<B>Patrick Joubert Conlon</B> (Free subscription) | 11/26/2009
When we were driving home from work this afternoon, Andy asked me what I was going to do after I had finished my "Movie stars I loved as a kid" project. I told him that I was planning a series on "American divas" like sopranos Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle but that I wanted to include singers who were not professional opera divas too. Well, I've been working my way through the...
Plymouth local history (Free subscription) | yesterday
I pass the State Cinema in Victoria Road, St Budeaux, nearly every day. Of course, it's a long time since it's had that name. I read recently that there are plans to demolish it which I think would be a great shame. In March 1939, just before the start of the Second World War, the St Budeaux cinema company was formed. They had a capital of £10,000 which was all in £1 shares. Perhaps if...
BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Sheldon Mayer's SCRIBBLY the boy cartoonist actually pre-dated National (DC) by appearing in various Dell comics. Here's a strip from a 1937 issue of THE FUNNIES in which OTR fan Scribbly (back when it was brand new !)unwittingly meets young singers Deanna Durbin and Bobby Breen, both of whom were discoveries of comedian Eddie Cantor. Pehaps surprisingly both Durbin and Breen are still alive! One wonders...
Hacking NetFlix (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
This is a guest post by Michael Ravnitzky, with titles suggested by Katherine Brosnan. Regrettably, many classic Film Noir movies are not currently available on Netflix. While a few of the films identified below are available on DVD (in unrestored and unremastered form), many are not. Want to learn more about the amazing world of film noir? Check out the website for the Film Noir Foundation (http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org)...
Laura's Miscellaneous Musings (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
J.C. Loophole of the Shelf passed on the interesting news that TCM has started a program where they will be providing Universal movies on demand . The movies available will include Paramount titles under Universal's control, with one of the first titles on sale being Paramount's terrific Christmas film REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940), starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. REMEMBER THE NIGHT will...
Laura's Miscellaneous Musings (Free subscription) | 10/20/2009
HERS TO HOLD is a musical romance set against the backdrop of World War II, with Joseph Cotten as a pilot and Deanna Durbin as the girl who loves him. Deanna reprises her role as Penny Craig from THREE SMART GIRLS (1936) and THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP (1939). Penny and her parents (Charles Winninger and Nella Walker) have relocated from the East Coast to Pasadena, California, along with their faithful...
atHome Top Story (Free subscription) | 09/26/2009
The opera singer who captured Toronto's heart 20 years ago returns to open the Telus Centre.
Laura's Miscellaneous Musings (Free subscription) | 08/31/2009
I've loved musicals virtually my entire life, but until tonight I'd never before seen the Kern-Harburg musical CAN'T HELP SINGING, starring the one and only Deanna Durbin. As I watched it I felt the thrill of discovering something really special for the very first time. Filmed largely on location in the great outdoors, CAN'T HELP SINGING tells the story of Caroline Frost (Durbin), a spirited senator's...
Laura's Miscellaneous Musings (Free subscription) | 08/26/2009
MILLION DOLLAR BABY opens with Harry Warren's jaunty "I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten Cent Store" playing over the opening credits, and from there on it continues to provide an entertaining viewing experience. The movie reunites a few members of the cast of FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938). Wealthy Cornelia Wheelwright (May Robson) learns that decades previously, her father had cheated...
Jacket Copy (Free subscription) | 07/28/2009
The Man Booker Prize longlist -- of a dozen elite literary titles -- includes one big surprise: "Me Cheeta: My Life in Hollywood." For months, publisher Fourth Estate maintained the charade that the book was an autobiography penned by a...
Laura's Miscellaneous Musings (Free subscription) | 07/07/2009
After enjoying GREEN FOR DANGER , we watched another terrific film this evening, IT STARTED WITH EVE. Two of the silver screen's most magnetic performers, Deanna Durbin and Charles Laughton, square off against each other with wonderful results. Jonathan Reynolds (Laughton) is dying and wants to meet his son's new fiancee before he passes on. The son, Johnny (Robert Cummings) can't immediately locate...
Cornish Beach Brummie (Free subscription) | 07/04/2009
So.... I've had a lovely day out with my Hubby. We went for a mooch around the shops in Truro . Had lunch in the Lounge (our favourite little spot behind the cathedral), and spent loads in our favourite surfy dude type clothes store sale. However, before we left the house, I followed my new 1940's type grooming regime. I curled my hair. Did my eyes with eye liner, with the cute little outward 1940's...
Laura's Miscellaneous Musings (Free subscription) | 06/23/2009
THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP finds charming Deanna Durbin reprising her role as Penny from THREE SMART GIRLS (1936). Penny, ever the "Little Miss Fix-It" -- as Durbin herself once referred to her typical role -- works her magic to ensure that her sisters' romances turn out happily. Nan Gray returns as Penny's sister Joan, while the other "smart girl," Kay, is played by Helen Parrish...
A Wee Dram or Three (Free subscription) | 05/18/2009
Nephew brought some LP's.....err...Albums....OK, VINYL!!!!! They had been up in his loft for millenia!! The idea was that I would convert them to MP3 format and burn them to CD!! I am embarassed to say that I was singing along...
DaveKehr.com (Free subscription) | 05/03/2009
Three handsome Technicolor restorations from MGM DVD slipped in under cover of darkness this week: the ungainly but gorgeously designed “The Goldwyn Follies” (1938), Howard Hawks’s lackadaisical but gorgeously shot 1948 “A Song Is Born” (fodder for those jazz buffs who have commandeered the Oshima thread, but not too much, I hope), and William [...]
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