Trappings: The Cold And Elegant Estate Of Captain Von Trapp
This year marks the 50th anniversary of “The Sound of Music,” and tonight ABC News will run a special on the film. I come from a musical family — at least in the sense that my parents put my sister…
Shrine To Myself: The Trophy Hall Of Tom Buchanan
After posting about the Plaza Hotel’s Fitzgerald suite a couple of weeks ago, I decided to rewatch the Baz Luhrmann Gatsby adaptation. I’d only seen it once and didn’t remember much, which is never a good sign. I’d planned to…
Back Home Again With Indiana
When I was planning this site, the home of the character Indiana Jones was one of the first ideas for a post that I wrote down. So when I heard the news yesterday evening that Harrison Ford was injured in…
Tinker
Here’s a screenshot from the undersecretary’s office in the atmospheric film adaptation of John le Carre’s spy thriller “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” The time is 1973, and the office blends the modern and classic in a compelling way. It also…
Den Of Iniquity: The Loft Movie
In addition to “Mortdecai,” there’s another current movie worth mentioning. “The Loft” posits that when a bachelor pad is stripped of its function as a dwelling place and used solely as a venue for philandering, the result is the destruction of…
Johnny Be Good
Today a film opens featuring handlebar mustaches, ascots, paisley dressing gowns, chesterfields, walking sticks and aristocrats reclining on chaise lounges in country estates. Whether the film turns out to be brilliant or awful, Johnny Depp good or bad, I suggest we all…
The Rise And Fall Of The Space-Age Bachelor
Some 15 years ago I became fascinated by the midcentury phenomenon of the so-called “space-age bachelor,” whose native environment was his space-age bachelor pad. I watched every movie I could find, and when those dried up, resorted to reading academic…
Bertie Wooster’s Floor Plan
Bertie’s apartment in the celebrated BBC series “Jeeves & Wooster” blends the old and modern in a largely monochrome scheme of beige and honey tones. You may not have a gentleman’s gentleman to save you from any faux pas, but…
Elapsed Time: Rod Taylor & HG Wells’ Time Machine
When actor Rod Taylor died last week, I was in the midst of reading a short story by Georges Rodenbach called “The Time” about a man trying to synchronize a roomful of clocks and thereby his life. From the same…