Any auld acquaintance can wish you "Happy New Year"... but here is where you'll always get the unusual and the unique -- so "HAPPY LAST-DAY-OF-2021"!
And I *AM* indeed happy that it's the "Last-Day-of-2021"... a year that only looks good when compared with its predecessor!
...Or, to put a more optimistic spin on this... 2021 was, all things considered, better than 2020... let's hope that trend continues with 2022!
14 comments:
Happy Seventh Day of Christmas to you! That's seven swans a-swimming...no great seasonally appropriate movies about swans, though there's a fine cartoon short to show before the feature, the Silly Symphony Ugly Duckling. There are movies featuring swimming, of course; one thinks of the delightful Ms. Williams with the excellent first name! But I would go for a New Year's Eve movie, probably the Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant Holiday.
Surprisingly, it's easier to find movies for the Sixth Day of Christmas about geese: Fly Away Home, to watch several years from now with your granddaughters; and I went with The Blue Carbuncle, the Sherlock Holmes Christmas story, from the Jeremy Brett series.
And the Seventh Day Same to you, Elaine.
In that “Ugly Duckling” vein, there’s always its “flip-side”, Bob Clampett’s 1943 short “A Corny Concerto” with the “little boy version of Daffy Duck” as the “Ugly One”.
And, for the Sixth Day, there’s always THIS!
Speaking of “the delightful Ms. Williams with the excellent first name”, that’s who “the delightful Mrs. Torcivia with the same excellent first name” was named after! Truth!
Woah! That is a cool holiday-magic coincidence, that I made that comment!
And if we're speaking of comics appropriate for the Twelve Days, one could also read a story focused on Gus Goose on the Sixth Day. For today, one could read one of the stories with Gus's friend Cissy Swann, though as with the movies, I would go with a New Year's Eve story--my favorite being "A New Year, A New Donald" by Charlie Martin/Vicar, not published here.
There's no coincidence like a "cool holiday-magic coincidence", I always say! ...Topped off with a nice topping of geese, swans, and New Year's Eve festivities - though subdued for the second consecutive year!
How about "The Swan" starring Grace Kelly, Louis Jourdan, and Alec Guinness?
For reading, there's "The Four Swans" by Winston Graham or "The Trumpet of the Swan" by E. B. White. (Also an animated movie, as I discover, and the Graham novel is part of the Poldark Saga filmed twice as a British series.)
Happy New Year's Eve, BTW!
And Happy First Day of 2022 to you, Scarecrow!
There’s also THIS GREAT PIRATE MOVIE... and THIS GREAT SUPERMAN ARTIST!... whose work you can see HERE!
It’s enough to leave your head (seven swans a) swimming!
I've seen Grace Kelly's "The Swan" but found it quite dull--poorly written and directed, flat acting from Kelly and a couple others, though Guinness is OK. Kelly was much better in her earlier films, IMO. I have *not* however seen "The Black Swan" with Tyrone Power and yay! my library system has the DVD, so I will check it out in this fine new year. I believe I had never run across it before because its title was usurped by the more recent movie which I definitely do *not* want to view during the Christmas season...so when I searched for movies with "swan" in the title I didn't realize there were two Black Swans. It could definitely be fun to have a swashbuckler to watch during the Twelve Days.
New Year's Day is the 8th Day of Christmas, maids a-milking, and my suggestion covers both the New Year's and the milking: "Remember the Night" in which the lawyer Fred MacMurray actually milks a cow!
“The Black Swan” is a great film with Tyrone Power supported by a wonderful cast including Maureen O’Hara, George Sanders, Anthony Quinn, classic horror mainstay George Zucco… and the tragically short-lived Laird Cregar! If you don’t know Laird Cregar, you’re really missing out on something!
…And, in a special treat for me, some of the pirate ship footage turned up a quarter-century later on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - first as a historical flashback including pirate battle footage, and in a later episode as a ghost ship.
Waitaminnit… “Fred MacMurray actually milks a cow!”??? I thought the reason he kept William Frawley and William Demerest around was to do that kinda stuff!
I could watch and listen to Grace Kelly recite the phone book and it would be exciting. But, yes, I will concede that she occasionally delivered a lackluster performance. While I pretty much enjoy her in her princess role in "The Swan," I find her underplayed role in "Mogambo" a little hard to sit through, let alone believe that Clark Gable could fall heart-breakingly in love with her. The chemistry is so good between Gable and Ava Gardner that it is hard to feel sorry for Gable when Grace leaves him and he is "stuck" with Ava as his consolation prize. As a screen pairing, Grace and Gable were no match for Ava and Gable. At least the film's supposedly bittersweet ending is more sweet than bitter as far as the chemistry goes.
Ah, "The Black Swan" (Tyrone Power version)! I should have thunk of that one, having watched it earlier this year! Great film!
And of course, musically there is Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" to consider as well.
Happy New Year, Joe! Ironically, on the last day of 2021, I watched an episode of "Sealab 2021" for the first time. It's an irreverent parody of Hanna-Barbera's 1972 series "Sealab 2020." For a long time, this fact was a disincentive to my watching it, but yesterday, I figured, "Hey, this is my last chance to watch "Sealab 2021" in 2021, so why not?" I watched the very first episode, which is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy9FkAXMBfk.
To my surprise, I didn't hate it. It was okay, for what it was. Basically, the premise of "2021" is that the Sealab crew, tired of isolation from the rest of the world, have lost their minds. Hmm... sounds a bit like how many people felt in 2021, after 2020.
That said, I'll take "Sealab 2020" over "Sealab 2021" any day of the... year. Interestingly, 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of that series.
Scarecrow writes:
“Ah, "The Black Swan" (Tyrone Power version)! I should have thunk of that one, having watched it earlier this year! Great film!”
Ah, so then you DID see the great Laird Cregar as Captain Morgan!
To give you an even better appreciation of his abilities, you must also watch THIS FILM and ESPECIALLY THIS FILM to see his extraordinary range! …A range you wouldn’t think a guy like that would have!
I did a presentation on Cregar for my Thursday Night Film Group, and showed the latter film… It drew unanimous “tens”! It will for all of you too!
Sergio writes:
”Ironically, on the last day of 2021, I watched an episode of "Sealab 2021" for the first time. It's an irreverent parody of Hanna-Barbera's 1972 series ‘Sealab 2020.’ ”
Yeow! And I thought Elaine and I had all the permutations of “themed reading and viewing” covered! Great one, actually! Though, like Daffy Duck at the end of “Show-Biz Bugs” (and that other character at the end of “Curtain Razor”)... “[you] can only do it once!”
I must say that, with the exception of the various Scooby-Doo projects (...and even they varied), and maybe Roman Holidays and Hair Bear Bunch (just barely), 1972 was closing in on THE END of the Hanna-Barbera we knew and loved! Once they’d sold their soul to the SatAM TV Network executives.
So, I never saw "Sealab 2020" …and, by extension, "Sealab 2021"! But, if I consume a little of the remaining “New Year’s Cheer”, I *may* perhaps summon up the courage to do so at Sergio’s link HERE
Okay, I “summoned it” and, to use the same word twice in one sentence, it was “okay”. They sure “got” the seventies Hanna-Barbera look down… and “your mileage will vary” as to the humor. Despising “shock-jock” radio as I do, "Sealab 2021" didn’t exactly … “float my boat” (Sorry… NO I’M NOT - I LOVE PUNS!) …Though the final moment made it all worthwhile! …Also gotta love the recycled character design of “Jonny Quest’s” Race Bannon!
Maybe ya just lose something when ya watch "Sealab 2021", not on the last day of 2021 (as did Sergio), but on the second day of 2022!
In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have linked to “Sealab 2021.” It’s unfortunate for that to be someone’s introduction to the characters. “Sealab 2020” was a serious cartoon show that aimed to teach children about oceanography as well as life lessons. Not the greatest cartoon of all time, by any means, and certainly past Hanna-Barbera’s glory years, but an admirable effort nonetheless, prominently featuring a very architecturally interesting underwater laboratory designed by Alex Toth. I’ve seen four or five episodes of “Sealab 2020,” and I enjoyed those episodes.
I have mixed feelings about “Sealab 2021.” The humor is undeniably sophomoric, though I confess to chuckling at it here and there. On the one hand, I’m glad “Sealab 2021” was made, for it gave a long-forgotten property a new lease on life. No doubt, thanks to “Sealab 2021,” many people are at least somewhat familiar with “Sealab 2020” who would otherwise never have even heard of the original show. Surely, “2021” gave more than a few folks the curiosity to check out “2020.” On the other hand, I wonder if someone drawn to “2020” by way of “2021” can take the original show seriously. It must be quite jarring for those people to see Captain Murphy, a complete clown in “2021,” act as a firm but just leader in “2020.”
A word about “Sealab 2021” and the 1970s Hanna-Barbera aesthetic: “Sealab 2021” consists mostly of reused footage from “Sealab 2020.” I kid you not. I watched another episode yesterday, and I recognized much of the footage from an episode of “Sealab 2020” (which, interestingly, I had watched on New Years’ Eve 2019 or New Year’s Day 2020). Talk about taking cheapness to a whole new level. To put a charitable spin on it, I guess you could see it as a parody of Hanna-Barbera’s famous animation shortcuts. In any case, it’s not that “Sealab 2021” nailed the look so much as they reused copious amounts of preexisting footage.
Interesting point about Captain Murphy resembling Race Bannon. I hadn’t made that connection. There was at least one other character from this rough time period that had a similar appearance: James Norcross, the President of the United States in DePatie-Freleng’s 1967 series “Super President”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIlxZ4sCMYw
Sergio writes:
“I have mixed feelings about “Sealab 2021.” The humor is undeniably sophomoric, though I confess to chuckling at it here and there. ”
Oh, there’s nothing wrong with that at all… I often feel that way about FAMILY GUY… and, before that, BEVIS AND BUTT-HEAD! Sometimes, the SUBJECT of the humor is where it fails me. And I have always had an extreme distaste for “shock-jock” radio, beginning the the seventies with Don Imus, and thoroughly despising Howard Stern and all his immitators. I think that was just the “wrong episode” to try and make a believer of me.
To that end, I submit SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST! I was a viewer of the original 1966 Space Ghost, and found the latter show to be dumb, sometimes annoying (as it was INTENDED to be), but still supplied suffieienct laughs to make it worthwhile. I have yet to see HARVEY BIRDMAN, but I expect it to be the same, only with more characters - and character-parodies - from the Hanna-Barbera Universe! I have a bootleg DVD of it which I keep planning to watch, but other (and most likely better) things continue to “cut in front of it”. …Now, with the ongoing construction, it is totally inaccessible, and so will have to wait further.
I would (and probably DO, on some level) view “Sealab 2021” in that same way… but missing the attachment to the original shows that I had for Space Ghost and Birdman. Subtracting the specific “shock-jock” plot, and substituting a more palatable or amusing subject, I’d expect I’d view it in the same way.
I honestly thought the animation was a recreation of the original style. All the more clever that they wrote new scripts for the old footage.
I also originally saw SUPER PRESIDENT, but made no connection because it wasn’t by Hanna-Barbera. But, Race Bannon quickly leapt out at me - even the voice was similar!
HERE is Sergio’s Super President link for your viewing pleasure. You’ll hear the great Paul Frees all over this!
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