#seton i. miller

[sesiondemadrugada]

Murders in the Zoo (A. Edward Sutherland, 1933).

[mariocki]

Murders in the Zoo (1933)

"Mr. Yates, never be afraid of a wild animal. Let it alone and it will leave you alone. That's more than you can say of most humans."

"You don't mean to say you really like these beasts?"

"I love them. Their honesty, their simplicity, their primitive emotions: they love, they hate, they kill."

[byneddiedingo]

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938)

Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Montagu Love. Screenplay: Norman Reilly Raine, Seton I. Miller. Cinematography: Tony Gaudio, Sol Polito. Art direction: Carl Jules Weyl. Film editing: Ralph Dawson. Music: Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

One of the most enjoyable films ever made, The Adventures of Robin Hood has stood the test of time better than the one that beat it in the race for the best picture Oscar, Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You. Errol Flynn (who else?) plays the legendary outlaw, with the lovely young Olivia de Havilland as his Maid Marian and Basil Rathbone as his chief swordfighting adversary, Sir Guy of Gisborne. Claude Rains is the evil King John and Melville Cooper his inept henchman, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The supporting cast is a gallery of old favorites, including Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, and Una O'Connor. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's sweeping score also earned an Oscar. One of the first features of the golden age of Technicolor, it has an appropriately soft storybook illustration palette.

[moviesandmania]

MURDERS IN THE ZOO Lionel Atwill! - reviews

Murders in the Zoo is a 1933 horror film about a monomaniacal zoologist who is pathologically jealous of his beautiful but unfaithful wife Evelyn and will murder other men to keep her. The movie was directed by A. Edward Sutherland (The Invisible Woman) from a screenplay by Philip Wylie and Seton I. Miller for Paramount Pictures. The movie stars Charles Ruggles (Bewitched, The Munsters), Lionel…

[byneddiedingo]

Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932)

Cast: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, George Raft, Vince Barnett, Osgood Perkins, Boris Karloff, C. Henry Gordon, Inez Palange. Screenplay: Ben Hecht, Seton I. Miller, John Lee Mahin, W.R. Burnett, based on a novel by Armitage Trail. Cinematography: Lee Garmes, L. William O'Connell. Set designer: Harry Oliver. Film editing: Edward Curtiss

Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932)

[brookston]

Holidays 1.23

Holidays

Archery Day

Asian Corpsetwt Day [Every 23rd]

Belly Laugh Day

Birthday of the Grand Duchess (Luxembourg)

Bounty Day (Pitcairn Island)

BPDCN (Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm) Awareness Day

Cold, Cold, Cold Day

Day of Hathor (Ancient Egypt; Everyday Wicca)

Django Day

Ed Roberts Day (California)

Fundación del Estado Plurinacional Holiday (Bolivia)

Grandmother's Day (Bulgaria)

International Integrative Health Day

Maternal Health Awareness Day (New Jersey)

Measure Your Feet Day

National Aiden Day

National Fay Day

National Freedom Day

National Handwriting Day

National King Day

National Musician Day (Día Nal. del Músico; Argentina)

National Pedro Day

National Reading Day

National Report Pharmaceutical Fraud Day

National School Nurse Day

National Security Technician Day

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Jayanti (Parts of India)

One-Tooth Rhee Landing Day

Paul Pitcher Day (Cornwall)

Ranked Choice Voting Day

Snowdrop Day (French Republic)

Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day

Tiananmen Square Day

Wakakusa Yamayaki (Grass Burning; Japan)

Women in Medicine Day

World Endangered Writing Day

World Freedom Day (South Korea, Taiwan)

Food & Drink Celebrations

International Sticky Toffee Pudding Day

National Pie Day

National Rhubarb Day

Rhubarb Pie Day

4th Tuesday in January

National Speak Up and Succeed Day [4th Tuesday]

Independence & Related Days

Foundation Day (Lichtenstein)

Kingdom of Abrus (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

New Year’s Days

Gann-Hgal (Zeliangrong People’s New Year’s Festival; Parts of India)

Festivals Beginning January 23, 2024

Empire State Producers Expo (Syracuse, New York) [thru 1.24]

Key West Food and Wine Festival (Key West, Florida) [thru 1.28]

Küstendorf International Film and Music Festival (Drvengrad, Serbia) thru 1.27]

Mile O Fest (Key West, Florida) [thru 1.27]

Northern Green (St. Paul, Minnesota) [thru 1.25]

Unified Wine & Grape Symposium (Sacramento, California) [thru 1.25]

Wheat Industry Winter Conference (Washington, DC) [thru 1.26]

Feast Days

Abakuh (Egyptian Christian; Martyr)

Agathangelus (Christian; Martyr)

Asclas (Christian; Martyr)

Banba (a.k.a. Banbha; Matron Goddess of Ireland; Celtic Book of Days)

Bernard of Vienne (Christian; Saint)

Betrothal of Mary and Joseph (Christian)

Bruma VII (Pagan)

Clement of Ancyra (Christian; Martyr)

Cunning Linguine Day (a.k.a. Get Your Tongue Round Some Linguine Day; Pastafarian)

Day of Hathor (Egyptian Goddess of Drunkenness)

Édouard Manet (Artology)

Emerentiana (Christian; Virgin)

Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Christian)

Eusebius (Christian; Saint)

Georg Baselitz (Artology)

Ildefonsus of Toledo (Christian; Saint)

Jean-Michel Atlan (Artology)

John the Almsgiver (Christian; Saint)

Knot Magic Day (Cornwall; Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Leon Golub (Artology)

Lufthildis (Christian; Virgin)

Maimbod (Christian; Martyr)

Marianne of Molokai (Christian; Blessed)

The Peasants (Muppetism)

Phillips Brooks (Episcopal Church (USA))

Ragwort Dance (Pixies Only; Shamanism)

Raymond of Pennafort (a.k.a. Rayman;  Christian; Confessor) [Original Date]

Samuel (Positivist; Saint)

Sergei Eisenstein (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 23 [9 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

The A-Team (TV Series; 2003)

Barney Miller (TV Series; 1975)

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (WB Animated Film; 2018)

The Blair Witch Project (Film; 1999)

Boys For Pele, by Tori Amos (Album; 1996)

Bushfire Fairytales, by Jack Johnson (Album; 2001)

The Butterfly Effect (Film; 2004)

Casablanca (Film; 1943)

Dave the Barbarian (Animated TV Series; 2004)

Dragonwyck, by Anya Seton (Novel; 1944)

Fear on the Pier or What’s Up, Duck? (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 145; 1962)

Happy Circus Days (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

The Herring Murder Mystery (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1944)

I Left My Heart in San Francisco, recorded by Tony Bennett (Song; 1962)

Inkheart (Film; 2008)

Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier (Novel; 1936)

Katherine, by Anya Seton (Historical Novel; 1954)

Lady in the Lake (Film; 1947)

Material Girl, by Madonna (Song; 1985)

Mythbusters (TV Series; 2003)

Neck ’n’ Neck (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1928)

The New Spirit (Disney Cartoon; 1942)

Our Friend the Atom (Animated DIsnet TV Cartoon; 1957)

Puppy Tale (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1954)

Roots (TV Mini-Series; 1977)

Skeleton Frolics (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1937)

Spice World (Film; 1998)

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series; 2020)

Station to Station, by David Bowie (Album; 1976)

Strange Magic (Animated Film; 2015)

Suspicious Minds, recorded by Elvis Presley (Song; 1969)

They’re Off (Disney Cartoon; 1948)

TNT For Two or Fright Cargo (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 146; 1962)

Trust, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1981)

The Way You Do the Things You Do, by The Temptations (Song; 1964)

West of the Pesos (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

The Witch of Pickyoon, Parts 1 & 2 (Underdog Cartoon, S1, Eps. 33 & 34 1965)

Today’s Name Days

Hartmut, Heinrich, Nikolaus (Austria)

Ema, Emercijana, Vjera (Croatia)

Zdeněk (Czech Republic)

Emerentius (Denmark)

Räni, Reeno, Rene (Estonia)

Eine, Eini, Enna, Enni (Finland)

Banard (France)

Esmerentia, Guido, Hartmut (Germany)

Agathangelos, Dionisis (Greece)

Rajmund, Zelma (Hungary)

Armando, Emerenziana, Ramona (Italy)

Grieta, Ortrude, Rieta (Latvia)

Algimantas, Gailigedas, Gunda, Raimundas (Lithuania)

Emil, Emilie, Emma (Norway)

Emerencja, Ildefons, Jan, Klemens, Maria, Rajmund, Rajmunda, Wrócisława (Poland)

Clement, Paulin (Romania)

Miloš (Slovakia)

Ildefonso (Spain)

Frej, Freja (Sweden)

Clem, Clement, Clementine, Ksenia, Oksana (Ukraine)

Emerald, Esmeralda, Rachael, Rachel, Rachelle, Rae, Ramon, Ramona, Raquel, Ray, Raymond, Raymundo (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 23 of 2024; 343 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 4 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Luis (Rowan) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 13 (Bing-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 13 Shevat 5784

Islamic: 12 Rajab 1445

J Cal: 23 White; Twosday [23 of 30]

Julian: 10 January 2024

Moon: 96%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 23 Moses (1st Month) [Samuel]

Runic Half Month: Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 34 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 2 of 28)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 1.23

Holidays

Archery Day

Asian Corpsetwt Day [Every 23rd]

Belly Laugh Day

Birthday of the Grand Duchess (Luxembourg)

Bounty Day (Pitcairn Island)

BPDCN (Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm) Awareness Day

Cold, Cold, Cold Day

Day of Hathor (Ancient Egypt; Everyday Wicca)

Django Day

Ed Roberts Day (California)

Fundación del Estado Plurinacional Holiday (Bolivia)

Grandmother's Day (Bulgaria)

International Integrative Health Day

Maternal Health Awareness Day (New Jersey)

Measure Your Feet Day

National Aiden Day

National Fay Day

National Freedom Day

National Handwriting Day

National King Day

National Musician Day (Día Nal. del Músico; Argentina)

National Pedro Day

National Reading Day

National Report Pharmaceutical Fraud Day

National School Nurse Day

National Security Technician Day

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Jayanti (Parts of India)

One-Tooth Rhee Landing Day

Paul Pitcher Day (Cornwall)

Ranked Choice Voting Day

Snowdrop Day (French Republic)

Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day

Tiananmen Square Day

Wakakusa Yamayaki (Grass Burning; Japan)

Women in Medicine Day

World Endangered Writing Day

World Freedom Day (South Korea, Taiwan)

Food & Drink Celebrations

International Sticky Toffee Pudding Day

National Pie Day

National Rhubarb Day

Rhubarb Pie Day

4th Tuesday in January

National Speak Up and Succeed Day [4th Tuesday]

Independence & Related Days

Foundation Day (Lichtenstein)

Kingdom of Abrus (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

New Year’s Days

Gann-Hgal (Zeliangrong People’s New Year’s Festival; Parts of India)

Festivals Beginning January 23, 2024

Empire State Producers Expo (Syracuse, New York) [thru 1.24]

Key West Food and Wine Festival (Key West, Florida) [thru 1.28]

Küstendorf International Film and Music Festival (Drvengrad, Serbia) thru 1.27]

Mile O Fest (Key West, Florida) [thru 1.27]

Northern Green (St. Paul, Minnesota) [thru 1.25]

Unified Wine & Grape Symposium (Sacramento, California) [thru 1.25]

Wheat Industry Winter Conference (Washington, DC) [thru 1.26]

Feast Days

Abakuh (Egyptian Christian; Martyr)

Agathangelus (Christian; Martyr)

Asclas (Christian; Martyr)

Banba (a.k.a. Banbha; Matron Goddess of Ireland; Celtic Book of Days)

Bernard of Vienne (Christian; Saint)

Betrothal of Mary and Joseph (Christian)

Bruma VII (Pagan)

Clement of Ancyra (Christian; Martyr)

Cunning Linguine Day (a.k.a. Get Your Tongue Round Some Linguine Day; Pastafarian)

Day of Hathor (Egyptian Goddess of Drunkenness)

Édouard Manet (Artology)

Emerentiana (Christian; Virgin)

Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Christian)

Eusebius (Christian; Saint)

Georg Baselitz (Artology)

Ildefonsus of Toledo (Christian; Saint)

Jean-Michel Atlan (Artology)

John the Almsgiver (Christian; Saint)

Knot Magic Day (Cornwall; Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Leon Golub (Artology)

Lufthildis (Christian; Virgin)

Maimbod (Christian; Martyr)

Marianne of Molokai (Christian; Blessed)

The Peasants (Muppetism)

Phillips Brooks (Episcopal Church (USA))

Ragwort Dance (Pixies Only; Shamanism)

Raymond of Pennafort (a.k.a. Rayman;  Christian; Confessor) [Original Date]

Samuel (Positivist; Saint)

Sergei Eisenstein (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 23 [9 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

The A-Team (TV Series; 2003)

Barney Miller (TV Series; 1975)

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (WB Animated Film; 2018)

The Blair Witch Project (Film; 1999)

Boys For Pele, by Tori Amos (Album; 1996)

Bushfire Fairytales, by Jack Johnson (Album; 2001)

The Butterfly Effect (Film; 2004)

Casablanca (Film; 1943)

Dave the Barbarian (Animated TV Series; 2004)

Dragonwyck, by Anya Seton (Novel; 1944)

Fear on the Pier or What’s Up, Duck? (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 145; 1962)

Happy Circus Days (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

The Herring Murder Mystery (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1944)

I Left My Heart in San Francisco, recorded by Tony Bennett (Song; 1962)

Inkheart (Film; 2008)

Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier (Novel; 1936)

Katherine, by Anya Seton (Historical Novel; 1954)

Lady in the Lake (Film; 1947)

Material Girl, by Madonna (Song; 1985)

Mythbusters (TV Series; 2003)

Neck ’n’ Neck (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1928)

The New Spirit (Disney Cartoon; 1942)

Our Friend the Atom (Animated DIsnet TV Cartoon; 1957)

Puppy Tale (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1954)

Roots (TV Mini-Series; 1977)

Skeleton Frolics (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1937)

Spice World (Film; 1998)

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series; 2020)

Station to Station, by David Bowie (Album; 1976)

Strange Magic (Animated Film; 2015)

Suspicious Minds, recorded by Elvis Presley (Song; 1969)

They’re Off (Disney Cartoon; 1948)

TNT For Two or Fright Cargo (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 146; 1962)

Trust, by Elvis Costello (Album; 1981)

The Way You Do the Things You Do, by The Temptations (Song; 1964)

West of the Pesos (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

The Witch of Pickyoon, Parts 1 & 2 (Underdog Cartoon, S1, Eps. 33 & 34 1965)

Today’s Name Days

Hartmut, Heinrich, Nikolaus (Austria)

Ema, Emercijana, Vjera (Croatia)

Zdeněk (Czech Republic)

Emerentius (Denmark)

Räni, Reeno, Rene (Estonia)

Eine, Eini, Enna, Enni (Finland)

Banard (France)

Esmerentia, Guido, Hartmut (Germany)

Agathangelos, Dionisis (Greece)

Rajmund, Zelma (Hungary)

Armando, Emerenziana, Ramona (Italy)

Grieta, Ortrude, Rieta (Latvia)

Algimantas, Gailigedas, Gunda, Raimundas (Lithuania)

Emil, Emilie, Emma (Norway)

Emerencja, Ildefons, Jan, Klemens, Maria, Rajmund, Rajmunda, Wrócisława (Poland)

Clement, Paulin (Romania)

Miloš (Slovakia)

Ildefonso (Spain)

Frej, Freja (Sweden)

Clem, Clement, Clementine, Ksenia, Oksana (Ukraine)

Emerald, Esmeralda, Rachael, Rachel, Rachelle, Rae, Ramon, Ramona, Raquel, Ray, Raymond, Raymundo (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 23 of 2024; 343 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 4 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Luis (Rowan) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 13 (Bing-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 13 Shevat 5784

Islamic: 12 Rajab 1445

J Cal: 23 White; Twosday [23 of 30]

Julian: 10 January 2024

Moon: 96%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 23 Moses (1st Month) [Samuel]

Runic Half Month: Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 34 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 2 of 28)

[gregorygalloway]

Scarface premiered in New Orleans, LA on 31 March 1932.

Producer Howard Hughes had wanted a New York City premiere, but the NY State censor board banned the film (Detroit, Seattle, Portland, and Chicago also banned screenings). Hughes had been fighting with the Hays Office for almost a year to try and get the completed film released. The censors believed the film glorified violence and crime and demanded a number of alterations to the film, including a prologue condemning gangsters, an alternate ending, and a title change  (The Shame of a Nation).

Based loosely on Armitage Trial’s 1929 novel (which was loosely based on Al Capone), Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay in 11 days and had almost no similarities with the novel (W.R. Burnett, John Lee Mahin, Seton I. Miller, and Fred Pasley also contributed to the script).

Howard Hawks spent 6 months filming and a completed film was ready by September 1931, but the release was delayed while Hughes fought with the Hays Office.

Scarface was a controversial film when it was released, and due to the bans in place (It was not shown in Chicago until 1941), it was a box office failure. Hughes withdrew the film from circulation and it was not shown again until 1979.

[himblebo]

It is known that Walt Disney idolized Mark Twain and loved Tom Sawyer in particular because of his own childhood in Missouri. Walt designed Tom Sawyer Island himself and it was opened at the Disneyland Resort in 1956, just one year after the park opened. According to a D23 article published in 2016 (to coincide with the release of the Pete’s Dragon remake), Walt Disney hired the author Seton I. Miller to develop an unpublished short story he had written with S. S. Field into a film, to be called “Pete’s Dragon and the USA (Forever After)” (get wrecked Epcot Norway). So if he initiated that project one year after Tom Sawyer Island opened, I think it’s 100% plausible that Walt selected that particular short story for its similarity to Twain’s boyhood adventure stories. That film obviously never materialized, then it was intended to be developed into two episodes for the Disneyland television series in 1958, and then was ostensibly shelved for the rest of Walt Disney’s life until the film was approached by the studio again in 1968, then 1975, to then finally be produced and released in 1977, a full 20 years after Walt Disney first initiated the story’s development for screen. Looking at the films the studio made in the years preceding, there are a number of a) period pieces, b) child lead adventure stories, and c) films that are both (which is, like, a fair representation of a LOT of 1970s family films, but I digress), which very well aligns with Twain’s work. So of course the next thing I google is Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer adaptations around that time as well, and YEAH there are tons. Most notable to our Disney timeline here I think is the 1974 musical film adaptation Huckleberry Finn, with music by…. The Sherman Brothers, naturally. Now THAT is interesting, especially given that the year after that was released, Pete’s Dragon went back into tentative development… the Sherman Brothers are primarily associated with their work on Disney films, BUT! 1974 Huckleberry Finn was NOT a Disney film—it was produced by Reader’s Digest and APJAC Productions. Now growing up watching a lot of Disney musicals, of which my favorites were mostly Sherman brothers projects. Literally my three favorite movies growing up were Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Pete’s Dragon (honorable mention for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but that was United Artists not Disney). I had just assumed that the music in Pete’s Dragon was by the Sherman Brothers, because it sounds stylistically similar, and the film scoring was done by Irwin Kostal who had also done the scoring for Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I assumed that the Sherman Brothers and Irwin Kostal were just. An established pairing by studios.

But I didn’t learn until actually reading the opening credits today that the songs in Pete’s Dragon were written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn.

So. We come down to this:

TLDR; I am 95% sure that Walt Disney Studios saw the middling reception of 1974 Sherman Brothers Huckleberry Finn and said “we can do better in a different font” and went into production on Pete’s Dragon to release in 1977 to positive reception in a reversal of the Annie Get Your Gun to Calamity Jane pipeline.

And if you didn’t know: MGM released Annie Get Your Gun to great acclaim in 1950, so in 1953 Warner Bros. said “we can do better in a different font” and released Calamity Jane, which was fairly well received but nowhere near as acclaimed as Annie Get Your Gun (it’s also really campy and fun—but be warned, midcentury insensitive portrayal of native Americans abound alongside the drag numbers and latent homosexuality).

Also I’ve said it before but Pete’s dragon is like… huckleberry Finn fan fiction if you squint? And I’m about to fall down suuuuch a weird rabbit hole about this

[theoscarsproject]

Pete's Dragon (1977). An orphan boy and his magical dragon come to town with his abusive adoptive parents in pursuit.

Surprisingly, I'd never actually seen this movie, which is kind of funny given I think I've seen every other Disney film at this point, haha. It's a fun little premise, and the heart of it with Pete's relationship with the dragon is pretty sweet. I like the animation style too, and wish 2D mash-ups with live action were still a thing. That said, the music is often cringey, and the dastardly plot is wildly unnecessary, and never really works. 5/10.

[thejewofkansas]

HERE COMES MR. JORDAN Review - ***½

HERE COMES MR. JORDAN Review – ***½

After the Capitol riots, I was in need of something light and funny, and as I’ve been trying to cross some canonical films off my to-watch list, it seemed like a good time to watch the film so nice they remade it twice—giving it seven Oscar nominations and two wins the first time, and nine nominations (with one win) the second time, 1978’s Heaven Can Wait, which I was quite unimpressed by when I…

[mariocki]

Convicted (1950)

"Will you tell me what all the fuss is about? I had a few drinks and I hit a guy. It happens every day."

"You know who the boy was?"

"No, I'd never seen him before."

"Anyone told you he died this morning? Not just a bar room brawl now, Joe. A man is dead, you did it."

"Well, it... it was just an accident."

"He's still dead."

[byneddiedingo]

Gene Tierney and Vincent Price in Dragonwyck (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946)

Cast: Gene Tierney, Vincent Price, Walter Huston, Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, Spring Byington, Connie Marshall, Harry Morgan, Jessica Tandy. Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on a novel by Anya Seton. Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller. Art direction: J. Russell Spencer, Lyle R. Wheeler. Film editing: Dorothy Spencer. Music: Alfred Newman. 

Dragonwyck both courts and suffers from comparison to those other paradigmatic gloomy old house movies of the 1940s, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1941) and Robert Stevenson's Jane Eyre (1943). As the imperious master of the titular gloomy old house, Vincent Price can hardly compete with Laurence Olivier in the former or Orson Welles in the latter. Price had an aura of camp, present not only today after his many horror movies, but apparent even then, after playing Shelby Carpenter in Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944). Gene Tierney, on the other hand, holds up well in a comparison with Joan Fontaine, the heroine of both of the other two movies. There's also some distinguished supporting work from first-rate actors like Walter Huston, Anne Revere, and Jessica Tandy, and solid contributions by familiar character actors Spring Byington and Harry Morgan. So Dragonwyck isn't a total loss. Where it falls apart is in adapting Any Seton's hefty novel, which concentrates as much on history as on gothic romance. The historical element in both novel and film centers on the overthrow of the semi-feudal patroon system that was established in the Hudson River Valley by the Dutch in the 17th century and persisted through the mid-1840s. In adapting the novel, even the gifted screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz can't do much to stuff the history into the confines of his movie, which was also his debut as a director. But I got the feeling that he was stymied by the demands of the characters as well: We get only an outline of the backstory of his heroine, Miranda Wells (Tierney), in an opening scene with her stern, puritanical father (Huston) and her more understanding mother (Revere), before she is carried off to Dragonwyck to serve as governess to Katrine Van Ryn (Connie Marshall) and companion to the invalid Mrs. Van Ryn (Vivienne Osborne). The mystery of how and why Miranda's distant cousin-by-marriage, Nicholas Van Ryn (Price), decided to hire Miranda is never explained. The faithful Van Ryn housekeeper (Byington) shows her the house and tells her its creepy history, and then warns her, "One day you'll wish with all your heart you'd never come to Dragonwyck." But there's also a handsome young doctor (the forgettable Glenn Langan) to suggest alternative possibilities. The spook factor consists of a portrait of an ill-fated ancestor and her harpsichord, whose ghost can be heard singing and playing at ominous moments, such as the death of Mrs. Van Ryn. Mankiewicz has some trouble putting all of these pieces into play: For example, little Katrine disappears from the story entirely in mid-film, even after Miranda nominally becomes Katrine's stepmother. The best way to watch a movie like Dragonwyck is to disengage all expectations of logical character development and plot structure and just go with the mood supplied by the sets and Arthur C. Miller's cinematography.  

[pilibdc]

JOMP BPC June 17: Female Author

I may have gotten carried away with the amount of books. However I felt that I should demonstrate that female authors run the gamut of genres and time periods. The authors range from the 970 AD to the present day. Bellow is a list of the books

Pile 1

Darkover Landfall: Marion Zimmer Bradley (I am aware of her personal life and issues)

Deryni Rising: Katherine Kurtz

The Word for World is Forest: Ursula K LeGuin

The Shadow of Murder: Charity Lee Blackstock

Oroonoko: Aphra Behn

Ice: Anna Kavan

Frankenstein: Mary Shelley

Kallicain: Karin Boyle

The Mysteries of Udolpho: Ann Radcliff

The Alexiad: Anna Komnene

The Bloody Chamber: Angela Carter

The Haunting of Hill House: Shirley Jackson

Circe: Madeline Miller

Pile 2

The History if England: Jane Austen

Thyra: Anne R Bailey

The Secret Lives of Married Women: Elissa Ward

Choke Hold: Christina Faust

Around the World in Seventy-Two Days: Nellie Bly

A Woman in Arabia: Gertrude Bell

The Heptameron: Marguerite De Navarre

The Book of Margery Kempe: Margery Kempe

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgerrson: Selma Lagerlof

The Book of the City of Ladies: Christine de Pizan

Revelations if Divine Love: Julian of Norwich

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: Sei Shonagon

Mary and Maria: Mary Wollstonecraft / Matilda: Mary Shelley

Selected Writings: Hildegard of Bingen

Pile 3

Murder in the Mews: Helen Reilly

Dragonwyck: Anya Seton

Gate of Ivrel: C.J Cherryh

The Pale Horse: Agatha Christie

Daughters of Earth: Judith Merril

Assassin’s Apprentice: Robin Hobb

The Wayfarer Redemption: Sara Douglass

Seraphim: Michelle Hauf

Kushiel’s Dart: Jacqueline Carey

[jerimystoltzcreations]

March 4, 2022 MiniBadges and the Creative Multiverse presents: #MagicalMarch Day 4 (Dragon) Pete's Dragon is a 1977 American live-action/animated musical fantasy film directed by Don Chaffey, produced by Jerome Courtland and Ron Miller, and written by Malcolm Marmorstein. Based on the unpublished short story "Pete's Dragon and the USA (Forever After)" by Seton I. Miller and S. S. Field, the film stars Sean Marshall, Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Jeff Conaway, Shelley Winters, and the voice of Charlie Callas as Elliott. #CreativeMultiverse #MagicalMarch #Disney #petesdragon1977 #art #artwork #artistofinstagram #artist #artistforhire #Custom #create #drawing #drawingaday #draweveryday #illustration #pencil #sketch #ink #colordrawing #Sketchcard #fabercastell #copic #twitchstreamer https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca_sA49OioW/?utm_medium=tumblr

[someawesomeamvs]

Warning: Potential spoilers, potential seizure trigger

Title: Pete’s Dragon Maid

Editor: Joseph Klemm

Song: Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)

Artist: Sean Marshall

Anime: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Category: For fun

Awards: Anime Mid-Atlantic 2017 - Comedy Finalist Otafest 2017 - The Seton I. Miller Award for AMV Excellence Anime Expo 2017 - Best Fun and Play