Lurking Faces Of The Wax Museum

Mystery Of The Wax Museum is pretty much the originator of the wax museum morgue trope and has been remade twice. It's a nifty little thriller with a tight plot, an interesting villain, some snappy dialogue and -thanks to a contractual obligation - wonderful Technicolor photography. There's atmosphere to spare here and one of the elements that kept catching my eye is the ominous close-up.  Lots of creepy faces lurk through out the picture such as that fellow up there, who sets the whole thing in motion....

... or more accurately, on fire. There's none as gruesome as a melting wax figure, and given the foibles of Technicolor photography, I bet this fire came as a refreshing breeze.

An otherwise ordinary scene cuts to this rather creepy shot of two henchmen. Put a light under your subject and it's instant spookiness!

Our mysterious villain who the plucky reporter protagonist describes as making Frankenstein look like a lily.

The police are searching the building and out of nowhere comes this old fella. We never see him again, and his peek has no consequence, he's just... there.

Yet another goon, setting his eyes on the victim. Incidentally, Fay Wray (the victim) is billed as the star, but she appears about 30 minutes into the movie and has little dialogue. She gets plenty of screams, though.

Inside the museum we have... this unexplained living figure. We see his eyes move and nothing else (click on the pic to see them!)

BOO! Glad you came, I've been sitting here with my head posed between these figures waiting to scare someone!

 Wax museums are just about the perfect place to spend the night, aren't they?

 This one really comes out of nowhere... a random face behind a broken mask opens its eyes as the victim approaches. We never see it again.

And finally, not quite a close up but... gee whiz, look at that face! He says he wants a wax figure but he's visibly aiming for bloody rape.

Our Weekly Chaney

Sargent O'Hara disapproves of your goo-goo dames.

(Tell It To The Marines 1926)

An Education In Travel Brochures

You're An Education is a run of the mill "things come to life" cartoon, the likes of which were made by the score during the 30's. The premise is simple enough - it's night time at a closed shop (a travel agency in this case), and the objects inside come to life, usually to the tune of the title song. Many a pun ensues... and many a groan is heard. So what am I highlighting here?

 Well, that's some pretty slick artwork there.... because it's a real travel brochure we're seeing. The backgrounds here are a mix of hand painted and actual travel brochures, some with very prominent names. Recognize the ship? The legendary Normandie on its penultimate year of service.

Sandwiching this punny Rocky Mountains cover we have the Italian Line and Japan.... two years later they'd become the last places you'd want to visit.

 A photographic guide to good ole Switzerland

An unidentified cruise line serving South America.....

 

.... and the clearly identified Alaska Steamship Company with an elaborately drawn map.

..

 On the left we see the Italian line again, and the bright red item on the right is for our good friend, Cunard-White Star's flagship, the Queen Mary.

 The Golden Gate International Exposition makes an appearance. This one's kinda confusing... it looks more elaborate than the hand painted background brochures, yet something tells me it might not be a real item.

 Independent tours around the world by the Hamburg-America Line with some swell airbrushing. Odd to see advertising for a german company here.

And finally, we get sailings for the Swedish American Line. This is only a sampling, as the cartoon has plenty more real covers, if with the names obscured.

Let Yourself Go....

A swell, catchy number to be sure... however there are two things that have always bugged me in this scene. First, we have a little 8 piece band that sounds like a massive studio orchestra with strings.... but then again, that happens a lot in Astaire-Rogers Land.
What really bothers me here is the line "loosen up and start to limber, can't you hear that hot marimba (marimber?)....". Not here or anywhere else have I found a version of Let Yourself Go that had a marimba or any other kind of idiophone in it. I wonder if Lionel Hampton ever played it...

 And another one- as much as I love 1930's fashion (and that's a lot), those... eyebrows. Good grief, the eyebrows. Ginger looks as cute as ever but they just don't work on Betty here (Grable, that is). A pretty silly thing to notice on such a fine movie, but that's just my wandering eye.

Our Weekly Chaney

Alonzo's soul has just been crushed to a fine powder.
(The Unknown, 1927)

Streets In Technicolor #1

New York, 1939
(From The Middleton Family At The New York World's Fair)

Louis Lewyn's Hollywood Parties

During the golden age of Hollywood, the big studios were sort of like an assortment of kids in a neighborhood. Warner Brothers could be called the tough wise-guy, Universal was like that slightly eccentric fellow that liked to read horror stories, RKO was the one who liked to tinker with his erector set, Columbia was that poor kid that was fun to have around.... and then there was MGM, the snooty, pampered rich boy.
Throughout its existence, MGM boasted to have "more stars than there are in the heavens" and, from massive full-color spreads in fan magazines to elaborate one-reelers showing off their facilities, they made damn sure audiences knew about it. And this leads me to a rather peculiar series of efforts produced during the mid 1930's.
Louis Lewyn was a producer at MGM... and beyond that I didn't find that much information. From 1934 to about 1937 he produced a series of Hollywood party films showing everyone's favorite stars having a fine time at high-class spot, with a celebrity host, dancing girls, music and comedy acts.... or attempts at it anyway. All in glorious Technicolor to boot! (That being the one reason for which I discovered these shorts)
Let's take a look:

It's 1934 and, to the tune of "I Saw Stars",  Leo Carrillo hosts Star Night At The Cocoanut Grove. This is the first year 3 strip Technicolor was used in live action so it ain't exactly perfect. From the murky lighting, I'm pretty sure this is the actual Cocoanut Grove we're seeing here. The entertainment for the evening is Ted Fio Rito and his orchestra, and following an introduction, there's what we came here for-

Cameos! This is pretty much what these short subjects were all about - stars sitting down and being greeted by the emcee. And without ever uttering a line. Joining us for the evening are the likes of Sir Guy Standing, Jack Oakie, Richard Cromwell and Gary Cooper (above). But what's an all-star revue without dames?

We're treated to a fashion show, displaying various styles from ancient Egypt to the gay 90's. A rather demure display compared to what's coming next. Incidentally, one of the models seen here is a very young Ann Sheridan. Then comes a bit of entertainment with a fellow named Candy (or so it sounds) who sings in a rather eerie novelty number in alternating falsetto/basso profondo voice. And after El Brendel attempts to autograph a balloon we get a bit of good old rhumba from Eduardo Durant's band and a saucy dancing couple. Throughout the numbers we see quick cuts to the star-studded audience reacting, if sometimes incongrously. And then comes the highlight of the evening:

Mary Pickford and der bingle himself! As pointed out in Jim Lane's Cinedrome, Lewyn would often bring out stars from the silent days out of retirement for a little moment back in the spotlight. Other shorts include cameos by Chester Conklin, Ben Turpin and a certain serious looking fellow we'll be seeing later on.
And following a charming exchange - Bing signs a tune while miss Pickford looks on.
To cap off the evening, we have Ted Fio-Rito who plays an arrangement of King Kamehameha... with the requisite compliment of dancing hula girls and a location shot to boot!
Thus ends out peek at the Cocoanut Grove and the first part of this little series.
In all, this is a fine introduction to this Hollywood party series, the entertainment is mostly top-notch, the cameos look natural enough and it makes for an interesting look at how the Hollywood elite spent the evenings... well, surely a heavily cleaned up look anyway.

In the next part - Pirates! Sombreros! And Jiminy Cricket himself!

(This post is transcribed from our sister blog.... sequel coming soon)

Our Second Blog

After much hesitating, I buckled up and started a sister blog to my now ancient and rather neglected 20th Century Schmuck art blog. I racked up quite a few movie posts over there, so I decided to start another blog on the subject. This one's mostly about classic movies, although modern intrusions may happen every now and then. There'll be screenshots a plenty, plus the occasional youtube find for further amusement. For now, I'll transcribe the posts from the other blog to this one and fill out blanks during the week. Wish me luck