This extraordinary clip from ‘I Cover The Waterfront’ (1933) shows that kink in Hollywood was alive and well years before one might think. (I’m discounting so-called ‘adult’ films of the era). Here we see Claudette Colbert shackled up in a pillory and forced to submit to unasked for kisses. Of
Yesterday we watched a deeply strange BDSM musical number from a 1933 Eddie Cantor vehicle, staged by Busby Berkeley. Twenty-years later, the same mind that brought us slavegirls-on-parade came up with a fascinating, nightmarish concept for an Ann Miller number in ‘Small Town Girl’ (1953) called ‘I Gotta Hear That
Here’s a production number from the 1933 Eddie Cantor vehicle “Roman Scandals” that will leave you…well…I don’t know…it kind of depends on your pre-code tolerance for things that one doesn’t expect to see even in pre-code movies. I’ll leave it at that. Though the movie was directed by the underrated
All week we’ve been watching people disrobe without ever getting down to the skin. Today we’ll jump ahead to what happens once the clothing is removed–or, more accurately, what happens a couple of steps after the clothes have come off. It seems that in pre-Code era the act of taking
My interest this past week in period movie sword fights–we didn’t venture any further than 1940– was triggered (yes, I said triggered) by TCM’s showing of “Captain Blood” last weekend. So it’s only befitting that we end with he sword fight that kicked off this madness to begin with. Once
Here’s the wonderful climactic sword fight from the 1938 ‘Adventures oF Robin Hood’ starring Errol Flynn. This is something special as it really is two fights in one–a mass sword fight that breaks off into a private dual between Flynn and (who else?) Basil Rathbone. Hijinks ensue, of course, but
Yesterday I posted the sword fight from the 1920 version of ‘The Mark Of Zorro’ starring Douglas Fairbanks. Today I’ve jumped up twenty years to show you the same fight as staged by director Rouben Mamoulian in his 1940 remake. In this version, Tyrone Power faces down Basil Rathbone, who
Continuing this little survey of sword fights in movies that we began yesterday, I thought it might put things in context to look at what is generally considered the first great sword fight in movie history–Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in ‘The Mark Of Zorro’ (1920). There probably were sword fights in
This weekend TCM aired ‘Captain Blood’, Michael Curitz’s terrifically entertaining 1935 Errol Flynn star vehicle–it was Flynn’s first major role and shot him to stardom–which kicked off a wave of ‘swashbucklers’ that lasted well through the 1950s. The sword fight between Flynn and Basil Rathbone is effective but relatively modest,
Let’s close up this absurd week (and I’m not limiting that to just the material on this blog) with an absurd clip of two absurd personalities. This is a silent, ghostly, unknown bit of TV footage featuring Vampira (see post from earlier this week) dancing with Liberace. From the looks