The Saltair Dance Pavilion in 1955, used in the iconic horror film Carnival of Souls. From here. More history here. This is the second pavilion built on the site, which was destroyed by arson in 1970. A rail car that used to ferry dancers to and from the pavilion sat near the area until…
Erle Stanley Gardner’s lawyer-slash-detective character Perry Mason was created in 1933, and within a year Warner Bros. created a film series based on the books. The first film, “The Case of the Howling Dog” (1934), was based on a serialized novel published in Liberty Magazine earlier that same year. In all, six Perry Mason films…
I didn’t know whether to go with “Part Deux” or “Electric Boogaloo” for my sequel subject title. “Part Deux” won out, it’s the lesser-known reference. It’s true that I just had a lengthy hiatus, but this is still SBBN’s 2nd blogiversary and I’m here to celebrate it in style. I love my blog and I’ve…
Oh, Terence Morgan, you look so good in tights. You know that’s the reason you got fan mail from teenage girls after playing Laertes in “Hamlet”. Terence Morgan is one of those actors that most people in the U.S. don’t know, or only barely remember as Sir Francis Drake in the 1960s television show. There…
No one ever knows how to write something like this. Wait, let me take that back: Some people can write what they feel, sincerely and beautifully, even if it’s a difficult thing to do. Larry Gelbart was one of those people. Sadly, we lost Larry today, age 81, from cancer. Immensely talented and one of…
Many, many years ago, Kay Francis was the star of the month on TCM. I tell this story often, so I give my advance apologies to those who have heard me yammer about this before. TCM was new to our cable package at the time Kay was star of the month, so I assume this…
This post originally appeared on Film For the Soul during Ibetolis’ amazing Counting Down the Zeroes series, a celebration of films from the 2000s. The year of 2003 was a terrific one, so much so that it was difficult to decide which film I wanted to do for the year. Eventually deciding on a list…
“Fog Over Frisco” (1934) – Bette Davis is Arlene, hard-partying step-sister to Val (Margaret Livingston. Again. Sigh.) Arlene is also girlfriend to rich dude Spenser Carlton played by blog fave Lyle Talbot. Arlene hangs around wild bars that are owned and run by gangsters, and even though Val goes with her, she doesn’t realize the…
A wacky find from my archives: An old mid-1990s TCM warning that a movie they were showing had been edited for content.
I was once again charmed with the opportunity to participate in StinkyLulu’s excellent Supporting Actress Smackdown series, and this year was a great one: 1992. Don’t remember it off the top of your head? Two words: Marisa Tomei. You have to go read the comments and reviews on StinkyLulu’s post! This is one of the…