Oscar Horrors: Hush Hush Campy Agnes

[Editors Note: For today's episode of Oscar Horrors, I invited award-winning writer Manuel Muñoz ("What You See in the Dark" "The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue") to join us. I've gave all the contributors a list of every Oscar nomination from the horror genre and they chose their own subjects. -Nathaniel R.]

Here Lies... Agnes Moorehead in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is either Grand Guignol catnip or the most ridiculous Scooby Doo plot ever, depending on your level of generosity.  The film lacks the sustained camp thrills of its kissing cousins What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Strait-Jacket.  But it remains obligatory viewing, whether to fulfill your quota of the era’s is-she-crazy suspense vehicles starring Hollywood’s aging belles, or to check out Oscar offerings with peculiarly high nomination counts.  Charlotte picked up seven (yes, seven) Oscar nods and while you might shrug off most of them as applause for technical show, a major Supporting Actress bid (and maybe an almost-win) came with the fourth and final invite to the big dance for Agnes Moorehead as 

But first, the tawdry beginnings.  Set on a once sunny Louisiana estate in 1927, the film introduces us to a young Charlotte, whose father doesn’t approve of the news he’s heard from her secret suitor.  At an elaborate party (and in one of the most nimbly arranged sequences of the film), things get downright bloody, and Charlotte emerges from the shadows with one of the most conspicuously stained dresses ever to stun a crowd.

Fast forward decades later, and our fun begins. 

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Monday Monologue: Miss Jean Brodie

With The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (just reviewed) garnering big audiences in limited release, Dames Judi and Maggie have been on the mind. Last week, I remembered my favorite scene from Judi Dench's best performance in Notes on a Scandal (2006), so this week a look back at Maggie Smith's Oscar winning signature role The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) for a companion piece...

What follows from the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is not technically a monologue. This progressive middle school teacher in a conservative girls school invites interjections into her speeches, if not actual participation or dialogue. I was tempted to publish this a day early and call it for a Sunday Soliloquy but it's not really that either. For Miss Brodie isn't speaking directly to herself.

Or is she?

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Mad Men @ The Movies: Megan, The Actress

In Mad Men @ The Movies we talk about the show's movie references. Mad Men happens to love the movies and we happen to love Mad Men.

Megan Draper: My father won't care if he finds out you read James Bond.
Don Draper: You know what? It's a good book. You should read it. 

poll by twiigs.com

Eyebrows were raised recently when it was announced that Jessica Paré would be submitting herself in the lead actress category at the Emmys for this season of Mad Men. Over the show's interminably long hiatus she graduated from guest star to... well, the new Mrs. Don Draper fits the "Lead" description in every way. Not only does Megan gets key storylines in every episode but her energy, impulsiveness, and partial foreignness is something like a youthquake for the show, especially since all the other characters are aging quicker than they'd like to.

In "At the Codfish Ball" and "Lady Lazarus" Megan's decisions continue to cause aftershocks with Don, Peggy, Roger and more who all seem to interpret Megan's decisions through their own narcissistic lens. Her parents visit, she saves a major account (Heinz Baked Beans) proving her natural aptitude at advertising but instead of celebrating she announces her resignation. She secretly still wants to be an actress and has been attending auditions on the sly.

Movie grammar and a pinch of Hitchcock after the jump...

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Tall Tales. Short Links

Village Voice the five most dream-like sequences from the John Travolta sex-assault allegations. (Hint: The comment section is hi-lar-ious. I especially love the pizza delivery analogy)
YouTube has one of those Taiwanese "news" animations about it.
When Obama Endorsed Marriage Equality... (gif parties ahead -- love the '95 Clueless shout-out)
La Daily Musto Tippi Hedren (of The Birds fame) claims that Alfred Hitchcock put the kabosh on her Best Actress Oscar nomination for their follow up Marnie . Um, Tippi... how would he do that exactly? Ol' Hitch didn't even have enough pull with AMPAS to win one for himself!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: "Bonnie & Clyde"

This week's episode of 'Best Shot' features one of my all time favorite films Bonnie & Clyde (1967). Even if you just want to look at one scene and stop you're pulled in, right into the cramped cars and you're along for the whole ride. It never stops until it's so bullet-riddled it can't get back up again. Few films have ever felt as alive as this classic. The most impressive thing about Bonnie & Clyde nearly a half century later is that it still feels electric. Is it the way it fuses 30s and 60s and in so doing transcends anything to do with "dates" of production? Is it how completely adult it is in tone despite the youthful abandon?

Bonnie (Faye Dunaway) meets Clyde (Warren Beatty) in the first scene and by the eight minute mark she's lept in his car for good. Because the movie moves so quickly we're doing the same. My choice for best shot comes right before this crucial decision. The couple have been flirting for roughly eight minutes of real time, and Bonnie is so hot for the beautiful thief that she's practically felating her coke bottle while staring at him. Bonnie expresses doubt that Clyde's a real criminal, essentially daring him to prove it, and he pulls out his gun.

But you wouldn't have the gumption to use it."

Naturally she, uh, strokes it. Such a perfect image for a movie about a love affair that's consummated through crime.

Their horny paired reaction shots to the gun stroking...

This movie is dirty.

Rather shockingly, they do not immediately tear each other's clothes off. It's not for lack of trying on Bonnie's part but Clyde is quicker to whip out his gun than his cock so a substitute it'll have to be.

In the casting alone the movie achieves greatness. It's hard to believe that the infamous loverboy Warren Beatty is an impotent charmer and Bonnie (Faye Dunaway, utterly brilliant) can't believe it either. She's angry and devastated. Bonnie and Clyde's unfulfilling sexual life paired with Faye & Warren's undeniable chemistry eroticizes the entire movie even when "sex" is not the subject.

The early gun stroking shot finds a brilliant counterpoint later in the film when Clyde can't get it up in a love scene and Bonnie roll over, away from him. Clyde isn't even in frame but his "gun" is.

The French call an orgasm "the little death" and this 1967 masterpiece channeling the French New Wave for America makes the same connections. From the minute Bonnie leaps in Clyde's stolen car, desperate to sex him up, she's a goner. In one terrific seemingly incongruous scene, the Barrow gang pick up a married couple and tease and taunt them until the man reveals that he's an undertaker. Bonnie clouds over, instantly demanding their rejection from the car. She knows that death is imminent. For her it's right there in the car.

The Best Shot Gang.
(Wanted in five states)
Antagony and Ecstasy has a smart post on the film's synthesizing of '60s pop culture.
Serious Film has a wonderful post that's more than just Bonnie & Clyde. It's that moment when you know it's coming.
The Film's The Thing looks at the people in the pictures, Depression era style.
Film Actually  Bonnie seeks solace in the oddest places
Pussy Goes Grrrr  "lust blossoming from small town tedium."

Next on "Hit Me..."
04/04 Easter Parade (1948)
04/11 Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)