She was 43 when this movie came out! I thought she was an ingenue in her 20s. She seemed so youthful. I never would have guessed she was in her 40s.
shareWow: I never, in a million years, would have guessed that, either! She looks mid-20s in this movie, tops!
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She is probably the most underrated and unappreciated actress in the history of American Film. She's has a long list of terrific performances. Probably one of the most beautiful women from that era who never received her due.
shareJean Arthur made "A Foreign Affair" in 1948, or at least it was released that year. And she was incredibly beautiful in it.
shareIt is refreshing to see an older woman being wooed by younger man in the movies for a change. Even though she was only five years older than he was,
She had a few things working for her: She kept her trim figure and she never had kids. I think those two factors contribute to the aging process for both men and women.
Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com
The dancing scene where her midriff showed highlighted her figure. She did look young. She reminds me in many ways of the actress Georgia Engel who was on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Everybody Loves Raymond. Her looks, mouth, voice, coloring.
shareOne of my favorite movies is Shane so I knew she was born in 1900 but when I was watching this movie for the first time, I kept looking at the year over and over because there was no way she could have been in her 40's. Absolutely stunning in TMTM.
shareIn the scene when they are both lying in bed and have head akes and he says he wouldn't be afraid to marry her and she answers: "You said you would be gone in a couple of days", you can see her hand next to her face. Her face is smooth as that of a young girl, but her hand has wrinkles all over and looks very old. That made me look up Jean Arthur's age in this movie ...
I like Jean Arthur, but I find this was a problematic role for her, playing a girl in her twenties. The crying, the baby voice in some scenes and her hairstyle ... it's all a bit too contrived.
1. She wasn't playing a "girl" in her twenties; she was playing a woman of unspecified age. (By the way, females who are self-supporting and older than 18 are typically called "women." Would you call an independent, self-supporting male in his 20s a "boy"?)
2. If you think that a 40-year-old woman's hand looks old, then you have got some wild surprises waiting for you! You young'uns who have seen only airbrushed pix don't know what real humans look like.
"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."
I love your post.
Well done.
I did the same thing during the same scene. I noticed that she had a lot of makeup around her eyes and yet, if you look closely, you can see the age wrinkles. Nothing wrong with this etc of course, just that the scene, with that lighting and the angle of the shot
in todays digital cable etc., you see things you never saw back when your tv was a B/W
picture coming in the house from a rooftop antenna over a two wire line and fed into a 500 something raster scanning B/W tv (which is how I watched this movie the 1st 100 times I saw it).
I find her one of the most attractive actresses ever. The scene in which she dances alone in the bedroom ....mmmmmmmmmmm !!
Ms. Arthur only began playing lead roles in romantic comedies when she was in her late 30's! She is 43 in this movie, and tell me she ain't smoking hot!