My interest this past week in period movie sword fights–we didn’t venture any further than 1940– was triggered (yes, I said triggered) by TCM’s showing of “Captain Blood” last weekend. So it’s only befitting that we end with he sword fight that kicked off this madness to begin with. Once
Here’s the wonderful climactic sword fight from the 1938 ‘Adventures oF Robin Hood’ starring Errol Flynn. This is something special as it really is two fights in one–a mass sword fight that breaks off into a private dual between Flynn and (who else?) Basil Rathbone. Hijinks ensue, of course, but
Yesterday I posted the sword fight from the 1920 version of ‘The Mark Of Zorro’ starring Douglas Fairbanks. Today I’ve jumped up twenty years to show you the same fight as staged by director Rouben Mamoulian in his 1940 remake. In this version, Tyrone Power faces down Basil Rathbone, who
Continuing this little survey of sword fights in movies that we began yesterday, I thought it might put things in context to look at what is generally considered the first great sword fight in movie history–Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in ‘The Mark Of Zorro’ (1920). There probably were sword fights in
This weekend TCM aired ‘Captain Blood’, Michael Curitz’s terrifically entertaining 1935 Errol Flynn star vehicle–it was Flynn’s first major role and shot him to stardom–which kicked off a wave of ‘swashbucklers’ that lasted well through the 1950s. The sword fight between Flynn and Basil Rathbone is effective but relatively modest,
Let’s close up this absurd week (and I’m not limiting that to just the material on this blog) with an absurd clip of two absurd personalities. This is a silent, ghostly, unknown bit of TV footage featuring Vampira (see post from earlier this week) dancing with Liberace. From the looks
In the 1970s and 80s, Ernie Anderson was the voice of ABC–the announcer whose voice was instantly recognizable and very much part of the networks brand. But the skeleton in his closet (har) was his stint on local Cleveland television station WJW as late night horror movie host ‘Ghoulardi’. From
On Monday we began a discussion of the hosts of late night horror movie shows on local television that proliferated in the 1950s-70s (and maybe beyond?). Perhaps the true legend of the genre is Vampira, a local L.A. hostess whose mid-to-late 1950s show was on KABC, the ABC affililiate. Her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a_7Zhyst48https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEjdt_n1l-4 For years, local late night weekend television featured horror movie offerings for kids, hosted by cheeseball horror emcee’s usually dressed in capes, coming out of coffins, making strange noises intended to evoke werewolves, monsters etc. There were plenty of junkie horror movies to go around and kids loved this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfzpay0lqGwhttp://large,%20burled%20maple%20Capeheart%20radio-phonograph%20unit–similar%20to%20the%20one%20in%20Owney’s%20penthouse%20suite—stood%20in%20the%20corner,%20playing%20a%20record–Roger%20Woolf%20Kahn’s%20orchestra’s%20rendition%20of%20‘You’ve%20Got%20Me%20Crying%20Again.’ I’m closing up this week’s look at period Football stuff with a second rendition of the DeSylva/Brown&Henderson’s infectious hit 20s tune ‘Varsity Drag’. It’s performed by Abe Lyman and his orchestra and if you don’t dig 1920s music (and lets face it, few people do–you have to be a