Flying Blind / Frank McDonald (1941). A crowd pleaser from Pine-Thomas Productions, a B-movie company under the Paramount umbrella. The company released 4 or 5 movies a year for 17-years, 1940 to 1957. William Pine and William Thomas were known as the Dollar Bills because their inexpensively made films never lost money.
Pilot Jim Clark (Richard Arlin, a major star of the late silent era) and Flight Attendant Shirley Brooks (Jean Parker)) leave their airline jobs to start a new business targeting a niche population. Honeymoon Airlines will ferry couples who want to wed to Las Vegas and individuals who want a divorce to Reno. About the first third of the runtime is a romantic comedy as Jim and Shirley spar back and forth but the rest is suspense when spies who want to get out of the county with U.S. secret technology hijack their plane full of newlyweds. There is comedy, rough weather, a fist fight, a crash landing (well done), and a forest fire all in 69 minutes. Just the thing to entertain early ‘40s audiences who attend the double bill at their neighborhood theater. If you can put yourself back in those days, this will be enjoyable. Dwight Frye appears in a small role.
Mysterious Island / Cy Enfield (1961). A family adventure that looks very much like it came from Disney, but it’s Columbia.
During the battle for Richmond, Virginia during the U.S. Civil War in 1865, an unprecedented storm is raging as four Union prisoners along with one unconscious Rebel, escape from a military prison in an observation balloon. Over almost a week, the storm propels them over the land and into the Pacific Ocean where they land on a deserted island. Captain Harding (Michael Craig) is the leader, There is his aide, an African-American civilian (Dan Jackson), a corporal Brown (Michael Callen), and Gideon Spilitt (Gary Merrill), a war correspondent. They are later joined by two refugees of a shipwreck, a posh English Lady (Joan Greenwood) and her niece (Beth Rogen). The Confederate is played by Percy Herbet (Becket, Mutiny On The Bounty) who learned a Southern accent by repeated viewings of “Suddenly Last Summer.” Strange things happen. Harding’s life is saved but by what means is unsure. A chest filled with items that they need to survive washes up on shore. More dangerously, they encounter enormous animals: a crab, a bird, and a hive of bees (these are not in Jules Verne’s novel). The answer is revealed about three-quarters of the way through but there are enough references to the book and to a popular recent Disney movie that it is not hard to figure out. It is surprisingly thrilling, maybe because I went in with low expectations.
The movie was shot in London and the coast of Spain with mostly British actors. It was the first picture directed by Cy Enfield in America after the Blacklist had sent him on a decade long exile to the U.K. The excellent special effects were created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen.
Captain Marvel / Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (2019). The last time I dipped my toe into the modern Superhero genre was 2013, so I took another peek and found that this one was not too bad, not so…relentless as the others I had seen. This, however, is not the Captain Marvel I grew up with in comic books and in the 1941 cliffhanger serial. That Captain is seen in the same year’s release “Shazam” which I will check out in a couple of weeks.
This new protagonist is Vers (Brie Larson), a warrior for the Kree people on a far-away planet. She is being trained by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), her first friend after waking up with amnesia several years ago. The Kree are fighting the shape-shifting Skrull lead by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) who has become a major target. For reasons I will not detail here, Vers ends up on Earth in 1995 when she falls through the roof of a Blockbuster Video store. She meets up with a successfully de-aged Nick Fury (Samual L. Jackson) to set up a sequel to the whole Avengers/Agents of Shield thing which I have failed to follow.
Fans of this series seem to think that “Captain Marvel” is minor league compared to the other more…massive…films in the Marvel Universe, but I prefer it that way. Also in the cast is Lashana Lynch, excellent as a person who knew Vers in her forgotten previous life on Earth, as well as Annette Benning who always adds a lot of class to the proceedings. Best of all is a cat who is also an alien species with some surprising abilities.
Endeavour“Quartet” Season 5, Episode 5 (July 22, 2018)
“Icarus” Season 5, Episode 6 (July 29, 2018)
……………………………….Season 5 Completed
The Brokenwood Mysteries“Hunting the Stag” Season 1, Episode 4 (November 19, 2014)
………………………………..Season 1 Completed
Father Brown“The Hermit of Hazelnut Cottage” Season 11, Episode 3 (January 5, 2024)
Sylvester McCoy guest stars. McCoy was the last Doctor Who lead actor of the Classic Series.
Strike (aka C.B. Strike)“The Cuckoo's Calling” Season 1.Episodes 1,2,3 (August 21, 28, September 3 2017)
Series based on the Cormoran Strike novels by J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Gilbraith. Rowling is also co-writer and co-producer of the series. Tom Burke plays the title Strike and Holiday Granger is his secretary, later detective agency partner, Robin Ellacott.
NOVA“Hunt for the Oldest DNA” Season 51, Episode 4 (February 21, 2024)
Nature“Pandas: Born To Be Wild” Season 39, Episode 1 (October 21, 2020)
Discovering BritainEpisode 5 (March 2, 2016)
LIVE THEATER
Born With Teeth By Liz Duffy Adams. The setting is a police state where one wrong word can result in torture whose only way out is to give up someone else. The police state is Elizabethan England where, as one person says, there are more spies than crimes to spy out.
In this arena, two playwrights meet in the back room of a tavern to collaborate on a trilogy of history plays. One is the flamboyant, openly gay, spy for the Crown Kit Marlowe. The other is the new guy, the upstart crow, William Shakespeare. During their time together they argue, trade witticisms, talk about dangerous writing, explore sexuality, and show us how artists survive in an atmosphere of paranoia and fear. The ending is a shocking reveal with a killer final line. Find this play. Find where it is being performed and spare nothing to see it.
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