Consortium of Seven: Year 2

      This week, we're looking at the 1933 Greta Garbo film "Queen Christina." In my opinion, people focus a great deal on the scenes which involve hints of bisexuality and  gender flexibility, so much so that they overlook the film's other virtues.    At the sae time, I do see why people care so much about these issues. The film edged in just before the enforcement of the previously all-talk 1930 code recommended by the Hays Commission. This change, which happened just after thr release of "Queen Christina," put the kibosh on pre-Code references to sexual matters.  Ninety years ago,  lesbians and other LGBT+ folk really had to search hard to find positive role models.    And of course this Garbo movie is a biopic, so how the real Swedish ruler lived her life is to some extent a matter of record. Next week, we'll take a short look at all this gender and sexuality stuff. Wondering about the title "More Regal Than Royal" for today's post? ...

 by whiteray I had a huge James Bond jones when I was a kid.  I was eleven in 1964 – in sixth grade – when the growing popularity of the novels by Ian Fleming and the first two films based on those novels, Dr. No and From Russia With Love , burst into full-blown Bondmania with the release of the third film, Goldfinger .  I wanted to see the movie, but my parents weren’t sure. After all, the ads looked like they showed a naked woman painted gold. I won’t deny the attraction that held, but it was truly the story of 007 saving the world – or at least the world’s gold supply – that grabbed me. But the folks said no, a little regretfully, I’ve always thought.  They also weren’t sure that I should be allowed to read Fleming’s novels; Dad bought a copy of Goldfinger to see if it would be appropriate for the somewhat precocious urchin I was, but he read it in the evening, just before retiring, and he read at most four or five pages at a time. I despaired as I saw his...

"Barroom Diatribe" And other works of art performed on a rainy day pavement: "Then, lowering her lashes, she said, "Well...if you're offering." "Little dog saves man in matching sweater from vicious eggplant" Hoping that this week, you find little surprises. ~Dorothy Dolores

When I’m writing the blog each week, I’m sometimes stuck for what to write about. Not because I have no ideas, but because there are seemingly never-ending options. I have a lengthening list of them. My biggest problem is picking one thing & so I have to be hard on myself & say, “Right: THIS,” & stick to it. Then it’s fine. Some weeks are really busy with work or life however & I don’t have the time to just decide. So an enormous list is a really handy thing to have ready when times are hard or demanding.  I’m starting this idea while I’ve got time on my hands to think it through. One letter & a list of ways art could relate to this letter. Artist name, for instance. Landscape. Narrative. You get the idea. I’m not going to stick to the same one each time, so I’ve made yet another list of suggestions I could pick from week to week & we’ll see how it goes. As always, I’m hoping to learn about some new artists & works as I go along. I have to have lots of i...

      Another blur and muddle of a week, with much of my attention on other personal and professional matters. Still, I've seen (or at least started to see) a few things. Oddly enough, aside from the TCM notes, threats looking for blood turned out to be the binding theme this week.       Nicolas Cage has gotten involved in another fun entertainment, this time with the horror action comedy Willy's Wonderland (2021 - TV MA - 1h 21 m). It's much the same premise as the video game Five Nights At Freddie's , where someone is locked into an abandoned children's theme restaurant with an array of Chucky Cheese-ish animatronic characters who've become bloodthirsty menaces.       Cage came in as one of the producers and as the star. With unnaturally dark hair and goatee, Cage's character goes unnamed (referred to only as "The Janitor" in the script and credits), and while he occasionally makes some vocal noises (usually during...

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Back in the thick of the things, I am and wow do I have some good finds this week. ___________________________ Wow. this is a great example of "good movie with a good Blu-Ray edition with my god, what a terrible color cover."  Why do they think a movie for  people who love black & white films and love this movie would be attracted to this cover? Weirdly, the Criterion cover is not especially great either. It's perfectly...OK and isn't colorized.  It's FINE.  Unlike this, and I'll warn you, you don't need to see this, the current blu-ray of The Apartment.   Prepare yourself, because it's just plain bad. OK, here's a palate cleanser, the wonderful Arrow cover from the UK. Some Like It Hot  is available for purchase at the usual places and is streaming at Hoopla and at Pluto TV with ads. _______________________________ Time for a Spike Lee blindspot.  This is a apparently a good take on NCAA recruitment (which is an abs...

  Earlier this month I posted ab out a small book I came across, edited by Jim Huang, called They Died in Vain . It's a collection of reviews, by owners and managers of bookstores which sell mysteries, of mystery and suspense novels which have gone by the wayside or which never got their due.    The editor's an interesting guy, who co-owned a bookstore specializing in mysteries with his wife, and who now manages a caompus bookstore. When looking online for a bibliography of books Huang has edited, I see someone who knows how to draw together people around a common interest. One of the best features of They Died in Vain is its extensive shopping list. I enjoy going down the page and randomly choosing a couple of books to feature in these Wednesday posts. Today, both novels came from the second page of the shopping list.   P:est Control by Bill Fitzhugh From an online seller's website: Bob Dillon can't get a break. A down-on-his-luck exterminator, all he wants is his ...

  Above: Hollywood veterans Herbert Marshall and Greta Garbo, standing on a sound stage and pretending to look at fascinating and highly entertaining dances done by the locals in a film about British colonial rule not being so terribly bad somehow.  More on that later.    My two-week vacation break is over and now we can continue with this summer series on Greta Garbo films. Each week I've been summarizing a film or films, loosely in the style of TV Guide . If you would like to start at the beginning of this series, you can go here . Before this series, there was a two-part post giving the source for each of Garbo's films. To see that, please go here . It makes sense, I think, to do a couple of Garbo's movies out of order, because "Queen Christina," which was originally released between the two films we're reviewing today, is epic and needs its own stand-alone post.  Let's kick this week off with "As You Desire Me." That's the movie in which ...