'We are Link Bob-Omb'

Today is Irish beauty and movie star Maureen O'Hara's 90th birthday. Oh, don't look so surprised Maureen! Ya know I love you though it's true I rarely talk about you herein. Hmmm, how to remedy? I'm beyond thrilled that you're still with us and I love you with great heaping muchness. xoxo, a fan.

Where were we? Linkage!

I went a little crazy today because I was catching up on my web browsing and some actual reading (gasp). Enjoy.

SLATIFR Dennis Cozzalio interviews Self Styled Siren. Terrific read if you love erudite movie lovers and I do, I do, I do. Can't wait for part 2.
ToH! Julia Roberts back on top, even at #2
Heroine Content on the women in Scott Pilgrim vs the World and one distasteful element.
Totally Looks Like James Buchanan totally looks like John Lithgow!Movie|Line Wish Michael Douglas well, he's got a tumor in his throat.
i09 Jason Schartzmann on his villain role in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

It's kind of hard to be in a room and every time you get punched or hit people applaud. You're kind of like "wait, wait, wait it's fake I'm nice, I'm NICE!"

Ha. Fun movie that.
PopEater is Neil Patrick Harris thinking of quitting showbiz? Eek.
The Wrap says we need more female action heroes. Which we do. But there's a strange suggestion here that Angelina Jolie has just become one with Salt. Uh, that happened many years ago -- Jolie as badass, not Jolie as Salt.
Salon When should a director stop messing with their earlier films? "Serial recutter" Michael Mann has a new version of Last of the Mohicans (1992) out for home consumption.
Maurice's Blog Batgirl! I can't tell you how much I obsessed over Yvonne Craig as a wee kid so I relate.


Nick's Flick Picks is about to debut what sounds like a fascinating and sorely needed new "grading" system. Maybe everyone will copy this!
/Film new photos from Sofia Coppola's Somewhere.
MNPP JA finally sees the Johnny Depp Pretty in Cry Baby. Funny post.
Dave Kehr a new Kim Novak box set with five films.
Scanners a beautiful and enthusiastic piece on The Kids Are All Right and how expertly judged the filmmaking is: editing, shotwork, etcetera
Movie Dearest on the DVD rerelease of Orlando and the ageless Tilda Swinton
Blog Stage "Matthew McConaughey Can't Stand Up By Himself" Hee. I've never noticed this before but GLENN did last year as Vertigo reminds us in the comments. Glenn is brilliant. I wish I'd started my "posterized" series a year ago and beat him to it.

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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Kiss Her She's Irish

Happy St Patrick's Day


From three of the most successful Irish actresses (not a lot of Irish actresses seem to make a massive silver screen mark) to hit Hollywood: fascinating Anjelica Huston, endearing Maureen O'Hara and the goddess Greer Garson.


Contemporary actresses of varying degrees of Irishness that must be kissed today: Kathy Bates, Fiona Shaw, Rose McGowan, Jennifer Connelly, Allyson Hannigan (Willow), Kristen Bell (Veronica), Heather Graham and Janeane Garofalo. Did I forget anyone? Hollywood likes Irish men much more. Too many to list!

To read previous posts on any of these actresses, click the labels below
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Life is Like a Box of Choc Lump of Coal

Remember that collaborative series Best Pictures From the Outside In starring Nathaniel (myself), Nick of Nick's Flick Picks and Mike of Goatdog's Movies? Yeah, we almost didn't either. But it's back!


This time we're taking on the Oscar winners from 1941 and 1994 as we move chronologically from Oscars first years forward and most recent year backwards. Eventually we meet in the middle (the 1960s).

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Mike: This episode of Best Pictures from the Outside In is a milestone in the admittedly brief (in entries, if not in time) history of this series. For the first time, gone is the middling crap we're often forced to discuss. Instead, fate has allowed us to pair two earth-shattering films, films that redefined the very art of cinema in their respective eras. From 1941 we have a movie that's topped countless lists of the greatest films ever made. Its spectacular cinematography spawned countless imitators, and its labyrinthine plot still has few equals. From 1994 we have what is arguably its modern equivalent, a film whose brilliant dialogue, fragmented plot structure, and countless historical references spawned countless imitators, including some by this film's own director. Dear readers, it is my pleasure to present the Best Picture winners from 1941 and 1994, Citizen Kane and Pulp Fiction.

Read the Rest... wherein we unfortunately have to puncture Mike's fantasy.

[Would that his fantasy were reality. But no, the Academy selected How Green Was My Valley and Forrest Gump as the Best Pictures. What a world. The Academy can knock you over with a feather sometimes]