Movies Til Dawn

As Go-Go dancing gave way earlier in the week to Ann-Margrock, thus does Ann-Margrock give way at the end of the week to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, though the relationship between the two is perhaps a bit murkier. In fact, there is no relationship--I just got lost in my Youtubing while looking for a clip of Ann-M dancing and somehow wound up in the 'Red Shoes' department. In any event, above is a quite well-done 1981 BBC Arena program on the formidable filmmaking duo, featuring footage of Powell wandering around Hollywood, bravely stopping traffic on Vine Street and pacing a studio lot while waxing nostalgic with Francis Coppola, who had recently bought said studio (known for years as 'General Service Studios' and briefly and disastrously as 'Zoetrope Studios') and who employed Powell as "senior-director-in-residence". Powell is a sharp and debonair 76 years of age and is living in a somewhat squalid apartment in Hollywood, where he...

  Subscribe in a reader Above, meet Ann-Margret's not very talented sister, the singer. NOT. Unbelievably, it's actually Ann-Margrock herself, age 16, on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour (the mid-century 'America's Got Talent'). If anyone ever told me that the teenage Ann-M was sexless, uncharismatic and devoid of any  of the natural--er--assets that comprise the Ann-M we all know and love, I'd have scoffed (whatever that truly means) at their short-sightedness and insisted that stars are born stars and don't simply develop into them once given the opportunity. I'm wrong. Go fig.

Above is a screen test Ann-Margret made for 20th Century Fox in 1961--this is literally just after George Burns saw her in the group act (the "Suttletones" or some such) that brought her out west, provoking Burns now immortal "you gotta come to Vegas with me, kid", one of the great career-starter lines in the annals of show-biz history. As screen tests go, this is as hopeless as you can get--a non-set for a set, a badly framed medium shot with some other musicians sort of included sometimes, a clinical (at best) lighting job. (How did anyone ever get anywhere in Hollywood when this was the standard?) Yet Ann-Margrock dives in to "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey" (even the material is questionable) with complete conviction, a lot of spunk, and those legs...those tights...that thing she does...   Subscribe in a reader

The Go-Go-Girlathon seems to have taken a detour (a turn for the better?) thanks to my current Ann-Margaret obsession. Above is the 'title sequence' (sans credits so what the hell are we talking about here?) to her immortal 1966 sex-com 'The Swinger', directed by George Sidney, who also directed her in her Elvis co-starrer 'Viva Las Vegas'. Sidney clearly has an affinity for his starlet--she's at her most relaxed and kittenish in those two movies--and the fact that he retired shortly after making 'The Swinger' suggests absolutely nothing of any importance. Who was George Sidney you ask? He was the son of an MGM executive named Louis Sidney and as such grew up 'on the lot', apprenticing on 'Crime Does Not Pay' and 'Our Gang shorts in his early twenties, directing his first feature at age 28--an Esther Williams technicolor vehicle called "Bathing Beauty." So many famous film musicals followed (along with four DGA nomina...

As my obsession with the dance moves at one-minute, eighteen seconds of our previous Go-Go-Chick clip increases, I've delved into the question of who exactly Ann-Margaret was in her heyday. An Elvis squeeze? George Burn's discovery? The dangerous Swedish-chick next door who does the postman when her parents are out of town? Or a Flinstones regular, a Bedrock visitor from mid-century America? Above is the first Ann Marg-Rock number from the aforementioned semi-venerable cartoon. And then there's the Ray Donovan of it all...   Subscribe in a reader

Above is a full episode of a syndicated show that aired in 1965-1966 called "Hollywood-A-Go-Go", featuring some amazing acts and a girl Go-Go line called 'the Gazzari Dancers' (named after the actor Ben Gazzara bus misspelled?). The Gazzari's still have a hold on their fans and you can find more info on a fansite th at is devoted to their collective memory. As far as Go-Go girls go, their moves are a lot hipper than most and they rock with the different music styles pretty efficiently. I dig them. The show was also a lot hipper than most of its ilk, featuring an eclectic mix of hot young acts ranging from James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Simon and Garfunkel, and most memorably The Rolling Stones, who appeared on a 1965 segment. The Wikipedia entry for the show claims 52 episodes aired before the show went in the dumpster, but this episode is labeled 58 so somebody's lying.   Subscribe in a reader

The Go-Go  is apparently named from the phrase "go-go-go" for a 'high energy person', according to the ridiculous Wikipedia entry I found on the topic. It was influenced by the French expression a gogo  meaning "in abundance, galore" which is in turn derived from the ancient French word la gouge for "joy, happiness." And that's what you'll witness in the above youtube video mash-up, set to 'Green Onions' and featuring some of the most fab 60s actresses throwing down hard-core as they channel the era's 'abundance'. Chief among them are, of course, Marilyn Monroe from 'The Misfits' (with Thelma Ritter chiming in!) and Anita Ekberg. The Natalie Wood stuff from 'Gypsy' should have been eliminated. But at 1:18 get an eyeful of Ann-Margaret putting the rest of the room of line dancers to shame. This is only the beginning. The Go-Go-Girlathon will consume much of the next week or two. If you don't like...