Friday 26 April 2024

Professional cad and bounder

Heavens. It would have been the centenary of the remarkable "professional cad and bounder" Leslie Phillips, suavest-of-the-suave lotharios in the "Carry On" and "Doctor" film series, and on telly in Casanova '73, who carved out a later career portraying gentlemen and authority figures, always with his inimitable clipped accent and slightly "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" demeanor - and of course, the customary, breathy catchphrases "Ding, Dong...", and "Hell...oh!"


A true "national treasure".

Read my tribute on the occasion of his death in 2022.

Read the British Comedy Guide tribute on his centenary.

Thursday 25 April 2024

It's a look


[click to enlarge]

“This girl has all of [the] trends and she’s not loathe to wear them at once: bell earrings, a dog collar worn as a necklace, a large beauty spot on her cheek, an ivory cigarette holder, a design to cover the vaccination mark on her arm, heavy bracelets, an anklet, a photo of a boyfriend on her stocking, an anklet watch, fancy garters worn below the knee and a mirror fastened to her wrist.”

The latest fashion fads - from 1926!

[see also here]

Wednesday 24 April 2024

It's all about how you feel


"I don't care what birthday you're on. It's all about how you feel. There are days when I feel like 30. The oldest I go is 50 in my mind. The number doesn't matter. But I do have a sense that I have some wisdom now. It's good to be wise. It sure beats being young and clueless."

"I want women to be liberated and still be able to have a nice ass and shake it."

"Possessions have never meant that much to me... I've never erected a lifestyle that would put possessions in a position of controlling me."

"All you really need in life is some fresh water, a good hat, and a really good pair of shoes."

"I've made so many movies playing a hooker that they don't pay me in the regular way any more. They leave it on the dresser."

The magnificent Miss Shirley MacLaine blows out 90 candles on her cake today!

All hail.

By way of a celebration, here's her triumphal solo moment from Sweet Charity [that was one of the films we watched at our "Film Club" on Saturday]:

...and here she is, just being Shirley:

Facts about Miss MacLaine:

  • She got her big break on Broadway when lead Carol Haney sprained her ankle during a production of The Pajama Game. As her stand-in, MacLaine went on in her place and captured the interest of movie producer Hal Wallis and Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first film The Trouble With Harry.
  • It was her suggestion that Bob Fosse, whose musical Pajama Game gave her her first big break, direct her movie Sweet Charity.
  • Allegedly during the filming of The Children's Hour, the co-stars made a deal: Audrey Hepburn would teach Shirley how to dress if Shirley would teach her how to swear.
  • Shirley has co-starred with many of the greatest names in Hollywood including Paul Newman, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor, Yves Montand, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Lemmon, Chita Rivera, Peter Sellers, Meryl Streep, Robert Mitchum, Anne Bancroft, Louis Jourdan, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood and Olympia Dukakis, and was notoriously the only female member of the "Rat Pack"; she went on tour with longtime friend Frank Sinatra in 1992.
  • Miss MacLaine has has been nominated for six Academy Awards, and when she finally won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1983 for Terms of Endearment, she became the first actor to say "I deserve this" during an acceptance speech.
  • She has also been nominated for six Emmys (winning once) and 19 Golden Globes (winning four, as well as "Most Promising Newcomer" in 1955, "Most Versatile Actress" in 1959, and the Cecil B. DeMille award in 1998).
  • Barbra Streisand and Shirley, who share a birthday, apparently celebrate it together every year.

Shirley MacLaine's 20 best films, ranked by The Guardian.

Many happy returns, Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, 24th April 1934)!

Saturday 13 April 2024

Excess is success

"I really don't understand minimalism. It is so polite and boring. If you don't want anyone to notice you, you should stay home and grow your own vegetables."

"Fashion should be something that in the morning, when you open your window, you say, 'Oh fantastic, sun!' Then you take your shower, you say, 'OK fantastic, which colour I wear today because I feel happy?' This should be fashion."

"In my planet, fashion, I'm the only straight man."

"What is too much? There is no such thing!"

"Excess is success."

The "go-to" designer for a raft of celebrities, from Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren to the Beckhams, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez, the great Italian fashionista Roberto Cavalli has departed to bestow endless swathes of leopardskin and animal print upon the glitterati of Fabulon.

The catwalks are going to be a lot less camp and glamorous now he's gone...

RIP, Roberto Cavalli (15th November 1940 – 12th April 2024)

Thursday 11 April 2024

Wednesday 27 March 2024

The Divine One

We have a centenary to celebrate...

One of the most distinctive and remarkable singers ever, the much-missed magnificent Miss Sarah Vaughan was born one hundred years ago today!

Suffice to say, her music speaks for itself:

No-one else could do what "Sassy" did!

"I am not a special person. I am a regular person who does special things."

"When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice."

"There's a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste."

"As soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice..."

"There are notes between notes, you know."

Sheer class.

Sarah Lois Vaughan (27th March 1924 - 3rd April 1990)

Saturday 23 March 2024