In 1862, a young British widow and teacher, Anna Leonowens, arrived in the small Asian nation of Siam (now Thailand) to accept a position as governess to the court of the country’s ruler, King Mongkut. Her pupils comprised the king’s expansive harem, made up of over one hundred wives, mistresses, and children, all of whom…
Happy Independence Day to our readers in the United States! I’m heading off in a moment to spend the day floating on the lake … and to complete my transformation into a red, red lobster-like creature, a process that started yesterday (sunburns are a bitch). In honor of our nation’s birthday, I’m posting a clip…
Posting has been somewhat irregular this week, what with life’s many interruptions (in my case, this includes babysitting four children, five cats, and five dogs, in addition to everything else on my overflowing plate). Hopefully, next week we’ll be getting back in the swing of things. For today’s Saturday Morning Cartoons entry, we’re once again…
In the era of the Motion Picture Production Code, depictions of homosexuality were verboten, classified under the Code’s rather vague catch-all category of “sex perversion.” While those making films prior to 1934 enjoyed more freedom in their ability to depict some obvious—and even blatant—homosexual characters, the establishment of the Production Code Administration (PCA) put an…
This week, TIME announced its list of what it considers to be the “All-TIME 25 Best Animated Films,” as determined by film critic Richard Corliss. Let’s just say there are some puzzling inclusions, and some even more startling omissions. The list: 25. Lady and the Tramp (1955) 24. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) 23. Yellow Submarine…
Actor Peter Falk passed away yesterday at the age of 83 after struggling with Alzheimer’s for several years. He was, of course, best known as the titular detective in Columbo, a series of television films that ran intermittently from 1968 through 2003. The character had appeared in two previous incarnations played by different actors: Bert…
My bestie, Lisa, runs a nail polish blog called Shades of Magick. Apparently, there is a pretty large community of nail bloggers on the web—I was unaware of how large until I nudged (okay, pushed) Lisa into starting a blog to show off her absolutely gorgeous, all-natural nails and creative manicures. Recently, another nail blog,…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and haven’t been perusing Twitter like mad), you’re probably already aware that Debbie Reynolds’ auction of her seriously extensive Hollywood memorabilia collection took place this weekend. Angela over at the Hollywood Revue live-blogged the sometimes crazy auctioning action as it went on. Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “subway dress” from…
True Classics 