie, her affection nickname when Queen Mary visited India in 1911. A nephew wrote her biography
in a book appropriately called Queenie which was made into a mini-series in 1987.
A mysterious, exotic actress with a classic tale of poverty to fame and riches deserves no less than
John Barry's music from Across the Sea of Time which ironically tells the tale of a Russian boy immigrating
to New York. John Barry himself lived the last 31 years of his life in New York, in Oyster Bay. So this classically
beautiful music accompanies Merle Oberon's tribute.
However, leading off is Clint Eastwood's theme from The Changeling. A simple jazz piano piece that is elegant
and from the movie, a deceitful but true tale of an imposter boy claiming to find his mother. The story takes place in
1928 the same time Merle left for London to hide her past and seek a new future.
I picked the music not realizing the parallels but a little research finds pearls on the beach. Last two scenes are from Merle's character deaths in Henry VIII and Wuthering Heights.
In addition, several of the movies here are in color but I choose to turn them black and white for a consistent effect.
Merle's movies here are:
The Private Life of Henry VIII 1933
The Scarlet Pimpernel 1934
The Cowboy and the Lady 1938
The Divorce of Lady X 1938
Wuthering Heights 1939
'Til We Meet Again 1940
That Uncertain Feeling 1941
Night in Paradise 1946
10 сен 2024
