Will be updated when I fill more prompts. Still have a few saved.

Warnings: mild blood, homophobia (in Anders als die Andern fills), mentions of murder (in the Nazi Agent fill), mentions of abusive relationships (in the A Woman's Face fill)

( Above Suspicion )

( Anders als die Andern )

( Nazi Agent )

( A Woman's Face )

( Crossovers )

Three years ago, I lost that Jacqueline Hill's episode in Angels. Now, I have it again! It's nothing, really, but I'm glad to say that, once again, I have all the available media related to her!

Watched Stromboli (1950). "We need more horrible women characters", they say, but they would not be able to handle Karin. There is a problem: TVCine (the channel I watched the movie on) aired a mutilated version that cuts 10-20 minutes from the original runtime! For shame! I was so excited about it (it's good btw). Also Ingrid Bergman very good and hair is gorgeous. Very important.

Except not really, because I need to write this somewhere and don't want to double post.

Once a Lady (1931). What a bore. Woman marries wet cardboard Tory who hates her. Has a child. Basically the whole family forces the woman away. Ivor Novello is there and he's absolutely wasted on this (but very charming, glad to finally hear him without a fake accent). There's a pic of him with Joan Crawford for what is worth. Can't escape that woman lately.

Alright, Tih Minh shenanigans under the cut.

( Read more... )

Caved in. Oops.

• Can already tell it's gonna be one of Those (TM): exoticism and the racism edition.


• I'll say it, the intros that go "Actor So-and-So is Character Such-and-Such" and then there's a little scene of the character are awesome.


• The Grand Vampire actor is Count Merlin of The Charlatan! Not really.


• No idea what Jacques (René Cresté) shtick is, but Placide is very Passepartout.


• Of course, the Vietnamese woman is too primitive and needs good ol' western reeducation! Bah! "It was of its time" my arse, we never left the Dark Ages, our eyes have just grown accustomed to the darkness.


• Placide and Rosette (his fiancé) are wild! Great match, they're ride or die for one another.


• I know it's because they're both played by white actors (and asian women are often stereotyped into being demure and therefore "perfect wife material") but I'm impressed that Jacques and Tih Minh are an item.


• The soundtrack is pretty good, even when it goes all musique concréte (think Delia Derbyshire). Usually it's out-of-place, but not here. Feuillade's serials are wild.


• I wrote "Severe lack of Musidora" and yeah. Where are you, darling, we miss you.


• The whole sequence of Rih Minh being kidnapped + the aftermath were very well shot.


• Dolores (who works for the baddies, a doctor and an Indian guy, because of course 🙄) is a mind reader?? And can compell people to do whatever she wants?? I don't think she's into it tbh


• I also wrote "René Cresté fine as hell". He isn't that much in the ep, and his character at the mo is a nothing-burger, but yes.


• Pretty sure Venenos (Les Vampires) mucked aeound in this lab.


• There was a guy in the beginning called Stone that was found with no memory and no ability to speak and the baddies were using him??


• So Jacques is brooding, and it's all very reminiscent of Jud— what the hell ghostly figures on the beach?? Is this The Seventh Seal??


• Blackmail! Another very well done sequence. That zoom on the date. The acting. And the photo is gone!


• So, Jacques is one of those white guys who go places and take stuff. Granted, what he got was a copy of a book with a note that may be useful if Europe goes to war (WW1 reference), but still. The baddies crave it for their unknown nefarious deeds.


• Placide, no! That's an historical artifact!


• Placide, no! I know Kistna (the evil Indian guy) is evil, but no need to basically call him a slur!


• So, they left Tih Minh at the gate like a stray kitten, and she's acting oddly, because the baddies gave her the blue rose potion of forgetfulness. So she can't even speak. Just like Stone!


• Jacques, no! Don't yell at her!


• It's less of a cliffhanger, and more of a gothic version of a Yevgeni Bauer movie.

So far, pretty standard Feuillade.

Not Untamed, But Childish

Joan Crawford’s all-talkie debut, Untamed, begins as a drama with music set in South America, then makes a choppy transition to a society romance in which the lovers are reconciled only after she attempts to murder him. The film’s tone shifts with every new scene. At no time does any character in Untamed resemble any human being who ever lived, but its flamboyant unreality gives the film a vaguely comic, unintentional charm.

-Scott Eyman, The Speed of Sound

So I watched it for the madness.

It was something alright.

It is all over place, with a dash of South American exoticism. They're acting as if South America (as a monolith) is the anals of hell, dear lord.

Anyway, wow this lady sounds a lot like Joan Crawford, I thought in the first five seconds. You doofus, she is Crawford! And this is how I learn that she was in The Unknown. I saw her onscreen way before I saw her in Mildred Pierce. Fuck my stupid baka brain.

See, the thing that I could not take from this movie, which sadly made it more painful than funny, was that her character (B-I-N-G-O, and Bingo was her name-o) was supposed to be naive, but came across childish. And it wasn't Crawford's fault (this was her first talkie, she still sounds a bit Southern even), but the writing's. And it's not even in a teenager way, she acts like she's five years old.

And then pulls a 180 and she acts like she's ten when we get to the high-society bit.

I did guffaw at the improvised boxing match, and how willing Bingo was to punch people she didn't like.

The Artist

From an early talkie, to a late silent (really late, 2011).

I had to rewrire my brain for this one. It's not supposed to emulate a silent film, but to be a modern silent. It's not supposed to be historically accurate, but to be like Singin' in the Rain, grabbing the myth and twisting it to tell its story.

Because it was filmed on digital, and the camera acts very modern, and the acting is still very modern talkie.

Afterwards, I was on board. At the end of the day, it's a celebration, of the silents, of the talkies (musicals), of melodrama. And I had a blast.

It's weird, because it won so many awards and it didn't create this wave of modern silent movies. Like La La Land didn't create a wave of musicals. Sigh.

And it has a top tier dog. Such a good boy. Deserves all the pats.