Myrna Loy to take you into the evening

I'm taking the day off

Marie Windsor with Cecil the Dragon for some reason.

Happy Birthday, Gloria Grahame

Actress Gloria Grahame would have been 89 today.  Unfortunately, Grahame passed in the early 1980's, well before her time.

We've profiled Ms. Grahame here before, and it's likely she'll get mentioned here again in the future.

Ms. Grahame is a bright point in the constellation of lady-actors from a certain era whose work I go out of my way to find.  It's hard not to love the work she does in movies like Crossfire and The Big Heat.

A little digging will turn up a lot of evidence that Ms. Grahame led a deeply complicated life, but its hard not to love what she did on the screen.

Here's to Ms. Grahame.

Audrey Totter takes us into the end of Thanksgiving Day

I know, Audrey.  I know.

Novemberama! Joan Crawford!

Joan really looks like she knows her way around a sharp, deadly knife...

No.  Just, absolutely, no.  We are not doing this.

Happy Turkey Month, everybuddy!

Octoberama! Sundays with The Bride! Part 2!

As we head into Halloween, let's just celebrate with some Bride Miscellenia and fan art from around Tumblr!

As Ms. Lanchester celebrates her 110th somewhere in The Infinite, clearly I'm not the only one with a thing for girls with interesting hair-do's.

If you didn't read our post on Ms. Lanchester earlier today, please take a moment to do so.  It's her birthday.

from the Mondo Universal Horror celebration.  Saw this in person, and it is absolutely stunning.

This is a collection of fan-art of varying provenance - some official, most not.  From what I can tell, somehow The Bride and The Monster have become icons for the rockabilly-retro crowd as it exists in 2012, applying late 50's aesthetic to the 1935 character with the tattoo sensibilities of today.

Go, pop-culture.

Octoberama! Sundays with The Bride - Happy Birthday, Elsa

Last week, JimD emailed me and asked if I planned on posting about Elsa Lanchester's 110th Birthday, which happens to fall on today, the day I'd planned the finale post for Sundays with The Bride.  Honestly, I had no idea the birthday was coming, so, everybuddy, take a moment and thank JimD and then take another moment and appreciate cosmic happenstance.

I had another post ready, and so you'll still see that today, later, but as it's Elsa's birthday, we need to give the lady her due.

We all grew up seeing clips from The Bride of Frankenstein, or saw the role of The Bride parodied in other films, in cartoons, or pop art.  The role passed into western iconography as much as the rest of the Universal Horror pack of monsters, but - oddly - The Bride appears for a total of one scene in this single film.  The Bride has no speaking lines, and, of all the Universal Horror "monsters", she is the only one which hurts nobody.

But that's only if you don't count breaking hearts.

Octoberama! Fridays with Elvira!

Our final Friday with Elvira rolls into the station.

All these years later, who knew Elvira would make a bit of a return in the pop culture consciousness? I, for one, welcome her return for as long as she wishes to stick around.

Really, what better way to celebrate the spirit of Halloween than with a bit of spookiness, a lot of fun and a celebration of creature features, great and terrible?

October Watch: Frankenstein (1931) and Bride (1935) Double-Bill!

I don't really keep a list around of "what is my favorite movie?" (I mean, go ahead and check out my recommendations at the tab above, but...) but the first two James Whale directed, Karloff-starring Frankenstein films are in the mix somewhere.

It's one of those things that is difficult to explain.  And it's funny, because I am absolutely not alone in my admiration of these two films - but the folks who like these movies also seem to have a hard time putting feelings into words.  Even the eloquent Neil Gaiman seems at a bit of loss, but I think he does as good of a job explaining the appeal of The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) as you're likely to see.

Octoberama! Once Again with Ann Miller!

Let us head on toward Halloween with Ann Miller, black cats and pumpkins!

Octoberama! Yvonne Craig!

Batgirl fears no tricks!

Octoberama! Veronica Lake!

When its Veronica Lake, we really don't know what else we could possibly ad.

Octoberama! Sundays with The Bride!

Here's a bevy of posters used to promote screenings of The Bride.

FYI - you can see The Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein on the the BIG SCREEN on October 24th!

Get tickets now at Fathom Events. These are two of my favorite films of all time. If you're in Austin and want to go, let me know!

October Watch! Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

If you've never seen Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), it's an absolute blast of a movie and pretty much sets the tone for every succeeding creature feature to follow - but it also leans a bit on the set-up of movies like King Kong.  Intrepid explorers/ scientists have some vital but benign evidence, return to the spot  far from civilization where it was found, and modern man can't deal with the havoc that ensues when an unexpected monster appears (and makes off with the stunningly attractive woman along for the ride).

Creature is fun partially because of the raw science-adventure tone that movies like Prometheus try to capture, of lantern jawed scientists throwing themselves into the path of danger in the name of discovery - along with a scrubby but affable crew along for the adventure who know their protocols are there for a reason.  As well as knowing natives may be superstitious, but they're also not crazy, so sometimes you just avoid their "Black Lagoons" if they suggest that's not a good place to bring your boat.  But: SCIENCE.

Octoberama! Fridays with Elvira!

DC rebranded "House of Mystery" as an Elvira book, which was kind of an interesting idea

In addition to her work in TV and movies, Elvira has been a fixture of comics off and on since the 1980's.  She was at DC on and off for years, and had a series at Claypool comics as recently as 2005 or 2006.

She has also had various pinball machines and casino slot machines made under her name.

This game is totally fun in real life, and recently became available as an iPhone app.

I'd argue the sequel is even more fun, but is not available as an app.

She's also got her own slot machine.

This isn't to mention all the toys and dolls that are out there in her likeness.

Truly, the lady's copyrighted image is applicable just about anywhere.  I look forward to sitting down to breakfast and my Elvira-O's.

Octoberama! Ida Lupino!

Ida Lupino ponders her spooky pal.

Octoberama! Janet Leigh!

Janet Leigh would go on to have a terrific scare pedigree with appearances in Psycho and Halloween H20.    Not to mention birthing Jamie Lee Curtis, who would launch the Halloween movie franchise.

Octoberama! Myrna Loy!

Ms. Loy reads the cards and hangs with a friend as we head into the spooky season.

Octoberama! Clara Bow!

I'm as excited as the next guy to see Clara Bow all decked out for Halloween, but she seems to have borrowed someone else's jack-o-lantern...

Octoberama! Sundays with The Bride!

Hair and make-up check.

It takes work to look this good.