I have a thing for Merle Oberon that’s almost as intense as my thing for Helen Mirren. She’s my Silver Screen Girlfriend, the one who I keep coming back to time and again to just sit and stare at because she’s just so damn pretty. She also happened to have starred in quite a few amazingly costumed films in the period between 1930 and 1955, opposite some serious actors such as Leslie Howard, Marlon Brando, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. And yet, I feel like she’s not as well-known today among people of my generation and younger. I happened to discover her by accident and only after the fact did I realize that she had played such famous roles as Cathy in Wuthering Heights, George Sand in A Song to Remember, and Joséphine de Beauharnais in Désirée.
So let’s get re-acquainted with her and all of her fabulous historical costume flicks!
The Private Life Of Henry VIII (1933) – Anne Boleyn
Costumes by John Armstrong.
The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) – Antonia
Costumes by Oliver Messel.
Image by © John Springer Collection/CORBIS
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) – Lady Blakeney
Costumes by John Armstrong.
I, Claudius (1937) – Messalina
Costumes by John Armstrong.
Wuthering Heights (1939) – Cathy
Costumes by Omar Kiam.
The Lodger (1944) – Kitty Langley
Costumes by René Hubert.
A Song to Remember (1945) – George Sand
Costumes by Walter Plunkett.
Temptation (1946) – Ruby
Costumes by Orry-Kelly.
Désirée (1954) – Joséphine de Beauharnais
Costumes by René Hubert and Charles Le Maire.
How long have you adored Merle Oberon? Make Sarah feel inadequate for only having just discovered her in the comments below!
My favourite role, Jane Seymour not withstanding, was Lady Blakeney followed by Josephine in Desiree. Have you read the bio/novel (not sure) by Michael Korda? It’s enjoyable.
Check out the novel Queenie and the TV mini series from 1987. They were written by her nephew and is loosely based upon her life story as a mixed raced woman making it in Hollywood.
I first remember encountering her after devouring everything I could find on Vivien Leigh, since she was married to Alexander Korda, Leigh’s agent. When I realized she was Marguerite in Scarlet Pimpernel I started researching her. What a life, what an amazing woman. Loved her as Anne Boleyn, Josephine, Cathy, George Sand, and of course Marguerite.