The Siren has re-read her Macao post and regrets her somewhat dismissive treatment of Jane Russell. Yes, Russell's chief asset was likability, but that is a rare quality in a woman so stunning. There aren't many beauties who seem chummy on screen. A guy could buy her a beer without being ensnared forever; a woman could lament an errant lover to her without fearing that Russell might snap him up on the rebound. While Russell wasn't in the same league as Carole Lombard, that splendid blonde had similar warmth. And Russell did have talent. Witness her hilarious courtroom scene in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, in which she out-Marilyns Marilyn.
It is also impossible to look at the TCM interview with Russell and Robert Mitchum, filmed not long before Mitchum's death, and not like her even more. (The interview is included as an extra on the Macao DVD.) Mitchum gives one of the most screw-you performances I have seen from any actor on any chatfest. Robert Osborne (and who doesn't love that man?) goes from surprise, to discomfort, to outright desperation as he tries to get more than a monosyllable out of the uncooperative legend slumped next to Russell. "It seemed like two years in Beirut," Osborne said later. The actress's treatment of her old co-star is that of a loving spouse after decades of marriage to an impossible coot, as she tries to nudge him into courtesy and smooth over the gruffness. Lady Bird probably acted the same way with Lyndon. Russell, who turns 86 on June 21, lives happily in Sedona, Arizona, and the Siren salutes her.
(Above: In Macao, Russell is wearing this beaded thing on a boat, no AC, in the steaming heat of a South China summer.)