“I don't know what to do with her Highness. Say right and she'll go left, say left and she'll go right. And though she is a girl, she has never shown me a tear.”隠し砦の三悪人 [Kakushi-toride no san-akunin / The Hidden Fortress] (Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
Nov
25
White Ribbon Day
General Makabe (Toshirō Mifune) facing us with Princess Yuki (Misa Uehara) seemingly standing high above him on the fortress' wall, facing away. DP: Kazuo Yamazaki.
Someone protects a woman on White Ribbon Day
Leave it to popular media to create a fashion for helplessness. In the 110 years that have passed since William Randolph Hearst's titular heroine fought her way to #emancipation in The Perils of Pauline (1914), “the damsel in distress” is still very much the go-to trope for movie writers. Sadly, instead of debunking the belief that women need to be protected by men from men, it's now embraced by third wave feminism. Just yesterday – November 25, 2023 – I saw a call to arms from a leftwing feminist group to “protect girls” from the primal evil that is manhood. Oh how we did better once.
– old lady-in-waiting
In Kurosawa's 隠し砦の三悪人, a couple of greedy peasants escort a man and woman across enemy lines after the man has promised them a share of the gold they're carrying. Unknowingly, the fools not only protect their bounty, but a general and princess trying to escape an enemy clan so they can rebuild their kingdom. And also unbeknownst to the tricksters, Makabe and Yuki are not as helpless as they may seem.
1950s
“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Withdrawn in their family home, they form a strong manipulative bond, drawing others into their games.
– 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
