vilenciaproductions Reviews

With Their Eyes on the Stars (1964)

Patriotic History of America & The Emerging Space Program! Well Worth A Look!

[10/10 · 14 June 2022]

"With Their Eyes On The Stars" 1964 Warner Brothers / Vitaphone Prod #3193-A Technicolor Prod #9084 Music and Lyrics Composed and Supervised by John Stewart of The Kingston Trio Sung by The Ridgerunners (Through the courtesy of Quiet Fight Inc.) Music Coordinator Michael Stewart Produced by Cedric Francis Directed by Cal Reed Edited by Tom Downing Technical Assistance by North American Aviation Space and Information System Division This 22 minute Technicolor short film had it's premiere in Downey California January 21, 1964 at the Meralta Theatre John Stewart was at the premiere.

This is such a wonderful excellent patriotic look at the history of the early settlers of America, set to folk music which was popular at that time. The first 11 minutes makes full use of colorful scenes of Americas past showing live action footage using landmarks and the music befitting on what is being shown on the screen. At one point John Glenn is seen walking on a beach at night looking up at the moon! The scene and music fade out, and then fade back in, to the Aerospace part of the film, shot at North American Aviation, Downey plant. Which takes us from blast off to touch down. The Ridgerunners, who perform the music later became "We Five" with their hit "You Were On My Mind" email from his son just today. (June 14, 2022) I had sent Jerry and email telling him that I projected a 16mm print of "With Their Eyes On The Stars" and I was thinking of him. Some other playing on this marvelous folk festival are John Phillips, and Scott McKenzie. My friend and former boss Paul Surratt loved John Stewart and of course wanted to know everything about it. Paul had the soundtrack outtakes to the music which were in John Stewart's personal collection. I first saw this remarkable short film in about 1978. I acquired my first 16mm IB-TECHNICOLOR print of "With Their Eyes On The Stars" and I have loved this little picture ever since. Obviously this was made to promote the space program and getting man to the moon. I know you could upon this reel as propaganda which I am sure it is. But I still love it, I enjoy the music and the footage. They don't know how to make a short film like this anymore! I love all of the travelogues from this time period, they are fun to watch. It makes me want to go back in time! The copy on YouTube looks like crap! Warner Brothers should put a DVD out on the best of these short films.

Alaska Patrol (1949)

Cool Little Picture

[10/10 · 10 October 2021]

Bought a clean original 16mm print of this flick from an antique store back east! I enjoyed projecting the picture and I made DVD copies for friends! I am not sure who owns the rights to this film, but I recall it's still under copyright! It's interesting plot because of the use of musical notes translated into code, then into text messages! The counter spy on the ship plays his harmonica into a hidden microphone and the signals are recorded onto an acetate record many miles away and then decoded. It's also a look-a-like identity which the lead character must assimilate another mans identity including becoming left handed! It's a low budget late 40's crime film noir which takes place on the open seas! It's only about one hour long! But that's good! See it on FILM if you can!

The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946)

Tan ta ra, cries Mars on bloody rapier! sexy woman holding a sword YES!

[10/10 · 21 June 2021]

When this film was released to the public, the movie theaters were using carbon arc lamps of copper rods the light was very strong and bright and the nitrate film prints looked amazing! Almost 3-D! 35mm films projected in this was had so many advantages that even today with all of our digital technologies - nothing can compare. So when 16mm prints of this film were made, and since the film was shot in dark images, they look very dark and the lamp in a 16mm projector can't accommodate these very dark scenes like the arc lamps. Still worse showings on TV and video and DVD the film in the dark scenes look even worse! We projected an old 16mm print made in 1948, and the print suffered from "Arc Burn" or "Sun Burn" which causes an effect that looks like each frame of film was embossed! No effect on the screen and the print held focus perfectly. This means that the 16mm print we bought was used on a 16mm projector equipped with an arc lamp. Most likely the Navy or Army used this old exchange print. Sadly who knows if 35mm nitrate cut negative still exists? But I give it ten stars just for Eva Gabor, since my old boss and dear friend Richard L. Bare directed her in the Green Acres TV series. This was Eva's seventh screen credit! She was so young! And of course Lenore Aubert, who doesn't love a sexy woman holding a sword! Tan ta ra, cries Mars on bloody rapier! See it on a film print if you can!

Cheyenne: Mustang Trail (1956) Season 2, Episode 6

Excellent Episode

[10/10 · 15 June 2021]

Of course I knew and worked with Richard L Bare for 35 plus years! And this episode is excellent! I have a beautiful 16mm print of this film, and it looks so good on the big screen! Richard did a fantastic job of directing! He directed the very first episode of this series and it's a masterpiece of western film television! See it if you can! Ask me about Richard L. Bare, I know everything about him!

Campus Honeymoon (1948)

Love everthing about this cool old 40's flick!

[10/10 · 10 June 2021]

I just love this 1948 picture a lot! I was lucky enough to get a beautiful 16mm reduction print of this cool old flick and it was even better the second time around! The schizophrenic boy is a crack up! The two twin girls are cute, and the few musical numbers are charming! This is a fine little B picture and you will love it, don't take things so serious - it just a movie! I could watch this over and over again and it's funnier each time! The actors are excellent and do a fine job! The film director is spot on! The picture and sound are excellent! See it on film on a big screen if you can! Don't listen to these other reviews, they are jaded by the garbage of movies made in the last 40 plus years of trash! The late 1940's flicks all rock! They are the best! Film-making was perfected by that time, and the studios would not allow any crap - no hand held shaking cameras, no bad editing, no bad anything! Just perfect 35mm film-making! Still the best!

The Deadly Game (1954)

See It On A Film Print Makes A World Of Difference!

[10/10 · 10 June 2021]

Last night we projected a beautiful 16mm print of The Deadly Game on the big screen! I think that seeing a motion picture on a film print projected on a large screen makes all the difference in the world! In the first place the print we ran was made in 1954 the year of the films release and was used here in the USA for television exchange. The picture and sound quality was a perfect as you can get. I have seen this print projected a few times over the years but not since 2018! I was surprised to see how many people didn't like this 1950's picture? Even seeing a DVD from a pristine source still can't compare to a real (or should I say Reel) film experience! There is something that digital can't even come close to the actual motion picture film presentation. It's a short picture under 70 minutes which is good! I liked everything about this old picture! It is still better than the garbage that is made today in 2021! (the year of our Covid-19) Besides we grew up seeing "Sea Hunt" in rerun her is Southern California in the late 1960's on afternoon TV! We enjoyed Lloyd Bridges in that show he will always be Mike Nelson to us kids who loved that old TV show! I don't know what happened to all 155 episodes shot in 35mm film but I am sure they have been left to decompose in a vault in Hollywood someplace, or even tossed by stupid ZIV TV! The Deadly Game is a fine little picture from Hammer Productions and it's ten stars from me, just because unlike movies today, there are no computers - cell phones - foul language - people covered with stupid tattoos - women with different colored hair - horrible loud rap / rock / country music! You name it, the 1950's was a better time in America and the world! Now the world is a piece of trash! I would take any movie from these times over anything made in the last 40 plus years! And television now is complete garbage! So kick back with a beer, and don't these old movies to serious, they were made to entertain and sell a movie ticket to play back the production costs! It's a product like a candy bar! There are classic films like "High Noon" and then there are these little B flicks, so enjoy! Got my second Pfizer shot yesterday and I feel like crap! Just Don't Do IT! This may be my last review! Goodbye cruel reviews on IMDB!

The Magnavox Theater: The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill (1950) Season 1, Episode 7

The true story of "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill"!

[10/10 · 19 May 2021]

The true story of "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill"!

Richard L. Bare was a dear close friend and my boss for a while back in the early 1980's. I was with him as an assistant and film archivist until his death at 101 Years old! He was still sailing his boat and driving a car like a teenager at 100! The only reason he died was that he took a flue shot! Richard told me that after he directed "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" one afternoon he was driving around down town Los Angeles and saw a movie theater marquee with the letters "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" Richard couldn't believe his eyes! He thought "what the hell is this!" So when he got home he phoned Hal Roach Jr. And said "I just saw "Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" playing in a movie theater in LA! What the hell is this Hal, I don't direct feature films for $750.00 a week!" Hal said "I don't own that film anymore I sold it!" So Richard went to the DGA (Directors Guild of America) and filed a compliant, and from that point onward, any motion picture made for television and later shown in a movie theater the producers would have to pay the directors full scale upwards. Interestingly Richard directed the first made for TV movie in the 1950's! When we bought a 16mm print of the picture the logo for the theatrical showing read: "Howco Productions Presents" Turns out this distribution company which filed it's papers out of North Carolina on August 1, 1951, was formed to release "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" The President of the company was James Alex White, the other members of the corporation were Joy N. Houck (1901-1999) and J. Francis White (1901-1987) This company which released 16 different pictures from 1950 to 1974 operated out of a home in North Carolina. The company was in operation for almost 67 years! The second feature release was another Hal Roach Jr. Production, also first shown on The Magnavox Theatre "The Three Musketeers" So Hal Roach Jr. Got away with this twice! Since "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill's" principle photography started in 1949, the camera original may be nitrate, and who knows what happened to those elements! It wasn't until 2010 when a used 16mm reduction print turned up on eBay had Richard ever seen the film since it was made in 1949! I still have that print in my archive! Richard L. Bare was an amazing man who do anything! He was a perfectionist, he could paint, write, film, edit, build a house from his own blue prints, you name it, he could do it! I met and started to work with him when I was 23 years old! I could tell you a million cool stories told to me about his time in Hollywood!

Men in Her Diary (1945)

Love Peggy Ryan! She was so cute! 1940's chick flick!

[10/10 · 17 May 2021]

When life throws you a curve ball, well you have heard that old expression. But when life throws you a beautiful 16mm reduction print of a Peggy Ryan picture - you buy it! Peggy Ryan was a singer and excellent dancer! Her second husband Ray McDonald became her dance partner and together they would rip it up! Oddly this 1945 Universal Picture stars Peggy Ryan but she doesn't sing or dance! But I wanted it anyway! In fact, in this little flick there is almost no music at all, even a background score is missing! That's okay too! Les Adams sums up the story very well in his summaries. I think Les has watched more old movies than anybody alive! In this picture she plays Doris Mann a secretary who likes to daydream and then write about her fantasies in her diary about the men she works with and knows. Of course it's all B. S. but when the bosses wife stumbles across it, she is horrified and files for a divorce! Thus begins spiral downward which winds poor little cute Peggy in a courtroom trying to explain that it's all just made up nonsense. She is so cute in this little B flick! You just fall in love with her! Okay it's a "chick flick" from the 1940's, but who would have known! I still enjoy projecting it on the big screen! I hope to run the film again in 2021, if I don't die from the Covid-19 vaccination! See it on film if you can, the best way to see a movie! Better than all the crap today! No tattoos, colored hair, loud music, computer effects, foul language, sex scenes, violence, dumb car chases! You get the idea! Just glorious black and white! Oh yea, no cell phones or TV sets.

Hello Mama (1939)

George Jessel, The Four Eton Boys, Frieda Sullivan, Emerson's Mountaineers

[10/10 · 2 May 2021]

Hello Mama 14 April 1939 A Nu-Atlas Musical RKO / RCA 9 minutes Produced and Directed by Milton Schwarzwald Orchestra by Jack Schaindlin Starring as MC George Jessel Introducing the following acts: The Four Eton Boys (Charles Day, Jack Day, Eddie Murray, Earle Smith) Frieda Sullivan (dancer) Emerson's Mountaineers (Tex Fletcher, Charles Althoff, Danzi Goodell) So many years ago I found a beautiful 35mm reduction print of this amazing short subject. (I think I gave it to UCLA?) Anyway the film is a gem with the greatest toastmaster general Mr. George Jessel, (those are silver these are gold) Jessel tosses in some funny shtick in the wraparounds to three great musical acts. Frieda Sullivan was an amazing dancer, who would bend and twist into a pretzel! Very attractive young lady as well! Emerson's Mountaineers rock! They do a version of "Hurry Johnny Hurry" and of course The Four Eton Boys are always excellent. I don't know how you can see this reel? I hope RKO didn't toss the cut nitrate negative but you never know? I hope UCLA still has it?

Fun entertainment you will love! The only reference I could find was from Grahan Webb's "Encyclopedia Of American Short Films 1926-1959" McFarland Press.

Look Back in Anger (1959)

Poor squirrels - poor bears! I love this picture!

[10/10 · 1 April 2021]

In the 1970's when I was in high school, there was a guy who worked at Samuel Goldwyn Studios which then was located on Santa Monica boulevard in Hollywood. He knew I loved collecting 16mm motion picture film prints, and he gave me a beautiful print of "Look Back In Anger" This print, which I still own has the Warner Brothers logo at the start and it is superimposed over the opening scene in the jazz club along with the other screen credits. The guy, who's name escapes me, told me that Warner Brothers originally released the film here in the United States but at that time in the 1970's Samuel Goldwyn had the rights to the picture, and maybe only for television, I can't recall? But I just loved this picture from the first time I projected it! And over the last forty some years I have projected it for three girlfriends, and many other people on the big screen in stunning black and white! I am pro film projection so I have only seen "Look Back In Anger" on motion picture film! And I think that makes a huge difference! Despite any of the criticism levied here, this is a cinematic masterpiece - and of course it's damn depressing! But that's the point! The world is not fun and games for most human beings - it's a struggle, it's a living hell for the vast majority of life on this planet! In it's dark gloominess the picture has moments of thoughtful beauty and human tenderness. The cast is suburb both of the actresses, Bloom and Ure are stunning sexy beautiful women! Whether or not Burton is miscast for the roll of Jimmy Porter, he gives one hell of a convincing performance - you can feel it down to the marrow of your bones! Gary Raymond as Cliff - what can I say, you just love him, his insight and compassion for the situation. Donald Pleasence, a fine actor, plays the perfect ass! Edith Evans as Mrs. Tanner, the death bed scene, "Don't let yourself down!" The world we live in now, in 2021, and here the United States, people have a lot to be angry about! Not much as changed for the positive good since this picture was made! The world seems to get worse year by year! This picture will never be out of date as long as there are human struggles! When Mrs Tanner asks Jimmy what he wants he says: "Everything and nothing!" I feel the same way, right now! Poor squirrels - poor bears!

Shamrock Hill (1949)

It's like kissing the Blarney Stone! When Movies Like This Were Your Best Entertainment!

[10/10 · 30 March 2021]

Bought an original 16mm print of "Shamrock Hill" in 2016, since then I have projected this picture four times every year since I bought it! Tonight December 13, 2020 I will project it yet again! What I loved about this picture are Peggy Ryan and Ray McDonald, two of the best dancers in Hollywood! They were simply the best! The only scene in this picture that I didn't like was the slow-motion dance fantasy scene that happens right after Peggy tells the children the story near the opening of the picture. They should have photographed that scene in real time, it would have made it tolerable! The nice thing about owning a copy of a movie on a film print, is you can cut out a scene that you don't like! And before the third run of the picture I cut out 100 feet of film, of that lame slow-motion scene! And it's not missed at all. That's three minutes of pain that I don't have to endure, the rest of the picture is a gem! Love the Irish family, the Rogan clan! The idea of a television tower build on Shamrock Hill is most interesting, first off when this picture was released in February of 1949, television here in Los Angeles was only a year and a few months old! KTLA was the first local television station to come on the air, this side west of the Mississippi River! By early 1948 there was still less than one thousand television sets in operation in Los Angeles! Imagine that, there are probably a thousand television sets in operation on a typical neighborhood city block now in 2020! Love the scenes with Mr. Rogan as he tries to figure out the new "analog oscilloscope" when a magnet is accidentally placed next to the device the waveform straightens out and Mr. Rogan makes his discovery! All of the cast members are great! Trudy Marshall was a babe in her time! Rick Vallin breezes through his scenes in his typical fashion! The Leprechauns are great! I knew they were real! At only 70 minutes (less the three minutes I cut out of my print) it's a perfect picture! We all need a place to go and imagine and dream like Shamrock Hill! It's a shame that television would soon take over our lives! But this was 1949 and the world was still good! America was still the best place on earth! Best of all there are no dumb female idiots with different colored hair, stupid guys covered with tattoos, loud horrible recorded rap, rock, country music! Computers, cell phones, I-phones, dumb-phones! Car chases, people yelling at each other for no good reason! NO Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden! NO Covid-19! It was the best time ever! Vinson Pictures made only two films, "Shamrock Hill" and "An Old Fashioned Girl" both released one month apart from each other in the first two months of 1949! Who knows what happened to the 35mm cut nitrate camera originals and soundtracks? I bet they are lost to careless decay! But tonight Shamrock Hill lives on our movie screen and Bell & Howell projector! Bought some beer, and we're ready to roll! Now where did that Leprechaun put my Covid-19 mask?

Submarine Base (1943)

I love Iris Adrian - she was a babe! Love this old PRC Crap!

[10/10 · 29 March 2021]

My girlfriend bought me a 16mm print of this PRC flick a few weeks ago, and we projected it last night for the first time on the big screen! Before I get into the review there was something of interest about the print. First off this print is what we used to call in film exchanges a "Cannibalized Print" That is to say they used three prints to make up this one. The first part of the print was struck on Kodak stock in 1945, and the last part of the print was Kodak 1944. However most of the body of the print was brand new, and struck on Kodak stock made in 1976. Which means they were still making and exchanging 16mm prints for television as late as 1976! It is a reduction print which means it was a print down from 35mm negatives. The picture and sound quality was very close to 35mm. I do know that in the 1970's Bonded Film Services shipped the PRC library to television stations nationwide. By the early 1980's most of the exchange prints were junked. I love owning and projecting these old pictures rather than watching them on DVDS or YouTube. The motion picture film print makes watching these old films very special. PRC which people in the 1940's would jokingly call "Pretty Rotten Cinema" (yes even then they didn't fall for most of this crap!) PRC was one of my favorite studios - and I just love every piece of crap they turned out! If I could own the ultimate 16 or 35mm film print collection it was be all of the PRC pictures! I started collecting film prints in the 1970's in high school, and I loved PRC films! "The Lady Chaser" 1946 was the first film print of a PRC ever owned, I wish I still had that print now! So when I see them on line in 16mm I buy them! Who cares if it's crap! They are still better than pictures made today in Covid-19 2021! I look forward to a second screening in the summer of 2021! Plus I love Iris Adrian she has 160 plus screen credits and when she was in her twenties she was a babe! And just because the plot was so bad, I give it ten stars! I loved it! I can't wait to get my Covid-19 vaccination so I can get sick and die! Cheers!

Wings Over the Pacific (1943)

Inez Cooper was HOT! Love this picture! WW-II flicks ROCK! See it!

[10/10 · 1 February 2021]

"Wings Over The Pacific" Love this picture! Got a beautiful 16mm reduction print for my sixtieth birthday present yesterday and screened it on the big screen! One of the funny scenes is when the four cast members are talking together, Lt. Allan Scott, Jim Butler, Harry Adams, and of course the Nazi Lt. Kurt Heinmann! The topic of "women" comes up, and the Nazi says: "the only thing women are good for is babies" at which point all of the other actors sits forward and almost jumps in his face! Now I am sure that the Hayes Office wouldn't allow the correct line in the script which should have read: "the only thing women are good for is sex" Now all things considered and talking into account the current "me too movement" I hate to say it, but this might be the first time I ever agreed with a Nazi, "the only thing women are good for is sex" never been so true! Now Lt. Allan Scott from the first time seeing sexy, beautiful Nona Butler, played by hottie Inez Cooper, he wanted to bone her straight up! But he's an American! He's white, he's good looking, he's alright! Later still Nona's father, Jim Butler knows Lt. Allan Scott wants to bone his daughter too, but that's okay, it's wholesome they will get married! Lt. Allan grabs her and kisses her! That's okay, but when the mean old Lt. Kurt Nazi tries the same thing, he gets slapped across his German face! Nona's likes them white, but not the white Aryan Nations type. It's funny how the German Nazi is portrait, he's taller then the other guys, he's menacing, mean, and acts superior to these lessor human beings. The actor who played the Nazi, Henry Guttman, was typecast in 1942 playing one German SS officer, Storm Trooper, Gestapo Guard, Nazi Officer - one after another! He does it well I must say! The reason I wanted this "B" picture was because I loved Inez Cooper! She was a typical 1940's babe! Back then every guy wanted to bone her! Of course all hot sexy 1940's women smelled like Lysol, look that up! If you didn't mind a little Lysol in your face, then all was well! The end when the dirty yellow J A P S, try to take the island, the white guys and natives kick their little sawed off butts! Love this flick! I can't wait to project it again! The print was amazingly clear some scenes looked 3-D without the glasses, of course its on FILM, and not the stupid digital stuff! Oh yea! There was oil on that island! Good old bubbling crude, now the good guys, us, United States needs that stuff for Victory! Can't let it fall into the hands of the Nazi's or J A P S! Can we! Darn it, we need to drive our SUV'S - besides oil in the hands of America is next to Godliness! At only 61 minutes is a gem! Don't listen to these other reviews they've had too much Lysol in their faces! Best of all, there are no -cell phones, dumb broads with different colored hair, no stupid guys covered with tattoos, no TV sets, computers, car alarms, No Trumps or Biden's, no loud rock 'n roll, rap or new country music, no Covid-19 vaccines or masks, no just the good old days! Good Times! Boy the way Glenn Miller Played..... Damn it, lost my Covid-19 mask and stimulus check?

The Bigelow Theatre: The Man Who Had Nothing to Lose (1950) Season 1, Episode 1

"The Man Who Had Nothing To Lose" is an early television episode (filmed)

[10/10 · 22 January 2021]

"The Man Who Had Nothing To Lose" is an early television episode (filmed) as part of The Bigelow Theatre series this episode aired in December of 1950. Most of these early television film programs have been lost or simply abandoned by their distributors, and some literally destroyed for their silver content. Since 16mm film collecting started with publications such as "The Big Reel" and later in the mid 1990's with eBay, prints of this episode have turned up. I bought an original 16mm print from year of release many years ago on line for almost the cost of shipping. It's a beautiful print. The story is much like the film made a few years later with Bogart "The Desperate Hours" 1955. Neville Brand was an fine actor, and a very convincing villain. "The Man Who Had Nothing To Lose" is truly his first starring roll, previously his seven screen rolls he is not even credited. This film may have been photographed with the Jerry Fairbanks Multi-camera process and may have been shot in 16mm negative and not 35mm. My 16mm print is made from the camera negative and this may mean nothing to the average reader but the print is A-Wind. It's a shame that film producers and distributors didn't have the foresight to see the future when television today in 2021 has 5000 channels and You Tube plays everything. This program is over 70 years old! It's amazing to think that television as we know it will soon be 80 years old! Early TV has been treated like silent movies from the 1920's, they were simply tossed! That's a shame! Well Happy New Years! Sure hope Biden and The Cop can fix this Covid-19 thing, but I doubt it - don't hold your breath - especially with these darn old masks on! Now where did I put that second Covid-19 vaccine dose, oh yea it's 90 degrees below zero burr!

The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958)

True Story Indeed! Love this great picture! You will too!

[10/10 · 6 January 2021]

This picture rocks! Bought a 16mm print of this great movie and we're projecting it again for 2021! Love Betsy Palmer, Love Jack Lord! Love Edmund G. Brown! Sure wish we had a guy like him around today! Film director Lewis Seiler does an excellent job at the helm, turns out to be his last film! What a shame! See it on film if you can! The best way to watch a great black and white motion picture! Another gem from Columbia Pictures! Can't wait until the projector and screen are set up! Now where did I put that darn old Covid-19 mask?

Mister Roberts (1955)

The best picture you will ever see! fulminated mercury!!!!!!!!!!

[10/10 · 6 January 2021]

I first saw Mister Roberts in high school back in the 1970's when a drama teacher started a film appreciation class, it was there in beautiful 16mm motion picture film prints that we say "Mister Roberts" 1955 "The African Queen" 1951 "High Noon" 1952 "Dial M For Murder" 1954 "The Bridge on the River Kwai" 1957 "Shane" 1953 and more! We watched these film prints projected in the cafeteria which was a large room with a stage and a huge movie screen that came down from the rafters. This is where I fell in love with the classic 1950's motion pictures! Since I was an oddball child, I had a 16mm sound projector at home, a Kalart Victor 70-15 model which the local schools used, and which a school maintenance guy taught me how to tear down and repair these machines! I was probably the only 14 year old kid who could service a 16mm sound machine! The teacher would run one reel per day, until we got through the entire feature picture. For example "High Noon" came in on two 45 minute 1600 foot reels, so we say that picture in two days! "Mister Roberts" came in on four 1600 foot reels so we say that picture in four days! These were 34 minute reels, and the class was 45 minutes or longer? During the showing of one of the reels / days of "Mister Roberts" the 16mm projector started to act up, and slow down? Having been instructed on how to trouble shoot the machine, I had the teacher stop the film, take down the reels, I took the machine into the kitchen area, and turned the motor brush over! It was a two minute job, and we were back on the screen! I have had the privilege of owning my own 16mm IB-Technicolor prints of "Mister Roberts" over the years and I love this picture! I know the lines by heart and when I was a teenager I wrote to Jack Lemmon, got to talk to him and he gave me an 8x10 autograph which I still have! I can't say enough about this picture! It's more than ten stars with me! Before I die I would love to own an IB-TECHNICOLOR 35mm scope print of "Mister Roberts" just for the hell of it! It's one of the best movies ever made! See it on film if you can! See it in 2021!

Our Very Own (1950)

Don't be so over analytical! I Love This Great Old Picture!

[10/10 · 28 December 2020]

Don't be so over analytical! Screen writer F. Hugh Herbert and others of his ilk didn't live long enough to know what the internet would be, or become, certainly not imagining that in 2020 there would be websites such as IMDB that would have fans of motion pictures discussing and rating the films that they saw. Mr. Herbert would have gotten a kick out of some of the reviews about "Our Very Own" especially the member nut case "Trpdean" talk about over analytical, good lord! Screenplays are a certain type of animal and it takes a good film director, producer and crew to make a good motion picture out of a few hundred pages of script! Motion pictures are a tremendous undertaking that requires the technical skills and talents of hundreds or men and women to produce such a thing we call movies! The reason I love this old picture for copious reasons! (I use that word "copious" for old "Trpdean") Copious indeed, but here are a few things I love about it. First off it was made at the best time in our country! There are no cell phones, smart phones, computers, women with colored hair, idiots running around covered with ugly tattoos, no CGI, no dumb car chases, foul language, sex scenes, actors with marbles in their mouths that you can't even understand what they are saying? Hand held cameras, loud over recorded sound effects, natural lighting and dark scenes that look even worse in digital cinema! (digital cinema sucks anyway!) This list of things this picture doesn't have that I like about it is endless! No covid-19 masks, no Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden, no 24 hour hell! As 2020 comes to a close, I am going to pull out the 16mm sound projector and watch a beautiful original print of Szmuel Gelbfisz's "Our Very Own" on the big screen in glorious black and white! Joan Evans was a hottie! Ann Blyth was beautiful, Farley Granger was a talented and handsome leading man, Jane Wyatt was a good looking woman, Gus Schilling was a crack up! Love little Natalie Wood, Phyllis Kirk was a babe, love them all! They all blow away all of the horrible actors of today! Movies and TV shows suck now! They have since the 1970's! It's been 40 years of trash, with very few exceptions! So get out your Covid-19 masks, take a poisonous vaccine and hope you don't die, and enjoy "Our Very Own" Now where did I put that darn old covid-19 mask?

Daniel Boone (1964–1970)

Childhood memories - when TV was good!

[10/10 · 27 December 2020]

Haven't seen this television show since it was on network television back in the 1960's when I was a kid! I loved it then, and a few years ago I bought three 16mm prints from the first season when the show was shot in black and white! Having not seen them since they aired, it brought back so many childhood memories, and just how good television was! (It sucks now!) It's sucked since the 1970's! These were plays about morality and love, right and wrong, good and evil, the good always won out, and love was always the answer! As It Should Be! Having projected them a few nights ago for Christmas 2020, it was a joy! Fox Studios had the best lens on the cameras and the picture and sound was superb! Photographed in 35mm motion picture film, there is nothing better! I love any western picture or TV show from the golden days! Political correctness aside, Daniel Boone was great! Who cares if the actors were right wing wack jobs! So was Bach, and I love his music! Liberals are not much better! At least these right wingers were Pro-American and not Pro-NAFTA and GATT! Sometimes you overlook things in people if you enjoy them! The person whom you disagree with most, should be your best friend! We loved Daniel Boone and Mingo, who knew Mingo was a Hollywood Jew? We thought we was a real Indian! That means Ed Ames did his job, and did it well! We loved Cincinnatus! We loved them all! We spent the time with our parents who watched the show with us! That's when TV brought us together, unlike today it rips us apart!

Stump the Stars (1947– )

Mike was a friend if mine and he told me where the shows are now! In The Trash!

[10/10 · 24 December 2020]

I knew Mike Stokey very well for over 30 years! Once when he was over our house we were projecting some 16mm kinescopes of his early KTLA show "Armchair Detective" (I knew both of the shows hosts for that show as well.) I asked Mike what happened to the prints of his "Pantomime Quiz" shows?

He said: "I got a call from a guy at a Chicago TV station and he said that in the basement they had entire runs of "Pantomime Quiz" on 16mm reels and asked me if I wanted them shipped out here, or should I junk them? - I told him I will never use them again, junk them!" So that's what happened to these shows, the landfill got them! Sad but true!

Have a merry covid-19 Xmas! where's my mask????????

The Women of Pitcairn Island (1956)

Cool picture from the 1950's when movies hadn't gone completely insane!

[10/10 · 22 December 2020]

The Women of Pitcairn Island is a cool picture from the 1950's when movies hadn't gone completely insane! I was lucky enough to buy a nice 16mm print of this picture, and I love it! The pirates who landed ashore looking for their shipmate who has stolen the black pearls are very cool! All good actors, and just the way a bunch of ruff horny men should act! It is ironic that on the Island of Pitcairn in 1999, 2004, 2010 and 2016 there were sexual assault trials involving adult men with children, and young girls! There were reported cases of men having sex with young girls during the 1950's when this film was made. So in some respects the pirate characters were not too far off from the truth! Horny men looking for young women to have sex with! What better place then Pitcairn Island! Some of the characters in this flick were based on real people, such as Thursday October Christian (1790-1831) who was the first son of Fletcher Christian (1764-1793) played in this picture by John Smith (who was the co-star of the television series "Laramie") James Craig who plays the lead pirate Jeb Page was a fine actor and very convincing in this roll! Lynn Bari who plays Maimiti had a long career in pictures going all the way back to the early 1930's. All of the cast members were all fine actors and actresses. People today in December 2020, look back at older pictures and cry "campy" but no matter how much older films may seem campy, they are a million times better than the total trash that Hollywood turns out now, and for the past 45 years with few exceptions. Have a Merry Covid-19 Christmas!

An Old-Fashioned Girl (1949)

Excellant Picture From 1949! Love everything about it! 2020 sucks!

[10/10 · 13 December 2020]

Projected a 16mm print of this cool old picture last night for the third time since I bought the print. I enjoyed it very much! Stephen Foster gets a bad rap sometimes, but "Beautiful Dreamer" is a beautiful song with well thought out lyrics, so was "Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair" Gloria Jean sure can belt out the songs! One of the very best moments in this picture was when violin virtuoso Saundra Berkova, she was only 18 years old when they filmed her scene, and man what a talented chick! She was incredible and just jams through Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto! Interestingly she was involved in a marijuana party bust in the 1950's in Hollywood! Being a former 420 head myself, I thought that was kind of cool that she may have smoked pot! Apparently no charges were brought against her and she was released! I couldn't believe that I was watching the actress who would later play Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies show! Come to find out that Irene Ryan was a very talented actress and when she was a young woman she was very nice looking! Of course Elinor Donahue was so cute, and popped off with some great lines in the flick! Elinor and actor Jimmy Lydon may be the only living cast members of this picture! The pictures director Arthur Dreifuss started a production company to produce this picture and one other film under the banner of Vinson Pictures, "Shamrock Hill" also released in the same year of 1949! (I also have a 16mm print of that picture as well and I love them both!) I wouldn't be surprised if the 35mm cut nitrate negatives and soundtrack rolls were left to decay in some storage unit someplace? Frances Rafferty was a babe! So was Rosemary La Planche and Shirley Mills! Everybody in this picture was great! So if you're not a jaded fool, check out this picture! Best part, no cell phones, computers, dumb tattooed idiots, dumb girls with colored hair, car chases, rap, rock, new country music, Covid-19, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden - just good old fashioned fun! Damn it I think I left my Covid-19 mask in the car! Can't wait for the US government to shoot us all up with an unproven vaccine, maybe I'll die! Hooray!

All Ashore (1953)

Who Are We To Say! Love Peggy Ryan & Ray McDonald!

[10/10 · 8 December 2020]

All Ashore! Love Peggy Ryan & Ray McDonald! What a fantastic dance team! The Best! I could cut out their scenes and watch them dance over and over again! I bought a 16mm print of this picture a few years ago, because they were in it! The other thing I loved about this picture is when Dick Haymes sings to Jody Lawrance "Who Are We To Say" what a beautiful ballad! I grew up in the 1960's and 70's listening to big band 78rpm records so I am a little bias because while my contemporaries all listened to the rock 'n roll trash like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, I only loved classical and jazz! To this day I think popular recorded music after 1960 all sucks! Back to the flick! OKAY Mickey Rooney is a very annoying human! He was talented for sure, but he was a right wing wack job who thought Bill Clinton was a Marxist? Give me a break Mick he signed NAFTA and GATT along with Rooney's Republican buddies which helped to destroy the American work force! Barbara Bates was a doll! Too bad she had to go and knock herself off! Jody Lawrance was another cute chick who also died too young! And who don't love Jean Willes, loved her in the Three Stooges shorts! The dream sequence "I Lay Down My Arms" was stupid, but boy oh boy didn't Barbara Bates look hot! Some of the music was dumb! But I have forgiven Columbia Pictures! Oh yea the scenes of Catalina! WOW! When adults ruled the world, not a bunch of dumb teenage idiots! So because I hate the world now, and all of the crummy trash for movies since the 1970's, I give this picture ten stars, who cares if it's not that good, it's way better than pictures now! Oh, I think I left my Covid-19 mask down stairs! Damn it!

Deadline at Dawn (1946)

Non compos mentis - Hey that's me too! Love This Picture!

[10/10 · 8 December 2020]

The story of why I love this picture starts when I was about 12 years old back in the late 1960's or early in 1970 my parents took my brother and I to the local thrift store, because I was crazy about buying and playing 78rpm records from the 1940's! I loved the big bands, and this particular second hand store sold 78rpm records for a nickle each! So for a buck or two I could walk out of there was a stack of 78rpm records and I was the happiest kid in town! I remember this night like it was yesterday because I found a 78 of The Ink Spots "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire" and the flip side was "Hey Doc!" loved that record! That night I also went through the books, some of which were 25 cents! It was there that I found a hard cover copy of William Irish's "Deadline At Dawn" it was missing the dust jacket, but when I opened the book up and saw a still from the RKO picture, I knew I would love it! I was a 1940's kid at heart! I would read that book from cover to cover, over and over again! I never saw the picture until November of 2017 when a guy who lived in North Ridgeville Ohio was selling his fathers 16mm film collection, and he had a 1956 C&C Movietime Television exchange print! He told me it was his dad's favorite film, and he would project the print every year for many years until his passing. I was so thrilled to buy it, and during that month in 2017 I finally got to see a picture of a book that I loved when I was 12 years old! It was a million times better than I expected! Since 2017 I have projected the print twice a year, and last night I projected it again for December 2020! I love this picture! The films director Harold Clurman made this one and only feature picture and that was it! What a masterpiece it is! Susan Hayward was a babe! Paul Lukas "statistics tell us he was a fine actor!" Bill Williams - Non compos mentis! Joseph Calleia, what a hard ass! The entire cast was top notch! Nicholas Musuraca was a bad-ass camera operator and PD! The coolest thing is that this print was struck on DuPont Safety film in 1956 / 57 right after C&C television corp bought the entire RKO Radio Pictures film library, so the print quality is outstanding! There is not a bad scene in the picture! It's everything about the 1940's that I loved! You can keep all of the films made after 1980 with few exceptions, stack them all up and start a huge bonfire! Beautiful black and white pictures from the 1940's are the best! So here we are in hell in almost the end of 2020, maybe the worst year of our lives! Now where did I put that Covid-19 mask?????

Operation Dames (1959)

Blow those dirty little reds to smithereens! Toss in Kim Jong-un Too!

[10/10 · 6 December 2020]

Operation Dames was allegedly released for the drive-ins back in the day! When I had an opportunity to by a 16mm print of this picture I didn't know what to expect? Turns out for a low budget flick, it's way better than some of the stupid reviews that some of the fools gave it here! First off the typical drive-in flick that we grew up with in the 1970's were all pieces of trash! They were not even a quarter as good as this old picture is. The acting over all was pretty good, I felt that Chuck Henderson as Jeff did a great job of acting! Turns out he was in the cast of one of my favorite detective / cop shows "Manhunt" 1960 in which he played Detective Dan Kramer! It's a damn shame he didn't do more pictures! The character he plays is has the kind of personality we need now in leaders! It's no wonder that we can't get this Covid-19 thing behind us, I mean look at the list of snowflakes we have as leaders, here in California, for example we have Governor Gavin Newsom, Barbara Ferrer, look at her, she looks and sounds like she's on Quaalude's! Who gonna take her seriously? We need a man like the character "Jeff" in the movie! Then our orange colored skin President Donald Trump! He's a huge snowflake, how about Dr. Fauci? He reminds me of Mel Brookes! How about the up and coming snowflake Uncle Joe Biden? Or Kayleigh McEnany? Did Trump have sex with this woman? (We can only hope!) But come on, we need a man to tell us what to do, not a bunch of pussies! Okay so Big Duke Wayne is missing from this picture, but I bet he even liked it! Killing those dirty little Korean reds! There's nothing wrong with this picture! So drink a beer, and enjoy a great little "B" flick from the last golden era of Hollywood! Oh yea, Louis Clyde Stoumen the films director did a damn good job there may have one or two shots that he could have made better, but for a guy who only made a few feature pictures, he also did a damn good job! Eve Meyer wasn't that attractive but she gave it her all! Some of the other chicks were cute! Love it when Byron Morrow's character Benny blows up the reds with a backpack full of hand grenade in revenge for killing his woman! Blow those dirty reds to smithereens! (Toss in Kim Jong-un another snowflake! - Love his flattop!) It's 74 minutes of good solid entertainment! The black and white makes it! Best part, there are no idiots covered with tattoos, no dumb women with colored hair, no cell phones, computers, car chases foul language, horrible recorded "Rock" "Rap" "Country" music! The last year of one of the best and last good decades America had! We all know about the 38th parallel, and the fact that the Korean War was a bunch of B.S. But it sure made for some damn good war pictures, didn't it! Ten Stars from me, just because! Gotta find my M1918 Browning automatic and my Covid-19 mask, and I'm set! Now where did I put that map of North Korea? Damn it!

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

let streaming tears be poured out in store! CINEMA AT IT'S VERY BEST!

[10/10 · 2 December 2020]

Lucky was I to own a beautiful 16mm print of this remarkable picture! It is a masterpiece of British Cinema, and one of a hand full of great feature pictures made in the decade of the 1960's! (there wasn't much) I won't go on about the plot, the actors, the direction etc, I will only say this! One of my biggest regrets was that I sold that print to a film broker for $450.00 this was back in the 1980's! I have never been able to put my hands on another print, and I would love to project it again! I only watch my favorite pictures on a motion picture projector with 16mm or 35mm prints! I hate all other formats period! And I hate digital cinema with a passion! The death of 35mm film projection was the death of cinema! Dead and lieth wrap'd in lead, O heavy hearse let streaming tears be poured out in store! "Seance on a Wet Afternoon" was a truly great picture and thank goodness it was photographed in gorgeous stunning black and white! They could never make a motion picture such as this one today, even if Richard Attenborough himself attended it! Never in a million feet of film could it be made now! In 2020 almost 2021 it would suck! There would be cell phones, computers, sex scenes, horrible loud contemporary music, stupid actresses with colored hair, idiots covered with tattoos, violence for no reason, a few good car chases, vulgar language, covid-19 masks, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden and all other things horrible now! May the celluloid God have mercy on us all! Now where did I put that Covid-19 mask? Damn it!