Sjätte skottet (“The Sixth Shot”) is a 1943 Swedish movie about a woman who happens upon a man about to take his life and talks him out of it. He has only one talent, he’s a terrific sharpshooter, and together they form an act where he shoots a gun at her, knife thrower style.

There’s lots of drama and suspense and I thought it was a great and original picture. With the carnival setting and dark tone it reminded me a bit of Nightmare Alley.

The starring actors are Edvin Adolphson and Karin Ekelund, and two important supporting parts are played by Nils Lundell and a beautiful young Gunn Wållgren.

Read more »

I’ve finally arrived at my last issue of Filmjournalen, and it’s an extra thick Holiday issue.

Read more »

I’ve recently realised that for being such an old movie nerd I’ve seen embarrassingly few old Swedish movies. To remedy this I have started recording most Swedish movies made before the mid 60s. So far, Vår herre tar semester from 1947 is one of my favourites.

It ‘s a comedy about a young sculptor who tries to kill himself, but neither hell nor heaven wants him since he’s not quite good or bad enough, so they decide to just let him live instead. But to keep him from committing suicide again they have to give him something to live for, a girl. They arrange for him to come across a girl who needs a marriage of convenience to keep her job, but identities are mistaken and funny situations happen. It stars Curt Masreliez and Barbro Ribbing.

There are lots of great outfits, so here are a bunch of screen caps!

Read more »

I love horror movies but I’m very particular about which ones I like. They need to be entertainingly scary. I don’t want to watch too much gross out gore, humiliation or generally emotionally scarring things. I also prefer some kind of supernatural element, I tend to find straightforward slasher movies a bit boring.

These are some of my favourite horror movies. It’s not a definitive list, just the ones on the top of my mind at the moment.

Read more »

Ziegfeld Follies is one of my favourite movies, and one of the most opulent technicolor musicals of the 40s. The “story” is that Ziegfeld is putting on one last Follies from heaven, and the entire movie is just a cavalcade of amazing show numbers with absolutely no plot. The comedy skits don’t interest me (except “Number Please” which is pretty funny) but the rest is heavenly.

Read more »

I’ve known for a while that Debbie Reynolds was going to auction off her huge collection of Hollywood costumes and memorabilia, but now there’s a catalog! It’s absolutely amazing and contains some of the most famous costumes of all time, and it’s free to download.

Also in the catalog you can read about an upcoming exhibition at the V&A, Style and Seduction: The Art of Hollywood Costume Design, which will hopefully feature some of the costumes from the catalog. It will start October 20, 2012, and I’ll definitely be there!

(Via: J. B. Taylor)

I recently found Filmarkivet through Miriam’s blog. It’s an online database of Swedish short films, commercials and other shorter film clips. Most of the films are in Swedish of course, but the website is available in English. Above is Anita Ekberg visiting her family in Sweden, among other news clips (click the picture to see the film). Below are a few more of my favourites.

Read more »

The Dolly Sisters is probably in the top three most beautiful movies I have seen. The story isn’t really anything special but it’s perfectly over the top glamorous with fantastic show numbers. My favourite part of the movie is the “vanity case” number, probably one of the most beautiful things ever. You can watch the scene on Youtube actually.

See more screen caps! »

I haven’t shown any movie screencaps in ages but now it’s time again!

Earth Girls are Easy is seriously one of my most favourite movies ever. It’s about a manicurist played by Geena Davis (who I love) and three aliens that crash their ship in her pool. She works at a salon with the best name ever, Curl Up and Dye, and her best friend, played by Julie Brown (who by the way must have one of the most perfect bodies ever), gives the aliens human makeovers.

This movie has everything, great music including the B-52s and Depeche Mode, makeover scenes, a crazy dream sequence featuring scenes from Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la bête, and last but not least an insanely sexy Jeff Goldblum with a magic “love touch”. And it’s really really funny.

I remember watching it with my dad as a kid and always remembered the title and the furry aliens and that Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum were in it. I looked it up again one or two years ago and I’m really glad I did. I just want it to go on forever and when it’s over I want to watch it again! It makes me want to live in the Valley in the 80s and be friends with Julie Brown.

See tons of screencaps! »