The Nitrate Diva

Thank you, Sandy! What did you think of the movie? I love the sort of early Universal horror vibe to some of it.

"Vermont, you are just as weird as we remembered you," declared @gregproops.bsky.social during WHOSE LIVE ANYWAY? at Rutland's Paramount theater last night.

Thank you to improv masters Greg, Ryan, Gary, Jeff, and Laura for a hilarious show out here in the land of bears, libraries, and snowy peaks!

I feel like Frank Fay IRL would be first in line.

13 WASHINGTON SQUARE is a delightful silent film that deserves to be more widely enjoyed! Sort of a sillier cousin of THE CAT AND THE CANARY. 🖤

And thanks for the shoutout! This was a fun commentary to do. I got to talk about a bunch of underrated actors, film tech changes of the era, and more.

An autochrome photograph of an autumnal forest. A dirt path runs through the center. There are dry brown ferns and slender trees with leaves turning orange-brown.

An inviting autumn landscape. Might've been yesterday, but it's actually an autochrome from 1912.

"Autumn Gold" by Hugh C. Knowles
From the V&A's collections: bit.ly/42Fh4Bv

In this black and white movie screencshot, Maj-Britt Nilsson, a lovely girl with windblown hair, looks into the distance and asks "Can you feel autumn in the air?" Her companion, a shirtless young man, replies "Yes"

From Ingmar Bergman's SUMMER INTERLUDE (1951)
🍂🍂🍂

A long time ago I used to watch movies in which greedy nitwits fall into obvious traps and think, "Seriously, who would fall for this?" These days I'm like, "Yeah, that totally tracks."

George Zucco positions a skull on a table

A woman in a turban talks on the phone with a giant orientalist god-style incense burner behind her

A young woman sits at the organ with a young man beside her with shadows around them

A girl talks to Lionel Atwill by a door as two women look sinisterly on from the background

Continuing my pre-autumn program of old dark house comfort viewing with FOG ISLAND (1945). Savoring the saturnine suavity of George Zucco and his eyes of infinite menace. Here he hosts a little game of retribution among enemies. Giallo-esque B full of loathsome people who meet justly nasty ends.

Post a random picture, or else everything will go bad in September.

(Save us, Eve Arden, save us.)

A bunch of people assembled in a Gothic dining room. Among them are Ralph Morgan in a wheelchair, Lionel Atwill standing overhim, Nils Asther, and Bela Lugosi as the butler

Tonight's creepy pre-autumn programming: the thoroughly bonkers chiller NIGHT MONSTER (1942). This cast is somewhat underused, but mysterious bloodstains, the Universal fog machine on overdrive, a surprisingly high body count, and creative shadows all elevate the old dark house-y proceedings.

Signs that you're in for a good time

Peter Lorre, eerily lit from below, looks with intense apprehension at something offscreen. His hand, touching his chin, looks almost like someone else's hand about to strangle him.

June Lockhart looks at her hands, somewhat dirty, with dazed horror

Enjoying a spell of cool weather here in VT, so I'm leaning into the autumn preview by breaking out the horror-tinged gothic mysteries.
Last night: THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946)
Tonight: SHE-WOLF OF LONDON (1946)

Both comfort chillers IMO. Fun and delightfully atmospheric.

It's actually quite warm and green here now. Usually late September to early October is the best time for foliage. Fair warning, though, the tourist towns get VERY full with "leaf peepers" around that time. Mid- to late October often brings storms that knock all the leaves down.

This picture and all following pictures show views of trees in autumnal colors by a Vermont dirt road

I obviously lack the advantages of Technicolor VistaVision but here are a few snapshots from my dirt road walks last autumn to prove I’m not joking about the enduring TROUBLE WITH HARRY-ness of Vermont! #TCMParty

Me usually: *trying to seem urbane*

Me watching THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY: wellll, I'm just a simple country girl who grew up on a dirt road and went to the old three-room schoolhouse that's now the town library, but let me tell ya a thing or two about Vermont...

I don't know who came up with the door that doesn't fit in its frame in THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY but wow is this ever a Vermont thing in my experience! It's actually pretty humid here and every door in my (not very old) house has swollen or shrunk and doesn't fit its frame.

Vermont didn't have a state police until 1947, less than 10 years before THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY. To investigate the high-profile unsolved 1946 disappearance of a Bennington College student, Vermont relied on CT and NY, which led to the establishment to a Public Safety department. #VermontLore

Very young Shirley MacLaine sais "yeah, he looked exactly the same when he was alive, except he was vertical"

This line + Shirley MacLaine's delivery = perfection

Edmund Gwenn stands in front of autumnal foliage and remarks "Nothing these days stands to reason" as John Forsythe works on a pastel

So true, bestie

Shot of an old-timey Vermont country store. On the left is a hand-lettered poster for a show at the Dorset Playhouse.

See the poster on left for the Dorset Playhouse? It's still there! Lovely place. I've been going there since I was a kid. Saw two plays there this summer. #VermontLore

Gorgeous Vistavision autumnal shot of Vermont in autumn

Can confirm that Vermont in autumn does still look the way it does in Hitchcock's THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1955). This is why I put up with the spotty wifi out here tbh. #TCMParty

I love GIRL MISSING (1933) so much.

Big "don't threaten me with a good time" energy here.

The TCM announcer just said "there's no escaping Glenda Farrell tonight" which is kind of a weird way of inviting us to enjoy her movies? But, on the hand, sure, all hail our overlord Glenda! #TCMParty

Whenever I see future Oscar winner Jane Wyman in a B movie, like SMART BLONDE, I think about the big WB stars she remembered as encouraging: "Jimmy Cagney knew me and was always shouting, 'Hang in there, kid! Fight for every part!' And Kay Francis was very nice to the youngsters, as we were called."

The most memorable bit of THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS (1939) is Marsha Hunt, the tragically awkward has-been campus sweetheart, shakily lighting up a cigarette as she waits for an oncoming train to annihilate her and her pain. Feels like someone cut a noir scene into a college screwball comedy.

Lana Tuner's all-night gown from THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS reminds me of Myrna Loy's dinner party "lulu" from THE THIN MAN in that you could wear them to any event today and easily be among the best dressed. Both designed by Dolly Tree.

Lana Turner makes an entrance in a sleek black dress escorted by a goofy lookin guy in a tux; a debutant behind her is in a notably more fussy high-necked tress

Lana Turner looks happy if tentative on Lew Ayres's arm. She's seen from the waist up in the black halter gown

Lana Turner holds a hamburger at a diner with Lew Ayres. She's still wearing the backless black dress and honestly it doesn't really look out of place.

Lana Turner dancing, her skirt swirling, in front of a crowd of dudes in tuxes and much more stuffily dressed girls. Ann Rutherford looks like she's about to have an audience with Queen Victoria, poor dear.

Black dresses don't get much more timeless than this Dolly Tree design worn by Lana Turner over the course of an all-night college house party crawl in THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS (1939). The dark color and sleek lines help Turner's winsome outsider stand out from the catty debutantes in laces and frills.

THE THIN MAN cinematographer James Wong Howe (back, center) making magic that will live forever. #ThinMan #FilmSky

lmao don't tell dad I shared the family secrets