Actors & Personalities · Documentaries
“Just Another Man”: On James Toback’s Tyson
“Toback, to his credit, and despite the empathy he feels toward his subject, doesn’t pull his punches.”
Category: Actors & Personalities
Actors & Personalities · Exploitation & Erotica · Pre-Code
Desperation and Divinity: “Help us, Mae!”
Hazy thoughts on the transition from real sex to digital hallucinations
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Bride of the Joker: Thoughts on Jolie
As we prepare for Oscar once again, we see Angelina Jolie nominated for being in Clint’s “craftsmanship” film, CHANGELING. I heartily admire Jolie but, for my money, she’s never found[…]
Is Cheeta an Imposter?
As reported in the Los Angeles Times – In Hollywood, “even the animals lie about their age.” Cheeta may not be 75 years old. He may not even be[…]
Hotter Younger Sister Thing #7: Gail Patrick as Cornelia Bullock in MY MAN GODFREY
I know Cornelia isn’t necessarily the “younger” sister in Gregory La Cava’s classic screwball comedy, MY MAN GODFREY (1936), but she was born three years earlier (than Lombard) and damn[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Cooler Younger Sister Effect: Barbara Rush in MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION
The recent Criterion release of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954) makes a good–not great, but still worthy–addition to our cooler younger sister collection. This 1954 Douglas Sirk soap was a big,[…]
Actors & Personalities · Comedy · Directors
Looking at Charlie: City Lights: An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin
“If you could only see me as I really am, not as I appear but as I really am, as I am in my heart.”
Robert Ryan: A Moon for the Misbegotten
“I have been in films pretty well everything I am dedicated to fighting against.”
The Cooler Younger Sister Thing – Part One: Diana Lyn in MIRACLE AT MORGAN’S CREEK
What is it that makes the hotter, smarter younger sister so much more sophisticated, precocious, intelligent and adorable than the older lead in movies? Maybe it’s because she’s free of[…]
The Actress Meme: Co-Stars
With a tip of the hat and, perhaps, apologies to Nathaniel R, here is my version of his 20 Actress meme – not just 20 favorite actresses, but 20 outstanding[…]
Jane does Tennessee Williams! PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT on TCM – 12/12 at 10:30 AM (EST)
Here’s a catchy little number that’s not on DVD and should have/could have been included in that Tennessee Wiliams boxed set of a few years back. There’s not a lot[…]
Actors & Personalities · Exploitation & Erotica
Everybody’s Dream Girl – Bettie Page (1923-2008)
Is there an art to being photographed? I believe there is, and when I say that, I am thinking of four artists in particular, all of whom reached their peaks[…]
So long, Beverly Garland (1926-2008)
In addition to losing Forry Ackerman (see below), we lost another icon of the classic horror genre, Beverly Garland, this weekend. Garland was a true Hollywood survivor, battling and slinking[…]
Happy Birthday, California Mountain Snake!
It’s a birthday today for DARYL HANNAH, beloved uber-babe whose been immoralized in at least two classic films: Bladerunner and Kill Bill. Even if these were the only two roles[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Links: Fifteen years in the wilderness, THIRTEEN & the womb of fear
Time keeps on slippin’ and the internet expands fast as the universe itself, which means we should all link to each other, lest distance grow long. I’ve had transcendence on[…]
Actors & Personalities · Documentaries · Music & Musicals
It Ain’t Me Babe: On Dylan and Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There
I’m not the one you want babe / I’ll only let you down.”
Alfred Hitchcock at the Drag Ball: When Being Blonde and Soulless Is Not Enough
“Mother … my mother … um, what’s the phrase? She isn’t quite herself today.”
Norma Shearer: The Primrose Path to MGM Stock
“She hovered somewhere between the realest of realities and the most blatant of impersonations.”
The Commodification of Anna Faris
I first noticed Anna Faris in the Scary Movie franchise in which she parodieamong other things, Neve Campbell’s role in Scream. Following that, Faris provided expert comic relief playing supporting[…]
George Sanders: A Mitigated Cad
“Where on the screen I aminvariably a sonofabitch, in life I am a dear, dear boy.”
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