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Recent Posts
- “Groundhog Day was one of the greatest scripts ever written. It didn’t even get nominated for an Academy Award.” — Bill Murray
- “People get surprised by my choices. But that comes from me looking for something new.” — Maggie Cheung
- “I rather like the idea of death.” — poet Stevie Smith
- “I didn’t think then, and I still don’t, that I was actually sick.” — Frances Farmer
- “I think I’m a character actress in a leading lady’s body, but the industry doesn’t really see me that way.” — Sanaa Lathan
- “I’ve been very lucky, considering what I look like and what I do.” — James Gandolfini
- “I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be left alone.’ There is all the difference.” — Greta Garbo
- It’s the birthday of Irish poet Mícheál Ó hAirtnéide (Michael Hartnett)
- “I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin’ like myself.” — Hank Williams
- Happy Birthday, William Carlos Williams: “My whole life / has hung too long upon a partial victory.”
Recent Comments
- Elisa on “I didn’t think then, and I still don’t, that I was actually sick.” — Frances Farmer
- sheila on “Groundhog Day was one of the greatest scripts ever written. It didn’t even get nominated for an Academy Award.” — Bill Murray
- Kelly C Sedinger on “Groundhog Day was one of the greatest scripts ever written. It didn’t even get nominated for an Academy Award.” — Bill Murray
- Pat on And the Waltz Goes On, by Sir Anthony Hopkins
- Lyrie on August 2023 Viewing Diary
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- Kelly C Sedinger on “A vast amount of rubbish is published in the name of art. A man should let his work talk for him. ” — Charles Dana Gibson
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- sheila on Meeting Elia Kazan
- sheila on Review: Sitting in Bars with Cake (2023)
- sheila on Review: Sitting in Bars with Cake (2023)
- Anthony Cinelli on Meeting Elia Kazan
- Walter Biggins on Review: Sitting in Bars with Cake (2023)
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Tag Archives: Mary Astor
“The reminder that there are people who have worse troubles than you is not an effective pain-killer.” — Mary Astor
From the calculating dangerous Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon … … to the tender warm matriarch of Meet Me in St. Louis… … this was Mary Astor’s flexible range. To those who “knew her when”, Astor’s transformation into playing … Continue reading
July 2022 Viewing Diary
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019; d. Quentin Tarantino) I like it more every time I see it. I’ve seen it maybe 7 or 8 times. Desert Fury (1947; d. Lewis Allen) I adore this messed-up homoerotic Technicolor fever-dream. … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Australia, Baz Luhrmann, Brad Pitt, comedy, documentary, drama, Elvis Presley, France, Georgia, Juliette Binoche, Kurt Russell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mary Astor, noir, Peter Bogdanovich, Quentin Tarantino, Rebecca Hall, Robert Altman, romantic drama, Supernatural, What's Up Doc, women directors
65 Comments
Mary Astor’s wardrobe for her tough-talking butch-matriarch in Desert Fury
Let’s hear it for Edith Head’s conception and design of Mary Astor’s wardrobe in Desert Fury (1947) and its elegant-but-decadent-baroque-butch aesthetic. This Technicolor noir is now streaming on Criterion, and you should see it while it’s there. The film is … Continue reading
2017 Books Read
I got into a good rhythm with reading this year. I did a lot of re-reading, going back to books I haven’t read in 20 years or whatever. It was fun, like a reunion with an old friend. Much of … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 1984, A.S. Byatt, Bette Davis, books read, Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Edgar Allan Poe, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Herman Melville, Hitler, Ireland, Jack London, Janet Malcolm, Jean Renoir, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Crawford, Joan Didion, John Milton, Kim Stanley, Mark Danielewski, Mary Astor, Mary Gaitskill, Olivia Laing, Poland, politics, Robert Altman, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Russia, S.E. Hinton, Shirley Jackson, Tana French, Tennessee Williams, The Great Terror, war
4 Comments
Year in Review: Shooting My Mouth Off in 2017
It’s been a God-awful year in so many unprecedented ways. It’s also been a great year for me professionally (which has brought with it its own set of challenges.) Here are some of the things I’ve written this year. Reviews, … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Television
Tagged Actors Studio, Bette Davis, Carrie Fisher, Cate Blanchett, documentary, East of Eden, Elvis Presley, Greta Gerwig, Groundhog Day, Harry Dean Stanton, Howard Hawks, Isabelle Huppert, Jack Garfein, Jerry Lewis, Joachim Trier, Joan Crawford, John Steinbeck, July and Half of August, Kim Stanley, Kristen Stewart, Mary Astor, Pat McCurdy, Robert Duvall, Sam Shepard, Sofia Coppola, Supernatural, William Faulkner, women directors, year in writing
15 Comments
Book Review: Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936, written and illustrated by Edward Sorel
I reviewed this absolutely wonderful book for Rogerebert.com.
Mary Astor’s Sex Life On Trial
In light of the following recent text exchange … … between Mitchell and myself, I would like to announce the publication of two books, which will be sold as companion volumes: I Miss Sluts, by Sheila O’Malley Where’s Mary Fucking … Continue reading
Other Men’s Women (1931); Dir. William Wellman
The romantic-triangle set against an environment of machines and technology was territory William Wellman had covered before (in Wings, most notably), and here, in Other Men’s Women, instead of planes, like in Wings, we’ve got trains. Male friendship and work … Continue reading