James Cagney: The Ultimate Bad-Ass

August 15, 2012.Reading time 6 minutes.

Today is James Cagney day on Turner Classic Movies and over at Sitting on a Backyard Fence, bloggers worldwide have rallied together to tip their hat to one of the biggest bad-asses ever to grace the screen. I love bad-asses. No, not this newfangled generation’s overinflated sense of importance that has managed to give every […]

Pre-Code Gams and Dams(els).

August 29, 2011.Reading time 4 minutes.

Legs. Gams. A whole lotta tomato. Pick your hyperbole, the fact is that 1930s cinema were full of that most suggestive of appendages in a way never quite paralleled since. Sure, they’re still everywhere because they’re still sexy. They’ve always been sexy– ever since skirts first hiked heavenward in the late 20s straight through to […]

Blog it for Baby: Day One of the Jean Harlow Blogathon

February 28, 2011.Reading time 11 minutes.

The Jean Harlow Blogathon Day One! Today The Jean Harlow Blogathon kicks off and we are off to a roaring start! Thoughtful, imaginative and introspective—everyone is really putting out some beautiful work which just amps up the excitement of what’s in store for the rest of the week. Thanks to all the participants who have […]

From the Vaults: Footlight Parade

August 11, 2009.Reading time 1 minute.

This poster of the 1933 musical Footlight Parade is definitive sexy pre-code ‘tude. If you’ve not had the pleasure of viewing Lloyd Bacon’s film, it is ceratinly one that belongs in your Netflix queue. Its admittedly throwaway backstage plot is more than compensated by all manner of early 30s cellophane fancies, namely, a scorchingly hot […]