Idaho. February 1958. A local TV station is broadcasting a show for teen audiences called ‘Seventeen’. A group of teenagers are gathered to demonstrate a new dance that’s all the rage called ‘The Stroll’. With heavy hearts and a stunning lack of enthusiasm they do so. Somehow, somebody somewhere keeps
Every frame of ‘Fresh Hare’, an early-ish Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd pairing (1942) is a gem–beautifully rendered and wittily constructed. You can feel how much fun the animators must have been having developing Bugs’ expressions, reactions and mannerisms–almost as if the animated animal anthropomorphically became a performer that was in control
If you set out to make a parody of a 1970s TV commercial for a Stereo store you might wind up with something like the above–if you were very very talented, of course. (By the way, whatever happened to Sansui? It’s mentioned in yesterday’s clip as well). Thoughts of stereo
Stereos were once an incredibly important bookshelf-filling music-delivery system. Much time was lavished on discussions of which were the best components, whether it was better to have an all-in-one receiver or a power amp, pre-amp and tuner, which massive speakers to buy (and how many). A true stereo-head preferred to
The tenth anniversary of Johnny Carson’s reign as ‘The Tonight Show’ host was celebrated in 1972 on perhaps the ugliest and most awkward set ever designed for a TV show. The overwhelming green-ness of the carpet, walls etc. makes it look like a bottle of Mountain Dew. Johnny is seated
In the early 1940s, Alfred Hitchcock–newly arrived in America and missing the countryside of his previous home in England–purchased a 200 acre weekend ‘getaway’ estate in the Northern California town of Santa Cruz. Above, take the drive that Hitch (and wife Alma and daughter Pat) would have taken on the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUYqgLPgIjc It’s ridiculous that the classic Chuck Jones 1955 masterwork ‘One Froggy Evening’ is unavailable on YouTube–Warner Brothers seems to have made damn sure of that. For what reason? Every other WB cartoon is available on YT. Is there a super-hero reboot of this one in development? Anyway, I finally
Behold the trailer of the 1975 remake of Raymond Chandler’s ‘Farewell My Lovely’ starring Robert Mitchum as Phillip Marlowe. Yesterday I posted the trailer for ‘The Long Goodbye’ made two years earlier with the decidedly more eccentric casting of Elliot Gould as Marlowe. I seem to recall seeing this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb-gAEx9GNU Today’s 70s trailer is ‘The Long Goodbye’, directed by Robert Altman starring Elliott Gould and featuring an eccentric supporting cast including Sterling Hayden and director (and sometime actor) Mark Rydell. The sampling of scenes is threaded by the theme song by John Williams, sung by the great trumpeter-singer Jack
Here’s another wicked-cool trailer for a Peter Bogdanovich movie (see yesterdays ‘Paper Moon’ trailer), this time for ‘What’s Up Doc?’ Once again PB is featured heavily and the general mood and tone gives us the sense of filmmaking actually being a pleasurable and amusing adventure, which in fact it rarely