Beauty & Vice

Blatant references to prostitution and hard drug use are just some of the vices depicted in this 1933 Pre-Code Hollywood classic.

From a Busby Berkeley number, "Shanghai Lil" 
First picture is from Berkeley's, "By a Waterfall"

Excellent sound and picture quality along with a great story-line in “Footlight Parade” gave this Blue Ray DVD a solid four-star rating. James Cagney and Joan Blondell, the two headlining actors in this film displayed great chemistry together.

Cagney & Blondell 

Cagney sings and dances extremely well in this movie.

James Cagney & Ruby Keeler

The swimming choreography and execution by the highly talented Busby Berkeley babes is still a cinematic sensation. “Footlight Parade” showcases a lot of low garbed women.   

The Warner Brothers, Merry Melodies cartoons had things they wouldn’t be allowed to show in today’s children’s programming. A cartoon bug in one of the animated shows is seen reading a book on how to make love. In the 1934 cartoon, “Honeymoon Hotel,” a man and woman get in bed together and wink at the audience, and the calendars shows nine months pass, and a then a baby winking at the audience.

I’m not a fan of musicals, but “Footlight Parade” more then worked for me. An awesome Blue Ray to own.

Mark Izzy Schurr    

 

Soft Focus Sin From 1934

 

Historic sexuality and violence was displayed upon the masses more than 86-years ago. Film buffs and Claudette Colbert fans will want this Blue-Ray flick in their collection of vintage favorites. The picture and sound clarity is marvelously restored in this remastered classic of 1934s “Cleopatra.”

The bonus features were nothing to jump up and down about, but “Claudette Colbert: Queen of the Silver Screen,” had some enlightening details about the censorship in Hollywood during the antiquated era of movie making. I also learned three fascinating facts about Colbert as a movie actress from watching this bonus feature. This bonus feature also included a scantly clad photo of Colbert in a publicity photo from “Cleopatra.” (Above picture; Claudette Colbert, 1934) 

Colbert, 1934s "Cleopatra." 

The movie itself was nothing spectacular for myself, but I did like the fact of the movies depiction as Julius Caesar as a greedy tyrant, and his murder was justice served in my opinion, and Colbert’s version of “Cleopatra” satisfied my knowledge of the mass murdering Julius Caesar.

Three and a half stars for this movie.

Mark Izzy Schurr  

Lucius Lake at 19-years-old

 

Inhabitants of Hollywood are dedicated to crawling into every pair of pants they can find, and you become egotistical to think you’re the prime pair of pants, Veronica Lake said.

Veronica Lake was 19-years-old when 1941s “I Wanted Wings” hit the theatres.   

The movie itself is OK, and it’s worth the watching because of Veronica Lake in my eyes. Lake displayed her singing and acting skills in this movie, and yes, her looks matched her performing skills.

The DVD itself is in solid condition, the picture and sound are in clear black and white. The DVD has absolutely no features, not even a scene select. I found this aspect of it to be quite refreshing. As soon as you put the movie into a DVD player, the movie starts playing.

Vintage films fans should view “I Wanted Wings,” it’s a welcome archive into my DVD collection. Veronica Lake was a sheer fox with an alluring bite, and her dark side is displayed toward the end of the movie. Three stars easy for this DVD.

Mark Izzy Schurr

British Bonkers & Beauty

 

“My Wife’s Lodger” may not be a coveted classic, but this 1952 British film censored itself for the mainstream release, or so it’s advertised on the opening credits of the movie.

Diana Dors shows off her sass and class in this comedy about a father forced to accept the fact his baby girl is grown up now and ready to date.

An above average performance by the actors. Dominic Roche did a fantastic job portraying Willie Higginbotham, the father of Eunice Higginbotham. (Dors) The father drinking heavily with one of his daughters’ potential suitors makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it.

The sound and picture quality are extremely clear, and I completely understood why Diana Dors was such a popular box office draw. All the pictures in this review of from the actual movie. A very pleasant addition to my DVD ditties.

Sheer Fantasy Revisited

 

All the boys noticed she was wearing the red cloak with its scarlet hood pulled over her shinning hair. Perhaps, because of this her grandmother gave her the gift of a knife.

The girl loved her grandmother because she was fierce, as fierce as her mother, but courageous enough to live outside the village, in the deep part of the woods in the very midst of everything wild. (Lucy Cavendish)

Author Lucy Cavendish re-wrote 12 fairy tales from the days of old, mixing in the original storyline with her own intriguing imagination. I’m giving the book, “Magickal Faerytales, An Enchanted Collection of Retold Tales” a four and a half star rating, simply based on having read only “Red Riding Hood.”

The artwork by Jasmine Becket-Griffith has upped my rating to a perfect five-stars! My second five star rating, since I entered the blogosphere in 2012.

If your still reading, you’ll see some of Griffith’s amazing artwork. She paints by hand using acrylic paints. From this book alone, I learned Griffith is a world-renowned fantasy artist, and it’s completely understandable. Her official website is www.strangeling.com.

Although “Red Riding Hood” is the only story of Cavendish’s I’ve read thus far, it’s clear to me I’ll be riveted by her poetic prowess in the 11 other stories awaiting to capture my imagination.

She began her journey to grandmother’s house along the dangerous path of needles or the hazardous one of pins, and she was confident. The colors of the forest and the song of the blood red sky cascaded her view toward her grandmother’s house…a great shadow appeared beside her, and inside she shook, remember the knife she reminded herself…

Jasmine Becket-Griffith, 2020

If you’re a reading guru like myself, this book is extremely recommended. I’m not privy to fantasy writing, but Cavendish exposed a creative crevice that is in short supply. Great book.

Becket-Griffith, 2020

Becket-Griffith, 2020

Mark Izzy Schurr   

Sophisticated Slash

 

Traumatized when she was 8-years-old, she slashed the jugular of her father’s neck with a surgical knife and then she was raised in a psychiatric institution and became a certified nurse as an adult, or did she?

This year’s action / adventure movie, “Nurse 3D,” has its doses of graphic violence mixed in with a crazed cocktail of mental anguish and relationship woes.

Actress Paz de la Huerta is the title character, and she lures in a rookie nurse portrayed by Katrina Bowden as part of her sexual and murderous fantasies.

 Huerta is a serial killing nurse who targets married men with children who cheat on their wives.

A small laceration to the femoral artery proves quite fatal to one of the male victims of “Nurse.” The femoral artery is in the upper thigh region, and sexy Huerta has a very persuasive way of getting a very sharp medical instrument near a man’s femoral artery.

Four cc’s of vecuronium is used to paralyze another of her male victims, and before she brutally kills this man, she has a collected calmness in her voice as she speaks of his sexual indiscretions toward his wife.

“Nurse” had featured music that gripped my soul. The song “Kill of the Night” by Gin Wigmore worked perfectly as did the song’s lyrics; ‘I’m gonna get, I wanna taste the way that you bled…’

“Nurse” is on my permanent Halloween movie list now, and it’s a great flick for fans of cleaver gore and twisted sexuality. Three stars easy for “Nurse.”

Mark Izzy Schurr   

Movies I like

Tangible and visual pleasures are a symbolic journey into the forbidden zone, where no subject matter is taboo. Above, 24-year-old Joan Blondell in 1930s, "Office Wife."

 

The complete spectrum of vice seeps into the enthusiastic indulgences of the human soul, and Christian values and blind patriotism were abandoned by the likes of Joan Blondell, James Cagney, Cary Grant, Glenda Farrell, Ginger Rodgers and of course, Jean Harlow. 

Joan Blondell rocking the Betty Boop hair style in 1930s "Office Wife"  

A vast array of vintage movies spawned to the masses between 1930-1934 are officially known as Hollywood Pre-Code films. In 1935, the so-called guardians of censorship joined forces with religious and political zealots and enforced their rules of film making to biblical proportions.

The “Archive Collection, Forbidden Hollywood Volume 8” contains four certified Pre-Code films venturing into the frontiers of free expression and illegal activities luring in its audiences with wanton mischief and hot youth at its wildest, loving and living freely. 

Edward G. Robinson portrays a true gambling addict in 1934s “Dark Hazard.” If your open minded to vintage black and white films and clever dialogue, “Dark Hazard” is well worth a watch.

War Cry was a crowned greyhound racing dog when “Dark Hazard” was released. War Cry even received a picture credit in the movie.

Jim “Buck” Turner (Robinson) bets everything he has on a fast dog and a fast blonde. Luscious Glenda Farrell portrays Valerie, who truly lives and loves.

!934, "Dark Hazard." 

Glenda Farrell, !934, "Hi, Nellie." 

“Dark Hazard” is both well scripted and acted. It’s an entertaining story, complete with the perplexing persistence of delicious desires and devious deeds.  

“Blonde Crazy” was my favorite in this four DVD set. James Cagney and Joan Blondell were featured together seven times in films, and the delightful duo shined in 1931s “Blonde Crazy.”

Cagney and Blondell portray a couple of con artists in “Blonde Crazy.” Fornication and crime was the theme in “Blonde Crazy,” and to this day, the story is solid. Cagney was a smooth talker in this film, and I love the scene when he barges in Blondell’s apartment to talk business.

Joan Blondell, 1931, "Blonde Crazy." 

Blondell

                        Can’t you see I’m taking a bath?

Cagney

                        We’ll move over!

James Cagney, 1931, "Blonde Crazy" 

Cagney, Blondell, 1931, "Blonde Crazy" 

“Blonde Crazy” is a prime example of why Cagney and Blondell were movie icons of film yesteryear.

“Strangers May Kiss” contains rewarding adultery. Believing in love is not foolish, while the tangible touch of a lascivious lady weaved its way into a solid storyline.  

“Hi, Nellie,” released in 1934 is about a hard drinking and truth-seeking journalist forced to write a weekly ‘Lovelorn’ column. Glenda Farrell does a great job in portraying a co-working journalist. Foxy Farrell has some harsh, yet funny words about monogamous relationships, and I dug her style!

Mark Izzy Schurr