I’m always so happy when I go back and watch a few episodes of, say, Green Acres and still have a rollicking good time. Which makes up for revisiting, say, Here Come the Brides or The Time Tunnel, which I used to cherish and which are just so padded and slow and…not as good as when I was a pup.
We still get a kick out of "Hogan's Heroes," which featured myriad character actors, including several who also appeared in "Green Acres." We tried "The Time Tunnel" but it is unwatchable today.
Well, to be fair, my piece was supposed to be the cheering, cheerful lead-up to their screwball series. I suppose I might have informed my editor that my chosen film was a stinker before I wrote the essay. Anyway, it all worked out fine with my Theodora Goes Wild essay, in which I got to reuse at least one entire paragraph. 🤷🏻♂️
You remind me of my encounter with The Hand of Ethelberta, a lesser-known book by Thomas Hardy that I spotted in a bookstore and decided to buy. It came with a glowing blurb on the back, so this Thomas Hardy fan was sold. For some reason I skipped the foreword and went straight to the novel itself. This might be the reason I always read forewords now, because the essence of the foreword was that this was a terrible book, not at all worthy of being included in the canon of great Thomas Hardy books that we've all heard of like Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Return of the Native. So I gather they were looking for the blurb on the back from you but you gave them the foreword.
Thank you! I popped back into the piece to tinker (as I often do after I've posted something; I'm like that, though it's not one of my best habits) and took out the "ca.," even though we don't know quite when Twelfth Night was written. I figure if you're going to make a joke, just make it.
Never mind the movie, it seems to me that the commissioning editor - way back when - just got it all wrong.
Any piece that makes reference to both dick swinging and bullwhip-wielding brutality gets my vote. And when the rest of it is as funny as this, I, for one, am very appreciative.
And, a quick question, what is Judith Anderson’s Mrs Danvers doing in the final photo?
Definitely worth bringing out of the vault. The definition of the Trotter Poll made me laugh out loud and the "dully respectable milquetoast capon wearing a cardigan sweater" description was perfection.
I could read your writing on movies all day long; in fact, I think your essay on Theodora Goes Wild might be the first thing in your oeuvre that I ever read, so that was an auspicious beginning. It's a bummer they didn't go with this piece on Murder, He Says because you have a way of making a bad film seem intriguing, even as one knows it will be just as bad as you say it will be.
Fred MacMurray is an interesting actor: hot as hell in Double Indemnity and a total mensch in Remember the Night, but then . . . a lot of flubber. (It's not impossible that it comes down to Stanwyck bringing out his best. She certainly had star power to spare.)
Thank you, Steven. It was just the right essay at the wrong time in the wrong place, I think; I’m happy I found a half-decent excuse to put it out there. (And of course I’m happy I got to write about my beloved Irene as a result of the mistiming.)
I do like to write about movies (of course), and I hope I write about them like someone who watches them and not like someone who writes about them, if you catch my old drifteroonie.
(Apologies if you've gotten multiple notifications that I've edited the comment above; besides correcting the name of Irene Dunne's movie, I'm trying to figure out how to italicize text in comments and so far none of the internet's suggestions has worked.)
I find sometimes that if I encase something in the comments in asterisks it transforms into italics, but then as soon as I post whatever it is, the italics disappear. So I've given up trying to figure it out. And no, I don't get a notification of editing/revision: merely of original posting. So no worries (not that either of us should worry).
I've been watching some of the movies you mentioned positively in this note. Among them, as it worked out, the Bob Hope movies 'Cat and the Canary' and 'The Ghost Breakers'. A pretty girl inherits a fortune and a haunted mansion. She and Bob Hope, who plays a wise-cracking radio personality, stay the night in the mansion. How many times did he make that movie?
"Not even Eb." ❤️
You lost me with your disrespect for Fred MacMurray and the sitcom I loved, I admit I do love your writing.
It would be rather dull around here, or around anywhere, if we all liked the same things.
When I was a kid, it was very sufferable. Today, it's harder to watch.
I imagine that's true. I don't watch TV much anymore, so am saved from that particular disappointment. But I still think Fred MacMurray was great.
I’m always so happy when I go back and watch a few episodes of, say, Green Acres and still have a rollicking good time. Which makes up for revisiting, say, Here Come the Brides or The Time Tunnel, which I used to cherish and which are just so padded and slow and…not as good as when I was a pup.
We still get a kick out of "Hogan's Heroes," which featured myriad character actors, including several who also appeared in "Green Acres." We tried "The Time Tunnel" but it is unwatchable today.
A fine review. I stopped reviewing for places that want you to enjoy it. That costs more than they can afford to pay...
Well, to be fair, my piece was supposed to be the cheering, cheerful lead-up to their screwball series. I suppose I might have informed my editor that my chosen film was a stinker before I wrote the essay. Anyway, it all worked out fine with my Theodora Goes Wild essay, in which I got to reuse at least one entire paragraph. 🤷🏻♂️
You remind me of my encounter with The Hand of Ethelberta, a lesser-known book by Thomas Hardy that I spotted in a bookstore and decided to buy. It came with a glowing blurb on the back, so this Thomas Hardy fan was sold. For some reason I skipped the foreword and went straight to the novel itself. This might be the reason I always read forewords now, because the essence of the foreword was that this was a terrible book, not at all worthy of being included in the canon of great Thomas Hardy books that we've all heard of like Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Return of the Native. So I gather they were looking for the blurb on the back from you but you gave them the foreword.
Ha ha ha! Well put!
>blush<
"To say nothing, now that I think of it, of Twelfth Night (ca. 1601)." <applause>
Thank you! I popped back into the piece to tinker (as I often do after I've posted something; I'm like that, though it's not one of my best habits) and took out the "ca.," even though we don't know quite when Twelfth Night was written. I figure if you're going to make a joke, just make it.
Never mind the movie, it seems to me that the commissioning editor - way back when - just got it all wrong.
Any piece that makes reference to both dick swinging and bullwhip-wielding brutality gets my vote. And when the rest of it is as funny as this, I, for one, am very appreciative.
And, a quick question, what is Judith Anderson’s Mrs Danvers doing in the final photo?
THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES—Abbott and Costello’s best! (Though I’m also very fond of JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, especially in its gorgeous new restoration.)
Definitely worth bringing out of the vault. The definition of the Trotter Poll made me laugh out loud and the "dully respectable milquetoast capon wearing a cardigan sweater" description was perfection.
Thank you! (It's a pretty good line, that Trotter bit, yes.)
I can understand why they didn't want to use it, considering what they wanted it for.
Still, it's a delightful piece, and I'm glad you were able to repurpose it here, where we can enjoy it despite its being a tad shy on boosterism.
I could read your writing on movies all day long; in fact, I think your essay on Theodora Goes Wild might be the first thing in your oeuvre that I ever read, so that was an auspicious beginning. It's a bummer they didn't go with this piece on Murder, He Says because you have a way of making a bad film seem intriguing, even as one knows it will be just as bad as you say it will be.
Fred MacMurray is an interesting actor: hot as hell in Double Indemnity and a total mensch in Remember the Night, but then . . . a lot of flubber. (It's not impossible that it comes down to Stanwyck bringing out his best. She certainly had star power to spare.)
Thank you, Steven. It was just the right essay at the wrong time in the wrong place, I think; I’m happy I found a half-decent excuse to put it out there. (And of course I’m happy I got to write about my beloved Irene as a result of the mistiming.)
I do like to write about movies (of course), and I hope I write about them like someone who watches them and not like someone who writes about them, if you catch my old drifteroonie.
(Apologies if you've gotten multiple notifications that I've edited the comment above; besides correcting the name of Irene Dunne's movie, I'm trying to figure out how to italicize text in comments and so far none of the internet's suggestions has worked.)
I find sometimes that if I encase something in the comments in asterisks it transforms into italics, but then as soon as I post whatever it is, the italics disappear. So I've given up trying to figure it out. And no, I don't get a notification of editing/revision: merely of original posting. So no worries (not that either of us should worry).
I've been watching some of the movies you mentioned positively in this note. Among them, as it worked out, the Bob Hope movies 'Cat and the Canary' and 'The Ghost Breakers'. A pretty girl inherits a fortune and a haunted mansion. She and Bob Hope, who plays a wise-cracking radio personality, stay the night in the mansion. How many times did he make that movie?
When it works, it works! BTW, the original silent version of The Cat and the Canary is rather spooky and rather funny and rather a fun time.
Hope's 'The Ghost Breakers' is quite good. I couldn't get through more than 30 minutes of his 'Cat and the Canary'.