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Farran Smith Nehme

@selfstyledsiren.bsky.social

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Film critic; NSFC, NYFCC. Bylines at Criterion, Sight & Sound, Noir City, my own Substack, and wherever fine film geeks are found. https://selfstyledsiren.substack.com/

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Farran Smith Nehme·Jan 16

I've been dying to tell people I wrote the essay for TROUBLE IN PARADISE, a true Lubitsch masterpiece, and now I can. It's hilarious, it's gorgeous, there's nothing like it, and spending time with Trouble last year soothed my soul. www.criterion.com/films/723-tr....

New cover for Criterion's 4K edition of TROUBLE IN PARADISE features a charming new cover by Simone Massoni
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Farran Smith Nehme·Aug 23

Happy 95th birthday to Vera Miles! Splendidly versatile actress who could play insanity for Alfred Hitchcock just as well as she did homespun stability for John Ford. Retired for many years, she is one of our last living connections to them both.

Vera Miles posed standing in a black, ankle-length halter dress and mid-length black gloves.
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Farran Smith Nehme·Aug 16

In honor of her 92nd birthday, my favorite photo of Julie Newmar. Many, many happy returns to her.

Julie Newmar, with a blonde short crop, in a strapless black lace bustier bodysuit, fine-weave black fishnet stockings, and black stiletto pumps, poses in front of a scarecrow in a cornfield, with her left leg magnificently stretched out as she pulls back a baseball bat, ready to hit the ball out of the park. I never looked it up but this is pretty obviously a publicity shot for DAMN YANKEES.
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Farran Smith Nehme·Sep 16

A giant has left us. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/m...

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Farran Smith Nehme·2d

A striking fan-magazine portrait of actress Dorothy Mackaill, 1923. She was #BornThisDay in 1903, in Kingston upon Hull, U.K. Much of her silent work is lost, but SAFE IN HELL (1931) is brilliant and easy to find.

Photo has the yellowed old-paper tint. Mackaill's hair is down, she is looking at the camera and holding what appears to be a silk shawl around her shoulders (and not much else)
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Farran Smith Nehme·3d

"Politcs? Hah! You couldn't get into politics!" My all-time Jean Harlow moment in DINNER AT EIGHT isn't her closing exchange with Marie Dressler; it's the knock-down-drag-out marital scrap where she wipes the floor with Wallace Beery. The great Harlow was #BornThisDay in 1911 in Kansas City, Mo.

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Farran Smith Nehme·4d

Oh come ON. If that's "preventative" what the hell is "severe skin condition" supposed to look like? Also, GTFO with calling that spot "reddish" in the article, try "fiery oozing mess"

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Farran Smith Nehme·6d

"I went to jail for 11 days for disturbing the peace. I was trying to disturb the war." —Joan Baez, 1967. She had been arrested, with 123 others, for blocking the entrance to an Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California. (photo is undated AFAIK; #Caturday)

Joan Baez, hair long and wearing a velvet jacket, cradles a large and very beautiful all-black cat, circa late 1960s.
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Farran Smith Nehme·6d

Yesterday was Elizabeth Taylor's birthday, so here she is in her salad days, smuggling a kitten. #Caturday

Taylor is wearing a polka-dot robe with a kitten riding comfortably in her left pocket.
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