The monster at the end of this book, I am.

The Beatle Movies That Never Happened

Talks a lot about the Joe Orton script Up Against It.

Eventually, according to Philip Norman in Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation (New York: Fireside, 1981), “a script was commissioned from Joe Orton, the young, working-class dramatist whose macabre comedies, Loot and Entertaining Mr. Sloane, had each been huge West End successes” (278). Orton fashioned Shades of a Personality into Up Against It by taking the original premise and combining it with his earlier (The Silver Bucket) and current projects (The Vision of Gombold Proval). The script, as described by Orton himself in The Beatles at the Movies, contained “political assassination, guerrilla warfare, and tranvestism” and called for the Beatles to “have been caught in-flagrant, become involved in dubious political activity, dressed as women, committed murder, been put in prison, and committed adultery” (133). Orton completed his script at the end of February 1967. It was returned in early April without explanation.

It is easy to understand why Orton’s script was rejected. The Beatles’ public image was still under the dogged control of Brian Epstein and Up Against It would definitely have hurt that image. Paul McCartney, according to Carr, was more candid with the reason the Beatles rejected the script: “The reason why we didn’t do Up Against It wasn’t because it was too far out or anything like that. We didn’t do it because it was gay. We weren’t gay and really that was all there was to it. It was quite simple, really. Brian was gay, and so he and the gay crowd could appreciate it. Now, it wasn’t that we were anti-gay—just that we, The Beatles, weren’t gay” (135). However, if the Beatles were indeed interested in completely shedding their mop-top image, then perhaps a project such as this would have been perfect.

It is more likely that they merely had had enough of making movies and wanted to focus on their personal lives as well as their music. It was during this time that the Yellow Submarine animated project found momentum. This was a project the Beatles had initially agreed to believing it would fulfill their contractual obligation to United Artists. When it turned out that it would not, the Beatles lost interest in the film. But the negative reaction to the self-made Magical Mystery Tour and the positive press Yellow Submarine was garnering quickly won them over (it would seem that the Beatles were as image conscious as their manager was). Ultimately, the third film owed to United Artists would have to wait another two years. The story of Up Against It ended tragically when it was discovered that Kenneth Halliwell, Orton’s lover, had savagely murdered the young playwright and then killed himself. In a bizarre twist of fate, Brian Epstein died nine days later and the search for a third Beatles’ film project effectively ended.

9 looks fantastic, but I do agree that the story doesn't quite live up to the visuals. It's a decent yarn, but I was hoping for a little more, I guess. I would still put it in the Fresh category, though.

I'm doing a little write-up on Greta Garbo and have been doing some research.

Can you guess how old she is in this picture? (That's a candid, btw, with minimal makeup and no fancy lighting.)

Answer: 50!

Side note: She was a shrewd businesswoman and invested heavily in real estate in the 30s, owning a good chunk of Rodeo Drive. Her estate was worth $20 million when she died. She left it all to her niece.

Also: Louise Brooks (who had a brief fling with her) said Garbo was a totally masculine dyke, and a very charming and tender lover.

Speaking of 1930's movie stars who invested in real estate, the building I lived in a few years back, in Oak Park, IL, was said to have been owned by Sonja Henie back in the 1950s. In doing some research into this, the only thing I could figure out is that the man who ran her ice skating show at that time was Arthur Wirtz, a real estate agent who got into sports venues and shows (his son owned the Black Hawks). So, it's definitely a possibility!

Saw District 9 yesterday. Meh. The effects were beyond incredible, but the story made no sense.

Well, no sense might be over-stating. There was....when they...the...ummm....

I thought it was anvilicious, although T thinks that it was playing to the level of the general audience, and he may well be right.

The director wants to make a sequel. Of course, he has no plot ideas, but if people want more, he'd be happy to give it. How you end that process with no plot ideas for a sequel is beyond me, but there you have it.

For Jilli: Twisted Princesses.

For Jilli: Twisted Princesses.

Ooooh. Why yes, I like those muchly.

David, did you get to her humiliating fling with Marlene yet? Poor Garbo was young and unsophisticated at the time.

There exist gorgeous candids of Garbo shirtless in shorts.