Happy Birthday, Frederic Forrest!
December 23, 2009 by Squally ShowersHappy Birthday, Butterfly McQueen!
December 22, 2009 by Squally Showers
Happy Birthday, Jane Fonda!
December 21, 2009 by Squally Showers
Happy Birthday, Irene Dunn!
December 20, 2009 by Squally Showers
Happy Birthday, Jake Gyllenhaal!
December 19, 2009 by Squally Showers
Happy Birthday, Betty Grable!
December 18, 2009 by Squally Showers
The Blue Bird: No Place Like Home
December 17, 2009 by Squally Showers
Maurice Tourneur’s 1918 production of The Blue Bird feels a long way from Walsh’s Five Points. This adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1908 play, is realized by the French director for Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players-Lasky in fantastic style. Tytyl and Mytyl are a brother and sister living up in a snow-covered village that’s located somewhere between Hansel and Gretel. Across the way lives a sick child and her mannish-looking mother. Down the road are “The Rich Children.” After the kids refuse to let the sick girl adopt their pet bird, they recieve a night visit from a fairy. The fairy brings their surroundings to life and charges Tytyl (Robin Macdougall) and Mytyl (Tula Belle) to find the bluebird of happiness.
Regeneration: Gangsters Before Gangsters
December 17, 2009 by Squally Showers
Raoul Walsh’s 1915 film Regeneration is often acclaimed as one of the first gangster films, but these aren’t really gangsters modern audiences would be familiar with. The gang Owen (John McCann) leads are more of a mob of Lower East Side plug uglies than true sports. They wear floppy caps and the working clothes of the docks and congregate in a basement called the Chicory Hall, where the thugs are as likely to be found sleeping on the bare dirt floor as playing cards.
Happy Birthday, Raimu!
December 17, 2009 by Squally Showers
Mamma Mia!
December 16, 2009 by Squally Showers
I’ve become quite fond of this ABBA pic.
