happy birthday, little brother

warren and shirley. too dang cute.

the plot thickens

'double indemnity' trivia: 'About 16 minutes into this movie, Raymond Chandler is sitting outside an office as Fred MacMurray walks past. Chandler glances up at MacMurray from a paperback he is reading, a great clue of his identity.'

i have seen this film a zillion times and i NEVER KNEW THIS. i love chandler a heck of a lot. he wrote the genius screenplay for this terrific billy wilder movie. they must have filmed his cameo very early on as he and the director didn't really bond, to say the least.

'wilder' at heart

what a cool collage of 'double indemnity' images!

i found this wonderful piece of trivia too:

During production, one day Raymond Chandler failed to show up at work and was tracked down at his home, and he went through a litany of reasons why he could no longer work with director Billy Wilder. 'Mr. Wilder frequently interrupts our work to take phone calls from women... Mr. Wilder ordered me to open up the window. He did not say please... He sticks his baton in my eyes...I can't work with a man who wears a hat in the office. I feel he is about to leave momentarily.'

a baton? that hat complaint is priceless.

a good guess

kate moss attending a private screening of johnny depp film.

sartorial splendor in the grass

lauren bacall

it's too late baby

hugh grant can be really good, right? he maybe could have been the guy to play the poet arthur rimbaud.

photos: arthur/hugh

makin' movies

malcolm in the middle/kubrick with a camera

truth telling

not too long ago i did a posting on 'diary of a mad housewife.' maybe it was a posting on the actress carrie snodgress. can't recall! however, i do know for a fact that i mentioned frank langella being, in his youth, the sexiest actor i ever saw on screen. hence, the 'mad housewife' put up with his arrogant ways so as to keep him as a lover.

well, guess what? frank was not only gorgeous but he went and wrote a biography that promises to satisfy our mind's as well. it's called 'dropped names', and it comes out in a week or so. it is gonna be FUN.

here's what i've read about it:

In the world described by Langella, Richard Burton was a ‘crashing bore’ who liked to recite poetry in a drunken stupor, Rex Harrison was a ‘real son of a bitch’ terrified people would think he was homosexual (he wasn’t), and Laurence Olivier was a ‘silly old English gent who loved to play camp and gossip’. Paul Newman was dull, and Graduate star Anne Bancroft was so vain she fell in love with her own reflection.

As Olivier put it when he grabbed Langella by the arm following a Dracula photocall at which both refused to play second fiddle: ‘You know, Frankie, dear. You’re a monster. So am I. It’s what you need to be a star.’

pre-order!

simple pleasure

the great escapism

hitchcock is known for a long line of ice-cool blonde screen goddesses with whom he had become fixated during his 40-year career. here are some interesting facts:

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, the son of a Catholic greengrocer, was born in the East End suburb of Leytonstone in 1899. His father, William, was a strict disciplinarian who took to sending his son to the local police station with a note explaining that he had been ‘naughty’.


On arrival, a custody sergeant known to the family would lock the boy in a cell for five or ten minutes before releasing him. The clanging of the door, Hitchcock always insisted, used to cause him ‘dread’, and gave him a lifelong fear of arrest, jails and policemen. It also evidently appealed to his sense of drama.
His mother, Emma, was sharp-tongued and exacting. She compelled her son to stand at the foot of her bed and recite his daily activities — something he later referred to as his ‘evening confession’.

painting by pal shazar

the last word

3 4 83 5.

that's tippi's career in shorthand. ms. hedren had early international fame as a result of her third and fourth films being directed by hitchcock. i love her in 'marnie' but never watched 'the birds' more than once. hitchcock fever is about to be thrust upon us. scarlett johansson is going to play janet leigh in one film and sienna miller is going to play tippi in another. all hell is gonna break loose when the master of suspense gets raked over the coals for being a manipulative predator of his female stars. yes, they achieved great fame but now the details of the price they payed will be shared.

tippi seems the most vocal about her mistreatment. she is also the most active of all of hitckcock's surviving leading ladies. the amazing actress eva marie saint just completed a t.v. series but it is tippi with 5 films in production! that will teach his ghost a thing or two about destroying the career of a woman who would not give in to his wicked ways while he was alive.

of all her 83 screen credits, she is going down in cinema history for her two hitchcock movies. still, she ain't leaving without shedding some light on the man behind the camera.

photo: making marnie' with sean connery

worth the bruise

'to kill a mockingbird' was not what you'd call a funny movie. it was actually proud and serious and crucial. however, this is one of the few 'fall on the floor laughing' moments i treasure.