Here’s the trailer for Robert Altman’s first film, the independently produced 1955 teen hoodlum flick ‘The Delinquents’ (released in 1957). It was shot in Kansas City where Altman was then based, making industrial films and directing semi-amateur theatrical productions. The film apparently starred Tom ‘Billy Jack’ Laughlin (he’s not credited
Without reservation I can say that I find ‘A Plumbing We Will Go’ easily the best Three Stooges short ever made. But I’ll go further. I’ll go on record right now (yes, on record) and say that this is on par with Laurel & Hardy’s ‘Helpmates’ and ‘The Music Box’
As I said yesterday in the post about gigantic cassette tapes from the 1950s, mocking old technology (and the awe and wonderment that accompanied it when it was new) is low-hanging fruit. But it isn’t just for a laugh that we marvel at yesterdays technical detritus. It also serves to
What happened to the massive cassette tapes pictured in the above posted RCA promotional film about the ‘revolution in tape?’ Huge consoles seemed to hold four of these biggies which required no threading–imagine! It’s easy to be amused by dead technology but this one is a real puzzler. Did it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbAx6oznWKw Why, you may ask, are we watching a women’s prison musical number called ‘The Lockstep’ featuring an act known as ‘The Dodge Twins’ photographed in two-strip Technicolor on a lavishly vertical set (if one can refer to a prison as ‘lavish’) accompanied by dozens of imprisoned chorus girls all
Here’s a neat little five minute interview promo for the 1957 film ‘Fire Down Below’, starring Robert Mitchum, Rita Hayworth and Jack Lemmon. Ed Sullivan seems to have schlepped down to the films Trinidad location and filmed this little pre-EPK segment for broadcast on his show–it can’t be live, can
I freely admit to never having had any specific interest in Elvis. He’s been part of the wallpaper of pop culture in my mind ever since I was a kid–always identifiable, sometimes fun, more often than not a subject of ridicule or pity. Now, in light of Baz Luhrmann’s towering
There are several things that this morning’s cartoon lacks. 1) Color. 2) Humor. 3) Porky Pig, as we’ve come to know him. This Porky is grossly fat, can barely speak and appears to have no fidelity at all to his poor suffering little train, which manages to win a race
Here’s the (in)famous ballroom dancing match-up between James Cagney and George Raft from ‘Taxi’ (1932) directed by Roy Del Ruth. According to a dance savvy Youtube commenter: ‘Neither Raft nor Cagney are doing the Foxtrot. Mr. Raft is doing the Peabody and Mr. Cagney is mixing the Two Step into
There is something hypnotic and more than a little melancholy about this three minute silent reel of 8mm film shot in New York City in 1983 (our ‘year of the week’–see previous post). It appears to document a family outing on a warm spring or summer day. Our family appears