The French Dispatch-2021

 

No matter how flashy they make it, most directors today--not all, but most-- just point a camera and let the actors tell the story. Wes Anderson doesn't do that. Wes Anderson makes MOVIES! He uses all the tools at the filmmaker's command--music, sets, dialogue, action, inaction, color, lack of color, sound effects, shocks, language(s), familiar actors in unfamiliar settings, designs, lighting, shadows, and time, even animation! Love his movies or hate them, there's nothing else like them today! Endlessly fascinating! I just watched this one, from 2021, and it may be his best to date!

Challenger--40 Years On

This one stunned me. I had been at work at the bookstore all morning. We were understaffed and I had been alone since 9 AM that morning with only a few customers straggling in. Our mall was largely unoccupied, with only about 15 stores in the entire place, even though it had been built for 99. I was shelving some books when my 1 PM staffer, Melissa, came walking in like a zombie.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"The space shuttle exploded," she said in a thick Southern accent I can still hear in my head.

My immediate response was, "The one with the teacher??"

The space shuttle missions had quickly become largely routine but this one, with civilian social studies teacher Christa McAuliffe, chosen from thousands of applicants, had been generating a lot of interest and good publicity for NASA. There had been multiple postponements, though, and I hadn't even remembered they were going to try again that day.

The only TV set in our near-dead mall was in the sleazy video store up on the top level so when Melissa came out of the back room, I ran up the escalator. The two guys there hadn't heard about Challenger either as they had been running a movie from a tape. They turned on the news when I explained what had happened and we all stood there dumbfounded as the story unfolded. We watched for an hour just...trying to take it all in.

It was inevitable that at some point there would be another major accident in the space program but this particular shuttle, with the civilian teacher, represented so much hope. So much optimism died along with these seven astronauts. May they Rest in Peace.

 

State Fair Superman-1957

 

A Selection of Radio Trade Ads from 1947

 

Edwige Fenech at 76

Seen above is Edwige Fenech, a lovely international star I first discovered in the pages of CONTINENTAL FILM REVIEW back in the mid-70s. With the advent of the Internet, I've been able to see a number of her films, which range from comedies to giallos. 

Seen below, from a European magazine, is a current, 2025 picture of the 76 year old actress. Translated, the text reads: "I've had more lives than a cat," says Edwige, a French woman born in Algeria, naturalized Italian, and residing in Lisbon. "I regret nothing, I deny nothing," the actress swears.

 

The Addams Family 1962-1964

Above is Charles Addams' review of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, pre-dating the now-classic TV series.

Below, a couple of pieces about the then-upcomingADDAMS FAMILY TV series. 

 

The Princess and Me--1968

Found some nice photos from THE PRINCESS AND ME, an unsold Screen Gems TV pilot that ALLLLLmost made ABC's slate for fall of 1968. Based on, or at least inspired by, the hit Audrey Hepburn movie ROMAN HOLIDAY, this small screen version starred 19 year old Barbara Hershey (just after the cancellation of THE MONROES and a few years before she changed her name to Seagull). Shot in late 1967, her co-stars included Anna Lee, an actress with very few online credits, British actor Ivor Barry, and hunky Jeremy Slate--perhaps best known for his roles in violent motorcycle gang flicks (including THE BORN LOSERS, the first Billy Jack movie). During the shooting of the pilot, Slate was bitten on his face by a black widow spider while asleep at his home and didn't realize it until the next day when his cheek swelled up on the set!

THE PRINCESS AND ME was written by Bernard Slade, who would soon create THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, and directed by E.W. Swackhammer, a veteran TV director later married to actress Bridget Hanley, whose HERE COME THE BRIDES series DID make the ABC Fall schedule that year!