[caption id="attachment_1865" align="alignright" width="273" caption="With Frank Sinatra"][/caption]

Connie Haines, a petite and dynamic big band singer who performed alongside Frank Sinatra in the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, died Monday in Clearwater, Fla. The cause of death was myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune neuromuscular disease. She was 87.  Haines was best known as a singer with a knack for rhythm, and many of her most successful recordings -- 25 of which each sold more than 50,000 copies -- featured her crisp, swinging vocal style. When Dorsey first heard her in action with James at Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook, New Jersey's temple of big band music, he reportedly asked, "Hey, little girl, where'd you learn to swing like that? And when can you join my band?"  It didn't take long. Haines recorded "Comes Love" and "I Can't Afford to Dream" with James, revealing a capacity to handle lyrical ballads as well as jitterbug specials, before moving to the Dorsey organization with Sinatra.   James, however, was not fond of Haines' birth name -- Yvonne Marie Antoinette JaMais -- suggesting that it would take up too much space on a theater marquee. "You don't look like an Yvonne," he said, "you look like a Connie." And "Haines" was chosen, apparently because it was a close rhyme to "James."  Haines quickly made the name her own, however, establishing herself as one of the prime female singers of the big band era. Many of her hit songs were the product of a warm musical partnership with Sinatra via tunes such as "Oh, Look At Me Now," "Let's Get Away From It All," "Friendship," "I'll Never Smile Again" and the jaunty rhythm tune "Snooty Little Cutie."Like many big band vocalists of the '40s, Haines moved on to a solo career as the public's preferences turned away from large ensemble swing to singers. Over the course of the next few decades, she released more than 200 recordings, ranging from her big band stylings to more contemporary rhythms. The first white singer to record for Motown Records, she released 14 songs written by Smokey Robinson, including "What's Easy For Two Is Hard For One." Haines also was drawn to gospel music as a reflection of her Christian beliefs, recording and touring in an ensemble that included close friends Beryl Davis, Rhonda Fleming and Jane Russell. Although her career as an actress tended to be framed in films that allowed her to perform as a singer, Haines' appearances in motion pictures such as "The Duchess of Idaho" suggested a talent that never had the opportunity to fully blossom within her lifelong dedication to music. She was a regular on the Abbott & Costello Radio Show and a frequent guest artist during the golden years of television variety shows, appearing with Milton Berle, Eddie Cantor, Perry Como, Frankie Laine and Ed Sullivan, among others.Haines sang on Sinatra's 89th birthday television tribute in 1995, and continued to work in cabaret rooms, nightclubs and big band revival events until two years ago.  Born Jan. 20, 1921, in Savannah, Ga., she was reared in Florida and began performing at an early age, trained by her mother, a music and dance teacher.  Haines was winning dance contests by the age of 5. At 9, she had her own radio show -- "Baby Yvonne Marie, the Little Princess of the Air," singing with a 30-piece orchestra.  She appeared with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra when she was 10, won a Major Bowes amateur contest and was heard on the Fred Allen radio show while she was still in her early teens. By 1939, Haines -- at age 18 and slightly less than 5 feet tall -- was singing alongside Sinatra in the Harry James Band.  She survived several health crises and near-fatal accidents. While performing with the Dorsey Orchestra, an errant match set her evening gown on fire. Sinatra, standing nearby, pulled her to the floor and smothered the flames with his coat. In her characteristic fashion, Haines brushed herself off, got up and finished her song, wearing only the charred dregs of her gown.  Haines was treated for cancer and had a double mastectomy in 1984. But once again, the experience did not deter her from continuing her musical activities and moving on with her life.  In 2002, after a celebratory holiday performance in Florida, Haines broke two vertebrae in her neck in an auto accident. She was back singing again in six months, although the after-effects of the injury never fully disappeared.  "Connie often talked about her fascination with near-death experiences -- even told me she had one when she was 9 years old," said close friend Roseanne DeMarco, "but she found joy in every day. The funny thing was that, even when she was feeling ill, her vital signs always seemed fine, as though she loved life so much that she wanted to experience every minute of it that she could."  Haines' marriage to Robert DeHaven, an ace pilot during World War II, ended in divorce. - Don Heckman (LA Times)

]]> http://palimpsestes2.wordpress.com/?p=594 Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:59:10 +0000 Emmanuel http://palimpsestes2.sv.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/il-faut-quand-meme-que-je-vous-dise/ J'aime bien ce costard...

Mais l'original n'est pas mal non plus...

No comment... Psestos, t'es vraiment.................... incorrigible.

One of Bob Hope's best movies.  A lot of Woody Allen’s screen persona derives from Bob Hope who he admits was a big influence on him. This 1952 sequel is arguably even better and funnier than the 1948 original. Here Hope plays Painless Potter’s son, Junior Potter, a Harvard man, who comes to Sawbuck Pass to claim his dear departed Indian fighting father’s inheritance, allegedly a trunk full of gold. On his way he meets up with irate town folks who daddy Potter owed money too and a Federal Marshall (Roy Rogers) who is tracking down a stagecoach robber know as "The Torch" played by the voluptuous Jane Russell. When Russell is not robbing stagecoach’s she is a saloon singer who attempts to seduce the hapless Hope, in hope of swindling him out of his inheritance. Of course, Junior is too full of himself to realize what is really happening. The combination of Russell’s over developed chest and Hope’s under developed brain is a lethal combination. When it turns out the senior Potter left no money Junior barely avoids having his neck stretched from the end of a rope.  Even Trigger gets the best of Bob. Look for Harry Von Zell and Iron Eyes Cody. Directed by Frank Tashlin who also co-wrote the script.

Let's wind the clock back a few days.

Woke up to crazy-thick fog. The car's in the shop, so it's a good day to wander out without one. I've got a few stops to make, and one of them is to get some parts for Secret Plan 187.

First, there's time to kick the day off with a stop at the Chestnut Street Coffee Roastery.

There's an excellent bar where you can sit and have breakfast and coffee. San (the owner) knows everyone here by name. He remembers what they like, and won't hand you a drink unless it's perfect.

By midday, it's turned warm and sunny.

This is the finished result from the demon stamp-o-matic machine. Walking across it makes your eyes go woogity, but that'll probably get better over time as it gets grubby.

This product wins the "least appetizing packaging I've seen all week" award. Competition was tight, but the white syringe on the side pushed this one up for the win.

SP187 calls for four very small motion detectors. The Radio Shack on Market St. just happens to have exactly four, so the decision is made.

Back at home, it's time to get to work.

Casual robot building goes a lot faster if you start with a working mechanical base, and then add sensors and a brain. Toys are usually the best place to start; they're inexpensive and wacky.

The Motor Ball is a radio-controlled toy from the early 1990's. This one doesn't work. It broke 5 years ago, and I meant to throw it out, but forgot.

Opening it up, we get to see what's inside. Surprise... wires and gears!

The cat has decided that I'm ignoring her. She's right.

She's trying to hypnotize me and steal my robot parts.

...so with everything stripped off, here are the basic parts. There's a radio circuit, some power electronics, a pair of motors at the bottom, and a bunch of gears.

One of the gears is about to go skipping across the floor. (sigh)

If you like tinkering, but also enjoy being married, put newspaper between your project and the dining room table. Really.

I'm not allowed to sit down until I give her something to play with.

The first thing to do is figure out how to drive the motors. I don't know anything about this circuit, so some things need to be figured out by trial and error (and error). There's one main logic chip, with a bunch of pins soldered into the main board. One of the pins is connected to the ground wire.

To find out more, I power up the circuit and touch the pins one at a time to ground, to see what happens. Nothing at all.

Now for the opposite (and more risky) test. With the circuit still powered up, I connect each pin to the 6-volt power source. This is just like figuring out how a watch works by hitting each tiny gear with a large hammer to see if the hands move.

The first pin I try sends sparks flying. Whoops.

Further down, I finally get a hit. One of the motors goes "rrrRRRRRrrr," and the cat comes running over to watch.

It turns out that there are four pins which control the motors, so I make some notes.

I'm ignoring her again. Crunch crunch.

The new motion detectors I bought will be the robot's "eyes" and need to be located close to each other. This circuit's physically tricky to build, and is not going to work on the first try.

She thinks the second attempt is the best one for batting around the room.

It's time for a break, just in time to run down to the Castro Theatre. They're showing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which I've never seen.

It's excellent. I'll bet some of the funniest parts probably weren't quite as funny in 1953 as they are now. The audience is fun, and loves it from start to finish.

Random assertion: Lab assistants should be chosen carefully. Pick one you enjoy spending time with, and the rest will take care of itself.

Steganographic data: 1822/4.8

Days remaining in Secret Plan 158: 11

From allmusic.com: Although film actress and Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe has been the subject of a large number of albums, she rarely stepped into a recording studio to make a commercial recording and only appeared in five real movie musicals (with a few other musical performances in her straight films), making for a total record and soundtrack output of less than three dozen titles that are recycled endlessly along with bits of movie dialogue and radio and TV appearances on the frequent reissues. Nevertheless, she had a good voice that matched her seductive visual appeal, and her limited catalog includes effective interpretations of the work of such songwriters as Harold Adamson and Hoagy Carmichael; Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer; Irving Berlin; Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen; Cole Porter; and Leo Robin and Jule Styne. Monroe was the illegitimate daughter of Edward Mortenson (who abandoned her mother before her birth and died in a motorcycle accident when she was three years old) and Gladys Pearl (Monroe) Baker, a film cutter. Her mother was mentally unstable and was institutionalized when the child was five, leaving her to a succession of orphanages and foster homes. At 16 in 1942, she married Jim Dougherty, an aircraft plant worker who soon enlisted in the merchant marine as his participation in World War II. Left alone, she joined the war effort by taking a job as a paint sprayer at the Radio Plane Company. There she was spotted by a photographer on assignment for Yank magazine to take pictures of women in the defense industry, and the resulting photographs led her to a career in modeling; she divorced her husband in 1946. The same year, she was signed to a one-year contract at 20th Century Fox, where she changed her name and took acting, singing, and dancing lessons. Monroe was given tiny parts in a couple of Fox films, then dropped. Columbia Pictures signed her in March 1948 and gave her her first important role in a B-picture, the musical Ladies of the Chorus (1949), in which she had two featured songs, "Anyone Can See" and "Ev'ry Baby Needs a Da-Da-Daddy," both written by Allan Roberts and Lester Lee. She was then dropped by Columbia and, in financial straits, accepted an offer to pose nude for a calendar; she was paid 50 dollars. She got small parts in films on a freelance basis in 1949 and 1950, including Love Happy, the last Marx Brothers movie, and the acclaimed dramas The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. In 1951, she returned to Fox with a seven-year contract and appeared in supporting roles in nine films over the next two years. She was finally given a substantial part in the thriller Niagra, released in January 1953, and she also got to sing a song in the film, Lionel Newman and Haven Gillespie's "Kiss." In the summer of 1953, Monroe co-starred with Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a movie adaptation of the Broadway musical with songs by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. She made a strong impression, singing "A Little Girl From Little Rock," "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," and "Bye Bye Baby" from the original show score as well as "When Love Goes Wrong (Nothin' Goes Right)," written by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson for the film. She proved herself up to the vocal demands for the most part, though Marni Nixon, Hollywood's most prominent ghost singer, dubbed in some notes for her. MGM Records released a 10" LP soundtrack album. With the release of the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire in November and the December publication of the inaugural issue of Playboy magazine, which contained her 1949 nude photographs, only adding to her celebrity, Monroe became a major star in 1953. She capped her fame by wedding retired baseball player Joe DiMaggio on January 14, 1954, though the marriage lasted less than a year, ending in divorce on October 27. Monroe's ascent to stardom led to a recording contract with RCA Victor Records. Her next film was the Western drama River of No Return, released in April 1954, but she managed to sing four songs in it, "One Silver Dollar," "I'm Gonna File My Claim," "Down in the Meadow," and the title song, all written by Lionel Newman and Ken Darby. Her studio recording of "River of No Return" for RCA briefly appeared in the singles charts in July. In December, she had a co-starring role in There's No Business Like Show Business, a major movie musical starring Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey and also featuring Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, and Johnnie Ray. The movie was an anthology film of the music of Irving Berlin, and Monroe sang the newly written "A Man Chases a Girl" with O'Connor as well as the vintage Berlin songs "You'd Be Surprised," "After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It," "Lazy," and "Heat Wave." Decca Records released a 10" soundtrack LP from the film, but Monroe's contract with RCA precluded her participation in it; her parts were replaced by Dolores Gray, and RCA released its own EP of Monroe singing her songs from the film. Monroe worked less frequently after 1954, attempting to take greater control of her career. After the spring 1955 release of the comedy The Seven Year Itch (in which she played "Chopsticks" on the piano with co-star Tom Ewell), she didn't work for a year. In the interim, she married playwright Arthur Miller on June 29, 1956. She gave one of her strongest performances in Bus Stop, released in the summer of 1956, in which she played a saloon singer who performed a sultry version of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's 1942 song "That Old Black Magic." The Prince and the Showgirl, released in the spring of 1957, gave her the opportunity to sing Richard Addinsell and Christopher Hassall's "I Found a Dream." Another lengthy layoff ensued before Monroe returned to outright musical comedy with Paramount's Some Like It Hot in 1959. The film's 1929 setting and Monroe's casting as band singer Sugar Kane gave her three musical numbers, all period songs: A. Harrington Gibbs, Joe Grey, and Leo Wood's 1922 tune "Runnin' Wild!"; Harry Ruby, Herbert Stothart, and Bert Kalmar's 1928 standard "I Wanna Be Loved by You"; and Matt Malneck, Fud Livingston, and Gus Kahn's slightly anachronistic 1931 hit "I'm Through With Love." United Artists Records released a soundtrack album and even issued a Monroe single of "I Wanna Be Loved by You"/"I'm Through with Love." Monroe returned to Fox for Let's Make Love, released in the summer of 1960. She played an off-Broadway actress wooed by a billionaire played by Yves Montand in her final movie musical, and got to sing a trio of Sammy Cahn-James Van Heusen songs, "Let's Make Love," "Specialization," and "Incurably Romantic," in addition to a revival of Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." Columbia Records released the soundtrack album. Monroe next filmed The Misfits, a drama written by her husband, but she and Miller divorced in January 1961 shortly before the movie was released. Her next and last musical appearance occurred in May 1962, when she led the audience at Madison Square Garden in a rendition of "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy. She had flown in from Los Angeles where she was shooting Something's Got to Give with Dean Martin, and it was absences like that which led Fox to fire her from the picture. On August 5, 1962, she was found dead of an overdose of barbiturates that may have been either an accident or suicide. - William Ruhlmann

Whitney Houston

Tippi Hedren

April 3, 2008 by Regina Walton

Recording legend Whitney Houston is scheduled to perform for the annual Caudwell Children’s Legend’s Ball on Thursday, May 8, in London. The event will be hosted by charity ambassador David Gest, and will be held at Battersea Evolution.

Last year’s ball featured Tina Turner and the event raised over $2 million. In addition to Whitney Houston’s performance this year, cinema legend Jane Russell will also make an appearance, as will other celebrities such as Piper Laurie, Angie Dickenson, and Tippi Hedren. The charity’s annual ball “…has become a not-to-be missed event; a star-studded night of glitz, glamour and out-of-this-world entertainment…”

Caudwell Children is a British non-profit which focuses on donations to special children for medical treatment, therapy, specialized equipment, and dying-wish holidays. The charity has been working towards its goals since 1999 and has made over 2,000 donations to families with disabled children.

I watched THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER recently and didn't get a lot out of it, despite the gorgeous lifelike colour by Deluxe. I have a suspicion that Raoul Walsh just doesn't work in widescreen. He was one of the first directors to get a crack at it, directing THE BIG TRAIL in a prototypical 'scope format back in 1930. That's a film that seemed to me to suffer from an excess of DISTANCE. We watch the characters interact in scenic longshot for a rather long time then, when Walsh senses that a change is due, he cuts to an even WIDER shot. We never get close to John Wayne or El Brendel (do we even WANT to?) -- and Walsh is a director who can get a great deal out of his closeups, as anyone who's observed the rhythmic cutting together of tense faces in OBJECTIVE, BURMA! will have seen. I know this is an early talkie and I'm asking a lot of Walsh at this stage in the development of cinema, but if you check out THE BAT WHISPERS made in widescreen around the same time by a lesser director, Roland West, you can see the format being used in a manner that's both dramatically effective and formally very pleasing. So I think the widescreen maybe just gets in Walsh's way.

Jane Russell dyes her hair red and is mean moody and magnificent underneath it as Flamin' Mamie Stover, Honolulu hooker, but nothing else catches fire dramatically. "It's not good enough to watch," I protested, but Fiona gamely carried through to the end and was bitterly disappointed. "Why'd she give all her money away? Aren't women ALLOWED to have money?"

I thought of Jane's flaming tresses as I watched FOREVER AMBER, a 20th Century Fox super-colossus that pits Linda Darnell, her tresses likewise painted strawberry blonde (director Otto Preminger really wanted Lana Turner), against the plague, the Great Fire of London, King Charles II (a rather muted George Sanders), her puritan family, and the Catholic Legion of Decency, who tried to ban the film.

Reading Otto's memoirs, I started to suspect him of confabulating, and this was confirmed by his bloated period romp, which he claims had all the snogging cut out at the CLoD's behest, and a nonsensical prologue added to add much-needed moral guidance. Not true -- the prologue gives historical context only, and there's plenty of lip-locking from Linda and the various men in her life.

This was Zanuck's baby, and Preminger was forced into making it, despite hating the book. Otto did manage to get the script rewritten, and brought along cameraman Leon Shamroy, who proves himself just as seductive in Technicolor as he would be later with gorgeous lifelike color by Deluxe.

The thing is dramatically broken-backed -- Darnell plays a Bad Girl, but she's never scandalously wicked, just pragmatic. She's also resilient to the point of being dull: seconds after escaping rape in Newgate Prison (here pronounced "Nougat") she's flirting with a Highwayman as if nothing had happened.

Faced with a story and leading lady not of his choosing (though he got magnificent work from her in FALLEN ANGEL), Otto compensates by making the whole thing a visual feast. At 138 minutes its rather a LONG feast, but the design and photography, and Preminger's masterful blocking, at least mean it's never short on sensual pleasures.

Leon Shamroy is like a Mario Bava avant la lettre, painting the scenes with coloured light that may not have any practical source, but which creates mood and renders emotion visible and is a delight in purely pictorial terms too. Think of his intense orange-and-blue night scenes in LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN and his juke-box hues in THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT. Despite its period setting, this has a similar hallucinatory saturation. Shamroy depicts the prison scenes bathed in green and orange light, and there's no possible naturalistic reason for it.

The more muted style of the foggy duel scene almost made me wonder if he'd managed to screen LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS:

According to your taste it's either an illustration of how much a director and his team can add to an unsatisfactory project, or how little.

"Unhand me, you rapscallion!"

Será que Nome próprio vai ser um sucesso? Ui!

Mas vou dizer: gostei do look de Diablo.

O Diablo veste onça

Também gostei de:

Jane Russell (é, eu não sabia que ela estava viva)
Marion Cotillard, incrível de Jean Paul Gaultier

E da linha "a gente faria", os ganhadores...

Eu passaria vários Days Lewis com ele, definitivamente

Javier: isso que é homem

E também

Viggo Mortensen. Digam o que quiserem, acho ele lindo mesmo de barba e cara de velhinho. E essa calça de boca mais larga, e o casaco comprido? *suspirinho*

Obs.: não, eu não me esforçaria para fazer o Patrick Dempsey. Homens perfeitos demais me dão enjôo.

ATUALIZAÇÕES:
Tilda usa Lanvin, TÁ?
E Diablo usa Dior.

Wondrous scene from BACHELOR FLAT, directed by Frank Tashlin. I've read it described as the ultimate in widescreen composition -- a sausage dog dragging a dinosaur bone along a beach -- which is funny, and true, but what I also dig is the way Tashlin extends the sequence: the concept is funny from every angle, so he must show it from every angle (restraining himself from going overhead or shooting from below through a glass ceiling a la THE LODGER). The exhaustive variations remind me of Shimura's walk through the forest in RASHOMON. I bet if you swapped the scores of both sequences around they'd still work pretty good too.

Tashlin was a strip cartoonist and animator in the world of Bugs Bunny etc, the only animation director from that school to break into live-action features (cartoon directors were, and probably still are, barred from the Director's Guild), which he did by way of gag-writing and screen-writing (he wrote the classic "What are you doing? Holding the wall up?" gag for Harpo in A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA). His best stuff shows how gag sequences can be far more than decoration, they can be the very architecture of a comedy script, as in Chaplin and Keaton. We swallow the story painlessly without even realising it's being fed to us and the entertainment never has to stop to set up the next story point.

Tash is close to unique for the way he adapted cartoon language to live action, with wild distortions, impossible exaggerations, breaking the fourth wall, and semi-vulgar sexual hyperbole that relates to Tex Avery's super-voluptuous Red Riding Hood toons.

Tash has a certain kind of satirist's ability to celebrate and excoriate at the same time. He finds Jayne Mansfield grotesque ("Can you imagine THAT in marble?"), as the milk bottles gag makes clear (Jean-Pierre Melville said the American ideal of beauty was "two buttocks in a brassiere) but he also renders her stylised movements lovingly and celebrates the power she has over male bystanders. It's a little like Tati's odd relationship with the modern age: he recreates it at its most compelling and beautiful in order to bemoan its very existence.

(Above: Jerry Lewis on Frank Tashlin)

Tashlin made a whole sackful of Jerry Lewis films, from the best Martin & Lewis film, ARTISTS AND MODELS (it's not easy finding a good romantic interest for Jerry, but Shirley MacLaine can do anything, plus she looks cute in a Catgirl costume), thru the LAST Martin & Lewis film, HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, where the two stars wouldn't even speak to each other ("It was a bitch,"), and on to numerous Lewis solo projects, most of which have great bits, but which aren't actually the strongest work from either man. Lewis' need for freedom to improvise kept Tashlin from experimenting with interesting shots, though Lewis was obviously taking notes: he adapts Tashlin's crazily lurid colour schemes to his own work, to notable effect in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and THE LADIES' MAN especially.

Away from Lewis, Tashlin was liberated to paint demented distorting-mirror pictures of America  in the fifties/early sixties, and his two Jayne Mansfield films brim over with Loony Tunes logic, satiric spleen and lush, candycoloured imagery. Here's what Lindsay Anderson had to say about THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT:

"Cheaply prefabricated and carelessly assembled, The Girl Can't Help It is a juke-box thrown into the face of the public with a great blare of ugly, debilitating music. Seeing it is like being shut up for a couple of hours insideone of those huge, booming machines, all pink, green and mauve lights, gobbling up the small change of the ignorant. I suppose that Jayne Mansfield, 'launched' in this film, is human: but she so resembles a strip-cartoon parody of the Monroe-Dors figure that she might very well have been fashioned out of some disturbing new plastic substance. The 'comedy' is provided chiefly by Tom Ewell and Edmond O'Brien: two desperate, disillusioned performances, whose scenes have the fragrance of stale cigarette smoke and whisky bottles all but emptied."

Wow! Although clearly Anderson hates the film and I love it, he's certainly gotten inside it and had a look around: his description is recognisable to anyone who's seen the film. The only problem is that he approached the film wanting to be sympathetically introduced to rock 'n' roll, the better to understand it, and Tashlin isn't making that movie.

"I love the artist's use of the colour blue," -- Barry Lyndon.

But Tashlin DOES allow us to hear the music, uninterrupted, and creates images with Deluxe colour supremo Leon Shamroy that have dazzled many a filmmaker before me. John Waters says he's always wanted to achieve the blue in the above clip. With digital grading it might now be possible to sample the exact hue direct from Tashlin's film, but without the coloured dress to make it POP, you won't get the effect. Complimentary colour theory is the filmmaker's friend.

This film also offers Julie London as a drunken hallucination, singing Cry Me a River in a variety of  pastel gowns, appearing in every room Tom Ewell runs to, effectively hounding just him like Tex Avery's Droopy: "I do this to him all through the movie."

WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? is even wilder, opening with Tony Randall as a one-man-band playing the 20th Century Fox fanfare (fulfilling Tashlin's ambition to get a laugh before the film has even begin), followed by a flurry of loud, disastrous commercials presented by desperate Hanna-Barbera-type caricature actors. Mansfield truly leaves the human race behind in this one, as a one-note celebrity grotesque (with a poodle called Shamroy - Tashlin can't resist in-jokes, or jokes of any kind).

Tashlin is a rewarding auteur partly because even his worst films usually have mind-blowing moments of characteristic flamboyance and invention. THE ALPHABET MURDERS is mostly awful rubbish, a strained parody of something Tashlin evidently isn't too familiar with, the Agatha Christie mystery (he took over direction from Seth Holt shortly before shooting began, with Tony Randall taking Zero Mostel's place as star), but a few scenes give joy. One, a simple conversational two-hander, can induce schizoid embolisms in the unwary. As Randall and Robert Morley converse, a shaving mirror stands between them. In Randall's shots, his mouth is eclipsed by the  mirror, which reflects back Morley's, lips enlarged to fill the place that should be occupied by Randall's. In Morley's shots, Randall's lips replace his. It should be easy enough to follow, but as Tashlin consistently shows the speaking mouth and listening eyes, our brains shallow-fry themselves trying to follow what the hell's going on, until the soundtrack is drowned out by the steam shrieking from our ears.

Tashlin re-creates the world afresh for us, which is what I love most about him. Maybe I'll blog later on about what that means for me, and the filmmakers who do it most effectively.

My first encounter with Tashlin's work illustrates the idea somewhat. I was a kid, watching Sunday afternoon films with my granny. I liked Bob Hope. SON OF PALEFACE came on. Tashlin had written THE PALEFACE, which has a great ending plus Jane Russell. After he'd helmed reshoots on THE LEMON DROP KID for Hope, Hope gave Tashlin the job of writing and directing this sequel.

The scene: Hope is driving his jalopy across the prairie, pursued by rampaging, un-P.C. injuns. The front wheel comes off the car. Roy Rogers, helpfully to hand on horseback, lassoos the spare spoke and holds the car up. But somebody needs to grab the wheel, now trundling off into the cactus-filled middle distance. R.R. hands Hope the rope and rides off in pursuit, leaving Hope holding the front end of his car up FROM INSIDE IT. Bob yells after Roy, "Hurry up, this is impossible!"

At which point, whole vistas of impossibility opened up. The concept of The Impossible as something that can only be done for short periods; the concept that you can explode the reality of a film without anybody minding and carry on as if nothing had happened; the concept that you can call attention to the impossibility of something, thereby forestalling the audience's disbelief; the concept that said disbelief can be suspended, by a rope, from the inside...

För några veckor sedan tittade jag och barnen på "Gentlemen prefer blondes" med Marilyn Monroe och Jane Russell.

Den mest kända scenen är troligen den där Marilyn Monroe/Lorelei sjunger "Diamonds are a girls best friend". Vet inte om jag egentligen har sett hela filmen tidigare - inte som vuxen i alla fall.

Nu noterade jag att den var oerhört queer. I denna scen där några svartklädda kvinnor agerar kristallkrona och kandelabrar associerar jag till bondage. De ser fastbundna ut - och är ganska lättklädda i sina svarta dräkter. Ser också att de är barfota - inte ofta man ser bara fötter i amerikanska filmer - om de inte går på stranden - eller ligger i sängen. Vet inte varför - men jag reagerar ganska starkt på de bara fötterna i denna miljö.

De rosa dansöserna har svarta sorgflor för sina ansikten. Varför? Om de skulle ha något borde det vara rosa flor. Ser också lite - udda ut - i sammanhanget. Som bankrånare i rosa fluffklänningar.

De manliga dansarna har en dandy-look - med polkagrisrandiga skört eller ordensband. Loreleis (f.d.) pojkvän är en rik pappas pojke. Inga "rikitiga karlar". Inte egentligen någonstans i hela filmen.

I en annan scen - inte lika känd - letar Jane Russell/Dorothy efter "riktiga" karlar men konstaterar besviket att de stiliga gymnasterna går och lägger sig när det roliga börjar. "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love?" Männen är klädda i hudfärgade badbyxor med bruna band kring låren och inga tröjor - det ser ut som om de endast är iförda bruna strumpeband.

Och de är mycket gay.

När jag ser detta tänker jag på de ursprungliga olympiska spelen - där deltagarna var nakna. De var nakna dels för att man ansåg manskroppen vara vacker (kvinnokroppen ansågs inte vacker - den var ofullkomlig) - dels för att avslöja eventuella kvinnliga deltagare - detta var bara för män.

I rummet där dessa gymnaster befinner sig finns en "trojansk" krigare i kort kort kjol, sköld och svärd målad på väggen. Brottningsscenen är dansant och vacker - männen har i stort sett bara ögon för varandra. I flera rörelser står de och putar så sött med stjärtarna.

Lorelei är ute efter en miljonär - inte av kärlek - men därför att:

"A kiss may be grand
But it won't pay the rental
On your humble flat
Or help you at the automat."

Den roll som Monroe spelar påminner lite om Bizets Carmen. Man kan tro att Lorelei är svag och dum - men det är en roll hon spelar. Hon är beräknande. Sjuger att "Men grew cold as girls grew old - and we all lose our charms in the end..." Hon kommer från tuffa förhållanden och vet att kärlek är inte för evigt. Det är diamanter hon behöver - inte vackra gossar och fagra ord.

Dorothy är mer ute efter spänning - hon vill verkligen inte ha en miljonär. De är tråkiga.

Nå - jag gillar filmen - musiken - Marilyn Monroe och Jane Russell - som visst fortfarande är i livet. Mina barn - särskilt min dotter blev väldigt entusiastisk.

Vi pratade om fler sånger om diamanter - "Diamonds are forever" med Shirley Bassey - som fanns med i James Bond-filmen med samma namn.

Texten till Diamonds are forever påminner mycket om Diamonds are a girls best friend. Shirley Bassey sjunger:

I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll luster on.

Så enligt denna inställning skulle diamanter vara "godare" än män. Och rent krasst kan man ju sälja sina diamanter när man övergivits av sin man - om det är det man räknar med. Och kanske är det så man ska tänka - jag har dock aldrig varit så beräknande - inte heller har jag åtrått diamanter. Ännu mindre gör jag det nu när jag vet lite om förhållanden som diamantarbetare tvingas arbeta i. Men det är en annan historia. Och ja - jag ska skriva den.

Hittade en annan film med Shirley Bassey på Youtube Get the party started - min dotter sa att Pink också sjunger den. Jag tänkte att Pink gjorde en cover på Basseys hit - men det visade sig vara tvärtom.

Pink - inte rädd att göra bort sig i sin video... Bensinen tar slut, hon och hennes väninna snor/charmar till sig varsin skateboard, de flirtar med några snyggingar i bil, krockar med fotgängare och kommer slutligen inte in på stället dit de tänkt sig. Så de får ta en byggarbetarhiss:

I'm comin' up
So you better
Get this party started...

Jag gillar båda varianterna. Basseys är en Bondliknande goth-variant - vars kläder och interiör hade platsat i filmen "Gentlemen prefer blondes" - och notera alla skräckdetaljer - en galge i en av de kvinnliga dansarnas hattar.

Bassey har fyllt 70 - så hon har rätt mycket girlpower kvar hon med... Hon har svårt att hålla sig för skratt när hon sjunger "I'll be burning rubber - you'll be kissing my ass".

För övrigt nämns en guldring med diamant även i denna sång...

Men som sagt - mer om diamanter i ett annat inlägg.

 

El 21 de juny de 1921 i amb la calor del iniciat estiu, va néixer a Bemidji, Minnesota, Ernestine June Geraldine Russell, el món la coneix com a Jane Russell.

Filla d’un coronel del ejercit i d’una actriu, va rebre per influència materna, classes de interpretació a l’escola de Max Reinhardt, amb Maria Ouspenskaya. També va estudiar cant i piano.

A l'any 1940, el multimilionari i director Howard Hugues la va descobrir, atret per les protuberàncies naturals, fen-li signar un contracte per set anys. La primera pel·lícula que protagonitzar va ser a l’any 1941, The Outlaw i va ser la més polèmica de la seva carrera. La censura americana no acceptava la sensualitat d’aquella noia que exhibia unes corbes anatòmiques sensacionals. Aquest fet no va fer més que incrementar la fama de l’actriu que va esdevenir una nova pin-up per als soldats americans. La pel·lícula es va estrenar finalment a l’any 1946, Hugues va retardar la seva estrena per tal de incremnentar l'ànsia del públic per veure la nova star, exhibint els atributs naturals.

Amb la seva carrera cinematogràfica llançada a l’any 1947 va fer la primera temptativa musical gravant un primer disc amb l’orquestra de Kay Kyser, As Long As I Live.

Un altre punt àlgid de la seva carrera va ser al 1953, quan va protagonitzar amb l’explosiva Marilyn Monroe, Getlemen Prefer Blondes.

A l’any 1957 va obtenir un èxit espectacular com a cantant de night club, en una gira que va iniciar per Amèrica al Sands Hotel de Las Vegas. Aquesta gira la va portar fins a Europa.

El debut en el teatre musical es va produir a SkyLark a Chicago i a l’any 1962 va protagonitzar Bells Are Ringing a Yonkers al estat de Nova York. Al 1965 va participar en una producció del musical de Richard Rodgers, Pal Joey a Toronto

A l’any 1971 va substituir a la gran Elaine Strich en el musical de Stephen Sondheim, Company, a Broadway i durant sis mesos. Aquest fet, és sense cap mena de dubte, el punt àlgid de la carrera musical/teatral. A 1973 va cantar Mame de Jerry Herman a San Francisco i Chicago.

No tinc constància sonora  de les intervencions teatrals de Jane Russell, però ho solucionarem amb tres vídeos de youtube:

• The Ladies Who Lunch, del musical Company de Stephen Sondheim, en una intervenció televisiva compartint-la amb Dinah Shore a l'any 1979. No és el teatre peró...

*

• Looking for Trouble de The French Line (1954). Pel·lícula mai estrenada en els cinemes espanyols. 

*

• I finalment, Ain't There Anyone Here For Love? (Hoagy Carmichael & Harold Adamson) de Getlemen Prefer Blondes. Cançó afegida a la partitura original de Jules Styne i número tallat a Espanya. Potser consideraven que hi havia molts homes en calçotets. 

*

Estem davant d’una actriu important, però sense cap mena de dubte, d’una cantant, amb talent musical i interpretatiu. La seva carrera com a cantant es pot valorar, més enllà de la importància de la seva carrera cinematogràfica. 

Malgrat aquest aspecte de dona fatal i d’alta càrrega sexual explosiva, la Russell és una dona de profundes creences religioses. S’ha casat tres vegades, el seu segon marit, l’actor Rober Barrett va morir al cap de tres mesos. No va poder tenir fills i en va adoptar tres. A l’any 1955 va fundar una associació per ajuda a la infància i l’adopció.

"I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, 'There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.'"            -Marilyn Monroe

With all the running around and unpacking I was doing this week, I forgot to post a little something in honor on the anniversary of Marilyn's passing.  I watched "SOME LIKE IT HOT" this past Sunday (August 5).  It's still one of my favorite movies of all time.  I wasn't sure what I was going to say here, how do you sum it all up? And really, what more does anyone need to say about this beautiful young lady that was taken from us far too soon...We miss you MM.

I came across this interesting little tidbit of information while doing some research on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  According to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce-

"Marilyn Monroe, who had been ignored by the Academy, was thrilled to learn that she would be honored with her own beautiful terrazzo Walk of Fame star.  It was the recognition she craved."  

 And now, boys and girls- you too can own a piece of Marilyn's star-       for a small fee.  

Check out the link below and notice the star in the upper right corner http://www.hollywoodwalkoffamestardust.com/previews8.htm 

Geez...only in Lo$ Angele$.