Links: Michelle, Naomi, Anderson, Marilyn, Pepé

I wanna be loved by you, just you... and nobody else but you. i wanna be loved by you a-loh-oh-oh-ooooone. boopboopadoo. Witness: Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. Me likey.

Michelle Williams is really on fire these days, isn't she? Whether she's causing NC-17 ratings by being such a brutally honest actor (the MPAA can blow me when they're done gagging about Ryan going down on her in Blue Valentine) or putting artistry before fame, you have to appreciate. I love that she's doing things as resoundingly uncommercial as Meek's Cutoff in which she plays a quiet but strong-willed wife, lost in Indian country with her husband and a few other sorry travellers in covered wagons, simply because she obviously believes in director Kelly Reichardt.

Are you excited for My Week With Marilyn. That Eddie Redmayne, who will costar as a crew member on the set of the actual movie within the story (The Prince and the Showgirl) who Marilyn takes up with, sure is a lucky guy. First he gets to attack Cate Blanchett, then he gets to screw Julianne Moore and Hugh Dancy and Unax Ugalde and now he gets to spend an entire week with Michelle in bombshell mode!?!

.........i wanna be linked by you...boopboopadoo
Antagony & Ecstacy hates the Oscar hopeful documentary Waiting for Superman even more than I do. That's a lot by the way.
That Obscure Object -- yay, I'm not the only one who shares their celebrity dreams online. This one stars Naomi Watts & Liev Schreiber as flirtatious employers.
Studio Daily - 10 high points in digital cinematography. (The Oscars are a-changing)
Towleroad - I'm happy that Anderson Cooper is getting ballsier about calling people on their homophobia. The trailer to the new Vince Vaughn movie edited out a gay joke as result. Not that they took the joke out of the movie. But... baby steps.
Moviefone Pepé le Pew via Mike Myers vocal chords? I love Pepe but uh... I dunno.
Observations on Film Art likes that Costa-Rican Oscar submission Of Love and Other Demons.
MTV Naomi Watts will not appear in Eastern Promises 2. It's all Viggo, all the time.

Oh and here's my weekly at Towleroad with yet more linkable stories: Johnny Depp, Daniel Radcliffe and more.

Double Oh! (Casting News)

By now you've heard that the great casting search of 2010 (distaff division) has ended. Rooney Mara has landed the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Rooney & Noomi

That's the role that Noomi Rapace played in the Swedish trilogy based on the best selling book franchise about men who really hate women. David Fincher rejected most of the famous names who wanted the coveted role of this short little sociopath. Little known fact: in addition to height and age requirements only actresses with double O in their name were considered for the famed Tattoo part.

Soleil Moon Frye was deemed too old, despite having come to fame playing short little sociopath Punky Brewster.

Speaking of double Os, it'll be nice to see 007 Daniel Craig again, won't it? Especially with Fincher's camera on him. Think of the multiple wonders Fincher's camera pulled from Brad Pitt over the years, give or take Benjamin Button.

In other strange double lettered casting news Marilyn Monroe ("MM") was supposed to be a character in two upcoming features with major actresses like Naomi Watts (Blonde) and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn) playing her.


Now, supposedly there's a third Marilyn picture in the works. The author of the book "The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog", which is about the last two years of Marilyn's life as seen by the pet terrier that Frank Sinatra gave her, thinks that Angelina Jolie will play her in the film adaptation. But that sounds like an author delusion. What a strange movie that would make. Not that there's anything wrong with strange movies. We like them.

New Rule: In the future all movies must contain at least one scene involving a character named Marilyn Monroe so that every actress gets a chance to play her. Apparently they all want to.

TV @ the Movies: Thelma & Louise Hates Texas. Drag U & Marie Antoinette.

I get many emails asking me to write more frequently about the small screen so I figured I should cave if a tv series really excites me (like Mad Men) but on one condition: it has to reference the movies (or feature a beloved movie actress) or involve awardage. I've highlighted movie-adjacent TV before like pre-fame TV roles or unexpected actress moments. So henceforth, I'll package it in series form. You know how we do here at TFE. If something I happen to catch on television references the movies, I'll feature it on Saturday mornings to thank it for doing so.


Last week on Friday Night Lights Becky fell asleep watching Thelma & Louise and that is... well, I can only suspend so much disbelief and you just don't fall asleep watching that movie. It's awesome -- top ten of the 90s level awesome. But Becky is my least favorite character so whatever. She's a mess and there's no accounting for taste. There's a reason Louise won't drive thru Texas, y'all! She'd rather drive right off a cliff. I can't even discuss falling asleep watching Thelma & Louise without turning red with fury. Inappropriate! Those women deserved better.

So for this edition of "TV @ The Movies" a brief discussion of Drag U instead.

RuPaul's Drag U episode 1.2 "Dateless Divas"
I'm fairly certain this show is not half as good as it could be.

• Qualm #1: a makeover show. Like we needed another one.
  
• Qualm #2: I'm assuming Raven won't be in every episode and when the first Raven-less episode appears, I will feel cheated.
  
• Qualm #3: why isn't the entire panel of judges famous queens like Lady Bunny? I mean to have a "Dean of Dance" and it's not Candis Cayne? That's just wrong!) -- but I love that the underlying message is so subversive: everyone would be better off if they became a drag queen.

Raven: These girls are lucky that they have the advanced technology of the dragulator!
RuPaul: The Dragulator is a highly sophisticated piece of tech-no-lo-gy

Raven was the hottest miss thang on last year's Drag Race (and anyone who coins the phrase "giving Michelle Pfeiffer Bitch" has won me for life.) so I'm happy that she's practically the star of Drag U already. And, of course, Ru's always had a way with hilarious line readings. The Dragulator is awesome. Ru understands the camp value of a low budget (not to mention the power of a catchphrase and cheap gimmick). Anyway, the [sassy head bob] tek•nol•uh•jee suggests that contestant Lenae becomes "Honey Boom" and she likes it.

"I was like, 'That's Marilyn Monroe. And she really is inside of me!'"

It's really more like Chicago's Queen Latifah when Velma's like "Not you too, Mama!?!" in despair of platinum blonde Roxie Mania but never mind. Later Lenae dances to "I'm Every Woman" in this new gold lamé platinum blonde version of herself which confuses the girlie iconography even further Whitney + Queen ≠ Marilyn??? Whaaaa... But I shouldn't doubt the Dragulator because it is to RuPaul what "Magic Screen" was to Pee Wee, yes?


So... eventually Lenae as Honeyboom blows a kiss to the judges with a "Happy Birthday Mr. President" proving once again that Marilyn did it best. More celebrities ought to understand their own image with pinpoint precision and sell it accordingly at public events. If they hope to be remembered 48 years after their death, that is.

Meanwhile Lenae's competitor Debbie is transformed into "Moxie Mayhem" saying

"It's like Memoirs of a Geisha meets Marie Antoinette"

And you know that mash-up sent me reeling... cuz I hate and love in equal measure! [To recap: Memoirs = hate / Marie = love]


'Honeyboom' won the competition but I was the true winner because it got me to thinking about Marie-Antoinette, aka the 'misunderestimated' movie of the Aughts.

Leaping far from the RuPaul's Drag U topic, out of curiousity, I thought I'd check that statement. Nope! Oops. It's almost the most critically hated of my top 50 favorite movies of the Aughts but not quite. These are the least acclaimed of those, according to the TomatoMeter, the only films in my top 50 to not score in the 80% and above of critical approval. These are the places I refused consensus. Not out of contrarianism, mind you, but from pure love of the movies in question.

• Birth (39% on Rotten Tomatoes)
• Marie Antoinette (55% on Rotten Tomatoes)
• I ♥ Huckabees (62% on Rotten Tomatoes )
• Bring It On (64% on Rotten Tomatoes)
  
• Idioterne (The Idiots) (70% on Rotten Tomatoes)
  
• Moulin Rouge (77% on Rotten Tomatoes)
• 25th Hour (78% on Rotten Tomatoes)
  
• Beau Travail (79% on Rotten Tomatoes)

What'cha think about that?
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I Heart Huckabees

MM@M: Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)

You may have noticed I'm Mad Men crazy this week. I'm just trying to cram it in before Sunday's premiere. I'll calm down Monday.

<-- Betty's terrible advice to Sally! I never fail to get a kick out of what a horrible mother she really is.

I'm so excited I'm about to grab one of the T-Shirts from the Mad Men shop on CafePress. I'm already having trouble choosing but they made it easier for me by denying me some of the designs in men's sizes. Excuse me but what if I want a "Mark Your Man" t-shirt with lipstick prints all over it? I mean, I might. I have been known to embrace the girlie. I think I might go for the "Who's For Dinner?" shirt because I love Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton). Nobody else loves Ken but I do not care. I will read any short story he wants me to.

Anyway CafePress is very excited about the premiere on Sunday as evidenced by this Mad Men blog post with Season 4 conjecture and trivia questions and new merchandise. And no, I'm not getting a commission on sales just a T-shirt. I am a firm firm believer in Ts.

Where were we... oh yes...

The final MARILYN MONROE themed episode.


Episode 2.9 "Six Month Leave"
Bad news... this episode of Mad Men opens with it. Marilyn has been found dead. The upsetting morning headlines disrupt the mood and particulars to such a degree that the usually silent elevator operator Hollis (La Monde Byrd, doing fine background work), speaks without being spoken to.

Hollis: You hear about Marilyn? Poor thing.
Don Draper: I can't say I'm surprised, the few things I know about her.
Peggy: You just don't imagine her ever being alone. She was so famous.
Hollis: Some people just hide in plain sight.
Peggy: My mother and sister keep calling.
Don: Suicide is disturbing.
Hollis: I keep thinking about Joe DiMaggio...

As soon as their conversation begins, it splinters into three, none of them responding to each other but lost in their own specific Marilyn opinions and thoughts. Celebrity culture may be a unifier with co-workers, strangers and loved ones, but our personal feelings about each celebrity can just as easily divide us again. The elevator opens, ending the disjointed conversation. Peggy isn't much ruffled, though several other women in the office are shown crying, and is immediately back to business, expressing relief that Playtex didn't pick up the Marilyn campaign.

George Barris (left pic) and Allan Grant (right pics) were reportedly the
last photographers to shoot the screen icon (both in summer '62)

Marilyn's grave in Westwood, CA

Marilyn photographed by Lawrence Schiller in May '62 on the set
of the unfinished film Something's Got To Give. She was fired in June.
Though rehired before her death, filming never resumed. The movie
was a remake of the Irene Dunne movie My Favorite Wife (1940) and
was eventually reworked with new script, director and cast as Move
Over Darling (1963) with Doris Day.

Marilyn's death in August 1962 has long been the subject of conspiracy theories and speculation: Accident? Suicide? Murder? Just about everything involving Marilyn gets disputed, even her talent. I didn't know this myself but apparently Monroe was vocal with the press about her unhappiness with the powers that be. We overhear a radio broadcast in the episode.

"In an interview just weeks before her death, Miss Monroe angrily protested to a reporter about attacks on stars. "We're what's okay with the movie business," she said. "Management is what's wrong with the business."

No MM themed episode of MM would be complete without commentary from their resident Marilyn, Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) who is discovered crying on the couch in her boss (and former lover's) office.

Sterling: What's wrong Red? Do you miss me?
Joan: She was so young.
Sterling: Not you too.
Joan: Yes, I'm just another frivolous secretary.
Sterling: It's a terrible tragedy but that woman is a stranger. Roosevelt. I hated him but I felt like I knew him.
Joan: A lot of people felt like they knew her. You should be sensitive to that.
Sterling: [Grabs her arm intimately]
Hey... you're not like her.
[Attempts to lighten the mood.]
Physically a little but don't tell me that makes you sad.
Joan: It's not a joke. This world destroyed her.
Sterling: Really? She was a movie star who had everything... and everybody. And she threw it away. But hey... if you want to be sad.
Joan: One day you'll lose someone who is important to you. You'll see. It's very painful.

Just as in their Season 1 fight over The Apartment (1960), this conversation is not exactly about what it's about. This Marilyn farewell doubles as an obit for their own broken romance. Too many narrative artforms use doubling too literally but this writing team tends to handle these things with some delicacy, rarely forcing the parallels into absolute mirrors. The episode's self-destructive A plot (Freddy Rumsen's alcoholism and forced exit), for instance, plays superbly within the context of the Marilyn's self-medicated ending. It's not an obvious mirror, but a foggy distorted reflection.

True story: I had this Marilyn poster on my bedroom wall growing up
(baby film buff!) and my Mom thought it was "obscene"

Other references in this episode: (Music) Mitch Miller | (Literature) Katherine Anne Porter's Ship of Fools |(Unspecific Entertainment References) Gypsy, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit | (Celebrities) "The Champ"

MM@M: Jackie and Marilyn. A Line and a Curve.

TV's greatest show has a love affair with the movies. So we have a love affair with TV's greatest show. This is Mad Men @ The Movies. Season 4 begins in 5 days.

Episode 2.6 "Maidenform"

Lots of movie star references surface in this episode which spins from a brassiere campaign. It's not only a great episode but a phenomenal excuse to open with shots of all three female leads in their underthings. Behold the holy Mad (Wo)Men trinity: January Jones (Betty), Christina Hendricks (Joan) and Elisabeth Moss (Peggy). They're all Emmy nominees this year.


They're the Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe and... ??? of the show. But before we get to the reductive stereotyping of women, a few male types are referenced.

One of Mad Men's chief strengths is the well crafted characterizations. Even the character's movie tastes are consistent from episode to episode. Pete Campbell, like Don, is a frequent moviegoer but he has a limited mainstream palette. He definitely likes manly heroics and in one of this episodes funny bits he spoils the latest John Wayne movie for Peggy.

"You saved me 50 cents," she responds unfazed. Peggy rarely shows interest in entertainment. She's all business, as humorless as Don Draper in her own way.

We're glossing over the movies costing 50¢ bit lest we begin weeping.

The movies were even cheaper in Roger Sterling's youth. As the show's resident silver fox his cultural touchstones are older. He's pissed that two of his best men are warring over a botched account.

"Errol Flynn is gone. So is my taste for swordplay. You two need to put them away."

Errol Flynn, the cinema's great swashbuckler died in 1959 (when he was only 50), a few short years before this episode takes place. He was still a regular movie presence. But Roger Sterling undoubtedly grew up watching Flynn's big screen adventures as a kid in the '30s.

But the best movie-related discussion in this episode stems from the "two sides of the same woman" brassiere ad campaign. Jackie Kennedy by day / Marilyn Monroe by night. (I love this episode so much I even used it as my Mad Men Yourself background for my desktop.)



Anyway...

The men decide that there are only two women that other women fantasize about being. They point to the women in the office, labelling them one by one to prove their point.

"Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Every single woman is one of them. Watch this. Jackie. Marilyn. Jackie...


"...MARILYN. Well... Marilyn is really a Joan. Not the other way around."

Christina Hendricks cuts such a wonderfully round figure as Joan Holloway (in both characterization and shape) that that significant compliment reads like the gospel truth.

Peggy doesn't like being left out and wasn't privvy to this campaign. So she disagrees.

Peggy: I don't know if all women are a Jackie or a Marilyn. Maybe men see them that way.
Paul: Bras are for men. Women want to see themselves the way men see them.
Sal: You're a Jackie or a Marilyn, a line and a curve; Nothing goes better together.
Peggy: Which do you think I am?
Ken: [mocking her] Gertrude Stein.
Sal: I would say you're more classical. Helenic.
[long pause]
Don Draper: Irene Dunne.
Freddy: [The oldest member of "creative"] Ohhh, I love Irene Dunne.

Peggy's dead-serious demeanor disqualifies her as an Irene Dunne if you ask me, since Dunne could be so superbly silly (The Awful Truth = the most bliss to be had anywhere outside of Singin' in the Rain) but the comparison is undoubtedly a compliment. It's also interestingly incongruous since Irene Dunne is a classic Hollywood rather than contemporary 60s reference point ... and isn't Peggy the most modern of the women?

But there are more types than two, even within Mad Men restrictive gender universe. Betty Draper doesn't spend time in this office but she's definitely not a Marilyn or a Jackie. She's a Grace Kelly.

We've come a long way since the 1960s and pop culture gives women a much wider range of fantasy persona today: a Meryl, a Kate, an Angelina, a Scarlett, a Keira, a Sandra, an Oprah, a Tilda, a Dame Helen, a Kristen, a Reese, a Beyoncé, an Ellen, the list goes on and on...

Have you ever thought about which celebrity (male or female) people might 'type' you as, if they checked you out?

Other Cultural References in this episode: (Movies) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | (Politics) Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, The Kennedys.

MM@M: The Quiet Man, The Foreign Ones.

Yikes. Mad Men Season 4 begins in 12 days. and we're still on Season 2 of our series, charting the cinema references in television's best show. Let's get back to it.

Episode 2.5 "The New Girl"
Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw) and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) are heading to a beach house for some extra marital rutting. Bobbie is feeling frisky and Don's feeling... nothing. They're both drunk.

Bobby: Lets do things you like. What else do you like?
[Don's ever stoic face lights up for a split second with the hint of a smile. He considers answering... and then]
Don: Movies.

Bobbie: YES. Spartacus?
[Don does not respond. Bobby is drunk and clearly loves the movie.]
Have you seen the foreign ones? So sexy.
Don: La Notte.
Bobbie: [Sighs with pleasure.] Yes.
Why is it so hard to just enjoy things? God, I feel so good.

While remembering Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte makes many a cinephile feel so good, Bobbie and Don won't be smiling for long. They're about the get in a smash-up. Soon Bobbie is lying to her husband and holed up in Brooklyn nursing her wounds. But at least she's still got her sarcastic self-aware humor. She reads the trashy "Confidential" magazine.

Bobbie: Oh, Marilyn. The tragedy you live. I'm so glad I don't have problems.

ba dum dum. Funny. There's a brief conversation about Marilyn -- 'a lot of people would love to have Marilyn's problems' -- and then a mention that Marilyn might be showing up at the President's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden that weekend. I have no idea if this was rumored among civilians before it happened in May '62 but Bobbie, as a showbiz insider, would know either way.

That weekend celebration is a piece of movie star history that even the most casual moviegoers know about.

I haven't watched that clip in years and I didn't remember that she was introduced as "The late Marilyn Monroe". Spooky. It was a reference to her lack of punctuality but tragically she was dead less than three months later.

Referencing famous historical episodes can often read as inorganic, like historical shorthand for dummies (see past discussions of Best Picture winners Cavalcade and Forrest Gump), but Mad Men generally doesn't lean too hard into these references and this Marilyn bit is thankfully just a decorative touch rather than a plot point.

There's another brief movie reference in this episode.

Trudy (Alison Brie) and Peter (Vincent Kartheiser) are having troubles conceiving and Peter, clumsily attempting to smooth over the problem, suggests that maybe they're meant to be a childless couple.

Peter: You have a baby. You can't travel. You can't go to the movies.
Trudy: You're immature Peter, you know that? ... Express some concern and stop talking about how you're going to miss seeing Cape Fear for the third time!
Peter: [Angry] I know one thing. I sure as hell wouldn't want a kid here watching this Donnybrook!

Huh?

Okay.

At first, I assumed that this was also a movie reference since they were talking about going to the movies and Cape Fear (1962). That reference is funny because it seems like exactly the type of thing that Peter would obsess about. Assuming that "Donnybrook" was an arts reference too (that's how my brain works) I found that Donnybrook! was the name of a 1961 Broadway musical (this episode takes place in Spring 1962) which was based on the film The Quiet Man (1952). I know very little about either but it turns out, as Bill and Liz inform in the comments that donnybrook is a word with an Irish origin simply referring to strife and fighting. I had assumed the musical's title borrowed this phrase for a title because the wife character (who was played by Maureen O'Hara in the 50s film, pictured left) was a fiery Irish woman and that Peter was referencing it to make a point about Trudy being difficult. (That's amusingly hypocritical because Peter is the one who's always a handful). But I see cinema even when there isn't cinema.

But anyway... Marilyn and La Notte. Why don't Americans talk about "sexy foreign ones" anymore? Sigh.

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Monologue: A Friend of Dorothy's.

the monday monologue

Few movies are as delightful as Howard Hawks' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). It has everything: clever production numbers, great quips, beautiful stars, and a zippy plot. But mostly the film sparkles just by ogling the twin pleasures of Jane Russell & Marilyn Monroe. Russell and Monroe play best friends and musical partners, wisecracking Dorothy Shaw and golddigging Lorelei Lei, respectfully. One of the best sequences plays like an extended joke on the movie itself, riffing on both the musical numbers and the two star personae that director Howard Hawks has so expertly shined up for the audience.

Jane as Jane | Jane as Marilyn

Toward the end of the film, there's a misunderstanding over jewelry that gets Lorelei (Monroe) in hot water. A tiara has reportedly been stolen and everyone thinks Lorelei is the culprit. Well, her eyes do flash at the mention of diamonds. Dorothy (Russell) attempts to buy her friend some time by impersonating her at a court hearing about the absent jewelry.

At first Dorothy isn't sure she's sold the Lorelei illusion. Jane fusses comically at her blonde wig, over selling the Monroeisms for the back row. The next time she's worried that the illusion is breaking she razzles and dazzles the courtroom to utter distraction with a coarser version of the number we just saw the real Lorelei perform "Diamonds Are a Girl Best Friend."

Just when it seems clear that Dorothy's (and therefore Jane's) approximation of Lorelei's (and therefore Marilyn's) 's breathless 'who me?' dumb blonde act has worked its trick, Dorothy's new boyfriend Ernie Malone (Elliot Reid) charges into the courtroom threatening to give the game away. Dorothy as "Lorelei" acts quickly to protect Lorelei and regain control of "Dorothy"'s man.

Your honor before he talks could I explain something?

Well, I have a friend named Dorothy and she's a really good friend. And Dorothy knows that I would never do anything that was really wrong.

It's a real kick to hear Russell comically mimic Monroe's line readings while playing her own romantic story arc.

There's a certain young man that Dorothy likes. In fact, she's very fond of him.

And Dorothy would never speak to this man again if he ever did anything to hurt me, Lorelei. So I think this young man had just better know that... well... well...

Dorothy thinks she's in love with him!

On this last line reading, Russell amusingly dumps Monroe's naive girliness for her own jaded womanliness. Dorothy's suitor is naturally delighted at this admission of love, even though she's underlined it as comic exasperation.

Needless to say Mr. Malone supports Dorothy's courtroom ruse and saves the day.

Jane's faux-Marilyn scene comes shortly after Marilyn's legendary "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" showcase. It's tempting to view this from a modern perspective -- "Diamonds" is the film's great legacy having been referenced countless times in pop culture since -- and assume that any performer would be hard pressed to follow that showstopper and mock it in the very next setpiece. But Jane Russell, a formidable star, doesn't sweat it. In fact, she appears to be having a complete ball. She sure had a pair.


The courtroom imposter scene isn't as famous as the musical numbers but it's as priceless as any missing tiara. All things considered it's Russell, top billed, who may be best in show. In the case of this 1953 classic, this gentleman prefers brunettes.

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Link & Order: Special Random Unit

The Awl "10 Reasons Why You Should Give Me One More Chance This Weekend" by that bucket of charm "Russell Crowe". (teehee)
Go Fug Yourself theorizes that Cate Blanchett stole a White House carpet
Go Fug Yourself... and welcomes Cannes crazy with open arms
Catalogue of Curiousities "floating heads of doom!"
Buzz Sugar the trailer for True Blood Season 3
Mister Hipp "He can take it." I love this illustration of Wolverine. So fun


Towleroad Elton John covering Madonna hits with scandily clad go go boys. What the hell?
Towleroad my weekly column
The Portland Mercury hilarious movie marquee. Poor Terrence Howard
A Socialite's Life Christina Ricci to join Laura Linney on Broadway in September. Interesting
Playbill Antonio Banderas returning to Broadway for Kander & Ebb's Zorba
Empire strangest bedfellows ever: Charlie Kaufman + Kung Fu Panda
/Film yes I've heard about the duleing Monroe biopics: Naomi Watts vs. Michelle Williams. Just haven't mentioned them yet since they kinda deserve a whole big post. Later. Have patience.

Finally, PopEater says goodbye to Law & Order (just cancelled) with a opening credits mashup of all casts from the franchise. I know people are sad that the original flagship series is going bye-bye. But puhleze. It lives on in 3 spinoffs and endless syndication like some unholy hydra beast. I will never be able to escape it. You've won, television my nemesis, you've won! I thank the original L&O for keeping my Broadway babies fed and in rent payments... but otherwise I kick it to the curb. See, I don't think I can take one more Linus Roache or Dianne Wiest situation wherein some gargantuan talent hides their magnificence under that particular bushel. The next great that the series plans to taint is... Isabelle Huppert. Je pleure.

Monty in Repertory

Thanks to reader Andy and just a heads up for anyone visiting NYC this spring. BAM in Brooklyn, which often houses great film series and retrospectives, is celebrating Montgomery Clift staring March 11th. They're calling it "That's Montgomery Clift, Honey!" after the Clash song "The Right Profile" a rather irreverent song about the car crash and addictions that derailed his life which you can listen to if you must...



But irreverent references, or not. They're showing 11 of the 17 pictures he made before his death at 45 and that's cause for celebration. Notably missing are Judgment at Nuremberg --probably because it's a supporting role and he was always the star -- and, strangely, two of his three pairings with BFF Elizabeth Taylor (Raintree County and Suddenly Last Summer).

If you've been reading TFE for any length of time you know that he's my favorite actor. Find out why. And find out why I'm always pissed that Marlon Brando and James Dean get all the credit for reinventing acting in the 50s. It took all three of them to get the job done, and Monty came first.

Not all of his films are available on DVD so I'm particularly anxious to see Elia Kazan's Wild River (1960) -- not to be confused with the classic Howard Hawks western Red River (1948) which is an absolute must if you haven't seen it -- which has always eluded me. Patricia Bosworth, who wrote one of the famous Clift biographies, will be on hand to talk about the Best Picture of 1953, From Here To Eternity.


The series ends on March 25th with John Huston's The Misfits (1961) which is a must for any movie obsessive since it's both an amazing film and a crucial elegy for three of the greatest film stars of the 20th century: Marilyn Monroe (her last completed picture and unquestionably one of her best performances), Clark Gable (his last film) and Monty, who was running on fumes.

related post: Monty Got a Raw Deal (the blog-a-thon)

Birthday Suits

Your filmic birthdays for 11/25
1914 Joe DiMaggio, center fielder and Mr. Marilyn Monroe, albeit briefly
1920 Ricardo Montalban "Smiles everyone, smiles." (sniffle)
1933 Kathryn Grant, aka Mrs. Bing Crosby, whose film career was spotted with famous stuff (Rear Window, My Sister Eileen, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad) but less than a decade in length.
1947 Jonathan Kaplan, director of 80s & 90s actresses (Bad Girls, Love Field, The Accused, Heart Like a Wheel) who now only works on TV
1947 Tracey Walter, character actor
1960 JFK Jr., prince of Camelot, dater of actresses, magazine entrepeneur. I loved George back in the day. Remember that?
1965 Dougray Scott, the almost Wolverine (Mi:II, Enigma, Dark Water)
1984 Gaspard Ulliel, French looker. Also acts.

(Musical) Monologue - "Honey you'll hurt yourself"

Jose here with the Monday Monologue.

When thinking of Howard Hawks' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the first image that comes to everyone's mind will be that of Marilyn Monroe performing Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.
People who haven't seen the film know it because it's been reenacted by people like Nicole Kidman, Geri Halliwell, Kylie Minogue and was the base of Madonna's entire Material Girl video. And how could they not homage it when the performance's so damn iconic?

Marilyn knew what it meant to be a showstopper, but within the movie we also find a hidden gem of sorts in Jane Russell's performance. She plays sidekick to Monroe and while it's the blond bombshell getting all the attention, Ms. Rusell knew how to leave a mark of her own.

In what appears to be an inconspicuous number halfway throughout the film- after she's been dealing with lack of luck in love-she enters a gym in a cruise ship where surrounded by a vast number of male specimens she sends her own S.O.S

First she reveals her shortcomings

I can't play tennis,
My golf's a menace
I just can't do the Australian crawl
And I'm no better at volleyball

Then her plea

Ain't there anyone here for love?

She continues strutting among the half naked men as she reveals

I'm apathetic and non athletic
Can't keep up in a marathon
I need some shoulder to lean upon
and a couple of arms to hold me
Ain't there anyone here for love?

What's remarkable about this scene is how Russell plays it like if she's having a ball, while the love-as-a-sport lyrics could literally break your heart.
This kind of performance, sad lyrics-happy tune, would become a standard for artists like Minogue, who delivers happy electropop with lyrics that even heavy rock artists find depressing
(the Australian superstar has also paid homage to this scene in her tours).

But back to Russell, it's only until the end of the song where she has a change of heart, stops underrating herself and actually demands things out of life.

I like big muscles and red corpuscles
I like a beautiful hunk-o-man

The scene ends with Russell finally taking the plunge, quite literally, as she falls into a pool (in what seems like a painful stunt) where all the men have dived. Leaving us with a promise she more than fulfills in the rest of the film.

That'd Really Blow Your Skirt Up

Fifty-five years ago today this very minute, Marilyn Monroe stood on a grate at Lexington and 52nd right here in NYC to film the infamous white skirt scene in The Seven Year Itch (1955).


According to This Day in History Joe DiMaggio (her husband at the time) was furious and thought the scene was exploitative. Well, duh. Who did he think he was marrying? It wasn't the first time or the last that Monroe's sex appeal was the whole point of an image or a film sequence. Alas, the footage you see in the movie was a reshoot thus ruining the point of this post --shut up, I just like talking about Marilyn. Though it's considered minor Billy Wilder, Itch was popular and the director and star would gloriously reunite for the classic Some Like It Hot (1959). This first pairing won some minor awards attention and Monroe was nominated for a BAFTA which she lost to Betsy Blair from Marty. Strange matchup, no?

I always wonder about the origin of certain ancient phrases like "break a leg", "knock your socks off" or "curl your toes". They have to start somewhere. Did "blow your skirt up" predate Marilyn's maneuver or spring from it?

Confession: Though I'm often bugging people to watch old movies and really know them rather than know of them through YouTube clips or cultural osmosis, I actually haven't seen this particular Monroe comedy. Weird. Have you?

Mad Men at the Movies 1.1

A truism: In New York City, people are often engaged in the arts. They talk movies, theater, books. One of my favorite things about Mad Men, Matt Weiner's fascinating series about the men and women of "Sterling Cooper" a mid level Manhattan ad agency, is how it references the arts of the 50s and 60s. In most filmed entertainment, other arts are generally only used in facile ways to underline themes, tell contemporary (and instantly dated) jokes or crudely reference an era. Mad Men weaves them in as smartly as the rest of its period details (costuming, sets, politics) to steep you in the world the characters are actually living in or the world they wish they were living in.

With Season 3 debuting this weekend it's a good a time to begin looking at the series' cinematic shout outs. It's also a sneaky way to work a great television series into The Film Experience. Even for you film buffs who've never seen an episode, I hope you'll enjoy these funny, telling or throwaway references to movie stars and cinema. Most episodes of "Mad Men at the Movies" won't be this wordy but I have to lay the groundwork. It's the pilot episode.

1.1 "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"

Twelve minutes into the premiere, creative director Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is exercising in his office when Salvatore the art director (Bryan Batt) enters to discuss an account.

Salvatore: Oh look at you, Gidget. Trying to fill out that bikini?
Don Draper: Summer is coming.

I'm guessing this isn't the first time a gay man called another man "Gidget" in 1960, old school queens loving feminizing monikers as they do. The funny thing about the scene is that Salvatore hasn't even come out to himself and isn't in with the gays. He comes by it innately -- nature not nurture. The weird thing about the scene, in the larger context of Mad Men, is that Don Draper rolls with the girlish ribbing. He's a smidge more lighthearted in the earliest episodes. TV shows (even great ones) always take time to "settle".

Gidget, starring Sandra Dee, opened in April 1959 a year before this episode takes place. It was so popular that it spawned multiple sequels, imitators (see the beach party genre) and a mid60s TV series starring Sally Field. "Gidget" and "Sandra Dee" quickly turned into those sorts of names that also double as adjectives in the common vernacular. Consider Grease's "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" musical ribbing.

Salvatore's reference becomes funnier the more you think it over. Don is doing the exercise motion I personally remember girls doing in the late 70s (or was it early 80s?) while chanting "I must. I must. I must increase my bust. The bigger the better the tighter the sweater, the boys depend on us". I searched for the etymology of that rhyme and kept coming back to Judy Blume's "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?" though surely the rhyme precedes that 1970 bestseller? Why else the reference to tight sweaters, which seem to place it in an earlier decade. Gidget herself is considered a flat chested (despite Sandra Dee filling out a swimsuit just fine) tomboy.

She acts sorta teenage, just in-between age
Looks about four foot three
Although she's just small fry, just about so-high
Gidget is the one for me

A regular tomboy but dressed for a prom
Boy, how cute can one girl be?
Although she's not king size, her finger is ring-size
Gidget is the one for me

James Darren, Sandra Dee and Cliff Robertson "The
Big Kahuna" in Gidget (1959)

As you may have gleaned from this post, I can't get enough of Mad Men. Even Gidget would have loved it it's so swell. "Honest to goodness it's the absolute ultimate!"

other Arts references in this episode:
<--- Cinema: A stripper at Pete's bachelor party does a weak Marilyn Monroe
Broadway: My Fair Lady (both verbally and musically "On the Street Where You Live")
Books: Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Magazines: Reader's Digest
Television: The Danny Thomas Show (also known as Make Room For Daddy)

Special thanks
To the Lipp Sisters at Basket of Kisses (a great Mad Men fansite) for providing a starter list.

Beauty Break: Gold Diggers

Money is as much a part of romantic comedy match-making as it was in days of yore (see: Pretty Woman, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Ever After, Two Weeks Notice, Pride and Prejudice, Sex and the City) but nowadays the lust for big bucks and a life lived in the lap of luxury is buried underneath lots of other stuff. It's barely acknowledged or commented on... possibly because it's so much of a given.

I think it's much hotter when the rich husband hunting is completely foregrounded. Give me those classic pets after big baguettes every time.


Self aware gold diggers are much sexier.

The French are glad to die for love
They delight in fighting duels
But I prefer a man who lives
And gives expensive jewels