I Just Watched...

[Lorna]

She’s a purebred Coton de Tulear or bichon frise, or something like that, looks a lot like the dog in that photo with Babs.

[Swithin]

I just now remembered, and I’m being 100% serious here:

my aunt and uncle’s dog’s sister is one of Barbra Streisand’s dogs.

Lorna, I don't want to get into any further trouble for dropping names, but along the lines of what you just mentioned:

My dog was the half sister of a dog that belonged to Lainie Kazan's aunt. (My mother got our dog from the sister of a friend, who had given a dog from a previous litter to Lainie Kazan's aunt).

[Allhallowsday]

NETWORK (1976) This movie hooks me at any point I happen to come upon it, like last night.

[umop apisdn]

also also, for them to charge twice the price, you think CRITERION would start producing some actual documentaries instead of using those VIDEO ESSAYS.

Also also, there is a CRITERION CHANNEL that you can stream for a monthly cost of something like $12.00...$14?

That Criterion streaming service is .... Bothersome. It seems you can only run it if you use it on an internet-connected TV. It does not work on an actual computer monitor. I wasted some money that way not knowing. Sigh.

I watch 99% of my movies on the Criterion Channel on my web browser on my computer. I use the latest version of Chrome. Perhaps there is some technical issue that is preventing this for you.

I also can watch on any of my TVs that I have Amazon Fire, but prefer to watch movies in a room where I can watch without interruption. I use Watch TCM from this computer too.

[Allhallowsday]

JULES (2023) Loved it.

[Masha]

Queen Kong (1976)

A sadistic movie director shanghaies a feckless young Englishman named Ray Fay to be the star of her epic movie to be filmed on the island of Lazanga where they do the Konga.

This movie is simply silly in all regards. It lacks the joie de vivre to be a bit of fluff or a gleeful romp but is never believably serious. I found it amusing but did not laugh at any point.

Sample of the wit:
Ray Fay: Lazanga where they do the Konga?
Luce Habit: Our destination, where no Englishman has ever set foot!
Ray Fay: Why has no Englishman ever set foot there?
Luce Habit: Full of Australians.

6.8/11

This movie is available for viewing for free with commercials on: TubiTV.

[ziggy6708a]

Bank of Dave (2023, Netflix)

My wife and I were searching for something to watch, and took a chance on this. I can't remember the last time we both smiled during almost the entirety of any movie.

Based on an actual event, the film follows the efforts of Dave Fishwick, who wants to start his own community bank in the British town of Burnley. Naturally the big bad bankers in London want to quash his dream and throw up some roadblocks. But with the help of a young lawyer, the townspeople, and Def Leppard (yes, you heard right), Dave fights back.

This is a delightful film filled with engaging performances, humor, and a very good story. Except for one or two f-words (which the viewer may hardly notice) this is suitable for all ages. No sex, no violence, just good old-fashioned entertainment. Very highly recommended.

saw last nite....enjoyed this Capraesque Brit flick
thanks for recommending, Rich

[TikiSoo]

thanks for recommending, Rich

Yup, gonna watch it too-THANKS!
I requested JULES too, but I'm #15 in line at the library. I can wait.

I'm also going to sign up for my library's audio streaming so I too can listen to the Streisand autobiography-THANKS Holden!

Since I cut the cord, I've been listening to NPR while I work all day. Even NPR has become so overtly political, I can no longer listen. I very much enjoyed listening to TCMs Podcasts while working, so am giving audio books a try.

[Allhallowsday]

THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968) TONY CURTIS may give his best performance in this interesting... fiction? This maybe the only film I can think of where split-screen is used effectively. A mixed bag,,,

[HoldenIsHere]

On a more felicitious note, I started looking at Barbra Streisand 's autobiography, which is almost as big as a doorstop at 969 pages, but it is extremely interesting and every word radiates her unmistakable spirit. The book interweaves her work with singing, film work, the stage, politics, and her personal life. I admit that I find the material relating to films to be the most interesting, but its a well handled book.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND her COFFEE TABLE DESIGN BOOK about HER INFAMOUS CLIFFSIDE MALIBU HOME. She has a lake. She has a water mill. She has a PRESIDENTIAL SUITE. She has A MALL IN THE BASEMENT.

...I'm thinking she also has a PADDED CELL for the occasional complete snap with reality.

She matches the sofa...

In her autobiography Barbra describes a memory from her childhood that she thinks explains why she loves the color pink.

She also recounts a childhood memory that she think may be the reason she hates the color royal blue.

[HoldenIsHere]

On a more felicitious note, I started looking at Barbra Streisand 's autobiography, which is almost as big as a doorstop at 969 pages, but it is extremely interesting and every word radiates her unmistakable spirit. The book interweaves her work with singing, film work, the stage, politics, and her personal life. I admit that I find the material relating to films to be the most interesting, but its a well handled book.

I have been listening to the audiobook version of the autobiography, read by Barbra Streisand herself.
It had me from the prologue where she referenced her description as an "amiable anteater" in a review of her Broadway stage performance of I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE.
What a treat to listen to!

Besides the wonderful history, her asides are delightful, such as the lousy potatoes at the Jewish summer camp in the Catskills that she attended at age eight.

The first chapter recounts her introduction to her step-father Louis Kind.
Ouch!

I'm looking forward to reading it. Does she write about Pins and Needles? I find that to be one of her most enjoyable recordings, particularly her rendition of "Nobody Makes a Pass at Me."

I agree that Barbra Streisand's recording of "Nobody Makes A Pass At Me" from THE PINS AND NEEDLE album is fantastic.
I discovered the CD as a kid at the wonderful Musicals section at my local library in the Chicago suburbs.

I'm only up to the part of the autobiography where Barbra moved to Manhattan after graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.
(She had to pass a swimming test to graduate.)
She recounts how she would write letters to Lee Strasberg about her observations and thoughts about the acting process while riding the subway.
She never mailed the letters, but many years later she read some of them to him at the Actors Studio in Los Angeles.
However, she did not read him the letter where she called him a "star f**ker" (a reference that she imagines was to Strasberg's relationship with Marilyn Monroe).

[jimimac71]

Okay, I just watched it yesterday during a Murder, She Wrote marathon on Great American Family.
(This is not the first time Angela Lansbury sang the song)

[Lorna]

I watched the MURDER SHE WROTE season six episode NIGHT OF THE TARANTULA.



I would like to start by stressing that- as a fan- I will gladly divide all MsW eps into three categories: good episodes (ie MURDER TAKES THE BUS and STICKS AND STONES and CROSSED UP], bad episodes [MURDER IN SAKSACHEWAN. ANYTHING WITH DENNIS STANTON] and my favorite GOOD BAD EPISODES, of which NIGHT OF THE TARANTULA is possibly the best.

it is perfectly dreadful- and I want to make it clear that I am saying that as a compliment, like the emphasis on "perfectly."

Everything about it is so delightfully, deliciously- and firmly- witless that I refuse to get mad, even at the unintentional racism...

you remember the episode of THE SIMPSONS where they reveal that MR BURNS is only alive because he has every disease in the world and they're all fighting each other? that's why this episode is so wonderfully entertaining- the sum of all the busted parts:

The terrible, and also utterly inexplicable FRENCH ACCENTS of two American actors.
The terrible faux patois spoken by many in the cast
The notion that Jamaican people do not speak with prepositions, kinda like the INJUNS in THE OLD WEST used to.
The SCOOBY DOO ending- which surely will hold up in JAMAICAN COURT.
The casting of a DEEPLY CAUCASIAN actress in the role of a JAMAICAN and most especially her reading of the line "DIS MY PLACE NOW, PAPI. I STAY HERE!!!!" and- to be fair- the line itself.
The fact that the TITULAR TARANTULA never factors into the plot, not that it would since:
TARANTULAS ARE NOT DEADLY
BOA CONSTRICTORS are not native to JAMAICA...
One characters actually utters the line "OH, THIS ISN'T TEA, REALLY- JUST SOME BOILED HERBS."
WHAT THE &*%@ DO YOU THINK TEA IS, DENISE???!!!

It never lets up. just an unending laugh riot.
i wish they had written in a subplot that JESSICA INGESTS SOME SERIOUS EDIBLES while cracking the case.

[jimimac71]

For me, there are two great Murder, She Wrote episodes:
Being a radio junky, the last episode ever, "Death By Demographics" is a favorite.
The other being "Trouble in Eden," which is supposed to be in Eden, Oregon.
You might say it's a "working girls" hotel in Eden.
The 4 (2 hour) TV movies are showing today on Great American Family.
It is normal, now that Christmas is over, for GAF to show a Murder, She Wrote marathon on Saturday and a Columbo marathon on Sunday.
The ads on GAF are enough to make a dead person scream.
The same stuff over and over.
With both of these shows, GAF increases the image so it fills a wide screen aspect ratio.
They are no better than the various Hallmark channels.
The credits at the end are all shrunk up. Sounds like something Elvis would sing.
I enjoy your posts Lorna and your avatar.
My favorite post is still the one on the TCM forum where you switched to Hulu TV!
Someday I will cut the TV wire into a million pieces and only subscribe to commercial free streaming.

[Lorna]

Aw, thanks!

I really truly wish the last three minutes of “night of the tarantula” had involved the initial appearance and arraignment of the murderer in Jamaican court.

I can just imagine the sassy Jamaican magistrate looking down from the bench and asking:

“Okay now, lemme get diss straight, diss dead man’s fami-ly went to the Party City and Dey rented a smoke machine and a buncha white greasepaint an Dey pretended to be zombies in order ta getchu to con-fess to his murder AN YOU FELL FOR IT???? WHATS WITH YOU MON?!?!?! COME ON!!!!

An’ drop dat ridiculous fake French accent- you conflatin’ Jamaica wit Haiti an it’s LAZY!”