Cinematic Vegetables (Part three in a continuing series)

The weeding out of movie offerings on the DVR continues apace at Rancho Yesteryear, which is why you might have noticed that I’ve been a bit more prolific with the blog this month.  I also thought, seeing that it’s the Thanksgiving holiday and all, that I’d update a few important bulletins while several of us recover…

Buried Treasures: The Strange One (1957)

I majored in what was described as “Speech Broadcasting” during my short academic career at Marshall University in the early 1980s, and because I spent a goodly amount of time at Marshall’s student radio station, the student manager asked me to tackle the production of FM 88’s weekly pop culture broadcast, Entertainment ’83.  It was a half-hour…

From the DVR: The Garment Jungle (1957)

Today’s edition of “From the DVR” can be considered a companion piece to Thrilling Days of Yesteryear’s previous essay on I Can Get it For You Wholesale (1951).  The Garment Jungle (1957) focuses on a far grittier look at New York’s 7th Avenue garment district…and best of all—no Dan Dailey. Returning from overseas, young Alan Mitchell (Kerwin Matthews) wants to “learn…

From the DVR: I Can Get it For You Wholesale (1951)

Harriet Boyd (Susan Hayward) is a dress model…but she has far too much ambition to remain content toiling as a clotheshorse for a company located in the heart of New York’s busy garment district.  She’s persuaded production manager Sam Cooper (Sam Jaffe) to start a dressmaking business with her; Harriet has studied dress design at night…

Movies I’ve stared at recently on TCM #73 (DVR clean-up edition)

It’s been sometime since I did one of these “wrap-ups” of movies I’ve caught on The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™—and really, I should change the title of this feature to “Movies I’ve stared at recently from TCM” because I do a lot of recording with the Dish Hopper™ DVR these days and only…

From the DVR: Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975)

The “Rafferty” of today’s film title is an ex-Marine gunnery sergeant (Alan Arkin) who’s eking out a tol’able living as a driving school instructor.  He’s miserable both at work and at play; the movie begins with Rafferty attending a raucous Veteran of Foreign Wars affair where he eventually passes out from too much to drink…and the…

Buried Treasures: Seven Angry Men (1955)

This week’s “Overlooked Film” was originally going to be an entry of Thrilling Days of Yesteryear’s dormant “Cinematic Vegetables” feature: I sat down Saturday night to clear a few movies off the DVR (Dish does not offer The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ in HD, so even though I have a number of features DVR’d there’s…

From the DVR: Greased Lightning (1977)

In 1947, Wendell Scott (Richard Pryor) is demobbed out of the (segregated) Army and upon returning to his hometown of Danville, Virginia, he decides to open up an auto-repair shop with his mustered-out pay.  He’ll have to save up for this dream, but the town of Danville doesn’t offer many opportunities for a black man save…

Buried Treasures: Dementia (1955)

There’s a story behind today’s “Overlooked Film.”  Let me tell you a tale. You may know—and if you don’t, consider this me telling you—that while I relinquished my post as Associate Editor at ClassicFlix back in February 2014, I still maintain a working relationship with CF as the author of their “Where’s That Been?” column.  Each month, the new…