Dorothy Provine

[napo]

By Peter Basch

[cuzzyman927]

[johnbear]

[span4f]

Dorothy Provine and Natalie Wood in The Great Race (1965)



MPG|720X576|00:05:35|242.99 MB


RG Download

[george anson]

Roadshow magazine 1962: (text removed by me)

[johnbear]

[johnbear]

[Findcandor]

.
From Member "Decadence," 2013, "Your Babe of The Day-Female Only NO HC" thread:

Originally Posted by Decadence

Dorothy Provine
(1935-2010)

It's been weeks since I put up a post on a lesser known American actress, and a post on a playmate-turned actress, and the reasons for those posts is because I wanted to put up this post of an actress who also appeared in 1965's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. two-parter entitled "Alexander the Greater Affair." Then I got sidetracked, these screen grabs were beginning to languish in my directory, and it's about time they saw the light of day:




She was cast in this role, because the character called for a comedic flair.

Dorothy Provine may have started out with "edgy" fare (as when she played the title outlaw character in 1958's The Bonnie Parker Story), but I imagine if she is remembered, it's for the roles where she played perky and effervescent characters.


As Bonnie Parker; the second shot showcases Dorothy in another early "bad girl" role, from 1959's Riot in Juvenile Prison.



Performing her show-stopping number as a saloon singer in The Great Race, as may be viewed here.
There is a nice moment with Natalie Wood, displaying a slow burn.

These included roles in light-hearted films such as Good Neighbor Sam (1964), The Great Race (1965), Who's Minding the Mint? (1967), and one of my favorite films despite its lackluster reputation, Never a Dull Moment (1968), with Dick Van Dyke. Dorothy looked particularly purty in the photos below from Who's Minding the Mint?, with Jack Gilford and Jim Hutton. Two views are being provided, as both offer pros and cons, marred by watermarks as they are. (You can buy the one offered by Getty Images for only five hundred dollars.)




She was also in Disney's That Darn Cat! (1965), as seen below (and forgive the second shot, but what made this film worth watching for me a long time ago was the inimitable Frank Gorshin, playing a hood; actor at right is another fave, Neville Brand):




Don't ask me how Milton Berle got himself married to a prize such as Provine, but that's the magic of movies. (Magic challenges one's sense of belief.) This was in the fabulous comedy, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), where she played the only one who withstood the greed that possessed the rest of the characters. (She was the one who discovered the "Big W" at movie's end, marking the spot of the treasure, and decided to keep mum about it.) The second shot, where part of the trees forming the Big W may be seen, features Dorothy and the two other female leads, played by Ethel Merman and the very lovely Edie Adams:



(You're just going to have to forgive me for adding the third shot, but viewers of the film needed to be reminded of the presence of Barrie Chase, in that momentous scene where she played the swingin' chick to wild man Dick Shawn. Ye gads, was Barrie exquisite.)

Originally Posted by johnbear

The shot you see above is from the bottom of this thread's first page, and made me wonder which film it was from, since it appeared to have more grit than the usual Dorothy Provine movie. Turned out to be 1963's Wall Of Noise, which is a melodrama about a racehorse trainer who wants to move up in society's ranks, and has an affair with married heiress Suzanne Pleshette. As for Dorothy's role, an IMDb reviewer tells us: "There's also a good girl, not too good mind you, but Dorothy Provine has it big time for (the trainer)."


Simon Oakland is in the first two photos. An image search revealed the third photo was from this film.
Perhaps this is an error, because the implied character in that shot seems incongruent to the rest.

It's a strange thing about Dorothy Provine. Sometimes she looked goofy, as when she played the flapper character from the 1960-62 TV series, The Roaring 20's, a portrait from which has been chosen to illustrate her IMDb page's identifying photo. Other times, she looked extremely sophisticated, as with the first view above. Now you may say this is not unusual, because actors can be versatile and are expected to fit their roles, but from the standpoint of physical appearance, she sometimes came across as totally different women.

Naturally, we want to see the times Ms. Provine most exposed herself, but usually playing squeaky-clean ladies did not lead to many flesh-revealing opportunities. I see Member "Cuzzyman927," as I'm learning is his laudable custom, focused on the "sleaziest" pictures when he went on the hunt. The third shot above was from this 2017 post from the thread's first page, and I'm presenting the rest (leaving another one out) below:

Originally Posted by cuzzyman927

Shot #1 is from the 1959 film where she played the title character, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, starring Lou Costello; it has been featured in web-land in sites accenting "Dorothy Provine's Feet." (For God's sake, you can barely make out that foot.) Shot #2 is probably not from a film, but it has been featured on this site celebrating the miracle of Kodachrome film, and there are some very nice other shots of Ms. Provine that have been included. It was Shot #3 that grabbed my eye, since it was the sexiest, and a lot of sites have identified this photo as Dorothy (including this site which offers some very nice other views of the actress), but it appears the woman is not Dorothy, but Sabrina, A.K.A. Norma Ann Sykes, or "Britain's Answer to Marilyn Monroe."

By the way, back in 2010, late VEF Member "Demsal8" offered a tidbit some may find interesting, revealing how Dorothy might have been "the first actress to appear as a feminine hygiene spokeswoman," at a time when such things were scandalous.



Returning to Dorothy at her most exposed, I've run into a scene where she may have been at her onscreen nude-iest. It's from one of those James Bond wannabes of the period, this one with a comedic flair, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966). In 2013, Member "LOON" opined the film was "Stylish, sexy and very entertaining," while providing a description.




The character played by actor Raf Vallone is supposed to be a mature man, and yet something has made him giddy, as though he were a little boy. (What is wrong with him?)



With the exception of two TV show roles from the rest of the decade, Ms. Provine decided to call it quits only four years after this role, in 1970. (Explanation from others: the role of wife and mother came to be preferable, once she married, in 1969, a prolific film and TV director originating from England.) She was a hot commodity in her day (and I'm not referring to hot as in the way Raf Vallone indicated from his drooling; for example, she sticks out in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World because everyone else in the leading roles was famous, and she's the only one who does not seem to belong. In 1963, however, she was famous), and how fascinating that barely anyone from the general public remembers this very talented woman today.

.

[cuzzyman927]