“That’s the way film should be. An artist should not moralize. A person who has the audacity to make a film in the first place should never consciously put his own neuroses on the screen.” — Nicholas Ray, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, 1975 *** Wet Dreams is a 1974 compilation of short films…
Category: blogathon
Ida Lupino Blogathon: The Big Knife (1955)
This post is my entry for the Ida Lupino Blogathon hosted by the Miss Ida Lupino blog. Don’t forget to visit the other fine blogs who are participating! Clifford Odets’ vicious drama The Big Knife is a Tinseltown Macbeth, part Hollywood exposé and part exercise in self-aggrandization. Charles Castle, enormously popular film actor, says halfway…
Monster Mash Blogathon: Plan 9 From Outer Space
My excitement over being the first to pick Plan 9 From Outer Space for the Monster Mash Blogathon was quickly replaced with apprehension as I realized positively everything to be said about Plan 9 has already been said. To combat this disadvantage, I decided to approach P9 as movie that needed improvement and I, winner…
Maneater Week: Maneater (2007)
For Mr. Gable’s Maneater Week, I took the literal approach and watched Maneater (2007). For those of you who don’t find yourselves staring at the SyFy Channel on Saturday nights watching people get eaten by various creatures both real and imaginary, you probably don’t know what the Maneater series is. Let me explain: It’s approximately…
Queer Films Blogathon: GLBT Characters in Early Hollywood, Part 2
This part two of my entry for the Queer Films Blogathon held by Garbo Laughs. Part one is here if you didn’t catch it yesterday. Check out all the entries, as they are listed beginning about 10 AM Eastern time this morning. *** Earlier I listed a few examples of pre-code gay characters, ending with…
Queer Film Blogathon: Pictures
While you’re waiting for more posts in the Queer Film Blogathon, enjoy these fine photos and links, won’t you? Harvey Fierstein circa 1971. Photographed by Gilles Larrain. Courtesy the now-defunct Chateau Thombeau. Farley Granger, Jane Powell and Roddy McDowall courtesy The Film Experience: Sal Mineo and Gay Hollywood. Janet Gaynor and Margaret Lindsay…
Queer Films Blogathon: GLBT Characters in Classic Hollywood
This entry is for Garbo Laughs’ Queer Films Blogathon, held June 27. Because my post ran long, I put this part up early and posted the second half Monday, which you can find here. ***Despite what you may have heard, portrayals of GLBT characters in early and classic Hollywood were not particularly rare, and…
Hotel Monterey (1972)
New York City’s Hotel Monterey was apparently built around 1909, and by the time of Chantal Akerman’s 1972 silent experimental film that features the building as the movie’s sole character, the motel had been turned into lower-rent apartments in the midst of a somewhat run-down neighborhood. Akerman’s stationary cameras capture movement, stillness, patterns, light and…
The Roger Corman Blogathon: The Day the World Ended (1955)
This post is for Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear‘s Roger Corman Blogathon. This promises to be a great ‘thon with lots of terrific bloggers contributing. Check it out! ***Science fiction was firmly entrenched as a popular film genre by the mid 1950s, but Roger Corman was still pretty new at the biz. Angry that he…
Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
This post originally appeared on My Floating Red Couch for the Battle of the Fatheads between William Holden and Leonardo DiCaprio. Check out the entire battle for more! For the most part, Escape from Fort Bravo is a typical cowboys-and-Indians Western flick with little more to offer than guys in sharp blue uniforms battling against…