Arriving in Hollywood, Riggs couldn’t even get an audition. Confidence graced him only when speaking into mirrors. He felt like an actual person then, like Hollywood. He didn’t have a car, but a roommate did, an actor needing to get…

Riggs was born in Peoria, Illinois. 1920. His father was a mechanic. Riggs’ Rigs. Such an embarrassing name to young Riggs that he needed to believe he was different, that he had a special magic inside, that he could be…

I get the feeling Bogie’s bottom lip has progressively stuck out these past few days, as if he’s willing to get punched, and because Bogie’s willing, it occurs to me that assuming you’re respectful, a life well lived means sticking…

He’s smiling, just enough to indicate a shift, smiling at her in his mind even if he hasn’t seen her in a while, smiling at her delight. What captures her attention? Surely Hadda Hapgood singing at the piano, whom we…

Her fingers have sprouted from the side of her napkin like a yucca.

Gloria Grahame is sucking the souls from our chests into the dark maw of her mouth, and we are liberated to rampage helter-skelter through the nights till we collapse in bewildered exhaustion.

In a fraction of an instant, her mouth has become a toothless black hole, smoky and forbidding, mildly repulsive. Sometimes you’d like to pay less attention. Then the brain activates: Gloria’s not really like that. She can’t be. She’s beautiful.…

And Britt in the background, not wanting to be outshone by these two foregrounded flames, makes her earring glow brighter than ever before, so that the reflection on her shoulder (which our investigations have shown is an alien masquerading as…

If this were the 1/24th of a second, you’d always choose Gloria. She sees you. She knows you get the joke. And although there will be other 1/24ths of a second, in which she’ll undoubtedly be an unadulterated nightmare, you’ll…

The question I most often get asked about this experiment is why I chose this minute of all minutes. Why didn’t I choose an action sequence from a blockbuster? Great question. Pertinent. Because at 24 frames per second, it’s one…