The moment I started this chapter I knew I would love it, because its title is “Flaming Treachery.” As in treachery, an intangible yet powerful thing, which somehow caught the fuck on fire. Delicious. Raiders of Ghost City was produced by Universal in 1944, and is one of the last movie serials they ever did.…
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Marie Prevost Project: Only Yesterday (1933)
For anyone interested in doing research using these posts, please read the note at the bottom of the post. Thank you. *** One of the most terrible yet fascinating facets of Marie Prevost’s Hollywood decline is how poorly she was treated in the latter days of her career. Precious little is available about what went…
Happy Birthday, Mr. Benny!
Jack Benny February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974
Raiders of Ghost City #1: Murder By Accident
Welcome to SBBN’s new weekly movie serial, Raiders of Ghost City (1944). This fine matinee fare is brought to you by a generous contribution from SBBN partner in crime and official alibi Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. of Thrilling Days of Yesteryear. Thank you, Ivan! The plan, and there’s always a plan though it often doesn’t…
Bathing Beauty Days: Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson: Glamorous star of the cinema or victim of a horrible smear campaign designed to make her seem mortal, adorable and occasionally clad in a swimsuit, just like those harlot Sennett broads? Gloria Swanson clowning around with Phyllis Haver while on the set of The Pullman Bride (1917), absolutely not being a Bathing Beauty…
Elsewhere on the Internet: B-Rolls, Bergman and Bukowski
One of my goals for this year is to read more about art, film, literature, creative people, musicians, anyone fascinating. Instead of posting links only to my own content elsewhere on the web, I’d like to also share some of the more interesting articles I’ve found. I was going to call this feature Things I…
King Kong (1933)
This exhibition print by noted Hollywood still photographer Ernest Bachrach is the best King Kong promotional ever. Another Bachrach exhibition print. Bachrach did a notable series of photos of Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s. During his time at RKO, he did a lovely set of close-up stills on Katharine Hepburn for Alice Adams, several…
February Movies to Watch For
Here are some films on Fox Movie Channel, Sundance and TCM for the month of February, 2013 that you might be interested in. Remember, these movies may be edited, time compressed, in the wrong aspect ratio, have commercial interruptions, or be pre-empted for a marathon of Tony Danza shows, the bad ones that only ran…
Bette’s Got It All
After browsing through a few hundred of saved pictures of Bette Davis, as one often does in the wee hours of the morning, I stumbled across this little number labeled “unidentified:” Unidentified? Hardly! It’s a promotional still (in color!) of Bette’s turn in a 1959 episode of “Wagon Train” entitled “The Elizabeth McQueeny Story,” where…
Happy Birthday, Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly Born January 13, 1931 Seen here during rehearsals for the 1964 Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! A plethora of terrific pictures from the production can be found here.