Month: July 2025

Flesh and Fantasy (1943)

I don’t feel like I have an awful lot to say about this one. It’s an anthology film, director Julien Duvivier (sitting out the then-current war in Hollywood) had just had some success with a similar production the year before called Tales of Manhattan, and evidently felt more of the same was in order… this time there was no connecting theme (the earlier film having revolved around a topcoat and what happens to it over the years, cf. Winchester ’73) but each story would have a kind of supernatural twist. The end result was not quite what Duvivier planned; Universal rearranged the story order and cut the opening story entirely (eventually turning it into a film in its own right by shooting more scenes), adding in its place a sort of odd wraparound with Robert Benchley… and though it was a Universal production (overseen by Duvivier and star Charles Boyer), it’s not exactly a “Universal horror”. Tale number one is a sort of moral fable, I suppose, about inner beauty, a fairly tedious trope hampered by the fact that its putatively ugly lead (Betty Field) was bugger all of the sort (lighting and makeup fixes everything, apparently), and number three revolves around a highwire circus performer who dreams about a woman and then meets her in real life, which makes for some charming romance between Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck but is nearly as slight otherwise. That leaves tale number two to save the film, which it fortunately does… adapted from Oscar Wilde’s “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” (so it has a good pedigree), Edward G. Robinson is the man told by a fortune teller that he’s going to kill someone, and has to decide what to do with this information; while the whole film looks great (Stanley Cortez and Paul Ivano were on camera duties, so obviously it does), it looks especially so in this segment, pulling out the film noir stops, and I loved the conceit of Robinson’s subconscious conversing with him from mirrors and other reflective surfaces. Best part of the film by some length; shame the rest is kind of negligible.

“Here’s a nice rich seam of blood…”

Something else I sighted on FB tonight:

An illustration by Harold Piffard (one of England’s first aviators as well) for a book called The Signors of the Night; The Story of Frá Giovanni, the Soldier-Monk of Venice; And of Others in the “Silent City” (whew) from 1899 by Max Pemberton, noted novelist of the day. This image struck me as, frankly, slightly alarming. Couldn’t quite work out why at first, but then I got the odd feeling the guy on the table wasn’t 100% dead… Anyway, in search of more information, I found a copy of the book on Internet Archive…

…Oooh, look, that picture! It’s actually the frontispiece for the book, what an interesting choice… what does the caption say… OH. OH FUCK. OH NO. CORPSE IS INDEED NOT CORPSE AFTER ALL. Goddamn, I was actually right about the feeling I got from the picture without the caption… cos the fellow doesn’t look particularly not dead to me, I just got that vibe for some reason. Did Fra Giovanni burst in to save this poor bastard from those cone-hatted murderers? And why do I also feel there’s something oddly anti-Semitic about them?

Beginning with bones

Sighted on Facebook. This is an illustration by Carl Lagerquist and it comes from a 1922 edition of Frankenstein by Cornhill Publishing… and it struck me because the book is famously silent on exactly how Frankenstein creates his monster, only that he did so and was aghast at what he’d done; all the pyrotechnics and shit you see in film versions simply aren’t there in the original text. And for some reason the idea that Frankenstein might have really have started from scratch had never occurred to me until now. Cos look at it, that’s basically what he’s doing here, beginning by evidently making the skeleton himself, which would require adding the flesh, organs, etc separately. Something about that seems more appalling than just, you know, taking a pair of “readymade” fully finished legs and attaching them to a similarly fully finished torso…

And this, apparently, is the end result. From the same edition, Lagerquist’s rendering of the final product; I sighted this on Reddit and can do no better than quote the OP there:

I really like this take on the Creature (my only nitpick is the short hair). His eyes seem to be popping from their sockets (quite different from the Universal version’s droopy and sunken eyes). His inner workings are visible in uneven measure. His limbs have the correct structure, but not quite the right proportions. There’s even a big hernia below his abs!
He looks accurately messed up.

I’ll take OP’s word for that, cos I’m not an anatomical expert and wouldn’t know how “accurate” the mess is, but… yeah, damned if it’s not a mess. And what they say about having the structure but not the proportions is spot on; we’re not looking at dubious technique, Lagerquist evidently meant him to look misproportionate, it’s not really like the infamous Rob Liefeld…

On being careful what you wish for

So this fucking moron moved to Russia to get away from “woke”:

An American named Derek Huffman, along with his three daughters aged 10, 11, and 12, relocated his family to Russia and engaged in the Special Military Operation (SMO).
In 2022, they moved from Arizona to Texas to escape what they perceived as the influence of LGBT propaganda. However, as political changes swept across the country, the Huffmans decided to leave the United States altogether.
Derek shared with RT, “The pivotal moment for us was when we learned that my daughter Sophia had heard about lesbians from a classmate. Even though she didn’t fully grasp the concept, it was enough for us to realize that we needed a change. “

Yeah, apparently the child just heard about lesbians being a thing. Not that she even knew any, necessarily, or there was a chance of her being one herself. Just her knowing that lesbians exist was enough to make daddy move her to a country where they presumably don’t exist.

“I want to contribute and secure our place here by joining the Russian army. Ultimately, our goal is to fully integrate into Russian society, obtain citizenship, and create a bright future here,” Derek stated.

Well, Derek integrated, all right, to the point where he’s now being sent to the front lines of that war with Ukraine…

Derek Huffman, 46, feels he is being “thrown to the wolves” after being told that his job in the military would be as a correspondent or as a welder, his wife, DeAnna, said in a recorded plea for prayers, which has since been removed from her YouTube page.
Huffman has no prior military experience, DeAnna said, adding that his limited training was conducted in Russian. She suggested this language barrier has made her husband particularly unprepared for the horrors of combat.
“Unfortunately, when you’re taught in a different language, and you don’t understand the language, how are you really getting taught?” she pondered. “You’re not. So, unfortunately, he feels like he’s being thrown to the wolves right now, and he’s kind of having to lean on faith, and that’s what we’re all doing.” […]
DeAnna, 42, suggested her husband had been misled during the military recruiting process. She added that, after a month of service, her family had yet to receive any pay.
“When he signed up and had all of that done, he was told he would not be training for two weeks and going straight to the front lines,” she said. “But it seems as though he is getting one more week of training, closer to the front lines, and then they are going to put him on the front lines.”

Well, he’s doing what he said he wanted to do. He’s quoted in the article as saying “If I risk myself for our new country, no one will say that I am not a part of it”, and, well, he’s being given that very opportunity. Indeed, he’s at far more risk now than he would’ve been as a correspondent or welder; he’s going to be up the front trying to kill people with weapons he barely knows how to use. Derek’s living the dream, and can go fuck himself.

Here’s an idea

For some reason, I found my idiot brain turning over the following concept.

Jeffrey Epstein isn’t dead.

Maybe, just maybe, not only did he not kill himself, he wasn’t murdered either.

He’s still alive, and he was somehow smuggled out of jail, and Mushroom Cock’s hiding him somewhere in Mar-A-Lago.

I don’t even know if I’m joking about this.

The Onion nails it again

Yeah. Mushroom Cock has gone through a number of positions on the Epstein case in the last few days, from “there’s no client list” through “why are you people still talking about Epstein?” to “it was a HOAX by the Democrats and you were fools for believing in it“:

In a lengthy post on his social media website, Truth Social, Trump accused his voters on Wednesday of falling for what he called a “radical left” hoax by the opposition to discredit him.
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years,” he wrote.
“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support any more!” […]
As the backlash spirals out of his normally firm grasp on the Maga voter, Trump slammed “foolish Republicans” on Wednesday who he said were helping Democrats by focusing on documents related to Epstein.
“Some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats’ work,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain. “I call it the Epstein hoax. Takes a lot of time and effort. Instead of talking about the great achievements we’ve had … they’re wasting their time with a guy who obviously had some very serious problems, who died three, four years ago.”

Good thing Cock doesn’t want these people’s support any more, cos he’s not getting it; the cult are burning their favourite red caps, and even Mike Johnson—speaker of the house, third highest government official after Cock and J. Divans, cult cunt—is calling for everything to be made public. To which end Cock himself appears to have given in and told Pam Bondi to hit up the Department of Justice to release everything they have, and I think he has to do that if only to shut Edolf up for a split-second:

Problem is, of course, even if the DoJ  do release everything they have, and I don’t think they will, no one’s going to believe it anyway. I think too many people believe Cock is hiding something already, so the DoJ could indeed release everything and people would still be demanding to know what’s missing. And, as I say, I don’t believe they’ll actually release it all anyway, so the critics would actually be justified in asking…

Anyway, Cock’s latest stunt is that he’s threatening RUPERT MURDOCH with a lawsuit, cos the Wall Street Journal published a letter from Cock to Epstein for the latter’s 50th birthday which he denies having written… and to be fair, it doesn’t sound like him, the text is kind of odd (and a lot of people are claiming a couple of lines therein, but it’s also 20+ years old and so written when Cock was 20+ years younger and probably more articulate than he is now. It’s still suspicious, of course, and the WSJ hasn’t produced the original letter itself, so who currently knows if it’s even authentic… but don’t think Rupert won’t be able to buy even better judges than Cock. He’s actually got the money to do so…

The late Late Show

CBS Cancels ‘Late Show,’ Ending Stephen Colbert’s Run After Decades On Air

CBS has announced that it’s canceling “The Late Show” — its late-night franchise that began under David Letterman in 1993 — and looks to end the program currently hosted by Stephen Colbert in May 2026.
In a statement, CBS claimed that the move is “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night” and said it’s not related “in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

Hmm. What a curious disclaimer. What other matters happening at Paramount could possibly affect The Late Show? Surely not this?

CBS’s once-proud “60 Minutes” bungled its interview last fall with presidential candidate Kamala Harris, engaging in questionable editing practices and then sandbagging when asked to explain what happened. As could be expected, Donald Trump filed a $20 billion lawsuit claiming election interference in favor of his political opponent. The money will be paid by Paramount, the parent company of CBS.
The settlement was cleverly announced by CBS News just before the Fourth of July holiday, a move clearly designed to hide the surrender from Americans who were traveling, cooking hotdogs and watching fireworks. The announcement made a point to indicate that CBS made no apology as part of the settlement. So, apparently, CBS just randomly hands over millions of dollars when it has done nothing wrong.
CBS also claimed in the announcement that “the lawsuit was completely without merit.” CBS is quite right in that contention; journalists have broad First Amendment protections when it comes to broadcasting and editing interviews. There is virtually no chance Trump could have won this case in court.
But CBS caved anyway.

Ah. ‘Twould appear to be exactly this matter, which Colbert attacked on The Late Show directly a few nights ago, calling it a “big fat bribe”… cos apparently Paramount (who own CBS) is looking to do a merger with some other company, and they need the approval of the FCC to do that so they’re obviously trying to keep in with the big boss despite having said themselves the lawsuit was clearly bullshit. Funny how CBS calling time on a program hosted by a noted Trump critic (who Trump himself has specifically targeted) comes just three days after he accused them of selling out to Mushroom Cock, eh.

I mean, maybe it isn’t pulling in the revenue like it used to, but if it’s that much of a money sink, why are they carrying on until next May with it? Maybe if they axed it immediately it would look obviously political… but it clearly already IS, and letting it go on for another ten months doesn’t make it look less so. I hope Colbert takes the opportunity to blast Dampnut and his gang as much as possible, cos there doesn’t seem to be much else to lose if The Late Show is a lame duck anyway…

The Invisible Man Appears (1949)

As titles go, The Invisible Man Appears certainly is, well, oddly contradictory, but never mind that… this is actually a reasonably historic film in its way, having been one of the first tokusatsu films, with effects by technical pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya; the latter had been doing this sort of thing since the 1930s, but after the war was over he’d been blacklisted from the studio system by the occupying American forces for working on wartime propaganda films. But Daiei took him on nonetheless for this film, inspired by the Universal Invisible Man of 1933 and to be that film’s superior. Um… it wasn’t. Fortunately it doesn’t lean too heavily on the effects, which is good because some of the effects shots are decidedly rough compared with James Whale’s rather older film, and Tsuburaya’s ascendancy as the master of his art would have to wait a few years for a certain city-smashing giant reptile to come along…

Anyway, the plot revolves around a formula for invisibility developed by a scientist which draws the interest of a criminal organisation looking to employ it for their own crooked ends. Unfortunately for all involved, including the poor bugger forced to become the titular invisible man, there’s no way to reverse the effect, and the formula will also turn the subject increasingly violent and mad… This is not a great film by any means despite its relative historical importance; as I said the effects are kind of rough at times and the unfolding of the plot is not the most coherent; still, there’s some imagination involved in some of the “invisible” business, and even if it’s not exactly a masterpiece it’s still interesting to watch, and I like that it’s out there, especially given that it took 60 years for it to get a western release. And, for what it may be worth, this is film number 50 that I’ve watched for the Century of Cinema challenge. Getting there slower than I’d like, but kind of impressed that I’m still sticking with it…