Diane and Katie saw Shucked on Broadway back in 2023. They enjoyed the music and the silliness. Now, two years later, Shucked showed up in Buffalo and after seeing it, I have to agree with Diane and Katie’s assessment. I’d add that Shucked is corny!

Cob County, an isolated town surrounded by cornfields, faces a crisis. Their corn–the major commodity for their farming community–is sick. Danger looms, so a feisty young woman, Maizy, decides to leave her home and travel from Cob County to the Big City to find help for their endangered crop.

Maizy, played by Danielle Wade, looks and sounds like Reba McEntire. Maizy arrives in Tampa and meets a con man, Gordy (played by Quinn Vanantwerp), who convinces Maizy he can solve the corn problem. Of course, Gordy knows nothing about corn, but he owes money to a local mobster and needs to get out of town. An isolated town that nobody has heard of sounds like the perfect place to hide out.

The usual hi-jinx between Big City and Small Town mix in a clever manner. I liked Maize’s cousin, Lulu (brilliantly played by Miki Abraham) who is both bold and seductive. She takes a liking to Gordy. My favorite song in Shucked is “Someone Will.” Check it out below. If you’re in the mood to laugh, go see Shucked if it shows up in your neighborhood. GRADE: B+

Musical Numbers:

Act I Overture – Orchestra “Corn” – Storytellers, Ensemble “Walls” – Maizy “Travelin’ Song” – Maizy, Storytellers, Ensemble “Bad” – Gordy, Storytellers, Female Ensemble “Woman of the World” – Maizy, Ensemble “Somebody Will” – Beau, Ensemble “Independently Owned” – Lulu “Holy Shit” – Peanut, Beau, Lulu “Maybe Love” – Maizy “Corn” (reprise) – Ensemble

Act II Entr’acte – Orchestra “We Love Jesus” – Ensemble (Replaced by “Ballad of the Rocks” – Ensemble for the North American tour) “OK” – Beau “I Do” – Maizy, Beau, Lulu, Gordy “Friends” – Maizy, Lulu “Best Man Wins” – Peanut, Beau, Male Ensemble “Corn Mix” – Ensemble “Maybe Love” (reprise) – Maizy, Ensemble

The first movie I can remember seeing was The War of the Worlds (also known in promotional material as H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds). My uncle took me to a neighborhood movie theater (remember those?) in 1953 to see this film directed by Byron Haskin, produced by George Pal, and starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. 

You know the story: the Martians invade the Earth with cool weapons and flew around zapping humans. All I know is that War of the Worlds blew my mind and made me a movie fan.

In the 1950s, my parents took me and my siblings to mostly Disney movies. It wasn’t until 1957 when another mind-blowing movie wowed me: my uncle took me to see Forbidden Planet! (I was 8 years old.)

While I fell in love with movies in 1950s and early 1960s, Foster Hirsch makes a serious case that the Fifties was the most important decade in Hollywood history: “As the studio system slowly but inexorably unraveled, the traditional seven-year contract also began to be dismantled. Actors, directors, producers, designers, cinematographers, and screenwriters who had the protector of a major studio throughout their careers were suddenly cut loose. ” (p. xvi)

Hirsch asserts that massive changes started in the Fifties and changed the trajectory of the movie industry. “Today’s young audiences have no way of gauging what going to the movies was like in mid-century America. Back then, we saw films in large, architecturally flamboyant theaters designed in a variety of fanciful historical styles ranging from Spanish baroque to Mayan to Egyptian to neoclassical revival to Far Eastern. Unlike the anonymous multiplex auditoriums of the present, single-screen movie houses at midcentury were temples of enteraintment with blinking neon marquees, enticing display cases, and spacious lobbies.” (p. xviii)

Hirsch takes the reader through the strategies the various studios took to adjust to the decade of massive changes. Howard Hughes at RKO released most of his movies in wide-screen SuperScope. Paramount, Warner Brothers, and 20th Century Fox opted for CinemaScope. Bigger was better in screen size. Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, Samuel Goldwyn, and other movie moguls grappled with the growing threat of television: “At the end of the war in 1945, there were fewer than ten thousand sets in American homes. By 1949, consumers began to buy televisions at the rate of approximately one hundred thousand every week. By 1950, there were six million sets; a decade later, in 1960, 90 percent of American homes had a television. Thoughtout the decade, as Hollywood struggled to lure patrons back into theaters, the threat of in-home entertainment was relentless. ” (p. xv)

Now with 110 inch flat screen TVs, surround sound, and streaming services, movie theaters seem to be an endangered species. How long can AMC and REGAL survive? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PROLOGUE: The Past is a Foreign Country — ix

PART ONE: THE ROOMS AT THE TOP

Showdown at Tiffany’s — 3

The Fox — 32

A madman in charge — 49

All for love — 65

The man you love to hate — 70

The stix nix hix pix … or do they? — 87

Who Is Y. Frank Freeman? — 99

Last man standing — 109

New game in town– 124

PART TWO: RUNNING SCARED

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Cinerama!” — 143

“A lion in your lap, a lover in your arms” — 160

The miracle mirror screen — 192

The finer things/the bottom feeders — 243

Race films — 282

(Out of sight) — 301

PART THREE: THE RED AND THE BLACK

At the Waldorf — 319

The red menace! — 346

On the other hand — 367

PART FOUR: THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD

The senior class (I) — 399

The senior class (II) — 419

New faces (I) — 430

New faces (II) — 445

PART FIVE: LAST RITES

Darker than night — 481

The time for parting — 497

How do pharaohs speak? — 506

Magnificent obsessions — 518

The long distance runners — 538

In the beginning — 551

Epilogue : the lessons of the past — 569

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 575

NOTES — 577

BIBLIOGRAPHY — 589

INDEX — 597

I enjoy a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche once in a while and William Meikle’s Sherlock Holmes: Revenant (2012) fits the bill. A conspiracy at the highest levels brings Holmes and Watson to Mycroft Holmes but before they can investigate, they’re the victims of a cunning frame.

Holmes and Watson narrowly escape getting arrested for murder and go on the run with Scotland Yard not far behind. The few clues they find lead Holmes and Watson to an alchemist in Scotland where they discover a more insidious plot that threatens the British Empire.

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan? Do you enjoy Holmes pastiches? GRADE: B

Seth Rogan plays Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of Continental Studios: a Hollywood company that is sinking fast. He attempts to save this floundering company in an entertainment industry undergoing rapid social and economic changes that threaten its future.

This 10-part comedy series—created and directed (mostly) by Mr. Rogen and his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg—shows how the current movie industry works. In the first episode, the head of Continental Studios, Patty Leigh (Catherine O’Hara) is about to be fired. She’s delivered “10 straight bombs” and spent $30 million refurbishing the company’s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed (not really) headquarters…a recipe for disaster.

The Studio also features a parade of stars—Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie, Sarah Polley, Zac Efron, Olivia Wilde, Charlize Theron, David Krumholt. Impressive, if overdone. If you’re interested in where the movie industry is going, you might want to check The Studio out. And if The Studio is an accurate assessment of the movie industry today, it’s in Deep Shit. GRADE: Incomplete but trending towards a C+

It may surprise you to learn that I was not fond of reading as a kid. I found school boring. I was not excited by Dick and Jane and Spot. My mother grew concerned about my lack of reading. So for Christmas, “Santa” brought me some books: Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire (1956) by Victor Appleton II and The Hardy Boys The Tower Treasure (1959) by Franklin W. Dixon.

I read Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire in one day! The next day, I talked my mother into taking me to the department store where she had bought the books and I spent my Christmas gift money on Tom Swift and Hardy Boys books. That ignited both my love for reading and my love for collecting. At one time I had complete sets of both Tom Swift and Hardy Boys. I was hooked!

Over the years, I’ve picked up the older Tom Swift titles. Recently, I stumbled across Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle from 1910. Tom Swift’s father, Barton Swift, is an inventor. His latest project is a new turbine that could be worth a lot of money. A team of industrial spies attempt to steal the plans and the proto-type turbine, but Tom and Barton foil that plot.

Tom Swift decides to take the plans and the turbine to Albany to deliver to Barton Swift’s patent attorneys. Tom rides his new motorcycle and immediately gets into trouble. But, not to worry: Tom Swift always figures things out!

In Tom Swift In the Caves of Nuclear Fire, Tom Swift, Jr. investigates a mysterious mountain in the African jungle emitting deadly vapors, potentially holding the key to understanding atomic energy.  I love the cover on this book!

Like Cheryl Strayed who took a 1,100 mile hike to change her Life, my encounters with those Christmas books changed my Life, too. What books fired up your love of reading?

Once upon a time, performers used to visit prisons and put on a concert for the inmates. One of the best and well known of these events can be found on Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969). Cash sings a few of his hits–“I Walk the Line” and “A Boy Named Sue”–along with some other crowd pleasers. The biggest cheer comes when Cash sings “Folsom Prison Blues” with the line “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die”. This is a classic album and still holds up 50+ years later. GRADE: A

B. B. King at San Quentin (1990) has a different vibe. King projects a calming influence to the audience and mixes blues with some uplifting songs. I suppose the inmates at San Quentin might interpret “The Thrill is Gone” a little differently than you and I would.

I have a number of B. B. King CDs and B. B. King at San Quentin features King at the top of his game. GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

		Wanted Man	4:02
		Wreck Of The Old 97	3:19
		I Walk The Line	2:14
		Darling Companion	7:08
		Starkville City Jail	2:06
		San Quentin	4:08
		San Quentin	3:05
		A Boy Named Sue	3:50
		(There’ll Be) Peace In The Valley	2:37
		Folsom Prison Blues	1:32

TRACK LIST:

A1		B.B. King Intro Written-By – B.B. King	1:56
A2		Let The Good Times Roll Written-By – F. Moore*, S. Theard	5:08
A3		Every Day I Have The Blues Written-By – Peter Chatman	4:42
A4		Whole Lotta Loving Written-By – Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino	3:26
A5		Sweet Little Angel Written-By – B.B. King, J. Taub	3:12
A6		Never Make A Move Too Soon Written-By – Stix Hooper*, Will Jennings	7:51
A7		Into The Night Written-By – Ira Newborn	4:28
B1		Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness Written-By – Everett Robbins, Porter Grainger	5:00
B2		The Thrill Is Gone Written-By – R. Darnell*, R. Hawkins	6:28
B3		Peace To The World Written-By – Trade Martin	3:52
B4		Nobody Loves Me But My Mother Written-By – B.B. King	11:10
B5		Sweet Sixteen Written-By – B.B. King, Joe Josea	3:29
B6		Rock Me Baby Written-By – B.B. King, Joe Josea	3:25

Fred Blosser, who I’m sure you recognize as one of the commentators on this blog, wrote this nifty story that’s a mix of Robert E. Howard pastiche with a dollop of H. P. Lovecraft.

Although Robert E. Howard is best known for his Conan the Barbarian stories, he also wrote plenty of stories in various genres. I reviewed Howard’s comic western stories, Heroes of Bear Creek (you can read my review here) and Fred Blosser has read Howard’s westerns, too. On the back cover of Sixgun Vixens of the Terror Trail (Black Stone Press, 2024) there’s this teaser: “Western action and weird thrills in the Robert. E. Howard tradition.”

Fred discusses Howard’s “The Vultures of Wahpeton” in his Afterword to Sixgun Vixens of the Terror Trail and quotes The Collected Stories of Robert E. Howard, Volume 3: 1933-1936, p. 243 where Howard’s comment on “The Vultures of Wahpeton” is “one of the best stories I’ve ever written”. The story features Steve Corcoran, a dour, fast-drawing Texan. Fred’s story features Steve Cochran, another dour, fast-drawing Texan–who one of the vixens accuses of being Steve Corcoran.

Cochran and the sixgun vixens are searching for a fortune of silver in dangerous country where an Apache war party and a band of Mexican bandits operate. The silver is rumored to be hidden in the ruins of the old, abandoned Black Mission. But when Cochran and the sixgun vixens reach the mission, they find Mexican bandits and…a surprise from the weird world of H. P. Lovecraft!

Fred provides an entertaining confection with Sixgun Vixens of the Terror Trail. I hope Fred’s busy writing a sequel, something like Sixgun Vixens and The Necronomicon. GRADE: B+

Diane and I have been enjoying comic mystery TV show, High Potential, on ABC (you can read my review here). But when I heard that HULU was offering the original French version, HIP: High Intellectual Potential, I had to check it out. So far, HULU is offering four Seasons of 8 episodes each.

Audrey Fleurot plays the brilliant but quirky Morgane Alvaro whose incredible attention to detail and vast knowledge helps the police solve their crimes. Her “partner,” Detective Adam Karadec (Mehdi Nebbou) is more dour and intense than the American version played by Daniel Sunjata who is smooth and more physical. I like both actors.

Of the four episodes I’ve watched so far, they follow the same plots as the American TV series, but with some significant differences. In the American version, Morgan’s husband has “disappeared” for 15 years. In the French version, we actually get to see Morgane’s husband, who was arrested after leading a protest march, and the circumstances of his absence are more murky.

As you might have suspected, I plan to watch both High Potential and HIP. Both Kaitlin Olson and Audrey Fleurot are terrific at playing the woman with incredible intelligence. I recommend both series! GRADE: Incomplete but trending towards an A

I’ve been a fan of Anthony Lane’s reviews for years. Whether Lane is writing about movies or books or people, his wit shows up in almost every paragraph. During his time at The New Yorker, Lane reviewed most of the major movies of that era: 1993-2002.

Here’s a sample of Lane at his deft best in a review of Con Air: “…Con Air was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. With his late partner, Don Simpson, Bruckheimer was responsible for Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Crimson Tide, and a host of other quiet Bergmanish movies delving into the agony of a godless world. To watch those movies was to have your brains tossed like salad…” (p. 187)

A book of Anthony Lane movie reviews could have been enough to satisfy Lane fans like me, but no–this fat volume (751 pages!) also includes Lane’s book reviews and articles. And, the cherry on top are the set of profiles. Here’s Lane on Alfred Hitchcock: “….the more compelling fact is that [Hitchcock] ended up making fetishists of us all. We come out of movies saying, ‘I liked the bit where…’ and Hitchcock’s bits were simply neater than anyone else’s. Moviegoers like the bit in Notorious where the camera glides down, as if in annunciation, to discover the stolen key in Ingrid Bergman’s fist…” (p. 639) And how about the camera work in the shower scene in Psycho where not a drop of blood is to be seen.

If you enjoy intelligent, humorous, and clever reviews, Nobody’s Perfect bursts with them! GRADE: A

Table of Contents

Introduction

MOVIES

Indecent Proposal
Un Coeur en Hiver
Sleepless in Seattle
Poetic Justice
The Fugitive
Tito and Me
The Age of Innocence
Divertimento
Dazed and Confused
It’s All True
The Remains of the Day
Three Colors: Blue
Naked
Heaven and Earth
Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould
The Blue Kite
Speed
Wolf
Forrest Gump
Pulp Fiction
The Last Seduction
Bullets Over Broadway
Three Colors: Red
Tom and Viv
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
The Madness of King George
Before Sunrise
Shallow Grave
Priest
Don Juan DeMarco
Burnt by the Sun
Braveheart
The Bridges of Madison County
First Knight
Nine Months
The Usual Suspects
Persuasion
Showgirls
The Scarlet Letter
French Twist
Sgt. Bilko
Stealing Beauty
Emma and Kingpin
Beyond the Clouds
The English Patient
Star Trek: First Contact
Crash
The Saint
Con Air
Men in Black, Batman & Robin, and Speed 2
Contact
Mrs. Brown
L.A. Confidential
Titanic
Nil by Mouth
Lolita
Twilight
The Spanish Prisoner
Deep Impact
Godzilla
The Truman Show
Out of Sight
The Thief
Saving Private Ryan
Halloween H2O
Ronin
Love Is the Devil
Gods and Monsters
Celebrity
Meet Joe Black
Rushmore
The Thin Red Line
The Prince of Egypt
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The Dreamlife of Angels
The Mummy
The Phantom Menace
Notting Hill
Bowfinger
West Beirut
Anywhere but Here
The World Is not Enough
Liberty Heights
The Talented Mr. Ripley
American Psycho
Gladiator
Mission: Impossible 2
Time Regained
The Nutty Professor 2
Dancer in the Dark
The Yards
Charlie’s Angels
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Snatch
Hannibal
Pollock
Under the Sand
Pearl Harbor
Apocalypse Now Redux
Together

BOOKS

Best-sellers I
Sex Books
Edward Lear
Best-sellers II
Vladimir Nabokov
Cookbooks
Cyril Connolly
Ian Fleming
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Pynchon
Bloom on Shakespeare
Matthew Arnold
André Gide
Evelyn Waugh
W. G. Sebald
John Ruskin
A. E. Housman

PROFILES

The Sound of Music
Eugène Atget
ˇ Svankmajer
Karl Lagerfeld
Buster Keaton
The Oscars
Shakespeare on Film
Cannes
Lego
Obituaries
Preston Sturges
Robert Bresson
Ernest Shackleton
Alfred Hitchcock
Museum of Sex
The New Yorker at 75
Walker Evans
Astronauts
Jacques Tati
Luis Buñuel
Julia Roberts
William Klein
Billy Wilder

Acknowledgments
Index

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Wolf Hall showed up on PBS and wowed fans of historical TV series about Tudor life. Now, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light shows up with six episodes of Thomas Cromwell’s rise and fall. Mark Rylance returns as the master manipulator and schemer–he arranged Anne Boleyn’s beheading–but can’t control Henry VIII (Damian Lewis).

The series pays meticulous attention to detail, including costumes, sets, and the portrayal of Tudor life. The series is based on Hilary Mantel’s award-winning novels, with this second season adapting her final book in the trilogy, The Mirror and The Light. Mantel died in 2022. This series picks up after Anne Boleyn’s death and follows the last four years of Thomas Cromwell’s life. 

Diane and I have been waiting for this series but the Pandemic and other issues delayed it until now. Can’t wait to watch this!