Window Dressing

Jessica Fletcher Part 2 is a smorgasbord from which I cherry-pick a smattering of episodes and scenes from Murder, She Wrote to give a more holistic sense of the series. The episodes for this week are Truck Stop, Something Borrowed, Someone Blue, and The Magnum P.I. crossover episode Magnum on Ice. I recommend listening to part one before listening to part 2 for context about Angela Lansbury, her character Jessica Fletcher, and the show.  

This episode's topic is the Murder, She Wrote episode inspired by Hugh Hefner and Playboy. I focus on the personal toll the politics of the time, and Playboy has taken on women culturally through the lens of Angela Lansbury's famed portrayal of female protagonist Jessica Fletcher. The season 2 episode of Murder, She Wrote Episode inspired by Playboy: Christopher Bundy Died on Sunday is littered with references to stories that had been coming out of the mansion for decades by the time it aired in 1986. Since Hefner’s death, those stories have come to light through docu-series like The Secrets of Playboy and Playboy Murders, along with tell-all books that predate Hefner’s death like Jennifer Saginor’s, Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside The Playboy Mansion and Holly Madison’s book Down The Rabbit Hole, among many others. I rely heavily on all those resources in this episode.

In part two of my Heather Locklear episode I pick up mid-series in Melrose Place and end with Texas Justice the 1995 made-for-TV mini-series starring Heather Locklear as the real-life Priscilla Davis, a victim of two attempted murder plots on the part of her husband, Texas millionaire Thomas Cullen Davis. Her portrayal of Priscilla didn’t win her a lot of fanfare but it did win her a special place in my heart.

A few notes:

No costume designer is listed in the credits or on the IMDB page for Texas Justice.

Melrose Place, like 90210 had many different costume designers, so I did not reference any specifically in this or the first Heather Locklear episode.

Special thanks to Bitchslap, the Melrose Place re-watch podcast.

This week on Window Dressing: American Trash and National Treasures is the first of a two-part episode dedicated to the queen of TV Heather Locklear. Locklear spent the entirety of the 1980s, 1990s, and part of the 2000s on hit Television shows. Specifically Aaron Spelling TV Shows. I focus on her role as Amanda Woodward in Melrose Place and her portrayal of Priscilla Davis in the true crime mini-series, Texas Justice. I also discuss Heather herself-her icon status and the construction and influence of "The Bitch."

This week I discuss the most well-known and reviled Femme Fatale in film history: Phyllis Dietrichson, played by one of the most well-respected and loved actresses in American film: Barbara Stanwyck. The 1944 film noir Double Indemnity is one of the shiniest, most monied film noirs produced in its time. The film is based on James M. Cain's book of the same name. The story itself is inspired by a true crime that is so American it smells like apple pie and fresh blood.

It’s difficult to articulate Alabama’s, and by extension Patricia Arquette’s charm in the 1993 film True Romance. It’s somewhere close to a fairy princess that has fallen from her tower to earth and landed near a pack of Chesterfields, a cubic zirconia wedding band, and a hamburger stand in Hollywood. The only one for her is Christian Slater’s depiction of a midwesterner who drives a Cadillac, talks to Elvis, and literally kills for her love. If she is the dream, he is the one that prevents it from being dashed by reality. That’s a tall order but it happened in the only place it could—the land of dreams: Hollywood California

I will discuss Laura Leighton’s character on Melrose Place Sydney Andrews. Sydney is cut from the same cloth as last week’s heroine, Kitty March, played by Joan Bennett. She moons and swoons over her sister's soon-to-be ex-husband Micheal Mancini the same way Kitty melted in the arms of Johnny Prince, her pimp boyfriend played by Dan Duryea. Sydney is a love-to-hate brand of soap queen that is the stuff of daytime and primetime legend. This particular femme fatale came with a large dose of Americana thanks to the show’s producer Aaron Spelling.

Joan Bennett stars as Katherine (Kitty) March in the 1945 Fritz Lang film Scarlet Street. Her character is a unique kind of femme fatale- she is innocent and dripping with a sexuality that she is more than willing to use to her advantage, or more specifically her pimp boyfriend Johnny's (played by Dan Duryea) advantage. In this episode, I explore the strange yet deeply relatable struggle between the romance of innocence and youth and the grown-up desires of the flesh. All are easily exploitable by any and all men not just murderous painters and snake oil salesmen pimps.

This week on Window Dressing: American Trash and National Treasures I untangle the web of Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo.

I take a deeply personal look into Madeline, Judy, Carlotta, and Midge's roles in the scheme of womanhood and romance. This is the second part of my first episode about the 1988 film Heart of Midnight, two very different films that fill similar spaces emotionally.

Season two of Window Dressing: American Trash and National Treasures begins with the 1988 film Heart of Midnight. In this season I will discuss the women of American culture and cultural products that are either revered or reviled. I will put Lisa Rinna and Norma Shearer at the same level and give films like Vertigo and this episode's Heart of Midnight the same weight. As usual, every component of this podcast is created by me with love and genuine admiration for film and television and the women who make it matter. This week that woman is Jennifer Jason Leigh as Carol playing opposite Peter Coyote as Larry Sharpe. Trigger warning for this episode, rape, porn, and brutality run rampant in this film and my discussion of it.