William Powell, Myrna Loy and Asta in The Thin Man movies
Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in Holiday
The movies of Val Lewton
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer
The Thing (From Another World)
Gene Kelly performing "I Got Rhythm" in An American in Paris
The films of Alfred Hitchcock
The comedies of Alec Guinness
Rio Bravo
Anita O'Day in Jazz On A Summer's Day
The Apartment
Paula Prentiss
Julie Andrews
Walter Matthau
Manhattan
The movies of Hayao Miyazaki
Miranda Richardson
Pierce Brosnan in The Matador
Amy Adams
Good!
ReplyDeleteNow cut the shit and get back to what matters.
Hmmmm. I guess that Amy woman matters a little. . . .
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ReplyDeleteI, for one, am glad that you have occasionally strayed from your commitment to your art.
ReplyDeleteBut goddammit man, you can't have everything. If you could, you, K-T-B-t-D and Amy Admas would be whooping it up at Hedonism II or something. So stick with your vision, try to get to Hepburn and Grant, or Powell and Loy, when and if you can. But don't look back.
Looking back is a poor use of your remaining time on this great planet. . . .
get back to what matters.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is possible that with a quicker, more streamlined approach, I wouldn't have spent so much time watching the films of Douglas Fairbanks. So there are arguments to be made on both sides.
But if occasionally I throw a thousand word essay out there instead of five thousand, you'll know why ...
it is possible that with a quicker, more streamlined approach, I wouldn't have spent so much time watching the films of Douglas Fairbanks.
ReplyDeleteYou are such a kidder. . .
I hate kidders.
Yeah, I know, I know -- let Asner/Grant/Brooks/Tinker sue me if they get upset. I'd like to see 'em try!
Anyway, let's quit fucking around here -- you're entering the period where I did some of my best work.
And no, I don't mean Robinson Crusoe or Don Juan, I mean Edith Hawkes.
I nailed that broad to the wall, if y'know what I mean.
Put that in a 10,000-word essay and smoke it!
A terrific list, Myth.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this with Paula Prentiss? I thought she was great.
I'm not gay, but Amy Adams....Zowie.
WV:ovely. Yeah, she is ovely.
What is this with Paula Prentiss? I thought she was great.
ReplyDeleteThat's a publicity still from Man's Favorite Sport?, a 1964 comedy co-starring Rock Hudson. Danny Peary of Alternate Oscars fame picked it as the year's best performance by an actress, which is saying something, but I agree. Very underappreciated comic actress.
Amy Adams....Zowie.
That photo is from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, co-starring Frances McDormand. A very underrated comedy in my opinion.
A very underrated comedy in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that the director's decision to have Ms. Adams roll around in a bed and on a couch dressed only in a fur coat
didn't influence the Monkey one bit !
I was wholly immune to how she looked.
Wholly immune.
btw, as someone who lists "persuasion" as a key element of my day job as a trade rep/salesperson/advocate/shill, I think that someone needs to again explain to PETA that humourlessness is singularly unpersuasive.
Although I agree that the filmmakers really missed a bet by opting for rigid adherence to period [the movie takes place at the beginning of the Battle of Britain] rather than introducing a quirky 1940-1941 animal rights activist.
I understand that London socialites during that time were remarkably interested in animal rights, and eschewed the wearing of furs.
Silly filmmakers.
[this is what happens when a photo search on google leads to an aggravating article]
Although I agree that the filmmakers really missed a bet by opting for rigid adherence to period [the movie takes place at the beginning of the Battle of Britain] rather than introducing a quirky 1940-1941 animal rights activist.
ReplyDeleteI think the real pity is that the filmmakers didn't invent a time machine and travel back to 1939 to save the animals who wound up in that vintage fur coat. That's just plain lazy ... he said as he ate a chicken sandwich for lunch.
I'm sure that the director's decision to have Ms. Adams roll around in a bed and on a couch dressed only in a fur coat didn't influence the Monkey one bit!
ReplyDeleteNor I was I influence by the fact that she's a redhead.
As was Myrna Loy and Katharine Hepburn. And maybe Shirley MacLaine and Julie Andrews. And most definitely Katie-Bar-The-Door ...
haha i say get crackin :)
ReplyDeleteI flipping love that anita o'day performance i have that concert on dvd! great work by Bert stern.
watching the audience is almost as entertaining as watching the performers.
Do you really think Horse's Mouth is a comedy? You couldn't have used a still from Ladykillers or Lavender Hill Mob or The Card or Man in a White Suit or Kind Hearts and Coronets or Captain's Paradise?
ReplyDeleteI'm rambling.
It's the picture of Amy Adams and once again thinking of her in that fur and only that fur that does it.
And yes, MacLaine's red hair was great in her adorable pixie-ish role in Trouble with Harry.
But you forgot Deborah Kerr's red hair (especially in Life and Death of Colonel Blimp).
Ooh, Deborah Kerr. Love Deborah Kerr. But I haven't forgotten to write about The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, if I live that long. Got notes on it already. Great movie.
ReplyDeleteAs for The Horse's Mouth, I'd call it a comedy, but a dark one. You're right that if anybody out there hasn't sampled Guinness in a comedy before -- and boy, have they missed out! -- they should try something like Kind Hearts and Coronets or The Lavender Hill Mob or The Man in the White Suit or -- it seems like he did six or seven at the Ealing Studios. I put the lobby card from The Horse's Mouth in though because the movie resonates for me in a personal way. "Go and do something sensible, like shooting yourself! But don't be an artist!" That's sound advice.
I flipping love that anita o'day performance i have that concert on dvd! great work by Bert stern.
ReplyDeletewatching the audience is almost as entertaining as watching the performers.
I don't know if it's a product of the editing or an accurate representation of what happened, but it's like when Anita O'Day first came out, the audience was thinking "who's this has-been?" and by the end, she completely owned them. I wonder if they knew they were witnessing a historic performance. Anyway, it's one of my favorite live performances by anybody anywhere.
Anyway, it's one of my favorite live performances by anybody anywhere.
ReplyDeleteMine happened in a vesitbule in the restaurant above the Hotel Washington.
But I digress. . . .
The axiom that one band or another is or was, "for that night at least," the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World is amplified by the O'Day performance. I would simplify and change the axiom -- there are some performances that everyone in the world should have a chance to see, and -- if they miss it -- should have a chance to regret.
I don't care if at that moment she was the greatest performer in the world or not -- I just wish that I'd been there.
That wold, of course, have required the intervention of the Gahds of Baseball and Parking, since I had not yet materialized.
The axiom that one band or another is or was, "for that night at least," the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World is amplified by the O'Day performance.
ReplyDeleteI think with Anita, from what I've read, you never knew what you were going to get, but she could catch lightning in a bottle often enough to make the risk worth it. It depends on what you value -- dependably dull or inconsistently great. I mean, sure, you'd really prefer dependably great, but those acts are rare and legendary, and let's face it, even the Beatles gave us "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."
Anyway, she beyond perfect on that particular summer's day.
Anyway, she beyond perfect on that particular summer's day. [sic]
ReplyDeleteAs today I most certainly am not.
By the way, has it occurred to anyone else that the baby pictured in Jazz On A Summer's Day is around 52 years old now? And I guess the kids in the bit from An American in Paris are pushing 70.
ReplyDeleteKind of makes you want to treat that old geezer next to you on the bus with a little more respect, eh?