Guillermo's Making Our Nightmares Come True

Kind of flummoxed and flabbergasted when I searched the site this morning and realized I never posted the first trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's forthcoming Nightmare Alley -- the original with Tyrone Power is a fave (it just got a Criterion release not too long ago) and the cast that Del Toro has gathered up, including Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette and Rooney Mara and Richard Jenkins and Willem Dafoe, well, that says it. Oh and it's set in, and was filmed in, Buffalo, not far from where I grew up. Anyway I didn't write up that first trailer back in September because Nathaniel beat me to the punch over at The Film Experience -- see that here. 

Or don't, because we have a new trailer today, and here I am writing it up.  Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley is actually out pretty soon -- and yes I realize that saying December 17th is "pretty soon" is enough to send anyone with half a brain spiraling into a panic about how the fuck is it already almost Christmas and oh my god I haven't bought a fucking thing and... et cetera, et cetera. The "pretty soon" equals out to "29 days" and yeah, that's pretty soon. And here's the full trailer they're making their final case with. You decide!

If you've got any thoughts on it in the comments let me know -- I need no convincing on seeing this because of that damn cast... also I already have a screening of this scheduled even sooner than 29 days from now; I'm seeing this in two weeks! I think it looks like fun though and there are some stellar shots in there -- the one of the bloody angel in the snow (pretty sure that's Rooney, and if you've seen the original film you know what's happening here) is giving off super duper Crimson Peak energy and I am as always here for that. 

Yes Sir Tyrone Power Sir

Did you know that in 1942 at the ancient age of 28, just as his career was really hitting its stride (he'd just starred in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, and The Black Swan, three of his best pictures) Tyrone Power enlisted in the Marines, grew a hot mustache, and became a fighter pilot for World War II? He was hardly the only celebrity who fought in the war, and his "advanced age" kept him from flying combat missions, but he volunteered for cargo flights and ended up carrying the wounded out of big battles like Iwo Jima. He walked away in 1945 with a heap of medals for his service.

I bring this up because 1) it's Memorial Day Week, and 2) Criterion just released Power's greatest film according to me, 1947's Nightmare Alley, onto blu-ray today! Sure this came well after his service but you have to imagine the darkness of War was lurking in his imagination when he became fixated on getting this dark dark dark Noir made. (There's a lot on the disc's Special Features about how determined he was to play this role, even to the detriment of his career.) Anyway Criterion's 4K restoration looks absolutely stunning and you need to check out this disc, especially before Guillermo Del Toro's remake with Bradley Cooper comes out later this year. Now hit the jump for a couple bonus snaps of Sexy Stached Marine Tyrone with his military friends...

Merrily Nightmare Flowers Go to Ridgemont High

Criterion Announcement Day is coming a little early here in February! It's usually on the 15th, but here on February 12th they've gone and given us our sweet sweet fix -- maybe they're taking advantage of February being the shortest month, I don't know, but I'll take it. There are five titles coming out in May -- the one that caught my eye right off the bat is the super sleazy 1947 Circus-Noir Nightmare Alley starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, which is one of our faves. It's currently being remade by Guillermo Del Toro (see our previous posts) with an insanely stacked cast -- Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, on and on. But the original is ace, crazy dark, and I recommend checking it out! Love the cover art too:

May's other four titles include a 2007 concert documentary about the Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane called Trances, and then Hou Hsiao-hsien's dreamy 1998 whorehouse reverie called Flowers of Shanghai, which I just saw for the first time last fall thanks to the NYFF screening this lush new restoration included on Criterion's disc. It's a hypnotic thing but exceedingly molasses-paced so be prepared for that. But Tony Leung looks great, even with that period-appropriate but un-flattering hairline. (When doesn't he.)

The then the last two titles are Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling's classic 80s teen-comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which I doubt I need to explain to anyone reading this post, and then Dorothy Arzner's 1932 "open marriage" comedy Merrily We Go To Hell starring the great Sylvia Sidney and the great Fredric March. I've never seen MWGTH, and always meant to! Can't wait for the chance. Mr. March is such an underrated stud.

Bradley's Been a Bad Boy

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I was a big Bradley Cooper fan for a very long time -- I was both an Alias nerd and a Wet Hot American Summer devotee, after all -- and then, and then, A Star is Born happened. A truly bad movie that was so inexplicably enjoyed by so many smart (and not so smart) people that I felt like I'd fully lost my mind that Oscar season. Seriously. That movie is bad. And while Bradley's performance isn't by any stretch of the imagination the film's biggest problem -- that would be Lady Gaga's absolutely abysmal work and the film's wretched script -- it is, in the immortal words of Pete Campbell, Not Great Bob. He sells a lot of the emotional heft of the flick -- whatever little heft it does have, actually -- but that booming baritone croaking thing he is doing with his voice is so over the top cheesy and distracting. And then he proved himself an unbearable humorless schmuck all Oscar Season long, and my point is he did a real damn good job of whittling away most of my good Bradley Cooper feelings over the course of a few months. Not Good, Brad!

Anyway I'm going to have to try to get over it -- and judging by how annoyed I am still getting thinking about that entire debacle here in August of 2020 I have some work to do! -- because the future projects he's lined up as an actor are going to demand my attention, and hopefully, my enthuasiasms. Of course there's Guillermo Del Toro's remake of  the Carny Noir Nightmare Alley, which has him tackling Tyrone Power's role opposite Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara and Toni Collette, and which began filming in Buffalo way back before the pandemic -- not sure where that stands now; if they finished filming before shutdown, I mean.

And now today it's been revealed that he is going to be in Paul Thomas Anderson's next movie. I told you about it last November -- it's based on PTA's own childhood growing up in the Valley in the 1970s and it's actually supposed to be a good and proper ensemble piece a la Boogie Nights or Magnolia, aka the sorts of movies he started out making, as opposed to the One (or Two) Man Armies he's been fixated on post-There Will Be Blood. (Although just so we're clear, from my perspective Paul Thomas Anderson has never made a single bad movie, period.) Anyway that lessens the weight on Bradley Cooper's shoulders, thankfully -- if this is an ensemble film my feelings won't rest entirely on his performance. If he went and ruined PTA's perfect record, hooooo boy.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1947

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Well it's been far too long since we've done one of these "Siri Says" posts! That is to say I somehow let over a year slip since the last time? That seems utterly impossible but the archives don't lie. We did the year 1994 last June and then... tumbleweed. Well in my defense these posts -- wherein I ask the little voice that lives inside my telephone to choose a number between 1 and 100 and then I list my favorite movies from the year that corresponds -- are time consuming in the best of times, and it's been awhile since we've been in anything resembling "the best of times." But I've been feeling the itch as of late, and here we are -- scratching ourselves satisfied.

Today, after four tries -- the years for pickin' have gotten far thinner -- Siri gave me the number "47" and so today I will share with you my favorite movies out of The Movies of 1947. The 1940s aren't my best decade -- I'm not often in a Noir mood and you gotta love Noir to soak yourself in the 40s. Before anybody reaches through the screen and slaps me in both directions let me make it clear I am not saying I don't like Film Noir. I like Noir. Do I love Noir? I have loved specific Noirs. It's complicated. Anyway my point is the list of movies I haven't seen from 1947 is way longer than the one I have, so per usual I'll rely on y'all to tell me in the comments what I should definitely seek out. But first, the main feature, which does include one of my favorite movies of all time at least...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1947

Black Narcissus

(dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

-- released on August 13th 1947 --

Out of the Past

(dir. Jacques Tourneur)

-- released on November 25th 1947 --

Fireworks

(dir. Kenneth Anger)

-- released on June 15th 1949 --

The Lady From Shanghai

(dir. Orson Welles)

-- released on April 14th 1947 --

Nightmare Alley

(dir. Edmund Golding)

-- released on October 28th 1947 --

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Runners-up: Smash-up: The Story of a Woman (dir. Stuart Heisler), The Paradine Case (dir. Hitchcock), Miracle on 34th Street (dir. Seaton), Lured (dir. Douglas Sirk), The Two Mrs. Carrolls (dir. Peter Godfrey), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

Never seen: Born To Kill (dir. Robert Wise), Crossfire (dir. Edward Dmytryk), Daisy Kenyon (dir. Otto Preminger), Dark Passage (dir. Delmer Daves), A Double Life (dir. George Cukor)...

... Gentleman's Agreement (dir. Kazan), Golden Earrings (dir. Leisen), Kiss of Death (dir. Henry Hathaway), Possessed (dir. Curtis Bernhardt), Brute Force (dir. Jules Dassin)

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What are your favorite movies of 1947?

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Good Morning, World

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Yesterday I was thinking about watching Untamed, Tyrone Power's 1955 Western with Susan Hayward and a really beautifully bearded Richard Egan (see my previous post about all of the homoerotic photos of the two boys in this movie right here), because its rental on Amazon is on sale right now for just $2.99 -- I was thinking about doing that and it led me to that photo of Mr. Power which is one I have somehow, in all my many researches, never come across before. I think that's a good sign towards watching the movie, right? It seems like the Universe (and Ty's speedo) is steering me in the right direction...

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Nightmare Circus Folks

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I double-checked to make sure I never posted these terrifying pasty goblin photos of Bradley Cooper in W Magazine last year and sure enough I was sane, and didn't -- probably both because I hated with the heat of a million suns the movie he was promoting at the time (that'd be his A Star is Born remake), and also that he looks like somebody wanted to make a sexy stage version of Powder. A lot of nos! But here we are today posting them, against better instincts of yore, because there's Bradley Cooper news that I have to talk about, and the dude hasn't been doing photo-shoots much lately -- this is what we've got.

So the news that's brought this horror back into our lives is that it looks like Brad's set to play the Tyrone Power role in Guillermo Del Toro's forthcoming re-do of the terrific 1947 swarthy-noir Nightmare Alley. (We previously posted about this project here.) You'll hear no comment on Cooper filling in for Tyrone "Closet Case" Power from me! Besides, you know, that there "no comment" comment. The story's mainly set at the seediest of carnivals, where Cooper's character is a phony mind-reader who gets in way over his head with a bad dame.

The rest of the cast that Del Toro's gathered up though, well, it's literally quite insane. This movie is also going to star Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (who are hopefully just playing alternate timeline carny versions of Carol & Therese), Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman and Michael Shannon. I mean can you even imagine? Anyway Del Toro says he plans on sticking closer to William Lindsay Gresham's original book, which I've never read but he says it's much darker -- the Tyrone film is pretty dark from what I recall, but lord knows there's stuff you can get away with now you couldn't get away with in 1947; GDT promises a "big R, like double R" rating. And if Michael Shannon bites the head off a live chicken it'll all -- all of life -- been worth it.
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Good Morning, Gratuitous Richard Egan

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Born on this day in the year 1921 is the actor Richard Egan, whose face is more familiar to me than his filmography should allow -- I suppose it's his two best known films, Love Me Tender in 1956 (which was Elvis' debut movie) and the 1959 melodrama A Summer Place, that I probably know him from? But I also have a soft spot for the goofy 1954 sci-fi flick Gog, which has him wearing jumpsuits and fighting multi-limbed maniac robots...

... shades of Daleks to come. It seems like the two movies I need to see though, after a thorough investigation this morning, are 1955's Underwater! with him co-starring alongside Jane Russell (the poster makes much of Jane Russell and her assets floating from beneath in the water) and the heroically-stached Gilbert Roland... 

... and yes a Gilbert Roland post of its own is long long overdue, I one thousand percent agree. And the other movie of his I need to see is from that very same year, the Western called Untamed, which appears to be nothing but him and Tyrone Power wearing matching beards and wrestling a lot over the affections of Susan Hayward.

Doesn't adding camp icon Susan Hayward to the mix take it to that extra level and make it sound like the gayest movie ever made? It's a great camp title too, Untamed! I gotta see this movie immediately -- thankfully it's rent-able on Amazon.

I do worry it can't possibly live up to my expectations at this point, but that beard goes a long way on its own. Anyway it seems like Egan worked with absolutely everybody and was well-liked by them -- Wikipedia says he was responsible for discovering Ryan O'Neal when they worked out at the same gym together, cough cough...

... and he had a long full career without ever really finding that big memorable breakout role, and he died relatively young at just 65 years old. But we remember him today! Hit the jump for a few dozen more pictures...

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

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Blood and Sand (1941)

In case you've been wondering what this week's banner is from

say hello to my latest obsession...

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Okay I had to make a gif out of that woman's reaction shot because the internet NEEDS this pic.twitter.com/HJkdudkULG

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 2, 2018

.I actually did an entire Twitter thread while watching the movie last week when it aired on TCM - of course that involves a lot of Sexy Tyrone Power because hot damn he's looking good in this flick.

But then everything is looking good in this flick - the Technicolor is out of this world; I wish somebody would shoot their movie like this or The Adventures of Robin Hood or any of these early 40s dreams now. I find them so hypnotic - they feel like Capital-M Movies.

Director Rouben Mamoulian took inspiration for the flick's visuals from a bunch of Spanish painters like El Greco and Goya - there are moments of such vivid expressionistic beauty it's overwhelming. And it's also a little bit delightfully goofy too. I love it.

Hit the jump for links to the Previous Ways Not To Die

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1940

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We're not dawdling in this here brand New Year - let's dive right in and continue our "Siri Says" series, in which we ask our telephone to give us a number between 1 and 100 and then choose a favorite list of films that correspond to whatever number she gives us. Today it was the number 40, and so we turn our eyes to The Movies of 1940. Glancing at the annual poll of Box Office Stars 1940 fell right square in the middle of Mickey Rooney's reign of cinematic terror, but no worries - no Mickey here! Well, there is one Mickey, but a different far better Mickey...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1940

Fantasia

(dir. James Algar etc.)

-- released on November 13th 1940 --

Rebecca

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on April 12th 1940 --
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My Favorite Wife

(dir. Garson Kanin)

-- released on May 17th 1940 --

His Girl Friday

(dir. Howard Hawks)

-- released on January 18th 1940 --

Pinocchio

(dir. Ben Sharpsteen etc)

-- released on February 23rd 1940 --

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Runners-up: The Philadelphia Story (dir. Cukor), The Grapes of Wrath (dir. Ford), The Shop Around the Corner (dir. Lubitsch), Foreign Correspondent (dir. Hitchcock), Remember the Night (dir. Leisen), The Mark of Zorro (dir. Rouben Mamoulian)...

... They Drive by Night (dir. Raoul Walsh), The Thief of Bagdad (dir. Michael Powell), All This, and Heaven Too (dir. Anatole Litvak),  Black Friday (dir. Arthur Lubin), The Letter (dir. William Wyler), The Great Dictator (dir. Chaplin)

Never seen: Arizona (dir. Wesley Ruggles), Kitty Foyle (dir. Sam Wood), The Sea Hawk (dir. Michael Curtiz), The Bank Dick (dir. Cline), The Invisible Man Returns (dir. James Whale), Night Train to Munich (dir. Carol Reed), Our Town (dir. Sam Wood)

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What are your favorite movies of 1940?

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