#Betty Garde

[letterboxd-loggd]

Caged (1950) John Cromwell

April 1st 2024

[nerds-yearbook]

A routine commercial flight was placed in jeopardy when they entered a mysterious air stream that not only increased their speed to an incredible amount, but actually hurled them through time. The first trip took them back to the time of the dinosaurs. The crew managed to recreate the events and once more hurled themselves through time. That time they found themselves in 1939. The runaways of this era were not designed for a plane of their requirements so they once more attemptted to travel in time in hopes of returning to 1961. ("The Odyssey of Flight 33", The Twilight Zone, TV)

[yetihideout]

Caged, 1950

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Caged

“Pile out, you tramps. It’s the end of the line!”

“In this cage, you get tough, or you get killed.”

“Who’s the cute trick?”

“Kindly omit the flowers.”

“Keep it active. She’ll be back.”

Screenwriter Virginia Kellogg went behind bars to capture slang and elements of prison routine, and boy did it pay off. John Cromwell’s CAGED (1950, TCM, Plex) is a punchy good time, even when it’s hectoring the audience about the need for prison reform. It set many of the tropes of the women’s picture, but stands on its own perched on the dividng line between camp and high drama. It’s also unusual in that it got veiled lesbianism and references to drugs and prostitution past the Production Code. Eleanor Parker stars as the young innocent sent to prison because she was in the car while her husband got himself killed trying to rob a gas station. She’s thrown into a world of corruption, sadism, sexuale exploitation and terrific character women. A lot of the fun comes from watching the situation change her, and Parker gives a carefully modulated performance in which the young innocent is as interesting and believable as the woman she becomes. She’s not the whole show. You also get Ellen Corby as a crazed husband killer, Jan Sterling as a dumb blonde, Betty Garde (the original Aunt Eller) as the recruiter for a shop-lifting ring, Lee Patrick as a vice queen who could be the dictionary illustration for “lipstick lesbian,” Olive Deering as a suicidal inmate, Jane Darwell as matron of the isolation room, Gertrude W. Hoffmann as a lifer and Gertrude Michael as a fallen society woman. Best of all are Agnes Moorehead, who could ring nuance out of a laundry list, as the sympathetic warden and Hope Emerson as the sadistic matron who looks on Parker as a source of income and possibly something more. Cromwell was always a whiz at directing actors and melds the cast into a solid ensemble. He and cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie create some powerful visuals, but one of the most stunning effects uses sound. In her first night in the cell block, Allen has to adjust to sleeping in a room full of people as the soundtrack fills with coughs, yawns, and sobs that gradually overwhelm her and us.

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[badmovieihave]

Bad Movie I have Call Northside 777 (1948)

[hotvintagepoll]

At the end of the Dracula poll, will you explain how each of the cast influences the final tone of/ any minor plot changes to the movie?

oh I’m happy to do that right now!

-Jimmy Stewart grounds the movie and is a terrific pick for Jonathan because his career was full of stories of ordinary men set into slowly unraveling, reality-challenging environments that irrevocably change their characters and push them past their limits—there are sketches of what Jonathan goes through already present in It’s A Wonderful Life, Rear Window, even the Thin Man sequel he was in. Jimmy brings the tone of boy next door, Capra-esque hometown normalcy that slowly gets turned upside down as he meets…

-Gloria Holden as the Count! who is pure gothic horror but laced with psychological complexity, wants and needs that push beyond the typical Universal horror aesthetic. She’s a perfect transition into the fantasy side of the story because she can meet Jimmy in his reality world….but chooses not to.

-the brides can’t possibly meet Jimmy in reality! They’re Betty, Lauren and Marilyn! They’re ethereal next level bombshells and the first sign this movie might trend a little camp. I expect their scene to dip into dream sequence imagery, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Vincente Minelli is brought in just to stage their entrance.

-I am hugely embarrassed to say I have not seen enough of Setsuko Hara’s work to tell you how her Mina impacts the tone, though I suspect she brings a quiet, steady, subtle quality that contrasts with Judy Garland’s mannered but sincere Lucy. There is absolutely an unnecessary talent show scene early on that gets Lucy singing in front of a crowd of adoring concertgoers.

-Toshiro Mifune needs no introduction. His Quincey is blindingly sexy and always finds the good lighting in every shot.

-Vincent Price’s Seward and Veidt’s Renfield up the, ahh, bisexual undercurrents of their scenes together into new dimensions. I fear again the movie tips a little into camp here.

-Sidney Poitier’s Holmwood brings us back to grounded reality; his performance is rooted in calm, subtle realism, with only the occasional explosions into grand emotional sweeps. This balances him really well with Judy’s Lucy, where she brings a flighty magical transparency and he brings the depth, intelligence, and calm.

-Mary Philbin suddenly tips the movie into silent film territory and goes a bit avante-garde as the agonized mother. It would be nice to have a shot here where Jonathan realizes, in some way, that he is suddenly soundless as pipe organ music ramps up over the scene and he’s left voiceless: he can only speak again when it’s too late to save her, and the movie switches back to talkie mode.

We haven’t cast some other players yet but this is what I’m seeing so far from the electorate’s choices :D

[mybeingthere]

Gerhard Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden, Germany, during the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or the Nazi Third Reich. Notably, some of Richter's relatives were directly involved in the Nazi movement, namely his father, a schoolteacher, and an uncle. Richter's mother, the daughter of a concert pianist, encouraged her son's early talent for draftsmanship. In 1948, at the age of 16, Richter quit his formal education and took up an apprenticeship as a set painter for the theater. The wake of war proved traumatic for Richter: two of his uncles had been killed in action, and his father had lost his employment. This family turmoil, coupled with the artist's early artistic training under postwar communist-driven ideology, eventually led Richter to seek his creative inspiration in nature over any political or religious affairs or philosophies.

Beginning in 1951, Richter studied at the Kunstakademie, Dresden, where he painted murals and political banners commissioned by state-owned businesses. During this time, the East German communist regime imposed a Social Realist style on all practicing artists; this policy effectively turned art to the service of political propaganda. In keeping with this development, the government banned exhibitions of American Pop art and Fluxus. These circumstances severely limited Richter's fledgling artistic style, as he was instructed to paint only landscapes in a manner heavily informed by pastoral romanticism.

Richter married Marianne Eufinger in 1957, and the couple celebrated the birth of a daughter, Betty, in 1966. Two years later, during a visit to West Germany in 1959, Richter discovered the work of contemporary artists Jackson Pollock and Lucio Fontana. Pollock's uninhibited splashes of color across canvas had a profound impact on Richter, provoking him to reflect on his own artistic ideology. Indeed, Richter began to question how a realist style did not seem to capture the energy, sense of truth, and spirit of artistic liberation that he observed in the abstract work of his American and European contemporaries. Supposedly "realistic", his work seemed to fail to reflect the underlying, tumultuous nature of reality itself.

In 1961, just prior to the government's official completion of the Berlin Wall, Richter moved to Düsseldorf. Once again enrolling at the local Kunstakademie, Richter intended to work in a more uninhibited, avant-garde manner; in the process of rethinking his approach to art making, he purposely destroyed many of his early paintings from the 1950s and the 1960s.

Continue reading https://www.theartstory.org/artist/richter-gerhard/

[roskirambles]

Horror Movie of the day: Opera (1987)

The Tragedie of Macbeth. Also known as “The Scottish Play” among those who practice theater, this Shakespeare’s tragedy is infamous for the curse it allegedly carries onto those who bring up its name beyond rehearsal: they shall meet disaster in their lives, ranging from seeing their careers ruined to dying on stage. As such, Betty is quite understandably nervous of her debut in the world of opera when she’s asked to replace lead Mara Cecova actress after she suffered a car accident while leaving an avant-garde version the play.

Indeed, soon enough her apprehension is proven to be well placed, for people around the play start dying violently. At the hands of someone obsessed with her.

Being the last collaboration between Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi, this film also marks the end of an era for the Italian director, being the last of his films to garner critical acclaim after a troubled production to such a degree the people involved believed Macbeth is indeed a cursed name. Born from Argento's own experience with the world of opera (as he contemplated directing a play for a while), the end result puts the stylish opulence of this medium against the more abstract world of modern theater, and blends them through the crazy horror styling Argento is known for in a dementedportrayal of murderous obsession. It goes from strident metal music to dissonant serenity in a heartbeat, while retaining the less colorful but nevertheless stunning photography of his 80's body work through and through.

If there’s any warts to the film, is that all of this ends up somewhat undercut by having one of the clumsiest, stupidest and most poorly executed twist endings in cinema history; Red Dragon this is not. Fortunately, the journey up to that point is more than worth the ride (and said ending is easy to ignore thanks to the movie's structure).

[kwebtv]

Series Premiere

The Untouchables - The Empty Chair - ABC - October 5, 1959

Crime Drama

Running Time: 60 minutes

Written by David Karp

Produced by Charles Russell

Directed by John Peyser

Stars:

Robert Stack as Agent Eliot Ness

Nicholas Georgiade as Agent Enrico "Rico" Rossi

Jerry Paris as Agent Martin Flaherty

Abel Fernandez as Agent William Youngfellow

Steve London as Agent Jack Rossman

Chuck Hicks as Agent LaMarr Kane

Frank Wilcox as Federal District Attorney Beecher Asbury

Barbara Nichols as Brandy La France

Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti

Nehemiah Persoff as Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik

Wally Cassell as Phil D'Andrea

Richard Benedict as "Fur" Sammons

Herman Rudin as Tony "Mops" Volpe

Betty Garde as Norma Guzik

Peter Mamakos as Gus Raddi

Norman Alden as Nitti Henchman

Walter Winchell as Narrator

Neville Brand as Al "Scarface" Capone

[pierre-hector]

Histoire du planning familial, de Malthus à la constitutionnalisation de l’avortement

Marion Sigaut, historienne, nous retrace l’historique du planning familial en France dont les origines sont américaines. Partant des idées de Malthus, nous passons par l’entre-deux-guerres avec les années folles en France, Margaret Sanger aux États-Unis avec l’International Planned Parenthood Federation ; la loi française de 1920 qui réprimait la provocation à l’avortement et la propagande anticonceptionnelle ; le Conseil supérieur de la natalité, puis le code de la famille, l’allocation de salaire unique, etc.

Ce panorama dépeint l’héritage U. S. d’Alfred Kinsey dans les directives de l’OMS pour l’éducation mondialisée des enfants ; l’entreprise de démolition des allocations familiales françaises par Pierre Mendès France ; l’influence d’auteurs comme Betty Frieman (U. S. A.) dans “l’émancipation” des femmes. ; le passage de l’allocation familiale à l’allocation de garde et la promulgation des crèches ; l’avènement du concept de paternalisme, puis de patriarcat ; la propagande démographique servant à faire accepter la dénatalité ; la mise au point de la pilule par des grandes fortunes américaines (fondations Rockefeller, Ford et McCormick), ainsi que sa défense militante en France via Marie-Andrée Lagroua Weill-Hallé et Évelyne Sullerot ; l’affaire des époux Bac qui a servi de tremplin à la mise en place du programme du Planning Familial, puis à l’abolition de la loi de 1920 et à l’élaboration de la loi Neuwirth qui promeut l’information sur les moyens de contraception dans le but de lutter contre l’avortement ; les glissements du sens des concepts [fenêtre d’Overton] tels que les “bébés non désirés” qui deviennent des “bébés encombrants”, puis des “bébés surnuméraires” ; l’opposition de Maurice Thorez (communiste, PCF) au programme du Planning Familial ; le militantisme de certains Protestants, de Sionistes, de certaines loges maçonniques ; l’échec de la pilule auprès des masses populaires, mais la réussite de la légalisation sur l’avortement ; l’aboutissement au contraire de ce qui était annoncé : peu de contraception, mais davantage d’avortements ; etc.

Enfin, la présentation du programme du Dr Richard Day annoncé lors d’une conférence en 1969 à la Pittsburgh Pediatric Society devant un parterre de professionnels de la santé. Programme dénoncé une vingtaine d’année plus tard, en 1988, par le Dr Lawrence Donegan dans un entretien accordé à la journaliste Randy Engel.

‣ Chaîne Youtube « Marion Sigaut », « De Malthus à l’Avortement », pub. 6 avr. 2024, (sans espace) https :// www . Youtube . Com / watch ? v=262LAgGLbBs (cons. 6 avr. 2024). ‣ Notes personnelles complètes au sujet de cette conférence (trop conséquentes pour pouvoir les publier via un post sur ce blog). – Pierre-Hector_Notes_Marion-Sigaut_Planning-familial.pdf —

Rem. 1 : Il serait intéressant de mettre cette conférence instructive et éclairante en parallèle de la notion de sacrifice, collectivement et individuellement, notion reliée à celles de la castration, de l’amputation, de l’impuissance, de la perte, du deuil, des rapports de pouvoir, des peurs ancestrales face aux éléments naturels, du bouc émissaire, etc. – Synthèse succincte sur la notion de sacrifice au sein du catholicisme. – Chaîne Youtube « Le Verbe Haut », « [CONFÉRENCE] Alain Pascal et Sylvain Durain "Le sacrifice humain VS Sacrifice divin" », pub. 28 mai 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8zTWRO9s1c (cons. 16 avr. 2024).

Rem. 2 : À mettre aussi en parallèle de l’interview de Pierre Hillard par le Media 4-4-2, « Révolution française, géopolitique et mystique », pub. 4 avr. 2024 (18). – Media 4-4-2, « Révolution française, géopolitique et mystique », pub. 4 avr. 2024, https://www.tumblr.com/pierre-hector/747037981668474880/r%C3%A9volution-fran%C3%A7aise-g%C3%A9opolitique-et-mystique?source=share

—

[citizenscreen]

TV anthology series “Colgate Theatre” premiered on NBC on January 3, 1949 #OnThisDay The first episode, “Fancy Meeting You Here” was directed by Hal Keith and starred Eva Condon, Betty Garde, and Mary Wickes.

[nerds-yearbook]

In 1961, a routine commercial flight was placed in jeopardy when they entered a mysterious air stream that not only increased their speed to an incredible amount, but actually hurlled them through time. The first trip took them back to the time of the dinosaurs. The crew managed to recreate the events and once more hurlled themselves through time. This time they found themselves in 1939. The runaways of that era were not designed for a plane of their requirements so they once more attempted to travel in time in hopes of returning to 1961. ("The Odyssey of Flight 33", The Twilight Zone, TV)

[undeadvinyls]

the juveniles ALL have weird and fucked up music tastes. lemme elaborate.

betty - grunge, even mf post-grunge, some hardcore stuff too. some lowkey nu-metal as well, but not much. fav bands are defo nirvana, soundgarden, alice in chains and stone temple pilots

jules - alternative/shoegaze. like. hard alternative and shoegaze. i could even say she listens to mf AVANT-GARDE. fav bands are my bloody valentine, slowdive, mojave 3, fugazi

cass - garage/skate punk kind of. maybe even ska punk. def loves melodic hardcore. fav bands are green day (but prefers the 90s stuff a lot), the offspring and nofx and also ramones

harper - fucking midwest emo/scene lmfao. loves every emo band in the world. fall out boy, jimmy eat world, bring me the horizon, etc. BUT my chemical romance rules the world for her

paul - prep among alts?? yeah. LOVES synthpop, and esp 80s-90s. depeche mode, tears for fears, duran duran, all that stuff. but he likes soft rock as well, but not much.

graham - HARDCORE punk. like rlly. you could call him a mf crust punk. the clash, bad religion, black flag, crass, and his beloved dead kennedys all rule his world

zach - ... nu-metal and rap metal. zach honey you think nickelback and limp bizkit are GOOD. anyways. fav bands are deftones, slipknot, linkin park, rage against the machine and system of a down.

[albumwalloffame]

Let’s talk about The Shaggs

Yep, I’m talking about this album cover again, why? Because some information, that quite frankly I should have looked up before posting this album cover as part of the Album Cover Wall of Infamy 2021 Advent Calendar has recently come to my attention. So, let’s talk about this information and why it makes this cover so much worse.

So, the first question I should answer is, “Who actually were The Shaggs?” and beyond just “The band behind one of the most infamous albums in rock history”. The Shaggs were a rock band formed in New Hampshire, and was composed of three sisters, Dorothy, Betty and Helen Wiggin. Now, one might believe that, it being the sixties and these three being kids, they heard some records and wanted to make their own music, and admittedly I thought that too, because I was, and really still am, an idiot. These girls were literally forced into being a band by their father.

Their father was a man named Austin Wiggin Jr. and when he was young, his mother did some palm reading and predicted three things about Austin’s future, two of which came true, and the third was that his daughters would form a popular band. So, when the first two predictions came true, Austin tried to make the third come true, and how did he go about doing it? Getting his daughters interested in music by buying records? Letting them go to concerts? Nope, he literally pulled them out of school and bought them instruments and made them become a band.

Despite this literally being the worst way to form a band ever, it’s also noted that Austin never let his daughters go to any concerts, or even really have much of a social life. Helen even said that he was “Inappropriately intimate” with her once. So yes, these girls were essentially abused into becoming a band to fulfill a prophecy from a man’s dead mother.

So, my comment about “These girls look like they hoped their parents didn’t see them on a rock album cover”, is almost apt, but I can’t say it isn’t somewhat accurate. They look like they don’t want to be here, probably because the quite literally did not want to be here, it is a very “We’re here because Dad would kill us if we weren’t” vibes, and I do think he would literally kill them, nothing makes a musician legendary like death. Austin seemed like the kind of man who would go that extra mile. However, and I am trying not to say “Thankfully” here, Austin had a heart attack and died at the age of 47. After the family moved out and sold the place, the person they sold it to believed Austin’s ghost haunted the place and donated it to the Fremont Fire Department, who used it for a firefighting exercise.

As an aside, I genuinely did not think you could have a crazier story in music than The Beach Boys, the band that had ties to Charles Manson. However, this surpasses all of that.

So, that is the end of this band right? Their father died and they disbanded? Well guess what, in the early seventies, some guy actually played a few of their songs on a radio show, and that man would somehow go on to have a music career. You probably think, “Oh, he was probably just some nobody lo-fi noise jazz musician”, but no, this man became one of the biggest names in avant-garde and rock fusion, in fact he was actually present during the PMRC hearings alongside John Denver and Dee Snider, yeah, Frank Zappa was a fan of this band, and is probably a major reason for this band’s cult following. You know who else liked this album? Just a little punk kid from Washington you’ve probably never heard of, his name was Kurt Cobain. Yeah, The Shaggs are partially to thank for the big Grunge explosion of the 90s.

So, is this still one of the worst album covers in music history? Yes, again, it has the ickyness of parental abuse on it, they look uncomfortable because they probably are uncomfortable. They didn’t want to be musicians, but because their grandma predicted they’d be a popular band, their father tried to make them into a band. It is kind of funny though, he never did live to see the prediction come true, because they are something of a popular band in some circles.

I guess my comment wasn’t the only ironic thing about this band, eh?

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]