Movies before the code
An evening pause: I had doubts about posting this initially, not because I’m a prude but because, as I wrote to Phil when he sent me this suggestion, “What is the point? Watching three minutes of 1930s girls taking off their robes to reveal their underwear? I’m not sure that is my goal with my evening pauses.”
But then I thought, why not? The compilation definitely illustrates the differences and similarities between then and now. What was risque then is almost innocent today. And at the same time, what is interesting in terms of sex then is not much different than what is interesting today. Sex still sells. Humans remain human. And Valentine’s Day is tomorrow.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
It was good to see, in the middle of all this, a (too) brief appearance by Betty Boop! :-)
Must be 70+ to view
The “Maltese Falcon” that we all know and love is a remake from a pre-code 1931 version. It is a rare example of a remake being better than the original. A promiscuous Sam Spade, in the original, takes Miss Wonderly into the kitchen to strip-search her for the missing bill. In the Humphrey Bogart/Mary Astor remake, Spade trusts the girl to have not taken it. Although we lose seeing her in a petticoat, we see a better bond between the two characters, making for a better ending and a better story.
To paraphrase Rick in “Casablanca:” the petticoat of a girl don’t amount to a hill of beans in a classic movie.
Sex may sell tickets, but good stories make classic favorites.