“Their heritage of instability, extravagant caprice, and natural elegance was their paternal portion.”Les enfants terribles [The Terrible Children] (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1950)
Nov
13
World Orphans Day
The siblings – children on the cusp of adulthood, played by adults – sharing a bed. Elisabeth (Nicole Stéphane) points up towards the ceiling with one arm wrapped around her brother Paul's (Edouard Dermithe) neck. Both wear dressing gowns. DP: Henri Decaë.
With their mother bedridden, Elisabeth (Nicole Stéphane) nurtures her snowball-fight-injured brother Paul (Edouard Dermithe) back to health.
– Jean Cocteau, Les enfants terribles (1929)
Withdrawn in their family home, they form a strong manipulative bond, drawing others into their games.
1950s
– What's that?
– Tea.X the Unknown (Leslie Norman + Joseph Losey, 1956)
Oct
24
scoff
Two soldiers on nightshift ready to eat. One of them hands a mess tin with grub to the other when there's a sound. DP: Gerald Gibbs.
Moi, un noir [I, a Negro] (Jean Rouch, 1958)
Oct
16
National Eddie Day
A young woman looks over her shoulder, smiling. DP: Jean Rouch.
Some of the leads play out their hopes and dreams and are named after famous actors from Western films. Petit Touré is #EddieConstantine.
The Medium (Gian Carlo Menotti, 1951)
Sep
18
Madame Flora (Marie Powers) by herself at a small table in a shady bar. DP: Enzo Serafin.
“When I get myself – cleaned up and straightened out, I'm going down and get a ship and I'm going to wind up in South Sea islands. That's where I wanna go!”On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1956)
Sep
14
National Sober Day
Finnish poster. DP: Richard Bagley.
Someone mentions getting sober.
– You want a leg or a breast? – You make the choice.To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955)
Sep
8
leg or breast
Francie (Grace Kelly) and John Robie (Cary Grant) taking a (lunch) break on the Grand Corniche coast road. DP: Robert Burks.
– You boys care for a sandwich? Got tuna fish and minced ham on rye. – No, thanks. – It's nice and cold.The Monster That Challenged the World (Arnold Laven, 1957)
Sep
7
National Salami Day
Coroner Nate Brown (Byron Kane) offering two cops a couple of nice cold sandwiches straight from one of the morgue coolers on his lunch break. DP: Lester White.
Arnold Laven's The Monster That Challenged the World is one of the earliest, if not thé earliest, example of this peculiar movie and television trope: the coroner's lunch break.
Having some cold cuts over some cold cuts never gets old. Or appetising.
“And now for the benefit of the folks who tuned in late, I should like to say that this is the most traumatic spectacle I have ever had the GOOD fortune to witness.”Dial 1119 [The Violent Hour] (Gerald Mayer, 1950)
Aug
28
Sherry Flips
Dr. John Faron (Sam Levene) and barfly Freddy (Virginia Field) drinking at the counter. Freddy is enjoying her sherry flip with what appear to be olives instead of cherries. Two more glasses are waiting for her. DP: Paul Vogel.
– TV announcer
Glen or Glenda (1953)
In an intimate moment, Barbara (Dolores Fuller) hands Glen (Ed Wood) her angora sweater. DP: William C. Thompson.
August 25: someone wears another person's clothes on #NationalSecondhandWardrobeDay
Glen or Glenda [aka Male or Female aka Glen or Glenda, Which Is It? aka I Led 2 Lives] (Edward D. Wood Jr., 1953)
“Give this man satin undies, a dress, a sweater and a skirt, or even the lounging outfit he has on, and he's the happiest individual in the world. He can work better, think better, he can play better, and he can be more of a credit to his community and his government because he is happy.” —Dr. Alton, narrator
In 1953, Christine Jorgensen – who had widely reported sex reassignment surgery the year before – was approached by schlocky Z movie producer George G. Weiss to be in an exploitation movie about her voyage. She kindly thanked for the offer. Who did bite was the producer's pick to be the director, novice movie maker and transvestite Edward D. Wood Jr.. Wood reworked the script.
The resulting effort – Glen or Glenda – is not only an utterly unique autobiographic docudrama; it's a lovingly composed pamphlet in support of (heterosexual) transvestism – both fetish and lifestyle, not to be confused with drag – and transsexualism to boot. Rarely sex-related outsider lifestyles were discussed this frankly; Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male came out only five years prior and the volume about the human female in the year of this movie.
It's also pretty unique when it comes to the art of filmmaking. However contagiously enthusiastic, Wood didn't have the skill, weight, or budget to make movies. He'd pad story lines and plot holes with stock footage and long-winded dream sequences of the sexploitation kind. Like John Waters after him, Ed would cast friends and family – Dolores Fuller was his real-world girlfriend – and cinematic idols such as Bela Lugosi, who by 1953 was addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs.
Wood's life was wild and colourful. He once said that while serving in the US Marine Corps, he feared injury more than death, worried that the combat medic would discover the pink bra and panties under his uniform. It makes me wonder if the full colour promotional material for Psycho (1960) was #Hitchcock sending out a little wink to Ed.
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) wearing pink undergarments on a lobby card for Psycho (1960). The movie itself is in black and white and the reveal of Marion wearing pink underwear came as a shock in early-60s prissy America. DP: John L. Russell.
#Bales2023FilmChallenge #EdwardDWoodJr #BelaLugosi #LyleTalbot #DoloresFuller #ConradBrooks #WilliamCThompson #fashion #angora #crossdressing #LGBT #fetishism #drag #docudrama #biography #USA #1950s
“Unite and unite and let us all unite,
For summer is a-come unto day,
And whither we are going we will all unite,
In the merry morning of May.” “Now fare you well and bid you all good cheer,
For summer is acome unto day,
We call no more unto your house before another year,
In the merry morning of May.”Oss Oss Wee Oss (Alan Lomax, 1953)
Aug
22
Folklore Day
The childrens' 'Obby 'Oss May Day procession that precedes the adults' one on a Padstow hillside. DP: George Pickow.
On May 1 – in Padstow, Cornwall – an ancient procession goes around town. How ancient, no one really knows. Locals may describe it as a pagan fertility rite but even their generational memory draws a blank and no living soul can put an age on it. Ancient is what is it, drawing from primitive recollections of maidens and the effigy of a horse. The horse, the 'Obby 'Oss, starts its procession on May Eve, when it rises from its death. Locals gather to sing the “Night Song” and overnight, Padstow is dressed in flowers and a maypole has risen.
– Padstow May Night Song (traditional)
Then the “Morning Song”. Two 'Osses appear, dancing their dance, who then eventually on the evening of May Day meet at the maypole where they die, to be risen again next year.
– Padstow May Day Song (traditional)
Alan Lomax's Oss Oss Wee Oss is probably the best known visual documentation of the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss festival. That it was filmed in 1953 doesn't matter; the ritual is circular, like the horses themselves and the eternal coming and going of the seasons.