Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

LIZ AND DICK ON LOCATION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0syJQgFSzI4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUTWLNBl2k “The Sandpiper” (1965) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is best known today for its theme song, Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster’s immortal ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’. The film has generally been dismissed as weak-tea soap opera with pretentious thematic references to the bird the film is

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DEAN MARTIN & FRANK SINATRA ON FORD STARTIME (?)

Yesterday I posted a wonderful and somewhat mysterious clip of Dean Martin and Don Knotts from a Dino TV special that aired on November 1, 1960. Today I’m sharing another clip from this rather obscure show featuring Frank Sinatra. It’s a parody of ‘This Is Your Life’ with Dino in

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MARTIN & KNOTTS or DEAN & DON; A COMEDY TEAM IN THE MAKING

Here’s a terrific sketch from a 1959 Dean Martin special featuring Dean and Don Knotts who plays the role of Frank Sinatra…sort of. The two are terrific together and one can only speculate what might have been if they’d teamed up for a couple of movies. By this point Dino’s

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SATURDAY STOOGEFEST

‘All The World’s A Stooge’ is the 55th short subject made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Saturday, August 24th through Wednesday, August 28th 1940 and was released on Friday, May 16th 1941. The plot–such as it is–has to do with European child war refugees,

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JERRY LEWIS GOOFS PT.2–‘THE PATSY’

Here’s a funny little reel of outtakes from ‘The Patsy’, a 1964 Jerry Lewis vehicle starring and directed by Buddy Love–er, Jerry. This film, along with ‘The Bellboy’, ‘The Errand Boy’ and ‘The Ladies Man’ mark for me the peak of Jerry’s solo career as a comic and director. After

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THE LOST CLARA BOW; ‘THREE WEEK-ENDS’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JzIhWg2R2chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2mvN9x_Egc The concept of a ‘lost film’–in other words a film that there is proof of having been made but no known print extant–is a terribly sad one. But the concept of a fragment of a lost film surviving is downright ghostly. Oftentimes these scraps of otherwise vanished films are

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A CURLY HOWARD MINI-DOC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTLnUXDKgBs Having missed my usual Saturday Three Stooges posting (what can I say–the dog ate my homework) I’m posting this excellent short doc (18 minutes) about the great Jerome ‘Curly’ Howard. Titled ‘A Victim Of Circumstance”, it was compiled edited and narrated by Joe Ramoni whose other YouTube mini-docs I’m

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THE OUTTAKES OF JERRY LEWIS

Here’s a six minute reel of outtakes from ‘The Disorderly Orderly’, a 1964 Jerry Lewis vehicle written and directed by Frank Tashlin. Some of them–most of them?–are self-imposed goofs, things Jerry does on purpose to make the crew and other cast members laugh. Why would he waste time doing this?

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ANNETTE FUNICELLO; FLAPPER FLIP?

Poor Annette. Rarely (if ever) has such a sweet, winsome and charming personality been saddled with so much drecky material. If yesterday’s ‘Rock-A-Cha’ wasn’t bad enough, try today’s ‘Rock-A-Charleston’ (AKA ‘Flapper Flip’), a beyond-embarrassing novelty number combining the worst of the 1920s with the worst of the late 50s/early 60s

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ANNETTE FUNICELLO–PT. 1

My research project this week in all about Annette Funicello. Since I’m loathe to rewatch any of ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ shows I’m beginning with post-MMC Annette, though pre-Frankie Avalon. This is right between the two Annette’s–1961 is a couple of years prior to ‘Beach Party’–and she’s still the wholesome

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