About the Blog..

My blog title, Ossessione, American Style, is taken from a movie by Count Luchino Visconti, who borrowed the plot of his astonishing debut film, Ossessione, from James M. Cain's novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Unfortunately, Visconti never paid for the rights and his film was not shown in the U.S. until many years after its release. The star of the movie, Massimo Girotti, would be People's "Sexiest Man Alive" many years running had the zine been around at the time. We first see him as a truck driver in a filthy sleeveless athletic undershirt, another of my obsessions: remember Paul Newman in an a-shirt (e.g. Hud or Cool Hand Luke)? Nowadays, they cheapen this garment who confuse it with something tank troops wore in World War I. The a-shirt is an undershirt, usually with thin bands over the shoulders; a tank top is a shirt without sleeves, akin to a "muscle shirt," only with wider bands over the shoulders. But, I digress....)

The purpose of this photo/comment column is to present a record of my obsessions. These are wide-ranging and diverse. This blog is not intended to be pornographic. The only pornography today is in politics.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Back to "Blue Lagoon": Christopher Atkins's Killer Smile

An autographed photo of Christopher Atkins nude to his treasure trail (OK, campy gay word, but I like it) shows a defiant, self-assured young man who might have modeled for those Roman coins at the time of Hadrian's beatification and euhemerization of his dead beloved, Antinous.  Atkins was fresh and wholesome in his early breakout film, The Blue Lagoon, and every gay and bisexual male in America was eager to see what kind of actor would be introduced to the world by an out gay director.  When Atkins transformed the young and hung partner of Brooke Shields into an adult sexy Ladies Only dancer in his next film, A Night in Heaven, his body had matured and was in league with that of any of today's superheroes.  And he still had that killer smile.  A night in heaven, indeed.
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