Movies Til Dawn

In the late 1940's, Billy Wilder was involved with two projects having to do with Sunset Blvd. Yes, yes, one was the movie--which takes place in a 1920's Spanish Mansion at 10036 Sunset Blvd. (this is the address William Holden gives to Nancy Olsen at the end when he invites her over to witness his real--er--situation). (By the way, the house in the movie was located nowhere near that address--it was, in fact, situated on the unlikely corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Western Ave, and was owned by a former wife of J. Paul Getty--if that's your idea of a good time). The other Wilder/Sunset Blvd. project also involved a house--one that he commissioned Charles and Ray Eames to build for him on a three acre parcel of land located at Sunset and Foothill Drive in Beverly Hills. Exactly when the house was commissioned and for what reason it was never built remain something of a mystery. But read this excellent Architectural Digest piece to know more about the house itself. "A Hou...

Apparently the editorial department at Warner Brothers prepared a blooper reel every year, most likely for showing at the no doubt drunk and disorderly Christmas party. I rather enjoy the 1949 edition (posted below) for the simple fact that it provides an interesting window on slang and sexual innuendo at the time. A large number of the dropped lines are followed by the exclamation "nuts!" as opposed to the usual "Goddam!" Was this the year of "nuts"? Additionally there are a number of jokes (not really bloopers so much as put-on moments) involving actresses aggressively putting the moves on actors--a new sexually liberated/woman on toppish kind of wind in the air following the spirit of post-war hoopla perhaps? David Niven and the baby is pretty good as is crusty old Lionel Barrymore in a bloop from "Key Largo". And I rather enjoy Danny Kaye's intentional cut-ups--he seems, somewhat like Peter Sellers (see previous post) to need to provoke u...

What are bloopers? Mistakes made by performers or public figures which shatter the illusion that they're attempting to create thereby reminding the audience that all acting and most speechmaking is just bullshit. Usually bloopers involve actors simply forgetting their lines (and then muttering "Goddamit"). Sometimes people simply fall down or become frustrated with an uncooperative prop. And sometimes uncontrollable laughter erupts in a performer for no apparent reason. This last is a very specific form of blooping and it's referred to by the English as "corpsing". I'm not quite sure why the reference to a dead body, but I've heard English actors describe it thusly: it's the moment when two actors staring at each other in mid-scene suddenly realize the absurdity of what they're doing--pretending to be other people and sincerely spouting sentiments which have no true meaning to them outside of the scene. Peter Sellers was a master of the ...

There's "Kane". There's "Bicycle Thief". "Greed" of course (though who the hell has ever really seen it?) "Rules Of the Game", "La Dolce Vita", "Wild Strawberries" and I suppose a few more too famous to mention. On and on--ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Face it, the GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIMES LIST has largely remained the same over the past fifty years. Stuffy, academic and proper as a maiden aunt. So why don't we shake the tree a bit and introduce a few new concepts? Let's begin with the fact that filmed storytelling generally needs to be incredibly functional to be incredibly satisfying. Why this is true is a mystery. The musical play is somewhat the same--fat has no place in this art form, or if it does it's strictly for fatheads. Digressions, diversions, excursions--you can do them, and a few people will appreciate the effort (or pretend to) but in the end we are dealing with bread and circuses . Hold your...

The notorious Bettie Page, one of the great pin-up/peep-show queens of all times, disappeared from view in 1957. For years her whereabouts were a total mystery. Eventually she was "sighted" but she categorically refused to be photographed or interviewed. Then, for some reason, in 1996 she decided to give an interview (audio only) to Tim Estiloz, a skilled, journeyman broadcaster/critic. Why she decided to finally re-emerge (and why she chose the relatively low-key forum Estiloz offered) remain a mystery. But emerge she did. The interview is a nice summation of the first part of her life but doesn't go into the quite tragic second part of her life--schizophrenia, depression and a murder attempt (she had a violent altercation with her then landlord involving a knife... take that, Irving Klaw! ) Page's refusal to be photographed is disappointing at first--but maybe she has a point. "Who wants to see a model when she's old and broken down", rasps the sevent...

Lets cut it to the bone: Blaze Starr was the goddamdest stripper of them all. She was one hot mama and apparently is still alive and well and working as a gemologist. Why I find this so cool I don't know; it's a little like learning that cigarettes are actually good for you I guess. Starr, in her heyday (or hey-hey-hey-day!) was so smoking that the Governor of Lousiana, Earl Long, carried on a torrid, illicit affiar with her that was public knowlege. (I know that sounds like a contradiction but in the fifties and sixties people were still able to have publicly acknowledged illicit affairs--look at Kennedy and Monroe, for Chrissakes). Long's affair with the buxom Ms. Starr actually landed him in a mental hospital shortly before his death in 1960. He left her fifty grand in his will which she refused to take. Their relationship was dramatized (but not immortalized) in the desultory screen bio "Blaze", starring Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich,--in my opinion, one o...

Here's a rare clip of Nicholas Ray (I will not insult anyone's film-telligence by listing credits...such as "Johnny Guitar", "Rebel Without a Cause", "Wind Across the Everglades", "They Live By Night", "On Dangerous Ground", "The Lusty Men", "Flying Lethernecks", "Born To Be Bad", "Run For Cover", :"King Of Kings", "55 Days at Peking"--wait--is that all of them?") discussing the ending of the astonishing 1950 Hollywood noir "In A Lonely Place". He briefly mentions how he was seperated at the time from his wife, the film's co-star Gloria Grahame, but he doesn't mention why. Do you know why? One day soon I'll tell you. Meanwhile:   Subscribe in a reader