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To echo other reviewers, this series recalls both the thirties "madcap" comedies and the cerebral Tracy/Hepburn collaborations. Lewis, criticized as a Woody Allen imitator, pulls away from that allegation/limitiation and holds his own opposite Curtis, a boss of the production. It's been a long time and it's difficult for me to recall specifics, but this one needs to be unearthed - look at all the crud that's made it to DVD already!

Similar productions that come to mind would be the British series "Solo" (with Felicity Kendal). There's also the suggestion of an updated and more grownup "Georgy Girl" - but more upbeat (no gross hospital scenes)...

This was an alternate title for "Noi Vivi" ("We The Living"), the Italian wartime filming of the 1936 novel of Ayn Rand's, which dealt with the social costs of the 'noble experiment' of Stalin's Russia. Rossano Brazzi is remembered in the States for "Three Coins In The Fountain" and "South Pacific", while Valli did at least one film with Orson Welles and Carol Reed and had a supporting role in Dario Argento's "Suspiria" (although primarily working in Italy, practically to the present day).

and probably on a par with the "Miniver" pictures. Covers not only the Supermarine/Merlin work but the glider designs that the Germans used for airframe research before openly dumping the Versailles treaty.

(Note: I don't use the term "propaganda" in a demeaning sense here; it's just that I consider any ideological product that gets government backing to be propaganda, and this work fits the definition.)

Fine acting, acceptable plot movement for what is considered now a melodramatic period, historic moment - this film deserves multiple viewings.

Just caught some of it on Turner Classic Movies and have heard of the DVD release. It appears that everything was done right - civilisation VS Nazism conflict, grim determination without grandstanding on the part of both sides, great B&W shooting, real war-era hardware, real train wrecks, effective location shooting, believable fake-outs involving depot walls and water towers... of course, not all modern art is worth saving but it's acceptable for the art of modernity to be here used as a metaphor. The film shows the peril that existed as post-industrial-revolution riches are coveted by latter-day thugs, little different from barbarians of ages ago. And this example shows an INTELLECTUAL barbarianism, rather like Orson Welles describes in mentioning Nazi reasoning in "The Stranger".

May rival "Casablanca" in my pantheon of greats!

This was an alternate title for "Noi Vivi" ("We The Living"), the Italian wartime filming of the 1936 novel of Ayn Rand's, which dealt with the social costs of the 'noble experiment' of Stalin's Russia. Rossano Brazzi is remembered in the States for "Three Coins In The Fountain" and "South Pacific", while Valli did at least one film with Orson Welles and Carol Reed and had a supporting role in Dario Argento's "Suspiria" (although primarily working in Italy, practically to the present day).

This entry refers to the Italian title for the Goffredo Allesandrini wartime production of Rand's 1936 autobiographical novel "We The Living". Released in Fascist Italy, it was banned after a five-month run when authorities discovered that the anticollectivist statements by several characters applied as much to fascism as to the communism in Russia to which the plot specifically referred. At least one print was discovered in Italy in the 1960's and in 1986 the film was rereleased with English subtitles under the English title.

To separate myself from possible spoilers also commenting here,

I won't criticize the Bakshi and Rankin/Bass efforts of previous

years, but this first Jackson film is quite worthy of a look - even if

the viewer hasn't gone on to the novels - which everyone should.

Not only is more detail there regarding this story of good and evil,

but Tolkien, a contemporary of Winston Churchill and an Oxford

philology professor, wrote with a quality comparable to the

wartime Prime Minister. The reader gets an education in English

oratory in the most painless of circumstances: read the books!!

Rather than the glib UNCLE show, this effort for Robert V. had a believable conceit - a small group of bodyguard/detectives hires themselves out to whomever can afford them (without crossing their moral scruples). CEOs and governments were frequent customers of The Protectors, never mob or terrorist elements. As with the best in series television, a good premise and tight chemistry in the cast usually overcame mediocre scripts.

This show was absolute torture for me due to the zero-humor jokes. Worst writing I've seen the results of in some time. BUT it's always good to see Robert Klein working. In spite of Klein's presence, which would have helped the series if they'd let him write episodes or do his own material, this one died a quick death.

When jumping into the bard for the first time (or returning to him), this discussion of Richard III's underpinnings takes the sting out of absorbing the antique English of all Shakespeare's great works. There's method to the murk of older word usage here, and big dividends for the effort to understand.

This appears to be Isherwood's attempt to combine all the ideas

that had worked in previous Frankenstein monster films into one

story. So the result is an appearance of an original creature

followed by further experiments involving a "bride" generated by a

different process than the first creature. The "Prima" body is

animated nude and upright in a liquid tank alive with all the colors

of the rainbow, a scene both beatifal in execution and aided by

Jane Seymour. This treatment also boasts great chemistry

between rival scientists played by James Mason and David

McCallum.

Self-improvement would be no problem if we had an infinite

amount of time to allot to all the options - but we don't and the fact

that there exists a choice of what to do with the years or months or

days left to us is the whole point of this film. And it's nice for a film

to have a point in the first place.

Some other comment writer summarized this point as "Do it now!".

Hear, hear. Without some internal, self-generated change in one's

life, every day is pretty much like the last.

Considering all the comment about the "beat generation" US literary movement of the 1950's and 60's, it seems there's not much film examination of it. The only book of Kerouac's to be filmed so far was the confusing "The Subterraneans" in 1960, not an obvious candidate. This 1980 film is the only biopic of which I'm aware that follows the Kerouac/Neal & Carolyn Cassady saga. It's spotty and doesn't communicate a great deal of what "beat" literature claimed to have accomplished (if indeed anything WAS accomplished), but Nolte was born to play the role of Neal C., which performance alone seals the value of this film. The Cassadys were muses that helped generate Kerouac's impetus to write, and the rest is history.

To separate myself from possible spoilers also commenting here,

I won't criticize the Bakshi and Rankin/Bass efforts of previous

years, but this first Jackson film is quite worthy of a look - even if

the viewer hasn't gone on to the novels - which everyone should.

Not only is more detail there regarding this story of good and evil,

but Tolkien, a contemporary of Winston Churchill and an Oxford

philology professor, wrote with a quality comparable to the

wartime Prime Minister. The reader gets an education in English

oratory in the most painless of circumstances: read the books!!

When these homages to the Friars' Club affairs were held, comedians and entertainers were available that had histories going back to the vaudeville circuits. From the creaking-board stages that doubled as movie houses in cities all over the world to the art-deco period of Hollywood to the more-current styles of Dangerfield and Monty Python, from Borscht (sp?) Belt fare to Orson Wellesian commentary, just about every kind of act and talent was represented before Martin's dias. Only Martin could have done it, and only Las Vegas could have handled it.

For the time, this was an adequate workout of a possible fate of the giant ship (inaccessible but structurally sound); obviously choosing a different ship would have been fortunate since others could withstand raising. But recall that the ship is a side issue for much of the plot, since this is a cold war spy thriller about the race to construct a pre-SDI missile defense system. Locating the ship will provide clues to the previous discovery of a rare mineral that could provide the power for the space systems, one of which a small amount was located by a mining company out of business for almost a century. The Soviets are following the mineral location efforts due to a (convenient) territorial dispute with the area of its discovery.

Robards is great as a military man (probably not to the liking of fans of his other roles) and casting is adequate elsewhere. A 'peacenik' ending in the film reverses the book, which ends with the establishment of the defensive beams.

One of the great casting feats of series television, ranking with the original "Star Trek" crew, the Carol Burnett sidekick stable and the "Bonanza" Cartwrights. It's a shame there were so few episodes made; this is a prime candidate for reissue in whatever form. High quality mystery writing, and with a little more action than say, Miss Marple.

Not only a groundbreaking variety offer for the early '70s, this blast from many of our pasts preserves appearances of guest stars that later made it big, in addition to showcasing the Geraldine routines of Wilson he honed in clubs and on Tonight show guest hosting gigs. This sort of thing is cable's promise: since most new stuff seems to be utter garbage, the multiplicity of pay channels can (potentially) mine the past for all the programming that ever bested the latest levels of drivel.

At one time the most suggestive show on television, Dean's show not only commented on other variety shows (a form in decline even in the mid-sixties) but continued in spinoff form with the later 'roast' format, a homage to the Friars' Club affairs of society page legend. Dean was able to use his own singing, joking and acting in a situation that could lampoon the past, push the envelope in risk and still seem like good, semi-clean fun. Spontaneity (in short supply after the invention of videotape) was literally forced on the actors and crew by doing (consciously or not) what Jackie Gleason did or didn't do - he showed up minutes before airtime knowing the sketch but totally unrehearsed with the other players. Whatever happened, happened. When it was on the money, it was a high point in midcentury comedy.

From "Married With Children" all the way back to "The Bickersons", many US sitcom premises have relied on friction. The Addams Family series showed a supposedly weird family that turned out to be one of the most well-adjusted on television, possibly of any era. And it's important to note that this was a contribution of the show producers and writers that was added to the basic characters of Charles Addams. The original cartoons were single-joke frames, but the series developed a tight group of complimentary characters, among other things vindicating the comedic promise of former kid actor Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester.

Carson and company helped lay the foundation for contemporary topical humor in the US. From '62 to '92, the most significant pitches for movies, books and live appearances on the part of actors, authors, politicians and every other kind of luminary came before America and the world at Carson's desk. This show probably experienced an unrepeatable level of success.

At one time, TV shows occasionally had an interesting premise. This one's a variant on the question of what you'd do if you had the means and perhaps the time. Time, though, this character doesn't have, and the threat of death is probably what gives the series its focus and urgency. "To cram thirty years of living into one or two" is the voiced-over premise at the start of an episode; we would all do well to remember it at the start of a day, and live as though it's the last one, not recklessly but deliberately.

Kendal and the others take the most minimal material and, almost rather like a sanitized Jack Kerouac, produce comments on life, the universe and everything from an initially mundane surrounding (but obviously in a more buoyant sense than Beat Generation writers). Where some would consider SOLO uneventful, I see it as simply understated - too much for the contemporary short attention span, perhaps.

but largely unfulfilled premise involving a magician/performer who does well enough to drive a white 'Vette. Presumably, his travels to the next gig provide opportunity to run into new people and situations (rather like Route 66) but the series writing never lived up to the possibilities offered by the smooth Bixby and other good actors.

This series, a vehicle for star Telly Savalas, stands out in my mind as becoming more as it developed. The location filming in NY jogs memories of those who visited or lived in the city at that time. The plots frequently involved The Mob, which reflects the time. Some stories were patently unrealistic, but every time I'd complain about such, the camera would move into the street and that winter grating steam would wind around the sound of shoe leather, giving a pretty good suggestion of Dashielle Hammett (sp?). Interesting guest stars would occasionally show up, George Savalas proved a very natural actor and some of the humor appeared unforced and ad lib. A better show than much of the drivel in that decade.