bernie-50

In a dream Nathaniel (Jack Benny) an angle (just one of the masses of angles in a seemingly endless angelic orchestra) is honored by The Chef (Monte Blue) with a unique job of removing a planet (Earth) that destruction is the only redemption. This task requires the horn of Gabriel to be blown at midnight to Harold the destruction. Naturally two fallen angels recognizing the inevitable try to distract Nathaniel. Will he succeed or become a fallen angel himself? Will the angel Elizabeth (Alexis Smith) that got him his chance have to save him?

This is the movie that I think off when some one mentions Jack Benny. I especially liked the eating scene. You can see it again in some of the inexpensive pizza chains. However the whole movie was well done. Watch poor detective, Franklin Pangborn who asks if the elevator goes up forever and gets is answer. Just watching the trumpet traveling around make you want to jump in the movie and grab it. Other scenes make you want to put on your water wings.

Watching this is enough to give you the twinges.

What can I say this is a "Lost Horizon" wantabe. The characters are all unknown hallmark level actors. The background music is that of a cheap romantic novel strain. The dialog is stilted and the story flow is jerky. Many things are missing or poorly expressed. If you have not seen "Lost Horizon" you will actually be lost in this slow pace and not well thought-out politically correct filler.

A woman of great passion and negotiating skill is kidnapped along with her ex and a man with a dubious background. She must eventually find the secret of this mysterious valley and here purpose.

One day couch potatoes with live peacefully with killer tomatoes. But my responsibility lies with the outside world.

There is a theory that those that live in Dublin Texas and drink Dr. Pepper with Pure Cain Sugar can never leave.

Rachel and Chuck Yoman (Valerie Harper, Gerald McRaney), decided the city is too busy and dangerous for their family, so they packed up their reluctant son (Gregory Togel) and daughter (Tammy Lauren) and moved back to a lake like the one Rachel lived at as a child.

They say you can not go home again but this is an ideal rural home with what at first seems like a Mayberry feel. Later the residence seems to be more like the people in Deliverance. Soon bodies start turning up and everybody looks suspect with the exception of a few friendly faces. This does not keep the family from enjoying running around and messing around in the woods.

We find that they have to be super ignorant to find the secrets and not tell anyone until they get ax-cepted as the antagonists.

Can the ignored young Stevie save his parents or will their pursuer(s) put his/her foot in it?

This film is more than most parodies as it was played with strait faces. They could not have chosen better actors and Daryl Anderson was exceptionally creepy. An added plus is that they let us know what is happening before the characters find out, instead of pulling a clue out of the hat after the fact. Anyway this made for TV movie is good for a few laughs.

Archer Coe makes airplane designs all by him self and keeps them at home in an easily accessible form. All his friends and neighbors want them even if they do not know what an airplane is. One morning Archer is found dead in a locked room. Yep it was suicide, or was it.

Everyone could have do it if they could get inside the room many we find out are foreign agents or just unscrupulous. There is even a buyer from England.

Be sure to watch the original film first.

This film is not an update of "The Kennel Club Case" (1933). It is a cheep wartime substitute. It is worth obtaining as a contrast and compare movie in your collection. However it strains itself to cram "plain plan" in every time it should say money.

James Stephenson makes a snotty Philo Vance with no passing or charm. He makes you wish he was the victim.

A mysterious collector has died. It is up to the appraiser to go into the old dark house with only a flashlight and a fountain pin. He finds a mysterious mummy with a unique amulet of solid gold that has the head of a cat with emerald green eyes on it.

While the appraiser goes for his tape recorder a sneak thief (Keye Luke) pilfers the amulet. In the morning the mummy is gone, the amulet is gone, and the appraiser looks like he was attacked by a common house cat.

The Police Lt. Marco (Stuart Whitman) recruits the assistance of Prof. Roger Edmonds (David Hedison) from the local collage to help make heads or tails of the situation.

Viktor Hempel (Hermann Thimig) has played many parts; one of which is of a woman. He crosses paths with Susanne Lohr (Renate Müller) at an opportune time when he has a cold and can not go on. She goes on in his place and when she reveals herself to be a man by taking a wig off, is an instant success. The story gets complex when she falls for a man and can not tell him that she is a woman. Little does she know he found out. So he has fun leading her on. Will she ever find out that he knows?

The movie shows many interesting things about the Weimar era such as an automat. The singing is from the 30's so they have that warble that you heard in Disney's Snow White. And the movie has a lot of slapstick filler. Many times Viktor is unnecessarily a dufus. I have a sparse German vocabulary and am lucky most of the characters spoke slowly or at least used basic statements. There is also a smidgen of English including a song about Spain. The film would have been easer to follow if Deutsch sub-titles were available.

The DVD I Watched is region 2 from Black Hill Pictures GmbH. You may need a multiregional player or do a little ripping and converting to play.

Jonathan Raven is a young lad learning standard Japanese defenses when he gets the news that both his parents have been dispatched by a secret group that everyone knows about called the Black Dragons. He joins the Black Dragons and becomes the only occidental to survive Black Dragon training. He turns on them unexpectedly at the last moment taking out some top dogs. Naturally this makes them extremely annoyed. By this time he is married and has a kid that he never sees. Wife dies in child birth and the kid is sent away for safety.

This is where this story starts and in this episode Jonathan (Jeffrey Meek) is a bartender that has to protect his boss from a karetsu type take over. He enlists the help of the gun, knife, bludger, brass knuckle etc. wielding buddy Ski (an old Lee Majors.) In the process everyone learns a lesson or two.

As with all pilots when all is settled Jonathan goes off to look for his kid.

The movie is lots of fun with formula plots and standard twists and more than natural martial arts.

A brand new jumbo aircraft that fly its self is being piloted by a cowboy who hates computers. Keeping an eye on him is a rival for his girl (the other pilot). Sure as shoot'n second plain private and piloted by a 200hour pilot. Turns in to the jumbo jet disabling the ailerons in an upward position. This is just the beginning.

This movie is closer to the original Airplane movie with the exception that all the people just half expose their past a little at a time as the disaster proceeds. The ending is predictable and the constant problems are part of the formula. However tithe actors make a very good mix and do there jobs well enough to make you forget that it is a movie.

Formula movie and you can pretty much figure the plot and who is who from the beginning. However it is well acted and with out an excess of gore.

After forgetting her key and not being able to get her room mate to answer the door of a third story apartment, Laura Daniels is gutsy enough to use the fire escape. You guessed it she witnesses a murder. Naturally with out clues the police do not believe her. Things start to snow ball as Laura plays with a Quiji board, and figures out she is being stalked. The whole thing would be over in 15 minutes if anyone would believe her. And there are plenty of `Stay in the Car' type scenes. The only thing I guessed wrong was there were no scenes with jumpy cats. Hopefully it will one day come out on DVD.

Le Morte D'Athur is one of the best of a series of subjects on great books. In this case it is more of how the Arthurian legion originated and now permeates our society. The narrator is Donald Sutherland and executive editor Walter Cronkite. There are film shots from Star Wars and old manuscripts. They even refer to President Kennedy. Also included is Monty Python. Left out is any mention of Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon.)

Update classics as Shakespeare and you distort the feel along with the message. It was written for a period and the more you deviate the more you lose the point let alone the ambiance. Update "Brave New World" and you threaten to do the same. However the use of today's technology and making the primitives just unruly people (shades of Login's Run) did not actually distract that much and may even have been the original intention. The movie uses well know actors that fit the characters (Peter Gallagher as Bernard Marx and Leonard Nimoy as Mustapha Mond). The scenery is and sci-fi technology is well done and believable.

With all of this there is a great letdown when the story line is not followed and the sting and impact is missing from the book as the story was changed into just a contemporary social commentary. The book by Aldous Hyxley is based on the day's example of genetic engineering or a least a little alcohol to create people that were happy in their station. The character John hangs him self in exasperation. In this teleplay rewritten by Dan Mazur and David Tausik the Brave new World is just a society of sex-crazed drudges and John just trips and accidentally falls to his death. There are several other watered down differences.

Purists are bound to hate this and ask why the effort. Others may find this teleplay interesting enough as entertainment.

This movie had all the elements to make it great. Mysterious men in black. Potential lovers learning about each other's world. Test of friends' loyalty. And the inevitable outcome.

The film parallels the book with a few risqué exceptions. What is unique is that even though major actors were picked for the movie they could not be closer to the character description from the 1959 book of the same name by Howard Singer.

Russ is a schnook. Therefore if something can go wrong it will. His wife is into insurance of all kinds. She wants him to get his GI insurance while he can. After she forces him to apply (schnook), he must explain that he has two serial numbers (schnook). When he was shot down over Germany he was presumed dead and needed a second number to get discharged (schnook). So naturally realizing that the (schnook) being in the service only one-day on the second serial number, is called up to finish his time.

He ends up on an island in the middle of the Sea of Japan. There he has a revelation that saves his sanity and that of 400 other servicemen. A plan so brilliant that I am not about to tell you what it is or how it is executed.

In the book the plan cured his shnookyness, in the movie it takes a trial. The cast includes Dick Shawn as the schnook and Ernie Kovacs as his commander and hotshot fighter pilot.

I can relate to this as I also have two serial numbers.

This ranks up there with "The Impossible Years." After realizing that his statue was not consistent with his anatomy David Niven searches for the model. I was caught off guard by his photographic endeavors. With all the negative films today it was nice to see that this one had a thoughtful ending. I am still looking for a VHS copy of this film.

As with any film, one can not hope to portray the book exactly. Some movies give the feel or outline. And some movies actually improve on the book. In this case the movie squeaks by with the basic story and feel.

Michael Caine did a pretty good Nicholas Urfe as I think the person and the character are quite similar. Candice Bergen did a great Lily and could have been the one in the book. The only person that looked physically out of place and tried but did not quite pull it off was Anthony Quinn as Maurice Conchis.

Some where out there is a copy. I will be looking for it

I have found a reseller and the place where he got this film. The name was on the box but it took a little time to track down the web site. It is not the best copy but if yours is like mine was, the tape finally started to deteriorate. It is interesting to see the actors as they were in this movie the girl that teaches the computer to say breath (death) is in the movie "Three Days of the Condor" I would tell you more about the baddy(s) but you may not have seen the movie.

This ranks up there with "The Impossible Years." After realizing that his statue was not consistent with his anatomy David Niven searches for the model. I was caught off guard by his photographic endeavors. With all the negative films today it was nice to see that this one had a thoughtful ending. I am still looking for a VHS copy of this film.

This is my favorite from the George Hamilton collection. It has all the plots and turns you need to keep changing your mind on which is the bad guy(s) . Everyone acts well; however it is George Hamilton there holds it all together. So get out your popcorn and remember, that to watch this movie, "you've got to have hart" . I am still looking for a VHS copy of this video.