Minneapolis - Great moments in movie history

RSS Feeds

National Features >

Miami New Times
Pimp Daddy
The rise and fall of a chubby sex-cult leader.
By Natalie O'Neill
Riverfront Times
Babe 'n' Arms
Tom was a hot-tempered cross-dresser with a garage full of guns--and then he became Rachel.
By Nicholas Phillips
Dallas Observer
The Fight for Texas
Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a battle over the soul of the GOP. They're also running for governor.
By Sam Merten

Great moments in movie history

It's a double feature of clips that could be called pioneers of the music video, directed by two of the movies' all-time greats.

The first is "Drum Boogie" from Ball of Fire (1941), directed by the immortal Howard Hawks. Barbara Stanwyck is lust-alicious singer Sugarpuss O'Shea, and the bandleader is WWII-era superstar drummer Gene Krupa. The first half is amazing-- big-band rock-and-roll, really-- but it's the hushed second half that stuns, when you realize Krupa really is playing with matchsticks.

A couple decades later, a movie could get away with more than just the name "Sugarpuss," but even so, Erica Gavin's "fish dance" from Russ Meyer's Vixen! really pushed it. Today, it would be rated PG, at the most, but it was eye-popping in its day, and even now some of you might not want to watch it at work. Let's just say that the symbolism is blatant. (And note the Shatner-ish guy who's loving every smelly moment.)