Tag: movies
Diane Keaton – It Seems Like Old Times
The Amazing Paul Frees
An evening pause: You have heard his voice, many times. This highlight reel, suggested by Jim Mallamace, includes just a few, all amazingly different:
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion
Boris Badenov
Pillsbury Doughboy
Lion and Mouse
Voyages Through Inner Space
Burgermeister Meisterburger
The Beatles Cartoon
Morocco Mole
Ludwig von Drake
He was a contemporary of Mel Blanc (most famous for providing the voices for Warner Brothers’ cartoons), was as good, but is far less well known.
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra – For A Few Dollars More
What Happened to James Garner?
An evening pause: I previously posted a biography of Robert Mitchum by this same filmographer. This one, about James Garner, is equally worth a viewing. And like the Mitchum biography, it shows how humble and ordinary a man Garner was.
Hat tip Willi Kusche.
Two for a Penny – The Grapes of Wrath
An evening pause: To help start out a new year, a scene from the 1940 John Ford classic, The Grapes of Wrath, based on John Steinbeck’s novel. While the movie tended to make government a saintly hero, which bothered me from the first time I saw it, it also captured the heart and generosity of the American spirit, as certainly existed in the previous century. Even if you are poor and desperate, if you insist on paying your fair share and don’t ask for a hand out, Americans immediately rally around you, in a quiet unassuming way, without wishing credit or accolades.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Note that I am in need of suggestions for evening pauses. If you have made suggestions before, you know where to send them. If you haven’t and want to, leave a comment here and I will email you. Don’t include the link to the pause, however, as I want to schedule it, and that will blow the punchline.
A Christmas Carol
An daytime pause: For me, this version, starring Alastair Sim, remains the best of all the many adaptions of Charles Dickens classic short novel. Always worth seeing during the holiday season. As I wrote last year when I posted it, “I watched this again and felt like weeping, not because of the sentimentality of the story itself but because it is so seeped in a civilized world that increasingly no longer exists. There was a time when this was our culture. I fear it is no longer so. As noted by the Spirit of Christmas Present, ‘This boy is ignorance, this girl is want. Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy.’”
May all my readers have a wonderful Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
Benjamin Shapiro – Theme from Schindler’s List
An evening pause: Performed live in 1996, when Shapiro was twelve years old. Note that this is that Ben Shapiro, the orthodox Jew and well-known conservative columnist whom leftists ignorantly love to call a Jew-hater and white supremacist. How they come to that conclusion can only be because they are willfully ignorant or so filled with hate and their ideology that they can’t look at reality with any honesty.
I think, during this holiday season, it is wise to also reflect on humanity’s tragic failures, one of the worst of which was the Holocaust during World War II.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Robbie the Robot sells for $5.3 million in auction
The science fiction movie prop Robbie the Robot has sold at auction for $5.3 million, making it the second most expensive movie prop in history.
The complete Robby suit, control panel, his jeep, numerous spares, alternate original “claw” hands, and the original wooden stage shipping crates, were sold yesterday (November 21, 2017 ) by Bonhams in New York for US$5,375,000 including buyers premium.
The only purpose-built movie prop to have ever sold for more is Marilyn Monroe’s “subway dress” from The Seven Year Itch (1955) which was sold by Profiles in History for $5,520,000 (inc. buyers premium) in 2011.
The science fiction movie prop Robbie the Robot has sold at auction for $5.3 million, making it the second most expensive movie prop in history.
The complete Robby suit, control panel, his jeep, numerous spares, alternate original “claw” hands, and the original wooden stage shipping crates, were sold yesterday (November 21, 2017 ) by Bonhams in New York for US$5,375,000 including buyers premium.
The only purpose-built movie prop to have ever sold for more is Marilyn Monroe’s “subway dress” from The Seven Year Itch (1955) which was sold by Profiles in History for $5,520,000 (inc. buyers premium) in 2011.
Want to own Robby the Robot? You can!
The robot prop from the classic 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot, is going up for auction on November 21.
The robot was purchased by its present owner in 1979, and has been sitting in his home since then.
In related auction news, one of eighty medals carried on the Apollo 17 mission is also going up for auction.
The robot prop from the classic 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot, is going up for auction on November 21.
The robot was purchased by its present owner in 1979, and has been sitting in his home since then.
In related auction news, one of eighty medals carried on the Apollo 17 mission is also going up for auction.
Chuck Jones on Getting Started
An evening pause: “It costs money to die poor.”
For those who don’t know, Chuck Jones directed some of the best Bugs Bunny cartoons that Warner Brothers ever produced.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
House on Haunted Hill
An evening pause: For Halloween tonight a slightly different treat: a full length movie! House on Haunted Hill (1958) starred Vincent Price, and was directed by William Castle. As Leonard Maltin put it, “Campy fun.”
An evening pause: For Halloween tonight a slightly different treat: a full length movie! House on Haunted Hill (1958) starred Vincent Price, and was directed by William Castle. As Leonard Maltin put it, “Campy fun.”
Julie Andrews – My Favorite Things
An evening pause: You need to watch all of The Sound of Music (1965) to understand the context that makes the song even better, and explains the way the clip ends.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Cole Porter – Night and Day
An evening pause: I think this makes a nice contrast with yesterday’s evening pause. Both show talent, skill, musical ability, but which is actually more civilized?
From the 1934 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical, The Gay Divorcee.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
An evening pause: I think this makes a nice contrast with yesterday’s evening pause. Both show talent, skill, musical ability, but which is actually more civilized?
From the 1934 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical, The Gay Divorcee.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
John Williams – Raider’s March
An evening pause: From one of the best films ever made, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). As I wrote about it at the time for a comic book fan group, it recognizes that there is good and evil, and that there is something in the universe that casts judgement on each. Such concepts had and continue to be largely rejected by modern intellectualism, at our peril.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Jessica Rabbit – Why don’t you do right
A evening pause: From the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), and sung by Amy Irvine.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Doris Day – Young at Heart
Jennifer Connelly – The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
An evening pause: From the really evocative science fiction film Dark City (1998). The film ain’t perfect, but it sticks with you long after you see it.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Baby it’s cold outside
An evening pause: From the 1949 musical comedy Neptune’s Daughter, with Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalbán, Red Skelton, and Betty Garrett.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
A Christmas Carol
A daytime pause: For Christmas Day, what better than to watch Alastair Sim’s incredible performance in the 1951 adaption of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
I watched this again and felt like weeping, not because of the sentimentality of the story itself but because it is so seeped in a civilized world that increasingly no longer exists. There was a time when this was our culture. I fear it is no longer so. As noted by the Spirit of Christmas Present, “This boy is ignorance, this girl is want. Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy.”
Enjoy, and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas Day.
Audrey Hepburn – Moon River
An evening pause: I’ve posted this song as an evening pause previously, but I think Audrey Hepburn’s performance of the song in the 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which introduced it to the world, deserves to be seen.
Hat tip Andrew_W.
André Rieu – Zorba’s Dance (Sirtaki)
An evening pause: From the Mikis Theodorakis score for the 1964 film, Zorba the Greek.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Dooley Wilson – Knock on Wood
An evening pause: Just one of the continuous string of great scenes from the 1942 film, Casablanca, much of which is a silent interplay between the characters that only will make sense if you’ve seen the movie.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Grease – We Go Together
Judy Garland – The Man That Got Away
An evening pause: From A Star is Born (1954).
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
As always, I am open to evening pause suggestions from my readers. If you have one, say so here in a comment, but don’t post the link. I will email you to get it.
The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
An evening pause: From the Martin Scorsese documentary, The Last Waltz (1978).
Note that if a band tried to write a song like this today, sympathetic to the southerns who died during the Civil War, they would probably find their careers destroyed. So much for artistic freedom, and having empathy for all souls.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Claudia Drake – I can’t believe that you’re in love with me
“Have they tried SEC to Aux?”
An evening pause: From one of the best dramatic series ever produced of the 1960s space race, From the Earth to the Moon (1998), this is the Apollo 12 launch scene.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
High Diving Giraffes
An evening pause: Based on some emails I have received, I think some people have been fooled by this cool animation and actually think these are real giraffes! This just tells us that it will not be long now before real actors are no longer necessary and it will be possible to do live action films entirely with animation.
Hat tip George Petricko.
Brainstorm
An evening pause: In one of the most powerful death scenes ever, Louise Fletcher plays a scientist who suddenly realizes it is about to happen. From the 1983 film Brainstorm.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.