Trying To Kick This Persistent Cough - With Movies

I've been pulling back a bit, not staying out so late, sleeping more than I would care to, all in the effort to finally rid myself of this cough that settled into my chest on May 11th. Sometimes Sparky and I will keep each other awake all night long with our dueling coughs.

So, I've been watching a lot more older movies on DVD. Actually I don't remember ever having seen these, but I'm not sure if it's because I never saw them, or if my memory is so fragile that it can't hold the memory well. Maybe memory has a half-life after all:

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: What a delightful musical! Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe perform in this 1953 movie, with Monroe's stellar "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" as a timeless and classic result. Jack Cole, the fellow who developed Monroe's trademark hip sway walk, was the choreographer for this marvelous show. (It's important to remember that even something like Monroe's walk had to be created, and that it wasn't second nature, and that Monroe wasn't even the one to credit for it).

Caligula: Possessed of more money and ambition than sense, Penthouse's Bob Guccione bought some of the best acting talent available in the world to make either the most dramatic porn movie ever, or the most pornographic drama ever, with this 1979 movie showing the degeneration of the Julio-Claudian line of Roman emperors. The trouble is, porn is porn, and drama is drama, and they don't really mix. Porn exists in a free-floating world divorced from time, but drama hinges on plot and character development. For example, vengeance would be a useful theme in a drama, but vengeful porn is a non-starter for most. Apart from some marvellous character studies provided by the superb actors, the only character who seems to move well between the two worlds is Teresa Ann Savoy, who as Caligula's corrupt sister Drusilla, nevertheless manages to never lose her head, even as everyone around her was losing theirs. The television series "I, Claudius" is a much better drama about the degenerate Julio-Claudian line of emperors, partly because there is no porn in it, but mostly because everyone concerned with the project, from Robert Graves on down, never forgets that the theme of the drama is the corruption of power.