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Tuesday, December 19, 2023
12 Days: Dennis Morgan in Christmas in Connecticut
'A food writer who has lied about being the perfect housewife must try to cover her deception when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas.'
Every Christmas, I plan a 12 Days post featuring actor Dennis Morgan, but every year, I seem to forget until I see a listing of Christmas in Connecticut airing on TCM. The 1945 rom-com aired again last night, and I caught a few minutes and decided this was the year for Dennis to get his due.
When I was in high school, I have vivid memories of the film coming up while sitting at a Chinese food restaurant with my long term girlfriend. Although we all had VCR's, and even DVD players in the 90's, she and her family had a tradition with the film. Over the holidays, it usually aired late at night on a local channel on the weekends. Instead of taping, or renting it, they all stayed up, watched and decorated their tree while it aired.
I remember her wanting to get home early, at least two Christmas' in a row to join her family for the film. I never joined them, or stayed up to watch, but I did make the connection when I finally watched it about 10 years ago on TCM. I loved it. I loved the story, the look and feel of the film, and I loved Barbara Stanwyck, who I'd never seen in a comedy before. I also loved actor Dennis Morgan who played Jefferson Jones, Stanwyck's love interest in the film.
In all of the years I've worked on FH, I don't think I've ever used the term, 'cut of his jib', but I like the cut of Dennis Morgan's. He has a warm, welcoming presence on screen and a great face and profile, and is really sexy and funny in the role. I checked Morgan's IMDB page, and don't think I've seen him in anything else, but I'll make a point to try to find another film of his to watch in 2024.
I've now watched the film a few times since that first viewing, but always DVR it, so I can start it about a half hour in. They take a long time with the set up, and it seems to take forever for Stanwyck to appear and the action on the farm to get started. Once it does however, it's work a repeated viewing.
EnWrapured: Steven by John Mar
'The costume idea came from him. He brought the props along for the shoot.'
When it comes to Christmas, belts get a bad wrap. Sure, there's the black leather one that holds up Santa's velvet pants, but you can't really wear that one to work. Most of us need at least one belt, but we don't want to find one under the tree. Belts are gifts we give our fathers and grandfathers. We give them when we're pressed for time, or when we can't find anything more creative. They're not gifts however, that we really want to get ourselves.
One belt I wouldn't mind getting however, is the string of lights enwrapped around Steven's hips and waist. I'd especially enjoy unwrapping this particular belt if model Steven Polania came along with it. Both above, and below the belt, Steven is stunning, especially when adorned with just festive decorations.
I love visuals with holiday decorations used to adorn the nude male form. Photographer John Mar is skilled at finding the perfect ornamentals to deck the bodies of the models he works with. Last year, John shared images of model Dawn Tang, (HERE:) covered only by a mass of Christmas balls. Steven's light belt doesn't really cover anything, or hold anything up, but who needs functionality when you look as hot as Steven does in just a necklace, a bow, and string of holiday lights.
'I love working with Steven. He is an amazing model and is game to try different concepts. We both love the holidays and wanted to celebrate with a shoot. He knows his body well and creates great poses. The shoot definitely put me in a holiday mood.'
Best Laid Plans: Derek by Immortal Form
'The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry.'
Robert Burns
Every year, I think how great it would be to take a week, or even a few days off early in December. I'd get ready for Christmas in advance, and get all my shopping done early, before the stores and world gets crazed as the holiday grows closer. I imagine having everything done ahead of time, then just relaxing and enjoying Christmas week without having to run around and battle the traffic and crowds.
Sadly, I've never been able to manifest that plan. It's difficult to get time off from work anytime in December, I work in the mental field, and it's one of our busiest times of year. Even when I do manage to get things done early, I always find more things to do, more places to go, and more things to buy. It's a part of the holidays that's hard to escape from.
Dave from Immortal Form always also plans to take time off in December, a full month if he can get it, from shooting. Photography is only one of his jobs, so putting it on hold for the holidays, and focusing on other things, is a goal he sets each year. Like me however, usually he doesn't quite make it, but for very good reasons. When opportunities arise, even the best laid plans need to be modified or changed.
This can be especially true for photographers, when given the opportunity two work with a model they've been trying to schedule a shoot with. For Dave, despite his plans to take a brief winter pause, December turned out to be one of his busiest months behind the camera. This shoot with Derek, took place just last week and given the positive experience, and the results they achieved, Dave doesn't regret for a second having to put his hiatus on hold.
'The shoot was extremely positive. Derek has a lot of energy and although it wasn't as long as some of my shoots we got a lot of great photos. And whereas I'm usually tired at the end of a shoot I was still full of energy at the end of this one. '
Derek shares that he has equally positive feelings about his creative collaboration with Dave. He expressed some of his ideas to Dave about wanting to have the full shape of his body in some of the shots, and they worked together to find the right poses and perfect angles to show off Derek's incredibly hot, and full body featured.
'My experience working with Dave was amazing! He made me feel super comfortable and accepted all of the ideas that I wanted to try out, while at the same time, giving his vision to be combined to make the photos turn out great!
Dave was very professional but also was super friendly and we were able to joke around and have fun with the costumes. I think my favorite part of the whole shoot were the poses with the fishnet//netting. My experience with the shoot was amazing and I’ll definitely be seeing Dave again in the future for some more photos. '
Given Derek's long, lean dancers boy, Dave featured him in poses that really benefit from his look. Although he didn't intend it, as they were shooting, Dave noticed that many of the poses had sort of a 70's vibe. During the 70's, many singers and entertainers seemed to take full body promotional shots, as if they were dancing. Dave also felt the vibe from the colors he was using, but midway through changed to green and gold, then red and green for the Christmas shots.
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