It's Fanny Friday!

 

A fun glimpse of 1920s car culture

Rubber Tires (1927)
Starring: Bessie Love, Harrison Ford, Erwin Connelly, May Robson, Junior Coghlan, and John Patrick

Director: Alan Hale

After their main bread-winner (Bessie Love) loses her job, the Stack family sells all their belongings, buys a car, and heads on a cross-country journey from New York to start a new life in California. There, in the wilds beyond Los Angeles, the family's patriarch (Erwin Connelly) bought a house and land with the family's savings, gambling oil might be found there. Now, it has to be their home... if they can make there! 

"Rubber Tires" is a proto road movie full of fun and lighthearted romance. Bessie Love is in top form as an independent young woman with a never-say-die spirit who is determined to see her family successfully to a new home. The comedy and pacing of the film hold up nicely, and the glimpses provided into life in 1920s America--especially for those of a nomadic bent--are interesting.

Two things I found interesting about the look into the past was the apparent complete lack of requirements to have drivers licenses or car insurance of any kind; Love's character Mary Ellen buys a car from a scrapyard, then just drives off in it. Later, characters are shown trading cars with each other with a level casualness that one might do with pens or hats. 

Although motor vehicles as something the masses could own and enjoy were a relatively new thing in 1927, it was amazing how much society's approach to cars has changed over the past century or so. While I realize films aren't accurate reflections of reality, it seems to me that at least the general environment and cultural outlook of the characters has to feel right to viewers, especially when the characters on the screen are living in a world not unlike the real one. The trusting nature that people seemed to have toward each other--even total strangers--was particularly surprising to me, even for a cheerful comedy like this; I can't imagine trading my car to a total stranger for his car without having it checked out by a mechanic! (The one character in the film who is an expert in cars--who amusingly spends about half the movie in a car with no engine and thus being towed along by others as he tries to keep up with the Stacks on their journey--is also the only one who worries about whether the cars being traded for actually run. Everyone else just seems to assume that they will, or that everyone they meet is as honest as they are.)

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this film is that there is no true antagonist in the story. Any threats toward the Stacks come mostly from the circumstances they encounter. Every character in the film is likeable... even both men seeking to conquer Mary Ellen's heart (played Harrison Ford and John Patrick) are equally upstanding and decent. This is one of those very rare films that is charming and sweet without getting schmaltzy. (The only time when there was an opportunity for truly villainous characters to appear in the story, they are reduced to faceless shadows, basically making them just another circumstance that threatens the Stacks.)

Because the characters are all basically so likeable--due in no small part to each and every major actor in the film having great screen presence--all this film needs is the various threats and hurdles that the Stacks need to overcome to reach their new life in California. The running subplot about the fact they're driving a car worth $10,000 without knowing it also goes a long way to keeping the viewer invested in the outcome.

Click below to watch "Rubber Tires". I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

It's International Bikini Day!

It's Wednesday... and it's International Bikini Day. That can only mean one thing: We got pictures of women in bikinis to make this a Picture Perfect Wednesday!

  

 

 

 

We celebrate on this day, because it is when, in 1946, French automobile engineer and fashion designer Louis Reard bestowed the itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini ["the world's smallest swimsuit"] upon the world! Read all about this great man here!)

A bigger bang for the Fourth of July!

On this Fourth of July, Dana Plato's years of research into how to get a REALLY big bang is being put into practice. (If your windows shatter, it means we've had a Best Independence Day Celebration Ever here at Shades of Gray.)

Happy Fourth of July!

We got flag-waving pin-ups of a slightly different sort for this year's Independence Day celebration!

  
 

Musical Monday with Albie Day

 
Albie Day is a singer, songwriter, and marathon runner who has posted a host of great cover tunes (and some originals) to his YouTube channel. Here's a hilarious sample of his work -- a cover of Reel Big Fish's "Everyone's an Asshole". Like all good cover tunes, Day has made the song his own, turning it from ska to folk rock.

 
This is the first of five great cover tunes that we'll be bringing out on Musical Mondays throughout July.

Even innocent lies can have dire consequences...

White Lies Noir (2017)
Starring: Ross Marquand and Alana O’Brien

Director: Jared Lapidus

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A dame (O'Brien) walks into the office of a private eye (Marquand) and a string of lies eventually leads to the truth...

 "White Lies Noir" is one of those short film you need to come to completely unawares for it to have its greatest impact. Anything I can say about it--beyond the teaser summary above, and the fact that I loved almost everything about this film--will spoil the experience of watching it.

The filmmakers did a much better job of capturing the feel of a genuine film noir picture than many out there and the pace at which the film unfolds is almost perfect. I even loved the blooper reel at the end, with actress Alana O'Brien staying in character even as the scene went completely sideways.

If you like film noirs and enjoy the occasional film that doesn't end up where you thought it was going to, you'll get a kick out of "White Lies Noir". Check it out by clicking below.

A Gallery of Love... Bessie Love!

In celebration of the first film showing at our Screening Room--"Rubber Tires", starring Bessie Love and Harrison Ford--we bring you pictures of Bessie Love looking lovely!

It's June...

... for a few more days, and we're closing out the month with a film that features June Palmer and will make it clear why she was so beloved by the readers of men's magazines. (This is the first film of the 'nudie cutie' soft-core porn short-film genre to be featured here at Shades of Gray. I don't know if that marks a is a high point or a low point in the blog's history.)

Nightmare at Elm Manor (aka "Flesh and Fantasy" and "Nude in Dracula's Castle") (1961)

Starring: June Palmer and Stuart Samuels

Director: George Harrison Marks

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A young woman (Palmer) is terrorized by a strange man (Samuels) while spending the night at an isolated house.

 "Nightmare at Elm Manor" is a brief, silent horror film that was the screen debut of nude model June Palmer. In it, all of her assets are on prominent display. Her beautiful face and statuesque figure, along with her perfect breasts, make it obvious why she was so beloved by the editors and readers of men's magazines during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She also seems to have decent acting abilities--or at least a talent for showing the sort of fear that is required for distressed damsels in gothic chillers and Old Dark House-type films. 

Based on what I am seeing here, I think it's a shame that she never broke into the mainstream, except for a few bit parts. Aside from a pretty face and a gorgeous body, June Palmer had something a little something extra--that something that causes her to light up the screen, even when fully dressed. If not for that extra bit of charisma on the part of Palmer, the lackluster nature of the villain stalking her would have annoyed me to the point where I might have marked a Star or two off the rating I ultimately settled on. Palmer (and, yes, her boobs) carry this film, almost entirely by themselves.

Palmer's screen presence is probably also why my imagination immediately began filling in holes in what passes for the film's storyline and/or explaining stupid actions on the part of her character. Why she was walking to the manor at the beginning of the film, why she is sitting around naked and putting on make-up before going to bed, why she goes looking for a drink of water in the middle of the night... all these things, I have thought up explanations for. I even have an idea for what the true nature of the creepy butler/vampire is. And I don't even feel like I should knock the film for the blanks and incongruities, because it entertained me in other ways. Or maybe I was just mesmerized by Palmer's big, beautiful breasts.

But maybe you can tell me if it was the nudity or something else about the film that sparked my imagination. If you're in the mood for an Old Dark House-style quickie, and not offended by lots of nudity, check out "Nightmare at Elm Manor" by clicking below. This is very much a "not safe for work" film, so don't make a mistake and open it there! Also, you will have to open the film on YouTube (as well as be logged into an account there, because it's for mature audiences only.

(But, hey, since you're going to be on YouTube anyway, that's a perfect time to check out my channel. If you like what you see, please subscribe and perhaps even come back every now and then. Sometimes, we watch cartoons or short films during live streams that ultimately end up being reviewed here!)

Is it time to stop?

We've been tracking the dancers in the wild for a year now. Is this where we stop the monthly posts? Will the dancers be left alone until next International Dance Day?

Time will tell. Meanwhile, you can help us choose... will the last Wednesday each month continue as Dancer Day or not? What do YOU want?