Horror Movies and Style

My favorite holiday of the year is this Saturday so I thought it would be an opportune time to visit a few of my favorite horror movies. According to the box office, most filmgoers would list Halloween (1-5), Hostel (1-2) or perhaps Saw (1-6) for sheer terror, blood and gore. For iconic moments in style (and something you don't equate with horror movies), these films would get my vote:

The Shining (1980): The highly stylized sets for the Overlook Hotel were the largest built in England. Director Stanley Kubrick and production designer Roy Walker modeled the men's room after one in the Biltmore in Phoenix and the Colorado lounge identical to the Ahwanee in Yosemite Valley. The magnificent hedge maze in the final scene was actually branches woven on chicken wire stuck in plywood boxes.

Rosemary's Baby (1968): I attended a party at the Dakota some twenty years after the filming and still could not shake the ghosts of the film even though the exterior of the building was only used. Known as the Bramford in the film, the building is as eerie as the story itself.

John Cassavettes, Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon

The Dakota on West 72nd Street

The film was also noteworthy in creating Mia Farrow's iconic pixie haircut, a classic coif of the sixties designed by Vidal Sassoon.

Sassoon and Farrow on set

Dracula (1931): Accept no imitiations (and many have tried), the original Dracula is the best. From the grainy crackling film, the atmospheric fog and Lugosi's hypnotic stare, this is true horror. And from the spider web filled castle of Transylvania to a London apartment (why do these women always leave the window open?), the sets are wonderful. Even Lugosi looks dapper in his cape -- and rumored to have been buried in it.

Transylvania set on the Universal lot

The Exorcist (973): If you have ever visited Georgetown and seen the famous steps on M Street, it's hard to shake the image from the film. The "McNeil" townhouse on 3600 Prospect Street where little Regan created havoc and stained the carpet with pea green soup is seen below.The interiors were actually shot in a studio and the bedroom scenes filmed in the basement of Fordham University.

Exterior for the McNeil House

The Birds (1963): Tippi Hedren never looked better despite the physical and mental wear and tear. (Hitchcock used actual seagulls trained to attack the actress, making the terror all the more real). Special effects and animated birds mixed with live ones were used against a backdrop of Albert Whitlock's (no relation!) matte paintings for many scenes and the technical feats were the real stars of the film.

Tippi Hedren and friend

Hitch on Set

Happy Halloween!

Header photo is Elsa Manchester in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Photo Credits: Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers and Paramount.

Color, Cinema Style

As with film design, color can instantly create a mood and evoke images ranging from happiness to drama. It is used to portray a character, serve as imagery (whenever you see orange/red in The Godfather, look for a murder to follow) or set the overall tone of the film.

Perhaps one of the main questions posed to any set decorator about a film set they have decorated is “what color paint did you use?” And inevitably I get the same question every time I write an article on film interiors. So here are a few of my favorite film sets and paint colors I would select:

Gosford Park /Age of Innocence/Pride and Prejudice: From cerise to crimson, red is a popular color in period interiors and a natural backdrop for almost every historical a.k.a. period a.k.a. costume drama on the screen. (Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice is seen above)

Panoramic shot of The Netherfield from Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Red played a dominant theme in Robert Altman's Gosford Park

A lipstick red was used as both a costume and accent color as well as design scheme for The Age of Innocence (1993). Seen here is Michelle Pfeiffer as Countess Olenska.

and a few coordinating paint colors...

Pratt and Lambert Vintage Claret and Deep Cerise

Valspar Premium Ultra Classic Red

Behr Licorice Stick SG-170

Ralph Lauren Paints Duke Red
Benjamin Moore Holly Berry, Ladybug and Currant Reds

Gone With the Wind (1939): Period appropriate historical colors abound for the interiors of both Tara and Twelve Oaks:

Pratt and Lambert's aptly named Scarlet O'Hara

Benjamin Moore's Historical Colors

Top Hat (1935): The film is a study in black and white contrast with shiny high gloss metallic surfaces and these paint colors would be right at home:

Ralph Lauren Metallica - Wadsworth Grey

Sherwin Williams Whitetail and Darkroom

Porter Paints Silver Feather

Photo Credits: RKO, USA Films, Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and MGM

More next week!

The Cinema as Muse: Then and Now

The late Art Director Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960) and Founder and President of J. Robert Scott Sally Sirkin Lewis no doubt are kindred spirits and would have had much in common had the two met.

Both were (and are) extraordinarily accomplished. Both favor clean, uncluttered contemporary lines and hand-polished lacquer finishes in their work. And the two designers have had a major impact on their industries -- Gibbons is credited with a record 1500 films during a 30 plus year tenure at MGM while Lewis has been awarded 150 U.S. and British patents for her innovative textile and furniture designs.

Gibbons even designed the coveted Oscar statuette (he was nominated 39 times and winner of 11) while Lewis' upholstered designs with a dressmaker's attention to detail put home couture on the map. He is said to have driven to the studio in his Dusenburg every day clad in top hat and gloves while she was the driving force behind the concept of California Design.

From a body of work ranging from Grand Hotel (1932) to Kismet (1955), Gibbons' aesthetic is seen on every MGM set, prop, costume and even the logo during his reign as supervising art director. He preferred all white rooms steeped in luxury and draped in fantasy and moviegoers loved it.

Gibbons in his Art Deco home with actress/wife Delores Del Rio

The Night Is Young (1935 )

Gibbon's Art Deco designs for The Merry Widow (1934) won him an Oscar nomination

Oscar winning fantasy sets for An American in Paris (1951)

Gibbons would have loved J. Robert Scott's collection of furnishings with exotic veneers (such as shagreen, snake and goatskin parchment) and 22-carat gold finishes and would have had a field day browsing through the hand-woven silks, mohairs and velvets.

Many of these furnishings would fit right at home on an MGM set as well as modern interiors of today...

The Medallion Daybed

The Le Ronde Bed

The Escargot stool

Susie Slipper Chair

Pleats Mirror and Darby Chaise

For more on Gibbons, see Twenties Cinema Style on The Kiss, The Single Standard and The Wonder of Women. For more on J. Robert Scott and Sally Sirkin Lewis, visit their website.

Photo credits: J. Robert Scott, MGM

The Ultimate Map: The Best Films of All Time

While the cinema has been profiled, categorized, divided, highlighted and chronicled in a variety of "best of " lists, this by far is one of the most ingenious and creative I have seen.

It lists the best films of all time on a map that looks like the New York subway. Developed by the French film site Vodkaster, films were chosen based on their popularity on the Internet Movie Datebase (IMDB) and broken down by genres and subtopics from "Dark and Weird Drama" to "Masterpiece about Show Business." So based on your interests, you can go from The Wizard of Oz, take a crosstown transfer at Stand by Me and end up at Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Sounds alot more exciting than the #4 Lexington Avenue Line at rush hour. (Strangely I didn't see The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 listed).

(For more on the map click the Vodkaster link above).

Many thanks to Tricia Lewis for locating this on Fast Company.

Twenties Cinema Style

I spent the past Friday morning at one of my favorite and familiar LA haunts, the Margaret Herrick Library (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) which is a treasure trove of documents, stills, books, drawings and letters of everything imaginable from the cinema. (I am in the process of putting the final photo submissions to bed for my film book to be released next year).

My research led me to some incredible images from sets in the twenties filled with Mediterranean, Turkish and Art Deco influences. (Perhaps one of my favorite designs is the picture perfect Pleasure Crazed (1929) shown above). While film design was certainly in its infancy, it was an exciting time where art met technology, Art Deco fused into Modernism and the most stylish films were aimed at stories about the rich and famous --anything to take the Depression off the minds of the moviegoing audience.

Arches, ornate ironwork, symmetry, gloss and the inimitable Greta Garbo seemed to be the order of the day....

Cobra (1925)

Garbo in The Kiss (1929)

Greta Garbo appeared in several highly stylized films such as A Woman of Affairs and The Kiss. Designed by Cedric Gibbons, The Kiss introduced moviegoers to Art Deco. While not adaptable to every American household in real life, it was a popular film decor.

The Kiss (1929)

Thief of Bagdad (1924)

The big budget extravaganza was introduced in the twenties and you can see the effects designs from the fantastical Thief of Bagdad with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had on other film interiors of the day.

The Wonder of Women (1929) also designed by Cedric Gibbons

A Woman of Affairs (1928) above and below

Check Turner Movie Classics for these films or you might get lucky on Blockbuster.

Photo Credits: Fox, MGM, Margaret Herrick, Paramount Pictures

Dinner at Eight

Eleven shades of white?

That is the exact number of shades used by art directors Hobe Erwin and Frederic Hope for MGM's film Dinner at Eight (1933). One of the first true films to chronicle the art of social climbing, director George Cukor cast John Barrymore as a washed up matinee idol, real-life brother Lionel as a shipping magnate trying to save his family's firm while his wife Millicent tries to throw the ultimate dinner party. Set against the Manhattan backdrop of a looming Depression, Jean Harlow (as a social climbing bimbo) lounges in bed, eats bon bons and along with the designs, steals the film in every scene she appears.

The thirties sets were significant as it marked a time in Hollywood film design known as the BWS - Big White Set. Also coined the "polar bear" or "white telephone look", white was the dominant color. The original design is credited to the Astaire-Rogers musicals where angles, glossy reflective surfaces and Streamline Moderne was the order of the day. The look was also the result of the development of incandescent lighting -- the use of stark white would have blinded the viewer otherwise.

The Platinum Goddess a.k.a. "High Priestess of White"

Harlow's Manhattan apartment utilized elements of art deco while playing up her trademark assets - platinum hair and white powdered skin. Costume designers clothed her in white satin gowns (the gown above was known as the Jean Harlow Dress) while cinematographer William Daniels used gauze on the lens to film the iconic star. It's been said the MGM chief Louis B. Mayer did not want Harlow for the part and had to be convinced she was a comedienne.

While the film is considered a romantic comedy, it was a telling tale of the times. Based on George Kaufman's hit Broadway play, it also dealt with suicide, financial ruin and alcoholism. Dinner at Eight received the Film Circle honor of being one of the best films of l934.

The Cast

The film was later remade into a "made for television" movie in l989 starring Marsha Mason, Harry Hamlin and Lauren Bacall. But like everything in life, nothing beats the original.

One of several designs for the movie poster and dvd

Photo Credits: MGM