The steamy private life of the seismically successful Cinemascope stud How tall was Rock Hudson? The answer seems to be ‘it depends’. Wikipedia and others give his height as 6’4”, which seems to be his ‘official’, ‘studio’ height. But some sources give his height as 6’51/2”, and in the 1959 screwball,… Read More »Rock (of Gibraltar on the) Hudson
Set in an upmarket West London health club with ‘central heating and wall-to-wall fitted carpets’, this captivating Pathe newsreel time capsule from 1966 reveals an era when sportswear hasn’t been invented yet – so the guys are doing their exercises on the absorbent-looking shag in their undercrackers and vests. Or… Read More »The Keep Fit Craze
My (highly attenuated) attention was recently directed to an LWT doc from 1981 available on YouTube . It compares the pre-war, pre-gay world of ‘sisters’ (‘musical’ friends you didn’t want to fuck) and ‘trade’ (‘normal’ working class ‘real’ men you really did), with the post-Stonewall, butched-up, Marlborough Man world of… Read More »Back to the Future: Escaping Sexology
JD: “Kiss me” PN: “Not here!” Touching how shy and excited Paul Newman appears in this screen test for East of Eden – and how he tries to cover it up with boyish bravado. He also easily outshines Dean in looks – and totally eclipses him in stature. But perhaps not… Read More »Paul Newman & James Dean on 1950s Broke Straight Guys
What’s your favourite scene in Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Bill Murray and Martin Landau’s best movie? (I’ve written an appreciation of Ed Wood for the new online arts mag Culture Kicks.) Here’s mine.