Bombshells: Cleo Moore, the Baton Rouge Bombshell

Cleouna “Cleo” Moore was born ten miles southeast of Baton Rouge in Galvez, Louisiana, in either 1924 or 1929, depending on your sources. Moving to California in the mid-1940s, Moore starred in a few dozen films through the 1950s, often in B-movies and usually as the blonde bombshell. Known as “the Queen of the B-Movie … Continue reading Bombshells: Cleo Moore, the Baton Rouge Bombshell

Giallogy: Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll

A rare Spanish entry in the giallo genre, Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1973) begins with a drifter ex-con finding work at the remote mountain estate of three very different, yet equally eccentric sisters. Then the dead bodies start piling up around town. Beautiful, blue-eyed village women are being murdered, their eyeballs carved out … Continue reading Giallogy: Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll

A Beautiful Purple Diamond

Wherein we celebrate sexy Susie Diamond’s pulchritudinous purple miniskirt. I happen to love purple. It’s regal, eye catching, and has a certain elegance that few colors can match. It seems the costume designer in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) agrees with me, as Lisa Jensen dressed Michelle Pfeiffer as Susie Diamond in purple throughout many … Continue reading A Beautiful Purple Diamond

Lost and Found: Blue Jeans

As a glimpse into the freewheeling approach to sexual politics in 1970s Italy, Mario Imperioli’s Blue Jeans (1975) is eye opening, and not just because of stunningly sexy star Gloria Guida. The erotic-dramedy captures a moment in time, when the post-sixties sexual revolution collided head on—and groin first—with institutionally ingrained misogyny and old fashioned Italian … Continue reading Lost and Found: Blue Jeans