medusamorlock
Back in the dinosaur days before TIVO and VCRs, film lovers had to set their alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to catch their favorite classics on TV. And you really had it bad if you skipped school to watch a mid-day movie on TV, but we all did it. I did, too. I definitely recall missing a day of junior high to watch Danny Kaye's The Court Jester - and it was time well spent, indeed. After a childhood filled with marvelous (and incessant) movie-watching in theaters and on TV in Los Angeles, where we had a terrific selection of channels showing movies at all hours, I knew what I wanted to do for a living. Not make movies, but present them on TV, in interesting ways. And then, after a long and mostly delightful career in television programming at both the leading independent station in L.A. and then in cable TV at several major entertainment networks, I find myself a viewer again, able to enjoy movies as fun and art and not primarily as a means of attracting an audience. (Although, I must say, I always programmed with the eye of a film and TV lover.)

My personal favorites are classic comedy, actually classic anything, science fiction, weird movies, all the usual good and important movies and most everything else, too. Some of the movies and people I can watch over and over again, anytime: Shadow of a Doubt, Bonnie and Clyde, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a good Hope & Crosby Road pic, The Best Years of Our Lives, any Ray Harryhausen movie, early Marx Brothers, anything with adorable Robert Benchley, Eddie Cantor during the Goldwyn years, Ronald Colman, Fredric March, the aforementioned Danny Kaye...man, I gotta get out more!
Posts by medusamorlock

The passing a few days ago of actress Jill Clayburgh really strikes a blow into the hearts of women of a certain age, for whom Ms. Clayburgh was almost an avatar, living out different lives that we weren’t, but might have, in different circumstances.  Lovely to look at but not a devastating beauty, with Jill it was [...]

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There’s nothing like a monster movie from your childhood to keep hold of your imagination LONG after you’ve grown up — waaay up!  Though it isn’t a horror movie per se – not a mummy or a ghost in sight — Universal’s 1956 feature The Mole People has some creepy scaly reptilian underground monsters that give the Morlocks [...]

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I hope you’ve all gained as much respect and admiration for actor Woody Strode as I have after reading all the great posts this week, and after watching Strode in action.  Jeff referred to himself as the “loose caboose” in our Woody Strode blogathon, but I may be an even looser one.  Because I’m a [...]

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She was born a century ago, on July 4, 1910, and what a thrill it is to be able to wish actress Gloria Stuart a Happy 100th Birthday!  What a milestone for Ms. Stuart, and how lucky we are to have her with us.  We all remember her sort-of Cinderella “Only in Hollywood” story — how, [...]

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In life you’ve just gotta take what it gives you.  Some people want to be doctors, some want to be actors.  Some of those people who want to be actors might not be just like everybody else.  Some are taller, some plumper, some more handsome and pretty — we usually only see that kind — and [...]

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If there’s a more deserving fellow to wish a very Happy Birthday to today, I can’t think of him.  Actor/director/producer/author Bruce Campbell, born 52 years ago today, is a real pro, a Hollywood survivor and one of the most delightful onscreen personalities around today.  I just finished watching his 2008 feature (as director and star) My Name [...]

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I was gratified to see the 1950 Warner Bros. title The Hasty Heart scheduled tonight at 8pm on TCM as one of Bob Osborne’s personal favorites.  I’m not sure why Bob is so crazy about it, but I’ll bet we share some of the same respect and affection for the movie.  Based on a Broadway play [...]

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Do you ever despair of seeing anything charming and spontaneous on the web anymore?  Do you sometimes wonder, after seeing some so-so movie at the theater, what it was about the movies that you loved in the first place?  Do you ever wonder if anybody else loves movies like you do?  If you answered “Yes!” to [...]

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I see that 1967′s Bonnie and Clyde is tomorrow night’s selection for TCM’s “The Essentials” movie slot, and I couldn’t agree more.  B&C is one of those select few movies about which I can honestly say it changed my life and the way I think about everything.  I have such clear memories of watching this movie in [...]

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I’ve been taking a break from this entertaining site for a while, but I didn’t want to completely disappear during Academy Award time.  As the Morlocks have each explored their varied and fascinating takes on the season over the past few weeks, I tried to rustle up some photos on the theme.  You know how [...]

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