Two Actors

Last night I was watching an early talkie, RED MORNING, a film I had never heard mentioned. It was a fairly big movie with countless extras, murders, some heedlessly racist elements, etc., and it starred a fetching young woman named Steffi Duna. I'd never heard of her, either, but she was oddly compelling, so I looked her up. Duna had started out as a ballet dancer in Hungary (she looked and sounded Latina to my ignorant ear). She starred in some major films in the early 1930s like ANTHONY ADVERSE, and she married John Carroll and Dennis O'Keefe. I don't suppose much of Duna's work remains available--she did not become a major star--but I decided to keep my eye out for her in the future. She died in 1992.

Yesterday also brought the obituary of Elizabeth Pena, another actor who did not become a major star. I suppose she will be remembered by most people for her roles on television series. I didn't watch those series, but I will not forget her in LONE STAR, a John Sayles' film that I rank in my top ten. How many Westerns end with a brother and sister marrying one another with your approval? The movie is a stunning comment that no matter what the rules are, they do not fit snugly around the complexities of our lives.