Image of the day, 5/20/12

7 Comments

• David Ehrenstein says:

  May 20, 2012 at 5:03 pm

  She’s so lovely in that. Made the same year as “Vertigo” Richard Quine and John Van Druten give Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart the happy end­ing that Hitchcock was­n’t inter­ested in.

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• Not David Bordwell says:

  May 20, 2012 at 10:51 pm

  Bell, Book and Candle is one of my favor­ite movies of that era about what it’s like to be gay and closeted, whatever its “mani­fest” con­tent is about. Witchcraft, right?

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• David Ehrenstein says:

  May 21, 2012 at 8:36 am

  It’s sub­text is gay life before “Stonewall.” Van Druten (who adap­ted Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories” to the stage as “A Am A Camera”) was gay and the “Zodiac Club” is obvi­ously a chic Village gay dive. Jack Lemmon’s bongo-playing Warlock using his abil­it­ies to turn out street­lamps “for his love life” is clearly “coded-gay.” And that’s not to men­tion that French singer-dancer’s per­form­ance at the club.

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• Petey says:

  May 21, 2012 at 9:40 am

  Now, why do I think that’s a Cindy Sherman photo?

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• atk says:

  May 21, 2012 at 11:25 am

  one of my favorites

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• Not David Bordwell says:

  May 21, 2012 at 11:55 am

  @David Ehrenstein: That’s what I thought, but did not want to pre­sume without the cul­tur­al bona-fides. Thanks for the cor­rob­or­a­tion, and the line on John Van Druten – I did not know about him or his con­nec­tion to Christopher Isherwood, a shame since I’m fairly obsessed with CABARET and Weimar Berlin in general.

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• David Ehrenstein says:

  May 21, 2012 at 1:45 pm

  “Cabaret” cred­its Van Druten’s “I Am A Camera” as its primary source, rather than Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories.” The book of the Broadway show is quite dif­fer­ent than the screen­play for Bob Fosse’s film. But the film is tons gay­er than the Broadway show.

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