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Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

ABSTRACTIONS OF THE 1920s (WITH MUSIC!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTM9TkQ9VAUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJOROSMxHQ&list=PLKjjIa7cwTkLmfGjn2u46IPYY0onPWUII&index=4 I have a great affinity for 1920s culture–the music and early sound films in particular. Not that the ‘talkies’ (as they were then referred too) are easy to watch anymore–at least not in the way they were intended to be. Early sound film is pre-historic, with acting so unbelievably

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May 14, 2024 No Comments

PERCY DOVETONSILS, POET LAUREATE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj2JzNd7wuE One of television’s greatest comedian/innovators was Ernie Kovacs, and one his most famous characters was poet Percy Dovetonsils. A Youtube commenter refers to Percy as a ‘coded gay character’ but I don’t see what’s terribly coded about it. Percy’s lisp, his mincing expressions, the general aura of louche period-gay

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May 13, 2024 2 Comments

THE GOOFY SINATRA

Let’s close this weeks Sinatra-bashing extravaganza with another goofy clip from his shaggy television variety series of the early 1950s, the boringly named ‘The Frank Sinatra Show’. In this clip he introduces the singer/comedienne Dagmar–somebody once said car bumpers were styled after Dagmar’s figure. Sinatra’s intro is embarrassing. He was

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May 10, 2024 No Comments

THE COLLAPSE OF FRANK SINATRA

On March 7, 1994, Frank Sinatra was performing in Richmond, Virginia to an adoring crowd. Unfortunately in the middle of ‘My Way’ he collapsed on the stage, dehydrated from a combination of a diuretic he was taking and late night drinking in the hotel bar. Here’s local news coverage of

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May 9, 2024 No Comments

SINATRA? OR CHARLIE McCARTHY?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMGASlOu028 Continuing our shallow dive into the slump years of Frank Sinatra’s career (roughly 1949-53) here’s a clip from Sinatra’s TV show that he somehow maintained during the period, the daringly titled ‘The Frank Sinatra Show’. Frank sings ‘These Foolish Things’, one of the loveliest ballads of the era accompanied

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May 8, 2024 3 Comments

SINATRA AND GROUCHO–THE SLUMP YEARS PT.2

In the late 1940s both Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx were in their slump years–the Marx Brothers were essentially over and Groucho’s attempts at movie-star solo work were met mostly with a shrug. He made two movies–‘Copacabana’ and ‘A Girl In Every Port’–that were disappointments and the final Marx Brothers

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May 7, 2024 No Comments

SINATRA–THE SLUMP YEARS

The word on the street (not my street but somebody’s street) is that the Scorcese/DiCaprio Sinatra biopic now in the planning stages is set during the legendary singer/actor/prick’s slump years–basically 1948-53. This is when he deserted his family for Ava Gardner, pissed off most of the world’s press and melted

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May 6, 2024 2 Comments

ORSON DRUNK IS BETTER THAN MOST PEOPLE SOBER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvxwf1jxdaMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb1KndrrXsY Above I’ve posted two views of the infamous Paul Masson wine commercials which helped support Orson Welles and his filmmaking career throughout the 1970s. The first consists of outtakes and the second shows the finished commercial. Unfortunately, as the outtakes show, Welles is too drunk to perform. The director

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May 1, 2024 No Comments

BOGIE’S BOAT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeCU0uaMURE In addition to booze and cigarettes, Humphrey Bogart’s great passion was sailing his yacht which was named ‘Santana’. Much as city kid James Cagney yearned for the wide open spaces of country life (see yesterday’s post) city kid Bogie yearned for the open air of the sea. Both men

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April 30, 2024 No Comments

THE LITTLE HOUSE OF JAMES CAGNEY

For many years James Cagney divided his time between a country-esque retreat in Coldwater Canyon, high above Beverly Hills, and a Martha’s Vineyard spread that is nothing if not wildly appealing. But, with a fervor that only a once poor city kid (Cagney grew up in the Yorkville section of New York

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April 29, 2024 3 Comments

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