Anybody recognize the monster in the photo pinned to the door behind Elizabeth Taylor? It looks to me like some dude in either a mask or make-up featuring a skull look with fangs, plus horns or maybe antennae. My guess is that it's from an old schlocky monster movie.
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| Detail from a screenshot of the 1966 film version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
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I wondered if it might be Death from The Seventh Seal, but I can't find a still that matches.
ReplyDeleteKelvin Green: that's what I thought it was, and assumed that the 'horns' were pins holding the picture in place.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm unconvinced it is that dude.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought is that it's old Anton Lavey all dressed up for Church, but the year 1966 makes that unlikely (but still possible).
ReplyDeleteStumped.
ReplyDeleteAt 2:28 the picture is seen in this video.
It's mounted on the interior of the bedroom door of the main characters. It's not the character of Death from the movie Seventh Sign, but appears to be a person dressed as a monster, Death or the Devil.
The closest I was able to come was that the movie is drawn from Albee's play, which drew from Strindberg's Dance of Death, another play with a theme of (quoting Wikipedia) 'marriage gone diabolic' (see here.
Because the movie is about deceptions of propriety, perhaps it's a reference to the 'secret devils' in people, or their more devilish secrets?
I didn't notice anything peculiar in other photos found in other scenes...
Thanks as always for the context, Scottsz. At 0:06 of that video you've linked, to her right there's a figurine on the bureau behind her that looks like it could maybe possibly be an angel in prayer, while the horned goofball lurks on her left. Angel on her right shoulder, devil on her left; I've not seen the movie or play, but I'm guessing the scene has something to do with temptation?
DeleteDefinitely some symbols being used. There's a scene with the door photograph. Martha lowers herself onto the bed, and the photo remains in the center of the shot for a second or two.
DeleteGood hit on the statue!
I spent some time looking for other pages that mentioned the photo or other symbols in the movie, but couldn't find anything really concrete...
Not really apropos of your question, but... this movie is great! As a kid I always hated when my mom watched "old" movies. They were so boring to me and everybody acted odd and unrealistic I thought. When I finally saw this movie in my early twenties I was just blown away by Liz Taylor and Richard Burton acting all out-of-control and drunk and realized that old movies could, in fact, be cerebral and intense (not to mention arty). Yeah, I am a slow learner.
ReplyDeleteTotally unhelpful to you, Jeff, but I find it kinda neato that no one has been able to answer this yet. I sent your screenshot to a b&w horror movie freak I know and am awaiting a response, maybe he has an idea.
ReplyDeleteTotally agreein on Seventh Seal, fwiw, first thing i thought seein the post... could even be a promo photo that wasnt actually taken from the film...
ReplyDeleteAfter looking closely I've determined that it's probably not Death from "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey."
ReplyDeleteI've pondered this, but what just came to me was it looked sort of like the dude on the cover of the band The Misfits for Horror Business. Glen Danzig and the gang based it off of a movie/serial from the late 40s and early 50s called The Crimson Ghost. Some pretty close images if you do a google image search. What do you all think?
ReplyDeletedef. a Crimson Ghost resemblance but alas, it's not! My horror freak friend couldn't suss it, so he forwarded it to his even more fanatical friend.
ReplyDeleteJeff, my horror freak friends decided that they think it was created specifically for the movie.....though the premise that this could be from a movie unknown by either of them caused them a ton of consternation.
ReplyDeleteI still have nothing...
ReplyDeleteIt just HAS to be from some old B-movie.
ReplyDeleteSomething from the same studio, or maybe a film one of the actors, or more likely, the director was associated with?
Was it in the son's room in the movie? If you knopw the film, you know what state the "son" was in.
No, that's the living room, IIRC.
Delete(Also, this was the director's first film. His second was the Graduate. Not too shabby, eh?)
Drat! And the producer's previous work included a screen play for Sound of Music. No demons there, eh?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was there for subliminal effect?
It's Richard Avedon's photograph of the Danish writer Karen Blixen, best known under her pseudonym Isak Dinesen: http://www.artvalue.com/auctionresult--avedon-richard-1923-2004-usa-isak-dinesen-from-minneapolis-3050406.htm
ReplyDelete- the movie OUT OF AFRICA is about her.
Well done, Casper!
ReplyDeleteHow did you track that down?
Dang, Casper! You're awesome!
ReplyDeleteA Polemical Drama about the Meaning of American Dream Will American Future Be A Continuation of Fight For Power and Wealth Or An Alternative To Such Fight? “Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf” by M. Nichols – 1966 (Based on Edward Albee’s Play) is about a very rare capability of a person in a position of a spouse to help his/her beloved to overcome internal psychological problem that permanently disrupts the emotional balance of their relationship inside marriage. The film is also about a disturbance many marriages suffer from – when intimacy between husband and wife is in a process of being undermined by their unconscious ontological rivalry. Thirdly, the film addresses the issue of the essence of American dream. Is it mainly about our social, professional and financial achievements, about social success, or is it rather about our psychological and moral growth, about the very development of human humanistic intelligence? The central focus of “Who is afraid…” is the conflict between George (Associate Professor of History) and his wife Martha (Albee’s sweeping analogy here with George Washington and his wife Martha - makes a personal story historically and culturally meaningful and of interest to any married couple). The conflict between the spouses is inflated by Martha’s dream of having a perfect (not less than perfect) son (made even more morbid by her infertility). This dream is tied to Martha’s disappointment in her husband’s failure to achieve an exceptional career and become financially more successful. Albee analyzes the psychological and the social aspects of Martha’s dream based on what can be called her “perfect progeny complex” – the expectation from a child to boost his mother‘s self-image. Through several rhetorical devices Albee masterfully creates a psychodrama with the viewers who, while observing George and Martha‘s psychological maneuvers, experience a catharsis of their own emotional complexes resonating with Martha’s psychological predicament. The film culminates in a unique scene in American film history, when George uses sophisticated psychotherapeutic tactics of pseudo-exorcism to banish the idolatrous energies of his wife’s complex of perfect progeny. Richard Burton and Elisabeth Taylor triumphantly outstrip themselves as George and Martha in an exceptionally intense and intellectually articulate performance. Albee’s text is sharp, witty and full of versatile cultural allusions.
ReplyDeleteBy Victor Enyutin
A Polemical Drama about the Meaning of American Dream Will American Future Be A Continuation of Fight For Power and Wealth Or An Alternative To Such Fight? “Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf” by M. Nichols – 1966 (Based on Edward Albee’s Play) is about a very rare capability of a person in a position of a spouse to help his/her beloved to overcome internal psychological problem that permanently disrupts the emotional balance of their relationship inside marriage. The film is also about a disturbance many marriages suffer from – when intimacy between husband and wife is in a process of being undermined by their unconscious ontological rivalry. Thirdly, the film addresses the issue of the essence of American dream. Is it mainly about our social, professional and financial achievements, about social success, or is it rather about our psychological and moral growth, about the very development of human humanistic intelligence? The central focus of “Who is afraid…” is the conflict between George (Associate Professor of History) and his wife Martha (Albee’s sweeping analogy here with George Washington and his wife Martha - makes a personal story historically and culturally meaningful and of interest to any married couple). The conflict between the spouses is inflated by Martha’s dream of having a perfect (not less than perfect) son (made even more morbid by her infertility). This dream is tied to Martha’s disappointment in her husband’s failure to achieve an exceptional career and become financially more successful. Albee analyzes the psychological and the social aspects of Martha’s dream based on what can be called her “perfect progeny complex” – the expectation from a child to boost his mother‘s self-image. Through several rhetorical devices Albee masterfully creates a psychodrama with the viewers who, while observing George and Martha‘s psychological maneuvers, experience a catharsis of their own emotional complexes resonating with Martha’s psychological predicament. The film culminates in a unique scene in American film history, when George uses sophisticated psychotherapeutic tactics of pseudo-exorcism to banish the idolatrous energies of his wife’s complex of perfect progeny. Richard Burton and Elisabeth Taylor triumphantly outstrip themselves as George and Martha in an exceptionally intense and intellectually articulate performance. Albee’s text is sharp, witty and full of versatile cultural allusions.
ReplyDeleteBy Victor Enyutin