Xmas in Film: Bell, Book, and Candle

Witches, jazz clubs, drunken writers- not words traditionally associated with the holidays.  They do make for a unique take on the Christmas season, which is why today's film selection is such a Christmas treat.  Released in 1958, and starring the electrifying Kim Novak and her Vertigo leading man (and later day Christmas icon) James Stewart, Bell, Book, and Candle is an unusual film which sees that first act taking place on a very unusual Christmas Eve.

Directed by Novak paramour Richard Quine, Bell, Book, and Candle stars Novak as Gillian Holroyd, a bored, beautiful witch who owns a New York based African Art Store.  In the apartments above live her Aunt Queenie (famed character actress and former Bride of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester) and publisher Shep Henderson (Stewart).   Gil is fascinated by Shep, and when she discovers that Shep is engaged to a former college nemesis she decides to steal his heart for herself.  Using her magical Siamese cat, Pyewacket, she casts a spell on Shep to fall in love with her.  Shep is instantly smitten with her, dumps the evil fiance, and takes up with Gil.  The remainder of the film centres around Gil's brother, Nicky (played by the great Jack Lemmon) helping drunken writer Sidney Redlitch (played by comedy legend Ernie Kovacs) write a book about the New York witch community, Shep eventually discovering Gil's true identity, and Shep's attempt at breaking the spell that's Gil's put him under.  To be honest, none of these plots compare to the first forty minutes of the film.  I don't even bother with the final ten minutes which, like many films with a strong female lead, destroys everything about the character that makes her interesting.

Check out that awesome tree!

In spite of this film's shortcomings let's highlight what makes this film worth talking about - the Christmas scenes.  If you're looking for sleigh rides, people dancing the Reel, and turkey dinners look elsewhere.  If you're a witch you don't go in for that traditional Christmas stuff.  In the universe of this film, witches get dressed to the nines and go to the local jazz bar to hear songs about corpses at the bottom of the river.  I haven't even mentioned Gil's Christmas tree, yet.  Yes, witches have Christmas trees, and Gil's is a marvellous piece of modern art design.  Gil's wardrobe, designed by Jean Louis, is probably my favourite wardrobe in any film.  Seriously, the costume design of in this film is phenomenal.

As previously mentioned, this is not a great film.  It is a visual marvel with some creative details which make it something beyond the ordinary.  Here's a clip featuring the jazz club scene...

Three Festive Hollywood Pin-ups

Surprisingly enough, it is way more difficult to find Christmas pin-up pictures than it is Halloween ones (at least ones that weren't taken within the last five years).  Fear not gentle readers, I have come through with a few non-traditional pin-ups  for your viewing pleasure.  The one to the left is a picture of the star of White Christmas herself, Vera Ellen having fun while stooped upon a chimney top with bag and horn in hand. I'm not quite sure of the identity of the lady to directly below, but I think she's very brave to go snow shoeing in shorts and high heeled shoes.  The group of ladies in the picture at the very bottom of this page seemed to have moored their toboggan and fireplace on some one's shag carpeted stage.  At any rate enjoy everyone!

Xmas in Film: The Bishop's Wife

Films that feature characters who wear their religious beliefs on their sleeves (or in this film's case their collar), often fall into the dangerous territory of turning into overly sweetened tripe.  When angels are involved that tripe can become a diabetic coma inducing goo.  Shockingly though, The Bishop's Wife (1947) directed by Henry Koster, manages to sidestep that pitfall, in spite of starring a Bishop and the angel sent down from heaven to help him.  Mind you, it helps that the Bishop is played by the debonair David Niven, and the angel is played the equally suave and endlessly charming Cary Grant.  No Clarence Oddbody types for this movie.

It's Christmas time, and David Niven's Bishop Henry Brougham is trying to finalize the funding for the grand new cathedral that he and his congregation endeavour to build.  Unfortunately, all his efforts are at the expense of his relationship with his wife, Julia(played by Loretta Young).  The trouble is that our Bishop is so focused on the funding issues that he does not even realize the toll it is taking on his marriage.  After praying to god to send him help for his cathedral, Dudley the angel appears in his office claiming to be the answer to the Bishop's prayers. Everyone is charmed by Dudley and he soon inspires a wealthy old woman to donate her large fortune to the needy rather than to the cathedral; helps the community rediscover the old community church, and pretty much thwart all of the Bishop's, attempts to get the funding for his cathedral.  He also helps break Julia out of her sadness, further angering the Bishop.  Things get really sticky when Dudley realizes that he is deeply attracted to Julia. 

The Bishop's Wife is imbued with an incredible amount of wit and sophistication which acts as a safety net ensuring that the film never get too treacly.  When you have to lead actors who both perfectly embody the stereotype of the rarefied English gentleman playing against each other, there's not a lot of room for cheap sentimentality.  Representing the female side of the equation you have an actress like Loretta Young who brings a warm, down-to-earth honesty to Julia.  She is never a victim or a whiner, she puts on a brave face for her husband but her eyes give away the pain she feels at the increasing distance between she and her husband.  When she does start to experience happiness again, the feeling is so infectious that you can't help but smile.  The unusual triangle that springs up between the three never goes into crass territory, and feels original in spite of having a fairly obvious outcome.

Other than three great performances by three greats leads, this film features a wonderful supporting cast, beautiful black and white cinematography, and a merry dose of Christmas cheer.  Here's a most unusual trailer for the film.

What's Your Favorite Flavor of Retro Christmas Party?

There are some awesome scenes in classic films that display the chaos and debauchery of Christmas parties.  While I doubt that most Christmas parties of the era ever reached the level of drunken craziness that the ones in these three clips do, but it's fun to pretend that they did. 

Our first clip comes from the classic detective film The Thin Man (1935), in which the film's two protagonists,  Nick and Nora Charles hold an impromptu Christmas party for Nick's old cop friends (from when he used to be on the force).  Considering that Nick and Nora both consider themselves professional drinkers, it is no surprise that their party is teeming with booze, dancing, and one sad drunk desperately trying to call his dear old sweet, Ma.  Here's the clip...

Our second clip comes from Billy Wilder's Oscar winning film The Apartment (1960).  Behold the wonder of the office Christmas party in the sixties.  Men and their mistress secretaries smooch in the open, women dance salaciously on the desk tops, and the alcohol never stops.  Dionysus himself would be proud.  Take a look...

We travel a decade later in our third and final clip, to another Academy Award winning film, Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977).  For this party we see our romantic leads Alvy and Annie (played by Allen and Diane Keaton) head off to a California Christmas party, with all the schmoozing.  There's groovy music, drinks, executives trying to get meetings, and Jeff Goldblum looking for his mantra.  Funny thing is, it seems to be the most sedate of all three parties.  Here's it is...

Lucky Strike - What Everyone Wants to Find Under the Tree

That's right people, what wholesome well adjusted family doesn't want to get a pack of Luckies under the tree? Apparently in the good old days, it was completely acceptable to give and receive cases of cigarettes for Christmas.  If you've ever done a search of vintage Christmas advertising about 65% of the results are for major cigarette companies (major back in the day that is).  They've got Santa smoking Chesterfields, Bing Crosby in a Santa hat proclaiming the thrill he gets from Marlboros, and as in the case of the advertisement to left beautiful Hollywood star in their holiday finery with some cigarette paraphernalia.  Well if Joan Crawford's cigarettes don't kill the kids she can always beat them with some wire hangers. 

Below is a vintage Lucky Strike commercial, featuring a wholesome, bubbly woman proclaiming the joys of giving Lucky Strikes as a Christmas present.  Imagine ten packs of cigarettes in a box specially designed by Raymond Loewy- you don't even need to wrap it.  It can go straight from the gas station convenience store to under the tree.  She's even got a happy little ditty- doesn't it just make you want to take up smoking.

Those of you who are into Mad Men (Lucky Strike is a huge advertising account on the show) this is kind of stuff that ad agencies were actually coming up with in those days.   

Xmas in Film: Christmas in Connecticut

All right... this is the last time I talk about Barbara Stanwyck for a while.  Promise!  As I previous mentioned, Stanwyck made multiple films that occur around the Christmas holiday.  Today, I'll be speaking about the most obvious of these films 1945's Christmas in Connecticut, directed by Peter Godfrey.  There's Christmas in the title and a Christmas movie is what you get, which is actually not as common as you would think with many of these classic films.  Don't believe me?  Just look at TCM's annual Christmas offerings - many with a single scene devoted to something Christmasy to tie it in with the theme (speaking of TCM, I'm rather disappointed that they have elected to leave Christmas in Connecticut off their schedule this year).

Christmas in Connecticut features Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, a Martha Stewart type columnist for a popular House and Home magazine.  To her publisher and loyal audience she owns a farm in Connecticut, has a husband and baby, and is an expert cook and homemaker.  In reality though she is a bachelor girl who lives in a small New York apartment who doesn't even know how to boil water.  With the help of her dear friend Felix (played by the ever-endearing S.Z. 'Cuddles' Skall) and would be man (he wants to marry her, but she doesn't love him) John Sloan's own farm as inspiration she has managed to keep her ruse under wraps (up until this this point).  Everything changes when her publisher Alexander Yardley (played by another great character actor Sydney Greenstreet) demands that she invites a war hero to her Connecticut farm for a traditional Christmas.  Things get worse when Yardley decides that he would also like to come to Elizabeth's farm.  To keep the truth from coming out, Elizabeth agrees to marry John Sloan and with the help of Felix, create the illusion that she is the woman that inhabits the world of her column.  The scheme is perfect until she falls in love with the war hero (played by Dennis Morgan).  Hijinks ensue as Elizabeth and Felix jump through hoops to save her job and avoid marrying John Sloan.

This film is a novelty in Stanwyck's filmography, being one of the few roles where she doesn't have it all together.  In fact, she's kind of a passive character who allows much of the action to happen around her, especially when being pushed around by her publisher.  Part of the reason Stanwyck agreed to play the role of Elizabeth Lane was because the film she completed right before this movie was Double Indemnity, where she plays a cold-blooded seductress and murderer.  Due to the dark nature of the role, Stanwyck really needed a nice light role, which she found in Christmas in Connecticut.  You know what, she makes it work, and in the end we get to see a little bit of the strong independent Stanwyck that we know and love.

Ultimately, this film is completely charming.  It really deserves to be put on the same pedestal as It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol as a perennial Christmas classic.  Here's the trailer to whet
your appetite.

A Bombshell for the Ages: Barbara Stanwyck

Yes, I'm going to force you all to listen to me gush about Barbara Stanwyck again.  Take comfort though, if you're not on the Stanwyck bandwagon, after this weekend I don't have any plans to talk about her in the near future.  Just allow me two more indulgences.

For me no actress makes me think of Christmas more than Barbara Stanwyck (her male counterpart would probably be Jimmy Stewart) as she has made multiple holiday themed films, making her a natural for December's Bombshell for the Ages.  It is a funny thing to associate Ms. Stanwyck with a happy time like Christmas, given her penchant for playing duplicitous femme fatales, scrappy hardboiled dames who climb their way to the top, and tragic maternal figures; however, she could also deftly play wisecracking showgirls, screwy socialites, and charming con-women with equal vigour.  The bottom line is she did it all extraordinarily well, which is why she often referred to as being the greatest actress who never won an Oscar.  

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Stevens in 1907 to working class parents.  When Ruby was four her mother was killed in a streetcar accident and her father abandoned her along with her four siblings.  Spending her young life bouncing between her sister's care and various foster homes, she fell in love with show business at an early age and spent her teenage years working various odd jobs while trying to find a way into the business (she left school at a very young age with a string of fights and low grades to her name).  At the age of fifteen she got a job as a chorus girl and spent the next few years as a member of several New York choruses, including the legendary Ziegfeld follies.  In 1926 she was give a small role in the Broadway play The Noose.  It was initially a flop; however, after the play was retooled to give the newly re-christened Barbara Stanwyck a larger part, the play became a major hit.  Stanwyck soon was getting lead roles in Broadway plays and in 1928, Hollywood came calling.

Though her first films were not particularly successful, Stanwyck became a sought after actress during the thirties, playing a variety of tough dames who triumphed against adversity.  In the forties, as films grew darker, so too did the roles that she inhabited.  By the late nineteen-fifties film roles began to dry up and Barbara moved to television, where her career continued to flourish into her twilight years.

Throughout her career she was able to imbue all the characters she played with a world-weary grit cultivated in her own troubled childhood.  In day-to-day life she was known as being incredibly kind and friendly to everyone who worked with her, from the most powerful directors to the lowly crew members.  No one else in Hollywood could touch Barbara's reputation of being total class act.  Her own familial life included two failed marriages.  Her first to actor Frank Fay in 1928 ended in 1935 (there are rumours that their marriage was the basis for the multiple versions of A Star is Born).  Stanwyck married actor Robert Taylor in 1939, with their union ending in 1950 after Taylor's many infidelities became common knowledge.

While she never won a competitive Oscar, Stanwyck was nominated for the best actress Oscar four times for the films Double Indemnity (1944), Ball of Fire (1941), Stella Dallas (1937), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).  She was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1982.  In spite of her lack of competitive Oscars, she did win a trio of Emmys for her television work as well as several other honours throughout her long career.

Stanwyck passed away in 1990, leaving a massive resume of film and television roles.  Her unusual beauty and sassy brand of tough intelligence has never been duplicated.  I've included a clip of a TCM tribute to Stanwyck narrated by Jennifer Jason Leigh, which describes the awesomeness that is Barbara Stanwyck far more eloquently than I ever could.

Classic Christmas Music's Swan Song

For me, the era of classic Christmas recordings' end is signaled by one seminal music event in 1977 when two legends met to make beautiful music together. Yes, I'm talking about the historic duet of Bing Crosby and David Bowie on their version of Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.  Beyond that moment Christmas music entered a dismal period punctuated with a few minor bright spots.  How many modern R&B versions of This Christmas, or horribly glib rewrites of the 12 Days of Christmas, or worse yet Madonna's massacre of Santa Baby must we endure?  Funny enough though, this post is partially inspired by the recent release of a new animated cover of this 1977 classic, by non-other than Jack Black and Jason Segel.

I first read the story of this song's inception in a newspaper article published in the Edmonton Journal a few years ago.  Bing Crosby was looking for a British musician to share a duet with for his 1977 Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, television special.  Most accounts suggest that Bing's kids suggested Bowie as a potential partner, and Bowie, who was in the midst of creating his celebrated Berlin trilogy and getting sober (after spend the the last few year a slave to a massive cocaine addiction) wanted to be involved in a project that would help him move beyond the Ziggy Stardust/Thin White Duke personas that he had been known for throughout the first half of the seventies.  Each with their personal agendas came together to make this final classic Christmas song, although it was not without some friction.

When told that Bing and the show's producers wanted to him to sing Little Drummer Boy, Bowie expressed extreme displeasure.  He hated the song (a sentiment that I completely get on board with) and asked to be given another song to sing.  Enter Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Buz Kohan, who wrote Peace on Earth in under 75 minutes and arranged the two songs to compliment each other.  Bowie agreed to singing the new lyrics, and after less than an hour of rehearsal between Crosby and Bowie, Bowie's segment of the Christmas special had been laid down with little expectation that the performance would ever go beyond the special's broadcast.  Crosby died a month later, making this Christmas special the last project that he would ever complete.  Bowie continued on with his incredibly prolific career.

Since the special originally aired, the song has gone from an obscure oddity to a seasonal classic, given the poignant lyrics that still resonate today.  It is also charming to watch old guard Crosby banter with the undeniably original and strangely enduring Bowie.  Crosby wins me over more in the five minute segment than in any of the movies that I have seen him in and I could watch David Bowie pick lint out of his belly button for an hour and still be fascinated.  Here's the original segment from Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas...

A More Risque Side to Betty & Veronica

It's funny, given the wholesome nature of Archie comics, I have never thought of Betty and Veronica as pin-ups.  It took finding this image with the word pin-up in big bold red letters for me to finally make the connection.  With their buxom, nubile bodies drawn in a wide array of skin-tight sweaters, short skirts, skimpy bikinis, and in jungle or cavemen themed strips flimsy fur sarongs, they are a kid friendly version of the pin-up girl. Upon further research I discovered one reason for this.

Archie comics, like any long running publication, have undergone numerous changes over the years, particularly in character design.  As new artists are hired on to work on the illustrations, character designs evolve.  In the world of the Riverdale gang, one man was particularly influential in creating the version of the Archie gang that people are most familiar with: Dan DeCarlo.

DeCarlo, was an illustrator who worked for several comic book and men's magazine publishers in the late forties and throughout the fifties.  He worked on such illustrious comic books as Sherry the Showgirl and Millie the Model.  In the late fifties he began freelancing for Archie comics and was later hired on after he was told that he could draw "anyway he liked".  Though the next few years the Archie gang's familiar look evolved by way of DeCarlo's pen along with some of the salacious sensibilities he learned drawing for those earlier publications.  If you have ever seen artwork from Archie comics of the forties and early fifties they look incredibly different from DeCarlo's.  DeCarlo continued providing artwork for Archie comics throughout the rest of his career and created popular characters Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats.  He passed away in 2001.

Here are a couple more DeCarlo style Betty and Veronica Christmas pin-ups for your enjoyment.

Looking For Something Xmas-y to do this Friday?

If your in the market for a little bit of an alternative Christmas activity and are not afraid of the risque (and over 18 for that matter) then why not try Capital City Burlesque's Christmas Extravaganza? Doors open at 9pm this Friday at the Starlite Room here in Edmonton.  

I haven't had the opportunity to see Capital City Burlesque in action yet, so I'm excited to see if they are worth my hype (for what it's worth anyway).  But, I'm always looking for something different to celebrate the season and looking forward to seeing the ladies in action.  

Xmas in Film: The Shop Around the Corner

It's hard to believe, but I've actually gone through the first four days of December without talking about anything film related (non-animated, that is).  Well, that ends here as does my moratorium on talking about romantic comedies (I did say that holiday themed ones didn't count) as we look at the first Christmas movie of the season.  It stars a man who is ubiquitous with the Christmas season, starring in one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time- Mr. James Stewart.  But, we're not talking about It's a Wonderful Life today- that would be way too obvious.  Instead, I wanted to highlight Jimmy's role in another great Christmas movie, 1940's The Shop Around The Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.

The plot of The Shop Around The Corner is a very familiar (it was remade twice, as 1949's In The Good Old Summertime and 1998's You've Got Mail).  Two shop clerks who can't stand each other turn out to be each other's secret pen pals, with whom they are in each love with.  Stewart plays Alfred Kralik, a clerk at Matuschek & Company, a Budapest leather goods store and Margaret Sullivan plays Klara Novak, his fellow clerk/nemesis who turns out to be the woman of his dreams.  To be honest, their relationship doesn't really do much for me.  I find Margaret Sullivan's character to be incredibly histrionic and there are times when Stewart's character can be downright mean.  That been said, there are a couple scenes between the two that really shine - the scene where Stewart's character discovers that Sullavan's is his pen pal and toys with her while she nervously waits for her "pen pal" and the scene at the very end when Sullavan finally realizes that Stewart is her pen pal and they finally get together.  These scenes help make up for the rest of the film's lacklustre interactions between the two.

Now that I've taken care of the main plot of the film, I can focus on the reason that I really love this film- the subplots and the characters who inhabit them.  Like any retail establishment, this film is populated with an assortment of characters that give the film its life.  From the wise-ass delivery boy Peppy, to the kindhearted yet timid family-man Pirovitch, to the sleazy dandy Vadas - they all have their little backstories.  The biggest one involves the big man himself Mr. Matuschek (played by The Wizard of Oz himself Frank Morgan) who incorrectly suspects that Kralik is having an affair with his wife.  Prior to his suspicions he and Kralik had a relationship similar to that of a father and son, and this has a major effect on Stewart's employment and causes Matuschek to make an attempt suicide.  Not to worry though, this is a comedy and all turns out well in the end with everyone getting what's coming to him.

Everything culminates on Christmas Eve with one of my favourite Christmas scenes in any film.  Mr. Matuschek, who has just been released from the hospital has just given everyone their Christmas bonuses after a very successful Christmas Eve, looks to his staff (his one true family) for someone to spend Christmas with now that his marriage is over.  One by one they all tell them of their plans with friends and loved ones.  It looks like he's destined to be alone when he learns of the new delivery boy's situation (his family don't live in town) and he generously offers to take him for a wonderful Christmas dinner.  It's an unusually touching moment that makes the film for me.  Here it is...

An Early Xmas Present - Fashion of the Swinging Sixties Now on the Main Site

Great news!  We now have the latest page on our retro fashion review up on our main site.  In an admittedly lame attempt to tie the coming of the sixties section on the main page into our Bombshell Photography Christmas season,  I've used a screen shot from the Christmas episode of the AMC series Mad Men (episode 2 of season 4, entitled Christmas Comes But Once a Year, to be exact).  To be honest, it is the only picture from the episode that I could find that had a clear shot of some classic sixties fashion (sorry Christina Hendricks fans).  Oh well, Trudy Campbell (played by actress Alison Brie) has actually grown on me as a character.  If you've never watched Mad Men, I highly recommend it: if not for the stories for the series' brilliant recreation of the sixties.

To view our updated sixties fashion page click here.

A Bit of Holiday Auditory Nostalgia: Christmas Magic

The Christmas season brings out the most amazing array of seasonal music, considering the limited number of songs and the ridiculous number of covers that have been made of each.  Still there is something comforting about those old recordings made in the forties and fifties with their warm acoustic atmosphere, luscious orchestrations, and the use of a choral backing that has long since been abandoned in this age of cold, digitally manipulated music. 

As a child, my mother always used to play an old cassette copy of an LP that my grandparents used to own when she was a child.  It featured a number of orchestrated and choral numbers that to an untrained ear sounded like the usual old timey Christmas music of the era.  What distinguished it were three tracks the featured a singer who literally sounded like a grown woman trying her best to sound as if she were the most insipid five years-old to ever grace the planet.  My brother an I, not so endearingly, dubbed her the Neutered Chick.  A couple years ago I was feeling sentimental about the Neutered Chick and that whole album, and not knowing the name of the album, nor who the artists behind it were took up an evening of tenacious online research led me to both the name of the album and artist: Christmas Magic by The Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra, released in 1958.  The Neutered Chick's real name turned out to be Julie Valentine.  I managed to get a copy of the original LP (it's also available on iTunes now).

The Tracks include an orchestral version of White Christmas and Swing on a Star, the Neutered Chick singing Winter Wonderland, That's What I Want For Christmas, and I Want To Hitch  Ride With Santa Claus, and choral renditions of The Second Star To The Right, Carol of the Bells, I Saw Three Ships, Deck the Halls, I Love That Christmas Feeling, Away in a Manger, and Christmas Island.  Listening to it now, the choral tracks are the ones that really stick out the most to me (although, the Neutered Chick still holds a special place in my heart).

Upon receiving my own copy of the LP, I found a new reason to enjoy this album- the cover artwork is really great.  I enjoy the use of the old fashioned frosted glass Christmas lights draped around the girl and her beau.  It actually inspired a test photo session that a friend of mine and I held last Christmas.  I would like to fully imitate the cover with a couple at some point down the road.  If you and your significant other is interested you can always email us at info@photobombshell.com.  Here's a  sampling of the Neutered Chick.

Classic Holiday Animation Retrospective: Peace on Earth

I was thinking of talking about Hugh Harman's MGM short, Peace on Earth, around Remembrance Day, but I figured with its strong Christmas vibe that I would save it for December.  It's a pretty powerful short that nominated an Oscar for best animated short film way back in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, and it was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.  Peace on Earth features a Utopian earth that has been reconquered by the animals of the world after mankind has successfully obliterated himself from the face of the planet through modern warfare.  It starts with woodland squirrels singing a song that sounds suspiciously like Hark the Herald, but with the key lyrics replaced by the word, "Peace on Earth, good will to man."  A pair of young squirrels don't know what man is, so they ask their wise old Grand Pappy who relates the sad tale of how the race of man ceased to exist.  The short goes into dark territory as Grand Pappy relates the terrifying realities of war, with animated tanks, soldiers in gas masks brandishing bayonets take one and other out.  The animators used rotoscoping (drawing over live battle footage) to accurately portray what war really looked like in 1939.

The result is a harrowing piece of animation that I would imagine flooring audiences who were used to kinder, gentler animated short before and between their features-something from the Wonderful World of Disney, perhaps.  I have to say the ending is more than a little preachy as the animals take their cues from living in peace from the Bible.  It's a little heavy handed for a cynical gal like me... but the message of peace remains as topical as ever.  Little has changed in the world as we still teeter on the brink of complete annihilation.  I take comfort in the fact that in this post-apocalypse the animals survive.  This short was remade in 1955 by Hanna-Barbara, under the new name Good Will to Men.  Here's the original short in all its glory...

Welcome to Bombshell Photography's Official Christmas Kick Off!

Christmas time is here, and we've got something very special to celebrate the  beginning of the Christmas season here on the blog.  As the official beginning to the season we have some Christmas themed pin-ups featuring myself and Lady B to help spread some Christmas cheer.

Classic Romantic Comedies Vol. 7: Sabrina

Since, my last post had a bit of an Audrey Hepburn flavour to it and December (and the blog's official Christmas season) looms upon the horizon, I figure now is as good a time as any to put up my final regular Classic Romantic Comedies post (at least in the foreseeable future, and not including certain holiday themed Romantic Comedies).   Many of Audrey Hepburn's films, especially those from her early career can be considered classic romantic comedies.  Audrey Hepburn is the prototypical manic pixie dream girl (if you're not familiar with the term it was originally coined by A.V. Club writer Nathan Rabin, here's a link to an A.V. Club Inventory of top films featuring manic pixie dream girls) and in these films she is pair up against a significantly older male lead and using her waif-ish charms teaches them to love life.  They also always fall in love with her during the process.  I could have picked from more than a couple of films from Ms. Hepburn's filmography, including Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's, however for me there is one Hepburn film that surmounts both of those.  Incidentally, I think it is often overlooked in favour of those former two.  It is 1954's Sabrina, directed by Billy Wilder.

Sabrina, stars Audrey Hepburn, as the titular Sabrina, daughter of the impossibly rich Larrabee family's chauffeur.  Sabrina is in love with the Larrabee's younger playboy son David, played by William Holden,  but he doesn't know that she exists.  She contents herself by watching him from tree tops of the Larrabee estate during Larrabee parties as David romances other girls.  Sabrina's father sends her to Paris to learn to be a great chef, and hopefully get over David.  While in Paris she does learn to be a great cook, she also learns how to embrace life, gains a fashionable Givenchy wardrobe, and a sophisticated new haircut.  When she comes back home to America and the Larrabee estate, something wonderful happens.  David finally notices Sabrina.  In fact he is so taken with her that he invites her to the latest Larrabee party and starts wooing her.  This doesn't sit well with the rest of the Larrabee family, especially older brother Linus, played by Humphrey Bogart, whose latest business deal hinges on the marriage of David to the daughter of an important business associate.  He quickly neutralizes David via champagne glass injury, and sets about winning Sabrina's heart for himself in a cruel plan to trick her into going back to Paris.  What Linus doesn't account for is his own development of feelings for Sabrina.

Sabrina was adapted from the stage play, Sabrina Fair, by Billy Wilder.  Wilder imbues the script with the appropriate amount of cynicism balanced with witty dialogue and an appropriate amount of physical comedy.  It really plays up the upstairs downstairs quality of this story with the Larrabee servants championing Sabrina's relationship with David (with the exception of her father who is a staunch opponent of rising above one's station in life), and David and Linus' status obsessed parents (particularly their father who shares Sabrina's father's opinions).  The scenes between Linus, David, and their father are hilarious, especially when involving David's unfortunate injury and Larrabee senior's disgust with his sons and their entanglement with Sabrina.  Both Bogart and Holden do a fabulous job in their roles, Bogart being a particular surprise as old brother Linus.  While many think he was miscast in this role, I think he is appropriate as a man who has devoted his life and youth to business who is finally shaken out of his funk by this effervescent young woman.

As for the effervescent young woman, this is one film where Hepburn does not fall into twee territory.  She manages to play her girlish enthusiasm with a certain dignity that seemed to elude her in later roles.  She is utterly fascinating to watch and steals practically every scene that she is in.  This is a film that is a complete confection that doesn't leave your hands sticky.  I like to watch it on a dreary November night in anticipation of Christmas...

Here's the trailer...

Retro Ad #5 - Think Pink!

In today's sampling of retro ads, I've found a pair of print advertisements from the late sixties; both for Lustre Creme shampoo and both proclaiming that pink is for girls.  Yup, before it became the international hue of  breast cancer, pink was all about selling lustre creme shampoo.  Personally, I've never been a big fan of pink and the bold statement that pink is for girls would have sent me running to the Breck shampoo section (another vintage brand of shampoo).

I do like the bright graphics surrounding our lady lovely locks in these two pictures, but the colour of the bottle makes me think that using Lustre Creme would be akin to using Mr. Bubble in your hair (both bottles are the exact same bubble gum pink colour).  Moving away from the colours and to the model featured in both ads- doesn't she bare an uncanny resemblance to Audrey Hepburn?  I've been scouring the Internet to see if that actually is Ms. Hepburn, but have come up empty handed.  I certainly can't see Audrey Hepburn, who would have been in her mid-to-late thirties by this point would agree to sitting in a barrel and using a phone as a loofah.  Mind you, people have done stranger things for money.

Classic Romantic Comedies Vol. 6: Ball of Fire

Nineteen forty-one was a banner year for Ms. Barbara Stanwyck, and today we're exploring her second great comedy of the year.  This would be the film for which she earn her second of four Oscar nominations and her second staring opposite Gary Cooper that year.  Adding to it's pedigree is the that it features the directorial talents of the magnificent Howard Hawks and was co-written by a man who would go on to direct some of the greatest films (both comedies and dramas) of the classic era-the legendary Billy Wilder.  Unless you've completely ignored the title of this post that you've probably already guessed that it is indeed, Ball of Fire. 

Stanwyck stars as nightclub singer and gangster's moll Sugarpuss O'Shea, who finds herself on the run from the cops when they come looking to get her testimony against her man's (played by Dana Andrews) involvement in a murder.  She finds a safe haven in a house inhabited by eight professors who have cloistered themselves off from the world to write a great encyclopedia.  Like a more subversive version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, seven of the professors are cute older gentlemen and the eighth is a nerdy version of prince charming, Bertram "Pottsy" Potts, played by Gary Cooper.   Sugarpuss pushes her way into the eight scientist's lives by promising to teach Potts, the grammar professor, all about slang.  Chaos reigns as the eight professors fall under Sugarpuss' spell.  Before long Pottsy is proposing marriage, but Sugarpuss' gangster beau looms in the background with his own proposal ( a wife can't testify against her husband, after all).  Who will the fair maiden choose?

Ball of Fire has an abundance of charm that comes not only from the leads, but the supporting cast who bring the film many of its great comedic moments.  Nowhere is this more felt than from the seven gentlemen who play the professors, who scuttle about getting into the sort of trouble you would imagine their cartoon Disney counterparts would had they been faced with the mob.  Cooper plays the bland studious Potts appropriately naive and befuddled while Stanwyck turns on her trademark charm and intelligence bringing yet another memorable performance to the screen.

This is an adorable gem that puts a delightfully screwy spin on an old favourite.  Here's a clip...

Classic Romantic Comedies Vol. 5: The Lady Eve

Today's instalment in our series on classic romantic comedies comes to the film that easily wins out over all classic Hollywood films as my absolute favourite of all time.  It features my favorite first lady of Hollywood, Barbara Stanwyck, co-stars her The Mad Miss Manton leading man Henry Fonda, and is directed by a man whose name is right up with Lubitch's as one of the great comedy writer/directors of the golden age of Hollywood, Mr. Preston Sturges.  Preston Sturges directed several comedies in the late thirties and early forties that have been hailed classics by critics and audience members alike, including his Hollywood satire Sullivan's Travels, his political satire The Great McGinty, and his divorce satire Palm Beach Story.  However, the film that is most commonly brought up in a discussion of the great films of Preston Sturges is 1941's The Lady Eve. 

The Lady Eve features Stanwyck as con-artist Jean Harrington, who with her card sharp father and their faithful assistant Gerald roam trans-continental cruise ships relieving wealthy travels of some of their riches.  On this particular cruise their mark is wealthy ale hair, Charles "Hopsy" Pike, an ophiologist who has been up the amazon for a year studying snakes.  Hopsy is as naive as they come and easily falls under Jean's spell.  What Jean doesn't account for, is her own development of feelings for Hopsy.  When he proposes she decides to reform and saves him from being another one of her father's victims.  Unfortunately, he discovers her former occupation and cruelly dumps her, devastating Jean and leaving her wanting revenge.  In a bold act of anger and defiance she takes on a new identity as The Lady Eve Sidwitch and walks right back into Hopsy's life and dares him to call her bluff.  Hijinks ensue.

What makes Sturges' style different from Lubitch, is that he embraces pratfalls wholeheartedly.  In some of his other films this is often to the film's detriment; however, in The Lady Eve, Sturges manages to balance the physical comedy with romance.  The biggest asset this film has going for it is the performance of Barbara Stanwyck.  As usual, Stanwyck's character is the smartest person in the room, but in addition to this she manages to imbue this character, who for all intensive purposes is an out-and-out predator, with a remarkable amount of sympathy and heart.  As she starts falling for Hopsy, we see her tough-as-nails/world-weary demeanor melt away and the result is quite touching, making the character of Jean so compelling.  Stanwyck is able to convey her surprise and joy at finding love with Hopsey with an all so subtle change in the cadence of her voice and a look that infects the viewer with warmth; making it easy to get on Jean's revenge bandwagon when Hopsy breaks her heart.  A lesser actress would not be able to handle such heavy lifting.  I also have to give a shout out to Henry Fonda, as the terminally clumsy and naive Hopsy, for falling over (and into) a barrage of pratfalls that would make Charlie Chaplin proud.  The supporting cast including Charles Coburn as Jean's father Colonel Harrington and William Demarest is similarly wonderful.

I honestly cannot say enough positive things about this phenomenal film.  If you only watch one of the films from this series, this one would get my vote.  To further sway you, I give you the scene that has been described by many as being one of the sexiest of all time...

A Tribute to Brainy Bombshell: Natalie Portman

We love Natalie Portman! Her eloquence and charm throughout the ages have left us wanting more of this lady and now, we get to see her again this December in the psychological thriller, Black Swan.

To pay our respects, we used our own makeup artisty and photography handiwork to come up with our own rendition of the Black Swan movie poster. Check it out:

Retro Commercial #2: Respond Hairspray

Here we have it ladies, a window into the mind of a man on a blind date.   Apparently, all men can think about is the texture of our hair - and sticky hair is out.  This commercial leads us to believe that  this was the cause of all single women's woes in the early sixties.  However, the people of Respond have finally found a way to harness the power of protein to make sure that these women have perfect flips.  Enjoy!

A Bombshell for the Ages: Dame Diana Rigg

Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, more famously know as Dame Diana Rigg, rose to fame in the nineteen sixties as the catsuit clad bombshell Emma Peel.  She is consistently mentioned on lists of the all-time sexiest women on television.  However, unlike many of the women who have the label of bombshell branded upon them, Dame Diana has the acting pedigree that has allowed her to excel beyond her days as John Steed's partner in crime fighting.   

Born in Yorkshire in 1938, Diana moved with her family to India during her infancy.  At the age of eight, her family moved back to England and young Diana was sent to boarding school.  Her boarding school days were marked with unhappiness, as Diana felt  like a fish out of water there.  She found solace on the stage, devoting her time to perfecting her craft.  Her efforts payed off, and in 1959 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, with whom she performed until 1964.  In 1965, she exploded onto television screens everywhere as Mrs. Emma Peel on the British television series The Avengers.

Emma Peel was the second partner to super agent John Steed.  She seemed to be a master of endless occupations, could fight with the best of them, and had an impressive mod wardrobe.  What made Emma Peel such a unique character was her blend of sex appeal, independence, wit, and intelligence.  Dame Diana was somehow able to combine her own regal baring with an irresistible sprightly charm which managed to help ground the show during it's more extraordinary flights from logic.

Diana left The Avengers in 1968 to pursue other acting opportunities.  Some of the other highlights of her long career include a stint as a Bond girl in 1969's In Her Majesty's Secret Service, hosting PBS's Mystery for several years in the late eighties and early nineties, and appearing alongside Kermit, Fozzie, and the rest of the Muppets in The Great Muppet Caper (1981).  Dame Diana has appeared on the stage consistently in the years since leaving The Avengers, culminating in winning a Tony for her titular role in 1994's Medea.  She also earned her title Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1994.

Here's a sampling of the old Peel and Steed magic, for the uninitiated:

Retro Ad #4 - Buy War Bonds - Get a House and Gold Digger

This poster is a bit of an oddity from the days of World War  II, when the easiest way to provide support to the war effort, was buying war bonds.  For those who are unacquainted with the world of war bond, they were documents issued by the government  promising inflated financial returns in the years beyond a country's imminent victory in war, in exchange for money.  This money was used to finance a country's war effort, and the influx of cash was also used as a means to control inflation by taking money out of circulation.  Canada, the United States, and Germany all had war bond programs during the first and second world wars.

While most North American war bond posters usually portrayed various glorious battlefield scenes or scenes from the war effort back at home, this one is just bizarre.  It features characters from Li'l Abner comic strips, who were very popular in the day.  Li'l Abner featured a cast of hillbilly characters, who speak in a barely recognizable form of english and, for the purposes of the world at the time, are on the war bond bandwagon.  However, according to this advertisement, war bonds are more a means to get a hot babe and a house and less about helping the war effort.

The most perplexing thing about this poster is not the message, but the goings on in the background of the illustration.  Why is that old woman with the corncob pipe holding that old man upside down and cutting his toenails?  What does that have to do with war bonds?  I get Daisy Mae in a classic pin-up pose, but was the toenail thing a recurring thing in the comic strip?  I'm also amused by the old woman's high heeled boots.  If not for the boots I would have though she was a man.

Hollywood Canteen - The Club and Film

Since, we're within a few days of Remembrance Day (or Veteran's Day if you're American), I though I'd shed some light on one of Hollywood's bigger contributions to the war effort during the second world war. The Hollywood Canteen was the brainchild of actors Bette Davis and John Garfield, as a club that would provide free food, dancing, and entertainment to the serviceman and women who were on military leave in Los Angeles.  Hollywood actors and actresses would volunteer at the canteen in their down time doing everything from washing dishes, serving food, dancing with servicemen to performing onstage.  No job was too small for these big stars as volunteering at the Hollywood Canteen was seen as an act of patriotism. Looking at the roster of stars who volunteered at the Canteen (you can find it here on the Canteen's Wikipedia Page) shows a veritable who's who of celebrities of the era and the few exceptions are those who were able to make the ultimate sacrifice of going overseas to help fight.   The Canteen was in operation from October 3, 1942 to (American) Thanksgiving 1945.

One of the more interesting artifacts from the history of the Hollywood Canteen is the film, Hollywood Canteen, which was released in 1944.  The story of the film is pretty sparse, a wide-eyed GI on sick leave goes to the canteen, ends up meeting a galaxy of stars, is named the canteen's one millionth customer, and romances starlet Joan Leslie.  Trust me, if you're looking for a deep film you won't find it here.  What does make it a worthwhile watch is the endless number of cameos by many of the great actors, actresses, and other popular performers of the day.  There are a several musical numbers performed by Andrews Sisters, Joe E. Brown, Jane Wyman, Dennis Morgan, and a host of others.  All and all it's a pretty entertaining movie.  Here's my favourite cameo, by my favourite actress...

Click Here to view the Hollywood Canteen Trailer at TCM.com.

Beware of Loose Women! - Classic Anti-VD Propaganda Posters

While searching the internet for inspiration for our modern take on the classic wartime Propaganda poster, I discovered that there were a ridiculous amount of propaganda posters directed towards preventing venereal disease.  So much so that all my google image searches returned 3 anti-VD posters to every anti-Axis, pro military posters.  I'm embarrassed to admit that up until now, I was completely oblivious to this form of propaganda.  But, looking back at all of the books and films that I have seen regarding the war it makes complete sense.  I guess those Gene Kelly-Frank Sinatra musical adventures while on shore-leave films (On The Town and Anchors Aweigh, if you're curious) had a dark side after all.

In general, the easy women portrayed in these posters take on the appearance of dangerous dames who would star in the pulp novels of the era, albeit a little more sinister.  The exceptions would be the ladies to the left who look like a bunch of catty bitches talking about a loose acquaintance behind her back.  The girl directly below has her shirt buttoned up to the collar, but who knows she maybe she's hiding a wild side - and a wicked case of gonorrhea.  Here's a sampling of the more entertaining posters, featuring the dreaded V-gals:

This gal looks about 15 - This should say beware of under aged Lolitas

This gal looks more like the illustrations of blow-up dolls in old magazine adds

I've always enjoyed the term Booby Trap

Love the phallic symbolism here.  This girl is so sinister they've compared her to a deadly snake.  She also sucking on a very phallic cigarette.   I also enjoy that the dance club is called Shorty's

Why don't they just paint a giant swastika on this gal?

I don't think they'd mind the cooking of the goose so much.  You also gotta love the slang for prophylactic.

Classic Romantic Comedies Vol 4: Ninotchka

Today we look at a film directed by a man synonymous with the great romantic comedies of yesteryear, Ernst Lubitsch.  Lubitsch brought a worldly sophistication to Hollywood comedies in an era when pratfall laden screwball comedies were the name of the game.  Wit and cynicism replaced a pie in the face  in the universe that exists in Lubitsch's films (although, there's still room for the odd pratfall if the set-up was intelligent enough).  Lubitsch was also known to comment on the state of the world and derive comedy from the politics of the time - in Ninotchka, released in 1939, communism is in his cross hairs.

As the film opens we are greeted by Paris and all the palatial aspects that make it the source of all too many romantic films and songs.  Three envoys from Russia arrive with the hope of selling the royal jewels of Grand Duchess Swanna, who fled Russia during the communist revolution.  Conveniently, the Grand Duchess now lives in Paris and soon learns of her chance to recapture her lost jewels.  She sends Leon (played by Melvyn Douglas), man-about-town (as well as her favourite boy-toy) to help recapture her jewels.  Leon goes to the hotel where the three envoys (who are completely inept and well on their way to being seduced into the life of luxury that the west has to offer) and stalls their efforts to sell the jewels by further luring them away from their communist values.

Time passes and the Russian begin to wonder what the delay is in the sale of the jewels.  They send a fourth envoy, Ninotchka (played by the legendary Greta Garbo) to help move things along in Paris and to retrieve the three failed envoys.  When Leon meets Ninotchka he is immediately fascinated by this cold, humourless Russian woman and starts insinuating himself into her life in Paris.  Though she is a tougher sell than her failed comrades, Ninotchka soon warms to Leon and western life, and her icy veneer starts melting away.  Surprise, surprise she and Leon fall in love, which complicates matters when the Grand Duchess gets wise to what's happening with her pet man, and wants to retrieve her jewels. 

As you would expect the outcome is happy (this is a Hollywood film, after all), however there are real stakes in this romantic comedy in which characters must make choices and sacrifices that aren't always pleasant.  The dialogue is wonderful and the screenwriters (including, the great Billy Wilder) sprinkle in some jabs at Stalin and the realities of life in the Russia for good measure, while never straying too far into the darkness of the nation during that era.  The film also culminates in a very touching spin on the fairy-tale motif of the prince rescuing the beautiful princess.  The outcome is a warm feelgood film that would put a smile on the face of the coldest Russian in the joint.

Here's the trailer if you're still not convinced...

Bombshell Photography Supports Our Troops!

As mentioned in an earlier post, a couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to shot on location up at Edmonton Garrison.  In return for their generosity in time and heavy artillery, we were asked to design a propaganda style poster featuring the tank we used for our shoot.  The result is the image directly above: a blend of World War II style with our modern day Canadian flag and message to support our troops.  In the days leading up to Remembrance Day this message becomes increasingly topical.  We at Bombshell Photography are grateful for all Canada's soldiers, past and present, have done to protect our liberties.

For those curious about some of the other photographs we took on that bone chilling day next to the windswept hill, take a look below.  Our model of the day is one-half Andrews Sister and one-half Marilyn Monroe.  I hope you like it!