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| Watching Any Good Serials? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,312 Views) | |
| mort bakaprevski | Oct 10 2009, 02:43 PM Post #1681 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Mmmmmm, HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE deals pretty frankly, in the first 3 or 4 chapters, about the dynamics that develop when a lone woman is living amidst a bunch of (horny) males. |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| andarius | Oct 10 2009, 05:26 PM Post #1682 |
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Charter Member
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Interesting - Custer's Last Stand (there's a serial) took place in a flat, grassy area - in the movies I've seen it in red rock settings with canyons, mesas, buttes and all sorts!
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| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 10 2009, 07:02 PM Post #1683 |
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Mouth Breather
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Yeah, but she's about as sexy as a file cabinet. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| mort bakaprevski | Oct 11 2009, 10:46 AM Post #1684 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Awwww, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Evelyn Brent... ever since I first saw her, when I was a tad, in HOPALONG CASSIDY RETURNS where she played the good/bad gal. Also enjoyed her as Shanghai Lil in JUNGLE JIM. And, just saw her as an evil (what else) actress in IT COULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED, BUT IT DID. Besides, that wasn't the point, anyway. I was just pointing out that the sexual dynamics in HOLT were just as obvious (if not more so) as those in FG. |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 11 2009, 11:57 AM Post #1685 |
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Mouth Breather
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I'll have to watch it again. I never noticed anything sexy, but then, I'm a little thick about that stuff, and ol' Evelyn never did anything at all for me. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| mort bakaprevski | Oct 11 2009, 12:43 PM Post #1686 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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No! No! No! No! There was nothing sexy about it. BUT, it fairly honestly displayed what was on the minds of most of the men involved... & how it ultimately divided them. Hell, being alone as they were, I don't think it woulda mattered if the female was Marjorie Main! |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
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| CliffClaven | Oct 11 2009, 04:18 PM Post #1687 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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After Flash Gordon, all serial females tended to be blanded out. Just as serial heroines were absurdly wholesome, villainesses were usually coldly businesslike -- you didn't even see the cheerful sadism that marked most male bad guys. The spider lady in the first Superman serial dressed like a nightclub vamp, but she was essentially Spock in a blond wig. Vultura in Nyoka and the Tigermen radiated a bad mood more often than evil. In The Drums of Fu Manchu, the archvillain's daughter was sanitized into an inoffensive henchwoman, unlike the juicy Myrna Loy in the Karloff film. Queens and high priestesses got to make imperious speeches, but many ended up needing the hero to bail them out, although the ruler of the Phantom Empire had the moxie to melt with her scientific civilization. Perhaps the most frustrating was Fury Shark, the villain's daughter in Captain Midnight. On the radio she was as evil and dangerous as her old man, but in the serial she was just an attractive young lady who dressed like an upscale secretary. The full extent of her evil was to grab the heroine by the wrist and shove her into a cell or something, sounding like an angry babysitter. Given that they looked like a very even match in age and weight, you lost all respect for the heroine who merely whimpered and struggled weakly. Maybe tough women were viewed as too traumatizing for little boys, along with explicit violence and any hint that anybody knew what sex was. |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 11 2009, 05:21 PM Post #1688 |
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Mouth Breather
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I dunno about all this. As to Vultura, you might want to watch the first chapter of the serial again. She was pretty darn deadly when she took a notion. And there is also Sombra, who was wicked, evil and sexy, even though she had a ridiculous father. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| rodney | Oct 11 2009, 06:15 PM Post #1689 |
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Charter Member
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The girls in Flash Gordon are super sexy. There, I said it. |
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| Black Tiger | Oct 11 2009, 07:50 PM Post #1690 |
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Charter Member
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Paul is right-on. Also Ramsey Ames in the Vigilante looked pretty hot. |
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| Sgt King | Oct 11 2009, 08:04 PM Post #1691 |
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Charter Member
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Lets not leave Phyllis Coates out in the cold. Her jungle outfit in Panther Girl Of The Kongo certainly showed off the best pair of legs in Serialdom! At least to me anyway. |
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| toddgault | Oct 12 2009, 06:39 AM Post #1692 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Walters may not have been sexy or evil in Captain Midnight, but you should see her in Shadow of Chinatown. There is a sexual aspect to the dynamics between the villains. Walters uses her sex appeal to get Charlie King to do things for her, and then is shocked when she finds out he thinks she wants him. And the way Lugosi looks at her, leaves little doubt what he wants. On the other hand the hero and heroine come off like a bickering middle aged married couple that sleep in separate rooms. |
| Todd Gault..........Serial Buff | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 12 2009, 08:40 AM Post #1693 |
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Mouth Breather
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I think Frances Gifford is plenty sexy in Jungle Girl. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| CliffClaven | Oct 12 2009, 10:16 AM Post #1694 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Another little irony. While serials had to toe the line -- wearing sensible shoes -- the B movies on the same program would often cross it. All those "dance hall hostesses" (from westerns to gangster flicks), skirt-chasing monsters, street-smart ingenues cracking wise about male intentions, supervillains planning "weddings", harems ("How dare you enter the chambers of the princess!"), negligees ("I heard a shot and ran out into the hallway . . .") and scantily-clad chorus girls running around backstage at every theater, nightclub and Victorian music hall. Maybe not precode, but definitely warmer than the serials. The MGM Tarzans, even after the arrival of Boy and more modest skins for Jane, would periodically make clear that tree branches were being shaken. When Jane made a point of introducing Tarzan as her "husband," you sort of hoped somebody would cough or wink or something. There was a great scene in one of the RKO Tarzans: Spending the night in a hut with a very attractive damsel in distress, Tarzan -- in loincloth as always -- was rather yearningly going on about how much he missed Jane. I fully expected him to send Boy out for firewood and intone, "Tarzan have needs . . . " |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Oct 12 2009, 08:08 PM Post #1695 |
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Mouth Breather
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Couldn't have said it better myself. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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6:53 AM Jul 11