5 Times When Lou Costello Made Me Happy in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948)

0:55-0:58

But especially 7:06-7:42

1:30-1:51

But especially 0:17-0:32

Don't ask me why, this part just makes me laugh so hard. 

Friday Short: Yul Brenner Wins Best Actor at the Academy Awards, 1957

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday #OscarsEdition Audrey Hepburn Winning For Roman Holiday, 1954

#ManCrushMonday #OscarEdition Humphrey Bogart Wins for "The African Queen," 1952

Opinion: Ryan Murphy's "Feud" and Why This is Probably a Bad Idea

Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange in "Feud" (March 2017)

Come March 5, Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story) will be bringing a new story to his home channel of FX. Instead of serials of famous trials (American Crime Story) or recreations of infamous classic horror scenes, "Feud" will be based on the acquired script "Best Actress" by Jaffe Cohen and Michael Zam exploring the behind the scenes drama during Robert Aldrich's "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and the relationship between Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) and Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange). "The series will offer a seductive insightful look at what lies behind legendary personality conflicts" explains FX CEO John Landgra.

A good majority of the public, classic film appreciators or otherwise, is perhaps a little too aware of the "rivalry" between Crawford and Davis but never knowing how it started or even why. The antagonism started as early as the '30s when Crawford's divorce to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. took over the headlines over Davis's newest film "Ex-Lady" or perhaps it was simply Davis falling in love with her "Dangerous" (1935) costar Franchot Tone who was dating Davis. Joan would end up marrying him making Tone her second husband.

Between the '30s up until coming onto the set of "... Baby Jane" in 1962, there were many choice words between Crawford and Davis ranging from "[Davis] never had a happy day, or night, in her life" and the prior having eyebrows like "African caterpillars." (Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford - Hollywood's Most Notorious Feud) But it also did not help that Hollywood or its marketing overlords also took part in this to some degree, consciously or otherwise. Warner Bros. would place Davis's other rival Miriam Hopkins and herself in boxing gloves for publicity stills in the movies where they war over a man (1939's "The Old Maid" and 1943's "Old Acquaitenance"), mirroring real life as Davis had a brief affair with Hopkins's husband, director Anatole Litovak. 

This blog post should really be titled "Ryan Murphy's "Feud" and Why This Blogger Will Forever Have a Beef with Him" because I do, in fact, have a beef. The Guardian best describes my feelings with the following: "Many of his series, especially Glee and American Horror Story, which he writes with co-creator Brad Falchuk, have been uneven and afflicted with ludicrous plotting." "Glee," for one, "deflated" after season 3 and basically became a fan fiction for characters than plot from season 4 onwards. Each season of American Horror Story tends to take ridiculous turns midway through and coming out as something completely different at the end. Thankfully, Murphy will have material that will ground the pilot as well as real life events, but what about the next 7 episodes? The first credits him with a writing credit as "developed by," so will he be helming plotting as well? But there are bigger issues than a not-that-great TV writer and his inconsistencies; this will be the blogger stepping into her natural INFJ ability for seeing this show in the wider scope and what this could mean in the distant future.

On my bio page, I mention that "people [do not change] over the last few decades" and film and TV will mirror this. "Feud" will certainly have no different appeal than the "Real Housewives" franchise or any other reality show, therein lying my first impression upon learning about this upcoming project. In our current political and sexist climate here in America, is it very fair to be putting out one more TV show highlighting on two women, although biographical figures, hating each other? Is this how we want younger generations of classic film fans to get their start watching two very tactless women of celebrity status as the actresses themselves or the magnificent characters they have helped create in such classics as "Jezebel" or "Mildred Pierce?" It's something to think about.

Oscar Winning Fashion Spotlight: Helen Rose

While known to have designed the wedding dresses of many actresses, including Grace Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Rose was an Oscar-winning costume designer. A graduate of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, she moved to Los Angeles in 1929 where she designed for Fanchion and Marco as well as the Ice Follies. At 20th Century Fox, Rose specialized in fashion or musical sequences. MGM would hire her in 1943 and would eventually be promoted to chief designer. It was at MGM she was nominated and won for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) and "I'll Cry Tomorrow" (1955).

"The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952)

I'll Cry Tomorrow" (1955)

Friday Short: Ingrid Bergman Wins Best Actress at Academy Awards,1957

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday Ruth Rose

• Broadway actress at age 14
• Wrote  "Son of Kong," "Blind Adventure," "She," "The Last Days of Pompeii," and "Mighty Joe Young."
• Traveled with husband, Ernest B. Schodesack while he and Meriam Cooper made their documentaries. Places include:
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Syria
• Rewrote "King Kong"
• Worked as a historian on an expedition to the Galapagos Islands commissioned by the New York Zoological Society 
• Credited with the end line of King Kong. "Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty that killed the Beast."

#ManCrushMonday #MenBeingCivilBadAssesEdition Vincent Price's Contribution to Native Americans and Their Art

While comfortable as the aristocratic gentleman and the master of horror, it was more than obvious Vincent Price had many hobbies. In 1951, he opened The Vincent Price Art Museum. He was a gourmet chef. He wrote books on art, criticism, and recipes, but there is a certain subset on his fascination with art that does not immediately go on his epitaph next to the voice on the Michael Jackson penned "Thriller" or a horror film actor.

"In 1957, Vincent was asked to become a dollar-a-year man for the United States government. "I was invited to be on the Indian Arts and Crafts Board [...]. All appointments were nonpartisan and our only recommendation was our interest in the American Indian. In other words, we were to try to find markets for their work, try to put them in touch with people who would give them a break. I was very excited because I was the only person on the board who had publicity value, because I was an actor."

"I was appointed under the Eisenhower administration [...] which is kind of surprising since I am a Democrat." [...] Vincent was appointed to three five-year terms; for the last, from 1967 to 1972, he was named chairman." (Vincent Price, a Daughter's Biography. Victoria Price, 2014)

Oscar Winning Fashion Spotlight: Irene Sharaff

With 5 Oscar wins against Edith Head's iconic 8, Irene or Sharaff or Irene Sharaff was born to create fashion. She was trained at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts as well as La Grande Chaumiere in Paris. She was an illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Under Alice Bernstein at the Civic Repertory Theater Company, Sharaff served a two-year apprenticeship as an assistant designer before her creations ever appeared on Broadway in 1932. Not only did she design clothes, but also contributed to scenery. Sharaff also contributed these gifts to Eva le Gallienne's 1932's "Alice in Wonderland," the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo, the American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet. Hollywood called for her and she would spend four years with MGM, under the Arthur Freed unit, from 1943 to 1945 then at RKO from 1946 to 1948. The rest of her years were freelance, creating iconic and Oscar winning fashion for "West Side Story" (1962) and "Cleopatra" (1964). 

"An American in Paris" (1951)

"The King and I" (1956)

"Cleopatra" (1963)

"West Side Story" (1961)