Happy Birthday Dirk Bogarde!

TCM has nothing planned for Dirk's birthday, however, coincidentally they are showing three of his Doctor movies tomorrow during their medical-themed lineup! If you haven't seen the Doctor films, try to tune in.. they're very sly and witty and quite funny! :)

Happy Birthday Steve McQueen!

Steve McQueen would have been 80 today. I thought it would be a nice tribute to re-publish a wonderful guest post that Terry from A Shroud of Thoughts wrote for Silents and Talkies last year. So without further ado:


There are those actors who become legends, remembered long after they are gone. Sir Laurence Olivier and Katherine Hepburn both became legends in their own lifetime. But then there are those actors who become something more than legends. Not only are they remembered long after they have died, but they become a part of the very fabric of popular culture. Quite simply, they become icons.

It is these actors who are not simply remembered after they die, but who become symbols of how the average man or woman would like to be or what they want out of life. When people think of acting icons, they might think of James Dean or Marilyn Monroe. They might also think of Steve McQueen.

Terrence Steven McQueen was one of the first generation of actors who began in television. He would appear in episodes of some of the anthology series of the Fifties, among them Goodyear Television Playhouse, The United States Steel Hour, Studio One, and Alfred Hitchock Presents. In fact, the episode of Studio One in which Mr. McQueen appeared would be somewhat historic. It was the episode "The Defender" by Reginald Rose, which would inspire the classic TV show of the Sixties, The Defenders.

While Mr. McQueen gave memorable performances in the anthology series in which he appeared, it would be a Western series which would first bring him fame. On March 7, 1958, Steve McQueen guest starred in an episode of the Western Trackdown called "The Bounty Hunter." On the episode he played bounty hunter Josh Randall, As Josh Randall Mr. McQueen made a big impression, so much that the character was spun off into his own show--Wanted Dead or Alive. Not only would Wanted Dead or Alive make Steve McQueen a household name, but it would establish the sort of role for which he would become best known. Josh Randall was a no nonsense, ultra-cool bounty hunter who packed a modified Winchester 1892 Model carbine (which he called "the Mare's Leg"). And while he could be very grim in his pursuit of bad guys, Randall was also very soft hearted, helping prisoners if he believed they were wrongly accused and even giving his earnings to those in need.

Although the role of Josh Randall is not as well remembered as many of Steve McQueen's other roles, it can be argued that it is the role that started him on his path to becoming an icon. There are many who have labelled Josh Randall and the similar roles that would follow (Vin in The Magnificent Seven, Hilts in The Great Escape, Bullitt in the movie of the same name) "anti-heroes." To me this is hardly the case. Josh Randall, Vin, Captain Hilts, Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, and most of Mr. McQueen's other roles were, quite simply, heroes. It is true that they were often grim towards their opponents. And it is true that they often had little respect for authority. But these were men who remained true to their own codes of honour. Josh Randall gave money to the poor. Vin, alongside seven other men, decided to defend a poor village against incredible odds. Bullitt defied authority to catch the hitmen who shot his partner. These characters were not anti-heroes, they were heroes.

Of course, it was perhaps not enough that Steve McQueen played heroes. Other actors had done so before him and other would do so since his time. In both the roles he chose and even his private life, Mr. McQueen was a essentially a man of action. He raced both cars and motorcycles. He performed many of his own stunts (although one of the most famous, the motorcycle jump over the fence in The Great Escape, was actually performed by friend and stuntman Bob Ekins). He was even trained in the martial arts by Bruce Lee. Because Mr. McQueen was capable of many of the stunts performed by his characters, he lent a credibility to those characters that few other actors could have. Quite simply, Steve McQueen's characters weren't simply men of honour, they were bigger than life figures who were nearly indestructible.

Steve McQueen played ultra-cool characters with their own codes of honour in some of the biggest action movies of the Sixties and Seventies--The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Nevada Smith, Bullitt, and Papillon. He would then become an hero and a role model for more than one generation of young men. When men between the ages of 60 and 30 discuss actors, it is a certainty that Steve McQueen's name will be brought up.

Like many boys growing up in the late Sixties, I was exposed to Steve McQueen's performances while very young. The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Bullitt, and Papillon were among the earliest movies I remember watching. And while the tough, cool, yet good hearted characters Mr. McQueen played struck a chord with me, I had another reason to feel a special closeness to Steve McQueen. While he was born in Indiana, Mr. McQueen spent much of his childhood in Slater, Missouri, a town only about forty minutes from my hometown. Mr. McQueen had very fond memories of Slater and of his Great Uncle Claude who raised him there. If Steve McQueen was capable of playing heroes, I like to think that it was largely because of the small town values that his Great Uncle Claude instilled in him while he was in Slater. Indeed, the best role I think Steve McQueen ever played was that of Tom Horn in the movie of the same name. Here was a man from Missouri playing another man from Missouri, and both of them were bigger than life.

Of course, a young boy did not have to live near Steve McQueen's hometown to look up to him and even identify him. As an icon Mr. McQueen has infiltrated American pop culture to a degree that few other actors have. Numerous songs have been written about him, from the song "Steve McQueen" by Quicksilver Messenger Service to the song "Steve McQueen" by Sheryl Crow (a fellow Missourian) to the song "Steve McQueen" by the Automatic. I doubt even John Wayne has so many songs written about him.

Steve McQueen has also been referenced in many movies, from the comedy The Tao of Steve (in which the lead character bases an entire philosophy around Steve McQueen) to the comedy Then She Found Me to the drama The Kite Runner. And as anyone who watches the TV show House regularly knows, Dr. Gregory House is such a big fan of Mr. McQueen that he named his pet rat for him.

If Steve McQueen became an icon, if he has been enshrined in the hearts of men and women everywhere as the King of Cool, I believe it is because he played quintessentially American heroes. His characters were tough men who were capable of both taking and dealing out a lot of punishment. At the same time, however, most of his characters lived by their own codes of morality. These were men who would help the poor, defend the helpless, and remain true to their morals even if it meant death. Steve McQueen was truly the King of Cool, but the majority of his characters were never anti-heroes. They were quite simply heroes, and I suspect that was truly his key to success.

Une femme est une femme - 1961 {Song of the Week}

Last night I watched A Woman is a Woman (or Une femme est une femme, which sounds much cooler), a Jean-Luc Goddard movie from 1961 starring Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo. I don't think I've had as much fun watching a movie in a long time.

Besides having a great cast and fun storyline, it also had a stupendous soundtrack! I'm especially smitten with the song Tu t'laisses aller by Charles Aznavour. This song has the most interesting lyrics. I would have never guessed what it was about if they hadn't shown the subtitles when the song was played in the film!!

Naturally, since I don't know French, I couldn't do a translation myself but I did manage to find one on the internet, and copied it here:

C'est drôle ce que t'es drôle à regarder / It’s funny how funny you are to look at
T'es là, t'attends, tu fais la tête / You’re there, you wait, you’re sulking
Et moi j'ai envie d'rigoler / And I feel like sneering
C'est l'alcool qui monte en ma tête / It’s the alcohol that gets to my head
Tout l'alcool que j'ai pris ce soir / All the alcohol that I took this evening
Afin d'y puiser le courage / So that I could draw the courage
De t'avouer que j'en ai marr' / To admit that I have had it
De toi et de tes commérages / with you and your old wives’ tales
De ton corps qui me laisse sage / with your body that leaves me virtuous
Et qui m'enlève tout espoir / and takes away all of my hopes

J'en ai assez faut bien qu'j'te l'dise / I’ve had enough I have to tell you
Tu m'exaspèr's, tu m'tyrannises / You irritate me, you tyrannize me
Je subis ton sal'caractèr / I endure your dirty character
Sans oser dir' que t'exagèr's / I don’t dare to tell you you exaggerate
Oui t'exagèr's, tu l'sais maint'nant / Yes, you exaggerate, you know it now
Parfois je voudrais t'étrangler / At times, I would strangle you
Dieu que t'as changé en cinq ans / God you have changed in five years
Tu l'laisses aller, Tu l'laisses aller / You let yourself go, you let yourself go

Ah ! tu es belle à regarder / Ah! you’re beautiful to look at
Tes bas tombant sur tes chaussures / your sagged stockings on your shoes
Et ton vieux peignoir mal fermé / With your old nightgown badly closed
Et tes bigoudis quelle allure / And your curling pins what an elegance
Je me demande chaque jour / I ask myself every day
Comment as-tu fait pour me plaire / How did you do to please me
Comment ai-j' pu te faire la cour / How could I ever court you
Et t'aliéner ma vie entière / Give up my whole life for you
Comm' ça tu ressembles à ta mère / That way you look like your mother
Qu'a rien pour inspirer l'amour / Who has nothing to inspire love

D'vant mes amis quell' catastroph' / In front of my friends what a disaster
Tu m'contredis, tu m'apostrophes / You contradict me, cut me short
Avec ton venin et ta hargne / With your venom and your petulance
Tu ferais battre des montagnes / You’d make the mountains fight
Ah ! j'ai décroché le gros lot / Ah! I drew the first prize
Le jour où je t'ai rencontrée / The day that I met you
Si tu t'taisais, ce s'rait trop beau / If you kept quiet, ‘t would be too nice
Tu l'laisses aller, Tu l'laisses aller / You let yourself go, you let yourself go

Tu es un'brute et un tyran / You are a brute and a tyrant
Tu n'as pas de cœur et pas d'âme / You have no heart and no soul
Pourtant je pense bien souvent / Nevertheless I often think
Que malgré tout tu es ma femme / That in spite of everything you’re still my wife
Si tu voulais faire un effort / If you would make an effort
Tout pourrait reprendre sa place / Everything could fall back into place
Pour maigrir fais un peu de sport / To slim down practice some sport
arranges-toi devant ta glace / Make yourself up in the mirror
Accroche un sourire à ta face / Put a smile on your face
Maquille ton cœur et ton corps / Make up your heart and your body

Au lieu d'penser que j'te déteste / Instead of thinking how I detest you
Et de me fuir comme la peste / And avoiding me like the plague
Essaie de te montrer gentille / Try to be nice
Redeviens la petite fille / Become that little girl again
Qui m'a donné tant de bonheur / Who gave me so much happiness
Et parfois comm' par le passé / And sometimes like in the past
J'aim'rais que tout contre mon cœur / I would love that close to my heart
Tu l'laisses aller, Tu l'laisses aller / You let yourself go, you let yourself go



Tu t'laisses aller [Buy it]

Instant pick-me-ups

There are only a small handful of films that instantly pick-me-up. Except for Hot Enough for June, which I only discovered last November, I've seen all of these movies 20 times AT LEAST. If I'm having trouble falling asleep at night, I can reenact the movies in my mind to help me drift off. Not only are they all in my top 10 favorite films of all time (not BEST films of all time, just personal favorites) but they each have some distinct quality that manages to zap me out of a bad mood instantaneously.


1. How to Steal a Million. This is my number one feel-good movie (and also my #2 favorite movie of all time). It's the first classic film I ever saw, so it has a sense of nostalgia and coziness that endears it to me. But it's also such a fun film to watch that I forget any troubles that might have been bothering me before putting in the disc. Oh... and Audrey Hepburn's wardrobe and Peter O'Toole's piercing blue eyes and tall slender frame don't hurt matters any either ;-)


2. Sunday in New York. It's been the subject of a good deal of gushing on this blog already, so suffice it to say it's one of my all-time favorite movies. Some of the scenes make me laugh out loud even though I already know the jokes and set-ups by heart. "Two heads are better than one... didn't know I had two heads, did you?" *Kate cracks up*


3. Hot Enough for June. First, the obvious ... it stars Dirk Bogarde. There are two parts that are so absolutely comically perfect they almost make my toes curl when I watch them. When Dirk (as Nicholas Whistler) is trying to find out who his contact is in Prague, and when he reluctantly asks to come back to the glass factory to look at one of the processes again. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. And anyone who could retain a bad mood after seeing Dirk Bogarde in this costume has absolutely no business trying to cheer themselves up in the first place:

4. Indiscreet. If you've seen it, you know. It's perfect. There's something about this movie that makes you feel like you are a part of their courtship, if that makes *any* sense whatsoever. This one especially works great when I'm feeling lonely :) Anyway, it's just a really fantastic movie!

5. Follow the Fleet. Honestly, every Fred and Ginger film cheers me up, but for some reason this one does even more so.. which is totally bizarre because Randolph Scott is one of my very least favorite actors and I think his character is really rotten to Harriet Hilliard in the movie! But it has super fantastic songs and I could watch the "Let's Face the Music and Dance" number on repeat for years.


What are your cheer-up movies?

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

♡ Kate

It really IS a wonderful life.

Life CAN be like a Frank Capra movie. People ARE good. Don't ever let anyone tell you any different.

I cannot even begin to comprehend how generous some of my fellow classic film bloggers have been today after I posted earlier about my financial predicament. I don't know if nice people have a tendency to like classic movies or if classic movies make nice people, but the two are definitely intertwined.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Really, I was so overwhelmed with gratitude today I almost felt like I could cry.

a quick desperate plea..

I know I said two weeks ago that I promised I wouldn't talk business again, but after this post I'll go back to keeping that promise... I have a tax bill due next week that is about 8 times the amount that I have in my bank account. I can't get an extension, and I have nowhere to borrow the money from because my family is just as broke as me. So I'm having a huge sale on all of my artwork, desperately hoping I'll be able to scrape together enough to pay the tax bill.

All of my Flapper Doodle 4x6 prints have been reduced from $5 each to $1. My 8x10 prints are reduced from $10 to $5. My 11x14 prints are reduced from $20 to $10. Silents and Talkies etsy 8x10 prints are reduced from $15 to $8. Silents and Talkies non-etsy 8x10 prints are reduced from $15 to $8 and original paintings are reduced from $30 to $15. My funny art prints are reduced from $15 to $5. I'm not asking any of you to buy anything, but if you could just pass word of my sale along to anyone who might be interested I'd appreciate it more than anything else in the world! I have the details on how to buy stuff and how long the sales is, etc. on my flapper blog here. Or if anyone has any other (legal) ideas on how to raise a bunch of money in one week please let me know!

The Academy's Folly

Numerous things bothered me about this year's Academy Awards. For starters, moving the honorary Oscar ceremony to a different day, thereby refusing Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman the honor of accepting their awards on Oscar night, was an affront to their talent, their legacy and their dignity. Having them stand up for an awkward applause, in which most members of the audience looked uneasy about whether or not to turn the clapping into a standing ovation, was embarrassing to say the least.

What made Oscar night even worse was the glaring omission of some big names from the annual Oscar memorial tribute, mainly Farrah Fawcett, Gene Barry and Bea Arthur. While I don't exactly have a checklist of people who passed away in 2009 to make sure that the Academy included everyone, it is perfectly clear to anyone who watches TCM that the memorial montage on our favorite classic film network included significantly more people than the Academy did. Each and every person in TCM's tribute played a part in film history, and they should have been included in the Oscar tribute as well. Whether it was a small part or a large part; whether they were a big name star or an anonymous technician; they deserved that two or three second tribute in front of the people who are keeping the film tradition alive.

The Academy has been apologizing for leaving people out of this tribute for years -- one of their most painful omissions was Dorothy McGuire. To explain her absence from the memorial, the Academy adopted their age-old excuse of "time limits." Time limit shm-ime limit. They could have easily trimmed the length of one of their dance-numbers-that-belonged-at-the-Tony's-not-the-Oscars or thrown out some of the extra bad jokes. I bring this up, though, because this time around they didn't blame the three big omissions on time limits. They began by trying to say that Fawcett, Arthur and Barry were merely television stars who would be honored by their peers at the Emmys, not the Oscars. But then somebody brought up Michael Jackson, who, despite his appearance on film is definitely considered a music star, not a movie star. And THAT, my friends, is where all heck broke loose. Consider this quote from an article from the AP regarding this topic:

"When asked why Michael Jackson was included when actors were left out, Davis explained that Jackson had appeared in a popular theatrical film recently."

Popular theatrical film recently.

This opens a whole new can of worms. Since when does the date of your most recent film affect your worthiness to be included in a memorial tribute to filmmakers? Sure, Farrah Fawcett didn't make a movie in 2009 or 2008 but maybe she might have if she hadn't been spending all of her time battling cancer, for crying out loud!

And popular? POPULAR? Now, forget for a minute how this statement relates to the Farrah vs. Michael debacle-- how will this new standard affect future tributes? What of the stars who retired from acting in the 40's and 50's? Will they be shunned from memorial tributes because they haven't been on screen RECENTLY? Or in the latest POPULAR blockbuster? Another excerpt from the article I read:

"In every category, you're going to miss some wonderful people," said Davis, who has helped assemble Oscar's In Memoriam montage since it began in 1993.

Here's my solution: just include everyone who has been instrumental in making a movie. Whether they made 1 movie or 100, whether their last film was released last summer or 60 years ago. Just include them. It makes their fans and their family happy, and it gives them the credit that they deserve. End of story.

And for heaven's sake, either ask the audience to remain quiet or to maintain a steady stream of clapping. The parade of passing is no time for a popularity contest.

It's like Christmas in July!

Song of the week comes to you on a Thursday this week! Exciting, right?! ;)

After I watched The Wind Cannot Read a few weeks ago, I went looking online for the theme song, a tune of the same title sung by Vera Lynn. I couldn't find it on itunes or amazon, but luckily I did manage to find a 45 on ebay UK for two dollars! It finally arrived in the mail today! yay!

I converted the music to mp3 and then made a video with images from the movie set to the song. I was so darn excited about the whole thing that I couldn't wait until Sunday to post it! The song is wonderful on its own, but I think the movie is so beautifully filmed that it's even more lovely to watch the images with the song. I hope you like it!!

The Wind Cannot Read [Download it]

Oscars for the rest of us

For a while I used to still watch The Oscars, even though I don't know who any of the stars are and I haven't seen any of the movies nominated, simply because I liked looking at what the women were wearing. I know, shallow.. but even that hasn't been able to hold my attention the last four or five years (partly due to the fact that 90% of the dresses are just one-shouldered Grecian style frocks in different colors) and I've stopped watching.

I was considering tuning in tonight to see Lauren Bacall, but then I read that the Honorary Oscars were moved to a different night. (Which, by the way, I think is a really rotten thing to do to those people!) So I figured, if Lauren Bacall isn't attending I have no reason to either. Oscar free night, right? Wrong.

I ended up watching tons of clips on YouTube from past Academy Award ceremonies. It's like an Oscar ceremony for the rest of us. I've gathered up some of my favorite clips to show you. I think my favorite is Frank Sinatra's win for From Here to Eternity. He RAN down the aisle to get that award -- if you know his history (that he had been suffering a major career setback prior to making the film, both in his vocal and acting careers) you know how much this award meant to him. It's Kleenex-worthy.

BEST ACTOR

Gregory Peck



John Wayne



Ray Milland

BEST ACTRESS

Audrey Hepburn



Julie Christie



Ingrid Bergman

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Frank Sinatra



Karl Malden

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Hattie McDaniel



Eva Marie Saint

HONORARY OSCARS

Barbara Stanwyck



Cary Grant

IRVING G THALBERG MEMORIAL AWARD

Alfred Hitchcock

The case of Ronald Colman's missing Oscar

To coincide with The Oscars tonight, I've uploaded an Oscar-related radio program in lieu of the Song of the Week.

Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hume were recurring guest stars on The Jack Benny radio program. In a trio of episodes, Jack Benny borrows Ronald Colman's Oscar and then gets robbed right after he leaves the Colman house! This has to be one of the funniest radio programs I have ever listened to -- Jack Benny is hilarious, but it's really the guest stars - including Bing Crosby!- who make this particular series so hysterically funny.

It's slightly long, about one hour and 15 minutes total since it was actually broadcast as three separate episodes. But if you have some spare time, it's only the length of a movie and it's just as entertaining!


Part One [Download it]



Part Two [Download it]



Part Three [Download it]

John Mills in Hobson's Choice is the cutest thing ever.

Just had to say that. If you haven't seen the movie, you must. His cuteness is seriously overwhelming.

My favorite Hitchcock

I was inspired by a post over at Rupert Pupkin Speaks to do my own Top 20 Hitchcock list. It says a lot about a director when you can fill up a "top 20" list with their films alone -- and have trouble narrowing it down to 20 at that!

These are in no particular order, except for the first four.

1. Dial M For Murder
2. Young and Innocent
3. The Birds
4. Sabotage
5. The 39 Steps
6. Foreign Correspondent
7. Shadow of a Doubt
8. Stage Fright
9. Lifeboat
10. Spellbound
11. Psycho
12. Marnie
13. Notorious
14. Rope
15. Strangers on a Train
16. The Trouble with Harry
17. The Lady Vanishes
18. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
19. Murder!
20. Breakdown

Number 20, Breakdown, is an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents directed by Hitch and starring Joseph Cotten. It's on YouTube - if you haven't seen it, you must! I had to include it because, despite it's short running time, it is one of my all time favorite things directed by Sir Alfred. It would seem silly to leave it off my list just because it wasn't released in a theater :)

What are your top 20 Hitchcock films? Or top 10?

(The art is a linoleum cut that I did a few years ago when I was teaching my brother printmaking)