Here are a few favorite blog posts from previous Januarys.
January 2011
As a part of James Bond January, I took a look at 007 pop culture in 1967. This is the year of You Only Live Twice with Sean Connery. It's also the year his brother performed in a spoof of the Bond franchise.Click here for James Bond in 1967: Bits of Trivia.
January 2012
This is the year we continued discussing The Heiress, starring Olivia De Havilland, about a woman who doesn't know if a guy loves her for herself or for her wealth.This movie is a well that never runs dry. It bears repeat viewings. So Java's Journey talked about the symbolism of the garden muse in this film. How it represents new beginnings for the protagonist.
Click here to read The Heiress (1949): The Garden Muse.
January 2013
This year we took a look at classic movie remakes that are in development. Two of these films have made it to the big screen: Annie and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Read a comparison of old and new Mitty here.). The rest are still in development.Read Classic Movie Remakes in Development.
January 2014
I happened to be watching an episode of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour ("Lucy Hunts Uranium") and noticed similarities in both plot and framing in a later film - It's a Mad, Mad , Mad, Mad World (1964). I just had to share it.Click here for Lucy Hunts Uranium vs. Mad World
January 2015
Last January was pretty tough for me, so I joined a Joan Crawford Facebook group. (Naturally.) I had rarely ever watched Crawford films; I couldn't shake from my mind her alleged scandalous child-rearing skills.
The group convinced me (1) that there was room for doubt in the scandal and (2) that I'm missing out on some great theater. They were right on both counts.So I watched a smattering of Crawford and was blown away! What a talent! In January 2015, I reviewed Humoresque and was acquainted with some of the earlier work of Issac Stern, the violinist who made the fiddling in The Fiddler on the Roof so distinctive. In the Crawford film, it's Stern's work you hear when John Garfield fingers the violin.
Even in the strange circus world of Berserk!, Crawford stands out as the best part of the film - the concerned ring master who's workers are being mysteriously murdered.
Read Humoresque
Read a review of Berserk.
in Humoresque, I think the hand close-ups are Stern and another violinist with Garfield's head. Very well done. I saw the movie and had to look up if Garfield was that good. He wasn't.
ReplyDelete