Strange thing. I remember reading the Bradbury novel, and seeing the movie. But, I am now watching the movie and I can’t seem to remember it at all. Oh, I remember the basic story, but I don’t seem to remember any of the details. I remember the carnival coming to town, and of course Mr. Dark. What I’m not sure of is how different the book is from the movie. I will have to read it again.

So far the movie is very good. But now my youngest just stopped it to watch a TV show… Hmm, am I going to have to get another TV just to watch what I want? I guess not, she’ll be leaving on her own soon enough.

What I did find out is that Bradbury actually adopted his novel and wrote not only the screen play for the 1983 movie, but a stage play and radio play. The stage play was written in 2003… Wonder what the royalties on that show would be. Could it be done on a small stage? Where would the Carousel fit? I would love to play Mr Dark… Hmmm…

Maybe we could do another “Stage” version of this play.

Interesting.

It was a happy and sad time today. Our show ended and we ended the day tearing down the set. Life outside the theater can begin again. Things can be accomplished, chores done and life again resumes. There are movies to see, books to read, daughters to tend to. From daughters and their new families, marriages, graduations, starting college life goes on. My life in the theater ceases until after the fall. There will be shows, they will do it without me.

There is talk of taking our show to the OCTA regional competition this June, unfortunately, I will not be able to make it. My daughter is planing her wedding for the same weekend. Family comes first. I don’t think I would miss a wedding.

This fall, my oldest is expecting her first child. This will also take up a bit of time or more.

My youngest is finishing her final year of high school, and plans to attend college next fall. This will also take up much of my time.

Life does not stand still, life move on.

More thoughts on our show in another post. It was an event that many enjoyed but it was still too few. I’m not sure how to get the word out to more, but they missed one of the best shows I’ve been involved with.

But a prince ain’t bad either.  First rehearsal after the read through.  It is interesesting how everyone is getting into their characters.  We have a good cast, and we already developing some very intresting personallities.  Should be a lot of fun.   

I have some verly good lines and good interaction with the other actors.  As with all my acting experiences, I hope to learn something in this stage experience.  With the actors on stage and the directors out in front, I’m sure it will happen again.

Now just a bit of trivia, while the line “It’s good to be the king” is not said exactly in this play, the sentiment is there.  This line was said often in a couple of Mel Brooks’ movies and one of his stage plays.  Extra point for any who can name all three and another movie that used the line.

The year 2009 would have been my 25 wedding anniversary, so these are movies of my married and widowed life.

Well, Entertainment Weekly published their 25 favorite Comedies of the past 25 years. I was sure that some of my favorite comedies would make the list. Strange thing is, most of the comedies they mentioned, I never saw. Some of the ones I saw, I didn’t really like. Some that I didn’t like are liked by some friends of mine…. I must have a weird sense of comedy. Of Their selection, the number 1 and number 3 were on my list of top comedies. Mel Brooks produced three comedies in the past 25 years, and none of them are on this list. I guess I’m just out of it.

Given time, I will come up with my own best comedies of the past 25 years. I’ll have to dig out the dates of the comedies I enjoy. Just so you know, I imagine both Space Balls and Robin Hood: Men in Tights will be on my list. Also included would be Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters, the two movies I like that made Entertainment Weekly’s list.

Just finished watching the animated version of Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. This was a fairly faithful adaptation of the Dr Seuss book. With Boris Karloff (Frankenstein’s Monster, The Mummy and other horror stories from the black and white era) as the narrator and the voice of the Grinch. I watched this show as a child, and with my family when the girls were much younger. We do tend to watch the old standbys year after year. The stories hold up for young and old.

My lovely wife used to love all these Christmas animated classics. Charlie Brown’s Christmas, the Grinch, Frosty, Rudolph and I may be missing one or two. With a version or two of the Christmas Carol, our holiday view was full.

This all culminated, not with another movie, but with dear old dad reading “A night before Christmas”. I’m not exactly sure when it started, but when my oldest was 18 she still wanted me to read it.

I’m going to try to do it a little different this year. Future blog notes will let you know if I am successful. But I have some additional members of the family that haven’t heard this story from me yet. We will see.

Well, I just got off the phone after talking to my ‘lil sister. She was wondering about a movie she saw some time during the 60’s on Television. Not knowing the title of the movie, or any actors that stared in it will make it difficult if not impossible to find out anything about it.

Story line as far as we know:

Some guy (could be a prince) has to find a blue rose to save the girl (could be a princess) from certain death. Evil guy tries to stop good guy from finding rose to save girl. Eventually rose is found, girl is saved, everyone (except the evil guy) lives happily ever after.

So far I’ve found a movie called The Blue Rose, made in 2007. Not that one. Another movie, with the same title was a silent film made in 1913. Not that one either.

I’m leaning toward a movie called The Thief of Bagdad, but since I don’t remember it, this may not be the one. It was released in 1961, and I’m not sure how long it would take to make it to TV. The plot summary (you have to dig for it) is almost exactly what I was told. This movie was a remake of one made in 1940. One should really check this one out for the names of the characters. You could almost call Disney Studios, Thieves of the Thieves of Bagdad. And one more movie with the same title, but I’m sure ‘lil Sister would have remembered this one, since it starred Douglas Fairbanks as the Thief.

If it isn’t one of these movies, I will have to continue my search at a later date.

I have been disappointed in the selection of Television shows for many years now. Even when you add cable selections, the choice of what to watch is rather limited. I have not gotten into any reality show. If I had my choice those would be taken off the air forever. But it seems like most people like them and they do have a large following. Current crop of comedies, you can have those too. I haven’t watched any of those either. Dramas, boring. Even though I liked CSI and Law and Order when they first came out (in all flavors), I’ve grown tired of them also. I watch a few for the remaining actors on them. If and when they go, well I won’t watch those shows either. I cut my television watching down to 4.5 shows a week. The .5 I only watch because it comes before another show I like. That’s 4.5 hours of Television a week. 3.5 hours coming in two nights. This doesn’t count the occasional sporting event. I don’t plan my days around football on Saturday or Sunday, and I can’t say I watched much baseball this year.

If I had cable, I might watch a few other shows. Especially if I could get some of my old favorite series. I’m not sure if television was better in my youth, but I do remember a few shows that I really liked. Some of them don’t survive the test of time. The Six Million Dollar Man and Knight Rider just don’t have the same kick anymore. Some of the comedies I used to watch just seem stupid today. I’m really not sure what I saw in them.

The shows that I’ve seen recently that have stood the test of time for me are

1. MASH — I’ve seen all the shows at least twice each, and I will still watch if I see it on.
2. All in the Family — At least the early years. Some of the later years, I just couldn’t get into.
3. Star Trek — Pick any of the (except Deep Space Nine) I like Trek.
4. Columbo — Peter Falk was just great in that role.
5. MacGyver — Yep, just saw this on the internet to down load. The hair styles, clothes and cars are a bit out of date, but the MacGyverisms pure fun.

That’s it, for now. I can now check out the internet for many of my old favorites, so this list may not be complete.

Before Mystery Theater, before Elvira, there were other hosts of the ‘B’ horror movies. The one I was most familiar with ran his show on Saturday afternoons for 15 years. We would sometimes have to go out and adjust the antenna to pick up the station. It never came in very good, but then again we were trying to pick up a TV station over 60 miles away. The station was Channel 2 out of Detroit Michigan. The host of the show, the one, the only Sir Graves Ghastly.

I can remember spending many a Saturday afternoon watch things like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman or Them!. Or any other show about sinister spacemen, Giant killer beasts, angry mutated humans, the living dead or cursed half-man/half-animal combinations.

Most of these show had poor story lines, bad acting and fake looking sets/monsters. Most were done on a low budget. They were released in the theaters/drive-ins as the second feature or ‘B’ Movie. They were played on late night TV for years, or in my case Saturday Afternoon.

Sir Graves made fun of the movies, fun of himself and just made the best afternoon of television. So now I get to watch some of these old ‘B’ movies on my computer, and I remember Saturday afternoons with Sir Graves.

Happy Haunting….

Your typical late 1950’s giant monster movie. Huge lizard terrorizing a small western town. Strange accidents occur, people go missing, and we see a lizard and a very large foot. Complete with dark settings and ‘spooky’ music.

As with most of these 1950’s ‘horror’ movies, they do try to write some sort of plot. Bunch of ‘kids’ in this are driving around in ‘hot rods’ and having all sorts of relationship problems. Money, family, girls you name it, they seem to have those problems. These problems have nothing to do with the giant gila monster.

First report of this monster is from a drunk (of course), and he wasn’t in any condition to be believed.

Yes, a typical ‘B’ movie. I had a few laughs watching it. Available on IMDb.

The big film style from the 40’s, 50’s and even into the early 60’s was the Musical. Just did some background checks on Musicals in Film history.

In the 2000’s only one musical won best picture (Chicago 2002)
In the 1990’s there were no musicals winning best picture, If you count Disney’s Beauty and the Beast only 1 musical was nominated.
In the 1980’s none and I didn’t see any nominated
In the 1970’s none, I counted 3 nominations.
In the 1960’s there was West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Oliver! (1968) with many others nominated
In the 1950’s there was An American in Paris (1951), Gigi (1958) and again many others nominated
In the 1940’s Going my Way (1944) again there were many more nominated.

Now I realize that Academy awards are not a good indication of all the films made, it makes some logical sense to me that if more musicals are being made more will end up in the nomination process. That is just everyday statistics. So, I’m wondering, What happened to the musical? I may have to explore this when I have more time. The other question is, why do local community theaters always have to put on a musical? Never mind on that last question, there isn’t a budget for big special effects and action movies, I mean plays.

Post Script…
Fascinating sidebar for me. I started thinking of musicals was when I was discussing Fred Astaire with one of my daughters. I made the comment on how he made all of his dance partners look good, even the inanimate ones.