Three Portraits
Newly scanned pieces—firstly, Shatner as Kirk, for Steve on the occasion of his birthday… a portrait of 1940s Bogart… and finally, a nice scan of the Moe Howard piece I posted a photo of here.
film noir
Burt Lancaster Season
This is by way of an “extra” to my Viewings postings (the one for the fourth quarter of 2021 is coming up in January). Anyhow: Burt Lancaster.
Burt Lancaster with Ava Gardner—his screen debut in Robert Siodmak’s superlative THE KILLERS (1946).
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2021 Viewing (Q3)
Yes, it’s that time—the year’s third-quarter viewings—Q2 can be viewed here.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents season 6 (DVD)
Wanted Dead Or Alive seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Have Gun Will Travel season 3 (DVD)
Orson Welles Great Mysteries season 1 (DVD)
The Phil Silvers Show seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Flash Gordon 1936 serial (DVD)
Commentary follows…
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2021 Viewing (Q2)
Continuing what is now a tradition, albeit a month late, and following the previous post back in April (sorry to be gone so long, but I promise there’s a bunch of new posts coming up!), here are the viewings from the second quarter of 2021… some of which were obviously started in Q1 but completed in Q2!
The Rebel (Johnny Yuma) season 2 (DVD)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents season 5 (DVD)
Have Gun Will Travel seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Department S series 1 (Blu-ray)
Star Trek: The Original Series seasons 1-2 (Blu-ray)
Commentary follows…
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2021 Viewing (Q1)
As a follow-up to this post, let’s look at the viewing from the first quarter of this esteemed, classic year we’re currently honoured to be enduring experiencing…
The Loner season 1 (DVD)
The Rebel (Johnny Yuma) season 1 (DVD)
Stoney Burke season 1 (DVD)
Alfred Hitchcock Hour seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Naked City season 1 (DVD)
A bit of commentary…
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New Film Project: Triangle
Well, Triangle is the provisional title, at least… maybe we’ll keep it… anyhow, I finished the first draft of the script last night, small extract below. The film, which should run about 20 minutes, is a neo-noir set in Birmingham and we’re gonna do it in glorious black & white!! It’s quite hard-boiled and the ‘second act’ is more than a little Sin City in tone.
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Shades of Noir
Just picked up the book Shades of Noir, a collection of essays on the subject from a modern perspective.
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London Stuff
My London trip last Friday went well. It was nice to have a break from all this house move stuff. The new place is still a mess and I’m starting to find it rather depressing. I know it’ll be sorted out eventually, but meanwhile, life is damned uncomfortable.
Anyway, London: I only got one half-decent snap. This is the Golden Jubilee Bridge, which Paul and I crossed to reach the South Bank and the National Film Theatre.
Touch of Evil (1958)
Well, Big Entry time! I started writing a few lines about the film we watched last night… and quickly found I could either say, ‘It’s great! A must-see!’ or I could do the full review thing. So I put my journalist hat on. Be warned! I could’ve written twice as much, but I forcibly contained it within reasonable limits for a blog entry.
Classic Movie Review!
Orson Welles was originally hired simply as an actor on 1958’s Touch of Evil. It was his co-star, Charlton Heston, who urged Universal to hire him also as director. Welles jumped at the chance—he hadn’t directed in Hollywood since Macbeth (1948). Sadly, his relationship with the studio deteriorated rapidly, and what he thought would be his big-studio ‘comeback’ turned out to be the end of the road.
The Third Man (1949)
Blogging the midnight oil! I remembered there was, after all, something worth commenting on from last week, and so, I present…
Classic Movie Mini-Review!
Last Thursday night, we watched The Third Man (1949). I hadn’t seen it in about ten years. I spotted the video for £3.99 (in Virgin) and snapped it up. Well, what a movie! Orson Welles—need I say more? Yes. Welles has no creative role here; the story is Graham Greene’s and the direction is Carol Reed’s (Ollie Reed’s uncle). The setting is post-War Vienna, both beautiful and yet still ravaged by the conflict. The story is about the black market, an apparently dead racketeer and a ‘third man’… to say any more would be a spoiler. The emphasis is totally on atmosphere.
