Musical Monday with Bullet for My Valentine

Kick off the week with Bullet for My Valentine, rockin' music, and a really cool video!

It's a Shoot-'Em Sunday!

  
The Shades of Gray Gun Girls are busted (or perhaps just busty)!

Picture Perfect Special: Mary Astor

Mary Astor's screen acting career stretched from the silent era (landing her first film role at age 16, in 1921) through the advent of sound, the rise of television, and the coming of hippies in the 1960s (when she retired from acting in 1964, after playing a supporting role in the start-studded thriller "Hush Sweet Scarlet"). Her stoic, regal aura, coupled with a powerful screen presence and ability to convey a wide range of shifting emotions with only body language and facial expresssions, carried her through changing technologies, public tastes, and cultural fads until she had appeared 123 movies. Although she stated that her heart was never fully in acting (she was following her father's dream for his beautiful daughter), she was a stand-out part of every film she appeared, whether she was playing a bit part or the starring role.

Today, we offer a small gallery of publicity stills and portraits of Astor from the first two decades of her career. 

 

To see Mary Astor's skill in front of a camera, check out "Behind Office Doors" via the Shades of Gray Screening Room over at YouTube!

It's a Fanny Friday...

... and it's almost Veterans Day.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

It's a Wonder Woman Wednesday, and with it comes portraits of everyone's favorite Amazon!

How we deal with Mondays at Shades of Gray...

Musical Mondays will resume shortly.. maybe even next week!

It's a Fanny Friday!

It's International Godzilla Day!

 There's a new Godzilla film premiering today (the 30th from Japanese production company Toho), and people are rejoicing and partying around the world!

It's Fanny Friday

 

Silent horror comedy ala the 1970s

Grave Danger (1973)
Starring: Dan Formento, Leslie Donahue, Janice Shaw, and Mary Perry

Director: Craig Highberger

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A vampire (Formento) on the hunt for young women to drain of blood encounters a mortal (Donahue) who reminds him of a love he thought lost long ago. But is the world ready for a human/vampire love romance?

 

Fifty years ago, Craig Highberger rounded up a bunch of high school friends and their siblings and made "Grave Danger". For a film made entirely by teenagers, it is surprisingly good. In fact, it puts any number of low-budget horror films that came both before and after it, and which were usually made by vastly more experienced people than Highberger and his pals. Heck, the sequence where the vampire and the leading lady meet for the first time rivals stuff you might see from top-of-the-line directors. 

Half-assed research into what the various people involved with this film indicated that only Highberger went onto having any sort of career in media--and his appears to be a minor one at that. (This is too bad, because there was a lot of raw talent on display in this film.)

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And now, a joke inspired by an event in "Grave Danger"...

Touch the Tits of Dracula!

(The chilling sequel to Taste the Blood of Dracula!)