Here at Shades of Gray, we wish you a Happy New Year--whether you're coming...
... or going!
Showing posts with label Thelma White. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thelma White. Show all posts
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Welcome to 2022
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
The Ladies of 'Hips, Hips, Horray!'
These photos should REALLY be promoting a film about goofy bellhops at a resort for people looking for "mature fun" and guests whose luggage and/or clothes they lose.
(I wish I could tell you who is who in the pictures, but I see conflicting information as to the identities of the girls on display. If someone wants to take a crack at ID'ing them, drop me an email, or leave a comment.)
Monday, December 31, 2018
The end of 2018 is almost here...
... and Dorothy Lee and Thelma White are counting down the final minute of what's been a busy year here at Shades of Gray...
... while Lilian Harvey is ready with a toast...
... and Bessie Love just keeps on partying, because she knows that 2019 is going to be even busier!
WE'LL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR (in just another minute)!
... while Lilian Harvey is ready with a toast...
... and Bessie Love just keeps on partying, because she knows that 2019 is going to be even busier!
WE'LL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR (in just another minute)!
Friday, May 25, 2018
'A Night in the Dormitory' is a fun artifact
A Night in the Dormitory (1930)
Starring: Ruth Hamilton, Ginger Rogers, Thelma White, Si Wills, and Eddie Elkins
Director: Harry Delmar
Rating: Five of Ten Stars
A college girl (Hamilton) returns to the dorm after sneaking out for a night on the town. She relates her experiences to one of her bunkmates.
"A Night in the Dormitory" is an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular that gives the viewer a sense of what it must have been like to go to a night club that featured floor shows Back in the Day. Heck, the obviously underrehearsed chorus lines that back Thelma White and Ginger Rogers (in her second screen appearance) probably added a healthy dose of verisimilitude to audiences watching this short in theatres back in 1930.
If you enjoy musical production numbers and vaudville routines, I think you'll enjoy this 22-minute collection of bits loosely tied together by the college girl's walk on the Great Depression wildside. The tunes are catching--I find myself humming the one performed by White as I type this--and sloppy chorus lines aside, they're fun to watch.
For everyone else, though, this film is little more than a historical artifact that records the live entertainment preferences of a by-gone era... and one that is probably quite faithful to the nightclub experience, since the producer and director of the film got his start booking and staging the kinds of shows this movie revolves around.
Starring: Ruth Hamilton, Ginger Rogers, Thelma White, Si Wills, and Eddie Elkins
Director: Harry Delmar
Rating: Five of Ten Stars
A college girl (Hamilton) returns to the dorm after sneaking out for a night on the town. She relates her experiences to one of her bunkmates.
"A Night in the Dormitory" is an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular that gives the viewer a sense of what it must have been like to go to a night club that featured floor shows Back in the Day. Heck, the obviously underrehearsed chorus lines that back Thelma White and Ginger Rogers (in her second screen appearance) probably added a healthy dose of verisimilitude to audiences watching this short in theatres back in 1930.
If you enjoy musical production numbers and vaudville routines, I think you'll enjoy this 22-minute collection of bits loosely tied together by the college girl's walk on the Great Depression wildside. The tunes are catching--I find myself humming the one performed by White as I type this--and sloppy chorus lines aside, they're fun to watch.
For everyone else, though, this film is little more than a historical artifact that records the live entertainment preferences of a by-gone era... and one that is probably quite faithful to the nightclub experience, since the producer and director of the film got his start booking and staging the kinds of shows this movie revolves around.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Reefer Madness! (What more needs to be said?)
Reefer Madness (aka "Tell Your Children", "The Burning Question," "Dope Addict", and "Love Madness") (1936)
Starring: Dave O'Brien, Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Carleton Young, Lilian Miles, and Thelma White
Director: Louis Gasnier
Rating: Four of Ten Stars
A societal scourge is exposed through this cautionary tale where Bill (Craig) is framed for murdering his sister (Short) and a hood (Craig) is driven mad... all because of the evils of marijuana!
"Reefer Madness" is one of those Bad Movie Night mainstays that I have been avoiding for many years. Everyone had written about it, it didn't sound all that interesting to me, and there were so many other unseen films out there. A friend gave me the "Taboo Tales" DVD collection for Christmas, and since "Reefer Madness" is the first film on the first disc, I figured the time had come to watch it.
I found that it was neither as bad nor as unintentionally funny as I had been led to believe. For the most part, it's a ham-fisted melodrama that alternatively exaggerates and misrepresents marijuana and its effect on those who use it. It moves along at a steady steady while beating viewers over the head with its anti-drug message, never being exactly boring but never being all that engaging because the characters are mostly unlikable. It gets truly interesting only in those few scenes were it goes way over the top with caricatures of marijuana smokers. Like so many drug movies, I think this is probably funnier if you're stoned while watching it.
For me, the most interesting part of the film was that I only really grew to care about the fate of Ralph, an utterly despicable thug and rapist played by Dave O'Brien. I think this was because the character was being played by one actors with honest-to-God careers in the field, and because Ralph holds a more important place in the story than even the character we're supposed to care about--the poor kid who's life is being ruined by drugs, drug pushers, and drug users. I suppose the film really is more about Ralph than Bill, since Ralph's even the subject of the movie's greatest scene, in which he beats a person to death in a fit of marijuana-driven paranoia.
I wouldn't say this film is worth going out of your way for, nor even that you should start with it if you find yourself with it included in a DVD multi-pack. The Four rating I gave it is as low as it can be without being a Three, and it barely earns that on the back of my being entertained by Dave O'Brien's performance. I suppose the nicest thing I can say about it is that it's far better than the other Dwain Esper-involved film I've watched. But, like I said above, maybe it's funnier if you're high. I understand EVERYTHING is funnier if you're high.
Starring: Dave O'Brien, Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Carleton Young, Lilian Miles, and Thelma White
Director: Louis Gasnier
Rating: Four of Ten Stars
A societal scourge is exposed through this cautionary tale where Bill (Craig) is framed for murdering his sister (Short) and a hood (Craig) is driven mad... all because of the evils of marijuana!
"Reefer Madness" is one of those Bad Movie Night mainstays that I have been avoiding for many years. Everyone had written about it, it didn't sound all that interesting to me, and there were so many other unseen films out there. A friend gave me the "Taboo Tales" DVD collection for Christmas, and since "Reefer Madness" is the first film on the first disc, I figured the time had come to watch it.
I found that it was neither as bad nor as unintentionally funny as I had been led to believe. For the most part, it's a ham-fisted melodrama that alternatively exaggerates and misrepresents marijuana and its effect on those who use it. It moves along at a steady steady while beating viewers over the head with its anti-drug message, never being exactly boring but never being all that engaging because the characters are mostly unlikable. It gets truly interesting only in those few scenes were it goes way over the top with caricatures of marijuana smokers. Like so many drug movies, I think this is probably funnier if you're stoned while watching it.
For me, the most interesting part of the film was that I only really grew to care about the fate of Ralph, an utterly despicable thug and rapist played by Dave O'Brien. I think this was because the character was being played by one actors with honest-to-God careers in the field, and because Ralph holds a more important place in the story than even the character we're supposed to care about--the poor kid who's life is being ruined by drugs, drug pushers, and drug users. I suppose the film really is more about Ralph than Bill, since Ralph's even the subject of the movie's greatest scene, in which he beats a person to death in a fit of marijuana-driven paranoia.
I wouldn't say this film is worth going out of your way for, nor even that you should start with it if you find yourself with it included in a DVD multi-pack. The Four rating I gave it is as low as it can be without being a Three, and it barely earns that on the back of my being entertained by Dave O'Brien's performance. I suppose the nicest thing I can say about it is that it's far better than the other Dwain Esper-involved film I've watched. But, like I said above, maybe it's funnier if you're high. I understand EVERYTHING is funnier if you're high.
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