This is Clara Bow. The original "It" girl. If you don't know that story, you should read up on it. Oh and she was a redhead. And gorgeous. And mentally insane in her later years.
Lately I have been watching a lot of old movies. If you were to come over, TCM would probably be on. I always thought old movies from like the 40's and the 50's were overly innocent because of the conservative, family-oriented ideals back then. But the movies I have been seeing recently have been nothing like that. They've involved adultery, sex, lying, divorce, and murder. They're like grammatically enhanced, show tune-infused, two hour long episodes of All My Children.
(Fun fact: I was named after Susan Lucci's character, Erica Kane)
So I've been trying to get a good collection going. I just bought The Bad Seed from Amazon. Left on my list are:
Let's Do it Again (1953)
The Tunnel of Love (1958)
Romance on the High Seas (1948)
That Forsyte Woman (1949)
A Date With Judy (1948)
I know tons more but I always forget to go on TCM.com or TV Guide Channel to see what they're called while I'm watching them.
I also really love silent movies. They're so theatrical and over the top because there aren't words to convey their feelings. TCM has Silent Sundays when they play silent films late on Sunday nights. I like to grab a big bag of chocolate covered almonds and snuggle up in piles of blankets and watch tales of gypsies and circus performers and rebellious women and 19th century socialites.
Do you guys have any good old movies? Anyone have a special affinity for film noir? It's the best!
Deuces,
Erika
Friday, August 15, 2008
Old Hollywood
Posted by Erika at 6:48 PM
Back Words: Movies, Oldies But Goldies
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5 comments:
Haha, my sister has always joked that I'm the little girl in the bad seed. I can like recite that movie perfectly line for line. I love old movies! I'm a hugely devoted TCM watcher but like you I don't know my favorite's names cause I never check to see what they are.
PS I was named after the character Emma Peel in the 60's tv show The Avengers. JK, although that totally was my dad's favorite show. Or else I like to say I was named after legendary mistress and all around whore Emma Hamilton. Such good role models for a young girl.
i took a film class last year -- the rise of american film. I loved it! We watched a bunch of old Charlie Chaplin silents and sooo many great old movies. I'm gonna look at my notebook where I have all the titles and get back to you.
Woah, so I totally just wrote a post about old movie sirens! *Sigh*, who could resist them? Seriously, I watch movies with Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn in them and think to myself, "Wow. These ladies are icons for a reason. They just had something no one else did." It's astonishing.
I LOVE The Bad Seed! It was so innovative, too-- it was almost like the first movie at the time to have a really fucked-up ending, which was great and set the pace for future movies like that. Some people would call it a tragedy, but you know it's a comedy. A piece from it was used in my speech class, which was really awesome.
My recommendations:
-Some Like it Hot, which I'm betting you've seen because of its classic status, but if you haven't, you must go pick it up! It's such a great movie.
-It Happened One Night. It's a very nice movie, starring the Clara Bow look-alike Claudette Colbert and the always amazing Clark Gable.
-Breathless. I have a crush on Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean Seberg's style is totally off-the-wall in this movie.
...and in color, late '60s awesomeness:
-Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. What a badass movie. If you haven't seen it, I already know you'll love it! This is one of my favorite movies ever, and better yet, I found out you can watch it for free on Hulu (and Netflix). It's better in full-screen glory, but either way, it never fails to get my imagination rolling like a reel of film. The opening number "Find It" was recently used as background music for an episode of Pot Psychology, and you'll see The Carrie Nations are still an awesome sounding band today!
...I wish I had more, but that's all I've got for now!
I wrote down all your book recs, BTW :-) Really excited!
Gene Kelly is clearly the hottest TCM star. Agree?
I dunno girl...George Peppard is pretty dreamy!
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