Ready for primetime – check out Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasence in the insect horror classic, Phenomena, a.k.a. Creepers.
We pulled a few titles from the video download library as well, to make some room for new content in the pipeline. Mesmerized, Richard Diamond Private Eye, and Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde were removed from the library for the time being. They’ll be back soon enough. Hope everyone is having a great New Year.
Another new classic movie – the 1937 original A Star is Born, written and directed by William Wellman. This David O. Selnick production is slick, and the writers that contributed was good as gold. Robert Carson, Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner, Budd Schulberg and William Wellman.
Worth the view – the original A Star is Born.
Ding Ding Ding… April 15th…. taxes are due, or maybe your like Granny who would say….”Jed let me get my gun, it’s the revenue man!” LikeTelevision has a bunch of fun content related to our favorite folks – tax men. Yes… even back in ancient times, people always loved the tax collectors. Why one of them even went on to become saint and write a Gospel (St. Matthew)… so let’s cut the IRS some slack… while you’re cutting them a check.
Anyway, we dug deep into our video vault to find some terrific entertainment related to the Tax Man. First on the list has got to be – Jed pays His Taxes starring Irene Ryan as Granny and Buddy Ebsen as Jed in a Hillbilly comedy classic. And speaking of comedy – by all means check out 2 killer episodes of the Burns and Allen Show – The Tax Man and Property Tax Assessor. And lest we forget – sometimes its the Treasury Department who acts as the toughest cop – remember, it was the Tax Man who ultimately took down notorious gangster Al Capone, a.k.a. Scarface – on October 19, 1931. All right, if you’re like me… you like to grumble when you pay your taxes – so make sure you check out this FREE PREVIEW from My Man Godfrey, where Eugene Pallette, of the the greatest grumblers of all time – tells his family that they are spending 50% of his money while the revenue department is taking out just 60% of his income. Yes… it is hard to believe – but indeed that was the tax hit many years ago… in fact it was even much higher at its peak, especially when you added federal, local and property taxes to the pie. I guess that makes me feel a little bit better. Time to sign off… singing one of my my favorite Beatles tunes by the late great George Harrison – Tax Man.
Even someone who is an athesist (someone who denies the existence of god) or agnostic (people who believe we cannot know whether or not a God exists) has got to be impressed that a man can draw over 4 million to his funeral. While doing some reseach – i found the American Atheists are tad upset by all the buzz (Atheists: No Public Money For Bush Papal Funeral Junket – April 5, 2005 News Release) – while the Agnostics just don’t know what to think – hahaha. The passing of Pope John Paul II was expected – he has been ill for some time now – yet the outpouring of emotion and the massive pilgrimage to honor the man has been nothing short of amazing. The world has changed so much during his lifetime – he entered the priesthood at a time when about 1/3 of the priests in Poland had been killed just for being priests. And he lived to see the tyranny of the Nazi and the Communist Governments fold in his native Poland during his lifetime. The more I learn about the man – the more i have come to honor and respect him. I just found a media link at the Vatican’s site to watch the current events – LIVE. Check it out.
WATCH the events LIVE from The Vatican
(REAL: hi – med – low or Windows Media: hi – med – low).
Check out the official site of the Vatican for more information about the man and learn more about how they will select the next pope.
We thought folks might be interested in learning a little bit about Iwo Jima – a small island about 750 miles south of Tokyo, since today is the anniversary of the victorious assault on Mount Suribachi. I suspect most everyone has seen the photograph, taken by a fellow named Joe Rosenthal, but do you know a thing about what actually transpired on Iwo Jima? Well … good, you’re honest. Here’s a very short newsreel you can watch for free. Just kick back and learn something. If you want to see the page for This Day in History – click here.
LikeTelevision has a nifty calendar where you can watch some video clips related to each and every day of the year. Check it out and see what, if anything happened on your birthday – other than you being born. (no – i doubt we have footage of your birth, as your mom was modest. :~)
All Right – as promised, Escape from Sobibor is ready to view. Check out this powerful movie and watch it online – or you can download the MPG files and make your own DVD (for personal use only, see terms and conditions for details). There’s also a ton of terrific color stills in the image library. I really enjoyed this movie – and we are considering getting more movies directed by Jack Gold.
Ready to go – check it out, Escape From Sobibor, starring Alan Arkin, Rutger Hauer, and Joanna Pacula.
Sobibor was a Nazi death camp in Poland during World War II. Built around March 1942 – the Sobibor camp was created to kill Jews Most were of Polish decent, though some were from the Soviet Union and others were from Western Europe. The film is not just a story of horror and evil darkness. Why? Because on October 14, 1943 – there was the largest escape in the history of the concentration camps. Over 300 condemned men, women and children escaped on that glorious day. Escape from Sobibor tells this story of tragedy and triumph – and the unbeleiveable power of the spirit that refuses to give into despair and holds onto hope in the darkest of circumstances. Here’s Frank Random’s trailer – may God have mercy on those fools choose to follow the evil tyranny that this film conveys. And may all good and loving people be blessed with the hope that carries one through such darkness.
Escape from Sobibor is a very special film. It is rare when a movie can leave you weeping at one moment, and later, hoping with all your might – that the characters in the movie will make it out of their hellish nightmare. Honestly – i could not help weeping when I watched this. Not just crying – but full blown sobbing. It hurts to view it and to immerse yourself in this heinous reality, even just vicariously watching it as a film. No – there are no gratuitous and shocking photos of ematiated men, women and children. The film hits you in the heart – because you get to know the people and you like the people. You admire their courage and respect their strength in a place that is filled with total despair.
We will have this film ready to view in few more days – till then, read a bit more about the story and the people. Just google Sobibor.
January 27 marks a major milestone is the history of television. On January 27, 1926 – a Scottish inventor named John Baird demonstates a new invention that is able to transmit pictures – and guess what, the machine is called TELEVISION. Sadly – today, virtually no one even knows his name or that he was the guy who helped make the concept of transmitting images real. (the principles behind this had been around since 1875… but they remained mostly ethereal principles). Oh yeah… Al Gore wasn’t born yet… so he was in no position to take credit for it, like the he internet.
Baird used a series of rapidly rotating discs with holes in them to create a series of horizontal lines. Later…. a fellow named Philo Farnsworth would come up with a better idea as he watched his dad plow the fields in the farm – in a single line, back and forth, making a new row at each turn. This idea was the birth of scan lines, which looks like a series of horizontal lines… but is actually a continuous line.
And the story about Philo Farnsworth and RCA’s David Sarnoff is really interesting too… but we’ll save that for another day…. because today – January 27 – LikeTelevision proudly commemorates Scotsman John Logie Baird, and the birth of television.
And today is also marks the birthday of Sabu (01/27/1924), also known as the elephant boy – and India’s first star of the silver screen., He starred as Mowgli in Hollywood’s original screen adaptation of Kipling’s Jungle Book. His full name was Sabu Dastagir – I tried to do a google image search for Sabu… and darn it… there was virtually nothing of interest. I did learn however that there’s a pro wrestler named Sabu.
And – yes… one of favorites – the elegant Donna Reed – best known for her role as Mary Hatch in It’s a Wonderful Life was born on January 27, 1921. LikeTelevision offers a few movies starring Donna Reed – Picture of Dorian Gray (with Angela Lansbury) – free preview – and Last Time I Saw Paris – starring Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Eva Gabor, Roger Moore – yep… a very Bond… James Bond.
Seventy years ago today – on December 28, 1934 – Stalin begins his purges. Exploiting the assassination of Sergei Kirov, Stalin goes on a killing spree – leaving most of the old Bolsheviks dead. For more background – search for czar, Potemkin, Russian Revolution or Soviet, or Stalin.
Also added a very cool free preview of Throne of Blood – Akira Kurosawa’s epic Samurai movie based on William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The film is remarkable – great story, beautiful cinematography, and very well acted and executed. The special FX are so ahead of their time, especially the arrow scene – where strings were used to guide arrows to their designated targets.
Over the Christmas weekend, a Tsunami slams into Sri Lanka – killing over 22,000 people. A sad and terrible tragedy. Typhoons are brutal. Remember Nov. 13, 1970?
For the menu page, Superman, Billion Dollar Limited was added with a link to a terrific sample of the animation quality. Watch Lois Lane pack heat as she squeezes the trigger on her Thompson sub machine gun, a.k.a tommy gun. And who could forget, Billy Mumy (Will Robinson from Lost in Space) hawking a snub nosed 38 and a Tommy Burst, which of course was a machine gun.
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