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writers gone wild!
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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 17 | September 1996
features
What a Way to Go! How Hollywood Learned to Start Worrying and Fear the Bomb — Who'd have dreamed that the 1960s were as dumb as the 1990s? And that Shirley MacLaine was the transitional figure between the serious 1950s and the brainless decade that followed?
The Church of Camp: A Brief History of San Francisco's Castro Theatre — Every religion needs a church, and camp followers have worshipped regularly at San Francisco's Castro Theatre for two decades
Slapstick Realist: The Cinema of Paul Morrissey — Junkies, queens, washed-up B-movie hags — these are the scintillating “family values” advocates that campmeister and right-wing Republican Morrissey serves up.
Synthetic Pleasures — After seeing this film that features everything from body and mind modifications to cryogenics to the fresh hell of cyberspace, you may want to go eat some dirt.
in praise of Stan Laurel — with side visits to Oliver Hardy and Charlie Chaplin
Stealing the Clown's Clothes: Laurel's Relationship with Chaplin — Chaplin's most famous "creation" was his little tramp — but Stan Laurel did it first, as Chaplin knew all too well.
Eternal Child: The Many Meanings of a Mask — Laurel's mask — the goofy, sweet-natured grown-up child — had its roots in the classic commedia dell'arte.
Ollie's Somersault — Ollie does the impossible for his pal
new
morals for old — the pleasures
of pre-Code
Fuck Housework! The Bad Girls of M-G-M, 1932 — Harlow, Bankhead, yes, even patrician, cross-eyed Norma Shearer “strayed” before the Hays Code ended their fun.
Public Enemy: Warner Bros. in the Pre-Code Era — Nobody “did” the Depression, or sexual excess, or populist uprisings, better than the Brothers Warner.
interview
Angel in Exile: An Interview with Silent Movie Pioneer Allan Dwan, December 1980 — Fairbanks, Shirley Temple, Ronald Reagan, all the "pansies and poseurs of Hollywood" — no one was safe from the cruel barbs of the Great Auteur!
homo corner
Gay Cuba: Beating the Bully — The bully — the U.S., of course, not Castro — will eventually come to its senses and leave this little island and its vital citizens alone.
The Queen — This grimy, exciting artifact from the '60s shows how important beauty contests were to the queens who ruthlessly — and kind of sadly — mimicked their straight counterparts.
Tender Fictions — Barbara Hammer continues the groundbreaking investigations into gender that started with Nitrate Kisses — this time using autobiography to tell her truths.
"An Oasis of Glamor in a Universe of Mediocrity": Vegas in Space — John Waters, Zsa Zsa Gabor, The Bad Seed, Supermarionation — the late Doris Fish trawled through the lowest depths of culture for her homemade camp fairy tale.
recent film
Half-Human, Half Garbage Disposal: The Island of Dr. Moreau — See Val Kilmer feed psychedelic mushrooms to the crazed beast-people! See Aissa's forbidden jungle dance! See the terrible white monster who lumbers across the sets in pancake makeup and Bea Arthur's old caftans!
Letting Jackie Be Jackie: Supercop — Jackie's almost eclipsed — almost — by the great Michelle Khan. Watch out for that building!
a classic revisited
Seven Samurai — This epic set in the 16th century deals with war, honor, courage, and yes, that homo subtext ever present in male bonding movies — punctuated by Toshiro Mifune's enthralling butt-baring performance!
