A most impressive Blogathon!!! hosted by Movies Silently Silver Screenings and Once Upon a Screen–brilliant!
Peter Cushing, a birthday tribute
Quote of the Day! Sweet Charity (1969) Fun, Laughs Good times!
SWEET CHARITY (1969)
Shirley MacLaine is Charity Hope Valentine a dance hall girl who always seems to get the short end of everything or as she puts it… the fickle finger of fate…
But she never loses faith that she will meet the right guy to take her away from her dreadful life. Based on Federico Fellini’s sublime Nights of Cabiria 1957 starring Giulietta Masina.
The lush colors and masterful photography by Robert Surtees (The Graduate 1967, The Last Picture Show 1971) create a visual kaleidoscope, surrounded by the incredible choreography by Bob Fosse who also directed the film. With memorable music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields.
Sweet Charity is a musical dream dressed up in Edith Head’s stunning and stand-out fashions.
The film also stars the wonderful Paula Kelly as Helene, and Chita Rivera as Nickie… the dance numbers are just too smokin’, and there’s a particular mod party dance sequence that is probably the closest thing for me to dropping acid… phantasmagorically chic…
Nickie (Chita Rivera) to Charity-“You know what your problem is… You run your heart like a hotel"¦ You got guys checking in and out all the time.”
One of the best moments of the film: Enter Sammy Davis Jr and The Rhythm of Life!
May the fickle finger of fate never find you! Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl
Film Preservation Blogathon: THE LOST WORLD (1925)
Quote of the Day! From film noir’s dark & thoughtful Red Light (1949)
Nobody does still waters run deep kind of tough more than George Raft.
In Roy Del Ruth’s (The Maltese Falcon 1931 with Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez, Du Barry Was a Lady 1943, yes tis true The Alligator People 1959, Why Must I Die? 1960) Noir morality play Red Light, Raft plays Shipping boss Johnny Torno, who catches Nick Cherney (Raymond Burr in one of his most sinister roles) embezzling funds. Torno gets Cherney a term in San Quentin with just enough time to build a psychotic grudge.
But instead of planning to kill Torno, he decides to hit him where it will hurt more, he pays fellow inmate Rocky who’s getting out in a few days (Harry Morgan in one of the most menacing roles I’ve seen him play, he deserves a place at the bad boy table with Dan Duryea and Frank Lovejoy) to kill Torno’s younger brother, war hero, and chaplain brother Jesse played by Arthur Franz.
Driven mad by the mystery of who shot his beloved baby brother down in a hotel room, Torno goes on a quest to find the bible where the name of Jesse’s killer is written. The cinematography and shadowy framework by cinematographer Bert Glennon ( The Red House 1947, House of Wax 1953) is tense and chilling, and all the performances are stellar. Including Gene Lockhart who plays co-owner of the 24 hours a day shipping company. The film also co-stars Virginia Mayo as Carla North who Torno enlists to help him track down his brother’s killer. There are some of the most brutal and uniquely violent moments in the film which is tempered by the question of vengeance and faith.
I couldn’t help but love Warni’s shared wisdom when he tells Torno who’s drinking himself into an angry stupor to let Jesse’s death go and move on with his life.
Gene Lockhart as Warni Hazard “My old man used to say liquor doesn’t drown your troubles… just teaches them how to swim.”
Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl
The CMBA Blogathon — The Fabulous Films of the 1930s: Men Call It Love (1931)
CMBA Blogathon: Fabulous Films of the 1930s – Fritz Lang’s M
The Last Drive In: Let’s go to the snack bar!
Joey at the Drive In here… thinking it would be such a nice treat to offer up a brief yet deliciously fun post from the snack bar. What better way to enjoy an intermission between my long winded writing than to just get to the point and tickle your vintage TV taste buds with a little amuse-bouche!
TEN TASTY TELEVISION TRIVIA TID BITS TO TANTALIZE!
1) Lt.Columbo (Peter Falk) loves loves loves chili and he's very fond of health cookies!
2) Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr) eats chili and they all like rum crunchy ice cream
3) The Fugitive’s Richard Kimble (David Janssen) only drinks black coffee… he's usually on the run
4) The Golden Girls Dorothy Blanche, Rose and Sophia eat cheesecake.
5) Carroll O’ Connor is the inimitable Archie Bunker who likes either chicken croquettes or a tuna sandwich with an orange on the side and a Twinkie for desert!… in his lunch box.
And lovable Edith (Jean Stapleton) buys him Hhm hhm hhm ( Cling peaches) in heavy syrup when they’re on sale or serves up rice pudding with a drop of milk on top unless he doesn't ask for it. Dingbat!!!! And of course there's always beer…
6) Jim Rockford (James Garner) eats Tacos for breakfast… with no apologies!
7) Andy and Opie enjoy anything Aunt Bee cooks as long as it isn't those kerosene cucumber pickles. from The Andy Griffith Show
8) Beaver Cleaver will just not eat brussels sprouts but then again I think I'm the only one who loves them…
9) Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon concocts the weirdest food combinations ever. Especially his recipe for BBQ sauce the secret ingredient is…- from Dragnet
10) The sublime chemistry of the Odd Couple’s Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) eats anything with ketchup on it, and Felix Unger (Tony Randall) doesn't like pits pits pits in his juice juice juice… uh oh!
"MeTV Remembers the M*A*S*H Finale" Exclusive Broadcast Event
With Series Cast and Creators, Airing on Sunday, May 3
In honor of MeTV’s tribute to M*A*S*H here’s Hawkeye crying a river of liver!
And why say…. as long as we’re on the snacking subject if you’ve got any great additions to add, drop by The Last Drive In’s snack bar and let me know.
Your Everlovin’ Joey (MonsterGirl) saying hope you always enjoy the show!
Sunday Nite Surreal: Daughter of Darkness (1948) & Carnival of Sinners (1943)-The Right Hand of God/The Left Hand of the Devil
Carnival of Sinners 1943
Directed by the silent film era auteur Maurice Tourneur (father of Jacques Tourneur Curse of the Demon 1957, Cat People 1942, I Walked With a Zombie 1943, Out of the Past 1947 ), this fantasy-horror film creates a tumultuous Mephistophelean voyage of surreal and striking imagery. This film has fast become one of my favorite fantasy/horror films…
Carnival of Sinners or La Main Du Diable (The Devil’s Hand) is a brilliant and hilariously dark morality play about being careful what you wish for and what is the meaning of life and the pursuit of physical pleasure and earthly desires, if you must lose your eternal soul in the end.
With an incredible score by Roger Dumas that lends a magical soundtrack to the story!
Based on Gérard de Nerval’s novel, the film creates a hallucinatory world of monochromatic imagery, with noir-like edges & shadows, Gothic & theatrically macabre masks, and a gruesome narrative about a disembodied, charmed left hand. Palau’s amiable little grinning devil is perhaps one of my favorite portrayals of Old Nick as he reveals himself to others as a mild-mannered civil servant in a bowler hat when he is actually on a duplicitous mission to abscond with the souls of desperate men.
It opens with a small village tavern filled with people who an avalanche has detained. These characters are comical and colorful as they all want to eat and are suspicious of Roland, whom we haven’t been introduced to yet. As they wait to be fed, a strange man dressed in black carrying a wrapped package under his left arm, his immovable hand gloved in stiff black leather, storms into the tavern with a gust of secrets and urgency at his back. They immediately mistrust this man, as he is not amiable and does not wish to mix with them at all. He acts as if the devil himself is pursuing him.
Well, maybe he is… him. He is called on the phone by someone asking for him by name. Once at the phone, the lights go out, and when they come back on and the chaos settles, the package is missing. He panics, of course.
It is a tradition at this tavern for Monsieur Notary to tell unbelievable stories. They plead with Roland Brissot to tell them what has brought him here. And so he begins to relate an incredible story.
Pierre Fresnay (The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934, Le Corbeau -The Raven 1943) is French artist Roland Brissot, who can’t get the girl or sell a painting until one night after Irène (Josseline Gaël) storms out of the little cafe frustrated with him for not being a success and a bore, Mélisse the chef (Noël Roquevert ) brings over a bottle of wine and offers to help the down and out painter. He tells Roland that he possesses a Talisman and that he’d like to sell it to him for merely one sou. That it would bring him great riches, love, and success!
When Roland follows him up to his room, he shows him a small wooden box; inside the curious box is an animated severed left hand. Mélisse explains to Roland that he purchased the Talisman a while ago, but he fears going to hell and wants to save his eternal soul, so he must pass this gift onto another man who is willing to buy it, fully knowing the contract and desiring to make Irène his own and stop doing portraits of dogs. Roland agrees and pays the sous to the cook. At that moment, Mélisse’s left hand is severed and mysteriously wedded to Roland’s left forearm, and he is now the new owner of the Talisman. Of course, all his wishes come true, and Irène returns in total awe of her man. He became a renowned painter with riches beyond his wildest dreams. But with all these cautionary fables, there is a kink in the chain. A chain that I will get back to in a short while.
A peculiar little man (Le petit homme– who is wonderfully enacted by Palau (Children of Paradise 1945, The Devil in the Flesh 1947, Le Corbeau 1943) is actually the devil himself who has been offering this deal for quite a while now and since it has been a year to the day that Roland made the wager of his immortal soul for the Talisman, he has come to collect.
From the moment Roland obtains the Talisman, women flock to him, his dog runs away in fear, and Irène cannot resist him to the point that he no longer can stand for her smothering love by the end.
The little man shadows his every move, playing little tricks on Roland so that he couldn’t possibly buy back his soul. He changes the time on the clock, he steals money so that Roland must scramble to put the fee together which doubles with every day that it’s come due. His life falls apart, his wife becomes less desirable to him and they become strangers, and all he wants is to be free of his left hand which is the harbinger of doom for him.
Will Roland Brissot find the next sinner to buy the Talisman from him… or will the Devil get his due?
As he relates his story, it unfolds as a marvelous dark fairytale, lensed with visual splendor dipped in a wonderful folkloric narrative and marvelous characters… including the other souls who lost their left hands and formed a special chain in the links of fate.
Roland’s journey is whimsical and harrowing. It was beautifully filmed by Arman Thirard, who photographed such masterpieces as Henri Georges Clouzot’s Diabolique 1955 and The Wages of Fear 1953—two of the best thrillers of all time!
Carnival of Sinners 1943 belongs with some of the great fixtures of ‘wagering your soul to the devil’, with William Dieterle’s The Devil and Daniel Webster 1941, and F. W. Murnau’s Faust 1926.
Roland has an enormous painting of Goya’s nightmarish diversion into hell hanging in his palatial mansion. It is the one of Colossus devouring his son. You must watch this film several times to catch all the wonderful details and devilish black humor!
