February 08, 2012

Frames Within the Frame #40


The Las Vegas Story
(Robert Stevenson; 1952)

Mop Tops in Action #50


The Beatles prepare to cross the road.

The Art of War #65

The Art of Animation #2

Ограбление по-итальянски (Robbery: The Italian Job)  From the 1978 four part Soviet film Ograblenie po… (The Robbery Like…) by Yefim Gamburg.  The Italian Job parodies colorful Italian mafia, the characters are based on Marcelo Mastroianni and Sophia Loren. Fantastico!

Art of the Double Feature #4

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Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney, 1965) ~PLUS!~ Curse of the Voodoo (aka Voodoo Blood Death; Lindsay Shonteff, 1965). The former stars future Pathmark spokesmodel James Karen; the latter stars Bryant Haliday, co-founder of both Janus Films and the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Before and After #252

Before:


After:

Buster Keaton

They Were Collaborators #707


Diahann Carroll, Richard Rodgers and Richard Kiley in 1962

February 07, 2012

The Art Of Animation #1

The Fuccons aka OH! Mikey: Mikey And Milk
In this bizarre Japanese TV show the fashionably hip Fuccons are played by mannequins with perpetually frozen facial expressions, like the mannequins in the French photographer Bernard Faucon’s pictures.

People Who Died #52


Rory Storm

Treading the Boards #47


Mary Martin (Nellie Forbush) and Myron McCormick (Luther Billis) in South Pacific, 1949

February 06, 2012

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #4


Princess Marcuzan and the aptly named Dr. Nadir hatch a cunning plan in Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney, 1965)

February 05, 2012

The Art of Cinema #483
(Super Bowl Sunday Edition)

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Charlton Heston grunts, groans and grits his teeth through the role of fictional New Orleans Saints QB Ron ‘Cat’ Catlan in Number One (Tom Gries, 1969)

Artists in Action #646

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Michel Legrand smokes and points

They Were Collaborators #706

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Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, circa 1974

February 03, 2012

The First Person You See #11

Jack McGowran, asleep at the wheel, in Cul-de-sac (d. Roman Polanski; 1966)

Politicians in Action #63


Original Caption:
(June 03, 1954) Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr. and his son Al Gore Jr., the latter holding his new bow and arrow, in their room at Washington's Fairfax Hotel.

February 02, 2012

They Were Collaborators #705
Treading the Boards #46

The creative forces behind Rodgers and Hammerstein's Me and Juliet (1953).

[l to r (standing): George Abbott (direction), Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Robert Alton (choreography) and Jo Mielziner (set design) l to r (seated): Joan McCracken (Betty Loraine), Ray Walston (Mac), Mark Dawson (Bob), Isabel Bigley (Jeanie), Bill Hayes (Larry), Irene Sharaff (costumes) and Jackie Kelk (Herbie)]

The Art of Cinema #482

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Proctor & Bergman’s J-Men Forever (Richard Patterson, 1979)

February 01, 2012

The Art of the Panel: Robert Crumb #6


Underground Comix
(Snatch #3, December 1976)

People Who Died #51


Don Cornelius (1936-2012)

. . . and in parting from this vale of tears, we here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . wish you Love, Peace and Soul.

January 31, 2012

Broadcasters #90


Guglielmo Marconi

January 30, 2012

January 29, 2012

The Art of the Opening Credit #3


Seconds (1966) directed by John Frankenheimer - Saul Bass title sequence, OST Jerry Goldsmith
The titles were designed by Saul Bass and shot entirely with reflective mylar.

They Were Collaborators #704

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James Fox and Mick Jagger

The Art of Cinema #481

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The Mask (aka Eyes of Hell, Julian Roffman, 1961)

January 28, 2012

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #3


Tabonga the Walking Tree gives a wooden performance in From Hell It Came (Dan Milner,1957)

January 27, 2012

The Art of the Opening Credit #2


Crime Without Passion (Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, 1934), montage designed by Slavko Vorkapich

The Art of the Opening Credit #1


99 44/100% Dead (John Frankenheimer, 1974); titles by Phill Norman, music by Henry Mancini

January 26, 2012

The Art of Cinema #480

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World Without End (Edward Bernds, 1956)

They Were Collaborators #703


Andy Warhol and Nico

January 25, 2012

Mop Tops in Action #49


Paul McCartney fiddles around with an ancestor of the keytar, The Tubon, backstage at a gig in Germany.

For the curious, here's a clip of the Swedish-built instrument in action, used by Scandinavian musical comedy act Hasse & Tage, on the song What the Hell Are They Doing in the Bank After Three O'Clock?

Artists and Animals #83


Harold Lloyd gets in a clinch with a great dane.

The Friends of Flagg #5


Woodrow Wilson

"Colonel House got me a seat in a theatre, from which I could make this caricature of Wilson, which I labelled 'teacher'. I got outraged letters from devotees of the President. One in Texas called me a murderer!"

January 24, 2012

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #2

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Mimsy Farmer freaks out on acid (or over that populuxe décor) in Riot on Sunset Strip (Arthur Dreifuss, 1967)

January 23, 2012

A Kovacs Moment #8


To celebrate Ernie Kovacs' 93rd birthday today, here's a rare example of his unique brand of absurdity appearing on the big screen in the trailer for Richard Quine's 1957 service comedy Operation Mad Ball.

Artists in Action #645


James Joyce jams to Johannes Jeep in 1915.

American Logo #4

January 21, 2012

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #1

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They Saved Hitler’s Brain (David Bradley, 1963/68)

Mop Tops in Action #48

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George and wife Pattie (aka ‘Layla’) tripping in the Haight-Ashbury in 1967

Adventures in American Filmmaking #148

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Julie Adams watches Budd Boetticher direct a punch at a stuntman while filming The Man from the Alamo (1953).

When Legends Gather #636
Jokers, Smokers and Midnight Tokers #5

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Keith Richards and Levon Helm (photo by Jim Herrington)

January 20, 2012

Marilyn in Action #57


Marilyn snaps.

The Art of Songwriting #24


The Kodak Girl
(Music & lyrics: William T. Cramer)
(Averill Publishing Co.; 1902)

People Who Died #50


George Eastman

The Art of Cinema #479

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The Trials of Alger Hiss (John Lowenthal, 1979)

Elisha Cook Jr. Gets the Shaft Again #2


Fed to the lions by Michael Gough in Black Zoo
(Robert Gordon; 1963)

Faces of Science #40


Glenn T. Seaborg

Original Caption:

Prof. Seaborg, co-discoverer of plutonium, shows a container that holds samples of the radioactive, artificially produced elements 94 through 102.

This Sporting Life #34


Original Caption:

June 20, 1963. Pretty As A Pitcher. A figure familiar to basketball fans, Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, stoops to conquer as he prepares to display his skill on the baseball diamond. The pitcher, whose long, lovely legs frame the hoop star, is Carol Hodecker. The cute blonde catcher is Charlotte Kirsten, who came to the U. S., from West Berlin six years ago. Both gals are "Bunnies" (hostesses) from the Playboy Club. Wilt met them as they were warming up in a Central Park field for a game with show girls from a Broadway musical in the Broadway Show League series. Wilt never had such glamorous opponents on the basketball court! He now plays with the San Francisco Warriors.

January 19, 2012

Artists in Action #644

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Cameron Diaz prepares to suds up on a Saturday afternoon.

Elisha Cook Jr. Gets the Shaft Again #1


Wrongly convicted of murder in Stranger On The Third Floor
(Boris Ingster; 1940)

Too Big to Fail #3




Eastman Kodak Co., 1892-2012