Harvey Korman meets Herschell Gordon Lewis

We love Saint Harvey here at the Slammer - if only we knew of this when we used to see him at one of our fave breakfast haunts before he left us for the silver screen in the sky.


From my new favorite website.

I Need This Movie NOW!

Shy and awkward, Marvin Swift loses his job at an underwear factory and bungles lovemaking with his girl friend. He becomes locked in the boiler room of an apartment building, and there Lucibel, who says she is the devil, promises to grant him any wish. He becomes the head of a company that makes sex exploitation films. But he hasn't lost his awkwardness; he becomes excited by the simulated sex and stumbles over the equipment, wrecking the set and losing his actors and production crew. Marvin next wishes to become irresistibly attractive, and he agrees to give Lucibel, in return for granting his wish, exclusive rights to him for 6 months. He is overwhelmed by her demands upon him, and he finally trades his soul for everlasting youth--believing that his immortality will prevent her from collecting the debt. He begins to enjoy his newfound freedom and goes to a party where he is accosted at once by all the women in attendance. They follow him into the bedroom, shed their clothing, and begin to tear at his clothes...


I actually found it on TCM while looking for info on Larry Crane.

Who Put the Acid in my Coffee?

Giant billboard. As I'm sitting in traffic.

Site O'The Day

Tomb It May Concern - what's not to love?

The Gore Gore Girls (1972)

The Gore Gore Girls is a veritable feast for the go-go/detective/horror trifecta of senses. Veteran grindhouse director Herschell Gordon Lewis helms this sleazy tongue-in-cheek slasher "thriller" that combines go-go dancers, blood and some very non-Dashiell-Hammett detective work.

A go-go dancer is brutally murdered in her apartment. Looking for a scoop, a young female reporter named Nancy Weston bypasses the local flat foots in blue and enlists super-sleuth private eye extraordinaire, Abraham Gentry, to crack the case. Abraham is clearly the center of the story. Not one to use brute force he saunters through the seedy go-go underworld with the look of John Holmes and the debonair manner of Tony Randall. No thug is too tough for him. Any street creature can be bought. He looks like Bunny Breckinridge as he floats through each gruesome murder scene, casually pointing out each clue with his polished silver-handled walking cane.


And the murders are gruesome---but ridiculous at the same time. In one scene a meat tenderizing mallet is used on the posterior of a subdued go-goer that is bent over a chopping block. Of course the obvious next step is to season the rump (literally, with salt and pepper) before skinning her head and removing her eyes. At one point the killer goes so far as to make a manual extraction from a go-goer's chest. Gathering it into two champagne glasses, one hand toasts the other to end the scene.


As far as entertainment value the go-go dancers perform adequately. And there is no shortage of one-liners, sometimes punctuated with Abraham's wink to the camera. The closing monologue is like a 1970's version of a William Powell Thin Man wrap up. Throw in a heavy bar bouncer that likes to smash melons to relieve inner tension, a radical feminist sub-plot and a cameo by Henny Youngman and you've got a 16 millimeter go-go train wreck that you can't look away from.

The Gore Gore Girls (1972)
Uploaded by bmoviebabe. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

I Walked With a Zombie (Holiday Version)

"I'm Gonna Kill a Buncha People"

Saw this tonight on the big screen. William Devane in a rare starring role as a hook-handed Vietnam vet out for justice. Was Tommy Lee Jones ever as gorgeous? It's a delight.



Spoiler: here's the big shootout/climax scene. It's killer!

RIP Arnold Stang

He was the Chunky man when I was little, but also Top Cat fercrissakes. You all probably know more about him than I but if he was on the tube you knew hilarity would result.
NYT Obit here

On the -- day of Xmas, Amy Winehouse Gave to Me

Anyone who heckles Mickey Rooney not only makes my day but my entire WEEK!

Happy Birthday, Lex!

We couldn't do it without you. And not just that, our blogs would look lousy without your fab designs. This one's for you, baby. We do need you!

Yammer on, Euro-Yammerers!

The Guardian has this article about the best movie of the 'noughties' in which they tease us with an upcoming one per day reveal of their picks............ bogus.

HOWEVER (yeah I was yelling ...)

The comments have a lot of interesting suggestions for viewing, from regular folks like you and me- well, OK, not you, but me at least, only because all of you are so ........*ahem* unique. So blah blah recommend etc etc... look at it if you are so inclined.

Then if you are so inclined, shall we have a recommend-off? One of those facebook-y meme-y "This is my list of top ten whatever the fuck I'm thinking of at the moment" things? For our picks? Formalized? Out here? For all to see our shame? Not hidden in Tweets or Pokes but here where strangers can say "Whatta jagoff!"

The My Dinner With Andre' of the decade IMHO was Death Proof. Lotsa yakkin'.

Shaw Brothers Playing Cards

I have to stop waiting so long before checking Blonde Zombies.

It's A Mystery!

It's very strange what will bubble up from the subconscious. I found myself humming the theme to Mystery Date the other day for no reason, no reason at all. As a child, I thought that when I grew up I wanted to be a DUD because the DREAMS always seemed so uptight to me. I guess dreams do come true.

R.I.P. Jennifer Jones 1919-2009

The dowager widow of industrialist/art collector Norton Simon - Jennifer Jones has passed away in her Malibu home at age 90. She appeared on the Oscars a view years ago in their calvacade of winners sitting in bleachers. She won hers for playing French peasant Bernadette Soubirous who saw a vision of a beautiful lady in a grotto in 1858. The Lady called herself "The Immaculate Conception". Church officials were shaken since this doctrine (that Virgin Mary was also born without original sin like her son Jesus would be later) was only 4 years old and unknown to the illiterate, sickly child with minimal education. Officials harangued Bernadette to confess that she was lying about her visions - until her dying hour in a convent at age 35. They did not let up on the poor girl. Meanwhile the church could not stop the pilgrimages to Lourdes for the healing spring water.

Bernadette became a saint in 1933 and Jennifer Jones' film The Song of Bernadette was released in 1943.
--
Jennifer Jones was also married to Robert Walker and David O. Selznick. Her daughter with Selznick named Mary Jennifer jumped to her death from a Westwood CA building at age 22. Jennifer Jones became a great philanthropist to mental health charities.
--
Jennifer Jones had a lovely ethereal quality that made her mystical roles in The Song of Bernadette and Portrait of Jennie custom made for her. She showed her acting chops as a prim school teacher in the Capra-esque film Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955). Her final role was in A Towering Inferno.

Christmas with The Addams Family

If only ...

Grandmama looks more like Santa than the rest of 'em!

Screengrab Heaven

PZ found this fantastic site chock full of gorgeous grabs.


Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver

LA Confidential

Seasonal Hints: "Why Not?"

Thanks, Abby!

Oh My. It's Fruitcake Weather !

I want to bawl like a baby when I hear/read the last lines of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory. That thing about kites and heaven ...oh shit...pass the hanky!

The story of young "Buddy" and his elderly cousin Sook was immortalized in the 1966 telefilm. The incredible (and loveable) Geraldine Page won a well deserved Emmy for her unforgettable performance. The film was narrated by Truman Capote himself.

For some the film was too grown-up and dull for a "Christmas Special" and it took them until adulthood to appreciate the beauty of this storytelling.

You can read the entire short story on-line here.

or watch the entire film on YOU TUBE while you can...

it starts here:

"...with boughs of trauma "

Christmas...the season of high hopes and great disappointment...commerce and media driven drivel reminding us once a year that our childhood wasn't Norman Rockwell perfect. It's all so nuts - considering it's just a winter solstice celebration that Spring is on the way. The "Sun" is coming (early popes changed it to mean "Son") and the rest is misery, err history.

You won't find a more haunting and outrageous Christmas memory than this one devised by Lorimar for the TV film Sybil (1976).

Martine Bartlett is INCREDIBLE as sad & sadistic schitzophrenic mama Hattie. Her long stage and screen career ended at age 58 - just 7 years after Sybil aired. I guess she was too closely associated with that crazy bitch with a bun. She died in 2006.

Postscript: JoBeth Williams reprised the Hattie role in the recent Jessica Lange SYBIL remake for TV, but she was NOWHERE near as memorable or HIDEOUS.

Willie Best

Most of our regular readers know of our efforts to keep Willie remembered. Well, we just discovered the fabulous Josh Pincus Is Crying blog. Check it out. Here's Josh's sketch of Willie.

Have Yourself a Lynchy Little Xmas!

Okay, so David Lynch didn't create this, but it sure feels like it.



Speaking of DL--the other one!--here he is finally discussing the much-rumored job interview with George Lucas regarding "Return of the Jedi":

Scream Gems

The "S from Hell" is what some kids called the Screen Gems logo which closed 60s/70s TV shows like The Monkees, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and The Partridge Family.

Some kids were spooked by the strange music played while the dot in the middle was approached by menacing lines.

There is a short film at Sundance about this childhood fear.



Personally, I never feared a damn logo as a kid - I would have watched a beheading as long as it followed my beloved Samantha and Jeannie and Flying Nun.

Kids Ruin Everything

But that didn't stop K Gordon Murray from making a fortune from them in other bad classics that I love, like "Santa Claus," and "Rumpelstilskin."

"Let's don't live in yesterday," is my new motto.

Mission: Possible

In 1963 Leonard Heideman killed his wife during a psychotic episode. Seven years later, using the name Laurence Heath, he was the producer of the hit TV series Mission: Impossible.
Read the rest here.

Laurence Heath, writing for Mission: Impossible, in 1972
photo courtesy Classic TV History.com

STACEY (1973)

Groovy opening theme song (taken from VHS) + trailer
Starring May 1967's Playboy Playmate of the Month, ANNE RANDALL.

Snuff

I was trapped in the car and listened to Chuck Palahniuk's book Snuff, and now I have to post it here as a recommendation for it's wealth of quirky, old-school beauty tips of classic Hollywood stars as well as horrible tragic ends of Hollywood stars (In addition, the meaning of gang tattoos, toxic overdose symptoms of Viagra and effects of cyanide). While there seems to be some contrivance and deus ex machina kinda stuff happening, it was a jolly good and disgusting adventure, if one is, as always except in the case of documentaries, willing to suspend one's disbelief. His willingness probably comes from the juxtapostion of the violent death of his father and his father's girlfriend, which was basically a repetition of the same circumstances a generation earlier - history repeating itself.

All Women Are Bad!

fabulous!

I need some alone time...

I don't know what it's about and I don't care! Colin Firth as a NILF and Julianne Moore with gorgeous eyeliner and a bodacious bouffant:

Lemmy Caution

I know it's nothing new, but some days I think far too much about Lemmy Caution.

Before the Hippies ruined the 1960s!

I like to imagine this is Joan Holloway's "Divorce the Damned Doctor" party! It's actually a home movie of some hepcats and kittens twisting the year away. I wish I could just crawl right into this clip and live here forever! It also features Joe Dodo and the Groovers doing one of my all-time favorite songs-- "GROOVY" (of course)!!

30,000 Troops Later, Funny, But Depressing

In the Loop, directed by Armando Ianucci, follows the "climbing the mountain of conflict" pretty much as Vince Bugliosi describes it in The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder: via ignoring facts and revising reports, all in the name of power. And now we're diving back in.....so, uh, it's still relevant, maybe......!



P.S.: Interesting population of cast as well.....

Marilyn smoked a doobie in a home movie

She smoked out at a New Jersey house party in late 50s. (Very Don Draper).

An anonymous source sold the 8mm footage for $275,000 (£166,000) to US collector Keya Morgan, who is making a documentary on the death of Monroe in August 1962.

(Too bad Jeanne Carmen is dead and can't contribute fishtales...maybe Tony Curtis will step forward now saying that he drove Bobby Kennedy over to her house that day.)

---------------------------
okay, I almost forgot ...

Reefer of No Return

Gentlemen Prefer Blunts

Some Like It Pot

Lo and Behold Lo Bianco !

73 year old Tony Lo Bianco is a Brooklyn cab driver's son who became famous as a Golden Gloves boxer and actor in the cult films: The Honeymoon Killers (1969), The French Connection (1971) and God Told Me To Kill (1976). He also appeared in Jesus of Nazareth (1977). Lo Bianco received an Emmy Award for his performance in the one-man PBS teleplay of “Hizzoner: the Life of Fiorello La Guardia”.

Signore Lo Bianco is National Spokesperson for the Order Sons of Italy in America.

Here are photos of Tony in his gigolo con-man role in The Honeymoon Killers and a recent one with his lovely wife Elizabeth.

Buon Natale!









---

Klaus Nomi as "Mame"

I always think of this this time of year... if Klaus Nomi had lived I am convinced that Saturday Night live would have dressed him as Lucille Ball in "Mame" and had him sing this song. Look at her hand gestures! Her outfit! She's practically Klaus already! It would have been PERFECT! "We need a little Christmas" was made for him to sing!

A Winters Wonderland!

The many moods of Shelley from "Poor Pretty Eddie"!