Debra Paget's First Dance for Fritz Lang

Two years ago or so Debra Paget's dance from Das Indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb) was on a bunch of sites owing to her "artificially nude" appearance juxtaposed over Fritz Lang's exotic and tense mise en scene. It looked cool. This clip:



is not dissimilar and it's from the first film of his Indian Epic Trilogy - Der Tiger Von Eschnapur. The set is pretty spectacular as is Paget's gusto towards getting the performance maximized. A great lepers-that-look-like-zombies scene shortly follows in the film.

Arthur Askey and the Bee Girls

Arthur Askey cowers from the ladies during the song I'm A Wolf On My Mother's Side from Bees In Paradise

He ain't heavy - he's Bobby Sherman

He Is My Brother came out in 1976 and stars Bobby Sherman, Keenan Wynn, and Robbie Rist.

The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk is a tale of two brothers/sole survivors of a shipwreck off the coast of a leper colony run by Brother Dalton played by Keenan Wynn.

Not only do the brothers fear contracting leprosy, but they also quickly become the focus of a power struggle between Dalton and the island's mysterious native ruler who seeks to banish the white devils and their strange new ways. When Jeff (B. Sherman) falls in love with the beautiful Luana, the daughter of the chieftain, she must choose between the past and the future. Before she can though, young Randy (R. Rist) is kidnapped in order to be sacrificed to the gods of a volcano.

Shot on location: Kauai, Hawaii.
Released on DVD by Synergy Entertainment on November 13, 2008

Jacques Brel : "Kiss my ass"

Jacques Brel from the 1969 film My Uncle Benjamin, in which he gets revenge on a desperate monarch by demanding that he kiss his ass in exchange for assistance.




Summary:
France, 1750. Benjamin Rathery is a young doctor whose reputation as a skirt chaser is as widely known as his generosity towards the poor folk of his town. He is in love with Manette, the innkeeper's beautiful daughter. However, she has no intention of giving in to Benjamin until she sees the marriage contract, and he is strangely reluctant to give up his bachelor lifestyle...

Sunday Morning Rambles

I can't remember what I was looking for when I found this one, but it hardly matters. Oh, wait--I was looking up Joseph Losey's "The Damned", which led me to the band and their cover of "Jet Boy, Jet Girl", and then there was this:


I must get back into the PLATTENKUCHE and make some toast now! I'll tackle "The Damned" another day!

"Dahling, am I a nymphomaniac?"

Poor Marianne Faithfull! She's married to a dullard but still has the hots for Alain Delon (who wouldn't, especially when he's sporting his spectacles?!)He sends her a motorcycle as a wedding gift, and she's soon riding both of them! BUT she'll eventually pay the ultimate price for her short-lived freedom! The 1960's STILL didn't like us women to be TOO free!



No subtlety here!


Originally called "NAKED UNDER LEATHER"!!

Action Girls!

From Princess.

First Family Protocol

Gilda Radner was so funny, talented and beloved by 1978 (I had a poster of "Roseanna Roseannadanna" in my bedroom) that it was a shame that her post-SNL film career was lackluster at best.

It started with First Family, Buck Henry's 1980 flat satire of life in the White House. The excellent cast of Bob Newhart (president), Madeline Kahn (first lady), and Gilda as their Amy Carter-ish adolescent daughter flounder in this film. The trio travel to an African country where the First Daughter is kidnapped and white Americans are traded as slaves in exchange for some special animal dung that is able to accelerate plant growth. (Even the comedic talents of Harvey Korman and Fred Willard were wasted).

It was Buck Henry's first credit as the sole writer and director of a feature film. Four years passed before Henry's next screenplay, Protocol (1984), a disappointing Goldie Hawn vehicle with Capra-esque aspirations. While his screenwriting career waned, his career as a character actor thrived.

Jerry Lewis- filmation style

The opening and closing to Filmation's "Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down", which aired from September 12, 1970 through September 2, 1972 on ABC-TV. The series, which featured David L. Landers (later Squiggy on "Laverne & Shirley") as the voice of Jerry Lewis, was based on various characters that were originally created by Jerry Lewis for his films.

Wild, Wicked, Way-Out Paris

One of my very favorite clips from 'The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield.'

Saturday Night Fever premiere - with Ernie Borgnine

because nothing says disco fever like Ernest Borgnine and Dick Van Patten

The all-star cast of premiere goers include Kristy McNichol, Penny & Cindy, Wayland & Madame, Suzanne Somers and John Travolta on the arm of his date: Lily Tomlin ("Moment by Moment - nooo don't do it!" you wanna yell at the screen).

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

I know there's a lot of debate between Bond fans over George Lazenby's turn as 007 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It's actually one of my favorite Bond films of all time. I wish he would have returned to the role for a few more movies. Diana Rigg is one of my favorite Bond girls. I can definitely see why James Bond would fall in love with her. The movie features the beautiful love song We Have All The Time In The World by Louis Armstrong. I hope you like this video clip.

"Little Flower" frenzy

I really love this 1993 film, Household Saints.
Act 1 shows Tracey Ullman and Vincent D'onofrio being thrown together in an arranged marriage by their blue-collar immigrant parents in NY's Little Italy. The superstitions of the Old Country go hand in hand with early 1950s Catholicism and torment poor Tracey when she is stuck living with her overbearing Mother-in-Law, played by theatre legend Judith Malina.




In one grueling scene, the old lady convinces a pregnant Tracey that she has "marked" her unborn child by looking out the window at a blind man. Then, pumped up with power, the Old Lady shows Tracey how she can reverse the curse by praying to Jesus's grandmother St. Anne. Tracey pleads: "Holy St Anna, Mother of our Blessed Virgin, Please Keep me from giving birth to a chicken."

By the 1960s in Act 2, Tracey and Vincent are raising their daughter who to their dismay becomes obsessed with the secrets revealed at Fatima and later as a teen (played by Lili Taylor) becomes obsessed with becoming a nun, or better yet, a saint in the mode of St. Therese of Lisieux, "the little flower".

Once I met Tracey Ullman at a book signing and she seemed not as enthused with the latter part of the film (which focuses on Lili Taylor) and all its religious fanaticism. When I told her how much I enjoyed this flick, Tracey asked me, "Were you raised Catholic? Oh ! that's why! Catholics love that film."

I suppose you really do need to be raised in a blue-collar, tight-knit multi-generational familial setting of deeply religious types to appreciate and be moved (or horrified) by this film. As a kid, I too wished that I could see some holy vision and experience the supernatural. Religious faith was handed down like a recipe - completely accepted and never analyzed.

Now all those years later, this film is a tender reminder that no matter what life brings and how culture changes, there will always be those people who can rework a tragedy and find a tenet, or see some miracle in the madness.

Happy 103rd Birthday to the late Ari Onassis

At age 62, you gave our Jackie the first Big Fat Greek Wedding and kept those Kennedy kids safe (and wealthy).

You were a silver fox stud in the decades before Viagra.

You generously paid to clean the Beale's Grey Gardens home and to fix their heating and plumbing!


You were portrayed by Anthony Quinn in a tacky movie.

Madonna and Child

Genius Madonna spoof. I Love how she hits those R's like a Brit trying to sound American. Oops - except Madge IS American. LOL

What he does when he's not, um ...

Read more about Ernie's private screenings here.

Ricardo Montalban

Jeez, people are kickin' it all over.

Jessica Harper

I have to admit, I LOVE Jessica Harper. I don't think I am totally alone. I even, maybe especially, love her in "Shock Treatment" the under rated sequel to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show". A film I know is almost universally despised but was nevertheless way ahead of it's time predicting the celebrity/reality TV culture and has some truly awesome songs in it. How can you not love a actress who was in "Phantom of the paradise", Stardust Memories,", "Love and Death", "Pennies from Heaven" (another fantastic, almost lost film now it seems - she puts lipstick on her nipples) and , of course "Suspiria" It's really her voice that gets to me. Is it just me or do she and K.D. Lang share vocal cords?

"Irma would've loved this." -- Norman Fell

FINALLY on DVD --
from the men who gave us Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory is the David Wolper produced/Mel Stuart directed If It Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.

With an all-star cast of great character actors: Michael Constantine, Peggy Cass, Norman Fell, Reva Rose, Marty Ingels, Mildred Natwick and Pamela Britton - the film follows a group of "ugly American" tourists on their 18-day motorcoach tour across Europe in swinging 1969.

It stars a gorgeous Suzanne Pleshette (in fierce eye-lashes and wiglet) and a pre-Deadwood Ian McShane as the young stud tour guide. Norman Fell also gives us his fabulous freaky dorky dance that he would make famous as Mr. Roper a decade later.

Also - look for Flipper's Tv buddy Luke Halpin (all grown up as a cool hippie biker) and 1960s tv goddess Hilary Thompson as an American teen looking for excitement.



fun fact: Hilary Thompson retired from acting and married My Bodyguard , Porky's 2 & Cat People writer / makeup artist Alan Ormsby who also created the popular doll
Hugo: Man of a Thousand Faces !

"call us a couple of missing links"

One of my fave opening title/film songs - and definately the best part of the Disney film. Here Annette Funicello sings along with The Beach Boys.



The sequel to 1963's Misadventures of Merlin Jones finds young Mr. Jones (Tommy Kirk) still in college and still going out with Jennifer (Annette Funicello). In this movie, he must help football players pass their tests and invent a flying machine win a contest for the school.

Out takes from The Misfits

One of my fave YouTube personalities Peter Petraitis (he does Edie Beale, Jackie O, Dietrich, Loretta Young - among others) really out did himself when he was inspired to create this vid.

I found this salute to MM's final film performance in The Misfits to be a real hoot. He certainly captures frail Marilyn dancing on the edge of oblivion. I also find these "out takes" far more entertaining than the creepy elegy of that actual self-indulgent film and its neurotics-on-parade.



see his stuff at http://www.youtube.com/user/rankpines49

Patrick McGoohan

obit by Eve Golden.

Myra Breckenridge

Vintage a'GoGo has a great piece on Myra - check it out!

BEHOLD: The Power of Chest!

"Picnic" was on TCM yesterday afternoon. I had forgotten how gazing upon William Holden's chest could render one oblivious to all of life's little difficulties!

And he's not a bad dancer, either:

MMMM MMMM Daddy

Lord knows what starlet Marilyn Monroe had to do in fat Harry Cohn's Columbia Studios office to get this role.

Regardless, she gave audiences a taste of what was to come later in glorious 20th Century Fox technicolor.

Here in one of her first big roles she sings: "Every Baby Needs a Dad, Dad, Daddy"...



In one of her final films in 1960 she works the pole and sings:
"My Heart Belongs To Daddy".




If this doesn't show you that men get off on the helpless female - nothing does.
It's in our DNA. WE cannot help it.
It also gives you an idea of what Marilyn was up against in Hollywood 1948-62.

Yipe! - I Mean, Mamma Mia!

From It Started in Naples -

In Dreams

I'm feeling suave today.

Satan bouche un coin

It's a trimmed down version of Jean-Pierre Bouyxou's "Satan bouche un coin", set to Morticia's Theme, of course.

You can see the devilish thing in it's entirety here.

Zsa Zsa: "I hate that queen !"

HELL-idays are over! Enough of "merry" and "jolly"!

And now it's back to our regularly scheduled exploitative, disturbing, offensive and utterly fascinating fare! I sampled this one last night--and it fits the bill for all of the above! WARNING: DL, don't watch it. I know of your phobias! Here it is:"Even Dwarfs Started Small" from Werner Herzog:




IF I can sit through it again (no time soon), I want to listen to the commentary by Herzog and Crispin Glover!

"While filming the scene where a van drove in circles with no one at the wheel, one of the actors was run over, but immediately stood up uninjured. During the flower burning scene, the same actor caught fire and Werner Herzog raced over and beat the fire out. The actor only had minor injuries from the fire. After these two accidents, Werner Herzog promised the actors that if they made it through the rest of filming without any more injuries he would jump into a cactus patch and allow the actors to film him doing so. The film was finished without any further injuries and the director made good his promise and dove into the cacti. Herzog has said, "Getting out was a lot more difficult than jumping in."