#samuel hoffenstein

[mask131]

What Oz could have been: the 1939 movie

Last time I talked about what Disney's "Oz: The Great and Powerful" would have originally looked like, based on the first version of the script. But today I want to talk about THE big Oz movie, THE classic: the 1939 MGM movie.

Everybody knows this picture, it became iconic and cult, and is such a big part of culture today... Yet, you might be surprised to learn that the movie could have ended up looking VERY different from the one we know today.

Indeed, the "Wizard of Oz" script kept being written and re-written and re-re-written by a dozen of different authors and co-authors, to the point that when it came time to credit who was behind the script problems arose to find an exact name to put on there... If you want to know the detail: a first draft was by William H. Cannon, Mervyn LeRoy's assistant, before the contracts were set and when everything was just beginning. Once the project started, the first full scenario was written by Irving Brecher, but he was then overtaken by another project and replaced by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who worked for one month over the script until a co-author arrived in the form of Ogden Nash. Then a third author joined the team: Noel Langley (he was the one who had the idea of changing the Silver Slippers in Ruby Slippers, and he brought the idea that the three Oz companions would have counterparts as farm helpers in Kansas). HOWEVER Mankiewicz ended up quitting the team. He was replaced by Herbert Fields, who only stayed for three days and didn't change anything, before being also replaced by Samuel Hoffenstein, who also only stayed for a few days without modifying much (or anything). FINALLY Noel Langley gave back the final product of the writers' team... Which of course was edited, rewriten and modified by a second team, formed of Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf. They were then brutally moved to another movie, and the script returned into the hands of Noel Langley to be again rewriten and adapted. One month before the movie started Noel Langley was given another co-author, Jack Mintz, and the second "final" scenario was delivered... Before being corrected and modified by a new author recently brought by Victor Fleming, John Lee Mahin. And THEN it was done!

Of the fourteen different authors that worked on the script, only three ended up being given credit in the final picture: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf.

The result was a project that varied wildly in production. In fact, while the final movie is still vaguely faithful though a bit loose adaptation of the original novel - the very first drafts of the movie had NOTHING to do with the original novel. The "faithfulness" to Baum's Wizard of Oz can be considered almost an accident as each rewrite got closer to Baum's story, only in an effort to get away from the older script... Anyway, here are some highlights and best-offs of the Oz movie we could have had:

The MGM movie has a lot of deleted scenes and songs, that were recorded but not included in the movie. Hopefully a lot of them were released online and can be easily found on Youtube, or elsewhere on the Internet. Most of them were cool reprises that were cut short for time: for example the song "The Wicked Witch is Dead" had a reprise after the death of the Witch of the West, sung first by the Winkies Guards and then morphing into the song being sung by the Emerald City denizens (fragments of this reprise were still used in trailers for the movie). There is also the very famous "Over the Rainbow" reprise that a scared, crying Dorothy was to sing while trapped in the Witch of the West's castle, before the Witch taunted her with an image of Aunt Em in the crystal ball. The reprise is REALLY touching and Judy Garland really put her best in there. There are also alternate takes which reveal a lot about what the movie was intended to be - for example we have alternate records of the "Lollypop Guild" which shows that the high-pitched voice of the final movie was actually an intent to create a "little boys" voice, to match the little girls of the Lullaby League.

The most famous of all these deleted songs is without a doubt the "Jitterbug" song. It was only cut at the last minute, and this brutal removal leaves bizarre remnants in the final movie (for example the Witch says she "sent a bug" to take care of Dorothy and her friends ; and when the Flying Monkey arrive they look sweating and exhausted). This was because originally the Wicked Witch of the West was supposed to send to the heroic party a magical bug (the titular "Jitterbug") that would have forced them to dance until exhaustion, so the Winged Monkeys could easily pick them up. This was however removed out of fear this would date the movie, and they were very much right... Because the entire pun on which the scene relies does not work anymore today: the "Jitterbug" being a specific style of dance very popular in the 1930s and 1940s, but that stopped existing beyond the 1960s. However the "Jitterbug song" earned enough of a fame to get included into the recent "Tom and Jerry" animated movie of "The Wizard of Oz".

Originally, a child-actress was envisioned for Dorothy, and the first choice was Shirley Temple. She declined (but she would later play the role of Tip/Ozma in a Marvelous Land of Oz production). When Judy Garland was cast, there were attempts at giving her a makeup that would make her look more like a child - but everybody pointed out it made her into a ridiculous "baby doll". The first plans were also to have Dorothy be blond, as she was in later Oz books.

Everybody knows the iconic, creepy look of the Wicked Witch of the West, but did you know she was supposed to be... beautiful? One of the main and biggest inspirations for the MGM movie was the huge success of Disney's Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since they attempt to recreate it, their original plan for the Wicked Witch of the West was to have her be a beautiful villainess evoking the Evil Queen of Disney. The original actres cast for this "glamorous witch" was Gale Sondergaar, and we still have shots of her in costume. However it was later decided to make the witch into an uglier, more grotesque character evoking a traditional fairytale hag. Mervy LeRoy was the one who wanted to have the "glamorous, sexy" witch but many (among which Arthur Freed) defended the idea that the witch had to be like Disney's old crone, not evil queen... So they decided to recast the role - leading to the arrival of the one of a kind Margaret Hamilton.

Speaking of the Wicked Wich: One of the original plans for the character was to have her be the Oz counterpart of... Aunt Em. Indeed, no Miss Gulch of any kind. Early on, Aunt Em was considered to be a meaner and colder caretaker to Dorothy, and the one who wanted to get rid of Toto - which explains why she became the Wicked Witch of Oz. (This idea was by Langley, the one who also had the idea of making Dorothy's companions into the farm-helps of Kansas) The Wicked Witch also had a son, Bulbo, an ugly and dim-witted man she wanted to make King of Oz, and who was... the counterpart of Uncle Henry. Later, when the character of Miss Gulch was created, she was given a son named Walter to match Bulbo, before the character was scrapped altogether.

The Jitterbug scene was actually a left-over of a much earlier version of the movie which would have put a strong emphasis on the "musical aspect". This version wanted Oz to be under the tyranny of a spoiled brat of a princess that would have outlawed all forms of music that were not classical music and opera ; young and hip Dorothy, however, would have brought the swing and the jazz from the 1930s USA and used it to win over the princess in a singing duel, and becoming a hero in Oz. Who would have played the princess? I had conflicting reports: some say Deanna Durbin (one of the early candidates for playing Dorothy, alongside Shirley Temple) was considered for the role ; others said it would have been Betty Jaynes playing a certan "Princess Betty".

The earliest version of the script we have (created by William H. Cannon) was heavily inspired by the 1925's Wizard of Oz movie (because yes, there were Wizard of Oz movies before the MGM one), and wanted to remove all forms of magic and supernatural from the story. The brainless scarecrow would have been a man so dumb the only job he could find was to scare crows in fields ; the Tin Man was supposed to be a heartless criminal that the law had forced to wear a suit of tin as a punishment, punishment which did encourage him to learn kindness...

Oh yes, everybody noted in the final movie how Dorothy favorizes the Scarecrow above the other companions. This is a remnant of the scenario drafts wher the final scene of the movie would have been the teary farewell of Dorothy to Hunk, as he leaves for agricultural college and she promises him to write him every day - implying a romance between the two...

People might note a bizarre editing during the scene of the companions freeing Dorothy - such as the door being axed down not corresponding to the door the group escapes from. This is due to yet another cut sequence: the door the companions axed down was to be a trap by the Wicked Witch, who was to imitate Dorothy's voice and song to lure the companions. Once she had captured the three friends, she would have used them as baits, forcing them to call out for Dorothy and to encourag her to take a magical "rainbow bridge" that appeared out of nowhere... Except said bridge would have been created by the Wicked Witch's magic, and while the rainbow was solid enough to walk onto for a certan distance, at one point it returned to being just light. The Witch hoped to kill Dorothy by doing this - but didn't count on the Ruby Slippers' magic actually preventing Dorothy from falling through the rainbow.

Before it was decided to have Glinda send snow to kill the cursed poppies, the original concept was that the Tin Man's tears would have awakened Dorothy (an idea that, as people pointed out, was reused in "The Wiz").

There was at one point plans for the Cowardly Lion to actually be just a... a regular lion that tagged along as a sort of pet with the team, and had dubbed lines, to be revealed as "Prince Florizel", a Prince Charming-type of character that had been cursed under the shape of a lion, and would in the end have married his lover, princess Sylvia (this version was one of Noel Langley's, and very influenced by traditional fairytales). This version most notably pushed Dorothy into being a secondary character: it was the Prince/Lion who was to kill the Witch, by somehow cutting her broom so it would fall into pieces while in the air. There was also a dragon the prince was supposed to fight. This version, being Langley's, was the one that included the Witch having a son (see above). In the older versions of this story, the Witch's plan to make Bulbo king of Oz was to have him marry princess Sylvia, heir to the Ozian throne (hence why Florizel's feud with the Witch is personal) ; later it was changed to the Witch planning to attack the Emerald City and dethrone the Wizard with an army of men, wolves and winged monkeys.

When the MGM learned that Disney was working on their own adaptation of the Wizard of Oz back then, there were brief talks of the two studios uniting their efforts to make a half-live-action, half-animated movie.

During the scene where the Wicked Witch threatens the companions at the cottage in the forest, the Witch was supposed to threaten the Tin Man by briefly turning him into a "beehive", aka filling him with bees, and after crushing one of the insects the Tin Man would have cried, causing his jaw to rust and be blocked.

Early on, there were plans to keep Oz as an actual magical place that truly existed - but the movie-makers of the time considered fantasy was not "sophisticated" and "serious" enough for the audiences, and so they added the entire idea of Oz being shown as a dream-world so adults could "buy" the movie.

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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★★½

Plot: A doctor experiments upon himself, hoping to scientifically separate his good and evil sides.

Review: Despite its high budget and a powerful performance from Bergman, this remake is not much more than a defanged retreading of old ground.

Remake of: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) Source Material: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Year: 1941 Genre: Sci-Fi Horror, Gothic Country: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes

Director: Victor Fleming Writers: John Lee Mahin, Percy Heath, Samuel Hoffenstein Cinematographer: Joseph Ruttenberg Editor: Harold F. Kress Composer: Franz Waxman Cast: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, Peter Godfrey

------

Story: 2.5/5 - Its strongest scenes are merely retreads of its predecessor's. Any new material is repetitive and overlong.

Performances: 4/5 - Shaky accent aside, Bergman is devastating as the abused Ivy. Tracy, though, is less memorable, with his Jekyll being solid, but his Hyde little more than a brutish criminal.

Cinematography: 4/5 - Striking, especially during Jekyll's transformation hallucinations.

Editing: 4.5/5 - Wonderful combination of of fades, dissolves, and cuts. Jekyll's transformation are standouts.

Music: 3/5

Sets: 4/5 - Lovely and high quality.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 3.5/5 - The women's gowns are gorgeous, but Jekyll and Hyde's costumes desperately needed more distinction.

Trigger Warnings:

Mild violence

Rape (off-screen)

Domestic abuse

Animal death

Animal experimentation

Misogyny (mostly critiqued)

[byneddiedingo]

Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, and Lew Morphy in Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)

Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, Dorothy Adams. Screenplay: Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, Elizabeth Reinhardt, based on a novel by Vera Caspary. Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle. Art direction: Leland Fuller, Lyle R. Wheeler. Film editing: Louis R. Loeffler. Music: David Raksin. 

Laura is a film noir spin on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with a Henry Higgins called Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) whose protégée is an Eliza Doolittle called Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). It's also a spin on the classical myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with the statue of Galatea he had sculpted, bringing her to life. This Pygmalion is a detective, Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews), who falls in love with the portrait of Laura, who he thinks has been murdered, and is startled when she walks through the door, very much alive. Classical underpinning aside, Laura has become such an enduring movie because of its well-scripted story and sardonic dialogue (some of it contributed by an uncredited Ring Lardner Jr.) and the performances of Webb, Tierney, and Andrews, along with Vincent Price as the decadent Shelby Carpenter and Judith Anderson as the predatory Ann Treadwell. But most important of all, it was directed with the right attention to its slyly nasty tone by Otto Preminger, one of the most underrated Hollywood directors of the 1940s and '50s. Like such acerbic films as The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) and All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950), Laura is full of characters one would be well advised to steer clear of in real life, but who make for tremendous entertainment when viewed on a screen from a safe distance. It makes a feint at a conventional happily romantic ending, with Laura supposedly going off with McPherson, but do we really believe it? Laura Hunt has shown dubious taste in men -- whom McPherson characterizes as "a remarkable collection of dopes"-- including the desiccated fop Waldo and the smarmy kept man Shelby. So it's hard to believe the social butterfly Lydecker has created is going to settle down happily with a man who, as Waldo says once, fell in love with her when she was a corpse and apparently has never had a relationship with a woman other than the "doll in Washington Heights who once got a fox fur outta" him. Laura is notable, too, for its deft evasions of the Production Code, including Laura's hinted-at out-of-wedlock liaisons, which are at the same time undercut by the suggestions that Waldo and Shelby are gay -- another Code taboo. (Shelby, for example, has an exceptional interest in women's hats, including one of Laura's and the one of Ann's that he calls "completely wonderful.") This shouldn't surprise us, as Preminger went on to be one of the most aggressive Code-breakers, challenging its sexual taboos in The Moon Is Blue (1953) and its strictures on the depiction of drug use in The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), and giving the enforcers fits with Anatomy of a Murder (1959). In addition to the contributions to Laura's classic status already mentioned, there is also the familiar score by David Raksin. (Johnny Mercer added lyrics to its main theme after the film was released, creating the song  "Laura.") And Joseph LaShelle won an Oscar for the film's cinematography. 

[shanghaifree]

Phantom of the opera movie lon chaney

Screenplay by Gerard Brach and Dario Argento

Dark, violent version lacks imagination.Įlaborate TV movie version of the Phantom story. Decent make-up, at least, but Englund’s performance as the Phantom underwhelms. Inferior movie tries to take advantage of Robert Englund’s NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET popularity, but Englund’s presence simply is not enough to lift this one up. Like everything else about the 70s, it’s far out, man. Chaney’s interpretation keeps getting better and better.ġ970s rock opera version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. The first half of this film is among Hammer’s best, but uneven use of flashback and the emergence of a sympathetic Phantom weigh down the second half. Not bad, and Herbert Lom makes for a sinister Phantom, at least during the first half of the movie, before he follows in Claude Rains’ footsteps and turns on the sympathy. Hammer’s foray into the Phantom universe. Memorable Phantom mask, but make-up by Jack Pierce is surprisingly ordinary. Claude Rains makes for a decent Phantom, but his sympathetic interpretation of the character is less effective and far less chilling than Chaney’s. Thoroughly entertaining movie, although I think Universal got confused when they made this remake and thought they were making a straight musical. Screenplay by Eric Taylor and Samuel Hoffenstein If you’ve never seen this silent classic, you’re missing one of the finest horror movies ever made. Chaney is the definitive Phantom, even after nearly 100 years. Certainly the most faithful, and the one which most fully captures the spirit of Gaston Leroux’s novel. Seriously, none of the remakes come close to matching it.īy far, the preeminent version of the Phantom tale. It’s the most compelling and exciting of all the Phantom films. I love this movie, from its incredible sets to its amazing Phantom make-up created by Chaney himself, to the way it tells its story. It still amazes me that the best version of this terror tale remains the original silent version starring Lon Chaney Sr. Today we look at the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA movies. Welcome back to THE HORROR JAR, that column where we compile lists of odds and ends about horror movies. THE HORROR JAR: PHANTOM OF THE OPERA movies

remains the definitive Phantom of the Opera, even after nearly 100 years.

[divine0]

songs to break the tedium of riding a bicycle, seeing one’s friends, or heartbreak

poems in praise of practically nothing, samuel hoffenstein

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2019) - #127: An American Tragedy (1931) - dir. Josef von Sternberg

(Warning: spoilers ahead.)

Two decades before the most famous cinematic adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy, the George Stevens-directed romantic melodrama A Place in the Sun (1951), Josef von Sternberg lent his unique talents to Paramount Pictures’ first version of the tale. Inspired by the Chester Gillette/Grace Brown case, a true-crime saga of ill-fated romance that sent shock waves through upstate New York in the summer of 1906, Von Sternberg’s film stars Phillips Holmes as Clyde Griffiths. Young Clyde is a social climber whose hunger for wealth and status leads him to kill his pregnant girlfriend, Roberta Alden (Sylvia Sidney), whom he met at the factory where he was her supervisor. Clyde imagines that Roberta’s drowning will allow him a happily ever after with a beautiful heiress, Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee in a rather small role), but the truth can’t stay hidden in the murky depths for long before the justice system catches up with him.

Wonderful Sylvia Sidney does her standard level of work as doomed Roberta, her acting suffused with a gentle but expressive naïveté. The MVP, however, is Phillips Holmes, who had maybe his greatest ever screen performance here as Clyde, the scheming proletarian whose lust for the finer things in life drives him to commit murder. Josef von Sternberg described his and screenwriter Samuel Hoffenstein’s conjoined interpretation of Theodore Dreiser’s source material as “the sexual hypocrisy of the [petty-bourgeois] social class“ instead of an assessment of Clyde Griffiths in terms of social mores and religious repression, but one thing is for certain: it’s a shame that the project wasn’t tackled by the director that Dreiser wanted, none other than Sergei Eisenstein.

[screamscenepodcast]

Your brave hosts face the music of the night in the 1943 adaptation of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA starring Claude Rains, Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, and Edgar Barrier. We loved the first Phantom, and we love Claude Rains, so what could go wrong?

The film won Academy Awards for Art Direction and Cinematography, so director Arthur Lubin delivers a delightfully pleasant musical! But... is it horror? Listen for more!

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 42:40; Discussion 55:49; Ranking 1:17:48

[randomrichards]

An American Tragedy

[brokehorrorfan]

The Mummy, The Bride of Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon will be released on 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray and Digital) together in the Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection on October 5 via Universal. 

1932's The Mummy is directed by Karl Freund (Dracula) and written by John L. Balderston (Dracula). Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan, and Arthur Byron star.

1935's The Bride of Frankenstein is directed by James Whale (Frankenstein) and written by William Hurlbut. Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, and Elsa Lanchester star.

1943's Phantom of the Opera is directed by Arthur Lubin and written by Eric Taylor (The Ghost of Frankenstein) and Samuel Hoffenstein (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Claude Rains, Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, and Edgar Barrier star.

1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon is directed by Jack Arnold (The Incredible Shrinking Man) and written by Harry Essex and Arthur A. Ross. Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, and Whit Bissell star.

The 8-disc set includes the 3D version of Creature from the Black Lagoon on Blu-ray. Special features are detailed below.

The Mummy special features: 

Audio commentary by film historian Paul M. Jensen

Audio commentary by Rick Baker, Scott Essman, Steve Haberman, Bob Burns, and Brent Armstrong

Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed

He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce

Unraveling the Legacy of The Mummy

The Mummy Archives

100 Years of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era

The Mummy trailer

The Mummy’s Hand trailer

The Mummy’s Tomb trailer

The Mummy’s Ghost trailer

The Mummy’s Curse trailer

An Egyptian mummy searches Cairo for the girl he believes is his long-lost princess.

The Bride of Frankenstein special features: 

Audio commentary by film historian Scott MacQueen

She’s Alive! Creating The Bride of Frankenstein

The Bride Of Frankenstein Archive

100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics

Frankenstein trailer

The Bride of Frankenstein trailer

The Ghost of Frankenstein trailer

House of Frankenstein trailer

Dr. Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.

Phantom of the Opera special features:

Audio commentary by film historian Scott MacQueen

The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked

Production Photographs

100 Years of Universal: The Lot

Phantom of the Opera trailer

An acid-scarred composer rises from the Paris sewers to boost his favorite opera understudy's career.

Creature from the Black Lagoon special features:

3D version of Creature from the Black Lagoon (Blu-ray only)

Audio commentary by film historian Tom Weaver

Back to the Black Lagoon

Production Photographs

100 Years of Universal: The Lot

Creature from the Black Lagoon trailer

Revenge of the Creature trailer

The Creature Walks Among Us trailer

A group of scientists try to capture a prehistoric creature luring in the depths of the Amazonian jungle and bring it back to civilization for study.

Pre-order Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection.

[behindthemirrorofmusic]

Day 9: Samuel Hoffenstein. A Jewish/Russian immigrant famous for his adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde and his contributions to the Wizard of Oz. Hoffenstein was the author of 1943 adaptation of Phantom.💖🕎💖

[penguins-united]

Books read in 2021

rereads are in italics, favorites are bolded

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

2. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

3. The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoit B. Mandelbrot

4. The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

6. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

7. The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

8. 101 Famous Poems (edited) by Roy Jay Cook

9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

10. If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

12. The Best American Poetry 2020 (edited) by Paisley Rekdal

13. Presence by Amy Cuddy

14. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O’Brian

15. Desolation Island by Patrick O’Brian

16. The Fortunes of War by Patrick O’Brian

17. The Surgeon’s Mate by Patrick O’ Brian

18. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

19. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

20. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

21. Double Cross by James Patterson

22. Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat: Collected Speeches by Winston Churchill

23. Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

24. Cat and Mouse by James Patterson

25. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

26. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

27. The Lies of Locke Lamora  by Scott Lynch

28. As You Like It by William Shakespeare

29. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

30. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

31. The Ionian Mission by Patrick O’Brian

32. King Lear by William Shakespeare

33. The Tempest by William Shakespeare

34. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

35. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

36. Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard

37. Treason’s Harbour by Patrick O’Brian

38. Watership Down by Richard Adams

39. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

40. Entropy and Art by Rudolf Arnheim

41. The Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brian

42. Field of Gourds by Robert Fisher

43. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart

45. The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O’Brian

46. The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart

47. A Short History of the Civil War: Ordeal by Fire by Fletcher Pratt

48. A Pocketful of Rye by Agatha Christie

49. Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing by Samuel Hoffenstein

50. The Big Four by Agatha Christie

51. The Letter of Marque by Patrick O’Brian

52. The Habit of Holiness by Warner Martin

53. Kidnapped  by Robert Louis Stevenson

54. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

55. Some Assembly Required by Neil Shubin

56. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

57. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

58. An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson

59. The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O’Brian

60. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

61. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman

62. The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

63. The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

64. Thief! by Megan Whalen Turner

65. Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

66. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Tuner

67. Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner

68. Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

69. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

70. Stranger Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

71. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown Author

72. The Second Shepherd’s Play by the Wakefield Master

73. The White People by Arthur Machen

74. New Testament NKJV

75. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

76. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

77. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

78. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

79. The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O’Brian

80. The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White

81. Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

82. The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

83. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter

84. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

85. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch

86. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

87. Selected Poems by Claude McKay

88. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

89. On Faith by Antonin Scalia

90. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

91. Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

92. The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett

93. I’m Really Dragged But Nothing Gets Me Down by Nat Hentoff

94. The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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★★★★

Plot: To test his theory on the duality of man, a scientist makes a formula that separates his good and evil sides.

Review: Darker than prior adaptations, this version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is fueled by a captivating lead and impressive special effects.

Source Material: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Year: 1931 Genre: Science Fiction, Sci-Fi Horror, Gothic Country: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes

Director: Rouben Mamoulian Writers: Samuel Hoffenstein, Percy Heath Cinematographer: Karl Struss Editor: William Shea Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert

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Story: 4.5/5 - Twisted, grim, and shockingly violent, it successfully explores the darkness that lives in even the best of us.

Performances: 4.5/5 - March is fantastic as both Jekyll and Hyde, and displays the best transformation acting thus far. Everyone else is solid.

Stunts/Choreography: 4/5 - Impressive acrobatics and decent fight choreography.

Cinematography: 4.5/5 - Beautiful shot composition and lighting.

Editing: 4/5

Effects: 4.5/5 - The transformation in this film is great. Special filters were changed in real time to reveal make-up that had been pre-applied to March's face.

Sets: 5/5 - Excellent and historically solid.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 3.5/5 - The costumes and regular make-up are solid but Hyde's make-up, meant to resemble a neanderthal, accidentally veers close to blackface at points.

Trigger Warnings:

Moderate violence

Domestic abuse and gendered violence (critiqued by the film)

Rape (the assault is not shown, but the lead up is deeply upsetting)

Sexual assault and harassment

Accidental blackface

[byneddiedingo]

Charles Boyer, Jennifer Jones, and Richard Haydn in Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch, 1946) Cast: Charles Boyer, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lawford, Helen Walker, Reginald Gardiner, Reginald Owen, C. Aubrey Smith, Richard Haydn, Margaret Bannerman, Sara Allgood, Ernest Cossart, Una O'Connor, Florence Bates, Billy Bevan. Screenplay: Samuel Hoffenstein, Elizabeth Reinhardt, based on a novel by Margery Sharp. Cinematography: Joseph LaShelle. Art direction: J. Russell Spencer, Lyle R. Wheeler. Film editing: Dorothy Spencer. Music: Cyril J. Mockridge. Ernst Lubitsch's celebrated "touch" was mostly a good-humored, occasionally naughty irony and a flair for pulling off sly sight gags such as the one that ends Cluny Brown: Cluny (Jennifer Jones) and Belinski (Charles Boyer) are looking at his book in a shop window when she's suddenly taken faint, followed by a cut to the shop widow in which a sequel to Belinski's book is now displayed. The gag works only if you've caught the set-up, a joke I needn't spoil, but it's a reminder that Lubitsch, like so many of the great directors of the '30s and '40s, learned his trade in silent films. Which makes it all the more amazing that he was so deft with dialogue. Cluny Brown is also a great showcase for its stars, Boyer and Jones, who were never quite so charming in any of their other films. Especially Jones, who was manipulated by David O. Selznick into so many roles that she had no business playing, such as the supposedly sultry Pearl Chavez in Duel in the Sun, a film that appeared the same year as Cluny Brown, but whose action seems to be taking place in another galaxy. That Jones could move from Pearl to Cluny with such grace suggests that she was a finer actress than Selznick ever let her be. Cluny also showcases some wonderful character actors, especially the always welcome Richard Haydn as Cluny's unsuitably prissy would-be fiancé and Una O'Connor as his mother, whose "dialogue" consists of clearing her throat. But mostly the Lubitsch finesse is what saves Cluny Brown from turning into the twee horror it might have been with its gallery of talkative eccentrics and off-beat situations. Instead, it's a refreshingly delicate comedy shadowed only by the fact that it was to be its director's last completed film, a reminder of the exchange that took place at Lubitsch's funeral when Billy Wilder sighed, "No more Lubitsch," and William Wyler replied, "Worst than that. No more Lubitsch pictures."

[shawnvanbriesen]

Laura is a 1944 American film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and Clifton Webb along with Vincent Price and Judith Anderson. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Betty Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel Laura by Vera Caspary. I like this movie. Dana is full of swagger and probably a good amount of booze (my kinda guy), Tierney is always amazing. But honestly, the fun of this movie is Clifton Webb and Vincent Price. Price's southern  'accent' alone is worth the price of admission. Simply put it's police procedural or whodunnit not really a film noir strictly speaking. The story is a fun ride though and Preminger's direction is suburb. #comic #vincentprice #art #drawing #illustration #cartoon #digitalart #sketch #clftonwebb #artist #comicbooks #happylife #comicbook #grateful #laura1944 #draw #genetierney #clipstudiopaint #artwork #comicstrip #funny #dccomics #scarlettunknown #carmella #love #artistsoninstagram #horrorcomic #danaandrews #oldhollywood #shawnvanbriesen (at West Los Angeles) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDQ9gbHAh1z/?igshid=e3rv3ocik8p3

[divine0]

Body to body,  A hell apart,  With her laugh in his brain And her loss in his heart. 

And she will bear him This bastard twain- The monster, Fear And the hunchback, Pain. 

A man may lie With her, and she Leave in his arms The salt of the sea;

A knife in his heart, And drouth on his breath,  Terror and Pain- But never, Death. 

- interlude, for a solitary flute iii - poems in praise of practically nothing, samuel hoffenstein

[sanspatronymic]

Oh, fun! Okay, I want to ask question i: who's your favorite poet?

Okay, this is the moment everyone loses respect for me as a dandy, but: I’m not that into poetry. I’m a simple person who likes predictable meter, rhymes, and amusing witticisms. I like Tennyson; unsung hero of the mid-century humor poem, Samuel Hoffenstein; and I keep a two volume collection of naughty limericks on my desk at work. That’s the extent of my poetic tastes!