Baby Face, French Lobby Card
Baby Face, 1933
Directed by Alfred E. Green
Spring Break. Let’s take time to soak in some sunshine, sin and bathtub gin. Served up shameless– please. Like Barbara Stanwyck in Baby Face.
After a transparently draped Jean Harlow boinked her way to the top in MGM’s Red Headed Woman, Hollywood’s studios were determined not to miss the scheming skank gravy train. In 1933 a parade of unrepentant adulterers, brazen boob-flapping strippers, thieving hookers, and unabashed homosexuals lit up the silver screen in an outpouring that tanked the censor ship*.
The Two Mrs. Carroll's
The Two Mrs. Carrolls, 1947
Directed by Peter Godfrey
Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Dark Passage, Knock on Any Door, Dead Reckoning, The Big Sleep. Bogie was really cranking out the hits for Warners in the late forties. He also managed to sandwich in epic benders and brawls with wifey #3, Mayo Methot; a notorious affair and marriage to teen dream Lauren Bacall; and a few weeks shooting for The Two Mrs. Carrolls’.
Unfairly considered a piece of crap at the time, The Two Mrs. Carrolls’ is worth watching. In The Two Mrs. Carrolls’ Bogie plays a painter that gets to menace, sneer and romance la la Picasso in an uber gothic mansion. Picasso of course, wreaked more havoc than this guy, but no matter.
Now, Voyager Dell Romance 99, First Edition
Now, Voyager, Dell Romance 99, first edition
by Olive Higgins Prouty
Cover art by Gerald Gregg
Try this plot on for size: Wealthy woman plagued by tragedy and a controlling mum has nervous breakdown. After graduating from two years of therapy, the woman frees herself from the past and blossoms into a successful adult. She then decides to pass on riches of shrink-dom to a daughter surrogate. Daughter surrogate turns on her and lampoons her in satirical black hole of a autobiographical novel prior to killing herself.
Twisted version of Now, Voyager? Hidden version of Bette Davis’ real life? No, the true story of Olive Higgins Prouty. Author of Now, Voyager. The surrogate? Sylvia Plath. The book? The Bell Jar
Yes, gentle reader sometimes true life has more brackish melodrama than even our eye-popping Ms. Davis in Of Human Bondage could muster. Or, say the edited version of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on the tuber. . . Well, maybe not.
Robert Siodmak's The Killers
Dating dilemmas. Which brother to choose? The dark, brooding mysterious one. Or the one that’s all mathy and gothy, with a pinch of scary fun. Such is the debate among the criterati.
The Noiristas are just luvin Robert Siodmak, cause there’s just so many dark alleys to peer down on those lonely Saturday nights. Who can resist Miss Ava in The Killers or Miss Stanwyck in The File on Thelma Jordan? Or how about two Olivia de Havillands in The Dark Mirror? (Does the detective really have to choose which de Havilland to throw in jail? Why not both?) In all, Siodmak directed 8 noir films between 1943 and 1950 before he got fed up with studio and star antics and sailed back to Europe. I will profile a couple of these films in future postings.
The Wolf Man, 1941
To Horror cultists, Curt Siodmak is the disrespected little brother. Robert was the Director, Curt the writer. Robert was Oscar caliber, Curt was the “monster” writer.
But Curt wasn’t just any monster writer, he created the WOLF MAN! The first movie werewolf. Seventy years later movies, TV, cable, cartoons — whatever– nobody messes with Curt’s version of the werewolf. Witness True Blood’s hotties. All waxed up and toothies capped, but watch out for that full moon! Absolutely amazing in a town where a writer’s creation is rarely sacrosanct.
And…OMG! Curt wrote one of the best camp movies ever: Bride of the Gorilla.
Raymond Burr is a cursed plantation owner that turns into a Gorilla at night. His wife, “Bad Blonde” Barbara Payton, feels “neglected”. Lon Cheney investigates.*
Curt also wrote Donovan’s Brain, the basis for my next post – The Lady and the Monster. See ya.
*This synopsis may be inaccurate.
Sorry Wrong Number, Original Vintage Half Sheet
