Above I’ve posted actual footage of the premiere of Howard Hughe’s 1930 World War 1 aviation epic ‘Hells Angels’. And below I’ve posted a recreation of the event in Martin Scorsese’s brilliant Hughes biopic ‘The Aviator’ (2004–ish). The real event is shockingly huge in scope—just the lit-up sign advertising the
Here’s an astonishing four minute reel of outtakes from ‘Hells Angels’, saved apparently by accident and carefully preserved and lovingly restored. I can’t begin to tell you how rare it is to see outtakes from a film this early–movie outtakes began to be saved in the mid-thirties as a result
Yesterday we began a weeklong look at Howard Hughes’ landmark 1930 World War 1 aerial epic ‘Hells Angels’ by viewing the film’s brilliantly achieved air-born climax. Today we hit the ground with a resounding thud and move from the astoundingly impressive to the astoundingly awful, with a two-part scene set
The saga of Howard Hughes epic World War 1 film ‘Hells Angels’ (1930) has been well documented–if you don’t know it then this Wikipedia entry does a good enough job of giving you the basics. Essentially, the young Texas millionaire/aviator was infatuated with the movies from a young age and
I have an idea. From now on (and perhaps forever after) let’s make Friday ‘Mambo’ day. What hipper, cooler dance was ever invented (except for the ‘Black Bottom’ of course)? Here’s the glorious Silvana Mangano giving the dance a run for its money in the appropriately named ‘Mambo’ (1954). The
Here are two clips from a Mae West film I’ve never seen called ‘Goin To Town’ (1936). The film is a ‘Post Code’ West and, as you know, she’s really more of a ‘Pre-Code’ kinda gal. All you really need to understand the story of the film are these two
On Monday I posted a brief TCM doc about the ‘pansy craze’ of the late 1920s and early 30s. Among other things, the doc serves as a good introduction for those not already in the know to the premiere pansy performer of the era, Jean Malin. Born GENE Malin in
In the late 1920s, urban nightclubs began to feature openly gay performers known as ‘pansy’s’, usually doing a song/dance/patter act, offering up wry, witty and sometimes self-deprecating humor;. The songs were suggestive and explored the double-nature of the pansy, a man who feels more feminine than masculine and prefers dressing
Yesterday I posted Busby Berkeley’s wonderfully choreographed ‘Hopping Dance’, performed by Bobby Van. The dance’s spiritual cousin–or perhaps it’s parent really–was a Berkeley production number from fifteen or so years earlier, ‘Horray For Hollywood’ from ‘Hollywood Hotel’ (1937). It features Benny Goodman and his then wildly successful swing era big
On Tuesday I reminisced a bit about my chance encounter with performer Bobby Van just months before his untimely death at age 51. I was perhaps a bit dismissive of Van’s talents and intend to rectify that today by offering up what is probably his career highlight, the ‘hopping song’