Bethany

Hm, it would seem that I promised a Dalton picspam, didn't I?

( Do I really need to say that there are lot of pictures behind the cut? Well, anyway, THERE ARE. And also mild spoilers for The Lion in Winter, Hot Fuzz, and Flash Gordon -- rather extensive spoilers for The Living Daylights. )

I'm afraid the Wuthering Heights portion of this project will have to wait for another post, but I hope this was enough to go on for one evening.

Not watching new White Collar until tomorrow but, after getting caught up with everything yesterday, I felt the need to make a pre-emptive photo post.

( MUCH SHALLOWNESS WITHIN. ALSO PRETTY MUCH THIS ENTIRE THING IS CAPSLOCK, JSYK. )

laughingmagpie's lovely birthday tribute to James Cagney today yesterday over a week ago (!!!) (once again I have spent too long putting this together!) reminded me that I've been meaning for ages now to do a tribute post of my own to one of my very favorite films, White Heat. Given the expansive body of his work, it's certainly understandable that Cagney tired of being typecast as a gangster, but... I'm sorry. He's only typecast because he's so darn good at it! I harbor a strong strange deep love for gangster films/crime dramas, and of my favorites I'd be willing to bet that at least half are Cagney pictures, but White Heat is at the absolute pinnacle of that list. As Cagney's comeback to Warner Brothers after a nearly decade-long hiatus from making gritty gangster films for the studio, the movie first hearkens back to all of his work in crime films of the 30s but ultimately reinvents the archetype for a new era (and stylistically -- gahhh, okay, I could go on for ages about how gorgeous the photography and Raoul Walsh's direction are in this film, but I'll save that for the caps -- the film bridges the more straightforward documentary-style crime drama with the more exaggerated moods of film noir). Cagney as Cody Jarrett is quite simply the performance of a lifetime, one of the all-time great chilling and charismatic film characters -- one minute he's sitting on his ma's lap, next he's executing a disloyal associate while casually snacking on a chicken leg; one minute he's crumpled in pain from his mysterious headaches, next he's coolly masterminding the next big movie for his gang. Jarrett is completely terrifying, and yet impossible to look away from or to avoid engaging with. He feels his affections, his betrayals, his rages so acutely that as an audience we have no choice but to get caught up in his extremism, too. As summed up by this lovely poster -- ALL CAGNEY BREAKS LOOSE!



Then of course there are so many other brilliant performances in the film, too. I love Virginia Mayo here as Cody's wife Verna, a woman who's sensual, independent, petulant, opportunistic, manipulative, and a determined survivor. She and Cody make quite a pair and have such a charged chemistry in all of their scenes together. Edmond O'Brien plays Hank Fallon/"Vic Pardo," the undercover officer sent to infiltrate Jarrett's gang, both befriending and betraying him in one fell swoop. And who could forget Margaret Wycherly as Ma Jarrett, the one always pushing her Cody up to the "top of the world"?

( The rest of this gets spoilery for the film, if you haven't seen it and if spoilers for 60 year old movies with very famous endings are of great concern to you. Hint: it's a gangster movie. Lots of people get shot! Also contained herein are 90+ screencaps. ...What. I really really like this movie, okay? )

As threatened, I couldn't resist compiling a picspam of all the best Guy/Marian hand!porn moments. Obviously quite image heavy, and it encompasses all of both seasons.

( These two just can't keep their hands off of each other -- not that I'm complaining! )

I've been a functioning movie geek for the better part of my lifetime. Although I haven't come even close to watching everything that I'd like to, I think it's fair to say that I've seen an awful lot of movies. So it is with a fairly extensive background for comparison that I designate Katharine Hepburn as my absolute favourite movie star. Today happens to be the one hundredth anniversary of her birth, and what better time to dedicate a post to her? She was so fiercely independent, and yet possessed a strain of vulnerability that made her human and endearing. She was both gorgeous and intelligent, and all around a huge inspiration in my life -- and I'm sure in the lives of countless other people who have been touched by her films.

( Portraits and film stills )