Let’s just get this out of the way: George Arliss is damned creepy. His face looks like a naked skull, and the over-dark lipstick, eyeliner, and what I think is makeup around his nostrils freak me the hell out. In “The Man Who Played God” (1932), Arliss — who was …
Before I forget, I want to mention I am now posting to my Twitter when I update the blog. I’m not very wise in the ways of Twitter, so the hashtag #sbbn I automatically add to the tweets may or may not be appropriate. You’ll tell me if I’m doing …
It’s the middle of the holidays, so a little light blogging seems in order. Blackglama furs has a fun little site where you can see previous ads from their iconic advertising campaign which features a lot of Hollywood royalty. Click here and go to “Campaign” to see more. The website …
“A Christmas Carol” is a story so overdone that it’s beyond my weak powers of prose to fully describe how trite and cliche it is. I counted to 35 on the IMDb’s list of films and made-for-TV versions made of Charles Dickens’ story before I gave up. Every U.S. sitcom …
TCM, your one-stop shop for early morning pre-Codes, recently showed the almost completely unknown Night Parade (1929). It’s not so much a pre-Code as a very early talkie, however, and sadly, it stinks on toast. It tries hard to be a full entertainment experience by including song, dance, extended boxing …
The TCM Remembers memorial for 2009: Another really difficult year. I think that every year, but when I first saw the memorial last night I just lost it, and I continue to lose it on repeat viewings. The song is “To Live is to Fly” by Steve Earle, off his …
Ruth Chatterton is Caroline Grannard, the daughter of a fabulously wealthy tycoon and wife of handsome businessman Greg (John Miljan). Caroline often lunches with Julian Tierney (George Brent), a handsome journalist who is in love with her, but while she enjoys his company she makes certain he knows she’s not …
D for Doom and I got to talking about the film “Isle of the Dead” (1945) in the comments of my last post, plus of course today is the last day of the Boris Karloff Blogathon, so I thought I’d post a few pictures. One day I may get around …
Frankensteinia has been holding a Boris Karloff Blogathon all week, which I discovered a couple of days ago thanks to Ivan at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear and W.B. Kelso at Scenes from the Morgue. Now keep in mind this post isn’t part of the blogathon, I just had this post …
Last month I watched two 1955 Diana Dors movies on TCM: “As Long as They’re Happy” and “An Alligator Named Daisy”. To be honest, I watched ALaTH but could only make it through the first 20 minutes of “Daisy” before giving up completely. While these movies are usually billed as …
