October 24 - October 30:
Two Halloween traditions were continued in the Velveteen Lounge Theater this week. First we watched the fifth-season CHiPs Halloween episode "Rock, Devil, Rock," which features everything I love about the last season of CHiPs, including atrocious acting and writing, gratuitous car wrecks and, in this case, guest star Donny (although he called himself "Donald" for this one) Most as a KISS-like rocker named Moloch, whose manager (played by Peter Marshall) is trying to kill him. I can't blame him. Then it was on to 1976's Paul Lynde Halloween Special, featuring the actual band KISS, Florence Henderson, Margaret Hamilton, Billy Barty, Tim Conway and others. Frightening for all the wrong reasons, which is why we love it!
October 17 - October 23:
Psychomania (1973)
George Sanders, Nicky Henson
TCM has been featuring some off-the-wall horror this Halloween month, including this little ditty about a motorcycle gang, led by a spoiled rich kid whose mother is some kind of supernatural priestess and who knows that, if he commits suicide, but knows that he'll come back to life, he will. He does, he does and, since he can't be killed because he's already dead, proceeds to terrorize the town. Most of the others in his gang follow suit, pointlessly committing violence and destruction until the priestess has had enough and works her spell to keep them dead for good. A vivid illustration of how tough times must have been for George Sanders, career-wise.
The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947)
Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas
This one was viewed in the Velveteen Lounge Sewing Theater while making the fleece pictured on my Projects Around the Lounge page and proves conclusively that I'll watch anything with Roz Russell, because it was capital T Turgid. A war widow is involved in an accident on her way to catch a glimpse of one of the men her husband saved by throwing himself on a grenade and regains consciousness to discover she's paralyzed from the waist down, although there's nothing physically wrong with her. Turns out she feels guilty that she never loved her husband and kept him from finding any joy in life while he could. Douglas takes her on a "Christmas Carol"-esque journey to see the lives of the men he saved, but doesn't tell her that he's one of those men until the end of the film, and that he has some guilt of his own.
October 10 - October 16:
Lots of Charlie's Angels and The Jeffersons, thanks to the DVR, as well as Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Hawaii Five-O (the original--haven't bothered to check out the new series, since we only hear tepid reviews), which both now have their own regular nights here at the Lounge.
October 3 - October 9:
The American (2010)
George Clooney
It's amazing, but we actually saw a movie within the same year of its release! Will the fabric of time and space rip? It's shocking, but we'd never been to either of the drive-in theaters that are really near our home, but we remedied that situation Saturday with our friends Gaylord and Kathleen, who are drive-in aficionados. It was a lot of fun and we'll definitely go back. The movie was fine--an interesting semi-thriller about an assassin, but the point was more the experience than the movie itself. We only made it through about a half hour of the second feature, an execrable Drew Barrymore offering entitled Going the Distance. We didn't.
September 26 - October 2:
Confession: we never did watch Strange Bedfellows. However, the DVR has opened a new world in which we can watch anything from TCM, no matter what time of day or night it's on! So far I've captured...
The Youngest Profession (1943)
Virginia Weidler, Edward Arnold
Light as a feather World War II escapism, in which precocious teen Joan and her school friends stalk celebrities for their autographs. Lots of cameos from MGM stars and mayhem when the evil Miss Featherstone (Agnes Moorehead, who was already playing "old" 20+ years before Bewitched) spreads malicious and false gossip about Joan's father and his secretary. She gets hers in the end!
September 19 - September 25:
The Trouble With Harry (1955)
John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine
So we didn't get to Strange Bedfellows, but at least we DID get to a movie! This was a good choice for a fall night, taking place as it does in Vermont as the leaves are changing. Zany mayhem is the order of the day as a group of unlikely allies decide how to deal with a body that several of them, at one time or another, think they accidentally killed. Best line, uttered by a pre-Leave it to Beaver Jerry Mathers: "You never know when a dead rabbit might come in handy."
September 12 - September 18:
Sigh. We really are getting better about guarding our down time with our lives, but needing to leave early Saturday morning to get to Connecticut for the Conquer Chiari walk, as well as getting home late that night, really put a crimp in movie viewing. We did manage to observe our Man from U.N.C.L.E. night, our World's Dumbest night, to keep our weekly date with Mad Men (complete with classic cocktails, of course), to see a couple more episodes of our new DVD set of the fabulous TV series The Mothers-in-Law, and to see much of a truly hilarious Bollywood film on one of Time Warner Cable's Hindi channels, Do Aur Do Paanch (1980). It's amazing what you can find when there is seemingly NOTHING on!
September 5 - September 11:
I've learned that making movies and watching movies really don't mix, so all we saw this week was our weekly episode of Man from U.N.C.L.E., World's Smartest Inventions and a train wreck of a special for the 30-year reunion of Happy Days. No matter how hard I tried, I could not look away.
August 29 - September 4:
Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)
Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss
Roger Willoughby (Hudson), an expert on fishing, having written the definitive guide on the sport, is asked (well, ordered, really) to enter a prestigious fishing tournament. The only problem is that he's never actually fished in his life. Do you think he'll say "no" or drop out? Hell, no! Zany mayhem ensues, complicated by the presence of Abigail Page (Prentiss).
August 22 - August 28:
In addition to Lee Remick day on TCM, watched in the Velveteen Lounge Sewing Theater (Experiment in Terror and The Running Man), we watched an episode of The American Experience about the history of the Tupperware company. It was really fun and fascinating. I hadn't realized what a cult Tupperware was back in the day for their sales force, complete with pilgrimages to the resort-like headquarters in Orlando.
August 15 - August 21:
Undercurrent (1946)
Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum
The Velveteen Lounge Sewing Theater is back with this noir thriller about a woman who marries a seemingly upstanding businessman, only to learn he's obsessed with his brother, possibly having murdered him. She becomes obsessed, too, leading to all kinds of tense situations and, eventually, to violence.
August 8 - August 14:
The Velveteen Lounge Theater was closed for vacation, but has reopened!
August 1 - August 7:
The Wild Women of Wongo (1958)
Jean Hankshaw, Mary Ann Webb
The message in this film, as if we didn't already know, is that people are stupid and men are led by their peckers. It's a terrible movie, which is not to say that I didn't love it. There is much late-'50s modern dance choreography as the women of Wongo worship the Dragon God, and the swimwear and shark tooth necklaces are to die for. A winner, especially after you've had a couple!
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