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Tuna
"The Quiet Man" (1952)

You may (rightly) wonder why I am capping a 1952 film. There are several reasons.

The film is at 8.1/10 at IMDB and #189 in the top 250 of all time. If you squint real hard, Maureen O'Hara has pokies in several of the images. It won two Oscars, and was nominated for 5 more. The imagery shot in Ireland is lovely. Four Stars from Maltin 83% from Apollo, 90% from Apollo readers Three stars from Berardinelli

Those are the excuses. The real reason -- It is my favorite John Wayne film, Maureen is a fiery redhead probably without a modern equal, and I get tired of doing the same modern actresses and recent productions all of the time.

John Wayne plays Sean (Trooper) Thornton, an ex prize fighter who returns to his birthplace in Ireland from America after killing a man in the ring. He immediately does two things. He makes an enemy of the richest man and biggest bully in town, Squire Danaher, and falls in love with his sister Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara). He purchases his ancestral home, which the good Squire has been trying to acquire. The Squire must give permission for Trooper to court Mary Kate, and of course refuses. The rest of the town conspires to fool the squire into giving permission, and giving Mary Kate her dowry. Mary Kate will not have sex with Sean without the dowry, and the Squire won't give the dowry to them unless Trooper fights him for it. Trooper resists the fight, as he has sworn to never fight again, but can only take so much.

This is my choice for Wayne's best performance, and the chemistry between Wayne and O'Hara is undeniable. The rest of the cast is, without exception, excellent. The DVD transfer looks like a 49-year-old film, and lacks sharpness, but has very little grain or noise, and has good color saturation. No great truths are revealed in this film, and it won't make you think much, but this feel good romantic comedy is almost a sure bet for a romantic evening.

  • Thumbnails

  • Maureen O'Hara (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

    "City of Industry" (1997)

    City of Industry (1997) can best be explained as a decent performance by Harvey Keitel is a role that didn't provide much to work with, and not much else. Harvey is one of four who hold up a Beverly Hills jeweler. One of the four decides a four-way split is a bad idea, kills two of the partners, and misses Harvey. The rest of the film is a pissed off Harvey trying to get even and recover the money. Along the way, they bring in a Chinese fence, the Chinese mob, and a group of black mercenaries. The police, of course, are nowhere to be found.

    Although the title of the film is City of Industry, I am not sure any of the film takes place there. We do have mention of Palm Springs, Camarillo, and one of my favorite California place names, Azusa (everything from A to Z in the USA). IN this case, Azusa looked a lot more like Harbor City. We do have exposure, conveniently collected in one 5 minute stretch of film. Lucy Liu plays a stripper and girlfriend of the bad guy, we have an unknown stripper, and an anonymous naked girlfriend. The story is trite, which would be bad enough, but it is not very well told. I suspect they ran out of money for second unit work. When the Chinese mob goes after Keitel, they start the drive in broad daylight, then arrive after dark. Considering the geographical range of this film, that is not hard to believe, but a couple of transitional shots to show time passing would have been helpful.

    Many other problems that might look like continuity errors could easily be the result of not conveying the passage of time to the audience. The director also did a terrible job of establishing items that would be later needed. Keitel drops his keys, which give away his motel address and room number. The hoods need this information to go after Harvey. The director does a lengthy close-up of the keys. Evidently nobody told him he could make one camera shot do more than one thing, like having one of the two in the struggle scratched by the keys on the floor. In another scene, the director telegraphs an explosion with a close-up of a propane tank minutes before the gunfire sets it off. It would have been easier, and a lot more effective, to establish the propane tank during the fight.

    Critics have this at 1 1/2 stars, and I agree completely. IMDB voters are amazingly generous here with 6.1/10.

  • Thumbnails

  • Lucy Liu (1, 2)
  • Stripper (1, 2)
  • Unknown (1, 2)
  • Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)
    I looked at Hannibal. Y'know what this movie is? It's not really about Dr lecter so much as it's about Dr Phibes, Imagine those old Dr Phibes movies, updated to the new level of acceptable explicitness. There wasn't any nudity except statues and stuff, but Julianne Moore came very, very close to a slip. I can't say I liked the movie, but it is a spectacular travelogue of Florence.

     

    I looked at The Invisible Circus. This was in some theaters a couple weeks ago, and I think it's already gone. Yet another look back at the sixties. You know that looks back at the sixties are gonna suck because the people who really lived through those times were too stoned to remember what the fuck was going on. So there is an inherent philosophical contradiction. If you can remember what happened then, you weren't really a part of it, so who cares about your recollections? If you were really a part of the scene, that involved being stoned constantly, and you now can't even remember if the 60's came before or after the 70's.

    Whoa, heavy stuff, dude. Like when Captain Kirk tricked that robot, man.


    Charlie's site is updated.

    Graphic Response
  • Lili Taylor in a rare topless scene from 1991's "Bright Angel".

  • Gossip
  • From the film festival circuit:
    It's been reported that the movie "Lost and Delirious" has a lesbian nude scene between Piper Perabo and Jessica Paré. They are both seen naked and clearly photographed.

  • Brainscan
    Results of the first web-foraging for Grammy images.

    The contestants in the Brainscan Stalker Award (for artist we would stalk with camera in hand, certain that a strategic slip would take place)

    2nd Runner Up: Shakira. The Colombian singer looks mighty nice

    1st Runner Up: Shelby Lynne. You know she is either a C & W singer or a pornstar because her last name is Lynne.

    Winner: Who the hell else? Toni Braxton. (1, 2) What was the comment about J Lo's dress last year? That even if you were gay you got a chubby looking at her? I figure then that Toni and her dress set off a wave of premature ejaculations. News has it Toni used double-stick tape, just like Jennifer, to keep some of the dress in place (I say we sue 3M right now for... well, for interfering with the pursuit of happiness. Or something like that); and Toni says that before she got married and got herself preggers she "wanted to let it all hang out." Uh, Toni baby, nice thought and we appreciate the sentiment, but then why the tape? And if you really want to let it ALL hang out, might I suggest you check the phone book for Guccione, first name Bob.

    Very, very far down the list was Faith Hill who spent the night smooching with hubster Tim McGraw. Geez, people, get a room or go home because none of us wants to see that crap. Off the list entirely was Christina A with a hair-do that accented her waifish thinness and a Miracle Bra outfit that was friggin' laughable. She took on the image of a bipedal alien. Not much of a fan of hers before; we may never again be able to gaze upon Christina without convulsing.

    Grammy Coverage
    Yup folks, it was a weird one this year. Steely Dan and Tito Puente both took home trophies. Both posthumously as well. Tito of course being deceased in body, and Steely Dan deceased in career. But apparently not even death can stop an award show! Seriously, Steely Dan hasn't been a hip group since before the demise of vinyl. But at least their victory kept the awards in hands of folks who actually play their own instruments as opposed to awarding crap like N Sync, etc.

    Other dumb comments:

  • What is the difference between "Record of the Year" and "Album of the Year"? Sounds like a po-tay-to/po-tah-to argument to me. Judging by the winners, it means one sells the most, but the other is the more critically acclaimed.
  • How many things can be the best? Only one, right? Apparently that only applies to things like sports, not entertainment.
  • I love some of the awards they came up with. A great example is "Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical". What the hell is that? What's next, a Grammy for best producer of a non-vocal, non-instrumental re-mixed 8-track?

  • Shelby Lynne
    (1, 2)

    Toni Braxton
    (1, 2, 3, 4)

    Traci Bingham
    (1, 2, 3,)

    After last year's "Jennifer Lopez dress scandal", naturally of course this year it's all the rage to be practically nude. Not to hurt any celebrity egos, but ladies, Cher beat all of you to the punch by about 12 years when it comes to the scandalous award show fashion. Not that we don't appreciate the skimpy clothing, it's just not that big a deal if you ask me.

    Here are Christina, Toni, Traci Bingham (the best outfit of all if you ask me), and Shelby Lynne. Thanks to DAI, Graphic Response, and the rest for the images.

    and ...
    Kira Reed
    (1, 2, 3)
    From Scanman, a few collages of the Skinemax regular in some hardcore photo shoots.

    Margrit Newton
    (1, 2)
    Vidcaps from 1989's "La Puritana", by Phuture Optic. #1 features some nice breast exposure, #2 catches Margrit "pleasuring herself".

    Other stuff
    The past few days have been a bit slow on the celebrity nudity front, so once again, here are a few second looks.

    Laure Sainclair
    (1, 2, 3)

    ABYS is known for his quality, so I really should not have been surprised when I first saw these 'caps. But once I realized what I was looking at, it made me stop and say wow.

    The big deal is that this movie, "L'Empreinte du vice", seems to have some of the best lighting I have ever seen in an X-rated film. A far cry from the usual "Put it where it doesn't belong Vol 26"-shot-on-a-cheap-camcorder-with-a-budget-of-$500.00(including the talent)-junk. When I looked it up in the IMDb, it seems that my suspicions may be correct. A user who has actually seen the movie, recommends it highly for just that reason...great lighting. He also pointed out that it's softer than most hard cores, and that the sex scenes seem to have been created with great imagination.

    For what it's worth, that dude also insists that it's a must own.

    Helena Christensen

    Darryl Hannah

    Bringing up the rear today, two from the Blackshine collection....

    Without a doubt, on the babe-o-meter, Helena ranks just below goddess. As for Darryl, well I've always loved this Colonel Klink pose.

    The Funnies by Number 6
    Mom and her 3 daughters

    A Mother had 3 virgin daughters and they were all getting married within a short time period. Because Mom was a bit worried about how their sex life would get started, she made them all promise to send a postcard from the honeymoon with a few words on how marital sex felt.

    The first girl sent a card from Hawaii two days after the wedding. The card said nothing but "Maxwell House." Mom was puzzled at first, but then went to the kitchen and got out the Maxwell House jar. It said: "Good till the last drop."

    Mom blushed, but was pleased for her daughter.

    The second girl sent the card from Vermont a week after the wedding, and the card read: "Benson & Hedges". Mom now knew to go straight to her husbands' cigarettes, and she read from the Benson & Hedges pack: "Extra Long. King Size.

    She was again slightly embarrassed but still happy for her daughter.

    The third girl left for her honeymoon in the Caribbean. Mom waited for a week, nothing. Another week went by and still nothing. Then after a whole month, a card finally arrived. Written on it with shaky handwriting were the words "British Airways." Mom took out her latest Harper's Bazaar magazine, flipped through the pages fearing the worst, and finally found the ad for BA. The ad said: "Three times a day, seven days a week, both ways."

    Mom fainted...


    The frog

    A women went into a store to buy her husband a pet for his birthday. After looking around, she found that all the pets were very expensive.

    She told the clerk she wanted to buy a pet, but she didn't want to spend a fortune.

    "Well", said the clerk, "I have a very large bullfrog. They say it's been trained to do blowjobs!"

    "Blowjobs!" the woman replied. "Are you sure?"

    "It hasn't been proven but, we've sold 30 of them this month. " he said.

    The woman thought it would be a great gag gift if it were true....She bought the frog. When she explained the frogs ability to her husband, he was extremely skeptical and laughed it off.

    The woman went to bed happy, thinking she might never need to perform this less than thrilling act again.

    In the middle of the night, she was awakened by the noise of pots and pans flying everywhere, making hellacious banging and crashing sounds.

    She ran downstairs to the kitchen, where she found her husband and the frog reading cookbooks.

    "What are you two doing at this hour?" she asked.

    The husband replied, "If I can teach this frog to cook, your ass is outta here."


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