My old Kentucky home

Ah. Kentucky...home of bluegrass and mint juleps.  It’s also the location of two stables that house the finest of horseflesh—one belongs to Major Peter Wingate (William H. Turner) and the other to Colonel Jefferson Girard (Josef Swickard).  The offspring of these two fine Southern gentlemen—daughter Betty Girard (Marilyn Mills) and son Larry Wingate (Ralph Emerson—billed…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Road to Rio (1947)

I’ve been making a concerted effort to cut back on my DVD/Blu-ray purchases...but to borrow a line from a classic broadcast of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show: “It ain’t been easy, Clyde...”  To illustrate: Kino Lorber has an August 2018 Studio Classics Sale in progress right now (it ends August 28), and when I went…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Down Three Dark Streets (1954)

It’s another all-nighter for Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Zack Stewart (Kenneth Tobey), who’s got a full slate of cases in his inbox.  His primary investigation is tracking down the whereabouts of fugitive Joe Walpo (Joe Bassett)—a law-breaking miscreant already wanted for gunning down a gas station attendant (William Schallert!) a few days earlier.  Stewart’s…

A little housecleaning

The blog has been fallow for a few days, so I regret the lack of activity...but as we were welcoming in July I received a notice in the mail that Oglethorpe County requested my presence as a Superior Court “traverse juror” the week of August 7.  Yes, it’s the time-honored practice of drawing jury duty;…

“That’s liable to happen to anyone!”

In May, I received an e-mail from ClassicFlix asking me to contribute the back liner notes for a DVD collection that I knew would generate waves of enthusiasm throughout the classic film and movie comedy communities I associate with on Facebook.  All 21 of the two-reel Hal Roach Studio comedies starring Thelma Todd and Patsy…

Slow burn-ing memory

Alpha Video released another volume in their “Rediscovered Comedies of Edgar Kennedy” series about two weeks ago (July 24)—though again, for those of us dues-paying members in The Order of the Slow Burn (check out the Facebook page here) we’ve been aware of their existence for quite some time—and for a mere bag of shells,…

“You folks live out of town?”

Twin Oaks, Ohio plastics executive George Kellerman (Jack Lemmon) is being considered for a company promotion, which will require him to relocate—along with his wife Gwen (Sandy Dennis) and two children—to New York City.  Mr. and Mrs. Kellerman catch a flight to the Big Apple for George's interview, but from the moment they depart the…

From the DVR: Rachel Getting Married (2008)

I've never been married, but both of my sisters are...and while the mind's memory always wants to reminisce about the fun, love, and joy that results with the nuptials, it tends to bury the familial conflicts that can surface during that special event.  (I'll remain mum about the "maid-of-honor" controversy at one of the weddings.) …