Bonus Video(s)!

 


A little morsel for everyone who saw Rio Bravo last night. Who says John Wayne didn't have a sense of humour?




And, for anyone who couldn't make it, here is the clip of Groucho Marx with Señor Gonzalez-Gonzalez. Enjoy!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatea4U

Image
Gather around, everyone, and make yourselves comfortable. I'm going to tell you a little story. There once was a guy; oh, let's call him "Pygmalion".  He was unhappy with all the women of his community, and refused to have anything to do with them (I'm sure they had their own opinions about him , but whatever they said amongst themselves has not been recorded by posterity) so he decided to take matters into his own hands. To be precise, he took matter into his own hands, and sculpted himself a woman of his very own.  His creation was absolutely everything he wanted in a woman... and nothing he didn't want. She was the perfect companion, the perfect sexual partner; the perfect wife.  But that of course is just the beginning of the story. Because now Pygmalion didn't just have a wife; he had a business model . If he could manufacture a perfect partner for himself, why couldn't he do the same thing for everyone else? So, Pygmalion opened up a little shop,...
Read more

Seaman Envy?

Image
Last week's Ruby Sparks marked "Week Ten" in this current series ( The Grok, the Glunk and the Golem ) and as a further exploration of the current state of A.I. Large Language Models, I decided to try a little experiment over the weekend. I fed the complete text of everything I have written thus far (weeks one through ten) into several different ChatBots and asked them to "read" through the entire series. I did not tell them I was the author, in the hope that this might curtail their natural tendency towards ebullient sycophancy (with mixed results). Once they had read through everything (and reacted surprisingly thoughtfully in several cases) I asked them a question: "If you were the one programming this little series, what would you pick for Week Eleven , bearing in mind everything that has come before? Where would you go after Ruby Sparks ?" Each of the ChatBots approached this question in their own inimitable way, but (revealingly) they all indep...
Read more

Every Cinderella has her "Midnight".

Image
1934 was a very important year in Hollywood. The Hays Office production code came into full effect, radically altering the tone and content of films produced. Prohibition had been officially repealed in December of 1933, allowing alcohol to be sold legally once again, and President Roosevelt's "New Deal" policies were starting to make themselves felt, putting the first dents in the horror of the Great Depression. It Happened One Night had been released in cinemas, capturing the hearts and minds of the movie going public, while Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers teamed up for The Gay Divorcee; the first time they received top billing together. (They had previously - and memorably - appeared together as the "comic relief" in Flying Down to Rio , released in December of 1933.) All of these events were important, to be sure. But the most significant event for Hollywood that year was probably something that would have gone unnoticed by almost everyone at the time. It w...
Read more

I Don't Want to Talk About It.

Image
In 1945, Deanna Durbin starred in Lady on a Train , playing a young woman addicted to murder mysteries.  At the end of the film, she and her brand-new husband (a mystery novelist) are off on their honeymoon together. He is anxious to get their wedding night underway (if you get my drift) but she is completely engrossed in his latest novel, and clearly has no intention of putting it down any time soon. "You know what, darling? This is your finest book," she tells him, adoringly. Most authors love hearing such things from their fan base, but on this occasion, her devotion to his literary prowess is delaying the opening night   of their marriage. So, he leans forward and very deliberately says to her, "The man with the green hat did it." "Oh, Wayne," she says, annoyed. "Now you've just spoiled the whole book." Of course she then realises what's on his mind and all is forgiven, but this little scene represents one of pop culture's earlies...
Read more

Chance is the fool's name for fate!

Image
Those of you who have been frequenting our celebration of Depression-era comedy will have noticed that Ginger Rogers has been appearing quite a bit (on five separate occasions, thus far). We have seen her with David Niven and with Ray Milland. With Cary Grant, with Katharine Hepburn, and on one occasion with Walter Connolly. Astonishingly, there is one very important aspect of Ginger Rogers' film career that we have not yet explored in this current season.  Yes indeed; I think it's about time we showed a Fred & Ginger film! In order to do this, we're going to go back to 1934; eighteen years before she appeared with Cary Grant in Monkey Business . Fate is a Foolish Thing to Take Chances With. The Gay Divorcee is officially the second time Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared onscreen together, but it's the first film in which they are given top billing. Flying Down to Rio (released a year earlier) had starred Gene Raymond and Dolores Del Rio, with Fred and Ginge...
Read more