#WomanEmpowermentWednesday 4 Times When Nora Charles was Full of Lady Power

#ManCrushMonday 7 Times When Basil Rathbone Commanded the Screen

There will never be another Basil Rathbone. His contemporary movie audience saw him as the imposing Sherlock Holmes, villains, aristocratic gentlemen, but most importantly, one of the swiftest and athletic swordsman cinema has ever seen. That commanding grace even helped in less active roles such as "Son of Frankenstein" (1939) where it seems he all but glides through the cerebrality Universal Horror did so well. In making over 70 films in 5 decades with 2 Oscar nominations and 1 Tony Award win, no one could take the place of this fantastic actor. (Although there's a comment in "The Court Jester" clip where it's speculated to see Neil Patrick Harris and Benedict Cumberbatch performing that sword fight together, but surely everyone wants to see that. ...)

The Court Jester (1955)

Dressed to Kill (1946)

Anna Karenina (1935)

The Court Jester (1955)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)

#ManCrushMonday Dana Andrews

Suave, incredibly good looking, and surprisingly a fantastic singer, Dana Andrews was a tour de force on both stage and screen. From playing a professor stopping a demonic uprising to a haunted PI enamored with a murdered woman's portrait to a World War 2 veteran, all his roles carries both charm and a certain weathered sadness all at the same time.

Laura (1944)

Daisy Kenyon (1947)

Ball of Fire (1941)

State Fair (1945)

Fashion Spotlight: Adrian

Like many designers before him, Adrian Adolphe Green started on the stage fresh off of transferring from the New York School for Fine and Applied Arts to Paris's. In 1922 while in Paris, he was hired by Irving Berlin to costume the off-broadway "The Music Box Revue." When his next employer, Cecil B. DeMille, temporarily moved into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Adrian became chief costume designer. There he would craft some of his most well known creations, including Judy Garland's ruby slippers in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and all the gowns in the deleted fashion show scene in "The Women." (1939)

Portrayals of Mental Illness in Classic Film: Anthony Perkins in "Psycho" (1960)

There would be no point in describing the legendary film itself, but Norman Bates is a fascinating character that could fill a whole article all on his own. Experiencing his father's death at an early age and being told that women and sex were sinful, somehow Norman was met with jealousy when Norma started to take a lover. Jealous, he killed both of them, but it is not known in this film how he developed multiple personality disorder, although having had suffered it before stealing his mother's body.

"DID [or Multiple Personality Disorder] is usually caused during childhood because of trauma that will prevent a central consciousness to form in order to help the protect the child they believe that the traumatic events happened to someone else. DID can be seen as a sort of coping mechanism. The psychiatrist speculates that Bates' could not deal with having committed matricide, and therefore Bates keeps his mother alive by "giving her half of his life" ("Disassociative Identity Disorder in Psycho")

Anthony Perkins may not have had the disease, but he had plenty experience. An only child of Janet Esselstyn and actor Osgood Perkins ("Scarface," "Gold Diggers of 1937"), Perkins experienced a plethora of negative experiences with both parents. With the absence of his father working both on stage and screen he "became abnormally close to my mother and whenever my father came home I was jealous. It was the Oedipal thing in a pronounced form, I loved him but I also wanted him to be dead so I could have her all to myself."

And like Norman Bates, a 5 year old Perkins watched his father die of a heart attack. "I was mortified," Tony says, "I assumed that my wanting him to be dead had actually killed him. A weight of guilt settled down on the boy's life. "I prayed and prayed for my father to come back. I remember long nights of crying in bed. For years I nursed the hope that he wasn't really dead. Because I'd see him on film, it was as if he were still alive. He became a mythic being to me, to be dreaded and appeased."

Tony's misappropriated guilt soon poisoned his life with his mother. "Because loving my mother was connected in my mind with killing my father, it became dangerous to love my mother." Unaware of what was happening in her son, Tony's mother unintentionally intensified his anguish. During her husband's lengthy absences, she had compulsively eroticized the relationship with her son,and now that her husband was dead her emotional demands on Tony escalated. "She was constantly touching me and caressing me," says Tony, explaining that her behavior continued into his adulthood. "Not realizing what effect she was having, she would touch me all over, even stroking the inside of my thighs right up to my crotch." ("Return of Psycho")



A Little Something Extra to Check Out:

Inside Psycho | Wondery

Friday Short: Hollywood Hobbies (1939)

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday #SilentFilmEdition Marion Fairfax

• Wrote Broadway hits such as "The Builders," (1907) "The Talker," (1912), and "A Modern Girl" (1914)
• Cowrote "The Blacklist" (1916) with William C. de Mille 
• Signed to the writing staff of Associated First National Pictures, Inc. where she worked from 1923 to 1925
• Developed own production company in 1921 Marion Fairfax Productions
• Formed an alliance with Sam E. Rork that would help production costs by having dual production on a single picture
• Directed husband Tully Marshall in "The Lying Truth" (1922)
• Production career started at Paramount 
• Wrote for the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company
• "The formation of Marion Fairfax Productions is not the result of a sudden decision or and overnight idea. It is the realization of a plan that I have studied and worked out for over a year. I believe there is a place for the combination of literary effort and motion picture presentation just as there is a place for the combination of literary achievement and stage presentation."

#ManCrushMonday 5 Times When William Powell Charmed the Pants off Me

After the Thin Man (1936)

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
The Thin Man (1934)

Road to Singapore (1931)

Mister Roberts (1955)

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

All The Times Nora Charles's Fashion Was On Point

The Thin Man (1934)

The Thin Man (1934) 

The Thin Man (1934)

After the Thin Man (1936)

After the Thin Man (1936)

Remake This: The Petrified Forest (1936)

Remake This...

Already having been remade in 1945 and 1955 on television, "The Petrified Forest" will forever be in the public consciousness as the 1936 film that ushered the great Humphrey Bogart onto the screen. As Duke Mantee, loosely based on criminal John Dillinger, Bogart was cast both for his likeness with the FBI's first "Public Enemy #1" and as an insistence by costar Leslie Howard who played their respective roles against one another on stage. Variety praised the performance as "leav[ing] nothing wanting."

Alan Squier: Kyle Soller
Gabrielle Maple: Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Duke Mantee: Adam Brody
Boze Hertzlinger: Jared Padalecki
Gramp Maple: Jeff Bridges
Mrs. Chisolm: Ali Larter
Mr: Chisolm: John C. McGinley
Jackie: Gael Garcia Bernal
Jason Maple: Edward Norton

Friday Short: Loony Tunes: Carrotblanca (1995)

#WomanLoveWednesday 5 Times When Ann Miller Dazzled

Stage Door (1937)

You Can't Take it With You (1938)

#ManCrushMonday Nelson Eddy in "Rose Marie" (1936)

With a mission to find escaped prisoner Jack Flowers (Jimmy Stewart), Mounty Sergeant Bruce never expected to serendipitously meet a girl while finding his hideout. It just so happens the girl is the ex-convict's sister and opera star Marie de Flor (Jeanette MacDonald) who must conceal her identity as she too is searching for her brother. Between beautifully sang songs from the Broadway show and Eddy's naturally smoldering gaze and stature, it's hard not to get a little flutter from staring at this gorgeous man.