Friday, August 28, 2020

GRANDPARENTS DAY!
















                                               Sometimes I forget I am now a grandfather!!!

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

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!

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE DRAWING BOARD.

 

                                                                          August 15, 2020

Monday, August 17, 2020

Saturday, August 15, 2020

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!

Friday, August 7, 2020

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:

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Monday, July 20, 2020

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:

You can watch the trailer here:



Saturday, July 18, 2020

SUNSET IN THE CITY

        After three weeks of beautiful sunsets in Acapulco, 
          somehow sunsets in the city are kind of a letdown...