He was both a handsome lead and a comedian, and at a time when the package wasn’t typical. Until Cary Grant came along, Montgomery held the patent. -Mick LaSalle

Happy birthday Robert Montgomery (May 21, 1904 – September 27, 1981 )


I’m the inarticulate man that tries. I’m a pretty good example of true human frailty. I don’t really have all the answers, I have very few of the answers. But for some reason, somehow, I make it.

Happy birthday James Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997)



Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)



“It has been a lingering theme of rejoicing—for having had the privilege of working in films with the gentleman who wrote this book. Ten films! Doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? But it was quite a few more than Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald made together, or Judy with Mickey…and one more than Kate made with Spencer. And for each one of those ten films, I can’t think of any performer of the screen or stage I would rather have performed alongside than You, Mr. A!” -Ginger Rogers, Steps in Time


The only way I know to get a good show is to practice, sweat, rehearse and worry.

Happy birthday Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987 )


Robert Montgomery likes to stroke his ladies’ hands.




I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life - to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.

Happy birthday William Holden (April 17, 1918 – November 16, 1981)


Montgomery played men who needed women. He didn’t need them in the Gable way––needing them and not knowing it––or the Cagney way, needing them but knowing they’d always be around. Montgomery’s characters knew they needed women. They needed girlfriends, lovers, mommies, wives, and nurses, and when they found a woman who was all of those things, they wanted her. It was the one thing they knew. It was their one saving grace. -Mick LaSalle


There’s nothing I like better than taking care of lonesome wives who talk exclusively about their husbands. -Robert Montgomery in The Divorcee (1930)


You don’t hold any mystery for me, darling, do you mind? There isn’t a particle of you that I don’t know, remember, and want. More than any desire in the world, deep down in my deepest heart, I want you back again––please. -Private Lives (1931)