The passings parade

Each week here at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, I like to eat up just a little bit of blogosphere bandwidth to observe selected celebrity notables who’ve left this world for a better one—and I think the news of the death of character great Gervase Duan (G.D.) Spradlin this week hit me the hardest, because he was truly one…

Guest Review: Evil Under the Sun (1982)

By Philip Schweier  I’ve always been a mystery fan, ever since I watched Scooby-Doo in its original run. But many mysteries rely on some sort of gimmick, denying the audience (movie or book) the opportunity to solve the crime along with the detective. Perhaps the solution lies in a photograph the audience never gets to see. Or maybe there’s…

Twisted Television #1: Gomer Pyle, USMC – “Gomer Goes Home”

This morning, I thought I’d kick off a new semi-regular feature here at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear—one that was inspired by a truly off-the-wall episode of Gomer Pyle, USMC I caught this morning (hey, I have insomnia—don’t judge me) on Me-TV.  Unless you’ve just been released from a cryogenic slumber for half a century, you’re no doubt aware…

50s Monster Mash Blogathon: Tarantula (1955)

This essay is Thrilling Days of Yesteryear’s contribution to the 50s Monster Mash Blogathon, which is currently underway at Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear from July 28 through August 2.  I want to warn any arachnophobes or people who get the willies from spiders that this post may contain some graphic pictures liable to do a number on those with heart conditions…

Guest Review: The Woman in the Window (1944)

By Philip Schweier Some months back, I offered for your consideration a review of Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street (1945), unaware that it had an unofficial prequel in the form of Fritz Lang’s The Woman in the Window (1944). The two films are less cousins and more like identical twins, in that the three major roles…

The passings parade

Facebook was abuzz yesterday with the news of the death of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse at the age of 27…and at the risk of being thought a terrible person, I’m not entirely sure I understand why this came as a surprise to so many people.  Winehouse was certainly a major musical talent (though I will admit I wasn’t…

Gahhhhh!!!

Sometimes Facebook strays from its mission to do good...

I’m always on a mountain when I fall

I hate to say I’m givin’ up but I believe Losin’s just become a way of life with me Losin’ wouldn’t be so bad at all But I’m always on a mountain when I fall He didn’t write the song—that honor goes to Chuck Howard, a songwriter who also penned Waylon Jennings’ Come with Me and Conway…

The passings parade

Because I had already covered the deaths of legendary comedy scribes Sherwood Schwartz and Sam Denoff in a post this week, I gambled that what I sometimes refer to (and I’m not proud of this, but honesty is the best policy) the “celebrity death parade” would be a little shorter and quicker to accomplish.  However, if we…

Fare thee well to a pair of comedy kings

Normally I hold off on the obituaries until the weekends but because we’ve said goodbye to a pair of comedy writing legends within the past 3-4 days I couldn’t in good conscience wait until Saturday to give them their due.  Writer-producer Sam Denoff passed away on July 8th at the age of 83 and a foot in the…