The other day I watched the last half of a movie on TV that I’d never caught before: “Independence Day,” made in 1996. A few minutes into it Bill Pullman, the actor playing the US president, came into view. I … Continue reading →
What are the odds of this? From Mia Farrow’s autobiography, What Falls Away: My mother [actress Maureen O’Sullivan], her father’s favorite, went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton. She hated it. They had to wear vests in … Continue reading →
…that Clint Eastwood were the nominee, for all the blather about his gig at the Republican Convention the other night. Okay, I’ll say it: I’ve never been an Eastwood fan. So sue me. And I thought his schtick on Thursday … Continue reading →
Barack Obama has often been called an empty suit, but last night Clint Eastwood visualized him as an empty chair. A lot of people (including me) thought Eastwood would be giving a more conventional speech. But instead he came up … Continue reading →
Boy, I really really really don’t agree with this list of the 50 greatest, as decreed by 846 critics, programmers, academics and distributors asked by the British Film Institute. Beginning with their #1, “Vertigo,” a ho-hum Hitchcock movie with really … Continue reading →
Well, not exactly.
Continue reading →…but this announcement makes me very, very sad. Ah, but who believes the government, anyway? Today it’s “no mermaids,” but tomorrow they’ll say there are no unicorns, and that the space alien autopsy videos are bogus. The nerve! When I … Continue reading →
The news that Nora Ephron has died at 71 took me by surprise. I had no idea she was even ill, but it was more than that—she was just so funny (which is a stupid thing to say, I know, … Continue reading →
You’ll never guess who this is from looking at it, even though it’s a very famous person who’s usually instantly recognizable: It’s Groucho Marx without his trademark mustache and bushy eyebrows or eyeglasses. And to me it looks a lot … Continue reading →
You be the judge. Here’s actress Brenda Marshall (for many years William Holden’s wife): And here’s actress Geena Davis: I rest my case.
Continue reading →In yesterday’s thread about the undeserving poor, commenter IGotBupkis took aim at the musical “My Fair Lady” versus the movie version of the play “Pygmalion.” His comment was rather long (go here to read the whole thing), but I’ll excerpt … Continue reading →
An exchange in the comments section of this post made me think of one of my favorite scenes from “My Fair Lady.” It’s a discourse on the welfare system by Eliza’s ne-er-do-well father, Alfred Doolittle: Here it is: And here’s … Continue reading →