ThelmaTodd
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Posts posted by ThelmaTodd
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*EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE COLLECTION- FEMALE SUBJECTS (Late 1890's)*
*4 minute short*
*Muybridge was a British born photographer who did a lot of pioneering work in stop motion photography. His earliest interest was capturing animal motion in multiple shots, which became the technical groundwork for cinema itself. He soon "graduated" from animals to nude subjects, especially women. He claimed his work was artistic experimentation (which it was), but his depicting of women was noted by some to be driven by more than a purely artistic appeal. No sooner was film invented than it's prurient appeal discovered and delved into! This harkens to the VCR revolution 80 years later, where a new viewing technology was driven in it's early years by the sale of pornographic videos.*
*Muybridge died in 1904, and the above video link is some early film footage indeed, thought to date from the 1890's. The stills which comprise this feature were made between 1880 and 1887, and years later assembled as motion picture film by Muybridge.*
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*BEIM FOTOGRAFEN (1908) (AT THE PHOTOGRAPHER)*
*Saturn Film Austria*
http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=545724
*2 and a half minute film short*
*The ladies bare it all for a photographer who ends up doing a lively trade selling the pictures. The clientele appears to include a policeman as well as a gentleman in a top hat.*
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*THE SAUCY CHAMBERMAID (1907) (Das Eitle Stubenmädchen)*
*Saturn Film Austria*
http://www.youtube.com/user/VintageFilmArchive#p/c/878EC36200CF24A4/0/mq6FoEYT8Mo
*3 minute short*
*A pretty maidservant is absent-mindedly dusting with a feather duster. Suddenly intrigued by an antique sculpture with a perfect figure, she amuses herself by striking the same pose. With a little simper at first, then positively beaming, the maid strips right down to her birthday suit.* *When the master of the house suddenly appears on the scene, the pretty statue in the flesh does not leave him cold.*
*This film is typical of the productions by Johann Schwarzer, who studied photography and chemistry before founding Vienna’s first cinematographic production company, Saturn-Films, in 1906. For a long time, historians failed to mention that he produced Austria’s very first films. This might have something to do with the fact that Saturn did not work with the most “prestigious” genre – they made only erotic films.*
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*DAS SANDBAD (1906) (THE SAND BATH)*
*Saturn Film Austria*
http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=545720
*One and a half minute short*
*In a Saturn film, the undressed protagonists are always women. The excuse for undressing is sometimes a theme, which might be exotic: as in Slave theft (Sklavenraub), or mythological: Diana bathing, Amazons (Amazonen), Fauns and Spirits (Faunen und Nixen).*
*But not everyone was amused. As early as 1910, a few radicals demanded the Viennese authorities shut down the Saturn production company. Catholic associations took advantage of the situation to denounce the film-maker as immoral. Most of the films were literally axed, following a court order in 1911. The catalogues, negatives and copies all suffered the same fate.*
*Between 1906 and 1911, Saturn’s activity quickly flourished and found many fans across Europe. But after only five years in business, the Vienna government ordered the company to shut down operations on the grounds of immorality. The ethics police hacked the films to pieces. The catalogues, negatives and copies all suffered the same fate.*
*The majority of Saturn films come from collector Albert Fidelius, the son of a German distributor, who began collecting primitive films in 1933. The collection was then purchased in the 1950s by German film director Gerhard Lamprecht, who founded the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek several years later.*
*In the 1990s, original nitrate-based films (mainly negatives) were entrusted to the Filmarchiv Austria, where they were duly restored.*
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*NO SWIMMING (1906) (Baden Verboten)*
*Saturn Film Austria*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j69orYaCtl4&feature=related
*One minute short*
*In another change of trajectory, I am presenting some very early erotica shorts in the next few posts, from the 1890's to 1910. They give testimony to the timeless appeal of such subject matter, going back to the very beginning days of film.*
*Arm in arm, three damsels splash about. The police officer from the vice squad loses his whistle at the scene.This little film comes from the “natural” series of the Saturn catalog titled « Natur-Szenen ». The heroines stroll about in their birthday suit. A sledgehammer selling proposition for amateurs all over Europe.Johann Schwarzer (August 30, 1880–October 10, 1914) was an Austrian photographer and pioneer producer of adult films through his Saturn-Film concern.*
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*In the early 1900s, Schwarzer resettled in Vienna and became a portrait and family photographer and chemist; to supplement his income, Schwarzer began making erotic photos used on naughty postcards common to this era. In 1906, he became acquainted with the existence of men’s only nights at movie theaters in Vienna that showed adult films, so-called Herrenabende. Schwarzer organized Saturn-Film that year and began production of such films himself; Saturn-Film was the first native film production company based in Austria. Unlike his predecessors, Schwarzer conducted his business as a public company, advertising in local newspapers, motion picture trade journals and adding a logo to his films like any other European producer. Saturn-Film also published a regular film catalog within its first couple years of existence. Despite this effort, the Saturn-Films often appeared shorn of their logos and rendered anonymously like other, similar subjects once they got further afield of Vienna.*
*In 1911, Saturn-Film was raided and closed down by the police as a part of a crackdown on erotic materials within Vienna. Schwarzer was an army reservist who was called up with the outbreak of the Great War on July 28, 1914; he had been made a second lieutenant by the time he perished in battle at Wirballen, Poland on October 10 of that year.*
*While the Saturn-Film product was erotic, it was never pornographic, and this was a conscious decision. In its 1907 catalog, Saturn-Film in a text probably written by Schwarzer; states that "our films are of a purely artistic tendency, and we avoid tasteless subjects in favor of beauty". While to refer to them as purely artistic is a bit of an exaggeration, the Saturn-Films were far more professionally made then their French and Argentine counterparts and were the most widely distributed and popular adult films made in the first decade of the twentieth century .*
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*Despite the destruction of the main film vault by the authorities in 1911 a surprising number of Saturn-Film’s 52 productions survive; roughly half its output still exists in archives throughout Europe. Filmarchiv Austria takes its Schwarzer holdings seriously enough that the first films that they posted to the Europa Film Treasures site were four Saturn-Film titles*;*Das Sandbad (1906), Baden Verboten (1906), Das Eitle Stubenmädchen (1908) and Beim Fotografen (1908)*
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Dear filmlover,
These message boards bring out the best in some of us; the chance to share with others inspires some to shoot for the stars and to make efforts they wouldn't do if they were just entertaining themselves! You have done that here and I wish to extend to you my warmest and most heartfelt regards for the phenomenal research effort you have contributed here!
I have not had the opportunity to plumb the depths here as I would like, given that I am involved in my own large scale research presentation project. I do resolve to go over this material in depth. The historian in me appreciates what a contemporary witness and goldmine of information you have assembled, and it will merit specific comment in the future.
What you have posted here can be the basis for establishing your own website eventually. The material merits every presentation possibility.
Best wishes to you and to your efforts in the future!
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Joan Crawford and Eddie Cantor
Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis
Guess who?
Harold Lloyd and Chaplin
The Keystone Cops
Sid Grauman, the owner of the famed Chinese Theater
Depicting Will Hays in regal attire was pure satire and sarcasm!
*MICKEY'S GALA PREMIERE (1933)*
*Walt Disney Studios*
*Full cartoon short*
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*As a classic film buff, I am very fond of this old Disney cartoon. It's fun to identify all the numerous celebrities "suggested" by the caricatures. "Uncle" Walt has been called a lot of things in his time, both good and bad, but fool he wasn't. Caricaturing the stars of other studios was allowable provided he didn't name names, as doing so would have gotten him slapped with an injunction. He "raided" the star stables of all the majors for this little feature, and did not have to give them a penny or pay for a "loan out"! A smart guy he was! The only person mentioned by name was Chinese Theater impressario Sid Grauman, who is referred to as "Sid". Being a showman himself, I'm sure Grauman saw it as free publicity and hence had no objection.*
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*Other Hollywood celebrities that can be spotted in the crowd scenes: Constance Bennett, Warner Baxter and Walt Disney (as the fourth person on the right, in the scene where the other actors shy away because Garbo enters the stage).*
*The cartoon “Gallopin’ Romance” was made exclusively for Mickey’s Gala Premiere. There is no separate Mickey Mouse cartoon with that title.*
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*SEXTETTE (1978)*
*Crown International Pictures w/ Mae West, Timothy Dalton, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, George Raft, Regis Philbin*
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpc4w_7qYKo
*Full movie in 6 parts*
*Just look at that cast list above; she even got a former Beatle to appear in this!*
*Like* *Myra Breckinridge (1970),* *in which she also appeared, this is considered a film so bad that it has it's own fan appeal. She joyfully soldiered on with her Diamond Lil act, both on screen and off, till the very end. That die was already cast before she even came to Hollywood in the 30's, and it represented what she was and what she liked to be. It gave her the life she wanted and it gave her no regrets. She loved it all, especially the musclemen!*
*The legendary American movie star and sex symbol Marlo Manners (Mae West) is in London, England, where she has just married for the sixth time. She and her new husband, Sir Michael Barrington (Timothy Dalton), then depart for a honeymoon suite at a posh and exclusive hotel that has been reserved for them by her manager, Dan Turner (Dom DeLuise).*
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*Marlo Manners is enjoying her honeymoon with Sir Michael Barrington, husband number 6. As luck would have it, an international conference is taking place in the same hotel and the Russian delegate (one of Marlo's former husbands) is threatening to derail the negotiations unless he can have one more fling with his ex. Adding to the complications is a tape Marlo has made detailing all of her affairs and scandals, which her manager is desperately trying (and failing) to destroy.*
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Building upon the theme of my previous post about Mae West:
The fact that this revealing graphic IS a vintage movie poster is my own saving grace around here! This was unbelievably risque for it's time and reflects on how Paramount pushed the boundaries in the early 30's.
That's a hell of a magazine, and I don't mean Photoplay!
It's a publicity shot, but to me it's an even bet she fired that thing.
Quite a poem from a 15 year old.
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*MYRA BRECKINRIDGE (1970)*
*20th Century Fox w/ Mae West, Raquel Welch, Farrah Fawcett, John Huston, Rex Reed*
*Mae West - Hard To Handle 1970*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD1hdlLQXkc
*Mae West is Leticia Van Allen*
*Farrah Fawcett debut scene*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9g3EFvWPko
*Raquel Welch in Myra Breckinridge*
*I've long believed that* *Mae West* *conflated her self image with her on screen persona and public image. Did she create her own hype, or did it create her? For West, it didn't matter. Having control over her character portrayals since her halycon Paramount days, she never allowed herself a screen character role that she didn't want to be like in real life. She was self assured dominance personified.*
*I regret that I couldn't find a complete upload of this film, so I'm posting clips of it on this discussion thread. Myra Breckinridge has been acclaimed one of the worst films ever made, and as such has many devoted fans. I include it as a long time Mae West fan.*
*Myra Breckinridge is a 1970 American campy comedy film, based on Gore Vidal's 1968 novel of the same name, the film was directed by Michael Sarne, with* *Raquel Welch* *in the title role. It also starred John Huston as Buck Loner, Mae West as Leticia Van Allen,* *Farrah Fawcett*,* Rex Reed, Roger Herren, and Roger C. Carmel. Tom Selleck made his film debut in a small role as one of Leticia's "studs". Theadora Van Runkle was costume designer for the film, but Edith Head designed Mae West's costumes.*
*Like the novel, the picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness, but unlike the novel, Myra Breckinridge received little to no critical praise and has been cited as one of the worst films ever made.*
*Myron Breckinridge is waiting for his sex-change operation while a stoned surgeon stumbles into the operating room. Before the drugged doctor begins Myron's operation, he counsels him. Myron persists and the doctor goes through with it. An enthusiastic audience observing the operation applauds the medical achievement and rises in a standing ovation. After the operation, Myron arrives in Hollywood as Myra while in the rest of the film Myron pops up from time to time as Myra's alter ego. Myra goes to an acting academy owned by her uncle, Buck Loner, a former cowboy star. The real reason for Myra's arrival is to claim her half of Uncle Buck's estate, which she says she's entitled to. Buck Loner stalls by giving her a job teaching the history of motion pictures. Buck Loner has several friends. One of them is Letitia Van Allen, an ancient Hollywood talent scout. The sex-starved septuagenarian runs an acting agency "for leading men only."*
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Mexican born star Dolores Del Rio showing the American girls at her table how to flirt and get a man's attention!
A very iconic scene from the film. Pop surrealism that surpasses Salvadore Dali!
Dancing the Carioca
The "Taruna Tarunas", who smoke the "Yankee Clipper" band!
Gene Raymond knocking some sense into Dolores Del Rio.
The sheer skirts.
What a spectacle!
A promotional piece for the film. Looks like quite a collectible!
*FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933)*
*RKO. with Gene Raymond, Dolores Del Rio, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.*
*5 minute clip with title song and wing dance*
*Carioca number*
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnjK8B-eiHA
*12 minute clip*
*Orchids In The Moonlight*
**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-6wvfsbWs0
*7 minute clip with introduction in Spanish*
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*I was not able to find a complete upload of this remarkable pre-code musical, or otherwise I would have posted it to the filmography thread. I was able to post three clips that show the musical and production highlights.*
*One doesn't normally think of an Astaire- Rogers film as belonging in an exploitation film gallery, but when you look at the stills above, I have to ask: how could I not include it? The movie features some of the cheesiest footage of that era, and is celebrated for it's "women on wings" sequence. The legs, the sheer skirts, the suggestions of bondage (as the women are being strapped on in close-ups), all add to make an unforgettable sight.*
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*Flying Down To Rio is also still remembered for a couple of it's runaway hit tunes which have since become standards:* *Orchids In The Moonlight and the Carioca.*
*The first pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, this movie is atypical of their later films, as by then the Production Code had fully taken effect. It would be quite a few years before anything this suggestive could be made again in American film. By then, styles and tastes had changed dramtically. This movie represents a unique moment in time.*
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*"What do the South Americans have below the equator that we don't?"*
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*Good question!*
*PS: "I looked up this movie because im a nurse and one of my patients is one of the dancing girls on the plane, she said they glued their shoes onto the wing for this seen lol, i printed out this picture and she got a kick out of it thanks!"*
*From:* http://truelala.net/2011/08/04/flying-down-to-rio/
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Many people are such that they take an interest in, and acknowledge something only when it's sanctioned by contemporary pop culture. *The Artist* can stimulate interest in, if not at least acceptance of old black and white silent films; in order to be able to make that (for them) heroic leap they just need a contemporary film with contemporary stars. Only then does a subject become "cool" and acceptable. Lacking such cultural support, a subject is off the radar screen for them and in limbo. If *The Artist* accomplishes that newfound respect and interest in old films for the masses, then it was well worth making!
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This image of staring out the window is commonly used to illustrate Deren's work
Weird enough for you?
*MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943)*
*Film by Maya Deren*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctXhixoz4aU
*Full short film*
*After the previous bon mot from* *Maya Deren* *(see previous post), I thought I would include this her first film, an experimental avante garde short made with her husband Alexander Hamid. It is very surrealistic and evocative of the illogical, non-linear dream state, where one can alternate between being the observer and the one observed.*
*A woman sees someone on the street as she is walking back to her home. She goes to her room and sleeps on a chair. As soon as she sleeps, she experiences a dream in which she repeatedly tries to chase a mysterious hooded figure with a mirror for a face but is unable to catch it. With each failure, she re-enters her house and sees numerous household objects including a key, a knife, a flower, a telephone and a phonograph. The woman follows the hooded figure to her bedroom where she sees the figure hide the knife under a pillow. Throughout the story, she sees multiple instances of herself, all bits of her dream that she has already experienced. The woman tries to kill her sleeping body with a knife but is awakened by a man. The man leads her to the bedroom and she realizes that everything she saw in the dream was actually happening. She notices that the man's posture is similar to that of the hooded figure when it hid the knife under the pillow. She attempts to injure him and fails. Towards the end, the man walks into the house and sees a broken mirror being dropped onto wet ground. He then sees the woman in the chair, who was previously sleeping, but is now dead.*
*In 1990,* *Meshes of the Afternoon* *was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going into the registry in the second year of voting.*
*According to a 2010 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, the film cost only $275 to make.*
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Hi calvinme!
I agree that would be sweeter than honey. Unfortunately, that's probably about what it would take, a hopped up billionaire to get those films away from Universal and out of limbo! It's out of the hands of ordinary people to decide the fate of these properties. I can't help but wonder what "Uncle" Carl Laemmle would think of it all.
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Maya Deren, posing with one of her fellow votaries and "extras".
The blood sacrifice, an important ritualistic component of feeding and connecting with these unseen entities that voodoo practitioners wish to evoke and become possessed by.
The upturned eyes; the sure sign of an abnormal mental state. In this case it is trance possesion and connection with the African gods.
The voodoo ceremony is attended by numerous ritualistic icons drawn from many faiths and traditions.
Part of a ritual dedicated to the god of the ocean.
Another devotee zonked out for Shango.
Most of the participants are women, who appear to be particularly affected by the drumming and dancing.
Don't do this at home!
*DIVINE HORSEMEN: THE LIVNG GODS OF HAITI (1985)*
*Filmed by Maya Deren*
http://theoccultnetwork.com/divine-horsemen-the-living-gods-of-haiti/
*Full movie. Hit "full screen" to get rid of arrow overlay.*
*“Towards the end of her book Divine Horsemen (1953), her passionate study of voodoo, the film-maker Maya Deren describes how the goddess Erzulie descended on her and took possession of her in the course of a ritual ceremony in Haiti. When Deren decided to go to the island, her initial idea had been to stage a series of dances inspired by its rhythms and the religion of the islanders, but this plan was eclipsed almost immediately and a deeper involvement began. She stopped behaving like a distant, controlling auteur and impresario and became a participant. For this she has been criticised: yet her merging with the rituals completed the aesthetic fusion between film, art, dance and sacred ceremony..."*
*-Marina Warner, “Dancing the White Darkness”*
*Between the years 1947-1954, Ukrainian born filmmaker* *Maya Deren* *was in Haiti filming a documentary about the mysterious subject known as "voodoo". Deren has been acclaimed as "the mother of the Underground film". She made her first film called* *Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).* *Her insights on the Voodoo ritual emerge from her participation in the ceremonies. On one of her trips to Haiti Deren was initiated as a Voodoo priestess. This film was not actually edited for distribution until after her death in 1961.*
*Deren has crossed a number of lines here; the theme is of sensational interest as the very word voodoo has sensational connotations, thanks in a large part to Hollywood "zombie" films. She also crossed the line that separates the documentary filmmaker and it's subject by becoming a fully initiated participant in the peculiar cult and mysterious rituals that she is depicting.*
*Finally, voodoo itself is a crossing of a line that separates our seen world from one that is unseen. It's purpose is the deliberate psychic possesion of it's practitioners, who make themselves amenable to this state by a combination of non-stop drumming and dancing. As such, it is an African form of shamanism. The "god" invoked, true to many shamanistic traditions, often selects a certain individual out of the group for a particular level of trans-consciousness through which they manifest and speak, for the edification of the participants.*
*Evoked with magic rituals that invariably involve the sacrifice of a living animal such as a chicken or a goat, one has to question just what kind of unseen entities these really are and whether they are all that benign or not. What spirit wants to feed off of living blood and take possesion of your body? To researchers into the paranormal, these alone would raise all sorts of "danger flags". These same researchers would hold that for one to personally experiment along these lines, unguided by one experienced in this ancient tradition, could be most dangerous indeed! If something goes seriously awry while you are invoking potentially dark entities, you won't be able to call "911" for help and the psychiatric profession will have no other remedy for you than a tranquilizer.*
*I consider this to be one of the most fascinating films in our gallery here. The participants depicted are not paid extras from central casting! They are involved with something mysterious and palpable; something that is real enough to them and unknowable to the outside viewer. I don't believe in, or trust anyone who think they have a simple, reductionistic explanation for all of this. Remember, words like "mass suggestion" and "autohypnosis" come cheaply and easily. True understanding does not.*
*This film features a soundtrack rich in drum music. I can easily sense that hours of dancing to it could profoundly affect the mental and psychic state of the participants. Remember, this is not something done for pure entertainment; a disco it is not!*
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Hi krieger,
But of course. Dedication to the sale of commercials and their lucrative revenue has made many a cable channel water down, modify or completely abandon their original mission.
PS: AMC does have one unvarying constant throughout their format changes, and that's an obsession with John Wayne films, which seems to function as their "magnetic north"!
Edited by: ThelmaTodd on Jan 28, 2012 12:46 PM
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For a movie channel to adopt commercials is part of a slippery slope to mass market commercialisation driven by profit maximisation.Such maximisation then invariably influences content, as making the most advertising dollar demands that you broadcast whatever pabulum the general public wants, which may or may not be movies.
Once you abandon a commercial free format, you end up with whatever "sells", and Joan Crawford and Clark Gable can go into the dustbin in order to make room for "Snooki" other passions "de jeure".
This is why I sent a handwritten Christmas card to Time Warner CEO Jeffery Bewkes, giving him heartfelt thanks for keeping TCM true to Ted Turner's original vision. Mind you, he need not do this if he decided not to; with but one stroke of his pen he can change TCM overnight and make it go down the "AMC road"! The fact that this is not happening reflects very, very well on him and the Time Warner organisation!
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The two Klan produced movies from 1923 are titled: *The Toll of Justice and The Traitor Within*. I've not been able to find internet uploads, or I would be posting them right now to the exploitation filmography thread!
"Why men stars are conceited"
"Will the movies soon cost two dollars?"
"Why Charlie Chaplin is so fascinating to women"
"Why I love money"-Mae Murray
"Why men fear women with a sense of humor"
"Movie actress foresakes films to marry real sheik"
"Rudolf Valentino edits this issue"
"What they are doing now with Screen struck girls"
"What will censors do to sapho?"
"The male fortune hunters of Hollywood"
"What do stars do with all their money?"
Such a hoot!
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Lugosi was a very distinguished and honored actor in his homeland. From a biographical article published on a Budapest website:
http://www.pestiside.hu/20101029/sink-your-teeth-into-a-hungarian-stars-legacy/
*As I look over the list of Lugosi’s credits from the Hungarian stage alone, I am astounded by their sheer number. From between 1902 and 1919, he starred in about 165 productions! That’s an average of almost 10 per year. They included Hungarian productions of Shakespeare, such as Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Macbeth, Julius Ceasar, Schiller’s Maria Stuart, Goethe’s Faust; Hungarian literary classics like Madács’s The Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragédiája) and historical play’s like II Rákóczi Fogsága by Szigligeti.*
*From 1917 to 1918, he starred in 9 Hungarian films, three of them directed by the legendary film genius Kertész Mihály, who went on to America as Michael Curtiz and immortality as the director of the famed movie Casablanca (1941) (often voted as one of the best and favorite movies of all time), and other film classics.*
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Lugosi became a member of the prestigous *National Theater in Budapest* in 1913, an honor reserved for the most distinguished actors. Founded by nobleman and revolutionary patriot Louis Kossuth in the 1840's, the NT provided old age and retirement pensions to it's members as part of it's effort to promote the theater arts and artists.
I think Lugosi's heavy accent got him typcast in American films as mysterious, suspicious foreigner, spy, villian, bad guy, monster and mad scientist.
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Holy cow gagman!
What you are able to contribute to any thread is remarkable! Keep it up! Earlier, you expressed a concern about "hijacking" a thread. In your case, I don't think that should ever be a concern. We hijacked another thread once and it was great. (BTW, I saw that someone on youtube has the username "themanthatgotaway"; I wonder if it is the same person as the one that started the "1929" thread. He was posting classic film.
You are more than welcome to post some of your men's magazine covers on my *Exploitation Films Discussion* thread in *General Discussions*.
It was amusing to see :"Why sex should be on the screen" on the cover of a 20's magazine.
Keep it up guys!
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Hi Tom!
There was a question of how to pronounce his name on another thread. For an American english speaker, reporter Dorothy West did a good job pronouncing his name in her interview with him. (See interview link in my last post) "Bay-la".
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I want to express my appreciation to this community for the interest and passion they have shown for Lugosi, which was initially signaled last October with the launch of this thread by Prince Saliano, and continued with the launch of three Lugosi threads following last Sunday night's presentation on TCM. I'm sure this has not gone unoticed by TCM and may lead to more exhibition of his films in the future. I don't know if he will ever be "star of the month" or not, but there certainly is room for "doing more" with Lugosi. His filmography is extensive and I have posted a lot of it to this thread in the form of pictures and film links. Lugosi worked for so many studios and in so many genres, that his filmography represents a "core sample" of silent and early sound era American filmmaking. Nowadays he is associated with his low budget schlock film appearances, but people forget that he worked for almost all the majors in the early part of his career.
I hope that TCM will. make more room for him in it's future programming calendar.
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Hi ugaarte,
The *Orient Express* still runs. In the days before the "chunnel", it departed from Paris, but now you can catch it in London and ride under the English Channel.
The area around the bend of the Danube, near *Visegrad*, is scenic and romantic countryside. The Danube river is about a 1000 feet wide. and lit up from both sides. Many excursion and tour vessels ply those waters. *Budapest*, further to the south is a stunningly beautiful and romantic capital.
You took my lesson well; Budapest is pronounced "Budapesht"!
BTW, I know you've been a fan of my exploitation threads, check out the hyprlinked index I posted!
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Hello TikiSoo!
It's nice to hear about how many here are of Hungarian heritage! The name by which you called your aunt must have been a personal nickname or surname derived. It is not the commonly accepted word for aunt.
The rules of Hungarian spelling are very precise, consistent and strictly follow pronunciation.
The s sound as in “share” is written as “s”.
S as in “Saturday” is written “sz”
The ts sound as in tse-tse as you give it, would be written with a “cz”, “czi czi”.
Older spelling rules may be reflected in surnames, especially ones that are not Hungarian.
There were a great many talented Hungarians in the film business! *Adolph Zukor* was born in Hungary and founded Paramount Studios. *William Fox*, the founder of 20th Century Fox, was also Hungarian born. The brothers *Alexander, Vincent and Zoltán Korda* started London Film Studios.(The Jungle Book(1942), The Thief Of Bagdad(1940), Things To Come (1936), The Third Man (1949)) Others were directors *George Cukor, Michael Curtiz* (Casablanca (1942)), *Lugosi, Vilma Bánky* (silent star), *Ilona Massey* (1930’s) the *Gabor sisters*, music director *Miklós Rozsa* ; many connected with production, directing and writing etc. were Hungarian. Others born here but proud of their Hungarian heritage were *Ernie Kovach and Tony Curtis*.
The studios employed many Hungarians. There used to be a sign on the wall of the commissary at MGM in the 30’s that gave a not too subtle message to the American born employees:
*“You don’t have to be Hungarian to work hard around here!”*
Check out this *Adolph Zukor* biography from an English language website out of Budapest, illustrated with embedded classic film videos:
*When Hungarians Ruled Hollywood: A Birthday Tribute to the Great Adolph Zukor*
VINTAGE EXPLOITATION FILMS- FILMOGRAPHY
in Your Favorites
Posted
*THE FAMILY DOCTOR (1910)*
*Saturn Film, Austria*
*6 minute short*
*It's an age old story familiar to physicians: a randy female patient (usually a housewife) feigning illness to get attention and coming on to her doctor.*
*At first it looks like just another one of those early silents, except when the woman bares her breasts and eventually, her lower part! This could not have been exhibited in America back then, as doing so would have landed both the film maker and exhibitor in jail!*
*The film was seized by the authorities in 1911, and the fact was announced in the **** Zeitung, the Official Journal of Vienna, Austria.*