I was surprised to read in Randy Skervedt’s excellent book ‘Laurel & Hardy–The Magic Behind The Movies’ that ‘The Finishing Touch’ (1928) was considered something of a disappointment in its day–Stan Laurel, a notoriously discerning craftsman, apparently felt that it could have been much better. Five years later some of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDZAzkUL5B0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DunNsrvr51A&t=278s Probably the most famous of L&H’s silent films, ‘Liberty’ is an entry into the ‘thrill comedy’ genre as exemplified by the stuntwork of Harold Lloyd’s famous comedy ‘The Freshman’ as well as any number of death-defying stunts performed by Buster Keaton. Part of the machismo of the knockabout comedian
Today’s tour of Culver City in the 1920s also includes the silent L&H classic ‘Big Business’. Shot in 1929, the classic short gives us charming views of the slow-to-be-built Cheviot Hills/Culver City adjacent area, with many empty lots and a few houses under construction that can be seen in the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkZvopfW85Qhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgeHDOtW75k&t=94s My three-way tie for greatest Laurel and Hardy short is ‘Helpmates’, ‘Brats’, ‘Music Box’ and today’s film, ‘Hog Wild’. Notice that I said THREE way tie and then mentioned FOUR films. Now having said that, picture me saying it to Stan and Stan counting the ‘three’ titles on his
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB-MRV0Axb8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AczHhFKw7ns&list=RDCMUCsp_AoKt3DdHb65j4ehrDug&index=1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1a_vcMVE3E&t=10s The delightful week between Christmas and New Years is here, the one in which there is no true clock to adhere to since nobody’s really anywhere or doing anything (unless of course you have a job like a real person). My preference for this cherished week has always been
After his star turn in MGM’s ‘Don Juan’ (1956), Ricky and Lucy Ricardo left Hollywood and returned back east. Ricky now was able to open his own club (the ‘Club Babalu’) and, being good mid-century citizens, they decided to flee the city and move to suburban Westport, Connecticut. A wonderful
Lucille Ball’s post-Desi Arnaz divorce show, ‘The Lucy Show’, ran for six seasons (1962-1968) and had five different title sequences. Was it because of dissatisfaction on the producer/stars part? Or were the title sequence creators so inventive that it seemed a shame not to keep them employed in developing further
Apropos of yesterdays animated TV credit sequences, I went searching for the original ‘I Love Lucy’ animated opening credits. I found it–but, as is often the case with YouTube, I found something even more interesting on my way. It turns out that a pilot episode of ‘I Love Lucy’ was
“Three Little Beers’ (1935) is the eleventh two-reel comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Wednesday, October 9th through Saturday, October 12th 1935 and was released on Thursday, November 28th of that year. According to Wikipedia the film features more outdoor locations than any
YouTube mash-ups are generally not my thing but this exceptionally well crafted combo of Ann-Margret dancing from three different movies to ‘Shot Gun’ by Junior Walker and The All-Stars is a major exception. The clips are from ‘The Swinger’, ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ and ‘Viva Las Vegas’. As this video amply