Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

WEEKEND STOOGEFEST

‘Back From The Front’ (1943) is the 70th short film made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Friday, July 24th through Tuesday, July 28th 1942 and was released on Friday, May 28, 1943. It’s a World War 2 entry complete with dumbkoff Nazi’s (actually quite

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‘STORMY WEATHER’–A NICHOLAS BROTHERS GRAND FINALE

For the grand finale of this weeks tap-centric postings, lets watch the grand finale of ‘Stormy Weather’ (1943) featuring the astonishingly elegant, athletic and altogether delightful dance team of Harold and Fayard Nicholas. This five minute clip includes the opening chorus of Cab Calloway singing ‘Jumping Jive’ so either skip

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ARTHUR DUNCAN RULES

The astounding tap dancer Arthur Duncan, who died early this year aged 97, spent years performing on Lawrence Welk’s weekly TV show. For that the much maligned Welk should be commended. Duncan had the misfortune of being the very best at his craft at a moment in history when only

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‘CAFE METROPOLE’–THE MISSING DANCES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiWpmprZDrAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufop72Q74fA Here are two deleted scenes from ‘Cafe Metropole’, a 1937 20th Century Fox musical (sort of) starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young and Adolphe Menjou. Both feature tap-dancing legend Bill Bojangles Robinson, who already had made screen history by dancing with Shirley Temple in another Fox movie ‘The Little Colonel’

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LEWIS AND LEWIS–A PAS DE DEUX DELUXE

Jerry Lewis’s ‘The Ladies Man’ (1961) is one of his most inventive and, simultaneously, unfunny films. Indeed, most of the comedy falls flat because of the films stylistic advances and ideas, which conversely still feel fresh, interesting and even startlingly good. The big deal in this movie is the massive

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JERRY LEWIS REHEARSES AND GETS PISSED OFF

This fascinating footage appears to be Jerry Lewis rehearsing a bit for his nightclub act in front of a live crowd–though they’re not the regular audience but rather a ‘test’ audience. Jerry was known to shoot footage of himself in order to play it back and see what things were

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WEEKEND STOOGEFEST

‘Punch Drunks’ (1934) was the second short film made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Wednesday, May 2nd through Saturday, May 5th, 1934 and released on Friday, July 13th of that year. If the film isn’t exactly funny, it most certainly is fascinating for a

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10th AVENUE COWBOYS

Yesterday in my post about New York City’s Elevated Trains, I mistakenly added 10th Avenue to the many streets that once hosted El trains. Actually, 10th (and 11th) Avenue hosted something much more interesting (and grim) than an El train. For many years before the construction of the High Line

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TRANSPORTING YOURSELF THROUGH MANHATTAN ON THE ELEVATED TRAIN

Our ‘transportation series’ (see Tuesday’s post) continues with this marvelous ten-minute short film about the history and vanishing of New York City’s elevated trains. In the first half of the twentieth century the city was jammed with El trains–2nd Ave, 3rd Ave, 6th Ave, 9th Ave, 10th Ave all had

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ME AND ORSON

After a year-long hiatus my podcast ‘Movies Til Dawn’ has returned to the ether-waves, with none other than Orson Welles as my first post-reboot guest. How did I make contact with Orson, you ask? Via Ouija Board perhaps? No. I won’t even pretend that I interviewed the man (the way

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