"MARY BETH HUGHES - CLASSIC CINEMA STAR OF THE MONTH" - 3/03/2025

For those of you who don't know the charms of MARY BETH HUGHES, when she was under contract at MGM, she was dubbed "the poor man's LANA TURNER." It was a rather unfair assessment since MGM gave Lana all the plum roles, and Mary Beth got her hand-me-downs. But still, Mary Beth had great comic chops, and no one played bitchy, hard-boiled blondes as well as she. Despite her beauty and talent, she never managed to get out of B-pictures. She did have small parts in great films like The Women (1939) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1942). She played the good girl as often as she played the bad girl, but when she played bad....you were in for a treat. Her pouty lips, snappy dialogue, and petulant attitude lit up many a lackluster production. This week, we celebrate her as our Star of the Month.

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources:

The Official Mary Beth Hughes Website;

“Mary Beth Hughes, Born in Alton, Benign Groomed for Stardom in Movies,” January 4, 1939, Alton Evening Telegraph;

“Mary Beth Hughes,” October 1971, by T.P. Turton, Films in Review;

“Mary Beth Hughes Stars In A New Shampoo,” December 20, 1976, People Magazine;

Mary Beth Hughes: She Never Gave Up,” December 2015, by Dave White, Classic Images;

“The Look of Mary Beth Hughes,” June 6, 2019, www.grandoldmovies.com;

http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/marybethhughes.html

Wikipedia.com;

TCM.com;

IMDBPro.com;

Movies Mentioned: 

The Women (1939), starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, & Rosalind Russell;

The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), starring Henry Fonda, Harry Morgan, Dana Andrews, MBH, & Anthony Quinn;

Broadway Serenade (1939), starring Jeanette MacDonald & Lew Ayres;

Dancing Co-Ed (1939), starring Lana Turner & Richard Carlson; 

These Glamour Girls (1939), starring Lana Turner & Lew Ayres:

Fast and Furious (1939), starring Franchot Tone & Ann Sothern;

Free, Blonde & 21 (1940), starring Lynn Bari, MBH, & Joan Davis;

Star Dust (1940), starring Linda Darnell & John Payne;

Four Sons (1940), starring Don Ameche, Alan Curtis, Eugenia Leontivich, & MBH;

Lucky Cisco Kid (1940), starring Cesar Romero, Dana Andrews, & MBH;

The Great Profile (1940), staring John Barrymore & MBH;

Sleepers West (1941), starring Lloyd Nolan & MBH: 

Ride on Vaquero (1941), starring Cesar Romero & MBHs;

Charlie Chan In Rio (191410, starring Sidney Toler & MBH;

Dressed To Kill (1941), starring Lloyd Nolan & MBH;

Design For Scandal (1941), starring Rosalind Russell & Walter Pidgeon;

The Cowboy and The Blonde (1941), starring MBH & George Montgomery;

Blue, White, and Perfect, (1942), starring Lloyd Nolan & MBH;

The Night Before The Divorce (1942), starring Lynn Bari, Joseph Allen, & MBH;

Orchestra Wives (1942), starring Ann Rutherford & George Montgomery:

Over My Dead Body (1942), starring Milton Berle & MBH;

Timber Queen (1944), starring Richard Arlen & MBH;

Men On Her Mind (1944), starring MBH;

I Accuse My Parents, (1944), starring MBH & Robert Lowell;

The Lady Confesses (1945), starring MBH & Hugh Beaumont;

The Great Flamarion (1945), starring Erich von Stroheim, MBH, & Dan Duryea;

Holiday Rhythm (1950), starring MBH & David Street;

Young Man With A Horn (1950), starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, & Doris Day;

Highway Dragnet (1954), starring Richard Conte & Joan Bennett;

Loophole (1955), starring Barry Sullivan, Charles MacGraw, & Dorothy Malone;

Gun Battle At Monterey (1957), starring Sterling Hayden & MBH;

How's Your Love Life? (1971), starring John Agar, Leslie Brooks, Grant Willians, & MBH;

The Working Girls (1974), starring Sarah Kennedy, Laurie Rose, & Cassandra Peterson;

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