Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 14, 2013

Just one pie recipe. That’s not too much to ask, is it? What noir characters would you like to have for dinner? This was a question posed to Dark Pages readers several years ago by one of our longtime subscribers, Weda Mosellie. Miss Weda passed on earlier this year, so...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 13, 2013

A tawny-haired beauty with a smoldering gaze and a distinctively throaty voice, Lizabeth Scott is my film noir guilty pleasure. She’s no Sarah Bernhardt, it’s true – but she’s one of the quintessential bad girls of the noir era, and she’s just plain fun to watch! And on November 15th,...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 12, 2013

Nina Foch gives a first-rate performance in the title role. My Name is Julia Ross came THISCLOSE to being my TCM film noir pick of the month – it was edged out by a hair by that ever-so-awesome Burt Lancaster starrer, The Sweet Smell of Success. But while you’re making...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 11, 2013

To today’s audiences, Shelley Winters may be the grandmother on the Roseanne Barr comedy show, or the zaftig swimming champion who valiantly perished in The Poseidon Adventure. But back in the day, she was a gorgeous blonde whose curvaceous figure was complemented by her considerable acting chops. W   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 10, 2013

If you only know Russell Johnson as the Professor from Gilligan’s Island, you may be surprised to know that the actor started his career on the dark side of the big screen, with a featured role in a George Raft noir, Loan Shark (1952). In this feature, Johnson played a...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 9, 2013

There was nothing conventional about Jeff Corey. Not his distinctively craggy looks, nor his exceptional talent, and certainly not his experience in Hollywood. Blacklisted in the 1950s due to accusations of Communist leanings, Corey saw his promising film career diminish virtually overnight, but the   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 8, 2013

One of the icons of the film noir era, Ryan had a take-no prisoners approach and an aura of barely suppressed ferocity.  Although he displayed his talent and versatility in a wide variety of roles during his 40-year career, it is the cold-hearted hoods, psychotic spouses, and iniquitous gangsters fo   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 7, 2013

I’ve mentioned on this blog once before, I have a number of collections – dolls, ashtrays, shot glasses, old radios, refrigerator magnets. But one of my favorites is my collection of old movie magazines. I started collecting them years (decades?) ago, way before there was an internet – or, at...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 6, 2013

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might wonder what has been going on around here so far this month, what with the daily posting and whatnot. Well, wonder no more. It’s National Blog Posting Month (also known as NaBloPoMo) and I have signed up for the challenge...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 6, 2013

Nope, it’s not pre-Code. Too late. And it’s not noir. Too zany. But Young and Willing, a Paramount production that no one seems ever to have heard of except me, is two things: it’s one of my favorite guilty pleasures and it’s a showcase for two future veterans of the...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 5, 2013

Ah, Clifton Webb. He could imbue a phrase with more flair, sophistication, and downright venom than anybody I can think of. Webb was perhaps at his most memorable in Laura (1944), in which he played the ever-acerbic Waldo Lydecker, but he was just as good in the lesser-known noir The...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 4, 2013

In March 2012, a fella by the name of John stopped by Shadows and Satin, dropped this survey on me, and asked me to give it a try. Never one to shrink from a challenge (even one that’s more than a year old!), I decided to don my cinematic thinking...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 3, 2013

Possessed (1931) is one of my favorite Joan Crawford films – and for someone who loves Joanie as much as I do, that’s saying something! This was the first Crawford pre-Code that I ever saw, and I’m delighted to select it as my TCM pre-Code pick of the month. It’s...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 2, 2013

TCM has gone nuts for noir in November! I could barely flip through this month’s TCM Now Playing Guide without landing on a page with a first-rate noir offering. My choice was a tough one – My Name is Julia Ross (1945) was a worthy contendah! – but my final...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on November 1, 2013

“You’d sell out your own mother for a piece of fudge.” Snappy sayings, crackling comebacks, piercing putdowns, and devastating diatribes – film noir is lousy with ‘em. Among my many favorite aspects of these features are the unforgettable words and phrases that punctuate the shadow   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on October 19, 2013

Time for another award post! This time, I am offering my thanks to the awesome Paula Guthat, renowned TCM Party co-host and author of Paula’s Cinema Club, who bestowed on me the 7 x 7 Link Award! (Truth be told, she bestowed it on me quite a while ago, in...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on October 13, 2013

I am taking a brief break from movie reviews and performer profiles to celebrate some awards I’ve received lately. In other words, I am being totally self-indulgent and talking about me, me, me! Come on along! For today’s entry, I want to give sincere thanks to Gwen over at Movies,...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on September 23, 2013

This month’s TCM noir pick was a no-brainer – The Strange Love of Martha Ivers stars the fabulous Barbara Stanwyck, backed up by the mega-talented Van Heflin, the underrated Lizabeth Scott, and the always entertaining Kirk Douglas. The movie has lots more to recommend it – a fabulous Miklos Rozsa...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on September 17, 2013

A few months back, when I read about Raquelle’s Summer Reading Classic Film Book Challenge over at Out of the Past, I was way too excited. This was an event that was made for me; I love buying books about the Golden Age of Hollywood – coffee table books, biographies,...   read more

Shadows and Satin Posted by shadowsandsatin on September 8, 2013

One of my many pleasures in life is receiving my TCM “Now Playing” guide and reviewing the upcoming movies for the month. It’s not only fun picking out the pictures that I plan to watch, but I also enjoy scouring the entries in search of my TCM pick – and...   read more