In a commendable effort to save forgotten genre items either cloaked in obscurity or in danger of disappearing completely due to degrading source materials, distributor Arrow Video releases its first volume of a new series called American Horror Project. Fans of vintage indie horror from a game changing golden era should be enthused for this trio of inventive efforts even if not all live up to the excitement promised by the vibrant packaging. Lurid, carnivalesque, and even tawdry, it’s a new formidable platform for films unfairly dismissed upon release and deserving of another opportunity to provoke.
The earliest film here is the ungainly titled Malatesta’s Bucket of Blood, the 1973 debut and solo feature of Christopher Speeth. The plot synopsis promises palpable weirdness, concerning a middle aged couple, Mr. and Mrs. Norris (Paul Hostetler, Betsy Henn) who show up seeking employment at a seedy, run down carnival. Their zeal is a ruse,...
The earliest film here is the ungainly titled Malatesta’s Bucket of Blood, the 1973 debut and solo feature of Christopher Speeth. The plot synopsis promises palpable weirdness, concerning a middle aged couple, Mr. and Mrs. Norris (Paul Hostetler, Betsy Henn) who show up seeking employment at a seedy, run down carnival. Their zeal is a ruse,...
- 3/15/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Swimmer who found movie fame in a string of MGM musicals
Esther Williams, "Hollywood's Mermaid", who has died aged 91, swam her way through more than a dozen splashy MGM musicals in the 1940s and early 50s. While smiling at the camera, she was able to do a combination of crawl, breast and backstroke, and was forever blowing bubbles under water, seemingly having an inexhaustible supply of air.
Like the starlets Lana Turner, Kathryn Grayson and Donna Reed before her, she started out for MGM in a Hardy Family picture, Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) – though one that allowed her to swim with Mickey Rooney. After being billed 19th in A Guy Named Joe (1943), she shot to stardom in her third film, Bathing Beauty (1944).
It started out as an average Red Skelton vehicle, first called Mr Co-Ed, then Sing and Swim, but Esther's superb figure and pretty features were heightened by Technicolor...
Esther Williams, "Hollywood's Mermaid", who has died aged 91, swam her way through more than a dozen splashy MGM musicals in the 1940s and early 50s. While smiling at the camera, she was able to do a combination of crawl, breast and backstroke, and was forever blowing bubbles under water, seemingly having an inexhaustible supply of air.
Like the starlets Lana Turner, Kathryn Grayson and Donna Reed before her, she started out for MGM in a Hardy Family picture, Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) – though one that allowed her to swim with Mickey Rooney. After being billed 19th in A Guy Named Joe (1943), she shot to stardom in her third film, Bathing Beauty (1944).
It started out as an average Red Skelton vehicle, first called Mr Co-Ed, then Sing and Swim, but Esther's superb figure and pretty features were heightened by Technicolor...
- 6/7/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Esther Williams: ‘Pools and Smiles’ formula grows stale [See previous post: "Esther Williams: Swimwear MGM Musical Star Dies."] By the early ’50s, Louis B. Mayer had been ousted from the studio he had helped to found, having been replaced by Dore Schary. Whether or not a coincidence, with the exception of Million Dollar Mermaid, the Esther Williams movies of the ’50s — e.g., The Duchess of Idaho, Skirts Ahoy! (stolen by Vivian Blaine in a supporting role), Dangerous When Wet, Easy to Love — lacked the luster of those released in the previous decade, despite more prestigious directors (George Sidney, Charles Walters, Robert Z. Leonard) and the usual co-stars (Van Johnson, Red Skelton, Howard Keel). (Photo: Esther Williams in Million Dollar Mermaid.) Not surprisingly, although MGM’s color musicals would remain in vogue a few more years, Esther Williams and the studio parted ways following George Sidney’s tired-looking Jupiter’s Darling (1956), with Williams and Howard Keel (as Hannibal) fooling around in ancient times.
- 6/6/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The silver screen has long boasted many great beauties, but only one was ever worthy of the title "America's Mermaid." Esther Williams, MGM's great synchronized swimming star and box-office attraction of the '40s and '50s, died. She was 91. The star's publicist Harlan Boll told the Associated Press she died in her sleep Thursday. Relatively removed from the public eye since the publication of her 1999 memoir, The Million Dollar Mermaid, Williams suffered some health setbacks in the past several years. In 2001, she fractured her ankle (which then became infected, necessitating the use of a walker) after a spill down...
- 6/6/2013
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Silver screen icon Esther Williams is losing her sight.
The 87-year-old swimming champion-turned-Hollywood pin-up is suffering from a retina condition known as macular degeneration, according to U.S. reports, and friends insist her sight problems have turned her into a virtual recluse.
One source tells America's Globe, "It's a terribly sad time for Esther. She's staying away from all her old buddies because she doesn't want to worry anyone."
And the Hollywood legend's maid, Elisa Rodriguez, has confirmed reports the wheelchair-bound star is sick, telling the publication, "She is very ill right now."
But Williams' actor husband Edward Bell insists reports his wife is ill are bogus.
He says, "She is not sick at all. She is doing wonderfully well."...
The 87-year-old swimming champion-turned-Hollywood pin-up is suffering from a retina condition known as macular degeneration, according to U.S. reports, and friends insist her sight problems have turned her into a virtual recluse.
One source tells America's Globe, "It's a terribly sad time for Esther. She's staying away from all her old buddies because she doesn't want to worry anyone."
And the Hollywood legend's maid, Elisa Rodriguez, has confirmed reports the wheelchair-bound star is sick, telling the publication, "She is very ill right now."
But Williams' actor husband Edward Bell insists reports his wife is ill are bogus.
He says, "She is not sick at all. She is doing wonderfully well."...
- 8/15/2008
- WENN
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