SEAN CONNERY'S 90th BIRTHDAY!

 As Sir Sean Connery reaches the 90 year mark, I'd like to post my 20 favorite Connery non-Bond films. 

                                     

                                  

                                  

                               

                                    

And of course, he's still the best James Bond ever!

 

HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY, SIR SEAN CONNERY!

2020 : THE YEAR WE LOST

 

LOCKDOWN COMPANIONS

I think I'm developing a love connection with my pillow!

THE MASK REBELLION

 

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE DRAWING BOARD.

 

                                                                          August 15, 2020

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER...

 

                                               The coronavirus pandemic is still at large!

SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN sung by Frank Sinatra

        This great tune was released on Sinatra's 1961 album SINATRA'S SWINGIN' SESSION!!! 

Arrangements and orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle, featuring Buddy Collette on tenor sax and flutes.

 

You can listen to it here!

OUT TO LUNCH

 

ALEXA

 

Do you control your device or does it control you?

ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT...

 

...gently down the stream.    Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream!

OLLIE!

 Oliver Hardy passed on this date, August 7th, 1957 at 65 years of age. When his on stage and screen partner, Stan Laurel heard the news, he was devastated and from then on, refused to perform on stage or act in another film again. Ever since they became partners in 1927, he thought of himself as half of an entity called Laurel & Hardy and consequentially, without Hardy there couldn't be any Laurel. That's how close they were. Their friendship had blossomed during their fading years when, out of work in movies, they began to tour appearing live before delighted audiences in the U.S. and abroad.  Ollie was by this time, married to Virginia Lucille Jones, a script girl he met while filming THE FLYING DEUCES.  Stan was married to Ida Kitaeva Raphael and the four of them struck a very close friendship during those tours.

Many people think of Hardy as being the perfect straight man to Laurel but in fact, there was no straight man in this team since Ollie shared the comedy equally with Stan.  You could laugh at Stan's fumblings and get another laugh watching Ollie's reaction to his pal's blunders, which did not keep Hardy from committing some equally hilarious bits of slapstick himself!

Here's a link to last year's post on Oliver Hardy:

https://ferllera.blogspot.com/2019/08/oliver-hardy-genius-of-comedy.html

THE GODZILLA YEAR!

2020 has definitely not been the great year we hoped for back in January.  And it's getting even worse every day.  However...hopes still run high that somehow it will get better before December.   Like every Godzilla movie, after the mass destruction comes the happy ending where the ugly monster finally disappears. That is, until the next sequel!

 

THE ULTIMATE MATCH!

This opponent is hard to beat!

THE COVID ACTIVITY WORKBOOK

THE ONGOING BATTLE AGAINST THE CORONAVIRUS!

THE COVID BULL

The fight we are all having!

The COVID Maze Puzzle

                                                     If you can't, then wear a mask, dummy!

COVID VACCINE

                                                        At this point, nobody knows for sure.

LAUREL & HARDY : The Definitive Restorations

Finally, after a long wait, the Laurel & Hardy Definitive Restorations DVD and Blu-Ray discs were released on June 30th and a joyous occasion it was for the countless fans who were eagerly awaiting for this event!

And it was everything it was supposed to be.  The films look better than ever. The sharpness, detail and sound are exactly like they must have been when first released, almost 90 years ago.

I won't go into any details here because every Tom, Dick and Harry have posted their opinions on the social networks and I will not be adding my comments to them as I'm not interested in being a critic or reviewer, but mark my words, these films look gorgeous as never before.

The only drawback is that it's not a complete set. Laurel and Hardy appeared in about 106 films together, between 1917 and 1951 and this volume covers a mere fraction of that, which only wets L&H fans' appetite for more restorations.

Hopefully, there will be further volumes coming sometime but for the time being, let's enjoy what we have! Welcome back again, Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy!

For more details on this Blu-Ray and DVD release, check here:

https://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Definitive-Restorations-Blu-ray/dp/B084P3S7NJ

You can watch the trailer here:

SUNSET IN THE CITY

        After three weeks of beautiful sunsets in Acapulco, 

          somehow sunsets in the city are kind of a letdown...

Life Forecast

          Apparently, far from going away, the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely to spread even more!

The Wonderful World of Digital Photos!

No matter how good a digital HD camera can be, nothing compares to the real thing!

MY TEN MOST-WATCHED FILMS

I've seen quite a lot of films during my 69 years of life but just a chosen few have been revisited by me over and over again for different reasons.  This here is a list of the first 10 films I know I have seen more than a 100 times, although there are more than 50 in my complete most-watched checklist. The question people may ask about this is: why watch a film over and over again when you've already seen it and know every scene by heart? Isn't once enough?
If you have your own MOST-WATCHED FILMS tally, then you know the answer!

And without any further explanation, here we go:

THUNDERBALL (1965)

BULLITT (1968)

GOLDFINGER (1964)

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)

CASABLANCA (1943)

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975)

THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)

WAY OUT WEST (1937)

THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

CHARADE (1963)

I'll post 10 more in a later chapter.

SIXTY-NINE!

If sex was a number, it would be sixty nine. In numerology, 69 is a number of idealism,  family and harmony. It is also a number of health and compassion.  It is the natural number following 68 and preceding 70.  In roman numerals, it's LXIX.  

                  Whatever it means, one thing is certain: I am getting older but not any wiser.
                     And as long as I can keep getting birthdays, everything will be just fine!