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Gaslight 1944

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I've been returning to some b&w movies from the 40's that I haven't seen in a while. Why? Well I love movies from the 40's and I have a nice large collection of dvds and blu rays from this decade that I have been picking through, and maybe I have a nostalgia for if not better times, then a time without Trump. I started with George Cukor's elegant 1944 adaptation of a well trodden theatrical melodrama by Patrick Hamilton that was very popular in its day “Gaslight”.

Gaslight figures large in both the definition of the term, that the play brought to our popular vocabulary and the actual use of gaslight as a way of lighting rooms and public spaces back in 1880 and serves nicely as a plot and art direction device. Ingrid Bergman plays the young niece of an opera singer who when the film opens has been murdered in her town house in London and Ingrid who lived with her aunt as a young girl and who discovered her strangled body is seen leaving London for Italy where she will study singing.

The mystery is set and we next discover Ingrid now a young woman singing her heart out as a suave Charles Boyer accompanies her on the piano and her singing teacher shows his apprehension about her having a career as an opera singer following in the steps of her renowned late aunt.

We can see what is hidden in the Boyer and Bergman relationship and already our suspicions are building. Time is pushed forward and Boyer and Bergman are married and Boyer urges her to return to London to the town house that has haunted her since the murder of her aunt. The writing is on the wall and the gas lighting is starting. The mystery really is no mystery as we can easily see what Boyer is up to but we don't exactly know why but that also comes to gas light sooner than later.

Poor Ingrid is mentally tortured by Boyer who plays tricks with her mind to make her think that she is losing it. There is a closed off upper attic that plays a prominent part in the dangerous antics Boyer is using to drive his wife insane. Onto the scene comes Joseph Cotton unbelievable as an inspector at Scotland Yard, and for me is the weak link in the film with his American accent, and stiff countenance. I have a feeling that Cukor had to take Cotton if he wanted Bergman both of whom were under contract to David O. Selznick.

Also in the cast is the always delightful Dame May Whitty as the ditsy nosy neighbor from across the square, and best of all the great Angela Lansbury in her first screen role as the common cockney house maid who is sassy and rude to Bergman and flirty with Boyer. She was all of 17 at the time of the filming and received a supporting actress Oscar nomination, one of the seven nominations the film received including Bergman's for Actress which she won. The film is rich is detail and a pleasure to look at won an Oscar for its production design. There was an earlier British version that M.G.M. tried to have destroyed but happily they did not prevail and is included on the special 2 disc dvd.

Frank Auerbach 1931-2024

Judith Jamison 1943-2024

Dorothy Allison 1949-2024

Eikoh Hosoe 1933-2024

Patricia Johanson 1940-2024

Quincy Jones 1933-2024

Terry Garr 1944-2024

Women He's Undressed 2015.

Just watched this engaging and mostly charming doc. on the great Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly. He roamed the studios from the early 30's to the early 60's and his credits are amazing never mind his supreme clothes he designed for most of the Hollywood stars especially notable for his work with Bette Davis and all the rest. He was also known for his relationship with Cary Grant who he was close with and roommates in their early poor days in New York City when Grant was still Archie Leach. They finally tell the story of Grant's gay days which he tried to hide, and his daring love affair with Randolph Scott and his many cover up marriages that all ended in failure. Still there are some out there who question Grant's "gay life" but this doc. puts it all out there (no pun intended)

There are interviews with other costume designers and film historians along with a few movie stars. I liked the old footage but the staged enactments were over done. I would have preferred more vintage footage. Still for anyone interested in gay history and film this is a must. Orry was probably most known for his Oscar winning shocking dresses he made for Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot but his filmography is long and impressive.

Gary Indiana 1950-2024

Tubi

There are many things I like about Tubi. Number one is that its free. The thing I don't really like are the commercial interruptions but its a small price to pay in the long run because they deliver so much. The variety is amazing from classics to newer films and usually the prints are in the right ratio and are very nice to look at. I've only so far tuned off one film because the quality of the print was so bad, but usually they are fine or even better. Also impressive is their supply of LGBT films covering all sorts of themes and subjects from SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY to GODS OWN COUNTRY and much in between. "My stuff" list is bulging over (maybe pun intended) as there are some explicit movies and some not so pleasant looks at gay life. But you can find TANGERINE, SOLDIER'S GIRL, GODS OWN COUNTRY, BEACH RATS, THE LEATHER BOYS (a favorite of mine when I was a teen and who I saw it with a friend I was in love with) CHRIS AND DON (a wonderful doc on christopher Isherwood and Don Barcardy) PARTING GLANCES along with many many unknown films to me and a great heap of foreign stuff including many non gay classics. I also love being able to revisit many films that I kinda recall liking, maybe not so much any longer but still where could I find good prints of THE MEAN SEASON, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME, LIBERTY HEIGHTS, MULLHOLAND FALLS OR THE SPANISH PRISIONER all guilty pleasures of mine. There are also a the rare print 4 hour version of GREED which I haven't seen yet. This site makes me want to live forever and never go out again just watch movies.

Oddball Magazine.

Oddball magazine just posted one of my recent collages to go along with a poem by Taylor Kovach. Think it looks good especially when you click on the image.

https://oddballmagazine.com/poem-by-taylor-kovach/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGGLhdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTUo5cw6H19aC-NjEsSf9VGWjC_t0PCYiVUfLwCvX19pHqVmB6faUUqUWw_aem_z5xa0z_QRcqeAUyOD_SUmg

The Gilded Age Season 2

Fun

The Gilded Age Season 2

I just finished watching season 2 of “The Gilded Age” and it was way over a year since I saw part I. This distance of viewing caused me some confusion over the plot, what went before before but I quickly resolved any blanks in my memory of this marvelous series. And once again I ate this one up with a silver spoon in my butter pecan Talenti Gelato.

This year is as stunning and soapy as the 1st season and is guided by Julian Fellowes who is no stranger to this kind of story and a group of several talented women who wrote and directed some of the episodes . We are still upstairs and downstairs in the two grand houses that are across the street from each other on 5th avenue and 61st in Manhattan around the spring of 1883 and culminating with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in spectacular fashion.

The focus is once again on two families , the Russell's who are based on several real life robber barons including Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, and the two Van Rhijn sisters who are wealthy but more simple than the Russells but just as entertaining and indeed flawed as The Russell clan. The Russell husband and wife are played well by Morgan Spector and his Lady Macbeth the great Carrie Coon whose main goal in life is to be accepted in the high society life of New York City and is really the power behind her husband’s throne. She is cold and controlling in all aspects of her high end life including the lives of her two grown children a girl and a boy.

In this season she is calculating and scheming on how to get the “new Met Opera” house built and open and to foil her arch rival Mrs. Astor who is supporting the old Academy Of Music and is played with spit and fashion by Donna Murphy, Broadway diva supreme, one of many divas in the great cast. The quieter and more conservative Van Rhijn sisters are played by Christine Baranski (superb) and the quieter of the two women Cynthia Nixon also wonderful and who finds fleeting love in this season. Just having hours of Baranski made me swoon with joy.

Set among the very wealthy families and like any good soap this one is filled to the brim with marvelous actors and actresses who because the show was filmed in New York City is rich with many theatre actors and many Broadway divas including Christine Baranski, Kelli O’Hara, Donna Murphy, Audra McDonald and Nathan Lane. I was almost expecting a large musical number to break out, but the singing is not sung only acted. The supporting players are also Broadway vets and include Laura Benanti, Kristine Nielsen, Celia Keenan Bolger, Michael Cerveris and Debra Monk, all great indeed.

Once again several of the main plot sidebars concern the niece of the Van rhijn sisters, the attractive youngest daughter of Meryl Streep and the sculptor Don Gummer Louisa Jacobson and a young African American woman played well by Denee Benton who in now a newpaper reporter and the sometime secretary to Christine Baranski. It is through Benton and her upper class family that we see the plight of African Americans both in the “liberal” north and the still harsh and scary deep south which is not commonly shown in fictional tv series.

There are still hot pepper schemes and love stories both straight and gay along with some factual history of my city as it grows and becomes the great metropolis that it still is. Everything is stirred into this pot including some gay social climbers, politics, lots of back stabbing, elegant balls, lavish dinners, small and big crimes, racism, weekends at Newport and a stunning tour of New York City in the late 19th century.

Most of the production was done with digital special effects but there is some on location scenes mostly in Central Park. Digitally done is a big street set that represents 5th ave and the lavish mansions that once lined this famous avenue. Look this is not heavy drama, its a soap but a damn good one, and if you are like me you might sometimes crave this sort of thing especially when the star is a New York City long gone. This is high up there because of the performances and the lavish look and details that wash over the show. The costumes alone make this one worth watching. An eye popping elegant extravaganza. Spectacular spectacular.