Archive for the ‘movies’ Category

Dial S for Super-Saturated!

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

We just watched Dial M for Murder, a second-tier Hitchcock film that’s still right up there with Vertigo and Rear Window in terms of its use of Big 50s Color. It was originally shot for 3-D because it was all the rage, but was seldom projected that way.

Jon once told me that I “don’t know how movies work” because I’m often so distracted by some element of production design that I completely fail to follow the plot of the movie. I did fixate on this one celadon lamp that I’m pretty sure was mainly there as a foil to Grace Kelly’s explosively red dinner dress. Fortunately the characters explain the basic plot in advance and revisit all the important points as it progresses, so I could still follow along.




Even the beiges are rich and buttery. Also entertaining for a scene in which Grace Kelly sports the “no makeup look” and utterly fails to look frowsy and downtrodden.

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Girl on a motorcyle

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Marianne Faithfull in a famously ridiculous movie:

Anke-Eve Goldmann in real life:

Thanks to Northstar Vintage for the tip.

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“Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art"

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Last night we watched A Bucket of Blood, which Roger Corman made in five days in 1959. It’s a comedy-thriller that satirizes the beatnik scene. Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) is a socially retarded busboy who wants to impress all the arty beatniks at the cafe where he works. Almost any further explanation of the plot could be construed as a spoiler.

I love movie beatniks!

L-R: Two scenesters – dig their headgear – who get most of the funny lines; nice girl Carla (Barboura Morris); snooty cafe owner Leonard (Antony Carbone); hapless chump Walter before his artistic transformation. I told Jon he should start dressing like Leonard and he said, “OK!”

After you become an artiste, you’re issued a beret, cigarette holder, paisley scarf and smoking jacket.
Walter tries to impress Alice, a beatnik pin-up who just came back from a trip to Big Sur to look for Henry Miller (she didn’t find him).

This was the first part of a black comedy triptych that Corman made between 1959-1961 (Little Shop of Horrors and Creature from the Haunted Sea followed). Originally released by American International Pictures, it now appears to be in the public domain. Note that there is no actual bucket of blood in A Bucket of Blood.

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Tom Conway double feature

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

One of the best things about living in the big city is that you can watch old movies in an actual theater, like the Gene Siskel Film Center. Since last night was Friday the 13th, they screened two low-budget horror classics, I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim. Both movies were produced by Val Lewton for RKO in 1943, and feature Tom Conway in progressively campy roles.

The Jacques Tourneur cult classic I Walked with a Zombie is about a level-headed nurse who goes to Antigua to care for a beautiful woman with a mysterious illness. It turns out everyone in Antigua looks faaabulous.


1. Paul and Betsy in their traveling suits; 2. Alma’s islander wear and Betsy’s efficient nurse’s uniform with capacious pockets; 3. Paul, Betsy and Mrs. Rand tell Wesley that It’s Time to Go Home (omg her handbag!!!); 4. Paul and Wes in their safari shirts. Stills via eBay.

The Seventh Victim is about a girl (Kim Hunter) searching for her missing sister (Jean Brooks), who has supposedly disappeared, although other characters seem to see her quite regularly. The movie is shot in super-noir-vision:

It turns out that Satanists also look faaabulous.

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