Maurice Béjart .....STRAVINSKY

THE FIREBIRD

TINTO DOES INGRID

EVERYONE LOVED "CABARET"........HERE'S THE FLIP SIDE, "B".....worth the viewing if only for Ingrid's campy cabaret show.......of course...there's Helmet Berger in the buff, too.....

AYAHUASCA

MY FAVORITE "TRIPPING" REENACTMENT.....



THEN I REMEMBERED ROEG'S "PERFORMANCE"......

INVITATION TO THE DANCE

A Film by Gene Kelly...which was a concept art film which, though compromised by the intentions of Hollywood, brought...like THE RED SHOES....Ballet...to the American populace; introducing it to Tamara Toumanova; child progedy, David Kasday; and Igor Youskevitch.....

THE BEST EVER MUSICAL

Singing in the Rain......and a balletic performance by Cyd and Gene.....I think i shall spend my declining years eating chocolates and watching old musicals like this....got a better idea for your 90's?

PROPAGANDA

Never underestimate the power of repression, rationalization, denial and projection as devices to undermine humanity and hopeful optimism.......This great propaganda film from the genius of Leni Riefenstahl makes me shiver! And, don't think...for a second....that we aren't constantly manipulated by media to serve the reaction formation of the Inner Sanctum.......

IMPROMPTU

The best of the corny biopics.....this one has Lizst, Chopin, Delacroix, & De Musset...all in one splendidly amusing film.......I've seen it many times....James Lapine in best from......Hugh and Julian just stepped out of a jewelled box of godiva-covered, candied violets....yum, yum......

FROM WOMEN IN LOVE.......to the a Labyrinth of Excesses

Alan Bates, at his sexiest, in a scene from one of my top 100 films.....the best work of Ken Russell, often given to excess.....who has created a film that D.H. Lawrence would have praised.....

LUSTFUL CINEMA

taunted by come-ons like "You won't believe your eyes!" and "Tawdry! Titillating!", this film by Charles Vidor...known later for "GILDA" and "THE SWAN"..is actually rather sophisticated and demure even by the standards of FOX TV.....I recently watched it with some 12-year old girls who thought it was really funny.......and there's more sexual innuendo in an average prime time sit-com, now.....

BUCKET OF BLOOD

i saw this at the Whitesburg Drive-In Theater...in 9th grade.......waaaay cool.....then, in no time at all I was watching THE IMMORAL MR. TEAS......
having moved up from the giant radioactive insects and flying saucers on strings of my childhood.......now, I wanted to move to New York and become a Beatnik poet and hang with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.....sex was still on the back burner and the heat was turned up......and, ironically, it was Allen Ginsberg who brought me out.....I still like Corman films, but am a bit embarassed to have liked Allen's drivel......no Ferlingetti or Dylan was he.......the poet in the beginning of BUCKET was, I am sure, patterned after Ginsberg......

WIlliam Schatner against type......and a bit scarey, ......

check out the faces on the "extras"......he's singing their song.....I can remember these people, in large numbers, just a half century ago....This film, directed by Roger Corman, is against type for him too, and is his best work......o.k......i love LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, too.......o.k.....BUCKET OF BLOOD's fab, too.....but THE INTRUDER's in a league of its own........

THE LITTLE RASCALS

I was browsing the $2 DVD rack at BIGLOTS, and found a set of OUR GANG COMEDIES with the Little Rascals.......I've seen all of them many times, as an elementary school kid and as an adult......I started my own "OUR GANG" with headquarters in my Grandfather's old "MopShop" where his mop manufacturing business began, many years before......members: Tony Hoover, Nan Copeland, Tony Hoover, cousins Carolyn, Larry, Michael, and Charlene, and older kid coordinator, Kaye Rodenhauser....our activities as this odd little group are among my fondest and funniest memories.......we even had a pit bull named Rex.....and a cat, called Snowball....

there's fred and gene and......Pablo!

from one of my favoritest directors.....Sally Potter....who's not exactly a slouch on the Argentinian dance scene, herself......from one of the few films that i've seen many times.......THE TANGO LESSON......

BEN KENOBE, BRUCE WAYNE AND KING HENRY VIII

caught in this exclusive shocking performance, only from PHOTOPLAY, in another scene from one of my favorite "musicals"...VELVET GOLDMINE......why did no one see this....?

THEN ANOTHER MANIFESTATION OF RINGO....AS FRANK

from "200 MOTELS" .....which may be the first full-length video-taped film, incidentally......and a favorite rock-concert-comedy film.....watch it...they're stealing the towels....

I WAS JUST WATCHING "A HARD DAY'S NIGHT"

 

THIS MORNING ON THE TELLY.....
RINGO SAYS, ABOUT PAUL'S GRANDFATHER, "getting old takes most of your time, doesn't it?" then, my cat, awakening to the BEETLES music, began to stretch, then jumped
from the bed and began to dart down the stairs......good advice: Stretching improves the flow of lymph and blood throughout your body. It MOVES things,
it will improve your posture; and your organs will function better when your posture is better. It FEELS good. Moving feels good; stretching feels good. Bodies LIKE to stretch. You will feel younger and have less pain. Your range-of-motion will improve.
Your muscles will WAKE UP! I feel better already........let's see if I can reach the volume button with my outstretched big toe........yes, yes......just to hear someone say to John, "If you keep acting like that, you'll get yourself killed!"......well, that was a bit scary!
And, back to stretching and exercising.....more advice from the BEETLES:

MY FAVORITE DUBBED FILM IS.......

SO, WHY STOP HERE?

from the folks who brought you AMELIE.

AND WHILE I'M IN GAY CINEMA MODE........

the great scene with Leo and David........from the little-seen bio-film of Rimbaud and Baudelaire.....TOTAL ECLIPSE.....

HUGH

Hugh's father, Jonathan Darcy, has written about context-dependent reasoning and epistomological concepts of interest to me.......Last evening I viewed "THE JANE AUSTIN BOOK CLUB" and noticed that one of the the two actors in the film was Hugh Darcy.....the son of Jonathan Darcy.....this, of course, caused me to view his performance from a different perspective....certainly, very appropriate for Jane Austin material.....another consideration, naturally, is his sex-appeal.....I was relieved to discover that he is not Scottish! and to share Mr. Grant's first name and almost the last name of my favorite Jane Austin male character, Darcy.......

HARRY TOWNES

In Movies like DESTINATION SPACE and odd TV series episodes like

THE NIGHT OF THE TOTTERING TONTIN......

yet another peculiar episode of THE WILD, WILD WEST, and in interesting and unusual roles for THE INNER SANCTUM, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS,

THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE OUTER LIMITS Harry was featured in such extremely diverse roles, but was never the leading man.....In film roles co-co-starring with Odetta, Anita Ekberg, Jay Siverheels (who played TONTO ,in the Lone Ranger...incidentally) and even Dame Edith Evans, he is largely forgotten.....

A few years after college, i returned to Huntsville and journeyed, nostalgically, to the old Downtown to check out the movie theaters, THE LYRIC, home to presentations of MGM musicals and Disney films, THE GRAND which featured Republic and American International Films....and Harry's "B" films, of course, and the

always run-down Elks Theater....to which, I had been forbidden, by my parents, to enter.....leaving THE ELK, i looked up into the eyes of Harry Townes, who had returned, semi-retired from "movies", in his latest incarnation as an Episcopal Priest....who'd 'a thought it! Since he had schooled with one of my aunts, I quickly re-introduced myself......for,actually, I had met him at a party for Joan Crawford, at the Hotel Russell Erskine, upon her having assumed the role of the wife of Pepsi's CEO....I think he was gay....a gay actor/priest.....that's nothing new..gay actor...gay priest...but BOTH!.....We chatted about the movies and he gave me a picture of Greta Garbo....which, incidentally, i still treasure.....we sat on the steps of the YMCA, he went back to church and I had more fodder for Life, i suppose......I never saw him again, although he did some television work, that I don't recall having seen, after that....he's buried near my Grandfather, at Maple Hill cemetery...... small world, isn't it? By the way....one might ask....why isn't there a pic of Harry on this blog? Few would recognize it, anyway.......or they'd comment, "Oh, I remember him......I think...." the pic is of Anita Ekberg, from SCREAMING MIMI.....one of Harry's big films, which also featured another favorite of mine....Gypsy Rose Lee....whom I also met at a bar in Chicago a few years before......So, am I making any contribution to anything in this blog......go figure......by the way, there was another movie house in town....THE CENTRAL....over in the mill town area....it was really run-down and neglected, but was a home for old 30's and 40's films that were cheap to license......Harry's films eventually ended up there.....a short distance from his birthplace.......

THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

 

so, a salary raise for Mickey Roarke...with percentages?
it wasn't that Garbo wanted to "be alone"........it's
always been about the "numbers"..