Happy 65 to Psycho

Happy 65 to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho today! Just a happy movie about fucking the perfection that is John Gavin for ninety minutes. That's all it is right? This is where you find out that I've never made it past the opening scene, haha. Can you imagine? I wonder if that person exists. If you're that person, contact me. I want to mind-meld with you. It seems like a happier, simpler existence to have. Alas! But we can pretend for this post anyway...

Good Morning, World

I checked and re-checked (and then, you know, triple-checked two more times) our John Gavin Archives here at MNPP this morning to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me, but it would appear I have never posted here on the site the two photos you see here before the break of Mr. Gavin before. I've probably tweeted them, or they made their way onto our Tumblr -- I know I have seen these photos before. O, have I. But today, on what would have been his 90th birthday, let's right this egregious! And as a bonus I'm gonna throw in, after the jump, several more shots from this blessed moment PLUS a dozen (egregiously watermarked) on-the-set photos from his perfect tremendous shirtless scene in Psycho, how about that...

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1958

My "Siri Says" series always starts and comes and goes and stops in fits and starts, but after last week's enormous 2016-a-thon -- where I named my 25 favorite movies of that absolutely fabulous year in film -- I'm feeling like pushing the rock a little further down the hill, checking off one more year in the history of cinema. So I asked Siri today to give me a number between 1 and 100 and (after several answers that we'd already done) she gave me the number "58." Which means today I'll be talking The Movies of 1958!

I've probably admitted this before in one of my other posts about the end of the 1950s but this period in movies, save a couple of bright spots, isn't especially my bag. It's all Rat Pack and technicolor Movie Musicals and bloated war epics, blah blah blah. Most of the mainstream respectable shit reduces me to groans. (Except Paul Newman, who reduces me to... different groans.) But on the sidelines there's some fun sci-fi / horror happening, and I've been known to enjoy me a sword-and-sandal picture now and again. This year introduced both Steve Reeves as Hercules and Christopher Lee as Dracula! Neither of those make my top five though...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1958

Vertigo

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on May 28th 1958 --

Invention For Destruction

(dir. Karel Zeman)

-- released on August 1958 --

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

(dir. Nathan Juran)

-- released on December 23rd 1958 --

Mon Oncle

(dir. Jacques Tati)

-- released on November 3rd 1958 --

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

(dir. Richard Brooks)

-- released on August 29th 1958 --

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Runners-up: The Fly (dir. Kurt Neumann), I Want To Live! (dir. Robert Wise), Touch of Evil (dir. Welles), Bell Book and Candle (dir. Richard Quine), The Blob (dir. Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.), Hercules (dir. Pietro Francisci), Dracula (dir. Terence Fisher), Elevator to the Gallows (dir. Luois Malle), Terror in a Texas Town (dir.Joseph H. Lewis), The Long Hot Summer (dir. Martin Ritt), A Time To Love and A Time To Die (dir. Douglas Sirk)

Never seen: South Pacific (dir. Joshua Logan), The Hidden Fortress (dir. Kurosawa), The Left Handed Gun (dir. Arthur Penn), Indiscreet (dir. Stanley Donen), The Defiant Ones (dir. Stanley Kramer), Separate Tables (dir. Delbert Mann), Damn Yankees (dir. Abbott / Donen), The Young Lions (dir. Edward Dmytryk), Bonjour Tritesse (dir. Preminger), Lonelyhearts (dir. Donehue), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (dir. Juran), The Magician (dir. Bergman)

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What are your favorite movies of 1958?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)

Ernst: You're more lovely every time I see you. 

Only this time, you look like the next time. 

Daamn that's a great pick-up line, isn't it? Now I want you to imagine it's a 26 year old John Gavin saying that shit to you, and then add a military uniform to the picture, but first here let me throw a mattress on the floor for when you faint from imagining all of that. 

I have never seen this 1958 Douglas Sirk movie before but you already knew that, because I told you that when I posted some gifs of, uhh, John Gavin taking a bath in it. I mean of course I did. But that was an entire year ago on this here occasion of John Gavin's birthday, and yet I still haven't seen this movie. It's hard to see! It doesn't stream anywhere and I always hesitate, even with these bonafides, to spend 20 bucks on DVDs for movies I haven't seen. On the other hand...

... John fucking Gavin.

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Great Moments In Movie Shelves #180

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I usually refrain from calling something a "Great Moment In Movie Shelves" unless I have already seen the movie in question -- although I do sometimes make an exception for especially striking shots in trailers -- but I'm throwing all of that out the window today because it's John Gavin's birthday and I just realized I've never seen his 1958 WWII-set movie with Douglas Sirk called A Time To Love and a Time To Die, which is unfathomable. John Gavin in uniform for Douglas Sirk, standing in front of bookshelves and taking more baths with strange men...

... what have I been doing with my life? In my defense this movie is pretty out of print and doesn't appear to be streaming anywhere, so it's one of the more difficult to come by Sirks. Have any of you seen it? I'm wondering if this should be just a priority, or A PRIORITY. 

RIP John Gavin

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Very sad to hear this! See all of our old posts 

celebrating the beauty of the Psycho star right here. 

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Stuffed Birds & Raving Things

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Friday marks the 57th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho - what are you doing to celebrate? Besides murdering some rando blonde in the shower, of course? (I mean, duh.) Me personally I'm gonna climb under my favorite wig and flip thru my Film Classics Library photo-book, and maybe go sniff the biggest white bra I can find at Target. You know, the usual weekend stuff. Speaking of it's another three-day weekend around these parts, so... bye, ya great big bunch of bra sniffers.

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Good Morning, John Gavin

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A very happy 85th birthday to the actor John Gavin of Psycho (see his shirtless scene in that film here) and Spartacus fame - yup, Gavin is still alive, somewhere out there, although he hasn't acted since he did an episode of Fantasy Island (what else) in 1981. We have posted pictures from this infamously queer scene in Spartacus before but never the video, so let's share that today in his honor.

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You should read the last couple of paragraphs in his bio on IMDb about his post-acting career - this will sound counter-intuitive since I just since you should read it, but it's astonishingly boring! He went into some boring business stuff in the 80s and has apparently been quite successful at it. He always seemed the type. The boring pretty Mad Men type, I mean. But god, so so very pretty. Go on 'n get you some immoral snails, Larry Olivier.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Psycho (1960)

Sam: Sometimes Saturday night has a lonely sound, 

you ever notice that, Lila? 

John Gavin, who yes is totally still kicking, is turning 83 today. We just asked you recently who was hotter between him and The Birds' Rod Taylor, and Mr. Gavin pounded Rod's behind. (Delectable phrasing, that.) You can see lots more of him here and here.

Which is Hotter?

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John Gavin in Psycho or Rod Taylor in The Birds?

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poll by twiigs.com

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You can see more of John Gavin in Psycho right here. (Or from other movies here and here.) I sort of cheated by using that picture of Rod that's not actually from his movie (oh that there were a scene where he's fishing in those little shorts!) but it's from the same time-frame and how could I not post that picture once I found it? I mean really. Anthony Perkins agrees with me.

This post was inspired by the fact that the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection set of blu-rays is on super-sale over at Amazon today - 105 bucks for 15 discs of classic cinema! Go buy them for all your friends (and make sure to use that link so I make some money off of it. Who me greedy? Never.)

Good Morning, World

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A little John Gavin in 1968's OSS 117 – Double Agent will perk up any morning right quick. (click to embiggen; see more here)

The 13 Whores of Halloween: Day IX

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Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), Psycho

"I'll lick the stamps."

Listen, it's just a fact of life - John Gavin asks you to give up respectable girl propriety for a lil' afternoon delight, you put on your best bullet bra and you make a go of it.

Similarly, you then cheat and lie and steal just to get some more. It's just the way it is. Notice that it's not until Marion gets outside of town, far away from the diabolical hypnosis of his spell-casting nethers, that sense begins to work its way back into her. And so she finally decides to wash the lingering stink from that spectacular specimen of man off of herself, and be a good girl again... too late, too late.

Good Morning, World

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Sir Laurence Olivier was born 105 years ago today, and what better way to appreciate that fact than to post a bunch of pictures of him and John Gavin in towels in Spartacus? In all honesty

I'm kind of hoping somebody can turn me on to Olivier here. I've never gotten him, but then I've never given him much of a chance - I've only seen him in a couple of movies (Rebecca, Spartacus, Marathon Man, and Clash of the Titans of course). If I were going to program myself an Olivier marathon that would keen me onto why he was such a celebrated thespian, synonymous with Acting for such a long time, what should I watch? I imagine his Shakespeare movies (none of which I've seen) since that's the foundation upon which Branagh clambered. I don't think I've ever seen his Wuthering Heights, either.

Yadda yadda tell me what I should see in the comments if you please, and for your efforts after the jump there are several more pictures of John Gavin and Olivier... although mainly Gavin cuz come on...

Who Wore It Best?

Marion Crane and not much else?

John Gavin in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
or Viggo in Gus Van Sant's version?

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poll by twiigs.com

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Here are more pictures to compare, contrast, study...

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7 off My Head - Horror Hunks

Earlier this week Cinematical posted a list of The 7 Hottest Chicks Of Horror which, well I don't swing that way obviously but the list seemed a little stale. I mean, Elisha freaking Cuthbert? For real? Even I know that there's a long and storied history of lovely lady exploitation going way way back in horror movies, and even though I love them both, Neve Campbell and Christina Ricci do not beat out somebody like Linnea Quigley. The few comments this list has gotten seem to indicate a general consensus of suck.

But now that I've turned the table on myself and cast myself in the role of coming up with the Seven Hottest Hunks In Horror... well this shit is tough. In general there's just less male exploitation to choose from, and the ones that are out there I've mostly already given plenty of love to in the past. Still, here goes. These are literally the first seven I thought of; I can even now think of a dozen more. I would love it if y'all sounded off in the comments with your picks!

John Gavin, Psycho

Christian Bale, American Psycho (The Gold Standard)

Bruce Campbell, the Evil Dead movies

Ryan Reynolds, Amityville Horror

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Nick Corri, A Nightmare on Elm Street - Some kind soul put his scenes onto YouTube! He just beats out Johnny Depp in his half-shirt in the same flick... Corri's tighty-whities forever!

Ryan Phillippe,
I Know What You Did Last Summer

Tom McBride, Friday the 13th: Part 2 - Out of all the slashers, the Friday series was the most generous with the cute boys - all that premarital nookie! - so there were several I could've picked for this spot in honor of the franchise's stellar record of equal-opportunity exploitation (the dude killed in the shower in Part 4; the hand-walking queer in Part 3). But McBride's wheelchair-bound Mark is a personal fave, and McBride himself had a sad story post-Friday which Billy Loves Stu documented here.
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