June 25 - July 1:

The Ambushers (1967)
Dean Martin, Senta Berger, Janice Rule
Another Matt Helm outing, this one set in Acapulco and environs. Besides making me wish I was in Mexico I loved the training center for female ICE agents. Let's just say their equipment gives new meaning to the term "bullet bra."

Adventures in Paradise (1959) (Episode: "Pit of Silence")
Gardner McKay, Teresa Wright (guest star)
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. Another of those "why have I never seen this?" shows, this one inspired by the writings of James Michener, about a guy who stayed in the South Pacific after his military service, delivering cargo among the islands on his schooner, the Tiki. Let's just say I can see why Gardner McKay's acting career didn't go further. I loved it, anyway, and am depressed that MT&R doesn't have more of them.

Julia (1970 or '71) (Episode: "Magna Cum Lover")
Diahann Carroll, Fred Williamson
Viewed at MT&R. Julia keeps having to work late and has no time for her boyfriend Steve (Fred Williamson, later of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, a masterpiece of awfulness), so she sends him to his law school graduation dance with her teenaged babysitter, who happens to be throwing herself at him, leading everyone to call her crazy. Naturally he wants a "real woman" and all ends happily.

The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (1959) (Episode: "Rick Gets Even")
The Nelson Family, Tuesday Weld (guest star)
Cathy (Tuesday Weld) bashes the fender on David's car, which Ricky is borrowing, but Rick lets it slide because she's cute and agrees to go out with him. Then she cancels the date, giving what he considers a spurious reason, which inspires him to take her up on her offer to work like a slave for him, to pay off the fender. Turns out she was telling the truth, so his revenge was unnecessary, but she goes out with him, anyway, since this is, after all, Ozzie & Harriet.

Hawaiian Eye (1960) (Episode: "Assignment: Manila")
Robert Conrad, Anthony Eisley
Lopaka gets sent to Manila to break up a ring that's buying American money for Red China. He gets involved with two beautiful-but-bad women, but they end up saving his butt in the end. Nobody's perfect!

June 18 - June 24:

Blue Vinyl (2002)
Judith Helfand, Daniel B. Gold (co-directors)
You'll just have to trust me on this one. A really great documentary about the hazards of vinyl siding and why you should not want it on your house. They definitely make their point, but Judith Helfand, who travels around the world with a piece of siding from her parents' house looking for answers about its safety, is so likable that I wished she was my friend.

Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip (2003)
Ken Burns (director), Tom Hanks (voice of Horatio Nelson Jackson)
It's documentary week here at the Lounge! This one is about the first coast-to-coast American road trip, in 1903, undertaken by Horatio Nelson Jackson (who bet $50 that he could do it), his mechanic, Sewell Crocker, and a bulldog named Bud they met along the way. It's frankly amazing, considering there was virtually nothing we'd recognize as roads today and they were in a completely open, two-seater car (a Winston). They pulled the car out of rivers and mud countless times, broke down constantly and maintained their optimism to the end. Utterly fabulous.

June 11 - June 17:

The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
Doris Day, Rod Taylor
Geoff e-mailed the bad news that the glass-bottomed boat featured in the film of the same name SANK last week, so I absolutely had to watch it that night, being that it's one of my favorite Doris Day flicks. It's got it all: spies, intrigue, California and Catalina in the '60s, fabulous clothing and sets and, hell, it's Doris! Click here to see some random pix, shot in the Tiki Room Tuesday night.

The Blob (1958)
Steve (although he was still "Steven" at this point) McQueen, Aneta Corseaut
I can't believe I'd never seen this fabulous film before! Steve and Jane take a break from making out at the local lovers' lane when they see what they think is a shooting star crash to earth. An old man had heard it, too, and got covered with killer goo for his trouble when he investigated. Steve and Jane take him to the doctor, who is also consumed by the gooey thing, which shows you what comes of being a good samaritan. No one will believe the teens who try to make the town see the danger they're in until it's too late. Just goes to show ya'.

77 Sunset Strip (1960) (Episode: "Return to San Dede, Part 1: Desert Story")
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Andra Martin (guest star)
Stu gets a gig transporting a thoroughly unlikable spoiled rich girl to her home in San Dede (somewhere south of the border), where she is to assume leadership, if she can make it there alive. The outlook is positive at this point, but we still have Part 2 to get through...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) (Episode: "The Deadly Decoy Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
Like 77 Sunset Strip this week, our guys have to escort someone, although in this case it's a THRUSH bigwig whom U.N.C.L.E. is escorting as a prisoner to Washington, DC. Or is it? Who has the real prisoner and who has the decoy? Even THRUSH can't tell!

June 4 - June 10:

The Cocoanuts (1929)
The Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont
The first Marx Brothers feature and an early talkie. The plot was weak and Harpo annoys the crap out of me, but I love Groucho and Margaret Dumont, and the "beach" scenes, with fashionable 1929 swimsuits, which were worn with heels, and obviously painted backdrops were too fabulous. One thing: why were the young leading men from this era all such stiffs?

77 Sunset Strip (1960) (Episode: "Blackout")
Roger Smith, Jacqueline Beer
Suzanne stops by a department store after hours to pick up the cigarette lighter she'd purchased for Jeff's birthday and forgotten because she was distracted by trying on hats. She's kidnapped by a gang who showed up to rob the place of the jewels Jeff was guarding and has to use her wits to stay alive. Good thing she's a smart gal.

Hawaiian Eye (1960) (Episode: "Little Blalah")
Anthony Eisley, Poncie Ponce
A rich kid with too much time on his hands gets drunk a lot and runs up a lot of debt, which thugs try to collect. In the meantime, someone frames him for murdering the security guard at his father's company to get at the cash payroll. No, he didn't do it. He's a drunk, not a murderer!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1966) (Episode: "The Abominable Snowman Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
It's a little convoluted, but Kuryakin dresses up like an abominable snowman to witness the coronation of the next High Lama of Ghupat. Unfortunately he gets shot and taken to the home of former western star Calamity Rogers (Anne Jeffreys), who happens to live in the Himalayas since her marriage to a man the bad guys have also killed. Our guys team up with her and prevent a fraudulent little boy (who didn't want the job, anyway) from ascending to the throne.

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1967) (Episode: "The High and Deadly Affair")
Stefanie Powers, Noel Harrison
April poses as a flight attendant on a flight carrying some THRUSH baddies who plan to create mayhem using tropical birds. Lots of great guest stars, including Julie (Creature from the Black Lagoon) Adams and Grayson Hall, whom we know and love from Satan in High Heels.

You Bet Your Life (1950-61--on TV--it ran for years prior to 1950 on radio)
Groucho Marx, George Fenneman
We watched as many more episodes of this one as we could before I had to return them to the library. I need to buy these. I'd love to think a return to intelligent comedy is right around the corner, but with Groucho dead and most of his contemporaries in comedy heaven with him, or close to it, I tend to doubt it.

May 28 - June 3:

Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart
A Busby Berkeley musical showcase set at a foufy summer resort in New Hampshire, full of romance, romantic complications, blackmail and Berkeley's trademark epic musical numbers, including the infamous (around here, anyway) version of "Lullaby of Broadway" which climaxes with the young party girl falling out the window of a high rise. Hot-cha-cha!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) (Episode: "The Terbuf Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
Our guys sneak a gypsy out of the Balkans because an old girlfriend of Solo's pleads with them to do so. I'm still not 100% sure why this was necessary, but the evil government wanted him dead, so he must have been doing something heroic or helpful to humanity.

Bigfoot and Wildboy (1979) (Episode: "Return of the Vampire")
Ray Young, Joseph Butcher
Do you remember this Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning kids series? I didn't, which is why I watched the DVD Paul took out of the library. Wow, it was really horrible. I would have thought so even as a kid. Eight years prior to the beginning of the series a boy was "lost" in the wilderness and raised since that time by Bigfoot. Wildboy speaks English and Bigfoot speaks some sort of gibberish I assume is Bigfoot language and the show slides downhill from there. It kills me that this crap is on DVD and The Odd Couple (among others) isn't.

You Bet Your Life (1950-61--on TV--it ran for years prior to 1950 on radio)
Groucho Marx, George Fenneman
I got two sets of DVDs of this long-running game show (brought to you by DeSoto-Plymouth dealers across the nation) out of the library and I consider it a happy new discovery. It's hilarious! And I love the way people on vintage game shows come across as what they were--real people. I miss the days when TV was magical and every schmo on the street wasn't ready for his or her closeup.

Click here to see what we watched in May...

Click here to see what we watched in April and early May...

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