June 2, 2009
This is the only dress required if one is to lose all their money in Monte Carlo and hightail it to Paris on the cheap. So versatile. You can nap in it on the train, negotiate taxi fares, look for employment, attend swank parties, and play bridge. Coat on or off, shoes on or off, hood up or down, wherever and whatever the occasion, you are set!
May 17, 2009
I have to lead this piece with Mary Astor. Her ability to be both benign and malevolent at the same time within the same character is rare. I believe her motives no matter which way they lead. I first fell for her as an innocent in Red Dust (leave that dufus husband and run off with Clark Gable already!), but her flawless portrayal of treachery in The Maltese Falcon was no less compelling. In Midnight wealth becomes her. She inhabits her aristocracy with a great sense of ease and cunning. The cornucopia of adornment that would be considered on most “laden” feels natural, polished, on Astor.
Simone, played by Elaine Barry is the great facilitator of Midnight. Without Simone there would be no hats to buy, advice follow, nor party guests. Her brooch is the most dauntless and bold of all brooches (see slide 6). This simple centipede seems to infect her like an assassin out of a 007 film. She is formidable and as such delivers one of the finest lines in Midnight:
“It always rains when Stephanie gives one of her dull parties; even Nature weeps.”
Please follow the highlights, commentary on a slide by slide basis when you launch the slideshow.
May 6, 2009
Midnight (Paramont Pictures, 1939) is a remarkable movie on many fronts. First, its cast which includes Claudet Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Hedda Hopper, Monty Woolley and more whose names are not as familiar, but whose faces abide (for instance the delicious Rex O’Malley!). Next, there is the pedigree screenwriting team of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, the director Michell Leisen, also responsible for the comic Easy Living and the stunning costume designs of Irene.
My first impulse was to post about the fashion of the film and still I still intend to do so. But, as I started to study further my initial seduction gave way to my long standing love of typography. So many fonts choices were made in this film it is a bit boggling; five different styles alone for the opening credits. The treatment of the film title is gorgeous with its open face cursive script for Midnight. It continues with the open face type treatment for the cast credits, but here a far more proper application. Perhaps my favorite is the “E” used for Leisen, the way is connects first the the capital “L”, but then leads the way unattached at the end. Paris, itself comes alive with its signage and all in this delightful comedy light up.
I want to thank Charlene Matthews for this recommendation. We swap films and other cultural aesthetics. She is a great Hollywood resource and book binder extraordinaire.
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