“The Movie Man/The Movie Man can…”

Back in October 2016, I reviewed a Grapevine Video collection of Lupino Lane shorts that brought a great deal of pleasure into my occasionally dismal existence.  Lane was an acrobatic film comedian (whose antics could rival those of Buster Keaton) who made a most entertaining series of two-reel comedies for Educational Pictures beginning in 1924; he…

I Lost it at the movies

Since 2012, the Library of Congress has hosted an annual workshop known to film fanatics as “Mostly Lost,” in which movie mavens from all walks of life—writers, scholars, activists, filmmakers...and really, just about anyone with a passion for film and its preservation—gather together 'round June at the LoC’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (in beautiful downtown…

Absolutely Sweet Marie

Fickle Gertie Darling (Marie Prevost) is returning from a French vacay and, as a title card tells us, “wherever she went she brought back something.”  That “something” is a fiancé, Algernon “Algy” Brooks (Franklin Pangborn), who is completely clueless about a hint of scandal in Gertie’s past.  His best bud, lawyer Ken Walrick (Charles Ray), was once engaged…

“I christen thee ‘The High Chaparral’—the greatest cattle ranch in the whole territory…the whole world!”

In the House of Yesteryear, we adhere to a standard (and arguably, fairly predictable) schedule when it comes to mealtimes—primarily because my father is diabetic and if he doesn’t eat regularly Mom goes into her ZaSu Pitts-number (“Oh, dear...”).  She arranges for us to have supper around 6pm, and we enjoy this repast in front…

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” — Robert Benchley

It’s one of the most familiar of pop culture tropes: some dimwitted husband in the world of movies, TV, radio, comic strips, etc. forgets a birthday or wedding anniversary or what-have-you and winds up facing the wrath of his significant other for his thoughtlessness.  (I'm not being deliberately sexist when I ascribe this to the…

Overlooked Films on Tuesday: I Met My Love Again (1938)

A wise man once observed: “Youth is wasted on the wrong people.”  (Come to think of it, I believe it was the cranky old fart [Dick Elliott] on the front porch in It’s a Wonderful Life [1946].)  But that’s not the film I want to discuss today—and what's more, that adage certainly doesn’t apply to I…