I was channel hopping just now (It's the only way to get action on my TV)and ran across a scene from a 1945 movie titled "Saratoga Trunk," starring none other than Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper.

The part played by Bergman was totally differrent from her role in "Casablanca," and I was compelled to watch the rest of the scene. In this one she is over-playing the part as a rather firey female. That contrasts with the under-played part in "Casablanca." Only the best actors can play it either way and still come off looking brilliant. Coop played his part cool, almost like Bogart in Casablanca. I didn't watch more than that one scene. I guess I don't like to start a movie in the middle.

I'm not saying that we don't have actors like that any more, but you have to admire people who turned in a performance like that when movies were still young. I'm sure people like Hanks, Streep and others learned a lot about acting from those early stars.
Howard