Christmas, season of peace and good will to all men, when families congregate by the hearth to eat, drink and rejoice in the warmth of each other’s company. Unless you’re a Plantagenet, in which case you’d best keep your wits sharp and a blade handy. It’s December 1183 and Henry II (Peter O’Toole), King of […]
Celebrating Black History Month: Part Four
The final set of Facebook posts celebrating Black History Month. Day 22: Diahann Carroll Diahann Carroll refused to let herself be limited by others’ expectations. The first African American woman to win a Tony, she also broke ground by starring in ‘Julia’, the first television series to focus on the life of a Black professional […]
Celebrating Black History Month: Part Three
The penultimate batch of Facebook posts. Day 15: Juano Hernandez Born in Puerto Rico, of Puerto Rican and Brazilian heritage, Juano Hernandez took a roundabout route to acting. He worked as a sailor and moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he joined a circus and became an acrobat. After that he became a professional boxer, […]
Celebrating Black History Month: Part Two
Here’s another batch of Facebook posts I wrote for Black History Month, all from week two. Day 10: Paul Robeson A true Renaissance man, Paul Robeson was an actor, singer, athlete, lawyer, author and linguist, as well as the blueprint for African American performers who wanted to combine art and activism.
Screen Escapes: A Year of Pandemic Viewing
It’s been one year since the coronavirus pandemic began: a year of lockdowns, social distancing, mounting anxiety and masks. I’ve watched a lot of films since last March (I don’t think I’m alone in that), but looking back I realize many of them weren’t new to me. As reality edged uncomfortably close to fiction, I […]
Celebrating Black History Month: Part One
For Black History Month this year, I tried something new and set myself a challenge: writing a Facebook post a day about a Black actor or actress. Some of the performers I chose were familiar; some were people whose work I’d just begun to explore. I had no idea what the response would be like […]
Free Bird: ‘Christopher Strong’ (1933)
The curiously-titled Christopher Strong is really all about Lady Cynthia Darrington, an aviator and aristocrat with a hankering for danger, a cavalier disregard for convention and quirky fashion sense. Katharine Hepburn plays Cynthia. Of course I had to see it. The film opens in London at a scavenger hunt for the well-heeled. Female contestants are […]
Fancy Free: ‘Top Hat’ (1935)
This post is part of the TCM Summer Under the Stars Blogathon, hosted by Journeys in Classic Film and Musings of a Classic Film Addict. See the other posts here. Top Hat opens on two pairs of dancing feet. The man wears a tailcoat; the woman an evening gown. As they twirl across the screen, […]
Rocket Men: ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ (1958) and ‘First Men in the Moon’ (1964)
Fifty years ago today, humanity first set foot on the moon. TCM has been celebrating with a month-long sci-fi festival, beginning with George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon: one of the first science-fiction films ever made and over a century later, still one of the best. Alongside the robots, metropolises and things from another […]
A Letter from Groucho Marx, or the Intricacies of Hospitality
I recently rediscovered my copy of The Groucho Letters: Letters from and to Groucho Marx, a hilarious volume which contains exactly what it says on the tin. Among the many missives is this gem, addressed to Warner Bros. executive Ben Kalmenson. (Something of a studio major-domo, Kalmenson was a year away from being promoted to […]
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