What's My Line?: Kim Novak

Hello, classic Hollywood fans!

As soon as you get me talking about movies, I'm sure to mention old movies, even if it is only briefly as the conversation usually gravitates towards newer movies. Here at Movies Meet Their Match I really enjoy exploring the careers of actors and actresses from this period, and my special way to do that is talking about episodes of What's My Line?!

First, I should introduce our guest. This is my entry (at the last second) to The Classic Movie Muse's Kim Novak Blogathon: An 89th Birthday Celebration! This amazing lady just turned 89 and though she is retired from acting, her legacy is far from over as she is a painter.

What will shock my readers is that I have never actually seen Kim Novak in anything. (Crazy especially considering the movies she was in with Jimmy Stewart! I hope to see Vertigo (1958) and Bell, Book, and Candle (1958) as soon as I can!) Though I did not have time to watch a full length movie for this blogathon, I wanted to be introduced to her work finally! For that, I decided what better way than through the panel of What's My Line?? Though it is in the form of one of my shorter posts, I do not like birthdays going by uncelebrated!

(Fun story: even though I hadn't seen Miss Novak in anything, I was still able to introduce her to someone else. That's what happens when I have a million windows open on my laptop and was shuffling through them to find my math homework. A classmate inquired who Kim Novak is when her Wikipedia page showed up on my screen).

What in the world is What's My Line?? The next few paragraphs will explain the show, so if you've heard about it or if you've been here before you can skip. 

The basic rundown that I give you every time:

First of all, what is this game show? What's My Line? was a 30 minute game show that ran from 1950-1975.

How it worked:

A panel of four judges try to guess contestants' "lines" (jobs) by asking yes or no questions. The host/panel moderator, John Charles Daly, guided them and helped rework questions to fit the correct format. Each member of the panel would guess until they received a solid "no", then a card is flipped as the contestant earns five dollars, and the next person on the panel begins to guess. When all ten cards are flipped the contestant wins! If the panel guess what their line is, then they still get however much money that they won in "nos".

L to R: The three regular panelists, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, and Dorothy Kilgallen, & the panel moderator, John Daly.

Does this sound boring? It's far from it! The occupations are so unique, the panel has a hard time. Sometimes their guesses are so off, that it's a hoot! Plus, the highlight is that after two contestants there is the mystery guest! This guest is a celebrity and would be recognizable, so the judges wear blindfolds and get to ask one yes or no question before moving onto the next panel member and they have to guess who it is.

Blindfolds ready, panel?

For ages I would always just skip to the mystery person, but once I started watching full episodes I realized how much I was missing. However, the celebrity is how I'm connecting it back to my blog. The plan for this series is to talk about all of certain celebrity's appearances. To me, I think that you can tell a lot about a person based on the way they acted here. Some where shy, some were funny, some were bold, you get the idea!

This shows you a piece of history in a small way. It shows separation from those times to now in different was, for example in this episode that I will talk about there was an inside joke or something about the modern times that I did not get. Maybe after I watch some more episodes I'll understand it more!

If I were to review it like I do movies, I would say:

Length: approx. 30 minutes. 25 without advertisements (which are hardly ever there on YouTube, which is where you can watch it).

Script: 10, Iʼve never heard a bad word.

Content: 9, sometimes there are one or two suggestive comments, but itʼs rare.

Age Range: Iʼve been watching this for a long time, but as I said, I didnʼt used to be interested in the first 2/3. I would say that little kids would like to just watch the mystery guest if they knew who it was, just because they wouldnʼt get how funny the rest of it was (especially if they canʼt read the occupations).

It is time to start! Will you come in mystery challenger, and sign in please...

Source

This will be especially short compared to my other What's My Line? posts because Kim Novak was only a contestant on the show once, but this is not an episode to be missed!

February 5th, 1956: PANEL: Arlene Francis, Desi Arnaz (his only time as a guest panelist), Dorothy Kilgallen, & Fred Allen. (This episode is the closest to their sixth anniversary from starting on February 2nd, 1950! It has another special guest for the times in the guessing the occupation part...)

This is a special opportunity for me. Usually I only watch the show when there are contestants that I have seen in other things so I can get a look at their ordinary life, but here I'm seeing Kim for the first time! 

The first word that comes to mind to describe my impression of her is ethereal. She was quite young when she went on this show (22 years old) and she comes in both sprightly and out of this world in some way. Arlene called her a young lady, and they all seemed pleased to have someone from the newer generation (not that any of them were old at the time...) around. She said she would like to think of herself as being in more dramatic roles than comedic, which is something I'm going to look for. Overall, I really enjoyed watching her! Her attempted cockney accent for hiding her voice seemed to fit her personality.

Some highlights from the episode:

One of Arlene's favorite questions is if someone is a leading lady. The contestants I've seen are not sure how to answer this, and here Arlene is starting to take things into her own hands.

Arlene Francis: "Would you be considered a leading lady?"

Kim Novak *BA*: "I don't know"

Arlene Francis: John!

John Charles Daly: "Yes, I would think, is the answer to that..."

Desi Arnaz: "You get somebody over here today that I can understand."

Kim Novak *British accent*: I can't understand you, sir.

*audience laughs*

Desi Arnaz: "Oh, I like her!"

They mentioned a movie called Picnic (1955), so that gives you reference to the cinema at the time.

That's all I'm going to tell you, so you'll have to watch the episode to see if the panel guessed who she was...

It was lovely to make your acquaintance, Miss Novak. I look forward to seeing more of you in the future!

Thanks to the Muse for hosting this! Readers, make sure to go read the other submissions for this blog party HERE!

Thank you for reading! Are there any famous old movie stars that you haven't actually seen in anything? What are some recommendations for movies that Kim Novak is in?

Chloe the MovieCritic