You can never accuse Charles Laughton of not having good gut instincts. Jonathan Reynolds, his multi-millionaire character in 1940’s It Started with Eve, distrusts the seemingly perfect Gloria Pennington from the start. Indeed, Pennington, enacted with innocent calculatedness by the almost forgotten Margaret Tallichet, is decidedly after his son’s hand in matrimony – or is that his fists full of money? Well, unsurprisingly to old school film lovers everywhere, it is definitely the latter. That Tallichet so capably plays her fake concern for Robert Cummings’ gullible Johnny is one of this cute venture’s prime joys, though. She provides the plot’s sweet-flecked oiliness while Deanna Durbin, as the true heroine, gives it a rambunctiously musical heart.

Indeed, this character provided this short-lived movie queen with a nice turnabout. In her other picture that year, the horror thriller The Stranger on the Third Floor, she found herself in the trembling protagonist’s shoes. Dreadfully antagonized by Peter Lorre’s devious titular character, this refined beauty earned her terror stripes and then some.

Despite these promising breakthroughs, though, family life seemed to be her primary focus. A marriage to acclaimed director William Wyler, resulted in four children. With her last screen appearances occurring in 1941, this devoted mother died in 1991 at the age of 77. She remains ever present, though, to those oft beguiled celluloid fans who stumble across her everlasting essence, eating buttered popcorn while streaming YouTube in the dark.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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