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cantsayidont · 8 months ago

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BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE (1938): Frustratingly clumsy Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy starring Gary Cooper as an oft-married American millionaire who falls for an opportunistic Frenchwoman (Claudette Colbert), who really just wants to marry and divorce him as quickly as possible so she can start collecting his fat alimony checks and thereby revive the fortunes of her broke marquis father (Edward Everett Horton). With this cast, a Billy Wilder/Charles Brackett script, and the famed Lubitsch Touch, it seems like it ought to be a winner, but it's sunk by a disastrous lack of narrative direction and various unwelcome lapses in taste.

There are some very funny bits and an assortment of memorable throwaway lines, but the story lurches and lumbers, the main characters are unsympathetic in ways that aren't very funny, and Wilder and Brackett seem to have assumed that domestic violence was inherently hilarious. (In one particularly disagreeable scene, the Colbert character drunkenly urges her husband to kiss her, only to reveal that she's deliberately just eaten a handful of raw onions, to which she knows he's deathly allergic; he responds by threatening, with disconcerting seriousness, to murder her in her hotel suite, an escalation that's apparently intended to compensate for the lack of any actual punchline.) Cooper seems badly out of his depth, alternating between stoic stiffness and clumsy mugging, which means he's constantly being upstaged by the supporting cast (in particular Horton, who steals every scene he's in without apparent effort). There are some great pieces scattered throughout BLUEBEARD'S, but when it's bad, which it too often is, it's dreadful — one of the worst films from one of the world's great comedy directors.

MIDNIGHT (1939): Less than a year after BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE, Wilder and Brackett redeemed themselves with this sparkling CINDERELLA variation, directed by Mitchell Leisen. Again set in Paris, it also stars Colbert, who's in rare form as Eve Peabody, a gold-digging American chorine who masquerades as a Hungarian baroness with the aid of a wealthy fairy godfather (John Barrymore) who wants her to deflect the interest of a suave playboy (Francis Lederer) who's been making time with his beloved wife (Mary Astor). This is complicated by the arrival of the handsome Hungarian-born taxi driver (Don Ameche) whose name Eve has borrowed, who's been looking for her all over the city since she ghosted him.

Using CINDERELLA as a framework gives MIDNIGHT the structure BLUEBEARD'S desperately needed, and the fluidity with which the story's various complications unfold is a delight. Better still, Leisen brings out the best in a mostly superlative cast — just watching their expressions is a lot of fun — and gives the proceedings the air of Lubitschian wit and sophistication that Lubitsch himself had recently failed to deliver. MIDNIGHT does stumble a bit at the end, with the final scenes (featuring Monty Woolley as an irrascible judge) succumbing to the heavy-handed mugging the rest of the film had mostly resisted, but it's not bad enough to sour the stew. As a result, MIDNIGHT is at least in the 85th percentile of screwball comedies, able to stand comparison with better-known classics of the genre.

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camisoledadparis · 11 days ago

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … January 23

1893 – Professional "sissy" actor Franklin Pangborn was born in Newark, New Jersey (d.1958). If you don't know the name you've seen his work in old late late show movies. The character actor appeared in dozens of comedies always playing prissy, fluttery clerks, bank tellers, assistant hotel managers, and department store floorwalkers. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films "International House," "The Bank Dick," and "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break." Pangborn was an effective foil for many major comedians, including Fields, Harold Lloyd, Olsen and Johnson, and The Ritz Brothers. He appeared regularly in comedies and musicals of the 1940s.

When movie roles became scarce, he worked in television. For a time Pangborn was the announcer on Jack Paar's Tonight Show.

In his book "Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall", the film scholar Richard Barrios wrote that some people "will praise the artistry of Pangborn as they bemoan its misuse, while others will prefer to revel in both the subversiveness of it all and the actor's skill. Still others will just shut the whole matter out and deny that there were any Gay characters in film prior to the late 1960s."

In his essay, "Laughing Hysterically: Sex, Repression, and American Film Comedy," the scholar Ed Sikov argues that: Pangborn probably appeared "in more screwball comedies than any other actor — "My Man Godfrey", "Easy Living", "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife", "A Girl, a Guy and a Gob", "The Palm Beach Story", "Vivacious Lady", "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", "Design for Living", "Joy of Living", "Topper Takes a Trip", and "Fifth Avenue Girl" — probably because his character (the fussy, flustered, silly, and temperamental proto-Gay male) fits perfectly into screwball's world of urban extremism. A deft comedian, Pangborn elevated effeminacy into an art form. He makes himself an object of mockery in film after film, but he never gives up his dignity."

Pangborn died on July 20, 1958 after undergoing surgery. For his contributions to motion pictures, Pangborn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.

1898 – American motion picture actor Randolph Scott was born. (d.1987) He was known for his roles in films as diverse as Follow the Fleet; The Last of the Mohicans; High, Wide, and Handsome and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

In his earlier Westerns ... the Scott persona is debonair, easy-going, graceful, though with the necessary hint of steel. As he matures into his fifties his roles change. Increasingly Scott becomes the man who has seen it all, who has suffered pain, loss, and hardship, and who has now achieved a stoic calm.

Following the making of Ride the High Country (1962), Scott retired from film making at the age of 64. Having made shrewd investments throughout his life, he eventually accumulated a fortune worth a reputed US$100 million.

Scott married twice. The first time, in 1936, he became the second husband of heiress Marion Du Pont. Reputedly the couple spent little time together and the marriage ended in divorce three years later.

In 1944, Scott married Patricia Stillman, with whom he adopted two children. The marriage lasted 43 years until Scott's death in 1987.

Although Scott achieved fame as a motion picture actor, he managed to keep a fairly low profile with his private life. And therein lies the food for the rumors. Off screen he became good friends with Fred Astaire and Cary Grant. He met Grant on the set of Hot Saturday and shortly afterwards they began rooming together in a beach house in Malibu that became known as "Bachelor Hall." They would live together, on and off, for about ten years, presumably because they liked each other's company and wanted to save on living expenses. As Scott shared "Bachelor Hall" with Cary Grant for twelve years, it was rumored that the two actors were romantically involved, and that the name "Bachelor Hall" and the reported parade of women there were invented by the studio who wanted to keep their valuable actors away from any public scandal.

Randolph Scott & Cary Grant

In his book, "Cary Grant: Grant's Secret Sixth Marriage," author Marc Eliot claims Grant had a sexual relationship with Scott after they met on the set of Hot Saturday (1932). In his book, Hollywood Gay, Boze Hadleigh, author of numerous books purporting to reveal the sexual orientation of celebrities, makes various claims for Scott's homosexuality. He cites Gay director George Cukor who said about the homosexual relationship between the two: "Oh, Cary won't talk about it. At most, he'll say they did some wonderful pictures together. But Randolph will admit it - to a friend."

According to William J. Mann's book, "Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969," photographer Jerome Zerbe spent "three Gay months" in the movie colony taking many photographs of Grant and Scott, "attesting to their involvement in the Gay scene." In 1995, Richard Blackwell published his autobiography "From Rags to Bitches," where he declared he was lovers to both Cary Grant and Scott.

1959 – Scott Thorson, born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, is an American best known for his relationship with and lawsuit against the entertainer Liberace.

A teenaged Thorson met Liberace in 1976 through his romantic friendship with dancer Bob Street (a friend of Hollywood producer Ray Arnett) who was staging Liberace's shows in Vegas. When Thorson was 18, Liberace hired him to act as his personal friend and companion, a position that allegedly included a five-year romantic relationship with lavish gifts, travel, and Liberace's promises that he would adopt and care for Thorson. Liberace claimed that he had "more mink coats and diamonds than Elizabeth Taylor". Liberace also incorporated Thorson into his Las Vegas stage performances – for example, Thorson drove Liberace's Rolls-Royce onstage, and was a dancer.

According to Thorson, their committed relationship ended because of Liberace's promiscuous behavior and Thorson's drug addiction. Thorson also claimed that it was Liberace that originally started him on the drugs, but then when his habit got out of control, Liberace cut him off from all of his credit cards. Thorson stated that following his plastic surgery, the surgeon provided for him a cocktail of highly addictive drugs that included cocaine, Quaaludes, biphetamines, and Demerol. Thorson stated that since he was so young at the time of meeting Liberace, he would do anything that he could to please him, including getting plastic surgery so that he could resemble him, but he felt that their relationship was one-sided. He called Liberace both generous and possessive.

In 2000, Thorson was among several people featured in the British television documentary Liberace: Too Much of a Good Thing Is Wonderful. In 2002, Thorson was interviewed by Larry King on Larry King Live, during which Thorson confirmed that, in the midst of his relationship with Liberace, he chose to have plastic surgery to look more like Liberace at the pianist's suggestion. Also during the interview with King, Thorson revealed his chin implant had been removed earlier in 2002.

In 1982, after he was let go by Liberace, Thorson filed a $113 million lawsuit against Liberace, part of which was a palimony suit. This was the first same-sex palimony case filed in U.S. history. Thorson decided to sue because he claimed that Liberace threw him out on the streets with nothing. Liberace continued to deny that he was homosexual, and during court depositions in 1984, he insisted that Thorson was never his lover. Throughout their lawsuit, Thorson stated that Liberace referred to him in the media as a disgruntled employee, a liar, a gold digger, and claimed that there was never a sexual relationship between them.

The case was settled out of court in 1986, with Thorson receiving a $75,000 cash settlement, plus three cars and three pet dogs worth another $20,000. Thorson visited and reconciled with Liberace shortly before the entertainer's death in February 1987. Thorson said, after Liberace had died, that he settled because he knew that Liberace was dying, and that Thorson had intended to sue based on conversion of property rather than palimony.

A year after Liberace's death, Thorson published a book about their relationship, Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace. Thorson's book was later adapted by Richard LaGravenese and Steven Soderbergh into the 2013 film Behind the Candelabra, in which Thorson was played by Matt Damon opposite Michael Douglas as Liberace.

In 1989, Thorson emerged as a pivotal witness in the prosecution of gangster Eddie Nash, in the 1981 quadruple murders of the Wonderland Gang. For his testimony, he was placed in the federal witness protection program. In 1990, he was shot five times when drug dealers broke into his hotel room in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 2008, Thorson pleaded guilty to felony drug and burglary charges and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Previously diagnosed with hepatitis C, in the autumn of 2012, Thorson was diagnosed with stage II cancer. Since his diagnosis, Thorson has made public pleas for money to continue his medical treatments. Thorson had planned in 2012 to re-release the book Behind the Candelabra to coincide with the film's release.

In February 2013, police investigating a lost wallet tracked the use of the victim's credit cards to a hotel in Reno, Nevada. Thorson was found to be using the credit cards and was arrested. Thorson (who also uses the alias Jess Marlow, an alias he says that he acquired when he entered the protection program in the Nash case) was booked on a variety of charges, including burglary and using a credit card without consent. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years' probation in July 2013.

Thorson did not do well on probation. In September 2013, he tested positive for methamphetamine, but was given another chance. He subsequently failed drug tests again – twice in October, and again on November 1, 2013. He was arrested on November 19, 2013, after violating a court order to enter an inpatient treatment facility in Reno two weeks earlier. On January 23, 2014, his probation was revoked and he was sentenced to 8 to 20 years in Nevada prison. Thorson is currently incarcerated in Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.

2009 – If you think persecution of gays in the United States was "way back then" consider this item:

The Washington Post reported that the Maryland state police considered the LGBT activism group Equality Maryland to be terrorists. Equality Maryland, the state's largest Gay rights group, was among the peaceful protest groups to be classified as terrorists in a Maryland State Police database. The group was designated a "security threat" by the Homeland Security and Intelligence Division, which also kept dossiers on dozens of activists and at least a dozen groups. Police kept files on Equality Maryland's plans to hold rallies outside the State House in Annapolis to press for legislation reversing the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Police planned to purge the files before word of their existence became public.

However, the files were revealed at a news conference, where a dozen Democratic lawmakers announced plans to introduce legislation to prevent future surveillance of nonviolent groups. Police would need "reasonable articulated suspicion of actual criminal activity" before they could conduct surveillance, the legislation's sponsors said. Gov. Martin O'Malley also planned to call for a similar bill. The measure also would prevent police from keeping files on citizens, unless the information is part of "a legitimate criminal investigation."

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