The Glass Web, 1953 Original Vintage Half Sheet
The Glass Web, 1953, Directed by Jack Arnold
Too much to discuss. Sometimes it takes me too long to write and edit my jibber jabber. Should I focus on the obvious? Versatile Sci-fi director Jack Arnold? The early 3-D experimentation craze. Or, the boom boom bodacious Scarjo harbinger Kathleen Hughes. Measurements: 38-24 1/2-36 1/2.
Fortunately in this flick they kind of all fugue together.
In 1948 pretty, perky pin-up girl Betty von Gerkan signed up with Fox on a seven year stab at stardom and adventure. Not too much happened until Fox dropped her. Then she dyed her hair platinum. Presto! The Clairol Cure revs up another stalled career. First came the boys. Then came the parts. One “big” breakthrough was 1953′s It Came From Outer Space.
Dirty Harry, Original Half Sheet
Clint Eastwood is a primo example that you don’t need to “act” to be an Academy Award winning artiste. Does Clint bellow like Brando? Hem and haw like Stewart? Lisp like Olivier? Hell no. He doesn’t have to. He’s got Props baby. Like boob jobs and botox, the right props can elevate a B-list actor into the stratosphere. Mr. Eastwood’s career serves as a case study:
I Love Trouble, 1947 Original Half Sheet
Franchot Tone should have had “I Love Trouble” tattooed across his you-know-what. Was his love interest married? No problem. Other boyfriends? Game on. Jail bait? Gang Moll? Alcoholic? Smitten.
Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was born in 1905 to a multi-millionaire New York industrialist and his society wife. A spectacular career start with Lee Strasberg’s ground-breaking Group Theatre in New York coincided with “girl trouble”– an unmarried pregnancy and an “inappropriate engagement”. After an accolade filled year in the footlights, Tone hightailed it out of NYC on the wings of an MGM contract in 1932.
Round 1 – The Movie Star
In Hollywood, Tone was a Fred Astaire movie come to life. Good looking, cultured millionaires’ sons didn’t grow on trees in the Great Depression. The dashing singleton had his pick of the ladies. But Tone set his sights on Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. –Joan Crawford. The fact that Crawford was not yet divorced, and in a torrid affair with Clark Gable did little to dissuade his pursuit.
Possessed, Half Sheet
Behold my numero uno trashtastic star, Joan Crawford. The fire in the eye of Blake’s tiger could never match the combustion in Crawford’s peepers when she gazed at an Academy Award. . . new boy toy. . .or vodka bottle!
Most stars need to step way out of their comfort zone to win an Oscar. Not Joan. She won her second Best Actress nod for playing a flakey nut case in Possessed. Most critics consider this her finest moment. Joan acknowledged to quite a few people that it was her super fave.
Crawford in 1947
Possessed was Joan’s follow-up to her Academy Award winning performance in Mildred Pierce, and another waltz out of the comfort zone as a boozy socialite in Humoresque. This completed her in your face trifecta come back at Warner Brothers. What a Roll! At this point in her career Joan was once again partying hard as a bachelorette after divorcing Phil Terry and adopting four kiddies. On top again in her 40′s.
Her libation of choice? Vodka 140 proof. No mixers Please.
Fix it up Joanie style:
1 Crystal Sazarac glass
Ice
Fill ‘er up !
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Condition: Possessed. Half Sheet. 1947. Original. Fine – Near Mint. Poster has been professionally paper backed.
Recommended Read: The Joan Crawford Murders by Peter Joseph Swanson
Night Has A Thousand Eyes
Cornell Woolrich, aka William Irish, aka George Copley was the kind of writer Nathaniel West would love. A tortured momma’s boy so lonely the only friend he could dedicate his book to was his typewriter.* A drunken paranoid recluse that let his infected leg get hacked off from neglect. Dead at 65. No one came to his funeral. He left his large estate to a college in memory of mom.
Woolrich is considered one of the finest writers of mystery and suspense in the twentieth century. After an early charade as a bright young hetero Hollywood writer fell apart, Woolrich slunk back to mommy in New York. A string of dark, brooding, trapped and twisted stories sprung up in the pulps. Hollywood came knocking again. Except this time the film adaptations were prolific and successful; even if the title changes showed a complete lack of imagination.
