The Age of Aquaria

This inkblot from out of the blue
Is an octo with nothing to do
Seen in Citizen Kane
It seems not quite germane
It's a stock shot from old Fu Manchu.

David Cairns

From Mr Cairns: "A shot of a fake octopus in Citizen Kane's newsreel sequence, representing part of Kane's private zoo, is stock footage lifted from The Drums of Fu Manchu." The frame used above is from the same footage, but was grabbed from yet another film that reused it--Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster! David wrote about all this, as well as edited a short film mash-up of it, here on Shadowplay.

Dark Passage Beneath the Sea

When the sea spewed a briny new threat
Film noir he-men grew shiny with sweat
All their guns couldn't hit
The big undersea "it"
And they'd need a strong line and a net.



This mash-up was inspired by two films which both use the Golden Gate Bridge. Pictured are Humphrey Bogart and Clifton Young in Dark Passage (Delmer Daves; 1947), and a bit of Ray Harryhausen's monstrous stop-motion mollusk in It Came from Beneath the Sea (Robert Gordon; 1955).

To Have and Have Knott

Both the captain and nitwit agree,
As two chaps they're a bit out to sea
The poor sap became chummy
With his slap-happy rummy
When he yapped he was "bit by Aunt Bee."

Humphrey Bogart and Don Knotts, in a photo mash-up of Mayberry and To Have and Have Not, created by our own Norm Knott. Knotts to you, Norm.

The Trouble With Vertigo

For the past couple of weeks I've been suffering from bouts of vertigo. It's been murder, but even more disappointing has been the fact that Kim Novak hasn't appeared.

I confess, every morning I descend the thirty nine steps to my rear window, part the torn curtain and, spellbound, look longingly for her. I search south by southeast as well as north by northwest. Even on my way to work I search the faces of strangers on a train hoping that I will find the young and innocent visage of Ms. Novak. If she is aboard, the lady vanishes before I can espy her.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I'm at the end of my rope. In fact, I'm in a bit of a frenzy. I even have my suspicion that her absence might be a family plot. Who, I wonder, can be the saboteur?

Jeez, I sound like some kind of a psycho, don't I? I'm telling you, man, this obsession is strictly for the birds.


Please help out the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Sugar Kane Mutiny

The prince and the showgirl on sleeve

the asphalted jungle might leave
But clash by night junkie
had business with monkey
and seven year itch about eve

There are 7 Marilyn Monroe film titles contained in the

limerick above. Some titles are partial or slightly altered.