She Blogged By Night

This morning while nursing a cold, I found myself watching Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone trying to out-suave each other in the 1935 romantic comedy "No More Ladies" (pictured.) It's a fun enough movie, but it's difficult to not make fun of a film which consists mostly of one handsome man in a tuxedo and slicked-back hair try to be more sophisticated and charming than another handsome man in a tuxedo and slicked-back hair. Joan Crawford adds to the fun by wearing a dress with a stiff white collar that must be at least 4 feet wide. I am not exaggerating. Her false eyelashes are the longest and silliest I've ever seen in a 1930s film, and while they look nice enough from a distance, if the camera comes in for even a medium shot of Crawford, they're so noticeable as to be distracting.

While mentally measuring Crawford's lashes (Good gravy, those things are, what, 2 inches long? More? And didn't anyone laugh at that enormous collar back in '35?!) it occurred to me that my previously-announced hiatus is going to last much longer than one week. Thanks to a snucky cold, school work, and an upcoming vacation, I may not have any significant updates for several more days.

In the interest of keeping my devoted readers happy, I thought I'd leave you with a few tidbits of things to read, and some fun stuff to hopefully brighten up your Monday morning.

My dear husband is an overstuffed genius when it comes to crappy 1970s and 1980s pop movies and television shows. Occasionally he convinces me to partake in this vast cultural morass, which is how I ended up watching "Superman II" (1980) last night. As anyone who is familiar with the film's cult status knows, one of the few redeeming qualities of "Superman II" is Terrence Stamp's relatively understated performance as General Zod. Stamp is quite a good actor, and I hope to feature him in a serious article soon. Anyhow, if you're wondering just how we went so quickly from talking about a classic 1935 romantic comedy to a Superman sequel, let me tell you: Zod spends much of his time standing around being fabulously suave and well-groomed. Clearly, General Zod is a modern-day Franchot Tone.

"Superman II" is one of the most blatant examples of film-making entirely for the sake of money that I've ever seen. Featuring a tissue-thin plot, complete lack of character development, and sloppily done stand-ins and re-shoots, the most vile thing about the film was the product placements, especially the ones for cigarettes. Absolutely disgusting, especially in a movie aimed at kids.

Ultimately, you cannot deny the charm of a trio of sophisticated villains in cool black leather clothes, or the fascination with the many controversies and two versions of "Superman II" now available.

In that vein, I leave you with these links:

Dave Kellett's hilarious cartoon strip "Sheldon" features Zod a few times. The first series with Zod begins here. The second is here and the third starts here. Guaranteed to cheer you up, even if you don't need it.

I normally don't link to Wikipedia, but right now, the article on the "Donner cut" of "Superman II" is quite good. In 5 minutes the article might be replaced with a picture of a lolcat, but as of now, it's informative and useful. The Variety blog is equally interesting.

Just want me to shut up about Superman already and talk about the classics? Check out this Joan Crawford page "The Best of Everything" by Stephanie Jones - absolutely jammed with terrific photos. You could spend a whole day on this wonderful site.

A contemporary review for "No More Ladies" in the New York Times can be found here. Sometimes the page asks for a login. To bypass this, go to Google and search for "no more ladies" review and click on the link there.