I can’t win for losin’ you

My longtime paisan Jeff Lane broke the news to me on Facebook yesterday that country singer-songwriter Earl Thomas Conley left this world for a better one yesterday at the age of 77.  Blake Shelton, who scored one of his early chart hits (#18 in 2002) with the Conley-penned All Over Me, remarked on Twitter that ETC “was my all…

Adventures in Blu-ray: You Only Live Once (1937)

I'd like to hold my head up and be proud of who I am But they won't let my secret go untold I paid the debt I owed them, but they're still not satisfied Now I'm a branded man out in the cold Merle Haggard's classic Branded Man could easily describe Eddie Taylor (Henry Fonda),…

From the DVR: Honeysuckle Rose (1980)

My most vivid memory of when Urban Cowboy played in theaters in the summer of 1980…is not seeing Urban Cowboy when it played in theaters in the summer of 1980.  (This is going to require a long-winded explanation, now that I think about it.)  It was the transition period between my junior and senior year at my alma mater, Ravenswood Penitentiary High School, and that…

On the Grapevine: I’m From Arkansas (1944)

For the past three weeks here at TDOY, I’ve been reviewing some of the silent feature films I’ve purchased from Grapevine Video—but the company offers plenty of “talkies” as well, and when I received an e-mail last month trumpeting their latest releases, one movie in particular caught my attention: a musical comedy entitled I’m From Arkansas (1944).  With a…

Where’s That Been? – The Case Against Brooklyn (1958)

The following review is one of several that I composed for the ClassicFlix site under the column title “Where’s That Been?”  Most of those columns made the transition to CF’s new site but some of them stayed behind for reason or another...and since my writer’s ego is just big enough to where I don’t like having what…

The passings parade

This week’s edition of the “roll call of the deceased” is a little shorter than it has been in recent weeks—which, when you stop and think about it, is an encouraging sign in that while we’ve established that Death rarely takes a holiday s/he might be lingering a bit during those three-martini lunches.  The celebrity…

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…

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

This week’s edition of TDOY’s roundup of celebrity notables who’ve left this world for a better one will be a day later—and a bit shorter—due to the fact that I nearly forgot about the Vivien Leigh-Laurence Olivier Blogathon taking place this weekend at Viv and Larry.com.  So I’ll be devoting time to getting my entry in for today but I…

The passings parade

I made myself a promise last week that I would wait no longer than a week to commemorate those celebrities we’ve recently said goodbye to on the grounds that putting together that post was a major pain in the gluteus maximus (it had been almost a month-and-a-half between obituary posts).  So unless I get sidetracked…