"How Do You Get To Wonderland?/Over The Hills, Or Underland/Or Just Behind The Trees?"

                               This is positively, girls, the finest exhibition I have ever seen since The Met Costume Institue did its "Heavenly Bodies" exhibit on Catholic culture, back in 2018.  Because "Wonderland Dreams" is so special, I will break it down, picture by picture, and share my thoughts with you, then.  This is how I would paint areas of my apartment, if I could.  So, here we go---

                                Fit for a King, or Queen, darlings!  Isn't this fabulous? Look at those colors, and those confluence of patterns!  I had never heard of Alexa Meade, prior to this, but now, I am telling you, she is one artist to keep an eye on.

                                Now, this illustrates why I think ANNA should get down here and see this exhibit, if she has not already.  Has anyone at VOGUE seen this exhibit?  Well, I will soon fix that.  I confess I wanted to take this outfit with me, and those backgrounds as well.

                        Here I am in the Garden Of Roses, with my teacup, conveniently left on the chair.  The Queen Of Hearts is not present; to avoid copyright infringement charges by the Lewis Carroll estate, the presentation is only suggested by Carroll's work, not a literal replication of it.  Rather, it is Mead's own vision of Wonderland, and allows us to be Alice!  Something I always wanted to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         Here we are at our own Mad Tea Party!  Can you believe these colors and designs?  The serving ware and the cakes and dainties were so elegantly designed I wanted to bite into every one of them. But, you see, they aren't real; this is an exhibition of imagination.  The people herein are real--that is myself, seated on the left, Dan sitting next to me, Norma behind me, and my beloved David behind all of us.  A very merry un-birthday to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                Here are Norma and I in one of the many keyholes and doorways one can wander in and out of, to find one's way through Wonderland.

                                 Here is Dan in the stars and mushrooms room.  I would love to have one of my home walls painted like that.  As for Dan, he is bringing us back to "the dawning of the age of Aquarius."

                                  And here are Dan, Norma and I in the orange floral room.  I mean, don't our outfits match this exhibit?   Take note, ANNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Of course, I am on the horse.

                    And here we have a giant-sized Norma, in a tiny Alice house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                   But I am not through yet, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                              

                          Just look at these patterns, girls!  I am telling you this is a template to the inside of my mind.  Who needs windmills?  Also, were I permitted to, I would paint every wall in my apartment like this stylistically.  Maybe more orange, yellow and pink, but Alexa Meade and I are on the same page with color.

                                                                          

                       "We're all mad here," Alice was told.  But isn't that better than our reality?

                          So, take a plunge into "Wonderland Dreams."  Your fantasies come true at 529 Fifth Avenue, between 43rd and 44th Streets.

                            "When I read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing would never happen, and now here I am in the middle of one."--Alice in "Alice's Adeventures In Wonderland."

                               Your Wonderland fantasy awaits, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Girls, Join Us Tonight At 8, As "Svengoolie" Again Presents "The Shadow Of The Cat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                         If you have not seen it yet, it is so much feline fun, darlings.

                                        A smart cat witnesses his mistress being murdered by her husband.  After that, the cat is out for vengeance, and this is no cat on a hot tin roof!   This cat is hot to trot and get the man who killed his beloved mistress.

                                        The ending is a hoot, but to appreciate it, you have to watch the entire movie.

                                         My feline friend, Nicholas, loves this movie!  I bet it fills him with ideas.

                                          Wish I could watch it with Nicholas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           You'll have a fabulous time, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            Make sure you have plenty of catnip on hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor, Sad Dexter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Here is Dexter, in his new home, in North Carolina.  It looks nice, but I think Dexter is sad.  When David showed it to me, he said, "He is looking for you," and I believe it.

                                   Oh, my beloved Dexter!  You will always be a part of my life, and if I had the power to bring you up on visits I would.

                                    It is situations like this when I wish the ruby slippers were real.  And that I could wear them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Learned A Lot From "The Haunted Strangler" On A Second Viewing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 Wouldn't you love to be one of the ladies of this chorus, girls?

                                                                      

                                     Is the woman, pictured above, a prostitute????????????????

                                         Sadistic cruelty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 Having recently watched "The Unseen" helped me appreciate "The Haunted Strangler" more, on a second viewing.  "Svengoolie" showed it last Saturday evening, and we were there, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 It opens grotesquely with a public execution in England, in 1860, which foreshadows the opening of 1960's "Horror Hotel."  Except in that film, Elizabeth Selwyn is guilty, and in the other film, the man being hanged turns out to be innocent.

                                   This is considered a horror movie, via Boris Karloff's grotesque make-up, but had he not used it, and when one takes the story apart, it is more of a psychological drama.  Mental illness figures into the plot, and what happens comes more from that than a transformative supernatural monster.

                                      I would guess the filmmakers, from the opening sequence to the present-day story in 1880 were going for something beyond customary horror.  Boris Karloff actually gives a carefully nuanced performance, showing he was more of an actor than most thought--and not just an ugly Universal monster face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       "The Haunted Strangler" is worth a second look, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          I am ready to go to The Judas Hole, and dance like those girls!

                                        

"Take The Path That Moonbeams Make/If The Moon Is Still Awake/You'll See Him Wink His Eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                            Isn't this shot from Disney's 1953 "Peter Pan" breathtaking, girls?  The "You Can Fly" segment has always been my favorite, just like on the Peter Pan Flight ride at Disneyland, and maybe Disneyworld.  Because you get to sail out the nursery window and fly over the rooftops of London.  Having seen those rooftops for real, I can tell you, there are some moments when I just want to fly out the nursery window.

                              Honestly, girls, aren't there just days when it is better to retreat into fantasy instead of reality.  It may be that one thing can save you from the other--at times.  As long as we understand each other's proportions, not just our bodies, darlings, but our minds.  A fantasy excursion does one no harm.

                             Here is that excursion all for you, here.  Take it and make you day brighter!!!!!!!!!!

Was "Summer Of '42" About Statutory Rape???????????? How About "Tea And Sympathy?????????????????"

                                  The idea for this post came to me while thinking about another film, set in the summer.  That was Frank and Eleanor Perry's 1969 indie, "Last Summer."  It featured a cast of up and coming newcomers--Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, Richard Thomas, and, in a shattering Oscar nominated portrayal, Catherine Burns.   The film is a study of friendship, bullying and betrayal along Fire Island.  Burns' character, Rhoda, does a classic monologue about her mother's death that has to be seen, darlings.  She is taken into the trio's fold, but soon becomes the target of their bullying, and culminates in a shocking gang rape of Rhoda.  Then the film inexplicably, ends, with Rhoda running off, and the trio going their separate ways, as if it was no big deal.  Judith Crist kept calling this film "remarkable;" it was plastered over all the theatrical posters the summer it was released.  So, I guess the question could be asked--all four young people were minors, so is the gang rape statutory?????????

                                 "Summer Of '42," even when it was the hottest film of the day, has always gotten my goat.  Of course, I went to see it, but I did not buy it for a second.  The film's logo, "In everyone's life there is a....summer of '42."  Oh, yeah?????????  Well, sisters, there wasn't in mine!!!!!!!!!!!  Over the years the novel by Herman Raucher, before he wrote the screenplay, was viewed as either a novel or a memoir.  As a novel, it is just some wet dream fantasy concocted by Raucher directed to toxically masculine heterosexual males.  As a memoir, it is Raucher's attempt to justify his own sexual prowess, and, girls, what do we know about men who outrightly have to prove their sexual prowess?  What have we learned, dears?  Right, they don't have any.  Sure, Dorothy lost her husband, and was in the deepest grief, but the idea of taking an underage boy, who knows nothing, to bed, is not only disgusting, it makes me wonder if the genders had been reversed, would it have been accepted the same way, or not?

If the consensual sex was an adult male and young girl, wouldn't we be talking about statutory rape?  So, why not here? 

                                   I'll tell you why.  Because the fascist patriarchy that is trying to hold on to the control of this country wouldn't have it any other way.  "Summer Of '42" is hardly shown any more; it is pretty much forgotten, but if shown, I bet there are those out there who would defend it.  

                                    Even when it was shown on TV, Raucher picked on Judith Crist's criticism.  He concluded that "if we had made our film off the coast of France, in black-and white, with English subtitles, Judith Crist would have loved it."  Well, "Last Summer" could have been that film, minus the French and English subtitles, but its shocking conclusion carried with it a powerful message, whereas "Summer Of '42'" was meant to say, "Good for you, boy!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Screw that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     "Tea And Sympathy" gets a little dicer, because homosexuality is brought into the mix.  Having not seen it onstage--and never expecting to, as this play, the way it is, could not be revived today--but having seen the film, the depiction of homosexuality is more understated and implied than 1961's "The Children's Hour," which was pretty outright, save for its not mentioning the "L" word.  What Robert Anderson would have you believe that sex with an older woman will cure a burgeoning gay young man of his inclinations.  Here, it is Deborah Kerr, in a wonderful performance, who initiates things, and like with "Summer Of '42," the act of statutory rape is called into question.  Are both older women in each film guilty of it?  I think so. Kerr is classier, with that classic line, "Years from now, when you talk about this, and you will, be kind."

                                        But, really, darlings?  No matter how well acted, would anyone buy it?  Audiences in 1956 might have, because the whole thing was considered shocking, but today, wouldn't it be more realistic to have the Deborah Kerr initiator be an adult man?  That is the only way to realistically re-stage "Tea And Sympathy."  Yes, the question of statutory rape is there, and I think exists, but to believe a sexually ambiguous young boy will go over to the straight side after an encounter with one woman is ridiculous.  And for those gays who think they are, but continue to interact that way with women, even to the point of marriage, I say they are little more than closet cases who do  not want to admit anything.  It is your life , guys, so go live it.  Thankfully, I don't have to.

                                        Statutory rape is just that, no matter how it is presented, sugar coated or romanticized.  I know some will cite "Death In Venice," which is an extraordinary exception, or "Call Me By Your Name,' which is pure hypocrisy, and crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           Couldn't Hermie or Tom have waited till college?  They might have been better off, then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                              Oh, and guys, before you go "initiating" some young thing, think about the consequences of those actions.
 

Now I Understand How This Film Scared Me, As A Child!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As An Adult, It Still Does!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

                                                                                   

                         Two weeks ago, while David and I were watching that 1944 gem, "The Uninvited," I mentioned a film, also with Gail Russell, called "The Unseen," made the following year, 1945, by director Lewis Allen.   I told David how this film, which I had not seen in over fifty years, scared me as a child.  Svengoolie went on to mention this film, when he talked about Gail Russell, so I became curious.  No one shows this film anymore.  Nor does it turn up on revival programs.  Could it be a lost film?????

                         Far from it. I looked on YouTube, and there it was, to be watched, in its entirety, for free!  What a lucky break!  Especially after "Barbie!"

                          Gail Russell is hired by Joel McCrea, who plays David Fielding, as a governess, to care for his two children, Barney, played by Richard Lyon, and Ellen, played by Nona Grifith.  They have recently moved into their house, after the wife/mother died abroad in a car accident.  Or was it an accident?  Next door is a boarded-up house, where the murder of an old man took place, twelve years before.  Occasionally, lights are seen from a window where no one should be living.

                            Added to this are a series of murders taking place in the neighborhood.  The victims are all female, and domestic workers--housekeepers and such.  Gail, as Elizabeth Howard, begins to feel she is being stalked.

                             Part of the film's creepiness, even today, is the excellent, darkly Gothic, cinematography by John F. Seitz.  For a Paramount film, this had quite a pedigree; not only the cast, but John Houseman (!!!!) served as producer, and Raymond Chandler was one of the screenwriters.

                               Oh, yes.  The little boy, Barney, knows who the killer is, but on pain of death, cannot tell.  And the little girl knows things, and she is hiding them too.  A little bit of "The Turn Of The Screw" here.

                                 Except this is not supernatural, but what, in its day, would have been called a "psychological drama."  Whatever name given, it holds up beautifully, and I urge all on here to watch it.

                                   If the scene where the children and governess walk down a side street, a shadow appears, and the boy screams, "He's after us!" does not scare you, then you are fearless, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  "The Unseen" is the title.  But it deserves to BE seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!