Monday Madness, Too: Couples Retail Therapy, 1932 Style!

Posted on July 8, 2013 by geelw

Wait, What? “CHECK YOUR HUSBAND??” OK, right! Yeah, you WISH that mall near you or five states away offered this particular service. You’d be dragging that battle-axe out every other day to peruse some shoes just so you could pay a dollar to get tagged, shuffled into the back and woman-handled for a bit while your wifey-poo gets her Blahnik fetish taken care of. And if there’s an artist side of your better half, a trip out for some Secs in the city with a little baggage room squeezin’ on the side? Certeza, porque não? (Você só vai entender essa piada se você falar mal traduzido Português, pela maneira… Obrigado, bing!). I don’t know what film this is from, but I can see this taking off fast in some states where a handful of wealthy fatcats make more than the entire middle class in their area and feel entitled to do endure such treatment on a regular basis. That’s one sure way to make an economy boom – make everyone giddy because those who have the money are making it rain down on those who don’t…

Yeah, right – that trickle down stuff only happens when some drunk bazillionaire “accidentally” pees on his chauffeur who’s trying to extract him from the back seat of that hideous stretch Bentley or has done so, but is trying to keep him away from the koi pond…

Monday Madness: It’s A Jungle Out There! Dancing is Permitted.

Posted on July 8, 2013 by geelw

(thanks GoodOldDaysReturns!)

Yeah, so… how’s that well-chilled cubicle treating you to-day? Same ol’ same ol’, right? Gals yammering away around the water cooler or microwave about their weekend and hair, hair, hair in this humidity, guys doing the same but skipping the hair talk save for sharing man-scaping tips (eww and yikes, that hair can save your life one day!), and yeah, there’s that room-shaking sound again. That’s right, kids – It’s the big boss bellowing out of his cave every so often like a really hungry but even more lazy bear. Yeah, yeah, yeah- that’s a proper classic Monday for you. “Illegitimum non carborundum” and all that stuff. Just don’t start the drinking until AFTER work, chief. Nothing like coming back from that one hangover lunch and still have three or four hours to grind away. OK then – I’ll let you get back to your boulder, Sisyphus -hope you enjoyed the strange sights above…

Random Film of the Week: Yankee Doodle Dandy

Posted on July 5, 2013 by geelw

Like most Hollywood musical biographies, Yankee Doodle Dandy plays fast and loose with its versions of the facts, but also does a really fine job of keeping you hooked in thanks to great casting, a zippy pace and plenty of great, memorable scenes. James Cagney’s performance as George M. Cohan is thrilling enough (he rightfully won an Academy Award for it), but every other actor playing a major role here does an excellent job or keeping up with Cagney’s fast-talking, speak-singing, loose-limbed portrayal of the legendary multi-talented entertainer.

Released in 1942 to a country recently plunged into the Second World War, the sheer level of flag-waving, heart-clutching, voice booming Pledge of Allegiance patriotism here is eye-popping to the point of unintentionally funny, but it manages to works flawlessly as a morale booster of the highest order. It’s also a pretty decent comedy when it needs to be, as George’s early days are well-played by a young actor who nails his part for some early comic gold before succeeding his part to the snappier, snazzier Cagney.

Continue reading →

“Moses Supposes” SOME of You Need A Laugh Right About Now…

Posted on July 3, 2013 by geelw

How’s your Wednesday going? OK? Good. Get lost. This one’s for the gloomy crew out there suffering because they have a long weekend vacation with people they’d want to put IN a cooler or on a grill and not have to drive a few dozen to hundred miles just to get the usual yearly family feeding frenzy (one of many the holidays have devolved into). If that’s you, yeah – wash away those bad thoughts with a cold something and catch a little wordplay and fancy dancing from Kelly and O’Connor in this clip from Singin’ in the Rain. What,you were expecting something from Yankee Doodle Dandy? Well, that’s supposed to be a Random Film of the Week post one of these days (and perhaps even tomorrow if I can swing it and have the time to run it up the flagpole here). Anyway,I like this sequence because it’s just so dumb on paper, but perfect as a moving image. Enjoy and maybe drag one of those relatives you’re cranky at to watch it as well – it’s nice to share, you know…

Random Film BUY of the Week: Shout Factory Gets The Producers Back on Stage!

Posted on July 2, 2013 by geelw

Well, not back on Broadway, bubbeleh… but as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack for you to buy and own. Thank you, Shout Factory!! Anyway, I say you ab-solutely need a copy of The Producers: Collector’s Edition because it’s PERFECT for those crappy days any time of the year when you want to pop something laughing. or those great days where you want to pop something laughing. Oh,and that that *new* Drew Friedman cover? Gorgeous! I say shaddup and buy this if you haven’t seen it yet (sure,sure – the play is funny, but the film is better and cheaper, I say!), then round up some of your friends and invite them over for a nice laugh or a hundred. Of course, they’ll be bringing food. There’s ALWAYS food when you want to have a little get-together, right? You want to come over too? Sure, sure – just call me, and I’ll make a nice chicken (plain, in the oven!)…

Monday Got You Down Again? Call A Cab & The Brothers Will Bring You Up!

Posted on July 1, 2013 by geelw

Yeah, that rain outside stinks today! It certainly slowed my productivity down considerably. Anyway, you had a REALLY crappy day at work, right? Well, I wish I’d posted this earlier…(sorry!). Anyway, here’s some Stormy Weather for you, complete with possibly the best classic tap routine on film from The Nicholas Brothers. If you’re not energized and bouncing around the room by the end of this, you may want to ring up an undertaker. Yeah, you can dance around the room, you know. Only the cat is watching and it really doesn’t give a hoot… unless you’ve forgotten to feed it and it’s looking at you funny.

Random Film of the Week(end): The Man With Two Brains

Posted on June 29, 2013 by geelw

Depending on the mood you’re in, The Man With Two Brains will either be the dumbest movie you ever saw or you’ll be laughing so much that you’ll need to rewind some scenes a few times just to take them in and make sure your eyes were functioning properly. Of course, the truth is the film actually slides between both ends of that particular scale and pretty much doesn’t care whether you get every joke it throws at you.

That was pretty much the template for most of Steve Martin’s comedies back in the day before he settled into those more mundane and family friendly big box office reliable flicks that make some of his older fans cringe because they can see he’s just collecting a better paycheck rather than doing the comedy (or music, as the man can play a mean banjo!) he probably wants to.
Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: The Incredible Shrinking Man

Posted on June 28, 2013 by geelw

So, the great horror/sci-fi/fantasy/ author Richard Matheson passed away last Sunday and I’ll have to admit that I hadn’t thought much about him lately until a few months back when on of Jack Arnold’s best films popped up on TCM at an ungodly hour and I sat glued to the TV once more with a fine bit of top shelf “B” movie bliss . I hadn’t seen The Incredible Shrinking Man in a few years, so I was glad to stop the clock on the work I was doing and spend a little time catching up with a few old friends.

Matheson and an uncredited Richard Alan Simmons wrote the film (from Matheson’s own novel The Shrinking Man) and unlike a lot of 50’s sci-fi featuring gigantic radioactive mutated versions of normal creatures, it’s lead character Robert Scott Carey (a great performance by Grant Williams) who gets scaled down in size after his radiation exposure. I recall the novel was even darker in tone and had some scenes that certainly wouldn’t fly past the censors of the era, but I’ll let the readers in the crowd find all that out on their own time.

Continue reading →

Mutt to Do on a Monday? Let it Go to the Dogs, I Say!

Posted on June 24, 2013 by geelw

(thank you, Wayne Barker woof!!)

So, you boss is still barking at you about that report, eh? You get in earlier than he does, do twenty-two times the work and you still get treated like a sled dog, hmmmm? Well, take a break while he’s out at lunch or chasing after that secretary and get a chuckle from Carl Emmy and His Mad Wags. Even if you’re a cat person, your Monday has just gotten lighter and a bit less dogged (hopefully and paradoxically)…

Random Film of the Week(end) – (Summer Edition!): Ball of Fire

Posted on June 22, 2013 by geelw

(thank you, Victor Creed!)

Imagine this as a movie idea today: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with Snow being an extremely talented exotic dancer type and those dwarfs a bunch of stuffy but eager to learn elderly eggheads she ends up hanging out with to teach them all the things they didn’t know. Once you get your eyeballs above the obvious jiggle-tease material and plentiful opportunities for modern day humor sixteen writers working together come up with, the results would probably be pretty darn terrible.

I can see the trailer now: two minutes, thirty eight or so of slow-mo cleavage shots and some special guest cameo coot rattling off one-liners, plus someone getting hit in the nether regions with a golf, basket or other ball, maybe a nice pratfall, a fart joke, a fat girl joke and some annoying music on that soundtrack that doesn’t even fit. Yeah, that’s not a movie I’d want to see at all. Fortunately, Howard Hawks’ 1941 film Ball of Fire takes the Snow White and thanks to a wonderfully funny and sassy Barbara Stanwyck helping loosen up those old guys (and an even stuffier Gary Cooper), a great script and plenty of screwball humor, it still holds up today as a total riot.

Continue reading →