[I Just Watched...]

Didn't Purdom play the title character in The Egyptian?

 

And I find it amusing that they've got kids named Athena and Minerva, since those are the same goddess.

[Fat Cows And Gaunt Cows]

I don't think Chariots of Fire is boring at all.

[Film Soundtracks]

If I were going to repurpose another composer's music for a comedy, I think I'd pick Nino Rota.

[Film Soundtracks]

I'm surprised Otto Censor let the name of that Poulenc ballet through.

[It was 50 years ago...]

The lyrics not only describe Paul's condition, but also challenge

Little Richard's most profound song: Keep A Knockin-- in which most of the lyrics are simply:

 

"Keep A Knockin, but you can't come in"--repeated fervently.

And Spain won Eurovision one year with a song that basically had the lyrics "La la la la".

 

There are people in the UK who thought the competition that year was rigged.

[It was 50 years ago...]

It will be forty years ago...

It's also forty years since You Light Up My Life (remember, it's the title song from a movie!) as well as Meco's disco version of the Star Wars theme.

 

And after Rocky received its Oscar nominations, "Gonna Fly Now" was released as a single and eventually hit #1 in July 1977.

[Idiotic Statements From Both Movies And Real Life]

He'd be a good candidate for FAMILY FEUD on which I've often seen, during the show's "fast money" round, people asked "What CITY would you say...." and hear them shout the name of a STATE!

I think I've posted it before, but:

 

 

[It was 50 years ago...]

I think I'll stick to the music from the original album, including the Beatles song that arguably is their greatest ever.

 

 

Eyesore a film today oh boy.

[I Just Watched...]

Bedazzled (1967).

 

Dudley Moore plays Stanley, who flips burgers at a Wimpy Bar in London for waitress Margaret (Eleanor Bron) to serve to patrons. Stanley is in love with Margaret, but too timid to tell her, and she doesn't realize it. Stuck in a dead-end life, Stanley decides to commit suicide.

 

Obviously he fails, and into his life comes George (Peter Cook). George is actually the Devil, and eventually makes Stanley an offer: Stanley can have seven wishes, but the Devil gets Stanley's soul at the end. Unsurprisingly, Stanley keeps wishing to have the perfect love relationship with Margaret.

 

I say he keeps wishing for it because every time he wishes, George fulfills the wish only insofar as Stanley has made it specific. George, being the Devil, is more than willing to take the parts Stanley has made open to interpretation and executes those in a way that would make Stanley's life profoundly unhappy.

 

But as you might expect from Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, this is a comedy, and for the most part a good one. Cook is a charming devil, to the point that we sympathize with both Stanley and him by the end. Raquel Welch plays Lust, one of the Devil's subordinates.

 

8/10. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be out of print everywhere on DVD, and I think it never even got a DVD release in the US.

[Now, that's the way to die!]

More seriously, two movies that have cinematically interesting death scenes are The Cranes Are Flying and Sparrows.

[Now, that's the way to die!]

All things considered, I wouldn't mind going out the way Don Ameche does in 1943's HEAVEN CAN WAIT...of old age while lying in my nice comfortable bed and being attended to by a beautiful young nurse.

I'd like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did. Not screaming like the passengers in his car.

[East of Eden]

leave it to steinbeck to write off the good son in favor of the bad son.

In the words of Mae West, "When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better."

[East of Eden]

It's not as if Rebel Without a Cause is very good.

 

I actually haven't been able to sit through Giant in its entirety.

[I Just Watched...]

The Audition (1933 Vitaphone one-reeler)

 

Bland bandleader Phil Emerton gives an audition for an impresario, who is unimpressed. Said impresario wants them to bring in some sex appeal in the form of a lady singer, Hannah Williams.

 

Hannah sings "Get Happy" long before Judy Garland ever tortured it. Further suggestions are made for setting the band on location, which has them in overalls on a levee while girl group the X Sisters sing over stock footage.

 

One more suggestion involves having novelty tap dancers (Larry & Larry), before the inane punch-line to this whole dreck is given.

 

Emerton never made another movie, according to IMDb. Neither did Williams, playing herself. Larry & Larry also never showed up anywhere else, while the X Sisters apparently have three other credits.

 

Dreadful. 0/10.

 

It's on the DVD of The Mayor in Hell, or at least the one that's part of the Warner Bros. Gangster Collection (Vol. 3), and The Mayor of Hell is worth it.

[proof that hollywood is shot]

The real proof will be when they remake Hot Spell.

[August Schedule is Up! SUTS]

"The Crowded Sky" -- Never saw it. Tell all.

 

My favorite scene is when Troy is grounded along with whoever is piloting the military plane taking him to Washington, and they're in a cafe at the airport. In the background, you can hear the theme to A Summer Place.

[I Just Watched...]

I got Music in My Heart on one of those Mill Creek box sets that's got 8 movies for well under ten bucks. I got the set for The Solid Gold Cadillac and The Marrying Kind, which alone are worth the price of the set. Music in My Heart is one of the add-ons, as I see it. But yeah, I wouldn't spend the $5.99 to buy it as a stand-alone.

[I Just Watched...]

Music in My Heart (1940).

 

Tony Martin plays a Broadway understudy who for some reason is about to be deported. On the way to the boat to take him back to Europe, his taxis careens into one with passenger Rita Hayworth, who is on her way to the same boat to meet wealthy fiancé Alan Mowbray.

 

Everybody knows that Martin is the right man for Hayworth, except for Mowbray and his butler, played by perpetual butler Eric Blore. You can figure where the story is going.

 

The story isn't a bad one, but is thoroughly unoriginal. Tony Martin has all the charisma of a urinal cake, and the "Russian émigrés" who run the restaurant where Rita works and lives are irritating. Blore is good as always, and Hayworth is adequately good-looking

 

4/10, and would be bumped a couple points higher if they has somebody like a Bob Cummings as the lead and didn't have Tony Martin's singing.

[Have any TCM movers & shakers ever seen Hot Spell?]

I remember reading quite a few years that they signed a deal with rights to a limited number (about 50) Paramounts; I think that's how we got Skidoo and The File on Thelma Jordon.

[Have any TCM movers & shakers ever seen Hot Spell?]

Maybe they've seen it and hate it.

 

Except for Alec Baldwin, who has questionable taste. ;-)

[Postcard image presentation of "Bigger Than Life"]

You mean both letterboxed and pillarboxed?

 

I didn't get that on my screen; I only saw letterboxing in the brief bit I had it on.

[I Just Watched...]

So you missed the whole part about Lee Remick's panties?

 

I couldn't help but think of that when I was watching Twilight of Honor. George Bailey talking about Lee Remick's panties is vaguely shocking; Richard Chamberlain asking about the details of the murder victim's relationship with the defendant's wife is just skeezy.

[What's your favorite JFK portrayal?]

And where were you on November 22, 1963? 

Not even a gleam in my parents' eyes.

[I Just Watched...]

I believe Reptilicus is going to be on TCM in May as part of the "Creature Feature" spotlight, although it's going to be the American version.

[What's your favorite JFK portrayal?]

The one in the Zapruder film.