Paulette Goddard

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

July 22, 2016 by Robert J. Avrech 19 Comments

“My face has been my misfortune… a mask I cannot remove. I must live with it. I curse it.” —Hedy Lamar born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (1914 – 2000). — “My face has been my misfortune, a mask I cannot remove. I must live with it. I curse it.”
—Hedy Lamar b. Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (1914 – 2000)

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

June 26, 2015 by Robert J. Avrech 12 Comments

“You know what you can do with this.” -Myrna Loy to her movie studio when they sent her a letter reprimanding her for speaking out on behalf of German Jews. Her activism resulted in a loss of revenue for the studio when Hitler banned Loy’s movies in Germany. — “You know what you can do with this.”
—Myrna Loy to MGM when they sent her a letter reprimanding her for speaking out on behalf of German Jews. Her call against Jew-hatred resulted in a loss of revenue for the studio when Hitler banned Loy’s movies in Germany.

Friday Photos: Just Photos

April 24, 2015 by Robert J. Avrech 12 Comments

Admit it, when you think of betty Grable you are thinking: legs. But Eugene-Robert Richee's 1930s portrait of Grable goes beyond the obvious. — Admit it, when you think Betty Grable you are thinking legs. But Eugene-Robert Richee’s 1930s portrait of Grable goes beyond the obvious.

No commentary today.

No rants about politics and culture.

I am drained.

Here are some random pictures that will, hopefully, enliven a darkling plain.

Friday Photos: Islam Denial Edition

February 20, 2015 by Robert J. Avrech 10 Comments

A Jewish man walks the streets of Jerusalem, 1920s. — A Jewish man with his tallis, prayer shawl, Jerusalem, 1920s.

The verbal gymnastics of the Obama administration have reached a level of weirdness that defies common sense. The targeted murder of Jews has been redefined as a “random act.” It is easy to make fun of Obama’s abuse of language, but really, we must ask ourselves, what is the political purpose of his stubborn (h/t Bookworm Room for the phrase) Islam Denial?

Seraphic Secret thinks it’s self-evident. It is imperative to deny that Jews are specifically targeted for death by transnational IslamoNazis. Because then Obama gets to make a hollow deal that will leave genocidal-yearning Iran as a threshold nuclear state.

This is foreign policy as crafted by the Jeremiah Wright’s of Obama’s world.

Make no mistake about it, the Islam Denial that infects Obama and the chattering classes of Europe is a death sentence for the West.

There is no country on the face of the earth that is dominated by Islam — radical or otherwise — that is a decent and functional society. All Islamic lands are oppressive tyrannies, swamps of intolerance where minority religions are persecuted, where women are murdered for so-called crimes of honor, where homosexuals are cruelly persecuted, and where history comes to die.

On that happy note, a few photos to brighten your weekend.

The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s: ’44-’46

December 8, 2011 by Robert J. Avrech 9 Comments

We continue our series of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade. Last week we listed the first Ten Greatest Movies of the 1940’s. Our list continues with the next five great movies.

11. Double Indemnity, 1944. Once again, a Barbara Stanwyck performance that is nothing less than perfection. This time Stanwyck plays bad blond Phyllis Dietrichson, a hard-boiled tramp—her gold anklet speaks volumes—who wants her husband dead. Fred MacMurray is the cynical insurance salesman who steps libido-first into Dietrichson’s web of deceit. This is the movie that sets the standard for Film Noir, that most influential genre.