Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers

Monday, October 23, 2023

The Birds - 60th Anniversary in Theaters Tonight!

Alfred Hitchcock's suspense classic The Birds is back in theaters for one day (this evening, October 23rd) to honor its 60th anniversary. Check out Fanthom event's website to see if it is showing in a theater near you.

Saturday, October 21, 2023

The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game - Booonanza Edition

That bewitching holiday is approaching, so we are getting in on the spooky spirit of the season! This month's Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game is a deluxe Boo-nanza Edition with not one, not two, but three eerie screenshots from mystery/horror films of the golden age. We'll give you one little hint: all of these scenes are from American productions made between 1932-1962.

Bring out your broom and start to sweep those cobwebs from your brain! Here are the screenshots:

#1 - A delightful house in the country. A little tender-loving-care and some Bon-Ami and this residence will look as good as new. Don't mind the spooks in the closet.

#2 - This old lady is not taking the Evil Queen's magic potion but this substance does have transforming properties.

#3 - It may be pretty obvious what these men are up to, but don't go off on a wild goose chase here...it's a very brief scene in a classic film!

Two down and one to go! Congratulations to Damsbo for identifying screenshot #1 from Hold That Ghost (1941) starring Abbott and Costello. In this scene, Bud and Lou just arrived with the other passengers (and Charlie) at Moose Matson's residence - The Forrester's Inn during a heavy thunderstorm. Also, congratulations to Betty for guessing screenshot #3 from I Married a Witch (1942), a classic Halloween film from director Rene Clair. This scene occurs right at the beginning of the film when Jennifer and her father are branded witches and burned near the old oak tree.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Treguna Mekoides and Trecorum Satis Dee....

"I don’t want locomotionary substitution or remote in transitory convolution, only one precise solution is the key…. substitutionary locomotion it must me!"

Yes, Eglantine Price was searching, not for locomotionary substitution, nor for remote in transitory convolution, but for that secret magical spell – Subsitutiary Locomotion – that would be the key to single-handedly quenching the onslaught of the Nazis and putting a stop to the war!

In her secluded country estate in the cover of night, mild-mannered apprentice witch Miss Price, along with her scraggly looking cat Cosmic Creepers, practiced her latest lessons from Professor Emelius Browne’s Correspondence College of Witchcraft. However, when three evacuee children from London take lodging in her home, her top-top secret identity is discovered and, as an exchange for their silence, she gives them a special Travelling Spell.

“The game’s up Miss Price, we know what you are”

A bedknob (and its matching bed) become the initiators of this fantastic spell, and it is put to good use quickly when Miss Price and the children set out for London to enlist the aid of Professor Browne in searching for the all-important magic words of Substitutiary Locomotion. Their quest takes them to Portobello Road - the street where the riches of ages are stowed - where they meet the wily Bookman (Sam Jaffe), another Substitutiary Locomotion spell-hunter and his knife-wielding henchman Swinburne; to the Beautiful Briny Sea where they have a chance to get a better peep at the plants and creatures of the deep; and to the not-so-mythical animated Isle of Namboombo, a land of talking animals and where the legendary magician Astoroth (the spell’s creator) was believed to have spent his final days. Aha!….but do they find the magic words to Subtitutiary Locomotion AND put it to use before the approaching Nazis invade Pepperinge Eye and the coast of England?

Well, this being a Walt Disney movie, I’m sure we all know the answer to that question.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks was based on two books written by children's author Mary Norton in the mid-1940s. "The Magic Bedknob, or How to be a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons" and its sequel "Bonfires and Broomsticks" were originally purchased by Walt Disney in 1963 as a backup plan in case P.L Travers did not like the retelling of her story "Mary Poppins", a movie which was already in its pre-production stages at the time.

Since "Mary Poppins" got the go-ahead, Bedknobs and Broomsticks was put on the back burner and it was not until 1969 that Bill Walsh blew the dust off the kettle and got it boiling again.

Initially, Julie Andrews was offered the part of Eglantine Price (Leslie Caron and Lynn Redgrave being other choices) but had turned down the role. She later changed her mind, feeling she owed her start to Disney and wanted to work at the Studios again, but by this time Angela Lansbury had already been offered the part and gladly accepted.… signing the contract on Halloween Day of 1969.

And what a great choice she was! Miss Lansbury played Eglantine, the apprentice witch, with conviction and heart. And the wonderful David Tomlinson ( Mr.Banks of Mary Poppins ) played penny-any magician Professor Emilius Browne, a role he took to with a flair.

Mr. Browne: Bookman! Before your very eyes, I shall cause this bed, and all the occupants upon it, to disappear!

Bookman: Disappear? I should like to see a cheap-jack tenth-rate entertainer do a trick like that.

Mr. Browne: Cheap-jack entertainer. Now that was naughty.

The three children (Ian Weighall, Roy Snart, Cindy O’Callaghan) were all making their screen debuts and, save for Cindy O’Callaghan, have not done any other film work since then. A pity, because they were very good child actors.

Roddy McDowall played Mr.Jenks, a priest with an eye for Miss Price (or rather, her valuable bit of property); Reginald Owen was…well, Reginald Owen….mouth wide-agape and commandeering the soldiers of the Old Home Guard; Tessie O’Shea played shopkeeper, town gossip and postmistress Mrs. Hobday, and rounding out the cast was John Erikson as the Nazi captain who has a bad fall-in with some headless fighting armor.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a heartwarming and bewitchingly enchanting movie and like most Walt Disney films, the supercalifragilistic Sherman brothers song-writing team had a big part in contributing to this. Bedknobs is chock full of wonderful whistlable tunes like “The Beautiful Briny Sea”, “Portobello Road” and “Eglantine, Eglantine!” and best of them all is the lovely “The Age of Not Believing” (nominated for an Academy Award). Its words brilliantly capture that period in life that we all go through at times when we doubt our own abilities and lose faith in our dreams.

Miss Price wasn’t a very capable witch, even for an amateur. She couldn’t fly a broom straight, nor turn a person into a frog (although she did have a knack for morphing them into fluffy white rabbits) but she had a heart of gold and tried the best she could to save her beloved England. Technically, a witch is a lady unless circumstances dictate otherwise, and, at the closing, we see this clearly demonstrated in Eglantine as she dons her battle helmet and pulls out all the stops to fight the Nazis had on.

"Filigree, apogee, pedigree, perigee!"

Bedknobs and Broomsticks premiered in 1971 at Radio City Music Hall as part of their Christmas show but, unfortunately, over thirty minutes of this wonderful movie had to be cut to fit into its two-hour time slot. For some reason, this sliced footage was left out of all the subsequent national showings as well. It was not until 1997, for the 25th anniversary video edition, that most of this deleted footage was reinstated. It is still missing a few key scenes, but we’ll not complain…after all, it’s a step in the right direction.

"Oh, bother! I do hate shoddy work!"

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Riverboat (1959-1961)

On September 13, 1959, an entertaining new television series called "Riverboat" set sail on the small screen, taking viewers on a journey into the American frontier of the mid to late 1840s. This one-hour show, produced by Revue/Universal, aired on NBC on Sunday nights.

Week after week, little kiddies and their western-loving parents followed the characters and crew aboard The Enterprise as they traveled up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers ferrying passengers to their destinations.

Darren McGavin starred as Captain Grey Holden, a kindly but rugged seaman who owned the 100-foot-long sternwheeler known as The Enterprise. Unlike Star Trek's Enterprise, this vessel wasn't boldly going where no man had gone before...but many of its passengers were seeking out a new life in new lands. In fact, the focus of the series was on the passengers who changed from week to week (as passengers on a ship are apt to do). This clever premise allowed for great flexibility in storylines and for the inclusion of guest stars, which the series had plenty of. Jeanne Crain, Eddie Albert, Russell Johnson, Mona Freeman, Vincent Price, Cliff Robertson, Vera Miles, Anne Baxter, Debra Paget, Richard Carlson, and George Kennedy all booked passage on the boat during its two-season run.

In addition to its great cast, Riverboat had a marvelous theme song penned by Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein must have loved this theme quite a bit because he reworked most of its closing segment into The Magnificent Seven, made the following year.

The Enterprise was often churning the muddy waters of the Mississippi, but in later episodes, it tended to steer westward on the Missouri which gave the writers an opportunity to include more tried-and-true western scenarios involving Indian attacks and settlers.

Some critics called the series "Wagon Train on water" since the steamboat, though a central element, served as little more than a backdrop to the different characters and storylines that were introduced each week. While all of these were entertaining, they left little room for developing the series regulars, which included a young Burt Reynolds as pilot Ben Frazer, Dick Wessel as engineer Carney, and William D. Gordon as crewman Joe Travis. In the episode "The Face of Courage", Joe gets killed in an Indian attack and is written off the series (quite unusual for the time) and, in that same episode, Jack Lambert and little Michael McGreevey join the cast.

Darren McGavin was always good at interacting with children, so the addition of Michael McGreevey as cabin boy Chip lent Captain Holden a more fatherly image...plus it gave the younger viewers a character they could relate with. Later in the series Burt Reynolds left and Noah Berry Jr. came aboard as Captain Bill Blake, a new co-owner.

Riverboat was a well-written series overall and had some engrossing episodes, many of which involved the lady loves of the Captain, who cut quite a dashing figure. He had won The Enterprise in a poker game but he was very proud of the vessel and of his position as captain. Most of the episodes had him defending his passengers from river ruffians and dangerous criminals.

Riverboat chugged along throughout its first season run with good ratings even though it had some formidable competition against Maverick on ABC and Lassie and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Eventually, the series ran aground when it was moved to Monday night and Riverboat's producer Boris Kaplan decided to make Captain Holden more hard-nosed in the second season.

FAVORITE EPISODES

The Unwilling (Season 1, Episode 5)

Eddie Albert guest-stars in this episode as Dan Simpson, a merchant eager to open up a general store in the West, but a gang of river pirates are set on stealing his merchandise. Debra Paget also stars.

The Boy from Pittsburgh (Season 1, Episode 11)

A stowaway overhears a plot to sabotage the engine room of the Enterprise but no one believes him since he lied before one too many times. Mona Freeman and Tommy Nolan star.

Strange Request (Season 1, Episode 13)

An actress - Jan Sterling - charters the Enterprise to head to an abandoned trading post where she retrieves a boy being held by river pirates.

Three Graves (Season 1, Episode 26)

The captain and his crew encounter a bubonic plague epidemic at one of the towns that they dock in. Beverly Garland stars as a woman doctor trying to help the residents.

To read more about Riverboat and the making of the show, check out the book Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series by S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

From the Archives: House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Watch out!! Don't touch that cobweb! Props like that don't grow on trees. The spiders at William Castle Productions were working overtime to produce all of the webs seen throughout the Pritchard house in House on Haunted Hill and Carolyn Craig stepped through quite a few of them during her stay there...just like she is about to mess this one up, too.

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures

Saturday, October 7, 2023

A Godzilla Stumper

All those Godzilla films look alike to me so I would like some help to a puzzle that has been stumping me. A year or two ago, my dad and I caught the beginning of an episode of Svengoolie (the MeTV horror TV program) and there was a Godzilla film on. Or, at least I think it was a Godzilla film. It looked like an entertaining monster movie whatever it was and I remember telling my dad at the time that I would want to watch the full film later that week....something we never got around to. Within a month, we both forgot the title and haven't been able to remember it nor has Svengoolie shown it again since then!

Here's what we both remember: There were two young Japanese men in a helicopter, one was handsome the other a little pudgy. They lose radio contact with a base and crash on a mountainous island, where they discover a creature. Back at the base, there was a woman who was worried about one of the men, and I think a rescue party was going to be sent out to search for them. I remember the man being her boyfriend/fiance but my dad thinks it was her brother. He also thinks it was a snow-covered mountain. So we aren't agreed on some points, but we both do remember that the helicopter was one of those two-seat whirlybirds, the plastic bubble kind.

I found a great site that lists all of the Svengoolie episodes (and the films that he showed) since 1995 and went through about 8-9 trailers, but none look familiar, even though plenty of the Japanese films had helicopter crashes!

Ugh. There's certainly not much to go on here but I'm sure one of our readers knows Japanese monster movies and remembers this opening. At least I hope. Anyone?

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Tubi Picks for October

Every few months, the film and television show selections that streaming services offer change. The shows you have been watching on Tubi may suddenly disappear and are now available on Pluto or Peacock, or they have been replaced with five other shows and 15 new titles that you cannot possibly watch in two months' time.

It can be overwhelming browsing through all of the major apps to see what's new in "free streaming", so every month we will round up a selection to share... that way you can see what's new and recommended in one convenient list.

To launch this series, we are sharing some of Tubi's offerings for the month of October. If you do not have a Roku or other streaming device, simply click on the links to watch them online on Tubi's website.

Television Shows

Along with the classic favorites (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, Ozzie and Harriet, I Dream of Jeannie, etc), Tubi also has some rare shows added to their roster. These include....

Tales of Tomorrow (1951)

Decoy (1957)

Man with a Camera (1958)

Yancy Derringer (1958)

Jericho (1966)

Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983)

Classic Films

Jack Lemmon, Judy Holliday, and Terence Hill are some of the featured players this month and there is a nice selection of their films available, some of which I have included below.

It Happened One Night (1934)

Northwest Passage (1940)

War of the Wildcats (1943)

The Thing from Another World (1951)

It Should Happen to You (1954)

Track of the Cat (1954)

Gun the Man Down (1956)

The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956)

Operation Madball (1957)

20000 Miles to Earth (1957)

Cowboy (1958)

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)