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hotvintagepoll · 3 months

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Propaganda

Clark Gable (Gone With the Wind, It Happened One Night)—There's no proof that Clark Gable stripping in It Happened One Night caused the sale of undershirts to take a nosedive, but there's also no proof that it didn't do that. And either way, him saucily undressing for bed in front of a woman who was married—not to him—is too deliciously scandalous to ignore. He deserves votes for this scene if nothing else. He got an Academy Award for this movie! He could play comedy just as well as drama, he earned medals for his bravery as a bomber gunner in WW2, he competed in car races, he has a great mustache and perfect eyebrows for sexy smirking, he's just HOT.

Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field, To Sir With Love)—an unbelievably beautiful man, a complete class act. Something about his eyes breaks my heart every time.

This is round 3 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage man.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Clark Gable propaganda:

"Listen, he was "the King of Hollywood" for a reason and a suave motherfucker. Also a Major in the air force during WWII!"

"So Clark Gable was the king of Hollywood for a reason but honestly what makes him hot to me is his relationship with his wife Carole Lombard like if she loved him so she can't be wrong. Their relationship is so tragic like they met first when they filmed No Man of Her Own in 1932 and like there was nothing between them then but in 1936 they met again at a Hollywood party and this time things were different. Basically from that moment on they were inseparable and had to carry out their romance in secret until his divorce was finalized (he was separated when they met again at the party) and then they eloped in 1939 when he had a break during filming Gone With The Wind. They had a 20 acre farm together with horses, cows and chickens and they loved to do all those outdoorsy activities together. When they were apart for various work obligations they would send each other goofy gag gifts. In 1942 Carole was on a trip to sell war defense bonds when on the flight back home her plane crashed in the mountains of Nevada. Her death devastated Gable he flew to Nevada and demanded he be taken to the spot where the plane crashed despite the dangers posed by its location. Amongst the wreckage they found a hair clip he had given her for Christmas. Her death forever changed him he became more reckless and signed up for the US Army Air Corps in 1942 and he kept her bedroom unchanged in their home. He never stopped loving her when he died in 1960 he was buried next to her. I know Clark wasn't a perfect person and their is some speculation that she was racing home on that plane to him because she was worried that he was having an affair or something but relationships are complicated especially ones occurring in 1930s and 1940e Hollywood amongst two of the biggest starts at the time. (I just wanted to include this so ya know I'm not just looking at their relationship as all sunshine but like you can't deny the love they shared)

"They had an ineffable quality in romance, the ability to have fun together... they were soulmates who thought life was delicious, and they made everyone's life delicious around them" -Esther Williams

"GWtW is an epic stretching across years so Clark has a chance to show off a whole bunch of different sides, from Hot Outsider to Husband to Father and so on. But his most attractive is his final line of the movie, made only better by the story that he lobbied the Film Industry to ‘Let Rhett Curse!’ And who is more classic 30s Hollywood than this man?"

"Also apparently his name was Billy Gable then Glark Gable before finally landing on Clark Gable. A fact that I cant forget now glark gable lives in my mind now"

Sidney Poitier propaganda:

#sidney poitier #clark gable #hotvintagepoll #round 3 #fuck that old man!!!#i'd like to present the hottest man of all time: glark

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chezzabellesworld · 1 month

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Libra or seventh house 🎥✨🦄🐞🍄🪞🗝️♎️⚖️

Here we are starting off with the mask, which I feel very silly slapped. It slapstick kind of film with Jim Carrey, who has a really shitty kind of life, and then he becomes his other character in the mask, which is very labour like balancing out who he really is kind of like the naughty professor, but he takes a potion and he puts on a mask and become somebody else. It’s very funny and lighthearted for a libra like it also hurts like relationships with different types of people. Some of them are dodgy when he falls In love.

Hocus-pocus a bit of a silly one here which is on Halloween trying to hunt for children and take them away. Kind of season of the witches and the relationships between the witch assisted and what they are like and the relationship between the man that they turned into a cat who died And his relationship between them and the children in the film

All these films, now I think this is the most labour of them all black Swan, a very dark psychological thriller of adapting the films, Swanlake and how the girl has to embody both the white Swan and the black Swan. She goes through there psychosis becoming trying to become the black Swan while falling in love with her coaster who is to be the black Swan and her abusive relationship with her mother who doesn’t let her do anything else so put her foot out of place. She then becomes attracted to the girl and they have a lesbian that fling, or do they?

Gone with the wind, classic 1939 film with Clark, Gable and Vivian Lee as Scarlett and Rhett Butler. Scarlett is a spoiled Aries. I feel in the film with a Scorpio rising and probably a Scorpio Mars being her ruler but it’s all about her relationship with these different men and how she really love Ashley Wilkes, a man who is marrying us the best friend shares up and dance with Butler and it is during the Civil War times in America.

Last I have killed Bill I just thought it was a fast pace action film for a libra, and I added it to the list as the action film and dark kind of film for this list. I thought it had a bit of everything and that you could enjoy. actually we have she’s the man with Amanda bynes where she becomes her bar of Sebastian as a footballer where she has to pretend to be him and the things she has to go through is very fun and lighthearted.

#astro observations #astro placements #astro community #astrology #astrology observations #astro notes #fypage #astroblr #libra vibes #libra placements #filmslibrq #librafilms #films #7th house

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familyabolisher · 1 month

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hello! apologies if this is unwelcome, but i saw you posting about the glass menagerie and i was wondering if you had any specific thoughts on tom's monologue in scene six, especially the closing line ("i'm tired of the movies and i am about to move!"). i've always felt like i've missed something, that it's deceptively simple in the manner of it being about tom's discontent with his own life and wanting to change it, wanting to leave his mother and laura.

JIM: What are you gassing about? TOM: I’m tired of the movies. JIM: Movies! TOM: Yes, movies! Look at them? [A wave toward the marvels of Grand Avenue.] All of those glamorous people – having, adventures – hogging it all, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there’s a war. That’s when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone’s dish, not only Gable’s! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventure themselves Goody, goody! – It’s our turn now, to go to the South Sea Islands – to make a safari – to be exotic, far-off! – But I’m not patient. I don’t want to wait till then. I’m tired of the movies and I am about to move!

Yeah I mean, this is a really interesting bit! I think you're right on that it's Tom expressing discontent with his life and a desire to abscond from the Wingfield home, but we can tease out some really interesting readings if we think about what the 'home,' the 'movies,' the state of being in motion, all represent in the play. What’s immediately being said here—to my understanding—is that ‘movies’ (Hollywood, Clark Gable, &c.) are selling a fantasy of a particular way of living back to ‘the masses’ (if you will) as something of a tool of placation by which what the Wingfield household ideologically stands for comes into being. Williams situates this within a project of nationalism—how we make sense of ‘war’ comes to us through the language of adventure and ‘exotic, far-off’ spaces—and suggests that Tom wants to stop living orthogonal to, or as a spectator of, these narratives, and wishes to begin to inhabit them fully, by ‘moving.’ (Of course, ‘moving’ and the state of being in motion versus stasis is highly problematised in the wider play; by the end, we see Tom both unable to escape Laura and lamenting the fact that ‘time is the longest distance between two places.’ The point is, Tom here is watching a fantasy of American heteronormativity play out in front of him via our quintessentially all-American Jim, and realising that he wants to fully inhabit what the ‘movies’ are representing for him in-text.)

I think we can square this off against the argument I made in ‘Polishing the Statue of Liberty’—that Williams repeatedly figures sex between men, or even sexual liberation more broadly, as equivocal to traversing a frontier; I also think it’s important that Tom ‘going to the movies’ in Menagerie can be understood as signifying his going cruising. His desire for ‘adventure’ and drive to leave (the Wingfield house, the imposition of heteronormativity—he experiences his desire for Jim through Laura as proxy) is part and parcel with his desire for men, and leaving behind ‘the movies’ in order to ‘move’ means at once embarking on ‘adventure’ and homosexuality proper. & as I argue in that piece, these triangulated ideas are nicely boxed up together with the figuring of peripheralised sexual practices as acts of frontier expansionism. It’s a fairly neat example of what I was trying to explain here:

The individual Williams is articulated through and within the land, and the process of individual identity-making (through his infamously heavy autofictional tendencies) is carried out in negotiation with the process of settlement; long after the disappearance of a traditional ‘frontier’ as the whole American continent came under the control of the agents of settler colonialism, the lingering presence of a space which is conquered, ordered, and sustained and a space which exists beyond the processes of ordering and sustention is the key ingredient in articulating anxieties of American sexuality. In name, Williams as the momentum behind such figures as Blanche and Laura and Maggie the Cat becomes not just a man but a body of land; moreso, he becomes the ideology baked into the naming of that body of land as ‘Tennessee.’ As such, Williams’ plays, so frequently preoccupied with the artificial yet brutally enforced social limits of desire against the plenitude of the human spirit, necessarily anchor themselves in the landed space through which those same paradigms of desire that sway their movement must be understood.

TLDR he’s saying he wants to have sex with men lmao.

#ask #tennessee williams

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randomfoggytiger · 18 days

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Kibbe Body Types and Celebrities: a Beginner's Guide

(Credit to: Aly Art)

David Kibbe, author of Metamorphosis, drew upon previous fashion systems to create his own Kibbe Body System, homing in on the yin-yang balance of the body and boiling his method down to the bare bones-- literally-- of the overall frame: length, width, height, and softness. Then, he divided each feature into two main categories: the yin softness or the yang structure. The more “structure” a frame had, the more “visual weight” it presented; and the more “softness” it had, the less “visual weight” it presented.

At first, Kibbe sorted each frame into five main types with two additional subtypes. However, his system recently caught on fire with popularity, leading to vast misinterpretations or reinterpretations through over analysis and hyper fixation. Because of this, David updated his system (and is reworking on an updated version of his book), resifting his old designs into a simpler order.

This analysis will be working from the information I've gleaned mostly from Aly Art's channel here. She is incredible at stripping down each concept to its basics-- highly recommend. I also used Merriam Style’s channel for her body type test (here), which is an even more stripped version of Kibbe’s original body type quiz. (Aly's version of the quiz is here.)

**Note**: Kibbe Body Types are separate from the actual weight of an individual; and do not change with bodily fluctuations, changes, or even age. Example: Romantics will always appear softer compared to other body types their height or weight because of the “flesh” (natural padding of fat) over their muscles and bones, whereas Naturals will always appear more “mature” compared to older Gamines because of the visual weight of the bones (cheekbone, jawbone, etc.) in their face.

KIBBE BODY TYPES

(Credit to: Aly Art)

**Note**: The Kibbe Body System is a complete overview of the entire frame, not just the face: two different people can share strikingly similar facial features yet have completely different bodies. It’s important to assess more than one facet.

If we were to place the Kibbe Body Types on a left to right scale, Dramatics have the most yang-- sharpness, length, elongation, structure-- and Romantics have the most yin-- shortness, roundness, softness. In the middle would sit the Classics-- a balanced mixture of yang structure and yin softness; mid-left would be Naturals (yang elongation with blunted width); and mid-right would be Gamines (an uneven mixture of yin and yang.)

DRAMATIC TYPES

Dramatics

Dramatic Types have longer, angular, more narrow bones-- a vertical column, if you will-- that curve into points instead of “blunt” edges. They are moderate to tall (5’9"/173cm and up), and have prominent, straight, sleek features. If plus sized, they accumulate weight in their hips and upper thighs.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Sean Connery, Charlton Heston, Ricardo Montalban, Errol Flyn, Daniel Craig

Katherine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett, Angelica Huston, Diane Carol, Faye Dunaway, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kristen Wig, Maggie Smith, Taylor Swift

Soft Dramatics

Soft Dramatic Types have more softness in their bust and hips, giving them a powerful voluptuousness (as opposed to the Romantic Types delicate pure yin.) They are moderate to tall (5’7”/170cm and up), with a moderate waist and fleshier facial features, arms, and hips. If plus sized, they get heavier on the fleshiest parts of the body: bust, hips, waist, thighs, upper arms, and the face.

Dean Martin, Christian Bale, Matthew McConoughy, John Travolta, Nicholas Cage, Clark Gable

Adele, Ann Bancroft, Ava Gardiner, Barbara Streisand, Kim Novak, Maria Callas, Mae West, Rachel Weiz, Rita Heyworth, Sofia Vergara, Sofia Loren

NATURAL TYPES

Naturals have longer, blunted, wider bones-- a T-shape, if you will-- that curve into blunts instead of angular or softened edges.

David Kibbe no longer believes in the pure Natural Type, placing clients or celebrities into either Flamboyant or Soft Natural.

Flamboyant Naturals

Flamboyant Natural Types have a touch more structure: blunt, long, wide bones; wide, T-shaped shoulders; and a figure that narrows in a flat, straight line down their waist, hips, and legs. They are moderate to tall (5’11”/180cm and up), with features that are broad and angular, but not sharp. If plus sized, the body tends to become squarer.

Calvin Klein, Dick Van Dyke, Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, Tom Sellack (maybe), Michael Landon (maybe), Joe Biden

Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway (had work done to disguise), Bea Arthur, Brooke Shields, Cameron Diaz, Carly Simon, Cindy Crawford (quintessential, imo), Emma Stone, Farah Faucett, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ingrid Bergma, Jane Fonda, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Lucille Ball, Linda Carter, Michelle Obama, Nicole Kidman, Katie Homes (probably), Princess Diana Spencer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tracey Ellis Ross, Uma Therman, LOTS of supermodels (broad shoulders, long and straight waist)

Soft Naturals

Soft Natural have a softness to their long, blunt, wide bones, narrow hips. They are moderate to tall (5’5”/165cm and up), with smaller, rounder softness to their blunt facial features and frame. Their T-shape is less pronounced because of their more proportionate shoulders (in comparison to Flamboyant Naturals, at least.) If plus sized, SNs thicken in their upper arms, thighs, and hips.

Alan Alda, OJ Simpson, John Wayne, Robert Redford, Robert Conrad, Bing Crosby, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Gene Kelly, Brad Pit, Gene Hackman

Bette Grable, Carol Lombard, Chloe Sevigny, Doris Day (icon), Goldie Hahn, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Lopez, Julie Andrews, Kamala Harris, Kat Dennings, Katy Perry, Kim Bassinger, Marisa Tomay, Renee Zellweger, Sandra Bullock, Scarlet Johanson (had work done), Sissy Spacek

CLASSIC TYPES

Classics are an even mixture of both skeletal structures: their frames are mid-height or tallish-- symmetrical angles or edges-- with a “balanced” appearance: their arms, waists, and legs are proportionate in length and width to their overall frame (not too angular, curved, or blunt); and can handle more visual weight than Romantics but less so than Dramatics or Naturals. They appear naturally polished; and often are dragged down by elements in their wardrobes that skew too much in any direction (appearing overwhelmed or overdone.)

Kibbe no longer promotes pure Classic Types, insisting that no person can be a perfect mixture and discouraging his clients or followers from trying to fit themselves into an impossible mold.

Dramatic Classics

Dramatic Classic Types are an even mixture of yin and yang with just a touch more of yang’s structure, giving them either slightly sharper features, slightly longer limbs, or a bit less softness overall. Their height is moderate (5’5”-5’8”/166-172cm or thereabouts); and their figure and features are symmetrically squarish (more rectangular compared to Dramatics’ long and narrow vertical column and Naturals’ long and wide T-shape.) If plus sized, they gain weight in the hips and thighs (rarely around the bustline), becoming more pear-shaped overall.

Carey Grant, John Ham

Diana Rig, Gina Rollins, Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, Jill Biden, Lana Turner, Olivia Munn, Phylicia Rashad

Soft Classics

Soft Classic Types are a symmetrical mixture with just a touch more of yin’s softness, giving them either slightly softened features, slightly shorter and wider limbs, or slightly more “fleshiness” overall. Their height is moderate (5’5"-5'6”/164-169cm); and their features are slightly small and wide. If plus sized, SCs lose their waist definition and become fuller in the face.

John Slattery, John Glenn, Gregory Peck, Bryant Gumbel

Barbara Walters, Carolina Herrera, Donna Reed, Emma Thompson, Grace Kelly, Joan Fontaine, Kirsten Dunst (maybe), Marion Cotillard

GAMINE TYPES

Gamines are an uneven mixture of both skeletal structures: their frames are usually short or rarely tall-- unsymmetrical angles or edges-- with a “youthful” appearance; and the mismatch of their skeletons give them an appearance of eternal youth instead of “womanly” or “mature” beauty. The endless combinations of their features-- long arms, short arms, long legs, short legs, long torso, short torsos, visual weight in the face, no visual weight in the face, etc. etc.-- thrive in the chaos of mismatching, color blocking, differing clothing silhouettes; and are often dragged down by too much polish or restriction.

David Kibbe no longer stands by the pure Gamine type, filtering people into either Theatrical or Soft Gamine.

Theatrical Gamines

Theatrical Gamine Types tip the scales in a more yang than yin direction, giving them a broadly angular frame composed of shorter lines (compared to the Dramatics’ and Naturals’ long, angular, and broad lines.) They are moderate to short height (5’6”/168cm) with square, slightly wide features. Structure gives them very defined musculature-- ala Dramatics and Naturals-- and a longer, “leggier” look. If plus sized, TGs collect weight from the waist down, turning squarer or “stocky.”

Jimmy Kimmel, Frank Sinatra, Neil Patrick Harris

Audrey Hepburn, Coco Chanel, Debbie Allen, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Kelly Osborne, Liza Minelli, Lucy Liu, Penelope Cruz, Tina Turner, Twiggy, Zoey Deschenel

Soft Gamines

Soft Gamine Types tip the scales in a more yin than yang direction. They are the short Gamines (5’2”/157cm or thereabouts): delicately broad-- a combination of delicate and small, broad and angular-- with width dominated by an overall “fleshy” softness in their arms, hips, and thighs. SGs often have “doll" like features: rounded face shape, fleshy cheeks and big eyes. If plus sized, their figure becomes more rounded, mainly in the bust, hips, arms, and face area. (Soft Gamines often think they are overweight-- when more often they’re not-- because of their natural roundness and lack of pronounced hips and waist.)

Fred Astaire, Robert Downy Jr.

Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, Claudette Colbert, Debbie Reynolds, Eartha Kitt, Halle Berry, Judy Garland, Leslie Caron, Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, Octavia Spencer, Natalie Wood, Reese Witherspoon, Sally Field, Winona Ryder

ROMANTIC TYPES

Romantics

Romantics are dominated by yin softness; and, therefore, have the least visual “weight” to them. Their frames are mid-height or shorter (5’5"/166cm and under) with “rounded” and curved angles or edges-- sloped or petite shoulders, rounded facial features, and “fleshy”, shorter arms, waists, and legs. If plus sized, Romantics keep their waist definition while their body and face become more rounded and “full.”

Colin Firth, Leonardo DiCaprio, Elijah Wood, Simon Baker, Richard Gere, Michael Jackson, Omar Shereef, Billy Dee Williams, Elvis Presely

Kate Winslet, Drew Barrymore, Christina Ricci, Arlene Dahl, Bernadette Peters, Beyonce, Dolly Parton, Elizabeth Taylor, Gina Lollobrigida, Helena Bonham Carter, H. E. R. Gabbie Wilson, Gene Simmons, Madonna, Maryln Monroe, Susan Sarandon

Theatrical Romantics

Theatrical Romantic Types differ from pure Romantic Types in their width: while both are delicate, the touch of yang to a TR’s frame gives it a narrower waist, slightly sharper features, and a bit less flesh over their arms, hips, or even hands. Their moderate to petite height (5’2”/157cm or thereabouts) is voluptuous, but small and narrow as opposed to wide and “bulky.” If plus sized, their figure retains its defined waist while the arms, thighs, and face become quite “fleshy.”

David and Susan Kibbe, Orlando Bloom, Prince, Johnny Depp

Ann Margret, Heidi Lamar, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jane Seymor, Jean Harlowe, Mila Kunis, Morgan Fairchild, Salma Hayek, Selena Gomez, Vivian Leigh

COMPARING THE CELEBRITY BODY TYPES

There's a great vid on Aly Art's channel (here) comparing female celebrities to each other, highlighting the differences of each individual type.

Dramatic, left; Soft Natural, right.

Soft Classic, left; Flamboyant Natural, right.

Soft Gamine, left; Dramatic, right.

Romantic, left; Theatrical Romantic, middle; Soft Natural, right.

CONCLUSION

Not much at present-- just needed this primer written down so I can start my David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson Kibbe posts.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

#Kibbe Body Types and Celebrities: a Beginner's Guide #Kibbe Body Types #Kibbe Body System #kibbe #fashion #randomfashiontiger #David Kibbe #and a whole ton of celebrities

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youremyheaven · 7 months

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RM/Namjoon: Kibbe Analysis

Namjoon will be the first man I'll do a Kibbe analysis for😌bc I adore him and is so far the only man who has never let me down lmao

Anywaayss, Namjoon is often typed in online Kibbe communities as a Flamboyant Natural/FN but today I'm making a case for him being an SD/Soft Dramatic.

Pretty much everybody gets typed as some type of Natural online but this is wrong most of the time. Also bear in mind that SD is one of the most common Kibbe types along with Naturals.

Namjoon does like to wear a lot of denim and somehow denim= Natural according to a lot of people but here's my take on it.

FN men are described as having broad, blunt shoulders and broader chests, along with long limbs and height. They have broadness in some parts of their bodies, and wider bones (wider hands and feet, sharp jaw-lines, larger noses). When they pack on muscle, their body becomes a T-shape. Their upper bodies are kind of massive and they have a long vertical line.

Verified FN celebs include Clint Eastwood, Dick Van Dyke, and Hugh Jackman.

Namjoon is 5'11 or 181 cm

He has broad shoulders and long limbs. However, he's not broad and blunt all throughout. He has some softness to him.

The main difference between FN men and SD men are in their faces and their silhouette

L to R

Hugh Jackman and Clint Eastwood (both verified FN)

its easy to see how they both have long limbs, visibly appear very tall and have a very straight broad, blunt body structure. They're very "long looking" for the lack of a better word.

Namjoon has a softer, fleshier body type (sorry about the picture quality tho 😔) and he visibly has a small waist 😉which means he does not have a "straight" frame like the Naturals. The difference may seem subtle among male body types but Namjoon is not as blunt or broad as Clint or Hugh.

He has a more angular body with some softness to him.

Soft Dramatic men have an angular frame, slender bones, and long vertical line, with some Romantic softness to them. They are strong and manly looking with long features, angular noses, etc, but they have some softness to their flesh, sometimes to their lips and cheeks. Their bodies can look very bulky when they gain muscle 👀

(L to R)

Clark Gable and Matthew McConaughey (both verified SD)

Bottom row: Namjoon

All SD men have a prominent waist whereas Natural men have a wide, straight, broad frame. From the above pictures its obvious that Namjoon also has a smaller waist.

(L to R)

John Travolta, Dean Martin

Matthew McConaughey, Clark Gable

Christian Bale and Namjoon

all the other men are verified Soft Dramatic

look at how almost all of them have dimpled smiles 😍and a similar oval-ish face shape, along with long angular noses and sharp jawlines. Their faces have a combination of sharp and soft features.

Namjoon has Romantic & Dramatic essence and looks best in outfits that honours both of these.

He's so sexy and powerful and has the aura of a leader or a CEO. He just looks so at home in these outfits; they truly make him shine and bring out that sexy tsundere charm of his<3

Compare the above looks to these looks. He loves to dress like a boho hippie plant dad which is very endearing but not the most flattering on him imo

I know he's mostly dressing for comfort in these airport pics but I'm just trying to show that these are all outfits that would flatter a Natural type but it does not flatter him because he's a Soft Dramatic.

#kibbe #kibbe body types #kibbe analysis #soft dramatic #namjoon #bts

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anoray · 9 months

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Season 5 of The Dragon Prince

I just binged all the episodes last night and I definitely enjoyed this season more than the last. I haven’t had time to really process it all but here are two totally random thoughts that occurred while I was watching:

Is it just me, or does Finnegrin look a lot like Clark Gable (old time movie star for the many people way younger than me):

Also, that crazy vision Viren had with Sir Sparklepuff dancing to creepy jazz music in a red room with everyone talking backwards was straight out of Twin Peaks:

That’s it, that’s all I got to add to the discourse right now...

#the dragon prince #tdp season 5 #spoilers #finnegrin #clark gable #twin peaks #sir sparklepuff #i hope i'm not the only one who noticed #or i will feel really old

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cantsayidont · 5 months

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Spring 1941. For sheer noirish atmosphere, no era of Batman stories has yet topped the period of roughly a year and a half between the introduction of Robin in DETECTIVE COMICS #38 and the late 1941 story in which Commissioner Gordon officially deputizes Batman. By this time, the strip was beginning to find its own voice and aesthetic, but it had not yet abandoned the intensity of the character's pulp roots. The material is not always particularly grim or dark, but there's a real sense of madness in some of these stories: Batman and Robin are still outlaws, moving through a macabre underworld of irrational violence and implacable fate, where any real rules are mostly arbitrary. There's also a degree of romance, something that the strip would later abandon for many years. This was the period in which Batman regularly let Catwoman escape him with a kiss and shove, and in which he could still be moved by a pretty girl like Queenie (above), the ill-fated heroine of "The Riddle of the Missing Card!"

This story from BATMAN #5 begins with an explanation of how the Joker survived his apparent demise in his most recent appearance (in the previous issue of BATMAN). Three crooks in a boat find the villain in the harbor and decide to rescue him for their own reasons:

At this point in the series, the Joker was not yet a prankster pulling themed novelty crimes; he was a greedy, homicidal schemer with a gruesome sense of humor. He proposes that they operate a gambling ship just beyond the three-mile limit, where it will be out of the jurisdiction of the police, and suggests that rather than simply fleecing customers at the gaming tables, they also gather information about their guests to identify targets they can rob later.

Reading about the controversial gambling ship, Bruce Wayne decides to pay it a visit in mufti, although while getting ready, he accidentally cuts himself shaving. On the ship, he soon meets Queenie, who's acting as hostess:

Writer Bill Finger often borrowed from the movies for these stories, and the conversation between Bruce and Queenie plays on a popular convention of talkies made in 1930–1934, before the strict enforcement of the Production Code: characters surrounded by libertines who make a romantic connection based on their shared weariness with debauchery and fast living. This particular trope played out many times in pre-Code films, one well-known example being the 1934 crime drama MANHATTAN MELODRAMA, in which former good-time girl Myrna Loy leaves gambler boyfriend Clark Gable for his straight-laced friend William Powell, and adds context to Queenie's reaction to Bruce beyond what's actually on the page.

Bruce then overhears Queenie talking with her confederates and realizes that one of them is the Joker in disguise, which so startles him that gives himself away. To Queenie's dismay, her partners' response is to immediately attempt to murder Bruce:

(Bruce does occasionally smoke in these early stories, although more frequently a pipe than cigarettes.)

Bruce of course survives and later returns in costume with Robin, leading to a fight and a car chase that ends with the Batmobile sailing off a cliff. Robin is captured, and Batman surrenders himself in hopes of freeing his ward, even if it means gambling for Robin's life. However, this gives Queenie a close look at Batman, and the familiar shaving cut on his chin:

As Batman fights the Joker's cohorts Clubsy and Diamond Jack, the Joker decides it's time to cut his losses by sealing the hatches and setting the gambling ship ablaze, intending to kill everyone aboard. Meanwhile, Queenie chooses Batman over her own accomplices:

It's not entirely clear here if Queenie has dropped the gun and Jack has picked it up, or if Jack has a second gun. In any case, Queenie collapses in Batman's arms and dies of her wounds after a final kiss, as seen above. Her statement that she was in love with Bruce is a bit much in context — they really interacted only briefly — but her fate makes an impression, not least because this story is framed as much from her point of view as from Batman's.

Batman and Robin then pursue the Joker by boat through a rainstorm, leading to a final confrontation in a nearby lighthouse that culminates in Robin throwing the Joker to his latest apparent demise:

Note that there's no pretense here of turning the Joker over to the police, and as with some of the men Robin apparently killed in his first appearance, calling this self-defense might be a stretch.

Afterward, Bruce has a reflective moment about Queenie:

While there's no mention of Catwoman in this story, the parallels between Catwoman and Queenie are notable, aside from their physical resemblance. Like Queenie, Catwoman is a criminal, but she still has a conscience, a dangerous commodity in these stories, and one that leaves her vulnerable to more ruthless villains like the Joker. Indeed, in one of her previous appearances (in BATMAN #2), Catwoman had attempted to bargain with the Joker to stop him from killing Robin and was nearly burned alive for her trouble, after which she plunged into the river to an uncertain fate, much as the Joker does here.

In this period, few of the characters had been around long enough to be assured of any script immunity (even the Joker had very nearly been killed off at the end of his second appearance), and it's easy to see this underlying the early flirtation between Batman and Catwoman: Their world is a lawless one of frequent, serious jeopardy, beyond just the whimsy of a dedicated crimefighter being attracted to a pretty thief, and it's probably not coincidental that the frisson of their interactions steadily diminished as Batman and his mise-en-scène became less perilous and more respectable throughout the '40s. By the end of the decade, the Batman series rarely had any meaningful romantic subplots, and it would be years before there was another with any real spark; Batman had grown too staid and his world simply too safe for it to carry the same charge.

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caplanbuckybarnes · 10 days

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Fic Title: Ready for Love, Ready for War

Okay, so I've thought about this for a hot minute, which is why i didn't answer right away! (also, hiiii!)

This would be a two-parter. And for my life, I wanted to see this written for someone other than Bucky/Steve, but come on... it's so \perfect\ for them.

Ready for Love:

Genre: fluff/angst

Synopsis:

Starts out with typical childhood friends. Except both boys are deathly ill. They'd met in the nurse's office at school one afternoon, both boys coming down with different illnesses; Steve being anaemic and Bucky just being allergic to some food he was unaware of and had a reaction. They'd bonded so well over this, and thought it was \so cool\. Cue them entering secondary school; they'd been closer than ever, consistently over each other's houses, glued to the hips, the pair of them. But then pubery hits.

Bucky grows taller and taller, while poor, sickly Steve remains stubborn and tiny. Often, he'd get into fights in high school and usually lose... but not before Bucky was there to rescue him... always his saviour, bucky. It wasn't until one Wednesday night that Bucky had been asked out by the popular cheerleader in the school. Bucky agreed, leaving Steve to fend for himself. Soon after, Bucky's presence in Steve's life decreased when he started dating Dot.

Steve was proud of his friend for scoring the hottest girl in the school. After all, who wouldn't be supportive? But then, days became weeks between Bucky and Steve hanging around each other. And Steve started to feel more lonely than ever, even before he'd met Bucky in primary school.

It wasn't until one day in tenth grade that Steve realised no girl would ever like him. He was too skinny, too short, too \nerdy\ to be enjoyed by other girls. It wasn't much later that Bucky had broken up with Dot and returned to Steve's side. During twelfth grade, Bucky had confessed to why he had broken up with Dot. He had feelings for someone else. Steve tried to get the information out of him, but Bucky was too stubborn to speak about his feelings. And again, he shut down.

It wasn't until Bucky had enlisted in the military that he confessed his true secret; he was gay and in love with someone he knew he would have a chance with. Steve wasn't concerned for his sexuality, after all, Steve himself had caught his thoughts roaming around while thinking of Clark Gable and Marlon Brando. Maybe he, himself, wasn't exactly as straight as he felt himself to be, either.

It was the day before Bucky had gone off to boot camp that they shared their first kiss.

Sequel: Ready for War

It was months after Bucky had been shipped overseas to fight in the war. Steve wasn't worried; he knew Bucky would return to him. He'd promised, after all. Bucky had promised that after the war had been won, they could run away together and live in a town, away from everyone they knew, and start fresh as a couple.

But Bucky never returned Steve's letters—and boy, did he send plenty of them. He never gave any personal information away in the letters for fear that Bucky wouldn't want his bunkmates to know anything.

It was on a sunny, cloudless day that Sarah, Steve's mother, called for him in a voice Steve had never heard before. This caused Steve to worry in absolute fear. He'd run down the stairs and look at the open front door, where two men in uniform stood, blocking out the rays of sunshine behind them.

Steve knew, he knew what these men were here for, as one of them reached into the bag they were holding, only to pull out several of Steve's unopened letters.

#cappy answers #fic ideas #hiiii navy

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thepastisalreadywritten · 1 year

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-------o0o--------

She was demure and elegant in a flowing gown – he looked dapper and debonair in a tailored navy suit.

So pity the poor bride and groom whose lavish Caribbean nuptials were overshadowed by such glamorous guests.

Then again, if you will invite Prince Harry and his actress girlfriend Meghan Markle to your wedding, what do you expect?

All eyes were on the young lovers as the prince attended the wedding of friend Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip at the weekend in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Not having seen each other for a fortnight, Harry, 32, and 35-year-old Meghan used the trip as an excuse for a romantic reunion – and their affectionate behaviour set tongues wagging that it might not be long before they, too, are walking up the aisle.

For Meghan, the surroundings are not entirely unfamiliar.

In 2011, she married her first husband – film producer Trevor Engleson – at a resort just 60 miles along the coast. So, is she feeling the love second time around?

We reveal exactly what the young couple got up to on their romantic West Indian weekend...

He flies in economy, while she takes a private jet

Harry arrived in Jamaica on Wednesday to join the groom’s party ahead of the big day – he was one of 14 ushers.

The royals don’t use private planes for personal engagements, so he took a Virgin Atlantic flight from Gatwick to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

The prince did splash out on a premium economy seat, costing upwards of £2,000 return.

Meghan flew in the following day from Toronto, where she’s filming US legal drama Suits, in a private jet that belongs to a friend.

Ever the gentleman, Harry picked her up from the airport, greeting her with a kiss before they drove back to the hotel together.

The luxury resort where JFK stayed

With 110 acres of lush tropical gardens, suites designed by Ralph Lauren and its own private bay, the wedding reception venue is the perfect backdrop for royal romance.

The Round Hill Resort was built in the 1950s as a series of luxurious cottages for rich and famous visitors. Guests have included JFK and Jackie Kennedy, who spent their honeymoon here.

Grace Kelly, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Sir Paul McCartney, and Emma Watson have also stayed.

A hotel worker revealed that Meghan and Harry stayed in a £5,000-a-night premium luxury villa, the resort’s most exclusive accommodation away from prying eyes, which comes with its own housekeeper, two pools and a games room with a bar and pool table.

Ever watchful of their safety, security guards were stationed in rooms nearby.

Guests have breakfast served on their balcony, and options include Jamaican delicacies such as ackee (a fruit like a lychee), saltfish with fried dumplings and callaloo (a leafy green vegetable).

It’s quite a change from Meghan’s first trip to the island during her low-key wedding in 2011.

She and her husband-to-be stayed at the four-star Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios, where they indulged in drinking games and wheelbarrow races before saying their vows.

The (other) very happy couple

It takes a brave bride to invite glamorous, leggy Meghan to your wedding. But flame-haired Lara Hughes-Young didn’t seem bothered about being outshone.

Lara, 30, a software developer at global technology company ThoughtWorks, knows Harry through her new husband ‘Skippy’, who went to Eton with the prince.

She’s the granddaughter of late Conservative MP Michael Hughes-Young.

Her father holds the title Lord St Helens – making her official title the Honourable Lara Inskip.

She is said to have been ‘singing Meghan’s praises’ since meeting her last year.

They may have been the focus of attention on the day, but Megan and Harry were far from the only notable guests at the wedding.

Harry’s aunt Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was on the list, accompanied, insiders say, by her daughter Eugenie.

After the ceremony, a smiling Fergie, wearing a black minidress with a jewelled neck, was seen posing for photographs with Pastor Conrad Thomas, who officiated the ceremony.

Archie Soames, one of the ushers, is the great-grandson of Winston Churchill. Maid of honour Alice St Clair Erskine is an actress who portrayed the Duchess of Cambridge in the 2011 American TV show William and Catherine: A Royal Romance.

Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt is rumoured to have popped in for the party.

Trying not to upstage the bride

For the ceremony, Meghan chose a £1,200 floral print maxi dress by Canadian designer Erdem.

Harry opted for a bespoke navy suit, believed to be from his favourite Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes, and teamed with a yellow rose.

Meghan accessorised her elegant attire with a nude clutch bag and a pair of £249 gold-rimmed sunglasses by Dior to shield her eyes from the hot Jamaican sun.

The bride did her best to stay in the spotlight in a breathtakingly simple white satin gown with a plunging neckline and full, flowing skirt – a direct contrast to Meghan’s high-necked style.

Meghan's tender touch for her prince

Meghan placed a protective arm on Harry’s back as she steered him out of the church and guests say the pair were very tactile throughout the reception as she was introduced to his old friends.

At one point they were seen deep in conversation, as a jacketless Harry drank a beer and Meghan an Aperol spritz cocktail as she continued to rub his back.

Minutes later, she moved even closer, gazing into his eyes and putting her arms around his neck.

‘They are both head over heels and don’t care who sees it,’ said an onlooker.

xxx

#Megxit

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postguiltypleasures · 11 months

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My Peak TV journey *The Marvelous Mrs Maisel*

Prior to the final I made some predictions about where the show would end up. one was that Esther would grow up to resent her mother like Lorelei resented Emily Gilmore. I was right about that. I also speculated that maybe this was the story of how Midge could make anybody laugh, but could not make it as a comic. I was wrong about Midge’s career.

I liked the flash forwards but some of the choices of people she would be involved with seemed more funny peculiar than funny haha. It implies she was involved with Mike Nichols after that first season episode where she did not know about his act with Elaine May and almost ended up in a Nichols and May knock off act. The flash forwards made a big deal about her working with Bob Hope which tracks with aspirational dialogue from earlier in the series. While Hope had a long and successful career, meaning I understand why he was chosen as the symbol of what success i the field looked like, he also fell incredibly out of fashion starting in the late sixties. As a choice, it says Midge never quite seemed “young” in her career. Which, I guess makes sense.

That said I really liked the final season. In earlier posts about the show I acknowledge criticism that the Weisman’s players by goy actors were so much more likable than the Maisels, played by actually Jewish actors. This season seemed to recognize it and subtly corrects.

The elder Maisels were suddenly hilarious, if still crass and unkind. The Wiseman’s reliance on their housekeeper Zelda, who got married and retired over the season revealed some very unappealing aspects of their characters.

The show sometimes felt like it took place in 1960 for multiple years. As a series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel didn’t exact love the time period in which it took place, so much as it loves the pop culture from its time. It never made me want to be there, just to keep watching people in their colorful, well tailored clothes. But it was not particularly critical, nor interested in a “this is what led to things being the way they are now” type of rational for its existence. As a choice it’s doesn’t clarify, but doesn’t let you wallow for the good old days either. Sometimes it felt like every year on screen was 1960. This disinterested ambivalence occasionally led to wanting to me I’d want to fact check it, but rarely actually doing it. The one time I did was regarding Clark Gable’s death, which I thought stool place a year after the season took place. I was wrong.

In the final episode there was an establishing shot of the Ansonia indicating that is where Midge live in 2005. Later she makes a comment about Yoko Ono being one of her neighbors. Ono famously lives in the Dakota, several avenues from the Ansonia. I was going list this as another thing that makes me doubt the interest in veracity o the series. Then I found this discussed in this post finale interview with Amy Sherman-Palladino. It’s a fictional building in a fictional timeline. Don’t make a big deal about it. Some how this made define with it.

I want to end this by praising the actors who joined the series late players.

Some how I forgot that Julie Klausner joined the series late in the fourth season, but she regularly had me giggling over her appearances in the final season. (Interestingly, Klausner is not a Lenny Bruce fan.)

Alfie Fuller is new to me and she was so great as Dinah. I hope Dinah has as great a management career and I look forward to seeing Fuller in something soon.

Reid Scott is such a charming bully as Gordon Ford, you almost don’t resent his character’s success. (Though I think the no writer on the show rule was a good one)

I’ve liked Chris Eigeman since those Whit Stillman films and I really liked seeing him run the Village Voice here.

Jason Ralph, (Rachel Brosnahan’s real life husband) had some very funny bits as Mike, especially in relation to Suzie. Seeing him here mostly made me think how I want to see him as a lead again.

Nina Arianda has intrigued me since I saw her play Stan Laurel’s wife in Stan and Ollie. She still does as Gordon’s wife/Susie’s ex, Hedy.

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365days365movies · 4 months

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Action January II: Captain Blood (1935)

Part Two: A Colorful Fragment in a Drab World

When you think of the Golden Age of Hollywood, it's hard to get more notable than Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn at the height of his career. One of the most prominent leading men of the time period, succeeding Douglas Fairbanks and alongside Clark Gable, he was a mountebank of talent and action. At least...that was a public image of his. The actual Errol Flynn? Genuinely a drunken disease-ridden criminal who maybe exemplifies the idea of dividing the art from the artist. 'Cause, uh...wow. Not a good person, was Flynn.

If you do not care about Errol Flynn, skip to the break; I'll put my five-point review down there so time isn't wasted. I just really want to talk about Errol Flynn. Ready? OK.

Born in Hobart, Tasmania on June 20, 1909, Errol Flynn grew up in a middle class household. His father was a biology professor, while his mother was...well, in his autobiography, Flynn would say that she had "an itch to live - perhaps too much like my own." And given what we know about Errol's "itches", that's saying something. There's some speculation that she was sleeping with a local movie theater manager,leading to Flynn hanging out there often and watching a lot of movies. Is that true? Well, Flynn is a...somewhat unreliable narrator, so take his statements with a grain of salt. He also claimed that he and his mother were descended from some of the soldiers that participated in the famous mutiny on The Bounty, but that's probably not true. However, keep that factoid in mind for later.

Early life was complicated for Flynn, and bad habits emerged early. By the time he was 17, he'd been expelled from 4 schools for inappropriate acts (of violent and sexual natures); he'd joined a local gang; he'd already started his collection of sexually-transmitted diseases with gonorrhea (and he was, uh, quite the collector); and he was working in New Guinea. In New Guinea, he...um...

OK, look here's what you gotta know about Flynn: dude is nasty, in a lot of ways. Most of those ways are, unfortunately, sexual in nature. Since I'd like to be sensitive to the sensibilities of readers, I won't go into every nitty gritty detail. So, starting with his New Guinea adventures, let's just say that he killed a number of native people during colonization efforts, and then did that other classic thing that colonizers have done, historically. You know, that thing that goes with pillaging?

And to be clear, Flynn wasn't ashamed of this. In his autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, he describes one of the native New Guineans he encounters in...very unfortunate detail. Flynn was a nasty kid, before and after his acting career began. Speaking of which, while he was working in Australia (after fleeing from New Guinea for murder, etc.), he was spotted by director Charles Chauvel, and was offered to be in a film about the mutiny on the Bounty. Crazy coincidence, huh? Errol accepted, and that was his first film, In the Wake of the Bounty, in 1933. It's now disappeared into obscurity, but that was the beginning.

Flynn's career began mostly in the UK, where he acted as extras while getting professional training. Then he threw a stage manager down a flight of stairs and was fired from his repertory company. Because that's Errol Flynn, apparently. He worked on a few more films, married actress Lili Damita, and eventually got the attention of Hollywood. After a couple of small roles, Michael Curtiz tapped him as a 4th choice for his new movie, Captain Blood. Not only was this the first film with Curtiz and Olivia de Havilland (19 at the time), but it was a smash hit. Flynn was a star, the new Douglas Fairbanks!

1936: he works with Curtiz and Olivia again in The Charge of the Light Brigade. 1937: A dramatic role in Green Light, then another swashbuckler in The Prince and the Pauper, a melodrama in Another Dawn, and a comedy in The Perfect Specimen (with Curtiz again), all before acting as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. And then, finally, in 1938, he reunites with Curtiz, Havilland, and Basil Rathbone in my favorite of his films: The Adventures of Robin Hood. And if Flynn was famous before, then that movie really did it.

In the meantime, he gets married to actress Lili Damita in 1935, and this would be the first of 3 marriages. And lemme tell you, it would end tragically for Flynn, hilariously for everybody else. From 1935 to 1939, Flynn's career would take off, and he would work with Curtiz and Havilland a few more times, but things would start to change at this point. See, starting all the way back in The Charge of the Light Brigade, Curtiz and Flynn had regular disagreements. In that film, 25 horses actually died under Curtiz' direction, and the animal-loving Flynn got into a legit fist-fight with his director. And this was the second of seven collaborations together. The two hated each other, but they knew good filmmaking when they saw it. Curtiz' career, by the way, includes Casablanca, just so you know what caliber of director we're talking about.

Flynn's career continued, as did his contentious nature. The Sea Hawk in 1940 continued his career climb, as World War II was in full swing. At the same time, he got badly slapped by co-star Bette Davis (yes, THAT Bette Davis) in the face in The Privates Lives of Elizabeth and Essex during an argument in a scene, which he wrote off as "unrequited romantic interest" (ugh); he had more arguments with Curtiz on Virginia City in 1940, and tried to get him off his own picture; and he co-starred with no-name actor Ronald Reagan in Santa Fe Trail, which is probably the only notable thing that dude ever did.

And this, of course, is when the health problems and drinking started. He'd contracted malaria when he was younger in New Guinea, which damaged his heart significantly. And oh, God, the drinking. Flynn was a notorious womanizing, chain-smoking drunk, especially throughout the 1940s. He'd had affairs with everybody (a habit so famous, it's the origin for the phrase "in like Flynn"), and would regularly get into physical fights with everyone else. In the process, he would greatly expand his collection of diseases. By 1942, he had chronic tuberculosis, recurrent malaria, gonorrhea, syphillis, and a host of unrecorded STDs. This, combined with heart damage and back pain, made him ineligible for service during World War II, which had many believing he was a draft dodger (since studios didn't want word of their big star having that many STDs). And that's not all!

See, Lili's getting sick of the whole "constant cheating and STD" thing, so she files for divorce. Said divorce had insane conditions by today's standards, and would essentially had Lili rolling in Errol's money FOR LIFE, while leaving Errol with far less money for the rest of his days. How could this get worse? Easy; he was being sued for statutory r*pe that year as well, and nearly resulted in a 25-year prison sentence. He was acquitted, because Hollywood's always been bullshit, but his reputation was...well, frankly, it was fucked. And at this point, Flynn was only 33 years old. Jesus Christ.

After this, Flynn would never fully recover. Oh, he was still in movies, but his drinking and partying continued, and his reputation somehow got even worse. He would show up blasted to sets, ending his relationships with many directors. His appearance started taking a nosedive due to his health and behaviors. He got married again, in 1943 to Nora Eddington, somehow, but Nora later regretted that marriage. Scandals continued, like the time newspapers found out he'd installed one-way mirrors in his mansion's bathrooms in order to look at his female guests secretly (ew. EW.), and he added hepatitis to his collection of diseases.

Marriage #3 comes along in 1950, and Flynn moves to Europe in 1954 for his films. He's there for a few years, until finally getting a call back in 1957 to star in an adaptation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Flynn idolized Hemingway, and actually wanted to be an author just like him. Might have accomplished it, if not for the EVERYTHING ELSE he was doing. Still, he accepted the role, which cast him as a pathetic drunk has-been, past his years and prime. What I'm trying to say is, he crushed it. Hard.

Flynn's back, baby! And now, he's being typecast as a drunk. Which, again, is what he was at this point. Also, I should clarify, alcoholism is absolutely a disease, and my issues with Flynn have nothing to do with the fact that he was an alcoholic. However, he was constantly drunk, that's just a fact. His success in The Sun Also Rises revitalized his career in the late 1950s, and things were looking good. He even started up his old journalism ambitions when he traveled to Cuba during Castro's revolution, and was the only journalist there when Castro won.

In 1959, though, Flynn's financial difficulties had become too much, even with his career rebirth. He went to Canada to sell a yacht to a guy, then flew back to Los Angeles on October 14. In the process, his back and legs started acting up. Not unusual for him. The doctor in LA noted that Flynn could barely walk up the stairs, then gave him some Demerol, a massage, and good conversation. Flynn said he "felt ever so much better", and the doctor left. A 17-year-old girl that had been traveling with him (yeah, that sounds horrible) went in to check on him 20 minutes later.

Errol Flynn died on October 14, 1959, at the age of 50. His cause of death was found as a heart attack from coronary thrombosis, atherosclerosis, and severe cirrhosis of the liver, amongst the STDs that plagued him his entire life. Flynn was buried with six bottles of his favorite whiskey at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. He had once said he hated this place, and never wanted to be buried there, so you gotta imagine that his current marriage wasn't going great either. Jesus.

But even after he died, Flynn's legacy continued to degrade. His autobiography came out, which didn't really help him image much. His work as a war correspondent was put into question as illegitimate, and thought to be used only to promote his films. That 17 year old that discovered his death revealed that yes, that sentence was as creepy as it sounded, and Flynn never learned his FUCKING LESSION. He was also possibly outed as bisexual, which is obviously fine (assuming the bisexual community wants to claim this asshole at all), and I only point this out to say that he was described as "super-straight" by Iron Eyes Cody. And who's Iron Eyes Cody? Trust me. Look him up. You don't wanna trust a goddamn word that dude said.

So, with all of that bullshit said and finally done...Errol Flynn was still an excellent actor. Yeah, I honestly mean that. IN fact, I'll elaborate in a minute here in the review below. So, read on if you're interested in that. And if not, honestly, watch Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood yourself, and make your own opinions. Just saying, he could act. Separate the art from the artist, people.

Review

Cast and Acting: 9/10

Just to get our leading man out of the way, Errol Flynn is fantastic in this movie. I mean it; for a guy who'd barely been in movies, and for this being his first leading role, he knocks it out of the park. Suave and debonair, defiant and headstrong when he needs to be, and someone you're charmed by as much as the characters on screen are. Plus, the swashbuckling is fun to watch, and credit should go to Flynn for some of that. Genuinely a star in the making; just forget all that other stuff from above, OK?

And everybody else? Olivia de Havilland, who's only 18 during filming, by the way, is also great in this movie. And again, this is one of her first films. Crazy, huh? Her role is uncomplicated, but she plays it very well! Basil Rathbone isn't in here for long, but he's a scene-stealer...partially because his French accent feels forced, and he's maybe a little over the top. Still, extremely fun to watch. Same could be said for Lionel Atwill, although he sort-of just drops off in the middle of the picture, when he could've been a real commanding antagonist. Missed opportunity, that one. As for the pirate crew, like Ross Alexander and Guy Kibbee, they're not bad! Meant in some cases to be comic relief, which is done well, but also portrayed as a loyal and faithful crew. Throw all of these performances together, and you get my final score. Solid all around, with a little scenery-chewing here and there.

Plot and Writing: 8/10

Honestly, this is both a standard swashbuckling plot (man of high-standing gets plunged into low-standing, then fights his way back to prowess via sword and fisticuffs), but also very different in some ways. It's based off of a novel by Rafael Sabatini, and certainly has a memorable and easy to describe story. However...and this is a soft however...Blood's gonna win. It's not the least predictable plot in the world, since you know Blood's gonna win and get the girl in the end. It also has a surprisingly bloodless ending, all things considered. Yeah, I know there's the battle with the French in the end there, but only one named cast member (Basil Rathbone) actually dies. It's fun to watch and easy to recall, but...kinda toothless in the end. Also, Blood is a bit of a Gary Stu most of the time, which isn't the best character work you can do.

Writing by Casey Robinson, though, is still fantastic. This is a SOLID adaptation of the book, from what I can tell, and Robinson manages to spice up a standard plot with some entertaining and engaging writing throughout. Honestly, this is a fun movie, and the writing helps with that quite a bit. Even got the Oscar nomination that year for Best Screenplay, but lost to The Informer. In fact, it technically wasn't officially nominated by the committee, but was instead nominated by write-in. That is how popular this film's writing was.

Direction and Cinematography: 9/10

Michael Curtiz, frankly, is a legend. And sure, I can't say this is a groundbreaking film in terms of direction in some ways, but good goddamn, does Curtiz still do an excellent job. This is especially notable when looking at the action scenes, like the beach swordfight, or the siege on the French ships (as seen in the GIF below). Seriously, though, this is a great-looking film, both due to legendary director and legendary cinematographers Ernest Haller and Hal Mohr. The former is best known for Gone With the Wind (I hate that movie, but it's admittedly gorgeously shot), while the latter is known for The Phantom of the Opera and...The Jazz Singer. Ooh. Yikes. Moving on!

Production and Set Design: 9/10

Again, kind of standard fare for the time period in some ways, but still a great looking production! You feel like you're on a ship or tropical island for most of the film, despite the entire film being made in California. That ending scene with the French ships? 2,500 extras were in that sequence, making it one of the biggest films ever made at that time. This is impressive production, including the prop work and...well, OK, one problem. The costumes are mildly anachronistic. It's nothing crazy, but keep in mind that this film is meant to take place in the 1650s. With that in mind, this feels far more like a film from the 1800s instead. This is a minor nitpick, but a nitpick nonetheless. Frankly, I've really had to try and find flaws with some of this stuff, because this film is genuinely great.

Music and Editing: 9/10

Music here is by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, another film legend and notable composer. His career very much followed Errol Flynn, as this was his first huge picture (not counting 1933's A Midsummer Night's Dream), and he would also score for The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. This booming brass score is your stereotypical swashbuckler tune, meaning that Korngold helped create that stereotype in the first place. It's iconic, it's memorable, and it makes for solid background in a action scene. Even did that thing where the sword-clashes are timed with music sometimes! Again, classic.

George Amy is our editor for this picture, and he's a legend in his own right. A powerhouse for Warner Brothers, Amy was a favorite of Michael Curtiz, and ended up editing the majority of his films (but not Casablanca, funnily enough). He definitely does well here, although I felt like one or two sequences could use a little trim here and there. Nothing really felt unnecessary, but there could have been a little something different in the near-mutiny sequence, for example. That sequence is maybe the weirdest in the film for me, as Blood sort-of gaslights the crew into following him into certain fucking death. Again, kind of a nitpick for me, but it did affect how I saw Blood, and maybe could've been changed to adjust the pacing of the scene.

Verdict: 88%

Pretty sure I've hurt some critic's feelings with that number, so I feel the need to clarify something: this movie's goddamn great. It's the progenitor of the swashbuckling genre for a reason, after all. This is a crazy fun film, but I won't give it an excuse because it's a classic. But would I watch this movie again? Absolutely. Like I said, a hell of a lot of fun.

Time for another classic action-adventure movie to continue the classics train, but let's jump forward a decade for this one, huh? Post World War II, classic director, and a precursor to the true action genre. And as always, one that's been on my list for a long time.

Next: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); dir. John Huston

#user365 #365 days 365 movies #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 movies a year #365days365movies #action january #action #swashbuckling #action movie #pirate movie #errol flynn #captain blood #michael curtiz #olivia de havilland #basil rathbone #biography #action genre

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