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
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
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
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
The YouTube artist known as NASS has posted another of he/she/they’s wonderful updated urban history videos in which, by use of colorization, frame rate adjustment and an added soundbed, an old piece of documentary film becomes a most convincing and seductive new journey through the past. This is New York
It’s June 11, 1929: the first of a three-day film shoot for Judy Garland and her two sisters known as “The Gumm Sisters” at the Tec-Art Studios in Hollywood, California, for the Mayfair Pictures short “The Big Revue” (aka “The Starlet Revue”). This is Judy Garland’s film debut. She’s just
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nFupfJk4T8 Yesterday we visited Vienna in 1896. (And on Monday we visited London in 1931. It’s been that kind of week.) Today we’ll watch an AI colorization of a few mintues of ‘Berlin–Symphony Of A Metropolis’, a documentary film by Walter Ruttman shot in 1927. Click here for an excellent
In June of 1896 (127 years ago this month!) the Lumière brothers recorded this footage of simple street life in Vienna when they travelled to that city to demonstrate their invention, the Cinématographe. No other information is needed to enjoy this transportive photographic record of a world that comes thrillingly
Above is a fascinating British Pathe newsreel covering a gala event of some sort (a charity ball perhaps?) held at the Cafe De Paris in London in 1931. The impossibly elegant crowd are clothed in white tie and gowns. The dance floor is so overcrowded as to make one squirm
Here’s the original theatrical trailer for Stanley Donen’s 1967 film ‘Two For The Road’, starring Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn. Last week my trio played Henry Mancini’s gorgeous eponymous theme song at our concert in Temecula, at which we devoted a full set to title tracks from movies. Alas, I