Reinventing Lolita

by Kimberly Lindbergs | September 8, 2011

Categories | Movie Reviews, Giallo, Actresses, Science Fiction, Spanish Cinema, Gay Interest, Movie Morlocks, TCM, Stanley Kubrick

Top: Sue Lyon in Murder in a Blue World (1973)
Bottom: Sue Lyon in Lolita (1961)

From my latest post at The Movie Morlocks:

One of the most iconic images to emerge from the cinema in the 1960s is the figure of a young Sue Lyon, peering over her sunglasses at a leering James Mason in Stanley Kubrick’s LOLITA (1961). And I’m definitely not alone in my view. The Spanish genre director Eloy de la Iglesia must have agreed with me when he decided to cast Sue Lyon in his intriguing futuristic thriller, MURDER IN A BLUE WORLD (aka CLOCKWORK TERROR; 1973). Eloy de la Iglesia’s film has often been labeled a low-budget and poorly constructed Spanish knock-off of Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) and it’s easy to understand why. But its meta-referencing goes way beyond A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and tips its hat in equal measure to Kubrick’s LOLITA. In fact, MURDER IN A BLUE WORLD is really an homage to Kubrick himself and possibly one of the most interesting films released in Spain during the early ‘70s.

If you’d like to read more about Sue Lyon in Eloy de la Iglesia’s MURDER IN A BLUE WORLD please follow the link:
- Reinventing Lolita in MURDER IN A BLUE WORLD (1973) @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

I’ve also compiled a Flickr gallery of images from the film that you can find here.

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Celebrity Vinyl

by Kimberly Lindbergs | September 1, 2011

Categories | Movie Reviews, Books, Actors, Actresses, David Hemmings, Richard Harris, Anthony Perkins, Brigitte Bardot, Dirk Bogarde

My latest post at TCM’s Movie Morlocks takes a look at some of my favorite celebrity albums recorded by classic film stars. Did you know Robert Mitchum recorded a calypso album? Have you ever heard Eddie Albert sing a Bob Dylan song? Or listened to Dirk Bogarde talk his way through “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”? These are just a few of the celebrity albums you’ll find if you make your way over to the Movie Morlocks!

- Celebrity Vinyl: Classic Actors Sing @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

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A Joan Blondell Blogathon

by Kimberly Lindbergs | August 18, 2011

Categories | Movie Reviews, Actresses, Crime, Blogathons, Movie Morlocks, TCM

From my latest post at the Movie Morlocks:

“During the month of August TCM highlights the work of a select group of talented performers as part of their annual Summer Under the Stars festival. The Movie Morlocks were asked to select one overlooked star from the Summer Under the Stars line-up to spotlight during a weeklong celebration of their work. Last year the Morlocks highlighted the accomplishments of Woody Strode and before that, Gloria Grahame and Fred MacMurray. This year the Morlocks are setting their sights on Joan Blondell with a blogathon that takes place August 18th – 24th.”

I decided to kick start the blogathon with a look at Kona Coast (1968), which was just released on DVD from the Warner Archives and will be playing on TCM August 24th. Kona Coast may not rate as one of the best films that Blondell ever appeared in but it does contain some elements that should appeal to fans of groovy ’60s cinema, including one of the best 7-minute openings I’ve seen in a long time and a terrific score by by composer Jack Marshall. Kona Coast is a fun late night summer movie that probably should be watched while you have a few Mai Tai’s on hand. You can read my full review by following the link below.

- Joan Blondell Goes Hawaiian @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

I also created a special Flickr gallery of images from Kona Coast that you can find here.

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They said WHAT?!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | August 11, 2011

Categories | Actors, Actresses, Richard Harris, Dirk Bogarde, Movie Morlocks, TCM, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, Monica Vitti, Michael Caine

Dirk Bograde & Monica Vittii in Modesty Blaise (1966)

From my latest piece at the the Movie Morlocks:

“In June actor Harrison Ford made news after publicly calling, Shia LaBeouf, his young costar from INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (Steven Spielberg; 2008) “…a f–king idiot.” Since then I’ve been thinking about insults that actors have hurled at other actors over the years and a recent piece at Flavorwire titled “The 30 Harshest Filmmaker-on-Filmmaker Insults In History” compelled me to compile a list of 30 of the worst actor-on actor insults I’ve come across. Some of them are surprisingly crude so I thought I should worn potential readers before they plunge ahead. Let the war of words begin…”

A few choice examples:

Bette Davis on Joan Crawford: “I wouldn’t piss on her if she was on fire.”

Dirk Bogarde on Monica Vitti: “I’ve fallen deeply in love with every woman I’ve ever worked with except Monica Vitti. She was a beast.”

Oliver Reed on Jack Nicolson: “Nicholson? As far as I’m concerned, he’s a balding midget. He stands five-foot-seven, you know. He tries to play heavies and doesn’t quite make it.”

Richard Harris on Michael Caine: “An over-fat, flatulent, 62-year-old windbag. A master of inconsequence masquerading as a guru, passing off his vast limitations as pious virtues.”

Want to read more actor-on actor insults? Make your way over to the Movie Morlocks!
- They said WHAT?! Classic Insults from Classic Actors @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

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ZEN on PBS

by Kimberly Lindbergs | July 18, 2011

Categories | Giallo, Italian Cinema, Actresses, Television

Actress Catherine Spaak in 1966

I rarely write about modern films or new television shows but if you happen to follow me on Twitter or Facebook you’ve probably noticed that I occasionally mention movies and TV shows that don’t warrant a full post on Cinebeats. My latest obsession is the BBC import currently playing on PBS titled, ZEN (2011).

ZEN is a modern day cop show starring the handsome & talented Rufus Sewell, who should be a household name by now. Sewell’s character is a Venetian detective named Aurelio Zen and he gets to wear expensive Italian suits while solving crimes in Italy. ZEN takes full advantage of the beautiful setting and there’s lots of show stopping shots of the Italian countryside. In ZEN Sewell’s character lives alone with his mother who happens to be played by the beautiful 66-year-old actress, Catherine Spaak and Spaak’s name should be familiar to fans of Italian films like Pasquale Festa Campanile’s The Libertine (1968), Dario Argento’s The Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971) and Antonio Margheriti’s Take a Hard Ride (1975). The show is based on a series of books by British author, Michael Dibdin and if I had to guess I’d say that the directors, writers & casting agents are fans of Italian Poliziotteschi films and possibly Italian horror/giallo films. From the groovy soundtrack to the Gothic settings, ZEN is a show that should appeal to some fans of Italian exploitation films, but be forewarned! It’s slow-moving and takes awhile to get going. And the proceedings have naturally been “softened up” for the BBC television audience. And although it’s set in Italy, ZEN is a BBC production so almost all the actors involved are British performers pretending to be Italian and they don’t bother with fake accents. But if you’re looking for something new to watch on TV, you could do a lot worse than ZEN. The first episode is currently available to watch on the PBS website in case you missed it. Just follow the link posted below to find more information about the show:

- ZEN : Masterpiece Mystery : PBS

As I’ve mentioned before in various places, PBS is currently running some of the best shows on television including SHERLOCK and DOWNTON ABBEY. You can add ZEN to the list of great shows on Public Television right now.

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Geneviève Bujold is ISABEL (1968)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | July 15, 2011

Categories | Movie Reviews, Horror, Actresses, Movie Morlocks, TCM

“You can’t put anything into a character that you haven’t got within you.”
- Geneviève Bujold (Picture from Isabel; 1968)

Geneviève Bujold is one of my favorite working actresses and a recent Netflix search for her name revealed a Canadian horror film titled Isabel (Paul Almond; 1968) on “Instant Watch” that she appeared in, which I’d never heard of before. After searching through numerous books I own and researching the film online I was surprised by how little information about the movie was available. It received positive reviews from TIME Magazine as well as the New York Times when it was originally released but for one reason or another the film has fallen into relative obscurity over the years (especially outside of Canada ) and has never been released on video or DVD in the U.S. When I finally made some time to watch Isabel I fell in love with the film and was amazed by Bujold’s incredible performance. It’s a slow moving, thoughtful horror movie that will probably only appeal to a small audience but I decided to write about Isabel for the Movie Morlocks this week. Here’s a brief excerpt from my post:

“Paul Almond’s ISABEL (1968) begins with a train journey across a snow-covered landscape. We watch as the film’s star, Geneviève Bujold, sits awkwardly in her seat and squirms uncomfortably in front of the camera’s unrelenting eye. She is biding her time by shuffling through a small stack of books and papers in an effort to fend off unpleasant thoughts and feelings. You see, Isabel is a woman haunted by ghosts. These ghosts have hidden themselves deep within the recesses of Isabel’s troubled mind but when she’s asked to return to her family’s ancestral home following her mother’s death, Isabel is forced to confront the phantoms that posses her.”

If you’d like to read more about this fascinating film you’ll find my full post over at the Movie Morlocks:
- Geneviève Bujold is ISABEL (1968) @ TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

I also created a Flickr gallery of images from the film that you can find here.

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Mini Monday #8

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 20, 2011

Categories | Actresses, Mini Mondays

Jenny Agutter and her Mini Cooper

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Mini Monday #6

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 6, 2011

Categories | Actresses, Caroline Munro, Hammer Glamour, Mini Mondays

Caroline Munro and a customized British Leyland Mini

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Before They Were Stars Part II

by Kimberly Lindbergs | March 31, 2011

Categories | Actresses, Television, Movie Morlocks, TCM

Hotpoint Television ad (1956)

Can you guess who that cute model is trying to sell you a portable television? If you said Millie Perkins, the star of The Diary of Anne Frank (1958) you’d be right. When I first spotted this ad last year in an old magazine I had no idea who it was but after a little investigating I discovered that Millie Perkins had worked as model for years before she started making movies and Millie isn’t alone. Many classic Hollywood stars started their careers in modeling before they became actors. Want to know more? You’ll find lots more info and images of Millie Perkins as well as Sandra Dee, Elsa Martinelli and Candice Bergen at the Movie Morlocks this week.
- Before They Were Stars: Part II @ Tcm’s Classic Movie Blog

If you’d like to keep track of the latest Movie Morlocks news and updates please follow us on Twitter.

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