So night...day and can I find a song that connects with an Oscar contender? Yes, I can and I chose 1936 as the year. Over at Monday Music Moves Me, you can find out how many songs fit day or night. Now, let's see if you can guess correctly who won the Oscar, who was nominated and who got nuttin'.
1. I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN SUNG BY FRANK SINATRA
This song comes from the film, "Born To Dance" written by Cole Porter. This is a very famous song made very famous by Frank Sinatra but has been sung by many.
2. THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT SUNG BY NAT KING COLE
Nat King Cole is such a great singer and died way too young but he did this song justice. This comes from the film, "Swing Time" and was written by Jerome Kern(music) and Dorothy Fields(lyrics).
3. LET'S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE SUNG FRED ASTAIRE
This is a haunting song that is one of my all time favourites. This comes from the film, " Follow The Fleet" written by Irving Berlin. When they danced this number, Fred got slapped so hard by Rogers' dress that he was almost knocked off his feet! You can see it hit his face if you look close enough. Often Rogers co-designed her dresses much to Astaire's chagrin. This dress was made with sequins and beads which was very heavy. It looks beautiful though.
So, who won, who was nominated and who came up empty-handed?
I hope Wandering from Wandering Through The Shelves is ok because she did not have her post up for last week for the tourist theme. This week it’s all about the new person whether it’s a new girlfriend/boyfriend, mom/ dad etc… I went with the new gal in town and hope you like my picks and here they are…
1. REBECCA-1940
A suave, filthy rich, brooding man, played by Lawrence Olivier meets shy, mousy, sweetie, Joan Fontaine and, after a whirlwind romance, they marry and he brings her back to his house, Manderley. Manderley is a nice cottage…oh please! It’s a big ass mansion that I would love to wander through which has the biggest fireplaces I’ve ever seen. So, in comes the new Mrs. who feels intimidated from the get go when she meets the staff and some of his “friends” especially the head housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. To say Mrs. Danvers is creepy is an understatement and she is played wondrously by Judith Anderson who deserved an Oscar for this performance as the off balanced, totally devoted to the first Mrs. DeWinter (Rebecca) head housekeeper. Mrs. Danvers is so devoted to Rebecca that she does all she can to drive the new Mrs. DeWinter nuts and good ole Larry doesn’t seem to do much to help his new wife out. Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for her role and the only actress to ever win in an Alfred Hitchcock film.
2. CAT PEOPLE-1942
A nice young man meets a beautiful young Serbian woman and they fall in love and marry but before you can say, “Let’s do the humpty-dump” she says, in that Meat Loaf song kind of way, “Stop right there!” Because she is scared she will become a black Panther and kill the man she loves. She feels she comes from a long line of panther women and that, when she has sex, the Panther will come out and strike. This is a film by Val Lewton known for creating atmospheric movies based more on suggestion than actual gore or scream type movies. It’s very artistic and still leaves you unsettled.
3. LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN-1945
I spoke about this film before but it’s just so good I have to speak about it again. Cornel Wilde meets up with the most beautiful Gene Tierney who takes his breath away. She is dealing with the death of her dad and is getting rid of his ashes while her mom and her cousin watch. We realize that she seems to have an unholy bond with her daddy. She meets him and soon dumps her fiancé, poor Vincent Price to marry poor sap, Cornel. Everything seems to be ok until he brings his little brother, who is recovering from polio, to live with them. You get to see that this beauty does not like to be ignored and must always be #1 to the point that she must have her husband all to herself. We soon realize this gal is someone you never want to meet as she is one evil bitch. I do believe Gene deserved the Oscar for her performance in this film. She plays this gal to her most evil self.
What does this picture have to do with disguise? Absolutely nothing! I just like it and wanted to use it because my dear friend VJ took this photo when we were at Lake Erie one year and he is coming to see me this weekend. Over at Curious As A Cathy, she has up the Monday Music Moves Me and it’s all about disguise. So let’s get on with the show…
1. ANGEL IN DISGUISE SUNG BY MARION MANN-1940
She has a beautiful voice and does this song Justice which comes from a film called, “It All Came True” originally sung by Ann Sheridan. This was composed by Paul Mann and Stefan Weiss with lyrics by Kim Gannon.
2. THE DEVIL IN DISGUISE SUNG BY CHRIS ISAAK AND LEANN RIMES-2009
This song, written by Bill Grant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye back in 1967, was originally for and made famous by Elvis. It was quite popular for the last theme and understandably so. Elvis does the song Justice but I wanted to go with someone different and found this version with Chris and LeAnn. Hope you enjoy..
3. JUDY IN DISGUISE SUNG BY JOHN FRED AND HIS PLAYBOY BAND-1967
This is a fun song despite the sounds of some sex in the backseat of his studebaker sounds the lead singer makes. It was written by John Fred and his fellow band mate, Andrew Bernard.
I enjoyed creating this card with the Tim Holtz dies that I placed on a gelli roll and placed the white cardstock on it. When I lifted it off, I had this neat leather like background. I took a paintbrush, dipped it in water and took off some of the colour around the lantern. Oh yes, I stamped the fairy and the owls in black. I added yellow around the lantern to make it look glowing. I stamped some foliage around the edges and glued it down on the green cardstock. I ended up adding purple stickles around the edge and on the fairy’s wings.
I hope I created a good card that I was inspired by the book from the Library Challenge. I think this card looks like Autumn and I love owls. The dies worked for this Happy Little Stampers challenge.
October and it's horror time...I'm not too much into the grisly stuff but I shall do my best. Ive seen plenty of tourists and have been one myself and some are quite scary( hopefully not me). Wandering through the Shelves always loves a good spooky movie or scary so here are my 3...
1. THE UNINVITED-1944
OK, I spoke about this one before but I love it and it works here. Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey are brother and sister who are on a scenic trip through the English countryside and his sis falls for a house owned by an old timer and his granddaughter, played etherially, by Gail Russell. Without knowing it, this house is haunted but that doesn't put bro and sis off. This is a truly great ghost story and mystery with the moody lighting and scenic views adding to this story.
2. JAWS-1975
If you haven't seen the film, you at least, know about it. The July 4th holidays are approaching and the tourists are coming to the island to swim and have fun. Unfortunately, Bruce, the shark, has decided that humans taste real good and the sheriff, played by Roy Scheider, wants to shut down the beaches. “Not by he hair of my chinny, chin, chin," says the mayor in his horrible suits. Well, things don't go well and the sheriff along with a marine biologist, played by Richard Dreyfus and crusty sailor, Robert Shaw, decide to kill poor Bruce. It's great even after all these years and so is the making of documentary where we find out the mechanical shark kept breaking down so Spielberg named it Bruce after his lawyer.
3. PIRANHA-1978
So, this is not the best flick but it’s the 2nd one that popped into my head, after Jaws. This came out the same year as Jaws 2 and there was rumblings of suing until Spielberg mentioned this movie in a favourable light. Anyhoo, the piranha were given some great shit that made them meaner and loving flesh so they could be released in the rivers of Vietnam to win the war. Alas the government, being morons, never got around to sending the piranhas to Vietnam, so they are kept locked up in some place where people come to have fun including a camp for kids. Of course, the piranhas are freed from their area and are able to swim freely to where everyone has fun. This is campy and dumb but I was still scared of these toothy buggers. They have remade the film, of course, but this one is still the campiest best.
It’s Masquerade, disguises or Truth week over at Monday Music Moves Me which is with the beautiful Cathy at Curious As A Cathy. U am going with masquerade and hope you enjoy the musical choices.
1. ALL HALLOW’S EVE BALL BY ALAN SILVESTRI-2004
This piece is from the film, “Van Helsing” which is not a great film by any means but I always enjoy watching it. This piece takes place in a wondrous ballroom filled with Vampires who are dancing and in a circus way with twirling and people flying through the air like we see in the circus. The costumes are exquisite and I love this scene. You can go to YouTube and see this scene as I wanted to just concentrate on the musical piece.
2. MASQUERADE SUITE BY THE ST. PETERSBURG ORCHESTRA-2018
I love this piece which was written by Adam Khachaturian in 1941. Yup, it's a new one since I thought it was written in the 1800s. I can easily see people waltzing to this dressed up with a bit of the sinister involved.
3. MASQUERADE BY THE FILM CAST-2004
We all know Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber which broke many records on the London stage and Broadway. This is a musical film version of this musical hit with Emma Rosson in the lead as the love of the Phantom played by...Gerard Butler! He doesn't have the strongest voice but I do need to see this again.
Can you think of Masquerade songs or disguise songs?
CHILDREN: 5 daughters with 4 going into show business
KNOWN FOR: his soft and mellifluous voice that could be used in such a sinister manner which he attributed to his elocution lessons he had when he was young.
This man is a great character actor who could steal a picture away from the stars, like Steve McQueen and James Garner and Bond, James Bond, Sean Connery. He was known to play evil characters but also heroic ones like Dr. Loomis in several Halloween movies. He has always been one of my favourite actors even in the many schlock flicks he made. He was known not to turn down roles which is why he is credited with over 200 film roles never mind TV roles and the theatre where he was nominated for 3 Tony Awards.
He always wanted to be an actor and strived for this so, when Britain entered WW2, he labeled himself a conscientious objector because of his pacifist belief until London got repeatedly bombed. Seeing first hand, the Blitz of London, he entered the war and became an aircraft wireless operator. He flew over 60 missions in a Lancaster bomber until they were shot down in early 1944. Donald parachuted out but when he landed, he was surrounded by Germans and when they started to act all “Heil Hitler” he started to giggle not thinking they actually acted like he saw in parodies. They did not take kindly to this and he was sent to a POW camp where he was beaten and tortured. He finally was free once the war ended and started right back up in acting. By the time he played the gentle forger in “The Great Escape”, he had quite a few roles under him including a heralded TV performance in a Twilight Zone Episode. His role in The Great Escape wasn’t that far off and, initially rebuffed by the director when Pleasance wanted to give some ideas about the POW camp, the director changed his tune when he was told that Pleasance was a real survivor of these camps.
Along the way, he had 4 marriages and had 5 daughters but often said he had 6 but that, I believe, was because one of his wives had a daughter from a previous relationship. 3 of his daughters became actresses, Angela, Miranda, Polly Jo and Lucy..oh, that’s 4:). The one daughter did say he had trouble with alcohol but quit cold Turkey around 1980.
We know him mostly from the Halloween films playing the psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis who keeps trying to get nasty Michael from killing…and killing…and killing. His other famous role was as Ernst Blofeld, the very first time we actually see this evil SOB in the Bond films. He played him so well that Mike Myers used Pleasance’s version for his Dr. Evil character in the Austin Powers movies. I’m pretty certain he would have loved to be in these movies. Did you know he was on Saturday Night Live?
