Friday, October 29, 2010

Film Survey! (that i attempted to dirty up)

Thanks to Noodle In a Haystack for this survey! Let's get started.

1. What is your favorite movie starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, excluding all ofThe Thin Man films?
Honestly? Don't care. :p

2. Name a screen team that appeared in only one film together but are still noteworthy for how well they complimented each other.

Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner.
That's a match made in a Hollywood crack den. But admit it, you really wished they had hooked up. 
3. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' best film together?
Roberta (1935)
4. Your favorite actor named "Robert"?
Robert Mitchum. He'd take you roughly in the barn. 
5. An actor/actress who, when you see one of their movies, you always wish that someone else was in his/her role?
Burt Lancaster. All those teeth and muscles couldn't hide his ridiculously stiff acting.
6. An actor/actress that someone close to you really loves that you can't stand or vice versa? 
Donna Reed. The poor man's Ingrid Bergman. Yawn. 
7. An actor/actress that you both agree on completely?
My Mary. 
8. Complete this sentence: Virginia O'Brien is to Ethel Merman as...
Whatever. 

9. What is your favorite film starring Ray Milland?


The Lost Weekend (1945). Drunks are hot. And loose. 
10. You had to have seen this one coming: what is your favorite movie of the 1960s? 
Valley. Of. The. Freakin. Dolls! (1967) Nuff said. 

11. An actor/actress that you would take out of one film and put into a different movie that was released the same year?
Skip, too long. 

12. Who was your favorite of Robert Montgomery's leading ladies?
Skip. 


13. You think it would have been a disaster if what movie starred the actor/actress who was originally asked to star in it?


If the role of Daphne/Jerry in Some Like it Hot (1959) was played by Frank Sinatra as originally intended. 


14. An actor/actress who you will watch in any or almost any movie?
Montgomery Clift. I have nothing more to add without sounding like a big pervert. 
15. Your favorite Leslie Howard film and role?
Ok don't judge me, but I'm going to have to go with Gone With The Wind (1939), everyone fell for Rhett, I immediately fell for Ashley, for reasons still unknown to me. 
16. You have been asked to host a marathon of three Barbara Stanwyck films. Which ones do you choose?
Every man's wet dream and worst nightmare. Boobs and brains. Does it get better than Stanwyck? If we're talking deviant undertones I'm going to have to go with her earlier work. 




17. What is, in your mind, the nearest to perfect comedy you have ever seen? Why?
Trouble in Paradise (1936). Lubitch on sex, that's why.
18. You will brook no criticism of what film?
The Heiress (William Wyler) 1949
If this film wasn't already perfectly constructed, if you have a problem with Monty Clift with a mustache, tails and a top hat, you go to hell, you go to hell and you die. 
19. Who is your favorite Irish actress?
Maureen O'Hara (duh). 
20. Your favorite 1940s movie starring Ginger Rogers?
Meh. 

21. Do you enjoy silent movies?
Yes. 

22. What is your favorite Bette Davis film?
Of Human Bondage (1933). Who doesn't love cockney sluts?
23. Your favorite onscreen Hollywood couple?
Joan Crawford and her eyebrows. 
24. This one is for the girls, but, of course, the guys are welcome to answer, too: who is your favorite Hollywood costume designer?
Adrian. 
"It was because of Garbo that I left M-G-M. In her last picture they wanted to make her a sweater girl, a real American type. I said, 'When the glamour ends for Garbo, it also ends for me. She has created a type. If you destroy that illusion, you destroy her.' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamour went with her, and so did I."

25. To even things out a bit, here's something the boys will enjoy: what is your favorite tough action film?
The Magnificent Seven (1960). Hot men in tight pants. Done and done. 




26. You are currently gaining a greater appreciation for which actor(s)/actress(es)?
Judy Garland. Better late than never right?
27. Franchot Tone: yes or no?

Oh dear god yes, yes! YESSSSSS!
28. Which actors and/or actresses do you think are underrated?
Camp queen and occasional fatty, my personal hero, Shelley Winters.  
29. Which actors and/or actresses do you think are overrated?
Clark Gable. Am I the only one who wouldn't hit that?  
30. Favorite actor?
Montgomery Clift. My life can be divided into two parts; before Monty and after Monty. 
31. Favorite actress?
The legendary Vivien Leigh. The most beautiful woman ever to walk the face of the earth, and one bat shit crazy bitch. 


32. Of those listed, who is the coolest: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, or Patrick Stewart?
Steve McQueen. When I first saw him in 'The Magnificent Seven' it was like the second coming. He still has a very thick file in the fantasy section of my dreams. 
33. What is your favorite Hitchock movie? 
I Confess (1953). I have a priest fetish. I am ashamed of myself. 

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Naughty Boardwalk

What new show has had a more hyped premiere than 'Boardwalk Empire'? It was directed by Scorsese, it was starring Steve Buscemi, it was about the 20's and bootlegging, etc. HBO really advertised the fact that this was the time of going back to quality programming. The show's relevance is rather questionable, and though interesting to me and a few other History Channel nerds out there, it's main point is to revive interest in perhaps the most significant decade for the United States (no, it wasn't the 1960's. Sorry hippies). There was much in this decade that would were catalysts for profound changes not only on a sociopolitical level, but on that of sexuality as well.
Paz de la Huerta playes Lucy, Nucky's sassy and dimwitted mistress. In this scene doing the quintessential 20's thing right after the Charteston; popping out of a birthday cake. 

When I say 'sexuality', i am not simply referring to the act of sex, I am referring to attitudes, dress codes, and general notions regarding the 'rules'; flirtation, proposition, rate of exchange etc. 
I'm sure among the many things that people forgot about those golden years, one of them must have been just how much sex has changed since. The first show that harkened back to sexual politics of a different area that seem completely alien in this day and age was 'Mad Men' (2008). Not only did it show us the undertones and taboos of sex in the work place, but also the attitudes between the sexes that are influenced by everything from clothes to suggestive gestures. 
Now, 'Boardwalk Empire' deems to take us even further, to where it's not so much a history lesson at the end of which, we are thinking; 'oh that's how that thing started', but serves as a retrospective on the history of gender relation and sensuality coupled with the intense changing of the times. We can see this transpire in the dichotomy between the upper and lower classes. The former is symbolized by Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson (Buscemi), a corrupt politician. The former represented by one of his workers, Jimmy (Michael Pitt) who just came back from WWI to settle back into family life with his wife and kid, as well as get his hands dirty in the booming business of bootlegging. More so, its personified in the women that serve as their better halves (and I am using this term liberally). Nucky has some 20-something, pretty in a high class escort kind of way, dimwitted broad with a voice like Jean Crain in 'Singin' in the Rain' (1952). She's loose, beautiful, and not too smart. The perfect composite of a 1920's flapper. Jimmy's wife is homely, pale, skinny, and mousey. You get the feeling that had she had the opportunity to be born into wealth, and met the right men like Nucky, she could very much end up like Lucy (Paz De La Huerta). She has the legs for it. Instead, she gets stuck in domestic purgatory taking care of a brat who's father is away at the front in France and doesn't write.
Add a very awkward Oedipal relationship between Michael Pitt and Gretchen Mol (who get this, plays HIS MOTHER), and you've got yourself a controversial hit. What separates 'Boardwalk Empire' from mostly everything else on TV (with the exception of Mad Men) is that it is not exploiting the content for shock value which always always equals ratings. It's taking all the wonderful sex and violence of the 1920's and building a story around it. There might be a bit of an areola overload in it lately. But I for one can't wait to see what new debauchery these crazy cats get into. And if you are successfully managing to sell Steve Buscemi as a sex symbol, then you get major kudos. 

Monday, October 4, 2010

I Need To Wash The Jersey Shore Off Me...And It's Sticky...


the class act cast of the Jersey Shore
I know that my blog is primarily on cinema, but I would like to branch out into television as well, as it is just becoming a bit too interesting not to address.
In the last few years, there has been a revolution in how we watch television, as well as the content itself. And I am not talking about the obvious juggernaut of reality TV that has evolved from schadenfreudeian opus 'Survivor' (2000), to scraping the back of Flavor Flav's gold teeth. I guess one could refer to it as devolution rather than evolution. This is most notable with the show that continues to live in delightful infamy, premiered last September on MTV, 'The Jersey Shore'.
It is formatted after the wildly successful 'The Real World', which originally premiered in 1992 and believe it or not is still running, despite its dwindling relevance. MTV decided to one up itself in what it will stoop to, and search far and wide for the next big fatwa of outrageousness. It finally settled on Jersey, the armpit of the United States and the turd seeping from Pennsylvania's asshole. Brave executives at MTV got together with a bunch of their CUNY dropout interns and laborously discussed what aspect of pop culture they wanted to exploit next.
I can imagine an early 20's something douchebag with dirt under his fingernails, an Ed Hardy t-shirt, and plastic sunglasses adorning his unkempt hair coming up with a way to economize the franchise by focusing on just one state and the culture within rather than tirelessly searching the country day night 'Broken Flowers' style in order to find a bunch of impressionable shmucks to fit roles of; 'the mormon', the 'jerk', the 'artist', the 'drunk ho', and the 'player' (there are probably more variants to it, but those are the ones I remember best).
They bravely decided to look to the future, and that future was spray tans, stripper heels, blow outs, fist pumping, and Valtrex.
One would expect that this show was one that even the likes of VH1 turned down for being 'too trashy'. Remember, VH1 aired the ultimate in classless sleaze including but not limited to 'Rock of Love Bus' (2009), 'I Love New York' (2007, 2008), and 'Megan Wants a Millionaire'(2007). MTV would have to fight the brave fight alone, and convince all of us that this is something worth our attention. And you know what? It was.
Aside from being an obvious ironic commentary on the depravity of our culture, it really is just so much fun to watch, if you can sustain your gag reflex for long enough. Instead of the usual stock characters that change with every new season and location of 'The Real World', 'Jersey Shore' focused on choosing people they knew would be consistently annoying, and consistently fabulous.
From most tan to least tan, there's Snooki, J-Woww, Paulie, The Situation (Mike), Sammi, Ronni, Angelina (who was gone for most of the 1st season), and Vinnie.
There are your classic cat fights, douchebaggery, and drunken rages that invoke that delicious guilt within all of us that makes us feel better that whatever we are, at least we are not at that level. But what's so deliciously gross about The Shore is how they changed sexual behaviors and attitudes for the rest of us. After a while I feel like I'm watching a Nova special, where I felt like I was observing a new and rare species in their first heat. And soon enough, I found myself using a lot of their slang...proudly. I even asked a friend if she thought i was a grenade the other day.
And if you thought the 'shore house' was nasty during Season 1, if you were to take an infrared light to it a la 'Dateline', it's probably nothing compared to the shmorgasbord of bodily fluids that lay siege to their Miami house of Season 2.
It is a den of vice that rivals the Roman harems of Bob Guccioni's 'Caligula' (1972). Eloquently nicknamed 'the smash room' by the roommies, I don't even want to imagine the shenanigans that goes on in there.
And amidst how nasty each of them appear to be (with the exception of Vinnie, he can stay) and how increasingly ridiculous the stuff that comes out of their mouths is, and how much we all want to despise sweaty, greasy, spray tanned nimrods, they turned out to be one of the most interesting and original presences on television.
Right now, they all seem to be DTF (that means 'down to fuck' in shore speak) with each other more than outsiders. Letting all of that spray tan, eye-liner, and pit stain run a greasy streak through network prime time. Yes, there's the prerequisite of drama, crying, and alcoholism, but what we really watch it for is for its unmistakable sleaze factor.
The Situation (normally known as Mike) has been recycled through the reality TV reusing flush system to be one of the 'stars' on Dancing with the Stars this season.  (Shown here 'practicing' with Karina Smirnoff)

It feels safe to watch sleaze from a distance and not have to worry about disinfecting anything after the fact. But lately, it's almost been oozing out of my TV screen and making me really want a good shower. I am starting to wonder if it is possible to push the sleaze boundaries to the point where its no longer funny, and I can no longer appreciate it. The Shore is really only bearable for a season or two, even if you're someone like me, who lives for this kind of stuff and the chance to ironically embrace it. I think I need Jersey Shore rehab, and ween myself off of it with something slightly less gross but just as ridiculous like...Real Housewives of D.C. (no offense D.C.) But who knows, perhaps this Thursday I'll tune right back in to see what The Situation scrapes out from the bottom of the barrel this time and brings back to the shore house to fish-mouth kiss and rub bronzer on. And maybe our Shnooks will fall down a bit more and finally hit that comically larged head on something, but we all know that her poof will protect her from that scenario.
But I admit, all I'm really hoping for is more catch phrases for me to later use ironically, and more reasons for me to thank my lucky stars that I don't have to live in Jersey, even though secretly wishing I could be a cameraman at that house. I'll admit it, I love you 'Jersey Shore', but in small doses. And I just don't think it's working out. It's not you, it's me. And shame on me. I know I keep getting a bit self-righteous, and in these circumstances, it's hard not to, but I truly believe that this show is one of the most genius undertakings of reality television, much in the tradition of Andy Warhol and even John Waters, where everyone behind it (including the cast) understands the immanent sleaze factor and acknowledges it. It's lack of pretension is very much appreciated.
It really is the 'Melrose Place' (1992) of our generation. You don't want to admit that you watched it, but it was your absolute favorite. You knew all of the characters by their full names, their backstory, and their sex lives. Once a week you sat down with a bowl of Chex Mix and fuzzy blanket and had the time of your life. You might have even cancelled a few nights out with friends because you couldn't miss 'Melrose Place'. You made fun of it constantly, and then were caught in talking about the characters knowing almost everything about them, and your friends never looked at you the same way again. 'Jersey Shore' is what we had all dreaded happening since the birth of reality television, and now that it has finally manifested itself, we all want to hate it with vengeance. Lest we forget, there was a show aired just a few years ago about women getting plastic surgery to look socially acceptable and then competing with each other afterwards for who is the most changed (The Swan, 2004). I feel if we're going to put our moral corruptibility on anyone, it should be that horrendous miscalculation rather than the brilliant combination of sleaze and comedy that is 'Jersey Shore'. So why don't we all put on some LMFAO, take a shot of Smirnoff, and fist pump our weekly stress away. I've done my part, so I'll abstain, eat some Milano's and watch Golden Girls, but everyone else please go ahead. 

Please take a minute to watch this nugget. It's half of the cast parodying themselves, and though not SNL material (like that's saying much), it's actually pretty hilarious.

Marilyn Monroe: Nude Pool Scene from The Unfinished 'Something's Gotta Give'


I'm watching a TV-documentary called 'Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days' (2001). It is primarily about the debacle of shooting the now infamous and unfinished film titled 'Something's Gotta Give' (1962), co-starring Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. It was later retitled 'Move Over, Lover' and recast with Doris Day and James Garner. Due to Marilyn's constant tardiness and absence, the film went ghastly over budget. And considering other problems they were dealing regarding the money vacuum with Elizabeth Taylor at the same time (Cleopatra), Monroe was fired, after which Dean Martin promptly quit. She was found dead in her home in Brentwood about 2 months later.
The over 9 hours of footage that was shot but never completed during 1962 lay dormant in an old studio lot until a group of archivists and editors dug it up for this documentary. They took whatever George Cukor had managed to shoot, and eventually pieced it together (much like was done with Dryer's 'Passion of Joan of Arc'). What remains is a pretty dull film; the only spice of which being this infamous nude pool scene that Marilyn shot over 3 days on the soundstage. The entire crew was ready to forgive Monroe pretty much all of the delays, pay cuts, and headaches she caused them because they got to hold an omni for hours while she swam naked in a pool. It is some of the most rare footage that exists of her. Enjoy!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Joan Crawford; Camp, Androgyny, and Teeth.


Nicholas Ray should be noted for being just as iconic of old hollywood as Cecil B. Demille, Billy Wilder, and King Vidor. He was in my opinion, the most significant in his bridging of genres as well as cinematic bylines of production. One such film that I believe is the best example of Ray's uncanny disdain and disregard and simultaneous satirization of the material is in the Western "Johnny Guitar" (1954), starring Sterling Hayden, Joan Crawford, and Mercedes McCambridge.
Crawford, at 49 was cast as the protagonist Vienna, a hardened, mannish, volatile sort of woman with too much common sense, and contempt for those without it.
Since she did take a long break after her 'come back' with Warner Bros in "Mildred Pierce" in 1945 (for which she won an Oscar), there were certain changes not only physically but mentally that could not be denied. Joan had somehow made herself into this hardened character, and thus, made herself even more camp than she already had been. It would appear that most of camp culture that takes influence from this particular era of hollywood focuses primarily on Joan Crawford as a beacon of style, rhetoric, and mode. 
One such example would be Crawford's infamous lips, which had been an inside joke in Hollywood since her Letty Lynton incarnation back in the mid 1930's. 
When we look at the 'Crawford Face', it is one that has changed the most significantly in film history. When she started out as a chorus dancer back in 1921 when she was 19, she as little more than a floosy, whom you wouldn't be able to pick out of a line up. 
In her silent film days, she acted opposite many cinema greats, and yet, she really wasn't too recognizable. 
Crawford is in the middle. 

In the 1930's Louis B. Mayer was grooming stars to fit a certain image, and what was in fashion was McDonald's type eye-brow arches, thick bright lips, and petite, boy-ish frames. Joan adapted quickly. 
The reason that she is one of the most significant gay icons is because of her many collaborations with gay men in her early years that shaped the look that later paved the way for camp culture, the most significant of which was with MGM costume designer; Adrien (no last name required). Picture a younger, more arrogant Tim Gunn. He not only designed most of her gowns in almost every film she did in the 1930's, but also designed the make-up that would later become her trademark. Before Edith Head's designs made Grace Kelly an icon of fashion, there was the marriage between Adrien and Crawford. 
Crawford in her Letty Lynton dress, designed by Adrien. One of the most significant outfits that influenced that era

As she aged, and was fired from MGM for being 'box office poison', worked for Warner Bros. for a while, and eventually became a free agent, her look became more and more severe. 
This is most evident in 'Johnny Guitar' (1954). 
She had her teeth recapped, cropped her hair very short, and started wearing pants (gasp!). It was as if she was building a 'warrior' concept. It was quite frightening. 
It was not attractive at all, but perhaps that was the purpose. Her character in the film is a woman who owns a saloon, wields a gun, and certainly takes no bullshit. 
In this film, she is the ultimate Mulvey wet dream. A woman who not just by looks, but by attitude threatens everyone else's masculinity. 
'Down here, you get whiskey and cards...up here, all you'll get is two bullets from my gun' she quips to an ornery crowd of angry men that try to invade her territory. 
In the tradition of Katherine Hepburn, Crawford strives to maintain control not just by smart dialogue, but by physical attributes. 
At this point, she is not really someone you'd want to fuck, but you definitely don't want to fuck with her. 
Nicholas Ray was an aesthetic genius. He understood iconography in ways that were instantly noticeable. He took all of the emotional strength of Crawford circa 1935 as a headstrong shopgirl, and coupled it with Crawford as Mildred Pierce, adding a masculinity, arrogance, and intimidation to the equation; all of them being characteristics that Crawford already had in spades. 
In a way, he just gave her a platform to expose all of the contradictions of gentile feminism that she possessed, but didn't articulate in her film roles. 
This ain't your mother's independent woman, and it ain't Elinor Dashwood. This is Lady Macbeth on crack. 
This is Crawford finally expressing herself without Thalberg, Mayer, or Warner breathing down her neck. 
Yes, it is a bit too obvious in the Mulveyian 'threatening woman' complex, but it is profoundly significant. Crawford's greatest antagonist is not Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), to whom she can't help but yield. It is macho, closet lesbian, androgynous (but not in a sexy way) Emma, played by Mercedes McCambridge. 
The best exchange between the two, which is also the simplest goes: 
Emma: I'm going to kill you. 
Vienna: Maybe...not if I kill you first. 
Awesome. 
Crawford in 'Johnny Guitar' How the times had changed.

It's like John Wayne vs. James Cagney in a dick measuring contest but with chicks. 
At a time where the Western genre was in limbo between John Ford and Sergio Leone (The classic vs. the 'spaghetti western'), there was a very awkward atmosphere of unknowing and becoming. 
The John Wayne era had passed, and the genre was slowly becoming a novelty, devoid of significance. Nicholas Ray decided to transform the genre from being all about the men, to being all about the women...who acted like men. 
It is really one of those pivotal and overlooked films, which exists within that lost period in which a genre is either disappearing or transforming. And yet, it manages to be loyal to every aesthetic; theme, structure, and ideology. 
What is so unique about 'Johnny Guitar', is that it is not actually about Johnny Guitar. It's very much Vienna's movie; her needs, her plots, and her actions. I would say it is the precursor to 'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967). There are two main characters, but as is tradition since the latter, it is the woman's picture. 'Bonnie and Clyde' is a no brainer. It is of course Bonnie's film, and should be re-titled, 'Bonnie and Some Other Guy'. 
What is so significant in the casting of Joan Crawford to represent this shift in the genre's essence, is that she formats herself into the quintessential male role of the Western while maintaining her presence as a woman.  
This is why, one could say that Vienna in 'Johnny Guitar' is a huge deviant. She doesn't wash dishes, try on dresses, or comb her hair. She's an angry broad with ideas. And she'll put a bullet in your head if you dare to disagree with her. She is one to be genuinely frightened of. Usually in the Western, that was personified by a giant mass of flesh, with thick chaps, a big horse, and a ridiculous hat. 
The only thing Vienna sports is a funny looking turquoise ribbon that ties tightly around her neck. 
Before Adrien Brody lost 40 pounds for 'The Pianist' (2002), or Tom Cruise went gray in 'Collateral' (2004), our Joan was willing to take her appearance to the utmost of androgynous and displeasing extremes. 
Perhaps I'm wrong about this, and she actually thought this was a good look for her, but that's irrelevant. She embodies not so much a feminine power that threatens not only the masculinity within the film, but also the masculine sensibility of the audience, but a complete transformation of acceptable feminine culture. I think that in 'Johnny Guitar', she is both man and woman; a hybrid, unrecognizable, and completely unique. 
She managed to make the 6'3 butch Sterling Hayden look like a carnival monkey. Clad in high fastening pants, leather boots, and a tight jehovah's witness-type button up, she made everyone feel simultaneously aroused and frightened. It is a performance as well as a statement. It doesn't seem to make sense, and yet it does.