Links for the Day (August 26th, 2008)

1. A real treasure: an online scan of Donald Phelps' ninth issue (dated 1965) of "For Now," a 103 page tribute to and collection of the work of Manny Farber. Via Girish Shambu, who offers a heartfelt in memoriam.

["If I might wax personal for a second, Farber happened to provide a turning point for this blog. A little over two years ago, I did a post on termite art and white elephant art. In the process of writing it and in discussing Farber in the comments with others, primarily Zach, I discovered that my film-blogging interests lay not simply in films but in discourse about films: reading, writing, talking about them. For occasioning this turn in the road for the blog, among many other reasons, I'm grateful to Farber and his essay."]

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2. "'Gone With The Wind' Tarleton twin dies": From CNN.

["Fred Crane, the one-time actor whose Southern accent won him a slot as one of Scarlett O'Hara's beaux and the opening line in "Gone With the Wind," has died. Crane, who played one of the Tarleton twins in the 1939 classic, was 90. His wife, Terry Lynn Crane, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he died on Thursday of complications from diabetes. She declined to give details. The couple had lived in Barnesville, south of Atlanta, where they operated Tarleton Oaks. The bed and breakfast was named for his character in the film, Brent Tarleton. The other Tarleton twin was played by George Reeves, who later gained TV immortality as Superman."]

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3. "Dick Escapes Sexual Battery Charges": God, it's just too easy...

["Comedian Andy Dick will face a series of misdemeanour charges after escaping prosecution on counts of sexual battery following his arrest last month. The 42-year-old comedian posted $5,000 (GBP2,703) bail following his arrest in Murieta, California, on 16 July on suspicion of drug possession and sexual battery. Onlookers reported he had walked up to a 17-year-old female outside a restaurant and "grabbed her tank top and bra and pulled them down and exposed her breasts". Cops stopped Dick and friends at a nearby discount grocery store after they had driven away from the establishment in a truck. Officers who found marijuana and Xanax in Dick's pockets during a curbside search added the star was "extremely intoxicated"."]

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4. "Simple Jacks": Fernando F. Croce reviews Tropic Thunder, Frozen River, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

["The late Manny Farber's words kept flashing like a neon sign throughout Tropic Thunder: "Cartooned Hip Acting." As respectively a fading action-flick star looking to regain his blockbuster throne and a gross-out farceur angling to be taken seriously, Ben Stiller and Jack Black swell a basketful of sweaty tics and mugs into parade floats; as an Oscar-winning Aussie actor so Method that he surgically darkens his skin to portray a black guy, Robert Downey, Jr. suggests a different seminal essay by another recently deceased great writer -- Norman Mailer's "The White Negro." All pose, these guys, but conceptually it's okay since the film, directed by Stiller from a screenplay he co-wrote with David Lynch cuckoo Justin Theroux, is really about fakers winging it in the bush, from the old Nam vet with hooks for limbs to the gay rapper who has to insist he "loves da pussy!""]

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5. "Domestic Disturbances": Bilge Ebiri on the cinema of Frank and Eleanor Perry. At Moving Image Source.

["The Swimmer might be the Perrys’ best remembered film today, but it presents a difficult case for study, chiefly because it’s hard to tell where Frank Perry’s work ends and Sydney Pollack’s (and possibly even others’) begins. Perry once speculated that about 50 percent of the film wasn’t his. (We do know for a fact that scenes featuring Barbara Loden as Ned’s former lover were replaced with Janice Rule playing the part—reportedly on the recommendation of Loden’s own husband, Elia Kazan!)"]

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Quote of the Day: Robertson Davies

"The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness, and seem to find refreshment in doing so... That is a dark frivolity, but still frivolity."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): Frau Blücher is going to be dancing with the stars.



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Clip of the Day: Scarlett and the Tarletons (see #2 above).

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.