QWFF 2015 Day 2: They say it's your birthday

St. Patrick's Day always comes right before my birthday, but Tuesday night was the first time I had ever bothered to take advantage of it by getting drunk the night before. Who cares if everyone else is getting plastered for a completely different reason? I've always considered myself a kind of honorary Irish by virtue of being born the day after, anyway!

The crazy part is that it only took me one beer to get drunk! But that one beer looked like this. I think the bar where the Queens World Film Festival Opening Night after-party was held at was offering a special, but it was an odd one: either that one humongous beer or two smaller ones, and I couldn't get one now and the second later, so I bought the one big one and carried that mug around with me all night as I talked to old friends and made new ones. 

Long Island City,
where the Secret Theater is located

How did I get home? Well, I wasn't totally out of it. I was coherent enough to get on the train and then the bus, but what it came down to was that I told myself one thing, over and over: DON'T FALL DOWN.

Yesterday, I treated myself to a late lunch/early dinner before heading to Long Island City for Day 2. I had salmon. And that was the extent of my celebrating...

...because I had other plans. The Secret Theater in LIC once again hosts QWFF screenings. I wouldn't mind coming back here for something else one day, though it's easy to see what puts the "Secret" in Secret Theater: if you were walking past it, you'd think it was just another loading dock to a warehouse. Yes, despite all the development in LIC, there are still warehouses, and artists' spaces. My friend Nancy has an art studio there, not unlike what you'd see in SoHo or DUMBO.

I stayed for the first two movie blocks of the night; this is what I saw (Reminder for all you newbies: QWFF shows mostly short films, so they're arranged in "blocks," and the audience pays by the block and sees about an hour or two worth of short movies):

- Into the Dark. In the future, two prisoners shipped on a space-worthy vessel headed for their execution find the only comfort they can - in each other. It always amazes me how modern software technology can make outer space and computer graphics and spaceships look as slick as anything JJ Abrams can come up with, and that's the case here as well, but the story by writer-director-star Lukas Hassel is equally compelling. It's a one-man show, like recent films Buried and Locke, with all other characters off-screen, a format that I think works better for short(er) films like this one. Genre fans will dig it.

Filmmakers from the first block of films at the Secret Theater

- 4AM Gas Station Muzak. Heaven and hell compete for the soul of an ordinary guy just trying to put his life back together. Maybe a little too clever for its own good (did they really think that by showing an angel and demon playing chess together that we wouldn't think of Ingmar Bergman?), but it's still a game effort. Multi-cultural cast, nice use of location shooting in the California prairie, among other places, good editing.

- Reuber. From Germany comes this Gilliam-esque modern-day fairy tale, a bedtime story about a boy whose act of negligence leads him to run away into a magic forest with some bizarre characters. Like The Wizard of Oz, characters in the real-world framing sequence play double roles in the fairy tale, which is a nice touch, and there are funny moments, as you'd expect, but I thought it rambled far off course at times and wrapped up too neatly. Worth a look, though.

- Bright in Here. A one-night stand between two lesbian women on New Year's Eve. A nice character study, but that's about it. One would like to spend more time with these characters, though, to see where their relationship leads.

- Middle Man. At a tele-texting service for hearing-impaired people, a phone operator facilitates a conversation between two gay dudes trying to patch up their relationship. Clever premise, well-executed (although it took me awhile to figure out why one half of the couple didn't speak), but this is a Scottish film, with very, very thick Scottish accents. That, plus the fast pace of the dialogue made it difficult for this Yank to follow the story. Subtitles would help tremendously.

- Intrinsic Moral Evil. From the Netherlands, a very unusual short that's more of a performance video than a narrative, in which the concepts of homosexuality and youth are expressed in interpretive dance. Excellent cinematography and editing that uses the Zack-Snyder-slow-down-then-speed-up trick well. Quite fascinating and hypnotic.

Filmmakers from the second block of films

- Fire Island. Could the end of this marriage be decided by pure chance? Shot on location at the titular strip just off of Long Island (right before Hurricane Sandy hit!), the dodgy American accents by the actors were a distraction for me, but otherwise, it was okay. Good mix of comedy and drama.

- The Blood of Love. A woman goes to any and all lengths to keep her husband from dying of an unusual blood disorder. If there's one genre that QWFF has been far too short of over the years, it's horror, and this one had a good mix of gore and genuine drama. I was worried that the audience was laughing in places that weren't meant to be funny, but director Jeff Meyers said afterward that the laughs, intentional or not, didn't bother him.

- Remains. I'm sorry, but this Israeli drama about two gay guys bored the living hell out of me. I was already a little drowsy by this point in the night, but I swear, it seemed like all the characters did was bicker and I didn't care about either one of them - and of course it was the longest one in the block. Ugh.

More pictures from QWFF at my Tumblr page.

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Previously:
Day 1

QWFF 2015 Day 1: Parental guidance

Five years may not seem like a big milestone, but for the Queens World Film Festival, it's a sign of rapid and remarkable growth. From its humble beginnings, it has drawn together the Queens film community at large and linked it up with filmmakers worldwide, giving independent films of every stripe an opportunity to shine. 

Credit, as always, must go to the dynamic duo who put it all together, Don & Katha Cato. The amount of energy and passion they put into this festival, as well as the truckloads of genuine love and respect they receive in return, cannot be understated. You only have to be around them once to understand. Last night, QWFF 2015 kicked off at the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI), and once again, they were at the heart of it, doing what they do best: telling the world about the movies they love.

Queens Councilman Jimmy van Bramer (center), a QWFF
presenter, with Katha and Don Cato at MOMI

This year's QWFF is also significant in that MOMI's involvement is greater. In addition to hosting Opening Night, the museum, for the first time, is one of the screening venues, along with returning sites P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights and the Secret Theater in Long Island City. Within the past year, the area of Astoria/LIC which MOMI calls home was declared by the city an arts district, a further indication that Queens is being recognized for its unique culture and artistic contributions, and QWFF has been part of that.

This year's Spirit of Queens honoree was Cuban filmmaker Leon Ichaso. Among his best-known films, both in and out of the mainstream, include the Wesley Snipes crime flick Sugar Hill, El Cantante, a biopic of singer Hector Lavoe, with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, and the political drama Bitter Sugar (screening tonight at MOMI), in addition to a variety of theatrical and TV movies and shows in a career dating back to 1979. Here's a recent New York Times article about him.

The opening night "sampler" of films had parents (and surrogate parents) as a recurring theme:

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz

- Roxanne. From England comes this character study in which a young girl on the streets is taken in by a transgender sex worker. Not exactly warm and fuzzy. Borders on cliche, but the tension inherent in a situation where a child is in an environment of sex-for-money is addressed in the brief running time. Makes good use of the location shooting.

- Godka Cirka (A Hole in the Sky). From France, but set in Somali, this one focuses on the lives of shepherdesses, narrated by a young girl. It almost seemed like a hybrid of fiction and non-fiction; the footage of the shepherdesses, young and old, have a documentary feel. We follow them around the countryside and the spare and ramshackle streets, we observe their rituals and gatherings and songs, and it looks like something you might see on the BBC, but imposed over all of it is this girl's narrative about her life, her family and her expectations. A unique approach.

- Dirty Laundry Day. An animated short about a laundromat change machine that is more than it seems. An American film, but the filmmaker is of Syrian descent, and recent events in that specific country inform the narrative in this film, although I kinda wish that it was a little bit more obvious within the story so that the film wouldn't need a post-script title card telling us so. Good otherwise. The sketchy artwork combined with computer effects made for an unusual contrast.

Spirit of Queens honoree Leon Ichaso

- Big Girl. Why is young Hannah's mother pulling her and her younger sister out of school for the day - and why does she need to be a "big girl," today of all days? The answer is as shocking as it is subtly depicted. My favorite of last night's films by a big margin. At first, you don't know what the mother's deal is - she almost seems like the bad guy at first - but the deeper the story gets, the more obvious her love for Hannah is. A movie that deals with a difficult and sensitive subject, yet it's handled so delicately, and you get just enough of the puzzle pieces to add it up yourself in the end. Outstanding film, with a moving performance from the young actress who plays Hannah.

- Carry On. From China, set during World War 2, a father has to figure out how to protect his daughter from the Japanese soldiers raiding his village. Another gem, one that shows how not even duty can get in the way of simple human compassion. Even mixes in some funny moments. Cinematography, screenplay, performances, all tops.

Plus, there was a bonus screening of Sundance award winner World of Tomorrow, an animated short about cloning that was as adorable as it was visually striking. There's quite a bit of buzz around it, from the looks of things, so I'd strongly advise you to look for it when it becomes available to watch later this month.

Look for more pictures from QWFF 2015 this week and next on the WSW Tumblr page.

Our Man Flint

The CinemaScope Blogathon, hosted by myself and Becky from ClassicBecky's Brain Food, goes on all this weekend. Check the list of participating bloggers to find out who's writing about what. Once again, a big thanks to everyone for joining us for this. The turnout has been incredible and I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm for this event!

Our Man Flint
seen online via YouTube

I'm fairly sure I had seen Our Man Flint once before, during my video store days, but that was a long time ago and I didn't remember too much about it, so it was nice to see it again. It's less of a Bond spoof than I expected, but then again, I was expecting something closer to Austin Powers, which kinda raised the bar for Bond spoofs considerably. Flint isn't anywhere near as over-the-top as that. It has its humorous moments, but there are legitimate sequences of pure action as well. The humor is handled with a light touch.

As Derek Flint, James Coburn (whom I always confuse with Lee Marvin) is the ultimate man, as well as the ultimate secret agent: a high IQ, physically skilled, always one step ahead of the bad guys, always with some kind of gadget or method for getting around a problem, whether it means speaking in Italian or improvising a disguise or seducing the femme fatale (of course). Coburn looks like he had a lot of fun in the role, and indeed, this movie should be approached in the same spirit. (Fun fact: Faster Pussycat Kill Kill star Tura Satana has an uncredited part as a stripper!)

Flint was released in 1966 by 20th Century Fox (20CF), the studio that led the way in using the film process known as CinemaScope. Basically, it was an anamorphic (from the Greek, meaning "formed again") lens that created an image nearly twice as big as the standard film format of the day. First created by French inventor Henri Chretien in 1926 as "Anamorphoscope," it didn't catch on in Hollywood until the 50s, when television began to encroach on the movie industry's success. 

The curved screen of Cinerama, as well as the early experiments in 3D, encouraged 20CF chairman Spyros Skouras to commission Bausch & Lomb to adapt Chretien's lenses, which Skouras bought from him, so that their Biblical epic The Robe could be completed using this new process. 20CF producer Darryl F. Zanuck announced that all of their subsequent films would be shot in CinemaScope, and he encouraged other studios to get in on the action. With the exception of Paramount (who had their own VistaVision), all the other major studios jumped on board, and eventually, European filmmakers followed suit.

By the time Flint came out, CinemaScope lenses were being phased out in favor of Panavision lenses, which improved upon the former, and were also cheaper. The 1967 Flint sequel, In Like Flint, was one of the last films shot in CinemaScope.

Our Man Flint was directed by Daniel Mann, who also did BUtterfield 8, The Rose Tattoo and Come Back Little Sheba, and shot by Daniel L. Fapp, who served as director of photography for, among other films, West Side Story (for which he won the Oscar), The Great Escape and One Two Three. One advantage to shooting in CinemaScope that Fapp and Mann take full advantage of is the set design, by Raphael Bretton and Walter M. Scott. The sets of Flint's New York penthouse, ZOWIE headquarters, and the volcano lair of Galaxy are elaborate and stylish, and the camera takes them in fully. According to IMDB, the average shot length is about 5.8 seconds.

When I worked video retail in the 90s, I remember having to make a diagram pointing out the difference between the widescreen format and films that are "panned and scanned" for the TV format, because so many people weren't used to seeing those black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Nowadays, more dramatic TV shows are formatted in widescreen, plus widescreen-sized TVs are more common, so an effort to make movies superior to television ended up with television becoming more like movies. With the film industry fighting back with things like IMAX, advanced 3D, higher frame-per-second resolutions, and theatrical luxuries such as better seating and food, who knows where the battle between film and TV will lead next?

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Other CinemaScope and related films:
Carmen Jones
Guys and Dolls
Mister Roberts
Forty Guns
Jailhouse Rock (Superscope)
Bells are Ringing (Panavision)
Ride the High Country (Panavision)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

from my VHS collection

Okay, don't get me wrong, I still like The Day the Earth Stood Still as a movie. It's ambitious, it's better written and acted than most alien-invader movies of the period, it has that awesome Bernard Herrmann score, and in the grand tradition of classic science fiction, it attempts to say something important about the world we live in. 

That said, I think I have a serious problem with it, and the problem lies with Klaatu's departing speech near the end of the movie. Listen to it first, then come back here.

Throughout the movie, Klaatu drops hints here and there about what life on his world is like, but here we get a much clearer indication. He speaks of a consortium of united alien cultures, not unlike Star Trek's Federation, and how robots like Gort keep the peace so that the alien societies are "free to pursue more profitable enterprises." Most importantly, he makes it out like this is all some kind of utopian ideal, a better way of life than what we lowly humans have here on Earth, one we can be a part of if we clean up our act and stop trying to blow each other to smithereens - and he makes it unequivocally clear that if we don't change out ways, he'll be back to wipe us all out.

I totally get the ultimatum part. Klaatu's people see us as those rowdy punks from across the tracks who are starting to hang out in their part of town, knocking over mailboxes, trampling over their lawns, harassing their daughters at the malt shop, and they wanna put a stop to it so that their neighborhood can go back to the way it was. That makes sense. What I wanna address is this alternative Klaatu offers us.

The robots, for instance. Klaatu says they were created to keep the peace and he likens them to police officers, but he says that they have "absolute power" and that "this power cannot be revoked" (although this movie's most famous line would seem to imply that they can be controlled to some extent). Am I the only one who finds that terrifying? In order for that to work, the robots would need to understand the concept of morality - what is considered "right" and "wrong" in a democratic society. Do your leaders understand the concept of morality? Do your police understand it? As a New Yorker, particularly a black New Yorker, well, let's just say that over the years, I've had many occasions to wonder that myself.

But Klaatu says that his people have learned to live without stupidity! So let's say that they are capable of teaching morality to artificial lifeforms. He also says that "at the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk." Now, I think when we first heard him say that, we automatically assumed he meant things like rape or murder or kicking puppies or stuff like that, right? But what if he also meant things like swatting flies? Don't laugh! It's violence against another life form! 

Does Gort understand context? If I were with my buddies in a public place and we were horsing around, y'know, playfully punching or shoving each other or putting each other into headlocks or whatever - macho guy stuff - would Gort interpret that as violence on the same level as stabbing someone with a knife with intent to harm, and would it be worth suffering a penalty "too terrible to risk"? But maybe I'm blowing things out of proportion. This is an extreme situation, after all. It's not like anything comparable could ever happen in real life.

Are you beginning to understand what I'm getting at here? To live under the constant surveillance of a COMPLETELY AUTONOMOUS police force that acts as judge, jury and maybe (probably) executioner, punishing any and all acts of violence... would you feel comfortable living in such a society? I hesitate to apply the word "fascism" because all we know about Klaatu's people is the little he tells us in the movie, and he's not exactly neutral. We don't see his world firsthand. One has to wonder, though...

What about Klaatu and his pals, the ones who "pursue more profitable enterprises"? Now I'm really speculating here, but something about that line makes my spider-sense tingle. We all agree that war, to say the least, is bad, and no one wants it. If it came down to defending one's home and family from an external threat, though, humans have been more than willing to take up arms to do so. If the robots failed in some way, would Klaatu's people - a society that, by Klaatu's own admission, knows no violence - be able or willing to do the same, or would they be too indolent or passive to even lift a finger in their defense? War is something to be avoided, yes, but when all other options have failed, freedom is worth fighting for, and I wonder whether Klaatu's people fully understand that. Again, though, we haven't seen their society, so we can't say for sure.

None of this occurred to me until recently. I was at the IMDB page for Day and looked at Klaatu's speech and that's when all of this jumped out at me. I may be completely off base, and please tell me if I am - this is a beloved sci-fi classic known and loved by generations of fans, after all - but I honestly think that this movie looks slightly different after living through eight years of George W. Bush and the War on Terror, especially when I hear Klaatu say things like "the threat of aggression by any group, anywhere, can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all, or no one is secure."

Either way, I have to question at the very least, the concept of giving any one governing body absolute and irrevocable power in the name of security and holding it up as an ideal to aspire to, and this movie kinda does that. I hate to admit it, because this is still an entertaining movie, but it should be said.

Raw Deal (1948)

Raw Deal (1948)
seen online via YouTube

So I'm continuing with my Anthony Mann kick, and I've liked all of the movies of his I've seen so far, including the crime pic Raw Deal. It's as noir as films got back in the day: hardened jailbird escapes prison, and with the help of his girlfriend, sets out for San Francisco, but is forced to take his social worker along as an unwitting hostage. Meanwhile, the big boss man who betrayed him is scheming to bump him off before he reaches Frisco.

What do we know about Mann? He started off as an off-Broadway stage actor, set designer and production manager before heading out to Hollywood, doing casting and scouting for David O. Selznick. He was an assistant director at Paramount before becoming a director himself, turning out low-budget flicks like Raw Deal at smaller studios during the 40s. His collaborations with Jimmy Stewart in the 50s were what he became best known for, doing mostly Westerns, as well as a biopic of bandleader Glenn Miller. In the 60s, he switched to epic productions, making El Cid and The Fall of the Roman Empire, both with Sophia Loren.

Raw Deal is much better than it has a right to be. Dennis O'Keefe's jailbird character is the focus of the story, but Claire Trevor, his girlfriend, is the one who narrates. Her perspective adds an extra layer to the story: we see not just her devotion to O'Keefe, but her wariness of Marsha Hunt's character and her growing uncertainty about the success of their getaway. I've always liked Trevor. Seems like she's always the bad girl who's either saddled with the wrong man or stuck in the wrong circumstances. This was a pretty good year for her; Key Largo also came out in 1948. Who can forget the way Edward G. Robinson humiliates her by making her sing for a drink? At least John Wayne had sympathy for her in Stagecoach.

I was pleased to finally see Marsha Hunt in a movie. (Not sure I understand why the poster for Raw Deal turned her into the She-Hulk, though.) You may recall that I mentioned her in the post I did last year about the Hollywood Canteen. Her character starts off being sympathetic to O'Keefe because she knew his history and believes he's just a regular guy who made bad choices in life. Naturally, she's due for a rude awakening, but then Stockholm Syndrome sets in and, well... I wasn't entirely sold on that change in her character, but it didn't ruin the movie for me, given the ending. I liked her well enough. She bore a slight resemblance to Ida Lupino, I thought. She's still very much alive as of this writing. She'll be 98 in October, and although she may not be getting as much attention as Olivia DeHavilland, a documentary about her is in the works.

Raymond Burr as the big bad? Well... at least he gets to kill somebody
in a horrifying bit of improvisation.

Mann keeps the action moving well. It helps that the screenplay is tight while providing just enough nuance to the characters to keep us interested in what happens. Mann even finds room for some clever, bordering-on-artsy shots as well. It's easy to cite this as a prime example of film noir, and it is, but one must remember that nobody in the industry back then was aware of it as a genre. Still, there's a lot to like about this movie.

The Furies

The Furies
seen online via YouTube

Given her early days as a Brooklyn showgirl turned film star of contemporary dramas and comedies, Barbara Stanwyck probably didn't seem like a natural for Westerns at first. The future Big Valley TV star, however, took to them fairly well. According to this Movie Morlocks piece, she had always had an interest in them:

...A political conservative, Stanwyck did not take on these roles to make a point about her gender, and she would likely be uninterested in a feminist interpretation of them. Apparently, the Old West fascinated her, and she once referred to the era’s gunfighters, pioneers, and outlaws as “our royalty, our aristocracy” in an interview. After Stanwyck’s divorce from Robert Taylor was finalized in 1951, she kept their ranch and continued to ride the horses. She was in prime riding shape for the westerns she made during the 1950s, and she was inclined to perform her own stunts. Forty Guns includes a dangerous scene in which her foot is caught in a stirrup, and she is dragged across the prairie, a stunt she did herself when the stuntwoman refused. In The Maverick Queen, her character is chased across the wilderness and forced down a rocky incline, a treacherous maneuver for horses. The stunt required sure hands and a steady seat, but Stanwyck had no trouble pulling it off.

I picked out The Furies to watch because I wanted to watch a western, and one with Stany definitely fit the bill for me. I was also interested in it as an Anthony Mann-directed film. I knew his name as a director of crime flicks and westerns, such as Bend of the River, and I had wanted to sample more of his films. It also had Walter Huston. Sounded like a winner to me.

Was it ever! "The Furies" is the name of a ranch owned by Huston's character, and Stany is his daughter. The movie is basically a power struggle between the two of them for ultimate control of the ranch. Imagine Lady Macbeth as the daughter of King Lear and you'll get an idea of what to expect in terms of tone. I don't think I've ever seen a western quite like this before. Stany is ambitious and seductive in a way few women characters are in westerns, and honestly, the best way to describe the conflict between her and Huston is in Shakespearean terms.

Theirs is a rather unique relationship. At the outset, it's clear that Stany has been made in Huston's image. In fact, he fully intends to leave her The Furies when he passes on, and she's in the process of being groomed for that role. They're more like business partners than parent and child, and the more we see of them together, the more we sense a kind of sexual tension between them. At least, I did!

Stany has a swagger to her here. It's as if she took Phyllis Dietrichson, dropped her into the 19th century frontier, and amplified her sexuality and her nerve - though never in a campy or over-the-top way. We see her sitting with her boots up on her father's desk, doing business with his peers, as he does. For the most part, she is accepted on her own terms. She's almost never looked upon as unusual in any way.

Naturally, she needs a rival, and she gets one in the form of her Strange Love of Martha Ivers co-star Judith Anderson, who catches Huston's eye and seems to have an agenda of her own, which could easily mean pushing Stany out of the picture. This eventually leads to Stany doing something very shocking (I audibly gasped), and from that point on, war is declared between father and daughter.

There's also a subplot involving her seduction of banker Wendell Corey (with whom she also appeared in The File on Thelma Jordon in the same year, 1950, as The Furies), and theirs is also a twisted relationship. There's a bit of a Rhett-and-Scarlett vibe to them; he understands her game, but he doesn't seem to want to make it too obvious that he's hot for her. There is some semi-violent foreplay, which Stany almost seems to like (though not at first). At one point she attempts to throw a cake at him! He also has to do business with her, which further complicates matters. And did I mention that she also has a friend-with-benefits in a Mexican dude whose clan is squatting on the Furies' land? Yeah, there's a lot going on in this story!

Huston is magnificent, as usual. He was a versatile actor. The first movie I saw him in was Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and in the ones I've seen him in since, I always found it tricky to make the connection between him there and him elsewhere, until now. He has an awesome scene in The Furies where he rides on horseback chasing down a bull, lassos it, and WRESTLES IT TO THE GROUND. John Wayne never did that!

This, as if it weren't obvious by now, is a terrific movie. There's a grandness to these characters that's appropriate to the genre: bold men and women doing bold things in a fight for control of the frontier. The difference lies in the shades of gray these characters are rendered in. Metaphorically speaking, no one wears a black or a white hat, and that's what makes them seem that much more real. I'm kinda surprised I've never read a great deal about this movie before now. It feels quite modern, and it holds up.

Erin go link!

"Some things a man doesn't get over so easy... like the sight
of a girl coming through the fields with the sun on her hair..."

So this month, we've got the CinemaScope Blogathon with Becky, and once again I wanna thank everyone who's joining us. I'm absolutely thrilled at the turnout. Check Becky's blog within the next couple of days for an update, which will include the HUGE list of contributors! UPDATE 3.3.15: And here it is!

Also, I'll return to the Queens World Film Festival, which is longer than it's ever been this year, which must mean there's more good movies to choose from! 

In addition, I'm gonna try to include some genre pics, to break away from the straight comedies and dramas.

Your links for this month:

On the Tumblr page, I linked to a Kickstarter campaign from Kino Lorber to put together a 4-disc compilation of early black cinema. Fritzi interviews one of the producers of this noteworthy project.

Danny gave a lecture about pre-code films in Japan! (Which isn't as unusual as it sounds because he actually lives there.)

Ruth saw Sunset Boulevard for the first time.

Leah from Cary Grant Won't Eat You would much rather have the Oscars start earlier.

Pam reviews a recent movie featuring newly-minted Oscar winner JK Simmons.

Are these the 20 most seductive scenes in classic film?

Silent movies can open your mind!

A brief history of blackface in film. (Warning: this post contains a pic of Bing Crosby in blackface. Not for the faint of heart.)