The Sandler film isn't the only re-make. In 2001, Vinnie Jones starred in The Mean Machine, which moved the story to Great Britain and the sport to soccer. It also appropriated the British release title of the Aldrich film. It's not as good as the first remake, but a damn sight better than the...
Pat Boone as a Scottish university student In Journey to the Center of the Earth
While I usually cut Sean Connery some slack about his accent, I'm continually bothered by his Irish-American cop with a Scottish accent in The Untouchables, particularly when other actors playing Irish-Americans...
My father took me to see Fantasia in 1956, when I was 5 years old. It didn't make much of an impression me, because it's not really a film for a 5 year old.
I've been away for a while, but I found something really obscure and interesting. "Two for Penny" was a pilot for a series based on the Natale Wood movie, "Love With The Proper Stranger" with Donna "The Dr Pepper Girl" Loren in the role Natalie created. Also with Bill Bixby, Michael Constantine...
I buy discs weekly. Part of it is liking the idea of owning a movie, of curating a collection. I've always loved those scenes in movies where a person walks into a room that is a personal library, stacked from floor to ceiling with so many books that you need a rolling ladder to access them...
It should be noted that "The Marshall" episode of The Rifleman was written and directed by the great Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah helped to create the series, but left early on because of creative differences.
I'm guessing Pete and Gladys was taken off the air because of ratings. Even though it reached the top Nielsen Top 30, that probably wasn't good enough for a CBS comedy. The show that it was spun off from, December Bride, was one of CBS' biggest hits, and P&G ultimately failed to reach those...
Broadcast on Christmas night, 1960. Babes in Toyland with Shirley Temple, Jonathan Winters, Jerry Colona, Carl Ballentine, Joe Besser, and Angela Cartwright.
Babes in Toyland (1960)
OK, if we're talking The Lone Ranger and Christmas, we have to mention Jay Thomas' Lone Ranger story as told on The David Letterman Show. Jay told this story originally on December 23, 2009. It became a Christmas tradition (even though the story has nothing to do with Christmas) and Dave invited...
As I think I said in an earlier post, Tennessee Ernie Ford was a true musicologist with a degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, something you probably wouldn't guess from his "hayseed" persona. He could be downhome funny, but he could also be serious (his version of 16 Tons is...
From 1959-1964, the West End Brewing Company of Utica New York, sponsored a beloved series of talking beer stein commercials. It wasn't a national brewer, so as far as I know, they weren't seen outside of the WEB's viewing area, which did not include any of the major metros. So to see these...
In my neck of the woods (Pittsfield, MA) we grew up Uncle Jim Fisk on Breadtime Stories, aka The Freddy Freihoffer Show. Reportedly the first locally produced kids' show. It was broadcast from WRGB in Schenectady, NY, a station owned by GE. Many of us still remember the theme song.
I spent most of the week watching Midnight Mass on Netflix. I didn't want to comment until I finished the series, because some miniseries start out great then fall to pieces (I'm looking at you, Lovecraft Country).
4. Midnight Mass Ep 1-2 (Netflix)
5. Midnight Mass Ep 3-4 (Netflix)
6. Midnight...
LOL! Actually, Travis, I'm not one to discourage people from watching films either, but I make an exception for The Howling sequels, not so much because they are bad (and they are), but because the tone is so different from the original. I would also add that they are not entertainingly bad, but...
Day 2
2. J'Accuse (1938) BFI Blue Ray
Over the summer I read a book called, "Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror", by W Scott Poole. The thesis of the book was that WWI had a great and lasting effect on horror in film, literature, music, painting, etc. One title that kept...
I kicked off my viewing by watching Frankenstein (2017) today.
1. Frankenstein (2017). Very clever re-invention of the Frankenstein story for the 21st Century. Victoria Frankenstein (Helen McCory) is a DNA scientist working on ways to synthesize human organs with stem cell technology. She also...
More Clancy greatness. The Boys provided the music for this 1960 CBS adaptation of Treasure Island. What a cast; Hugh Griffith, Michael Gough, and Boris Karloff!
Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show S11, Episode 9, "Oh, The Clancys"
Here's another TV pilot masquerading as an episode of The Danny Thomas Show (like The Andy Griffith Show).
Danny's wife, Kathy "Clancy" O'Hara" (frequently referred to as "Irish" by Danny) receives a visit from her...
Yes, I can hear it now
"Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore riding through the night,
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore riding through the night,
He steals from the poor, and gives to the rich,
Stupid bitch..."