Go, Margot! Who would have guessed that she has not only mastered string theory, but has also solved the Hodge conjecture.
Either that, or she has figured out those pesky post-shower tangles.
(It’s actually weird stuff like “What would you do for fun on Mars?”)
Carroll Baker
The film also has nudity from Collette Descombes
Carroll Baker had been successful in the late fifties as a serious actress, even garnering an Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category. She was later successful in sex symbol roles in the sixties.
Her success was tinged with bitterness. Throughout her early career there had always been tension between her and the studios, or between her and specific producers. At one point she sued Hollywood big-shot Joseph Levine, and was basically blacklisted thereafter.
Baker then became one of those American actresses who migrated into European films when roles started to dry up for them in Hollywood. She was rediscovered by director Marco Ferreri and later became the go-to leading lady of another Italian director, Umberto Lenzi, who made slick exploitation films. For a full decade, 1967-76, she lived in Italy while she starred in, and sometimes removed her clothing in, a string of giallo films like this one.
This one is essentially a murder mystery.
SPOILERS FOLLOW after the jump:
I wonder if there was an echo.
I wonder if he sang Weird Al’s “Eat it.” So many other possibilities, depending on his enthusiasm, ranging from “Wild Honey Pie” to “The Shrimp Boats Are Coming.” Or, in a classical vein, perhaps he wrote words to the late, great L.v. Beethoven’s legendary Snatch Serenade in A Minor, or as Ludwig van himself once called it, “A-Hole Minor.”
Per Marion Cotillard, recipient of the cooze-crooning, “We strangely never see people fucking or doing trivial things in musical comedies.”
Perhaps with good reason.
But I’ll reserve judgment until I see the actual yin-yodeling.
Summary here.
There is probably more to come because I haven’t yet seen the uncensored version of this frame:
Jimmy Durante, a legendary vaudevillian, ended every appearance with “Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.”
So just who was Mrs. Calabash?
The legends say that it might be any one of three different women, although Durante gave a direct and definitive explanation near the end of his storied life, but every version of the story agrees that it derives from Durante’s visit to the charming town of Calabash, North Carolina, which bills itself as “The Seafood Capital of the World.”
A fond farewell to John Paragon, best known as Jambi the Genie from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.
“He got his start with the Groundlings in Los Angeles, where he worked alongside Reubens, Phil Hartman, Cassandra ‘Elvira’ Peterson, and many other future comedy stars.”
Elsa did some modest nudity in One on Top of the Other (1969). This is the first time it has been available in Blu-Ray quality.
Elsa was modest in her film appearances. Apart from this scene, her only film nudity was a very brief bit in Les Chemins de Katmandou (1969). Although she seemed to avoid any explicit film nudity, she later posed for a completely naked photoshoot for a 1975 men’s magazine.
As for the movie:
One on Top of the Other, aka Una sull’altra, aka Perversion Story, is a 1969 Italian giallo film directed by Lucio Fulci, involving a frame-up for murder – of a woman who isn’t dead. To me it seems like a typically cheesy Italian film from the late 60s and early 70s, but IMDb voters seem to like it a lot, scoring it a very respectable 6.7. That’s as good as or better than some “Best Picture” winners like Gigi, Tom Jones and the Greatest Show on Earth, not to mention several others from the 1930s.
Complete diversion:
1963 was an odd year. To modern viewers, the selection of Tom Jones seems inexplicable, except for the fact that Hollywood was going through an Anglophile phase. First of all, Tom Jones has the lowest IMDb rating of the nominees:
Tom Jones 6.5
America America 7.8
Cleopatra 7.0
Lilies of the Field 7.6
How The West Was Won 7.1
That’s not quite as baffling as the fact that Tom Jones doesn’t even seem to belong among the nominees. Some of the most memorable films from that year were not even nominated. Among the films that have stood the test of time: The Great Escape (8.2), Charade (7.9), The Birds (7.7), Hud (7.8), and a slew of great foreign films. If the academy’s current voters could get a do-over on 1963, I feel that The Great Escape would win the Best Picture Oscar.
But my arguments are oversimplified. Tom Jones seemed a lot better in 1963 than it does today. The film techniques used in Tom Jones were fresh at the time, but the film was popular enough that it inaugurated a certain style of filmmaking that soon became hackneyed:
– the bedroom and countryside romps in speeded-up motion, accompanied by harpsichord music
– the characters looking in the camera and mugging for the audience
– the narration
That style has been copied so often in the intervening years, that Tom Jones seems like a cliché when watched today. It’s like watching a painfully unfunny episode of Benny Hill. So the IMDb score is indicative of our modern perspective. We view it as tired, trite and dated.
But it did not seem to be in 1963.
TRIVIA: John F. Kennedy watched Tom Jones on Nov 17, 1963. It was the last film he ever saw. He was assassinated five days later.
From Recapped:
“Ilana Glazer has her first nude scenes in False Positive. Ilana first shows her bouncing breasts during a very dark sex scene. Later you can somewhat see Ilana’s breasts through some bubbles while she is in the bath. Near the end of the film, Ilana is naked and covered in blood as she enters the bathroom. We see Ilana’s butt and breasts as she looks in the mirror.
False Positive is now playing at Tribeca and will be available to stream on Hulu on June 25.”
It doesn’t seem possible that this film is now almost 20 years old.
Meg Ryan was in her forties when this was lensed, and it was billed as her big breakthrough to serious dramatic acting, not to mention lower body nudity.
Here are my comments on the film, as well as on the eponymous source novel, which I preferred to the film adaptation.
Meg had done some nudity early in her career, but it was relatively modest, and ended a full decade before In the Cut.
She bared her breasts in the European version of The Presidio (1988). She was in her mid-twenties and looked great, but all we got to see was a shape, in the shadow, from the side.
She flashed her breasts ever so quickly in a sex scene in Flesh and Bone (1993).
And she exposed one lovely breast in The Doors (1991).
Is there rehab for cannibalism?
It must work like methodone. You gradually work your way down the evolutionary scale until finally eating appropriate flesh.
I think this scene in Hell Riders (1984) is the only time we got a kinda clear look at Tina Louse’s nipple.
When they finally decide to ride to someplace, their destination is a small town, where they plan to terrorize the locals. They certainly picked the wrong small town, however, because this one is guarded by Batman (Adam West), who promptly kicks the crap out of the bikers’ leader, then rallies the locals to round up all their firearms and fill the rest of the pesky cyclists full of lead.
This film is dated 1984, but it seems anachronistic. Except for the ages of the two familiar stars, I would have guessed it was from 1971 because it plays out like all of the crappy biker films that filled the drive-ins in the late 60s and early 70s. Tina Louise and Adam West must have been truly desperate for work to take these roles.
Jody Swafford applies lotion to Laura Lee in that glittering jewel of the silver screen, “Evils Of The Night” (1985)
The cast of this film is delightful: John Carradine, Tina Louise, Julie Newmar, Neville Brand and Aldo Ray. The production values really add to the fun, as they spared no expense on the special effects (I think they went to Toys R Us and bought something like a Battlestar Galactica toy, then hung it in front of a black background, Ed Wood style.)
About a decade later, the same director made a James Dean biopic starring Casper Van Dien. I have not seen that film, but once again, his casting was amazing: Connie Stevens, Casey Kasem, Diane Ladd, Robert Mitchum (?!), Mike Connors, and many others. That’s right, Robert Mitchum and Casey Kasem, together at last!
New pics 06/04:
If you don’t see any pics below, go here)
Alma Jodorowsky in “l’ennemi”:
Grace Seri in “Un violent désir de bonheur”:
French version, with extensive commentary
Charlie’s archives (thousands of collages, no password, no ads)
“I think my days are getting a little bit numbered of doing nudity”
Well, she’s been getting naked pretty much non-stop since 1996, so I guess she’s earned retirement.
Beth Winslet, Kate’s younger sister, is the Henry Mathewson of nudity. (At one time, Christy and Henry Mathewson held the MLB record for most wins by brothers, 373. Christy was 373-188, while his younger brother Henry was 0-1 in three appearances back in 1906 and 1907.)
The current nudity scorecard for sisters: Kate Winslet naked in a zillion films and shows; lookalike sister Beth Winslet naked in only two that I know of: The Scold’s Bridle (1998), below:
Like Kate, Beth had a youthful start to her nudity career. She was 19 when that first scene was filmed. Unlike Kate, she pretty much wrapped it up in her early 20s.
Panic Button (1964) is kind of a grade-Z predecessor to The Producers. For reasons of his own, a sketchy businessman needs to produce a TV film pilot guaranteed to fail, so his son (Mike Connors of Mannix fame) hires an elderly Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield to play Romeo and Juliet. The plot ultimately backfires when the Venice Festival awards it a special comedy prize, and a network offers a lucrative 39-week contract for more of the same.
The balcony scene occurs around the 1:21 mark.
As a former would-be trouper and a lover of old-time films, I found this fascinating and ended up watching the whole video. Of course, granted that those epithets may not apply to you, your mileage may vary.
“Bob Dylan Is 80-Years-Old Today. His Soul Is Infinitely Older.”
“He’s been calling America’s bluff since the day he rolled into Greenwich Village”
She’s actually sixty something, and looks good, but there is more interesting Sharon Stone news today:
“According to Sharon Stone there’s a more explicit version of her hit film “Basic Instinct” on the way and she’s apparently not thrilled about it.”
“They’ve decided to release the director’s triple-X cut for the 30th anniversary.”
According to IndieWire:
“StudioCanal is set to release the “Basic Instinct” 4K restoration in France beginning June 16, followed by a June 17 launch in Australia and New Zealand. The restoration will also be available on Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom (June 14) and Germany (June 17 2021). Rialto Pictures will be behind the restoration’s U.S. theatrical release, which will take place later this year.”
According to The Express:
“This version is otherwise known as the XXX version, as it contains full and longer footage of the intense interrogation scene.”
My notes: I’ll believe that “XXX” crap when I see it. To me that sounds like a hyperbole to sell some new Blu-Rays. My guess is that there is some deleted material in the bonus features, and that it is no more explicit than the scenes from the original movie. Remember that the famous leg-uncrossing scene is not the only bit of exposure in the film. There is an apparently unsimulated scene in which Michael Douglas performs cunnilingus on Stone,
and another scene in which Douglas rips off Jeanne Tripplehorn’s panties, briefly exposing the works.
Repeated by request:
All the famous “harem girl” shots are from an alternate version of Era Lui, Si! Si! (1951)
Per IMDb, “Nude scenes — including one featuring a topless Sophia Loren — were filmed for the alternate French release.” Sophia told an interviewer: “For the French version, they wanted me to have my chest bare. I did not want to but … I was hungry. After the scene, they come and say they must do some still pictures of me with nothing on top. I thought it had to be.”
If that French version still exists, it has never made it onto the internet at all. The rumor is that Sophia’s husband, producer Carlo Ponti Sr., destroyed all the prints of the topless version, so that only the stills remain.
Even the tame Italian variant has been impossible to find for years (I have never seen it), but the Cinema Sirens site, as shown below, did claim to have that version for sale some years ago. I don’t know whether that is still true.
After years of searching I am pleased to share the fact that on Friday we mastered for DVD distribution a piece of movie…
Posted by CinemaSirens on Sunday, December 11, 2016
