Shirley MacLaine did a decent number of historical films back in the 1950s-60s, then got back into things in the late 1990s. She recently came back into our limelight when she played the American mother-in-law on Downton Abbey, proving that older women can be fabulous! Let’s run down her frock flick career:
Princess Aouda in Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
MacLaine plays an Indian widow in of-the-time-but-still-not-okay brownface in this adaptation of the Jules Verne novel set in the 1870s.
Dell Payton in The Sheepman (1958)
A Western comedy with gambling and gunfights and sheep.
Irene Molloy in The Matchmaker (1958)
An adaptation of the play, set in 1884 in which a professional matchmaker’s clients get wacky.
Simone Pistache in Can-Can (1960)
A musical set in 1890s Paris music halls.
Sara in Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
Post-U.S. Civil War, “an American mercenary … gets mixed up with a nun and aids a group of Juarista rebels during the puppet reign of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico” per Wikipedia.
Madame de Beaurevoir in Joan of Arc (1999)
A TV miniseries about the 15th-century female warrior and saint.
Rebecca Nurse in Salem Witch Trials (2002)
A miniseries about the eponymous trials also starring Kirstie Alley, if that tells you anything.
Coco Chanel in Coco Chanel (2008)
A biopic of the famous French fashion designer.
Amelia Thomas in Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (2008)
A TV movie set in the world/with the characters of Anne of Green Gables, but not an adaptation of the actual books.
Martha Levinson in Downton Abbey (2012-13)
The Countess of Grantham’s brash, new money mother who frequently spars with Violet, the dowager countess.
Which is your favorite of Shirley MacLaine’s historical costume roles?
2 mules…she IS a floozy, disguised as a nun as I recall
Exactly. It’s a favorite movie of mine, but nothing to see costume wise.
I think the second photo from Joan of Arc shows a hair style much more 1390’s than 1420’s.
Of her Frock Flick roles I’ve only seen her in Downton Abbey. I hated that her character was a stereotypical loud, gauche, American. British TV shows simply cannot do American characters–their actors can’t do the accents (b/c the ones that can are working here in the States) and their writers do not understand anything about Americans and only write stereotypes. Downton Abbey was no different. (Cora’s character was a rare exception to the stereotype.) Anyway, Shirley McLaine is a great actress and I wish she would’ve had a better role in that otherwise awesome TV show.
But there was that sublime moment of her singing “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to a slightly sozzled Maggie Smith.