Nothing beats a Todd(y)

In about a half-hour, the portion of today’s TCM Summer Under the Stars tribute to the late, great actress-comedienne Thelma Todd that I’ve looking forward to since May will get underway—the channel kicks off with approximately three hours of classic Charley Chase two-reel comedies that feature “Hot Toddy” as his leading lady. The actual ToddFest…

There’s no joy in Holmfirth…

This evening, television’s longest-running situation comedy will come to a close after thirty-seven years of finding laughs, joy and wonderment at the misadventures of, as this editorial at guardian.co.uk describes them, “three childlike pensioners playing truant from real life.” Last of the Summer Wine is the favorite TV program (or favourite TV programme, to use the King’s English) of…

Lamb to the slaughter

(Note: This review is part of the First Annual Bronko Nagurski Memorial Football Flick Fest Blogathon, which is currently underway at The Floating Red Couch until September 3rd.) Even those individuals who’ve never experienced the uninhibited pleasure in watching a Harold Lloyd comedy are familiar with the iconic photo pictured on the right…a still that’s taken from Safety Last! (1923),…

No men, no money, no problems

Not long after I got my first DVD player and started amassing the collection I jokingly refer to as “the dusty Thrilling Days of Yesteryear archives,” an online friend of mine explained to me the difference between Region 1 discs, Region 2 discs, etc. He further enlightened me to the fact that certain films and TV shows…

The parade’s still gone by…but at least they’re honoring the Grand Marshal

This article over at the L.A. Times is trumpeting the news that Francis Ford Coppola will be the recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award come this November—and that French film directing legend Jean-Luc Godard and TDOY acting fave Eli Wallach will be getting honorary statuettes as well. But here’s the big news that really made me stand up…

DVR-TiVo-Or whatever recording device strikes your fancy-alert!

The go-to cable channel for classic television oaters, Encore Westerns, will be showing the classic Maverick episode “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” tomorrow at 8:00am EDT; if you’ve seen this one before you’ll naturally not want to miss it (or record it, if you haven’t already done so) but if you haven’t…here’s the skinny, courtesy of Wikipedia: “Shady Deal…

“If you see it once/You’ll never be the same again…”

The above photo was taken in The Entertainment Capital of the World, this nation’s very own Sodom and Gomorrah—Las Vegas, Nevada. Frequent TDOY readers will recognize the two women as sister Kat (on the left) and sister Debbie (on the right)…and while Kat is no stranger to Vegas (hell, if she could find a swell-paying job there…

Spam with duck sauce

I can’t say enough swell things about the brand-spanking new way Blogger is handling blog comments. For those of you without blogs or unfamiliar with how it operates, allow me to turn on the overhead projector: Blogger has created a new tab especially for comments, which separates the reasonable, cogent observations from the intelligent people who…

Magic moments

Turner Classic Movies has announced a memorial tribute to the late Patricia Neal that’s slated for Monday, September 13 beginning at 8:00pm. The lineup will include: 08:00pm Private Screenings: Patricia Neal 09:00pm The Fountainhead (1949) 11:00pm The Subject Was Roses (1968) 01:00am A Face in the Crowd (1957) 03:15am In Harm’s Way (1965) Ben Walsh of the Independent tallies thirty “movie moments that tell the whole…

Of blogathons and other topics of concern

There are a couple of upcoming blogathons that I wanted to direct your attention towards—but before I impart this information I sort of wanted to apologize to the good people who sponsored both the Summer Movie and the John Huston Blogathons. Adam Zanzie at Icebox Movies was the mastermind behind the Huston event, and I was really…