offbeatgem

If it weren't already on its last legs the Fergus episodes would have killed it. I love that My Three Sons let their boys grow up (Leave It To Beaver fudged this with its star) but it's loss of Robbie (Don Grady moved on) and Tina Cole's palpable unhappiness is hard to miss. I will say Barbara's update without the blue eyeshadow and with loose hair looks much better. I thought she looked floozie-ish during their courtship and even as a pre-teen watching it first run I couldn't understand what he saw in her. All in all it put in a good run and I was still watching it. I'm glad that all its cast turned out well and there were no horror stories about when fame ended.

I starting watching this movie because I thought it was a paean to the Idlewild summer resort in Michigan (the Black Eden), a lakeside playground and music mecca for the well-to-do which flourished until the 1960s or so. As a history buff it's an interesting place to know more about. The movie is about an Idlewild Georgia night club, but the inference may be there. Anyway, it's a splashy, inventive, 1930s setting but with modern music by several of the stars. The dancing is elaborate with a lot of slo-mo shots of women being tossed around while jitterbugging. Someone called it a black Moulin Rouge but since I didn't see that movie I don't know, but the idea seems similar. There are very clever touches of animation and CGI which I found really neat and inventive. I didn't follow the familiar plot so much. The Oukast guys play the two leads and it is their music, which is distinctly not 1930s style, but the use of current hits in historical films has been done very well before. The Golden Years dance in A Knight's Tale comes to mind. Idlewild's melodies are jarring because of so many flats and sharps throughout it. They're not the kind of tunes you can hum for sure. I get a definite touch of Cab Calloway and Scott Joplin in the two lead performances. Patti Labelle doesn't sing at all in it which is odd. Anyway, it's different and ambitious so it's worth watching. I don't think there's anything else like it, except Moulin Rouge, which I haven't seen.

This is that most unusual horror film, an intelligent ghost story. There is no blood, guts, or gore. There is the excellent actor George C. Scott who doesn't frighten easily, and his character's efforts to get to the bottom of a haunting in an old mansion he is renting. He is haunted himself by a recent tragedy, so he is seen as receptive to the restless spirit in the house. When strange things begin to happen he realizes he is being appealed to in some way and begins to research the history of the house. He is helped by real-life wife Trish Van Devere as the person who arranged the rental for him and is as curious as he is to discover whatever happened there. She also provides the panic in this story next to the staid George. The ending is venturing to over-the-top, but this is a satisfying fright-fest.