The Director, the Set, the Star, and Her Vibrator: Hollywood Lore from Yolanda and the Thief (Quote of the Day)
This entry is part 23 of 23 in the series Quote of the Day.Vincente Minnelli’s emphasis on visual effects and props sometimes led him to neglect the essential — namely the actor before the camera. The bathroom scene [in Yolanda and the Thief, 1945] was a case in point. Kay Thompson visited the set to watch the shooting, and recalls, “Lucille [Bremer] was in her elaborate bathtub, filled with soap bubbles and water, liquid soap and perfume. On the marble ledge of the tub was a telephone. It would ring, Lucille would pick up the receiver and say, “Hello,” and...
Read MoreThe Oscars’ (Misleading, Dumb, and Revealing) 2012 Ad Campaign
This entry is part 32 of 32 in the series Essays / Analyses.This year’s Oscars ad campaign, “Celebrate the Movies in All of Us,” was devised by Academy Award co-producers, Brian Grazer and Don Mischer, and Tom Sherak, the reigning president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The 84 black-and-white ads (yes, 84!) are currently plastered all over digital billboards in Los Angeles and Times Square as well as on YouTube and Oscar.com to remind audiences, per Grazer, that with the popularity of video-on-demand, satellite and cable TV, etc., they...
Read MoreBackstage Musicals: For People Without Balls (Quote of the Day)
This entry is part 22 of 23 in the series Quote of the Day.The main reason why most film and TV musicals are backstagers is simple: it provides a ready-made excuse for people to sing. Just like a movie such as 42nd Street, Smash is a musical where most of the original songs (by the Hairspray team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman) are performed either as part of the show within a show, or as fantasy sequences where the characters imagine themselves performing. “I always think of backstage musicals as musicals for people who don’t have the balls to make a musical,” says classic film...
Read MoreAmbitious, Creative, and Indispensable: RIP, Gene Kelly (Pic of the Day)
This entry is part 12 of 12 in the series Pic of the Day. Sixteen years ago today, the world lost one of Hollywood’s greatest entertainers, dancers, choreographers, innovators, cinematographers, and genuine stars. What follows is a brief tribute to Gene Kelly including an explanation of his death and the industry’s response(s) thereafter. In July 1994, Gene Kelly suffered the first of two strokes. Although doctors at UCLA’s Medical Center labeled it “mild,” the stroke kept him in the hospital for nearly seven weeks. Kelly suffered another, much smaller stroke in...
Read MoreTCM’s 31 Days of Oscar Promo
In case you missed this year’s super-cool, seamlessly edited promotion for TCM’s upcoming 31 Days of Oscar (Feb. 1–Mar. 2), I’m embedding it here. Sure, the “trailer” features scenes from An American in Paris (1951) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), reasons enough to showcase it, but they’re not even the most entertaining of the lot. Check it out, and then go clear out your...
Read MoreI’m Not Impressed: Elaborate CGI vs. Old-Fashioned Planning (Quote of the Day)
This entry is part 21 of 23 in the series Quote of the Day.The opening pre-title-card sequence in Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011) takes us through all the mechanisms of all the clocks in the colossal train station that Hugo, the boy who lives, orphaned, inside the clocks, maintains daily. It twists and winds its way through in a way that I know that camera actually couldn’t, so I know I’m not watching an actual set and scene presented on celluloid but a CGI construction. This is thoroughly unimpressive to me. The more elaborate CGI shots get (this one was reminiscent of the...
Read MoreGene Kelly Fan vs. Scholar (Dancing in the Rain)
This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Dancing in the Rain. You set Gene Kelly Fans. What has the response to the site been? Overall, pretty good. Some days the site receives 100 hits, other days 500, and the day when one of our contributors’ essays comparing Astaire and Kelly made it on IMDB’s hit list, over 4,000 people visited. The Gene Kelly Fans Twitter account, which I began first, grows weekly as well. To date, there are almost 1,000 fans following and interacting with us. All in all, it’s nice to know so many people out there still appreciate Kelly’s films and talents....
Read MoreGene Kelly: The Scar, The Rug, The Number, The Stilettos (Dancing in the Rain)
This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Dancing in the Rain. Gene Kelly’s appearance: the rug verses the scar. Why cover one and not the other? My guess is that the scar suggests masculinity and virility; the hairpiece does not. It’s no secret that Gene Kelly was interested in — or some would argue, obsessed with — displaying conventional American masculinity both on- and offscreen. In fact, he devoted an entire television special to that notion called Dancing: A Man’s Game (1958) [video] in which he pairs himself with star athletes like Mickey Mantle and Sugar Ray...
Read MoreGene Kelly: Status, Style, and Substance (Dancing in the Rain)
This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Dancing in the Rain. What place do song-and-dance men (like Gene Kelly) hold in cinema history? An important one in Hollywood’s classical era, at least. After synchronized sound hit Hollywood in 1927, the musical was the go-to genre of choice. Hearing people speak and sing was novel, and also, more music meant less dubbing and subtitling for foreign markets. In 1930 alone, the industry cranked out something like 100 musicals; compare that to the year 2010, when only ONE adult-oriented, feature-length musical was released. Around 1932, Busby Berkeley...
Read MoreGetting Hooked On, Teaching About, and Rating Gene Kelly (Dancing in the Rain)
This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Dancing in the Rain. You came to Gene Kelly quite late didn’t you? Your first experience of his work? I did. I was in the second year of my PhD program, studying Shakespeare actually, and on a whim signed up for a class on the American film musical. In my mind, this course was strictly an Arts elective, not something I thought I’d pursue later in life. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve always loved musicals; I grew up watching The Sound of Music (1965), Annie (1982), Grease (1978), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), even that musical version...
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture,