Tired Old Queen at the Movies' Office
Happy Birthday CLINT WALKER! My favorite TV hunk of the 50’s. Woof!
Today is Helmut Berger’s birthday. Gay and gorgeous, he was the lover and protege of Luchino Visconti who cast him as an SS general and Dietrich impersonator in his deliciously decadent “The Damned”. Then the crazy, mad and tragic monarch in “Ludwig”.
Happy 90th birthday ”knighted vampire “CHRISTOPHER LEE, actor extraordinaire! Thanks for so many years of delightful Hammer horror.
Happy Birthday, STEVE COCHRAN. One of the hottest guys at Warners in the late 40’s. Black hair, blue eyes, hot and hairy. WOOF!
Just a bit of CHAMPION, because I LOVE hot vintage guys!
OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
Robert Mitchum lands his first starring role and along with Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas, creates one of the landmarks of Film Noir in Jacques Tourneur’s classic “OUT OF THE PAST” (1947). Based on the novel ” Build My Gallows High”, Mitchum plays a former detective sent on a mission by a sinister gangster (Douglas) to find and retrieve his former girlfriend (Greer) who not only shot him, but also stole $40,000.00. Greer plays her like the pretty girl next door, who just happens to be homicidal. Mitchum falls hard, and as a result, is crossed, double crossed and framed for a coupla’ killings . It’s a murderous a trip down memory lane you won’t soon forget.
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with John “Johnny” Bixler and Steve Hayes
One of my favorite murder scenes in Film Noir is when magazine tycoon Charles Laughton murders his venomous mistress RITA JOHNSON in John Farrow’s “The Big Clock”(1947). Here is a clash between two terrific actors at the top of their game. The tension mounts as she, in huge close-ups, berates and humiliates him while he trembles and squirms with disgust. Finally, unable to take any more, he grabs a sundial and crashes it over her skull, killing her instantly. Unforgettable. TOQ on THE BIG CLOCK
Today is DORIS DOWLING’s birthday. One of my favorite Femme fatales of Film Noir. She first gained notice as the barfly who’s crazy for Ray Milland’s hairline in “The Lost Weekend”, then she was cast in my favorite role, as Alan Ladd’s cheating wife who is eventually murdered in “The Blue Dahlia.” Definitely a “Twelve o’clock woman in a nine o’clock town.”
Thirty five years ago today JOAN CRAWFORD died. A friend told me a funny story. It seems that on the day she died, a woman was walking past Katherine Hepburn’s house carry the Daily News and Joan’s death was the headline . Hepburn was loading her car and the woman recognized her. Flustered the woman said to Hepburn; “Oh my God, aren’t you Joan Crawford? ” To which Hepburn replied: “Not anymore.”
Today is GLENDA JACKSON’s birthday. She is still my favorite actress to have played Elizabeth R.
Today is Touko Laaksonen’s aka TOM OF FINLAND’s birthday. Over the years, his art work has inspired the imagination and haunted the dreams of countless Gay men. In drawings, cartoons, paintings, calenders, books and magazines, he’s covered more sexy men in leather than Castro has convertibles. Bless his Finnish heart!
Episode 100! - ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
Bette Davis gives the performance of her career in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic ALL ABOUT EVE, the quintessential film on life in the theatre. Winner of multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor : George Sanders. It also boasts Oscar nominated performances by Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm and the incomparable Thelma Ritter, as well as solid support from Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlow and up and coming starlet, Marilyn Monroe. One of the wittiest and most sophisticated comedies in motion picture history, it stays with you long after the first viewing and the unforgettable Oscar nominated Bette Davis, as the aging actress Margo Channing ,is not to be missed!
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with John “Johnny” Bixler and Steve Hayes
Happy Birthday TYRONE POWER. So gorgeous that when paired up in Black and White with dark beauties; Loretta Young, Linda Darnell or Gene Tierney, the effect could be jaw dropping. As an actor, he was vastly underrated,probably because, like Errol Flynn, he made swashbuckling seem too easy. Rumor has it he had a “long term/some time” relationship w/ Cesar Romero…I would have paid. Favorite Films: “In Old Chicago”, “The Rains Came”, “The Mark Of Zorro”, “The Razor’s Edge”, ” Nightmare Alley”, “Rawhide”, “Untamed”. Ty takes my breath away.
Here’s a bit of Dewey Martin for a rainy Friday. Nurtured by Howard Hawks, his biggest pictures were “The Thing”, “The Desperate Hours” and my favorite “The Big Sky”, where he shares a rather homoerotic friendship with co-star Kirk Douglas. Shot on location in the Rockies, he fights Indians, forges a trail west all the while looking gorgeous in his leather outfit! He had a stormy marriage to Peggy Lee and retired relatively early. Such a hottie!
It’s MARY ASTOR’s birthday! She never gave a bad performance. Some of my favorites: “Red Dust”, “Dodsworth”, “The Prisoner Of Zenda”, The Hurricane”, “Midnight”, “The Maltese Falcon” , “The Great Lie”, “Across the Pacific”, “Meet Me In St. Louis”, “Act Of Violence”, “The Palm Beach Story”, “Desert Fury”, “Return To Peyton Place” and her swan song; “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte”. Unforgettable. “Hail Mary!”
