'Captain Simmonds' (John Hurt), on leave from the battlefields of France, arrives on the island home of 'Mrs Santander' (Jenny Runacre), with whom he's been conducting an affair, where he encounters the butler (Graham Crowden) and, unexpectedly, 'Mr Santander' (Charles Grey). 'The Island' is an adaptation of the 1924 L.P. Hartley short story of the same name made for the TV series 'Classics Dark and Dangerous' and soon after combined with two other episodes, 'Mrs Amworth' and 'The Mannikin',…

Welcome to Day 11 of 13 of my tour of the Balkans with Just You. So far, we’ve travelled from Romania through Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia. We’re now back in Romania and spending today in Braşov. You can find the whole series at the link below. This blog contains affiliate links to support my writing. Travel Diaries Breakfast at Hotel Aro Palace This was my favourite hotel of the trip so far – and incredibly comfortable to spend time in, with spacious rooms. This was pleasing,…

Jail erodes every aspect of a person’s agency. – Lindsey Krinks I recently watched all the Charlie Chan movies Chekhov had in his collection. The low-budget Monogram Chan pictures of the 1940s weren’t as good as the 20th Century Fox ones of the 1930s, but though Mantan Moreland, who played Chan’s chauffeur in the ’40s pictures, was typically paired with Benson Fong as “Number Three son” for comic relief, a couple of the films included guest appearances by Moreland’s former vaudeville partner…

On August 15th many churches across the world, Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican, keep a feast for the Blessed Virgin Mary, fulfilling the scripture that says “All generations will call me blessed”, remembering the one who bore our saviour for us, who was full of grace. It is true that some Christians have disagreed with one another bitterly about her, but equally, in every age and every church she has been, for many Christians, a sign of hope, an example of prayer, devotion and service, and an…

rihovski-ru: Flood (2007) Georgy Kichiginhttps://vk.ru/rihovski *They look like the eternal-peasantry, but they used to be Soyuz spacecraft technicians

Back in 1979, Timothy Dalton guest-starred on Charlie’s Angels as Damien Roth: “a man with James Bondian tastes, means, and charm.”Someone has helpfully compiled all of his scenes in this YouTube video.

Back in 1979, Timothy Dalton guest-starred on Charlie’s Angels as cat burglar Damien Roth, described as “a man with James Bondian tastes, means, and charm.”Someone has helpfully compiled all of his scenes in this YouTube video.

📺 Watched: Star Trek (original series) S1E2 "Charlie X". Interesting mystery episode with Charlie Evans wreaking havoc with his mysterious abilities. He does some creepy things like removing a woman's face and disappearing entire people (and destroying a ship!). The pacing of this episode was quite slow, and I found it a little boring. A bit sad because there were some interesting things going on in the episode. Reply by email Share this post Mastodon Bluesky

Sirk with the same great cast as Written on the Wind – inconsistent dubbing, but the greatest widescreen staging and overheated actors. Our doomed lovers are even more inevitably doomed than ever before, since they are daredevil pilots with engine problems. Inspiration for Slack Bay: In 1932, after Robert Stack’s own plane crashes he attempts to sell his wife Dorothy Malone to hotheaded businessman Ord in exchange for a new busted plane. Stack’s loyal mechanic Jack Carson gets the Ord plane…

The first recording today is Kerwhizz – The Supershape Showdown. Media Centre Description: Kerwhizzkids Ninki, Twist and Kit need to be in good shape for this raceworld. They must answer kerwhizzical questions carefully to get the best Mod for their Pod and win the quiz with added whizz. Recorded from CBeebies on Friday 7th May 2010 15:28 BBC Genome: CBeebies Friday 7th May 2010 15:30 There’s a short episode of Aphablocks. Then the recording ends with the start of Big & Small. The other…

Starving artist Glenn Anders (Lady From Shanghai) loves Nancy Carroll (Broken Lullaby), but Nancy loves Parisian Fredric March (romantic lead(s) of I Married a Witch), but she is married to older Frank “The Wizard of Oz” Morgan. She’s right to prefer March – he’s a charming nut, playing piano duets with the servants and romping around wearing bear rugs. Among all this romantic intrigue, the husband makes eight million dollars on a business deal and nobody in the family can be bothered to care.…

"Who's going to film all of this?" A mockumentary that follows a film crew sent to document the life of a lonely aristocrat, Lady Isabella (Sian Clifford). For the first 10 minutes you get comfortable with the idea that this is going to be a David Brent style character living in a huge stately home, in desperate need of attention and lacking in all self-awareness. And it’s funny! But then the film goes wildly off the rails and gets much more interesting. Lady Isabella literally begins to turn…

Among the many things for which the legendary comedy troupe Culture Clash (Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Sigüenza) remained remembered is their 1993 sketch comedy television show that aired on Fox stations. It remains historic as one of the earliest shows to showcase Chicano talent. What isn't as well remembered is that Culture Clash almost had a show before the classic sketch comedy show Culture Clash, only it would have been a sitcom.It was in 1991 that Cheech Marin saw Culture…

Last year, I made a rudimentary attempt to capture some Perseids on video from my London home. Inspired by the fact that I managed to get something, I decided to try again this year. I was better prepared this time. I knew what camera settings I used on my Canon EOS R5 Mark II last time, so I didn’t need to spend much time thinking about those. And I was ready to record video at the peak of the shower, rather than two days later. And so I set up my camera, just after midnight, pointing it at a…

Disney kicked off D23 last night and announced a bunch of upcoming projects, showed more of other things in the works, and so forth. As Marvel is a big part of Disney, that had some topics of discussion, including an official reveal (finally) of an X-Men movie coming in 2028 and the public release of a big, "Avengers: Doomsday," trailer that was previously only seen by attendees of CCI//SDCC. I am intrigued by what I've seen. Give it a look:The part where Reed Richards asks Doom what he's done…

The visible element of the HAL-9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Definitely can’t tell that this computer is untrustworthy, no sir. I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave. HAL-9000 computer to Dave Table of ContentsWhy 2001: A Space Odyssey?The MovieConcluding Thoughts Why 2001: A Space Odyssey? 2001: A Space Odyssey happens to be the second movie on the Letterboxd list of movies I’m using for project CineCat. As a science fiction enjoyer I have long since been aware of Arthur C. Clarke (who…

"Is that a fucking dinosaur?" A family (Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor and kids) gets a nasty shock as their entire neighbourhood gets transported millions of years back in time. They have to fend off dinosaurs as they try to find a way to reverse whatever happened. Kind of old school Hollywood in that it is trash, and a bit one note, but somehow does get you interested. And you hate the kids. It’s a surprisingly (and delightfully) mean spirited film that takes glee in watching its characters get…

Marvel: Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige capped off an electric showcase presentation during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, unveiling the stars of the upcoming X-Men movie. Director Jake Schreier was joined onstage by star Sadie Sink, who made her debut as Jean Grey in Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day.“It is so wonderful to be here and to finally be able to talk about this character after months of speculation,” Sink told the crowd. “We’re here to talk about the X-Men. Should…

Marvel Entertainment / YouTube: Welcome home, Vision. Loading….Marvel Television’s #VisionQuest, arriving October 14 only on Disney+. Hey, remember way back in 2020 when WandaVision had us all captivated with our new Disney+ subscriptions, and we all couldn’t leave the house, and at the end of the show, Vision turned white and decided to go find himself? Well, now we finally get to see what that looked like. And it looks WILD AS HELL, balancing between reality, Vision’s “consciousness”, and hey…

Marvel Entertainment / YouTube: He used to be different.Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters everywhere December 18. Okay, maybe “brand new” is a misnomer, as this is the same trailer shown exclusively at Marvel’s Comic Con panel a few weekends back, but I have to say — it’s a good bit more effective than the first trailer revealed, even if I still kind of want to laugh at RDJ’s Doctor Doom voice. Funny that, much like the Ahsoka trailer I just posted, this too is a “the franchise may be…

Star Wars / YouTube: Are you a Jedi… or not?Ahsoka Season 2 premieres January 20 only on Disney+. In what feels like a very long time coming, we’re finally getting the latest live action Star Wars series in the ongoing Dave Filoni crafted saga. Hitting four years after Season 1, and in the shadow of the general shrug that the public gave The Mandalorian and Grogu, there’s a lot riding on the performance of this. At the very least, it makes for a good trailer? We’ll see how the full thing plays…

StarringHimesh Patel, Aya Cash, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, and Lolly AdefopeOverviewLights. Camera. Anxiety.The crew of an unloved franchise movie fight for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe. The series shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question — how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? Because every f*ck-up has an origin story.Review The Franchise It’s always a shame when something gets cancelled on a…

This is a film that is destined to become a cult classic. Partly because it’s a great film about boozing. But wrapped up in a road movie traversing the Pianura Padana around the region of Veneto in Northern Italy. Director, Francesco Sossai set out to make a landscape film faithful to the region of his birth, vistas and architecture omitted from the postcard image of the area. In an interview at the Lincoln Centre in New York, Sossai said he wanted to just show the landscape without judging it,…

I really liked those Backrooms and the atmosphere and eeriness of it all; and the found footage, too. That is the first two thirds. Then the movie shifts and it’s like a new storyline in a TV series; where you’d also need another episode to resolve this. Hm…

Success can be a tricky thing for comedy companies.Once you’ve discovered a formula that works, the challenge becomes deciding whether to reinvent it or simply keep refining it. Police Cops have spent years perfecting a distinctive blend of action-movie parody, physical theatre and committed silliness, and Police Cops in Space is very much another entry in that lineage. This time the company leave terrestrial crime fighting behind and launch themselves into science fiction, complete with…

There is something wonderfully cheeky about building an entire musical around a man who has already spent decades building musicals around himself.Created by musical comedy duo Flo & Joan, One Man Musical takes aim at one of British theatre’s most famous figures, presenting a lightly fictionalised version of Andrew Lloyd Webber finally deciding that the greatest story he has yet to tell is his own. What follows is part affectionate parody, part character assassination and part celebration of…

Blaugust is an annual blogging festival in August where the goal is to write a blog post every day of the month. A short Saturday break from my Python series to talk about Saoirse Ronan. She's quickly become one of my favourite actors and after my first Saoirse Ronan Appreciation Week in May, I decided to do another one this week. Five more days, five more wonderful movies. From historical to artistic and from intense to joyful, there's a lot going on in these five movies. Monday: How I Live…

Acting is one of the few professions where rejection is not an occasional setback but an expected part of the job description. Actors are asked to walk into rooms, perform confidence, absorb judgement and then return the next day to do it all again. An Ode to the Casting Director, written and performed by Sophie Fisher, understands that strange ecosystem intimately. Drawing on her own experiences, Fisher takes the audience through auditions, self-tapes, workshops, disastrous relationships,…

Not every Fringe day needs to begin with a bang.Sometimes the ideal morning show is something gentler: a production that eases you into the festival rather than demanding emotional devastation before coffee has properly taken effect. The Wreck proves exactly that kind of companion. Charming, quirky and quietly inventive, Buzzcut Productions’ latest live-cinema work drifts into view like an object carried ashore on the tide, bringing with it fragments of family history, faded memories and the…

1968 war, dir. Brian G. Hutton, Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood: IMDb. The captured general has to be got out of the impregnable fortress. Or does he?