Buster Keaton – Elevator chase
An evening pause: Some funny silliness from the silent movie era. And if you don’t know who Buster Keaton was, it is time you found out.
Hat tip Cotour.
Tag: movies
Chiquita Banana – The original commercial
An evening pause: This will not mean anything to my younger readers, but this song and commercial seared itself into the brains of everyone who went to the movies or watched television in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. The first version, shown here, was produced by Disney for the United Fruit Company.
I can think of no reason not to sear this song into some new generations.
Hat tip David Nudelman.
MetaBallStudios – Fictional spaceships by size
An evening pause: I think this video well illustrates the range of human imagination, as well as the real possibilities for the future, if we only have the courage to match.
I played this at 1.5 to increase the pace, but that’s not necessary.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Henry Mancini – Pink Panther theme
An evening pause: Performed by a student group.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
John Ford’s The Searchers
An evening pause: A very detailed look at some of the behind-the-scenes history for one of John Ford’s best westerns, The Searchers (1956), starring John Wayne.
This isn’t my favorite Ford film. I prefer My Darling Clementine (1946). Nonetheless, The Searchers is still one of the best, and this short documentary will also give you a feel for the actual American culture of the time, a culture that cared about the truth and tried to treat people with respect.
If you want to watch but save time, you can set the playing speed at 2X normal and understand everything completely.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Robots
An evening pause: This sequence from the animated film Robots (2005) is a very typical scene from almost every modern Hollywood film, whether real or animated (though the difference is getting harder to see as they put more and more CGI in every film). Regardless, it is fun, and takes the idea of a Rube Goldberg device to a very strange extreme.
Hat tip Bob Robert.
Cagney & Hope – Dance routine
An evening pause: From the 1955 film, The Seven Little Foys, with Bob Hope playing Eddie Foy, and James Cagney reprising the role of George M. Cohen, first played by him in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
Hat tip Thomas Keener.
When Michael Caine met John Wayne
An evening pause: People tend to forget that great actors really are ordinary people.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
A Christmas Carol
An afternoon pause: As I have done for several years on Christmas day, I bring you the classic 1951 version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim. To my mind this movie is still by far the best adaption of the book. It is also a truly wonderful movie.
As I wrote last year,
Dickens did not demand the modern version of charity, where it is imposed by governmental force on everyone. Instead, he was advocating the older wiser concept of western civilization, that charity begins at home, that we as individuals are obliged as humans to exercise good will and generosity to others, by choice.
It is always a matter of choice. And when we take that choice away from people, we destroy the good will that makes true charity possible.
Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas!
Eleanor Powell & Buddy Rich – I’ll Take Tallulah
An evening pause: Actually, the song is the least interesting thing about this dance number from Ship Ahoy (1942). Stick with it to see the dance interplay between dancer Powell and drummer Rich.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Gene Wilder – Pure Imagination
An evening pause: From the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Carnival of Souls
A evening pause: For Halloween, one of best low budget spook films ever made. No blood, no gore, no boring killer. Just style and atmosphere producing a creepy experience and a sense of dread.
And it was produced and directed by Herk Harvey for an estimated $33,000!
Paul Robeson – Ol’ Man River
An evening pause: From the 1936 movie adaptation of the Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein Broadway musical Showboat. While some of the visuals are a bit overstated and feel a bit preachy, this is still the best movie version of this song I have seen. Rather than strut about with big visuals, the film focuses on Robeson, who sings the song introspectively, as if it is something he is thinking.
A bit of trivia: The film’s director was James Whale, the man who made the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Buddy Ebsen – I’m nuts about you
An evening pause: Ebsen is joined by Eleanor Powell, Jimmy Stewart, Una Merkel and Sid Silvers in this dance number from the 1936 film, Born to Dance.
Ebsen is remembered most for playing Jed Clampett in the tv comedy series, The Beverley Hillbillies, but he started out as a dancer in movies.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers – They Can’t Take That Away From Me
An evening pause: Another movie pause tonight, this time showing the films themselves. This clip includes two performances of this song, from two different Astaire & Rogers films. The first, from Shall We Dance? (1937), has Astaire singing the song, knowing that the Rogers character is leaving him. Of course she ends up not going.
The second clip is from The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), their last film together and done after a split of ten years. They knew then this would be their last film, and now the words have a meaning far greater than the story in the film. When they exit at the end of this song, they know it is pretty much for the last time.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger
An evening pause: The theme song from Goldfinger (1964) might have been one of the best theme songs among all the Bond films. This live performance by the voice from that original film is from 2011, when she was 78 years old.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Tom Hanks – Forrest Gump finds out he has a son
An evening pause: Without question Hanks has been one of the world’s best actors in the past three decades. And his choice of scripts has always been excellent. From Forrest Gump (1994).
Hat tip Cotour.
Bill Bailey – Duelling Sitars
An evening pause: We could also call this Hollywood vs Bollywood, the West vs the East, America vs India.
Or we could simply say it is a wonderful example of how music can transcend culture.
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers – Jumpin Jive
An evening pause: The dancing here is as good if not better than anything you will see in an Astaire & Rogers movie.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar.
First movie of solar eclipse rediscovered
The first movie ever made of a solar eclipse, taken in 1900, has been rediscovered and restored.
The film was taken by British magician turned pioneering filmmaker Nevil Maskelyne on an expedition by the British Astronomical Association to North Carolina on 28 May, 1900. This was Maskelyne’s second attempt to capture a solar eclipse. In 1898 he travelled to India to photograph an eclipse where succeeded but the film can was stolen on his return journey home. It was not an easy feat to film. Maskelyne had to make a special telescopic adapter for his camera to capture the event. This is the only film by Maskelyne that we know to have survived.
I have embedded the movie below the fold.
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