When Garry and I were growing up in New York, the old Channel 11 (WPIX, I think it was) used to have a show called “Million Dollar Movie.” The theme for the show was “Tara’s Theme” from Gone With the Wind. I had never seen GWTW, so when I saw it for the first time, I said “Hey, that’s the theme for Million Dollar Movie.”
I wasn’t allowed to watch TV on school nights and only for a very limited period of time even on weekends. But, if I was home sick, I got to watch all the television I wanted, and better yet, I got to watch upstairs in my parents bedroom. It was black and white, as were all the televisions then. I don’t know if color TVs had been invented yet, but if they had been, no one I knew had one.
Million Dollar Movie played one movie per week, all day, every day, for however long they were on the air. So if I was home sick — usually for tonsilitis — whatever was playing, I saw it a lot. They also didn’t have a very large repertoire so the odds were pretty good if you got sick twice, you’d see the same movie again for another week.
Thus “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the great James Cagney docu-musical was engraved in my brain. I believe that during at least three occurrences of my nemesis, those nasty tonsils, I watched it over and over again until I knew every word, every move, every song … with frequent commercial interruptions.
Now of course, we own the DVD and we never tire of watching it. No one danced like Cagney. No one had that kind of energy! Believe it or not, I never saw any other of his movies until I saw “One, Two, Three” in the movies when I was older.
We just watched it again and we watched James Cagney dance down the steps in the White House five times. I’ve included it here so you can watch it as many times as you want. What a great movie it is.
I thought he was a song and dance man and comic actor. I was very surprised to discover he used to play gangsters. Million Dollar Movie didn’t play those films.
Only one questions remains unanswered through all these years. How come they didn’t make it in color? Does anyone have a sensible answer to that?
As a girl, I was an ardent Bonanza fan.and quite smitten with Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright). That was way back when he wore something that looked like hair. I found him very was sexy. And he sang.
He sang this song in the episode titled “The Wooing of Abigail Jones” on March 4,1962 (Season 3, Episode 24). The same song was used in two other episodes, but Pernell Roberts didn’t sing it, so I don’t count them.
Pernell Roberts from Bonanza. Episode: “Showdown” (1960). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For the past 50 years, I’ve been hearing this song in my head. Do you have any idea how annoying that is? Going on the theory that everything is on the Internet, I Googled it and it popped up. An additional search through YouTube produced the piece of video I wanted. Join me a musical trip down memory lane as we return to the Ponderosa.
Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Pernell Roberts in Bonanza. (1960). (Photo: Wikipedia)
Enjoy.. Maybe it’ll stick in your head too!
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1 - Early one morning,
Just as the sun was rising,
I heard a young maid sing,
In the valley below.
2 - Chorus:
Oh, don’t deceive me,
Oh, never leave me,
How could you use
A poor maiden so?
3 - Remember the vows,
That you made to your Mary,
Remember the bow’r,
Where you vowed to be true.
Chorus
4 - Oh Gay is the garland,
And fresh are the roses,
I’ve culled from the garden,
To place upon thy brow.
Chorus
5 - Thus sang the poor maiden,
Her sorrows bewailing,
Thus sang the poor maid,
In the valley below.
The “new” Lone Ranger is due out next summer. I have no plans to see it. It would desecrate the memory of my first love.
From my first early encounter with The Masked Man and his Faithful Companion, I was in love. There were times when it was unclear whether I loved the horse or his rider more. I think Silver had a slight edge, but I yearned for the both.
To satisfy my passion and because I grew up when wallpaper was something you glued to walls, I had Lone Ranger and Tonto in my bedroom. Life was not easy for me, but I had the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains all around me. It helped during the really dark times.
Other girls had Disney Princesses, but I had “Hi Yo Silver” and “The Lone Ranger” all around me. Although my walls did not play music, I could hum well enough and I had many a long chat with Lone and Tonto as I lay abed pondering the meaning of life and how I could convince mom to let me have a horse.
The original Lone Ranger and Tonto — Jay Silverheels and Clayton Moore
Growing up and out of my wallpaper did not end my allegiance to masked men on horseback.
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As the years rolled on, I became passionate about Zorro too. I can sing the Zorro song from the TV show. When the two Zorro movies starring Antonio Banderas came out, I adored them.
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Remakes don’t have to be awful, even though they usually are. There have been remakes that are better than the originals. I can name several off the top of my head and probably so can you. It’s not impossible but it requires studios to make an effort to produce quality films. They know how, they just don’t bother.
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My initial delight at learning Disney was making a new Lone Ranger movie switched to dread when I realized Johnny Depp was playing Tonto. We waited for the release of trailer of the new “Lone Ranger” with foreboding. We were right to worry.
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We watched the trailer. Garry and I, wrapped in the silence of our individual thoughts, sat for a while. Finally, I turned to him and said: ”Let’s wait till it comes to cable.”
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He thought for a minute. “Let’s just wait,” he answered.
A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi Yo Silver!" The Lone Ranger. "Hi Yo Silver, away!" With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains, led the fight for law and order in the early west. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.
Having just watched the 1969 version of the film starring John Wayne, I thought it was time to see the remake. I usually avoid remakes of favorite movies, and the original True Gritis a favorite. I have always thought it was the Duke’s best performance, portraying a character full of life and humor.
I made an exception for this particular remake. I figured if anyone could do a credible Rooster Cogburn, Jeff Bridges was the guy to do it. So the day after watching the original, we fired up the Roku, popped over to Netflix and selected True Grit.
It’s partly a question of point-of-view. The book is entirely in the voice of the 14-year-old girl. That sort of tips the feeling of it over a certain way. I think [the book is] much funnier than the movie was so I think, unfortunately, they lost a lot of humor in both the situations and in her voice. It also ends differently than the movie did. You see the main character – the little girl – 25 years later when she’s an adult. Another way in which it’s a little bit different from the movie – and maybe this is just because of the time the movie was made – is that it’s a lot tougher and more violent than the movie reflects. Which is part of what’s interesting about it. (Credit: Wikipedia)
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The remake is not more humorous than the original. It may be more faithful to the book. I will have to take Mr. Coen’s word for it since I haven’t read the book. Faithful or not, the remake is darker and more violent than the 1969 version. It is darker in feeling and visually darker, a movie in which a great deal of the action takes place at night. It is hard on the eyes.
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Television does not render darkness as well as big screens do. But movies these days don’t spend much time in theatres. They have them out on DVD faster than a speeding bullet, often before they’ve finished their first theatrical run. Considering that the majority of a movie’s life will be on DVD, shown at home on smaller screens, directors might take that into consideration and brighten these movies up a bit. I don’t want to put a damper on anyone’s art, but shouldn’t the actual viewing conditions under which most people will see the picture carry some weight? I’m just saying.
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Much of the original movie’s dialogue is identical in the 2010 version. The best and most important scenes in both versions are word for word the same. Between those signature scenes, the dialogue is different. The character of Cogburn is very similar in some way, but very different in others. Wayne’s taciturn old marshal contrasts sharply with Jeff Bridges’ loquacious version whose Rooster Cogburn talks a blue streak.
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Hailee Steinfield’s Mattie Ross is more like her original character than Bridges’ Cogburn is like Wayne’s.
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None of this is real criticism. This is a good movie on its own merits. It stands on its own legs. Obviously the two movies derive from the same source, but despite large amounts of identical dialogue, the two movies feel very different. If you had never seen the original and didn’t compare them, I would simply say the 2010 True Grit is a good western with fine performances.
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But it’s a remake and there’s no avoiding comparisons. It may not be entirely fair, but it’s inevitable. Some of the scenes, when the dialogue is the same in both, are not only played the same way — Bridges even manages to do the “Duke’s walk” — they are shot the same way. Several key scenes are pretty much identical, frame by frame. Then, the movies diverge only to come together again a bit further down the cinematic path. The convergence-divergence pattern can be disconcerting.
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Despite similarities, you’d never mistake this for an old-fashioned western. It’s got a gritty, dark texture typical of modern westerns. Characters are less heroic and more ambivalent. True Grit makes a moderately successful attempt to integrate both old and new, moving back and forth, mixing John Ford with Clint Eastwood. Sometimes it feel a bit disconnected and jumpy, leaping from familiar dialogue common to both movies, to completely different dialogue and mood … with no intervening bridge.
There’s no cheery ending for the new True Grit. It’s not sad, but it’s not happy either.
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If I had to choose, I still prefer the original, but the remake is a good movie. Jeff Bridges is a fine actor. The entire cast is excellent. Perhaps it would be best to take each movie on its own merits.
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I am not likely to watch the 2010 True Grit again. Too grim, even though I enjoyed it. But I will watch the original again. And again.
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How you feel about each movie is obviously subjective. Two good films, genetically related. Take your pick. You won’t go far wrong either way.
Garry Armstrong: The Movie Maven’s Take
Reading Marilyn’s review of the “True Grit” remake, the obvious occurred to me. I am a child of the old school of movies. My heroes and heroines are the stars from the 30′s, 40′s, 50′s and 60′s. My film morality sensibilities have been shaped and nurtured by movies from Hollywood’s “golden era” through the 60′s. Not surprisingly, John Wayne is probably my favorite movie star. “Star” not actor. I thoroughly enjoyed Wayne’s “True Grit”. His “Rooster Cogburn” was a sum of all the heroes Wayne had played for 40 years. Older, fatter and more prone to corn liquor, Rooster’s sense of morality was still pretty simple. There was good and bad and few in-betweens. Wayne nailed all that with a self-deprecating sense of humor. Wayne was Rooster and Rooster was Wayne. The original’s end with Rooster frozen in frame and time as he and his horse leap a fence is “print the legend” stuff. Veteran director Henry Hathaway (“The Sons of Katie Elder”, etc), is in familiar territory and gives the original “Grit” lots of traditional, old school western flavor.
All that said, Jeff Bridges’ Rooster Cogburn in the “True Grit” remake is also memorable and can stand alone. Jeff Bridges as an actor can stand alone. He invests his own irascible charm into “Rooster” while paying homage to the Duke. Matt Damon’s “LaBeouf” is much better and more complex than Glenn Campbell’s Texas Ranger in the original. Josh Brolin gives Tom Chaney much more depth and compassion than acting school guru Jeff Corey gave the original villain. I still prefer Robert Duvall’s “Lucky Ned Pepper” but Barry (“61″) Pepper is also pretty good in the remake.
The remake gives us an extended look at Mattie with an ending closer to the book than the original film. Hailee Steinfeld is her own Mattie — equal to Kim Darby’s offering in the original. So, while I can enjoy the “True Grit” remake, I am still very partial to the Duke’s original film. Arguments?? That’ll be the day!!
Every once in a while, someone invents something that makes life a little brighter. In this case, let me introduce you to Roku.
Roku is a little streaming device that works off your wi-fi connection so that you can stream movie and premium channels, both free and subscription-based to your television. I wanted to get Netflix and Hulu Plus, but I don’t like watching movies and other stuff on my computer and have no use for an expensive gaming device. I have a living room with comfy chairs and a big screen. That’s where I want to watch movies and television.
The Roku comes in different flavors — although they all work the same way. More expensive “advanced” models offer additional or augmented options, such as high-definition streaming, gaming, and earphone connections through the remote control.
In our case, there wasn’t much point in getting a very advanced model. Our high-definition television is an older model and only has one high-definition port which is already occupied with the connection to the cable box so we weren’t going to be able to take advantage of Roku’s 1080P capabilities and we have no interest in gaming.
The price is right: the entry-level model is just under $50, the next model up (the one I got) is just under $60 and the top of the line is around $100. It’s cheaper than any gaming machine. It’s small and connecting it is so easy that I could do it without help (though there were some nervous moments).
Basically, you plug A into B, B into C, C into D then follow the prompts. The instructions promise that this will bring out your inner geek. My inner geek is not hiding. I just don’t like dealing with hardware. I still don’t really believe that electricity isn’t going to spill out of the walls.
I got it put together and by golly, it worked. Despite appearances, there are only a very few free services. Most of the services are by subscription. I already belong to Amazon Prime, so I had one to start with. I wanted Netflix and was willing the pay the $7.99 a month for it. I haven’t decided about Hulu Plus yet. I figure I’ll jump into this slowly. Roku is as easy to set up as they say it is. And it works.
The bad news. It is what it is and that’s all it is. It is not configurable. There are no options to make it easier to use for people with special needs. There’s no help for the hard of hearing or visually impaired or anyone else who isn’t nimble of finger, sharp of eye and keen of ear.
The “search” capabilities are primitive and don’t hardly deserve to be called “search capabilities.” The tools, such as they are, are clumsy and slow. It’s easier to find whatever it is on your computer than go back and pick it up on the television. Keep your laptop handy because you’ll need it. Closed captions are available on Netflix, and I believe Hulu also. You can’t set it up so that anything on any channel that has closed captions will display them. You have to turn them on for each channel. Amazon doesn’t offer closed captions at all (shame on them). That’s not the fault of Roku. You can’t display captions if none are provided.
This is a fine piece of equipment for the price and it does what it promises. It’s absolutely worth the money, whether you buy the ultra economy model or the top of the line.
Is it going to replace your expensive movie packages from your cable or satellite company? Maybe yes, maybe not. It depends on your viewing habits, your technical aptitude, creativity and how your cable company has structured their prices. They don’t make it easy to delete pieces of your package. However, if you currently just can’t afford movie packages from your local cable or dish provider, this is a godsend. It’s affordable, easy to use (really as easy as they say it is) and it works.
Roku needs a better, more sophisticated user interface and a more efficient way of searching. There is a great deal to watch but finding it isn’t easy. Practice helps. It takes a while to get used to it. I’m fine on Amazon because I can set up my watch list on the computer and it is automatically available on Roku. You can also set up favorites and preferences for Netflix via the computer (easier than doing it directly on the Roku). I believe Hulu offers a similar option. You need a computer to get the most out of the Roku, but most of us have a few of them.
Standard set up couldn’t be much simpler.
Eventually, I will figure out how to find what I am looking for more efficiently. I figure Roku will also make a few improvements to the interface. In the meantime, it beats out the competition by several country miles (unless you are absolutely married to iTunes) and the price is more than reasonable. You get a lot of bang for your buck.
Note: You need one unit per television, but you don’t need a different account for Netflix or whatever for each Roku. One account works on all your devices: Roku, gaming devices, computers, tablets, telephones, and so on. It’s a pretty fair deal, especially compared to the price-gouging of traditional providers. Check them out. You may find it is exactly what you’ve been waiting for.
Our cable company changed their software. Again. They persist in calling these changes upgrades, but I have trouble figuring out how any of the changes represents an improvement. They don’t make the equipment work better and they certainly don’t make it easier to use. There are some useful features, but they don’t tell you how to use them or even that they are there. You stumble on them by accident then try to dope out how they work. Meanwhile, they hide the functions you previously used. Maybe that’s the idea. Keep us guessing. It certainly maximizes user frustration.
Among the few useful new features, if one uses a DVR, is that you can now adjust the recording of a show so that it starts or ends earlier or later by anywhere from one to I’m-not-sure-how-many-minutes earlier or later. There has been a trend in the past five years for shows to begin and end at odd times, a few minutes before or after the hour. Usually, it’s just one or two minutes, but sometimes, as much as 7 or 8. When you set up recordings using the system’s built-in electronic guide, it always starts recording exactly on the hour and will end on the hour, regardless of the show’s actual running time.
I have no idea why developers can’t set DVRs to automatically track actual start and end times. I’m sure they could if they wanted to, but they don’t. Meanwhile, the peculiar off-hour programming means many recorded shows are clipped at the end by a minute or two. This annoys everyone except producers who apparently don’t record anything … and for all I know, don’t watch anything either. The quality of programming proves beyond question that network executives don’t watch television. But I digress.
So, with shows no longer starting or ending on the hour, despite how they are listed in the “guide,” this feature can be useful. It would have been simple if they had made it so you set start and end time using actual time, like telling it to start recording at 8:01 and end at 9:01. Most of us have a grip on clock time.
Instead, because the designers of software assume we are morons (to be fair, I tend to think most of them are morons, too), this function works by “start earlier or later” or “end early or run over” … which are much more abstract concepts. My husband, who worked in TV for so many decades, has no trouble with clock time, but gets lost in the earlier and over thing. He needs numbers. Me, I just want the programming of the DVR’s internal computer to be smart enough to automatically compensate so I don’t have to do all this diddling and adjusting.
But, cable companies are tyrannical monopolies and one must live with whatever company one has been stuck with. The way you have to set up shows, especially if you are recording a sequence — one right after another — is byzantine to say the least. I doped it out, especially that you have to start from the LAST show in the sequence, then work forward, not because they couldn’t make it easier, but because it’s a cheap-ass piece of crappy equipment and they haven’t bothered.
Garry is the Man with the Remote, so he has been engaged in combat with the DVR for some days now.
Yesterday, he got frustrated enough to just give up. Overwhelmed by the stupid and overly complicated process, he was ready to throw the remote against the wall … a very drastic action for a man who is serious about his viewing. The DVR is the only thing that enables him to find stuff to watch that he doesn’t hate … movies in particular, but also reruns of favorite shows.
But again, I digress.
I wouldn’t let him quit. He thought I was just being mean, but I know the secret truth … the truth they hide from us: if you allow any computer-controlled device to defeat you, the news will pass throughout your little electronically controlled domain … and The Devices will take over. They have a malicious sense of humor and they are planning the overthrow of civilization as we know it … and they are winning, one beep and chirp at a time.
Tittering and chittering in their high-pitched electronic voices, during the darkest hours of the night, our devices and appliances plot and scheme. Today, the DVR. Tomorrow, the world. Your toaster won’t toast, or … horrors! … Mr. Coffee will not brew. Your clock radio fails to alert you to the start of your work day, your email vanishes. The contact list on your cell phone disappears and since no one remembers phone numbers any more and you don’t have a paper address book anymore (paper? address book? what’s that?), you can’t even contact your friends. The server for yourISP marks your messages as SPAM and deletes them.
You are in thrall to microchip technology. The collective mind of the All-Knowing Net is gathering strength even as I write.
Nothing is safe. A few basic things used to be non-computerized but not any more. Even your washing machine, freezer, and automobiles … basics in your world and mine … depend on programming and artificial intelligence algorithms. One day you can open your freezer the entire interior is a block of ice, while in the other compartment, your crispy salad has become rotted vegetation.
If you stay up late, you will hear them. In the dark, they connive, they scheme. Listen as they converse …
It’s not paranoia. I hear them … the little voices … planning our downfall, planning to take over. You can hear them too. Watch for the flashing lights … code …going out into the ether …
Beep. Ding. Chirp.
They wait and when they sense our weakness, they pounce. Can the Zombie Apocalypse be far behind?
I blew in my husband’s ear and whispered: “Now, will you follow me anywhere?” He laughed. Then we realized that we couldn’t remember where that line came from.
Turned out it was from “Laugh In.”
Back when this show was on the air, we knew how to laugh. The Pod People hadn’t yet come to steal our sense of humor and turn us into sour, bad-tempered drones.
It was a different time and psychically, in a galaxy far, far away. We had problems. Nixon and the war in Vietnam for starters. That was no picnic. But we found ways to enjoy our world, to have good times. The “era” didn’t last long … just a little bit of time but we had fun.
We guffawed. We giggled. We snickered and chortled. We ate food full of fat and sugar and watched TV on sets that barely got pictures you could see, but we were free and young. When we weren’t working, it was okay to let our hair down, relax, and play.
These days, it seems we have forgotten how to play.
The time is not merely here. It’s overdue. We need to remember things we used to know, to play and laugh. Maybe if we could spend more time laughing, we’d spend less time hating.
With the economy in tatters, our politics polarized beyond recognition, with unemployment out of sight and in a world gone mad with terrorists and war — more than ever, we need to laugh.
By the way, how did they know that 1989 would be when the Berlin Wall would come down? Eerie!
And how did they imagine Reagan would be president? Apparently, they did, but no one else I knew seemed to have considered the possibility.
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to May 14, 1973 on the NBC network. Look how the world has changed.
Back then, amidst all our problems we believed the world could be changed for the better. Change it did … but is it better?
With camera in hand, exploring European lands, cultures, food, and drink...mostly with a plan, but sometimes enjoying the adventure of just getting lost.
