Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: Face Time - Part XVIII

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's Go To The Movies: 

Face Time

Part XVIII

That look, that face...

It's all in the face. It can be read like a book. Or so these films would have us believe. 

The silver screen has been home to so many beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) faces, lighting up the dark, showing us the way, sharing celluloid dreams. It seems only fitting that we take them at their word and look a these films one face at a time.

Yes, these faces may belong to a bygone era, but in the movies?

A face lives forever.

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 The Face On The Bar-Room Floor

(1923)

In Paris, France, famous artist Robert Stevens falls in love with Mrs. Marion Trevor and follows her to the U.S., where they plan to marry. Marion's brother, Dick Van Vleck, becomes infatuated with Lottie, who is modeling for Robert. However, Dick returns to college and abandons Lottie, who then drowns herself in the ocean. Robert is accused of betraying the girl, prompting Marion to break their engagement. In addition, he is falsely accused of theft, resulting in a two-year prison term. The artist joins several inmates in a prison break and saves the life of the state governor before escaping. Afterward, Robert lands on an island, where he prevents a shipwreck and nurses an ailing lighthouse keeper back to health. Although he receives a pardon, the despondent artist becomes a drunkard. One day, Marion and the governor enter a barroom to find Robert painting her portrait on the floor. The lovers are reconciled and find happiness together.

Adapted from the poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy, this American drama was directed by John Ford and stars Henry B. Walthall, Ruth Clifford, Ralph Emerson, Frederick Sullivan, and Alma Bennett.

Ruth Clifford

It is considered to be a lost film. 

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Face On The Barroom Floor

(1932)

Bill Bronson is a likable young bank clerk, whose congenital thirst for liquor is kept under control until he joins his wife Mary at getting blotto at a company party. From there it is a downward spiral.

This pre-Code American crime film directed by Bertram Bracken and stars Dulcie Cooper, Bramwell Fletcher and Alice Ward.

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The Three Faces of Fear

(1963)

AKA: Black Sabbath,  Il tre volti della paura

A trio of atmospheric horror tales: A woman is terrorized in her apartment by phone calls from an escaped prisoner from her past; a Russian count in the early 1800s stumbles upon a family in the countryside trying to destroy a particularly vicious line of vampires; and a 1900-era nurse who makes a fateful decision while preparing the corpse of one of her patients; an elderly medium who died during a séance.

This Italian/French horror anthology was directed by Mario Bava and stars Boris Karloff, Mark Damon, Michèle Mercier, Suzy Anderson, Lydia Alfonsi, Glauco Onorato, and Jacqueline Pierreux.

There were additional scenes filmed with Boris Karloff introducing the segments, however AIP decided they were unnecessary and cut them from the film. Karloff would later say these introductions were some of the most fun he'd ever had on a film set.

While filming, Karloff contracted pneumonia, which led to him having to rely on oxygen tanks after production ended.

There are two very different versions of the film: Bava's original Italian cut and the American International Pictures cut. In order to make the film more marketable to western audiences, AIP changed Boris Karloff's introductions, re-arranged the order of the stories, gave the film a whole new score, and even re-edited several scenes. AIP made the most substantial changes to the plot of The Telephone by removing all implications of lesbianism and prostitution, replacing them with a supernatural element.

Les Baxter's musical score for the American release of the film, 52 minutes in all, was recorded in a single day.

The segment The Telephone was the first Italian thriller to be shot in color. It is also one of the earliest examples of giallo, a mystery/horror subgenre popularized by Mario Bava's next film, Blood and Black Lace (1964).

This film was a commercial failure upon release in Italy, and performed below expectations in America.

The Globe and Mail stated that The Drop of Water and The Telephone were "a good deal more sophisticated than usual horror fare" while The Wurdulak "bears no trace of [Bava's] manner of directing" and that the acting was "rudimentary". The Boston Globe gave the film a negative review, referring to it as "three short films botched together". The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "the eeriest thing about the picture is its décor (especially the heavy, dusty interiors of [The Drop of Water]" while noting that the "acting is very unstylish and made worse by dubbing". The review also stated that Bava could "do better than this with less obvious material" and seemed "determined to spell everything out with a sudden zoom shots and shock cuts."

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

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The Devil With Seven Faces

(1971)

AKA: Il diavolo a sette facce, The Devil Has Seven Faces, 

Bloody Mary, Nights of Terror

The theft of jewels and mistaken identity complicate the life of Mary causing her to become the target of a vicious gang of criminals.

This Italian giallo/crime thriller was directed and co-written by Osvaldo Civirani and stars Carroll Baker, George Hilton, Stephen Boyd, and Luciano Pigozzi.

 
Carroll Baker plays a dual role in this film, two identical twins named Julie and Mary. Director Civirani had previously worked with Baker on 1968's The Sweet Body of Deborah.

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

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The Two Faces Of Fear

(1972)

AKA: Coartada en Disco Rojo, I Due Volti della Paura

A professor's wife falls in love with her husband's assistant. When she learns he's planning to move to another city, she does everything she can to avoid it, with no success. Soon afterwards, he's found dead, in obscure circumstances.

This Italian/Spanish crime thriller was directed by Tulio Demicheli and stars George Hilton, Fernando Rey, Luciana Paluzzi and Anita Strindberg.

David McGillivray for the Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "Apart from one taut and reasonably well played sequence in which a woman - convinced that her husband is about to murder her on the operating table - pleads for understanding as she succumbs to the anesthetic, this routine and underdeveloped thriller consists of little more than bits of badly tied wrapping." McGillivray also stated that the film had "expressionless dubbing".

 

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

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And that's all for now, folks!

Tune in next time...

Same channel, same place.

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The Devil With Seven Faces - Movie Trailer

(1971)

Tuesday Titillation: Breaking In Those Sneakers!

Tuesday Titillation: 

Breaking In Those Sneakers!

With summer right around the corner, you want to be prepared.

And to be prepared, you must have the appropriate equipment.

If you are planning on being outdoors - hiking, jogging, playing a group sport, or going solo, even sunning - then it's important you have some quality footwear.

Don't go thinking you can get by with that old pair from last season. Oh, no... those are SO last season!

You get yourself a brand new pair of sneakers. 

And before you hit the woods, the blacktop, the courts, or the pavement... you make darn sure their broken in properly.

If you need some helpful hints on how to accomplish that? Look no further!

The gentlemen below appear to know what their doing, and know a thing or two when it comes to breaking in a pair of sneakers.

Take a gander and then... go get yourself a nice new pair. Just you wait. I guarantee...

It'll feel so good sliding into 'em. 

Counting the days until the heat arrives.

I for one cannot wait...

To strut my stuff in the buff!

- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque

Sneakers - Itzy

Sneakers & Weed - Alex Parker

Acquired Tastes XLIII: Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 224 - Guild Press, Part 1 of 3

Acquired Tastes XLIII: 

Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 224

Guild Press, Part 1 of 3

Today, we take a first look at The Guild Press. The Guild Press published from 1964 to 1972.

The story of The Guild Press is actually the story of Herman Lynn Womack, and one worthy of a movie.

Herman Lynn Womack (1923–1985) was an American publisher, and the founder of  the Guild Press, a Washington, D.C., publishing house that catered almost exclusively to a gay male audience and played a major role in expanding the legal protections for gay publications against obscenity laws in the United States.

Womack began life as the son of an alcoholic tenant farmer who was incarcerated for killing his best friend. His collegiate life began at the University of Mississippi before transferring to George Washington University in D.C. There, he earned an M.A. in psychology. 

By 1946, he'd come to terms with his homosexuality, leading to the dissolve of his second marriage, which coincided with the closing of the Howell Academy, a private boarding school which Womack owned and operated but at which he was reportedly rarely present. 

He returned to academia, enrolling in a Ph.D. program in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, where he subsequently received his doctorate in 1955. After a stint as an adjunct professor of Philosophy at the George Washington University, he was hired at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but ultimately decided the academic life was not for him.

His first scrape with the law occurred about this time - a fraudulent investment scheme - from which he escaped unscathed. Fortunately for him, he'd netted a cool half a million in the process and it is this money that served for the kickstart of his publishing empire.

With his ill-gotten gains, Womack acquire a small printing plant in Washington, D.C. where he launched MANual Enterprises, an earlier incarnation of The Guild Press, which initially concentrated on physique magazines. With his acquisition of the magazine TRIM from Randolph Benson, Womack established a habit of buying up the various physique magazines he, himself, had enjoyed for many years. By 1960, he'd acquired another Benson magazine, Grecian Guild Pictorial, MANual (a Chicago physique art publication), and Fizeek.

By 1960, Guild Press became a profitable publishing enterprise under Womack's leadership as publisher and sole proprietor and was printing art and physique magazines and providing a national mail-order business.

Between 1960 and 1962, Womack and his photographers faced a number of obscenity charges, with his magazines being seized and destroyed. Eventually, Womack found himself facing eighteen months in prison. However, he avoided prison time by contriving to serve his sentence at a federal psychiatric hospital, St. Elizabeths Hospital. At the time, homosexuality was still viewed as a mental illness, and Womack, who had a degree in psychology, was able to manipulate the doctors who interviewed him to ensure an appropriate diagnosis. Womack continued to operate his business while confined to St. Elizabeths, where he had a private room, a television and a typewriter.

Womack appealed his original conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, where his case was heard. He ultimately won the case, thereby carving out greater freedoms for gay publications throughout the United States, and establishing that erotica intended for gay males was "not obscene as a matter of law".

Guild Press serving as 'middleman' 

for Private Edition books

In the aftermath of his Supreme Court victory, Womack revived the distribution of his physique magazines, which had been suspended for much of 1962, and sought to ramp up production even further, acquiring a new printing press, relocating to a larger plant, and launching new publications. It was at this time that he began publishing or republishing books. What began as a mail order business with Guild Press serving as a middleman for other publishers, became a full-fledged publishing house.

Initial books were hardcover, but by 1968, pamphlet-sized wraps (folded and stapled, rather than with a spine and bound) became the publishing house's chosen format. Imprints in this format included the GPA (Guild Press Award) series, the Black Knight Classics series, the Road House Classics series, the Twilight Classics series and the Stuart House Classics series.

He soon branched out into newsletters, newspapers, a chain of bookstores (Village Books) and even a clothing line featuring the jocks and underwear worn by models in his physique magazines. 

However, in 1970, due to charges regarding the use of underage models, Womack's empire began to crumble. Bankrupt by 1974, he moved to Boca Raton, Florida where he died in 1985.

Please note: a comprehensive list of Guild Press titles does not (yet) exist. I've done what I could gleaning information from my usual sources along with literature from Guild Press promoting various titles and special sales. 

Initially, Guild Press published hardcover novels; all the titles below are hardcover editions. However, that gradually gave way to softcover wraps (folded and held together with staples as opposed to being bound), no doubt due to cost of making and shipping hardcover books and the fact that most of the new titles being created in-house fell below the 100 pages mark. 

Currently, these hardcover books go for hundreds of dollars. I recently found a copy of Phil Andros' $tud listed for $1,400 with other titles ranging from $249-$498.

Here are the first ten Guild Press titles.

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The Soft Spot

 Author: Alexander Goodman 

Guild Press

 1964 

 

Features four original short stories.

 

This is the first Guild Press book. The initial printing had a blue cover with the stories listed on the cover. Later printings featured a red cover and a different cover illustration.

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A Sliver of Flesh

 Author: Alexander Goodman

 1965 

Guild Press

Featuring four short stories.

Mail Order Form

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A Strange Love

Author: George Eekhoud

Guild Press

 1965 

Republishing and rebranding of the 1899 French classic Escal-Vigor.

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Carnal Matters; Four Short Stories  

Author: Alexander Goodman

 1965 

Guild Press

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 $tud

Author: Phil Andros (Samuel M. Steward)

 1966  

Guild Press

Reprinted in 1969 by J. Brian in San Francisco

So, there's quite a story regarding the publication of this book. Andros and Womack hit it off over lunch and the rights to $tud were purchased. However, Womack ended up going to St. Elizabeths Hospital and the book sat in a warehouse unbound. Womack and Andros stopped talking to one another, because Andros had become very aggressive about getting his book on shelves. Eventually, Andros found a cheap paperback publisher willing to use a loophole in the contract with Womack's in order to publish the book. As that publisher's version of the book hit store shelves, Womack ordered all the unbound copies sitting in that warehouse to be bound and put on the shelves of book stores as remainders (discounted books), thus assuring that Andros would never see a penny in royalties. Needless to say, it signaled the end of their business relationship. 

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Handsome Is...

 Author: Alexander Goodman 

Guild Press

 1966 

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 Of Hot Nights and Damp Beds

 Author: J.J. (James) Proferes 

Guild Press

 1966 

This is the author's first book, a series of short stories. J. J. Proferes was owner of Washington D,C,'s Metropole Cinema. After Womack won his Supreme Court case, he delegated Proferes to serve as a proxy/business partner through whom Womack ran several of his businesses.

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Hellbound in Leather

 Author: J.J. (James) Proferes  

Guild Press

 1966

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 Mercenary Affections; Stories of the Homosexual Life

 Author: Alexander Goodman

 Guild Press

 1966

Mail Order Form

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 Navy Blues

 Author: J.J. (James) Proferes 

Guild Press

 1966

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And that's all for now.

Next up: more tantalizing titles from the Guild Press imprint.

Until then...

Thanks for reading.

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Strangelove - Depeche Mode

Wonderland Burlesque's Down The Rabbit Hole: The Swingers

Wonderland Burlesque's

Down The Rabbit Hole:

The Swingers

Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.

Today, we take a look at the music and brief history of New Zealand's The Swingers.

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From Wikipedia:

The Swingers were a New Zealand rock band who were together from 1979 to 1982.

Formed from of the remnants of the Suburban Reptiles, the founding members were Phil Judd (guitar, vocals), Wayne Stevens (bass), and Mark Hough (drums). Formed in 1979, the band released the single One Good Reason, which was a Top 20 hit in New Zealand. In 1980 the band moved to Australia and signed to Mushroom Records for distribution in that country, although their New Zealand releases remained on Ripper Records.

After some band dissension, Ian Gilroy of the Crocodiles replaced Hough on drums. The band released the single Counting the Beat, which became a #1 Hit in Australia and New Zealand. A second single released in 1981, It Ain't What You Dance, It's the Way That You Dance It, was also a Top 5 Hit in New Zealand but only a minor hit in Australia (reaching #43). An album, Practical Jokers, produced by David Tickle, was released, with the single One Track Mind snagging the #27 spot in New Zealand that same year.

The band can be seen performing songs in the film Starstruck (1982).

The band underwent a few more line-up changes, including the addition of Pop Mechanix and Coconut Rough vocalist Andrew Snoid, before splitting up in March of 1982.

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One Good Reason - The Swingers

Counting The Beat - The Swingers

It Ain't What You Dance, It's the Way That You Dance It - The Swingers

One Track Mind - The Swingers

Starstruck - The Swingers

Punch & Judy - The Swingers

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