For every Martin Denny , there were dozens of independent exotica musicians plying their trade, often with strange and spooky results. It is these musicians that Technicolor Paradise celebrates.
Local Features
Sex and Naps
On the surface, The Wicker Man is the story of one police constable’s attempt to scrooge up a town’s May Day revelries. Delving deeper into its waters, however, is aided by a few key texts that informed the film.
Bullitt
These days, Bullitt‘s reputation is built almost entirely on the exhilarating eleven-minute car chase. Even people who have never seen the movie have seen or heard about that scene.
Asia-Pol
Despite secret lairs and spy gadgets, Asia-pol plays things straight where other Shaw Bros. espionage efforts reveled in the most outlandish sci-fi aspects of spy films.
Screen
Diabolique: Of Harlots, Hays, and Harlow
I’m on Diabolique, writing about Jean Harlow’s lunatic psycho-sexual comedy Red-Headed Woman which, with just a tweak here and there, could have just as easily been a disturbing horror film.
Read
Diabolique: A World of Wicker
On Diabolique, I’m writing about everything to do with Emmanuelle in A World of Wicker. Part one looks at the life of the “real-life Emmanuelle,” and the infamous book attributed to her.
Listen
Exotica Noir
For every Martin Denny , there were dozens of independent exotica musicians plying their trade, often with strange and spooky results. It is these musicians that Technicolor Paradise celebrates.
Eat+Drink+Travel
Alcohol Professor: That Dandy, Randy, Brandy Alexander
On Alcohol Professor, I’m writing about the history of the Alexander. It’s a story featuring appearances by James Bond, Walter Winchell, Murder Inc, Ziegfeld chorus girls, Czar Alexander II of Russia, and a guy named Felix.
Aboard the African Queen
A day spent puttering around the coast and canals of Key Largo on board the actual boat from one of my favorite films, John Huston’s The African Queen.
