Silver Screen Standards: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) While I’ve never had any interest in diamonds, I do enjoy watching Marilyn Monroe sing about them in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), the Technicolor film adaptation of the 1949 stage musical based on Anita Loos’ flapper era novel. Monroe’s big number, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” is a truly...
Classic Movie Travels: Dinah Shore Frances “Fanny” Rose Shore was born on February 29, 1916, to Anna and Solomon Shore in Winchester, Tennessee. She had a sister, Elizabeth, who was eight years older. When Fanny was eighteen months old, she suffered from polio. After extensive care, an exercise program, and therapeutic massages, Fanny recovered but coped with...
Valeska Suratt Valeska Suratt Valeska Suratt was born on June 28, 1882, in Owensville, Indiana, to Ralph and Anna Suratt. When Suratt was six years old, her family relocated to Terre Haute, Indiana. By 1899, she dropped out of school to work at a photography studio, later moving to Indianapolis, Indiana, to work as an assistant in...
Western Film Book Library – Part 9 It’s time for another survey of books on Western movies! This month’s column is prompted in large part by the publication of an important new book, The Cavalry Trilogy: John Ford, John Wayne, and the Making of Three Classic Westerns by Michael F. Blake. Blake, the son of character actor Larry Blake,...
The Growing Pains of (Very) Early Cinema It’s easy to assume that “moving pictures” burst onto the scene in the late 19th century all at once. We often imagine that pop culture history can be neatly sliced into “before cinema” and “after cinema,” positive that the traditional forms of stage entertainment swiftly became passe. The truth, of...
Thankful Noir Noirvember and Thanksgiving season. The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are continuing to turn and fall. So, what better time to pull up a chair, grab a cup o’ cider, and join me as I serve up a heaping platter of noir-related goodies that I’m thankful for? Here goes . . . Barbara...
My Favorite Wife (1940) I’ve shown a lot of comedies to my lifetime learners over the years, but I’ve rarely heard an audience laugh as uproariously as they did during a recent screening of My Favorite Wife (1940), which we watched as part of a series featuring Cary Grant. The peals of laughter prove that Grant and...
As classic movie fans, we’ve all had those “wow” moments with actors we may not expect to see in a film as in “Wow! Is that (fill in the blank) …” Or “Wait – I think that’s …” This usually happens in their early films and it’s always fun to make that connection. One of my favorite...
Noir Nook: Noir’s Scariest Characters October is a month for ghosts and goblins, bats and jack-o’-lanterns, black cats and skeletons. Not necessarily the characteristics that come to mind when one thinks of film noir. But there’s one thing that’s common to both October and noir – scary characters. In the spirit of the month, I’m taking a...
Lone Pine Film Festival 2024 I had an amazing time again this year at the annual Lone Pine Film Festival held in Lone Pine, California. This was the 34th festival, of which I’ve attended around 10. As has become our habit in recent years, we arrived in town a day ahead of the four-day event so my...
Billie Eilish interviewed Ariana Grande last night after a screening of Wicked at the Directors Guild of America’s theater...
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About US
Welcome to our stimulating blog and journal!
Hello! Let me introduce my wife and myself. I am Stephane and I was really lucky to meet my wife, Mariolis, 14 years ago in the beautiful Caribbean island of Cuba. For some time now we have dreamed to create an on-line ‘dairy’ and blog to share aspire our life’s passions
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