Peppered Thought – The Spice of Life

Here is a legitimate tuckered-out photo. This was after a day of constant walks.

30 Day Film Challenge is a challenge that lasts thirty days. It gives me a chance to wax poetic about my favorite medium, and put up silly pictures/videos.

Day 1 – Your Favorite Film

Day 2 – Your Least Favorite Film

Day 3 – A Film You Watch to Feel Good

Day 4 – A Film You Watch to Feel Down

Day 5 – A Film That Reminds You of Someone

Day 6 – A Film That Reminds You of Somewhere

Day 7 – A Film That Reminds You of Your Past

Day 8 - The Film You Can Quote Best

Day 9 - A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Male)

Day 10 (today)- A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Female)

Even while slumping, she’s classier than 89% of ladies today.

Barbara Stanwyck. Her Baby Face, her ankle seduction, her everything. She just embodied the definition of ‘feminine wiles.’

Anyone wanna buy me a Baby Face Lobby Card?

30 Day Film Challenge is a challenge that lasts thirty days. It gives me a chance to wax poetic about my favorite medium, and put up silly pictures/videos.

Day 1 – Your Favorite Film

Day 2 – Your Least Favorite Film

Day 3 – A Film You Watch to Feel Good

Day 4 – A Film You Watch to Feel Down

Day 5 (today) – A Film That Reminds You of Someone

This one is easy because I have very distinct movies for quite a lot of people, but tough to choose just one person. So I guess I will the first one I can remember.

Stargate = my mother

Why yes, I did/do have a crush on James Spader.

It was 1994, I was 10, and I was ob-sessed with ancient Egypt. When I saw the commercials for Stargate and saw that it had a link to Egypt, I had to see it. But my mom, thinking she could put it off for a few years, told me I could see it once I had read the book. I immediately got it and burned through it. I don’t know why she thought that would dissuade me. I sometimes put off eating to finish a book – EATING people, me, putting off EATING! Anyway, looking back I think that was also the first book I read then immediately saw the movie and was upset that they changed parts of the story. Also, the book was much dirtier in some places, so it was a plus for me that those scenes weren’t in the movie and didn’t have to go through the embarrassment of having to watch them with a parent.

Also, this is a great rule that I want to use. And now whenever I hear “Stargate,” I wait to see if someone is talking about the crappy tv show (yes, I think it’s crappy) and if it’s the movie, I think of the book, and my clever mother.

Now, a little non-sequi-extra:

A while back I wrote about unsheets but I thought I’d bring up how awesome they still are.

The 30 Day Film Challenge is a (self-explanatory) challenge that lasts thirty days, talking about films. Here’s the breakdown:

Day 1 – Your Favorite Film
Day 2 – Your Least Favorite Film
Day 3 – A Film You Watch to Feel Good
Day 4 – A Film You Watch to Feel Down
Day 5 – A Film That Reminds You of Someone
Day 6 – A Film That Reminds You of Somewhere
Day 7 – A Film That Reminds You of Your Past
Day 8 – The Film You Can Quote Best
Day 9 – A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Male)
Day 10 – A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Female)
Day 11 – A Film By Your Favorite Director
Day 12 – A Film By Your Least Favorite Director
Day 13 – A Guilty Pleasure
Day 14 – The Film That No One Expected You To Like
Day 15 – The Film That Depicts Your Life
Day 16 – A Film You Used to Love, But Now Hate
Day 17 – Your Favorite Drama Film
Day 18 – Your Favorite Comedy Film
Day 19 – Your Favorite Action Film
Day 20 – Your Favorite Romantic Film
Day 21 – Your Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film
Day 22 – Your Favorite Horror Film
Day 23 – Your Favorite Thriller/Mystery Film
Day 24 – Your Favorite Animated or Children’s Film
Day 25 – Your Favorite Documentary Film
Day 26 – Your Favorite Foreign Language Film
Day 27 – Your Favorite Independent Film
Day 28 – The Most Obscure Film You’ve Ever Seen
Day 29 – Your Favorite Film As a Kid
Day 30 – Your Favorite Film This Time Last Year

So, on to today’s essay:

Your Favorite Film:

Extremely hard to narrow it down, so I picked one that always makes me smile,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is the epitome of 50s musical charm. It also has a lot of elements that go unseen to the casual viewer. Sure, the jokes and the costumes are great, but the forms of independence (despite the overwhelming dependence of the plot circling around ‘getting’ men), the character development, the writing…love it.

One of my favorite jokes in the movie is after the girls’ have been stranded in France and forced to do their dang and song routines to make enough money to get back to America. After Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) has been accused of stealing a diamond tiara that was given to her by a suitor, her buddy Dorothy (Jane Russell) is trying to boost her out the window as the door is knocking with who they thought were cops, but was Lorelei’s former beau, Gus.

(KNOCKING)

DOROTHY: The cops! Sister, we really are in a jam. Come on. l’ll give you a boost.

GUS: Lorelei? lt’s me, Gus.

DOROTHY: Gus! He’s your best chance.

LORELEI: He can’t boost me any higher than you.

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Lorelei doesn’t even think that Dorothy means she can sweet-talk Gus into getting her out of there. Her head is so full of cotton candy and visions of tiaras that she doesn’t think past her main objective, to boost out the window.

But it only seems that Lorelei is playing dumb, because she is smart enough to realize that men want someone who needs them.

She knows exactly how to play Gus. He won’t go with her to Paris to get married? No worries, she’ll take her best gal pal and go shopping with his line of credit. He takes away her credit so she’ll come back? Quickly thinking on her feet, her and Dorothy work what they know and become quickly-rising to famous ranks of a cabaret club. As soon as she knows she has the upper hand again, she folds her cards and melts in his arms again.

I usually watch this movie to cheer up a rare bad mood, but it’s not without its own sad moments. Dorothy feels used by the one guy who could keep up with her wit and I feel my heart break a little while looking in her eyes. There are also some moments that can in turn feel like Marilyn was writing her own lines:

LORELEI: It’s men like you who have made me the way I am. If you loved me at all, you’d feel sorry for the terrible troubles I’ve been through and not hold them against me.

___________________________________________________________

As much as I love Marilyn, Jane Russell has always been my favorite in her role as sassy, happy playgirl Dorothy Shaw. Her lines are so quick and funny I just can’t stand it.

___________________________________________________________
LORELEI: I’m so pleased Dorothy is taking an interest in you. I mean, she’s never been interested in anyone worthwhile.
MALONE: No taste, eh?
DOROTHY: No, I’m a hobo collector. I might even find room for you.

___________________________________________________________

DOROTHY: I like men that can run faster than me.

So, I could go on and on, describing every single scene and the meanings behind it, but then the few people that do read this will glaze over and not read the other 29 days of movie goodies. Suffice it to say that although the girls are the clear main characters of the story, there is one gentleman that does steal the show: Mr. Henry Spofford III.

Also, to keep you reading til the end, I decided to scour the web and post a movie-related item at the end:

Justin Russo’s poster for Moon.