Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Musique - "Dance Like a Monster" by Play Date

A very merry Halloween to one and all! And to celebrate my favorite holiday, here are some spooky pictures of some of my favorite stars:
Alfred Hitchcock
Ann Miller
Ann Rutherford
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Montgomery, Erin Murphy, and Agnes Moorehead
Clara Bow
Colleen Moore
Ida Lupino
Janet Leigh
Mary Pickford
Myrna Loy
Nancy Carroll
Paulette Goddard
Vera-Ellen
Veronica Lake
Vincent Price

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Spooky Movies

Musique - "Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565" by Johann Sebastian Bach

I'm not really a horror movie fan, but only because I have a very vivid imagination and find it incredibly hard to sleep for months after watching a scary movie. I prefer to stick with more "spooky" or "witchy" movies come Halloween time. What spooky movies and shows am I entertaining myself with this October? Some old favorites and some new (to me) films I'm excited to watch for the first time:
Hitchcock's favorite film he ever made, Shadow of a Doubt, with Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten (1943). Cotten is particularly creepy in this bad guy role. I was pleased to see a young Macdonald Carey of Days of Our Lives fame as young Charlie's love interest.
Clue (1985). One of my all-time favorite movies. I was obsessed with seeing this movie when I was little. I remember seeing the commercials for it and really, really wanting to go see it. I didn't get to until it came out on VHS (ha!), but that didn't stop me from wanting to be Miss Scarlet. Every time my sister and I played the board game with our babysitter, I always had to be Miss Scarlet (of course, it doesn't hurt that Miss Scarlet always goes first as a rule). Anyway, this movie is just pure genius and hilarious (even though the voice dubbing on it is pretty bad) and a bit spooky, too.
Murder, She Wrote, The Complete Third Season (1986/1987). I've most likely seen all of these episodes when I was little, but if so, I have forgotten whodunnit. The third season is the best so far, not only because of the Magnum, P.I. crossover episode (pictured above), but also because of a later episode that includes FOUR Golden Girls guest stars in ONE episode: Herb Edelman (Dorothy's ex, Stan Zbornak), Scott Jacoby (Michael, Dorothy and Stan's son), George Grizzard (Blanche's dead husband, George), and Dinah Manoff (the girls' neighbor, Carol). Maybe MSW isn't spooky enough for your tastes, but hey, I like it. Plus, it's Angela Lansbury's birthday on October 16, so I have to celebrate her work!
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). This one's been in my Netflix queue for quite some time, but it just finally came this week (that's what happens when you've maxed out your queue). Conrad Veidt is pretty damn good at playing the creepy, murdering Cesare. And I loved the twist at the end—totally unexpected (well, at least by me). I think people not used to silent films will find the jerky movements and heavy makeup even spookier than I did.
Sleepy Hollow (1999). Tim Burton can rarely go wrong and he certainly is a master of spooky and quirky. This movie is no exception. It's one of my favorite spooky movies, but I have to watch it in the daytime or I'll have Christopher Walken nightmares.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Dracula is one of my very favorite books and I re-read it every year. And while this movie certainly takes giant liberties with Mr. Stoker's work, I still enjoy it (maybe it has something to do with young Gary Oldman being my #1 crush). I also love the fact that Francis Ford Coppola didn't resort to CGI or fancy computer tricks when making the movie (or, rather, I should say his son, Roman figured out old timey methods to produce trick shots).
Halloweentown (1998). Okay, yes, this is a children's movie. But it's just so irresistible. When I was younger, I would have loved to have been told I was a witch. And who can resist Debbie Reynolds? Halloween is my favorite holiday, so a whole town dedicated to Halloween is pretty badass.
The Addams Family (1964–1966). I'm sure I've seen many of these episodes before, but it'll be a delight to watch them again. For some reason, I always preferred the Addams to the Munsters (even though The Munsters had a sweeter theme song).
Nosferatu (1922). Believe it or not, when I watched this movie years ago, I fell asleep. Not because it was boring and definitely not because it's not scary, because man, look at that guy! Creepy!! I now own the film, so I'll be watching it (again) prior to watching the next one.
Shadow of the Vampire (2000). Willem Dafoe is pretty creepy as is, so I imagine this will be an incredibly interesting movie to watch.

So I think that should do it for October. I just wish that Netflix had Mr. Boogedy!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Flappers and Philosophers

Musique - "She's Got It" by Harry Reaser
I recently almost got into an internet fight with someone who was incredibly misinformed about flappers. It all started with me ranting that a full-fringe boxy dress is the standard flapper costume for Halloween when that is incredibly historically inaccurate (which I'm basing on the fact that I've never seen any pictures of women from the 20s in that sort of dress; some fringe, yes, but never an all-fringe dress). Someone commented on that saying that "flapper" meant a dancer in a jazz club, that flappers definitely did wear all fringe, and that regular women weren't flappers, which is why I'd never seen a picture of a woman in an all-fringe dress. I got really, REALLY upset at this.

Not only is this a hideous costume, but look at her hair! No one in the 20s looked like that! Sacrilege!

First of all, I don't like to be challenged on a subject I am particularly passionate about. Secondly, this girl had it all wrong! I was very, very tempted to set her straight in a bitchy, know-it-all comment telling her exactly what flappers were and recommending she read some Fitzgerald (both Scott and Zelda) to get up to speed. However, I ended up deleting my original comment so as to end a potential internet fight. I don't need to get angry with absolute strangers over something as silly as the definition of flappers.
If you know me, you know my love affair with the 1920s and flappers started in 2005 when I myself decided to be a flapper for Halloween (because I had the perfect black bob and I usually pick my costumes based on what my hair looks like that year). Not being particularly versed in flapper fashion, I still somehow just knew that no one really wore those hideous fringe dresses. So I set out to make my own costume and found a pattern for a dress based on Velma Kelly's "All That Jazz" dress in Chicago (which, as you can see, has some fringe, but is NOT all fringe). And, never one to half-ass a Halloween costume, I started watching and reading more about the 1920s. And I fell in love with the era.

So, long story short, for the last seven years, I've been devouring countless silent films, early talkies, books written in and about the 1920s, music from the 1920s, and pictures of the 1920s. So, while I'm no 1920s historian, I'm more knowledgeable about this time period than your average person. And if I had to tell that misinformed girl my own definition of "flapper", I'd say: A flapper was a young woman in the 1920s who flouted previous generations' conventions by doing things like smoking, drinking alcohol, wearing shorter skirts and dresses, rolling her stockings, wearing a lot of makeup, bobbing her hair, dancing to jazz music, using slang, staying out late, and/or "petting" with boys. But, as Levar Burton says on "Reading Rainbow", you don't have to take my word for it:
As you can see, flappers were everyday young women of the 1920s, not only dancers in jazz clubs (although, if a woman were a dancer in a jazz club, chances are she was a flapper). I know I shouldn't get so irritated with someone who was obviously given erroneous information, but something in me snapped and made me want to blog about flappers.
If you are interested in the 1920s (and learning more about flappers), I can personally vouch for the following books:
And if you want to be a fancy flapper (or her sheik) for Halloween, may I suggest these sites for more historically accurate dresses, patterns, and accessories:
I thank you for listening to me rant and I apologize if I sounded pretentious or bossy. I just really, really, REALLY love the 1920s and I get a little upset when people misrepresent this time period. Maybe one day I'll have a job where I can inform the masses about the awesomeness that was the 20s. ;)