The Ghost that haunts me: Norma Shearer

Almost two years ago I went through a bit of a rough patch, boy troubles naturally. It was during this time that I was haunted by Shearer, of the Norma variety. Everywhere I went there she was. Prior to this I am not even sure if I knew who she was. It was this constant reminder of her that made me build a distaste for her. I didn't find her particuarly attractive and I never saw any of her movies, so she became the symbol of a rather putrid time in my life of drama.


Just the other day, however, my friend and I watched The Divorcee. A fantastic pre-code film staring Norma Shearer. Perhaps it was her character or even her hair (yes, hair again), but something happened. She grew on me a bit. I warmed up to her and found the movie to be quite clever. Although the ending was a bit predictable and less than desireable in my modern mind, the rest of the movie was fantastic!

I even found myself crushing a bit on one Robert Montgomery (father of Elizabeth Montgomery). It could have been his character I was attracted to. Don. A fun loving cocky fool. A bit arrogent at times, but while he didn't go looking for trouble, he would welcome it when it came to him.


Back to Shearer... she grew on me. The next night we watched A Free Soul. Not as good as The Divorcee, but I didn't find myself hating Norma Shearer again. Perhaps my liking of her is symbolic. I let go of the anger that has been holding me down for a while now. Or maybe I just replaced one heartache with another.

Her crystal gaze and sleek hair is a favourite look of mine. If my hair would behave this nicely when cut this short, I would most certainly wear it like that always! But alas... this sleek bob is just a pipe dream for me.

Here are some of my favourite looks of Mrs Shearer.