October
Literary Moods
by
Kristin Battestella
These
memoirs, biographies, and literary adaptations range from
delightfully macabre and witty mysteries to gossipy yarns. Here's
what to read or skip this autumn.
Must
Read
Yours
Cruelly, Elvira by Cassandra Peterson – The Queen of
Halloween's 2021 tell all book made headlines for Peterson's coming
out upon its release. However, that's only one late chapter
revelation in a fascinating life of highs and lows. Scarring
childhood injuries and an abusive relationship with her mother led to
escapism in the family's costume shop before cruising the early
groupie music scene. Despite a few early film appearances, traveling
to Italy to sing in a band leaves Peterson ill and destitute until
returning to California has her starring in The Groundlings and
living in a tree house with a Tarzan-like boyfriend. Her subsequent
marriage, haunted house, and struggles with infertility are told
alongside the creation of Elvira – with shrewd business deals,
appearances, endorsements, and merchandise retaining Peterson's
control of the character. Satanic panic backlashes, conservative
fears over her cleavage, and canceled television pilots often meant
struggling financially. Thanks to her provocative image, outspoken
attitude, and unwillingness to compromise character or convictions,
Peterson bankrolled her own films – continuing to appear as Elvira
during difficult pregnancies and her divorce. There is an entire
chapter dedicated to several sexual assaults of varying degrees in an
extremely telling commentary on how our society treats a confident
woman. In some ways, Peterson's current lesbian relationship – kept
hidden for decades for fear of alienating audiences who only cared
about her buxom image – is the least interesting aspect about her
life. A supportive friendship blossomed into romance, written as a
lovely, natural occurrence topping off an entertaining read. This
both reads like the way Peterson talks but is also a chronologically
laid out and well written, emotional journey of a woman finally at
ease in her own skin. Although I had to avoid leaving this book lying
around for my curious niece to find thanks to the topless showgirl
photos!
A
Fun Adaptation
The
Mirror Crack'd – Murder She Wrote meets Miss Marple
as Angela Lansbury leads this star studded 1980 Agatha Christie
adaptation from director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger). Classy
silver screen panache, cigarettes, and scandalous revelations provide
a fun awareness to the genre as viewers debate the whodunit clues,
motives, and left hand versus right hand weaponry. A new Hollywood
production is coming to the quaint English countryside, mixing
village airs and graces with swanky jazz, vintage autos, nostalgic
reels, and retro cameras. The hats and pearls are a flutter over
the dalliances, backhanded insults, and catty attitudes as our
jealous actresses trade plastic surgery barbs at the film party. This
may be a little slow in setting the scene with who is who, but the
film within a film rivalries and temperamental tension lead to
murder. Flashbulb pops help the maids revisit the scene of the crime
and a suspect daiquiri as Marple weasels the details from the town
doctor. Poison, heart attacks, and Tennyson references move quickly
once we're on set with Elizabeth I versus Mary Queen of Scots calling
each other bitches. Seductive actress Kim Novak (Bell, Book, and Candle) is married to producer Tony Curtis (Some Like It Hot)
and will get her way, but director Rock Hudson's (Giant)
comeback wife Elizabeth Taylor (Night Watch) expects to win
all the awards. Both leading ladies want to change history to benefit
their onscreen queen, but which was the intended victim and who had
the fatal opportunity? Threatening letters and harassing phone calls
escalate the behind the scenes facades and period piece costume
checks while our divas – “10 years ago, when I was 16...” –
layer the Hollywood commentary, backstory, and trivial British
deduction. Everybody in Hollywood is “intimate” but arsenic in
the tea, switched medicines, and acid begat more deaths. The show
must go on despite the Gene Tierney inspirations, and although the
zany movie making and droll meddling are somewhat uneven in the end,
the performances with performances remain entertaining. I want the
clothes and one can totally see how Murder She Wrote was born
here.
Better
Bios Available
Montgomery
Clift: A Biography by Michelangelo Capua – The format of
this 2002 ode to the October 17 birthday boy is odd, with a gossipy,
anecdotal tone rather than a factual recounting. Although there's
nothing necessarily unusual about the footnotes being indexed in the
back of the book rather than at the bottom of the page, the lack of
immediate citations makes this reading hear tell frustrating. For all
the book's complaints about Clift's overbearing, desperate to be well
to do mother Sunny, this also reads very much like that kind of tut
tutting old lady. Who said what and when quotes are treated as
scandalous nuggets whispered over tea, with truth or origin
unimportant compared to the trite, down low gay torment tack. Some
early theater material and photographs may be new, but the author's
voice is increasingly loose, as if he knew Clift's inner thoughts
when most of the information is borrowed from other sources with
unclear references. Whether Clift was throupled with his married
friends is passed off as confirmed – continually falling back on
Clift's tawdry sexuality and ill health while describing his trips to
exotic islands with Hispanic men claimed to be his favorite. When not
worried about which rich woman hopelessly in love with him was
influencing him on set, this repeatedly recalls Clift's drunken
antics, embarrassing dinner party routines, or his running through
the streets naked. This is a short read with the appendices padding
the page number so it maybe an easier introduction to Clift for
classic movie newcomers. However, compared to older, longer
biographies, this is completely superficial with an eye-rolling
Hollywood Babylon pitch. New information about the behind the
scenes of Clift's films is far too few and far between the garish
here.
Now
Reading: I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This by Bob Newhart
For
more movies meets literary analysis, listen to several Women InSession Book to Film episodes including:
Othello
Hamlet
Female Writers Onscreen
Frankenstein
A Christmas Carol
