Cinema Spotlight You're Telling Me

January 29, marks 137 years since my favorite comedian WC Fields

entered the world.   It is certainly a testament to his unmatched hilarity that nearly a century and a half later people are still watching his films.   So far on the blog I have written about It's A Gift, It's The Old Army Game, Pool Sharks, and fashions in Fields films.  This year I want to focus on 1934's You're Telling Me!

This isn't one of Field's most famous film, but it is, in my opinion, one of his best.   

As in most of his other classic 1930s films  Field's plays a relatively ordinary guy.  A hapless inventor named Sam Bisbee

with a wife and daughter

and of course a weakness for strong drink (in the clip below you can see him using one of his inventions a key hole finder for use upon returning late from the bar).






Sam is convinced he is on the verge of major success since he has succeeded in inventing a puncture proof tire which he believes will make him millions.   He arranges a meeting with an auto executive to show off his new tires, but naturally it doesn't go as planned. Bisbee's idea is to shoot at his tires with a gun, demonstrating the impenetrability, but unbeknown to him a police officer has moved his car and an identical car with normal tires is in its place.

Bisbee returns home distraught about his failure but his wife and daughter are completely unsympathetic.   His daughter Pauline, played by the lovely Joan Marsh ( I love her adorable tie neck sweater)

has gotten engaged to the richest bachelor in town Bob Murchison, played by Buster Crabbe,:

but her intended mother in law, Mrs. Murchison, played by Field's film regular Kathleen Howard is so disapproving of Sam that she has sworn to disinherit Bob if he marries Pauline.

Pauline, too proud to marry into a family that doesn't want her, ends the engagement and everyone is furious at Sam.

Depressed by his professional and familial troubles Sam resolves to kill himself.  He books a one way train ticket and carries some poison along on the ride.  However, at the last minute he changes his mind and decides to live.   

Meanwhile, also riding on the train is a beautiful women, the 
Princess Lescaboura, played by Adrienne Ames, (take a look at the amazing carved bangles she is wearing.)

Bisbee mistakes a bottle of iodine on the Princess's table for poison and tells her not to kill herself. He also tells her his entire story and his own recent plan to commit suicide.  Lescaboura is touched by Sam's kindness, and moved by the story of his daughter's recent heart break.   She decides to help Sam out.


Without telling him her true royal identity the Princess Lescaboura comes to Sam's town on a royal visit.  Mrs. Murchison as the towns leading  citizen  is beside herself with the idea of entertaining a royal.  

However, the Princess makes it clear that she is in town to see only her old friend Sam Bisbee.   An elaborate party is held at the Bisbee's home and Mrs. Murchison is forced to see Sam as her social equal.

By the end of the film Sam has sold his puncture proof tires for millions and Pauline and Bob are once again engaged.

All in all You're Telling Me! Is a delightful comedy with lots of fabulous 1930s fashions that deserves to be remembered.   It is available  on amazon as part of the WC Field's Comedy Collection, Volume Two.

Cinema Style Spotlight-Winter Fashions in 1934''s The Man Who Knew Too Much

Winter can be a difficult time for fashion:

People are rightly concerned with warmth and safety and if your like me and bike or walk every day you need clothes you can move in.   Also if your like me then your clothing choices are pretty central to your identify.  I'm just not willing to give up my vintage style in the winter, and so I'm always on the look out for practical vintage winter style inspirations and I found a stunning one in the 1934 Hitchcock Film The Man Who Knew To Much.

Most viewers are probably more familiar with the 1956 version starring James Stewart and Doris Day, but if you ask me the 1934 version is far superior, and not just for Peter Lorre who is amazingly creepy as the vilian:

The entire look of the film is better, and that includes the fashions.  The film takes place in Switzerland and the look that really got me swooning was worn by the young girl, and kidnap victim, Betty played by Nova Pilbeam.  While she watches her glamorous mother Jill, Edna Best, participate in a clay pigion shooting contest.  Betty wears some kind of adorable wool suit, maybe a ski suit, and the cutest crochet tam hat and gauntlet gloves I have ever seen.

(I also love the monogram or insignia on her father's scarf and bonus points for the cute dachschund, but I do wish he had a sweater too.)

Though Betty is obviously a young girl I definitely think this look would work on a women of any age and it certainly looks warm.  One of my most treasured items of clothing is my own 1930s wool ski suit:

and I can attest to the fact this it is very, very warm. 

The gorgeous fashion doesn't stop in the shooting scene though, the movie is choc-a-block with beautifully shot noir moments. 

  I am also in total awe of Edna Best's hair, it might just be the most perfect 1930s hair I've seen.

What are your favorite things to wear in the winter?

Cinema Spotlight on The Weirdest and Worst Holiday Special of All Time-The Star Wars Christmas Special

Anyone who reads this blog knows what a devoted trekkie I am:

 

                                                           

 

 

On the other hand, I've never been much of a Star Wars fan.  I appreciated the original movies as fun, goofy, block busters but I never saw them as particularly great.  However, I have recently begun to enjoy Star Wars a bit more, I liked the Force Awakens a lot, and I loved Rogue One.  So maybe I've been seduced by the dark side a bit, and I even bought this:

40 hours of extras!  I mean what the hell could be on this thing.

Still Star Wars will never hold a candle to Trek for me and my absolute favorite thing in the Star Wars oeuvre is something that most people have either never heard of, or would rather forget.  The Holiday Special

It aired in November of 1978 after the first movie had become a mega-hit and it is incredibly weird and awful.  I pride myself on being a connoisseur of so bad there good, as in funny, movies and I'm a devoted fan of the make fun of bad movies show MST3K and its later incarnation Rifftrax, still the Star Wars special threw me through a loop.  Even after a life time spent watching bad movies, the weirdness of this one comes as a shock. 

The basic premise of the special, if you can go so far as to say that it has one, is that Chewy the Wookie is trying to get home to his family to celebrate the big Wookie Holiday Life Day 

Obviously it is a mistake to focus a television special on characters that communicate by grunting.  Never the less the producers of The Star Wars Holiday special did just this, at least half of the special is Chewy's family grunting at each other.

  At some point CBS must have realized they couldn't get by on grunted conversations alone and they threw in some guest stars of the kitschiest caliber and created a sort of variety hour.   Art Carney appears as the Wookie neighbor

 Bea Arthur sings in an alien bar

and  Disco Star Dihann Carol appears as some sort of virtual reality entertainment of a rather mature sort :

 The whole thing culmintates in the Wookies donning rather creepy red robes for Life Day and walking off into the stars while Princess Leia sings the Life Day song:

The special is so bad that it remained virtually hidden for years with George Lucas trying to bury it and erase it from the collective conscious.   It was never re-aired and never released, but it couldn't be destroyed and with the release of the Force Awakens the Holiday special crawled out of the wood work.  It can be seen on you tube as can all of the wonderful 1970s commercials:

   but if you are going to watch it, and I strongly recommend that you do because it is hilarious, you really need to see the Rifftrax version.  

It's just so bad and so weird that I'm afraid without the riffing it would be unwatchable, but with the riffing it may well be the funniest Holiday movie ever

Happy Life Day!

   

A Cape for A Walk in The Woods-A Vintage Outfit Post Inspired by Dark Shadows

When it comes to movies I generally prefer films made before 1970, but of course there are exceptions.  One of my favorite films is the 2012 Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp. I love its humorous take on the cult tv series, and I love the costumes.  The clothing in the film is a brilliant meld of Victorianna and early 70s that perfectly matches the story.  This is best represented by the character of Victoria Winters, a girl out of her time.

I love the ruffley dress, high neck blouses, and prim pinafores and sweaters:

  

My favorite of Victoria's looks though is a 1960s meets Victorian cape and pinafore combo.

I loved the outfit so much that about three years ago I had my vintage seamstress friend Kim Clark make me a copy.

She did an amazing job!  I actually like my version better then the one in the film.   I have no idea why it took me so long to feature it on the blog.   In these pictures I paired it with a 1940s hat from Lady Eve's Millinery, 1960s gloves, and  1940s style  spectators from Remix Vintage shoes.

I really feel like a cape is one of the nicest things to wear in the fall.

On the day these pictures where taken we took the Bob, Weasley, Fry and Mr. Tuvok to the Watchtung Reservation.  A nice big park with trails, a lake and a historic cemetery.  

It was a really lovely afternoon a perfect fall day!