The lens speaks

Cecil B. DeMille interviews celebrated photographer George Hurrell.

Broadcast on 3rd January, 1938 during the intermission of the “Lux Presents Hollywood” broadcast of “Alice Adams”, starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

Running time: 4mins 4 seconds.

 

Previously:

• 100 photographs you didn’t know were great #10: Gene Tierney

 

Can the world be as sad as it seems?

An excellent promotional video for “We are the massacre” by World’s End Girlfriend.

I’ve been listening to a lot of World’s End Girlfriend (a.k.a. Katsuhiko Maeda) lately and this video perfectly complements the beautiful track from his 4th album, “The Lie Lay Land” (2005).

More:

There’s surprisingly little of interest/substance out there but here’s a start:

• World’s End Girlfriend at Noble Records (noble-label.net)
  “Nothing will delight us more than to see your life and spirit enhanced with our music.”
• World’s End Girlfriend interview (autresdirections.net)
  A short interview from the time of the release of “The Lie Lay Land”.
• “Scorpius Circus” live (youtube.com)
  Not his most original work but worth watching to see him perform live with a full-size band.

100 photographs you didn’t know were great #10: Gene Tierney

“Gene Tierney” by George Hurrell (1944)

More:

• The Hollywood Photography of George Hurrell (hurrellphotography.com)
• George Hurrell Photos and Prints (hurrellphotos.com)
  Buy prints of Hurrell photographs, including recent prints made under Hurrel’s supervision.
• Hurrel: The Estate of George Hurrell (hurrellestate.com)
• George Hurrell Obituary (nytimes.com)
• Hurrell related books at Amazon (amazon.com)
• Gene Tierney (geocities.com)
  “Unquestionably the most beautiful woman in movie history”.
• Gene Tierney filmography (imdb.com)
• Self Portrait: Gene Tierney’s autobiography (amazon.com)
• Gene Tierney in the news (time.com)
  A small but fascinating collection of contemporary news articles about or related to Gene Tierney at the height of her celebrity.

Yes, that is a gun in my pocket

While “researching” a soon-to-come post about Jim Thompson I came across this fascinating article about the (usually uncredited) photographs used to illustrate the noir magazines of the ’30’s and ’40’s.

Great article, even better pictures.

“Film star Mae West once asked, "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?" In the case of this photograph, we can confidently say - it's a gun. There is real danger here - and not just from smoking in bed. But there's also danger in assuming too much.

So look closely at the languid young thing on the bed. She may be holding that hand mirror as if to check her lipstick - but her eyes are turned to the side, the better to see that gun being pulled.”

More:

• Pulp Pix: The Bizarre Case of Photography Noir (photographymuseum.com)

Good listening, bad attitude

If, like me, you love both audiobooks and “noir” then Aural Noir is a good starting point. Despite their determination to use the word “podcast” in every review (when describing any MP3 file) and their update schedule being a little infrequent (as I write this, it’s almost three weeks since their last update) they are still well worth a visit.

Aural Noir (auralnoir.com) Now defunct.

More:

• Noir Cast (noircast.net)
  Noir related “podcasts”