There are rumors of a cold front later this morning. It’s really a cool front but cold front is the technical term and I’m a stickler for something or other. I’m just looking forward to not running the air-conditioner.
We’ve been talking Carnival in New Orleans. We all want it to happen but it’s unclear when it will be safe to cavort in the streets with strangers. Perhaps we should consult with Laurence Olivier’s character in Marathon Man:
Beats the hell outta me, Larry.
The City is allowing the annual Halloween parade for tourists to roll. It’s called the Krewe of Boo and this year it’s going to serve as an experiment into public gatherings. Contact tracing will be involved. If things go well, the chances of Carnival 2022 happening increase. If not, stay tuned.
This week’s theme song was written by Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart for 10cc’s 1975 album, How Dare You. That’s what Dustin Hoffman should have said to Olivier.
Here’s Art For Art’s Sake, money for God’s sake:
Graham Gouldman trivia time. He also wrote this wildly successful Hollies hit:
Let’s pick up our umbrellas and jump to the break.
While taking the bus, let’s make some magic:
We begin our second act with a piece I planned to post on September 4th before Hurricane Ida messed up my plans.
Degenerate Art: I’ve become addicted to CrimeReads.com. They have a fine piece by Charlie English about the Nazis’ attack on so-called degenerate art and artists such as Max Ernst of featured image fame.
It was all down to Hitler’s being a frustrated artist who failed because he didn’t have any talent. This twisted crusade against degenerate art initially puzzled Joseph Goebbels who collected modern German art, but he was a good sycophant, so he eventually gave in and joined in the “fun.” Putz.
The last word of the segment is a punk song about Max Ernst:
Casting The Godfather: It’s been 50 years since The Godfather caused a sensation. Gangster movies were thought to be passé but came back stronger than ever thanks to Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola. If you’ve never read the novel, give it a whirl. It’s a great book.
Vanity Fair has published an excerpt from an upcoming book by Mark Seal: Leave The Gun, Take The Cannoli. What’s not to love about that title?
It’s a sealy sealy good excerpt addressing Coppola’s struggle to cast Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone. Brando hadn’t had a hit in years and was notoriously difficult to work with. Why? Brando was an asshole and a selfish prick, that’s why. He was also a great actor who did a swell impression of real-life Godfather Frank Costello’s raspy voice.
FYI, Laurence Olivier was on the list of possible Vitos. Coppola liked that idea, but Puzo vetoed it…
The last word of our second act goes to REM:
We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.
Separated At Birth Casting Edition: I’ve had a soft spot for Greg Kinnear ever since he hosted Talk Soup. He’s also a helluva character actor as his performance as Joe Biden in the Hill-Thomas drama Confirmation proves.
Here’s Kinnear side-by-side with the Current Occupant:
The Movie List: I’m a sucker for cult actors and actresses. Gloria Grahame was never as big of a star as she should have been, but she was always good. Give her a great script and she was great.
My Top Ten Favorite Gloria Grahame Movies
- The Bad and the Beautiful
- In A Lonely Place
- The Big Heat
- Odds Against Tomorrow
- A Woman’s Secret
- Human Desire
- The Glass Wall
- Sudden Fear
- The Good Die Young
- Not As A Stranger
I skipped It’s A Wonderful Life and Crossfire because her parts, while memorable, were small.
I decided to skip the obvious Van Morrison song and post this swell Hall & Oates tune instead:
Saturday GIF Horse: We’re not done with the glorious Gloria Grahame. Here are two GIFs from The Big Heat in which she’s pouring, then grooving,
Groove, Gloria, groove. It’s what The Rascals would want. They’re from New Jersey, so it’s best not to argue with them.
TCM Clip Of The Week: Dana Delany is a fanatical Gloria Grahame fan. So much so that she co-hosted Noir Alley twice recently when Gloria flicks were airing.
Here are the intros and outros for those two Gloria movies; both of which made the list.
Groove, Dana, groove. Those were some groovy host segments but how can you flop when you’re working with Eddie Muller?
Noir Alley is the cat’s ass even if they changed the opening credits and removed the shot of Claire Trevor. Her feline namesake is indignant.
Speaking of groovy, the 5th Dimension were always groovy as far as I’m concerned:
Tweet Of The Week: It comes from my friend Carol.
Fire at the school across the street has turned my room into a disco. pic.twitter.com/SdELKuR3sU
— Gseriously? 🤦🏼♀️ (@cgstohl) October 14, 2021
The Fire Department arrived, put out the fire, and there were no injuries. Just a disco in Carol’s room.
That’s the excuse I needed to post some disco-era Bee Gees:
Disco Inferno or Fire were too obvious. I try to avoid the obvious except when I don’t. So it goes.
Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.
Saturday Classic: It’s time to circle back to 10cc with their brilliant 1975 album, How Dare You.
FYI, I built a 2017 post around the song I Wanna Rule The World. Even then Trump wanted to be the biggest boss that ever bossed the world around.
That’s it for this week. The last word goes to Nicholas Ray, Bogie, and Gloria Grahame on the set of In A Lonely Place.
